"Is there something wrong with the interface?" Sara asked, her and Jax once again in the library.
"I triple checked the connections, and everything seems fine. Look, it's an artifact from 33 A. D. talking to an AI from the 22nd century. You just gotta give it some time."
"Patience isn't really one of Sara's strong suits." Clarity smiled walking into the library carrying a tray filled with fancifully frosted cupcakes. "Fortunately it's one of mine and I come bearing treats to help make waiting easier."
"Aw sweet." Jax rubbed his hands together his eyes lighting up at the frosted delicacies. Clarity's cupcakes were the best. Even better than his moms which was really saying something cause his moms were the best. "Thanks, Clarity."
"Rip, tell you anything pachirisu?" Sara asked her uncrossing her arms to take one off the tray.
"Hey, I wanted that one." Jax complained snatching up a red one instead of the blue Sara'd grabbed.
"Tough." She replied biting into her cupcake. It was no secret Clarity always poured an extra bit of love into the blue ones.
"Only this amazing recipe for cupcakes, your choices are red velvet, vanilla, chocolate and fun fetti, but I left out the hemilotisine. Key ingredient my ass." Clarity shook her head.
"The what?" Jax looked confused.
"Hemilotisine." Clarity repeated. "It's some kind of futuristic poison that kills meta's. Stage one of infection is passing out. Stage two is a coma and stage three is brain death. He tried to trick me into thinking it was pudding mix so they'd get all moist and fluffy but I just used jello brand cause that's normal and won't kill us. He thought he outsmarted me but ha! I'm the one with the awesome baked goodies and he's the one all lonesome in the brig."
"Your not going back in there with him." Sara told her.
"But Sara we have to-"
"Not alone." Sara amended her statement slightly. "Rip's not right in the head right now, and I don't like you being alone with him. What if the legion has more mind control programming in you?"
"Gideon scanned my brain twice now. I'm clear. We would have found something."
"Still it's better to be safe than sorry. I trust you, but not him."
"Hey, guys, anything?" Nate asked walking in Amaya right behind him. "Oooh cupcakes." Nate snatched one up off Clarity's tray.
"Not yet." Jax replied to Nate, already going for another cupcake. Clarity smiled in delight at the fact that her friends were enjoying her treat.
"Are you sure Stargirl doesn't know where my grandfather ended up?" Nate wondered looking at the screen.
"No, the JSA thought the pieces of the spear would be safer if they didn't know where Rip was dropping them off." Amaya replied the only one not to take a cupcake, "No thanks, Clarity."
"That's okay. More for Mick." Clarity replied twisting her tray.
"Except Rip knows, which means the Legion of Doom probably already knows. They could already have my grandfather, or he could be dead, or they're torturing him, - or he's dying, or -" Nate looked down at his cupcake. "How are these cupcakes so good?"
"We're not gonna let that happen." Sara told Nate.
"It's not just about my grandfather. It's about the entire fabric of reality that's at stake here, which you think would be incentive enough for a certain talking computer to buffer a little quicker." Nate complained.
"The name is Gideon, and I'm processing data as fast as I can." Gideon replied.
"And you just lost your cupcake privileges." A bolt of lightning shot from Claritys hand and his cupcake was no more.
"What? Aw man..." Nate frowned at the now inedible mess in his hand. He hadn't even eaten the best bite of it cause he'd been saving it for last.
"Gideon is working as hard as she possibly can. Do you think sifting through and translating all that data is easy? Because I can tell you it's not. We're going to find Henry and his piece of the spear. Because we have to." Claritys tray bent in her grip lightning twisting around it. "We have to."
"Hey," Amaya rested her hand on her shoulder. "We will." Clarity smiled at her.
"We better." Nate crossed his arms impatiently.
"Just Just chill out, bro, all right?" Jax told him "Let Gideon do her thing and let's try not to think too hard about the consequences."
"Look, soon as we lock in a location on the fragment, we'll head there right away. We're gonna save your grandfather, and, Save Clarity from whatever the speedsters planning." And then as more of an afterthought she added, "and you know, the fabric of reality."
As Sara and Jax left the room Clarity glitched back to the kitchen setting the cupcakes down on the table for Mick to find. Stein had already got his and she'd left a special gluten free batch for Ray in his room. She plucked one of the treats up.
"Gideon don't tell anyone where I am for the next five minutes." Clarity ordered.
"Understood creator." Gideon replied, with that agreed Clarity glitched to Rip's cell. She didn't want Gideon snitching on her to Sara. One of the benefits to being her creator. Plus she didn't want the assassin to overreact. She knew Sara didn't want her questioning Rip alone but surely there was no harm in giving him a cupcake?
"Special delivery." Clarity smiled walking through the cell doors. Only for Rip to knock her out before she had time to realize what he had in mind. The cupcake falling frosting side down splattering upon the floor beside her head. Rip taking full advantage of her giving nature.
"So predictable, Clarity." Rip smiled stroking her hair. "Now then...Gideon. Gideon, I know your there."
When Clarity came to Sara was leaning over her glaring. Clarity gulped. "Uh..." she reached for the fallen cupcake beside her, picking it off the ground. "Cupcake?"
Sara lips pressed together, and she flicked Clarity in the forehead.
"Hey..." Clarity pouted dropping the cupcake down to cover her forehead with both her hands. The cupcake rolling away.
"Hey yourself cupcake," Sara replied crossing her arms as Clarity glitched through her to sit on the floor. "I told you not to visit Rip alone. Now we're stuck in the Cretaceous period, our-our Ugh-Gideon?" Sara requested the right word.
"Temporal delineator." Gideon supplied.
"Our that." Sara pointed to the ceiling in reference to the word's Gideon had just said. "Has gone flying god knows where and we're stuck here. Rip took over Gideon with some fancy override commands, the ship almost blew up, now Ray, Amaya and Nate are going to go out looking for it, and Gideon wouldn't tell me where you were until a minute ago. What did you think you were doing going down here alone, when I told you not to?"
"I was just giving him a cupcake..."
"You gave him an opening!" Sara replied. "He set a trap, Clarity. You can't be that stupid. I told you. I told you not to come here by yourself. But do you ever listen? No!"
"I-Is everyone okay?" Clarity asked softly. Something about getting called stupid making her gut twist. She'd just been trying to be nice, get through to her friend with something he'd enjoy. Did that make her stupid? Was she dumb for believing Rip was still in there even after everything he'd done to her?
"Yeah but Rips not about to be. Come on. Normally I'd spare you from this but not now." Sara hauled her up walking down the hall holding Claritys wrist. The glitch silent beside her as she contemplated her intellect.
"Oh, Captain Lance thank goodness you've found her." Stein breathed upon seeing the two.
"Yup, she was just defying orders. Again." Clarity shifted awkwardly as she said the final word.
"Why don't I get to go to Jurassic Park?" Mick asked coming in from the next hall junction.
"Because I need you to threaten Rip." Sara told him.
"Easy money." Mick replied with a nod biting into Claritys cupcakes. One of the few that had survived the crash and not hit the ground.
"She's not paying any of us." Clarity reminded.
"It's the Englishman, I'll hurt him for free."
"I said threaten, not hurt." Sara objected.
"But what about me?" Clarity protested. "Why can't I go camping with Ray and the others?"
"Can you sense the spinning ball thing we're missing when nothing is powering it?" Sara asked her.
"Well, no, but Sara, there are pterodactyl's out there!" Clarity reminded as they walked. "And triceratops's it'd be really cool to see them up close."
"Sounds like another reason that you should stay on the ship." Sara replied.
"But I want to go and see dinosaurs!" Clarity objected tugging on Sara's arm. "Please?"
"No. Your staying." Sara denied with a light shake of her head. She hadn't even paused to think about it.
"Pretty please?" Clarity continued.
"No."
"Urgh, Sara, It's real life dino's! Don't take the dinosaurs away from me."
"You can have dinosaur chicken nuggets for lunch. Gideon'll make them."
"What? That's not even remotely the same thing, and they don't even make pterodactyl one's! It's always T Rex's and brontosaurus's. This is like my one real chance to see them."
"I don't care." Sara told her, holding her ground.
"But I do! I care, and I really want to, so you should care and let me go. Please Sara, if I hurry I can catch them and-"
Sara put her finger to Claritys lips to silence her. "No and I mean it, those cutesy puppy dog eyes won't work on me Clari, I'm captain and the answer is still no and it's going to be no no matter how many times you ask. You can't go. Your staying here. If you wanted to go out you should have thought about that before you went to the brig alone when I told you not to. I'm sick of you comprising your own safety. I'm not letting you out of my sight for the foreseeable future. If you so much as have to go pee I'm going with you, and I'll stand on the inside of the door so I know if you glitch or not."
"But-"
"I need you here. Not only can you destroy or amplify the spear but your the only one who can override Rip's commands. That's why he came up with the whole cupcake ruse so you'd let your guard down and give him one. You know you close your eyes for a second when you pass people treats and presents? Like smiling just isn't enough. Because you do, and that second was all he needed to drop you like a sack of daffodils. Think of this as your punishment for disobeying me. Count yourself lucky I'm not making you scrub the brig with a tooth brush to get rid of that frosting stain."
"With the medallion destroyed, Captain Hunter is the only one who can tell us where Commander Steel and the final piece of the spear is." Stein pointed out.
"Why don't we just get inside his head?" Mick suggested.
"Well, if only that were possible." Stein replied.
"It is." Mick revealed.
"I mean there is some kind of chip in Rip's brain. Eobard found this disk and I think he must of changed whatever he uploaded. I think all time masters must have them implanted but I don't know what would happen to him if I fried it and hacking memories thats I don't think I can." Clarity frowned. "Not without whatever hard drive we found in Switzerland."
"You don't need a fancy disk. The Time Masters did it to me all the time." Mick replied.
"Did what?" Sara asked him.
"Coggy-something."
"Cognitive Intrusion." Gideon supplied.
"That's it." Mick nodded.
"The process in which one consciousness enters another." Gideon explained.
"Mick..." Clarity whispered not even knowing what to say. She glitched out of Sara's grasp to give Mick a hug. "...I'm so sorry."
"Nothing to cry about sparky. They just take you through a field trip of your worse memories to see how sucky life is."
"But that's impossible." Stein objected.
"The technology was developed in 2137 by the Time Masters and used as an extreme method of coercion. CI devices came standard with all Time Master vessels." Gideon replied.
"Is that how you can see into all of our dreams?" Clarity wondered.
"Of course." Gideon replied.
"Wait, so in theory, we could go inside Rip's mind and change him back?" Sara wondered.
"Correct." Gideon answered.
"Told you." Mick replied, he patted Clarity's arms around his middle three times and walked off down the hall. The three of them followed after, Jax already there standing guard in case somehow Rip woke up from his sedation. They brought him up to speed real quick.
"Cognitive Intrusion creates a brain link between two or more subjects. Captain Hunter considered it barbaric and supremely dangerous." Gideon informed.
"It does sound pretty intruding. Invading other peoples minds." Clarity hugged herself. "It's a literal invasion of privacy. Though I suppose it's pretty necessary in this case..."
"You three think you can figure this Cognitive Intrusion thing out?" Sara looked to Clarity, Stein and Mick.
"With the professor as my assistant, yeah." Mick nodded his head.
"You cannot be serious." Stein protested.
"He looks serious to me." Clarity looked him over.
"Very serious." Mick agreed.
"Okay...what's Clarity going to do? Twiddle her fingers?" Sara asked. "Look pretty?"
"Nope, I'm his moral support." Clarity clapped her hands together leaning against Mick. "I'll be supporting morally."
"Don't need it." Mick grunted shoving her off. "I've got booze and food."
"Sure you don't." Clarity agreed, "but I'm here for you anyways."
'Moral support?' Sara mouthed to Jax in confusion who shrugged. Clarity seeming to be the only legend who really realized how traumatizing doing something that once traumatized you to another person, might be, but no one else seemed to care for some odd reason. Too focused in rescuing Rip and saving reality and Nate's grandfather to care about Mick's pain. No one ever seemed to care for Mick like Clarity did.
"Get me a beer." Mick ordered Clarity who returned with one a second later."So who's going in?"
"I will." Sara replied. "I brought Rip onto the ship. It's my responsibility."
"No way. I'm not letting you go in alone." Jax denied.
"Did you not just hear what Gideon said? "Barbaric and supremely dangerous. "" Stein objected.
"Which is why Sara needs backup. And Rip believed in me. There's a reason he made me chief engineer."
"You're the only engineer. Sparky just does the computers." Mick objected.
"Point is if there's any of the old Rip left inside him, I have to find out." Jax replied.
"I'm sure you'll find him." Clarity agreed as she looked at Rip. "Way way way down. You're gonna have to go deep."
"That's all well and good, but, remember, the priority has to be discovering the whereabouts of the final piece of the spear - and its protector." Stein reminded.
"More beer, Professor." Mick ordered. "Oh, make it a six-pack and bring me the rest of Sparky's cupcakes."
Without delay they spun Rips chair around brought two more medbay chairs up from the floor. Sara and Jax sat down in the chairs as Clarity and Stein stuck needles into their heads.
"Question what do we expect when we get inside Rip's mind?" Sara asked.
"No idea." Mick replied.
"Whoa, wait, what?" Jax demanded, Steins panic mixing with his own.
"Well, I've seen it done, had it done, never taken a trip myself." Mick explained beer tilting as he gestured. Clarity rubbed his arm, Mick nodded a bit taking a small sip of his beer.
"Given that you're entering his subconscious, I suspect it will look like someplace familiar to our old Captain." Stein replied.
"My money's on here." Clarity suggested. "The waverider's his home without Miranda and Jonas to tie him to 2166. And the refuge well...a lot of the times foster homes don't really feel like home. Some try, they make you feel welcome with open arms but...it's not the same really. Deep down your always longing to go back, even if it wasn't perfect and you didn't get very many presents for Christmas or you had to shop at a thrift store. Home is always where your heart is with the people who care about you."
"Here, put these on. Gideon warned us that you shouldn't stay in the mindscape for longer than an hour lest the transfer become permanent." Stein told them.
"You mean we can get stuck in Rip's mind forever?" Sara asked.
"Precisely." Stein nodded. "But if you push the red button, you will give yourself an electric shock that should bring you out."
"And if it doesn't I'll wake you up." Clarity promised waggling her fingers lightning crackling between the digits.
"Saved by your sparkle fingers on my chest." Sara shut her eyes. "What a dream."
"Actually I wouldn't have to put them-"
"Less talking, more doing." Mick ordered cutting Clarity off before she could ramble on.
"Mick's right." Sara nodded. "Crank it."
"Good luck." Stein told them.
"Oh wow that feels weird." Clarity shivered as she felt Rip's electrical energy connect with Jax and Sara's. All the lights flickering. "Makes my stomach all twisty."
"Here." Mick passed her a cupcake. "Might be hungry."
Rather than correct him Clarity just smiled and licked at the frosting.
For a while all was fine and good until Clarity felt the hum in Sara's bracelet shut off. Clarity jumped to her feet as she focused. Something was wrong in there. Eobard's programming was fighting back.
"Sparky, what are you doing?" Mick asked slowly. He didn't see the look on her face. But he recognized the stance she was in.
"They need help!" Clarity replied running up to the three chairs she jumped transforming into lightning and travelled inside rips head through all the wires and things they'd hooked up.
"Wow, I made it." Clarity smiled having glitched to where she felt Sara's energy materializing in Rip's brain. Right outside the cell both Sara and Rip were in. She gasped when she saw Sara lying on the floor.
"Clarity?" Rip asked pale as a sheet cowering in a corner. Though he seemed less tense now that she was here. "Wait no don't let the door...shut." Rip sighed banging his head back against the wall because of course the glitch was too occupied with the fallen assassin to listen to him. The door shutting behind her as she entered the cell. Now the three of them were locked in.
"Hey Rip." Clarity smiled back at him before she crouched by the fallen assassin. "Sara...hey you okay?"
"Ugh." Sara groaned, "Rip just threw me against the wall without laying a finger on me."
"Yeah, I had no idea I could do that." Rip replied defensively.
"Well if you hang around George Lucas long enough..." Clarity laughed a bit.
"Wait what are you doing in here?" Sara demanded pausing squinting suspiciously. "Are you, you?"
"Of course I'm me, uh your signal blipped, everything felt-I had to make sure you were okay. I freaked out, and glitched in, sorry this all feels really unnatural."
"It's okay. I'm glad you came. There are evil us's roaming the ship. Could use you. I haven't seen evil you yet but I'm sure she's around." Sara told her before she turned to Rip. "If you can throw me across the room, then you can open that door."
"Oh if you want the door open I can just.." Clarity frowned. She couldn't glitch through. "That's alright or I can just..." she moved to shock the controls. "I can't. Rip's fighting me."
"What? No I'm not!" Rip protested with a shake of his head. "I'm not doing anything."
"That might be exactly the problem, time boy." Clarity punched at the glass and hissed as she just hurt her hand. "Ow! Son of..." she kicked the door and hopped around and glared at Rip. "Urgh your so mean!"
"I didn't do anything! Yell at the door." Rip replied defensively.
"This is your mind." Sara told Rip. "You control everything."
"Why do you care so much about getting me out of here?" Rip wondered.
"Because I need your help." Sara told him. "You sent the JSA on a mission to safeguard the Spear of Destiny. But the Legion has hunted down the fragments, all but one. Commander Steel has it, and only you know where he is. So you gotta get up because you're Captain Rip Hunter. And this is your mind, your ship, your rules." Sara held her hand out to the time master.
"Your very locked un impenetrable cell door." Clarity added showing him her reddened hand. "It's mean and hurt my hand."
"I'm Rip Hunter." Rip began
"Captain of the Waverider." Sara supplied.
"Tardis." Clarity objected in a sing song voice.
"Captain of the-" Rip glared lightly at Clarity before his eyes flicked back to the door. "Waverider and I'm going to open a very mean door with my mind."
"You got this." Sara told him. Rip let loose that brain power. The door sparked but all it did was send it right back at him.
"Ah!" Rip doubled over in pain gripping his head.
"Rip!" Clarity rested a hand on his shoulder in concern when she heard a familiar voice.
"Captain Hunter! Captain Lance. Creator." A mystery woman greeted them standing in front of the doors.
"Who are you?" Sara asked getting in front of Clarity and Rip.
"What don't recognize her?" Clarity wondered. Though really she was the one who usually saw gideon like this every day so she supposed it was easy for the other legends to forget. They did venture into the waveriders systems and exit pretty quickly.
"Should I?" Sara asked completely lost.
"Sara, Gideon. Gideon, Sara." Jax introduced.
"You're Gideon?" Sara asked in surprise.
"Hello, Captain Lance." Gideon greeted again.
"But you're like I mean, you're really-"
"Human?" Gideon supplied.
"I was gonna say "hot," hotter than I remember you being last time I saw you, but yeah, that too." Sara nodded.
"Yes well," Gideon smiled running her fingers through her dark brown hair looking to Clarity. "I get it from my mother."
Jax opened the door and Rip exited Gideon giving him a much needed hug.
"Gid...stop" Clarity blushed lightning crackling. "It wasn't just me. Barry helped a lot. I mean you definitely have his eyes."
"That may be but yours are superior."
"They're freaky." Clarity protested. "They glow."
"So? Conventional human standards of beauty don't matter to me. I believe I would have looked quite cool with them." Gideon grinned. "As you do, Creator."
"Let's get out of here." Sara told the four of them. They snuck out into the hall. "All right, Rip, we need you to tell us where Commander Steel is."
"I don't know." Rip sighed.
"He's too good." Clarity muttered thinking of Eobard. Thawne was always thorough. Of course getting him out of the mind prison wasn't enough.
"The Captain's consciousness is still under the control of this place. If you want him to tell you what you need to know, you're gonna have to get him out." Gideon told them.
"So you keep saying, but how do we get someone out of their own mind?"
"This isn't his mind. I mean physically yes his brain but Thawne's messed with it. He twists foe into friend and friend into foe. We need to unlock his old memories but how?"
"Well, you have to remind him of who he truly is. All the artifacts of Captain Hunter's former life are located in the-" Gideon began.
"The parlour." Sara finished. "Maybe we could jog his memory. "Let's go."
"Rip knows who he is. He's our prisoner. Isn't that right, Rip?" Evil Jax asked him and evil Sara blocking the hall.
"He's wrong...don't listen to him." Clarity's voice kept soft. "You know maybe we were about to search in the wrong place. You know in your heart who your friends are. I know you do. The people who'll protect you, and fight for you...who'll help you no matter what you do." Rip couldn't meet her eyes just growing more confused by the second.
"Look after Rip." Jax told Gideon.
"Always." Gideon answered.
"Hey, what are you planning on doing?" Rip asked her.
"Guess we're gonna have to kick our own asses." Sara smirked.
"I'll help." Clarity decided lightning crackling to her hands. "I still have to get back at you for Camelot. What better way than helping best you at your evilest when you did the same to me the other day?"
"Looks like somebody forgot to bring their powers." Evil Jax taunted.
"Yeah," Clarity frowned before she grinned lightning crackling in her hands. "But I didn't." Clarity fired a blast of lightning at the both of them and they went flying back into a wall down the hall.
"Clarity, you protect Rip. We'll handle these guys." Jax told her.
"Are you sure?" Clarity asked him.
"Positive." Jax replied pointing the gun at his evil self.
"I'm sure they'll be an evil me another time, Pachirisu."
Gideon and Clarity took Rip to the parlour.
"Hey, uh here. Key to everything right here." Clarity snatched up Rip's pocket watch. "Open it."
Rip took it from her grimacing as he tried. "I can't. It's stuck on something." Rip struggled a tiny blue thread sticking out the watch's side. Tangled around the clasp.
"Huh? That's weird..lemme see." Clarity studied the tangle and it was all knotted up. Clarity reached for a pair of scissors lying on the desk.
"Stop! No don't-don't do that. Don't cut it." Rip pleaded falling to his knees in front of her. Hands wrapping around the hand that held the watch.
"Why not?" Clarity asked. "I can just severe it. It'll be quick."
"Because, because you can unravel it. It can stay in tact just like it was before it got stuck." Rip insisted. "It got messy, it clearly did something it shouldn't have done on one side, but don't you think it's worth hanging on to?"
Before Clarity could decide they had company.
"Rip stay in here." Clarity told him as Evil Jax, Evil Ray and Evil Mick appeared. Sara and Jax running into the room.
"Hey guys nice of to join the standoff." Clarity walked downstairs standing in between them.
"The hell? I just threw this guy out the cargo bay." Jax complained. "We can't kill these guys, can we?"
"Only Rip can." Sara answered.
"Second thought why don't you give us a hand down here." Clarity told him. Though Rip merely only looked at Gideon.
"Rip, come on, man, do something." Jax pleaded as Ray and Mick raised their guns.
"I don't know what's real and what's imaginary anymore." Rip admitted.
"They're real, Captain." Gideon answered.
"Less talking, more dying." Mick
Clarity shoved Sara and Jax behind her throwing up a forcefield. Of course did she think to put it up around herself in her split second decision? Nope! Maybe Sara was right. Maybe she was stupid. She yelped as she felt the heat coming at her. Cringing her arm and left leg brought up as she cowered.
"No!" Rip jumped in front of her and Clarity felt the heat recede.
"This is my ship, and you will do as I command." Rip threw up his hands. "Leave my friends alone."
One by one Rip used the force to blast each of them away.
"I really need to hang out with George Lucas." Clarity decided.
"You can shoot lightning." Sara reminded.
"It's not the same. Lightnings for the bad guys." Clarity replied with a pout.
"Rip?" Jax asked. "That really you?"
"I don't know who I am anymore, Mr. Jackson." Rip replied. "What I do know is that we've got to get out of here. You especially, Clarity. It's not just your mind in here it's all of you."
"Right...see you all on the outside." Clarity nodded and she glitched out of Rip's head.
"Clarity! Thank god, what's happened?" Stein strided over to her for an update helping her to her feet from the crouched position she landed in. Before she could reply jax woke up as well.
"What happened?" Stein asked him repeating his question. A second passed Sara was still unmoving in the chair. "Why hasn't Sara woken up?"
"She's still trapped inside. We gotta wake her up." Jax told him.
"Mr. Rory said, if we do that, we run the risk of stranding her inside Rip's mind forever." Stein objected.
"Well, I got news for you. Rip's mind's collapsing. Okay? Clarity you're up." Jax told her.
"Said if we do it." Mick corrected, no one ever listened to him. "Sparky's got more oomph."
"Thank God." Stein breathed as Sara awakened to Claritys fingers on Sara's temples. A nice zap to the brain had her shooting straight up.
"But what about the captain?" Stein lamented.
"Gid's got him covered." Clarity replied.
"Rip?" Sara asked as he woke up.
"Where am I?" He asked
"You're home." Martin told him.
A little while later Clarity knocked on Rip's door. Gideon opened it for her.
"Hey, you mind?" Clarity asked knocking on his room door. Rip shook his head lacing up his boots. He was finally looking like himself again. Not like that cowardly film student or his evil self.
"Rip, about that thread in the watch..." Clarity started slowly. "That was our friendship wasn't it?"
Rip gave a small nod angling his head. "In truth, there was a part of me that was scared we'd never be friends again after all I've done. There's so much I have to apologize for, so much that I can't....."
"We're still friends." Clarity replied. "Eo's not allowed to take that from me....but how can I be sure that your you now? Because I thought you were you when you weren't you, and before that I knew you weren't you when everyone thought you were you when you weren't really you, and now I -I how do I know your you?"
"Time will tell." Rip replied. "Oi! Hang on a minute who was in here?" Rip wondered as he saw the picture of Miranda and Jonas had been moved from the right side of his end table to the left.
"Uh...I think I here Mick calling me. Must want more cupcakes. Gotta go bye!" Clarity glitched into a light. "Gideon don't you dare tell him."
"My lips are sealed." Gideon replied. "Though I feel I must inform you...I've just had my first kiss."
"What? When? With Rip? Gideon! Oh my god!" Clarity hugged her. "Wait for I have to give you the talk?"
"That won't be necessary. I'm afraid it was a one time thing, but I quite enjoyed it." Gideon replied.
"I'm sure Rip did too." Clarity replied with a tiny laugh. "So that's what was taking him so long. Ha. Kissing his dream girl. Should've known."
Rip walked onto the bridge a little while later. Everyone was in the room save for Clarity who was still chilling in the ships systems.
"Welcome back, Captain" Stein greeted. "Mr. Hunter. It is so good to be back, Martin."
"Dr. Palmer, it's very nice to see you again." Rip approached Ray.
"You know you nearly ruined "Star Wars," right?" Ray asked him as
"Yeah, sorry about that." Rip shook his hand.
"The Waverider looks to be in pristine condition." Rip looked around.
"Well, you know, she's holding up pretty well and Clarity put in her ten cents updating Gideon now and again."
"Yes, speaking of where has..." Rip didn't get the chance to finish as she popped out of the console like a Pokémon out of a Pokémon ball during a contest. A shower of blue sparks erupting behind her.
"Rip Hunter!" Clarity stepped one foot on the console ledge beaming ear to welcome arms stretched out wide sparks floating into the air. "Welcome back to the tardis."
"Oh dear god please don't...." Stein paled.
Jax laughed, "I knew it was too quiet around here."
"Wait what's happening?" Nate asked completely lost.
"Welcome? Is it a welcome? Your weren't even here on time to welcome me and for that matter," Rip shoved his hands into his pockets with a smile. "This is not the tardis."
"Of course it's the tardis. Look at what I'm standing on." Clarity pointed down at her feet.
"There's no tube stretching up out of it. There's no up down stuff. It's the waverider."
"Tardis." Clarity jumped down leaping right over Nate almost giving him a heart attack.
"Waverider." Rip insisted, unperturbed by her display of strength. "Does this look bigger on the inside to you?"
"Outside's cloaked to look bigger than it is!" Clarity shot right back grabbing onto the front of his jacket. "Tardis."
"Waverider."
"Tardis!"
"I liked you better when you were killing people." Mick crossed his arms before they could keep going.
"Ah, I see that not everything has changed in my absence." Rip noted he walked over to Amaya Clarity going to lean against the console with a grin.
"Ms. Jiwe, I had the honor of serving alongside your compatriots, including Dr. Heywood's grandfather. They all spoke very highly of you."
"Well, this group speaks very highly of you too." Amaya replied with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, Rip." Nate told him. "For real this time."
"Well, everyone is being very uncharacteristically pleasant, but we're all hoping you know where the final piece of the Spear of Destiny is."
"I do." Rip nodded his head and they all sat down in the chairs. Rip taking Claritys seat next to Sara.
"Hey isn't that where Clarity usually sits?" Nate pointed out.
"He can have it! I've got a new spot." Clarity hopped inside the console settling down. Like a gopher popping out of its hole.
"In the console? Blimey never should have let you help with the new redesigns." Rip shook his head.
"Oh you know what else has new console designs?!" Clarity called.
"It's not the tardis." Rip shook his head as he tapped in the coordinates.
"Punch it, Gideon." Sara smiled, the legends were finally all back together again.
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Here's chapter 27!!!!! Keep an eye out for 28!! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Now fly to the comments my inspirations! Fly!
1. Thoughts on this chapter? What moments did you really like? What ones did you not like?
2. Can you believe book 3 is only a few chapters away?
3. Sarity vs Rarity? Who wins and why. Give me reasons. For and against. Go.
4. What's been your favorite book 2 chapter and why?
5. What episode are you most looking forward to me covering in book 3? And why?
6. How are you doing? School okay? Life okay? Things okay?
7. Anything else you'd like to ask, rant and or tell me!