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Legion of Doom 4: Best Laid Plans

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Mick stared at the speaker. "Shit," he muttered. He hefted the half-empty bottle in his hand and considered the remaining liquid.

Nobody so much as twitched when the bottle smashed against a wall.

"Shit." Mick rubbed his scalp and shook his head. "I was starting to remember that bastard again.... I thought I had my friend back."

"I am sorry, Mr. Rory," Gideon said. "The 'bug' I planted was meant to help protect Mr. Snart against the Legion's interference. But his brainwaves no longer appear to be in sync with the pattern I have on file, and until he returns to the Waverider's medical bay I will be unable to conduct a deeper analysis. I'm afraid I cannot understand how he could have changed his loyalties so easily."

"But it doesn't make any sense," Ray protested. "The only way we could've destroyed the Oculus....."

"That makes sense," Stargirl agreed. "This.... this doesn't. The level of detail... he was starting to convince me that those were true memories."

"Yeah, well, just because he remembers being part of our team," Mick said, "doesn't mean he wants to be part of it now."

"No," Jefferson said. "He was... scared...."

"Just proves he's a better actor than I knew," Mick replied. "Face it, he played us. We saw it coming, we all did; we just didn't want to accept it. All except for Steele."

"But that's not the part that doesn't make sense," Henry said. "Why doesn't he remember Lisa?"

"I don't understand," Martin said. "What does Lisa have to do with this?"

"She has everything to do with it," Stargirl said. "According to Gideon, all of this happened because he can remember other timelines. Correct?"

"That is correct," Gideon said. "If he were not suffering from temporal illness the Legion would never have captured him so easily."

"And Mr. Rory," Stargirl continued, "would I be equally correct in assuming that Lisa existed in this timeline? Before the Legion changed Snart's history?"

Mick nodded. "Yeah. She still exists. I.... damn it, I never even told her he'd sacrificed himself. I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to tell her this."

"Right," Henry said. "So if his memory is that good, and not two hours ago he was terrified that the Legion would go after her, why doesn't he remember her now? What's changed?"

Mick's mouth dropped open.

Henry frowned. "Amaya, that protection spell you used on the rest of us...."

Amaya shook her head. "It won't work. That spell was meant to prevent Darkh from changing us. If Snart is already under his control then he's already changed; there won't be anything for me to protect." She looked around the room, and her gaze fell on one of the pieces of the Spear. "But if I could free him from that control...."

Henry followed her gaze and grimaced. Finally he nodded.

—FLASH SIDEWAYS: LEGION—

Malcolm knocked on the door to the lab.

There was a crackle of lightning, and the door opened just enough to reveal Eobard's face. "What did you want?" the speedster asked.

"To talk," Malcolm replied. He gestured at the barely opened door. "May I?"

Another crackle and a rush of vertigo, and Eobard and Malcolm were both inside the lab, the door locked behind them.

"I repeat," Eobard said, his attention back on whatever he'd been studying before Malcolm approached. A genetic sample this time, if Malcolm remembered right. "What did you want?"

Malcolm glanced at Sara and shrugged before replying. "I guess I'm a little puzzled about our goals lately," he admitted. "I mean, when did you stop being in charge?"

"What are you talking about?" Eobard snapped. "I am in charge."

"Oh." Malcolm let the silence drag on for a few seconds longer than necessary, knowing by now that the speedster would find the pause so much more meaningful—and so much more irritating—than, well, anyone who wasn't a speedster. "So you're okay with whatever Darkh's been doing to Snart? I mean, it's part of the plan?"

Eobard shrugged.

Of course. The only thing about Leonard that interested him was the young man's memory. Why would he care about anything else?

Time for a new angle. "I mean, it just seems like ever since we recruited the kid, all we've ever focused on is his timeline. It'd be one thing if Darkh really was trying to cure him so he could actually contribute to our group." Another quick glance proved Sara was listening closely... and as unobtrusively as only another League assassin could. "If Leon.... uh, Snart is as good a thief as Darkh says, then I see no reason he couldn't help us. No reason before we changed his history. But with the way Darkh keeps trying to force those changes, I'm starting to think the Spear doesn't matter to him half as much as seeing how far he can push the kid."

Eobard growled. "Excuse me, Merlyn, who is the expert in time travel here?"

"That's my point! Do you know what Darkh is doing by screwing around so much with the kid's timeline? Because I sure as hell don't." Malcolm sighed. "I don't know, maybe it's my paranoia kicking in, that League instinct telling me I shouldn't trust a damn thing. But I just can't shake the feeling that whatever Darkh thinks he's doing by changing so much of Snart's history is going to end badly."

Badly for who, he refused to say. Let the speedster draw his own conclusions.

Eobard frowned. "You're right," he finally said. "You are paranoid." But a hint of doubt crept into his tone. "Fine. I'll look into it."

—FLASH SIDEWAYS: LEGION—

It took nearly a week to complete the spell, and Amaya was exhausted.

She wanted to accompany the mission to ensure that her spell worked. But after they'd learned that the speedster could tell how long Leonard had been gone, the team had decided not to waste any more time than strictly necessary on this part of the mission; they'd agreed that staying in the Temporal Zone so Amaya could recover would offer no protection.

"It'll work," Stargirl insisted. "If anything will change him back, this will."

"We ready to go?" Mick said. He charged up his heat gun.

"What do you think you're doing?" Henry asked.

"Going to get my best friend back from those bastards," Mick replied.

Henry shook his head. "No, you're too close to this. Too close to him. I need you to stay behind to help protect Amaya while she recovers."

"Pretty sure she can do that without anyone's protection," Mick replied. "Besides, I gotta make sure Sara doesn't kill Len before we can fix him."

"And I need to make sure you don't kill him first," Ray added.

Mick shrugged.

Henry sighed. "Very well. Anyone else care to join in at the last minute?" Nobody answered. "Dr. Palmer, would you do the honors?"

"Right." Ray cleared his throat and stepped up to the microphone. "Attention Legion of Doom," he said. "We'd like to discuss a trade."

Mick rolled his eyes.

—FLASH SIDEWAYS: LEGION—

Malcolm and Leonard walked forward, hauling Sara between them. However Damien had restrained her seemed to be holding, but Leonard knew it was only a matter of time before she was free....

And whatever Damien wanted with him, he didn't trust the Legion to protect him from her revenge for long.

Malcolm had wanted him to remain behind at the safe house, citing his illness as reason enough to stay out of what was liable to be a battle.

But Damien wouldn't hear of it. "I would think Ra's al Ghul's Horsemen would have a better read on a fellow assassin than that," he'd scolded. "She's too stubborn to show it, but Mr. Snart's betrayal broke her. Not completely, of course; she's too strong for that. But the rest of her team?" He shook his head. "Well, clearly Mr. Snart won't be able to infiltrate them, not with that bug they'd planted on him. But he won't need to after this."

"I bet he's getting real tired of being cooped up in there, too," Eobard added. He shrugged. "I can always speed him back to the safe house if it looks like there's a problem."

That was reason enough for Leonard to go. He didn't want to be alone with any of them... not even Malcolm. And that meant he couldn't give any of them a reason to stay behind.

Finally they reached the place the two groups had agreed to meet.

"Déjà vu?" Malcolm said.

Leonard nodded. "Near where they abducted me," he said. If he listened closely, he could hear the team in the distance, arguing about that very capture.

Sara growled, her words muffled by the gag in her mouth, and she lunged in his direction.

Leonard yelped at the sudden motion. He released her and jerked away, nearly twisting an ankle in his haste to avoid her. He felt for his cold gun, and he didn't dare return to his position until he was sure Malcolm had a firm grip on her.

"Ah, there they are," Damien said. He watched as four members of the Legends approached. "Your teammate, safe and sound as promised. Well, relatively sound. I take it you have the item?"

Stargirl stepped forward, brandishing a piece of the spear. "As promised," she said.

Sara shook her head, but her protests, like her insults, were lost beneath the gag.

Malcolm took a step forward, pushing Sara in front of him. Leonard hesitated, then moved to join him.

"A moment," Damien said. "Only four? You, the commander, Mr. Rory and Dr. Palmer... where are the rest of your team?"

"I thought we agreed," Henry said. "There are four of you, so four of us would participate in the trade." He shrugged. "Mr. Rory couldn't believe how easily that one had played him," he said with a jerk of his chin towards Leonard. "Said he wanted solid proof. The others wanted nothing to do with any of it."

"So are we doing this?" Eobard asked. "Or would you rather I just take your piece of the spear? I haven't got all day."

"Sorry," Leonard muttered. He and Malcolm walked Sara up to a point somewhere in the middle between the two groups, and Mick and Stargirl moved to meet them.

The hurt on Mick's face twisted in Leonard's gut.

Malcolm, far more confident handling the other assassin than Leonard was, handed Sara over to Mick, which left Leonard free to receive the spear piece from Stargirl. The exchange completed, Malcolm walked back to rejoin his own team while Mick set about cutting through Sara's bindings.

Leonard didn't find retreat nearly as easy. He couldn't take even a single step.

His breaths came quickly, one painful gasp after another.

In through the nose....

His chest tightened with every inhalation.

Hold for three....

He was getting dizzy. Dizzier.

Out through the mouth....

And far more terrifying than the physical sensations, he felt... distant. Separate from his body. Separate from everything. The cold gun in one hand, the spear piece in the other.... neither of these felt familiar. They felt like they belonged to someone else. Like he was a stranger in his own body.

He tightened his grip, one hand on the spear and the other on his cold gun, desperate for anything that could ground him back in reality.

Mick bent to whisper something in Sara's ear, even as she struggled to get free of his grasp and go after Leonard.

Malcolm's been looking out for me. Whatever else the Legion wants, he's not going to oh god he's going to let me die.

Something pried his fingers loose from the spear.

Leonard shook his head. Whatever had happened, his panic attack was gone, and his head no longer felt so fuzzy.

But the reality was so much worse. What have I done?

"The Spear of Destiny is an amazing thing," Damien was saying. He hefted the piece to examine his prize. "If the entire spear can rewrite reality, can you imagine what even a small piece of it could do? Especially in the hands of someone who can do magic."

Mick's eyes snapped open wide, and he and the other Legends reached for their weapons.

Damien held up one hand, and everyone froze. "As I was saying. Mr. Thawne, did you acquire that drug I requested?"

Eobard didn't answer.

"Mr. Thawne?" Damien looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Oh, right." He twitched a finger, and Eobard was no longer frozen.

"Er, yes?" Eobard replied. He removed a small vial from a pocket and handed it to Damien. His hands shook as he did so.

Damien inspected the vial. "Vertigo, I believe it's called," he said. "Not the original kind, of course, taken only for pleasure. But a refined variety, famed for producing vivid nightmares." He opened the vial and dipped one tip of the spear into the liquid. "With my magic, I theorize that it could do so much more. Produce not just any nightmare, but one from which the dreamer would never awaken." He frowned. "But of course, not everybody would be affected. Those whose time with the League, for instance," he added, gesturing at Sara with the spear, "or the so-called Time Masters," a gesture towards Mick, "might have granted them a superior resistance to such drugs. Or perhaps your 'heroes' have some other form of protection. But with the spear to enhance it.... imagine the possibilities!"

He sighed. "But who to test it on? No sense wasting my power on all of you only to find out it doesn't work the way I hope. So who truly needs to know just how dangerous it is to get in my way? Oh, yes...." He whirled around and lashed out with the spear. "The traitor in my midst."

Leonard remained frozen, unable to even cry out when the spear penetrated between his ribs.

"Did you really think you could fool me that easily?" Damien snarled. "That I couldn't tell when my control over you faded? That I couldn't see every single moment you tried to betray me? I own you, Mr. Snart, and I have played this game for longer than your grandparents have been alive. But now your punishment will be of your own making... a nightmare of your own design. And that nightmare will only end when you are ready to give me your oath, is that understood? And when you do.... when you give me that oath, Mr. Snart, you will submit to being bound by my magic, bound so thoroughly that no attempt to change history can ever rob me of your loyalty."

—FLASH SIDEWAYS: LEGION—

Undisclosed location, circa 2002

Damien strode confidently down the darkened halls. His piece of the spear was gone—or rather, he had not yet acquired it—and his memories of that timeline were fading fast. But the small boost it had given to his power lingered for a time, and right now he knew he was the most dangerous thing in this hellish place.

His companions had no such reassurance. Even the time-traveling speedster had no awareness of the other timeline. The two skulked along, watching, wary for anyone—or anything—prepared to jump out at them. Neither of them spoke, neither willing to make their presence known to whatever called this place a home.

Until Malcolm broke the silence. The assassin yelped and immediately loosed an arrow at whatever had caused his fright.

Eobard echoed that yelp and dodged away from the arrow aimed at him, allowing it to speed right at Damien.

Damien held up a single hand, and the arrow disintegrated before it had completely left the bow.

"Damn it, Thawne!" Malcolm snarled. "Either quit vibrating or get the hell off me!"

"I can't help it," Eobard whined. "This place gives me the creeps!"

"I always thought it was an urban legend," Malcolm admitted. "Even in my worst nightmares, even after Nanda Parbat, I could never imagine.... What are we even doing here, Darkh?"

"We are here to collect something that belongs to me," Damien replied.

"His sanity?" Eobard muttered.

"You won't find that in this place," Malcolm replied.

"I don't think you could find it any place," Eobard said.

"Cute," Damien said. "But no. My property was stolen from me twenty years ago, and this is my best chance to get it back."

"So why don't I just go back twenty years and collect your property then?" Eobard asked. "For all we know, I might be the one who stole it from you; sure beats wandering around here...."

But Damien shook his head. "I'm afraid that wouldn't be a good idea," he said. "The League was responsible for this theft, you see, and I've learned that this property is particularly sensitive to changes in the timeline." He smirked. "Of course, that means we'll have to be careful so we don't break anything."

A few seconds passed—what Damien knew must feel like an age to the speedster—before the other two reacted. "So what are we looking for?" the assassin finally asked.

"Not what," Damien corrected. "Who." He ignored the panicked looks the other two gave him. "Ah, here we are," he said, finally stopping in front of a locked door. The door clicked open, and he hesitated. "Would you gentleman mind waiting outside for a moment?"

Malcolm and Eobard traded frightened looks, but they waited as requested.

Damien stepped into the room and the door clicked shut behind him.

Barely a second had passed before he heard the distinct crackle of Eobard's speed, the twang of Malcolm's bow, and the thump! thump! thump! of bodies hitting the floor.

Damien smiled down at the man he found inside, muzzled and chained to a sad excuse for a bed. "Let's try this again, shall we?"

Leonard stared back up at him, shaking. He whimpered as Damien approached.
Based on the CW's Arrowverse, featuring Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart/Captain Cold... and assorted other characters.
Legends of Tomorrow short fic.

Time May Change Me
Tracing Time
Legion of Doom
Chapter One: Recruiting Young Len
Chapter Two: Surrender
Chapter Three: Betrayal
Final Chapter: Best Laid Plans
Main Series: Flash Sideways
Prequel: What Could Have Been
Main Fic: Flash Sideways
Sequel: Enemy of My Enemy
Ficlets: Recruitment Drive
Sequel: Legends of Another Day

In which Damien Darkh thinks my planned ending isn't good enough and he decides to "fix" it. (Thanks. A. Lot. :shakefist: )
What do you think you're doing to my story? There was supposed to be a big battle, the team realizing that Len was really under your control and trying to rescue him, trying to find a way to rid Len of the Vertigo- and magically-enhanced nightmare (only to discover Darkh had lied and had actually used Votura on Len), Merlyn and the Reverse Flash were both supposed to realize that you'd gone too far (admittedly this was back when I thought of Darkh as the "leader" of the group), but no...
I mean, seriously, you decided to up and rewrite Len's history, then what was the point of even using the Vertigo?
Okay, readers, it's official: Darkh has just taken personal responsibility for every second of hell I've been putting Len through in these fics. And probably a good deal of the canonical crap.

*ahem*
In which the Legends try to understand Leonard's recent betrayal and rescue their captured team member... and some members of the Legion are not thrilled with the way things have been going.

Once again, I have no idea why I decided Commander Steel and Stargirl were traveling with the Legends throughout the season. But thanks to Darkh's changed ending, I think this is no longer an issue.

OOC is Serious Business.
Recall, this story's version of Len has been under Darkh's control for well over a decade... and I do not use the term "control" lightly. Some of his personality change is due to how different the timeline is from canon, and some is due to the nature of that control.

This is a random fic; this means it is meant to explore only a very small element of what may be a much larger story elsewhere, or it has nothing to do with anything else... or both. Certain details will be explained in other fics where relevant.
Although thanks to Damien's new ending, it now relates (somewhat vaguely) to the Flash Sideways story-verse and is re-titled and re-described accordingly.

Anyway, this fic is done (was done Mar 19, but weather meant staying off the computer, and the apps for the various places I'm posting this are... not good for submitting work).
What happens next... well, that depends on canon.
Assume, for sake of tying the fic to canon, that "rewriting reality" most likely eliminated a goodly portion of the temporal illness. And hindered his ability to retain other timelines in general. And anything else that represents a major difference between how I'm writing Len and how his character (finally!) shows up again in-canon... unless of course canon coincidentally uses a similar plot point.

All characters copyright to DC, CW, etc.
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