"Did you hear that?" Len asked, tilting his head to the side and listening intently. Sara put a card on the pile and smirked at him.
"Don't try to distract me." Len sighed and put all of his cards face-up on the bed.
"We need to find somewhere to hide." he simply stated, moving toward the door. He could tell that something was wrong. Normally, he would be going to find Mick, but, in this state, he was pretty much useless if there was danger. The only thing he could do right now was get Sara and find somewhere safe for the moment. Sara looked at him curiously.
"Why do we need to find somewhere to hide?" she asked.
"Alexa." was the only explanation Len gave, resting his ear against the door for a minute before pulling away and exiting the room.
~x~x~x~
From within the underbelly of the Waverider, Len and Sara were able to hear the trod of, what sounded like, dozens of boots. Sara stopped his movements when she heard Ray.
"Mick, what's going on?" There was a hesitation, the sound of weapons charging before an unknown voice could be heard.
"You're under arrest." Both Sara and Len waited until the steps retreated and no sounds could be heard before they spoke.
"Why are they arresting the team?" Sara whispered .
"No clue." Len responded, a grimace on his face. These ducts were cramped and Len was beginning to feel claustrophobic.
"Let's get out of here." he said after they had listened for a while and there were no more sounds coming from the ship. They made their way to a large opening that, Len knew, opened into Rip's office.
"How did you even know that was down there?" Sara asked, awed by Len's knowledge.
"When Rip first recruited us, I made it my business to case every square inch of this tub in the event there was something worth stealing. There wasn't." he hesitated for a moment. "Let's get out of here." Sara was taken aback. She was sure Len hadn't just suggested what she thought he suggested.
"Wait, what about the team?"
"There's nothing more we can do for them." Sara scoffed, eyes going wide. She couldn't believe they were even having this conversation.
"You're just gonna leave Mick?" Len grimaced and looked away from her.
"If the Time Masters are half as twisted as Mick said, there's an excellent chance Mick is no longer Mick." Len paused. "Besides, I'm eight months pregnant. It's not like I can do anything anyway." He sounded sad, resigned, as if there were more he wished he could do. Sara took a deep breath and set her shoulders.
"Sure you can. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that you don't always have to be the strongest or most capable to win a fight. All you need on your side is the element of surprise." She looked at him meaningfully. "Let's go." Before either of them could exit the bridge, the old phone in Rip's office began ringing. Len and Sara looked at each other in curiosity before the blonde walked over and answered.
"Hello."
"Hello, Ms. Lance." Sara looked shocked and turned wide eyes onto Len.
"Gideon, you're alive!" Len took a few steps into the office and continued staring at Sara and the phone.
"If by being "alive" you mean that my operating system is intact, yes, I was able to upload into the latency core to avoid being wiped out when the Time Masters-" Sara cut the AI off.
"We can share war stories later. Where is the rest of the team?"
"They're in cell block four-five-eight-seven, and they, too, are alive... for the moment."
"What do you mean "for the moment"?" Sara asked, Len's interest piquing at the change in her tone of voice.
~x~x~x~
"This is a bad plan." Len whispered as he and Sara made their way across the ship hangar they found themselves in. Sara was placing small devices on the underbelly of each ship as Len kept watch.
"It's Gideon's." Sara whispered back. Len sighed.
"You're not helping your argument." he shot back.
"We need to finish putting these on the ships and get back to the Waverider."
~x~x~x~
Len was laying in the door connecting the bridge to Rip's office, Sara sitting on the other side. He was nervous about this plan. He hoped it went off without a hitch. He was quite the pessimist, so he was counting on things going wrong, but, for the sake of Mick and their child, he wished to be wrong. All his nervous, pent-up energy was being released through tapping his pinky ring on the metal step below him.
"Can you stop doing that?" Sara ground out. "Why did you start wearing that thing, anyways?" she asked, genuinely curious.
"It's from the first job I ever pulled off with Mick. A Freeport warehouse." Sara cooed.
"Oh, you do have a sentimental side."
"It's not a keepsake." Len said firmly. "It's a reminder."
"Of what?" Len sat up as he started explaining then stood and slowly approached Sara.
"That even the best laid plans can go sideways. Spent a lot of time prepping for that heist. Casing the target. Memorizing shift changes and delivery schedules, and then, surprise! Turns out they'd upgraded their security system. We had to bolt. Three weeks of planning and all I have to show for it..." Len trailed off after his explanation.
"Was a lousy pinky ring." Sara grinned. "So sad." she fake-pouted.
"Considering I'm about to trade my life for nothing, I think I came out ahead."
"The Time Drive is back online." Gideon chirped, oblivious to the seriousness of the conversation they had been having. At least, Len thought the conversation was serious. He was filled with anxiety and dread. They both made their way to chairs, Sara the pilot's, and Len, one of the others.
"Strap in." Sara said.
"I hope this works." Len mumbled as they time-jumped. They were pleased when nobody followed them, Gideon's override having obviously worked. They jumped to the outside of the Time Master's complex, Sara dropping Len off in the designated area before she began firing where Gideon told her to.
~x~x~x~
Len held his breath as he listened to Druce and one of his minions talking. When it was time, he bolted around the corner, fired his cold gun at the minion, and used said gun to knock Druce out. Len turned to the cells where three pairs of wide eyes were regarding him with awe.
"Somebody order up a rescue?" Len asked in his smartass way. Stein was the first to recover from his surprise.
"Mr. Snart, your timing is impeccable." Ray, who caught a glimpse of something moving behind Len, furrowed his brows and frowned.
"Or not." Len whirled around and, charging his gun to fire as he went, aimed at the hulking form of Kronos. Lead dropped in the pit of Len's stomach at the sight of Mick back in that armor. Logically, he knew that this was the first thing the Time Masters were going to use him for, but his heart still ached. Was anything of his lover left this time?
"Put the gun down, Mick." he said, trying to sound strong and sure, but coming off as more worried. Mick, no, Kronos just stood, gun aimed at Len.
"Kronos, fire." ordered the Time Master that had accompanied the man to the room. Kronos raised his gun, as if to aim. Everything in Len hurt and ached at the moment. He wasn't worried about himself, but Mick and their baby. He wanted them both to live and both to be happy, with or without him. He knew, though, if Mick was responsible for killing them, he would hate himself for the rest of his life, if he ever snapped out of the whole Kronos thing again.
"Sure thing." came the mechanical-sounding voice. Len was startled when the man before him whipped around and fired and his Time Master companion. He removed his helmet and approached the man, who was attempting to crawl away. "If I recall, I made you a certain promise." As Len looked on, he felt the sudden urge to vomit at Mick's actions. He could no longer hold it in and promptly turned and did so. Mick, hearing Len retching behind him, turned from his handiwork and rushed to the other man. He rubbed his back for a moment, then went and released Stein, Rip, and Ray. When he came back to Len, the other man was standing straight up again, wiping the corner of his mouth on his jacket sleeve.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Mick had decided that now was the appropriate time to have this conversation.
"Saving your sorry ass." Len drawled. Mick growled.
"You shouldn't be here! You should have stayed on the Waverider!"
"I was going to!" Len snapped. "Sara seemed to think we could save the team. We did. Yay. Let's go home." he deadpanned.
~x~x~x~
Len walked onto the bridge after visiting Stein in the med bay and having himself looked at as well. Though the intensity of the earlier situation was over, Len still had and aching feeling in his stomach. Gideon had said everything checked out, though, so he wasn't worried...much.
"Professor's in the med bay. Promises not to blow up while he's on board, which I thought was considerate." Len announced. He took one good look around the room, and the grim faces, and wanted to know what he missed. Luckily, Rip answered him without him having to voice his concern.
"Yeah, the Professor's condition is the least of our worries, I'm afraid."
"Yeah, much to my chagrin, it turns out everything we've done, maybe even our whole lives, has been determined by the Time Masters." Ray put in.
"What?" Sara asked, uncrossing her legs.
"The Time Masters have this thing called the Oculus, which allows them not only to gaze into the future, but to engineer it." Rip began explaining. Beginning to feel overwhelmed, Len sat heavily in one of the chairs. Seeing his worn expression, Mick took the seat beside him and placed a large, comforting hand on Len's thigh.
"A future where I'm dead, apparently." Ray continued, oblivious to Len's exhaustion.
"And why would they want you dead?" Sara asked.
"Have you ever listened to what comes out of his mouth?" Mick questioned, incredulous.
"Now, in my opinion, Dr. Palmer's death is not part of their plan." Rip attempted to be hopeful. "No, that's not reassuring. Ow!" Ray yelled when Mick kicked him in the leg.
"You saying the Time Masters wanted me to do that?" he asked, his attempt at levity having the desired effect on Len, who was smirking. Rip sighed.
"What I'm saying is that they've been engineering our lives to move in very specific directions. And we are playing out that script even now." Sara stood and began pacing.
"So we can go to 2016, but that might be what the Time Masters want. Or we can go get Kendra and Carter-"
"Which could also be what they want." Len pitched in.
"Then we need to do what they don't want. If the Oculus is what they're using to control us, then we need to destroy it." Ray stated, attempting to figure everything out in that huge brain of his.
"But how do we do that if the Time Bastards are pulling our strings?" Len asked, getting agitated.
"Well, Druce told me that the Oculus' ability to control our actions doesn't work in the Vanishing Point, most likely because the Vanishing Point itself exists outside of time." Rip spoke up again.
"Explains why we were able to escape." Mick mumbled.
"And why we might actually have a shot at destroying this thing." Sara said. "I'm with Ray." she slapped him on the back.
"Ow."
"If I'm gonna be someone's puppet, I'm gonna be the one who cuts his own bloody strings." Rip spoke again.
"And I like blowing stuff up." Len smirked at Mick.
"We set out on this mission to stop Savage and save the world. To become legends and change our fates. That mission hasn't changed." Ray said, ever the optimist.
"This is madness." Len said, standing and approaching the console in the middle of the room with Mick. "I like it." Sara sent a smile his way.
"Gideon, plot a course to the Oculus Wellspring. Team... I think it's about time we seized our destinies back."