Chapter Text
The Waverider jerked to the side and shook violently, and would have send Sara and Ava’s lunch sliding off the table if Sara hadn’t grabbed hold of their trays in time, using her core strength to steady herself as the Waverider righted its position as quickly as it had sloped. Ava, holding onto the table, heard something fall from somewhere and land with a thud. She hoped it wasn’t one of the Legends.
Sara stuffed the last of her lunch into her mouth. “Gideon, what the hell?” she asked.
“My apologies, Captains,” Gideon said. “But the ship appears to have encountered some difficulty.”
“You don’t say,” Ava said, grabbing both her’s and Sara’s trays before they could fall off the table as the Waverider jolted again.
“Then get us out of the temporal zone, Gideon!” Sara said. “Just take us out wherever we are, whenever we are, and we can sort this out.”
“I’m afraid that trying to exit the temporal zone would tear the Waverider to shreds, Captains,” Gideon said, sounding annoyingly calm.
“We can’t leave the temporal zone?” Ava asked. “But, Gideon that - how is that possible?”
“Don’t worry Gideon, we’re coming to sort this out,” Sara said, standing up but immediately grabbing hold of the table as the Waverider swayed and she worried her lunch was going to make a reappearance. The lights flickered. Sara looked at Ava. “Let’s go, babe,” she said, steading her footing as the lights came back on and the ship seemed to steady itself.
“Umm, Captains, what is happening?” Zari asked, appearing behind them as they made their way to the bridge.
“No idea, Z,” Sara said as the lights flickered again. “But this is weird.”
“Yeah, because I have things to do, and - ”
The ship lurched. Sara instinctively grabbed Ava’s hand. As they entered the bridge, Nate and Gary appeared from the other side.
“Are we in a time-storm or something?” Nate asked, ready to grab hold of the closest stable object should the Waverider jolt again.
“No idea,” said Sara, “All right, Gideon, what the hell is going on?” she asked, taking positing at the head of the console.
“We appear to have hit what could best be described as a time-iceberg, Captain,” Gideon said.
“A what?” Astra asked as she, Spooner and John also appeared on the bridge.
“There’s no such thing as icebergs in the temporal zone, right?” Spooner asked.
“So why can’t we get out of the temporal zone?” asked Nate.
“What the heck causes a time-iceberg?”
“Is this Barry Allen’s fault? Or some other Flash nonsense? They cause time problems too, right? It’s not just us?”
“Did someone meet their past self and screw everything up real bad?”
“Woah, woah, hold up,” Sara said loudly to be heard over everyone talking at once. The ship lurched and the lights flickered, this time staying off for longer than before. “We’ll deal with the whys and the hows later on. Right now, Gideon, what do we do?”
“Abandon ship, Captain Lance.”
There were various statements of horror and surprise uttered by the team.
Sara closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to drown in the cold, hollow, sinking feeling which had appeared inside of her.
“How long have we got, Gideon?” Sara asked.
“Roughly ten minutes,” Gideon replied.
“All right team, you heard Gideon,” Sara said, keeping her voice steady but serious. “Grab what you can and stuff it in a receptacle. You’ve got five minutes.”
“But how do we get off the ship?” Gary asked, his voice an octave higher than usual.
“Using the time couriers you idiot,” John said.
“Let’s move, people!” Sara said. The team didn’t need telling twice, racing off to their quarters.
“I’ll go find Behrad,” Ava said, placing her hand on Sara’s shoulder as she passed. “He’s playing video games with headphones on. Meet you in our room?”
“Yeah,” Sara said out of habit as much as anything. She wasn’t leaving the bridge.
Ava gave Sara a tight smile before marching off to get Behrad moving.
“Hey, Nate?” Sara said.
“Yeah, boss?” Nate asked, swinging back around, but as soon as he saw Sara’s expression, he knew what she was planning to do. “Oh, no…”
Sara swallowed, grateful that Nate would never try to talk her out of something like this. “You take care of her for me, yeah?”
“Sara…” Nate breathed, his stomach tightening.
“Nate,” Sara said, determination shining in her bright blue eyes.
“Of course.”
Sara nodded and gave Nate a pat on the arm. “Go. Grab your stuff.”
Nate gave Sara a quick hug before racing off to his room, and could only hope that that hug expressed all the love and admiration he wanted it to.
Meanwhile Ava raced around to the lab, got the startled Behrad off the couch and moving to grab his bags. As she made her way around to their bedroom, Ava couldn’t help but smile to herself at Behrad’s surprise. He’d been so invested in the video game that he’d thought the jolting ship was Gideon adding a new dimension to his game play experience, and hadn’t noticed the flickering lights at all.
The ship jerked violently and Ava only just managed to stop herself from falling. Gideon enacted emergency protocols. All doors were now open, and as Ava approached their room, she knew that Sara wasn’t there.
“Babe, what are you doing?” Ava mumbled to herself, grabbing her coat and scarf as the temperature inside the Waverider was plummeting, and raced back to the bridge to find Sara. It seemed too surreal to try and comprehend what was going on. They’d just been eating lunch. How many times had the ship been broken, but everything had turned out all right? Surely they’d be able to sort this out too.
Ava reached the bridge just as Spooner and Astra appeared on the other side.
“Hey, Sara - ” Ava started before being cut off by Astra.
“So, what the hell is going on?” Astra asked, using frustration to hide her fear. “Because this is really annoying and I gotta say, it’s freaking everyone one.”
“And why is it so cold?” Spooner asked, also worried. She knew things could go wrong with the Waverider, but this seemed really, really wrong. “I get it if the temperature control has gone out, but why has it gotten so cold so quickly?”
“Seconded, Spoons,” Zari said, dragging a huge suitcase with another two bags thrown over her shoulders. “So are we seriously doing this?” she asked, looking around at the others with their assortment of bags.
“How did you pack that much that fast?” Spooner asked, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s a skill,” said Zari.
“Yes, Z, we’re really doing this,” said Sara. “Where’s Behrad? Tarazi’s, you guys are up first.”
“Up first?” Zari asked.
“Sara?” Ava tried, placing her hand beside Sara’s on the console.
Sara avoided everyone’s gaze. There was no time for speeches or explanations. Gideon had shown her what had to happen during the couple of minutes Sara had had to herself on the bridge. There was a chance she could fix this, but it was slim to say the least, and she couldn’t risk the team. She wouldn’t.
“Ok, we ready to roll?” Nate asked, entering the bridge not a moment too soon, wearing a fancy nineteenth century coat over his clothes, his cowboy hat and a backpack.
“I’m ready,” John said, a bag over his shoulder and a box full of books in his arms.
“I’m here! I’m here!” Behrad said, racing onto the bridge wearing about eight layers of clothing, carrying his backpack in one arm and a pile of clothes in the other. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” Sara said as the Waverider swayed and lurched and made some highly unusual scraping sounds. The lights went out, and this time only the emergency lighting came back on. “Ok, Tarazi’s first,” she said, opening a portal from her time courier.
“Why? What - we want to - ” Zari tried.
“You guys have to go now!” Sara commanded.
“We’ll catch you on the other side,” Nate said with a tight smile.
“Come on, Z,” Behrad said. He swallowed hard and looked at the team. He wanted Ava to have been wrong about them needing to abandon ship, but he knew something was very wrong and Sara and Ava had to have a plan. “We love you guys. We love you all,” he said, catching Sara’s eye.
Sara nodded, but kept her emotions at bay.
Zari’s eyes filled with tears and she couldn’t speak. Both Behrad and Zari glanced back at the team one last time before Sara closed the portal. A tiny weight lifted. Two of the team were safe.
“Next stop, John’s house,” Sara said, quickly adjusting the settings on the time courier.
“I’m here!” said Gary. “Oh good, I’m not last.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Zari and Behrad aren’t here yet,” said Gary.
“Zari are Behrad are gone,” snapped Astra.
“Gone?” Gary squeaked.
“We nearly forgot about Gary,” Nate said with gritted teeth, holding onto the console.
“Never mind,” Sara said, unable to hide a small smile. Then the Waverider tilted fiercely to the side, almost knocking everyone over. Sara grabbed Ava’s hand to stop her from falling and caught her eye. Sara swallowed hard and squeezed Ava’s hand as they righted themselves, praying that Ava would understand what she was about to do.
“Let’s get outta here,” said Spooner, unable to hide the fear in her voice any longer.
“Agreed, before we all freeze to death,” said Astra, holding tightly to her bag.
They were now breathing steam and Sara opened the portal to the foyer of John’s house.
“Catch y’all,” said Spooner, stepping through.
“Yep,” said Astra, following.
“Even England is warmer than here,” said Gary. “Does anyone know what’s actually going on? Why does the Waverider…”
John looked at Sara and caught her eye. His heart sunk but he forced a brave smiled and tipped his head towards her. There was nothing he could say.
Sara gave a nod of understanding and closed the portal behind him. Four more safe. The hardest two to let go of still to go. Sara fiddled with the time courier and handed it to Nate.
“Astra swiped yours out of your pocket,” Sara said, managing a tight smile. “You’re gunna need this.”
Nate nodded and opened the portal to a familiar street.
“Godspeed, Nate,” Ava said.
“Ava, I’m so sorry,” Nate said feeling sick as he looked between Sara and Ava.
Ava looked confused.
“Babe,” Sara said, her heart breaking and she choked up. “I love you so much.”
Now Ava looked between Sara and Nate.
“What? Babe…?”
“Go,” said Sara, every part of her wanting to go with them, but she couldn’t abandon the ship.
“No, Sara. No. No no no. Sara, no, please,” Ava begged, realising only too late what Sara had planned.
“I love you,” Sara said, grabbing hold of the console as the Waverider lurched and made an unhealthy whirring sound again.
Nate grabbed Ava around the waist. “Ava, I am so sorry, but we have to go,” he said.
“No! Sara!”
“I love you!” Sara called, tears stinging her eyes as Nate all but carried Ava through the portal which closed the moment they were through. Sara felt heart sick. She carefully made her way to the Captain’s seat at the front of the jolting, shaking Waverider. A few lose items slid around. Someone’s jacket, a hat, a sneaker, a book, a toiletry bag, a phone. The phone hit the wall, causing the lock-screen to light up. Though she only caught sight of it for a fraction of a second, Sara would recognise that photo anywhere and her heart broke a little bit more.
Sara sat down and strapped in, taking manual control of the Waverider.
“Captain Lance, this is very noble,” Gideon said.
Sara shook her head. “Captain goes down with the ship, Gideon,” she said. It didn’t matter that Ava was her co-captain and by her own logic should be there by her side, Sara refused to add Ava to the list of those dead by her action or inaction. “Also, the captain doesn’t leave anyone behind, and in our case, that includes you. We can get out of this.”
“If we land, and I can’t guarantee that we will, it’s going to be a bumpy landing, and I don’t know when or where that landing will be, Captain.”
“Keep the ship together as best you can, and if possible, keep me alive.”
“I will do my best, Captain.”
“I trust you, Gideon,” Sara said, her hands on the console as she took over the steering. Ava was safe. The team was safe. She could do this. She knew she had broken Ava’s heart, so she damn well had to do this. For Ava.
“And I trust you, Captain Lance,” said Gideon.
Sara blinked slowly as spots flashed in her vision as the Waverider rapidly lost altitude within the temporal zone. “All right, Gideon,” Sara said using her most cocky and confident captain’s voice as much to calm herself as for any other reason. “We got the team out of trouble, but no famous last words, because we are not going down. Not today."