[Chapter 29]

"This isn't my element," Snart complains from where he stood next to a fire truck with Rip and Mick, alldisguised as firefighters.

"It's mine," Mick replies to his partner pulling out a rolled-up hose from the truck.

"Just keep a weather eye open for the Pilgrim.Gideon calculates a 97% chance that she will attack your younger self in this exact time and place." Rip informs Mick.

"Roll it," Mick told Rip passing him the hose. Rip walks toward the house doing what the Arsonist has instructed, keeping an eye out for Rory's younger self or the Pilgrim.

"Young Rory's not in there." Sara coughed running out of the house a rag covering her mouth.

"But we found his parents. They're dead." Jax said over the coms breathing hard. He came out of the house just after Sara.

"Then where the hell is he?" I shout into the comms.

I whip my head around, looking everywhere for mini-Mick. I almost missed it. For a fraction of a second, I saw a reflection of the fire in the field surrounding Mick house. And that's when I saw her.

"Ray, on the edge of the field, northwest!" I yell.

I see a bright blast hit the Pilgrim and I heard Ray over the comms.

"Come with me if you want to live. I always wanted to say that." I could practically hear Ray grinning.

I roll my eyes and move back to the ship.

***

Kendra, Sara, and I were sparring in an open room to let off a little tension on our shoulders.

"You both seem calm," Kendra said, before going to attack Sara.

"What, you mean considering a temporal bounty hunter is trying to murder our younger selves?" I reply and I let them two spar instead of jumping in.

"I was going to put it a little more delicately than that, but yeah," Kendra replies, and they both pause.

"I think at some point, you just learn to live with a sword over your head," Sara says.

Sara twirls her baton and they continue sparring. But then Sara leaves her back open a Kendra hits her with her baton. I smile.

"Either you're getting better or I'm getting lazy," Sara smiles and Kendra breathlessly lets out a laugh.

"So it seems like you decided to ignore the advice from Old West you about not being with Ray," I say to Kendra.

"Ignoring her advice about Ray was your advice, remember?" Kendra recalls and I smile.

"Don't listen to my advice," I laugh.

"So did you tell him what she said?" Sara asks, grabbing her water bottle. Yeah, we caught her up with what happened in the Old West when we went to go find Granny Kendra.

"Oh, sure. 'Hey Ray, by the way, the woman I met in 1871 was me. And she told me our love was doomed to fail because your not Carter," Kendra said sarcastically.

"So that was a no?" I ask, stealing Sara's bottle from her and drinking some.

"Look, Ray and I are happy together. We should be able to enjoy that before I have to go and drop the whole doomed-love-affair thing over his head," Kendra replies and Sara steals her water bottle back from me.

"Yeah, I mean, who wants a relationship based on honesty and communication? Ugh." Sara gags and I laugh.

"Believe me. A relationship based on an ancient Egyptian curse doesn't work much better," Kendra replies.

That when I take my chance and whip my pole towards Kendra. She blocks it with hers and we three continue sparring.

"Ms. Lance, it seems that the Pilgrim is heading after you next. We are headed to Starling City, 2007," Gideon says.

"Well, I'd better go suit up," Sara says.

"You want us to come with you?" I ask her.

"Nah, Rory and I got this, you both keep training," Sara replies, walking down the hall.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna go take a break..." Kendra says.

"And suck faces with Ray?" I finish for her and laugh as she punches me in the shoulder.

"Please, like you haven't been doing the same with Snart," Kendra replies and I widen my eyes at her, curious how she knew.

"It was written all over your face this morning. It was obvious," Kendra smiles and I blush.

"Fine go have fun. Just not too much fun," I wink at her.

"Use protection," Kendra winks right back and I gasp. I could hear her laughing down the hallway.

"Protection from what?" Leonard asks, appearing in front of me.

"Oh my God, you heard us?" I ask, my face turning a little red.

"Just a little," Leonard laughs and kisses me.

We kiss softly at first, but it grows more passionate by the second.

I break away from Leonard, smiling brightly.

"Not in the hallway. Someone can see us," I scold Leonard.

"What? Are we a secret?" Leonard wraps his arms around me.

"No, we're not a secret. It's just, now is probably not a good time because we are being hunted by a time assassin and could die any second," I say, pulling out of his embrace but hold his hand.

"All the more reason to do it," Leonard says and I glare at him.

"Can we please wait until this all blows over?" I ask him.

"Fine," Leonard replies and pecks my lips. "That is unless you haven't given it away yet."

"Hey, I'm sorry I'm glowing. I'm happy. Happier than I've been in a long time," I smile.

"Well I'm glad," Leonard smiles back at me and I pull him in for another deep kiss.

"Okay, you should go to the bridge and I am going to change out of these sweaty clothes," I say and lightly push Leonard in the direction of the bridge.

He kisses my hand and then lets me go to my room to change.

***

I walk onto the bridge just in time with Sara.

"I put her in the cargo bay with mini-you, told them both to stay put," Sara said to Mick. "The less they know what's going on, the better."

"You sure you want to leave daddy's little girl with that punk?" Mick asks Sara.

"Even before the League of Assassins, I knew how to handle guys like you," Sara replies. I lean against the console, looking at the screen with Kendra, Ray, and Rip.

"Has Gideon figured out the Pilgrim's next target yet?" Jax asks us.

"That's peculiar," Rip replies ominously.

"Peculiar or bad?" Kendra asks.

"Gideon, run another scan for the whereabouts of the Pilgrim," Rip ignores Kendra.

"I'm sorry sir. The timeline shows no temporal distortions," Gideon replies. "I seem to be unable to track the Pilgrim."

"That doesn't sound good," Ray says, stating the obvious as he always does.

"No, it's quite the opposite. Without a way to track the whereabouts of the Pilgrim, she can target any one of you at any point in time," Rip said dramatically.

"Gideon was tracking the Pilgrim's temporal wake. I didn't think this was possible to conceal one's movements through time." Stein said, fascinated.

"Well, it is if the Time Masters are on your side," Rip said, pinching his nose.

"How does this all work?" Ray asks. "If she can travel to any place at any time, she could be killing any one of us right now."

"And if we die in the past--" Stein starts.

"We die in the present." Rip finishes for him.

"Wow. So interesting. How long does it take for what happens in the past to affect the present?" Ray asks another question. "Could I be dead right now and not know it? Maybe I am dead right now. Hello? Can anybody hear me?"

"No," Leonard replies and I smile for a split second. Kendra catches me and winks. I look at Sara and notice she's giving both Kendra and me a curious look.

"Look, the important thing is not to panic," Rip says to us.

"Somebody's playing Russian roulette with our younger selves. Why would we panic?" Jax questions sarcastically.

"Well, there are a few exceptions. Kendra's ability to reincarnate means that it would do the Pilgrim no good to target her. And as a former Time Master, to remove me from history would be quite dangerous to the timeline," Rip explains.

"Well that's convenient," Leonard mumbles.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Rip asks Leonard.

"Nothing. It just occurs to me you've never told us about your past, Rip. And I don't trust a man with secrets," Leonard replies.

"Look, the less information you have to offer on me, the less valuable you are to our now numerous enemies," Rip explains.

"Like I said, convenient," Leonard glares at Rip.

"Are they fighting?" Sara asks.

"This is not a fight. It's merely an exchange of ideas," Rip denies.

"No, not you. Them," Sara points to the screen that shows mini-Mick and mini-Sara. We watch them argue for a second before mini-Sara slaps mini-Mick across the face.

"Ha," Mick laughs and Sara storms off to go break up the minis.

"Meeting adjourned," Rip waves us off. "And if there's anything you feel is wrong, you tell Gideon, and pray it's not too late."