Author's note: I'm so, so sorry it took so long to post, but have college ever sucked the life out of you? I have so much to do! Life sucks, guys.

ANYWAY. I finally got some time to write and here it is! You ready for another tape? I'm oddly proud of this one. Hope you guys like it too and leave a review at the end, pretty please. I'll try not to take for fucking ever to write the next one.

15 days for the end of the semester. As we say in my little land: faith in God, DJ.

Have a nice read!


Chapter 3: Tape 2, Side A

I'm gonna need you to know what I'm talking about here, now, because it's a big part of what happened in the future.

Isn't it kinda weird to put things this way? 'What happened in the future'. Huh. How odd that our past is up ahead.

The thing is that… I'm gonna need you to have watched that movie. Pay it Forward. Because it wasn't intentional when I did the things I did, but it's what came to my mind after it happened.

So go ahead, get your HBO Go or Netflix or whatever device you have that could have the movie in the catalogue and go for it. Watch it.

It's okay, I'm not going nowhere. I can wait.

Sara had watched that movie, she remembered it. She remembered the screams when Jon Bon Jovi came to the screen. She remembered crying her eyes out at the end, feeling so very betrayed.

She looked over the window at Jitters, where the sun was coming in all yellow and pink that afternoon, a mug of Zoom in her hands. Sara had the Walkman in her pocket, brand new headphones around her neck as she looked around trying to figure out if anyone in that coffee shop could understand what she was going through.

She was listening to those tapes slower than she thought she would when she first heard his voice, all because she didn't want it to end.

A shadow came over her left shoulder, and Sara spun around to see who was lurking. To her surprise, Kendra was there.

"Still can't sneak up on you," she said, sighing dramatically, and Sara's face lit up.

"And you never will," Sara said proudly. Kendra mirrored her smile. "I didn't think I would see you in Star City!"

She got up and hugged her friend carefully, in order to not drop the other woman's beverage. It'd been almost two years since Kendra and Carter parted ways with the Legends, and Sara knew that they had a lot of catching up to do.

"I have… business here for a few days," Kendra said, all cryptic, and Sara frowned briefly. "What are you listening to?"

For a moment, Sara had forgotten about the headphones and the Walkman. She wondered how she looked to outsiders, all plain and wearing this oversized jacket.

"What?" she said automatically and then shook her head. "Oh, this. It's just… something I found in my sister's apartment."

Kendra looked sympathetically at her.

"How have you been hanging on?"

Sara shrugged.

"I'm… better, I guess," she said swallowing, her fingers on the Walkman unintentionally. She had so much to say, but it was still so early.

Sara looked up at Kendra again, realizing that she was letting the silence linger for a little too long.

"Sit down, do you have time?" she suggested glancing at Kendra's drink-to-go. The Hawkgirl made an apologetic face.

"I actually don't, but I'm in the city for a while! Let's do something, how about that?" Kendra suggested, and Sara nodded.

"Sounds good. Still got the same number?"

"Yes, I do," Kendra said nodding. "I will text you later, okay?"

"Okay," Sara said and smiled. She sighed happily. "It's so good to see you, K."

"It's good to see you too, Sara," she replied. Did Sara detect some relief in her friend's voice? "You take care, okay?"

Sara nodded.

"Always do," she replied, and after another quick hug, she watched her friend go.

Sara sat down again in front of her coffee and took the Walkman from her pocket. There was a Garfield sticker on the front that was almost completely faded. She had to rewind the tape, because all the while as she talked to Kendra, the tape was rolling, and it took her a while to find the spot she had stopped at.

can wait.

Silence followed for about fifteen seconds and then he was back.

Was that enough? Did you feel betrayed? I know Lisa did. I remember driving back home with an inconsolable sister in the passenger seat who just couldn't understand why – spoiler alert – the boy, that boy who did so much good in other people's lives, couldn't just live.

Remember what I told you, sis?

"Sometimes we don't live up to see the changes that we've set in motion," Lisa said to herself, her eyes filled with tears again. She hated that movie so fucking much.

Sometimes…

We don't live up to see the changes we've made.

And I'd say more: sometimes all we can focus on is the damage, because it's so loud, so noisy, so blatant. But if there's a lesson in Pay it Forward, it is that goodness and care and change are seeds, and they surface when you least expect.

Didn't I just prove it to you, with Cisco's tape? I'm telling you, that shit works.

Walk with me, now, ladies and gents, I have a point to get to.

Cassie, you must be wondering where you get into it. Hear me out here, won't you?

Wait. Was that another joke?

You know it was. I know every single one of you will hear me out loud and clear. How so? I just do, down to number 13.

So you all already watched the movie, and you all already know what happened, most of you, when we plucked little Cassie Savage out of her tight boxy world.

Usually, I'm the guy who doesn't give many shits to the surroundings when I'm in a job, but I think – hell, I'm certain – that it was that knowing stare of yours that dragged me in and set things in motion.

See, in part, I didn't want to care. You were Daddy's little girl, so deep in his bullshit… and we had just gone through so much trouble with that little fucker Per Degaton that for a moment there I was like, okay, she knows who we are, we have to adapt our plans and kill the bitch.

But on the other side, I am Lewis Snart's son. In a way, I knew you, too. Perhaps more than you thought you knew me.

In this same beaten down crappy ship I'm currently living in, I showed you the truth, because you needed a wake up call the way I needed that bank alarm to go off when I was fourteen. Both things – the one that happened to me and the one I did to you – were eye openers.

Don't you agree?

That after that the truth was just as blatant as the chaos? That the cause was so much more noisy than you thought? That there was so much more going on, and even so in our smallness we could be so loud.

Cassie, Cassie… you little Scandal. You took what I said and what I told you and turned it into a rumble.

I was so proud of you for that, still am. And when I saw you take action against your father, I thought… that perhaps I planted a seed.

Here's a chain for y'all:

A nerd called Cisco reminded Cold of his humanity, a seed watered by some other people waiting for their name to pop out (oh, yes, I'm gonna torture without telling you beforehand when it's your turn, because I'm evil). A crook called Cold saw a child corrupted by evil turn his back on what's right and when the opportunity came to face another kid that could screw the world over… he showed another side of things.

And that kid… decided to do what is right.

Look at you now, Cassie; you can bear fruits.

I don't know if I'll be able to see mine spread – damn, isn't it the point of these tapes after all? – but you might just… be. All you have to do is look closely.

Martin swallowed as a memory came through. Lily was real for a while now, but every now and then he had these warm new bits of experiences with her coming to him, like they had been dormant. He saw 11 years old Lilian Stein at dinner after a school trip to the movies chatting excitedly with clear wide eyes.

"I'm telling you dad, it could be as precise as our science. Doing good things for whoever is worthy."

So much wisdom in the little ones.

And maybe the twelve of you who were blessed with having to listen to yours truly again for a few hours might want to take the advice too, who knows?

How many chains twelve people can put in motion doing something nice – or maybe something right – to another three each?

Raymond, you do the math.