The votes are in for the 2016 Captain Canary Awards. Sadly, I didn't win anything, but the fact that I was nominated at all - three times, no less! - feels great. Thanks to everyone who voted for me, anyway!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Legends of Tomorrow. All dialogue in the dream (besides the obvious alterations) is from Flash S2E1 'The Man Who Saved Central City'. The name Stacie Jackson comes from Stacie Greenwell, the actress who played Jax's mom in the 'River of Time' flashbacks.

WORD COUNT: 1509

"Sometimes the hardest part isn't letting go, but rather learning to start over." – Nicole Sobon

Friday, May 15th, 2015

It's working. Martin can see the swirling mass of black clouds and debris cease to grow. It isn't stopping yet, but it is still stabilising.

"Brilliant!" he cries, "He's contained the Singularity by adding to its angular momentum!"

"Barry, it's stabilizing!" Cisco fairly yells into his cell phone, "Keep doing what you're doing!" He pauses as Barry says something – Martin can't quite hear.

"Now what?" Joe asks loudly, to be heard over the roaring wind and the terrified screams.

"We have to merge the inner and outer event horizons," Martin concludes.

"How do we do that?" Ronald asks.

That is the difficult part. "By separating in the eye of it." Though he's still looking at the Singularity, he's aware of Ronald's shock, and that the others must be looking at him with the same emotion. "The amount of energy from the fissure should do the trick!" He looks back, and sees that Caitlin isn't just shocked – she's horrified. God only knows Clarissa would be as well if she knew what they are about to do. Martin can feel Ronald's fear creeping over their psychic link; in fact, some of it may be his own. He's well aware of how dangerous it will be. But if they stand by and do nothing, then Barry will eventually tire out, and the Singularity will resume its expansion, consuming the entire planet and everything – and everyone – on it. "It's our only hope, Ronald."

"Ronnie, no," Caitlin protests, "It's too dangerous. What if you can't escape the inrush?"

But Martin can feel Ronald coming to a decision, his determination to at least make the attempt. "Cait, we have to try." He kisses his wife, love and desperation flooding over. Martin wishes Clarissa were here, so that they could do the same. Then his young partner steps away, and the two merge into Firestorm and fly into the vortex.

As they enter, they can see Barry running in a circle along the plethora of debris, already beginning to tire. He looks up at them, and seems to realise what they are planning to do. "No!" he shouts desperately.

But it has to be done. As one, Ronald and Martin hit the Quantum Splicer, separating in the eye of the temporal storm.

Martin sees his partner as they are forced apart. But instead of Ronald, he sees a different face. Younger, with darker skin and shorter hair. Practically still a child.

And then Martin is falling, falling, with no way to stop, and the feeling that something is wrong, very wrong. A pair of arms seizes him around the middle, before jerking him in a new direction and then suddenly coming to a halt. Martin feels his head resting on concrete and the warmth of another body beside him. Hears their laboured breathing.

But it's what he doesn't feel that quickly gathers all of his attention. Something is missing. And then he realises it. Jefferson is missing. He's gotten so used to the younger man's presence in his mind or alongside it, that its absence is like a knife to the heart. How could he be gone? Has their link somehow been severed?

A hand rests on his shoulder, and Martin opens his eyes and looks up to see Barry crouched down beside him. No one else is there.

"Jefferson?" he asks. Where is Jefferson? But the look in Barry's eyes says that it's far worse than their link simply being severed. And the young speedster shakes his head. Jefferson is gone. Really gone. "Jefferson…"

Barry stands as the rest of their team, minus the already-deceased Edward, approaches them. Det. West pats Barry on the arm before coming to check on Martin. Iris and Stacie Jackson stop, stricken, when they realise who is missing. Mrs. Jackson looks around, bewildered, not wanting it to be true. Barry puts a hand on her shoulder, telling her he's sorry, and then holds the newly-childless woman as she sobs into his shoulder.

Sunday, October 19th, 1975, 10:33pm

NIGHT THREE ON THE WAVERIDER

Martin couldn't say this was the first time that he had dreamed of young Ronald's death, not by a long shot, but this was the first time that it had unfolded in such a way. Seeing Jefferson in Ronald's place was new, not that the fear hadn't been present before. In truth, it had been there the moment he was told he would need a new Firestorm partner in order to survive. Not just the fear for his own life, but the fear that he might lose someone else.

He and Ronald had become quite close during their training in Pittsburgh. Aside from his infuriating stubbornness and his contagious addiction to pizza, the younger man had been quite intelligent for his age, and admirable in his readiness to risk his life for others, especially the one he loved. Being the one to marry Ronald and Caitlin together had been one of the proudest moments in Martin's life.

Martin wasn't certain how much of the loss he felt was the emptiness on the other end of their connection as Firestorm, and how much was genuine grief for the death of such a promising young man, of his friend. But it had hurt, in ways words could not describe. To open himself up to such pain again had been tremendously difficult, but the alternative had promised to be even worse.

But tonight… Tonight, Jefferson had gone charging into a fight without him, with only the two malcontents who'd practically kidnapped him in the first place to back him up (Jefferson had insisted that he'd willingly gone with Mr. Snart and Mr. Rory on their little expedition, but Martin didn't quite trust anything when it came to their resident thieves). And yes, he'd come out of the battle unharmed, but he had still been taking a tremendous risk, going into a fight without his Firestorm powers. Without them, Jefferson was just an ordinary, albeit kind and courageous, twenty-year-old mechanic with a bad knee, and the whole world to his widowed mother. He had no special armour or weapons like Raymond or the 'Rogues', no assassin training like Ms. Lance.

The boy could have been killed, tonight, and the last thing Martin wanted to do was to tell someone else that their loved one was never coming back to them. He'd selfishly brought Jefferson along on this adventure against his will, so if the boy died, it would all be his fault. At least Ronald's sacrifice and death had been his own choice, the circumstances leading up to it mostly beyond their control.

A knock on his door startled Martin out of his thoughts. "C-Come in," he responded. The door swished open, to reveal his anxious-looking partner. "Jefferson? Is everything alright?"

"You tell me," Jefferson replied, "You're the one who woke me up."

"How? I'd think these walls would be thick enough to- Oh. Right. Our psychic link."

While the link, thankfully, did not force them to share dreams when separated, it had a few times before woken one of them up when one had a nightmare (usually Martin, though Jefferson had more than his pride would let him admit, thanks to those horror movies he loved so much). It was disconcerting, but better than when he and Ronald had spent that year forced together – sometimes Martin would dream of home and Clarissa, sometimes he'd find himself dreaming of the pretty, young brunette that he later learned to be Caitlin Snow. Martin hadn't been able to completely understand why this woman that he'd never met would take Clarissa's place in his mind, before he began to comprehend the fact that it was actually another mind that had been bonded to his.

He turned back to Jefferson. "It's fine, Jefferson, just…" He sighed. "Try to be more careful next time?" He could feel Jefferson's confusion, so he continued before the boy could ask. "Tonight, you went into battle with no powers, and I know you did well and weren't hurt, but next time, just please, try not to take such risks."

Jefferson was annoyed, clearly, by Martin's efforts to convince him to be careful. Like a child who found his parents' safety rules to be tiresome. "I promise," he said dully, nodding and walking away, shutting the door behind him.

Martin sighed. Jefferson was still young, still so sure that he wouldn't die so soon in life. It was Martin's responsibility to make sure Jefferson was kept safe. He couldn't let the boy and his mother down.

Not like he'd let down Ronald and Caitlin.

So yeah, this basically leads into the conflict between Jax and Stein in 'White Knights'. Next week will be Ray's chapter.