NOTE: I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS IDEA, BUT I CANT FIND THE POST OF WHERE I READ IT TO SEE WHO DID. IF

NOTE: I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS IDEA, BUT I CANT FIND THE POST OF WHERE I READ IT TO SEE WHO DID. IF IT WAS YOU LET ME KNOW SO I CAN CREDIT!

—

Of course it’s Nate who finds it stashed in a drawer of Rip’s in his old office at the Time Bureau headquarters. It’s a desk that Ava won’t touch, still having unresolved emotions over what she now knows Rip used her and all of her clones before her for. It isn’t surprising that Rip would bring something like it from the future back to the present to stash in that desk long before his death.

Nate is wordless as he hands it to Sara, which should surprise her enough in itself.

“What is it?” Sara asks as she takes the paper. It’s been balled up and smoothed out so many times that Sara is surprised it isn’t ripped.

“It’s a list of,” Nate pauses, “I’m sorry I read it Sara. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought you’d like to see it.”

Sara eyes him skeptically. “They told us Ava was the perfect woman. She was made using a combination of so many women from the past. This is a list of those women,” Nate finishes, eyes downcast.

Sara looks at the paper wondering if she should open it. Wonders what she’ll find. She’s not sure at all what she expects as she opens the paper, but it’s simple. Just a typed list of names with no further information. No title as to what it could be, but Sara knows it’s true. She walks into her room to sit down on her bed as her eyes finally focus on the list. She’s acutely aware of Nate watching her. There are nineteen names, and Sara has no idea what this will bring her when she reads it.

1. Joan of Arc. It doesn’t surprise Sara that the list starts with a woman who lead an army in a revolt. A woman who has been revered for the mystique associated with her martyrdom.

2. Sacajawea - the fearless Lemhi Shoshone woman said to have guided Lewis and Clark with a baby on her back.

3. Marie Curie whose inclusions speaks for itself. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for research into radioactivity. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in two separate categories, physics and chemistry. The reason we have x- ray machines now.

4. Eleanor Roosevelt who worked with the Red Cross, the Women’s Trade Union League, helped form the National Youth Administration, transformed the role of First Lady, and so many more important things. As head of the UN human rights commission she helped to draft the 1948 UN declaration of human rights.

5. Aretha Franklin whose voice and activism shook the world with hits like Respect and A Natural Woman.

6. Sojourner Truth the African-American abolitionist and women’s rights campaigner who changed the course of women’s rights.

7. Indira Gandhi the first female prime minister of India who introduced more left-wing economic policies and sought to promote agricultural productivity. Her end was controversial after declaring a state of emergency, considered authoritarian, and was subsequent assasinated.

8. Princess Diana who showed a natural sympathy for the pool and disenfranchised. Her humanitarian work made her loved by many. The world cried at her early dead.

9. Jane Austen who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Emma and Northanger Abbey. A woman who paved the way for female authors.

10. Susan B. Anthony who fought against slavery, for workers rights, and for women’s rights. She was a crucial voice in the movement to gain women the right to vote.

11. Wangari Maathai the Kenyan-born environmentalist, pro-democracy activist and women’s rights campaigner. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner on the list for her efforts to prevent conflict through protection of scarce resources.

12. Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on the bus, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, and indirectly leading to some of the most significant civil rights legislation changes in history.

13. Billie Holiday who was called the First Lady of the blues and is wildly considered to be the greatest jazz musician of all time. She redefined the jazz era and changed music forever.

14. Anne Frank who still believed that people were good at heart while her family hid from people who only meant them harm and hatred.

15. Billie Jean King who battled for equal pay for women while kicking ass on the tennis court.

16. Oprah Winfrey who was the first woman to own her own talk show and used her voice to make real change.

17. Shirin Ebadi who won a Nobel Peace Prize. She was an Iranian lawyer who fought for human rights and democracy.

18. Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani girl who defied threats of the Taliban to campaign for the right to education. She survived being shot in the head by the Taliban and became a global advocate for women’s rights, especially the right to education.

19. Emily Gonzalez who used horrible situation of a school shooting to bring about change and provide a passionate face against gun violence in America.

Ava’s intensity in her fight for others, the Aretha and Billie records that played often on her record player, her uncontrollable tears when they’d visited the Holocaust Museum all made so much more sense. It’d turned Ava into a fearless warrior, a devoted lover of people; someone who would fight at nothing to change the world and make it better.

“It’s something isn’t it?” Nate says, breaking the silence. “Turn it over.”

Sara does and sees another name she isn’t quite sure how she missed. Her eyes widen as she reads it.

20. Alexandra Danvers

“Alex?” Sara questions, eyes wide.

“I looked into it,” Nate says. “In 2025 Alex uses alien biology, chemistry, and Lena Luther’s nanotechnology to cure everything from cancer to arthritis. She develops a device that decontaminates the water to rid it of trash and pathogens. She develops one injection that cures all contractible disease. By 2035 the only things that kills people are old age, violence, and accidents.”

Sara’s eyes are wide, her heart hammering hard in her chest. Because she still remembers that intensity in Alex’s eyes, her fear, her uncertainty, and her burning desire to save people. Because of course Alex would change the world.

“She also had two biological children that were both hers and her wife’s,” Nate finishes.

Sara smiles even more as her eyes drift down to the engagement ring that’s only been on her finger for a few months. Because of course it’d take that touch of Alex to make someone as intense and wonderful and loving as Ava.

It shouldn’t surprise Sara one bit.