Chapter 10
"So," Rip murmured, sitting back in his office chair. "Savage has arrived at the gulag."
"The only thing this changes is who will actually be entering into the prison," Hermione said firmly. She was sitting in a chair next to Rip's globe, which was positioned near the entrance, and Carter and Kendra were sitting in the chairs nearest hers. "Stein's going to hold out until we arrive. If we're lucky, they won't have moved their focus from him onto Ray or Mick."
"How is that a good thing?" Jax demanded from where he was sitting at the table in the center of the room with Leonard.
"Because he won't talk to save himself, but he might in order to save the others," Sara answered, glaring at a collection of statues from where she stood on the other side of the room.
"I did my best to reassure him that Savage wasn't going to kill him and that both men would prefer being tortured to him talking, but I'm not sure how convincing I was," Hermione admitted. "Stein's background is mainly academic and while he has spent some time working as Firestorm, he's not used to this kind of pressure."
"Alright, then the plan is simple," Rip stated, standing up and motioning for the group to exit his office and move to the center console where Gideon had pulled up the map of the Koshmar Gulag. "I will drive the truck onto the gulag grounds, giving Hermione, Leonard, and Sara the opportunity to break into the building. Once inside-"
"This isn't my first prison break," Leonard interrupted.
"We know what to do," Sara reassured Rip.
"That, and it'll be easier for us to sort out the details amongst ourselves," Hermione stated. "Before we go though, I was wanting to make a suggestion regarding Ray."
"We're not leaving him in a gulag!" Rip instantly snapped at her.
"Yes, I understand that," Hermione sneered, rolling her eyes. "I was not going to say that we should leave Ray where he is. Though, if we did, I feel like it would be fine since he left his suit on the ship and I think it would fit either you, Rip, or Leonard well enough if we still wanted to utilize the Atom. I would just like to propose that, after we rescue him, we return to 2016 and leave him there."
"Ray is a part of this team," Sara argued.
"Well, he's not a very vital part, is he? The fact of the matter is, Ray has either created problems or been of absolutely no help on every assignment he's been given. He lost a part of his suit and almost destroyed the future, he triggered the alarm in Savage's house and almost got Mick killed, he couldn't convince Vostok to speak with him at the ballet and almost alerted her and Savage to our presence then, and finally, he got himself, Mick, and Stein captured because he was too blind to see the obvious fact that Vostok was willingly working for Savage. Ray may be a part of this team, but he's honestly become more of a liability than anything else."
Sara looked frustrated. "I'm not going to sit here and say that there haven't been some issues, but Ray has been helpful."
"How?" Hermione demanded. "How has he been helpful?" When the blond remained silent, she sighed. "Look, Sara, I understand that you two share common friends and allies and because of that, you feel some sort of… kinship with Ray. But we have to be smart if we're going to stop Savage. And from what I've seen of Ray so far, smart is not an adjective I would use to describe him."
"Ray is a genius," Rip pointed out, and Hermione took note of the fact that he wasn't necessarily disagreeing with her.
"Maybe he is when it comes to his suit, but it doesn't seem to be the case with anything else," Leonard said.
"I'm not trying to say that you need to make a decision on this now," Hermione hastily added, when it looked like rest of the team was about to join in. "I just want you to think about it. Consider everything that's happened so far and all the challenges we're likely to face in the future and weigh the odds on whether or not Ray is likely to help us or hurt us when it comes to those challenges."
After a long tense moment, Rip nodded.
Sara scowled, but said nothing.
"So, how can the rest of us help?" Kendra asked, looking down at the gulag's map.
"By staying on the ship," Rip immediately told her. "We don't need any more casualties. Besides, Mr. Snart, Hermione, and Sara have got it covered."
"Whoa, man," Jax interjected. "Why does it feel like we're on the JV team all of a sudden?"
"We talked about this," Hermione reminded them, glancing between Kendra, Carter, and Jax. "We can't risk Savage finding out that Stein and you, Jax, combine to create Firestorm. We also need the element of surprise, which means that neither Carter nor Kendra can get anywhere near the gulag since Savage will be able to sense their presence and realize that the calvary has arrived. Plus, we shouldn't risk either of you going up against Savage when we don't have a weapon to use against him. It's too risky."
Kendra looked as though she wanted to continue arguing but Leonard cut her off. "We should get going."
Hermione caught Carter's gaze and tilted her head slightly towards the exit. Carter raised a brow and gave a small nod.
"Oh, Miss Granger, could I borrow you for a moment?" Rip called from in front of his office door. "I have something that might help you out with the mission."
She saw Leonard and Sara glance back at her for a moment before slowly leaving the room. With a sigh, she followed Rip back into his office. "Alright, what did you really want to talk to me about?"
Rip set a small box of throwing stars in front of her before wandering over to sit down next to a table holding a rather large candelabra in the corner of the room. "Gideon, will you please show Miss Granger the projection of 2016 should our rescue mission fail?"
"I'd be happy to, Captain," the AI answered.
A video appeared out of thin air in front of Hermione. In it, there seemed to be multiple Firestorms flying around each other, shooting jets of fires down onto already-burning buildings in a destroyed city. Studying the scenery closely, Hermione realized that the city burning was London- she could recognize the remnants of Big Ben.
"So, this is what happens to the world if we don't get Stein back?"
"Yes," Rip answered gravely. "Listen to me, Hermione. Everything we've tried to achieve so far could be lost. And not only will my family die 150 years from now, but your family, your city… you're entire 21st-century world will suffer."
Hermione licked her suddenly dry lips, unable to look away from the destruction in front of her. "What happened to the magical world?"
"When they found out that non-magicals were capable of producing such weapons of mass destruction, the magical communities went one of two ways: either they went into complete isolation, or they declared war on the non-magicals. In Wizarding Britain, they first went into complete isolation until Voldemort returned and his rise to power went completely unopposed. After that, all of the United Kingdom became a war zone."
She finally shifted to look at him as the video disappeared. "What are you asking me to do?"
"My hope is that we are able to find and retrieve Martin before Vostok and Savage break him," Rip answered slowly. "But we need a contingency plan. If at any point throughout the operation it becomes clear that he is… beyond our reach…"
"You want me to kill Stein?" Hermione asked softly. Then, she repeated to herself more firmly, "You want me to kill Stein."
"If there is no way of saving him- if it's too late to get him back- then, for the sake of the future, you need to do whatever it takes to ensure that the future you just saw never comes to pass."
Hermione logically understood what he was saying. In fact, it was a decision she herself might have made if she'd been sitting in his chair. "Why me?" she finally questioned. "Why not Sara?"
"I considered entrusting this mission to Sara, but I worry that her bloodlust, and her fear of being overcome by it, would compromise her ability to do what needed to be done. You have neither of those issues- you are pragmatic by nature and not prone to letting your emotions control your actions. You are also highly intelligent, so, if you do end up needing to kill Stein, it will be because there were literally no other options available to you."
It made sense. "Alright," she agreed quietly. "I understand. I just hope you know how much this is going to damage the team if we end up needing to do this."
"Better a damaged team than a broken world," Rip muttered.
As Hermione wandered around the Waverider, she couldn't stop her thoughts from circling.
If the Soviets were able to create a stable Firestorm, then she would never go to Hogwarts. She would never have met Harry. Depending on who the Soviets attacked first, there was a chance she never would have even reached eleven years of age, meaning that she would never have gotten a Hogwarts letter even if they were accepting muggleborns. Which they wouldn't be, because they had completely isolated themselves.
It wasn't as though Wizarding Britain was a revolving door by any means but Merlin, how much damage might isolationism have done them?
Not that it mattered, because she wasn't going to have to kill Stein. She saw his time with future-Jax. Stein was still alive when Jax had been sent back and based on things Jax had said and his currently-out-of-character confident demeanor, Hermione knew that he wasn't going to be sent back to 2016 in the Jumpship anytime soon. But still… something felt off.
She was missing something. And in the game they were playing with Savage and the Time Masters, missing something meant losing.
In her meandering, Hermione found herself in the living quarters of the ship. A door slid open unexpectedly, and Carter stepped out.
"Hey," he greeted. "I was just coming to find you."
Hermione blinked, pulling herself out of her own head. "Is Kendra with you?"
"No." He stepped to the side, pointing back into his room. "Wanna talk in here?"
"Alright."
Once the door was closed, Hermione pulled out her wand and cast the Muffliato charm. "Hopefully that works on Gideon," she muttered.
Since there was nowhere to sit inside any of the rooms besides the bed, Carter sat down on the floor and gestured for her to join him. "What'd you want to talk to me about?"
Leaning back against a wall and slowly sliding down to the floor, Hermione answered, "When I was in Stein's head, I saw a memory of him talking to Jax right before the team left 2016. But it wasn't the Jax of that current time- a future Jax went back to 2016 in the Jumpship and needed Stein's help fixing it so he could rejoin us. In fact, future-Jax was the one to suggest that Stein drug his past self in order to make him come on this mission."
Carter's eyes widened in surprise. "So that's three out of ten members of the team that have traveled back to meet with past versions of the team. And all without seeming to cause any damage to the timeline."
Sighing, she admitted, "I'm starting to think that maybe the rule isn't that time will break if you visit the same place twice, but only that it breaks if you interfere with what your past self is doing, thereby breaking the connection between the versions of yourself."
After considering it for a moment, he asked, "So, what you're saying is that if you went back now to see a previous version of yourself, only then time would break?"
"No," she quickly answered. "Remember, Stein actually spoke to his younger self back in 1975. I'm saying that if my future-self had run into me while we were both at Savage's house, time might have broken depending on what happened since, if she had done something to change the timeline, the reason for why I went back to 1975 might have been negated, causing a fracture in the timeline."
"No wonder Rip is so serious about us being careful with the timeline," Carter muttered. "Not that matters, if we're timelocked."
Hermione was silent for a moment. "What if," she started slowly, "we're looking at this the wrong way?"
"What do you mean?"
"Since my future-self was able to go back to 1975 and interact with the past version of the team, I thought that- because time didn't fold in on itself- it must be locked, preventing us from being able to change the past or future. But now I'm thinking I was wrong. It's like you said before, the Time Masters seem to be herding us based off the incident a few days ago.
"I was just speaking with Rip and he showed me a projection of the future. If Stein helps Savage create a Soviet Firestorm, the entire future collapses. There is a significant chance that we're not going to be able to stop Vostok and Savage, yet there are no other Time Masters here. No matter how well they might have time locked down, there is always a chance of failure."
Carter frowned, glancing off to the side. "What if it isn't that they are keeping time locked, but that they are able to see the bigger picture time-wise? Then it wouldn't be that they're herding us but guiding us."
Hermione could feel her mind begin to spin. "Chronos' ship was shot down, drawing the attention of Rip. Rip went to look at the wreckage and met Time Master Dru, who pretended to want him to peacefully turn himself in. When Rip came back, he had Chronos attack despite knowing there was no chance of winning."
"But they did manage to injure Jax," Carter continued. "Because Jax was injured, Stein went into the labs without his partner. He was captured and now Savage has the chance of being able to create a Firestorm. But, if they don't actually want and don't plan to let Savage create his own Firestorm, then why maneuver things so that he could capture Stein?"
The puzzle pieces clicked together in her mind. "Because Savage has been obsessing about Firestorm for over eleven years. If he fails to be able to create a Firestorm even after capturing Stein, then he'll have to give up and move on to something else."
Standing up and beginning to pace back and forth the width of the room, he asked, "But how could they know? How could they know that injuring Jax would send Stein into the labs? How can they know that Savage failing to break Stein will get him to give up?"
She thought for a moment, fingers twitching as her mind raced through the possibilities. "Arithmancy," she breathed. At Carter's confused look, she hastily explained, "Arithmancy is essentially the magical form of statistics and probability. You can use formulas to predict the future. I'm not saying that they're actually using Arithmancy, but perhaps they used something similar to create a machine that shows them possible futures and allows them to see what would happen if they took a certain course of action."
"Like the machine Gideon has that shows us what the future looks like after we fuck up," Carter nodded. "If the leaders of the Time Masters- or whoever is in charge of that organization- have a more powerful version of whatever machine Gideon has, one that shows them possible futures and allows them to see what would happen if they did something, then just how much do you think they've interfered so far? At least with the timelock theory, things made sense because everything was just a circle- Savage killed Rip's family, he came to get us to stop Savage, we attacked Savage, he found out about Rip's family, and then Savage made sure to kill them. If we wanted to kill Savage, we'd have to find a way to break the chain. But if we've got the Time Master's out there playing some sort of numbers game, then what exactly do we think they've been up to?"
"It could be both," Hermione offered, chewing on her lower lip as she thought. "Time may be locked in a manner of speaking, but the Time Master's may still be…" she trailed off, a new idea popping into her head. "What if they manipulated things and then 'locked' time? They knew we needed to go back in time to meet Savage, but meeting Savage caused him to focus on Firestorm, so they popped into the timeline, corrected the issue, and then left us to do as we please because they already know what we're going to do, because it was always what we were meant to do."
"So, essentially, they're doing what Rip said is their number one responsibility- making sure time happens the way it's supposed to. The only difference is, the Time Masters have some over-arching goal and they're making sure things stay on the track they want." Carter went silent for a moment before adding, "That knowledge doesn't really change anything. We've gone from knowing we can't change anything because time is locked to knowing that we can't change anything because time is locked and even if we did manage to change something, they would notice and figure out a way to get things back to how they want."
"No, but the mechanics behind a machine like that is intriguing," Hermione said. "If we can manage to figure out how they created such a thing, we might be able to rig up one of our own. Then, we'll be able to use it to figure out what exactly we should do to stop Savage, and then introduce the variables of what the Time Masters might do in order to set time right and then come up with a plan to counteract those."
Carter groaned. "This just sounds like it's turning into one long game of chess. Wouldn't a simpler plan be to find enough evidence to convince Rip of what we're saying, get him to take us to where the Time Masters are located, break in, and find whatever machine they're using and destroy it? That way, time is unlocked and there's no one stopping us from killing Savage."
Frowning, she said, "That would be a simpler plan, but probably just as difficult. The machine is likely well-hidden, there will be a number of defenses around it to ensure that no one's able to destroy it, and we would be going in with no idea of what to expect because Rip clearly wouldn't know anything about it. So, is simpler really better in this case?"
"Yes! Yes, Hermione, it is!" he snapped. Letting out a whoosh of air, Carter rubbed a hand across his face. "Now that you've broken my mind, was there anything else?"
Standing up, Hermione said, "Actually, yes. I had an idea on something you, Kendra, and Jax could do to help with breaking into the gulag- something that will be honestly helpful, but still keep you all away from Savage. If you'll go find the other two and ask Gideon to direct you to wherever I'm at in about ten minutes or so, I'll explain it to you then- I need to check in with Leonard and Sara first."
"Alright," Carter agreed, seeming slightly happier now that he knew he wasn't going to have sit around on the ship and just wait for the others. "We'll meet you there."
Hermione found Leonard and Sara in the cargo bay, carefully looking over their weapons. She watched as Sara began slipping knives into multiple holsters hidden all over her outfit.
"That is an impressive number of weapons," she commented, stepping out of the doorway.
Sara glanced at her with a small smile. "Yeah, like you don't have just as many on you."
"Oh, I do," she agreed. "I just have the benefit of magic."
"Those of us without powers learn to make do," the blond responded dryly.
"Other than your wand, you don't really need all that many weapons though, do you?" Leonard asked, and Hermione turned to see him standing in front of the closed bay door, watching her closely. "It's amazing to see so much power being held by one person." He then looked down at the small case he was holding that contained Ray's suit and added, "And so much stupidity being held by another."
"The plan is to save Ray too," Sara reminded him, glancing over her shoulder. "Not just Stein and your partner."
"Oh, I'm gonna save Raymond, all right" he reassured her. "So I can beat some sense into him." Leonard moved to stand in front of Hermione and asked, "And what about you?"
"What about me?" she asked, forcing herself not to look away from his all-too-knowing gaze.
"Clearly I'm not the only one with a side mission," he said softly. "What did Rip keep you after class to talk about?"
Sara turned away from her weapons case, watching them closely.
"He just wanted to go over a few details of the plan," Hermione answered, keeping her voice even.
She quickly realized that it was an unnecessary endeavor when Leonard calmly stated, "He wants you to take out the old man, doesn't he?" Sara's eyes went wide with surprise and Hermione stiffened. "It's the obvious play. It's also… heartless."
"The plan is to save Stein," Hermione told him firmly. "My plan is to save him, and I currently have about ten different ways of doing so. Which means that, even if our current plan doesn't go our way, I already know what to try next."
"But Rip wants you to kill him, right?" Leonard pressed.
"Why would you think that?" Sara asked him, walking over to join them so they were standing in a tight circle.
"Because if we can't save him and he breaks, it's going to fuck up the future," Leonard answered confidently.
Hermione was quiet for a few seconds before she sighed. "Anyone ever tell you that you're too smart for your own good?" she asked rhetorically before continuing, "Yes, Rip showed me what will happen to my home in 2016 should we fail to save Stein and he ends up breaking. The damage is… extensive, and irreversible."
Leonard's expression didn't change. "Been on a lot of heists and even when things got rough, I never took out one of my own."
"Yeah, well, this isn't a bank heist," Sara snapped at him, though she looked unsure. "There's a lot more at stake here than the risk of getting thrown into jail."
"First, he left my partner twisting in the wind, now he's going to have you ice old silver-top," Leonard told Hermione. "We're all just pawns, Hermione. Come on… I'm the crook, Sara's the assassin, and you're the-"
"What, Leonard?" Hermione finally snapped. "I'm the what? The magician? The soldier? The one with the intelligence and the heartlessness to kill a teammate without flinching?" The subtle widening of their eyes told Hermione that her words had surprised them, and she could help the bitter laugh that escaped her. "That's essentially what Rip said. And you know what? He's right. If I had to- if there was literally no other choice and no other way- I could and would take out any of you in a heartbeat. But the thing is, I have always found another way. Always.
"This is not going to be the first time I fail," she said firmly. Stein's memories had shown her that. And, even if she hadn't seen those, she'd faced a lot worse than a prison full of Soviet guards before and come out on top and she was certain she'd be doing so again in the future.
"No matter what, we have to save the future," Sara stated, expression turning cold. "And if, for whatever reason, we can't save Stein, are you gonna be able to do what needs to be done?"
Hermione forced down a wave of irritation. "Haven't I answered that question already?"
"You're that confident?" Leonard asked, locking eyes with her.
She smirked. "How about you worry about completing your own tasks instead of wondering how I'll do with mine? After all, it'll look rather pathetic if I have to come save you two along with Ray and Mick after I've rescued Martin from Savage, wouldn't it?"
"Martin," Leonard repeated slowly, eyes narrowed, and Hermione had to hold back a grimace. Of course, he noticed her slip-up.
"Hey," came Jax's voice and Hermione turned around, relieved for the brief reprieve his arrival would grant her.
He, Carter, and Kendra entered the room.
Studying the way the trio was standing so close together, Carter asked, "Everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," Hermione answered, but she could tell by the glance he shot her that he didn't believe her.
"Carter said you had something we could do to help," Kendra said, frowning and folding her arms over her chest. "Is this something that would actually be helpful, or just something to make us feel like we're being useful?"
Hermione smiled. "Don't worry, I wouldn't dare pander to you all that way. I will warn you though, it will likely involve killing. For Kendra and Carter, at least. Is that something you two are going to be okay with?"
The demigods shared a look. "Yeah," Kendra answered for them, much to Hermione's surprise since she'd thought Kendra might be too worried about dirtying her hands to actually help. "Depending on who we're killing, it shouldn't be a problem."
Pulling her small bag out of her pocket, Hermione turned to place it on top of a crate. "While we are breaking into the prison, I need you all to take care of the magical guards Savage has in place and, if possible, find a way to cut the power."
"You want us to take care of the magical guards?" Jax repeated, surprised. "You want us, the people who don't have magic, to go up against multiple people that do?"
Glancing over her shoulder, Hermione gave him an encouraging smile. "They won't be as strong as I am, so don't go into this with the same amount of trepidation you would have if you were challenging me. I am exceptional," she stated frankly, having grown past the point of downplaying her abilities ages ago. "The fact that these wizards were placed at a non-magical gulag as a way to placate Savage means that they are strong enough so to not be an insult to him but not strong enough to be very useful to the government. As long as you're careful, they should be no problem for you."
"How do you even know that there will be magic users there?" Carter asked. "Are you just assuming, or did you sneak out to visit the gulag yourself without telling anyone?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, turning back around holding a handful of stones and cloth bundle. "No, Father, I did not sneak out. One of Yuri's men told me about them when we went to the warehouse to get the truck and the schematics of the prison. They also gave me a rather vague idea of what wards we should expect to encounter when we arrive."
Carter snorted. "I don't think I would have survived being your dad."
She couldn't stop the full body flinch she gave. In an attempt to brush past it, Hermione held up the stones in her hand and said, "Once I actually reach the gulag, I'll know exactly what I'll need you to do. Either way, you're going to need these." She set the stones on the crate to her left, positioned between her and Carter, Kendra, and Jax, and put the cloth above them.
"What are these?" Kendra asked, giving her a brief look of concern before refocusing.
"Once I pour a little magic into them, each of these will become like a small charge. Based on what I was told, it seems like the wards on the gulag are tied to their castors- the wizards accompanying Savage- but they may have also keyed Savage into the wards."
Jax frowned, shifting from one foot to the other. "What's the difference?"
"The difference will be in how we approach this," Hermione answered. "If the wards are just tied to the castors, then it won't matter when you use the stones. But, if Savage is keyed into them, then you're going to have to wait until we're already inside in the gulag and I'm prepared to extract Stein so that we don't give Savage too much advanced warning that we're coming."
Carter slowly nodded. "So, I'm assuming the plan is that we set off the stones in order to draw the wizards out and then kill them?" When she nodded, he asked, "How do they work?"
Carefully separating the stones, Hermione told them, "I'll be giving each of you three of these. I'll put my magic into them but then tie them to you. All you'll have to do is say whatever password you choose and the stone will… explode slightly."
"Just one thing," Jax interrupted. "I'm not as experienced with killing as these two are."
"I know. They're going to take out the guards. But, like I said, I need someone to try and cut the power. That's where you come in." Carefully unraveling the fabric, Hermione lightly shook out the cloak. "Try this on."
Grimacing, the younger man did as he was told. As soon as the cloak was covering his shoulders, his body disappeared.
"Fuck," Sara swore, eyes wide, and even Leonard looked startled.
Staring down at his missing torso and legs, Jax whispered, "Damn, that's weird." He stuck his arm out of the cloak and it appeared in mid-air. "Cool, but weird."
"It's an invisibility cloak," she explained. Not Harry's cloak- that was hidden in her bag and she knew Harry was going to throw an absolute fit when he realized that she'd stolen it. Hopefully in front of Ginny so that Hermione could view the memory at a later date. "You can use it to sneak past the guards and find the circuit breaker. Once I tell you to, either use the stones or find a switch to cut off the power."
"Why?" Leonard asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a blackout will be useful for sneaking around, but why waste the time?"
She grinned. "Because Yuri's men told me that the cells have electromagnetic locks."
Leonard smirked. "So, we're going to set loose a prison full of the Soviet Union's most dangerous criminals?"
"I thought it'd be a nice day to start a riot," Hermione responded.
"Are you sure Savage won't be able to sense Carter and Kendra even if they stay outside the gulag?" Sara asked. "It's not like we know the range for that spidey-sense."
"We don't," Hermione sighed. "But I think it's a risk we have to take. I will say that I do believe that they should be far enough away, but I have no empirical evidence to back that up."
"What do we do after we take out the magical guards?" Kendra asked. "Just come back here and wait?"
"If Savage doesn't realize what's going on by the time you take out the guards, he's going to by the time Jax cuts the power," Leonard answered instead of Hermione, much to her surprise. "I say that, after Jax does that, you should join us in the prison. Especially since I think the plan is to blow the gulag up on our way out."
"It is," Hermione agreed, nodding to a box near the door. "Those explosives will be coming from Gideon instead of me. If you two want to bring those along with you, then once we start making our escape, you can find wherever the generator is in the building and place those on it so we get the biggest bang we can."
"And is Rip okay with this plan?" Jax asked, finally taking the cloak off.
Hermione shrugged. "Well, since I'm sure Gideon has already informed him of our conversation and he hasn't come racing into the room to tell us off, I assume he's fine with it."
That got a few chuckles from the group.
"When do you leave?" Carter asked.
"At sundown. Which gives us time to prepare the stones and do one last check on Stein to let him know the plan is still on before we go."
When Hermione appeared in Martin's mind, she found him sitting on a stool, arm resting on the desk beside him. Vostok stood in front of him.
"You've already built a thermacore," Martin was telling her. "So just build another one. It'll only take you eight to ten years."
Vostok smiled. "You thought that, what, your friends stealing the thermacore would save the West?"
She snapped her fingers and Stein turned in his seat to see two men in white coats entering the room, carrying a large grey case between them.
"As if I would only build one," Vostok sneered.
"Pathetic," Hermione commented, feeling Martin twitch in surprise. "Leonard was able to carry a thermacore out on his own- and at a run no less."
You're back, Martin sighed in relief.
"Yes. Only for a minute or two though- we're about to break into the gulag. You just need to hold out for a little longer and then I will be bursting through the door to save the day."
A sight I am most looking forward to.
"We're so close, Professor," Vostok said, walking over to look at the open thermacore case and then turning back to face Martin, who carefully pushed himself onto his feet.
Hermione could feel how tired he was and tried to feed him a bit of her own energy to ensure that he would still be on his feet when she got to him.
"All I need to learn now is how to stabilize the thermacore and my dream of creating a nuclear man will be achieved."
"To what end?" Martin demanded, genuinely bewildered. "If you launch a Soviet Firestorm, the United States will have no choice but to retaliate. Both countries will be annihilated."
"And out of the ashes, we will rise stronger," Vostok declared, eyes bright. "Just as we did when the Nazis invaded. But America is weak, with you Big Mac, MTV, movie-star president."
"Do you really think Vandal Savage cares about the Cold War?" Martin asked. "He's just using you, Doctor."
She couldn't help wincing, knowing that Vostok was not going to respond well to that.
Vostok slapped Martin as hard she could, his head snapping to the left.
"Do not think of insulting Mr. Savage in front of me," she warned.
Martin became filled with wariness, eying Vostok carefully.
"Easy, Martin," Hermione warned. "She's not just an employee of Savage- she's a fanatic. Any attack against him will be taken very personally."
Hermione finally realized who Vostok reminded her of. A beautiful woman who had become hopelessly infatuated with a man who couldn't give less of a damn about her and who slowly lost her mind in her desperate attempts to please him.
Vostok was Bellatrix.
Hermione hadn't gotten the chance to kill Bellatrix. But she supposed Vostok would be a good enough replacement.
"Tell me how to stabilize Firestorm," the woman demanded, lifting up a very large syringe gun.
"If Einstein had the opportunity, he would have traveled back in time to prevent the creation of the atomic bomb," Martin responded calmly. "How can I in good conscience lead the world to the invention of something far more destructive?"
Vostok smirked. "You don't really have a choice. This toxin, it's not lethal. But it will make you wish that it were."
Despite the fact that she knew it was futile, Hermione desperately tried to think of a way to shield Martin's mind from the effects of the toxin. She was so involved in her thoughts that Martin speaking to her caught her off guard.
You should go now.
"I can't leave you alone," Hermione argued. "Not now."
I can handle this without you, he stated, filled with resolve. The team is coming to save us. As long as I know that I'll be able to withstand this.
"So, Professor, would you like to talk, or would you prefer to scream?" Vostok asked.
"I won't be to contact you," she reminded him, hesitating.
I know. It's alright. Just… try to be as quick as you can, Martin told her before telling Vostok, "Do your worst, Doctor."
She couldn't resist quipping, "Men. Always demanding for women to come quickly."
It had been easier than she'd thought it would to sneak into the gulag. Because they couldn't risk being seen by the guards, Leonard, Sara, and Hermione had hidden in the back of the supply truck and had jumped out of it once Rip had driven the truck through the first set of gates at Koshmar Gulag. Staying crouched in the shadows, the trio quickly took note of large security lights moving back and forth across the courtyard and where the guards were patrolling.
"Remember," Sara hissed at Leonard, "we need to get both Mick and Ray out of there."
"I know," he whispered back. "That's why we're both here- I'll grab Mick and you'll grab Ray. That's called teamwork."
"Neither of you will be saving anyone if you don't shut up," Hermione snapped, wand in hand as she carefully prodded at the wards surrounding the prison.
"Fuck," she swore, stowing her wand away. "There's a chance the wards are tied to Savage. The others will have to wait till we're further into the gulag to make their move."
"Should we wait until you've actually got Stein?" Carter asked and Hermione flinched, still unused to wearing a comm. She may still interact with the muggle world, but she wasn't as familiar with their technology- especially finer bits like cell phones and earpieces- since they tended to interact poorly with her magic.
After considering their options, Hermione answered, "No, wait until just before I've made my move. That way, the magical guards will have left their posts with Stein- which will hopefully make it easier for me to get to him- and Savage's attention will be divided. Unfortunately, I honestly can't say whether he's likely to head to Stein's location or to check on the wards so you'll need to kill the guards and get out as quick as you can."
"He'll head for the wards," Leonard stated, and she could feel his gaze boring into the back of her neck. "After all, the most likely candidate to take out his magical guards is you."
"He wants to create his own Firestorm," she snapped, finally finished mapping out the guard and light patterns. Even though she was going to be invisible, she knew it was better to be over-prepared than under. "Which is why it's just as likely that he's going to move to Stein's location."
"He wants you more."
They were crouched in the shadows of one of Russia's best guarded gulags preparing to go up against a 4,000-year-old cannibal and the entire team was listening to their conversation. She was not going to have this fight right now.
She stood and silently moved to the gate, Disillusioning herself before slipping through without looking back.
Leonard and Sara knew what they needed to do to get to Mick and Ray. Their success or failure depended entirely on them.
From this point on, Hermione was on her own. She preferred it that way- preferred working alone so that she didn't have to deal with the burden that came from trying to work with someone else's thoughts and beliefs. Preferred not having to listen to anyone preach about the fine line between necessary and unnecessary actions. Was it unnecessary for Hermione to kill every guard she encountered? Yes. Was she still going to do it? Absolutely. Because the choice was hers.
Leonard knew that needling Sara probably wasn't the smartest move, but he just couldn't help himself. From the sound of it, she was fine with the idea of Hermione killing the old man and he wasn't sure he wanted someone like that watching his back.
Hermione may have declared that she would kill any one of them if it was necessary, but Leonard knew she wouldn't.
'I have always found another way' and 'This will not be the first time I fail' was just another way of saying 'I haven't factored sacrificing any of you into a single one of my many backup plans, so it won't happen'. Leonard couldn't help thinking that she may have factored sacrificing herself though and he didn't like that.
He had a feeling that Hermione may sometimes value the mission over saving her own skin without realizing she was doing it; remnants from the shitty childhood that he knew she had only scratched the surface of telling him about. Some scars ran too deep to ever fully heal. Leonard knew that better than anyone.
"How does it feel to be dead again?" Leonard asked Sara, glancing down at her still-form laid out on a gurney and covered with a thin white sheet.
"Take the next left," she snapped, and he smirked slightly.
As they turned a corner, they ran into a guard. "You can't be down here, comrade," he told Leonard gruffly.
"I was order to take this corpse to the incinerator," he told him smoothly. When the guard reached out to grab the sheet, he stopped him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Dr. Vostok used him for one of her smallpox weapons trials. Highly contagious."
The guard grimaced, quickly stepping away and waving them on.
Leonard started forward again but then froze as a door opened further down the hall and multiple guards stepped out. Two were dragging the limp, bruised, and bloody form of Raymond between them while the others were surrounding Mick, who seemed to be mostly fine. He was walking on his own, at any rate.
They turned to walk in the opposite direction of Leonard and Sara. Mick glanced around the hallway, eyes locking onto Leonard's. His partner's expression didn't change, but Leonard knew that Mick was relieved to see him.
A guard punched Mick hard in the gut, causing the large man to bend over and break eye-contact with Leonard, before pushing him down the hallway after the others.
He started moving again, slightly quicker than before, maneuvering them down the hallway and then taking a sharp right. Once they were under a large airduct, he brought the gurney to a stop.
Sara threw the sheet off of her and jumped up. "Alright, this duct should take us to the cells. We get to Mick and Ray, you'll change out of your uniform, then we get the hell out of here."
Rolling his eyes, he bent to grab a bag off the tray on the bottom of the cart and sneered, "Considering I helped come up with this plan, I really don't need the play-by-play."
"Figured it couldn't hurt to remind you considering you spent most of the time antagonizing Hermione about Stein," Sara hissed, taking the cover off the duct.
"I was just making sure that she and I were on the same page about killing teammates. Seems I should have been more worried about what you're going to do than her, assassin."
Pulling herself up into the vent, Sara began to silently crawl away as Leonard came up after her. "How would you have done it, if Rip had asked you to kill Stein?" he questioned conversationally, voice lowered to a murmur. "Would you have used a gun so that you could have a bit of distance? So you could pretend you weren't murdering a teammate?"
He watched her tense even as her voice remained soft and even. "Does it matter? Saving Stein isn't my priority at the moment, it's Hermione's."
"Yeah, but it could've been and if something were to happen to Hermione it still might be."
Sara snorted, and Leonard knew she was also thinking that the likelihood of something happening to Hermione was slim to none. Rip probably would have told them off for being so confident, but he would be wrong to assume that they felt that way because of Hermione's magic. Having magic was a nice addition in her arsenal, not the most valuable tool.
"Her mission could have been yours, and you'd have been deciding the best way to kill him right now," Leonard persisted, seeing that Sara was creeping ever closer to the edge. "If we're really unlucky, you might even be given the opportunity to take one of us out in the future. If Rip ever asks you to take me out, you want to know how you should do it?"
"No," Sara snapped, but Leonard ignored her.
"Don't use a gun. Do it with your hands. Do it while you're looking right into my eyes."
She stopped, shifting as best she could to look back at him. "You're a member of this team and I am not going to kill you," she snarled.
"And yet you'd support Hermione killing Stein," Leonard challenged. "Or do you not consider Stein a member of this team? He too old to matter?"
"Our focus needs to be on saving the future," she stated, looking forward. "Stein would understand if it came to that because he knew going into this the risks and was willing to die to stop Savage."
"Really? You think Stein climbed onto the Waverider anticipating that one of the people joining him would be the one killing him in the end? You really think that possibility popped into his arrogant, egotistical little head?"
"Just because you care more about yourself than you do about the fate of the world doesn't mean the rest of us are like that. Saving the future is all that matters."
"If you really want to save the future," Leonard hissed, "then maybe you heroes should stop risking it."
Hermione raced down a hallway, keeping the schematics of the gulag at the forefront of her mind. She was nearly to where the solitary cells were located.
Footsteps reached her ears, along with Vostok's voice and she stopped. "You mentioned the Quantum Splicer earlier, Professor," she was saying. "Your friends are counting on you to make the right decision."
Her eyes fell closed as she began to silently curse. It sounded like Vostok had moved rather quickly from torturing Martin to torturing Mick and Ray, and that Martin had given in just as quickly. Sentimental fool.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione resumed running as fast as she could down the hall. "Now," she ordered into her comms and, moments later, the sounds of small explosions echoed through her earpiece.
As she raced around the corner, she came upon Stein, Vostok, and four guards. Her wand slipped into her hand and Hermione silently threw two Killing Curses at the closest guards as she charged down the hallway. The guards hit the ground with a thud and the group paused, staring first at their fallen comrades and then at the seemingly empty hall.
"Move!" Vostok ordered, lunging for a metal door that Hermione was sure led to Savage's highly fortified lab and pulling it open.
Martin stood frozen in the middle of the hallway, expression filled with hope as he searched pointlessly for where Hermione was, until one of the remaining guards grabbed his arm and shoved him after Vostok while his partner shot blindly into the hallway. Hermione dodged easily, hitting the remaining men with two more Killing Curses. Unfortunately, by the time she made it to them, Vostok and Martin had already entered the lab.
"The future is cementing, Miss Granger," Rip barked down the comm. "Have they moved Stein into the lab?"
"Yes," she answered, digging into one of her pockets for a cannister and her charmed glasses. "Along with every spare guard Savage has in the gulag. Which means my body count is going to skyrocket."
"If you can't get him out alive before he talks," he started to remind her.
"Why don't you worry about your mission and let me worry about mine?" Hermione hissed.
Opening the door to the lab, she tossed a cannister of Peruvian Instant Darkness powder inside and then put on her glasses before slipping in after it.
The guards were all shouting, trying to form a circle around Vostok and Martin but were unable to see exactly where they were. They couldn't even try firing randomly in the hopes of hitting her since they couldn't risk killing their two scientists. Hermione began picking them off one by one, switching from Killing Curses to Sectumsempra and a simple Slicing Hex in order to kill multiple guards at once.
There were so many people squeezed into the lab that it took longer than she'd hoped to get rid of all the guards. By the time she'd finished, the powder had begun to dissipate, and Hermione realized her mistake.
Vostok had taken Martin and somehow managed to back herself into a corner, holding the man in front of her with a scalpel pressed against his throat.
"Guards are taken care of," Carter announced. "Jax is heading for the circuit breaker."
Hermione hesitated for a moment before dropping her spell, revealing herself to the duo. Vostok glowered at her, hand shaking slightly as she pressed the blade further against Martin's skin. Martin was smiling at her, seeming unbothered by his position, and she couldn't help feeling a little shaken at his apparent faith.
"Come any closer and I'll slit his throat," Vostok warned.
Hermione laughed. "No, you won't," she told her confidently, striding towards them. "And do you want to know why? Because if you kill him, you'll never be able to create a Firestorm of your own. All your research, all your equations, all your knowledge- all you are, really- will become worthless. And we both know what Savage does with people who are no longer worth his time, don't we?"
The Russian flinched, and Hermione waved away the scarf covering her face, wanting Vostok to be able to see her smirk. "Don't tell me you thought you were different, Valentina," she purred. "You poor fool, did you really think you were special? Did you really think a man like Vandal Savage would actually care about you?"
Vostok's eyes had widened at the sight of her now-exposed face, but they narrowed again at her words. "You," she hissed. "Mr. Savage told me of you. His enchantress." Her words dripped with jealously.
She grimaced. "Actually, that would be Kendra. I'd introduce you, but she's a bit busy taking out the magical guards." Vostok's brows furrowed and it took a moment for Hermione to realize that it was out of confusion.
Tilting her head to the side, Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You know, it was actually surprising to me, the fact that Savage had no one guarding you. I don't mean these kinds of guards," she lightly kicked one that had fallen near her in the ribs. "I mean magical ones. After all, he knew I was coming. And yet, he left you completely vulnerable, when I know that he has at least a handful of magical Soviet soldiers stationed at this gulag. If even one of them had been guarding you… well, they wouldn't have been able to stop me, but they might have been able to slow me down enough for you and Stein to get to a more secure location. And not only did he not have them guarding you, but it seems he didn't even make you aware of them. You know what that tells me?"
Hermione's lips widened into a mean little grin that made Vostok falter and Martin twitch. "It tells me that Savage knew that if I managed to get to you, it would be over. There would be no chance at creating his own personal Firestorm. And if there's no chance of that, then there's no point to keeping you around and he hoped that I would take out the trash for him, as it were. Normally, I would be offended at the idea of him trying to use me to kill you, but, after what you did to Stein, I really want you dead."
Martin flinched, beads of blood begin to roll down his neck. Vostok shifted so that she was almost entirely shielded by Martin. "If you're really going to kill me, then I guess there's no reason for me to not end the good professor here and now."
"Go ahead," Hermione sneered, voice cold. "Based on the length of that blade, you won't be able to slice through his carotid artery- which would kill him in five to fifteen seconds- but you would be able cut through his trachea and jugular vein. It would take ten seconds for him to fall unconscious and another thirty seconds to a minute to actually kill him. More than enough time to kill you, heal the wound, get a few Blood-Replenishing potions in him, and be on our way. Don't waste my time, Vostok- you're outclassed, and you know it."
Locking eyes with Martin, Hermione gently brushed against his mind. It's alright, she told him. I know what I'm doing. Just grab Vostok's wrist with both hands and when I raise my wand, push it away from you as hard as you can. Everything will be fine- I promise.
Taking a deep breath, he responded, I trust you. Though, I do admit that I have some concern about how you came to have such knowledge.
First-hand experience, she answered dryly. When no one is coming to save you, you find a way to save yourself.
She pulled out of Stein's mind, refocusing on Vostok. The woman was silent, seemingly thinking over her options.
Hermione sauntered over to lean against one of the walls connecting to the corner that Vostok had backed herself into. "Tell me something," she started, tone light and conversational. "How does an intelligent woman like you delude yourself into working with a monster like Savage, and then go on to convince themselves that they're a queen and not a pawn?"
"How dare you speak like that about Mr. Savage!" Vostok raged, still hiding herself behind Martin. "He is a brilliant man! You are just jealous of all he has and will accomplish. I am proud of the work I have done with him."
"Yes," Hermione drawled, rolling her eyes. "You found me out. I'm so jealous of the fact that I'm not a cannibalistic psychopath like Savage. Although, one of those would be easy enough to become if I really wanted. Which do you prefer, Vostok?" she abruptly asked. "Puppets or marionettes?"
"What?"
"Which do you prefer, puppets or marionette?" Hermione repeated calmly. "Or I suppose another way of asking the question is: what is your preferred method of being danced across the stage of life by Savage- by having a hand shoved up your bum or by having your strings pulled? Because despite what you may think, free will is something you're in short supply of right now."
Vostok shifted away from behind Martin to stare at her with a confused and hate-filled gaze, and Hermione instantly raised her wand. "Avada Kedavra," she stated, watching as the spell hit the other woman right between the eyes.
Martin had done as instructed, pushing Vostok's hand away from his throat with all his might when he saw Hermione raising her wand. He stumbled away from the woman as she fell to the ground.
Hermione grabbed his elbow, steadying him. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," he gasped, a shaky laugh escaping him. "I'm… I'm okay. I'm alive." Straightening up, he urgently asked, "Are the others alright?"
The lights went out, and Hermione smiled. "Since I haven't heard otherwise, I assume so," she answered cheerfully as soft emergency lights flickered on. "But enough about them; it's time to make our grand escape. I don't know about you, but I think it's sometimes nice to make a memorable exit."
"'Exit, pursued by bear'," Martin quoted.
She laughed. "A man after my own heart."
"Yes, well, it would be a pity if you weren't familiar with the play that includes your namesake."
Glancing over at him, Hermione commented, "It's odd that you associated me with the beautiful and virtuous queen rather than as the daughter of the woman whose face launched a thousand ships."
Martin shrugged. "Queen Hermione was brought back to life at the end. Against all ends, she saw the end of the play."
"She died in the original story," she responded flatly, leading him towards a wall facing the courtyard of the gulag.
"I have faith you won't follow the same end."
It was easy enough to get to where Mick and Raymond were being held. When Leonard and Sara came to a stop in front of the barred door to their cell, they found Mick standing at the window fiddling with a lighter and Raymond curled up on the bed.
"You call that a flame?" he whispered with a grin.
Mick's head snapped to the side, expression lightening at the sight of them. "Nice costume," he told him, then glanced over at Sara. "You decide against blending in?"
Sara smirked, unlocking the door. "In a few minutes, anyone wearing a guard uniform is going to become a target."
As Leonard handed Mick his weapon and pulled out a prison jumpsuit identical to the ones Mick and Raymond were wearing, Sara bent down to try and wake up their unconscious teammate.
"Jesus," she hissed, taking in the bruises covering Raymond's face. "Did Savage do this?"
"Not all of it," Mick told her, something flickering in his eyes. "Picked a fight with your typical prison alpha and then mouthed off when the guards were using us to put on a show for Stein. Took a beating for me."
Leonard snorted, zipping up his jumpsuit. "Raymond would take a beating for a total stranger."
Sara shot him a glare, pausing in her efforts to wake Raymond up. "He took a beating for you, Mick, because you're his teammate and he was trying to protect you."
"Is that what a teammate does?" Leonard mocked. "I had no idea you felt that way."
She tensed but ultimately chose to ignore him. "He's completely out of it. One of you are going to have to carry him."
"You're kidding, right?" Leonard scoffed. "It's going to be a pain trying to get out of here while there's a riot going on without carrying any added baggage."
"Can we put the suit on him and shrink him down?" Mick asked.
"Do you know how to work it?" Sara asked. "Because I don't."
"Guards are taken care of," Carter announced over the comm. "Jax is heading for the circuit breaker."
Sara sighed. "We only have a minute or two at most before the power gets cut off. Decide now who's carrying Ray." When it looked like Leonard was going to argue, she held up a hand. "If the fact that he's our teammate doesn't mean anything to you, then the fact that Rip and Hermione will be pissed if he's not brought back to the ship should."
Leonard rolled his eyes. She had a point, though they would be angry for very different reasons and he couldn't give less of a shit if Rip was annoyed with him. "Fine. I'll carry him."
"I've got him," Mick told him, moving towards the bunk and pulling Raymond upright and over his shoulders in a fireman hold.
He studied his partner for a moment, trying to ascertain if he could actually support Raymond's weight while they escaped the gulag. Leonard didn't believe for a moment that Savage had only had Raymond tortured but, to his relief, it seemed that Raymond had taken the brunt of it since Mick didn't seem to be experiencing any true discomfort.
"So, what's the plan?" Mick asked.
"Hermione's taking care of Vostok and grabbing Stein while Kendra, Carter, and Jax are cutting the power," Leonard explained shortly, keeping it vague in case of eavesdroppers. "Cells have electromagnetic locks so once the power goes out, the doors will open, and the ensuing riot will hopefully allow us to get out of here without drawing too much attention to ourselves."
Mick snorted. "If Kendra, Carter, and Hermione are here, then there's no way all of them are going to be able to avoid running into Savage."
"Knowing Hermione, she'll deliberately draw his attention to her to protect Carter and Kendra," Sara muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and staring blankly out the window. "She won't risk Savage getting near them."
Leonard knew they were right, and he couldn't help gritting his teeth as he remembered Hermione and Savage's last run-in. "If only Rip and Carter had been able to get the dagger away from him…"
"Wouldn't have helped," the blond stated with a shrug. "Only way Savage can be killed with that is if Kendra uses it and she's not even close to being in Savage's league yet."
The lights suddenly turned off as an alarm started blaring and soft clicks echoed up and down the hall. Shouting could be heard from far away and then the prisoners in the cell block started yelling with glee as they realized their doors were unlocked.
"Time to go," Leonard announced, striding over to the door and pulling it open.
Fortunately for them, they weren't too far away from the loading bay, which the Jumpship would be parked right outside of.
When they reached the door that would lead to the loading bay, Leonard stepped away from Sara and Mick and started down a hallway that would lead him back to the courtyard.
"Where are you going?" Mick shouted after him.
"I got something to do," Leonard answered without turning around.
With a wave of her wand, Hermione blasted a hole in the wall, sending tons of bricks flying into the courtyard.
"Was that really necessary?" Martin asked as she helped him step over the remaining bit of wall.
"Yes," she answered cheerfully. "If we're lucky, we may have taken out a few of the remaining guards."
Martin sighed. "Because you didn't kill enough of them before?"
"Come now, Martin, you're an American who lived through the Cold War. Wasn't your motto at this time, 'Get them before they get you'?"
They paused to take in the chaos around them. Prisoners raced into the courtyard, tackling the guards who were failing at subduing them. "Well, you certainly made sure to arrange things so that you could get as many of them as possible, didn't you?"
Hermione nodded proudly. "It's always nice to see things going according to plan."
"Hey," came Jax's voice from beside them and Martin jumped, staring around wildly. Then Jax's head seemingly appeared in thin air and the older man went pale. "Sorry, forgot I was invisible for a second."
Blinking at him, Martin faintly asked, "What happened to the rest of you?"
"Shit," Jax swore, dropping the cloak entirely. "Forgot you didn't know about that part of the plan."
"I'm starting to think I know absolutely nothing about this so-called 'plan'," Martin complained.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione responded, "I told you the bits you needed to know. I thought that knowing Jax was out in the field was just going to cause you unnecessary stress."
"Unnecessary stress," he repeated, tone outraged.
The comm clicked on. "Savage knows we're here," Carter announced. "We can sense that he's near."
Hermione could feel the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck begin to stand on end. Craning her head to the side, she spotted Savage making his way across the yard, eyes locked on her. "You need to get a move on getting those bombs set in place; I'll hold off Savage for as long as I can."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Jax asked, concerned. "After what happened last time…"
"Don't," Kendra told her. "Let him come."
"We don't have a lot of options," she answered shortly, ignoring Kendra and stepping away from the duo. "You two need to get back to the ship. Do not combine if you can help it, understand?"
When they had both given their reluctant agreements, Hermione walked away from them and made her way towards Savage, not bothering to run.
Savage's movements were also calm and unhurried, gaze flickering between her and some point behind her- where Kendra and Carter were at, most likely.
The memory of their last encounter hovered in the back of her mind- the feel of Savage pressed against her back and whispering in her ear, the burning pain of the poison-coated dagger scraping against her skin, the feeling of her body getting heavier and heavier, and the hopelessness of the bezoar falling to the ground.
A hand wrapped around her elbow, pulling her to a stop. "Don't do this."
Hermione stared up at Leonard in surprise. "What…" she started to ask before stopping herself, glancing at Savage again and trying to tug her arm out of his grip. "You need to get back to the ship."
"Not without you." He also glanced over at Savage, who was now less than five meters away and smiling widely at the two of them. "This isn't your fight, Hermione. Let Carter and Kendra deal with him."
She started to argue, but then Savage was right in front of them.
"Hermione Granger," he purred. "Sahira. How glad I am to see you again after our last encounter."
It felt like there was no air. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe.
He knew her name. Her full name.
'Hermione Granger'.
Oh gods.
The pieces began to click together, and not in a good way.
Leonard yanked her frozen form back and placed himself in front of her, aiming his gun at Savage. "This may not kill you, but it will sure as hell keep you down for a while," he spat at the immortal.
Savage cocked his head to the side. "I hadn't taken you to be a 'knight-in-shining-armor type," he commented lightly. "Though, that may be because Hermione hasn't given you many chances to play at saving the damsel in distress. Not like Valentina."
She needed to pull it together. She needed to focus on the situation at hand and panic later, but Hermione couldn't do that because he knew her name and it all made sense now and she didn't know what to do.
"I'll admit," Savage continued, "I didn't expect you to go the route you did with the lovely Dr. Vostok. I would have thought your devotion to Hermione would have kept you from seducing Valentina, but I suppose my Sahira is not like most wives."
And that managed to pull Hermione's thoughts right out of one spiral and straight into another because it sounded as though Savage was saying that Hermione was a wife, was Leonard's wife. As in she was married to Leonard. Hermione was Leonard's wife. Which meant that Savage thought that Leonard was her husband.
Even Leonard couldn't keep himself from starting at Savage's statement, though Hermione hoped that his expression was more neutral than hers was because what in Merlin's name was going on?!
"You're wasting time here, Savage," Leonard told him, voice steady. "You really want to hang around here with us while your precious Chay-Ara is nearby?"
Savage laughed. "Your callousness impresses me. Would you truly sacrifice the priestess in order to protect Hermione?"
Hermione knew she was supposed to protest at this point, to step out from behind Leonard and attack Savage because Kendra and Carter had to be protected, but she couldn't bring herself to move.
Leonard didn't hesitate. "Yep. Because I doubt you'll be able to kill both Kendra and Carter, and we really only need one to defeat you, don't we?"
He was silent for a moment. "I'm intrigued," Savage announced, and the chill that had frozen Hermione to the spot dissipated. "Your devotion to one another is… touching. It almost reminds me of poor Chay-Ara and Khufu."
"Four thousand years of being in love," Hermione commented as she stepped away from Leonard, voice neutral. "Not a terrible thing to aspire to."
"Four thousand years of losing one another," he corrected, and the gleam in his eyes made her chest tighten. "Of being forced to find one another over and over again, knowing that their reunion will only end in death. An eternal punishment."
Hermione placed her hands on her hips and nodded sympathetically. "Yes, four thousand years being forced to encounter you does indeed sound like an eternal punishment. Your self-awareness is impressive."
"Get back to the Jumpship," Rip ordered over the comms, and Hermione was filled with horror at the realization that it had been on the entire time. The team had heard everything.
"Run, Hermione," Carter hissed. "Now!"
"Hate to leave so soon," she told Savage, grabbing Leonard's arm and pulling him back with her. "But it seems we have to go. Poor Valentina's body is in the lab if you'd like to say one last goodbye." And then she turned and raced away, Leonard keeping pace by her side.
If Savage replied, the words were lost over the shouts and gunfire filling the courtyard, and he didn't follow.
The ride back to the Waverider was tense. Kendra, Carter, and Rip had managed to blow up the gulag and ensured that Savage burned along with it, but no one on the team seemed to feel much like celebrating.
As soon as they were off the Jumpship, Carter pulled Hermione away from the others and began looking her over.
"Stop it," she told him, shrugging his hands off. "I'm fine; there's not even a scratch on me."
Carter continued studying her, doubting her honesty. Which Hermione knew was a fair response. "Savage knows your name," he finally said, meeting her gaze. "He knows your name and where you're from."
Hermione bit her lip, intensely aware of the fact that the rest of the team was watching them with varying degrees of concern. "He knows I'm British, but that's still a lot of ground to cover. Not as much as America…" she tried to joke but wasn't surprised when it fell flat.
"But the British Wizarding World isn't," Rip stated solemnly.
She squeezed her eyes shut, carefully counting her inhales and exhales. "It's fine," she spat, fighting to keep her voice even. "It's to be expected. I'm sure that come 2015, he'll also be aware of Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and the Atom. We just need to either make sure to deal with him before he can get to us or hope that he doesn't bother hunting us down when the time comes."
Rip sighed, and Hermione opened her eyes to see him running a hand over his face. "If you start feeling even the tiniest bit off, you tell me immediately," he finally told her, dropping his hand. "There will be warning signs if he does decide to track down your younger self and we can try and… intervene."
Even as Hermione nodded in agreement, she knew that it wouldn't come to that. Her younger self wasn't going to need saving.
Turning away from the group, she started making her way towards the main cabin. "Mick should probably take Raymond to the Medbay," she called over her shoulder. "Hopefully Gideon can do something about those bruises."
"You not going to heal him?" Jax asked, falling in beside her.
"I think the fact that I'm no longer going to campaign to have him removed from the team should be gift enough," Hermione answered dryly.
"Wow, miracles really do happen," Sara commented. "What made you change your mind?"
Hermione shrugged. "Mick not leaving him behind implies that he did something to gain his respect. I doubt Mick would agree to us dropping him off which means that Leonard wouldn't take my side, which means that I won't have the numbers going in to absolutely guarantee that I'll win that fight. I'll just wait for Raymond to make another mistake and try again then."
They reached the cabin and then ended up in Rip's office, falling in exhaustion into the various seats around the room. "Perhaps Dr. Palmer will be able to learn from his mistakes," Rip offered.
"I doubt a single one of you will ever be able to manage to do that over the course of this mission," Hermione retorted, leaning her head back to rest on the top of her chair.
"Are we all just going to ignore the fact that Savage implied that Hermione and Leonard are married?" Kendra asked and Hermione let her head fall to the side and saw that the brunette was failing to fight back a smile.
"I was hoping we could," Leonard told her, sinking down into one of the chairs by the door.
"Can't believe you didn't invite us," Jax commented, shaking his head in disappointment. "Inviting Savage and excluding your team? That's cold."
"It was a small wedding," Hermione told him. "So small that apparently Leonard and I weren't even able to attend."
Mick and Raymond rejoined them shortly and Mick pulled a bottle of vodka out of his jacket. "Courtesy of Yuri the Bear," he announced, setting it on the small table in the middle of the room.
"How did you even have time to steal this?" Sara demanded while Rip went to grab enough shot glasses for all of them.
"There's always time to steal," Leonard commented.
Rip began pouring out the alcohol, and Carter grabbed two shot glasses. Walking over to Hermione, he handed one to her. "I don't think you can keep telling yourself that Savage is calling you a hag," he said abruptly.
Hermione let out a strangled laugh as she took the glass from him. "No, I suppose I can't." Staring down at the clear liquid, she sighed. "It'd be nice if, for once, one of the villains I encounter could be gay. Or was one that acted like James Moriarty- someone who would flirt with anyone as long as it would take them off-guard."
Carter laughed loudly, drawing everyone's eyes to them.
"What's so funny?" Mick asked.
"Just discussing my new alternate identity," Hermione announced, rolling her eyes. "The Enchantress… doesn't have the same ring to it that Firestorm, Heat Wave, and Captain Cold has, but what can you do?"
Martin chuckled. "Let's toast to Hermione's new identity, and to the first time we haven't completely ruined the timeline!"
Rip groaned. "Please tell me that's true, Gideon."
"The projections of the future are back to normal," the AI reassured him.
"I'll drink to that," Kendra stated, lifting her glass into the air.
"To Rip," Leonard added, also lifting his glass up. "To things not going according to his plan."
Hermione glared over at him even as Martin echoed, "To the Captain!"
"To the Captain!" they cheered, downing their glasses. All except Jax, who was stopped by Martin.
"Hold on, Jefferson. You're not quite twenty-one."
"Yo…" Jax started to complain.
"In 1986, the drinking age in Russia was twelve," Sara told him.
Martin hesitated for a moment before smiling. "Well, perhaps we can let it slide this one time. After all, you were the hero today."
"Oh, that?" Jax shrugged. "That was no biggie."
"I can't believe you think Jax hasn't had alcohol before, Martin," Hermione commented idly, setting her glass aside.
"I'd like to think that Jefferson knows better than to participate in underage drinking," he stated loftily.
"This coming from the guy who spent most of twenties stoned," Sara scoffed.
An explosion rocked the ship, sending everyone to the floor.
"What was that?" Sara demanded, jumping to her feet.
"We have been struck with an explosive projectile," Gideon announced.
"No kidding," Raymond grunted.
"Everyone get strapped in now!" Rip shouted.
Carter dragged Hermione to her feet and back into the main cabin, pushing her down into an empty seat beside Leonard- who was one of the first to reach the seats since he'd been right by the door- before throwing himself into one next to Kendra.
"We're in the Temporal Zone," Rip muttered from the Captain's chair. "I don't understand. No one should be able to-"
Another explosion rocked the ship, sending the few people still un-seated back to the floor.
"You were saying?" Leonard snapped.
"A scan of the vessel suggests that it is the bounty hunter Chronos," Gideon informed them.
"Oh man," Jax groaned. "This guy has impeccable timing."
"He appears to be following us," Gideon warned as Rip began punching buttons on his control panel. "Firing countermeasures." After a tense moment of silence, the AI stated, "Countermeasures effective."
"Have we lost him?" Martin asked.
"Yes, but not his missiles. Our aft shield is gravely compromised."
"Initiating evasive maneuvers," Rip stated.
"Ah, the vodka was a bad choice," Raymond groaned.
"Impact in three, two, one," Gideon warned.
Something slammed into the ship, which began to plummet downwards as red lights began flashing around the cabin. Several people began shouting in alarm as g-force sent them slamming against their seat's restraints.
"Sir, we've just been knocked out of the timestream," the AI informed Rip.
"What does that mean?" Kendra called and Hermione closed her eyes.
"It means we're crash landing in place and time," Rip answered her, voice solemn.
A hand reached out to grasp hers and Hermione knew it was Leonard's. Turning to twine their fingers together, she held on tightly.
"Brace yourself," she told him. "This is going to make the crash landing in Russia feel like a bump on the road."
"You fallen out of time and space before?" he grunted.
"You never like my answers, so why do you keep asking questions?"
Before Leonard could respond, the ship slammed into the ground.
Hermione prayed that they hadn't fallen too-far into the past. If they had ended up at some point in time with dinosaurs, she was going to throw an actual fit.