-Waverider, Temporal Zone-

"Is there a problem, cap?" Nate asks. "Do we have any news on Sara? Or the alien?"

Ava waits until all of the Legends are in the bridge and then she speaks.

"We do. I had a much needed conversation with Kara before-"

"Kara as in Supergirl?"

"Yes, Nate."

"Wait, are we friends with Supergirl?" Zari asked.

"Who?" Astra wonders.

"She is Sara's friend." Ava explains.

"And mine! She's my friend too." Nate points out, very proudly.

"Shut up, pretty"

"Thanks, Mick." Ava takes the word again. "You know, I'm not so good at feelings. But I know we are all struggling without Sara" Ava told the Legends. "Not knowing where she is, or when she is or if she's-"

She sighed. "Mick, for instance, he froze the other day."

"I miss her" Mick admits.

"We all do. And the thing is, we should talk about it. Share our feelings, support each other." Ava continues. "Every night around 4 am. I walk around the ship to clear my head... Please join me if you want to."

"That's the co-captain we love." Nate says, walking towards her with open arms. "Come everybody, join the group hug!"

And so they hugged, and then they ran after Mick to hug him too.

They felt stronger together.

Sara felt lonely.

Behind that door she pushed through was a gloomy hallway and, after that, the Arena.

She had walked right into it.

The place was a circumference, maybe with a diameter of five or six meters. The ground was covered in some kind of thick rubber carpet. Sara bent to touch it.

Then she looked up and around. There was place for a big audience and it was in fact arriving and taking its place to watch the competition.

A sudden noise startled her and her attention came back to the Arena itself. There was a tall hooded figure pushing a cart.

"Choose weapon" they said.

Sara took a closer look at all the weapons offered to her but as soon as she saw the sticks she grabbed them. Then she grabbed a set of shuriken.

"Welcome!" A voice sounded like thunder. Sara recognized The Savior speaking above the crowd.

"Today, I claim my place in the Competition, in the name of planet Garth and the empire we've created. Today, I introduce my pawn to the games. My Champion. The Paragon of Destiny!"

After that Sara turns around to grab more weapons she might need but they are gone. She can hear another voice speaking aloud in another language and then applause and roars coming from an overly excited crowd.

In front of her a gate opens and an alien walks in the Arena. Must be the other champion she has to fight against.

He is not bigger than she is, he's holding a club in his hands and he looks very determined to kill her.

Sara waits patiently for him to get closer and then she throws both sticks in the air above their heads.

As expected, her opponent gets distracted with them, allowing Sara to make her moves.

She slides on the ground and uses her left foot to make him lose balance and fall on his back. He doesn't lose time though, and tries to hit her with his weapon. Sara avoids it in the last second, grabs his atm and twists it. He lets go of the club with a yell, she puts the weight off her body in his and knocks him out with a strong punch on the face.

-Athens, 1904-

The Legends arrive in Athens again, to solve the alien problem. After much consideration they decided to try a new tactic with the creature, as it got into their minds and wouldn't communicate with them in any other way.

The team needed to know who they were dealing with in order to solve the displacement, and complete the mission, that is why they used their secret weapon, one of their oldest members.

Gideon was out of reach for the alien's telepathic powers and there was finally a conversation going on between them. All the creature wanted was going back to his family and protect them. From what?

He said something that translates to "sickness".

Using his coordinates the Waverider landed outside Athens and the team assembled.

"Alright, you all know what we have to do. Team A with me. Team B, but not because of that less important, follow Nate. Stay available in the coms and before you step out of the ship please activate your inhibitors."

The Legends did as Ava instructed, activating a small device above their left ear. It was designed to protect them from the telepaths getting inside their heads again.

Team A left the ship first in order to approach the aliens' village. It was small, they could count around 20 huts made of wood, environmentaly friendly and surrounded by a beautiful little forest. As Ava, John and Mick walked closer, they were noticed by the aliens who seemed confused because of their inhibitors. They just watched the Legends from the security of their doorsteps.

"We made contact." Ava informed through the coms. "No weapons at sight."

And team B left the ship in the direction of another village, next to the lake. Nate, Zari, Behrad and Astra were soon welcomed in the village by another group of aliens which they identified as the enemies of the one they held captive.

Both teams were escorted to the presence of the leader.

"Our aliens seem confused but I think they are the good guys." Nate said.

"Ours are the good ones. They're just pissed because we have their friend." Mick said through the coms.

Both leaders spoke directly to the Legends asking for the reason of their visit.

Both teams answered according to the plan, just saying their intention was to talk and reach an agreement so the aliens would stop fighting and attacking the city.

There wasn't really a backup plan. If those big creatures decided to be unfriendly then the Legends would be in serious trouble. Gary stayed in the ship just in case things went wrong, but that didn't give any reassurance.

Luckily they all got useful pieces of information from the aliens and they shared it to get a full view of the problem.

"The lake aliens claim none of the problems are their fault. They are peaceful people and the forest aliens just get crazy." Zari summarizes.

"Well the forest folks claim they are as peaceful but the lake folks are making them sick." John explains.

"That is impossible, why would they do that?"

"Wait Nate, what is that smell?" Zari asks.

"I thought it was Behrad."

"Thank you, bro." Behrad says ironically. "I smell it too. I think it's Zari's perfume."

"It comes from that." Astra points out.

Team B turns to follow her gesture and see a big statue in the middle of the village. In fact it is the skeleton of a statue made of wood and people are making the body of the statue with flowers and plants they take from the lake. It is a beautiful statue representing one of their own in a giant size, looks like a religious or cultural festivity. The flowers and plants they are using go through a ritual and release a smell that is unrelated to anything the Legends have smelled before.

"Um, guys… something's going on." Ava's voice sounds worried through the coms.

In the forest the villagers are suddenly acting strange, most of them retreat to their houses and close doors and windows. Others take their hands to their heads and look scared. Some of them say it is the sickness. Team doesn't really know what to do so they just stay there watching the scene. One of the aliens turn towards them agressively but Mick stops it quickly with a punch.

Behrad lets his instinct take over and uses his wind power to change the direction of the smell the statue is releasing.

"What did you do!?" Ava's voice reaches team B once again. "They are back to normal."

"It's the plants. They have allergies!" Nate says.

Turns out during their festivities the lake people use some plants for their rituals and they affect the people from the forest. They get aggressive as an allergic alien reaction and they can't help it, that's why they attack. probably the same happened on their own planet and that's why they became enemies.

The Legends explained this to both Aliens' leaders and they seemed very happy to finally be able to solve their problems. They scheduled a meeting with the other village immediately, so they could share views on how to make life easier for everyone.

Team B quickly brought their prisoner to his family and friends, and team A got a gift from the people in the forest. It was a piece of alien technology designed in the shape of a small bird. It wasn't bigger than the palm of Ava's hand. The silver piece had an empty space between its open wings.

The legends knew this gift was a result of the aliens seeing inside their minds days before. It was something they desperately needed.

"It needs an amulet to function." They said.

And after an emotional life changing grateful goodbye, the Legends got back in the Waverider and headed towards the Timezone full of hope.

- Unknown planet, present time -

Meanwhile in the Arena, Sara is angry. Angry and exhausted. She just pinned her third rival to the wooden wall using the shuriken. She kept fighting because she knew it was what she had to do. Her destiny was only hers to choose, and she was choosing not to die.

But instead, she had to kill.

Sara could feel something breaking inside, taking her back to the dark past. She has a lot of faith in her team, but not so much in herself.