This idea hit me a long time ago, and I didn't get a chance to write it down until I had my spring break. I'm finally going to post this in two parts, which I hope to have uploaded before Aruba airs. I haven't yet seen Doomworld, but what I heard out of it has me feeling Destiny all over again. If anyone is familiar with my other fic, Immortality, this can be seen as sort of prequel to it- something I realized as I was finishing it up.

Set in a post S2 AU because given me, I align with canon in a blue moon.

A time storm had been what they were calling it. Temporal energies that had been thrown into a chaotic mess by something- a change in destiny, an unexpected outcome, a severe time aberration. Unless the catalyst of the event was dealt with, a time storm could gradually expand out of the temporal zone until it pushed into time and history itself to create a destructive event in order to neutralize itself. According to Mick and Rip, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been the results of a time storm that hadn't been contained in time.

Now, the Waverider had come across a large one. They had been prepared to extinguish the threat until Gideon detected signs of life within it. Sara had stopped the planned destruction and directed the attention towards the center of the storm, the catalyst of the madness. Suspended in the temporal zone, surrounded by thick bands of chaotic time energy, was Leonard Snart. The very same Leonard Snart who had given his life up at the Oculus. His sacrifice had been the event to create it, since Ray was the one who was supposed to die there. With the knowledge that their formerly dead teammate was at the eye of the storm, wiping him out was no longer an option.

"There may be another way!" Rip had shouted over Mick and Stein's heated argument of what to do regarding Snart. "But it has risks."

"Keep talking," Sara said, leaning against the center console. Jax mirrored her action.

"We could position the Waverider as close as possible to the eye of the storm and Mr. Snart," the former captain explained. "Someone can then drop down and retrieve him from the time storm. Removing him would cause the storm to be neutralized, and for him to escape it."

"No source, no power," Jax reasoned.

"Precisely," Rip nodded. "As I said though, it has risks."

"Yeah, the temporal zone suck when you're in it without a time storm," Ray said offhandedly.

Rip fixed him with a questioning look before continuing the conversation. "There's going to be an immense amount of temporal energy circulating Mr. Snart. Get too wrapped up in it, and the consequences could have severe side effects. Are there any volunteers who wish to be bold and retrieve him?"

Mick, Sara, and Amaya all claimed the position at the same time. When they realized what had happened, three looks of determined stubbornness were exchanged.

"He's my best friend," Mick declared firmly.

Sara crossed her arms. "I was the last one to see him alive. I should have taken his place and had him get you out of there."

"You know he'd have never let that happen, Blondie."

"Then maybe I should have knocked him out. You were awake not long after we got off that platform, you could have made the hard call and taken him."

"Enough!" Amaya yelled, silencing the quarrel. "I'm going."

"Why?" Mick frowned. "You never even knew Snart, not really."

"But all of you knew of him, or at least heard of him," she replied. "I have no knowledge about this man, or an emotional attachment like you two."

She directed that at Sara and Mick before turning to Rip. "I'll know when to turn back if I have to. I can do this."

Rip nodded. "Any objections to Ms. Jiwe going to rescue Mr. Snart?"

No one said anything, although Mick looked like he really wanted to say something.

"Then it's settled," Rip said as he made towards the captain's chair. "Prep Ms. Jiwe for the mission. I'll get us into position."

It took a while for Amaya to get ready to enter the temporal zone and the time storm. The other members of the team all chipped in to prepare her. Sara offered to take Amaya's place as she helped the other woman into a suit Ray and Stein had gotten Gideon to manufacture to protect her from the temporal zone, but Amaya shut the idea down. She could tell that Sara felt something for the man who was trapped within the storm. Her judgement, as well as Mick's, would be clouded if things went sour in the rescue.

"Remember to be careful with the extraction," Rip reminded Amaya once she was down in the cargo bay with everyone. "Exposing him to the storm itself outside the eye could increase the power and create a catastrophic event in the timeline."

"That's not going to happen," she promised.

"Don't take too long in there," Ray added. "The suit can only remain stable in the conditions out there for a limited amount of time."

"There won't be a problem. I can do this."

Sara smiled. "Then let's get Leonard back."

Everyone got into their positions. Before the doors were opened, Amaya pulled off the helmet to the suit. "One last thing."

She walked over to Mick and kissed him.

"What was that for?" he asked, looking a bit stunned, but not unhappy.

"If I don't make it back, I don't want to die thinking of the things I didn't do," she answered.

Behind her, Sara inhaled sharply. Amaya looked at her quickly, then back to Mick. "But hopefully, to be continued."

Mick nodded. "You'll come back. Otherwise I'm coming after both a' you."

She smiled and replaced the helmet, walking back to the closed cargo bay doors. "Now I'm ready."

"Good luck, Ms. Jiwe," Rip said. "Everyone, hold on."

He pressed his hand to the panel against the doors. Amaya took a deep breath as the chaotic green swirls of the temporal zone and the time storm greeted her. Activating the propulsion system of the suit, she made her way out into the territory. She could see the swirls of time energy, and the small space in the center where a man in a blue jacket was hovering. Amaya adjusted herself so she was moving directly towards him. A tear formed in her glove along the journey, right along her index finger towards the thumb. Neverless, she persisted.

As she got closer to Snart, she sighed in relief, feeling confident that things were going to resolve just fine. Even though he seemed to be frozen in place, Gideon had detected life signs. Still, the expression on Snart's face was troubling, as he looked like he was being tormented. Perhaps the explosion that had sent him here injured him, although there were no external injuries visible. They could be internal though, but Amaya would have to get him back to the Waverider and Gideon to see if that was the case.

Reaching forward, Amaya grabbed Snart by the one hand he had outstretched. She didn't realize that she had grasped him with the hand that was covered with the torn glove. Her skin made contact with that of his hand. It felt cold as ice before it almost instantly becoming burning hot. Amaya gritted her teeth as the feeling of something akin to the power she felt in her totem slam into her, but she did not let go of Snart. She simply took a few deep breaths before pulling him up and out of the eye of the storm.

The whirling temporal energy dissipated the more she extracted him, and it had nearly all vanished by the time his entire body was freed from the eye. Once he was out, she began to fly back toward the Waverider. While she had been struggling to get towards him on the first trip, the return journey was a breeze. Oddly enough, she felt stronger, and she hadn't even used her totem. Maybe it had been the storm hindering her the first time, or she was just in the right direction of the energy on her way back?

As soon as she reached the Waverider, she let herself back into the cargo bay. Once inside, Amaya set Snart on the ground as Nate closed the doors behind her. The man's frozen muscles went limp and lax in a sprawl on the floor once the Waverider was sealed again. Sara immediately rushed toward the rescued man with Mick, checking to see if he was okay. Amaya stood up slowly as a splitting headache suddenly attacked her. The world began to blur as numerous voices, none of them belonging to the team, started shouting all at once in various languages. She couldn't decipher what they were saying until she started one calling her name. They faded away, and her vision straightened out for her to make out Mick helping her upright. It took a second for Amaya to realize she had almost fallen face first on the floor.

"You okay?" he asked. "Nothing happened out there?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm fine. Snart needs to see Gideon."

"She's right," Sara called out. "He's barely got a pulse."

Amaya nodded to Mick. He moved away from her to assist Sara to getting Snart up to the med bay. Once they were gone, the other team members congratulated her on the successful rescue. As they all moved to follow Mick and Sara to the med bay, Amaya fell to the back. The splitting headache had died down to a throbbing ache, and hopefully it would go away soon.

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty."

Leonard turned to the right to see Sara sitting upright on one of the beds in the med bay. Mick and the rest of the team surrounded her. There were two people among them who he didn't recognize. But none of it made sense. He was supposed to be in bits of atoms, to have gone up with the Oculus. Yet he still felt alive. His muscles felt sore, but aside from that, he was fine.

"Ow," he croaked, his throat dry.

Sara shook her head. Mick and Ray both smiled. Rip didn't look fazed, as if he had expected nothing less from him. "Welcome back, Mr. Snart."

"I should be dead," he muttered. "The Oculus…"

"Didn't kill you," Mick finished. "Your stubborn ass got sucked into the temporal zone, except it was supposed to be Haircut going there."

"What?"

The others explained the phenomena of time storms to him while the new guy, Nate, passed him a glass of water. Apparently, he'd nearly caused destruction to occur within reality because he had been holding down the failsafe when the Oculus blew. They didn't know how much time had passed for him, and Leonard didn't either given his last memory was the blast going off at the Oculus. For the team, it had been a year. They had assumed he was dead until the Waverider had encountered the time storm and discovered him at the eye of it.

"So how'd I get out?" he asked once they got to that part.

Mick pointed to the new woman who was next to him. "Amaya. She's the one who saved you."

"We configured a suit after she insisted on going to save you," Ray explained. "She flew out and pulled you out of the eye of the storm before getting you back here."

"Why?" Leonard asked, looking at Amaya. "We don't even know each other."

"That's why," she shrugged. "Mick and Sara both wanted to go, but I told them someone who didn't know you would be better. If things went wrong, I wouldn't have been emotionally compromised."

A tactical approach. Leonard nodded, impressed. "Guess I owe you a thank you."

"Welcome back," Amaya smirked.

After she said this, a grimace set on her face and she shuddered. Leonard noticed her place a hand to her temple. To his surprise, Mick was the one who looked at over at her with concern. "Amaya?"

"I'm going to go lie down," she said, excusing herself as she left the room quickly.

Mick was now frowning in the direction she had left. Leonard made a mental note to ask him about her later.

Sara broke the silence that had descended onto the med bay. "So, want to hear what you've missed?"

"Anything interesting?"

Ray grinned. "Oh, you have no idea. Sara, you should tell him about the twenties and Capone."

Leonard raised his eyebrows. "You met Al Capone?"

"If you'd been there, you'd have probably stolen his wallet," Sara teased.

"That all you see me as, assassin? A pickpocket?"

"So you wouldn't have stolen it?"

"I never said that."

End of Part 1. Part 2 will have some more Foxfire moments, and angst.

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