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3…2…1…0
She’s been on edge all day, knowing that today is the day that she finally, finally meets her soulmate. But by the time her timer actually hits that fateful zero, there is no denying it: her soulmate is a loser. Her timer hits zero, and Ava Sharpe has a gun pointed at her so-called soulmate, Sara Lance.
The fates sure have a funny sense of humor.
Ava remembers being little and her parents explaining what a soulmate timer was. How it meant there was someone out there for her. Of course, Ava was one of the lucky ones, at least she had a timer. She had heard rumors that there were some with blank wrists – no one out there for them at all. Her parents explained the joy they had felt upon finding each other, their other halves. And Ava wants that, she does.
It’s just that she starts to notice that unlike Rosa or Theresa in her third grade class, she doesn’t care about the boys. She would much rather braid Samantha’s hair, or talk to Marissa over Danny any day. She just doesn’t find boys worth giggling over like the rest of the girls in her class seem to think as they compare timers and see who’s closest to meeting their match. (There’s only one pair that met in kindergarten, but Tommy is set to find his soulmate by the end of sixth grade from the looks of it.) Ava is suddenly scared about what it means if she’s stuck with a stupid boy for the rest of her life. She doesn’t want that, she doesn’t. It’s not until she sees a nice pair of ladies at the shopping mall, their zeroed hands clasped together that Ava thinks she might still have a chance.
When she’s nine she tells her parents: “I like girls.”
“That’s nice sweetie,” her mom responds as she looks through coupons in the magazine.
“No,” Ava sighs, “I mean I like girls like how you and Daddy like each other.”
Her parents share a look at that and her father calls her over to sit by him, his voice gentle as he tries to explain, “You’re still young. You don’t know if that’s what you want. Just wait until you meet your soulmate. Then things will make sense.”
“My soulmate is going to be a girl because I like girls!” Ava argues.
“Ava!” her mother scolds her, “Don’t say things like that! It’s not right. Put those thoughts out of your mind, we can only hope you have your head on straight by the time you meet your soulmate – who will be a boy.”
Her father gives her mother a look which seems to say he doesn’t quite agree with her, or at least her tone. But that’s that. For the next few years Ava learns to hide her emotions. To not think about the butterflies in her stomach whenever Samantha stands too close. To not think about the annoyance when Marissa says yes to Danny for a date – it’s not like it would last anyways! They’re not soulmates, so what’s the point?
Then she’s seventeen and her dad dies in an accident, and Ava’s mother is a mess. She can’t seem to pull herself together. She insists Ava will never understand the loss of a soulmate, something as sudden as a car crash. They were connected, each other’s other half – how does a half go on by itself? So there’s nothing Ava can do but watch her mother fall apart and do her best to be there for her. Come home for the holidays, take care of the chores that piled up in her absence at college and then work. Her mother’s comments on Ava’s own love life dwindled down at least.
But her mother was wrong. Ava did learn what it meant to lose a soulmate. Because Sara Lance died and stayed dead for nearly five years in Ava’s timeline.
Ava remembers looking down at her wrist as she’s drinking her coffee, the searing burning pain made her think she spilled the hot drink on herself. Instead she watched aghast as her timer disappeared before her eyes. The numbers that had been tattooed on her since birth, fading away, into nothing.
She could feel it in her heart, the ice that settled in there and made itself at home. It’s like she’s walking through Jell-O, everything is lulled around her, buzzing past. Ava wants to be a part of it all, but can’t bring herself to care. She just goes through the motions. She quits her job, remakes herself and finds another job at a top secret agency. She doesn’t think about how she never even got a chance to meet her soulmate (at least her mother did), Ava simply throws herself into work. Training to be the best in combat and strategy. It works, she’s able to get through life.
Right up until the day she meets Rip Hunter, who tells her time travel is real and wants to recruit her to an organization he’s creating: the Time Bureau.
Even before she met Sara, the woman was influencing Ava’s life. If Sara hadn’t died, Ava wouldn’t have quit and met Rip, worked at the Time Bureau which would eventually be how she met Sara.
Time was strange.
“You know, I’m pretty sure most people would say thank you when their soulmate saves their life,” Sara smirked as she came to stand next to Ava. Her voice was low enough that it didn’t carry across to where Director Hunter was standing and giving the Go Team a debriefing.
“I didn’t need your help,” Ava hissed, “In case you forgot, it was you and your loser team’s fault that Caesar got a book on Roman conquest in the first place. I was only in danger because of you.”
“Well you’re just going to be a bucket of fun, aren’t you?” Sara rolled her eyes at her, “So glad I’m chained to you for the rest of my life.”
“Like I’m happy about having you!” Ava returned, “I spent nearly half my life wanting my soulmate. And instead it’s you.”
“And what’s wrong with me?” Sara asked as she crossed her arms.
“You and your friends have no respect for the rules and nearly get each other killed.”
“As opposed to being a stuck up like you?” Sara mocked, “Look, we may be a bunch of losers like you want to call us, but we know how to get things done.”
“And break half of time and make a mess of it,” Ava pointed out. Point for her, she thought as Sara sighed and looked away. Ava half expected the Director to take them in right then and there, instead he let them keep the Waverider.
“They should be behind bars right now,” Ava argued with him.
“Agent Sharpe, you may not agree with my methods. But there may come a day when we need the Legends to be the chainsaw. Would you mind opening a corridor, I seem to have misplaced my courier,” Rip frowned as he looked down at his wrist. Ava didn’t miss the zeros that slipped out from the sleeve, he never talked about them. She did as she was told and opened the portal which they stepped through.
Suddenly, Rip grabbed her hand and frowned at her wrist, “You zeroed out. When did that happen?”
“Recently,” Ava bit out. She snatched her wrist away, “I believe there is a company policy on the privacy of soulmate timers?”
“Of course there is, Agent Sharpe,” Rip nodded at her, “I’ll need a report on the mission by tomorrow morning.” With that he walked away.
She remembers the day her timer went away, and also the day it returned. Ava was working a mission with Rip, just the two of them doing recon before they could assemble a proper Go Team to take care of the anachronism. Then she felt it. A similar sensation to when she lost her timer. It’ was like her wrist was being branded, she looked down at her wrist and saw the numbers being inked in again. Like they never left. The time decreased, maybe a bit more than she expected, but it was back.
“Agent Sharpe? Ava?” Rip called her name to get her attention. Ava snapped to attention, looking at him. He frowned at her, “What’s wrong.”
“Nothing, nothing Director Hunter,” Ava cleared her throat and tried to steady her breathing. But Rip wasn’t having any of it.
He placed his hands on her shoulders somewhat hesitantly (neither was particularly big on being tactile) and looked her in the eye, “If you’re ill or injured, we can go back to the Bureau immediately and have you checked out-”
“No, I’m fine,” Ava insisted. She sighed and held up her wrist, “It’s just my timer.”
“Did it zero out?” Rip asked.
“No, it – it came back.”
“Came back?” Rip asked confused.
“It was gone, disappeared a long time ago. I assumed my soulmate died, that’s the only reason they ever leave,” Ava explained, “But it just reappeared right now. So she can’t have been dead. It must have been some mistake. No one can come back from the dead, right?”
Rip frowned some more, as he muttered, “No, no one can come back from the dead. Unless you’re very lucky.”
“Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before?” Ava asked. In all his years of time travel, perhaps he had seen something like this.
“No, I haven’t,” he admitted, “I suppose you’re very lucky indeed, Agent Sharpe.”
“You knew,” Ava accused as she barged into Rip’s office.
Rip looked up at her then back to his papers as he answered flippantly, “You know I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about? And also, my door was closed. That means I’m working.”
“You knew Sara Lance was my soulmate!” Ava glared, “You knew and you didn’t tell you.”
“I didn’t know for sure,” Rip said, “Admittedly, I guessed. Not many people are resurrected.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I thought it was best to let time take its course,” Rip shrugged, “We’re time travelers, it’s best to not mess with anything anymore than required. Especially when soulmates are concerned.”
“No, instead you just had me study her for the last five years. I learned every technique, every move she knows,” Ava said.
“I suggested it would be a good idea,” Rip corrected, “And if you were to realize that Sara was a potential soulmate, then there you have it. What exactly are you blaming me for?”
“She’s not – you could have warned me beforehand! Stopped me from meeting her!” Ava spluttered angrily.
“Why would I do that?” Rip blinked, “She’s your soulmate. They’re meant to be, believe me. I’ve seen soulmates be kept apart, it’s not pretty.”
“I would be better off without her!”
“Why would you say that?” Rip frowned, “I always thought the two of you would get along rather well actually.”
“We don’t,” Ava seethed, “How can you sit there and even think that. She and her team broke time. They’re the reasons we can all make a career out of cleaning up their messes. She is careless, smug, has a predilection for violence – why are you laughing?”
Rip chuckled out an apology, “Sorry, it’s just, you remind me of when I first met Miranda. I thought she was competitive, annoying, type a.”
“Miranda,” Ava frowned, “Your soulmate?”
“My wife,” Rip stated as he tugged on his sleeve that hid his timer. He sighed, “Look, you met your other half. No one is telling you to declare your love or anything-”
“I don’t love her!”
“I am just saying, whatever happens next. It is your choice,” Rip carried on. Then he looked back at his papers, completely ignoring her existence.
“Well are you at least going to monitor the Legends’ actions?” Ava demanded exasperated.
Rip frowned at his papers and then at her. He tossed a look at a notebook on the table as he shook his head, “No, I have no plans of doing so. I’m sure the Legends are more than capable of handling themselves. Besides, I’m far too busy with more important things.”
“Fine then,” Ava huffed as she left. If Director Hunter wasn’t going to take care of it, she would.
“You know I have to say, sparring is a new form of foreplay for me,” Sara laughed as she rubbed her shoulder.
“Really?” Ava snorted as she took a drink of her water, “You don’t seem the type. And it wasn’t foreplay.”
“Oh? So that wasn’t your way of getting up close and personal with me?” Sara teased, “Shame, I’d be more than willing to give you a few pointers on flirting.”
“I don’t need them. Especially not from you. About you,” Ava shook her head annoyed.
“Really? You know, I once seduced the Queen of France. I have skills,” Sara gloated.
“Clearly an easy target,” Ava argued. She didn’t know why that bit of trivia made her stomach squirm. Maybe she did know. But she was pointedly ignoring it. She also bit back a teasing remark of how Sara could prove her flirting skills by seducing her. Ava didn’t want to encourage her behavior. Just then, a miniaturized Sabretooth walked by, which set off another chain of events.
She left the Waverider with a warning, “Just remember, we’ll be-”
“Watching us?” Sara grinned, “Yeah I figured. Promise, soulmate?”
Ava decided not to answer and opened a portal to leave.
“We’re going to hit them,” Gary panicked.
“No, they’ll back down,” Ava assured him, “Besides, they kidnapped you, and exacerbated the events in 2040.”
“I don’t think they’re backing down,” Gary stared at the incoming target wide-eyed. The Waverider was coming closer and closer.
“Change your course!” Ava yelled at Sara through the comms.
“Nope, not happening. You first,” Sara challenged. Of course she would be difficult. Ava would end up with the most stubborn, pig-headed woman as her soulmate. Life just wasn’t fair.
“Three seconds until impact,” Gary counted down, “Two.” Ava could feel her timer beginning to burn, the same way it had when it disappeared and reappeared. Sara wasn’t going to change her mind. Ava time jumped away just as Gary hit one.
“I knew you wouldn’t kill your soulmate,” Sara teased later on.
“I just wasn’t willing to endanger my team the way you were yours,” Ava responded stiffly, “You put all our lives at risk.”
“I told you not to follow,” Sara crossed her arms, “Apparently you’re not as good at following instructions as you thought you were.”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Ava scoffed, “Whatever leniency Director Hunter gave you is over.”
“Ms. Lance, I really don’t have time to deal with whatever mess your team made this time,” Ava answered tiredly as she answered the communications line, “Director Hunter went out with a Go Team and we haven’t heard back from any of them and-”
“I know.”
Ava looked at Sara properly then. Her red rimmed eyes, the way she carried herself, and the fury she had. “What happened?” Ava asked worriedly.
“Rip is with us,” Sara sighed, “His secret mission got Damien Dahrk resurrected.”
“Where is he now?” Ava asked professionally.
“In the study of the Waverider.”
“I see. And the rest of the team?”
“Ava, they didn’t survive. I’m sorry,” Sara looked at her remorsefully. Ava nodded and looked down, taking a moment of silence for her fallen agents. Sara clearly respected her views and stayed silent as well.
“I’ll let Director Bennett know about Director Hunter’s whereabouts. We’ll collect him shortly,” Ava moved to close the communications.
“Wait,” Sara stopped her, “Look, if we give you Rip, that’s us proving we want to help the Bureau, right?”
“And?”
“If we give him to you, you let us roam freely. Let us fix our mistakes our way. We really are only trying to help,” Sara insisted. Ava could see she didn’t want to turn Rip in, Ava didn’t want to either. But apparently she hadn’t been paying attention to him at all. Her concerns had been with the Legends, not with whatever vendetta Rip had.
“I didn’t think you’d be the type to turn on your own friend,” Ava commented.
“I’m not,” Sara defended herself, “But Rip messed up. He got sucked in by this whole Mallus thing and lost sight. I can’t have that around my team. They come first. And I’m sure the Bureau will be better for him anyways.”
“Alright then,” Ava nodded, “I’ll present your bargain to Director Bennett. Thank you, Sara.”
“Of course.”
Ever since they got Rip back, the Bureau was a flurry of commotion, there was no time for Ava to focus on the Legends even if she wanted to. Rip’s tribunal went terribly even as Ava insisted on trying to help him but of course he refused. Soon after the Bureau began to fall apart without his guidance. Maybe that was his plan all along.
Director Bennett was trying his best to keep things together, but he didn’t know how to spend resources the way Rip did. He kept sending team after team after the Darhks and they kept losing agents. No one believed Rip about Mallus, but Damien Darhk was a known threat. One that seemed impossible to counter.
Even with handling the multiple team excursions, Ava tried her best to keep tabs on the Legends. It was soon after an invasion in early twenty first century the Legends participated in (the Bureau stayed far away from that one and let history play out) that Ava found they lost their team member. Having lost multiple agents and team members herself, she could only imagine how Sara was feeling. Ava remembered the guilty look on her face as she had to turn in Rip, how must she feel after losing a team member she was in charge of? Sara took her team seriously, that much Ava knew, they were her family.
So when Ava caught wind that the Legends were handling a level twelve anachronism, Ava thought it would be best to offer any assistance they might need. After all, the Legends solving a level twelve on their own? That would be a Beebo Day miracle.
“Well screw your orders, I need you here,” Sara yelled.
“Look, Sara,” Ava pulled at the ends of her hair, “I would if I could, but my orders are important.”
“More important than your soulmate needing help?” Sara asked incredulously.
“Would you stop using that word?” Ava yelled at her.
“Why?” Sara demanded, “Because you’re ashamed of having me as a soulmate? Well I am so sorry. Sorry, little Ms. Perfect Time Bureau that you ended up with a disaster soulmate like me!”
“I’m not perfect,” Ava glared.
“That much is clear,” Sara rolled her eyes, “You ever think you’re not the only one that was disappointed with their choice in soulmates?”
“Sorry, I’m such a disappointment then,” Ava muttered quietly. She remembered saying those exact same words to her mother once after her father had died.
“Ava, I need you,” Sara pleaded, “I can’t do this without you. If I can’t have the Bureau’s resources as backup, I at least need you. Rip recruited you for a reason. Because you’re smart and can kick ass. I could use that right about now.”
Ava shook her head, “I can’t. You don’t need me for anything, Sara. Good luck with what you do.”
“You’re wrong.”
Sara’s words followed Ava as she walked through the portal.
“What are you doing here?” Rip questioned as Ava entered his cell.
“Well it’s Odin Day. No one should be alone today,” Ava shrugged.
“Did you just say Odin Day?” Rip frowned at her.
“I don’t know, maybe?” Ava answered, “I’ve been told it’s part of the anachronism. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Because it’s not,” Rip responded tiredly, “Why are you here and not dealing with it then?”
“The Legends have it handled,” Ava waved away.
“Clearly not if you’re saying Odin Day as opposed to the proper saying,” Rip said, “Ava?”
Ava sighed, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall, “Director Bennett ordered me back to the Bureau. Said we couldn’t spare the resources to help the Legends defeat Damien.”
“You’re letting them go at I alone?” Rip raised an eyebrow.
“I have my orders,” Ava defended.
“Did you want to help them?” Rip asked.
Ava looked away as she whispered, “She needs me. And I didn’t stay.”
“It’s not too late,” Rip said softly. Ava shook her head about to argue but Rip cut her off again. “Have I ever told you what happened with my soulmate?”
“No,” Ava shook her head, “You never talk about it. I assume she’s still alive given your timer is still there.”
“Yes,” Rip rubbed his wrist, “I always assumed it was Miranda, my wife. But she died and the timer stayed. Anyways, when I finally found out who she was – who my soulmate was, do you know what I did?”
“What?”
“I ran.”
Ava blinked, “What?”
“I ran away,” Rip let out a short breath of laughter, “I got scared of it all. Everything, what it meant for us – her and me. So I left, threw myself into creating the Bureau and chasing down Mallus. And look what it got me, I’m sitting in a cell all alone.”
“Rip-”
“Don’t make my mistakes,” Rip urged, “Make your own, sure. But don’t let something as stupid as duty or fear stop you from being with your soulmate. If you need to help her, then do it.”
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Ava asked again.
Sara sighed as she sat up in the medbay chair, “You heard Gideon, I’m fine.”
“You fell into an alternate universe,” Ava pointed out.
“Not the first time that’s happened. Hell, I died once,” Sara reminded her.
“I remember,” Ava unconsciously rubbed her wrist, remembering the pain it had caused her.
Sara glanced down, “Right, sorry. You know, I never really thought of that. What would happen to my soulmate if something happened to me? Always thought of my parents, my sister, but never my soulmate. Never seemed real.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Ava agreed as she sat next to her.
“But here you are. Real, solid,” Sara tucked a strand of hair back from her face. The one day Ava’s hair tie broke. “You came back for me,” Sara whispered.
“You needed me,” Ava repeated her reason, “How could I say no to my soulmate?”
Sara grinned, “You know that’s the first time you’ve used that word about me?”
“Is it?” Ava frowned, “First time for everything, I guess.”
“I hope so,” Sara smiled, “I guess you aren’t so bad for a stuck up Time Bureau girl.”
Ava scoffed, “Yeah, well you’re still leading a team of losers.” Her harsh words were bellied by the smile on her face.
“Yeah, but we’re growing on you. I can tell,” Sara nudged her.
Ava shook her head in disbelief as she cleared her throat. She stood up, “I should get back. I need to tell the Bureau that Rip’s telling the truth. Get him out of jail.”
“Are you going to get in trouble?” Sara asked worriedly.
“If I do, it was worth it,” Ava decided resolutely, “My soulmate is more important than my orders.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Sara stepped forward, “For the record, you are also important to me. Even if you are really annoying.”
“I’m annoy-” Ava’s diatribe got cut off as Sara stood on her tiptoes and kissed her on the cheek.
“Merry Christmas, Ava,” Sara smiled softly.
“Merry Christmas, Sara,” Ava whispered back. “I should go, I’ll be seeing you.”
“Promise?” Sara smirked.
“Yeah,” Ava said as she opened her portal. She caught a twinkle in Sara’s eye that made her smile, “You’re my soulmate. I’ll be here whenever you need me.”