Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pain.

Darkness.

Nothing else.

He can’t remember.

Not even his own name.

“Your name is Chronos”, the strangers tell him.

It doesn’t sound familiar, he doesn’t believe them. It leads to more pain.

“What is your name”, they demand. “Chronos”, he answeres without believing it. He’d do anything to get away from the pain.

They give him a ship, arm him with weapons and knowledge. He somehow already knows how to fire a gun but acquiring the amount of knowledge they demand of him leads to more pain.

The armour feels like a shell, hiding him and protecting him. He thinks the cape is silly but he knows complaining would only lead to more pain. Maybe he can accidentally lose  it on some mission or other. Everything is too cold, too, somehow. He thinks he misses warmth and light but he’s not sure.

A few memories return, slowly, painfully, and none of them are good memories. The Time Masters don’t seem to mind so at least they won’t put him on that chair again for this.

He remembers fists hitting him when he was too small to fight back. He remembers policemen kicking him while he’s handcuffed, calling him sick and an animal. He remembers people who should have been his team laughing about him and calling him stupid. He remembers their Captain telling him he was never part of the plan.

He remembers something about time pirates but it’s not one of the clear memories. There is always someone in them he can’t quite see, someone who was important somehow. Someone he tried to save, he thinks. But instead that someone betrayed him. And those who should have been his team locked him up.

He could hear them wondering about what to do with him. He remembers being surprised they hadn’t shot him already. The one he can’t see clearly was mostly silent those first few minutes. Then they left the brig and there was nothing to do but wait.

Hours passed until the one he can’t quite see comes back. He opened the brig and says: “Let’s go home, partner.” They stole the jump ship, the others hard on their heels, but they got away and were on their way home. Then something happened.

Try as he might Chronos can’t remember anything else after that. Only pain and darkness and being in that chair.

Only the Time Masters telling him who he should be.

He thinks he fought them, for quite a while, but it’s all fuzzy, like a dream barely remembered.

It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. He’s Chronos now, and he’s got a job to do. He goes where they tell him to go and he kills who they tell him to kill. Sometimes, rarely, they want him to bring people back alive. He does that too, but they aren’t always pleased with his definition of alive . Apparently by alive they mean unharmed and he means all the vital parts still attached and somewhat functional, extremities not being vital parts.

It doesn’t quite earn him a trip back to the chair but the Time Masters are clearly displeased. So displeased they saddle him with a babysitter. His name’s Charon.

Chronos heard about him before, of course. Even brainwashed bounty hunters gossip between jobs when there’s nothing else to do. Apparently Charon is a special kind of nut case. Like the Pilgrim he keeps to himself, never seeking out the company of his fellows. No one knows what kind of missions Charon gets sent on, but everyone knows that he never fails. He also always works alone unless the Time Masters think one of them needs supervision.

Chronos isn’t happy about the silent shadow leaning against the back wall of his cockpit and he doesn’t try to hide it.

“You better hold on to something, teacher’s pet, because this will be a bumpy ride.”

Charon doesn’t hold on to anything, the show off. He also doesn’t reply, he’s the quiet sort. Chronos found that out the moment he met him and the other bounty hunter barely spared him a glance before stepping onto his ship as if he owned it. As if he were in charge.

Well, if Chronos was honest with himself Charon most likely was supposed to be in charge but since he didn’t do anything but watch him all day while Chronos prepared for his - their - next mission Chronos decided he’d just do things as he always did and see if he couldn’t get his silent shadow talking some way or another. So far calling him names hadn’t worked, outright insulting him hadn’t worked either and not even throwing things at him got a reaction apart from Charon catching them.

Even when they are in the Time Stream and Chronos takes off his helmet for comfort his companion doesn’t so much as move a muscle. No one had ever seen him with his helmet off, the others had said.

“Well, if you’re so ugly you don’t want anyone to see that’s your problem but it’s going to get very uncomfortable after a while and we’ve got quite a bit of way still before us.”

Charon’s armour doesn’t have a silly cape, Chronos realises and instantly dislikes him even more. Being the Time Masters’ favourite clearly came with certain perks. Like getting to stand around watching other people work. But that wasn’t going to happen on this mission, Chronos decides. If he had to suffer having a babysitter Charon might as well make himself useful. Chronos puts the mission information up on the screen.

“Here, pretty boy, make yourself useful while I fly this tin can and find us the best way to extract our target without messing up the timeline.”

To his utter surprise Charon actually pushes off the wall, walks towards the screen and flips through the blueprints and time tables. He still wasn’t talking but it was a start.

“We should make our way from the back entrance towards the hall, just as the opening speech begins.”

The unexpected sound startles Chronos out of his contemplation of the Time Stream’s swirling green flames. It takes him a moment to remember that he is not alone on board and that the disguised voice belongs to Charon.

“Huh, seems you can speak after all and here I thought they’d cut out your tongue or something.”

Chronos takes a few steps over to stand next to his unwelcome guest and looks down at the blueprint displayed on the screen. Grant, his AI, could fly the ship on his own until they had finalised the plan. Chronos thinks about Charon’s suggestion for a moment.

“Won’t there be guards? This isn’t some random dinner party we’re crashing.”

Charon flips the blueprint to the side to reveal a shift schedule for the security details of the numerous attending politicians and other important people.

“We have a 30 second window here when the guard at the back door takes an unauthorized bathroom break in some bushes. The lock on the door won’t be a problem, we just need to move fast and silently. Once we’re inside we have 5 minutes to make our way to the top floor via the service elevator. Going by the newspaper articles and police files the target should be on the west balcony.”

Chronos grunts and flips back to the blueprint. All this sneaking around really wasn’t his style.

“Why can’t we just land on the roof, blast open that door, down the steps to the balcony, grab the target and be out of there before any of those idiots even knew we were there?”

Chronos can’t see Charon’s face behind the mask of course but from the tilt of the head and the way he turned to face him Chronos felt like he knew exactly what kind of disapproving expression he’d find. It brings a strange feeling of deja vu he quickly shoves aside.

“ Because there will be guards on the roof, obviously”, Charon replies. “We grab the target the way I just said then make our way down the back staircase and out the window in this room. If we time it exactly there should be another 30 second window where none of the guards have a clear view of this path towards the woods. We land here, cloak the ship, acquirer the target, and get back to the ship. It should take us no more than 15 minutes all in all and no one will see us, hence there will be no danger to the timeline.”

Chronos grunts and shakes his head.

“Fine, you’ve got a point, we’ll try it your way. But you take all the fun out of catching rouge Time Masters, babysitter.”

Chronos had been kind of looking forward to crashing a presidential dinner. He didn’t care in the slightest that their target, a Time Master turned Time Terrorist, wanted to assassinate the President of the United States. He didn’t even bother to find out which president it was, he had just taken one look at his picture in the file and decided he disliked his ugly mug.

All in all Charon’s plan went off pretty well. They did have to knock out a pair of young waiters making out in the back stairway on their way out but apart from that it was one of the smoothest missions Chronos had ever undertaken.

They had taken the target completely by surprise, Charon shooting him down with a tranquilizer dart from the other side of the balcony, and delivered him gift wrapped to the Time Masters.

The Time Masters are of course pleased with the success. They are especially pleased with Charon, obviously.

He gets all the credit and Chronos is left to stew in a foul mood chewing down whatever counts as food in the bounty hunters’ mess without tasting any of it.

Charon had swanned off as soon as they’d landed at the Vanishing Point leaving it to Chronos to secure their prisoner in one of the cells. The arrogant asshole hadn’t even said goodbye. He actually had become completely mute and deaf once again after they had returned to the ship with the unconscious prisoner, just like he had been at the beginning of the mission. It had been incredibly aggravating and the one hour long flight back had been enough to make anger flare up in Chronos that he hadn’t felt this strongly in quite some time.

The other bounty hunters wisely kept their distance from their grumbling colleague for the rest of the day. Nobody wanted to be the one he took his bad mood out on. Since punching some one was apparently not in the cards punching some thing would have to do.

Chronos takes his anger out on a punching back in the training room until his arms ache and he can barely feel his hands. He showers, returns to his sleeping quarters and falls down on the bed. He really should sleep but Chronos keeps replaying the day in his mind over and over again.

His whole reaction to Charon and their mission disturbed him. This was not like him at all, to run this hot over something so trivial as being snubbed by another bounty hunter. He never reacted like this, nothing ever got to him like this. That was one of the reasons why he was among the best damn bounty hunters the Time Masters ever had.

And yet he remembers, vaguely, a time when he would have reacted with anger to the slightest provocation. A time when he enjoyed starting fist fights over nothing. Was this who he had been before? If so Chronos didn’t like it.

Anger makes things much more complicated. He punches his pillow into shape and pulls the blanket up to his chest. He should get some sleep, he thinks, the Time Masters are sure to have another mission for him tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll get to kill someone, that might take care of this frustration.

After tossing and turning for another hour Chronos gives up on trying to get any sleep this night. He gets dressed and returns to his ship to do some maintenance he had been putting off for far too long. Concentrating on the complicated bits of machinery effectively takes his mind off Charon and all the trouble he’d brought with him.

Instead he finds his mind returning to the people who had betrayed him, who had said they were a team then pushed him away.

One of them, the kid, had been tinkering with their time ship like this. He’d known what all the bits and pieces were for on his own, not like Chronos who had the knowledge beaten into his head by the Time Masters. He thinks he’d liked the kid best, out of the lot of them.

Now the kid’s partner, the professor, he hadn’t liked at all. He’d been a condescending old fart who thought everyone else but him was stupid. And he’d thought Chronos was even more stupid than everyone else.

The Time Masters had been questioning him about them all, while he’d been in the chair. So much of the pain he had suffered had been because the Time Masters wanted information on that bunch of traitors. He’d make sure they would feel just as much pain when he was finally allowed to go after them.

By the time all necessary repairs and replacements on his time ship where completed it was morning. Feeling much more like himself again now that the anger had vanished and he’d been able to take his mind off Charon for a while his fellow bounty hunters find him having breakfast in a much better mood than they’d left him the night before. He thinks he sees some of them sigh in relieve.

A few brave ones even dare to question him about his mission with Charon. Chronos finds that talking about it now, especially since he gets to complain about having such a bore for a babysitter, didn’t rile him up as it had before.

His good mood shouldn’t last long because when he returns to his ship Charon is already waiting in front of it.

“What do you want now? Left your make up on the ship or something”, Chronos asks as he shoulders past him roughly to board the ship.

Charon merely follows him inside and closes the hatch.

“We have another mission”, he says and makes his way to the bridge without waiting for Chronos.

“The Time Masters thought we made a good team last time and want to see how well we will do with a different kind of mission.”

Chronos is far from amused, of course, as he starts up the ship. “Oh, great, I get to spend another day with the most boring person in existence. Are you sure you’re even human under there? Did they send a robot to babysit me?”

He flies them out of the Vanishing Point and into the Time Stream before turning around to Charon, still waiting for a reply.

“I have had my humanity questioned by multiple sources, targets and bounty hunters alike, Chronos , but I assure you I am not a robot of any kind.”

Chronos gives him a disbelieving look.

“Yeah? Prove it, take off that helmet and show me your face.”

Charon seems to have some kind of inner debate about the request for a while before declining.

“You don’t have the necessary security clearance.”

Chronos rolls his eyes.

Chapter Text

Pain.

Brightness.

Familiar voices.

Chronos sits up.

He’s in the Waverider’s brig.

His head is pounding where Jax hit him.

He’d found them captured in Nanda Parbat. Yet they had still beaten him.

Standing there impassively he watches them discussing his fate. They had been here before, he doubts they’ll kill him this time.

Not long after his second mission with Charon had been as roaring a success as the first one the Time Masters had got impatient and sent him after the Waverider. Alone, in the beginning.

Frustratingly those first attacks on Rip and his crew were far from a success. Sure, he inconvenienced them a bit, caused some damage, but he never came close to killing or capturing even one of them. He decided he needed a better plan. The Time Masters needed little convincing to let him speak with Charon.

Because he never took off his mask Charon never really revealed any of his emotions, if he even had any. Yet when Chronos showed him the file on the Waverider the other bounty hunter seemed intrigued at the prospect of going after so many formidable targets  at once.

“Come with me when I confront them”, Chronos suggested but Charon just shook his head.

“The Time Masters made it very clear that I was not to join you on this mission. But I am allowed to help you plan it.”

Chronos took what he could get and they started their planning. It would be a difficult mission, complicated. And complicated plans take time, even in a place like the Vanishing Point where time worked differently.

Between planning sessions they both still went on separate missions that had nothing to do with the Waverider. That’s the upside to having a time ship, no matter how long it takes to plan something you can always arrive in time to implement your plan.

If in the meantime the Time Masters had a more complicated mission they sometimes sent both of them. Chronos and Charon had proven that they were a good team even if Chronos still didn’t like the other bounty hunter and suspected Charon didn’t like anyone.

It was on one of those missions when suddenly the plan went all to hell and bullets started flying.

Neither of them had known the time pirates they were hunting had upgraded their weapons and recruited new members in the time since the intel Chronos and Charon were working with had been gathered.

That left their plan with a few pirate-sized holes. They were discovered a lot sooner than anticipated. They had hoped to at least disable their ship before the pirates realised they had guests.

The two bounty hunters had still managed to kill more than half of the targets before they were cornered on the bridge. Then one of the pirates got lucky and stabbed Charon in the back, right under one of the plates of his suit.

Charon still managed to turn around, shoot the pirate and wound another before he collapsed. That left Chronos with two more pirates. He took them down in record time.

Dragging his unconscious partner back to his ship nearly sapped all the strength Chronos had left. He dropped him on the medical chair and took a second just to breath as Grant began his initial scan.

“Sir, you will have to remove his armour for me to be able to correctly assess and treat his injuries”, the AI reminded him.

Chronos forced himself to take the last step towards the chair and start removing Charon’s armour.

“I’d apologize for invading your privacy or something, princess, but it’s this or letting you bleed out.”

With everything but the mask removed Grant resumed his scanning.

Chronos reached for the last piece of armour.

“It is not necessary to...”, Grant began only to be interrupted.

“Shut it, tin can, he might have a head injury or something that you need to treat and I still need his head intact to make me a plan for the Waverider. Also, I’ve been curious what the big deal with his face was for way too long.”

“The Time Masters won’t…”

“Shut up and do something about that stab wound.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Chronos finally lifted off the mask and nearly let it drop to the floor. For a second he felt like someone had given him an electric shock before it seemed like all the blood in his body had turned to ice.

He staggered backwards and caught himself against the door frame.

“Are you alright, Sir”, Grant inquired. “Were you injured as well?”

Chronos took a few deep breaths to get himself back under control.

“I’m fine, I’m not injured. How’s he?”

Lights were flickering over the still form on the bed and Grant was pumping all kind of drugs into him via the infusion cuffs Chronos had put on.

“I have sealed the wound and repaired the internal damage to his liver and right lung. His heart rate is stable and his breathing unimpaired.”

Chronos nodded and staggered out of the door.

“Good, keep an eye on him. I need a shower. But Grant?”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Alert me immediately if his condition gets worse or before you wake him up.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Dropping the pieces of his armour on the floor of the bathroom and stepping under the warm water felt incredible. But even when all the sweat and dirt had been cleaned away Chronos found that it had done little to clear the fog from his mind. He turned the temperature as cold as it would go.

That definitely woke him up. He dressed in fresh clothes and soon found himself standing next to the medical bed again, looking down at Charon.

The sight had less of an impact on him this time around and Chronos cleaned the blood off the other bounty hunter.

He knew he had a hard decision to make.

Before he allowed Grant to wake Charon up he made sure to replace the mask on his face. No need to bring more trouble on himself than he was already in.

As soon as Charon woke he started removing the infusion cuffs with fingers that were shaking slightly.

“Sir, I must advise you against this. Your injuries are healed yet you may still experience some residual pain without the pain medication I was giving you.”

Charon, characteristically, didn’t even bother to reply. He merely swung his legs off the bed and tried to stand up only to nearly fall as his legs wouldn’t hold him up at first.

“Easy there, tough guy, you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Chronos started to reach out to help steady the other man but Charon took a step backwards.

“I’d appreciate if you didn’t touch me, Chronos.”

Interestingly enough his voice sounded as disinterested and flat as always, distorted through his mask. If Chronos hadn’t just seen undeniable proof that the man before him was flesh and blood this would have made him even more sure that he was some kind of robot.

“Ok, no need to get your panties in a twist, princess.”

Chronos held up his hands in surrender then grabbed the pile of clothes he’d replicated earlier.

“Here, got you some new clothes, had to cut the old ones off you. Grant’s still cleaning blood off the rest of your armour, he’ll let you know when it’s done.”

Chronos waited a second to see if Charon could take the clothes from him without keeling over then left him alone to get dressed.

He made his way to the bridge to start up the ship and get them back to the Vanishing Point. With Charon all healed up there was no reason to delay a time jump any longer.

It took about half an hour before the other bounty hunter joined him. Chronos realises, seeing Charon in full armour again, that he must have waited until Grant had finished the laundry before he felt ready to be in the same room as Chronos.

Chronos wasn’t quite sure what kind of psychological damage that signified, the Time Masters didn’t bother teaching him psychology, but he was sure it wasn’t anything good.

But this was a problem for another time, or maybe never, depending on what he decided to do in regards to what he’d learned while Charon was unconscious.

Chronos still hadn’t made his mind up about that one. But who knew, maybe the Time Masters would find out he peeked behind the curtain and put him in the chair again and then he wouldn’t even remember any of this.

He was startled out of this cheerful line of thought as the other bounty hunter didn’t lean against the far wall, as he usually did, but came to stand right next to him at the controls.

Chronos shot him a questioning look and found Charon rather intent on the display in front of him, which showed nothing more interesting than their speed and destination.

Deciding not to put even more pressure on him right now Chronos let his attention return to steering the ship.

“Thank you. You could have let me die on that pirate ship.”

Chronos shrugged.

“I still need you to find me a way to capture Rip and his merry band of idiots, don’t I? Won’t go and save your ass afterwards.”

Chronos was not quite sure but he thought he heard a quiet chuckle from behind Charon’s mask at that blatant lie. But then, with the whole voice changer and everything, it might as well have been a cough.

After they left him alone in the brig the idiots on the Waverider take turns coming back to talk at him alone. Mostly he just ignores them, still trying to make up his mind about the one big question that had been going around and around in his mind for weeks now.

First he’d just wanted to wait and see if the Time Masters had caught onto what had happened after the fight with the time pirates.

Then he had decided he should wait just a little bit longer, just to be safe.

Then he and Charon had both been busy with missions to such a degree that they hadn’t been able to do any planning about the Waverider for nearly half a month.

When they had finally finished it the Time Masters ordered the immediate execution of their plan.

Chronos had hoped he’d be able to speak to Charon again before he had to leave, to help him make up his mind, but as it turned out the other bounty hunter had already been sent on his next mission.

“Doesn’t that guy ever sleep”, Chronos mumbled getting onto his ship.

The time to make a decision had run out and the decision seemingly been made for him. Nothing to do but follow the plan now.

At first it all worked well, he actually got control of the Waverider before he was forced to retreat. But he wouldn’t have been Chronos if he’d just given up after one (or ten) little set backs.

Grant found the Waverider crew again in Nanda Parbat. Chronos grabbed his weapons and set out for the next round in their game of cat and mouse.

As it turned out this should be the round that actually made his decision for him.

First of the team to come back to the brig was Jax. He apologised about 10 times for letting him get captured by the Time Masters.

“We found the Jump Ship, man, and it said you’d taken it to 2016 so we thought you guys would be ok and home and we didn’t want to pry so we didn’t make Gideon check up on you. How did you end up with the Time Masters? Did they capture you in 2016?”

Jax has a look on his face like Chronos had just kicked a puppy in front of him.

“No idea, kid. Don’t remember”, is all he says until Jax gives up and leaves.

Next one to brave his glare is Haircut.

He actually looks like the metaphorical puppy Chronos had been thinking about before. All big sad eyes and hunched shoulders.

“Hey, Mick...um...Chronos...um...what should I call you? Is it ok if I call you Mick? Because we really want you back, Mick. We missed you.”

Chronos just scoffs at that.

“It’s been so different since you guys left. And then Kendra, Sara and I were trapped in the past and got a little bit of time drift and I might have been about to propose to Kendra before the Waverider came to pick us back up. Um, anyway, I’m glad you’re back.”

Chronos only understood about half of what Haircut mumbled and wasn’t even halfway to deciding whether he wanted to waste time on a reply before the scientist beats a hasty retreat again.

Stein’s visit is the shortest of them all. He merely slunks in, mumbles a hasty “I am glad you’re back and mostly alright, Mr. Rory” before nearly falling over his own feet as he leaves again.

Rip’s visit is lots of awkward silences between stilted sentences in the convoluted style the Time Masters love which doesn’t endear him at all to Chronos.

“I...what I wanted to say, Mr. Rory, is that I must apologise for my earlier words to you and that I hope we can find a way to make you part of this team again. Especially with your intimate knowledge of Time Master politics and the Vanishing Point your help would be invaluable.”

“Lots of words, Hunter, but none of it was an apology yet. Maybe you should go get a drink, loosen up, then come back and try again?”

Kendra’s visit is next. She waves shyly at him and her smile is only slightly nervous.

“Hey Mick, how are you? Can I get you anything? Um, a blanket maybe? A pillow? That bench doesn’t look terribly comfortable.”

He asks for a beer and she bites her lip and says she’ll ask Rip if that would be ok.

Chronos just grunts in reply and sits down on the bench, thinking she’ll fly back to where she came from (most likely Haircut’s bed).

But instead she stays and tries to talk to  him about her past lives and how Carter had been trying to make her into someone she wasn’t. Then she actually starts to talk about her and Haircut and Chronos groans, tells her he’s not their couples’ counselor and that she should go talk to someone who cared.

The look on her face is only slightly less kicked puppy than Haircut’s had been.

When Blondie stalks in she doesn’t do any talking, just a whole lot of staring. Chronos stares right back. He has no idea how long they stand there like that before she says: “Is Rip right? Do we even have any chance of bringing you back from whatever the Time Masters did to you? Or should I just kill you now and spare us all the heartbreak?”

“I don’t much care what you do to me, Birdie. But if you decide to kill me there is something you should know. You need to go to the Vanishing Point because I’m not the only one they captured. The Time Masters have Snart and if you thought Chronos was scary just wait till you meet Charon. I’m not sure there is anything human left in him at all.”

Chapter Text

“Snart.”

“Chronos.”

“Not Chronos.”

“I’m not Snart.”

Charon looks at Mick impassively.

Mick leans against the brig wall staring back.

“Sure you are, they just messed with your head. Messed with mine, too.”

“I’m aware of what the Time Masters did. It’s irrelevant. There’s no going back. We’ll always be different than we were.”

Mick scoffs and crosses his arms.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t try. Also doesn’t mean we have to stay their lap dogs.”

Charon tilts his head to the side but otherwise makes no reply.

Mick searches his face for any clue that he was getting through to him. But he might as well be looking at Charon’s mask for all the expression he finds.

Snart’s face had never been that blank. Snart had never been this quiet.

Mick wasn’t going to give up. He’d get his partner back, somehow.

When Mick gets tired of the silent staring contest he pushes off the wall.

“You’ve never been one to just give up, Snart, or to take orders. Pretty sure you didn’t enjoy the Time Bastards asking you to fetch.”

He walks to the door.

“You can try to keep up that cold front, Snart, but I bet we can thaw you out, Just give it time.”

Mick might be imagining it but he thought he saw Charon’s lips twitch slightly at the pun. He’ll take that as a win.

After Mick decided to get back on Team Waverider he had tried to talk the others into storming the Vanishing Point and kidnapping Snart. He couldn’t even be really mad at them for telling him it was a terrible idea and that all it would do was get them all killed.

They were right, it most likely would have got them all killed. But the thought of leaving his partner in the hands of the Time Masters made him want to vomit, or get drunk, or both.

In the end they got lucky and ran into Charon on one of his missions in 1555.

Even being a better fighter than Snart ever had been Charon had not much of a chance against 6 determined people, some of them with superpowers.

They knocked him out, took off his armour, and threw him in the brig.

“It’s creepy is what it is”, Jax says just as Mick comes back onto the bridge. The rest of the team is crowding around the video footage from the brig.

Snart is standing where he left him, in the exact centre of the cell, staring up at the camera without expression.

“It’s like T-1000 and Hannibal Lecter had a love child. Only more creepy.”

“Thank you for that mental image, Jefferson”, Stein complains.

“Leonard’s never been that still”, Ray says. There is pity on his face that makes Mick want to punch him. Snart wouldn’t want their pity.

“He was always fidgeting with something, or at least walking around.”

Sara is hugging herself and she looks sad.

“Is there even any chance to get him back from that ? It looks so much worse than Mick when he was Chronos.”

“I’ve never been privy to how exactly the induction process for bounty hunters works”, Rip replies. “But I heared it is quite...brutal.”

Kendra looks close to crying as she turns around to leave and nearly bumps into Mick. He realises that they hadn’t know he was back.

Kendra jumps back a step, mumbles an apology and nearly runs from the bridge.

“When did you learn to sneak up on people like that, man?” Jax looks like he can’t believe that someone of Mick’s size could walk quietly.

“Thief”, he replies with a grin.

“Should I go after her”, Haircut asks no one in particular, his eyes on the door Kendra had left through. Sara puts a hand on his arm and shakes her head.

“Give her some space, it’s just all been a bit much for all of us lately.”

Rip claps his hands.

“Right, now that Mr. Rory’s back we should discuss what to do about Charon.”

Mick glares at him and he amends: “Mr. Snart.”

“Maybe if we did what we did with Mr. Rory? Go talk to him, remind him of who he is”, Stein suggests and Jax throws up his hands.

“Hell no, I’m not going in there. He’s scary!”

“You’re right to be scared, kid. Snart could be a cold, ruthless bastard if he had to be but that guy wouldn’t even know how to spell mercy.”

Mick crosses his arms.

“But Snart’s still in there, he gotta be. He’s too stubborn to let the Time Bastards win.”

Ray tries to put a hand on Mick’s arm with that look of pity back on his face and Mick steps out of his reach.

“We don’t need your pity, Haircut. We need ideas.”

“Maybe it would help us to find a way to get through to Mr. Snart if you could tell us what exactly they did to him”, the professor suggests.

“I don’t know what they did to him but if it was anything like what they did to me you don’t wanna know. They took us apart and then put us back together again into who they wanted us to be. At first I didn’t remember anything about who I’d been before but the memories came back, slowly. I bet he still remembers it all too, it’s just locked away somewhere in his head. We just need to pick that lock so he can remember.”

All eyes returned to the screen again. Sometime during their little discussion Snart had sat down on the little bench in the cell. No one had seen him move.

“And we better do it fast before he finds a way to break out of there.”

That brings their eyes back to Mick, all of them filled with fear.

“Masterthief, remember? Never found a lock he couldn’t open, given time.”

Over the next days Mick and Sara take turns trying to get through to Snart. Kendra wanted to help, at first, but she couldn’t take more than a few minutes of his silent staring before she fled again.

No one thought Snart would react positively to Rip so he was banned from the brig.

The professor said he wouldn’t know what to say and Jax had already made his feelings clear.

Ray wanted to help but Mick remembered his attempts at talking to Chronos so he didn’t think that would be a good idea.

“Why not? We were friends, Snart and I, kind of, maybe. He didn’t completely hate me?”

Ray had that kicked puppy look again when Mick still shook his head.

“You’d annoy him and then he’d break out of there just to shut you up. Not gonna happen, Haircut.”

Ray pouted but admitted defeat.  

Sara tried just staring back at Snart at first but he clearly had more patience than her. Then she started talking to him while leaning against the glass wall or walking up and down. He’d follow her with his eyes but he never replied.

Mick was the only one he ever actually spoke to. After spending about an hour being uncomfortable leaning against the wall on his first visit Mick takes a chair, some beer and snacks the second time he goes to visit Snart.

He thinks he sees another of those fleeting smirks when he sets up his chair, sits down and opens his beer. But by the time he’s all settled in all the walls are back up and Charon is in full control.

“Planning to stay a while, Chronos? I had not realised watching me do nothing was so fascinating.”

Mick takes a sip of his beer and shrugs.

“You and me are gonna have a little talk, Snart, and I don’t see why I need to be uncomfortable for it. I’m not the one who’s locked up.”

Charon folds himself down to sit cross legged near the glass wall separating them.

“What does it take to convince you that I am not and will never be Leonard Snart?”

“Not gonna happen, partner. I was where you are now so I know you’re still in there, Len. I know you put up walls to protect yourself. What the Time Masters did to us was even more fucked up than anything your bastard of a father ever did to you so I’m thinking that just means you put thicker walls between you and the world. Can’t hurt you if it can’t reach you, right?”

He thought he saw a slight flinch when he mentioned Lewis and eyebrows pulling together slightly before smoothing out again.

“Why are you so desperate to make me weak, Chronos?”

“Snart wasn’t weak, he’s tough as nails, even when he was just a scrawny little kid in juvie. You weren’t weak. And this , that act you’re putting on, it’s not strength, it’s hiding.”

“I can concede your point on not enjoying being bossed around by the Time Masters. But we’re both off their leash now, Chronos. Why do you want to stay on this ship with people who look down on us both? We’ve got time ships, we could go wherever, whenever , we please.”

“Now see, if Snart made me that offer I’d be all for it but Charon, he’s no fun, so I fear I’ll have to turn you down.”

Mick finishes his beer and packs up his chair. Snart gets up and walks beside Mick as far as the cell allows.

“I’ll be back soon, Lenny. Might even bring you a beer too, next time.”

When Mick gets back to the bridge after one of his visits with Snart it’s obvious that the others have been watching them on the screen again.

“So, what do you think, Mr. Rory, will you be able to get through to Mr. Snart”, Rip asks.

Mick sits down in one of the chairs, one leg thrown over the armrest.

“Pretty sure I can, yes. But he’s always been stubborn, might take some more time.”

“I thought we were in a hurry lest he escape”, Stein says.

Rip turns back to the screen to watch Snart sitting on the bench.

“I find it interesting that he has not even made an attempt yet. He’s been in the brig for a week now. Surely he knows all about the construction, layout and technology of a time ship from the induction. So why hasn’t he tried to get out”, Rip muses aloud.

Mick tries very hard not to flinch at the mention of what he and Snart had gone through.

The others trade uncertain looks.

“Maybe because he doesn’t want to leave”, Ray suggests and his face lights up. “Which would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? Him not wanting to leave? Maybe it means he wants us to help him?”

“As much as I would like to agree with you, Mr. Palmer, I don’t think that is the reason why he’s in no hurry to leave.” Rip looks back over towards Mick and the others follow his line of sight.

“You think he’s still here because Mick’s still here, don’t you”, Sara asks. “That makes sense. Mick is the only one he really reacts to.”

Mick shrugs.

“He keeps calling me Chronos, though.”

Sara nods.

“And you keep calling him Snart. I think while we’re hoping you talking to him will bring Snart back Charon’s hoping him talking to you will bring Chronos back.”

“That’s so messed up”, Jax says and shakes his head.

“We’ve always been messed up, him and me”, Mick replies, “nothing new there. Maybe that was why we always got along so well. Never thought I’d miss his stupid puns, though.”

“Is there even the slightest chance his plan might work, Mr. Rory? I want you to consider this carefully and answer me honestly: Do you think he might be able to turn you back into Chronos?”

Mick makes a show of considering Hunter’s question for a few seconds when really he didn’t need to think about it at all.

“No chance in hell.”

The others accept his reply and visibly relax.They’d never stand a chance if Charon could actually manage to turn Mick, especially not if they are this trusting.

“But I think we need to speed up our own plan nonetheless. Is there anyone else Mr. Snart would trust es much as he trusts you”, Rip asks.

Before Mick even has a chance to answer Rip brings up the file he’s created on Snart.

“What about his sister?”

Mick jumps up and is in the Time Master’s face within a second.

“Leave Lisa out of this. I will never put her through seeing her brother like that. Never.”

Sara carefully takes Mick’s arm and pulls him away from Rip who had automatically started to reach for his weapon.

“Ok, let’s all calm down. I agree with Mick. If it were me in that cell I’d never want Laurel to see me like that. Is there anybody else he might react to? Any other family, friends?”

“Lisa and me are all the family he has and none of us are all that great at making friends.”

They all fall silent for a while then, each one trying to remember if Snart had ever mention anyone else to them.

Finally Mick broke the oppressive silence.

“The Flash.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You gone deaf, Hunter? I said The Flash.”

The others trade confused looks.

“I thought Captain Cold and The Flash were enemies. Didn’t Snart try to kill him?”

Mick chuckles. These people really didn’t know Snart very well, did they?

“If Snart had wanted him dead the kid would be dead. Nah, he was having way too much fun playing this weird game of cops and robbers with him, said the kid forced him to up his game, made things more interesting. And Snart enjoyed playing supervillain way too much. I think he’s got some kind of strange obsession with Speedy. Also told me the Flash somehow got the idea that he can make a law abiding citizen out of Snart, had a good laugh about that one.”

“Captain Cold and Flash are frenemies”, Jax says and starts giggling. Sara tried very hard and failed not to join in while Ray was busy explaining to the professor what frenemies meant while holding back his own laughter.

“Now I know why Oliver kept grumbling about ‘ fraternising with the enemy ’ and ‘ silly nicknames ’ whenever he came back from Central”, Sara manages to say between giggles. Which sets Jax and Ray off again.  

Hunter let them all blow off some steam before drawing their attention back to the matter at hand.

“So you think that The Flash could get through to Mr. Snart?”

“Well, it would sure be worth a try. And if nothing else comes of it it would at least be very amusing to watch.”

That earns Mick a slight glare from those who actually knew the Flash personally but they had to admit it was definitely worth a try.

“Gideon, set a course for Central City, 2016, some time when there is no major crisis going on so we’ll have some time to talk to the resident speedster without him running off every five minutes.”

Mick got the feeling Rip wasn’t a big fan of speedsters in general.

“Yes, Captain. Would it terribly surprise you that there are not many moments in time that match those criteria?”

“Not really, Gideon, not really.”

Chapter Text

“Snart.”

“Barry.”

“How’re you?”

Barry fidgets nervously.

Charon lifts an eyebrow. “Peachy.”

“I'm so sorry about what happened to you.”

“I don't see how you came to the conclusion that it’s your fault.”

“If I hadn't told you you could be better you'd never have joined Rip. You'd have stayed safely in Central City.”

“Nowhere is safe from the Time Masters, Barry Allen. I should know, I helped make sure of that. Go back home, this isn't any of your business.”

Charon turns away and sits back down.

“Heatwave asked me for my help, that makes it my business. He misses his partner. And believe it or not, Snart, I'd rather have Captain Cold back robbing banks in Central than seeing you like this.”

Charon doesn't reply. After a few moments waiting for any reaction Barry leaves with a last sad look backwards.

“Your security sucks, Red.”

Barry had nearly fallen out of his chair when the booming voice ripped through the silence of the cortex.

Cisco had actually fallen off his chair but he’d been tipping it back dangerously far anyway.

“What the hell is Heatwave doing here? And who’s the Cowboy,” Cisco remarked while picking himself up off the floor.

“My name is Rip Hunter and we’ve come to ask a favour of the Flash, if he’s not too busy.”

“If you’re busy we’ll just kidnap you anyway.”

“Mr. Rory!”

“Whoa, hey, no one is kidnapping anyone! And how do you even know he’s the Flash?”

Cisco crossed his arms and tried to look like he wasn’t cowed by the glare Rory sent his way.

Caitlin looked out of her lab at all the shouting and stopped short when she caught sight of Heatwave. If looks could kill he’d be very dead right now. Clearly she hadn’t forgiven him yet for nearly blowing her up.

Rory just smirked at her before turning back to Barry.

“The Time Masters have files on all you speedsters, they really don’t like you lot. I guess it’s all the messing with timelines you do.”

Barry tried to make sense of that sentence for a second before giving up.

“What the hell’s a Time Master?”

Rory pointed to the guy he’d walked in with.

“That.”

Cowboy guy looked insulted.

“What Mr. Rory is trying to say is that it’s a long story but if you’re willing to help us we’ll explain everything you need to know.”

“Help with what, exactly?”

Barry looked from one of their intruders to the other while Caitlin finally dared to fully step out of her lab and lean against the table next to Cisco.

“Snart,” Heatwave grunted.

“Why would you need his help with Captain Cold”, Cisco asked looking confused.

“It’s easier to show you, I think”, Rip Hunter said.

“He’s on my ship so I suggest we take this conversation over there?”

“Your ship”, Caitlin asked with a frown. “Not the water kind of ship, I take it?”

“No, my time ship ”, Rip replied with a smug grin.

“Less showing off, more walking”, Heatwave said and just leaned forward, grabbed Barry’s arm and pulled him along.

Barry allowed it, at first because he was too surprised to react, then because he was too intrigued not to play along.

Caitlin, Cisco and Rip hurried after them.

Rory stopped outside in the parking lot in what seemed like a random place to Barry.

Once the others had caught up Hunter pulled out some kind of remote and pressed a button.

“My ship, the Waverider”, he said as in front of their eyes an honest to god space ship just appeared.

“I’m seriously geeking out right now”, Cisco whispered.

“This is totally creepy”, Cisco said leaning closer to the screen.

“That’s what I said”, Jax remarked from behind them.

“Are you sure that’s actually Captain Cold? I mean it looks like him, yes, but maybe it’s an evil clone? More evil, I mean.”

“It’s Snart”, Rory said and sat down in one of the weird chairs on the bridge. “I know it’s Snart. We just need to convince him of that.”

“So these Time Masters, they brainwashed him”, Caitlin asked looking sad yet intrigued.

Rory just grunted and took a sip of the beer he’d acquired somewhere.

“It’s more torture than brainwashing but basically yes, they brainwashed him. And then had him working for them for an unknown amount of time”, Hunter explained.

“And he was the freakin’ best at the job, too”, Heatwave mumbled behind them, sounding somewhat proud.

Barry saw Ray shoot the arsonist a pitying look while Stein started up some kind of discussion with Caitlin.

Barry still felt a bit overwhelmed. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that there were actual Time Lords, like on Doctor Who, who also apparently randomly abducted people and brainwash them into working for them.

“Rory’s taking it pretty hard, isn’t he”, he asked Sara who’d just come to stand next to him.

“Yeah, guess he didn’t tell you that they did it to him, too? Didn’t think so. He doesn’t like to talk about it.”

Barry sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“I know they’re bad guys but I feel bad for both of them right now. No one deserves that.”

Sara squeezed his shoulder before sitting down in the chair next to Rory and clinking her bottle of beer against his.

Barry turned back to the screen showing Snart sitting completely still in his cell. Cisco was right, it was creepy.

“Why should Barry even help Snart? He’s tried to kill him more than once, he’s kidnapped Caitlin and me, he’s a supervillain!”

Rory laughed dryly.

“Because helping is what you hero types do, and also because ol’ Charon over there is much worse than Snart could ever be. He wouldn’t give a damn about any deals Snart had with the Flash.”

“I want to talk to him”, Barry said.

Before he braved the brig again Barry had Jax show him to what counted as a kitchen on a time ship.

“Um, Gideon”, Barry asked when he realised he had no idea how any of the strange tech in there worked.

“Yes, Mr. Allen”, the AI replied cheerfully.

“Can you make any kind of food in here or is there, like, a menu?”

“Tell me what you need and I shall see what I can do.”

Ten minutes later Barry walks into the brig with a smile on his face and two steaming mugs in his hands.

“Hi again, Cold. I thought you could do with something warm for a change.”

Standing up from the bench Charon lifts an eyebrow.

“Even Chronos’ puns aren’t that bad, Flash.”

Barry just puts his own mug down on the floor, his grin getting even wider. He was pretty sure banter, no matter how minimal, was an improvement.

When Barry steps up to the cell door and opens it he thinks he even sees actual surprise on Charon’s face for a second before it smoothes out again.

“You heroes, no sense of self-preservation. What if I try to flee?”

“Well, I did tell Gideon to lock the brig door if you try and also I’d just catch you and throw you back in there. Fastest man alive, remember?”

He holds out the second mug to Charon, his smile never leaving his face.

The former Captain Cold makes no move to step closer or take the mug.

“Oh, come on, it’ll get cold. Also no poison or drugs, I swear, only mini marshmallows.”

When that still doesn’t get a response Barry shrugs and puts the mug down on the cell floor before sitting down in front of the door and reaching for his own mug.

“Suit yourself.”

Barry makes a big show of sipping his own cocoa with an exaggerated look of bliss on his face.

Finally Snart rolls his eyes and sits down as well. He carefully reaches for the mug and inspects it thoroughly before taking a sip.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.”

Barry feels a warmth in his chest that’s not just from the hot drink. They could do this, him and Rory, they could help Snart, they just had to be obnoxiously persistent. And bribe him with hot beverages.

“So, Rip has been explaining to me what’s been going on with you, Rory and the Time Masters. Most pretentious name ever, by the way. Cisco could have come up with something much better. Anyway, he was very vague on the details of what really happened to you and what you’ve been doing while you were gone.”

He looks at Snart questioningly.

No reply is forthcoming at first but Barry just keeps looking at him expectantly over his cup until Snart gives in.

“That’s because he doesn’t know what I do. Only those with the highest security clearance do.”

Barry takes another sip and lifts his eyebrows.

“Sounds very James Bond.”

“If James Bond went through time erasing people, sure.”

It’s not even close to Snart’s usual drawl but it’s not quite the flat monotone it had been before.

“So you were a hitman?”

Barry tries not to show how much he hates the thought that Snart has been killing people all this time. Had been forced to kill people, actually, from the sound of it.

“The bounty hunters are hitman. I am more of….a contract killer.”

“Where’s the difference?”

Snart takes another sip of his cocoa while trying to think of the best way to answer that,

“The bounty hunters are the chainsaw, the Pilgrim and I are the scalpel.”

When Barry comes back to the bridge Rory’s the only one left there. He’s still sitting in one of the chairs, beer bottle in hand and staring at nothing.

Since Barry doesn’t know any place on the ship but the bridge, the brig, and the kitchen he lets himself fall into the chair next to him.

He lets his eyes wander around the bridge now that it’s mostly empty. It looks more Firefly than Star Trek, he decides. Only those chairs are really weird.

“What are those weird bar thingies for anyway”, he asks pointing upwards at the extensions sticking up from the chair.

“Seat belts”, Rory grunts in reply. “Time jumps can get rough. And that’s even without the other side effects.”

“Do I even want to know about the other side effects?”

Barry isn’t sure that he does but it would still be better than sitting in awkward silence with Heatwave.

“Nausea, speaking backwards, speaking random languages, losing the feeling in your extremities or other body parts, bleeding eyeballs….though I’ve never seen the bleeding eyeballs yet, would be funny.”

Rory grins maniacally over at him and Barry rolls his eyes with a chuckle.

“Now you’re just pulling my leg.”

“Nope, been on enough time jumps to have experienced most of that. But you get used to it after a while. Doesn’t affect me or Snart anymore at all, now.”

The mention of Snart puts a dampener on both their spirits.

“We’ll fix him, Rory. I think we’re already getting somewhere.”

“Ain’t no fixing either of us, kid, we’ve both been screwed up long before we met you. But we can help him get back to his usual level of screwed up, stupid puns and all.”

Barry shrugs with a sad smile.

“Or that, yes. We just have to keep at it. I think we can wear him down, in time.”

“Pretty stupid thing you did back there, opening the cell. He could have killed you.”

Barry shakes his head.

“No, I’d have just speed away and locked him back in. And I think we need to show him that we trust him not to hurt us, that might help.”

Heatwave empties his beer.

“Heroes, all so terribly naive and trusting. How can I knock some sense into you and Haircut?”

Barry frowns.

“Who’s Haircut?”

“Palmer.”

He can’t help but laugh at that.

“Remind me never to let you and Cisco team up on naming things, ever.”

“No danger of that. Pretty sure your little geek would die of fright first, anyway.”

Barry shakes his head.

“Nah, you’re not that scary anymore. I think this, going off with Hunter, helping people, it’s helped you, too. We’ll make good guys out of you and Snart yet.”

Rory frowns at him.

“We’re no heroes, never will be, so don’t get your hopes up, Red.”

Barry just smiles smugly back at him. He was right, he knew it, and Rory knew it too, he was sure.

“Stop that. We’re bad guys, like you said earlier. We’ve hurt and killed people, lots of people.”

“Because the Time Masters made you.”

“We’ve been killing people even before that, and you know it.”

Barry wouldn’t be giving up on that yet but he thinks it might be time to change the subject.

“So, when I was talking to Snart he said him and, um, someone called Pilgrim, were like contract killers. What did he mean by that?”

Heatwave seems to have some kind of inner debate about whether to tell him or maybe how much to tell him. Barry just waits patiently until he’s made a decision.

“I’m still not quite sure what they made Snart do when he went off on missions alone, none of us bounty hunters knew. But if he’s comparing himself to the Pilgrim it must have been pretty messed up. I need something stronger than beer for this.”

Rory gets up and heads for the office space at the back of the bridge. He rummages around for a while then comes back with two tumblers filled to the brim with some kind of alcoholic drink. He hands one of them to Barry before sitting back down.

Barry takes a sip and pulls a face at the strength of the drink.

“Holy hell, what is this? Pure alcohol?”

“No idea, stole it from Hunter’s stock, bottle looks old timey. Burns really pretty, too.”

He takes a much bigger sip than Barry and doesn’t even blink.

“The Pilgrim. She’s the one the Time Masters send after people who’ve really pissed them off. See, she doesn’t just kill you, like now-you, she goes back in time and kills you when you’re still a kid, erases you from history.”

Barry had been about to brave another sip but now he was just trying not to drop the glass in shock.

“She kills children ? Oh I really want to kick the Time Masters’ asses now.”

“Get in line, Red. Me and Snart are gonna kick them first. Anyway, that’s what the Pilgrim does, and everyone at the Vanishing Point knew about that, so how much worse do you think whatever they made Snart do is?”

Barry runs a hand through his hair and really wishes he could get drunk on whatever alcohol Rory gave him. He takes another sip anyway.

“So you see, kid, you’ve just spent an hour drinking hot cocoa with one of the Time Masters’ boogeymen, and you even opened his damned cell. You’re lucky he didn’t kill you.”

Barry shakes his head.

“No, that wasn’t the boogeyman, that wasn’t Charon, that was Snart and he wouldn’t kill me. Freeze me to the floor, maybe, but not kill me.”

“Damn, Red, speed ain’t your superpower, that bloody unshakeable optimism is.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

They clink glasses then fall silent, waiting for something to happen or an idea to strike.

It’s not as awkward as Barry had feared.

Chapter Text

Shouting.

Running.

Gun shots.

Something is wrong.

Charon stands up and listens.

It seems the time ship is under attack.

Surely it is the Time Masters. This was not part of the plan.

Charon doesn't tolerate someone messing up his plans. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Time for a new plan.

Barry had stayed for a week but soon there had been another meta causing trouble in Central and he’d had to leave. He promised to let the Waverider know when he could come back.

Mick and Barry had taken turns shoving hot cocoa and beer and any other beverage they thought he might like at Snart. They reminded him of the fun they’d had together.  Sometimes it was just Snart and Mick, sometimes it was just Snart and Barry but sometimes Barry and Mick ganged up on him, too.

Over that week Mick was sure he slowly saw Charon become a little more like Len. It was subtle, sure, but he’d known the man for more than thirty years. He’d seen him grow from a mouthy, scrawny kid in juvie into a master criminal without equal. He had been Mick’s best friend, his partner, for longer than most people stayed married. He knew Snart.

Mick saw more of those barely there smirks on the usually impassive face, caught him rolling his eyes at Red’s antics more than once.

It had all been going well, slowly but well, which of course meant that disaster was waiting just around the corner, with a crew like theirs. At first they had just been idly drifting in the Time Stream, while Red was still on board, but after they’d dropped the kid back off in his time - “Can’t risk getting him killed and irreversibly messing up the timeline”, Rip had said - they went back on their mission, back to hunting Savage.

It put them back on the Time Masters’ radar, as Mick had suspected. And the Time Masters were unsurprisingly pissed at losing two of their bounty hunters to Rip and his vendetta.

Mick suspected they’d send everyone after them they could spare for now.

Rip had them hiding out in the wild, wild west. A blind spot , he said. Of course the hunters found them.

They were suddenly surrounded and only just made it back to the Waverider in one piece. Even shooting at their assailants like there was no tomorrow they couldn’t manage to close the hatch before a well-aimed blast disabled it and hunters swarmed the ship. A time ship’s narrow corridors were not the best place for fire fights, Mick would say, but then no one asked his opinion.

The team got seperated pretty fast, which was not as bad as it could have been, given that this was their ship and they knew all or most of her hiding places and ambush points. Still, it left most of them with no backup.

Mick found out this particular disadvantage when he rounded a corner, tactically retreating from one bounty hunter, only to nearly run into another.

Even if he’d had two weapons he’d never have been fast enough to kill both of them before they could shoot him.

So, determined to take down at least one of them with him, he roasted the nearest one alive, expecting a bullet in the back as soon as he pulled the trigger.

To his surprise the bullet never came.

Instead he heard the distinctive sound of a body hitting the floor right behind him.

As he turned around he found himself face to face with Charon.

“Did you actually expect me to allow amateurs to kill you, Chronos?”

Before Mick had made up his mind on how to reply Charon had already picked up the dead hunter’s weapon and was checking the amount of ammunition left.

Apparently finding it serviceable his cold gaze settled on Mick once again.

“I suspect you’ll want to save the rest of your pathetic team?”

Mick gave a sharp nod, hoping that he’d been right about Snart and that he’d not just go back to the Time Masters’ side and kill them all.

“Well, what are you waiting for then?”

Charon took off down the corridor, towards the bridge, silent as the angel of death on his bootless feet. They’d never bothered to give him any shoes, Mick remembered.

Charon didn’t seem to mind.

The two of them took out two more hunters before they reached the bridge where Rip and Sara were fighting back to back to keep the hunters from taking control of the Waverider.

The four of them made short work of the three remaining hunters who had managed to get this far.

As soon as the last one dropped Rip and Sara aimed their weapons at Snart.

“So much for gratitude”, he said, nearly sounding like his old self again and clearly not overly impressed.

Snart just ignored the guns aimed at him and dropped his empty weapon to picked up a different one.

“Don’t move, Mr. Snart, or I will shoot you”, Rip warned him. He looked like he meant it, too.

So Mick really had no choice but to step between him and Snart.

“Stop being a dick, Hunter, he just saved my ass, yours too most likely.”

Snart put a hand on Mick’s shoulder.

“Time to leave, Chronos.”

Mick turned around, making sure to still keep his body between Snart and Rip’s gun.

“What do you mean, leave? Len, they’ll be dead in a day without us.”

Rip grumbled about being able to take care of himself just fine, thank you very much , in the background but Mick’s whole being was focused on Snart.

“They are not my concern. And neither should they be yours. Have you forgotten why we left them in the first place?”

Mick pulled a face. Of course he hadn’t forgotten. But they couldn’t just leave now, could they?

Snart was sitting in one of the chairs, gun still in his hand and legs crossed at the ankles, while the Waverider crew stood together at the other end of the bridge. It was far from Len’s usual relaxed sprawl but it was also much less stiff than he’d sat in the brig.

“We can’t just let him walk away, who knows what he’ll do. He might go back to the Time Masters”, Sara said in a half whisper. Mick turned back to her.

“Bullshit, he hates them as much as I do.”

“But how can you be sure of that, Mick”, Ray asked. “I think he’s been playing us this whole time.”

“Course he’s been playing us, it’s Snart , it’s what he does. But he’s only been waiting around for me. Also I think I’ll have a better chance of getting through to him if we’re on our own.”

Kendra put a hand on Mick’s arm.

“I’d miss you if you left with him, Mick. Also, I’m not sure it would be safe for you.”

Mick scoffed.

“He’s my partner, course I’d be safe. Can’t promise the rest of the world would be, though.”

Mick doesn’t really care about the rest of the world, they could all burn as far as he’s concerned. All but Lisa.

“Which is even more of a reason not to let you two leave”, the Professor said. “What if isolating you from us will allow him to turn you back into Chronos?”

“What’cha wanna do, Stein, lock us both up in the brig? Good luck trying.”

“As if that would do any good”, Rip remarked sarcastically. “Or am I the only one who remembers that Mr. Snart just broke out of there?”

Jax glanced at Len and couldn’t quite suppress a shudder.

“Can’t believe I’m saying this as a point in his favour but he could’ve killed us all in our sleep but he didn’t. And I think I’m gonna have nightmares about that now for the rest of my life.”

Mick slapped a hand against Jax’s back, nearly making the kid stumble.

“Thanks, kid, at least someone hasn’t given up on him yet. Also it’s true, he could have killed everyone on the ship but he only broke out when we needed his help.”

“When you needed his help”, Sara remarked. “I doubt he’d have moved a finger for us if you hadn’t been in danger too.”

Mick shrugged.

“Saved your asses anyway, didn’t he? He didn’t have to.”

“I think he only did it for you, Mick”, Ray said. “He knows you wouldn’t have wanted us to die. Not that we couldn’t have defeated those hunters on our own, we obviously could have…”

An uncomfortable silence fell after that as everyone clearly tried to come up with other arguments to keep Mick and Len on board.

“If you’re done talking about me like I can’t hear you I suggest you take me and Chronos back to where and when you left my ship”, Snart broke the silence and stood up.

“Also give us back our armours and weapons.”

“We’re not giving you weapons, Mr. Snart.” Rip glared at him.

“I wasn’t asking , Hunter. You do know I can just knock you out, take my weapons, commandeer this ship and get us back to my ship myself, right?”

“There will be no need for further violence, Mr. Snart”, Stein was quick to reply, hands raised in a placating gesture. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”

“Agreement’s this: Len and I will take our stuff and our weapons, you drop us off at his ship and we’ll be out of your hair.”

In the end there was nothing Rip and the crew could do to force them to stay short of tying them up.

Mick packed the souvenirs and other stuff from his room into a duffle bag while Len was next door doing the same. For the short time they’d been on board he’d accumulated a lot of stuff. Some of it was from Gideon’s fabricator, like his clothes, but quite a bit of it was stolen from various places they’d been. He was sure Len’s loot was bigger, or at least more sparkly.

When he had everything he wanted to keep packed away and turned around to leave Mick suddenly found Snart leaning against the side of his door.

“Damn it, Lenny, one of these days I’m going to tie a bell around that sneaky neck of yours”, he growled to hide how much he’d been startled by his partner’s sudden presence.

Snart merely grinned smugly. An actual grin, not just that barely there smirk Mick had seen now and then. Suddenly he didn’t mind getting startled all that much anymore.

“How long have you been standing there watching me like a creep anyway?”

Snart shrugged.

“It’s hardly my fault you take so long, partner.”

He pushed off the door and picked up his own bag.

“Where did Rip hide away our weapons? And our armour?”

Mick shook his head in fond exasperation and pushed past Len to make his way to one of the storage rooms.

“Weapons will be in the armory, rest should be back here.”

They searched through a few crates before finding the right ones.

As soon as Mick lifted the top off the crate and saw Chronos’ helmet he was suddenly back in the chair. The Time Masters were hurting him, he could feel them digging through his brain, poking around in his memories, hurting him for disobeying, hurting him for speaking, hurting him for not speaking, just hurting him, forcing the helmet on him…

Strong hands on his upper arms pulled his mind back from the past.

“Breathe, slowly, you’re alright, you’re safe,” a familiar voice said, close to his ear.

Mick tried to slow down his rapid breathing, and with it his heart. His hands were gripping the crate so strongly it pressed all the blood out of his knuckles.

“That’s it, breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. You’re on the Waverider, you’re safe, Mick.”

Mick finally managed to pry his hands off the crate. He reached down to pick up the lid and put it back on. He didn’t remember dropping it but he clearly had since it was lying on the floor.

The hands on his arm left as he turned around.

“I’m not taking that thing with me, Len, not gonna happen.”

Snart just nodded, his face not quite blank but Mick also couldn’t read him well enough to know what he was thinking.

“You called me Mick”, he said instead.

“You’ve pulled me out of my fair share of flashbacks about Lewis, I know what to do. Let’s get our weapons and then we can start making a plan to get revenge for everything they did to us.”

Mick didn’t say anything about it, they were never good at talking about feelings, but he was very grateful that Snart seemed to have decided to leave Charon’s armour behind as well.

Mick approached the armory with a certain trepidation. Len apparently felt the same because he kept a close eye on Mick while they were cleaning and packing away their arsenal.

Thankfully Mick didn’t have any problems handling the guns and soon they were ready to leave and made their way back to the bridge.

The rest of the crew were watching them warily, now that they were armed.

“You can still change your minds, gentlemen”, Rip said from his place in the captain’s chair. “You can stay, help us against Savage.”

“Not our fight, Hunter”, Len said and dropped his bag on the floor beside a chair.

Mick sat in his own chair, still feeling slightly shaken from what happened before.

“He’s right, you got us into enough trouble already, we’re out.”

Snart was suddenly beside him again, hand on Mick’s shoulder.

“And be glad I blame the other Time Masters more than I blame you. Now, my ship, where is it?”

Rip sighed and the others started to drift towards their chairs, clearly having given up on trying to change their minds.

“Middle of a forest, Siberia, 1720. It’s cloaked, of course. I’ve given Gideon the exact coordinates.”

Snart nodded and sat down next to Mick.

“Do you wish me to plot a course there now, Captain”, Gideon asked cheerfully.

“Yes, Gideon, let’s get this over with.”

The time jump was a short one and soon they were standing in a clearing deep in a forest covered in snow. Mick thought he saw Len grin again when they all realized that cloaking a ship was all well and good unless it snowed. There was a decidedly ship shaped heap of snow just floating in midair.

“We’ll be off then,” Snart said.

Jax stepped forward and hugged a very surprised Mick for a second before quickly getting out of reach again.

“I’ll miss you, man, I really will.”

When Ray stepped forward with his arms outstretched as well Mick glared at him.

“Don’t even try it, Haircut, or I’ll break your nose.”

Ray’s smile only dimmed a little.

“Be seeing you around, klepto and pyro”, Sara said.

Rip and Stein both nodded at them before herding their bunch of do-gooders back onto the Waverider.

“Let’s get out of this fucking snow, Snart, before we freeze off something important.”

They got onto Charon’s ship which was decidedly nicer than Chronos’ had been.

“You’re such a teacher’s pet, Snart”, Mick grumbled as he went looking for the sleeping quarters. He thought he heard Len chuckling quietly behind him.

Chapter Text

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No, Snart.”

“Come on, Mick.”

“I said no, shut up.”

“But I've got a plan, it will work.”

“Your plan is crazy and it will get us killed or worse, caught.”

“It's better than being on the run, don't you think? Also, we'd get paid.” Len’s too proud of his stupid plan.

“It will never work, they hate our guts.” Mick checks his heat gun again then checks his two back up guns, too. “They'll shoot us before you can even open your mouth. Stupid plan.”

Len glares at him like he does every time Mick doesn't believe his plan will work. Mick would like to point out that he's been right about that before but Len stars talking first.

“When you get right down to it they all hate the Time Masters more than they hate us.”

Mick doubts that.

“We only have to show them they've got options. It'll be like… a union.”

Mick stares at his partner for a heart beat.

“Only you, Lenny”, he finally says with a laugh.

Snart looks offended.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Only a crazy bastard like you would want to unionize the bounty hunters.”

Snart frowns.

“I didn't, actually, I just wanted them to turn against the Time Masters but now that you've pointed it out unionizing them is even better.”

Mick groans at the smirk spreading over Snart's face.

It’s not completely back to how it used to be between them. Mick knows there had never been any chance of that. They’ve both been through too much.

Len’s still too quiet. The silence when he doesn’t take a perfectly good opportunity to make a stupid pun rings loudly in Mick’s ears every damn time.

He can see the frown on Len’s face when Mick idly, nearly absentmindedly, flips the lid of the lighter open and closed without lighting it, without staring at the flame until something snaps him out of the trance.

It’s like phantom pain from distant memories.

They both have nightmares. Not that that is anything new, they’ve both had their share of nightmares even before. They don’t talk about them, they don’t do feelings, not even now. But they don’t have to. Mick is sure that their nightmares are similar.

But they’re still a damn good team. When they fight they move as one, maybe more ruthlessly now, less flamboyantly, less drama and banter.

Len’s still the best damn planner he’s ever met, making lists and drawing plans and having contingencies for the contingencies, timing things down to the second. Dotting t’s, crossing i’s.

Mick still trusts him like he’s never trusted anyone else before or after. If Len told him to jump off a cliff he’d call him an idiot but he’d most likely do it anyway.

And Mick is still the only one Len trusts. Apart from Lisa , a part of his mind whispers, and he wonders if that is actually still true. It has been lifetimes since they’ve seen her. And Len hasn’t asked to go back and make sure she was alright even once.

Mick knows that should worry him more than it does but he’s nearly sure that Len just doesn’t want to put her in danger. They’re kind of still on the run from the Time Pigs, after all, and you just don’t bring the heat down on your family if you can help it.

Maybe if this stupid plan of Snart’s succeeds they’ll be able to go visit. When, not if , he reminds himself.

Or maybe after they’ve got their revenge, after they made the Time Bastards burn for what they did to them.

Patience, Mick.

All in all the stupid plan works out surprisingly well. Len pouts about Mick’s tone of surprise about this fact.

They only have to kill two of the bounty hunters, the truly crazy ones who only listen to the Time Masters. The rest, once disarmed and tied up, come round to Len’s way of thinking pretty fast.

Snart could always grift like no one's business when he had to. It had never been his favourite kind of job but he could get what he wanted from a mark.

It helps if what he wants is something the mark already wants as well.

None of the bounty hunters were happy about the quasi-slavery they lived in. They’d have prefered to actually get paid for the work they did, obviously, and they’d have liked a say in what kind of jobs they took.

In the end the remaining ones stand united behind Len and Mick. Not all of them want revenge but they are all determined to get their points across to their one-time masters by any means possible. And if they could also humiliate the smug bastards in the process, even better.

With the prospect of having their entire well trained army turned against them and no one left  to fight their battles for them the Time Masters reluctantly agree to most of their terms. Len and two of the bounty hunters spend about 6 hours with the High Council debating terms and contracts and most likely hackling about the wages like old ladies at the sunday market.

Finally they reach an accord everyone can live with and contracts are signed and hands are shaken and Len looks much too smug when the Time Masters grumpily scuttle off to lick their wounds.

“I don’t expect this to be a long term solution”, he admits as he and Mick set off on their first mission under the new terms. “I am sure the Time Masters are even now trying to come up with a plan to get back to how things were but until they figure that out we’ll be safe. We’ll play along, earn some money, and make long term plans of our own.”

“Fine by me, partner,” Mick replies as he takes them to the temporal zone.

“We should check up on Lisa”, Len suddenly says from where he’s sprawled out on their bed. “Who knows what kind of trouble she gets into without us.”

Mick puts down the weights he’d been lifting and picks up a towel to wipe the sweat from his face. He scoffs and sits down next to Len’s legs.

“If I remember correctly it’s usually been us getting into trouble. I bet she’s fine.”

Sitting up as well Snart glares at him.

“We didn’t get into trouble that much, Mick. And anyway, we’ve got no job to do currently, there is nothing worth stealing we haven’t stolen already and I’m bored.”

He tries to give Mick the kind of puppy eyed look that had always worked for his sister but looked kind of wrong on Len’s older face. Or maybe it wasn’t a question of age at all because even when Mick had met him in juvie Len had always been more of a mean alley cat than a puppy.

“Fine, fine, we’ll check up on your sister.”

That smug look on the other hand was all Len.

“Should we bring her a present,” Mick wonders after a second. “It’s not like we don’t have some sparkly things she might like. Maybe that big diamond lemon you got in 1914?”

“Great idea, partner. But I was thinking our little souvenirs from Ireland, 1907, might be more to her liking. Wouldn’t want her to think we’re calling her sour.”

Mick laughs.

“But that would have been half the fun of it.”

“She’d have shot us”, Len replies deadpan.

“Nah, hit us maybe, but she’d not shoot us for a bit of fun.”

Len spreads back out on the bed, his face suddenly inscrutable.

“Do you remember when we left Central, Mick? Do you remember which year it was?”

“Course I do, January 2016, while we were robbing the CC Bullion Exchange. You stole a stupid minivan as a getaway car.” Mick takes a moment to catch on to his partners mood. “Don’t you?”

Snart’s squeezing the life out of one of those stress relieve balls in his hand and doesn’t reply. Mick is wondering whether to ask again or let it go when the ball goes flying through the room.

“No, Mick, I don’t. It’s all...”, Len makes some frustrated gestures towards his head, “...not quite right. I remember what we did, the heists, the trips, the times behind bars but it’s all out off order. No, that’s not it. It’s all out of context . It’s like I’ve gone through the looking glass and up is down and past is future and none of it makes sense.”

Mick frowns and doesn’t know how to reply but it doesn’t matter because Len’s still not looking at him.

“It’s like I have no time frame for any of it. I remember it happening but I don’t remember when it was, how old we were. I don’t know when home is any longer, Mick.”

Mick twists the towel around in his hands, searching for something to say.

“Time works differently at the Vanishing Point”, he finally says. “It’s all upside down and inside out. It’s a place where people can come back from missions before they have even left.We spent a lot of time there, and had the Time Masters messing with our heads. Who knows what the bastards did to you? Maybe going back to Central will help you get context?”

Len squeezes Mick’s arm for a second before sitting up.

“Hey, Gilly?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Set a course for Central City, 2016, August 1st. That should give Lisa enough time to actually miss us.”

And miss them she did if the way she whispers Len’s name before hugging him and then punching him in the shoulder is any indication.

“Where the hell were you, you jerks”, Lisa asks and punches Mick as well. “It’s been 8 months and not one word from either of you. And you didn’t even say goodbye.”

Lisa pouts and crosses her arms.

Len pulls their gift out of his coat pocket and holds it out to her with an unapologetic grin.

“Oh, sparkly”, Lisa purrs and takes the jewelry to examine it. “But don’t you think this gets you off the hook for vanishing on me and then breaking into my safe house like nothing happened, mister. I’m still mad at both of you.”

The jewelry vanishes somewhere on her person but the pout is back, just to prove her point.

“ But if you take me to dinner - some place nice, mind you, not the Motor Car - and help me steal those nice gold bracelets the museum just got on loan from the Louvre I might just possibly forgive you.”

How could either of them say no to that?

Dinner goes better than the heist, unsurprisingly, but with both Snarts and their clever minds on it plan D - or was it E? - gets them out of the museum, all kinds of nice, shining things in their pockets, and the pigs none the wiser. As usually planning things for weeks in advance was worth it, even if it meant sharing both Snarts with a bunch of blueprints and putting up with their arguing about it all. It’s not like Mick and Len don’t have the time. Time travel is very useful like that.

Afterwards they get take out and enough alcohol to kill a cow (no, Mick had never actually tested how much alcohol that would take, the cow was unconscious before that) and then go back to Lisa’s safe house to celebrate.

All three of them are well on their way to being wasted when Lisa starts looking at Len strangely and finally drapes herself against his side, arm over his shoulder.

“You’re different”, she says, not yet slurring her words but the tone is subdued. “Somehow, you’re different. What happened, Lenny? Where have you been?”

Mick wonders if he should leave them to it but he’s not sure he could walk in a straight line right now and, more importantly, the alcohol is here so he’s not leaving.

Len sends him a questioning look and he just shrugs. He doesn’t particularly care what or how much they tell Lisa.

So Len puts down the bottle and tells her, all of it, not the details of course, especially not the terrible ones, but enough so that she gets an idea that it hadn’t all been fun. Mick must have fallen asleep shortly after because that’s the last thing he remembers.

“Did I hallucinate that or did Len tell me last night that you’ve been time travelling”, Lisa asks the next morning as all three of them nurse their hangovers. Len’s taking a shower so Mick gets to deal with the awkward morning after questions, sneaky bastard.

“Not a hallucination”, Mick replies. “But it was damn trippy sometimes, that’s for sure.”

“And they really tortured you?”

Lisa takes his hand, her face somewhere between worried and furious that anyone dared to hurt her boys.

Mick just shrugs. “We survived, and we got a time ship out of it, so I’d say it worked out ok, in the end. Not like we’ve not been plenty damaged even before. We’ll be ok, Len and me, always are.”

Is Mick imagining it or are there actual tears shining in Lisa’s eyes? Before he can take a closer look he finds himself with an arm full of Snart-the-Younger hugging him so tight it gets hard to breath.

“There, there, Lizzie”, he says, awkwardly patting her on the back. “It’s ok. We’re ok.”

When Len finally comes back to the kitchen Lisa pulls away from Mick to tackle-hug her brother just as tightly.

“I can’t leave you two alone for even one day, you idiots, can I”, she mumbles into his shoulder.

Len looks just as awkward as Mick had felt when he tries to comfort a sniffling Lisa. He sends Mick a what-did-you- do -look which Mick finds very unfair. He scowls and announces he’s going to make breakfast before stomping off to the kitchen. He hopes the crying will be over by the time breakfast is ready.

Of course Lisa wants to see the ship. Mick trails behind them as Len shows her around proudly and they trade references to movies and tv shows Mick has hardly any clue about. Fucking nerds, the both of them.

In best little sister fashion she pesters Lenny into taking her on a time jump. At first she wanted to go see some dinosaurs but after Mick explains the side effects of long time jumps she pulls a face and settles for 1900.

But even after this relatively  short jump she goes blind for a few moments and Len flutters around her worriedly until she’s better.

Even though bounty hunters didn’t always bother with period appropriate clothes their ship has a replicator and soon Lisa is chattering happily with Gilly about dresses and shoes and whether or not she could hide her gold gun in her skirts.

Mick grumbles about girls and shoes while he gets dressed himself when suddenly Lisa is standing in front of him, wearing some thankfully very concealing underclothes and holding out a corset.

“Some help here, Mickey-darling?”

Mick swallows and gingerly takes the garment.

“Don’t even know what to do with this, kid. Can’t you just go without?”

“Where would be the fun in that? Now suck it up and do as I tell you.”

And of course he does because Mick just can’t say no to either of the Snarts.

Chapter Text

Rip.

Blondie.

And Haircut.

Jax and Stein.

They're all in individual cells.

“Told you they'd be dead without us, boss.”

“Can't say I cared much back then, can't say I care much now.”

They watch the holographic screen displaying the prisoners and their numerous crimes for a while before Len gets bored. Mick frowns.

“We can't just leave them there, boss. They did kind of rescue us.”

“If it weren't for them we'd have never left Central City and wouldn't have been kidnapped. I'd say we're about even.”

Mick watches the recording of Rip dragging Savage before the Council, watches them side with the psycho who'd killed Rip’s family. He wishes he could burn them all but Len said to be patient. Len said they first needed plans and backup plans so they would be sure to succeed on the first try.

While they wait for a new job at the Vanishing Point Mick keeps sneaking glances at the Waverider crew in their cells.

He knows Len’s right. It's their, or actually Rip’s fault that him and Snart had been tortured.

He'd been angry at them for a long time about that when he’d been Chronos.

But they did help him rescue his partner and no matter what Len said he owed them for that.

Now he only had to convince a stubborn Snart to help him with a prison break.

“No, Mick, we’re not risking everything to break those idiots out.”

Mick crosses his arms, his new armour poking the insides of his elbows uncomfortably.

“They'd do it for us, especially Haircut.”

Len looks unconvinced.

“Would that be before or after they practically told me to kill you?”

“They did what?” Mick sounds disbelieving.

“It's why I wanted to go home. They never saw us as part of their team, Mick. And they definitely aren't part of our crew.”

“Still don't think we should let the Time Masters kill them. Especially since they've been orchestrating the whole thing.”

Now it is Snart's turn to look surprised.

“They did what now?”

“Saw the recording of Rip bringing them Savage. Their digital security is a joke. They said they've been helping Savage all along because of some aliens that will attack Earth.”

“Show me that recording.”

Snart's hatred of the Time Masters is actually enough to make him forget all his careful planning after watching the recording.

Len could deal with working for the bastards knowing they were going to get their revenge eventually but he couldn't stomach being indirectly responsible for supporting Savage by working for them.

“This ends today, one way or another”, Snart growls. “So it seems we'll be breaking your little friends out of prison after all.”

“After you, boss”, Mick says with a big grin. “Let's go roast some Time Pigs.”

Turns out the Time Master guards have no chance against two of their own Bounty Hunters armed to the teeth. In hardly any time at all - “633 seconds”, Len says - they're all back on the Waverider making their escape.

Of course that's not the end of it.

According to Rip the Time Pigs have this fancy machine that allows them to not only see but control time.

No chance in hell either Mick, Len or apparently any of the do-gooders will let the pompous asses have control of time.

So plans are made to blow things up. Mick approves.

Snart looks sceptical but his demands that they need more information on that device, it's security, and location get ignored all around.

“Don't expect me to save your useless asses then.”

If it wouldn't earn him a punch Mick would say Len was pouting.

As usually when Snart was forced to work with someone who wouldn't listen to his advice he makes his own plans to minimize the damage.

He used to only have to do that when working with Lewis because after that he'd had his own crew who knew better than to not follow his plan. Not that Len had been able to do all that much to salvage Lewis’ plans, which relied too much on brute force and a quick getaway. At least not without getting beaten up for interfering afterwards.

Mick still wishes Len had let him burn the sick bastard but it's somehow better to know that Len had freed himself - and Lisa, of course - in the end.

So to stop Rip’s plan from being a complete disaster they steal the Jump Ship, again.

“Mr. Snart, I demand that you and Mr. Rory return to the Waverider immediately. This is not the time for a temper tantrum.”

In Mick's opinion if anyone sounded like they were having a hissy fit it was Hunter.

“No can do, Rip. Ever heard of not putting all of your eggs in one basket? We're going to get our ship for when you'll be needing backup.”

Len definitely looks like he is enjoying this.

“I doubt we'd be needing backup if two of our most competent fighters hadn't just run off.”

Rip looks about ready to tell them they'd be on house arrest for at least a month. Mick can't help the quiet chuckle that escapes him.

“This is no laughing matter, Mr. Rory!”

“Don't know, looks pretty damn funny from here. Now are you going to keep whining or are we going to kick some Time Bastard ass?”

“I'm with Mick. Let's go”, Sara chimes in and Rip visibly gives up.

“Fine, it's not like I can stop you anyway. At least try not to-”

Mick doesn't find out what they're not supposed to do because Len cuts off the transmission and cloaks the ship to set off back to the Vanishing Point.

“I wish he had a mute button in real life as well,” Len mumbles.

Mick laughs and grabs Len's shoulder.

“You and me both. Now let's go steal our ship back.”

This was going to be fun.

It was laughably easy to sneak a cloaked Jump Ship into the hangar.

Even though they'd just had their prisoners escape the Time Masters were still too arrogant to believe they needed actual security at the Vanishing Point.

Pride comes before getting blown up. Mick is aware that this isn't how the saying goes but he finds his version much more appropriate.

Once Len's on their ship Mick parks the Jump Ship in their biggest cargo bay and they take off. Now a few of the Time Masters realise that something is wrong but before anyone can take aim they've activated their cloak and left.

By the time they've circled the whole structure and finally located the Oculus Wellspring the Waverider crew appears to already have started without them.

Len observes the fight for a few seconds before declaring: “I'm going down there. They'll get their asses handed to them in a minute if we leave them to it.”

“I can go, boss.”

Snart shakes his head.

“You're a much better shot with the ship's guns than me, Mick. You stay here, cloaked, and provide backup when needed. I'll go down there with the Jump Ship and provide backup on the ground.”

He grabs his weapons and his new armour.

“I told him it was a terrible plan but would he listen? No . So typically Time Master”, he grumbles.

“See you later, boss, try not to have too much fun without me and try not to shoot Hunter accidentally on purpose.”

“No promises.”

Mick keeps their ship hovering near the fight while he feels the vibrations of the cargo bay door opening and closing.

He amuses himself with guessing behind which building Len might land and from which direction he might join the fight.

He's only slightly off when a ray of ice suddenly hits a guard sneaking up on Rip.

Personally, Mick would have chosen a slightly different angle which would have made it harder to guess where the blast had come from so he could stay hidden for a while longer. A little bit of a guerrilla tactic that was useful against multiple opponents.

But Len is too much of a drama queen to stay hidden anyway and he jumps right into the fight after that first shot.

There seems to be some kind of debate going on among the Waverider crew while they're fighting and after a minute Len, Hunter and Haircut run towards the Oculus while Sara and Firestorm keep the remaining guards occupied.

Mick makes a mental wager with himself on whether Sara or Firestorm will kill more guards. His money would definitely be on Sara.

He regrets that Len didn't take one of the communicators they usually use in missions so Mick could at least listen in to what the hell was going on.

As it is all he can do is wait.

He doesn’t have to wait long before Len comes running back out, making shooing motions towards Sara, who just dropped the last guard, and Firestorm who had just turned back into their less fiery forms.

Mick sees a new group of guards approaching from out of sight of his friends on the ground.

“Finally, this was getting boring”, he grumbles and opens fire.

Sara, Jax and the Professor stop dead in surprise for a second before Len urges them back into running.

Mick keeps covering them until they are in the Jump Ship and taking off with the Waverider right behind them before he gets the hell out as well.

Just as he turns away from the Vanishing Point a bright blue light is starting to come from the Oculus Wellspring.

Apparently things on the ground went something like this according to Len (with some commentary from Sara):

Rip had landed a cloaked Waverider as close to the Oculus Wellspring as he dared.

Setting off towards the Oculus they had been about as stealthy as Mick had expected, meaning not at all. So they were soon intercepted by a group of guards and tried to fight their way through.

Enter Snart to save their collective asses. Allegedly , as Sara made sure to add.

Then, while still doing their best to not get killed, they had somehow managed to have a discussion on who should be going ahead and who should remain behind to take care of the guards.

It seemed to have boiled down to Sara and Firestorm being the best at kicking ass and everyone sticking with what they’re best at. Sara didn’t approve but also wasn’t going to run off and leave the kid and the professor all on their own.

Thus Len, Haircut and Hunter had found themselves standing in front of the Oculus.

Len and Hunter had covered Haircut while he took a look at the fancy tech to find out what made it tick and how to make it go boom.

And as it turned out what the stupid thing needed was someone suicidal enough to hold down some kind of failsafe.

Unsurprisingly Haircut had volunteered to be said suicidal someone. The guy had even less sense of self preservation than a lemming. There’d also been some talk about the Time Masters having shown Rip how Haircut would die and it seeming eerily similar to exactly this situation.

Ray, being the idiot hero he is, seemed to take that as confirmation that he had a sacred duty or something to give his life for this cause.

That’s heros for you, stupid and suicidal, the lot of’em, if anyone were to ask Mick.

“Mr. Palmer, Ray, surely there is another way”, Rip had said.

“We don't have time for me to take an in depth look at this machine. You and Snart have to get out now. It won't take long for it to go critical.”

Ray had been determined.

“You’ve seen it yourself, Captain. This is how I die. At least I'll go out doing something important.”

Rip had gripped Ray’s arm, which was still buried deep inside the Oculus.

“This isn't your fight, Ray. I'm sorry.”

Ray had looked confused, but only for a second, before Rip knocked him out with the butt of his gun.

Pressing down at a specific point at the front of Haircut’s suit Rip had made it shrink. He’d pushed the unconscious, shrunken Ray into Len's hand while reaching for the failsafe himself.

“Mr. Snart, get Mr. Palmer out of here.”

“What about you”, Len had asked.

“ I started this, Mr. Snart. It was my…vendetta against Savage that got all of us into this situation. I decided to go against the Time Masters and I dragged all of you into it with me knowing how dangerous it could be. But I thought that it would all be worth it in the end to save my family, to save the world. There is nothing to be done for my family now, Mr. Snart, but if I take away the Time Masters’ way of manipulating time you and the others will still have a chance to kill Savage and save the world. Maybe even to save Ms. Saunders, if Savage hasn't killed her yet.”

They both had to duck then as more guards started to file into the room.

“ Go ! I don't know how long before the Oculus explodes.”

Len had put tiny Haircut into one of his pockets, squeezed Rip’s arm for a second, then backed away fast towards the exit, still shooting at the guards to force them to stay behind cover.

Outside he'd found Sara and Firestorm just getting rid of the last of their attackers.

“Run, it's going to blow anytime now.”

“Where are Ray and Rip”, Sara had asked instead of running.

Before Len had had time to answer shots were fired over their heads and they heard shouts uncomfortably close behind them.

“What the hell”, Jax had asked and looked around for the source of the unexpected help.

“Mick's got our back, now move!”

Len had grabbed one arm of the kid and one of the professor and pulled them along towards the Jump Ship.

Thankfully they got over their shock fast and soon they'd all been on board and Len had taken off.

“Gideon, follow us.”

“Of course, Mr. Snart.”

“Wait! What about Ray and Rip”, Jax had asked looking like he wanted to reach over and turn the ship around.

“Ray's right here.” Taking one hand off the controls Snart had transferred Haircut from his pocket to Jax's hand. “Put him somewhere we won't step on him. Rip…stayed behind. There was a failsafe.”

“What do you mean he stayed behind. That things going to blow! We need to turn around and get him!”

“Too late, kid”, Len had said as one of the monitors lit up with a bright blue glow. The Oculus was blowing up and the shock wave was racing after them.

“Hang on to your hats and glasses”, Len had mumbled before shooting the ship at the Time Stream at full speed (definitely not recommended).

They’d barely managed to outrun the wave of temporal energy spreading outwards from the Oculus and bringing with it projectiles made of debris from the Vanishing Point. Mick had heard a few of those bits and pieces bang against the hull of their own ship just before he managed to get into the Time Stream himself. They’d definitely cut it close but in the end all three ships had made it to safety.

Now they just had to defeat Savage and rescue Hawkgirl and her Loverboy. Child’s play. They could mourn Hunter afterwards.