Deserey sat in the cargo bay, watching Ray fiddle with the Atom suit and the criminals play with their weapons. Sara stood in the back corner, sharpening her knives.

No one said anything; the room was filled with border line awkward silence as everyone just continued mindlessly staring at the four walls. 

The five only started to speak, when a blue beam shot from the arm of Ray's suit. The beam hit the wall, narrowly missing Mick, who was sitting on one of the random crates. 

"Watch it!" the arsonist growled. 

"Sorry!" Ray sighed. "Sorry..." He looked around, meeting everyone's eyes.

After a moment, he said, "What's the point in us even giving it a second thought? Rip has already seen the future."

Deserey looked up from where she was sitting, glancing at the scientist, disinterested. She got the feeling this would be the first (and probably last) time she'd ever hear him say anything negative.

"He knows exactly what's in store for each of us," Ray muttered. "Might as well have stayed dead."

Deserey guessed she wasn't supposed to hear that last part. She had no idea what he meant by that.

"Cause the world doesn't need any of us," Ray went on. He glanced at Sara for a moment. "You're just a lost assassin." He nodded at Heat Wave and Captain Cold. "You're just a pair of good for nothing criminals."

"I can live with that," Mick grunted.

"Well I can't," Ray said sadly. "I can't live with someone putting a cap on my destiny. I spent my whole life working to be something greater by becoming something smaller...Then, some guy comes along and tells me that being the Atom is as insignificant as an actual atom."

Deserey snorted, and all the attention fell on her. "At least you've actually done something with your life," she muttered bitterly. "Me? I haven't bothered to do anything. I can't do anything. I always screw it up somehow. I can't get my friends to stick around. My husband left me, because I can't even make myself feel happy around my family.

"I dropped out of college. I can't keep a job. Then, two years ago this...machine blows up and I get these powers, and I don't even know how to use them, because I haven't bothered to learn how."

She gestured around the room. "At least you all have the super hero thing...or -" she glanced at the crooks, "- villain in your case."

Deserey shrugged hopelessly. "My ex husband told me to come here to fix my issues...I should have known it wouldn't work. I'm useless now. I'm useless in the future...We're all just a bunch of useless nobodies."

Sara shook her head. She stood up, looking back and forth between Deserey and Ray. "That's not what he said," she said, referring to Rip. "He said in his future we're nobodies...but this mission is about changing the future."

She shrugged. "I mean, we have the power to change the world, don't you think we have the power to change our own fate?"

"For better or for worse," Leonard added. Deserey still wasn't sure why either of the crooks cared, but they seemed to be listening to the assassin's speech too.

"That's a very good point," Ray nodded. He seemed to be feeling a lot better about things now, but Deserey wasn't convinced yet.

"That speech is very uplifting and all," she said, "but how are a bunch of nobodies suppose to save the world? How are we going to change the future when we obviously don't matter very much?"

Sara hesitated, unsure of how to answer her pessimistic ramblings. "We'll figure it out," she said after a moment. "Eventually. But we're not going to change anything by just sitting around in the cargo bay whining to each other. If anything's going to happen, we're going to have to make it happen ourselves. This isn't some fairy tale land.

"There's no magical god parents to bippity poppity boo our blues away. Maybe we don't know how to change it right now, but we will. Because we might be losers today, but tomorrow we will be legends."

Deserey rolled her eyes. "Okay, Barbie, you made your point..."

Sara raised an eyebrow at her. "Barbie?" she questioned.

Deserey nodded. "Yeah. You know, because you've got the blonde hair and the blue eyes and fair skin..."

Sara snorted. "Well, I'll have you know that I decapitated all of my Barbies when I was a kid."

Deserey laughed. For a moment she allowed herself to think that they might become good friends. That they could really be part of this...team. And maybe, just maybe, things would actually get better.

Ray jumped up, gasping like a kid who just spotted a new toy they so desperately wanted. "You need a code name! And a suit!" he added excitedly.

"Sorry?" Deserey stared at him, taken aback.

Sara nodded slowly, like she was coming to the same conclusion. "Oh yeah. He's right," she said. "Everyone else has one."

"Well," Deserey shrugged. "I wouldn't want to feel left out." She glanced around, as the others came into the room too. "Well, who named all of you?"

"Cisco Ramon," most of the team chorused. Deserey wasn't sure how the hawks, Professor, or Jax knew what she was talking about. She guessed they must have heard her and the others talking from down the hall.

Deserey nodded. "Can I have him give me a codename then?"

"I'm sure he'd be willing to, but I'm not sure you can convince Rip to go back to twenty-sixteen unless we're staying there," Jax shrugged.

He looked a lot less grumpy. Like all of a sudden he actually wanted to be here. Something must have happened during that fight with Chronos to change his mind. Deserey guessed it must have had something to do with the team.

Jax had an athletic build; he was obviously a sporty guy. Naturally, he enjoyed being on a team, so it wasn't really all that surprising that he'd come around. (Not that Deserey could blame him. It was sort of nice to know that there was someone out there watching your back, even if you had just met them the night before.)

"Well, it's the least he could do, after he lied to us," Deserey reasoned.

"And if he doesn't, Kendra and I can just hit him again," Sara nodded.

"Do it," Leonard said. Kendra rolled her eyes. So, the thief felt it necessary to keep pushing the idea. "Do it. Do it. Do it."

"Alright," Sara huffed. "Don't make me hit you too!"

"You can't. I have a body guard," Leonard said, gesturing at his partner in crime.

Sara glanced at the arsonist, unimpressed. "I can take him."

"Sure you can."

The two eyed each other, squinting. Deserey couldn't tell if they were challenging one another or if it was some strange crook/assassin flirty thing, but apparently Mick thought the latter because he said,

"Do you two need the room or are you planning on screwing in front of the rest of us?"

Deserey and Kendra burst into laugher; Jax and Carter smirked. Ray and the Professor spluttered awkwardly, shocked. (Though Deserey wasn't sure why. Mick was obviously a very blunt guy.)

Sara glared at the arsonist and rolled her eyes. "No one's screwing anyone. Now, let's go find our captain."

{~}

The team walked back into the bridge to hear Rip chatting with Gideon. He was still working on the wiring in the walls of the ship; it didn't look as though he had moved since the last time they'd been in the room.

A spark jumped out at the captain, and he had to take a step back for a moment. Rip sighed. "What do you think Gideon?"

"I calculate a less than six percent likelihood that they decide to go on with the mission," the AI responded.

Sara smirked at Deserey, as they stood in the doorway. "There. See? We're already beating the odds."

"I meant about the repairs..." Rip grumbled. He clearly hadn't noticed his team standing back and watching him yet.

"And," Gideon added. "There has been another unfortunate consequence of Chronos's attack. Care to hear about it?"

Rip sighed again. "Not really..."

Kendra looked down at her shoes. Carter put his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She stepped into the room, speaking to Rip. "He's gone."

The captain turned, finally noticing the team had returned. He frowned at Kendra's words, confused for a moment.

"Our son," Hawkgirl clarified. "Or... Our son from our previous life...It's all too confusing..."

Carter nodded in agreement with her, but he didn't say anything. Not just yet. Rip stepped away from the wall, cautiously moving towards them.

"I'm very sorry," he said, and he sounded like he meant it.

Kendra shrugged. "Actually," she said. "You don't get the blame for this. This was my fault. If I hadn't insisted on bringing him back here, he might have died peacefully, in his sleep maybe."

"Don't torture yourself with recriminations," Rip told her. "One of the greatest lessons of time travel is that many things cannot be changed. Time wants to happen. Chronos, even Vandal, won't be the only enemy we face. Very often it will be time itself."

Deserey folded her arms over her chest, as she stepped into the room. "Well, time can kiss my ass."

Ray nodded. He moved the the console at the center of the room and spoke, putting her words in a much less crude manner.

"Whether it wants to happen or not, we're gonna change time, erase Savage's future, and earn our rightful place in history."

The rest of the team followed Ray into the room, gathering around the bridge as though they had already done it a million times.

"Dr. Palmer is correct," Stein said. "We may not be legends in your time, captain, but we are going to decide our own fates."

Rip nodded, looking relieved to hear these words. Carter stepped forward next, putting his two sense in.

"I don't give a damn about being a legend," he said, "as long as we end Savage once and for all."

"I can get down with that," Jax said.

"And our malcontents?" Stein asked, looking at Leonard and Mick.

The arsonist shrugged. "I like killing people."

"We're in," Leonard said. "For now."

Sara raised an eye brow. "Is that you actually being in or you saying your in so you can rob people through out the time line?"

"Why can't it be both?" Leonard wondered.

The assassin rolled her eyes. She turned back to Rip. "So, how do we find this guy?"

Rip moved over to the captain's chair. "Professor Boardman had a theory about that," he said. "I've already had Gideon plot a course."

Deserey shook her head. "No you haven't. We have to go home first."

Rip made a face. "Why is that?"

"Dez, needs a suit and codename," Ray said.

Rip blinked. He looked around the room, as if questioning whether or not the two were joking.

Deserey glanced at Ray for a moment, before turning back to the captain. It was the second time he'd called her that since they started this thing.

Usually she only let her friends call her that, but she didn't bother to correct him. (Besides, if you couldn't be friends with your team, who could you be friends with?)

"And we've all already decided on this," Sara added. "So, don't try to fight us about it."

"...Fine," Rip sighed. "But make it quick."

He told Gideon to reroute back to 2016, and everyone strapped in, smiling to themselves.

Deserey felt giddy for the first time in a long time. She was ready to take on the world, and she knew these people would stand by her the whole way.

And in that moment, she didn't care about the past. She didn't care about the future. She was completely, utterly in the present. And it was okay.