[Chapter 15]

We pulled up to the Koshmar in a Russian delivery truck Rip was driving. We stopped at the gate.

"Identification papers," The Russian guard asked and Rip gave him a big ball of money.

"Yuri the bear sent me," Rip explained and the guard let us drive inside. Leonard and I jumped out of the truck and ran to the steel gate.

"Remember, we get Stein first," I said to Leonard.

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

"No, but I'm going to get it anyway," I mutter sarcastically.

"Don't use your gun. Do it with your hands, do it while you're looking right into Stein's eyes," Leonard said and I glare at him.

"You're talking about a member of our team," I snap. "And you expect me to look in the eyes of the helpless old man and snap his neck?!"

"Isabelle, I just don't want you to forget who we're talking about," Leonard whispered and placed a hand on my cheek before running to the gate.We easily broke through the gate and stole a table with wheels. Leonard helped me up and I laid on the table and Leonard covered me with a white sheet.

"So how's to feel to be dead?" Leonard asked and I swear he could hear my eyes roll.

"Take the next left," I reply annoyed.

"You can't be down here, comrade," A guard said as Leonard turned the corner.

"I was ordered to take this corpse to the incinerator," Leonard explained and the guard went to take a look.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Dr. Vostok used him for one of her smallpox weapons trials. Highly contagious," Leonard explained and looked past the guard to see a tortured Ray andMick being taken back to their cell.

"All right, this duct should take us to solitary," I explained, getting out from under the blanket after the guard had passed. "We got to get Stein..." I start to say but Leonard cut me off.

"Yeah, I'm not going," Leonard said.

"What? That was the plan," I said confused.

"That's Rip's plan. My priority is Mick. Are you so set on doing what you are told, acting like a soulless monster, that you've forgotten that he's important to me?" Leonard snapped and I looked at him shocked and hurt.Leonard went to say something but I held up my hand to stop him.

"I get that you and Mick are close and I haven't forgotten that he's important to you. If you just let me finish, you would know that I wanted to help you save Mick first. But now, good luck getting him by yourself. The soulless monster will go find Stein and possibly have to kill him," I snapped, my eyes flashing light blue and I feel myself growing colder.

I jump up into the duct and crawl through the duct, fuming. Finally, I stopped and punched the metal angrily. How could I have thought that they have changed? That someone could finally trust me to do the right thing? That I'm more than just a murderer. The metal under my hand started frosting over and I raise my hand startled.

"Alright, Isabelle breathe, forget any emotional attachments, breathe. You can't lose it now. Not over some stupid crush," I muttered to myself and I opened my eyes and the ice slightly faded. But my eyes didn't change. I guess that's better than nothing.

"Alright, Stein, where are you?" I muttered and heard movement underneath me.

"You mentioned the Quantum Splicer earlier, Professor. Your friends are counting on you to make the right decision," Dr. Vostok said as they walked underneath me.

"I have eyes on Stein," I said into the comms unit but noticed my voice had a slight echo to it. And it's not because of the air duct.

"The future is cementing. You must extract Stein before he enters the lab!" Rip ordered and I jumped down from the duct and ran through the hallways and killed the 2 guards at theback of the group with throwing knives.

"Kill her," Dr. Vostok yelled and another guard went to shoot me but I threw up a wall of ice instinctively to defend myself.

"Crap," I swear as I stab him in the throat at the same time Vostok and Stein went through a door. Never use the ice. Ever. What did I do? Use the freaking ice. Damn it.

"What's happening, Isabelle?" Rip asked through the comms unit.

"I couldn't rescue Stein," I said as the last guard continued to try and shoot me so I threw razor-sharp icicles at him. My voice has a hugely noticeable echo to it and my eyes are glowing a light blue with white flecks in them. My outfit (a black t-shirt underneath a black leather jacket and black pants, combat boots, and the rings of course) is now with streaks of white or completely white in some areas. This is really bad. Not even the Stein part is half as bad as this. I'm barely in control of myself.

"Have they moved him into the lab?" Rip asked.

"Yeah, where Savage has every guard in the gulag watching him," I explain.

"Well, if that's the case..." Rip said.

"I know what I have to do," I said. "Congrats Rip, on choosing the perfect candidate for the job. Especially when she can't even control herself." I stood up straight and I looked through the window and saw a large truck on top of a hill. Every step left solid ice on the floor. I smirked and grabbed my rifle from my back pocket and ran at full speed out of the buildingand over to the large truck.As I laid on my stomach and got in position, I saw Hawk-girl and Jax fly down into the courtyard.

"What the hell are they doing?" I growled. "What I should have done from the start... helping rescue Stein," Rip said

"What about the timeline?" I asked.

"I have a plan. Forget about the fail-safe," Rip said.

"Isn't it a little late for plan C?" I asked, watching the courtyard with my enhanced sighting. I should be relieved that Rip has called off the order but instead, I'm wishing for something to kill.

"Not if Jax can reach that circuit breaker," Rip explained.I watched as Jax made it across the field and turned off the power to the circuit breaker.I watched as the chaos started and all the guards and prisoners ran out to the field.

"There seems to be a riot going on, you might want to reconsider your orders," I heard Stein say and soon found him being accompanied by 2 guards, getting taken through the courtyard.

"Vostok knows Stein is the other half of Firestorm. She's trying to merge with him," I explained as Jax sees Stein on the other side of the yard.

"Rip, once Stein is inside the reactor, he will become Soviet Firestorm. Do you copy?" I asked, keeping my sight on him.

"I have the shot," I said.

"Isabelle, don't do it," Leonard yelled through the comms unit.

"I don't have a choice. It's the only way to save the future," I stated firmly.

"That is how a killer thinks, and you are not a killer. That's not you anymore," Leonard said and I slowly put down the gun and let Stein enter the reactor. I flicked my wrist and icicles struck the van. The force was so powerful, it tipped over the van.

"I'm proud of you," Leonard said softly but I ignored him and simply walked down the hill and over to Leonard and Jax. I didn't even spare Leonard a glance as I looked around at thechaos. Jax, in the meanwhile, is shocked at my new appearance.

"How's it going up there?" Rip asked but I ignored him.

"Isabelle, are you there?" Rip asked.

"Now you're on the comm? We need to get out of here," I stated as a Soviet Firestorm, aka, burning Vostok walked out of the reactor room.

"Oh, that isn't good," I muttered as both Leonard and I went to shoot her.

"Whoa! Don't shoot! Stein's in there!" Jax yelled.

"Lot of good it would do anyhow," I said.

"Man, screw this!" Jax yelled and started to move towards Firestorm.

"What are you doing?" Sara shouted over the comms.

"I'm getting Stein back," Jax said and Leonard looked at me but I didn't look at him.

"We'll cover you," Leonard said and we moved forward and started shooting/stabbing the guards who tried to stop Jax. I could sense Leonard's surprise at me throwing icicles instead of my normal throwing knives. Jax moved over to Firestorm only to be punched in the face. Leonard and I fell into a comfortable pattern of fighting back to back until we were torn apart by a giant blast that separatedStein and Vostok.

"Jefferson!" Stein yelled running over to Jax.

"You okay?" Stein asked.

"Yeah, you?" Jax asked.

"Yeah," Stein said as Leonard and I ran over to them.

"Not for long," I interrupt, looking over at Vostok who was glowing blue. Stein looked up and down at me

"I tried to warn her. Without the Splicer and myself, her nuclear powers are dangerously unstable. It appears Dr. Vostok is having a bit of a meltdown. It's fascinating," Stein said amazed. "Also, love the new look, Ms. Light." I facepalm.

"I think what he means to say is 'run'," I added as we ran from the Koshmar.

"Waiting just beyond the main gate," Rip said through our comms unit and we saw the ship fly in. We ran in and the ship took off just as Vostok exploded.

***

We were flying through the Temporal Zone and everyone was in the main room having shots of vodka. "Courtesy of Yuri the Bear," Mick said handing me a shot glass. I finally managed to calm down a little but my eyes weren't their normal violet and my hair and outfit haven't returned to normal. Did I forget to mention? My highlights are still platinum blonde and my beautiful brown, top of my head is blond. At least ice isn't following me everywhere I go.

"How did you even have time to steal this?" Kendra asked.

"There's always time to steal," Leonard said with a smirk and looked at me with a wink but I ignore him and hand Ray a shot.

"Thank you," He said and turned to Mick.

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

"You took a beating for me. We're even. End of story," Mick said simply.

"Well, thank you," Ray said.

"More drinking, less feeling," Mick said.

"A toast to the first time we haven't completely ruined the timeline," Stein said.

"Please tell me that's true, Gideon," Rip begged the AI.

"The projections of the future are back to normal," Gideon stated.

"I'll drink to that," Kendra said holding up her shot glass.

"To Rip. To things not going according to his plan," Leonard said smirking and looking at me, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"To the Captain," Stein added.

"To the Captain," We all chorused.

"All right," Jax said, going to take the shot.

"Hold on, Jefferson. You're not quite 21," Stein said.

"In 1986, the drinking age in Russia was 12, so..." Sara counted, winking at Jax.

"Well, perhaps we can let it slide this one time. After all, you were the hero today. You saved my life," Stein said as I took another shot and grab a bottle of vodka before walking off.

***

I sat on my bed, drinking from the bottle, wearing only my cargo pants and a bra.There was a knock on the door and I opened it to reveal Leonard, he looked down at what I was wearing and raised an eyebrow.

"What if someone else had knocked?" Leonard asked.

"Great for them," I retorted.

"May I come in?" Leonard asked softly and I leaned against the door frame with my arms crossed.

"I brought a peace offering," He added, holding up a new bottle of vodka. I looked at it and then my almost empty bottle in my hand. I sighed and down the rest of my bottle beforegrabbing the new bottle and motioning for Leonard to come inside as I closed the door. "Isabelle, before you say anything, I'm sorry for what I said back there, I never meant it." I sat down on my bed and rest my head on the wall. Leonard comes and sits down next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder. "You're not a soulless monster. You're an amazing, loving, spunky person that has some pretty sick but deadly powers that are truly amazing. You've shown that you can care for others and that there's more to you than meets the eye." Leonard says and I smile softly and rest my head on his shoulder. I can feel the violet in my eyes melt away the light blue and I watch my platinum blonde hair turn back into my normal blond highlights. The ice around my heart slowly disappeared again.

"If it wasn't for you I would have killed Stein, without hesitation. I just didn't have any control over myself," I explained, raising my head ashamed.

"Isabelle, that is not who you are anymore, you do not need to kill when some snap their fingers at you, you never have to be that person again," Leonard said. "So you lost control, it happens, and looks like that there are more reasons that you lost your control," Leonard said and I took a big swig of the vodka, not believing him.

"Isabelle," Leonard said sternly and pulled me to him. I looked up at him.

"I'm going to solve that riddle in you. Eventually," Leonard said softly and I laugh lightly. "Good luck! I haven't figured it out myself yet."

We walked back to the celebration to find it was just Jax and Stein talking, Rip talking to Gideon and Mick drinking by himself. Leonard walked over to Mick and I walked over to Rip.

"Stein doesn't know, does he? That I almost killed him?" I asked Rip.

"That I advised you to kill him," Rip corrected but I shook my head.

"The part of me, the part I can't control, urges me to kill. I'm dangerous. I wanted to kill Stein. It took all of my strength to not pull the trigger that very moment," I said with my head down.

"The fact that you didn't pull the trigger speaks volumes. You know, the safe move was to kill Martin with the Cold War hanging in the balance. I would like to think it was your humanitythat stayed your hand," Rip explained. 'I would like to think that too if I had any humanity to begin with. I had some help, if it wasn't for Leonard, I would have pulled that trigger," I said looking over at Leonard.Suddenly something shot at the ship, making us all fall over.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We have been stuck with an explosive projectile," Gideon explained.

"No kidding," Ray said coming back into the room with Sara right behind him.

"Everyone, get strapped in now!" Rip yelled as we all stumbled to a chair and pulled down the harness.

"We're in the Temporal Zone. I don't understand. No one should be able to..." Rip said before we were hit again.

"You were saying?" Leonard asked.

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

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

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

"Have we lost him?" Stein asked.

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

"Initiating evasive maneuvers," Rip said as the ship started spinning and moving.

"Ah! The Vodka was a bad choice," Ray muttered.

"Impact in 3,2,1. Sir, we've just been knocked out of the time stream," Gideon explained.

"What does that mean?" Kendra asked hysterically.

"It means we're crash-landing in place and time," Rip explained before the ship crashed into the ground.