entrancelogs

Getting to Leonard wasn't hard, Mick was so familiar with Leonard, it didn't even take any work to get in with him. All he sent was a quick text, a simple

I'm coming over

and that was all it took. Chronos walked in, Leonard barely looked up and by the time he did, Chronos had smashed him hard in the side of the face with the butt of his gun. He wasn't an idiot, he couldn't pretend to be someone he wasn't, he wasn't dressed for it, he didn't have the time for it and people who knew him well would see it in seconds. He didn't care to play these kind of shenanigans.

Ramon had made him some rather handy cuffs as well as tricking out his gun before this little jump to the other side and Chronos intended to make sure of both of them while he was here. He didn't plan to shoot Leonard, of course, that'd be stupid. Poor planning. That wasn't revenge. He did swiftly drag Leonard bodily across the hall from one room to the other while the coast was clear. To 'his' room. Mick's room. Mick had secured a punching bag to the wall using a metal bar and it was simple enough. He removed the bag, yanked Leonard up there and then re-secured the metal so there was no easy escape.

He took his gun from the holster and his communicator from his pocket.

Taking a step back, Chronos surveyed his work and then stood there, looking at Leonard, just watching him and waiting for those signs of life.

Leonard had a hard head and a mind that was quick to focus again, the result of well-practised and deserved paranoia. He shifted a little before he opened his eyes and lifted his head, already realising that he was trapped. His arms were beginning to hurt from the awkward position, but even before he saw the man responsible, he knew that was the least of his problems. Seeing him sealed it.

"Where's Mick?" Because this had to be the mirror version. Mick was past the time in his life when he'd been Chronos, Leonard hadn't heard about anyone going backwards. That might mean that Mick was in danger and it definitely meant that Leonard was in danger, but his priority was Mick and so it wasn't that surprising that it was the first thing he thought to ask.

His fingers twisted, trying to get a feel of the cuffs, while he didn't take his eyes off Chronos. It still hurt to see him. That person he didn't know looking like the person he knew best, the stranger he could still see traces of in Mick when he least expected it. The consequence of the rift between them.

"Technically? Right here."

He gestured at himself and then held his hands out, giving Leonard a schooled expression with only the very vaguest hint of amusement. "I'm Mick. That's what's funny, really, all these mirrors are created out of far fetched ideas and crazy concepts. Then there's me. I'm him, I'm still him, even if you strip away the years he's had since his tenure with the time masters, he's still me. Deep down." Chronos wasn't some what-if type thing. Chronos was something that happened, something that they all just happily skipped over.

He pulled Leonard's cold gun from his own holster and looked it over, making sure he was plenty familiar with it and to show off his shiny new trophy. "What's the lowest setting this gun has?"

"They didn't feed a dictionary into your brain with all that, I'm guessing, because technically you sure as hell ain't him and you know what I meant." But apparently he wasn't going to get a straight answer out of him, which wasn't exactly a shock. Nothing he could do anyway, he could only hope that Mick was alright, wherever he was. Glancing up he at least got a look at the cuffs, not thrilled to see how unfamiliar he was with the design.

There was definitely a sense of deja-vu about the situation. Leonard wondered if he'd ever get to relive a part of his life he'd actually enjoyed, but instead it was his worst nightmares. Chronos ranked up there. "I think you got it wrong. Mick might still have bits of you left, but he's more. So, like this? If this is all you are, you ain't him. Just a shadow."

Not that he thought that would hurt Chronos especially much. He looked at his gun in Chronos' hands and managed something that at least looked a little like a shrug. "The trigger's sensitive. Less pressure, less effect. Not sure how that translates to temperature. Still pretty damn cold."

"I am him. We have the same memories, we have the same thoughts, we both know how it feels to be stabbed in the back by Leonard Snart." And in the future, that would become a very literal thing. He moved in closer to Leonard, not too close, and resisted every urge that build up in him to hit Leonard. He supposed Leo had helped in many ways, taught him how to hold back and not immediately lash out. Control was what he needed the most right now.

"I'm the same person you always knew. I'm the same person you deserted. I'm the same person who's house you used to hide out in when Lewis got a little out of hand. The same person who took your sister to school when you couldn't, helped you fix your card, pulled your heists, helped take down the Flash. That was all me." Mick remembered every detail perfectly in his head, for a long time he held onto those memories as a way to try and hold onto himself but the more the time masters worked on him, the more those memories became twisted and painful.

They became fodder for violence. "Partners, remember. That's what we were."

"I have been through all this. Twice, actually. How about you can the speech and we get to the really unpleasant part?" Guilt-ridden he might be, may have been up to his death, but that didn't mean he had to have a break down in front of Chronos. Not yet, at least. Not this time, when - as he'd said - he had been through this more than once.

"Cry more." Echoing the words he'd said to Mick when he'd arrived in Wonderland, half a year ago now. Back then he'd felt torn up about it, but right now any broken heart wasn't keenly felt yet. Instead he sounded derisive, even as he looked right at Chronos. "Partner."

"You want to leave the talk? Typical. Works for me, I don't have much more to say." Chronos smirked and pulled Leonard's communicator from his pocket, just scrolling his inbox and his messages. "Maya. Riley. Lisa. That's a cute little family you're building up here. Your girls."

Chronos didn't elaborate, he didn't explain in slow detail what he'd do because Leonard didn't want words so Chronos simple smirked a dark and dangerous smirk. Why should Leonard get to have this kind of happiness? No. Not on his watch.

"You're really original," Leonard muttered, looking up above his head, considering the angle his arm was in and the distance Chronos had put between them. As badass as a manoeuvre where he pulled himself up and kicked the asshole in the head would be, the positioning didn't allow for that or really much of anything in the way of resistance. Besides, between the armour and how hardheaded any version of Mick was, success would be doubtful no matter what.

"You've been here for months. Took you this long to come over and this is all you want to do? I'm flattered, you know, but there's more to life than making me hurt." He wanted to warn someone. There was also the urge to protest, maybe even beg, because he still saw Mick when looking at him and he had to at least try, didn't he? "Also more ways to make me hurt than going through others."

"A chance to make you suffer? No. That's been enough for me. I got details from watching, from reading through this, and it was so satisfying to know you reach an end. Disappointing, of course. Too easy." He would have liked him to suffer more but this was enough to make Chronos relax more, especially in regards to Leo. Just knowing that something that drove him this mad had an end? It was relieving.

"That's a lie and we both know it. Don't try and pull that with me. I could torture you and it wouldn't hurt half as bad as letting those around you down. You'll carry that with you forever." It's break him apart, ruin what happiness he had with those close to him, it'd stick in his mind and he'd blame himself. And that was all Chronos wanted. "I know you better than anyone. Idiot."

"Sorry. Didn't mean to disappoint you by dying too quickly." Leonard rolled his eyes, holding on to that edge of sarcasm, because what else did he have? An appeal to Chronos' mercy stood about as much sense as trying to reason with him. "Always flattering to have someone's attention. You got nothing else in your life? That's sad."

Leonard breathed in slowly through his nose, wondering what the best he could hope for was. Rip or Ray, he supposed. Nancy? Or any of the other various powerful people in the mansion. He wasn't the damsel in distress type, so he wasn't about to start screaming for help, but at least this wasn't quite as hopeless as he had been on the Waverider. "Leave them alone. It ain't their fault they met me."

"It's not but it's the only way to get to you. I need to end this, break you, so I can finally move on." Chronos was trained and made to destroy the legends, that was what was programmed into him. Again and again. So many training simulations, so many fake team members to kill, so many things fed into his head. And Leonard was the biggest target, he practically had an X on him that Mick couldn't unsee any more.

And he wanted to. He wanted to be over this.

Deep down, a part of him just wanted it to be over so he could finally move on. Spend a little more time with Leo maybe. He hadn't overthought it yet but it was nice to unwind and have a small slice of what he once had with Leonard all over again.

He missed it. It gutted him that he didn't have it and even now, looking at his old friend, it was like being abandoned all over again. Tossed aside like he was nothing. "You did this to me. I have to do this to you. It's the only way I can be free. You owe me this much."

"I ain't saying I don't. Mick." Leonard said his name the way only he did, even if this was Chronos, not really Mick, the mirror version, even more distorted than what the Time Masters had put him through. It was still a version of Mick, in the end. Still the man he cared for more than anyone, still the source of his greatest guilt. He tugged on the cuffs in frustration, as if there was anything he could even do if he broke free.

"If it helps you, then hurt me, Kill me. Fuck me over, whatever. I owe you." He wasn't denying that. Hell, Mick had ways of letting him feel that every day and he certainly knew how to remind himself of the fact too. "But they don't. They ain't got anything to do with this. You really think you need anyone else to break me?"

That from the man who claimed to know him better than anyone. "It's you hating me. That's enough."

"I do hate you. More than anyone."

Chronos pulled himself upright and grabbed his helmet, giving Leonard a look that had more hurt in his eyes than he'd ever cared to show. "I love you more than anyone as well. And you tossed me aside when you couldn't fit me in your like. You abandoned me and left me to die - like some rabid dog you got sick of handling."

He put the helmet on, mostly because he needed to hide his face right now, he needed Leonard not to see him crack. "I can break you using anyone. I don't even have to lay a hand on you, just them. And that's exactly what I'm doing to do." And with that, Chronos turned away and made a move to the door. He was done here.

ur a butthead

Boom.

For Leonard

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

yanno what, I'm just gonna not delete it this time