Chapter Text
The Wellspring
At first, everything was light. It didn’t burn like his father’s cigarettes that he remembered so well, it didn’t froze like the attack of his own gun, his life didn’t pass through his eyes. He didn’t even move, pushed away from the bridge with the impact. There was no impact. There was no anything.
Everything was light and blue (like her eyes), bright and piercing. Painless. At least that; at least there wasn’t pain.
And then everything was over.
The Lions’ Den
Lisa Snart checked her emails again on her phone, TV on mute, music on the background. She was feeling nostalgic – had been for the past five months, ever since her brother and friend had gone on a mission without giving her many details. It was playing Rage Against the Machine, which was Leonard’s favorite band just because of the anarchist message they passed, and her heart ached because of it. No song about breaking the system could ease this nervous feeling in her guts that something was wrong. Lenny had never passed so long without contacting her.
Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from the nearest bedroom of their small apartment and a surprised shout.
Something was wrong.
Getting her gun on the way to the room, Lisa braced herself. She was alone. No one would simply enter in Len’s room, he had make sure to secure the whole house ages ago.
She didn’t ask who was there. Damn, she had watched way too many thrillers and horror movies to know that it’d be the dumbest move. Instead, Lisa just took a deep breath and kicked the door open, pointing the gun at whoever dared to break in.
“Don’t shoot! Please, don’t shoot!” a familiar voice asked, hands up, and Lisa looked above her gun, not daring to lower it just yet.
He was different, wearing his glasses and in formal clothes, as if he was a big deal. Different posture as well, not so know-it-all as he normally stood. But it was him all the same.
“Lis?” he spoke again, and this time Lisa felt herself tremble. “What’s happening? Put the gun down.”
For some reason, she did as he said. (But coming to think about it, wasn’t it always this way? Following her big brother’s footsteps?) She felt the sting of tears forming in her eyes. Five months were a lot of time to spend far from him.
“Lenny?”
The Mayor Office
He blinked, and then he was sitting on a chair, holding some papers. And then he had to blink again, because his contacts seemed to be out of place, as if he had been punched really hard. Once his sight was restored, he looked around and down the papers he was holding. S.T.A.R. Labs’ project to power up the solar system of Central City.
Why the hell was he holding those papers?
He looked around. It was a nice office and a comfy chair, brown and yellow everywhere, old books and a computer, curtains and sunlight coming through large windows. The electronic calendar on the table told him that it was May 19th. He was alone, but could hear the sound coming from the other side of the door.
Where the hell was he?
He got up to check the place, concern in his eyes as he dropped the papers on the table and circled it, catching each detail he could to get into some conclusion.
He didn’t have enough time to process anything. Under the protests of a familiar voice, the door was opened and a small blonde thing ran in his direction.
“Daddy!” the little girl shouted, jumping in his arms, and he caught her out of instinct, holding her up. She immediately started to talk. “Daddy, the trip was so cool you wouldn’t believe it! We saw elephants!”
The girl was about five or six, blonde hair in pigtails, bright blue eyes and freckles. He was sure he looked terrified, but not more than when another kid, a preteen boy focused on his watch, stepped in as well. With dark blonde hair and grayish green eyes, his long figure was actually very familiar.
“It wasn’t that interesting,” he commented, and only then he looked up and smiled. “Nice jacket, dad.”
“Hey,” that familiar voice called again, now coming closer. “What did I say about waiting for your father’s work day to end before strutting in?”
“But mommy,” the little girl whined and to his surprise, none less than Sara entered in the office, wearing social clothes, her hair in a ponytail. “I wanted to tell him about the elephants.”
Confused, Leonard looked around one more time – to the girl in his arms, and the boy by Sara’s side, and Sara, who was so beautiful – and he didn’t understand anything.
“You look different,” Sara observed, frowning a bit. “Where did you get these clothes?”
Nothing made sense. Was he dead? Was this what dying looked like? Because it was very different from what Sara had described to him.
The answer to the puzzle was there somewhere, he knew it. And he knew that there had got to be a good explanation for what was happening. That was when his eyes fell on the plaque at the door. Mayor’s office, it said. Turning around, he finally saw the plaque on the desk as well. Mayor Leonard Snart.
Leonard frowned, put the girl on the floor under protests and stepped back. She tugged his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
Sara stepped closer.
“Len?” she said, barely a question.
He remembered of the papers he was holding when he woke up there, the ones about S.T.A.R. Labs. And then he looked at that family again.
“What the hell.”