Earth 1, Kaznia

For a moment, no one said anything. Those not directly involved were looking from Saffron to Leonard, Leonard to Sara, Sara to Dinah, back to Saffron and so on.

It was Martin who first found his voice. He tried to drag everyone's attention to something that they could deal with at the moment.

You're both part of the Resistance against Savage?'' Martin asked.

He surmised the immortal's dream of conquering the world had stayed on track. Whatever the Legends had done hadn't solved the problem.

''That's part of the truth. '' Saffron glanced at her husband for a moment. ''In our time, the Earth was conquered, yes. And what's left of humanity are slaves but not just to Savage.'' Her voice broke off at that point.

''The Pentagon - and the UN - made a terrible mistake'' Barry took up the narrative ''and turned someone who could have been neutral towards us or even a friend into an enemy, as well as the dominant one in a partnership with Savage.''

Between them, the two Allens had described the sequence of events over the next ten years. It made grim listening. Their account ended with a request from the two time travellers to help prevent the events that led to the dystopia they had come from.

''From what you - what we learnt in history'' General Allen corrected herself. ''changing the future was the goal of the Legends from before the first timeline change.''

She was going to say 'you 'as in 'Leonard', Sara realised. In the current future, they had a father-daughter relationship.

''If we help you to change the future -'' Rip began.

''We'll cease to exist, in our current form'' she nodded.

''We've accepted that'' Barry added. ''The future of humanity matters far more than we do.''

X

Having asked the two new arrivals to wait on the small balcony outside the window, the rest of the group gathered in the bedroom.

The Legends had a decision - two decisions - to make.

''We're taking a lot on trust'' Ray said. ''This is something we might be able to achieve. But I think we might be taking too much on trust.

We know it's one of the Barry Allems'''' Jax was thinking things through. ''And Dinah's said this is her daughter. But they're years older than the last time anyone who knows them saw them. Who knows what happened to them? Who really knows whose side they're on now?''

''Saffron would never - ''Dinah began to say hotly.

''There's really only one way to settle this, isn't there?'' Martine looked at Leonard.

''Yes'' he said, only hoped that Saffron would be willing. ''Get the nanobots ready, this is going to take some effort.''

X

''It's true'' Leonard told them.

He didn't look himself. He could see in his audience's eyes that he looked as grim as he felt. Looking into his daughter's memories that shown him a future that he wished he hadn't seen. General Laurel Lance, he thought, would find that future had a familiar look to it. As well as the course of history, he'd picked up on personal things - how they'd struggled to build a parent-child relationship in a world full of chaos and pain. He'd seen himself die, through his daughter's eyes. Hopefully, that future wouldn't become the real one.

And then, at the end, had come the private, personal, request to him. She showed him what he'd been offered, what he'd turned down. She almost begged him to save 'Yes' to it this time. To be the hero.

I'm not a hero.

Are you sure?

And she showed him more of the scenes from the years they'd spent together.

'X

''Would it have made any difference if I'd told you?'' Dinah asked, sometime later.

Leonard considered for a moment. ''Probably not.''

He'd made a decision, which he now rather regretted, to go out of his way to avoid picking up any of Dinah's thoughts and emotions by psychic means. If he hadn't kept the telepathy blocker switched on virtually the whole time she was around, it might have prevented the suddenness of this revelation.

Sara sat next to him, outwardly a passive observer, inwardly not passive at all. My anger is illogical, she kept telling herself. It was working - to an extent.

Dinah gave a rueful not-smile. ''I made the decision as a mother. I didn't want my child growing up with a criminal as a father. Asking Elaine to be her mother seemed to be the best choice I had. After I started working under cover, there was no way I could take her back.''

X

That was one of many conversations - often awkward ones - that had taken place over the last twenty-four hours.

On one occasion Leonard had said ''I've a teenage daughter that I never knew about. I'm trying to get my head round that.''

''Me too'' Mick commented. Joanne glanced at him - she'd asked him to keep his feelings about Drake out of the equation.

''How do you feel about this?'' Joanne asked Sara.

''In a sense it's none of my business - it happened so long before I came on the scene.'' But what happens now, a voice in her head was asking. She could - probably - cope with him wanting to get to know his kid - but what if it brings him closer to her mother as well? ''However, there are far more important things we need to deal with.''

X

Barry Allen - roused from sleep - needed time to realise who he was speaking to, let alone what they were saying to him.

Finally, he managed to get the words out. ''You want to do this now? In the middle of the night?''

''Yes''.