The Gideon Factor

Part Two

Back with the crew, Sara rolled her eyes when she realized her team, instead of worrying about the absence of Gideon, or trying to come up with a plan, or really doing anything useful, were deep into a round of 'fuck, marry, kill' with Avengers characters.

"What about you, Captain?" Mick tossed it to the blonde as she approached.

"Come on, guys, we need to come up with a plan to sneak on to Nanda Parbat and steal Gideon back." Sara glanced at Ava, "You know we don't have time for this nonsense." She glanced back at her crew, quickly, under her breath, "Fuck the Black Widow, marry Iron Man, kill Captain America." As Nate prepared to argue, Sara quickly gave him a stern look and he zipped his lips. 'Later' he mouthed at her.

"Okay," Sara began, "First, I have a contact that I think can help us out with Nanda Parbat. I spent a few years there, but it's been awhile. Plus, she was raised there, so she knows everything about the island itself. I really wish we had Gideon, I'm not entirely sure how to find her." Ava, eyebrows raised, wondered how many people could claim to have been raised on Nanda Parbat in the League of Assassins. This 'contact' was becoming more and more interesting.

Ray asked, "You don't have some kind of Assassin's bat signal? A call to arms or something?"

"Uhm, we used to. It didn't work out the last time I tried it though," she replied, thinking back to a particularly lonely time she experienced prior to joining the Legends. "I was honestly kind of surprised it didn't work, we've never had a hard time finding each other when we needed to." Although the dark-haired woman frequently went off the grid for long missions, she had always responded before. Even if it meant showing up in the middle of the street, late at night, completely unexpectedly. As torn as she was to see her that night, something about the taste of the assassin's lips and low rumble of her smooth voice reminded her why she stayed with the League for so long.

"What's her name?" Amaya asked. "Maybe Ava can run her through the Time Bureau system and get a location." Sara nodded, hesitantly, and turned to her current lover, trying desperately to shake the images of the former. It wasn't that she hadn't moved on, but the relationship had been filled with challenges, strife, and a desperate passion that felt like looking into the sun. So, of course, the afterimage would leave an impact.

Sara didn't really expect the crew or Ava to know who she was, although the 'al Ghul' would certainly not be lost on anyone. Plus, she was fairly certain the Time Bureau didn't know who had actually found Sara, lost and broken, in Lian Yu. "Her name is Nyssa al Ghul, but she may be in your system as Nyssa Raatko." To Sara's surprise, Ava's eyes immediately narrowed, her face hardened.

"No way," she said, all Time Bureau Director now. Sara racked her brain for what information the Time Bureau could have on Nyssa. She was almost positive the League routinely wiped all traces of their senior members, and the former heir to the throne was certainly protected.

"What's the problem?" Mick started, "Did she kill one of your time dweebs?" Zari elbowed the man in ribs. She had recently been working with Mick on tact. He was as bad a student at tact as he was with his Fire totem, maybe worse. Though, Zari figured that was to be expected, since a severe lack of tact had likely been an issue for over 30 years.

"No, but she's definitely in a Time Bureau holding facility." Sara's heart dropped, still instinctively bound to protect her former lover and the woman who saved her life all those years ago. Not to mention how Nyssa secured Sara's freedom from the League. Sara could see the fire in the dark blue hue of Ava's eyes and knew her plan was in trouble. The blonde pushed off from the computer console and moved to stand staring out of the front of the ship into the temporal void of time and space.

"Why's she locked up, Director?" asked Ray, concerned eyes followed the path of his Captain.

"For some reason, in December 2015, Nyssa al Ghul came out of hiding and the League stopped covering her tracks in the timeline. We saw more activity from Nyssa alone than we had ever seen from the League in such a condensed period." Ava started slowly pacing, keeping an eye on the blonde woman's reaction. There was obviously more to her lover's connection with the known assassin, but it was difficult to get a read.

Sara slowly sank down into a crouch, tightly muscled forearms rested on her knees. Her heart ached for the pain she knew the mysterious and beautiful assassin felt after her beloved's death. She gazed into the abyss, the words rolling over her. For a moment, Sara was lost in the dark recesses of her mind as she recalled laying, cold and fractured, in Lian Yu. She barely had any recollection of when the dark-haired woman found her. As she healed, she remembered studying the stoic visage of the killer. How minute shifts in her expression would speak volumes as Sara worked to break through the tough exterior of the woman. It was such a victory the first time Nyssa had volunteered a story about herself. Sara thought about how hard she focused to overcome the fever chills enough to listen.

"I thought you said the League covered their tracks, how could you tell?" asked Amaya.

Ava nodded, "True, but they also had a unique signature in the timeline. Almost like tracer rounds. You wouldn't see the bullet, but you could pick up on the streak and the ripple effect caused by their activity. Since the League played a historically accurate role in time, we didn't really worry about what they were doing." The edge came back into Ava's voice as she continued, "Until Nyssa al Ghul decided to seriously fuck up the timeline. Repeatedly."

At that, Sara stood and moved behind her Captain's chair. As though the steel frame of the chair would protect her from the story of her former lover's grief. She could picture the look of loss in the exotic dark eyes. Sara knew she had caused that look more than once in the assassin's strong, angular face. She knew she was the only one that could and still be welcomed back by the former heir to the demon. Sara was snapped back to the present as Ava continued.

"On a mission, Nyssa mortally injured a young girl who wasn't supposed to be there. Well, who she thought wasn't supposed to be there. Nyssa whisked the girl away, off the grid, probably to Nanda Parbat." Lazarus Pit, Sara immediately thought. Of course she saved her. "Then, a couple months later, a huge anachronism appeared in the timeline starting in 2026 that would become cataclysmic in 2212. See, what Nyssa didn't realize was that she was supposed to kill the girl on that mission."

"So," Sara began as she stalked back to the group, "Nyssa is in some Time Bureau jail because she saved a girl? That doesn't make any sense. We need her to get Gideon back." Ava noticed the pronounced swagger in her frustrated partner's walk and took a deep breath.

"Look, we fixed the anachronism multiple times. Putting Nyssa in the holding facility was a last resort. She repeatedly found a way to save the girl. The anachronism is a world-killer. It's too great to risk. So, Nyssa al Ghul will be locked up until the time has passed and she can no longer interfere." Ava could tell this was going to be a big problem by the furious look on the younger woman's face. "Maybe I could let you in to talk to her and she could tell you what you need to know about Nanda Parbat," she suggested.

"Oh, a compromise, that's a nice idea," Ray offered helpfully, knowing in the glare he received from the Captain and the nudge from Nate that he had once again crossed the optimism threshold.

"Ava, you don't understand. Let's forget for a second that having someone imprisoned for saving a girl is ridiculous, no matter the consequence in the timeline, and focus on the Gideon factor." Sara began pacing again, her hand motions enhanced by the sound of her black, combat style ankle boots as she moved across the floor. "I don't think you understand Nanda Parbat. The island is like a fortress. There are traps and security measures everywhere. There will be rotating guard stations manned by trained killers. There are also secret passageways onto the island that only the senior members know about."

Mick interrupted, "Then how do you know about them, Captain?" Always very helpful, Mick Rory.

Sara shot daggers his way, "I know of them, not where they are specifically. Plus, they're rigged with booby traps as well, from what I hear," she added.

"So, what you're saying is," Zari, always one to put things in perspective, "we're fucked." The lithe woman dropped her arms and moved to take a place on the steps leading up to the library. She extended her long legs, clad in fitted black jeans, crossed them at the ankles, and leaned back to watch the conflict between her Captain and the Director continue to unfold.

"No, what I'm saying is we need Nyssa's help. It's the only way we stand a chance to get Gideon back, keep the AI tech out of Norah Darhk's hands, stop the ginormous anachronism that's in the works, and avoid the murderous rampage that would result from a Mallus infested League of Assassins." Sara stopped abruptly. She made eye contact with Ava, who had a well-defined scowl on her face. "You said you'd go along with my plan. That you wanted to work with us. This is the beginning of the plan." Sara stood, one fist on her hip, faced off against the Director.

"Sara, I can't." Ava's face was set, despite the look of regret in her dark blue eyes.

"Then just fucking go. I'll let you know if there's a facet to our plan that requires your textbook touch." Sara saw the hit land as hurt and anger replaced regret in the Director's gaze. Ava lifted her chin and set her shoulders, the poly-blend fabric taut across her back. She stalked past the shorter blonde woman, through the portal that had appeared at the touch of a device on woman's wrist, and returned to the Time Bureau.

"Now what, Captain?" Nate asked, hesitantly.

Sara took a second to bleed off the anger and disappointment she felt toward the Director in that moment. She also spared a second to reflect on how close to the surface her temper lived as she immediately regretted the pain she knew her words caused. John Constantine may have restored her soul, but she'd always live with a certain level of darkness about her now, beyond what she'd acquired as a member of the League. She lightly slapped her well-defined thigh a couple times to refocus, took a breath, and looked at her team. She knew it was going to be much harder with Ava's unwillingness to let Nyssa out, but that didn't change the fact that they needed her former lover's help.

"Alright, Team." She moved toward them with cool confidence, making a point to meet each member's gaze. "First things first, apparently we need to break Nyssa al Ghul out of Time Bureau prison."