SteelHacker

Steelhacker is the het ship between Zari and Nate from the Legends of Tomorrow fandom.

Season 3
When Zari was placed in her own time loop simulator by Gideon, she would frequently consult the simulator's version of Nate in order to help her investigate the rest of the team and exit the loop. In the process, she would form a bond with Nate to the point of calling him a good friend after suggesting that she take a break and have fun.

Season 4
Nate is mostly away from the team for a while, as he decides to work at the Time Bureau with his father to get some distance from Amaya leaving, while Zari goes on missions with the Legends. She does help prevent Nate from seeing Charlie when Hank Heywood decides to do an impromptu inspection of the Waverider, and witnesses Nate coming to terms with having someone who looks like Amaya aboard the ship. Zari is also present when Nate and his father fight and Nate finally stands up to his father over how to do his job as a Legend. Suspecting a conspiracy in the Time Bureau, Zari sneaks into the bureau's building to uncover the non-doctored footage of Konane's escape. Nate catches Zari after she discovers that the footage was altered with a phone, the phone number of which Nate recognizes as his father Hank's. Zari notes that she needs access to the phone in order to uncover the real footage, so Nate invites her to his Dad's gala as his plus-one. Nate introduces Zari to his mother as his "girlfriend," to which his mother responds by complimenting Zari's "excellent child-bearing hips", making Zari choke on her food and blush, the latter of which she denies when confronted by Nate. Later, Zari takes a photo with Nate's family in order to swipe Hank's phone. As Hank delivers his speech, Nate and Zari watch the real footage of two men in black capturing Konane, with Mona following right behind them. After confronting his father about the footage, Nate asks Zari if she cloned Hank's phone, which she confirms. Zari goes undercover as an agent at the Time Bureau, still under the guise of dating Nate, and together they work on getting intel from Hank Heywood's computer, through an assist from Gary, while trying to keep Hank from imprisoning the Legends. When Zari and Nate take Zari's first briefing from Hank, Nate calls her a sweet nothing to keep up the ruse and Zari awkwardly remarks on it, but Nate doesn't notice anything. Later on, they're on the Waverider and Zari shuts the system down to prevent Hank from using Gideon to find the Legends, Nate and Zari secretly fist bumping and Nate complimenting Zari's work. The Time Bureau finds the Legends and Hank asks Nick to come along to catch them. Before they leave, Zari grabs Nate's hand gently and places an earpiece she's rigged so Nate can contact her, undetected by the Bureau. Zari seems a bit nervous as she grabs Nate's hand and he seems a bit taken aback, gazing at her before he turns to leave. When they reach the Legends, Nate ingests the magical fugitive - a truth bug, which, apart from finally clearing the air between Hank and the Legends, also has Nate reveal that he's open to dating Zari when Hank asks if she's actually his girlfriend. Mick laughs and says 'fat chance'. Back on the Waverider, Zari shows Nate that Gary got the info which shows that Nate's dad is experimenting on magical fugitives. Nate is heartbroken and Zari feels for him, taking his hand to comfort him. Nate is now fully aware of feeling something for Zari and gets awkward at her touch. She tells him she's sorry, but Nate is dazed by the news, turns around opening a portal to the bureau and leaves without another word as Zari looks after him. After having found his father dead in his office, Zari, still pretending to be Nate's girlfriend, stays at the house with him. A week after Hank's death, Zari helps Nate fix his tie in his childhood bedroom as he gets ready for the wake. Nate thanks Zari for being there and she makes a quip about it being the gig. Nate mentions his Mom will be sad when they "break up" and Zari tells him he shouldn't. This stops Nate in his tracks as he looks at her and Zari realises her slip, then explains because Nate's mom going through a lot with her husband passing. They move closer and almost kiss, but then Zari moves away and awkwardly breaks the tension by saying they should go. As soon as they enter the wake, Nate's mom asks him to deliver a eulogy on the virtues of his father, but he tries to refuse and she thanks Zari for being there for Nate. Zari responds by awkwardly linking arms with Nate and the tension between her and Nate in the middle of this crisis as well as pretending to be dating seems to be getting to Zari, as she overhears there might be a new fugitive and is eager to leave.

Nate tells them it's okay if they go and everyone says goodbye to him but when he and Zari say goodbye it's very intense and awkward. They hug and Zari doesn't know what to do with herself while Nate closes his eyes before the break apart and looks after Zari as she swiftly goes. Back on the ship, Charlie, Mona and Sara tease Zari about Nate after Mona's wolf-senses detects Zari's lust for him. Zari denies it and the girls travel to Jane Austen times to fix the aberration, where Zari has a meet-cute with a handsome coachman, who turns out to be the Hindu God of Love, Kamadeva. While his powers initially leads Zari to kiss him and she has an attraction to him, she doesn't act on it, revealing that she's holding back on her feelings for Nate because of the trauma she experienced in her life in dystopian 2042. Kamadeva reveals he's actually a human who has been using the power of Kamadeva. He goads Zari into trying the magic and they almost marry until Mona reminds her that she deserves something real and breaks the spell. Zari comes away from the experience having opened herself up to the possibility of love.

Nate spends time trying to untangle the web of his father's secrets, notably the magical creatures theme park, "Heyworld", he was having built in Nate's honour. Nate finds some closure with Ray's help and decides to have the theme park built after all. When he remembers that he asked the contractor to tear it down, Nate rushes to the site. Meanwhile, Charlie, Mick and Mona help Zari write a text to Nate to tell him that she likes him. Charlie encourages her to just be herself in the end and Zari asks him out, fretting as soon as she hits send. At the site, Nate sees he's got a text from Zari and is so distracted it stops him in his tracks as he's about to be hit with the wrecking ball. Fortunately, he reflexively turns to Steel. At the bureau, Zari comes by to talk about the text and when she learns Nate didn't see it, she backtracks and just mentions that everyone's safe, which Nate is happy about. He asks if she wanted to talk about anything else and she awkwardly exits walking backwards and turns the wrong way, all flustered by Nate. As she leaves, he turns around, smiling to himself, as if he knows that she likes him. Zari and Nate start being very awkward around each other, so much so that Sara points it out and Zari unconvincingly says they are just platonic, but then admits that she thinks she does like him. Sara decides to send only the two of them on a mission together to foster some resolution, which shocks them both. On the Waverider, they talk about how it's not awkward, then both Zari and Nate try to recruit other team members to avoid the awkwardness. Sara even picks a dress and alter ego for Zari as they head to the Adventurer's Club in 1933 New York and Nate is stunned when he sees Zari in her dress. Zari mentions her pseudonym is Marion Ravenwood and Nate realises that Sara set them up for an Indiana Jones special of sorts. Zari then says that it was Sara's way of setting up the perfect date for them, to Nate's surprise. Zari nervously says they can just leave, but Nate is open to it and they are on a mission date. The aberration is a golden egg, which they later try to obtain, at one point hiding in a cupboard where there's unmistakable tension between them. Zari knocks out a passerby that Nate tries to distract and they enter the room where the egg is kept, only Nate realises it's guarded by trip wires, which he then volunteers to slither around. As he writhes around, Zari checks him out, enjoying the view. Nate gets to the egg and throws it to Zari, but it breaks.

Nazis then barge in demanding the real egg from them, but they assume there is none and that the mission was fake too. After learning it's a real mission while tied up at gun point, Zari uses her Air Totem to propel Nate towards the gun fire and he steels up, breaking them lose as Zari uses her totem to fight them off. They are relieved and glad at how well they worked together and have another moment. Nate leans in to kiss Zari, but they're interrupted by Sara and Ava arriving. Realising something's up with Ray, Zari tells Nate he should go and she will finish them mission with the ladies. Nate tells her he's sorry their date was ruined, but Zari tells him it wasn't, the two of them finally acknowledging their feelings to each other for the first time. After they get the egg, they portal back to the Waverider, where they find Nate all beaten up, limping onto the bridge. Zari quickly gives Sara the egg and rushes to Nate's side, holding him up. Nate is tended to in the med bay and Zari comes in, telling him he needs to rest. She finally lets herself be vulnerable with him and they share their first kiss. Zari tells him that's what she feels for him and Nate reciprocates. They start kissing again as the egg suddenly cracks. Nate asks Gideon what the egg is and she scans it, revealing it to be a dragon egg. Nate is incredibly worried about what Neron might do to/as Ray, while in his body. He tries to distract himself by taking care of the dragon egg. Zari goes to check on him, knowing how close he and Ray are, and tries to comfort Nate. She learns that Nate has named the dragon Wixtable after his childhood drawing and Zari says that she likes the name. After the Waverider gets snowed in during the Ice Age, Nate and Zari run to check on the egg. Since the power's out, Zari takes the egg under her shirt to give it skin to skin contact. Nate strokes the egg on her belly and Zari jokes about the implications of the situation. Nate takes the hint and says they can still have fun and they start making out. Zari stops them momentarily, and Nate responds with really lame innuendo; despite this, Zari jumps him anyway and they sleep together for the first time. Later on, the Legends have consigned to their fates, as it were, and are using the ship's power to have fun. As they're playing games, Mick accuses Zari of favouritism and Charlie supports it saying it's obvious that they're sleeping together. Nate weakly tries to deny it, then confirms it and Zari gives him a stern look. Sara expresses her joy at this, to which Nate and Zari share a look and smile.

Fanon
The ship became popular after it was set up in canon in "Lucha De Apuestas", thus shippers were overjoyed when Nate and Zari became an official couple in "Egg MacGuffin". Parts of the fandom see the relationship as having happened suddenly, with little build-up, while others concur but like this ship better than Nate's previous romance, which the fandom felt was especially out of the blue. This ship is also much more popular in fandom than Namaya was Both Zari and Nate have bigger femslash and slash ships, respectively.

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Trivia

 * Their Season 5 reunion made the EW top ship moments of 2020 list

Photos
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