Chapter 3
"And we have arrived," Rip announced as the ship left the temporal zone. "Gideon, if you wouldn't mind camouflaging us as an alpine meadow, perhaps?"
Leonard glanced at his partner, who was hunched over in his seat with his head in his hands. "What are you complaining about now? It's not like we time-jumped."
"I hate flying," Mick groaned. "Especially in… whatever this thing is."
"Where exactly are we?" Carter asked Rip.
"We're still in 1975, right?" Kendra verified.
"Indeed. October 19, 1975 on the fjords of northern Norway."
"Sounds like a vacation," Leonard drawled as everyone began to stand up.
"Which we can take as soon as the threat of Savage has been neutralized, Mr. Snart," Rip responded as he went into his office.
Hermione frowned, glancing up at the ceiling as she considered that. It had been quite some time since she had visited Norway. She wondered how the Rowles' campaign to have her banned from ever entering the country again was going.
When Rip came out of his office, he was holding a small, leather-bound book in his hands.
"That's Aldus' notebook," Carter commented.
Rip nodded. "He theorized that Savage might be here and, if he's right, and if we can capture Savage, then at least Professor Boardman didn't die in vain."
"Can't we just go back and save Aldus?" Kendra asked.
"He was our son," Carter reminded them.
"Look, I'm sorry," Rip told them. "We can't go back and change events in which we participated. Time would fold in on itself creating a temporal vortex."
"Which sounds way cooler than it is," Dr. Palmer assured them.
"Do you even have a space to potentially hold Savage in?" Hermione asked, leaning against the center console in between Sara and Leonard. "You said Kendra or Carter could kill him but I'm guessing it's not as simple as handing one of them a gun and having them but a bullet in Savage."
"Indeed," Rip sighed. "In addition to it having to be one of them that kills him, he can only be killed using something that was present on the night of their original deaths."
Against her will, Hermione's jaw dropped. "You must be joking. Are you really telling me that the only way to kill Savage is to hope we can stumble upon a weapon that managed to stay intact for 4,000 years?"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Dr. Palmer interrupted. "I think capturing Savage is a good start."
Hermione turned to look at him. "I know this may be a little late, but I have to ask- what's your name?" At the incredulous looks several team members were sending her way, she added, "It's not like we sat around and did proper introductions. You all had the benefit of at least being vaguely aware of each-others existence. I, however, have been forced to play catch up."
"I'm Raymond. Palmer. Dr. Raymond Palmer, to be exact. I just go by Ray though."
"Alright then, Ray. While capturing Savage is a good start, it won't do us any good if we don't have someplace to put him and a plan for how to proceed afterwards. Without that, we're just a group of strangers trapped on a time ship with an immortal psychopath who most likely finds manipulating others to be as easy as breathing."
"Maybe they could just beat him to death," Mick offered. "That'd count right?"
"You need a lot of rage in order to beat someone to death," Sara responded. "Carter might have what it takes since has 4,000 years worth of memories fueling his rage, but Kendra doesn't."
"Let's just forget about that for a moment," Jefferson interrupted. "What's Savage even doing in Norway?"
"According to Gideon, there is a large meeting of terrorists and fringe groups looking to buy illegal arms."
Mick grinned. "Now that sounds like a vacation."
"Arms dealers and terrorists aren't exactly our kind of people," Leonard commented, leaning closer to study the map pulled up on the console before turning to smirk at Hermione. "But they're the next best thing."
She rolled her eyes at him as Carter dryly commented, "Well then, looks like you and your lapdog get to earn your keep."
"I'm no one's lapdog, bird-man," Mick snapped.
"Actually," Rip interrupted. "This particular excursion is probably more in Hermione's range of expertise. After all, she was a terrorist once."
"Oh, alright," Hermione snorted, pointedly ignoring the varying-degrees of shocked looks she was being given. "It seems we're still a little bitter about the fact that I didn't perpetuate your lie how changing the timestream works because you never asked me to. I'm not really sure my time as a 'terrorist' counts though considering the circumstances behind that. After all, your organization probably considers you a terrorist of sorts because of this particular venture but, morally speaking, you're not actually a terrorist."
"What exactly is your background?" Martin asked hesitantly.
Hermione shrugged. "Oh, the usual. Child-prodigy turned into brilliant rising star turned into a martyr-of-sorts who then turned into a bitter and angry woman. Nothing special."
After an awkward pause, Sara asked, "So the terrorist thing happened recently?"
"No, it happened between the rising star and the martyr phase."
"Right," the blond nodded. "What level of friendship are we at again? Because I've got a lot of questions about your background."
"You're at level zero," Hermione informed her. "You were level one, but I took points off just now because you had to ask what level we're at and it hurt my feelings."
That seemed to break the tension, and everyone relaxed.
"So, what exactly does one wear to a black-market arms bazaar, anyway?" Kendra asked Rip, clearly wanting to change the subject.
"The Waverider has a fabrication room which can fashion temporally-indigenous fashion," he answered, walking back into his office.
"You've got a room that makes clothing?" Jefferson asked incredulously.
"Doesn't everyone?"
"Of course," Hermione drawled. "Temporally-indigenous fashion rooms are all the rage in the 21st century. We woman like the option of wearing corsets and crinolines whenever we're in the mood."
As Rip was escorting them to the fabrication room, Ray announced, "Alright, first thing we need to do is work up a plan."
"Oh, so now he wants a plan," Hermione muttered, glaring at the scientist.
"Got a lot of experience with criminal gatherings?" Leonard asked him. "Didn't think so. I'm calling the shots."
"Actually," Rip interjected, stepping between the two so that he was at the front of the group. "I'm in charge, in case any of you have forgotten."
"No, I remember," Leonard responded. "I just don't care."
Rip stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Do I need to remind any of you that I'm a Time Master? Making discrete alterations to the timeline is what I do, so we're not just going to charge into the past like a bull into a china shop-"
"Half of what you've told us about the mission turned out to be lies," Mick interrupted.
"None of you have ever encountered Vandal Savage before," Rip reminded them. "I have. And I'm telling you now, you are making a big mistake."
Ray scoffed. "Already did that when we trusted you."
"Back soon, Captain," Mick told him and then everyone except Hermione walked off.
She stood in silence for a moment before asking, "If we killed Ray and then told everyone the story of his death over and over again so it became a common tale of warning that people told for centuries, that would make him a legend of sorts, right?"
He gave her a look, but his lips were twitching slightly. "You're not killing Ray."
Hermione smiled innocently. "Not yet." Then she sighed. "They're going to mess up the timeline, aren't they?"
"They absolutely are."
"Lovely. I can't wait to see that." Hermione took a step closer to Rip. "While I understand your intentions, I have to ask: is it really a good idea to just sit and watch them make a mess? Again, I understand the sentiments behind it, but what if we can't fix what they break?"
Sighing, Rip explained, "If I keep trying to assert myself, their rebellions are just going to become bigger and bigger. Letting them try to do this by themselves and then showing them the consequences of their failure will demonstrate to them just how out of their depth they are."
"You don't think we're going to capture Savage, do you?"
"I think that it will take a team to apprehend Savage- which is why I recruited you all. But, like you said, at the moment we're merely a group of strangers trapped on a time ship."
Hermione let out a huff. "In that case, I'll just observe them for the most part and try to find something that tells us what Savage's current plans are."
The auction was, of course, happening at an abandoned warehouse near a lake in the middle of nowhere. Armed guards and well-dressed men stood in small groups around the entrance. A disillusioned Hermione watched from her position on top of one of the many military vehicles littering the area as Sara, Mick, Leonard, and Martin- with a miniaturized Ray in his pocket- walked towards the door.
"Looks like they're checking credentials," Sara announced over the comms. "And we don't have any."
"We've got this," Mick reassured her. "Trust us."
Leonard brushed against a finely dressed man who, judging by his garbs, appeared to be from somewhere in Africa- Northern Africa, if she had to hazard a guess. "Excuse you," he drawled, pushing the man away. In his hand was a small orange card.
"No, Leonard, that is a terrible plan," Hermione hissed. "That man is black and you, in case you have somehow forgotten, are white. You are not going to pass for him, I guarantee it."
"You'd be surprised at what I can get away with."
Hermione switched her comm link to a private channel with Rip. "Rip, this is physically painful."
"And you've only been there for less than two minutes. Stop talking to me and make sure those idiots make it into the meeting."
"I'm a witch, not a miracle worker," she reminded him before switching the comm back.
"You don't look like an Amhad Ahmed Izz-Al-Din," she faintly heard the guard telling Leonard.
"I'm Arab," he responded. "On my mother's side."
"You're an idiot," Hermione told him.
"Is there a problem?" Martin demanded, striding forward. "I don't like delays. Do you know who we are? My associates and I are the operational arm of 'Scimitar'. The Lombardo Square bombing, 1963. Murder of Henri Tyran, Canada, 1970. Konig Airport Massacre, 1971. Bottom line? You don't want to doubt me."
Leonard reached out to snatch the ID card back from the guard, who, after a long pause, stood aside to allow the group in.
"Should we be concerned that Martin was able to just rattle off several terrorist attacks off the top of his head?" she mused.
Mick threw an arm around Martin's shoulders as they headed in. "You're a special kind of crazy. I like it."
"We're in," Leonard announced.
"So we heard," Kendra told him dryly. She, Carter, and Jefferson were stationed on the roof of the warehouse, ready to burst inside should their assistance be required.
"So, why don't I get to play terrorist?" Jefferson asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
"This is just a kidnapping," Leonard reminded him. "No need for your nuclear fireworks. Savage'll be one of the buyers. Once we get eyes on him, hang back. We'll boost him once this is all over."
Most of the invitees were in the warehouse now so Hermione silently hopped off the truck and began making her way to the back of the warehouse. Since Savage didn't enter through the front door, perhaps he'd come in through another entrance.
"Any sign of him?" Carter asked.
"No."
"He's not here, boss," Mick said.
"Let's get Ginger and the Professor and move out," Leonard responded.
Faintly, Hermione could hear an accented voice saying, "If I could have your attention. Thank you all for coming. I promise, it will be well worth your time."
"Seems we were wrong about Savage," Martin hissed. "He's not one of the buyers."
"He's the seller," Sara finished.
Hermione rolled her eyes and switched her comm back to the private line. She didn't know why everyone was so shocked- she had easily concluded that, while there was a chance Savage was there as a buyer, it was far more likely that Savage was the seller. After all, if he had bought a warhead in the past, why would he have never used it? The real question was, what was his end-goal?
Behind the warehouse, Hermione found several cars, a large truck, and ten or so armed men guarding a large crate. As she got closer to it, Hermione could sense a strange energy pulsing from whatever was inside it.
"Savage will pay a pretty penny for this," one of the men was saying. "Keep an eye out for any trouble; I didn't expect to see so many… unpleasant individuals here."
"Did you get that?" she breathed.
"Yes," Rip answered, voice solemn. "You need to find out what exactly is in that container."
After what had happened in her sixth year, Fred and George had stopped producing and selling Peruvian Instant Darkness powder. Some of the Order members had managed to nick some from their backstock, but Fred and George and refused to willingly supply the Order any more or even give their recipe for it. After Snape, and what had happened the night they retrieved Harry, they'd gained a healthy suspicion of most of the Order members.
However, when Hermione and George had first started their partnership, he'd went back to their recipe and started tweaking it so that Hermione could use it in the field. She'd argued with him at first, telling him she didn't need it and she wasn't didn't want to disrespect Fred's memory by having George give her the powder that Fred had sworn he'd have nothing to do with. George had just smiled sadly at her, saying that Fred would have made an exception for her.
"You're Hermione Granger," he'd told her. "You were always our exception to the rules."
Slipping on a pair of charmed glasses that would allow her to see through the powder, Hermione checked that the filters on her mask were working before she tossed the cannister onto the ground and waited.
One day, not long after they'd first started, George had a bad night. Too many thoughts, too many ghosts, too much of everything, and he'd needed to get out of his head. He told her that he wanted an idea, something to focus on. So, she'd taken him out to the country and taught him how to drive her parent's car. He'd been so confused at first about what they were doing but Hermione wouldn't explain why and just patiently helped him figure out the gas and the brakes.
Once he'd gotten the hang of it, she'd had him drive down an empty highway. The music was turned up as loud as she could stand it and she sang along as she kept an eye on George. After an hour on that road, he'd started to relax and she'd turned the music down a bit. The straight road and the repetitive scenery helped ease the tension in his shoulders and soon Hermione watched him start to nod off. His head kept jerking, his eyelids fluttered as he tried to keep them open, and finally all the tension seemed to leave his body. His eyelids closed for only a moment, the car not even veering out of its lane, and then George was flinching upright.
"That," she'd told him. "I want to replicate that feeling- I want to find a way to make it so that I can cause someone to lose consciousness briefly but without them actually collapsing and, when they wake up, they feel like no time has passed and they only shut their eyes for a moment without actually falling asleep."
George had declared she was absolutely barmy for putting him behind the wheel when he was so out of it, but he had laughed and the shadows in his eyes lightened so she called it a win.
One by one, each guard seemed to fall asleep on his feet as the area became encased in darkness. It wouldn't last for long since they were outside, but it should be long enough.
Pulling out her wand, Hermione carefully levitated the lid of the box up and pushed up on her toes so that she could peer inside.
It was a rock.
The plain, brown gray of the rock was contrasted by sharp blue veins running through it. As she reached out a hand to touch it, the cracks suddenly began to glow.
The energy she had felt before seemed to almost pour into the veins in her hand, traveling up her arm and through her body. It was the same energy she had felt when shaking Carter's hand.
"They've been made," Rip suddenly announced. "Go assist them. Now."
Hermione could hear explosions and screaming coming from the warehouse and knew she needed to act fast. Pointing her wand at the meteor, she muttered a shrinking spell.
It fought back. Whatever the hunk of rock was made of resisted the push of her magic. Hermione wasn't one to back down though and, after several tense seconds, the meteor shrunk down small enough for her to carry in one hand.
Shutting the sealing the container again, Hermione raced through a side door into the warehouse, just as the men began waking up.
It was pandemonium. Sara was plowing through armed men with nothing more than her bo staff, Mick and Leonard were back to back and taking down anyone who came near them in a wave of fire and ice, and Ray was fighting off multiple attackers in his Atom suit.
Leonard watched as Carter and Kendra soared through the air to the platform in the middle the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Hermione's black ensemble racing towards them, taking down every man who crossed her path.
"Savage," Carter hissed as he landed.
"Prince Khufu," the dark-haired man sneered. "As always the fashion plate." He threw a dagger towards Carter, who easily blocked it with his mace, before turning to Kendra. "And your better half."
"This ends here and now, Savage," she told him. "You're coming with us."
Hermione was at the edge of the platform now and was looking past the dynamic duo at Savage. Leonard hit another man in the chest with a blast of ice and watched as she froze for just a moment, simply staring at Savage. Her eyes widened infinitesimally but no emotions escaped her. To anyone else, it might seem as though she was simply taking stock of the situation. But Leonard wasn't just anyone.
A volley of shots barely missed them, forcing him and Mick to move off to the side of the room, and Leonard made himself focus solely on the fight.
"I doubt you can apprehend me and stop a nuclear explosion," Savage taunted Carter and Kendra, hitting a red button on a timer attached to the nuclear warhead before racing off the platform. Carter and Kendra were immediately jumped by multiple attackers.
Hermione forced her occlumency shields into place, shoving everything that wasn't the current issue before them behind the walls. She needed to focus.
Dodging around Kendra and Carter's opponents, she raced for the warhead.
"Savage has activated the warhead," she announced into the comm. "Anyone know how to unarm this thing?"
If it wasn't literally a nuclear bomb, Hermione might have been willing to try and use magic to simply short the electric wiring. But she had no idea if that would work and wasn't willing to risk it.
Ray came flying over to her, shrinking down as he went before zipping inside the bomb. The countdown instantly went from 1:45 to 30 seconds.
"No! Stop! What did you do?!"
Zipping back out of the bomb and going back to his normal size, he answered, "I didn't do anything! It must have a fail-safe."
"Professor, Jax" Sara called over the comm. "We need you."
"Who is Jax?" Hermione asked, right as Firestorm came zipping by, scooping up the bomb and disappearing from the building in a flash.
"That's what Jefferson prefers to be called," Ray told her, hopping off the platform and back into the fray.
"Ah. Alright then. Good to know."
Once Firestorm had let them know that the bomb had dealt with, the team made their way out of the warehouse and back to the ship. As soon as they were on board, the arguing began.
"Well, I'm really glad you were the one calling the shots," Ray snarked at Leonard.
"I had it all under control until the Professor starting picking fights with the PLO," he snapped.
"You let your ego endanger our entire mission," Carter berated Martin.
"No," he argued. "Mr. Rory's temper got completely out of control-"
"I thought we were friends, Professor," Mick called to him. "And where the hell were you at?" he asked Hermione. "I thought you were supposed to be inside with us as back-up."
"So, you can think, can you? And here I thought Leonard was the brains in your partnership," she taunted with no real heat. It was amusing seeing everyone all riled up.
"At least there's one less nuclear bomb on the planet," Kendra offered.
The sound of slow clapping reached their ears. Rip was standing in the doorway to his office, leaning against the frame. "Here, here," he told them sarcastically. "Now you all deserve a hearty congratulations. Not only did you fail to capture Savage, you exposed yourselves and your powers to him, giving away the element of surprise for now and all time. Well done, team."
"We don't need the element of surprise," Carter argued. "We know he's in Norway so let's find him and-"
"Unfortunately, we now have larger problems than Savage," Rip interrupted, walking to the center console and slamming his hands down on it. "If only you had listened to me about the dangers of upsetting the timeline."
"What are you talking about?" Kendra demanded.
"While you were busy saving Norway from nuclear annihilation-"
"You're welcome, Norway," Mick muttered.
"Savage sent one of his cronies back to the site of the arms sale. Anyone care to guess what he found?"
Everyone began glancing at one another before looking down at themselves, trying to see if they'd lost anything.
"Whoops," Ray whispered.
Gideon's head appeared. "I am unversed in modern American colloquialisms. Is 'whoops' slang for 'oh no'?"
"Yes," Rip answered, glowering at the doctor. "Dr. Palmer seems to have thrown a spanner in the works for the entire timeline."
"Come again?" Leonard asked, glowering.
"Armed with Dr. Palmer's future technology, Savage's engineers develop a weapon far more destructive than anything here in 1975." A 3D hologram appeared above the console of a destroyed city. "This is Central City in 2016. At least it was- I'm not sure what the neo-fascists who took control of it are calling it these days."
Everyone's expressions immediately fell as the enormity of what they'd done dawned on them.
"I thought you said that small changes wouldn't unravel the future," Ray desperately accused Hermione.
She glowered at him. "You dropping a weapon that would be considered futuristic by many in the 21st century into the hands of a psychopath with a god-complex 41 years in the past isn't a small change, Ray. The real question is why it wasn't attached more securely to your suit or even why you didn't create your suit so you'd get a warning when any bits of it fell off. Seems like a design flaw to me. But what do I know? I'm just someone who didn't accidentally destroy the future."
"There must be a way to correct this somehow," Martin stated, voice shaking.
"Fortunately, Gideon is just showing us a forecast of the future you've all created," Rip told them solemnly. "Time is like cement- it takes time to become permanent. In this case, until Savage's team have worked out the mystery of your future technology and molded it to their own ends. And when they do, what you see here is no longer just a forecast. This… this is history."
It was such a dramatic, over-the-top, vaguely traumatizing way to prove a point. Hermione loved it. Rip was really twisting the knife in and she couldn't help admiring his style.
After several more minutes of watching the group spiral, Hermione stepped out into the hallway. Seconds later, Rip joined her. She raised a finger at him in a silent request to pause and threw up a Silencing Charm.
"We can speak freely now."
"What did you find?"
Hermione pulled the stone from her pocket. "This. Well, a larger version of this. I had to shrink it- it was originally almost as big as me."
Rip plucked the stone from her hand, studying it closely. "It's a meteor," he murmured.
Eyes widening slightly in surprise, Hermione looked at the rock again. "Is it? I've never seen a meteor before, and we didn't go over what meteors look like in my astronomy class."
"I wonder…" Rip trailed off, brows furrowed in thought. "I'll have to get Gideon to run some tests but if Savage was willing to pay a large amount of money for this, it stands to reason that this is more than just a normal meteor."
She quickly swiped the meteor out of his hand. "Before you do that, I'd like to run a few tests of my own." When it seemed as though he was about to argue with her, Hermione held up a hand. "Let me rephrase: you may run your tests after I am finished running mine. I found the meteor, I stole the meteor, the meteor is now mine. The only way you are going to get your hands on this meteor without my permission is if you dig it off my cold, dead carcass. And we both know you won't be able to manage that; you were lucky the first time around. You won't be lucky again."
He glowered at her for a long moment but when all she did was raise an eyebrow at him in return, Rip finally sighed. "Fine. But I get it the moment you're done."
"Of course," she nodded, doing her best to seem non-condescending.
"And here I thought you were on my side."
Hermione stepped around him, heading back to the cockpit. "You don't want me on your side, Rip. If you did, you would have gone for my younger self."
Leonard watched Hermione walk back into the room, Rip on her heels. Her usual calm and composed demeaner seemed even more striking compared to Rip's annoyance.
Turning away from them, Leonard strode across the room, summarizing the situation again as he went. "So, thanks to Raymond leaving a piece of his suit in the past, the rest of us don't have a future to go back to?" He glared at Ray for good measure, too angry to take much pleasure in the guilty expression on his face.
"Unless we do something to change this course of events, the future will become immutable," Rip told them, taking a seat beside Ray.
"Exactly how much time do we have?" Ray asked.
Rip sighed. "Until Savage's weapons team reverse-engineer your tech."
"We're talking 1970s terrorists with 21st century weapons. And, since we don't know where Savage went-"
"We don't have to find Savage." Ray leapt to his feet, whirling around to face the team. "We just have to find the other piece of my suit. Which shrinks because it's made of an alloy which mimics intra-molecular compression of dwarf star, thus emitting Alpha Particles."
"So, we just need to be able to track them," Martin concluded. "Fortunately, Alpha Particles are highly trackable."
"Yet unheard of in the 1970s," Ray sighed. "It's like we're trapped in the Stone Age."
"There's an idea," Hermione mused, leaning against the back of a chair. "It's unlikely you could ruin time that far back. Then again, that might be giving you too much credit. Again."
Leonard did his best to hide his smirk as the two scientists ignored her. "I'll have you know that I was researching Alpha Particles when you were eating crayons," Martin snapped at Ray.
"So, to track that piece of Raymond's super-suit," Leonard interrupted, "we just need to talk to…"
"Me," Martin answered proudly. "25-year-old me, rather."
Kendra and Carter hurried out of Rip's office.
"You two are just in time," Rip started but Carter stopped him.
"Show them, Kendra."
Walking over to Rip, Kendra handed him a clipping from a newspaper. Hermione moved closer and spotted a faded image of a dagger printed on it before Rip moved away, scanning the article as he paced.
"Aldus was carrying this when he was killed," she explained. "It's a newspaper article about an Egyptian dagger."
"The one Savage used to kill us," Carter informed them.
"In Central City, we learned that objects associated with the night of our deaths can also be used to kill Savage," Kendra explained.
Carter folded his arms across his chest. "According to Aldus' notes, the dagger needs to be wielded in conjunction with an incantation inscribed on it."
"What does this incantation say?" Martin asked, moving to stand next to Carter.
"I don't know," Kendra admitted. "I can't read the language."
"It's okay," Carter reassured her, reaching out a hand to touch her arm. "I'll help you remember."
Rip walked over to Hermione and handed her the paper. "Can you read it?"
Carter shook his head. "It's a language that was known only to the clergy. Kendra is the only person who could possibly read it."
Hermione tilted her head slightly, squinting. "I might be able to if I had a clearer image."
The center console lit up and Rip placed a hand on Hermione's back, urging her over. On the display was a picture of the knife and the hieroglyphs onto it were enlarged on the side of the screen for easier reading.
"The text is lapidary hieratic," Gideon told them helpfully. "An ancient language lost to the ages."
"If it's a dead language, how's Hermione supposed to know it?" Jax asked.
"I had a very thorough education," she told him absently. While the muggle world may have forgotten how to speak and read many languages throughout the centuries, the magical world managed to preserve far more than their counterparts could.
Slowly translating the hieroglyphs into English, Hermione silently recited, 'And though my soul departs the Earth, I count my days till my rebirth. I will wait across eternity for my love to come back to me.'
Her gaze slid over to Carter and Kendra. She'd known that they were partners but thought they had seemed too distant to be anything else.
Their interactions played over in her mind. The way Carter seemed to hover near Kendra, always ready with a gentle touch and a positive word or with a vicious protectiveness depending on what the situation called for. The way she seemed to shy away from him, annoyance at his presence silently warring with a seeming need to be close to him- the way her body tilted towards his whenever he was close by, eyes looking towards him for comfort and support before snapping away when she remembered she didn't want that from him.
Carter loved her, seemingly remembered lifetimes of loving her. But Kendra couldn't remember loving him. The only way their story could be more tragic is if one of them died.
"I only recognize a handful of words," Hermione told them, carefully pointing out the hieroglyphics. "Soul, departs, Earth, rebirth, and eternity. If you need the full incantation, Kendra will have to remember."
The rest of the team seemed frustrated, but Carter had relaxed at her words. It seemed he wanted Kendra to remember how to read the text on her own.
"Figuring out the incantation is only going to help us if we have the dagger," Rip started. "It won't do us any good if we don't-"
"Okay, fine," Leonard announced, walking over to Hermione and snatching the paper dangling from her fingertips. "Whatever. I'll steal it." Glancing over the article, he told them, "Article says it was purchased by some rich Russian douche bag named Sasha Mahnovski."
"That must be Savage's name at this time," she told him, rereading the article.
"Why would it be Savage?" Sara asked.
"Because it's the logical conclusion," she answered, surprised they hadn't figured it out themselves. "This is a weapon that could kill Savage should the current versions of Carter or Kendra manage to get their hands on it. The article is from a widely published paper. Either Savage owns the dagger and allowed the picture and information about it to be published in order to draw Carter and Kendra out should they remember their pasts and recognize it, or he stole it immediately after reading this. In which case, I would assume that Professor Boardman would have also kept a copy of that article."
"That's a lot of assumptions," Ray stated doubtfully.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You seem to once again be forgetting that Savage is a 4,000-year-old psychopath that has managed to remain hidden throughout all of history while also consistently turning powerful dictators into his own personal puppets. This," she gestured at the paper still in Leonard's hand, "would not even be an exercise in critical thinking for him but simply an act of common sense. You think I'm making too many assumptions because you yourself would not have come up with a plan like this, but Savage is smarter than you. You need to stop pretending that we're playing on the same field as Savage because, at this point, we're operating on little more than hopes and prayers."
"I wouldn't say that," Martin protested. "After all, we do have a time machine."
"Yes, but what good does that do us if we can't find him?" Hermione asked. "Even with the amount of resources at our disposal, the number of Savage's confirmed whereabouts throughout all of history that we have could be counted on one hand: here in the 70's, in 2015 when Carter and Kendra encountered him, and in 2166 when he finally conquers the world. If there are any other times, then I imagine they happen in the future and it would be unwise for us to attack him then, hence why Rip didn't take us there." She glanced at Rip for confirmation and he gave a short nod.
"So, what? You think we're going to fail?" Jax asked.
"What she's saying is that you all need to stop acting like you're going to be able to outsmart Savage," Leonard drawled. "We need to go into every situation assuming that Savage has anticipated us coming and is ready to counter our attacks. If we make plans that way, we might have a chance of taking him down."
Hermione glanced at him for a moment before returning her attention back to Carter and Kendra. "We should also refrain from trying to have either of you fight him until you've both reached peak conditions. After all, he gains power every time he kills you. Unless you're both ready and able to fight him, sending you out into the field is a liability."
"You can't bench us!" Kendra protested.
"You don't even remember who you are!" Hermione snapped. "How can we in good conscious send you out into the field to fight Savage when you can't even remember just how dangerous he is? If you can't remember all the ways in which you've failed before?"
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Sara sighed. "Let's just focus on saving the future for right now, okay?"
"I agree." Martin turned to leave.
"Oy!" Rip called. "Where are you going?"
"To break into my old lab and bring us back the particle tracker in order to find Ray's suit."
"Fine, but perhaps you should take Jefferson, Sara, and Dr. Palmer with you to act as your intermediaries." When Martin didn't immediately agree, Rip sighed. "Look, interacting with yourself in the past can have catastrophic effects upon the future."
"Fascinating," Martin snapped. "Let's go."
"Actually, I think I'll help with retrieving the dagger," Ray stated.
"I've already got a partner," Leonard sneered at him. "And even if I didn't, I'd take Hermione before I'd take you. She hasn't managed to destroy all of our futures. Yet."
"A partner who I trust even less than you," he shot back.
"Are you really wanting us to break into Vandal Savage's home to steal a dagger- after we've literally just fought him, and he knows that Kendra and Carter remember- when we know that he's almost certainly anticipating us doing exactly that?" Hermione demanded of Rip. "It's a trap! It's suicidal!"
"Not as long as you don't get caught," he dismissed. "And I know how good you are at that so I'm sure you can keep the others out of trouble."
Hermione barely bit back a retort that she'd only become so good at not getting caught after experiencing just how excruciatingly painful it was to be. "I won't even bother with trying to convince you to come up with another plan since you've clearly shown that critical thinking isn't your strong suit," she sneered, turning to leave the room. "If it wasn't bad enough that you planned on sending Leonard, Mick, and I into the heart of enemy territory- three experienced, proficient thieves- you're also going to send Wreck-It Ralph to accompany us. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you didn't care about our safety."
Halfway through her routine equipment inspection, Gideon announced, "Mr. Hall would like to speak with you for a moment, Miss Granger."
Hermione sighed. "Well, at least he's asking permission instead of just barging in. Let him in, Gideon."
The door to her room slid open and Carter cautiously stepped inside.
"What can I do for you?" she asked, setting aside a dagger but remaining seated on her bed.
Carter studied her for a moment before stating, "You were able to translate the inscription."
Her eyebrows raised in surprise but, instead of agreeing, she asked, "You seem to have regained your memories of your past life. Why hasn't Kendra?"
He remained silent for a moment before slowly, reluctantly, admitting, "When I regained my powers in this lifetime, I also regained my memories. Kendra was able to access some of her abilities, but her memories remain locked away. I think the block is because of her- because Kendra doesn't want to remember. Until she fully remembers, she won't be able to fully merge, and she'll be out of balance."
Hermione nodded. "That's what I thought. I can't imagine how overwhelming it must be, to realize that you've lived hundreds of lives and every single one ended tragically. That being said, Kendra isn't going to be of any help if she doesn't remember who she is. Whether she likes it or not, Savage has tied your lives together. Your fates are intertwined- either he kills you both or you both- together- kill him. Kendra not remembering is weakening your partnership and is going to get you both killed; it's that whole, 'either you rise together, or you fall together'."
"I know. She's afraid that if she remembers, she'll lose her ability to choose. That we'll have to be together." The hurt was obvious in Carter's eyes.
"She's young. She hasn't realized that all regaining her memories does is give her the ability to actually make an informed decision, not take away ability to make them." Hermione stood up. "I won't tell anyone what the inscription says unless it's absolutely necessary. Hopefully, this will be the push Kendra needs to open her mind."
Carter took a step towards her. "Thank you," he told her fervently.
"Don't thank me," Hermione said dismissively. "You're the one who's going to have to do all the hard work; Kendra is going to fight you at every turn."
"She's worth it," he stated.
Hermione smiled slightly. "Well, then, let's hope you are too."