Title: Keep Away
Fandom: Legends of Tomorrow
Pairing/Characters: Zari, Mick, Nate, Ava, minor Ava/Sara
Challenge: Prediction
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1385
Summary: Zari just wants a sandwich, but Ava drank the wrong tea and is now hallucinating so Nate needs help.
A/N: Based off a prompt that LegendsLightnin put on Twitter.


Keep Away:

Zari nearly runs into Nate when they both try to enter the kitchen. Ava’s already sitting there drinking tea and Mick is pulling sandwich supplies out of the fridge. She heads towards the synthesizer not sure what she wants as Nate heads towards their supply of tea. Mick sets a beer next to the sandwich supplies he has spread on the counter. Zari turns from the synthesizer to him. “Hey, leave the bread out when you’re done?”

Mick grunts an acknowledgement. She glances at what Mick has out, then opens the fridge as she greets Ava. She frowns and turns when Ava doesn’t greet her back. Ava’s still sipping her tea, but she’s blinking at the counter top in front of her. Her brow is furrowed in confusion.

“Ava?” Zari asks.

“It’s weird,” Ava tells her. “Usually I can’t tell when the ship is moving.”

“We’re not moving,” Mick says slowly, then looks at Zari for conformation as he stops assembling his sandwich to frown at Ava.

“Unless you’re in a fight or doing something stupid. I can tell then, but I can’t tell why it feels like the ship is moving,” Ava continues. “I should ask Sara, but I don’t know where she went. I lost Sara!”

“What are you drinking?” Nate asks turning towards her with wide eyes.

“It’s tea,” she explains, then frowns. “Have you seen Sara?”

Zari glances at Nate with wide eyes, then shifts closer to Mick.

“Pretty, I told you not to put that root stuff near the tea,” Mick grumbles.

“Sara’s gonna kill me,” Nate whispers anxiously.

“Why are you whispering?” Mick glares.

“This is bad,” Zari agrees with Nate.

Nate drops the box of tea in his hand and rushes forward as he tells Ava he’ll take her to Sara. She somehow agrees to go with him and he manages to rush her out of the room. Mick turns back to assembling his sandwich. Zari is still debating if she needs to help Nate when Sara walked in asking about Ava.

“She ain’t here,” Mick answers.

Sara frowns at Mick briefly, clearly deciding if she wants to ask another question. Zari shrugs when Sara looks at her. Sara frowns at Ava’s tea cup. Zari moves to sit in front of it and asks Mick, “Would you make me a sandwich too?”

Mick grunts an acknowledgement. Zari wraps her hands around the tea cup. What are they going to do? How much did Ava have? How long are it’s hallucinogenic affects going to last? Sara thanks them, but she frowns at them suspiously. Zari waits until she’s sure Sara is gone before she pours the rest of the tea down the sink and rinses out the cup before putting it in the dishwasher.

“I should go help Nate,” she decides.

“This is going to get stupid,” Mick predicts.

Zari is inclined to agree, but she can’t leave Nate to try and help Ava alone. “Gideon, do you know where Nate is?”

“Should I tell Ms. Lance where Ms. Sharpe is?” Gideon chides.

Mick snorts in amusement. Zari huffs.

She finds Nate in his room trying to block punches from Ava. She gets between them, pushing Ava back gently with her powers. “Hey, he’s just trying to help you!”

“He’s keeping me from Sara!” Ava glares.

“Ms. Tomaz,” Gideon addresses. “Ms. Lance is on her way to check her teammates’ rooms for Ms. Sharpe.”

Nate’s eyes dart around the room wildly. “Quick, get her in my closet!”

“I don’t think Sara is going to be happy if we shove Ava into a closet,” Zari says, hoping to calm some of Nate’s obvious panicking.

Nate blinks at her briefly, then starts leading an annoyed Ava towards his closet. “That was a joke right? I’m not really ‘putting her in the closet,’ I wouldn’t ever suggest that.”

“You’re saying that while literally shoving her into your closet,” Zari frowns.

Nate’s eyes widen, this time with interest instead of panic. “You don’t have that colloquialism in your time! That's…”

Nate cuts himself off to push her towards Ava and the closet. Zari starts to protest, but then she hears Sara call out for Ava. Ava peaks around the closet door, one of Nate’s shirt somehow draped around her neck like a cloak. “Is that Sara?”

“No!” Zari rushes to reassure while shoving Ava back in the closet so that they can both get in and she can shut the door behind her.

It’s just in time. She can already overhear Nate answering his door.

“Have you seen Ava? Gideon is pretending to be obtuse and I can’t find her. Mick is no help, his stomach is more important.”

“Well, Mick does love his food,” Nate answers.

“Have you seen Ava?” Sara repeats slowly.

“Why are we in here?” Ava whispers. “Is that not really Sara? Is that someone pretending to be Sara? We should fight her and demand she give Sara back to us.”

“No,” Zari reassures soothingly, while grabbing Ava by the shoulders and trying to look at her. It’s difficult in the dark closet. “Nate is handling this. You’ll be fine and we’ll take you to Sara.”

“What’s that noise coming from your closet?” Sara asks.

Ava slaps a hand over Zari’s mouth and they both tense.

“Um…um…I think there might be another rat?” Nate offers.

“Good, see if you can get Ray to capture it. It seemed to help Mick to have a pet.”

“You want us to capture a rat so Mick can try to turn it into his emotional support animal?” Nate asks slowly.

“It worked before,” Sara points out.

“We have a time ship, why don’t we go where he can pick one out that’s already been trained?” Nate suggests.

“Are you going to try and convince Mick he needs to do that?” Sara challenges.

“I can try,” Nate manages uncertainly.

“This is taking too long, we should just capture her and make her tell us where Sara is,” Ava plots, thankfully still whispering. Zari wraps Ava in a hug hoping it will slow her down, but Ava is pushing them towards the door of the closet.

“Thanks for volunteering,” Sara tells Nate. Zari can’t make out their next words because she’s struggling to keep Ava from the door. When they both tumble out of the closet Nate’s door is just shutting.

Ava hops to her feet. “Where did the imposter go?”

“Imposter?” Nate asks.

“She thinks Sara is someone who captured Sara and is now impersonating her while also looking for Ava,” Zari tries to explain.

“I’m Ava,” Ava tells them helpfully.

“Yes, you are,” Nate reassures. “And that’s really Sara.”

“Then why’d you try to keep me from her?” Ava demands, eyes narrowing. Before Nate can answer she’s shoving past him and out his door. Zari rushes after her, Nate behind her. They pause in the hallway. Ava’s standing there swaying in front of Mick. She looks at him a moment then announces, “I don’t feel good.”

“Yeah,” Mick agrees before he shoves a sandwich on a plate at Zari. “Gideon told me what you like.”

Zari grins and wraps her hands around the plate protectively.

“Mick, we need to…” Nate starts. He cuts off when Mick glares at him.

Mick looks at Ava. “I’m going to take you to the medbay. Gideon's gonna help you. Pretty is going to go explain to Sara that he did something stupid, then bring her to you.”

“I want Sara,” Ava agree earnestly.

Mick nods, then picks her up and heads towards the medbay. He points at Nate, who nods then asks Gideon which way Sara went. Zari follows Mick and Ava to the medbay, watching as Mick sets Ava down into a chair and clamps the wrist sensor around her. Zari hopes into the empty chair and settles her plate in her lap. She looks her sandwich over to make sure Mick did make it correctly. The portions are larger than what she’d have put on a sandwich, but it looks amazing.

“This looks great Mick. Thanks!”

Mick nods. “You went and helped Pretty see his idea wasn’t going to work and I didn’t have to.”

Zari bites into her sandwich. She’s not about to tell him he’s wrong when he brought her food as a thank you.