Changes 5: Institute

Langford Institute, Starling City, April 27, 2000

Getting into the institute was, as it turned out, very simple. Ruvé Adams was the latest in a long line of loyal followers who looked very closely after Damien's personal interests, a task she'd been managing since before Lewis Snart's first trip to prison. Even now she continued to forge the necessary paperwork to see to those interests.

Using that access was far less simple. While Ruvé had a say in where Leonard was treated, she had too little control over how he was treated.

"Who is that?" Damien asked. He gestured at the woman inside Leonard's room. "Not his mother, certainly; she was removed from the picture a long time ago. Another relative Lewis forgot to mention?"

The woman in question held the young thief close, something he was known to never allow anyone to do. Even drugged and in a straitjacket, he should have been resisting her touch, but instead he leaned into her embrace like a dog craving his master.

The woman stroked Leonard's head with one hand and turned pages in a book with the other.

Ruvé shook her head. "One of the volunteers," she replied. "She spends time with some of the patients. Reads to them, keeps them calm."

"Isn't that what medication is for? And why is she with him?"

Ruvé shrugged. "He gets agitated, too. Violent, sometimes, depending on his hallucinations. The nurses haven't found a drug that does him much good."

"I imagine not," Damien murmured.

"They love having her around, though," Ruvé continued. "They claim the patients do a lot better after only a few minutes with her than with a month's worth of drugs." She scoffed. "They act like she's a damn faith healer. Imagine that, in this day and age. She couldn't possibly know real power. Not at all like yours."

"What's she reading?" Damien asked. "I can't see the title from here."

Ruvé lifted one eyebrow, but she pressed a button. "You could always listen in."

"Now fly off and amuse yourself," the woman was saying. Her voice echoed oddly over the speaker. "Don't worry the moonbeams, and don't kill my white rabbits...."

Damien had to listen a few minutes longer to figure out what she was reading; it hadn't been published in his time, after all. But when he realized what it was, he nearly laughed out loud. Some children's story about a lost little dog, pining away for its master.

How very appropriate.

The woman read several more pages before Leonard lifted his head from her shoulder. "Where's Lisa?" he asked.

The woman stumbled over a passage about a sea serpent.

"It's after two, isn't it?" Leonard added. "She's usually here by now."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," the woman replied. "She... she couldn't visit today." She continued to stare down at the book, avoiding the young thief's gaze. "You know how it is in your line of work."

Leonard appeared to consider this, then nodded and laid his head back down on the woman's shoulder.

"Lisa," Ruvé said. "Tess, Eislyn, and of course the faith healer. He's collecting quite a set of ladies. It might be interesting if we could see who he thinks they even are."

Damien snickered.

"But she's safe?" Leonard asked. "If I'm not out there to protect her...."

"Nobody will hurt your sister ever again."

The smirk dropped from Damien's face. "I'm sorry, did she just say sister?"

Ruvé shrugged. "She humors the patients," she replied. "Tells them what they want to hear. No doctor worth the name should allow it, but when the case is that hopeless....." She shook her head. "It's a pity, though. I know you had plans for him, but that fever of his caused too much damage. Just give me the order and the taxpayers will have one less drain to worry about."

"Let's not write him off just yet," Damien said.

"You think he can still be useful?"

"I know he can. But he may need a different kind of treatment."

Ruvé cocked her head. "All right," she said. "What did you need?"

"I'll get back to you on that."

—FLASH SIDEWAYS: CHANGES—

Vanishing Point, Oculus Viewing Chamber

"Why don't you do it?" Eobard snarled.

"I don't have as much power as I used to," Damien replied. "Ever since I left the League..." He shook his head. "You removed Lisa from the timeline, why can't you do the same with this witch?"

"Can't touch her. I don't know why." Eobard shrugged. "Maybe she is a witch. With a power like yours...."

"Her power is nothing like mine." Damien scoffed. "But it may be enough.... I don't want her anywhere near him."

"Fine. I'll come up with something."

—FLASH SIDEWAYS: CHANGES—

Central City

Mick groped around for the key to his private safe house. The beer slipped out of his hand and he watched the bottle shatter on the ground.

"Damn it," he muttered. The bottle had been nearly empty, but he mourned the loss of the last couple of mouthfuls.

He needed another beer.

He found the key after another fumble through his pockets, peered blearily at the lock, and finally, after scratching at the knob a few times, managed to get the door open.

He tossed his gun aside, dropped down onto the couch, and took a swig from the bottle he found waiting on the end table for him.

"Good stuff," he said, peering at the label. "Great stuff." Had he ever drunk this brand before? It was expensive, he knew....

He shook his head and knocked back to guzzle half the bottle before sinking into the couch with a groan.

"Rough day?" a woman asked.

"You don't know the half of it," Mick replied.

His eyes snapped open and he stared at the woman standing over him.

"Shit!" He snatched for his gun and fired point blank at the intruder.

Nothing. The gun didn't even make a sound.

The woman shook her head. "Really? Shoot first, ask questions later?" she said. "I thought that was Lewis' gig. Isn't Leo trying to play things differently?"

"Uh...." Mick blinked several times. "How d'you know Len?"

"I met him when he was a child," she replied. "Eight, I think. When that worm he calls a father threatened to lock him out if he didn't get rid of that stupid necklace." She shrugged. "I've been helping him and his sister ever since, though I wish to the gods I could do something about the worm."

Sister? Mick frowned. Leonard was an only child; everyone in the crew knew that. This madwoman clearly didn't know Leonard as well as she claimed if she believed otherwise.

He shook his head. "I know you, don't I?"

"We've... met," the woman said. "I'm not sure that really qualifies as 'knowing' me." She cocked her head. "Leo calls me Amber."

"So how'd you get in?"

"Magic," Amber replied without missing a beat. "One would think break-ins would be hard for me, considering, but odd as it seems, they're actually one of the easiest spells I've managed."

Mick waited, but the woman didn't offer any more information.

"Come on, Mick," Amber finally said. "I can volunteer a little bit, but I'm not supposed to be answering your questions before you've asked them. It tends to weird people out when I do that."

"I'm not drunk enough for this," Mick grumbled.

"Case in point."

"Ugh.... Okay, fine. What are you doing here? What do you want with me?"

Amber smiled. "Ah, finally! Good questions. Unfortunately not so easily answered. Look, we both know Leo's sick. We both want him better. I even have a pretty good idea why he's sick, but he's not in any fit state to accept my help. And without his consent, I'm quite literally powerless to do anything about it. That's where you come in."

"You think I haven't tried to help him?" Mick growled. "I ain't no doctor, lady. Besides, that place is locked down tight and crawling with cops. I can't even get in to see him." He sighed. "If it was the other way around, Len would have no problem thinking up a way to get me out of there. But I'm not him. I can't think like him. I want him better, but I can't imagine what kind of help you expect to get from me."

"Getting in isn't going to be the problem," Amber said. "No, the problem is, something's happened to Lisa—what happened, I don't know, but it wasn't supposed to happen. And whatever it was, that's what's making Leo sick. I think she can fix what's wrong with him, but I can't find any trace of her."

"Okay," Mick said. "Let's say I understood—or believed—even half of what you just said. Who the fuck is Lisa?"

Amber groaned, slumped down on the couch, and snatched the bottle out of his hand.

"Hey!"

Amber ignored him. She swallowed a mouthful of beer, grimaced, and then finished it off.

When she handed the bottle back to Mick, it was completely full.

Mick took a hesitant taste of the beer and found it to be just as good as before. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"