Disclaimer: I partially based this chapter on the Young Justice episode "War", hope you guys like it!
"I don't like this," Sara deadpanned early that morning as Len got out his goggles and his gun.
"Then tell me I can't go," He replied, Sara scoffed from her position in the doorway.
"You have to go, they need you." She said and he sighed, because she was right. This threat was very serious and if he didn't go, well, he would be resigning to do nothing as the threat of global annihilation hung over their heads. "What about Kendra and Carter?" Sara had to ask, and Len didn't want to answer because he had already asked Hunter and when he got the answer he had wanted to go find the two Meta bird-human hybrids or whatever the heck they are and knock some sense into them.
"Hunter tried, but unlike me those two apparently know how to say no." Leonard sighed, trying to keep the annoyed bite in his voice to a minimum. "I guess they're afraid that with Savage dead the whole reincarnation thing is over and if one of them dies they might actually stay that way." He finished, as he did he could practically feel Sara rolling her eyes behind him. Which made him smirk because at least now he knew she agreed with him.
Sure enough, when he turned around she was standing there looking annoyed with her arms crossed over her chest, an action that was becoming increasingly difficult for her. He walked over and stood in front of her, placing his hands on her waist before leaning over to kiss her. She reciprocated the kiss but only with minimal interest, he knew that he couldn't kiss away her worries this time but he figured that he might as well try.
"Just be careful," she instructed once he pulled away.
"Don't worry," he said but she didn't look like she felt any better. So it was with a gentle grip that he took hold of her chin and tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "I'll be home by tonight," he promised her and she nodded.
"Watch out for my sister," she requested,
"Of course," he agreed before pulling her in for one last kiss and then pulling away. "I love you."
"I love you too," Sara murmured back and with that Len headed out, hoping that he's right and tonight he would come heading back in.
"Oh, what are you doing here?" Leonard groaned when he reached the vacant lot that housed the Waverider and stepped on board, only to walk into the bridge and find Cisco Ramon geeking out over all the future tech.
"Mr. Allen thought that we could use an extra set of eyes monitoring everything." Rip explained, just as Raymond walked in already dressed in full A.T.O.M. suit and a huge smile illuminating his face.
"Snart! Good to see you!" He exclaimed, making his way to give the other man a handshake and for whatever reason Snart complied.
Also on the bridge and dressed ready for battle were Oliver, Laurel, Barry, and some other guy in a hood.
"I don't believe we've met, Leonard Snart." Len introduced himself to the mysterious man and approached him, mimicking Raymond's actions from two minutes ago and shaking his hand.
"Rex Tyler," The other man replied, before Len could've asked any questions on who he was or where the team found him the missing three members came in from the corridor.
"Hey Snart," Jax greeted as Mick went and clasped his old friend on the shoulder.
"It's good to see you," Stein chimed in,
Len just nodded, he wasn't very good at greetings.
"How's Sara doing?" Jax asked,
"Well she's not too thrilled with me being back here, but other than that she's fine." He answered and Jax nodded.
"Alright now that we've all had a chance to catch up let's strap in and go," Rip announced so most of the team took their places, all except for Len.
"I thought you said no time jumping?" He asked,
"I did, but I never said we were staying on the planet." He replied and although Len frowned he still took a seat, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into.
When the Waverider landed, or at least stopped moving, Len noticed that they were in outer space.
"Ok, what are we doing here?" He asked as they all disengaged from their seats and began gathering around the main computer console.
"As I explained to you yesterday Mr. Snart, we are here to stop an alien criminal known as Mongul from using the super weapon known as the War World to destroy the earth." Rip said,
"I know that, but what are we doing in outer space?" The former criminal specified and so Rip pointed out the front window at what, up until this point, everyone had assumed was the backside of the moon.
"That is the War World," he announced, leaving everyone in a stunned silence.
"Um… that, that's more than one weapon I'm guessing." Ray finally spluttered out and Rip only nodded in confirmation.
"Why do you think I recruited some extra help?" He asked rhetorically, not that Len could see how he was going to be very helpful against at giant mass of pure weaponry contained in a ship the size of the moon.
"The War World is an ancient yet devastatingly advanced planetary weapon, it was created by a civilization of barbaric aliens until they all died out. After that the key to it was hidden away by a much more peaceful society but unfortunately it was stolen by Mongul roughly two hundred years ago, he's a conqueror of worlds and when I say conqueror I mean destroyer." Rip quickly explained, the entire thing sounded like something out of a comic book in Len's opinion but yet somehow it's his reality.
"Now according to Gideon the War World is locked on to attack earth in exactly twelve hours, meaning we have eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes to stop it." He continued,
"So what's the plan?" Snart demanded, getting real bored of this stalling real quick.
"The plan, Mr. Snart, is for Dr. Palmer to shrink down when the patrol drones go out and land on one of them undetected. Once the drones go back in he'll be inside the War World and can disable the external security, once that's done we'll have roughly one minute to sneak in through a secret hatch on the side of the structure before Mongul can reactivate the security." Rip explained, however no one on his crew look entirely convinced of that plan.
"What about guards?" Len finally asked,
"No guards," Rip replied, "Lots of weapons, but no guards. Mongul is the only living being on the War World. He controls it from the control chair; it uses a neurological transmitter to allow the pilot to psychically control the entire ship." He explained,
"So Mongul can do anything he wants and no one's around to question him?" Ray asked and Rip nodded.
"There are three ways to shut down the War World; take out Mongul, take out the power core, or take out the key which activates it. The problem is that if we fail in the attempt at one we won't even stand a chance with the other two." He began explaining.
"So we don't fail," Barry interrupted as if it were that easy.
"Hopefully not, but all the same we can't afford to throw plans B and C out the window. Not to mention that Mongul is only one person and so can only focus on so many things at once." Rip continued,
"We're going to try them all at once," Ray said, putting together what Rip was implying and sure enough the Captain nodded.
"You'll be split up into three teams of three," he announced. "Dr. Palmer, Miss Lance, and Mr. Tyler will head to the power core and shut it down. Mr. Queen, Professor Stein, and Mr. Jackson will go and retrieve the key, and Mr. Rory, Mr. Snart, and Mr. Allen will head to the main deck after Mongul." He explained and Len couldn't help but roll his eyes at being paired with Barry, he was starting to think Rip had recruited him today just to torture him.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to send the thieves to steal the key?" Mick asked,
"Ordinarily yes," Rip replied, "But the key is kept inside of the nuclear force field, which only Firestorm can disable and make it out alive." He explained and when he realized there were no more questions he went on. "We have fifteen minutes until the drones come out." He declared and the group took that as their cue to set about their normal business. Stein, Cisco, and Ray started looking over Gideon's schematic's of the War World's internal structure, and while Leonard knew that he should do the same he instead found himself hanging in the back corner of the room alone. He wasn't alone for long however, Mick was quick to join him.
"How long's it been?" The hothead asked his supposedly cold-hearted former partner. "I tried to keep track but that ain't easy when you're traveling through time." He explained and Snart smirked at the notion, the subtle hint that his friend really does care.
"Five months, give or take a couple of days." He said and Mick grunted in response.
"She getting big?" He asked and at first Len just raised an eyebrow at him and his unintentionally insensitive question, thinking that something like that is none of Mick's damn business, but in the end he decided to just answer the question.
"Yeah, she's getting there." He said before cocking his head in the direction over to where Rex Tyler was talking to Rip.
"Whose the new guy?" He asked, sure he knew the man's name but he didn't know anything about him.
"Rex Tyler; says he's from the future and we're all going to die on this mission." Mick's low and graveling voice replied.
"Do you believe him?" Snart asked but Mick only shrugged.
"I knew what I was signing on for when I got back on this ship, how could I not with him on my heels and nagging in my ear?" He replied and although he tried not to show it, the idea made Len a little nervous. But he didn't have much time to dwell on it, because their fifteen minutes were up.
"Alright, with the external sensors temporarily disabled Mongul undoubtedly knows you're inside so-" Rip's voice in the comms was cut off by sudden and rapid laser fire coming from thousands of little blasters that had appeared on the walls, causing each member of the team to jump around as if the floor were on fire.
Finally, a loud and nearly deafening wail began resonating throughout the corridor until the blasters all shorted out and it stopped, letting anyone who didn't already know that it had originated from Laurel.
"Way to go Siren," Mick growled as he stalked towards Sara's sister, unaware that the nickname he'd just given her had briefly worried Barry. "You just broke our comms," He all but snarled,
"Um, no she didn't." Cisco's voice suddenly rang in all their ears, "I adjusted your comms this morning so they would be able to withstand the Canary Cry." He explained and so Mick, never being one to say sorry, continued to glare at Laurel with a warning look until he finally turned away to join his team for the day.
"Let's get going," He growled, beginning to head down the corridor that would ultimately lead to Mongul. The rest of the team looked around at each other, but decided to take Mick's cue and split their separate ways.
They hadn't been walking for even five minutes yet and already Len was contemplating why he had agreed to come. They weren't being attacked, yet, but he was stuck with Mick and Barry Allen as his partners for the assignment. Mick he could handle, they'd been partners for years, but Allen is a whole other story. Presently the three of them were walking in a thick and awkward silence until Barry, big surprise there, finally broke it.
"Why do you think more lasers haven't come out yet?" He asked and so Len glared at him, clearly making him nervous. "I'm just saying, what if the others are being attacked?" He asked,
"They're not," Mick growled in response, "Even if they are, they can handle it. But Mongul knows we're here, so he's not going to waste his ammo slowing us down. Instead he's going to wait until somebody get's close to their target, and then he'll unleash Armageddon on all of us." He theorized and briefly both Barry and Len were a little disturbed by the utter calmness Mick spoke with, as though this were the most casual conversation to have. "Let's keep moving," the arsonist encouraged, only adding to the morbid vibes he was giving off.
"Is he ok?" Barry finally asked once Mick had put a little distance between himself and his teammates, letting the two of them trail behind him.
"He's Mick, he hasn't been ok in a long time." Len answered, not really sure why he was indulging this conversation.
"What about you?" Barry inquired,
"What about me?" Len venomously asked, not that the harsh tone deterred Barry in the least.
"I don't know, I see Sara every day but I hardly see you." He shrugged,
"That's because Sara is a hero. I however, am not." He said,
"You're not a villain," Barry instead and Len just sighed, because the kid had him there. "Look Snart, I get that the whole hero thing isn't exactly your comfort zone, but you'll always have a place for you at S.T.A.R. Labs." He continued and Len so badly wanted to tell him stop talking like a sap, but Mick never gave him the chance.
"Cut the sappy talk girl scouts, we're here." He growled lowly, so he in a way said it for Len, but that's beside the point.
Less than twenty feet ahead of them the corridor transitioned into a large and mostly open room that looked like it was made entirely of glass with neon orange lines traveling in every direction as the controls of the War World, and at the helm was a large chair facing away from the three.
"Ah, someone here to stop me." A threatening and yet calm voice said as the chair pivoted around to reveal its captain.
Mongul was taller than any human and visibly stronger than most, his skin was yellow, cracked, and so rough it almost looked like it was made of rock. His eyes were a deep red color and he wore a simple purple suit with a silver headband that the three intruders just knew had to be the key to controlling the ship.
"Based on what I know about Earth, I doubt that you'll succeed." He said and Len snarled as he pulled his goggles into place,
"Let's find out." He said and with that he and Mick charged in, guns blazing, but not even a direct hit from either gun did anything to even faze Mongul.
While the two thief's opened fire on their enemy Barry saw that it wasn't working and so went speeding up to catch Mongul off guard, only for the enormous alien to catch him by the fabric of his suit.
"Hm, I didn't know earthlings possessed any interesting abilities, I suppose it would be a shame for me to kill you." He mused, holding Barry up by his chest.
"Does that mean you're not going to?" The scarlet speedster asked and Mongul chuckled darkly.
"I'm not that impressed," he mocked before harshly and forcefully throwing Barry into Len, sending them both flying back. "I've seen powers such as yours many times before," he continued as he stalked towards the tangled pile of limbs that was Barry and Leonard. "Sooner or later, they all fall." He announced, raising his fists for a devastating blow, before a familiar wail rang out from behind and caused him to grip the sides of his head and double over in pain.
Not wasting any time once Laurel was done, Barry sprung to his feet and began running circles around Mongul to suck away his oxygen. It didn't work of course, and the captain of the War World swatted him away like a fly.
"Nice try," He mocked as he rose to his feat, and as he did Oliver's voice came over the comms.
"We can't get through the force field around the key, either the power core or Mongul needs to be taken out!" He shouted into their ears.
"The power core has a failsafe similar to the Oculus, someone would need to stay!" Ray announced over the link.
"And considering Ray had to shrink in order to reach the core, I don't think Len could just freeze his hand there." Laurel put in, she had heard all about the Oculus from Sara while she was recovering from the prison riot.
"Then we blow this ship," Mick said darkly and before anyone could stop or even question him he fired his gun at Mongul's head.
The fire from the weapon clashed against the headband that controls the ship, heating it to the point where Mongul had no choice but to rip it off. Mick grabbed it without hesitation, trying and nearly failing to ignore the searing pain that wearing it caused. He then all but dove into the captain's chair and before Mongul could stop him Mick used the power now at his disposal to electrocute the alien into unconsciousness.
"Now what?" Barry asked, looking down at their unconscious enemy, "We can't leave a ship like this for someone to find." He exclaimed,
"I know," Mick growled before looking over his shoulder at the group. "Get back to the ship!" He ordered,
"What?" Rex asked,
"I said get back to the Waverider," Mick repeated, everyone knew his plan, but none wanted to admit it.
"What's going on?" Jax's voice demanded over the comms but he went ignored by the others.
"Rip, PLEASE tell me there's another way." Len all but begged, he could NOT lose his best friend, not again.
There was an agonizingly long beat of silence over the link, neither Rip nor Cisco said anything, and then…
"I'm sorry Mr. Snart, at this point there is no other way." The captain confirmed and just as he did Mongul started to stir; they didn't have a lot of time.
"Go," Mick ordered firmly and this time, finally, the others listened; all except for Snart.
"Mick," he started to say, his eyes already misting over when his friend locked with them. He wanted so badly to pull Mick out of that chair, to take his place, but he couldn't. He can't leave Sara, and he especially can't leave their child. But he also can't go on without Mick, he may be the brain of their operation and the one who keeps the hothead in check but honestly he doesn't know how to survive without the man who may as well be his brother.
"Tell your kid that Uncle Mick went out a hero," he requested and despite not wanting to Snart nodded, and then he hightailed it out of there.
Back on the ship it was mostly quiet, solemn. Tyler was muttering something about the timeline to himself, something about a chain of events being set into motion; Len didn't really pay attention. Ray looked the most broken up out of all of them, save for Leonard himself, and he kept saying that it should've been him. Rip dropped Len and Barry off in Central City, and after Barry awkwardly excused himself to go home Len contemplated going out for a drink and drowning his misery. But he knew Sara would be waiting up for him, and given her current situation it isn't like he can bring her along with him to toast to their friend and then start a bar fight. Besides, something about going home to her after a day like today was somehow more appealing than sitting alone in a bar getting wasted. So he walked the dark streets of Central City all the way back to his apartment and made his way inside, being careful to go in quietly in case Sara was sleeping. He toed his boots off by the door and headed for the bedroom, stopping once he reached the doorway.
Sara was sitting up in bed, the little lap by her bedside turned on to give her more light as she scrolled through something on the iPad. She looked up when he entered, and based on the sudden look of worry that overtook her face he figured that he must look like hell.
"What happened," She demanded seriously, her words broke him.
He dropped his gun and all but ran to the bed, crawling into his place beside her and wrapping her in his arm as she did the same to him. He laid his head on her chest and began to let the tears fall free, leaving Sara utterly scared and confused. He was thankful when she didn't press him for any information; instead she took to rubbing his back with one hand while pressing a kiss to the top of his head. She used her other hand to rub small and comforting circles on his temple with her thumb. They stayed like this for a solid ten minutes or so before Leonard's breath finally evened out and he was as close to calm as he was going to get for the night. He could feel the tenseness in Sara's body as she comforted him, she still wanted to know what had done this to him and he knew that she had the right. So he took a few deep breaths before sitting up and giving her a kiss on the cheek as he did so, and then he began his tale.
"I'm sorry," she said once he was done, there were tears in her own eye by now. "Isn't there any way to get him back?" She asked but Len sighed and didn't move from the position against her that he had taken upon first crawling into bed.
"Only if we want the world to die, or Raymond in his place." He admitted and Sara said nothing, instead she just bent her head down and kissed him on the head.
He still had his head on her chest and one arm draped lightly over her stomach, his fingers now drawing little circle on it.
"Uncle Mick died a hero kid," He said before pressing a gentle kiss to the bump, maybe if this were any other situation he would've felt stupid for talking to the baby through Sara's belly as if it could hear him, despite that some people say that it probably could. Maybe if this were any other situation Sara would've smiled and teased him. Maybe if this were any other situation, but it wasn't.
"It started kicking today," Sara muttered after a quiet minute, this prompted Len to look up at her and then turn back to the invisible patterns he was drawing.
"Figures, the one day I go off to outer space." He mused ad he felt Sara raise her eyebrow at him, which got him to laugh. It wasn't much, but it was just a little bit of normal, and they both needed it after tonight.
"Rip's doing a memorial for Mick tomorrow, we're going to have to bury an empty casket though." The news sent a twinge of pain through Sara's heart, and she knew it did the same to Len's.
"I have an appointment tomorrow-"
"Don't cancel," He insisted, already knowing what she was about to suggest. "Better to-"
"Len," it was her who cut him off this time. "Mick was my friend too, and I'm sorry but I don't think I can rush from a doctors appointment to his funeral." She told him and so he nodded, then it was quiet again. "I know we haven't talked about names yet, but if it's a boy, we could name it after Mick." She suggested and Len sighed.
"Mick wasn't a guy who would've wanted his name to be carried on, but middle name I think would get by… I don't know, pick this up later?" He asked, he was still processing everything that had happened and as sweet as Sara's idea was he didn't want to think about naming his child in honor of Mick yet, it made his death feel too real too soon.
Sara nodded in understanding of his request, right now wasn't time for this conversation, right now was the time to go to sleep and hope that when morning came Len's entire mission could've been nothing but a dream.