~Now I'm pacing back and forth
Wishing you were at my door~
Enchanted - Taylor Swift
~3rd Person POV~
It isn't terribly long till Jessica wakes up, still in the corner of the bridge where she'd fainted. The stress her animal senses were causing her along with having to go back to where she'd been tortured was too much for her heart to handle, so her brain shut her body down before anything bad could happen.
Ray is still sitting on the floor next to her. In fact, he'd moved himself so her head is laying on his lap instead of on the cold, metal floor. His hand had been stroking her neck the whole time, and each time he could feel her getting a little colder. She is a reptile, but because of how large she is, her body still gives off heat. Right now, her body is functioning so slowly that her internal heat source is slowed down.
Her body shivers as she opens her eyes and looks up at Ray, giving out a short breath loud enough to catch his attention.
"Jess?" He asks as he looks down at her. She closes her eyes again and presses her head against his warm body. He sees her toes twitching and her muscles clenched, and he can tell she's holding herself back from shivering. "C'mon, turn back, let me take you to the bed." She complies, changing back to her human self and allowing Ray to carry her off to his quarters. Her pants are stretched and torn in some places, but they still manage to cover her well enough.
"That's not normal," Jax tells the rest of the team. "I've seen her stressed out, but this? Man."
"Amaya is right, animal senses don't lie. If she's down this bad then we need to be careful with this," Sara explains to her crew. "We need to split into groups to find the missing fragments and get back to the ship before they know we're there."
"How will we know they don't know?" Nate asks.
"Ray will keep watch for us," Sara answers. "He'll shrink down and watch Thawne to make sure he doesn't know we're there. At least until we've got the fragments and we're gone."
"Okay, but how do we find their pieces of the spear?" Amaya questions Sara.
"I'll finish explaining when everyone gets back here. I don't wanna repeat myself." Sara sits in a nearby chair.
Meanwhile, Jessica has a light grasp on Ray's hand in an attempt to stop him from going. Ray sighs and looks back to her laying pale on his bed.
"Don't go," she whispers to him. He squeezes her hand and sits next down beside her.
"I have to go help," he tells her sorrowfully. He wishes more than anything to stay and comfort her instead of go out and stress her even more. He just has to hope she'll be okay while he's gone with the team. "I promise I'll be back as soon as I can."
"No, Ray," Jessica presses her concern. Ray gets up and let's go of Jessica's hand. "Ray!" He looks back at her from the doorway.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly as he walks through the door. "Gideon, don't let her out until we get back," Ray commands regretfully before walking back to the bridge where the team is running through the plan again.
"Ray." Sara turns to him. "I need you watching Thawne so we know if he figures us out."
"Got it," Ray answers as everyone starts walking to their seats.
"How is she?" Rip asks Ray.
"I had Gideon lock her in my room," Ray explains. "I'm afraid she'll try and stop us if she isn't locked up. She's so scared."
"I can tell you don't like this," Rip states.
"No! Not at all," Ray agrees. "But there's nothing else I can do. We need to get the rest of the spear."
"You're right, Raymond." Rip nods his head. "Just... don't let the job push you two apart."
"I won't," Ray answers quickly as they come up into the Vanishing Point. Rip watches Ray for a while and recognizes the way Ray feels. It's the same way he felt when he knew his wife could be in danger as Vandal Savage began to take over the world.
Ray is scared for the one he loves.
"We're here," Sara announces as Gideon lands the Waverider quietly. She gets out of her seat and immediately collects the Legend's fragments of the spear before leading the present team out into the Vanishing Point.
"We're in position," Sara says into the comms as she fiddles with the pieces of the spear. "Ray?"
"Ready."
"Mick?" Sara calls.
"Yeah."
"Standby." Sara turns to her group. "Here." She hands out pieces of the spear.
"The pieces of the spear call to each other," Rip explains. "We will be able to use these to locate the pieces in the Legion's possession."
"That's why we're separating into two teams," Sara tells them.
"Mr. Jackson, shall we?" Rip and F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M walk off.
"Are you sure bringing out pieces of the spear was a good idea?" Amaya asks Sara. "If this goes wrong—."
"Then the Legion has the entire spear. So we have to be careful."
***
Meanwhile in the Waverider, Jessica has shifted, screeching as loud as she can and ramming her heavy body into the door despite Gideon's pleas to stop. She eventually tires and allows herself to slide down onto the floor to rest.
Her breathing is staggered and quick, exhausted by her attempts to escape and save the team. So instead, she whines loudly, hoping Nathan would hear and let her out.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Jessica, but I'm afraid Nathaniel cannot hear you," Gideon informs Jessica. Jessica picks her head off the ground and looks up as if asking Gideon why Nate can't hear her. "He is wearing his headphones and listening to his own music. He can't even hear me."
Jessica groans and lets her head fall back to the floor. She lays a short moment before getting back to her feet and going back to the bed. As she's getting onto the mattress, her tail knocks over a picture on Ray's shelf. Jessica turns her head around to look at what she'd done, and is relieved to see that the picture isn't broken. She shifts and picks it up to place it back where it was, until she finds something in the back, hidden away.
She holds the framed photo in one hand, and picks up a diamond ring in the other. She sets the photo in its place and sits on the bed, studying this strange circle with clear rocks. All this is to her is some odd shaped stone and metal, but it was Raymond's promise to Kendra a very, very long time ago.
Although she doesn't understand what it is, she still thinks of it as pretty. Then she wonders why Ray would have such a thing. He doesn't wear this stuff, she would have noticed it a long time ago if he had. She makes a note to ask Ray about it when he returns... if he returns. Jessica's fear is let free once again now that her accidental distraction is dealt with, she screeches and rams against the door.
***
"Piece of cake," Mick announces as the Legends walk back into the bridge.
"Whoa, you thought that was easy?" Jax asks surprised.
"No, I want a piece of cake and a beer," Mick clarifies.
"Later," Sara sighs. "Where's the spear?"
"There we go." Rip places the pieces of the spear in order.
"What is that?" Ray asks as the spear fragments begin to quiver.
"That's power," Rip answers. "The pieces of the spear are calling to each other. They long to be whole." The spear shines brightly–much like Jessica when she shifts forms–and reappears completely healed, as if it were never broken apart to begin with.
"Yep, that just happened!" Jax points at the table where the spear lays whole.
"Well, that's remarkable. The spear must be composed of some kind of magnetized compound which acts as its own sealant," Stein tries to science the spear and reaches out to grab it.
"No, no, no, don't, don't, don't!" Rip quickly stops him. "Don't touch it. Now that the spear is whole, it will try and lure each of us to use it. It will draw on our weaknesses, our desires, our regrets. It will promise each of us that we can remake the world just as we want it."
"Well, what's wrong with that?" Mick asks earning glares from everyone in the room. "What? Oh, come on. You're all thinking it!" He defends himself.
"Absolute power corrupts, Mr. Rory," Rip explains. "Even when used with the best intentions, which is why I'd attempted to destroy it."
"Well, maybe you didn't try hard enough," Mick tells Rip as he brings his heat gun up and fires, attempting to char the spear to a crisp. A chorus of panicked 'no' comes from the crowd.
"Not on the ship, bro!" Jax complains.
"You said destroy, so I destroyed," Mick shrugs it off.
"It's not destroyed," Amaya marvels at the spear's integrity. "It's not even charred."
"Any harm brought upon the spear is temporary. It will always heal itself," Rip tells the Legends.
"That's why you had to keep the pieces separated," Sara concludes.
"Yes," Rip confirms. "Accomplished with much effort and numerous explosives."
"Wait a sec. There's something written on it." Amaya leans in to study it.
"That's odd." Rip leans in to look as well. "That wasn't there before. It must have been revealed by the flames."
"Hmm, see." Mick pats Rips arm roughly. "I did help."
"Natum de sanguine, perditus a sanguine," Amaya reads.
"Anyone know Latin?" Ray asks.
"I'll bet Nathaniel does," Amaya answers Ray.
"Alright," Rip butts in. "She and I will take this to him. You have an upset dinosaur to deal with it seems."
"Thanks," Ray thanks Rip before walking hastily to his quarters where he hears what sounds like a cat's whining mixed with a low growl. When the door comes into his line of sight, he stops for a moment, baffled at the beaten and worn state of the door. "Gideon, can you open the door?"
"Thankfully, she stopped after a while," Gideon explains as she opens the doors for Ray. Jessica scrambles to her feet and tackles Ray, pinning him to the ground under her weight. Suddenly, she shifts.
"If you ever do that again, I swear I will find you and do a lot worse than this!" She points at the door behind her. "You're lucky this thing is strong!" Instead of answering, Ray pulls her into a tight hug.
"I didn't want to," he tells her quietly. "We did it. We got the spear."
"You did?" She asks, pulling away from Ray's hug. "Nothing went wrong?"
"It was almost too easy," Ray chuckles. Jessica slouches.
"You mean I was scared for nothing?" She asks, more upset than relieved. She hasn't been wrong before.
"Yeah," he answers with a smile. "We're alright."