Joker and two of his lackeys stepped into the room, the two goons immediately stepping in front of him to make sure Sara didn’t try anything. Joker may not have had much reverence for life, least of all his own, but he wasn’t stupid. He had things he needed to get done. Dying was not in the plan yet. “I need you to do what you’re good at, of course!”Â
One of the lackeys grabbed the knife Sara held tightly and tossed it behind him, “Watch it.” She threatened before gritting her teeth. Sara stayed back against the door, eyes never leaving Joker. “You send me the file and that’s it, that’s how it worked all those years. You don’t need to see me and I don’t need to see you.”
Sara had been on the run since November. At the beginnings of the enforced curfew, she got home late from a mission and was caught sneaking through the shadows. True to her own nature, Sara chose to run from the NOVA agents rather than attempt to smoothly talk her way out of it. Since that day, Sara Lance had been put on a wanted list and special agents were positioned to bring her in as soon as possible...
The last time she’d been in Star City was well over two weeks ago now. She dropped in to check on Dinah, catch up with Wally, and even pester Barry some for still kicking it on her boyfriend’s couch. Sara liked to think she’d remained pretty casual, considering she’d been put on a wanted list with a bounty for bringing her in. Dead or alive, Sara had no clue. Alive---- she imagined. They’d want to know how she seemingly just disappeared from existence whenever she damn well felt like it.
She was having quite a time back at her ratty apartment in London, 1980. Pizza, The Professionals playing on TV, and the faint hum of traffic on the busy streets below.Â
Being on the run wasn’t so bad when you had all of time to run to.
Just as the funky TV theme began to play, her phone rang. Not the old landline that came with the apartment--- but her cell phone. Which was odd considering her phone had special tech to reach through timelines, and the person calling her would’ve had to been given that tech as well. The only people who had it were her former teammates--- but the number wasn’t one she recognized.
Sara accepted the call and swallowed thickly before answering, “Yes?” her voice was hardly audible.
“SARA!” a voice screamed on the other line. “Sara! You have to come back! Please! They’re---- they’re--”
“Wally?” Her brows furrowed, panic rising in her chest as she heard him scream. “Wally!”Â
The line went dead and Sara immediately changed into the old Black Canary uniform she’d died in years ago. It was a lot stealthier in the night than her White Canary outfit. She grabbed her batons and started the Waverider up to go save Wally from whatever the hell was happening.
The Waverider landed in the empty parking lot of an abandoned mall, and as soon as Sara walked down the platform, she felt like she’d been shot in the leg.
Sara collapsed and slid down the platform all the way to the cold pavement, clutching her leg. There was no blood---- it was just electricity. A man dressed head to toe in black with a NOVA vest stood over her, ready to shoot again. “Where’s Wally?” Sara said with a groan, curling up in a ball as the pain started to diminish.
Once the tingling feeling left her leg, Sara slowly brought herself up, pausing for a moment before lunging at the guard who shocked her. His electric gun dropped and slid away from him as Sara pulled a knife to his throat, the rage evident in her eyes. Sara had been a cold blooded killer before, and she wouldn’t hesitate to bring it back out in order to protect herself. “Where the hell is Wally.” Sara threatened, glaring at the man through his helmet.
“Sara?” She heard Wally again, this time though, he sounded relieved.Â
“Wally?” Sara turned to look behind her, only to be met with the butt of a gun slamming into the back of her head, forcing her to topple over and off of the first agent. Another stood back, clicking through sound bites of Wally West’s manipulated voice on his device. The third agent who delivered the final blow picked Sara up and carried her before locking her up in the back of the NOVA truck.
The Waverider was left behind, completely open for anyone to wander aboard and to figure out exactly what Sara had been doing for the last two months.
Anyone now had access to time travel if they were nosey enough..
Wally and Sara had been keeping things casual, which was best for both of them. With Wally’s uncertain future (as in he was uncertain about how he was going to pay his rent next month) and Sara’s romps in the past, it was just easier for both of them to keep things lowkey and see each other when they could. Getting too serious too quickly was a mistake that Wally had made in the past but he had no intention of repeating that same mistake with Sara. He couldn’t bear the heartache.Â
And so, when he walked in, he wasn’t expecting to see Sara, but the surprise was welcome. He dropped his hood from on top of his head to drape around his shoulders as he kicked off his muddy sneakers next to the door. “And you are lucky that it’s just me and not Barry, too, tonight,” he teased right back, draping his raincoat on the back of a chair and easily walking up to her and leaning against the counter. “I missed you,” he said simply, a warm smile on his features.Â
Sara looked down at him with a smirk, legs daintily wrapping around his waist as he stepped up to her. “Please, I’d do this even if Barry were right there on the couch. I have no shame and neither should you.” Sara nodded, setting down the bottle of alcohol and pushing Wally’s hair out of his face. “I missed you too, Speedy.” Sara’s nose wrinkled as she teased him, poking playfully at his lips while gazing down at him.Â
“Is Barry coming back tonight?” Her head tilted before she glanced back at the door then back down at Wally. “Because we might have plans that require this apartment to have an occupancy of two tonight.” Sara whispered as she leaned in to kiss Wally deeply, hands holding the sides of his face tightly as she pulled him closer to her.
Joker grinned against the door. “Now, girly, you can’t expect me to talk to a closed door,” he said. Joker knocked jauntily against the door with two gloved knuckles. “Open up!” he sang out, the light tone unnerving in his voice, making it impossible to take the seemingly nonthreatening behavior lightly.Â
Sara opened up, knife hidden in the sleeve of her sweater as she looked at him blankly. “Get in.” she kept her voice even, stepping aside to let him in and away from anyone passing by out in the halls. Once Joker was inside, Sara locked her door and leaned back against it, facing him. “How can I help you?”
Michael could only laugh when he saw Sara and gave her some pretty sweet finger guns. Of course, they weren’t his best, but he hoped they’d do. At her observation, he had to wave her off with a dismissive hand. Honestly, he didn’t want to talk about it, not when he and Ted have mostly gotten over it. It was hard grieving for someone when they were still alive. “Nah, it’s not Teddy.” Liar. “It’s all this NOVA crap. Just, everything, I guess. How’ve you been?” He asked as he grabbed his drink and wandered around the dining area. He was too antsy to sit. Maybe the booze would help.
“I know that feeling.” Sara nodded, letting out a long sigh. NOVA was the reason she was stuck on the Waverider. Sure she had all of time to go find a place and hide, but she wasn’t sure how long it’d last. She was getting lonely and when Sara got only, it only made for impulsive decisions. “Shitty. I haven’t seen my boyfriend in a whole month because of those dickwads. It’s ridiculous. I didn’t come in by curfew when my dad was a police officer, did they really think I’d come in because of a few more asswipes on the streets?”
Barry looked up at the voice that called his name, but a smirk curled its way onto his face, seizing control of his lips. “Sara Lance… haven’t you in ages. “He said and hopped to his feet, “Come on, hug time.” He laughed as he opened his arms and moved to embrace her. “How have you been?”
“Oh, come on.” Sara groaned, though she easily wrapped her arms tightly around Barry to hug him. She thought of him as a big brother, though she had yet to figure out that Barry was crashing on Wally’s couch. Sara hadn’t exactly lived with Wally before she went on the run, but she did live in the apartment next door and just wound up at his place more often. “Considering I just came back from Woodstock? Great.” She put up a peace sign and smirked.
The last couple of months had been a blur. At some point there was a party… maybe there had been more than one. Her memories were starting to blur together. All the faces in her life looked the same, except the ones the mattered. Except the ones who disappeared and then reappeared when it suited them to. She tried not to feel excited when Sara showed up unannounced. She wanted to punish her, maybe give her the silent treatment, but the effect was short lived.Â
With a sigh, she let her foot fall off the side of the couch and nudged Sara’s knee. “Where have you been?“ It was one thing to have the support of the League, but she needed her sister, needed her there, even though she hadn’t said it. “You weren’t there for the caroling. I got drunk and mixed up the words. Dad’s still mad at me, but probably madder at you for ghosting.”Â
Sara held up the t-shirt, grinning before her nose wrinkled at her sister’s words. “You really think he’s more mad at me for not showing? If I showed, so would the entirety of NOVA,” her eyes rolled. She luckily hadn’t been caught just yet, but Sara had no clue when this was all going to end--- she could be on the run forever. “Curfew didn’t work on me with a police officer for a dad, did they really think it’d work with a bunch of douche bags hanging around at night?” She scoffed.
“Uh-- here and there. The 70′s mostly, music was much better.” She tried to laugh to lighten up the mood. “You should come with me!” Sara offered. “Honestly, I’ve been so lonely on my own, you could come and we can go anywhere. I can hook you up with Jimmy Page?” She nudged Dinah playfully.Â
Sara was visiting Dinah that night and as she left her sister’s apartment building, she got caught briefly by some NOVA officers. She ended up making a mad dash away from the block and back for her ship. On her way, Sara ended up knocking into another girl, causing them both to collapse to the ground. Sara scrambled up onto her feet and looked down at the girl, “You need to get up and move--- now.” Sara warned, glancing back at the agents on her trail.
“Hi, Mikey.” Sara grinned as Michael boarded the Waverider. The Legends worked with Booster Gold on a few missions to save the time line, and Sara liked to think of him as part of the team too. With everyone else taking time away from the team, Sara was alone and decided to call upon her friend for a drink on the ship. “Why do you look so down for?” She pouted as she poured drinks for the two of them and took a seat at the table in the dining area. “Don’t tell me Teddy’s being nasty again, or I will kick those glasses off his face.”
Sara had been hiding throughout time for the last three months due to already being on NOVA’s wanted list. It was very fitting for Sara to have been one of the first ones caught breaking the rules, but she had to keep the Waverider tech out of NOVA’s hands. Occasionally though, she stopped by to check on her friends and family. Sara was keeping a low profile as she popped into a bar, smirk lifting at her lips as she saw a familiar face sitting on his own. “Barry Allen, it’s been a while, friend.” she smiled.
Sara waltzed effortlessly into Dinah’s place, thanks to her spare key, and let out a long groan. “Geez, you miss one Christmas because you’re on the run from a special task force and dad really puts you through the wringer.” She shook her head before collapsing on Dinah’s couch. It’d been weeks since she’d payed Dinah a visit, and now she was acting as if this were just some mindless catch up.
“Guess what I brought you!” Sara’s expression changed into a bright smile as she pulled out a Christmas package, inside a very authentic Led Zeppelin tee. “I saw them the other night--- January 1970 at the Royal Albert Hall.” she nodded with a smirk. “I still can’t hear, but who the hell cares!”
Sara had gotten in trouble with NOVA agents practically the first night they were put out on patrol. When she got back from a gig in the 60′s, she hadn’t noticed she’d gotten back after the new curfew. And of course, when checked out, they found Sara’s far less than perfect record and she booked it. Booked it all the way back to a college campus in the 90′s. Sara couldn’t let NOVA get their hands on the Waverider, she didn’t want to know what they’d do with time travelling tech--- but she couldn’t stay away from Wally.
So one random night a week, Sara would stop in Wally’s apartment and hang around until the inevitable siren rolled by and she had to book it. That night, Sara was left alone in Wally’s place with a bottle of liquor for a little too long until he finally came home. “Hey there, hot stuff.” Sara said with a drunken grin, pointing finger guns at him with a giggle. “You,” she paused to think as she was sat up on the counter, legs crossed daintily, “are very late.” Sara pouted.
