Chapter Text
Landing heavily on something resembling pavement, Ava relied on her training to stop the panic rising in her and to ascertain her situation logically and methodically. She couldn't determine any immediate threats and the fight she had just left, while having been long and hard, had apparently only left her with a sprained wrist, a few bruises and an exhaustion that was overcome by adrenaline at the moment, nothing more serious. So far so good.
Looking around, she saw that she had landed in what seemed to be an alley, in the darkness. She immediately tried to activate her time courier just to find out with another jolt of panic that it was not there. With a sudden pain in her temple, everything that had happened came back to her. Mallus' plan. The Darhks circling in on her and the legends. On Sara. Her time courier being ripped off of her wrist.
Then a flash and then she had landed here. Wherever here was. For now she only knew that she was definitely somewhere very different from where she had been a moment before.
Damn it. Ava didn't curse often, not even in her own head, but this situation truly seemed to call for it. She scanned the immediate area for the presence of any of the other legends but none of them seemed to be here.
Where were they? Were they still with the Darhks? Where was Sara? Worry crept over her, making it hard to breath, to think. This team of rule breakers and especially its captain had become her family so unexpectedly in such a short time, sometimes it was still hard to believe for Ava that it had happened.
But it had, and now the only thing she could think about was to get back to them. To Sara. And for that she needed to focus. To set aside her worry and think. First rule of landing in an unfamiliar environment, find out where and when you are.
To that end, Ava walked on still unsteady legs out of the alley and into a city she wasn't sure she knew. It seemed like Star City (or was it Starling City at this point in time?) but she couldn't be sure. She started towards what she hoped to be a more populated area, which seemed to be far too far away for her liking, especially seeing how exhausted she was after the fight and after having barely slept for weeks, ever since Mallus had truly begun his crusade against the bureau and the legends.
At least it was relatively warm, warm enough for her to not be cold in her pantsuit. Probably spring or early summer. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of just walking, she saw an open store and decided to find a local newspaper to ascertain both the place and the time in which she had landed.
Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible she straightened her pantsuit, which thankfully had been only minimally impaired by her rough landing in the alley and was still presentable enough. A quick check also proved that her wallet was still save in her blazer pocket. She always had some emergency cash with her, but it wouldn't last for long.
Unfortunately, the mission they had been on was supposed to be an easy one, so she had not taken any means of communication with her other than her time courier. Cursing herself silently for that, she took a deep breath and tried to collect her thoughts again.
She was pretty sure that she hadn't been sent that far into the past, or the future for that matter, since everything seemed at least vaguely familiar, familiar enough for this being sometime around the 2000's. So she possibly would even be able to find help in this time, from the bureau or, dare she say it, the legends living in this time period. Entering the store, she made a beeline to the newspaper stand while trying to appear casual enough as to not draw attention.
The first few newspapers she saw confirmed her earlier suspicions. She was indeed in Starling City. And the year was 2009. Fantastic. She sighed. Of course she would land in exactly the year in which she had nowhere to go in this city, nobody she knew. The Time Bureau had not yet been opened here, none of the legends knew anything about time travel or just vigilantism for that matter, and she herself hadn't moved to Starling until two years from now.
So what now? Think. There was no way she could reach herself or Rip in this time period, not with the limited means she had at her disposal at the moment. But she needed backup, a place to stay if she was to succeed in somehow sending a message through time.
If she couldn't find someone who could help her build some sort of temporal beacon she would have to resort to something she didn't particularly like but which might become necessary in this situation, somehow changing the timeline in a significant enough manner for the Time Bureau or the legends to notice and pick her up.
If either was even able to do so at the moment. The Time Bureau was still reeling from having lost Rip and having no idea how to even start to fight the Darhks and Mallus, and when she had last seen the legends… no, she really didn't want to think about that. They were fine. They had to be.
Realizing that she had been standing here for far too long, she left the newspaper stand and slowly went to the cash register, all the while racking her brain, trying to come up with some solution for her predicament. It didn't particularly help that her thoughts went back to Sara all the time.
Not knowing if Sara was okay, not knowing what had happened to her was enough to make her panic again, make her wish she could just do something, anything, to get back to her. But there was nothing she could do. She was stuck in a time where she hadn't even met Sara yet. Worse than that, in a time where Sara was presumed dead, lost at sea with the Queen's Gambit, while in reality being trained in Nanda Parbat by the league of assassins.
While it initially made her just more desperate, that thought also suddenly sparked something in her. There was someone she knew in this time period, in this city. Or not so much knew, rather knew of. Sara's family. She shook her head at herself, knowing that even considering this was breaking more than a dozen different Time Bureau rules.
But then again, she had broken so many rules in the last few weeks, what were a few more? She needed to find a way to get back to her time, to make sure that everyone was safe. And for that, she needed a place to think, to rest.
Her head was still hurting and spinning, her body that was used to a lot of hardship was about to give out on her partly from exhaustion and partly due to her emotional state. Her wrist was throbbing more and more and her money would not be enough for a hotel, even of the cheap variety and to go to a shelter or similar would have meant lying in a way that she felt quite uncomfortable with.
No, whatever the rules said, if there was someone in this city she might be able to convince to let her stay the night without having to reveal her true self or lie in a way she would really rather avoid, she would damn well take that chance. Clearly, her time with the legends had made her a pretty sufficient rule breaker too, because she didn't even feel more than a small pang of guilt at the thought of committing such a massive breach of protocol.
Even worse, now that she had basically decided, which apparently had happened sometime in the last ten seconds, she was actually curious about meeting Sara's family. Sara's sister. She had never had that chance before and seeing that Laurel was dead in her time, it was more than unlikely she would get that chance again.
Taking some gum from the stands near the cash register, she paid and with new determination in her step went to the store exit, trying to think of the details she knew about Laurel and Quentin Lance. Where did they live at this point in time?
She vaguely remembered reports on Sara's family and came to the conclusion that Laurel thankfully had not moved anywhere for years, either before or after Sara's presumed death, and therefore would live in the apartment that she still lived in together with Sara later, after her return. An apartment that Ava knew well from her research on Sara.
Now just to remember the address. Ava had generally a very good memory, and her ever present desire to remember every single detail of every single case, especially such an important one as Sara Lance, was quite helpful in situations like this one, as was her habit of sorting things by keywords in her head to better remember.
She recited the things she knew about Sara's past at this point in time in her head, eventually getting to her sister's apartment and there it was, the address. Pushing aside the last of her doubts, she called a taxi and tried to come up with a reliable cover story during the ride. It had to be something Laurel would believe, something that would not make her throw her out immediately or call her father and have her arrested.
Unfortunately, her exhausted brain was finally catching up with her wrecked body that now that the adrenaline had dissipated somewhat was craving nothing more than rest, both her temple and her wrist hurting more and more.
Which meant that it was getting harder and harder to think, and that her brain seemed to be adamant to play tricks on her, instead of coming up with a valid plan always going back to "Hi, I'm from the future and I love your sister, I need a place to stay, could I spend the night here?" which was quite obviously the worst thing she could say in this situation.
Far too soon, the taxi stopped and she had to get out. Paying the driver, she looked at the apartment building, slightly panicking again. She really needed a plan. Right now. Think. Sara had been in college before she had gone missing, so it would stand to reason that she would have known people there. Right.
She knew enough about Sara to be reasonably sure that she could pretend to be a friend from college, not a student, obviously, but possibly an assistant teacher or something. Yes, that might work.
When someone entered the apartment building she was still standing in front of, she seized her opportunity and went inside with them. Going up to the right apartment, she only had to pluck up the courage to knock. After taking a deep breath, she did exactly that.
For a few moments nothing happened and Ava was already fearing that Laurel wasn't at home at all when she heard steps on the other side of the door. After another moment the door was opened, albeit only marginally.
"Yes?"
Laurel was frowning at her, clearly not happy to get a strange visitor this late. But she was also not immediately throwing the door into Ava's face, so she took that as a tentative good sign.
Except that seeing Sara's sister, a person she knew had been so important to her, alive and well, for the first time, unexpectedly caused a rush of emotion in Ava that caused her to choke for a second. When she trusted her voice again, she started speaking, in what she hoped to be a more or less steady tone that still seemed quite shaky.
"Hi, I'm Ava, Ava Sharpe," seeing that Laurel and her had never met she had decided that a fake name would only complicate things, "I'm a friend of your sister's. I mean, I was. I went with her to college. I was an assistant teacher."
She said all of it at as high a speed as she could, her voice raspy and exhausted. Laurel still just frowned at her.
"Sara's friend? How do you know this address?"
"Sara told me."
This seemed to not go over well, since the frown only deepened.
"Really?" For a second Ava thought that now she would get the door in her face but Laurel just let out a sound somewhere between an exasperated laughter and a snort. "Of course she did. She's Sara. Was."
That seemed to bring up unwanted emotions, but also gave Ava the in she needed.
"That's why I'm here. I wanted to offer condolences."
"After two years? A bit late don't you think?"
The sarcasm and scoff was more than Ava could handle right now. Tears of frustration and desperation were threatening to spill out at any moment and she couldn't quite hide the pain she still felt in her wrist and in her head when she went with her usual nervous gesture of pushing the hair that had escaped her bun out of her face.
For some reason that seemed to catch Laurel's attention, as her face softened somewhat to give way to a more curious and worried expression than a judging one. But Ava couldn't handle this anymore. She needed to leave. This had been a bad idea.
"I'm sorry. I… I shouldn't have come. I just… I just needed a place to go to, but… this was a bad idea. I'm sorry."
Ava stammered very uncharacteristically, basically just trying to get out at this point. She was far too used to always push her emotions down, and now she was being overwhelmed by far too many of them caused by being stuck here without knowing if Sara was alright or how she herself would be able to get back, talking to Sara's sister, who was dead in her time about Sara's presumed death in this time.
She had no idea where to go or what to do now and she tried to tell her body to move but it didn't cooperate much, and Laurel still just looked at her in a weird inquisitive manner that she couldn't quite place. After a few moments she breathed in deeply, hoping to regain some composure, gave a curt nod, pretty sure that a tear was making its way down her cheek, and made to leave as quickly as she could in her state.
"Wait. What happened to your face and your hand? What is going on here?" Not wanting to draw this out any further, Ava didn't answer but just turned around and walked away, but she had barely made it a few steps when she felt a grip on her arm. Instinct took over and she immediately went into a defensive stance, just to be confronted by Laurel's shocked look. "It's okay. I just want to help. You can come in, catch your breath, tell me what's going on. Okay?"
For a moment, Ava wasn't sure what she could say or what she should do, everything being far too much, but then she nodded again. It wasn't like this hadn't been her idea to begin with. She just hadn't anticipated that seeing Laurel would stir up this many emotions inside of her.
Laurel smiled a little, half encouraging, half still confused, and led their way back to the apartment, without trying to touch Ava again. When she entered with Laurel, Ava was a little amazed that this plan had actually worked so far, at least kind of, but then remembered what Sara had said about her sister the one time they had talked about her more in depth.
Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world.