The plan was simple.
The prison may not have any cameras but it's for that exact reason that the hallways are built to let sound echo off the walls, to assist the guards in listening for any sounds out of the ordinary. So when they heard the sounds of various voices screaming as loudly as they could down in the holding room they immediately made their way for the room.
The two guards that reported were greeted by the sight of their five male prisoner's pounding on the barriers to their cells and screaming for help, while the one female wasn't immediately in sight. The shouting only continued for a few seconds after the guards entered, and when it stopped they were finally able to hear the sound of someone crying coming from the woman's cell. One of the guards approached it and looked inside; only to see the woman kneeling on the floor, hunched over with her arms crossed tightly over her stomach and face contorted in pain.
Rip looked at the other guard, his mouth open and closing a few times as if he didn't really feel comfortable talking about this.
"As Druce as undoubtedly seen," he finally began, "Miss Lance conceived a child over the course of our mission and experienced what The Waverider's artificial intelligence unit diagnosed as simply vaginal bleeding just yesterday, but for the past hour or so she said she has been experiencing stomach pains and… well… we believe she might be miscarrying." He explained and just as he finished Sara let out a pained cry. The guard didn't do anything at first; he was debating on what should be done in the situation. "Please," Rip said in a begging tone, finally the guard nodded to his partner.
The guard by Sara's cell opened her door before reaching down and grabbing her not so gently by the arm, yanking her harshly up to her feet. She stumbled along with him and continued to do so as his partner came for her other arm, still sobbing all the time. The dragged her halfway across the room before one of her feet finally made a solid step, and she pushed off her toes to roundhouse kick the first guard into unconsciousness. Realizing that they'd been tricked, the remaining guard moved to call for back up but the now free assassin was quick to smash his communicator before engaging him a battle of hand-to-hand combat. He lasted longer than the first guard, if only by a few seconds.
"I am never," Sara said as she wiped her eyes and caught her breath from crying, "doing that again." She deadpanned, walking over to look at the cells but quickly realizing there were no outwardly locks or scanners or anything. "Ok, how do get you guys out of here?"
"You don't," A voice answered her from behind; she turned to see Time Master Declan emerging from the shadows with Chronos.
"They've… They've brainwashed him again." Stein stuttered as they all stared in shock at the bounty hunter before them, his gun aimed right at Sara.
"We were going to keep you alive," Declan began, "Allow you to spend eternity trapped where time doesn't move, let the lonely days slowly drive you mad. But you've made it clear that you would rather die so… Chronos, shoot." He spat the order like Mick was a dog, and that made Snart's teeth grind together almost as much as the sight of his best friend with a gun aimed at Sara.
"Sure thing," Chronos replied, and without warning the bulky man dressed in even bulkier armor turned on his heel and shot Declan.
The others watched in stunned amazement as Mick removed his helmet and slowly stomped over to where Declan lay in paralysis.
"If I remember correctly, I made you a promise." Mick growled,
"Please, don't." Declan begged but Mick raised his cleat-like boot and stomped down on the Time Master's back until his foot went all the way through and squashed his heart.
Everyone still had their eyes glued to him in shock as he raised his head and looked over at Sara, tossing her one of his hard metal gloves.
"There's a trigger on the right side, you need that to undo it." He instructed her before he set to work on Jax, Ray, and Rip's cells while she handled Len and Stein's.
After they escaped the vanishing point and found their way back to the time stream they all realized that their next move could very well be the doing of the Time Masters, so long as they don't return to the vanishing point. The Oculus doesn't work inside of the vanishing point; their escape was most likely proof of that. So the new plan became to forget about Savage for the time being and instead go and return free will to the world, by destroying the Oculus. It was after that plan was decided and Rip was working on a strategy while the Waverider put some distance between them and the Vanishing Point before it would turn back around and reenter closer to the Oculus wellspring that Len showed up in Sara's open door with his deck of cards.
"Not in the mood," she told him bluntly. She was currently lying on her back with her hands resting comfortably on her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling.
"You're a master assassin and I'm a master criminal, now I don't know about you but I can't think of one good reason why the Time Master's would put it in their little script for us to have a child together." He mused while inviting himself inside.
"Sounds like a plan for disaster," Sara agreed before sitting up against her wall. "But, we were in a pocket dimension of the temporal zone when we made the kid, so maybe it wasn't part of their plan after all." She mused and Len hummed in thought as he leaned against the side of her bed.
"I hope not," he admitted, absentmindedly shuffling the cards. "I've always prided myself on being the guy who doesn't play by the rules, but come to find out, I'm the one being played." He mused and Sara frowned,
"I don't know, I still feel responsible for everything I've done, and it still keeps me up at night." She admitted,
"It's the things I didn't do that keep me up at night," Len countered and Sara found herself laughing.
"Really?" She asked, "Because I can think of one thing you did do that should be keeping you up." She teased and he smirked in amusement.
"Give it a few months and I'm sure it will be," he mused before tilting his head back to look at her. "My vote still hasn't changed," he informed her and she smiled.
"Mine either," she replied and so Len took that as his cue to join her in sitting on the bed.
"So… we're having a baby together." He mused and Sara hummed in agreement.
"We are," she said before turning her head to meet his gaze, "What do you want to do?" She asked,
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I don't really want to go through that whole mess of joint custody agreements and who knows what else if we don't have to." She confessed and he took a minute to process what she had just said, what she had really said.
"You want to try and be a family," He stated the fact more than he asked about it, and she shrugged in response.
"I'm not saying we should get married, I don't exactly want to be a pregnant bride anyway, but maybe we could just try being together?" She asked and he smirked,
"And here I thought I was going to have to beg you to give that a chance," he said and Sara found herself smiling at him before he leaned over and gave her a kiss.
She kissed him back eagerly, moving one hand up to cup his jaw as he did the same to her. The kiss was short, and nowhere near as passionate as the night that had landed them in this predicament in the first place, but it was far more loving. That night had been about forgetting and losing each other to their activities. This, even though it was just a kiss, conveyed a promise. No matter what happened, no matter if this whole being together thing worked out or not, they were never going to leave each other. They would always be there for each other and for their child; neither of them was going anywhere.
"I am sorry to interrupt," Gideon's voice rang just as the two broke apart for some air, "But Captain Hunter wishes for me to inform you that we have arrived at the Oculus wellspring and asks that you both report to the cargo bay immediately." She said,
"Finish this later crook?" Sara asked just as Len slid off her bed with a smirk.
"Sounds good assassin."
Once in the cargo bay and prepared for the battle ahead they did a quick recap of the plan.
"Dr. Palmer will deactivate the core containing the scaled down supernova which powers the Oculus, which should result in an a very big explosion." Rip concluded the brief run through.
"Sounds simple," Snart said skeptically, knowing full well that things with this team are never simple.
"Yes well, don't forget there is probably going to be an infinite number of guards shooting at us." The captain added and then, as if to prove his point, the ships power went down without a word from Gideon and the red emergency lights went on. "Doctor Palmer?" Rip asked with a sigh and Ray nodded, knowing that was his cue to shrink down. "Here we go," Rip muttered once Ray was no longer visible, and with that he opened the hanger door.
Stepping outside all seemed quiet; like the Time Masters might not even know they're there.
"So how far do you think we'll get before your friends decide to come out and play?" Sara questioned as they walked across the structure that wasn't unlike some kind of park.
"Hopefully at least halfway to the wellspring," Rip answered her, "If we're lucky," he added a moment later. It was in that moment, however, that Druce and his pals rounded the corner with their blasters aimed right at the group.
"Hello Rip," Druce greeted, "Right on time." He mocked just to watch the snarl on Rip's face before he turned to his minions. "Kill them," he ordered.
The guards aimed their guns on the group and more came out doing the same from behind. Each member of the team looked to each other questioningly. They had prepared for an onslaught attack, not to be cornered and slowly threatened in a position where at least the first shot from a guard was practically guaranteed to make it's target. Then, suddenly, there was a blast; and Druce fell.
Everyone, the team and the guards, whipped their heads to look at the guard who had shot Druce in shock. But the treacherous guard didn't stare back at them; instead he simply turned and started firing on his fellow guards. Picking up their mystery savior's example Len and Mick started blasting away while Firestorm merged and began their own assault from the air. Sara took on guards with her staff while Rip charged off towards the Oculus where a tiny Ray should already be working, most likely with guards already on him.
"Mr. Rory, come help me cover Dr. Palmer!" The captain called over his shoulder and surprisingly enough, Mick listened.
The others stayed where they were and fought until the only guard left standing was the one who was inexplicably on their side.
"Gray says we should follow Rip, reinforcements will be going to the wellspring." Jax informed the group as he landed but didn't unmerge with his partner, knowing that the battle is still far from over.
"First things first," Len snarled before turning on his heel to face the guard who had helped them. "Who are you?" He demanded and in response the guard raised his hands and removed his helmet.
"Carter?" Sara asked when she saw the face of their friend.
"Savage ordered I be killed, unfortunately for him he didn't stick around to do it himself and I've been executed more than enough times to know how to fight my way out." He explained and just then more guards showed up.
Without another word the team began taking on their fresh batch of attackers, and at every free chance he got Leonard found himself glancing over at Sara. Eventually he ended up fighting his way over to her, not that she needed the help from him, and Rip finally came racing out of the building that housed the Oculus.
"We need to get out of here!" He exclaimed, skidding to a stop next to Leonard and Sara.
"Where are Raymond and Mick?" Snart demanded,
"Ray is in my pocket and Mick has elected to stay," Rip confessed, already dreading the other criminal's response to the news.
"Why?" Len demanded without missing a beat, somehow not surprised that they were being expected to leave someone behind.
"Someone needs to be present to destroy the Oculus, Mick has elected himself." Rip explained and without another word Len took off towards the building, despite protests from both Rip and Jax.
Sara, having heard the entire conversation, went running right on Snart's heels and followed him.
Inside the building the two of them spotted Mick standing on a rather large platform, the wellspring, smack dab in the center of the room with one arm inside some type of machine and the other extended out with his gun as he fired at any guards coming towards him. As the two of them approached Sara was quick to grab a blaster off of a fallen guard and start shooting while nodding to Leonard to go do what he needs to do.
"Mick!" Snart called as he stepped up on the platform,
"Get out of here!" Mick ordered with barely a glance over his shoulder.
Len froze an oncoming guard, "Not without you Mick!"
"Pretty boy says someone needs to hold this stick down, so I'm holding this stick! Now leave!" The pyromaniac snarled and Len sighed, he really didn't want to have to do this.
"My old friend, please forgive me." He requested,
"For what?" Mick asked but he got his answer when Snart brought up his gun and fired it on his hand.
Mick howled out in pain, gaining Sara's attention and she quickly joined the two on the platform.
"What are you doing?" She demanded of Snart just as he finished, making sure that the controls of the failsafe were frozen well enough that there was no chance it would disengage.
"I need you to break his wrist!" He ordered Sara as he moved to stand behind Mick and catch him when he stumbled backwards with pain.
"What?" Mick demanded as Sara nodded and took hold of his arm and held half of her collapsed staff in front of his face.
"You're going to want to bite down on this," she warned him and despite the wildly confused look in his eyes he took the rod in his mouth. "Ok, on three. One, two, three!" Just as she said the final number she twisted and pushed him arm at an angle that separated it from his frozen hand.
Mick bit down harshly on her staff and grunted in pain as he fell back blindly and found himself slung over Snart's shoulder before he eve knew what happened.
To be honest, Rip didn't think any of the three were going to make it back to the Waverider in time. So when Sara and Leonard came into sight with Mick slung over Mr. Snart's shoulder has he ran, well Rip didn't know whether to be elated or terrified.
"Don't worry, bombs still going off." Sara informed him as she sped onto the ship,
"So we better get moving!" Snart all but growled as he raced past the two still standing in the cargo hold.
"Right, Gideon get us out of here!" Rip ordered as the hanger door closed and he raced off to the bridge, still wondering how the heck the Oculus was still going to detonate.
"You're an idiot," Mick deadpanned from Snart's open doorway a few hours later. He had gotten a new hand courtesy of Gideon but considering Rip's family had already been murdered, Kendra is currently lost to history with Savage and is probably dead by now, and the timeline has been destroyed leaving them no way of finding Savage, the new hand was pretty much all the progress they had made.
"For knocking up an assassin or for letting her follow me into a bomb room?" Snart asked as his partner stepped inside and took a seat on the desk chair.
"Both," he replied, "But I meant for going in after me."
"I'm not leaving you behind again Mick, I already made that mistake once." Snart said,
"And while appreciate your concern, and am thankful to be alive, you could've died in there." Mick said
"What's your point?"
"My point is," The arsonist began with a serious expression, "That things have changed, it's not just you and me against the world anymore. You've got a family now. If I die, I'm sure you'll miss me, but that'd be extent of the effect on people. If you die… well then you're damning a kid to never know it's father and Sara to raise it all alone when you and I both know she's not so sure she could handle that." He lectured,
"You and I also both know that she's wrong," Len said, avoiding the request Mick was trying to ask of him as much as possible.
"Does it matter?" The other man asked, "I don't know what's going to happen to any of us once this mission is over, but if it ever comes down to something like what happened today again, don't bother with me unless you KNOW you can get out too." He requested and at first his friend wouldn't meet his eyes, mostly because he knew he was right.
"When did things get so complicated Mick?" He finally asked and Mick smirked.
"When you decided you had feelings for Lance," he replied.
"Don't know if you heard her wrong, but I knocked her up during the night at the service station, AFTER you became Chronos." Snart reminded his friend.
"Oh I heard her, but I became Chronos because you guys ditched me after I sold you out to the pirates. I sold you out to the pirates because you dragged me out of 2046, and you dragged me out of 2046 because Wilson was hunting Sara." Mick listed and now Len finally flicked his eyes up at him. "What? You think I seriously believed you were worried about Rip?" He questioned with a teasing expression and Len sighed in annoyance.
"You're smarter than people think Mick," he finally said and Mick chuckled as he got up to leave.
"Yup," He agreed and with that he left the room, leaving Snart to chuckle smile silently to himself. He was just glad that when it counted everything more or less finally managed to go according to plan.