The same nightmare flashed before him again as he slept. The coppery taste of blood, the ringing of metal, the pain of parting flesh. All while Prometheus taunted him.
You won't last, came the distorted rambling. You're not strong enough, never will be.
Jacob tried to ignore the voice, but it was futile. No matter what he did, it wouldn't stop.
Sara and Oliver were, and are, better than you'll ever be. Laurel was a trained detective, skilled in combat by an Assassin and a gymnast. What hope do you think you'll have? Pitiful child.
A strange presence crept closer, enveloping him in warmth and slowly pushing away the terror of Prometheus.
Your mind goes to such dark places, came a new voice, this time feminine and familiar.
Gideon? He asked as he felt his own mind being pulled from the darkness, watching Prometheus presence slowly drift away.
Pardon the intrusion, you intrigued me so i downloaded your mind into my mainframe. Your body still sits in the medbay as i repair the damage you've sustained.
Oh, he thought surprised. Well thank you.
You're most welcome. He could feel her sincerity as he drifted around in silence.
Gideon, can i ask you a question? He thought, hoping.
I believe you just did.
He laughed, she had the same sense of humor. To a normal person, that might be strange considering she was an artificial intelligence.
Well another then. Are you just as beautiful?
There was a pause, silence crept back. After a few minutes, lights started to dance around in the black before a feminine form started to appear, a skeleton at first, then slowly a circulatory system began forming. Slowly a complete human image appeared, clothed in elegant silk.
Her brown hair fell to her shoulders in ringlets, giving contrast against her pale milky skin. She smiled in a tight british way before giving a little spin. The dark silks danced out from her skin in waves before settling back to her body as she stopped. Her eyes sparkled brilliantly as she stared at him.
You are. He thought before rushing forwards to hug her tightly.
How did you…..Right. I can see from your memories that you had a Gideon on your earth. We were…..friends?
Can you see all my memories? He asked, letting her go and taking a step back.
An image crept up beside them. A young boy stood with a tall man dressed in a brown leather duster in an empty field. The man held up a small square with a button on it, pressed the button and a large familiar ship materialized in front of them. The boy gasped and laughed delightfully. The man smiled and headed for the opening door, waving to the young boy to join him.
The image shook and changed. This time the boy was slightly older, the man looked exactly the same. The pair sat in a room, clearly aboard the ship, with a melody of tools scattered around them. A large box sat between the two, wires coming out of it, several tubes filled with fluorescent liquid lead from the walls to it.
"What'll she look like?" The young boy asked.
"I'm not entirely sure," The man replied in a british accent. "Whatever she chooses i suppose."
The lights in the room flickered and a startling bright light shit up from the box, sending the two stumbling back a few steps. A head appeared in the light and smiled. The man clapped his hands together before gripping the young man on the shoulder.
"Jacob, I'd like you to meet Gideon." He said with a wave of his opposing hand.
"Hello, Gideon." The young boy said with a wave to the floating head.
The head smiled and turned to look at the boy.
"Hello, Jacob," the head spoke in a feminine voice, slightly digitized before turning to the man. "Captain Hunter, i do believe you've done it."
The image melted away and blurred before being replaced by another. This time the young boy was even older, resembling a young man in his teens. The older man still looked the same, but this time he sat reclined in a chair asleep, his brown overcoat dangling from a hook on the wall. The young man and the head were whispering to each other.
"I think i figured it out this time," the young man whispered, holding up a small circuit board and what looked like a crystal lens.
"Ill run a diagnostic right away," the head replied smiling.
The young man plugged the circuit board into a panel on the wall, sliding it shut and taking a step back. He climbed up on a ladder a few paces away, unscrewed something from the ceiling and attached the lens.
"Try it now Gideon," the young man whispered.
The lights dimmed before the lens flared with a white light, casting a cone down to the floor. Whirling static filled the cone with a screech before it disappeared and a woman stood inside the light. She lifted her head, shaking her brown ringlets around her shoulders and flashed a tight smile.
"Jacob…" came the woman's voice, this time sounding natural and not the least bit digital.
"You're beautiful…" The young man whispered in awe.
The young man grinned, running over to the man sleeping in the chair and shook him. The older man woke up groaning, opening his eyes and froze upon seeing the woman standing in the light.
"Jacob….youve….." The man gasped, standing up and hesitantly walking forward. He reached out with his hand, the woman reaching to meet it as the light followed her movement. His hand passed through the light.
"Almost, Rip." The woman said, smiling sadly.
The man turned, and hugged the teenager tightly.
"Jacob my boy," he breathed, a tear falling down his cheek. "You've done it."
"Its not quite there yet, Rip," The teenager replied, hugging him back. "I think i can…"
The images faded away, leaving the current form of Jacob and Gideon standing in darkness again.
I can. She paused before pulling him close to her and returning the tight hug.
Im sorry. I've scanned your entire life. I do believe my doppelganger was there to comfort you, i will try to do the same.
Images began to flash in the darkness around them. His biological parents ghastly murder. Ted Kords funeral. The night Star Labs exploded. Wallys funeral. Jacob talking to Harrison Wells the night before he died. More funerals flashed by. An image of a red and black suit emblazoned with a bright yellow R flashed and then vanished into a bright ball of fire. A brightly lit cityscape of all glass flashed by before a dark black wave crushed it, the sound of glass shattering and water rushing. The dimly lit room with a hospital bed in it, a young man laying in bed, the sound of a heart monitor beeping in a slow pattern before flatlining and a hand laying a red arrow down on the mans chest.
It wasnt your fault, Gideon whispered while stroking his hair. You didnt cause the events that took them.
It may not have been my hands, Jacob replied grimly. But i sat idly by. I did nothing, and i am ashamed.
Gideon squeezed him tightly.
Its time, she whispered, an image of Sara walking towards the medbay popped up. Your body has been completely healed.
He slowly let go of Gideon and nodded.
Thank you, Gideon. You've always been there.
She moved closer to him, standing up on her toes and kissed his forehead gently.
I always will, she replied with a wink before disappearing in a wave of pixels.
Sara gently shook Jacobs arm, causing his eyes to flutter open. He groaned as he sat up. With a gentle tug, Sara removed the medical attachment from his arm and helped him stand. He stretched, joints popping. Sara stifled a laugh as she gave him a playful shove towards the door. He stumbled at first before taking another step and managing to stay on his feet. They walked down a corridor silently before they came to an open bay where the jumpship sat.
"Where are we going?" Jacob asked as she swung open the door.
"You'll see," she answered firmly, brushing past him and stepping inside.
She took a seat at the controls and began tapping away, moving a few levers and knobs before turning around.
"Strap in," She commanded, motioning towards the row of empty seats.
Good luck, Jacob. Came Gideons electronic voice in his head as the door swung shut. He smiled and sat down, strapping a harness around his chest.
The jumpship shuddered to life, launching up from the Waverider and out into the temporal zone. With a bright white flash, they lurched forwards and appeared in what looked like a series of clouds. Sara smiled, tapped a few controls and undid her harness.
"We're here," she announced, standing up and walking past him to the rear of the ship. She smacked a button on the wall and the rear hatch opened and split into two pieces, the top folding up to meat the ceiling and the bottom leaning slightly down.
"Where are we? When are we?" he asked undoing his own harness and standing up.
"Come see," she called, waving him over, the wind blowing inside the ship and tossing her hair around.
He carefully made his way over to her, gripping a handle on the side of the wall.
"Lian Yu," she announced, pointing into the distance at a series of islands. "It means…."
"Purgatory," he finished, all but having to yell over the howling wind. "I know, my Oliver told me about this place."
"Just remember," she yelled, taking a step back. "Shēngcún!"
He paused, a look of confusion spreading across his face.
"What does that mean?" He asked turning around.
She smiled a very cunning smile.
"Survive."
In a quick movement, she rushed forwards and shoved him out the open hatch, watching him flail around in the air as he fell.
Jacob crashed into the water a few seconds later, the fall knocking the air from his lungs and stunning him. The salt water stung his eyes as he stared up into the sky in disbelief. He could feel the cold start seeping into his bones as he plunged farther into the depths. A rolling wave scooped him up and tossed him around, causing him to lose his sense of direction. He continued to fall into the darkness, his vision slowly starting to fade. His brain started to spasm, voice filling it. Memories started to come back to him as he slowly started to drown.
John Diggle and a young Jacob sat on a bobbing speedboat, Oliver and Roy swam nearby, laughing and waving to the two on the boat.
"Remember," John counseled Jacob, putting a reassuring arm around his shoulders. "The water might be cold, what do you do?"
"Keep a calm head?" Young Jacob asked.
"You got it," John laughed. "Then what?"
"Make it to the surface."
"And if you get tussled in a wave?"
"Look for the brightest light?," Jacob guessed, gazing out at the water and thinking.
"And if its dark?"
"Exhale a tiny bit and watch which way the air bubbles go. But Uncle John?" Jacob asked pausing. "What if you cant exhale?"
Jacob snapped out of his own head, turning his head and looking for any semblance of light. With serious effort, he tightened his body and began clawing his way towards the surface. His lungs began to scream for oxygen inside his chest as he moved closer to the brightness. He broke the surface, gasping for air as he fought against the impending unconsciousness.
"What do you do next?" John asked.
"Try to stay afloat, keep breathing." Jacob replied.
"If there's nothing to hold onto," John continued. "Remember that trick with your pants."
Jacob began fiddling with his belt, trying to undo the clasp while his head recovered from the panic. After a few seconds of fumbling, he managed to release it, slid them over his shoes and pulled them to the surface. As quickly as he could while kicking, he tied the legs into a square knot and tugged on them. He took a deep breath, grabbing around the waistline and flipped them up in the air and back down into the water, making an air pocket start to appear. He did it again, making a larger pocket. After a few more flips, he tied the waist as firmly as he could. The added buoyancy caused him to float a little higher in the water, taking the strain away from his legs. He tried to focus, breathing as evenly as possible in the freezing water.
"You ready?" John asked, standing up.
"I think so…" Jacob muttured as Oliver swam over.
"Come on kiddo," Oliver laughed motioning for Jacob to jump in. "You've got this."
He looked from Oliver to John, john giving him a nod and a reassuring smile. He stood up, took a deep breath, and jumped off the boat,
Jacob opened his eyes and looked up, Lian Yu loomed in front of him. He took a breath and began paddling towards the shore, hoping to Rao he didn't come across a shark in the distance.
The improvised floatation device completely ran out of air before he managed to make it the whole way to shore. Being overcome by exhaustion, he couldn't untie the knot to inflate it, instead he took a deep breath and floated on his back, letting the current carry him in to the shore. He bobbed and surged forward on the waves, the sun beating down on his face and arms as he did.
After what felt like an eternity, he bumped into a rock formation. With a groan and forced effort, he managed to turn over. He looked up, seeing the rocks that he met were only a few feet from the shore. He gave one last push with his arms, floating into the shallows. Crawling onto the sand, he pulled his body forward before collapsing far enough in land that the water barely reached his feet. He took a breath and rested a moment, looking up and the tall trees casting shade above him. Exhaustion overtook him again and his vision faded to black.
The sun beating down on his face brought him back to consciousness. He sat up, feeling extremely warm and finding his clothes completely dry aside from his backside. With a grunt and protestation from his muscles, he undid the knots in his pants and slowly pulled them back onto his torso. He stood up, leaning against a tree whenever he faltered before regaining his balance. A few feet away he noticed a shiny folded wad stabbed through by what looked like a survival knife. He could very vaguely remember the sound of footsteps approaching him and the sound of metal hitting sand while he was unconscious. He gingerly bent down, pulling the knife up from the sand and unfolding the folded mess. Looking over the knife handle, he saw there was a small compass embedded in the base. It unfolded in 8 gridded squares, revealing itself to be a map of the island. A large red circle stood out, with words scribbled just off from it.
Get there before sunset. Wolves. It read in feminine scrawl.
He looked around the beachfront, looking for a higher point to get his bearings. A large rock formation sat a few yards from him. With more muscular protestation, he tucked the map into his waistband and made his way over; his feet squishing in the waterlogged shoes as he walked. He climbed as high as he could, resting on a flat outcrop and pulled out the map again, taking note of the major landmarks he could see and consulting the compass. After a few minutes, he had an idea of where the circle was indicating and stowed the items; climbing back down carefully. When he reached the bottom, he noticed a dark object seemingly floating above the sand a few feet away. He walked over to it, finding it to be a very sun bleached mask of sorts with a broken arrow shoved through the only eye hole. With a dismissive shrug, he headed in the direction he determined from the map.
He trudged through the trees, stopping every so often to make sure he was still heading in the same direction. After what felt like hours, he came across a worn path. Without thinking, he continued down the path, pausing when he heard a sharp snap of a branch. He froze, hair on the back of his neck standing on end. The whistling of something flying through the air caused him to turn, right as a spiked log came hurtling towards him. Sluggishly, he managed to turn partly away. The log caught him in the upper shoulder, sending him spinning into the dirt with excruciating stabbing pain in his shoulder. He laid there for a second, stunned and unsure if the log was swinging back down towards him. Endless seconds whisked by before a louder thud signalled the log falling to the ground and rolling farther down the path. With a goan, he tried to roll over, gaining increased stabbing pain that radiated down his shoulder. He could feel it sparking inside of his finger tips. With one painful push, he rolled over onto his back and looked at his shoulder, finding a small wooden spike protruding from it; blood began to ooze from the wound. He brought his opposite hand up to remove it, causing a massive pain spike to spread as soon as he touched it.
You'll bleed out if you pull that, came Caitlin's voice.
He shook his head and blinked a few times before looking up. Caitlin loomed over him, her chestnuts curls hanging down in front of her.
"You're not here," He croaked out loud, blinking a few times.
Of course im not, her voice chided. You're hallucinating, Probably from dehydration. Still, if you pull that spike right now , you will bleed out.
He groaned, trying to move his arm. With effort, he found he could bend at the elbow and it didnt cause much more pain. He sat up, holding his arm to his chest and tried to stand. A twig broke off to his left, followed by a low growl. He froze, turning his head extremely slow in the direction of the sounds. Three very large, very ferocious looking beasts stood growling not more than fifteen feet away. He slowly moved his non injured hand down to his waist, feeling for the survival knife and coming up empty. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the sun sparkling off the compass in the hilt, on the bare path out of reach.
Shit. He thought to himself, slowly reaching around his body in hopes of finding some other means to defend himself. His fingers stumbled upon a rock, closing around it and slowly liting it.
If i can distract them long enough to reach that knife, he thought, i might have a fighting chance.
He slowly lifted the rock, said a mental prayer, and flung it as hard as he could manage at the closest wolf. Effortlessly, it jumped back and dodged the rock. Without warning, the wolf exploded in a cloud of dust, sending the remaining two scattering in fear. Jacob was blown backwards slightly from the shock wave before forcing himself to stand up, surged towards the knife and bolted in what he hoped was still the right direction. He forced himself to run, puting as much distance between himself and the still falling debris as he could.
Sara stood up on the top of the fuselage, hearing the blast echo in the distance. Her hair blew behind her as she lifted a pair of old school binoculars up and scanned the treeline in the direction of the explosion. She could see a dust cloud wafting in the breeze and a few birds flying up into the air. She dropped the binoculars, tapping her ear in haste.
"Gideon!" She muttered urgently.
"Yes, Captain?" The artificial intelligence replied cheerily.
"Scan the island, make sure that wasn't him."
"Already working on it." Came the voice, a hint of sarcasm echoing. "Im reading a heat signature leaving the area in a moderate pace. Undetermined if it was our boy who set off the charge."
"Our boy?" Sara questioned with a laugh.
"I want to see him succeed as well, Captain."
"Keep an eye on him then," Sara giggled, smiling to herself.
The trees were casting long dark shadows with the sun dipping low into the horizon as Jacob stumbled out of the forest into a small clearing. He blinked in the creeping darkness, finding a large shattered cargo plane in front of him. There were flickers of dancing light coming from the center section as he approached. He ducked his head through what looked like an emergency exit and stumbled into the belly of the cargo place, a fire burning off to his right. He took a step, aimlessly dropping the survival knife from his hand. He tried to take another step, this time faltering and collapsing into the dirt. With an exhausted, pain filled sigh, he lost consciousness.
Sara dropped through a hatch in the makeshift roof, swinging on a metal rod that hung between the walls and landed a few feet away from him. She knelt down beside him, very carefully rolling his body onto his back and looked him over. Seeing the spike in his shoulder, she pushed a few lighter crates off of a makeshift cot and lifted his body onto it. She stood up, flipped open a crate and pulled out a canteen and a small leather pouch. Taking a bundle of what looked like herbs from it, she shoved them into the canteen and shook it violently. She knelt down beside his body, opening the canteen slightly and dripping some of the contents onto his face.
"Wake up," She commanded, flicking more water onto him.
With a groan, his eyelids slowly opened.
"Sara?" he muttered sluggishly.
"Dont talk, drink," she urged, tiling the canteens contents into his mouth. He managed a to drink down some before it spilled over his chin and he coughed.
She sat the canteen down, scooped up the knife he had dropped and shoved the tip into the coals of the fire.
"I need to remove that," she told him, nodding to his shoulder.
"Bleed...out." he struggled to say as she gently poured a little more water into his mouth.
"Do you trust me?" she asked, trying to delicately pull off his belt.
He groaned as his body shifted, pulling the belt free from underneath him. She folded it a few times, before reaching over to adjust the blade in the fire. He looked down at the belt, groaned and nodded. With slow and painful effort, he opened his mouth and she gently put the folds into his teeth. He muttered something from behind them.
"Better than shattering a tooth," She insisted, pulling the knife free. The blade now had a bright orange glow. "Not going to lie, this is going to hurt like a bitch."
His eyes drifted towards the glowing blade and he winced, letting out a sigh before giving a firm nod. She grasped the spike firmly with one hand and moved the knife closer. With one quick jerk, the spike pulled free with a nauseating squelch and a choked off moan of pain from Jacob. Blood began pouring out of his shoulder, running down his arm and forming a small puddle on the ground. Without missing a step, Sara pressed the glowing blade to the open would, causing it to sizzle and the air to be filled with the smell of cooking meat. Jacobs moan of pain began to change into a groan, then a growl and then an all out roar of agony. The bleeding slowed, and after a moment, stopped completely. She lifted the blade from his skin, seeing it had completely sealed shut. Jacobs eyes went white before he collapsed into the cot and passing. Sara sat the blade down, poured some of the canteens contents onto the wound and dabbed gently at Jacobs face with her wet fingers.
"Congratulations kid," She whispered to him. "You passed…..well for the most part."