Ray leaned back in his chair in the Waverider lab, thumbing through the pages of a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets. "Man," he said to himself, "I should really write one of these for Nora. She'd love it." He lifted his head and looked around, disappointed at his empty surroundings. "Well, I hope the team's having fun out there," he said, again speaking only to himself. "I'd love some Shakespearean drama right about now." He adjusted his body to be more comfortable and began to read his book again.
"Dr. Palmer," Gideon's voice announced, "there is an incoming call from Director Sharpe at the Time Bureau. Will you answer, or shall I hold it for Captain Lance?"
Ray jumped out of his seat, excited to finally have something to do. "No! No, I've got it, Gideon. I'll be right there."
He ran from the lab to the parlor, arriving just as the screen buzzed to life, revealing Ava's face. "Ray?" she said, appearing surprised. "I, uh…I wasn't expecting you."
"The captain's in the field right now," he explained with a friendly grin. "What can I do for you? Did you get my design for the temporal energy gun?"
"Yes, I did," Ava replied, relaxing a little. "Everything seems fine. It'll take a little time before we can mass produce them, but I'm optimistic." She paused, stared at Ray for a moment, then said, "I meant to talk to Captain Lance. Do you know when she'll be back?"
Ray shook his head. "Nope. Sorry. You never know how long a mission will take."
"Oh. Okay." Ava looked away uncomfortably. "You can tell her to call me when she gets back…"
"No, wait," Ray said, taking a step closer to the screen. "Whatever it is, you can tell me. I'll pass it on to Sara. Why waste time playing phone tag? I mean, unless it's…you know…personal," he added, glancing away awkwardly.
"It's not," Ava answered very quickly. "It's not personal. It's about the mission." She leaned forward, a little closer to the camera on her desk. "All right, Ray, I trust you. But make sure you don't mix anything up. I don't want this to turn into a game of telephone."
"Oh, of course!" Ray grabbed a notebook and pen from the top of the captain's desk. "I'll even write it down to make sure. You can count on me, Ava!"
Ava raised her eyebrows in reaction to his typical enthusiasm, then shrugged and continued with her message. "It's about the rifts," she said. Ray started scribbling notes. "Last time we talked, I didn't know what had caused them. But today, Gary brought me some research findings, and things are looking up." She looked straight at Ray. "I think we know what's behind all this."
Ray froze mid-sentence, almost dropping his pen. "Oh." He didn't know what Sara's plan was regarding when or if to tell Ava about pulling Snart out of the fabric of time itself, but he knew she hadn't said anything yet and hadn't told anyone else on the team to say anything. Given the Legends' track record with the timeline, he could understand why.
Ava tilted her head sideways, a concerned look on her face. "Is something wrong, Ray?"
Ray forced a laugh. "Ha ha…no. No, everything's fine. I guess I'm just…surprised! You know, because it was this big mystery. Kind of takes the suspense out it, right? Heh." Ava's concerned expression remained intact. Ray tried to act normal again. "Just…keep telling me what you found." He started writing again. Either she's wrong, he thought nervously, or we are super screwed.
"There it is," Mona said, pointing across the street was the easily recognizable Globe. It loomed tall over the street. Posters were plastered around its outer walls advertising the new show. However, since there was not a performance going on at the moment, the area around it appeared relatively empty. Mona turned to Sara and asked, "Should we find a way inside?"
Sara nodded. "I think so. We haven't found anything else in this hot spot, so if there is anything giving off that temporal energy signature, it's probably inside." She looked to Leonard. "Think you can get us in?"
Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Are you really asking if I can get past an early seventeenth century security system?" he asked. "I'm a little insulted that that's a question."
Sara rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. No need to brag. We know you're a master thief."
He smirked at her. "Always nice to hear you say it."
She smiled a little, then nudged him forward toward the Globe. "Well, come on, master thief, we've got a theater to break into."
He held up his hands and spun around to face her and Mona again. "Relax, Captain," he drawled. "You know I wouldn't miss that kind of opportunity."
The three of them crossed the street and headed up the short stairs leading to the Globe. It was not overly crowded at that time of day, but there were just enough people moving around to keep them from being noticed. Leonard analyzed his surroundings carefully as he moved, intentionally spending more time in shadows than out of them. Once they were walking beside the circular theater building, he slowed down his pace a little, taking in the details of its outer structure to identify potential entrance and exit points. Sara joined him at his side, looking straight ahead to avoid looking too conspicuous. Mona continued to walk right behind them, still intrigued by the increasingly tiny amount of space between the two original Legends.
"I'm thinking backstage entrance," Sara said quietly.
"There has to be one," Leonard agreed, "and it'll be away from the eyes of the street."
"Unlike the main door," Sara added without missing a beat, "which would be a bit too obvious."
"Exactly."
"If we're lucky, they'll still be moving sets and props in. It might even be unlocked."
"Kind of takes the fun out of it, but yes."
"Of course, if it is unlocked…"
"Then we have to keep the volume down in case someone's inside."
"Precisely."
Mona listened to the conversation carefully and noted how quickly Sara and Snart seemed to respond to each other, like they were on the same train of thought. She recalled a similar type of exchange during the fight with the time pirates. Interesting, she thought.
The trio eventually made their way around to the back of the theater. There were several empty carts sitting near it, most likely recently used to transport set pieces. Leonard spotted the backstage door and reached it first. He scanned the handle, lock, and doorframe with his eyes, but didn't touch them. Finally, he turned to Sara. "Turns out we're lucky," he announced, gripping the handle and cracking the unlocked door open.
Mona stared at him. "You could tell just from looking at it that was unlocked?" she asked, surprise evident in her voice. "How?"
"Because I can," he answered dismissively. "Master thief, remember?" He pulled the door open all the way and nodded his head toward the inside of the theater. "Ladies first." Sara exchanged a quick glance with him, then led Mona inside. Snart followed, closing the door silently behind them.
Inside, the three Legends found a wide variety of stage props, set pieces, costumes, and other seemingly random types of supplies loosely organized all around them. They seemed to be alone. "Backstage at Shakespeare's Globe," Mona whispered in awe as she took everything in. "This is so cool."
"It'll be cooler once we find out if there's anything here," Sara reminded her. "Stay on mission."
"What?" Snart asked dryly, leaning back against a small replica of a castle tower. "You're not in the mood for a balcony scene?"
Sara turned around to face him and crossed her arms. "Leonard, oh Leonard," she retorted with a wry look, "wherefore art thou like this?"
Leonard stared at her for a moment, returning her expression and tone with an even snarkier one. "Careful, Canary. If Shakespeare's around, he might take offense at your adaptation."
"Like some old playwright is any match for a trained assassin," Sara replied.
"Depends how many weapons you've got on you," Snart drawled, his eyes moving down from her face to her dress.
Sara took a step closer to him, arms still crossed. "And how many do you think I have, Leonard?" she asked.
Snart raised his eyes back up to hers. "A lot."
Sara uncrossed her arms, leaned in toward him, and pointed at his chest. "You bet I do," she said with a confident smirk, "and don't you forget it." She turned around abruptly and walked away toward the wings of the stage.
Wow, Leonard thought as she left. She is incredible.
Wow, Mona thought, watching the whole scene unfold. I need to know what's going on, like, now.
Sara reached the wings of the stage and looked out. The large theater was completely empty. Sunlight poured in from its open roof, illuminating the stage and many rows of seats. There's probably more to investigate here, she thought, but I'd better check in with the team and make sure they haven't found anything yet. She spoke into her comms, "Legends, what's your status?" She heard only static. She tried again, this time to one specific channel. "John, are you there?" Again, static. She walked back to where Leonard and Mona were still standing and tried one more time. "There's interference," Sara told them. "I can't call the team."
"Like when we couldn't use comms during the time vortex?" Mona asked.
Sara nodded as she understood. "That's right, Mona. Exactly like that. Which means the rift must be nearby." She looked at Mona first, then Leonard. "I'm going to get far away enough to get a signal to Ray. You two, search the theater." She hurried through the nearest door to the outside.
Leonard barely had a second to think before Mona ran to stand just inches in front of him. "Oh my gosh," she gushed. "Is this a thing? Please tell me if this is a thing!"
"Is what a thing?" he asked, trying to subtly scoot away from her but finding his movements limited by the castle set to his back.
"You and Captain Lance," Mona said. "Did you guys date or something? Or have you just been hooking up? Is this like a flirtationship? Spill the tea!"
"Uh…no," Leonard said, very uncomfortable with the sudden interrogation though he tried not to show it.
"No, you didn't date?"
He turned his head to avoid eye contact. "Just no." Mona's shoulders slumped disappointedly. Snart took advantage of the break in the conversation to slide away from the castle set piece and walk toward the other side of the backstage area, keeping his back to Mona.
Mona wasn't ready to give up. She sprinted after him. "Come on, Snart. Don't act like you two haven't been flirting with each other all day."
"We should really find that rift," he said, not looking back at her.
"I just want to know what the deal is between you two," Mona pressed. "Until Mick writes his next novel, I need some romance in my life to get emotionally invested in. Right now, you and the captain are ticking all my potential ship boxes. So, what's going on? Is there some history here?"
Leonard ignored her and began to examine a stash of prop weapons on a nearby table. He picked up a fake sword by the hilt, studying it.
"Are you even listening to me?" Mona asked, running around the table so he had no choice but to face her.
Leonard set down the sword and looked her in the eyes. "Yes, Mona, I am listening to you. I am also choosing to ignore what you're saying."
"Why?"
"Because I am." He turned to walk in another direction, but Mona stepped in his way. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Move."
"Not until you tell me what's going on between you and Captain Lance," she insisted.
"Would you believe me if I said nothing's going on?"
"Based on how you've been acting today? No."
"Then you're an idiot. There's nothing going on." At least, he mentally added, nothing I want to talk to Mona about. He stepped around her and headed for the wings. While he peeked around the curtains, Mona caught up to him. He glanced back at her. "You really don't quit, do you?"
"I can be very persistent," she replied.
He looked back at the stage. "That's cute, but I said we're done talking about it."
"But…"
"We're done."
Snart walked out onto the stage and looked out at the empty seats. He scanned the round room slowly, searching for anything even remotely resembling a rift. Come on, screwed up timeline, he thought. Get me out of this conversation.
"You do know that Captain Lance chose to take a risk in bringing you back, right?" Mona asked, still standing in the wings.
Leonard turned to face her. "What do you mean?"
"We didn't know that pulling you out would create rifts," Mona explained, "but Gideon did warn us that there was a statistically significant margin of error in her calculations, meaning that saving you could impact the timeline in unknown ways that not even Gideon could determine. It was up to Sara to decide whether or not to go through with it knowing that risk. Just Sara. And she decided to do it anyway."
Leonard hesitated for a moment. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because Sara decided that saving you was worth risking the timeline," she answered earnestly. "The very same timeline that she has spent the past four years of her life protecting and is now desperately trying to fix. And she made that decision three whole years after you'd been out of her life. That's how much you mean to her, Snart." She paused, then concluded gleefully, "And if you guys like each other, then that is so. Freaking. Romantic."
Leonard took a second to process what he had just heard. He had assumed that Sara had signed off on the plan to save him and had probably had the final say in making it happen, but he'd had no idea that she had chosen to do so in spite of a known risk. He focused on Mona again and shook his head. "Kid, this isn't one of your books. Sara and I aren't about to ride off into the sunset or fly to whatever planet Mick's characters are from. We're friends."
Mona crossed her arms and looked at him skeptically. "You seem a lot flirtier with each other than most friends are."
"That's just how we act together, okay? Now drop it."
"But…"
"I said drop it. Just look for the rift so we can get out of here." He climbed down from the stage and began to search the audience's seats.
Mona frowned as she watched him go. "The master thief doth protest too much, methinks," she quoted quietly to herself before turning around to search elsewhere backstage.
Nate and Nora spotted John and Zari as they all approached the rendezvous point. "Hey, guys!" Nate said, waving at them. "Find anything?"
"Not exactly," Zari replied. "We heard a lot of rumors about weird stuff, but we didn't actually see any anachronisms or rifts. You?"
Nora shook her head disappointedly. "Same here."
From a third direction, Charlie and Mick ran in, struggling to catch their breath as they reached the rendezvous point. "Oi," Charlie panted, "we made it."
Zari looked at her quizzically. "Why were you two running so fast?"
"Doesn't matter," Mick answered. "You guys find the anonymism?"
"Anachronism," Zari corrected him.
"And no," Nate said, "we didn't. Just heard a bunch of stories about some Madame Mystery person. We thought she might have been the anachronism, but we didn't find her in the hot spot, so I'm not so sure."
John and Zari exchanged looks. "Sounds like what we did," John said. "Apparently, some people think she's behind the Macbeth curse. You know, the whole 'no saying its name in a theater' business."
"Hey," Charlie said, elbowing Mick, "isn't that the name that bloke said?"
"What bloke?" Nora asked.
"Doesn't matter," Mick and Charlie said in unison.
Nate held up a hand as he connected the dots. "Guys, listen! This means that Madame Mystery has to be the anachronism. She has been present in every hot spot and has some kind of connection to the play that's about to be messed with."
"Yeah," Nora said, "but if she's been in all our hot spots and none of us have seen her, then she must be really good at staying hidden."
"Maybe we can track her down," Zari suggested. "If we map out every place where people claim they've seen her, there might be a pattern, or at least a general direction we can go in." She pulled out her copy of the map and held it flat against the nearest wall. "Anybody got a pen?" John reached into his pocket and handed her a completely normal modern-day pen. "Huh. John actually carries normal things sometimes," Zari observed, pleasantly surprised. "Nice."
One by one, the Legends marked each spot where they had heard reports of Madame Mystery's appearances. After they finished, Zari looked over the finished jumble of little black dots, trying to find a pattern. "It's almost like…wait a minute." She took the pen back and began connecting the dots. "They start out far apart," she explained as she drew, "but if you connect them in a spiral, they get closer and closer together, until…there." She took the pen off the page and pointed the back of it at a blank spot in the center of the slightly lopsided spiral she'd drawn. "That's where we'll find her. Or, at least, where we'll find some clues about her."
"Brilliant, Z," Charlie remarked.
Nate grinned proudly. "That's my genius girlfriend!"
Zari blushed and took the map down from the wall. "Thanks."
"We should call Sara," Nora told the group. "She might still be looking for the anachronism or the rift. We have to let her know what we figured out."
"On it," Nate said. He spoke into his comms, "Hey, Captain! What's your status?" Nothing. He tried again. "Sara? Captain Lance? White Canary?" Still nothing. He frowned and reported, "She's not picking up. Mick, try Snart."
Mick nodded and tried his comms, "Snart? You there?" No response. "I got nothing."
"Do you think they're okay?" Nora asked.
"They're probably just too focused to pick up," Nate assured her. "You know how badly Sara wants to fix all the rifts. I'm sure she's keeping Snart and Mona pretty busy. That or they're just in a bad reception area. Time periods before electricity can be a little patchy sometimes."
"That's true," Zari agreed. "The responsible thing to do is probably to wait until she picks up, though, right?"
The Legends nodded and each voiced their agreement. They all stood there silently for a moment. Eventually, John broke the silence. "Well," he said, "that's enough waiting for me."
"Yep," Charlie agreed. "Off we go, then."
With little deliberation, the six of them headed away to find Madame Mystery.
"Ray?" Sara asked, turning a corner a few streets down from the location of the Globe. "Ray? Can you hear me?"
After a few steps farther, the static finally began to fade out and was replaced by the voice of Ray Palmer. "Sara! Hey! I've been trying to call you for a while now. Where are you?"
"I think we found the rift," Sara explained. "It's somewhere in or near the Globe. I couldn't pick up because the energy it was emitting was interfering with my signal. Think you can get over here soon? We'll need that gun of yours."
"Yeah. Yeah, I can be there." He paused before continuing in a more concerned tone, "But, Captain, there's something you need to know."
"What?"
"Remember how we weren't telling the Time Bureau about saving Snart's life? And how they were totally clueless about why so many rifts were popping up?"
Sara stiffened, a little worried about where it sounded like Ray was going with this. "Yeah. What about it?"
"Well, I have good news and I have bad news," Ray explained. "Which do you want first?"
"Hm…bad news."
"Okay. The bad news is…they figured out that someone altered the fabric of time by pulling something out of the timeline itself. They have also determined that the thing pulled out was not completely detached from the timeline's energy, therefore displacing a ton of temporal energy and ripping a hole in time when it was removed. Or really, several holes. Also, even though they haven't discovered every detail of how it was done, they have identified enough parts of the process to determine that it was an intentional group effort, not a freak accident or an individual acting alone."
"And what are they doing about that?"
"Heh…yeah. That's the worse part of the bad news. Given the Time Bureau's history with bad guys manipulating the timeline – and Rip's records of dealing with Vandal Savage and the Legion, which they still have – Director Sharpe is treating this as a crime against the timeline committed by some new group of time criminals. Agents are being sent out to find whatever people or magical creatures are responsible, arrest them, and recover the missing part of the timeline."
Sara clenched her jaw, then inhaled and exhaled slowly. "That's…that's pretty bad. Did you say you had good news too?"
"The good news is, the Time Bureau still doesn't know it was us, or that Snart is the thing they're looking for. I mean, I don't know if they'll figure it out eventually, but at least for now, we're not in their list of prime suspects."
Sara backed herself up against a wall and leaned back against it, trying to process the situation. "So," she summarized, "the Time Bureau thinks that some team of unknown villains stole a piece of the timeline for malicious intentions and they are now hunting them down, but they have no idea that the villains they're looking for are actually the Legends and that that piece of the timeline is actually Leonard Snart."
"Yep."
Sara groaned, "Ugh, and here I thought not telling them would make things less messy."
"Cheer up, Captain. Like I said, they don't know it was us."
"They'll find out, Ray," she insisted. "Ava's not dumb. All they have to do is figure out which rift appeared first, track it to Central City, read the ship's log, and then, boom! We're all under arrest."
"Not necessarily," Ray argued. "I'm sure Ava would understand if she knew the whole story. She only thinks bad guys did it because she doesn't know what really happened and why. I mean, what kind of person would be against rescuing a friend who literally sacrificed himself as a hero for his team? Maybe, if we come clean, she'll drop the charges."
Sara raised her eyebrows. "Come clean? Do you think Ava's going to let me off the hook for anything right now? We can barely handle an in-person conversation. How well do you think me admitting to something she already believes is a crime against the timeline is going to go over?"
She could hear Ray sigh patiently on the other side of the speaker. "You're the captain, Sara. It's your call to make, not mine. I'm just saying that, from what I'm seeing, honesty is looking like one of the better options right now." He stopped talking for a moment, then added, "While you think about it, should I head over with the temporal energy gun? We do still have a rift to deal with."
"Yeah, sure. Come on over."
"Okay. See you in a bit, Captain."
Sara hung up the call and landed a hard, frustrated punch against a wooden cart sitting idle near her. As if creating problems for the timeline didn't make us look bad enough, she thought, now we're one Time Bureau investigation away from being classified as time criminals. Great. Just great.
Zari and John led the other four Legends down a long, thin alley. Despite the daylight, the shadows created by rickety structures and shapes around them generated an atmosphere of darkness and strangeness. Zari looked up from the map and turned around slowly, surveying the area. "She should be here," she said. "This is where the spiral ended."
"I don't see her," Mick commented, looking from one side of the alley to the other.
"Well, it's not like she's going to stand outside all day, mate," John pointed out. "She's probably somewhere inside one of these." He waved his hand at the buildings lining each side of the alley.
"But which one?" Nate asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Nora looked down at the ground. She had a bad feeling, but she couldn't tell exactly why. Then, something caught her attention. "Guys!" she exclaimed, running to a spot slightly farther in. The others followed her and found a footprint in a muddy spot. "That doesn't look like a seventeenth century shoe to me," she said. "Look at the size of the heel and the toe shape. I don't know what time period it's from, but it definitely isn't this one."
Nate raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that? I mean, you're right, but how?"
Nora shrugged. "I've spent a lot of time at Renaissance fairs. You'd be surprised how much you learn about fashion at those."
"Fair point," Nate conceded.
Zari peered down at the footprint. She aligned her index finger with the direction the toe faced and drew an invisible line with her eyes. Sure enough, she spotted a short staircase along the side of building leading down to what appeared to be the door to an underground cellar. "Oh, perfect," she deadpanned. "Our weird curse lady is hiding in a creepy basement. Because where else would she be?"
The Legends filed down the small staircase and reached the door. "Want me to break it open?" Mick offered. Instead of answering, Nora whispered a quick spell that caused the door to unlock and creak open. "Take all the fun out of it," Mick grumbled.
"Don't worry, mate," Charlie assured him with a friendly punch to the shoulder. "As soon as we bag this one up, you can get back to your thieving."
The six of them walked into the cellar. Aside from a few crates along the walls, it appeared to be empty. However, as they moved deeper inside, John spotted something strange. He led the group to the back wall, ran his fingers over it, and found a hidden latch. "Secret door," he said. "Now this is getting interesting."
John pushed the door open and revealed a second, even smaller room. It was much more decorated than the first. Dark purple curtains were draped over three of the four walls. There was a small table in the center of the room with a transparent crystal ball sitting on top of it. Charlie pushed aside one of the curtains to reveal a detailed, hand-drawn map of the Globe stuck to the wall.
"Blimey," she said. "This must be it."
"Must be what?" a voice asked.
The Legends jumped, startled to see a short woman standing behind the table. There was very little they could see of her aside from her general shape due to the long, dark cloak covering her body and creating a shadow over her face. Nate glanced at the door they had just come in through, then leaned toward Zari. "How did she get in here?" he whispered. "We've been standing here the whole time."
"I don't know," Zari whispered back. "Could be another hidden door."
"Or magic," the strange woman suggested. "Don't play dumb with me, deary. I know you've seen it before."
"What?" Zari asked, stepping in closer. "How do you know what I've seen?"
The woman placed her hands over the crystal ball. "I know many things, my pet. I know your name is Zari Tomaz, you are a member of the Legends, and you carry something quite valuable on your wrist."
Zari instinctively hid the arm carrying her totem behind her back.
Charlie stepped forward to join her teammate. "Now listen here, missy," she said. "You can quit playing games right now. We all know your little secret. You're out of your time and fooling around with superstitious people's heads to get by. Well, it looks like your act is over because we're here to take you back when you come from. So, do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"
The woman said nothing for a moment, then began to cackle with laughter. "Oh, Legends," she said dryly. "As usual, you don't know half of what you're dealing with."
Nora's bad feeling grew. "Wait," she said quietly. "That voice. It sounds so familiar." She raised her hands and joined the other two women at the front of the group. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Tell us before I have to cast a spell to make you."
"Oh, Nora Darhk," the woman patronizingly replied, "it would be no match for one of my own." She threw back her hood, revealing white hair, a dark dress, and a face the Legends recognized all too well.
"Tabitha!" they all exclaimed in unison.
She smirked wryly. "We meet again, Legends."
"Witch!" Charlie cried furiously, clenching her fists. "I'll teach you to turn me into a monster, you bloody wanker!" She moved to charge at her, but Zari put a hand in front of her.
"Wait," she said softly. "Let's figure out what's going on first."
"Seems pretty clear to me," Charlie muttered. "She's where she shouldn't be and needs to be taken down."
Mick lifted his heat gun out of its holster and pointed it warily at Tabitha. "I thought you were dragon lunch," he said.
Tabitha tilted her head sideways, considering his words and not appearing to feel very threatened. "What on earth do you mean, deary?"
Nate connected the dots. "Not if she was displaced in time before Wixtable could eat her," he explained. "That must be what happened."
"Ah, I see," Tabitha said. "Well, thank you for the warning. I'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen. Really, you Legends make this too easy."
"That's enough, you old bat," Constantine replied with a glare.
"Yeah," Nate agreed. "And you know what? It doesn't even matter. You've already lost. We're just going to pick you and put you back in time to lose again."
"My goodness," Tabitha said, clearly unconvinced. "You Legends really believe you could defeat my Neron? Now there's a laugh."
"Oh yeah?" Nate replied, placing his hands on his hips and puffing his chest out proudly. "Guess what? He's already dead."
John noticed the shocked look on Tabitha's face and placed a hand on Nate's shoulder. "Might want to slow down, love…"
Nate didn't care. He was on roll. "We killed Neron by tricking him into breaking his promise to Ray. He's gone. You lose. It's over."
Tabitha looked quite shaken. "You…you killed my Neron?"
"Nate," John muttered warningly.
"Sure did," Nate confirmed. "We put on a show. I died and came back. Zari got her history erased until we fixed it. You tried to get a dragon to eat us, but he actually ate you. It was a whole thing."
"I think you should stop, mate," John insisted a little more forcefully.
"Why?" Nate asked. "We're just going to erase her memory anyway."
Tabitha glowered and placed her hands on the table, gripping its edges until her knuckles were white. "You killed him! You killed my love and you dare boast about it." She reached behind the nearest curtain and pulled out a long, black staff, the same one she had held the night of Neron's defeat. "Fools!" she shouted. "I'll teach you to stand in the way of Neron and his rule!" She raised the staff and began reciting a spell. The top of the staff began to glow.
Nate dropped his arms, realizing his mistake. "Uh…whoops."
"Nice going, mate," Charlie said sarcastically.
Before Tabitha could finish the spell, Nora sent a blast of purple light shooting at her, knocking her backward. "Don't even think about it," she said, holding out her hands in preparation to make a second one.
"Oh my," Tabitha said as she stumbled against the back wall. "It appears someone's moved beyond the limitations of a fairy godmother."
"It was like a wishing-the-genie-free sort of thing," Nora explained quickly. "Less talking, more surrendering."
"Never," Tabitha seethed. "Not until I get my revenge!" She lifted her staff and sent a blast of darkness through the room, knocking all the Legends to the floor except for Nora, who lunged forward, grabbing onto the ex-fairy godmother's staff. Her hands glowed as she held onto it, trying to pull it away with a spell. Tabitha fought back with one of her own, then hissed, "Like I warned you, deary, you don't know half of what you're dealing with." She slid her hands down on top of Nora's with a sudden motion and a wicked grin.
Suddenly, Nora found herself surrounded by darkness. She looked straight forward and saw an eerie, pale, ghostly shape. It looked like someone she once knew very closely. Her eyes widened in recognition and she felt goosebumps. "Dad?" she whispered.
He said nothing aloud, but mouthed her nickname, "Nora Doll." He reached out a hand toward her. She did the same, trying to touch him. Before they could meet, he pulled back, opened his mouth as if to scream, and transformed into the hideous shape of Mallus. Nora fell backward in horror. The ghostly shape vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Nora!" she heard John Constantine's voice shouting. "Nora, wake up!"
Nora blinked and found herself lying on the floor with John's face hovering over her. The other Legends either stood or knelt around the two of them. "M-my dad," she stammered. "I…I saw my dad. Where's my dad?"
John looked down at her with sympathy. "He's not here, love. Tabitha's gotten stronger than she was when we last fought her. I don't know how she did it, but she dug into the most vulnerable part of your mind and gave you a vision she knew would affect you."
Nora forced herself to sit up. She looked around, seeing six Legends but no sign of Tabitha. "Did she get away?" she asked.
"Aye," John answered. "I tried to trap her with a spell of my own, but she vanished into thin air as soon as you were down."
Nora groaned and hid her face in her hands. "I really messed it up, didn't I?"
"No," Nate said, jumping into the conversation. "I did. I overdid it talking about Neron. I should've known she'd react."
"Yeah, Pretty," Mick grunted. "Way to let the evil witch go."
Nate turned to him with a hurt look. "Hey! It's not like you were being super helpful either."
"It's okay," Zari said reassuringly. "Tabitha got away, but at least now we know what we're dealing with. We just need to find out where she went. Anyone have any ideas?"
Charlie pointed her thumb at the wall where the map hung. "Oh, I don't know, maybe…the one spot she keeps a bloody map of in her room?"
The other Legends exchanged worried glances.
"My partner's around there," Mick said.
"And Sara," Zari added.
"And Mona," Nora said.
"And now they've got an angry witch bent on revenge headed straight for them," John concluded. "One with expanded powers too, apparently."
Nate sucked in his breath. "Double double," he said, "we're in trouble."
A/N: Hopefully this was clear from the chapter, but just to make sure no one's confused, the Tabitha they found was displaced from a point in time somewhere between passing on the fairy godmother wand to Nora and being eaten by Wixtable, which is why she didn't know about Neron's defeat but is still free from being a fairy godmother. There is another reason why her powers have been expanded since the last time the Legends saw her, but I'm planning to explain that next chapter. Thanks for reading!
