Rip Hunter was very convincing, because I followed him to what looked like an empty parking lot in a hidden part of the Glades.
'There's nothing here,' I challenged him.
He had brought me to an empty, hidden location in the middle of the night, and yet I still wasn't scared of him or the situation. He felt oddly trustworthy, and so I asked no questions.
Without warning, a gigantic object materialised from thin air, it suspiciously looking like a spaceship.
'The Waverider is concealed by a cloaking device,' he explained, as if it was completely normal for an invisible spaceship, the 'Waverider', to be parked in the middle of Starling City.
He led me aboard the ship, its large door opening downwards like a futuristic cargo bay, its metal exterior carrying on inside. A corridor guided us to a vast space that seemed to be the central part of the ship.
'You don't seem fazed by this... Experience,' Rip commented as I quickly took in my surroundings.
'I've seen pretty strange things before,' I told him calmly. 'A spaceship just kind of makes sense.'
If there were time travelling speedsters and a super-solider serum, then space was the next frontier.
'Why did you bring me here?' I quickly inquired. 'I must have done something pretty important if you, a spaceship owner, decided to speak to me.'
'I am the Captain of the Waverider,' Rip corrected me. 'And you particularly took our interest, Aria, because you and your sisters have been disrupting the timeline.'
'You're a time traveller?' I was hardly shocked. 'So this is a... Time machine.'
'Well, a timeship, to be more exact,' Rip added.
'But how are me and my sisters 'disrupting the timeline', as you put it?' I wondered, confused. 'I only listened to the Flash because he wanted me to get on the Gambit! And the Reverse Flash, well he-'
'So, the Scarlet Speedster did this?' Rip raised an eyebrow in suspicion. 'I should've known. You were never meant to go on that boat or end up on Lian Yu, Miss Coleman. And in turn, you caused small ripples in time.'
'Then what was I supposed to do?' I asked reluctantly, worried about the answer.
'I'm not sure I'm the correct person to tell you,' Rip bowed his head.
'You're the Captain of this ship!' I exclaimed. 'You're the only one here. If you're not telling me, it must be bad.'
'Hey,' I heard a ghostly-familiar voice behind me, sounding like it belonged to a broken female.
I turned round to find Sara standing at the other side of the room. Sara, alive and breathing, standing before my very eyes.
I was utterly gobsmacked.
'Sara?' I gasped rhetorically. 'You were... You were dead!'
'It's been a long time since the island,' Sara smiled with reminiscence at my confusion. 'There's a lot I need to tell you.'
She took me to some sort of store room, more metal coating the walls and modern storage boxes dotted about.
'This is a timeship, as Rip probably told you,' Sara started making everything seem clearer. 'And Aria, I'm... Not the person you knew.'
'I noticed, you seem... Wiser,' I said, not knowing what else to say.
'I left Starling City in 2015, two years from now,' Sara nodded.
'How did you get back to the city in the first place?' I pondered, more confused. 'I understand that you're from the future and everything, but I thought you had died on the freighter, with Ollie. Well, he also happens to be alive too-'
'I was rescued by someone from the island,' Sara continued. 'She taught me things; how to fight, how to survive. And then I was recruited into Rip's team.'
'So, I'll see you again?' I asked hopefully. 'I'll meet you again in Starling?'
'Yes,' Sara confirmed. 'But you can never tell my past self about any of this. This needs to stay a secret, so there can be no other aberrations.'
'What's an aberration?' I inquired, Sara looking like she has regretted what she had just said.
'It's an... Alteration in the timeline,' Sara told me. 'They create time quakes. And it's our job to make sure they don't happen.'
'Your Captain, Rip, said something about ripples in time, and that my sisters and I are disrupting the timeline,' I repeated what Rip had said. 'Are you going to stop... Me? Leyla? Rose?'
I looked at Sara with a great sadness, realising that I had messed up a lot this time.
'Are we aberrations?'
'... No,' Sara answered slowly, hedging my remark. 'But what you're about to do is. You can't kill Malcolm Merlyn. He's Tommy's dad, Aria. You can't kill his father, no matter how awful he is.'
'I don't care if he's a father or not,' I hissed in anger. 'Merlyn is a ruthless killer; he's killed probably dozens of innocent people before. If he thinks he can tear families apart, then I don't care if I do exactly that to his.'
'But I thought you loved Tommy?' Sara reminded me. 'He'll be devastated.'
'I do,' I nodded sadly. 'But his heartbreak is a small price to pay for Merlyn's death.'
'Please, just think about it,' Sara requested desperately.
'Okay,' I smiled, but really, I still wanted to end Merlyn for good.
Sara didn't need to know my true intentions.
---
'This ship is amazing,' I exclaimed to a tall guy with dark-Superman hair who was giving me a tour of the place, fairly soon after Sara and I had our conversation. 'How did you get involved in all this?'
'I died,' the man said matter-of-factly. 'Well, everyone thought I'd died. Massive explosion-'
'That's enough, Raymond,' an older man interrupted him. 'Aria here can't know too much about the future.'
'Professor... Stein?' I recognised the older man at once from Helena's days at the SCPD, as she so often read his books and mentioned his name many times in the lab. 'One of my old friends absolutely loved you, she talked about you all the time!'
'That's me,' he greeted me in laughter. 'But you mustn't tell your friend, or anyone else, about any of what you're seeing. As Mr Hunter has probably already told you, time is a... Delicate thing.'
'I understand, Professor,' I laughed back, but really, I was filled with anxiety.
Why were the team so adamant on me not facing Merlyn for good? He would just be able to carry on doing horrible, evil things, and I couldn't let him do something else to my family or friends. I had to be selfish just this once.
'We got her, Rip,' a sarcastic male in a hooded coat holding some sort of futuristic gun entered the room, a smirk on his face.
'She didn't want to come with us,' another man joined his friend, his voice growling in a menacing drawl, he too holding a massive gun. 'But we managed to persuade her.'
Rose emerged from behind them, a look of both wonder and terror plastered across her face.
'And this must be the other one,' the sarcastic one smirked, putting a hand out so I could shake it. 'The name's Snart. My partner and I really admire your work. Killing Malcolm Merlyn was just the start of your... Career.'
Rip appeared from another room, stopping Snart from telling me anything more about my future. Maybe killing Merlyn made me a better vigilante than before? But Rip was sure to stop me from hearing about it.
'Why do you have my sister?' I questioned them, slightly concerned.
She had tried to avoid danger, yet she was being dragged into it. There was no escape.
'Your sister has a knack for trouble,' Snart's partner expanded on the subject.
'Snart, Rory, I think you've done enough for today,' Rip interjected before anything else could be discussed. 'Coleman sisters, you better come with me.'
He took us to what I assumed was his office, it looking much older than the rest of the ship. Books were strewn about all over the floor, looking as though Rip had been desperately trying to find some vital information.
'Please ignore what my team have told you,' Rip requested, his face much softer now we were in private. 'Their intentions, although most of the time are good, can lead to most unfortunate consequences.'
I looked to Rose, who still was lost for words as she observed every nook and cranny of the room.
'Why is my sister here?' I inquired Rip almost in interrogation. 'She does not need to get involved. Sara has already told me everything. If I wasn't so interested in this ship I would already be gone.'
'Miss Lance does not know everything, Miss Coleman,' Rip shook his head as if he found my remark funny. 'Your sister has everything to do with the ripples in the timeline you both are creating, along with your other sister, Leyla. Because the Flash told you to get on the Queen's Gambit, and made sure you got to Lian Yu so the disastrous consequences he mentioned wouldn't happen, the timeline was shifted. Yes, you were going to become a vigilante, but that was because of the training Mr Merlyn taught you. If you kill Malcolm Merlyn, you won't just have me to worry about, and those consequences will be even worse.'
'But then why are my sisters involved?' I pressed on the matter. 'It sounds like I'm the one to blame here!'
'Leyla and Rose would have found you much sooner if you hadn't messed with time,' Rip explained quickly. 'And they would have stopped searching. But now, with their constant need to find out who wronged you and where you are, they too have created ripples in time. By now, Rose was supposed to be working at S.T.A.R. Labs, as a receptionist. But now she is still living in England, not able to move on from the past.'
'Isn't her life better now, though?' I narrowed my eyes at Rip, trying to figure out why our original lives were so much better. 'She's making a difference to the world. She's a journalist, not just some low-level receptionist. And she can still see my parents everyday if she wants to.'
'Yes, I agree with Aria,' Rose finally joined in to argue our case, rapidly nodding. 'I love my job and my home, and most importantly, I've found Aria and Leyla. I'm bringing people to justice through my stories, not just typing at a keyboard and making small talk with strangers.'
'You two are both so alike,' Rip smiled at our similarities. 'But Rose, you are causing great time quakes from your work, from not fulfilling your destiny, and I can't protect you much longer. The Time Masters will soon catch up to you, Aria, if you're not careful.'
'What are the 'Time Masters'?' I slowly asked, worried for the answer but still remaining tough.
'They make sure that history does not change,' Rip told us. 'They protect the timeline, but they also are ruthless. They will stop at nothing to make sure that aberrations won't change the very fate of the universe. Now, you are only causing low level disruptions that won't alert them, but if you do as little as lay a finger on Merlyn, they will come out of the shadows. No one can defeat them, not even I.'
'You know a lot about these... Timelords,' Rose gulped in fear.
'Time Masters,' Rip corrected her. 'And I know a lot more about them than I can tell you, for your own safety. You don't want to draw their attention to yourselves; I know this from... First-hand experience.'
'If I... Hadn't gone on that boat, what would've happened?' I wondered after a few moments of silence between the three of us.
'I'm not sure you'll want to know,' Rip bowed his head.
'I do,' I nodded definitely. 'I'm sure that I can. I've handled everything that was thrown at me, so I'm sure the knowledge of an alternate timeline wouldn't hurt.'
'Well, if you insist,' Rip nodded shortly. 'You and your sisters were to be reunited in... Starling City, while Mr Queen and Miss Lance were missing on the island. You joined Tommy Merlyn in his search for them, but in the end, you assumed that they were dead. You carried on to form a vigilante team with Ted Grant, Helena Cadent and your friend, Isaac, but the outcome was... Different. Isaac didn't... Die.'
I stumbled backwards, utterly shocked at this news. If I hadn't had gone to the island, Isaac would be alive. He would be still here with us, and I was the reason he was dead. If only I had stayed in Starling City, if only I hadn't boarded the Queen's Gambit and endured a year of pain, Isaac wouldn't have been murdered in front of my very eyes.
'Why did I listen to that speedster?' I cried angrily, annoyed at everything that now taunted me. 'He told me that something terrible would've happened if I hadn't gotten on that boat, but he must have been lying! Why did he want Isaac to die?'
Rose put her arm around my shoulders to calm me down, my shaking body becoming still as she comforted me silently.
'There's a reason the Flash told you that,' Rip said gravely. 'It may give you solace, but you may not want to know the truth.'
'Nothing can be worse than this,' I wiped the tears falling from my eyes. 'And if you say it'll help, then tell me.'
'In the original timeline, on the night Isaac died on Barker Street, somebody else died,' Rip started slowly. 'For some reason, time needed someone to die at that particular moment.'
'Who was it?' My curiosity took over me, which became a truly awful mistake.
'It was you, Aria.'