HUNTRESS.
013. | ❛ is that too much to ask? ❜

Crystal stood on the opposite end of the table as Gideon was informing them of where they were keeping half of the team

"Labor Camp Number 54... Formerly known as the Koshmar or "Nightmare" gulag. Built in the 18th century...'

"Can we skip past the Wikipedia crap and get to the good stuff, like how to break in?" Snart demanded nastily to Gideon.

"Perhaps you didn't register that as a question, Gideon." Sara asked

'I understood, but in its 200 years of operation, no one has successfully escaped from..."

"No offense, Gideon, but I never met a building I couldn't break into." Snart smirked as Crystal kept looking at the pictures that contained Ray, Mick, and Stein

"Well, I hope you're right. Savage knows that Stein created Firestorm, but if he finds out that he is Firestorm..."

"Always Savage with you, isn't it? My partner's in prison too."

"And Ray." Crystal added on

"Yeah, whatever. The point is you didn't lift a finger."

"You know damn well it was never my intention to get them thrown into a gulag, but I had no other option. Besides, I doubt that it's Mr. Rory's first time in prison or second or, I imagine, tenth."

"All right, arguing is not gonna bring the team back any faster." Crystal yelled which caused everybody to see a new side to her. She calmed down before continuing ,"And Rip's right. Criminals usually do feel more at home in prison, and they know it better than anyone else."

"So?"

"So what if the key to breaking in is asking someone who's been in and out of Soviet prisons their whole life?"

"And who might that be?"

"Are you familiar with the Bratva?" Crystal leaned in on the table

"Ooh, the Russian Mob?" Snart sounded impressed and leaned near Crystal, "In 1986, they would have ruled the criminal underground inside every prison."

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"Now, according to Yuri, this is where his men have access. Got it?"

"This isn't my first prison break." Snart emitted

"And certainly not your last," Crystal joked causing Snart to cross his arms around his chest.

"We got it covered."

"So how can we help?" Jax offered accompanied by Kendra.

"By staying on the ship. We don't need any more casualties. Besides, Mr. Snart, Crystal and Sara have got it covered." Rip explained making them feel less wanted.

"Whoa, man. Why does it feel like we're on the JV team all of a sudden?"

"What you are is one half of everything Savage needs to change the face of the Cold War. And you are the only person who can kill him. Yeah, so you can't just... I am not going to gift wrap the two people in the world that Savage wants the most." Rip explained to them causing both of them to just accept the Captain's orders.

"We should get going." Sara suggested to Crystal, as they started to walk away Rip called for Sara.

"Oh, Ms. Lance, could I borrow you for a moment? I have something that might help you out with the mission." Sara left Crystal, to go and prepare for the rescue mission.

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Crystal was overlooking a flower that hasn't been watered in ages and somewhat withered away. Taking the plant to an empty space on the ship Crystal practiced her magic

"Phasmatos Tribum, Plantus Vivifey, Plantus Herbus" she chanted hovering over and waiting for it to be brought to life.

"Seems like you're getting ready for the mission, Princess" Snart interrupted her causing the flower to go back to it's original state of dead.

"It's called practicing, if I could do a tiny spell like this then I most definitely could do a cloaking spell."

"Why would you need to practice? You're a pretty good witch last time I recall your almost killed me."

"I want to make sure I don't screw this up."

"You know that's not it Crystal. What do you want?"

"I wanna not be scared! Last night, I was scared for us. Stein getting captured along with Mick and Ray, made me feel powerless because I couldn't do anything, I froze. I felt utterly weak, like I needed someone to come in and rescue me. I hate that feeling. I wanna feel stronger than that. I wanna feel powerful." Crystal trembled not noticing the small space between them.

"Is that so hard to find?" Crystal whispered at this point.

"Not it's not," Leonard leaned in and Crystal comprehended what was going to happen and secretly wanted to kiss him also. Only centimeters apart was all it took for their lips to meet. It was only in that moment that Crystal understood what Ray was talking about.

"Hey," Kendra busted in causing the two to separate. Crystal pushed her hair back while Snart cleared his throat.

"Sara's looking for you guys," Kendra uttered awkwardly knowing that something was happening between them.

"Yeah, the mission." Crystal exclaimed using her high squeak voice as she got her flower vase and exited the room. Crystal blushed, turning her cheeks really pink. As she walked, she glanced down at the flower vase which bloomed a beautiful rose.

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As they jumped off of the moving vehicle, they sought out a hiding place

"Remember, we get Stein first." Sara warned Snart

"And if the plan fails, you'll kill him. You want my advice?"

"No."

"Don't use your gun. Do it with your hands. Do it while you're looking right into Stein's eyes."

"You're talking about a member of our team."

"I just don't want you to forget who we're talking about." Snart pointed at Sara while he entered the gulag, Sara and Crystal following behind.

Once inside, Snart was dressed as a guard while Sara was lying on a table with a sheet over her head, Crystal was cloaking herself since her magic wasn't as strong to cloak three entire people.

"So how does it feel to be dead again?" Snart asked Sara

"Take the next left." She simply responded as she came across a guard

"You can't be down here, comrade."

"I was ordered to take this corpse to the incinerator." The guard got closer not believing his story and trying to lift up the sheet, " I wouldn't do that if I were you. Dr. Vostok used him for one of her smallpox weapons trials. Highly contagious." Crystal and Snart could both see their friends being dragged out for receiving a brutal beating. It was only when Mick saw us that he knew that they were getting rescued.

The group passed the ground and into another hallway getting further away from Mick and Ray. Crystal decloaked herself as Sara threw the sheet off of her,"All right, this duct should take us to solitary. We get to Stein..."

"Yeah, I'm not going." Snart stated causing Sara to glare at him trying to convince him ti help.

"That's the plan."

"That's Rip's plan. My priority is Mick.."

"You focus on Stein, I'll go with Snart. There is a proababilty that they're keeping them in the same space." Crystal said trying not to stray from the mission.

"Fine. Forget it. So much for your code, crook."

"Anytime, assassin" Snart snarled before they parted ways with Sara.

It was an awkward walk to try and find their friends. Personally, Crystal was partially avoiding talking about the moment they almost shared on the ship.

"It seems like you can't stay away from me," Snart smirked

"Looks like, But right now I'm focused on get Ray and Mick out of here." Crystal said unlocking the door to where they kept the inmates. Snart approached the cell leaning against it,"You call that a flame?" He referred to Mick and his lighter which extinguished when Snart spoke.

"Ah. Nice costume." He looked at Snart's Soviet union uniform

"Got one for you too." He handed Mick the dufflebag that was over his shoulder.

"Wakey, wakey. Time to shrink... or not." Snart patted Ray's face which was severely bruised as he placed his Atom suit on his chest.

Crystal leaned down next to Ray, trying to wake him up as she pushed his hair to a side, "Come on Musketeer" she whispered

"Let's go." Snart spoke to Mick

"What about him? We can't ditch him. He won't survive."

"Two guards walking out of here... not suspicious. Two guards carrying him out... suspicious."

"He took a beating for me."

"Raymond would take a beating for a total stranger."

"Mick, if our time in the can taught us anything, it's we look after each other. It's you and me, right?"

Crystal spoke up, "You guys go. I'll take care of Ray."

"You'll take care of Ray? You could barely take care of yourself when you twisted your ankle." Snart reminded her

"My magic's strong enough to carry both of us, I can handle this." Crystal looked them both in the eyes before they nodded knowing that they couldn't say anything that could change her mind.

Walking down the hallway supporting Ray really proved Crystal's upper body strength. It was when they were halfway down that the alarms started to ring and the power was cut off.

"Electromagnetic locks." The cells started opening and cellmates were running around like crazy trying to escape.

"We're dressed as guards." Mick fumed, knowing that the prisoners would attack them.

"Stay close," Crystal hollered before cloaking them. Mick took over supporting Ray as Crystal lead the way out of the cells. But each step she took was draining most of her energy as she advanced more inside the gulag, and Mick and Snart took notice of it.

"Isn't like your magic draining your energy?" Mick asked her as she was now walking slowly.

"One person I could cloak, two is manageable, three is a maybe, and four is definitely way out of my reach. But I've grown to embrace the pain right now," Crystal stumbled as they got out of the cells and close to the exit. Crystal decloaked them since they were no longer in the heap of danger.

"That door leads to the loading bay. From there, you can get to the jump ship." Snart instructed them, as Crystal tried to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Snart asked her

"Yeah, just need to catch my breath" Crystal groaned huffing in and out.

"Hey, Mick, this is a strange kind of hug." Ray mumbled as he was waking up.

"Where are you going?"

"I got something to do." Before he left, he glanced at Crystal who gave him a nod to go ahead.

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Kendra played some old time records on the vinyl player while Mick handed everybody shots, "Courtesy of Yuri the Bear."

"How did you even have time to steal this?" Sara asked Mick, while Crystal smiled at the celebration happening around them

"There's always time to steal." Snart smirked

"Thank you." Ray said at Mick who was handing him a shot.

"And just so you know, I know you're more than just a thief."

"You took a beating for me. We're even. End of story."

"Well, I think I also owe Crystal a thank you." Ray flattered making Crystal confused as to why, "Thank you musketeer, for cloaking us with your magic." He lifted his shot up and Crystal clinked it with his.

"For the first time I agree with Raymond. Thank you Crystal." Snart declared bowing down which wasn't really his style. She mouthed a silent thank you to him.

"More drinking, less feeling." Mick patted Leonard on the back.

"A toast to the first time we haven't completely ruined the time line." Stein finished as they gathered around the table.

"Please tell me that's true, Gideon." Rip asked, being worried since they've messed it up before.

"The projections of the future are back to normal."

"I'll drink to that." Kendra smiled lifting her cup up.

"To Rip. To things not going according to his plan." Snart revealed his sassy side once again.

"To the Captain." Stein cheered.

"To the Captain." They all said in unison.

"All right. Hold on, Jefferson. You're not quite 21. Yo..." Stein pointed to the fact that he wasn't legally able to drink.

"In 1986, the drinking age in Russia was 12, so... " Sara sipped her drink as she walked away.

Crystal sat down next to Ray patting his leg, "Thank you once again."

"Couldn't leave a musketeer behind." She smiled at him, "All for one and one for all," She gulped down her drink as a loud boom erupts causing Crystal to fall to her knees.

"What was that?" Crystal scrambled to her feet and made her way to Sara and Rip.

"We have been struck with an explosive projectile."

"No kidding."

"Everyone get strapped in now!" Rip commanded them, "We're in the Temporal Zone. I don't understand. No one should be able to..."

Another explosive hit the ship causing Crystal to fall into her seat as she secured herself into her seat. At this point Crystal was frightened at what was going to happen but she maintained a strong front.

"You were saying?" Crystal yelled

"A scan of the vessel suggests that it is the bounty hunter Chronos."

"Oh, man, this guy has impeccable timing."

"He appears to be following us. Firing countermeasures. Countermeasures effective."

"Have we lost him?" Stein asked loudly over the ships engine.

"Yes, but not his missile. Our aft shield is gravely compromised."

'Initiating evasive maneuvers." Rip said guiding the ship as the team held on for dear life.

"Ah! The vodka was a bad choice." Ray grumbled out holding onto his chest which probably burned from the drink.

"Impact in three, two, one." Crystal grunted as she launched a bit forward. She could agree with Ray, that vodka was a bad choice and wasn't setting in well with her stomach. The ship slanted as they impacted with the missile.

"Sir, we've just been knocked out of the timestream."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we're crash-landing in place and time." The ship started falling downwards and Crystal's hand was trembling nervously, she could feel her heart quicken as they fell. The smoothness of someone else's hand fell upon hers, she glanced down and saw Snart's hand onto of hers. She calmed down as she braced herself for impact.

They made their way down an alley trying to figure out where exactly they were stuck in. Flames engulfed the air, with abandoned cars everywhere. It didn't remotely look like any place in the world. They all stuck close together as they made their way towards the city.

"Gideon, camouflage the ship. This doesn't look like the type of place we want to linger out in the open."

"That looks a lot like a Palmer Tech building, but why does it have a Smoak logo on it?"

"Wait. This is Star City. I thought you said the time line was safe." Sara snapped at Rip.

Rip checked this device trying to figure out what was happening, " Yeah, Star City was intact in 2016. This... this is 2046."

A black hooded figure came aboard a truck with an bow and arrow in his hand, "Don't move!"

Rip gun clicks but it seems as if Sara knew the person, "Oh, thank God."

"I said don't move." His voice almost sounded machine like and not at all resembled a humans.

"It's me. It's Sara."

"Hey, Oliver, look, I-I know it's been a long time, but don't you remember that Rip Hunter recruited us to become legends?"

He face became more clear as he stepped forward a bit, "I never heard of any legends." The guy says before loading his gun and firing.