Sorry if this new version is confusing for anyone! Again, this is the same story as "Are You Kidding" on my Arrow page but because the Flash characters are so important to Eliza's development I decided to put the same story on the crossover page. New chapter on both versions in a couple of days, I promise.
Chapter 2
I woke up in a dark place. It least it seemed dark until I realized I was blindfolded. I tried to reach for it but my hands were tied to the cold table underneath me, as were my feet. My heart raced and I could feel my breathing become heavy and uneven. All I could think of was those men in the alley and was terrified that they had returned for me.
"Hey, hey calm down, Flowers," a familiar voice said soothingly. I could feel his hand on my shoulder, softly rubbing small circles with his thumb. "You're safe here."
"Then why can't I move?" I breathed out shakily.
"I'm sorry about that," the voice sighed. "It was my friend's idea. They didn't want you to come here so the blindfold was a compromise. That way you can't give away our location."
"Or identities" a female voice added. "Cause that would suck."
It was then that I recognized the voices. No fudging was that Roy and Felicity were here unless… Holy crap. I was in Starling City? The entirety of last night came flooding back, walking to the Lounge, running into those guys in the alley and being rescued by Arsenal and Black Canary. So last night wasn't a hallucination then? Because unless the Arrow cast was into some freaky shit this was actually Starling, not the set of Starling. Although I should be freaking out at the fact that I had apparently traveled to another dimension, I couldn't help but feel relieved. Even if these people didn't know me, I knew them and I knew that they wouldn't hurt me. And at least I knew where I was.
"I'm in the Arrow Cave, aren't I?" I asked, relaxing a bit into the cold table. "Underneath Verdant?"
Roy's hand on my shoulder froze. "How did you know that?"
"It's kind of a long story, Roy."
He lifted his hand off of my shoulder completely. "How do you know my name? I could've sworn I heard you say my name in the alley, too, but I thought I'd imagined it."
"I told you. It's a long story. A long story that would be much easier if I could see. And you know…move." I knew it would take some convincing to get them to believe me but they would eventually. I knew too much for them to just let me go, but they wouldn't hurt me either. Unless Oliver was around. Oliver wouldn't kill me but I knew he'd come with a clever, probably unpleasant way to keep me quiet, especially to protect his team. "I know who all of you are already. Felicity Smoak, John Diggle… Laurel Lance has joined by know hasn't she? Yeah she has, she was there in the alley in the Black Canary getup. The suit looks badass, by the way. And Oliver Queen, of course. Who could forget the Arrow?"
It was silent for a few seconds. Then I was momentarily blinded when the blindfold was ripped off of my face. I shook it off and looked around the room, stunned. I was actually in the Arrow cave. And it was freaking awesome.
"This is so much cooler in person."
"Who are you and how do you know us?" Digg stood next to me, looking incredibly intimidating with his arms crossed and glaring down at me. "Are you a stalker? How long have you been watching us?"
I sighed. Right to the point then. I looked behind Diggle to see Felicity in her desk chair, she seemed confused and a bit worried and Laurel next to her looking furious. Roy was sitting on the other side of me. He also looked confused but his hand was twitching on the table next to my arm, as if he wanted to reach for me but felt conflicted. I turned back to Diggle. "I'm no Carrie Cutter. That girl was insane. Like actually crazy. I'm allowed to say that, I'm a Psych major." Digg rolled his eyes. "You're not going to believe me at first, I barely believe it myself, but you need to know that I will never lie to you guys." Diggle nodded for me to continue. I sighed again. "I'm from another dimension. A dimension where you guys are characters in a TV show based off of comic books. My favorite TV show, actually."
Diggle rolled his eyes again and shook his head. "You're insane."
"It's true." I insisted. "I just spent a solid 40 hours marathoning this show to get ready for this week's episode. I know stuff." I narrowed my eyes at Digg. "Wait, where are we in the show's timeline? Did I jump back a couple of episodes? Because if those were Brick's men that attacked me then I'm ahead of you guys. Is Oliver back yet?" I looked around. "I'm assuming he's not because he'd be here interrogating me with you."
Everyone in the room simultaneously flinched or tensed when I mentioned Oliver. Then Felicity stood. "What do you know about Oliver?" She asked, stepping toward me. "Is he alive?"
"Of course he is. The show is called Arrow. They're not going to kill off the main character, at least not permanently. I thought that the writers would try to milk the whole 'we killed off our main character' thing for a lot longer though. He comes back fairly soon. Within a few weeks."
Felicity sighed and then smiled. I could practically feel her relief. "So he won then? He killed Ra's al Ghul?"
"No," I said bluntly. "He lost. Pretty gruesomely actually. But he survived and is secretly being cared for by some old friends from Hong Kong."
Felicity's head tilted a bit, confused. "How did you know about Hong Kong? I didn't think Oliver told anyone else about while he was…away. And how is he alive if he didn't win?"
"Well when you're shish-kabobed with a sword and thrown off a cliff, people tend to assume that you're dead. But we all know that Oliver Queen isn't the easiest person to kill." I tried to explain everything I could without giving too much away. I needed to prove myself, but I also didn't want to screw up any timey-wimey stuff. I'd seen enough Doctor Who to be wary of time travel. "And I know about Hong Kong because I saw it. Or at least some of it. I saw a lot of Oliver's time on Lian Yu too. Flashbacks are a big part of the show."
The others were still silent and processing but Felicity jumped right back into asking me questions. "If you did travel from another dimension…how? How is that even possible?"
This I didn't know. "I'm not sure. One minute I'm walking to a café to watch Arrow in peace and the next…" I gasped in realization. "How could I be so stupid?"
"What?" Roy asked, apparently done processing. He slowly got to his feet.
"The streak! There was a red streak that started running circles around me until I couldn't breathe and I blacked out. I woke up in that alley you guys found me in."
"A streak?" Digg questioned, looking pointedly at Felicity. "Maybe you should make a call to Central City."
"It makes sense." I insisted. "Barry can time travel and travel to different dimensions in the comic books. Or so I've heard. I've never actually read the comics but I've been wanting to for a while to really understand this world better but I just haven't-"
"Flowers, you can stop now," Roy chuckled and reached to untie my hands. "You're almost as bad as Felicity with the rambling."
"Hey!" Felicity and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and grinned.
As soon as I was loose I sat up, legs crossed and I started rubbing at the red welts on my wrists. Digg must have tied them, I didn't think Roy would have made them that tight. "And why Flowers?" I asked. "You called me that before, too."
"Your shirt," Roy lifted his chin toward it. "You've got flowers on your shirt and you passed out before you could tell us your name so it was either 'Flowers' or 'That Unconscious Chick.'"
I laughed. "Well you weren't that far off. My name's Eliza. Eliza Rose."
Roy held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Eliza Rose."
I shook it. "Nice to meet you, too, Roy Harper."
He grinned and shook his head. "It's gonna be hard to get used to that."
"Get used to what?"
His smile dimmed a bit. "To someone who already knows everything about me."
I gave him a reassuring smile. "If it helps, I don't know everything about you. Only pretty much everything after you met Thea. Your background is very mysterious."
"Then what do you know?" Digg said behind me, making me jump. "What do you know about us?"
I shrugged. "I'm sure I don't know everything. The show would be boring if they added details of daily life stuff. Who wants to watch a show of the Arrow reading his mail or eating dinner? Too dull. So I basically know all the highlights of your lives helping Oliver. The show began when Oliver returned from the island and each of you are introduced when you become a part of his life after that."
"What kind of highlights?" Diggle still seemed wary of me.
"Highlights like the Undertaking, Slade Wilson's siege of the city, anything that's important to Oliver's story and building his character."
"Prove it," Digg challenged. "Almost everything you've said so far could be found through research and stalking. Tell us something you could only know if you'd actually seen it on a television show."
"Easy," I said, swinging my legs over the side of the table. I stood up slowly, still a bit dizzy from my head wound. I stepped up to Diggle. "Your name is John Diggle, Oliver told you he was the Arrow after Deadshot, aka Floyd Lawton, shot you. He offered you a partnership and you turned him down, calling him a murderer. You only agreed later on so you could protect the city and help Oliver from losing his humanity." Digg didn't look impressed. "You're the one you encouraged Oliver to ask out Felicity." Now he looked interested. Felicity looked over, surprised. "He gave you a silver necklace he made himself for your daughter, Sara. It was made out of arrowheads because he couldn't afford to buy something and arrows are the only thing he knows how to make. He talked about how glad he was that you were going to have a family with Lyla because he was-well, he still is, really-convinced that he couldn't have that. You told him he could and basically told him to man up and ask out Felicity already because the only person he was fooling was himself." I finally took a breath.
Digg looked shocked. It was pretty funny to see him like that. I would have laughed if I wasn't so determined to prove myself. I turned to my next target. "Laurel Lance," I started. "When Sara died all you could think about was that stuffed shark that Sara got from the Starling Aquarium, because every time something bad happened you would find her with it and after she died you just wanted to put it in her arms. You started wearing Sara's jacket when you needed to do something that you didn't have the confidence to do but she did, and you donned the Black Canary identity to honor her memory and protect the city the way she can't anymore." I stopped, seeing the tears in her eyes. I stepped closer to her and gently put a hand on her arm. "She'd be so proud of you for what you're doing. She was awesome…funny, brave, and sweet at times but also a total badass." Laurel softly chuckled. "Everyone who saw the episode went nuts when she died. They were either in tears or totally pissed at the writers and were plotting all the ways to kill whoever did it to her. Everyone loved her."
Laurel smiled through her tears. "Thank you."
I grinned. "You're welcome." I turned to the rest of the group. "Now who wants to go next?"
"I think you've made your point, Flowers" Roy said, looking a bit nervous. "I definitely believe that you somehow know things about us that no one else knows, but how did this happen?"
"Good question," Felicity chimed in. "I've read theories about alternate dimensions and I know you mentioned Barry, but can he really travel to different dimensions? What kind of speed would he have to reach for that to be possible?"
I shrugged and felt a little guilty that I hadn't actually read the comics because then I'd know so much more about this stuff. "Honestly, I don't know the logistics. It never happened on the show and I only heard it mentioned about the comics. And even then it might not have been Barry because in the comics there are a bunch of different Flashes even though there's just one on the show. Unless you count the Reverse Flash but I really don't count him considering he's evil and all." I paused and turned to Roy. "I'm rambling again, aren't I?" He nodded. "Sorry. But the facts are that I was in a world where you guys were characters, I see a red streak that closely resembles the Flash at full speed, and now I'm here. Do you have any better ideas on how I got here?"
Felicity sighed. "Well I guess Barry's our only lead. I'll call S.T.A.R. Labs."
I stepped toward Roy and whispered "While she's calling, where's the bathroom?"
Roy chuckled and pointed out the door.
"Thanks."
….
"And you're sure you haven't been to any alternate dimensions lately?" I heard Felicity ask as I entered the room.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that," a different voice answered.
I practically squealed. "Is that them?" I asked, running over to the computer where Felicity was videochatting with S.T.A.R. Labs. On the screen was Barry. Caitlin and Cisco were in the background, busy with something on their own devices. "Hi guys! Your show, though admittedly not as exciting as Arrow, is so much more fun."
"You weren't kidding," Barry said to Felicity, at least I assumed because he was looking me over with interest. "She's either right about everything or completely delusional."
"Hey!" I pouted. "I thought if anyone would believe me it'd be you guys."
Barry chuckled. "Sorry, but we've got to consider all of the possibilities."
"I believe you," Cisco said, turning toward us. "I've always believed in the idea of other dimensions and even if I didn't look at these readings." He pushed a tablet into Barry's hands. "Around the time that you appeared in Starling there we massive amounts of wind and a dramatic air pressure change that hasn't been documented since-"
"Since the night Mom died," Barry's eyes widened with the realization. I felt a twinge of grief.
Cisco nodded and continued with, "these measurements are almost exactly the same as they were that night. If I didn't know any better I'd say some dimension hopping happened that night, too."
"Energy levels are also off the charts," Caitlin added. "I've never seen activity like this before. It really is fascinating." She paused.
"What is it Caitlin?" Felicity questioned hesitantly, as if she was afraid of the answer.
"Nothing bad, it's just…" Caitlin took a deep breath and blurted out. "I'm wondering what kind of physiological effect it might have had on Eliza."
"What kind of effect?" I'd almost forgotten Roy was in the room until he spoke up and stepped closer to me. "Damage?"
"Maybe." Caitlin answered as honestly as she could with the information in front of her. "I'd like to run some tests but it'd take hours for you to get to S.T.A.R. Labs and by then any evidence may be compromised."
"Well how fast could Barry get here?" I prompted. "If you give him the equipment, I'm sure he and Felicity could run any necessary tests right here. And if someone came here Roy and I could show you the alley were I woke up. There might be evidence there too."
The room was silent until Barry said, "That's not a bad idea." A fraction of a second later he was standing in front of the webcam in his Flash suit. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."
