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“How about this,” Sara spits out, full of protective rage and fury. And pain. “You let us go, we handle your problem, and none of us have to see each other ever again?” She’s leaning forward in the dentist’s chair (or whatever they want to call it), straining against the metal restraints over her wrists. She’d been disoriented the first half-hour or so, but they made the mistake of not restraining her legs. Just let them get close to her now.
The scientist genuinely contemplates her proposal, tilting his head with a small frown as he considers it. He sweeps his gaze over the lot of them, each of them restrained the same as her with the addition of gags, except for Nate, who has an orderly with a stun baton poised over his arm if he so much as twitches wrong. (Sara grits her teeth at the reminder; the setting is on low, but it’s already been used twice now.)
“You do seem like you could handle things quite readily,” he agrees, in the same neutral, genial tone he’s used for every other sentence he’s uttered in this torture chamber of his. Then his gaze returns to Sara, hardening a little. “But I am not stupid, time traveler,” he continues, still placid and even. “What guarantee do I have that you would even follow through on your end of the bargain?”
“I don’t go back on my –”
He waves her off easily, and it’s only the past hour of experience that has Sara shutting her mouth at the motion. Her cheekbone aches.
“No, no,” he says. “Let’s make this simpler. I let all but one of you go, you handle my problem, and then you walk away from here.”
Sara jerks in her restraints, gaze quickly gliding over her team. Each of them watches her with varying levels of composure. There’s trust there, in each return gaze, but pain too. None of them is overly fearful, thanks to that trust, but none of them is interested in remaining here any second longer than they have too. Leave one of them behind? To continue to be subjected to this man’s experiments, his torture, while the rest of them handle his problem? “You really think you can handle them without us?”
“Yes, I do. Granted, I’d lose a great number of men, and a great deal of results, but…” He shrugs. “We are in the most heavily fortified part of the building, so you would remain intact for future research. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe stopping my intruders was your original goal, was it not?”
He’s right, but Sara’s not about to admit that. “And how do I know you’ll keep your word?”
He shrugs again. “It seems we have the same dilemma. But my men had the element of surprise on their side last time; it seems unlikely they’ll gain that again.”
Also true. Another explosion sounds in the distance. Sara clenches her jaw. With each explosion, each attack, each step of further ground they gain, the stupid time pirates are destabilizing the timeline. And the team can always come back later, destroying any samples the doctors have pulled from them – she doesn’t need to keep her word that well, faced with a man like this.
“The Atom gets his suit back,” she says, firm.
“Hmm. I suppose I can allow for that.”
“And while my team is gone –”
“Oh, no, that won’t do. If I’m to return that marvelous suit to you, I require something in return.”
It seems impossible that Sara’s jaw could clench any tighter. She forces herself to relax a little before she starts grinding her teeth. “What?” she bites out.
“Hmm…” his gaze drifts lazily over all of them. “These two,” he says, wandering between Jax's and Stein’s chairs – placed strategically just far enough apart that even if they broke an arm free they wouldn’t have a chance of touching each other. “Firestorm, did you call them? Quite intriguing. Leave one of them behind, and your Atom can have his suit.”
Sara looks between the two halves of Firestorm. She’d been planning to leave herself behind. She’s been through torture before, trained with the League of Assassins. There’s nothing this man has in store that she can’t handle, no matter how much she doesn’t want to have to. Stein and Jax, though…
Jax looks worried but determined, trying to hide his fear, trying to steel his nerves. Stein –
Sara blinks, at the look on Stein’s face. There’s no fear there, just ice-cold determination. He’s staring straight back at her, unflinching, as if trying to send her a signal with his eyes alone. Sara doesn’t need anymore than that. His answer’s already clear.
Desperately, furiously, she tries to think of another way, some trick or ploy she could use to get them out of here and stop the time pirates, but her ideas are all used up. Oh, getting them out of here she can do, just, not in enough time. Not before the timeline starts to destabilize, potentially in catastrophic ways.
This man, this villain, can’t grasp the nuances of that, not really, but he knows enough and is arrogant enough to believe this is their only chance of escaping.
Gunfire rattles in the distance, followed by the distinctive sound of future plasma weapons. Sara holds back any winces at the sounds that scream to how badly they’ve failed in this mission. “Deal,” she says. “He stays.” She nods at Stein.
Jax flinches where he sits, jolting forward, but he still can’t say anything. A flash of fear crosses Stein’s expression, there and then gone. He settles back into his own chair, nodding at Sara.
“Very well,” the scientist says. He nods at his own orderlies. “Let them go.”
Cleaning up the time pirates doesn’t take that long, in the grand scheme of things, given their weaknesses, given the team she has to work with. Nate can only hold the steel form for a minute or two at a time, rattled and dazed as he is. Ray’s got the suit on, but he’s operating it with a sprained ankle and it’s functioning poorly; the scientist hadn’t had much time to fiddle with it, but he’d had enough. And Jax is more rattled by Stein’s fate than his own. He’s bruised and weary, but it’s clear that the scientist is making the most of his accelerated timetable: Jax keeps flinching and gasping and sucking in sharp breaths, grabbing at limbs and parts of his body that aren’t visibly injured.
Given that, given all of that, and her own injuries, and the size of the facility, it’s a miracle actually that it only takes them two hours to round up all six time pirates, restrain them on their own time ship, and program it to wait in the temporal zone until they could catch up with the Waverider. Two hours is still far too long. Sara leaves Nate and Ray with the pirates, to keep a watchful eye on them, but Jax is limping as their ship departs, panting and breathless despite the fact that she’d kept him behind her during the fighting and he hadn’t gotten hit once.
“Stein?” she asks.
Jax grits his teeth, looking angry with her for a moment, before a tired expression settles onto his face. “What do you expect?” he says, weary. “You left him –” He cuts himself off.
Sara doesn’t push him, not here and now. They can have it out later, once they’re all safe.
“What’s the worst of it? Is he conscious?” She needs a status report, not a condemnation of her failures.
Jax takes a moment, closing his eyes and resting a hand on a nearby wall for support. “Leg hurts,” he says, “couldn’t say why. He’s tired. Frustrated. Still awake, then. Pretty sure they drew more blood – maybe too much. Took some skin.” He shows her a red spot on his arm, faded like an old scar, which she gathers from experience is a much less serious version of Stein’s own wound. “And –” He cuts himself off, freezing in place for a moment. His jaw clenches and he collapses toward the wall, letting out a breathless sound of pain.
Sara hurries to his side, helping him stay steady.
“That would be the electricity,” he says, still breathless
Right. Well then. No more time for dawdling. She throws one of Jax’s arms over her shoulder. “Right then,” she says. “Let’s go get the professor.”
They make it about a hundred feet through the facility before Jax pulls off of her, powering through under his own strength and speeding them up just that little bit more. He’s limping, but he doesn’t let that stop him.
Sara shoves into the room Stein is in without apology, a stray gun she’d picked up in hand. She doesn’t often use guns anymore, but she thinks the occasion calls for it. Her eyes zero in on the man in charge. She raises the gun to aim at his head, ignoring the guards in the room who do the same to her. “I think we’ll be leaving now,” she says. She keeps her gaze on him, not bothering to look for Stein.
The man raises his hands, gesturing down his guards. “I keep my bargains, time traveler,” he agrees.
Sara snarls at him, looking away only long enough to nod Jax onward. He hurries forward, racing for Stein. Out of the corner of her eye, a brilliant orange light fills the room for a moment.
“Fascinating,” their torturer says, wonder in his eyes.
Sara’s tempted to shoot him then and there, but they’ll be back for him. He’ll get what’s coming to him. Firestorm steps up to her side, looking stronger than either of his two components.
“C’mon,” Sara says to him. “Let’s get out of here.”
“If you are coming to apologize, Captain Lance,” Stein starts, as Sara steps into his room, once everything is over, once the time pirates have been properly dealt with, once Stein has left the med bay – once they all have.
Sara cuts him off. “No,” she agrees. “No. Not to apologize.” What happened wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t Stein’s fault, and it wasn’t the team’s fault, even if she has regrets, even if she feels guilty about it. She knows it and clearly Stein knows it too, from his tone. They’d all made their choices, including the man who did this to them. “Just checking in.”
Stein studies her a moment, as if trying to detect the truth of her words, trying to see the hints of her guilt. “Gideon has done her job well,” he decides on, after a moment.
It’s not quite an answer, but it’s as much of one as it seems she’s going to get. Sara nods. “Good. Jax?”
“Furious at me, as expected,” Stein says. “You just missed him.”
Clearly they've had their own talk already, and Stein had made it clear it had been his choice to be left behind, not Sara's. She nods again, then pauses, glances to the doorway to listen for footsteps, and turns back to Stein. “I didn’t come here to apologize,” she reiterates, “but… Thank you.”
Stein’s soft smile twists into a grim expression. Sara’s not even sure what she’s thanking him for. For volunteering? For not holding it against her? For being alright in the end, and holding out?
Regardless, Stein nods back at her. “I would be offering the same, Captain Lance, if I thought it was necessary.”
Sara takes in the reproach in this tone, coupled with warmth. She translates: no thanks needed. They're a team. Of course each of them is willing to take the hit for the other. Of course they would come back for someone left behind.
“Of course,” she says, echoing his warmth. “Get some rest.” She heads for the door.
“Oh, and Captain Lance?”
Sara turns.
“If we should ever find ourselves in a similar situation again, if you should ever have to choose between saving me, and saving Jefferson…” He trails off, visibly steeling himself.
Sara cuts him off again. “I know,” she says, solemn, smile fading, because she does.
Once upon a time, she hadn’t. Stein’s arrogance (and intelligence) had been his defining trait to her and she never would have thought him capable. She knows better now. This has always been in him, always been a part of him, from the day she met him – because she hadn’t known him while he’d known Ronnie. His first partnership changed him in ways he will carry until his own death, and Sara knows that now. She’s not sure she agrees, not sure she’s happy about it – surely Jax can take things Stein, older and frailer, can’t; if the risk doesn’t include dying, if it’s just for a short time span – but she recognizes he won’t ever change his mind.
Stein nods, then hesitates. “I can’t help but notice that wasn’t an agreement, Captain,” he says, soft.
“It wasn’t,” Sara agrees, then hesitates herself. “I can’t give you my word,” she says. “But… I see your perspective, and I understand it.”
“I… I suppose that’s all I can ask for.”
He could ask for a hell of a lot more than that. Any of them could. They’re her team. Hers. But he won’t, and that’s part of what makes them her team too, part of what makes her their chosen captain.
Sara can’t ask for any more than that.