Chapter Text
Ava took a reluctant step backwards, a bashful smile licked to her reddened lips and a subtle warm blush remained tinting the apples of her cheeks. “You’re right. Slowing down is probable for the best,” she acknowledged, “plus, we still have so much more to discuss,” she added turning to stand beside the smaller blonde, the closeness still there leaving no space between them as she did so.
Sara nodded in agreement, knowing they both had yet to talk about the fallout of Ava saving her from her Mallus. “Ava, did something happen to the timeline when you pulled me from that other world dimension?” she questioned, her voice determined despite her racing heart edged on by a fear of possibly knowing what should have been. They just couldn’t keep continuing to avoid it, especially not as the two continued to grow closer. Sadly, it was a double edged sword, Sara realised that the moment she witnessed a flash of shame and guilt registering on the Agent’s features.
“Sara, it’s a really complic…”, Ava began, her words quickly cut off by Gideon.
“Sorry to interrupt you, both. But we are currently being tracked by the Time Bureau ship, I have received a message from Director Bennett demanding Agent Sharpe return to the Bureau immediately and no further action will be taken,” Gideon explained, Sara walked out onto the bridge scanning the incoming information in the central console, Ava followed close behind.
“What do we do now?” Ava uttered, looking to Sara for answers.
“I think I have an idea that should buy us some time, do you trust me?” Sara paced around the computer, tapping wildly and scanning through the information Gideon was feeding her, via the numerous screens. Ava nodded in understanding, her lips curling up into a trusting smile, fascinated as she watched Sara flourish in full on captain mode. “Gideon, can you call the team to the bridge, please?” Sara commanded, “Ava, can you make yourself look like you’ve just got into a nasty scrap with Mick,” she added, not a second later. Ava remained silent, her eyes revealing her overwhelming sense of confusion. “It will all make sense in a minute, I promise.”
“You called, Cap?” Nate spoke bouncing on his heels excitedly, the team quickly gathered around the computer system. “Oh hey, Agent Sharpe… you’ve returned,”
“No time for pleasantries, Nate, but yes, Agent Sharpe is going to be staying with us for a little while longer. Unfortunately, as a result, we’re currently being pursued by the Bureau’s timeship”. Sara turned to face the rest of the team “Zari, I need you to hack into the ship’s computer system and hide our location, you know something along the lines of using a proxy server to conceal an IP address,” The Captain explained as best she could, given her limited hacking knowledge.
“Why can’t you just use Gideon?” Ray questioned.
“The Bureau have all of Gideon’s programme details and frankly everything they would ever need to override her systems if Gideon were to conceal or interfere with the Waverider. I’m surprised they haven’t attempted to do so yet. I mean that would have been my first move, the Waverider wouldn’t stand a chance,” Ava interjected, momentarily forgetting she wasn’t on the Bureau’s side this time round. “Right sorry, I’m still adjusting, okay? Anyway, if the concealment comes through an outside source or a hacker, aka Zari, and if she’s good enough, the Time Bureau won’t be able to track us,” Ava added, hoping this time her response was more Legend friendly
“Good enough? That’s a joke, right?” Zari scoffed loudly, eyeing the Agent sceptically, as she took a bite out of a donut. “If you need proof, go ahead get Gideon to look up my credentials, Agent Sharpe… oh no wait sorry, you can’t, because I’ve already wiped every piece of incriminating information relating to me from all of history. Records will show of my incarceration, but that was for being a practicing Muslim in 2042, nothing linking me to my hacking career,” Zari challenged.
“Fine, I apologise. You are more than good enough, Miss Tomaz. Sara’s plan is sounding pretty solid so far,” Ava added.
“Sara, huh?” Amaya smirked, nudging the Captain. Sara shooting her a warning ‘not now’ glare.
“We’re going to convince Bennett we’re holding Ava against her will,” Sara explained, "at least that way it should make it somewhat easier to convince them to give her back her job, when this whole thing is worked out".
“You should have Gideon knock me out, make it look like one of your guys punched me or something? Then you can put me into the Brig,” Ava suggested.
“Wait, are you sure? I was just going to make it look like you put up a decent fight, not have you be unconscious. It might trigger... you know,” Sara interjected, her brows furrowed as she examined the other woman.
“Do it, anyway. Director Bennett knows me well enough to know I wouldn’t give up without a proper fight. Perhaps, I’m making a stupid and rash decision, but I trust you guys to make it look believable,” the Agent shrugged with an air of nonchalance, “I mean you guys can do that without me having to feel any pain, right?” she laughed nervously this time, her eyes scanning the room.
The plan was successful, successful in a specifically ‘Legends’ kind of way. The Time Bureau not only had an active APB out on Agent Sharpe but it was now also extended to each of the Legends too. Unfortunately, as well as that, Ava took a knock to her shoulder when she and Sara pretended to fight each other in order to further convince the director, when he called their bluff. Agent Sharpe had lost her footing when she went to punch Sara, which the captain had dodged easily, but unfortunately, resulted in her falling shoulder first into a wall. Gideon was quick to knock her out so she wouldn’t feel the searing pain and Mick was quick to carry her off to the brig. His actions surprisingly careful, but that may have been down to Leo’s assistance. Gideon however, was under strict instruction that she was to wake the Agent up if a single bad memory entered her mind, even if Bennett was still active on the transmission.
They were successful in holding off the director, who in a fury ended the call. Zari’s hacking was working successfully, everything eventually falling into place once they had lost the Time Bureau’s ship.
Now, everyone was pretty much taking the rest of the day to relax. Sara leaving her team to go off and do their own thing for the evening, while she took up station in her office. Her mind at ease for the first time in about four days at this rate. She knew the situation they were in was far from ideal but for right now, it was refreshing to know everyone was safe. She kicked her boots up on the desk, leaning back in her office chair, allowing herself the moment to just enjoy the silence.
“Hey…” Ava spoke softly as she entered the office a few moments later, “sorry am I disturbing, I can come back later?”.
“No, no I just haven’t really had a moment to just relax and unwind in a while, the silence was nice but you’re more than welcome to sit and enjoy it too,” Sara spoke, smiling warmly gesturing towards her favourite leather seat, that found itself unoccupied for a change. “Wait, your arm? your clothes?” The Captain examined her as the Agent entered the office, quickly noticing the blonde’s arm was no longer in a sling and Ava had changed from the comfortable workout gear to a pair of blue jeans and a grey sweater.
“Yeah, after that second hit I figured it was time to have Gideon fix me up fully. Enjoying the silence, I could be into that,” she took a seat, her eyes falling to the worn notebook, pen and dirty scotch glass on the table beside it. There was something so simply satisfying in learning little tidbits of Sara’s character, the way her handwriting looked, her favourite kind of scotch and the fact that she liked to just sit in silence every now and then. So that’s what they did, they sat in silence while breathing easy, it was nice to just fall into a warm and comfortable air of nothingness in the other’s company.
They must have stayed like that for over an hour, Ava picked up one of Rips old logs from the bookshelf positioned beside her and began reading it. She smiled to herself on noticing the Captain had drifted off to sleep. Ava couldn't helped but recognize how strikingly beautiful Sara was, her body and mind finally at ease.
“Ahh, and so she awakes,” Ava spoke up noticing the other blonde was stirring. Sara grimacing as she stretched out her neck, wincing slightly a result of the stiffness given her desk chair wasn’t the best place in the word to fall asleep.
“Shit. I’m sorry,” Sara stood up, yawning as she stretched further.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Sara. You’re allowed to rest sometimes too,” Ava added, “You might want to get that snoring under control though,”
“I don’t snore,” Sara returned defensively. Although it didn’t stop her from feeling a little embarrassed, feeling somewhat self-conscious with the idea of Ava hearing her snore, a feeling she wasn’t overly used to. “Gideon, tell me I don’t snore?”
“I believe Agent Sharpe is, how would you put it, “messing with you”, Captain Lance,” Gideon replied after a beat.
“Screw you, Sharpe, ” Sara playfully flipped her off, the Agent laughing loudly. “So…”
“Sooo…” The mood grew a little tense, both knowing where the conversation was headed.
“There’s no point in dancing around the subject forever is there?” Sara looked at Ava, her expression open holding no judgment. “How bad is this thing with the Time Bureau? I need to know if you messed with the timeline when you pulled me from that other dimension. I mean there hasn’t been any time quakes, or abhorrations but that’s not to say we won’t encounter any soon, time may still be in flux,” she grabbed onto the edge of the desk in the centre of the room, her eyes never once falling from the Agent’s.
“Honestly, Sara. I don’t know. I thought it would have an impact, but as you said we haven’t incurred any time quakes yet? I’ve tried to figure it out on my own, but none of it makes sense. Time should be showing signs of miscorrelation but it’s not, there’s nothing standing out,” Ava answered honestly, nervously chewing at the inside of her lip, her fingers intermingling together with anxiousness.
“Why would you risk it all? You told me how much the Bureau means to you, and you put all that on the line to save someone like me,” Sara returned, Ava flinching at the blonde’s self-deprecating tone, but quickly decided it was probably for the best not to go on a rant about all the reasons why she would always risk it, and especially to save someone like her.
“I don’t know, Sara. In every situation I’ve ever been in, the good and the bad I’ve always had the answers, but I can’t explain this one. Can you remember the day we arrested Rip? A few days later he was sentenced to jail for conspiracy, but as he was being escorted out of the courtroom, he started shouting at me specifically, he was ranting all about Mallus, that I needed to believe him and try and think back to ‘that time’ in my first year of recruitment. That it would all finally make sense to me now,” Ava explained, no longer able to stay seated as she stood walking back and forth across the room. “With that, I started doing my own research at home outside of the Bureau. There was so little to go off but I found some things relating to Mallus, but it was never good and never concrete enough to base a solid theory off,” Ava responded.
“Did you remember ‘that time’, that Rip was referring to?” Sara questioned.
“Do you remember asking me, why if I was a member of the Time Bureau from the beginning, why wasn’t I a director too,”
“Yeah, you said it was complicated but also because you like being an Agent,”
“I do, but for my first year at the bureau I didn’t really take the work seriously. I’d show up late, make excuses to avoid going in at all and hand in all of my reports with barely any work put into them. I mean, I was still overly jaded by everything that happened when I was in the military, and so I was doing everything in my power to stop myself from thinking about that time of my life, sleeping around, staying out late drinking, or just spending it locked up in my apartment. While everyone else was getting promoted I was still just an Admin Assistant. Ultimately, I was only holding onto my job because Rip continued fighting for me to stay,” Ava answered, her tone ashamed.
“Wow, jaded Ava Sharpe sounds like she would be just up my street. When was that? I might have to pay her a visit,” Sara smirked, unable to hold back from making a lighthearted joke at the Agent’s expense.
“Really, Sara. That’s what you took for all that?” Ava rolled her eyes, laughing. “Please you wouldn’t stand a chance, Lance.”
“Okay, rude!” Sara mocked hurt, before the pair settled once again. “I’m sorry, this is serious. All teasing aside, we still need to figure this out.”
“One day Rip asked me to stay late one evening, if anyone but Director Hunter had asked me to work overtime I would have laughed in their face, but he was one of the few people I had grown to genuinely trust. He called me into the office and next thing I know we were timejumping to the future, we stayed hidden but he showed me something, something that would happen to you,” Ava swallowed back, standing to face Sara now.
“Ava… I was supposed to die in that weird paradoxical dimension Mallus created, wasn’t I?” Ava unable to hold Sara’s stare this time. Her heart dropping on hearing Sara question it out loud.
“No,” Ava shook her head “Not exactly, you were supposed to become the next vessel for him.”
“So that’s why Darhk went after you. That’s why he wanted to kill you, he doesn’t want the Time Bureau, he wants you dead because you saved me from them. You stopped them from fulfilling whatever fallacy thay had planned,” Sara eyes went wide, with every passing second more and more things clicked into place, she looked up to find Ava’s stare anywhere but on her. “Why would you risk everything to stop Mallus from possessing me?”
“If Mallus was to possess you, Sara, you would have been better off dead. He is nothing but pure evil. Just like a toxic parasite, he sucks all the good from his hosts,” Sara didn’t really know why, but Ava’s words in this instance angered her, infuriated her in a sense. Frustrated with Ava for risking everything when it wasn’t even death they were fighting, she could have fought Mallus off and Ava wouldn’t have had to jeopardise her position at the Bureau.
“You didn’t have to interfere with the timeline for that? I beat the Lazarus Pit, I beat the blood lust, I survived the League, I could have beaten Mallus’ possession too,” Sara took a step backwards, her brows creasing defensively, annoyed by the thought that Ava didn’t believe she would be strong enough to beat this demon too.
“No,” Ava shook her head, her stance falling as she released a devastated sigh, “there was no fighting this time, Sara. Even if you did break free from his control, you wouldn’t have been able to live with yourself, not with what I saw him make you do,” her words trembled, slamming her eyes shut as memories of that day came racing back into memory, bringing hot tears to her eyes.
“Ava, what did I do? What did Mallus make me do?” Sara hands reaching for Ava’s, the blonde suddenly desperate for more answers, but the Agent simply shook her head in defeat, unwilling to share the details with the other woman, afraid of what Sara would do if she knew what Mallus was capable of doing or making her do.
“What I saw that day, Sara. It wasn’t you. Mallus took everything from you,” Ava’s voice significantly lower now, “He used all those things you’ve overcome in life against you”
“The league, dying, the bloodlust... Laurel?” Sara questioned, her heart pounding viciously in her ears.
Ava nodded silently, “I just knew I had to save you from that”.
Ava’s face was awash with vulnerability, Sara’s mind left reeling. She sensed the raw fear on the Agent’s words when she explained Mallus took everything. Ava was strong but Sara could tell she was just barely holding it together now, as she tightened the grasp on her hand. Perhaps it was too intimate, but Sara just grabbed onto her, hugging her like she was the one responsible for keeping Ava intact. Or perhaps, she just desperately needed to be held in that moment too.
Ava was incredibly grateful for the contact, the warmth and knowing despite everything, Sara was still on her side.
They broke apart after a few minutes but the pair remained in silence. Words didn’t have to be uttered just yet.
“I’m not going to fall apart if you question it,” Ava spoke softly, her voice catching Sara off guard causing her to jump slightly.
“How do we know if the timeline was screwed up as result?” Sara replied after a minute.
“I’ve tried to figure it out myself, but I’ve come up with nothing. I’ve been too afraid to ask Gideon, the idea of having manipulated time to save one person, even though that one person happens to be you, terrifies me. A part of me knows it’s reckless and irresponsible, but I know I’d never change that decision, ever” Ava answered honestly, her voice still threading the lines of vulnerability. A small innocent smile appeared on Sara’s lips, there was something so strangely beautiful in the way Ava spoke so definitely, yet a that same time it was so heartbreakingly clear the woman's thoughts were hindered with the fear of knowing her truth.
“Time wants to happen, Ava. What’s meant to be, will eventually be. You know that as well and I do,” Sara interjected, “unless you’re a bunch of time travelling idiots who manage to completely break it,” she joked this time, figuring the heavy mood deserved an injection of humour. She watched the corners of the taller women lips curl into an appreciative smile.
“You’re right. At least I’ll never be responsible for that whole mess, that's remain on you. Although I’m sure every single one of my colleagues will be baffled on hearing I’ve risk everything to save the very woman who broke time without a second thought,” Ava’s smile grew to laughter, grateful for the lightened moment. “Thank you,” she added after a beat, her expression more serious as she looked to Sara. The Captain understanding the platitude immediately.
“Do you think you’re ready to ask Gideon?” Sara approached her once again, taking up a position beside her. She gently offer an encouraging nudge to the taller woman's shoulder as she did so. Ava nodded, followed by a watery smile.
“Gideon, can you detect any outliers to the timeline ever since I pulled Sara out of Mallus’ dimension?” Ava swallowed, her heart pummelling in her chest cavity she was sure Sara could hear it too.
“I have run multiple algorithms, tests and researched a multitude of sources, Agent Sharpe. I cannot detect a single anomaly, time distortion or timeline change as of right now. If something was to have happened it should have shown up by now”
“See, it doesn’t make sense,” Ava sighed, rubbing as her forehead out of pure frustration punching the desk behind her.
“Agent Sharpe, if I may propose a possible explanation?” Gideon added, her words immediately catching Sara and Ava’s attention. “I’ve come to know Captain Hunter very well over centuries of time travel together. He wouldn’t be one to easily suggest breaking the timeline for the sake of saving one person, even if that person was Captain Lance. I suspect what happened was always supposed to happen, you were always meant to save Miss Lance,”
“Then what about what Rip showed Ava four years ago,” Sara questioned, Ava apprehensive too.
“I suspect Captain Hunter showed Agent Sharpe a potential future timeline. I cannot answer on behalf of Captain Hunter, but it seems like he needed to convince Agent Sharpe of her potential within the Bureau and convince her to stay and ultimately understand her worth. On top of that, he needed to guarantee Miss Lance’s safety, knowing if he showed Agent Sharpe such a devastating possible future timeline, she would choose to save her,”
“So, I was always going to save Sara?” Ava questioned, her brain still playing catch-up with the information Gideon was feeding them
“Precisely, Agent. It also helps to understand that the future is not set in concrete like the past, there is an infinite amount of concrete possibilities for the future, they don’t become definite until they occur. That being said, there was a greater chance Mallus would have got to Miss Lance had Captain Hunter not shown you the reality that could have been. It was a risky move on Captain Hunter’s behalf, but given Mallus’ strength Rip needed to do something to ensure it. I believe he has mentioned on multiple occasions how vital the Legends are in relation to defeating this demon,” Gideon explained in more detail.
“Thank you, Gideon,” Ava spoke, her feeling left unsure. The sense of relief overwhelming, pulling Sara into a hug.
“So you were always going to save me, huh?” Sara smirked smugly, untangling herself from the taller woman's hold.
“Shut up, you’re not going to make me regret it, are you?” Ava laughed.
“Nope, but it’s certainly nice to see you a little more relaxed,” Sara added, her smile reflecting that of the Agent's. “Now that we know we’re capable of actually talking things out, and figuring out solutions and well you know we have other things yet to discuss about some things, about us, you and me...” Sara words almost incoherent, dragging on longer as she bought herself some time before actually raising the question. Her nonsensical blabber acting like a protective blanket almost.
“What, Sara? Spit it out” Ava laughed, having not seeing Sara show signs of awkwardness before.
“Ava, you told me you cared about me,” she approached her slowly, “and we kissed,”
“I know, and yes that’s a thing that happened. Also yes, I said I care about you because I do and look I completely understand you’re not the relationship type. You know maybe if I wasn’t stuck on The Waverider, hooking up would be fun. I’d be totally down for that. But I know feelings aren't really your thing, Sara and I don’t want to force it on you. Maybe we should keep this thing between us strictly platonic for everyone’s sake?” Ava chewed nervously on the inside of her cheek, her eyes searching the blonde's, who played off the sting of hurt very well.
“Umm, Yeah! Cool, that’s totally cool with me…” Sara chuckled awkwardly, taking a step backwards, “I guess, I’m not really the relationship type am I?”