Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Darkness. Then blinding light. That’s how it started for Len. At first he couldn’t remember why it was like this. Then memories came flooding back. His time with the legends, the missions to stop Savage, Mick being Chronos, the revelation that the Time Masters were working with Savage all along, and finally the end when he had sacrificed himself to stop the Time Masters. He wondered if they had succeeded in stopping Savage, or if they were all dead in a ditch somewhere.

Almost immediately his question was answered. Images, no these things looked more like videos. Well whatever they were, they zoomed around his head showing ‘videos’ of what looked like the entire team stopping Savage three separate times. There must have been some reason they were all doing, but after seeing that they were all alive, well except for him, he realized there was another person he wanted to see. His boyfriend.

Immediately as he thought about Barry, more ‘videos’ flew into his vision, he saw Barry in his Flash suit standing in the Cortex, looking mad but unharmed. He let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding in. The last time he had seen Barry was back when he left with the Waverider and Rip on a crazy mission to save the planet. He had left right in the middle of the whole business with Zoom, and he was happy to see that Barry was ok. Now all he had to do was find a way out of wherever he was, so that he could go see him.

He began walking in one direction determined to keep walking in a straight line so that he wouldn’t get lost and not be able to find his way back to where all the ‘videos’ were. He keep walking for what felt like ages before he finally ended up back at the place he started. He looked around confused. Had he accidently walked in a circle? Or was this place so small that he’d walked all the way back to where he had started. Well however he had arrived back here, he thought it would probably be smart just to stay here until he figured out how to get out of this place, wherever he was.
As he began to try and come up with a way out of wherever he was, a portal opened in front of him. It looked like one of the breaches that had brought Zoom to his earth and he was wary of it at first. Soon though he realized that nothing was coming out, and that maybe, just maybe this was his way home. He approached the breach with caution. He circled the entire breach, deciding he had nothing to lose just standing here waiting for some other way out, so he ignored all other instincts telling him to run away and focused on the one saying ‘Go In’. He jumped.

It was nauseating, he felt like throwing up right then and there, but as soon as it started it was over and he found himself standing in a hall on the Waverider. He could hear voices carrying through the halls, so after quickly catching his breath, traveling through that portal had really knocked the wind out of him. After he had caught his breath he began making his way through the halls to where he heard the voices coming from. When he finally found where they were he smiled. Everyone looked happy, this was probably a little after what he had seen in those ‘videos’ which meant they had a really great reason to be happy. Now all he had to do was make an entrance, then probably get home to 2016 to see his boyfriend.

   “Well isn't this a happy gathering” he said, nonchalantly. Immediately everyone stopped their separate conversations and looked at him. He looked at each of their faces, emotions such as confusion, happiness, or sadness flickered across a few of them, and anger reflected on one face. That was Mick, and at a speed that would have impressed Barry, for someone who didn't have the speed force, Mick grabbed him by the collar of his Parka and slammed him against the wall. “Who the hell are you!” He yelled, and honestly he understood why, to them he had been dead for God knows how long. “Gideon who is this and why are they on my ship?” Rip asked the AI. “Leonard Snart was simply returning to the ship, he was lost in the timeline.” She stated, and although she was said to have no emotions, it sounded as though there was a small amount of happiness evident in the way she said it.

Everyone stared at him for a second and before he could think up a bad pun for the situation he felt a fist collide with his arm, not as hard as it could have been, but there would still probably be a bruise. “WHAT THE HELL SNART!” Mick yelled at him, “Why'd you have to go and play the god-damned hero?” He looked Mick in the eye and behind that fire that was always in his eyes, he saw a small amount of relief, but that was behind the blaze of anger. “I had to screw with the whole, ‘destiny’, crap and you know that Mick” he stated calmly, he in a way understood why Mick was angry, but he also should have understood that he doesn't like getting told his teammates are going to die and there's nothing he can do. He was grabbed by the collar again, “Well don't do it again.” He heard the threat but more of the relief was beginning to show through. He looked around the room and saw the looks of relief and happiness, and that made him happy but there was still someone he needed to check on.

“Now that it's settled that I'm alive and I won't be pulling any deadly stunts soon, I need to check on someone. Gideon how is Barry Allen?” He got a few looks from his teammates but he didn't care he needed to know how his Scarlet Speedster was. “Barry Allen, in your timeline, has just lost a battle to a rival speedster known as Zoom,” Len sucked in air, last time Barry had lost Zoom had broken his back, what would he do this time? “Zoom has just proclaimed victory and has taken Barry Allen back to his Earth as a prize.” Len’s heart stopped, Zoom had Barry. There was only one thought on Len’s mind, saving Barry.

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    Len felt like he couldn't breathe. Zoom had Barry. Last he had heard from Barry about Zoom was that Zoom had broken his back. Now Zoom had Barry, and he could do so much worse. He looked at Rip and said “Take us back”. “I was planning on taking the team back anyway, but I hadn't planned on staying, but it looks like you may need my help” Rip replied.

      Len looked around at all of the legends who all murmured agreements to helping Len get Barry back. Which wasn't really a surprise seeing as some of them had been pretty good friends with him. He smiled though, with the help of the Legends and the rest of the Flash team, Zoom didn't stand a chance.

      “Strap in everyone!” Rip yelled the team giving them a bit of time to strap in before jumping into the time vortex. Len appreciated the ship keeping them safe and less nauseous than being unprotected and just jumping through a random portal did. Yet like jumping through the random portal it was short. They were out of the time vortex and were circling S.T.A.R Labs. Len looked at the building and smiled he had fond memories of the place it was where he first asked Barry out.

  *FLASHBACK*

   “Hey Scarlet, can I talk to you for a second?” Len looked at the speedster who looked at him with a confused look, that did nothing to help the butterflies in his stomach. He shouldn't even have them he was one of the best, if not the best thief in central city, he didn't get nervous on jobs so why should he get nervous now? As he led Barry away from the Cortex he calmed himself down a bit, he could do this. “So what'd you want to talk about Len?”

    Barry asked, Len’s eyebrow raised a little at the nickname, up until this point all Barry had called him was either ‘Snart’ or ‘Cold’. Barry looked at him and said “Hey if you're allowed to call me Scarlet I'm allowed to call you Len”.

     Len smiled a bit at this before getting down to business, “Listen, uh- Scarlet, I was wondering, if you'd like to go out this Saturday for dinner?” He expected the whole ‘I don't swing that way’ shtick, he hadn't even checked if Barry was gay or not, which was unlike him, but Barry did that to him. “Sure what time and where?” Barry asked. For a moment he stood there speechless. “Um, you know what I mean by date right?” He asked, thinking that Barry has mistaken this as a date between friends. “Yep, we go out eat dinner, we decide if this is going to work and if the night goes my way I get a goodnight kiss from Captain Cold,” Barry said with a smile.

        Len was rendered speechless again, had Barry just said he wanted a goodnight kiss from him? He guessed he had stood there and stared for too long because Barry waved a hand in front of his face. “You ok?” Barry asked him. Len snapped out of his speechlessness and told him a time and a place, although he was still amazed he had made it this far. “Great see you then!” Barry said before walking back towards the cortex. Len just stood there for a second, happy that he had a date with the one and only Flash.

*END FLASHBACK*

     The ship touched down in the middle of the parking lot. When the hatch opened standing next to the ship were 8, very worn out looking people. As they walked out of the ship he looked at each of their faces, some were happier than others to see them. Well everyone except Joe seemed happy to see them. That was only because he knew about Barry and his relationship, and was nervous about Len hurting Barry. Which he would never do, but he understood why Joe would be nervous about it.

    “We know Barry was taken” Kendra was the first to speak. He noticed how Cisco looked at Kendra longingly, before shaking his head and turning his head a bit to look at Lisa who, Len noticed had her hand on his arm. He gave her the kind of warm look, that he usually saw on Barry's face, when he looked at Len. He made a mental reminder to threaten Cisco that if he hurt his sister, the Cold Gun would be turned on its creator. Although really he was happy his sister had found such a good guy.

      “Good, then we don't have to catch you up to speed” Iris replied to Kendra’s comment about already knowing about Barry. “Then I assume you're here to help, so let's stop staring dramatically at each other and work on getting my son back” Joe said. Everyone silently moved into the building. After a few minutes they were standing in various positions in the Cortex. “So first things first, do you know where he is?” Len asked. He decided to put his emotions on the back burner, it wouldn't help Barry if he was an emotional wreck, no he'd treat this like a job until he got Barry back, then he'd shelter him in one of his safe houses for a week, because he didn't want to let Barry out of his sight. “We assume on Earth-2 at the same place he held Joe” Caitlin replied. He looked over at Joe, he'd been held by Zoom? That made some things a lot easier.

     “I'll need you to describe the inside of the place you were held in, it'll make it easier, knowing what we’re up against.” Len said. So Joe described the place he was held in and the mysterious masked man named Jay Garrick. Which wasn't really important, it was just another person they'd have to rescue from Zoom, because no one deserved to be held prisoner by that monster. “What kind of cage will Barry be in?” Len asked. These were important details, because if they were going to stage a rescue mission they needed to be prepared. After that question was answered by Harry he continued to ask more. This was only the beginning of his planning, soon after more questions, they began to formulate a plan. One thought ran through his head as the plan really started to come together “Don't worry Scarlet, we’re coming to save you.”