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ajremixTitle from The Ship Song by Nick Cave. This is essentially a prologue (that i'll never continue) from an idea I had a good while back inspired by the first season of Alice Isn't Dead and the first two episodes of Eureka.
Title: Come Sail Your Ships Around Me (And Burn Your Bridges Down)
Fandom: DC TV
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2360
In Responds to: ColdWave Weekend 2018: Friday the 13th
Characters: Mick, s2 Legends
Summary: There's a temporal anomaly following the Legends. One capable of writing things out of the timeline.
The first time it showed up the thing nearly killed Ray. Not that any of them had know that at the time, it had just shown up in the middle of a fight against anachronistically armed hussars during the War of Austrian Succession. Reinforcements had shown up for the hussars, one of which had a goddamn rocket launcher that he had fired into the skirmish without thought for his allies. Ray had flown into its path and Mick had lunged after him. Ray's armaments had been damaged earlier in the fight and Mick knew a sacrifice play when he saw one. But inches between Ray and the explosive the air ripped open with a sound so loud and distorted, folded in on itself until it was like reality was tearing itself apart. The tear pulled back into a ragged, shapeless opening that swirled in blues and greens with deep fingers of purple crackling around a humanoid silhouette like a halo. The projectile disappeared inside its chest and, with the same terrible roar that announced it, it vanished.
Everyone had frozen, staring at the spot the thing had occupied. Except for Mick. After so many years working as the Time Masters' bounty hunter, he knew how to work through weird, using it to his advantage. He fired a gout of flame at the hussar's already terrified horse, not aiming to hurt it, just spook it. It reared back, throwing its rider to the ground before bolting, a couple other horses following its lead. Once they were clear, Mick fired again, this time detonating the remaining ammo in the hussar's bag. The explosion broke through the mass stun and the hussars that didn't immediately surrender out of fear threw down their weapons and ran.
Clean up was fairly easy after that, word of mouth claiming the Legends were slaughtering anyone using these 'magic gifts'. When they finally trudged back onto the Waverider the only answer Gideon could give as to what happened was 'a massive temporal distortion'.
"What does that mean?" Sara asked.
"I'm afraid I cannot be any more specific. I have no records of any similar event."
When Sara turned to Mick, he just shrugged. Jax said to the room in general, "So this is definitely something we're gonna have to deal with eventually, isn't it?"
Sara sighed and pushed away from the console. "I don't doubt it."
It showed up again almost a month later as a time pirate ambushed a couple of them checking a crashed ship in pre-history Nepal, swinging what looked like a machete-shaped lightsaber at Mick. The air ripped open again, flickering briefly around everyone like it was trying to find the correct spot- right in front of the pirate. She twisted, trying to maneuver around the thing but her arm brushed against the swirl of color, the purple immediately crackling along the limb, dragging her into the tear. When the pirate's hand brushed against the silhouette it was like she'd reached the event horizon of a black hole. Her body stretched, limbs turning into ribbons that twisted as she was pulled in and in. Her scream was the only thing that lingered as it thunder clapped out of existence.
In that time, Nate had grabbed Mick and Amaya, dragging them against him as he backpedaled against the side of the ship, all three stunned silent. It took him a while to find his voice, announcing into his comm, "Uh, Sara? We saw the thing again."
And it kept showing up. Again and again and again, each appearance coming quicker than the last. At first it seemed to happen only when the Legends were in a fight. Then it started happening outside of any overt threat. Then, according to Gideon, it started showing up before or after their arrival, the temporal distortion lingering for days, on one occasion an entire week before they came. Sometimes it stayed in one place, sometimes it flickered to different spots, the length of its appearance ranging anywhere between instantaneous to a minute long. It didn't seem to care about casualties, of the people or things it sucked into its body, one time appearing over top an injured man. The Legends hadn't heard him scream or seen him vanish, but he was gone all the same. To make it worse, the victims weren't merely killed, they were erased from the timeline. Each and every one, no matter how Gideon scoured her records, not even Rip's team able to go back and find any trace of them even before they vanished.
In response Sara had gotten more cautious in assignments, dividing the team into groups when they went out and told to call in the moment the thing showed up.
Or maybe it was less caution and more trying to figure out the anomaly's pattern. She'd called Mick into the study after a particularly harrowing encounter, the anomaly seeming to follow the Legends back to the Waverider for a mile before stopping just outside of the Waverider's weapon range. One wall of the study was taken up by a board that had the locations of each encounter as well as the names of who saw it underneath. Mick didn't have enough time to parse the list before Sara said, "Are you sure you don't know anything about this thing?"
Mick gave her a mildly irritated look. "Sure as I was the last four times you asked."
Her mouth pressed into a thin line, looking like she was trying to figure out the best way to phrase what she had to say. She settled on, "I think it's after you."
His brow furrowed. "What?"
"You're the only one that's witnessed every single appearance and whenever it intervenes in a fight, it's almost always when you're in direct danger."
For a long moment Mick didn't say anything. Couldn't think of what to say. His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before asking, knowing she wouldn't have an answer, "Why?"
Sara shrugged, looking helpless. "I don't know. But I don't know if I should let you back into the field unless necessary. At least until we figure out how to deal with this thing. I don't know if it can track you while you're on the ship-"
The alarms blared.
They looked at each other, both acutely aware of the timing, before charging into the hall to meet the sudden danger.
"It's on the ship!" Jax called out over the ship wide com. "Holy crap, it followed us into the timestream!"
Mick and Sara skidded to a halt. There, at the other end of the hall, was the anomaly, flicker as it stopped by each door as if it were peering inside. Thankfully it didn't seem interested in the crew, having ignored the fact it had Ray and Jax cornered in their respective rooms before it moved on. It flickered again, suddenly jumping halfway down the hall to appear within a yard of Mick and Sara.
Then, for the first time, the silhouette moved.
Its arm lifted and reached out, the rift reshaping itself around it. Its hand and fingers outstretched, as if it was going to touch Mick's cheek but Sara pushed Mick behind her, firmly putting herself in the anomaly's way. With a snap her staff extended, held at the ready even though she knew what would happen if it touched her.
But the thing stilled, head tilting slightly to one side. And vanished.
For a long moment no one spoke. Then Ray said, forced brightness in his voice, brittle around the edges, "Well, that was terrifying!"
"Gideon," Sara said, absently patting Mick's arm as if to assure herself he was still there, "any damage?"
"None, Captain Lance," Gideon replied. "However, given the anomaly's ability, it may be best to have someone confirm that."
Jax nodded to her. "I'll get on it."
Nate heaved a sigh. "I did not need to know it can show up in the timestream."
"I'm actually a little glad it showed up," Amaya said. "Something about the noise it makes has been bothering me but I haven't managed to get a recording of it. Gideon, were you able to do that?"
"Yes, Miss Jiwe, though I am not programmed to do complex noise filtering."
"Perhaps I can be of assistance," Stein said. "I have some amount of experience in that area."
Nate grinned, equal parts amused and disbelieving. "You?"
"Like any good nuclear physicist, I have a number of friends in SETI," Stein said matter of factly. "One of whom took the time to show me how to filter out noises surrounding potential signals."
"Is that really a typical association?"
"Absolutely." No one could tell if he was being sarcastic.
"Alright, then," Sara said. "Gideon, set him up with a soundboard and let's see what you can find."
Gideon had one fabricated and waiting in the study and as Stein went to it, Mick followed. Stein paused, looking a bit unnerved at the company. "This may take a while, Mr. Rory. Rest assured, I'll have Gideon alert the crew once I've gotten something."
"I'm the one being stalked by Space Ghost," Mick told him. "I'm gonna be there when you figure out why."
Stein looked to Sara who just shrugged back. Stifling an unhappy sound, Stein continued on his way with Mick right behind him. After a moment, with no one having anything better to do, the rest of the Legends followed.
It took some time before Stein got anything. Long enough for Mick to wander off and bring back a bottle of stout and a bottle of bourbon, the latter he placed next to the chair he claimed, the former he cracked open and drank from. After a little longer, Ray went out and came back with a tray of sandwiches he passed around to everyone. Then Jax returned with a clean bill of health for the Waverider and, not much longer after that, Stein abruptly froze.
Jax, feeling his apprehension, asked, "You find something, Gray?"
"Indeed I have," he replied, voice strained. "This... will be upsetting for most, if not all of us, but Mr. Rory is likely to be the most affected."
In reply, Mick leaned over the side of his chair to pick up the untouched bottle of bourbon. He flopped back into his original position, took a long pull and said, "Hit me, Professor."
Stein removed his headset, pressed a button and a faint crackle filled the room. He pressed another button and a voice said, "Mick"
Mick abruptly sat upright.
Sara, her posture stiffening from her place against the wall, asked, "Was that..."
Stein held up a hand. "There's more. Much more."
He started raising sliders, layers and layers of voices- of one voice -speaking over each other, each layer looping through a single word or phrase over and over again.
"Mick"
"where are you"
"you and me partner"
"I'll find you no matter what"
"don't leave me"
"I'm coming Mick"
"That... that's Snart," Ray said softly, glancing at Mick for confirmation. Mick wasn't looking at anyone. He took another drink from the bourbon, hand shaking.
Nate's brow furrowed. "Wasn't he the guy that killed that alternate-" Ray cut him off with a sharp jab of his elbow and Nate, catching Sara's glare, said, "Not the time. Right."
"My immediate hypothesis," Stein said, turning off the voices, "would be this anomaly resulted from Mr. Snart's presence at the Oculus explosion. The question is: is this anomaly an echo of his consciousness or is it actually Mr. Snart in some form? Is he aware that he's been following Mr. Rory? Or even of the danger he's presenting? Or is the echo merely chasing the presence of the most important person in Mr. Snart's life?"
Mick pulled a face. "I ain't the most important person to him."
The others gave him odd looks. "Evidence points to the contrary," Jax said dryly.
"Nah. That was always his sister."
"Is her name Lisa?" Amaya asked.
Mick's jaw went hard and eyes sharp. "How do you know that," he growled.
"It was in the voices," she said, stepping up next to Stein. "It was very faint. Can you turn them on again?" Stein did as she asked and Amaya studied the waveforms for each channel. "That one." She said, pointing it out. "I think it's on that one."
Stein put on his headset again and fiddled around again. "My god, you're right!" He shut off every channel but the one that said "don't leave me" and in real time the others heard the words fade and another gradually coming out of it.
"Lisa"
Mick stood up, the bourbon falling to the floor and splashing under his feet as he strode swiftly through the hall. "Gideon," he barked out, "get us to Central 2017."
"Belay that order, Gideon!" Sara called, chasing after him.
"Override CHR-A31163DC. Central City. 2017. Now."
"Understood, Chronos. Setting course."
Sara brushed passed Mick, planting her feet and putting a hand to his chest. He probably could've barreled over her if he really wanted- she probably would've found a more painful way to stop him in that case -but Mick stopped. "You need to calm down."
"You need to get outta my way, Blondie. I damn near helped Snart raise Lisa. She's as much my sister as she is his."
"Mick," she said firmly, eyes intense on his. "I'm not saying no, I'm just saying we need to think about how we're going to do this. She already hates most of us for what happened to Leonard and you, that means you're the only one that she'll listen to." Mick's jaw twitched but he stopped straining into her hand. "I know she's a spitfire, I know she's independent. I'll get us to her, but you need to think about how to convince her to let us protect her."
His eyes traced over her face, looking for even the slightest hint of a lie. His shoulders slumped and he said, voice low and tight, "She's all the family I got left."
Sara's expression softened, hand moving to squeeze his shoulder. "Then let's go get her."
---
Easter egg- the code Mick gives is the date of Atom 3 which marks the first appearance of David Clinton aka Chronos
Title: Come Sail Your Ships Around Me (And Burn Your Bridges Down)
Fandom: DC TV
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2360
In Responds to: ColdWave Weekend 2018: Friday the 13th
Characters: Mick, s2 Legends
Summary: There's a temporal anomaly following the Legends. One capable of writing things out of the timeline.
The first time it showed up the thing nearly killed Ray. Not that any of them had know that at the time, it had just shown up in the middle of a fight against anachronistically armed hussars during the War of Austrian Succession. Reinforcements had shown up for the hussars, one of which had a goddamn rocket launcher that he had fired into the skirmish without thought for his allies. Ray had flown into its path and Mick had lunged after him. Ray's armaments had been damaged earlier in the fight and Mick knew a sacrifice play when he saw one. But inches between Ray and the explosive the air ripped open with a sound so loud and distorted, folded in on itself until it was like reality was tearing itself apart. The tear pulled back into a ragged, shapeless opening that swirled in blues and greens with deep fingers of purple crackling around a humanoid silhouette like a halo. The projectile disappeared inside its chest and, with the same terrible roar that announced it, it vanished.
Everyone had frozen, staring at the spot the thing had occupied. Except for Mick. After so many years working as the Time Masters' bounty hunter, he knew how to work through weird, using it to his advantage. He fired a gout of flame at the hussar's already terrified horse, not aiming to hurt it, just spook it. It reared back, throwing its rider to the ground before bolting, a couple other horses following its lead. Once they were clear, Mick fired again, this time detonating the remaining ammo in the hussar's bag. The explosion broke through the mass stun and the hussars that didn't immediately surrender out of fear threw down their weapons and ran.
Clean up was fairly easy after that, word of mouth claiming the Legends were slaughtering anyone using these 'magic gifts'. When they finally trudged back onto the Waverider the only answer Gideon could give as to what happened was 'a massive temporal distortion'.
"What does that mean?" Sara asked.
"I'm afraid I cannot be any more specific. I have no records of any similar event."
When Sara turned to Mick, he just shrugged. Jax said to the room in general, "So this is definitely something we're gonna have to deal with eventually, isn't it?"
Sara sighed and pushed away from the console. "I don't doubt it."
It showed up again almost a month later as a time pirate ambushed a couple of them checking a crashed ship in pre-history Nepal, swinging what looked like a machete-shaped lightsaber at Mick. The air ripped open again, flickering briefly around everyone like it was trying to find the correct spot- right in front of the pirate. She twisted, trying to maneuver around the thing but her arm brushed against the swirl of color, the purple immediately crackling along the limb, dragging her into the tear. When the pirate's hand brushed against the silhouette it was like she'd reached the event horizon of a black hole. Her body stretched, limbs turning into ribbons that twisted as she was pulled in and in. Her scream was the only thing that lingered as it thunder clapped out of existence.
In that time, Nate had grabbed Mick and Amaya, dragging them against him as he backpedaled against the side of the ship, all three stunned silent. It took him a while to find his voice, announcing into his comm, "Uh, Sara? We saw the thing again."
And it kept showing up. Again and again and again, each appearance coming quicker than the last. At first it seemed to happen only when the Legends were in a fight. Then it started happening outside of any overt threat. Then, according to Gideon, it started showing up before or after their arrival, the temporal distortion lingering for days, on one occasion an entire week before they came. Sometimes it stayed in one place, sometimes it flickered to different spots, the length of its appearance ranging anywhere between instantaneous to a minute long. It didn't seem to care about casualties, of the people or things it sucked into its body, one time appearing over top an injured man. The Legends hadn't heard him scream or seen him vanish, but he was gone all the same. To make it worse, the victims weren't merely killed, they were erased from the timeline. Each and every one, no matter how Gideon scoured her records, not even Rip's team able to go back and find any trace of them even before they vanished.
In response Sara had gotten more cautious in assignments, dividing the team into groups when they went out and told to call in the moment the thing showed up.
Or maybe it was less caution and more trying to figure out the anomaly's pattern. She'd called Mick into the study after a particularly harrowing encounter, the anomaly seeming to follow the Legends back to the Waverider for a mile before stopping just outside of the Waverider's weapon range. One wall of the study was taken up by a board that had the locations of each encounter as well as the names of who saw it underneath. Mick didn't have enough time to parse the list before Sara said, "Are you sure you don't know anything about this thing?"
Mick gave her a mildly irritated look. "Sure as I was the last four times you asked."
Her mouth pressed into a thin line, looking like she was trying to figure out the best way to phrase what she had to say. She settled on, "I think it's after you."
His brow furrowed. "What?"
"You're the only one that's witnessed every single appearance and whenever it intervenes in a fight, it's almost always when you're in direct danger."
For a long moment Mick didn't say anything. Couldn't think of what to say. His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before asking, knowing she wouldn't have an answer, "Why?"
Sara shrugged, looking helpless. "I don't know. But I don't know if I should let you back into the field unless necessary. At least until we figure out how to deal with this thing. I don't know if it can track you while you're on the ship-"
The alarms blared.
They looked at each other, both acutely aware of the timing, before charging into the hall to meet the sudden danger.
"It's on the ship!" Jax called out over the ship wide com. "Holy crap, it followed us into the timestream!"
Mick and Sara skidded to a halt. There, at the other end of the hall, was the anomaly, flicker as it stopped by each door as if it were peering inside. Thankfully it didn't seem interested in the crew, having ignored the fact it had Ray and Jax cornered in their respective rooms before it moved on. It flickered again, suddenly jumping halfway down the hall to appear within a yard of Mick and Sara.
Then, for the first time, the silhouette moved.
Its arm lifted and reached out, the rift reshaping itself around it. Its hand and fingers outstretched, as if it was going to touch Mick's cheek but Sara pushed Mick behind her, firmly putting herself in the anomaly's way. With a snap her staff extended, held at the ready even though she knew what would happen if it touched her.
But the thing stilled, head tilting slightly to one side. And vanished.
For a long moment no one spoke. Then Ray said, forced brightness in his voice, brittle around the edges, "Well, that was terrifying!"
"Gideon," Sara said, absently patting Mick's arm as if to assure herself he was still there, "any damage?"
"None, Captain Lance," Gideon replied. "However, given the anomaly's ability, it may be best to have someone confirm that."
Jax nodded to her. "I'll get on it."
Nate heaved a sigh. "I did not need to know it can show up in the timestream."
"I'm actually a little glad it showed up," Amaya said. "Something about the noise it makes has been bothering me but I haven't managed to get a recording of it. Gideon, were you able to do that?"
"Yes, Miss Jiwe, though I am not programmed to do complex noise filtering."
"Perhaps I can be of assistance," Stein said. "I have some amount of experience in that area."
Nate grinned, equal parts amused and disbelieving. "You?"
"Like any good nuclear physicist, I have a number of friends in SETI," Stein said matter of factly. "One of whom took the time to show me how to filter out noises surrounding potential signals."
"Is that really a typical association?"
"Absolutely." No one could tell if he was being sarcastic.
"Alright, then," Sara said. "Gideon, set him up with a soundboard and let's see what you can find."
Gideon had one fabricated and waiting in the study and as Stein went to it, Mick followed. Stein paused, looking a bit unnerved at the company. "This may take a while, Mr. Rory. Rest assured, I'll have Gideon alert the crew once I've gotten something."
"I'm the one being stalked by Space Ghost," Mick told him. "I'm gonna be there when you figure out why."
Stein looked to Sara who just shrugged back. Stifling an unhappy sound, Stein continued on his way with Mick right behind him. After a moment, with no one having anything better to do, the rest of the Legends followed.
It took some time before Stein got anything. Long enough for Mick to wander off and bring back a bottle of stout and a bottle of bourbon, the latter he placed next to the chair he claimed, the former he cracked open and drank from. After a little longer, Ray went out and came back with a tray of sandwiches he passed around to everyone. Then Jax returned with a clean bill of health for the Waverider and, not much longer after that, Stein abruptly froze.
Jax, feeling his apprehension, asked, "You find something, Gray?"
"Indeed I have," he replied, voice strained. "This... will be upsetting for most, if not all of us, but Mr. Rory is likely to be the most affected."
In reply, Mick leaned over the side of his chair to pick up the untouched bottle of bourbon. He flopped back into his original position, took a long pull and said, "Hit me, Professor."
Stein removed his headset, pressed a button and a faint crackle filled the room. He pressed another button and a voice said, "Mick"
Mick abruptly sat upright.
Sara, her posture stiffening from her place against the wall, asked, "Was that..."
Stein held up a hand. "There's more. Much more."
He started raising sliders, layers and layers of voices- of one voice -speaking over each other, each layer looping through a single word or phrase over and over again.
"Mick"
"where are you"
"you and me partner"
"I'll find you no matter what"
"don't leave me"
"I'm coming Mick"
"That... that's Snart," Ray said softly, glancing at Mick for confirmation. Mick wasn't looking at anyone. He took another drink from the bourbon, hand shaking.
Nate's brow furrowed. "Wasn't he the guy that killed that alternate-" Ray cut him off with a sharp jab of his elbow and Nate, catching Sara's glare, said, "Not the time. Right."
"My immediate hypothesis," Stein said, turning off the voices, "would be this anomaly resulted from Mr. Snart's presence at the Oculus explosion. The question is: is this anomaly an echo of his consciousness or is it actually Mr. Snart in some form? Is he aware that he's been following Mr. Rory? Or even of the danger he's presenting? Or is the echo merely chasing the presence of the most important person in Mr. Snart's life?"
Mick pulled a face. "I ain't the most important person to him."
The others gave him odd looks. "Evidence points to the contrary," Jax said dryly.
"Nah. That was always his sister."
"Is her name Lisa?" Amaya asked.
Mick's jaw went hard and eyes sharp. "How do you know that," he growled.
"It was in the voices," she said, stepping up next to Stein. "It was very faint. Can you turn them on again?" Stein did as she asked and Amaya studied the waveforms for each channel. "That one." She said, pointing it out. "I think it's on that one."
Stein put on his headset again and fiddled around again. "My god, you're right!" He shut off every channel but the one that said "don't leave me" and in real time the others heard the words fade and another gradually coming out of it.
"Lisa"
Mick stood up, the bourbon falling to the floor and splashing under his feet as he strode swiftly through the hall. "Gideon," he barked out, "get us to Central 2017."
"Belay that order, Gideon!" Sara called, chasing after him.
"Override CHR-A31163DC. Central City. 2017. Now."
"Understood, Chronos. Setting course."
Sara brushed passed Mick, planting her feet and putting a hand to his chest. He probably could've barreled over her if he really wanted- she probably would've found a more painful way to stop him in that case -but Mick stopped. "You need to calm down."
"You need to get outta my way, Blondie. I damn near helped Snart raise Lisa. She's as much my sister as she is his."
"Mick," she said firmly, eyes intense on his. "I'm not saying no, I'm just saying we need to think about how we're going to do this. She already hates most of us for what happened to Leonard and you, that means you're the only one that she'll listen to." Mick's jaw twitched but he stopped straining into her hand. "I know she's a spitfire, I know she's independent. I'll get us to her, but you need to think about how to convince her to let us protect her."
His eyes traced over her face, looking for even the slightest hint of a lie. His shoulders slumped and he said, voice low and tight, "She's all the family I got left."
Sara's expression softened, hand moving to squeeze his shoulder. "Then let's go get her."
---
Easter egg- the code Mick gives is the date of Atom 3 which marks the first appearance of David Clinton aka Chronos
