"Finished?" Su Sheng asked with a smirk after quietly listening to Sara Lance's explanation. Leaning on the console, he raised two fingers. "I have two questions."
"Go ahead," Sara Lance responded.
"First question: Why didn't you go back to the exact point in time when I took Laurel? If you knew about the time deviation, wouldn't it have been easier to stop it at the source?" Su Sheng asked, his tone light but inquisitive. If the Legends had intervened at that moment, he might not have trained Laurel as the Black Canary, preventing everything that followed.
"It was too late," Rip Hunter shook his head. "By the time we detected the anomaly, that timeline had already solidified."
"Okay, second question. Why are you even trying to stop me?" Su Sheng's smile widened as he posed this.
The question instantly put the entire Legends team on edge. They knew from experience that nothing ever went smoothly on their missions, and this one would be no different.
Sara Lance tightened her grip on her staff.
Captain Cold and Heat Wave both raised their weapons—Cold's freeze gun and Heat Wave's flamethrower—ready for action. Heat Wave snarled, "I can burn you to ashes."
Su Sheng glanced at him and replied seriously, "Trust me, you can't."
"Then let's find out!" Heat Wave shot back, his weapon at the ready.
Seeing that a fight was about to break out, Rip Hunter quickly intervened, stepping between them. "I don't think it's wise to get involved in ex-girlfriends' affairs, especially not by introducing them to each other."
"One, only Felicity is my ex, and we haven't broken up yet. Two, who said this is about power?" Su Sheng raised two fingers again, this time addressing Rip Hunter directly. "You formed the Legends to save your family and fight the immortal tyrant Vandal Savage. Even though you did it under the pretense of saving the world, aren't you altering history by doing so? So what gives you the right to stop me?"
Rip Hunter fell silent, and so did the others, who had been ready to argue.
"But we're saving the world," the Atom, Ray Palmer, mumbled, though his words lacked conviction.
It was clear that no one else was convinced by his reasoning either.
"I admit we don't have the right to demand anything of you, but we have to. If we don't stop you, Sara Lance won't just have memory issues—she'll disappear from our team entirely," Rip Hunter suddenly shouted. "Gideon, initiate a random time jump now!"
"Understood, Captain Hunter," Gideon responded.
The Waverider suddenly took off, accelerating rapidly.
The wind roared, and the thrusters glowed with a blue light.
With a loud whoosh, the Waverider vanished.
The violent vibrations knocked everyone off their feet, leaving them dizzy and disoriented. The sensation of jumping through time was unsettling, as if their hearts were about to leap out of their chests. It was impossible to tell how long the jump lasted—minutes or hours—but eventually, the shaking subsided, and the Waverider landed.
"Engage stealth mode and report our location and time," Rip Hunter ordered, still on the ground.
"We are in stealth mode, Captain. The year is 1917, and we are in the waters near Paradise Island," Gideon reported.
Everyone groaned as they slowly got up, still reeling from the time jump. Martin Stein, disoriented, fumbled for his glasses. "1917? That's a year before the end of World War I. Where is Paradise Island?"
"Damn, I hate time travel," Heat Wave grumbled, fighting the urge to vomit. "I should have just torched him."
Rip Hunter adjusted the collar of his trench coat and explained, "Paradise Island is an isolated land inhabited by Amazons."
"And only women!" he added.
"Sounds like the perfect place for him," Sara Lance quipped, glaring at Su Sheng, who was still lying on the ground, seemingly unbothered by the situation.
Rip Hunter's original plan had been to take Su Sheng far away temporarily, find a place to keep him until the time deviation was corrected, erase his memory, and then return him to his timeline. But landing on Paradise Island was an unexpected twist.
"It's not exactly welcoming to outsiders, especially men," Rip Hunter said hesitantly.
"Will it be dangerous?" Captain Cold asked.
"As long as he's careful not to be discovered by the Amazons, there shouldn't be any problems. We'll come back and get him once the time deviation is corrected," Rip Hunter replied after some thought.
"Leaving him here won't cause any further time deviations, will it?" Captain Cold asked again.
"Probably not. The Amazons aren't easy to mess with," Rip Hunter assured him.
Sara Lance walked over to Su Sheng, squatting down beside him. She stared at him for a moment before speaking. "In my memory, Laurel loved you very much, but you got bored and dumped her. I really hope you die on Paradise Island, but... you did let her live. Even if it's just a time deviation, so find a place to hide. We'll come and get you."
"Sounds like something I'd do. So... I still made Oliver Queen jealous?" Su Sheng grinned.
"Her first man was you," Sara Lance growled in frustration. "Why do you think I ended up with Oliver? I was just trying to one-up her, you bastard!"
...