The Bolshoi Theater was an extravagant, well structured building made entirely from glowing, white marble, dark oak doors lining the front entrance. A small crowd had formed in front of the doors, idly chatting amongst themselves, as the play came to an intermission.
Carter, Ray, and Leonard hid themselves amongst them, searching for Vostok. They each wore similar tuxedos. It wasn’t something Carter would have worn on his own accord. The fabric was made entirely from wool, he guessed, and it was far too itchy. (At least it fared against the harsh, cold wind, he supposed.)
A woman walked out of the theater, following behind a young couple who were walking arm and arm. The woman was dressed in a long, backless red gown with a low V neck that showed off her cleavage; the gown fit her form very well, accenting all the curves of her body as she absently strutted down the red carpet in front of the theater, like she was some sort of super star. A diamond necklace hung around her neck, the jewels sparkling as the lights caught against them.
Her hair was done up in a firm bun, leaving small, twisting strands to fall at her cheeks, which were rosy with blush makeup; and her eyes, covered in dark eye shadow, were downcast, as she fiddled with her theater ticket and play pamphlet before placing the items in the hand bag she swung on her wrist.
Even without the fancy get up, it would have been easy to spot her. This was the woman of the hour. Valentina Vostok. The scientist walked right past the three men, taking a cigarette from her purse as she went by. Evidently, she had no idea three men were watching her from afar. (Which sounded extremely creepy out of context, Carter realized.)
“We've got eyes on Vostok,” Leonard said into the comms.
Stein, who was working the comms back on the Waverider, since apparently Rip had run off on a little adventure of his own by the time Carter and the others were ready to go, replied with, “Everything looks good on my end, gentle men. I’d say it’s safe for you to proceed.”
Leonard glanced at Ray, letting a small smirk form on his face. “You heard the professor. You’re up, lover boy!” With that, he shoved Ray forward, sending him stumbling right into Vostok. She jumped, turning and glaring at poor Ray, who just grinned awkwardly back at her, muttering apologizes.
Leonard snorted. “This is going to be a disaster.” Carter thought he looked a bit too happy about that. And when he questioned the thief about it, he just said, “Other people’s failure is hilarious.”
Ray sighed from where he and Vostok stood. “Miss Vostok.” He held his hand out to her, flashing her a friendly smile to which she only looked vaguely interested in. “Simon Huntsberger, university of Moscow in the physics department.” Carter wasn’t sure where he’d gotten the fake name from, and he was questioning the reason for even needing one, but he figured it probably didn’t matter.
Vostok took a long drag from her cigarette, eyeing Ray like he was a can full of garbage that someone had left out for too long, and Ray lowered his hand awkwardly. “I’m not interested in talking to students.” Her voice carried a thick, Russian accent – obviously – and she was speaking English, thanks to those ingestible translators Rip had given everyone. (Though to her it probably sounded as though Ray were speaking her native langue.) “If you want lecture, come by office hours.”
She started to turn away, but Ray stopped her before she went anywhere. “Actually, I’m a fellow scientist. I read your paper on applied physics and nuclear fission. Perhaps, if you allowed me to take you to dinner, we can discuss in detail.”
Vostok rolled her eyes, swiftly turning on her heeled feet and strutting away smoothly without another word. Carter cringed. What an awkward exchange…
Leonard grinned, as if that whole scene had been the highlight of his day. He walked out to a confused looking Ray, leaving Carter no choice but to follow. “Damn, that was cold,” Leonard teased Ray. “Even by a Russians' standards.”
“You say that like you can do better,” Carter said. He and Ray hadn’t really talked much, and they were hardly friends (in fact, Carter had barely spoken to anyone one besides Kendra and Deserey, briefly) but Leonard was sort of being a jack ass; and it was kind of annoying.
Leonard shrugged, not even seeming remotely offended by Carter's comment. “Probably. I am a honeypot expert, after all.”
Carter scoffed and rolled his eyes. Apparently, that meant Leonard had to prove his point, because he said, “It’s easy, since almost everyone wants in my pants. Even everyone on the ship…Except Rip, because he’s pining after a dead girl. And you.” He nodded at Carter. “’Cause you’ve got that whole soul mate thing.” He glanced at Ray. “And you since you want in…” Leonard trailed off, apparently thinking better of whatever he was going to say. “Someone else’s pants.”
Ray spluttered awkwardly. “I – wha? I…have no idea what you’re talking about. We came on the Waverider for a mission, not to –”
“Whatever you say, Raymond.” From the way the thief was smirking, Carter guessed he was just saying things to get to him now. What was his deal with Ray anyway?
Carter rolled his eyes, mumbling, “Why did I agree to do this one?” Of course, he knew the answer to that, so asking was a bit redundant. Carter had overheard Deserey and Kendra talking in the galley, over hearing something he probably shouldn’t have, something Kendra had never told him about…Carter wanted to get off the ship, to think it over and decide what he should do about it. He turned to the other two and said, “Look, can someone just go get Vostok so we can leave already?”
Leonard huffed, forming an exaggerated salute, his words dripping with sarcasm. “Sure thing, Princey.”
Ray jumped, and at first Carter thought something had startled him, but then he broke out into a huge grin. “That’s a Sanders Sides reference, and you won’t convince me other wise. I’m telling Dez you watched it!” Without another word, Ray skipped off after Vostok. Leonard scrunched up his face, like he was some gross junk on the bottom of his shoe, but he followed him. Carter sighed, moving into the shadows again to watch the god awful scene unfold.
Ray approached Vostok, smiling kindly, even though she’d made it clear earlier that ‘kind' wasn’t her sort of man. “I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. I don’t mean to bother you –”
“Too late,” she hissed.
“—But, as an inventor, I’m in a position to fund your research. That’s why I wanted us to meet.”
Vostok eyed Ray up and down, like maybe she was trying to decide whether or not she could take him. (Carter guessed she probably could, considering Ray was the least likely of the three of them to hit her back.)
Leonard was just a few feet away, suddenly looking much more serious than he’d been moments before. Apparently play time was over. “Easy, Raymond, you’re gonna spook her.”
Ray went on, blatantly ignoring Snart. He kept his focus on Vostok. “I think it’s important to know who’s funding your research, don’t you?” Carter cringed again. Ray was not doing well at all. He sounded suspicious, if not like some creepy stalker. But Ray was determined to learn what she knew, so he kept going, probably not even realizing he was completely blowing it. “For instance…Project Svarog.”
Carter made his way over to Snart as calmly as he could without raising suspicion to himself. Leonard was leaning against the wall, watching Ray with a look of disapproval. Carter stood next to him, speaking quietly, hoping that Ray couldn’t hear through the comms, lest his words offended him. “Yeah, maybe you were right. You should jump in there…”
“Clearly.” He stalked off, heading straight for Vostok and Ray. Coming up behind her, Leonard gently tapped Vostok on the shoulder. “Sorry, is this man bothering you?”
Vostok snorted. “Don't trouble yourself. I’m not a damsel in distress.” But she let Snart lead her away. She even let him drape his coat over her shoulders when he offered it to her.
“Good,” he said, looking her right in the eyes. “Because I’m not a White Knight.” Something about that line must have been attractive to her, because she was looking at Leonard like she wanted to jump on top of him and rip his clothes off.
They both glanced upwards, as the bells chimed, signaling the end of intermission. Vostok smiled lightly at Snart, batting her eyelashes. “Seems intermission is over.”
Leonard returned the expression, which was kind of weird since Carter knew it was fake, especially since it looked so real. “Wouldn’t want to miss Queen Nisia dancing naked with the nymphs.”
Vostok glanced Leonard up and down, but unlike the way she’d been eyeing Ray, this looked more like she was wondering what the thief looked like under all those thick layers of clothes. “My favorite part of the ballet, but I’ve seen it so many times. Perhaps, you wouldn’t mind walking me home instead?”
Snart nodded for her to follow, taking her hand as the two began walking off. Ray watched them, tilting his head off to the side, only looking offended for a moment before wondering out loud, “Uh, should we follow them?”
Carter shook his head, because something else had caught his eye from across the street – a big, burly man dressed in thick, metal armor, just beyond the Bolshoi Theater. “We've got other problems.”
Ray followed his gaze, his grin turning into a worried frown. “Chronos.”
{~}
Ray started running at the time hunter, causing more than a few people to stare at him with wide eyes. Carter blanched. “What are you – Argh!” He ran after Ray. “You do know that you’re charging at the guy who wants to kill us, right?”
Chronos disappeared around the corner, as the two of them approached. Ray stopped abruptly, almost making Carter run into him, as he searched for a way to cut Chronos off. “Oh, come on. What’s a little life threatening situation for someone who’s reincarnated hundreds of times?”
Carter rolled his eyes. “It’s not as cool as it sounds! It’s actually very annoying, and I’m not really dying to, you know, die, so…”
“I think I can reason with him,” Ray said, ignoring what Carter had just said.
Carter sighed. “Of course you do…” Even if he hadn’t spoken to him much, it was pretty obvious that Ray was the kind of guy who would throw himself off a bridge if it meant it would help someone else, even if they were a murderous psycho who had been sent to kill him and his friends, like Chronos.
“No, I mean…” Ray turned around to face Carter, an odd look in his eyes that the Egyptian Prince couldn’t quite place. “Back in the fifties, before you, Kendra, and Jax showed up, I think I almost got through to him. If we can just get close to him, I can probably do it again.”
“Probably,” Carter said slowly, “meaning you don’t know.”
Ray shrugged. He started moving again, walking this time with that big, happy grin that rarely ever left his face. “Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure….But I’m pretty sure!”
“…Ray, he was sent to kill us.”
“He doesn’t want to, though.”
Carter shook his head, as they passed by a group of Russians hanging around outside one apartment building, a few vehicles passing them by on the road. “If he told you that, he was probably lying.”
“Eh…He didn’t exactly tell me that,” Ray admitted. He stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, shivering at the cold of the night. “But I could tell he didn’t want to.”
“Seriously?” Carter sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. How did he get stuck with the job of explaining murderers to Ray? “He’s a bounty hunter. A hitman. An assassin. Whatever you want to call it. He gets paid to kill people, so of course he wants to kill us!”
“Then, why did he run away from us just now?” Ray looked back at Carter, reminding him of a small child. A brief memory flashed in his head at that thought: Aldus as a young boy, playing in their front yard, before Savage had found them. That hurt…
Carter glanced away, huffing slightly. “He's probably leading us into a trap.” It had happened enough times with Savage, anyway. He couldn’t count how many times he or Kendra or even both of them had been tricked by Hath-Set, letting him lure them out with fake peace offerings or flattery. Once, he remembered, Savage had even tricked him by pretending they were old friends. (It had been before Carter remembered anything from his previous lives, and he was ready to believe anything anyone told him.) Carter had ended up dead not even thirty minutes after coming into contact with him.
He shuddered at the memory, but Ray didn’t question it, probably thinking that it had just been about the cold. “I don’t think so. Oh, there he is!” He took off at a sprint again. Carter shouted after him, “Raymond Palmer, if I get murdered because of you –”
“We're not going to get murdered!” Ray called over his shoulder.
“—I’m going to be very pissed at you for the rest of however many lives I end up having!” Carter finished. Ray ignored him of course. He groaned, hesitating a moment before running after the Atom.
{~}
Chronos ended up leading them deep into the woods. It was just the kind of place stupid people in horror movies would run in to right before they died. Shadows cast every which way so that you couldn’t see even an inch in front of you, setting a person up for that cliché scene in which they tripped over some unknown item (probably a stick or something in this case.)
The tree limbs formed eerie figures in the darkness, tricking Carter's mind every now and again, making him think it was Savage or Chronos about to jump them. The chill of the night did little to calm his nerves.
Carter glanced around in all directions, but he couldn’t see any sign of the robo themed killer besides what his imagination dreamt up. He let out a long, heavy sigh, the cold turning his breath an icy white color. “Okay, no sign of him. Can we just go now? There’s no reason to antagonize him, if he’s not planning on killing us right now.”
Ray didn’t turn around. He must have been freezing too, because he was walking stiffly and his hands were buried deep in his pockets. But he was still grinning like they weren’t in the middle of the Cold War and there weren’t about a million people out to get them. “If you want to go back you can, but I’m going to try to talk to him.”
Carter hesitated. Ray sounded like he wouldn’t be offended if he left. In fact, it almost seemed like he wanted him to leave, and Carter would be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted. But he didn’t really want to have everyone blaming him if Ray went and got himself killed over some insane delusion that he could somehow talk Chronos out of being homicidal. (Especially, considering it would kind of be his fault if he left.) “What are you going to do if you don’t get through to him?”
“Uh, well if I can’t I’d be dead so…”
“That’s my point.”
Ray stopped walking for a brief moment to push back an over grown bush Carter hadn’t seen before – he probably would have walked right into it if Ray hadn’t spotted it first – and stepped around it. He even held it back while Carter stepped around it too. Carter wondered how he seemed so in tune with the woods, like he had spent so much time camping or something. Ray didn’t exactly seem like the out doorsy type. “For someone who’s died multiple times, you seem very weary of it.”
Carter couldn’t help but to roll his eyes at that. “Well, yeah. It’s not exactly fun.”
Ray glanced at him, as they continued walking. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But, I mean, I figured you would be use to it by now.”
“…Not really something you get use to, Ray.”
“Oh.” He must have sensed that he’d offended him, because Ray went quiet for several paces. Then, of course he started talking again. “What’s it like anyways? The whole reincarnation thing. How does it work? Like are you literally reborn every time, like as a baby? Do you have different parents each time? Or do you get brought back like you are now with just a different set of memories? Do you have a different personality each time or…?”
“Well, in three-hundred-six lives I’ve been a yoga instructor, a veterinarian, a real estate agent…But I’ve never been a scientist so if you’re asking about the science behind it all I have no idea, but…” Carter sighed again, watching his frozen breath float away. With everything going on with Savage and Kendra and this mission, this was the last thing he wanted to talk about. But he figured Ray wasn’t going to stop asking questions until he got some answers, so he told him about it anyway, answering the questions in order. “Are we reborn every time? No. Do we have different parents each time? Most of the time, yes. Sometimes, we just come back as we are with different memories. It depends. Our personalities are usually the same, though.”
He took a moment to breath, feeling the weight of that info dump. Then, he went on, “And as for what it’s like… You ever have an identity crisis? It’s kinda like that, but never ending. Kendra and I have had so many lives, it gets hard to tell them apart sometimes. We’re always trying to figure out who we’ll be in the next life, so we never really get to figure out who we are in this one.”
Ray nodded, ducking under a low hanging tree limb. He stayed silent, as he processed that information, so Carter went on. “People like you only get one life, so you know who you are. And you only get one chance to live, so you do. You only have to wear one hat, so to speak.”
“Eh…not all the time.” Ray shrugged when Carter gave him a questioning glance. “Some people go their whole lives without figuring out who they are. Then, they die without ever really knowing. I guess, you and Kendra just sort of have an extended period of time to figure it out.”
“Well, it’s exhausting,” Carter said. He cringed, realizing this conversation had somehow turned into him complaining about his life…lives. Whatever. (He’d been doing a lot of cringing that night.) “Anyway, I thought you said you saw Chronos. Where is he?”
“Uh…” Ray didn’t get much more than that out before something exploded beneath their feet, sending the two men flying in opposite directions. Carter tried to summon his wings to avoid slamming into anything unnecessarily, but his head had gone fuzzy, the world becoming static like that of an old tv set. There was a light but irritating buzz in his ears. He couldn’t focus. Carter smacked into a tree trunk, the world going dark around him.
{~}
When Deserey, Rip, and Mick got back to the Waverider, they found Stein and Jax in the bridge. The professor was working the coms for Len, Ray, and Carter. Though presently they were turned off, as the two halves of Firestorm were chatting, as though they hadn’t been arguing a few hours ago.
Stein glanced up when he spotted them enter. “Ah, Captain Hunter. How was the mission?” When neither of the three parties for said mission responded, he exchanged looks with Jax.
“…We should probably talk,” Rip told them. Mick grumpily stalked off, leaving Rip alone with Deserey and the two halves of Firestorm. The five of them slipped into the parlour, where Rip sipped on a cup of whiskey while he told them of the deal his Time Master friend had offered him. (Yes, it had been that kind of day. The others would have joined in, except the two halves of Firestorm were processing the information, and Deserey was still very much a light weight.)
Jax paced around the room for several consecutive minutes, before finally coming to a stop by one of the shelves. “So, uh, what happens? You hand over the ship and turn yourself in to the Time Masters, and the rest of us just –”
“You’ll be returned to your former lives in January 2016,” Rip interrupted. “It’ll be as if you never left.”
Stein spoke up from where he had placed himself in one of the arm chairs, silently thinking over what the captain had just told him. “Aside from the fact that Starling City might be part of the USSR, thanks to our efforts.”
Deserey nodded in agreement, leaning on the desk in the back of the room. “Yeah, and I don’t know about you guys, but after all this I’m not sure I want to go back to 2016. I mean…maybe to see my kids but…” She shrugged, letting the rest of the thought hang in the air. Her life hadn’t been very glamorous. She’d even been about to kill herself; and she probably would have done so if Rip hadn’t stopped her.
Rip hesitated. He responded to Stein, letting Deserey's comment float into the abyss of forgotten words. She tried hard not to be offended by that. “The fact that we may ruin Star City's future is all the more reason to consider the offer. The Time Council will do everything in their power to correct the mistakes we’ve made…”
Deserey scoffed. She wasn’t convinced they had done anything wrong that they hadn’t already fixed themselves. The so called Time Council didn’t need to do anything, Rip was just using Druce’s words. Belatedly, she wondered if any of his words had really been his own before Savage. Maybe that was one good thing about all he’d done, he’d allowed Rip the ability to think for himself. She didn’t say any of this out loud of course. That would have been ludicrous.
Jax crossed the room again, coming to a stop next to Deserey. He folded his arms over his chest, eyeing Rip like maybe he was thinking something along the same lines as Deserey was. “But they still haven’t changed their minds about stopping Savage?”
Rip shrugged, not looking any of them directly in the eyes. “Well, according to them, he’s part of the natural course of history, terrible has that course may be.”
Jax jerked his head to the side, screwing up his a face that made his opinion on this ‘council' very clear. Deserey shared his sentiments. Rip glanced at the other three in the room, hesitating with his next words. Deserey thought maybe he even agreed with them, but there was something there, blocking him, keeping him from admitting that this was a terrible, terrible idea. “Look, I’m not saying that this offer is without its downsides. If we abandon our plan now, then I still lose my wife and son.”
“So, why throw in the towel?” Jax asked. “I thought you said this mission was bigger than any one of us.”
Rip sighed, looking torn. “Yes, but if you’ll remember, when I recruited you, I wasn’t being entirely forthright about my motivations or about how dangerous this mission would be.”
Deserey huffed, rising to her feet. “Well, I think we’ve all made it pretty clear that we’re not going anywhere. You wanted a team, so you got one.” She wasn’t sure where the words were coming from. Dez still felt like an incompetent loser, and she still wasn’t entirely sure they could pull this mission off…
But she didn’t like the way this ‘council' was behaving. She didn’t like how this Druce guy had shown up out of the blue and made Rip start questioning everything with just a few words. She didn’t like how fishy the Time Masters felt. And she really didn’t like the idea of just letting Vandal Savage parade around raping and killing whoever the hell he felt like.
“…They'll have Chronos hold back for the hour,” Rip said. “But if we ignore this offer they will send him with even more force than before.”
“So, we’ll fight him too,” Jax shrugged like it was no big deal.
Stein nodded, rising from the chair so that he stood next to Deserey and Jax. “You recruited us to fight for the future, Mr. Hunter. So, that is exactly what we will do.”
I don't really have anything to say for this A/N, but I keep forgetting I wanna share this drawing by Cat09forever so I'm gonna do that now!
Isn't it amazing?! I just adore it so much. It's Deserey (left) her oc Eleanor (middle) and sparkle123tt 's oc Clarity (right) all talking at CC Jitter's (as you can see)
Anyway, I wanted y'all to enjoy it as much as I do. So...enjoy it!