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Ray wakes up in a familiar room. His head feels heavy, and the last thing he remembers is picking up a sword and getting ready to attack someone. He shifts a little, and realizes that his hands are cuffed together. He shakes his head to clear it a bit, then gets up and walks towards the doors. As expected, they don’t open.
“Hello?”
The outer doors open, and a man walks in. He’s dressed plainly, but has a rather large gun in his holster. He’s holding a small device in his hand, but Ray can’t make out what it is.
“Hello, Mr. Palmer. I hope you had a restful sleep.” His tone sounds genuine, but his eyes betray the malice behind his words. He stops on the other side of the holding cell, directly in front of Ray, one finger tapping absentmindedly on the object in his hand.
“Fantastic,” Ray replies flatly. “Where’s my team?”
The man shrugs. “They’re fine. You’ll see them soon enough.” He turns to leave, but Ray interrupts him.
“Really? You’re holding me captive and you’re not even gonna tell me why?”
“It wouldn’t change anything,” the man says, and exits the room.
Ray sighs and heads to the back of the cell, slumping down onto the bench. No matter, he thinks. The team will figure this out. They’ll rescue me in no time.
*
“Ah yes. Names. Locations. Motive. What are we dealing with, Sidney?” Leonard crosses his arms, one finger still on top of the trigger of his ice gun.
Sidney swallows. “I don’t know their names,” he answers shakily.
“Strike one,” Mick interjects.
Rip has effectively stomped out the fire that had been blocking his way. He wraps his coat tighter around himself and jogs to where his team is assembled before they can try and stop him again. “Mr. Palmer, who are we – “
“Location?” Sara says over him.
Sidney keeps his eyes trained on Leonard’s gun. “I – I don’t know that either,” he admits. He flinches a little in anticipation.
It’s Jax who moves closer to him from his other side, and Sidney can’t help but squeak in fear. “Strike two,” Jax says.
“Wait! He – he gave me this – this card! It…” he nods towards his left side. “It’s in my pocket.”
Sara leans over and looks him straight in the eyes. “I could castrate you before you even blink,” she whispers. She pats his thigh, then retrieves a small clear card from his pants pocket. “It’s blank,” she says flatly.
Rip holds his hand out. Sara raises an eyebrow at him. “It’s a file, Ms. Lance. Gideon can extract the information, and perhaps then you can stop this little interrogation before – “
“How do we know it’s not a trap?” Kendra points out. “What if it’s a virus or something?” She glares at Sidney.
“It’s not, I promise!” he rushes to say. “I was supposed to wait until you were sleeping and use it to send a message – “
“Course plotted for Opal City 2016.”
“You were just going to take his word for it?” Kendra asks in disbelief.
Rip rolls his eyes. “Gideon is a highly developed program; precautions would’ve been taken – “
“So what’s happening in Opal City?” Jax asks.
“Well, -- “
“I don’t know,” Sidney admits again. “They just said they’d bring me home then take you guys to the tribunal.”
“Tribunal?” Mick says sharply. “Of Time Masters?”
Rip massages his temples. “The Time Masters would never – “
“What could Ray have done to piss off the Time Masters?” Sara asks.
“Not Ray,” Leonard answers. “Rip.” He stands up straight and points gun at Sidney’s head. “What were these men wearing?”
“I – I – just – clothes?”
“Yes, we’re aware of that Sidney. Colours? Style? Were that hood rats or were they wearing something a little more professional?”
Sidney didn’t answer. “Could you please put that thing down?” he asked, his voice high.
“Of course.” Leonard lowers the gun so it points at his heart instead.
“Okay,” Sidney murmurs to himself. He closes his eyes and tries to remember. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” he says louder, and his voice only shakes a little bit. “Just regular… black… maybe dark blue?”
“The Time Masters – “
“– have a uniform,” Leonard finishes before Rip can. “We figured.”
“Could be one of their agents,” Jax suggests.
“No, it’d be too risky,” Kendra replies. “Sidney’s a nobody.” She throws him a dirty look. “They’d never expect someone like him to succeed.”
“So we’re dealing with rogues,” Sara realizes.
“Probably someone with a record,” Mick agrees. “Hand Rip over – “
“—and probably have their record expunged as thanks.” Rip sighs. “Alright well maybe we could – hey!” Sara had grabbed him and slammed him onto the table. “Sara, what are – let go of me!”
“A deal’s a deal,” she replies, and ties his hands together behind his back.
“You cannot be serious about this!”
“We may still have some finer details to work out,” Leonard says, but doesn’t make a move to help him. Sara finishes up the knot, then rejoins the group.
Rip straightens up and tries to roll his shoulders, but the bonds are too tight. “God damn it.”
*
Ray is tinkering with the handcuffs when the stranger returns. He opens the door. “Your friends have made contact,” he says, and grabs Ray by the neck of his shirt, “Lucky for you.” He pushes Ray out of the room and towards the exit of the ship. There are already a bunch of other men leaving, each armed with a large gun directed at someone in front of them. “Don’t do anything stupid,” the man holding him warns unnecessarily. They make their way doing the ramp, and move to the front of the crowd.
Ray is greeted by the sight of Leonard and Mick holding a bound Rip in front of them, their other hands on the guns in their holsters. Mick gives him a look, then focuses on his enemies again. Ray lowers his head, and continues testing the handcuffs quietly.
“Where’s Palmer?” one of the men holding Ray captive demands. At this, Ray’s head jerks back up. He looks around. In the distance is a sign that he can barely read. His suspicion is confirmed when Leonard speaks.
“He decided he didn’t want his reward anymore, so he skedaddled,” Leonard answers, and Ray lets out a breath. Of course Sidney was a part of this. He’d probably asked for the meetup place to be Opal City so he could run home again without facing any consequences, as usual.
“Pity,” the man holding Ray sneers. “Did he not tell you what our deal was before he left?” He pointed a gun at Ray’s temple. “Giving us Hunter all wrapped up is a kind gesture, but hardly sufficient.”
Leonard narrows his eyes at him. “One man for an entire team hardly seems like a fair trade.”
“You’re hardly in a position to bargain,” the man replies. “You’re highly –“ The rest of his sentence is cut off with a gurgle. His grip on Ray’s shirt slackens, and the gun being held against his head clatters to the floor. The rest of the team turns in confusion, as the he collapses sideways onto one of his colleagues.
“Heads up!” Mick roars, and Ray immediately ducks and rolls, toppling a few of the people around him. He can feel the blast of fire from Mick’s gun, and quickly gets back on his feet, running while bent over. A bullet whizzes by him, and he turns and sees Sara appear out of nowhere on top of the would-be killer. Next second, a strong pair of arms wrap around him, and he is lifted into the air.
“Kendra?”
“Hang on, Ray.” She flies him away from the skirmish. He sees the Waverider sitting by a hill in the distance.
“Do you have my A.T.O.M. suit?” he asks.
“Of course,” she says, and glides into the back room. “I’d never let your stupid brother take that thing with him.” Jax and Stein run out to meet them. Jax uses a large pair of pliers to break the cuffs.
“Thanks,” Ray says, and Jax nods at him.
“No problem,” he says, then turns to Kendra. “Are we good?”
“We’re good,” Kendra affirms. “Gideon, let’s go get the rest of the team.”
“Preparing for liftoff, Ms. Saunders,” Gideon replies. The Waverider’s engines begin to hum, and the ship starts to fly back toward their teammates, hovering just a few feet above the ground.
“See ya later, deadbeats!” they hear Mick yell, and a few moments later, he, Leonard, Sara, and Rip, who is now untied, are scrambling on the ship. The door closes, and the ship quickly changes direction, jetting off into the time stream.
“Well, then,” says a very dishevelled Rip. “It’s nice to have you back Mr. Palmer.”
“Yeah,” Sara agrees, and she gives him a hug from where she’s fallen on top of him and Kendra. “Your brother’s kind of a dick.”
“It’s actually kind of surprising you’re even related,”, Kendra says from next to him.
“Yes, there was a definitely a good reason for choosing you to be on the team rather than him,” Rip adds.
“Well, considering Sydney Palmer hadn’t faked his death – “
“Yes, Dr. Stein, but there were other reasons!” Rip shot back angrily. He turned to Leonard and Mick, who were casually lounging on the stack of boxes. “Was the prisoner charade really necessary?” he demands, rubbing his wrists.
Leonard shrugs. “I like a little drama.”
“Besides,” Jax butts in. “You were the only one who didn’t realize Ray wasn’t Ray.”
“Really?” Ray looks around at his teammates, grinning. “You all realized I wasn’t me?”
“Kind of hard not to,” Mick says.
“Yes, well, I was otherwise preoccupied,” Rip argues hastily.
“Whatever you say, Rip,” Sara drawls. She stands up and holds a hand out for Ray. “Now come on. You owe me a rematch on the salmon ladder.”