Spoilers: Orion references characters, events, and themes from all episodes of The Flash through 02x22 Invincible, all comics featuring Zoom/Hunter Zolomon, and various comics released under the New 52.

Warning: Orion contains adult content, graphic description of violence, and dark material that exceed canon-typical levels. Please mind the M rating.

Chapter Summary: Caitlin pursues a risky surgery to try to save Hunter's life. Meanwhile, the MTU launches a major assault to win back its lost facility and Fort Greene.


Chapter Nine
Blood Star


About two months ago on Earth-1... Caitlin's wheels were turning as she triple-checked her results. All of them were negative. She stared at the screen in frustration and disbelief. Every avenue she explored was just another dead end. She must've missed something, anything.

"I thought Harry was the only one living here," Cisco said as he entered the Cortex.

She glanced at the clock on her screen and balked when she saw it was nearly nine.

"I, uh, must've lost track of time," she replied automatically.

"Been doing that a lot lately," he said pointedly. "You okay?"

"No," she replied, the word escaping her without due consideration. "Jay's getting worse, and I haven't found anything that can help him. Not from our earth or his."

"Huh," he said. "Do you think there's a chance that - maybe - this has something to do with the fact that Jay wasn't, you know... forthcoming about his condition?"

A throbbing pain started in her temples. She could tell that Cisco hadn't bumped into her by accident. He must've noticed the sudden uptick in late nights and the tension between her and Jay.

"I'm gonna take your silence as admission," he continued. "And I feel you. I'm peeved about it, too, but you don't see me avoiding the man."

"I'm not avoiding him, Cisco," she replied. "It's like Jay's body is rapidly aging... cell death, and it's... I think the only reason he's survived so long without obvious symptoms was the SpeedForce, but that's been out of his system for almost a year now, and whatever's happening... it's accelerating. I don't know how to stop it, Cisco. I can't even slow it down."

"Huh," Cisco said. "Did Barry run through time again? Because I swear you said that exact same thing two nights ago. You know, the last time I found you in here after dinner."

She closed her eyes as she realized, yes, she had told Cisco all of this right after her third round of simulations failed. She hadn't slept much between then and now, and her memories from the past few days were thin and foggy.

"I'm sorry, Cisco, I - I can't..."

She didn't know how to express the countless, writhing thoughts teaming in her head, and at this point, she didn't even want to try.

"Hey, I get it," he said. "You don't want anything bad to happen to Jay. The man named Sand Demon and the Speed Cannon. We wanna keep him around. Keyword: we. Us. You're not in this alone. Even Harry's helping."

"We're - Jay is running out of time."

"It's not all on you, Caitlin," Cisco replied. Then he added, "Listen, I know my track record makes me like the last person to give advice on the subject, but it's pretty clear that he makes you happy. Happier than you've been for a long time."

"That's why we have to save him."

"We will," Cisco said. "In the mean time, maybe holding up in here isn't the only option. I'm just saying."


Now on Earth-2... Hunter took a long, settling breath as the near-constant pain pitched. The sharp edge of the scalpel was one thing, but the digging and the twisting redoubled the agony. He focused every ounce of his strength on keeping his mind calm and his body still.

He couldn't pretend the pain wasn't happening; he couldn't compartmentalize and forget it like his many psychological scars. The surgery was limited to his left arm, yet all his nerves were aflame with protest, demanding he do something - anything - to make it stop.

Each cut built upon the last, and every time he thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. He couldn't remember the last time pain affected him like this. That was probably a good thing. He needed to stay in the moment, conserve his energy, keep still so Caitlin could save him.

Do it for her.

It was coming from that part of his mind that normally wasn't trustworthy. It voiced his doubts and fears and reminded him of every mistake he had ever made. It undercut his every victory and tainted any measure of joy he eked out. And for some reason, it was the only part of him that wasn't currently screaming in agony, the only voice in his head that was making sense.

You can take the pain. Do it for her.

The weakest aspect of himself was the only one still speaking, so he listened. Like a lullaby, the precise words became lost, but the message remained strong and sure.

Do it for her.

No matter how much he wanted to scream and writhe, he resisted.

Hunter didn't know how long it went on. He kept telling himself that this was the last obstruction, so he only had to hold out a little while longer. Just a little while longer. And when he couldn't lie to himself any more, he returned to his touchstone.

Hold on. Do it for her.

"Hunter, can you hear me?" Caitlin asked. "Hunter! Hunter? Blink three times if you can hear me."

Unable to speak, he blinked three times.

"The last obstruction... it's deep," she said. "Deeply entangled with the artery... I can't remove it without compromising the blood vessel. You'll lose what's left of your blood volume in less than a minute. I can't cut it out unless I do something drastic."

"Do it," he grunted.

"If I do this, it will compromise your arm," she said. "You're weak. And you're healing is slow. Almost... almost human. If I do this, you could lose function or the entire limb, and - "

"Do it," he repeated. "Please."

"Hunter, I'm sorry," she said. "This is going to hurt."

How could the pain be any worse?

As if to answer his question, he heard the roar of a flame. Apparently, the only way to prevent him from bleeding to death was to cauterize straight through the artery. She had to burn him to save him.

He did his best to hold back, but when she turned the torch on him, he screamed.

The sound echoed for miles.


Caitlin pressed ahead despite the horrible, endless scream and the smell of burning flesh, though she knew the latter was phantosmia, her senses conjuring the odors her suit filtered out. The hollow sound of Hunter's cry continued long after she finished the cauterization. She had nearly removed the last obstruction when he fell silent.

She attempted to keep a cool head, but the abrupt noiselessness was deafening, spurring her to finish as quickly as possible. Objectively, she knew she needed to be meticulous - the procedure wasn't remotely textbook, which made closing far more complex - but it wasn't enough to quell her instinct to rush. The cauterization had reduced the amount of viable tissue, and most of what remained was too friable to manipulate. So she placed two bioabsorbable stents to reconnect and support the burned blood vessel, hoping that they were as effective as the literature claimed. As with the previous incisions, she used a medical glue designed to dissolve during the metahealing process. She couldn't help but worry about its limitations, however, given the circumstances.

Panic finally won out when there was no visible pulse in the exposed tissue after she released the hemostat. She couldn't see a visible pulse anywhere in the arm. She used her suit to check his vitals. All of them were waning.

She hastily replaced the ligaments, tendons, and muscle, layering without suture or attachment, save for the dermis, which she held together with skin glue. She then proceeded to splint the arm, making the dressing as tight as possible, immobilizing the limb.

When she turned back to his face, Hunter's eyes were closed, and he was seven shades too pale. Out of habit, her fingers went to his neck for a carotid pulse.

There was nothing.

She waved her palms over his chest, using her suit to scan for vital signs, but there was no indication of life. Respiration and heart rate were absent, and blood volume was fatally low.

Of course it was. Most of his blood was pooled around the table or spattered all over her suit. He'd bled to death.

She had warned him. She had said he'd bleed out. She told him he'd die if she tried this. What had she been thinking, even suggesting it?

She backed away from the table as the realization slammed into her: he was dead. Dead. She became acutely aware that she was elbow-deep in his blood. She'd killed Jay.

Jay is Hunter, and Hunter is Zoom.

Just a few hours ago, she would've felt better - safer, even liberated - if Zoom was dead. But in this moment, she didn't see a defeated villain or an enemy who received his comeuppance; now, all she saw was a man - Hunter - broken and bloody and lost forever.

She'd killed him.

You tried to save him. That was more than he deserved.

Caitlin felt hopeless, helpless, and furious. Wasn't watching someone she loved die once enough?

Someone you love?

She braced herself for the fallout, for the weight of everything to crash into her, but instead, all she felt was a peculiar kind of numbness. She was trapped between an urge to do something - anything - and a deep-seated denial that kept her rooted to the spot.

She blinked, and for no reason at all, her eyes fell on Hunter's motionless body. The too-pale skin of his exposed chest stood out against the coarse, black suit that still clung to half his body. What struck her was how small he seemed now, in spite of all his fury and power, all his pain and tyranny. For all the terror Zoom visited upon two universes, Hunter was so... so... human.

She didn't have anything to cover him with, but leaving him like this wasn't right. So she drew his suit over his torso, adjusted his head, and even ran her fingers down his face to make sure his eyes were completely closed.

The numbness fell away as a deluge of emotions swept through her. She felt splintered, and she hated herself for it. Feeling anything other than relief over his death was foolish, just a byproduct of his mind games and manipulations. The man devastated an entire universe. He was a monster. He deserved to die and leave no one to mourn him.

He deserved to be forgotten like a bad dream.

Caitlin turned away as her breath got caught on the lump in her throat. She steadied herself, but it wasn't enough. Her suit was too constricting, confining her every movement.

She ripped the mask off her face, desperate for more air. The cold morning air smacked against her too-hot skin, buffeting the warm tears that poured from her eyes. She couldn't stop it, no matter how much she wanted to. She couldn't think. She couldn't speak. She barely kept her feet under her as her crying escalated to an uncontrollable sob.

Maybe it was all a lie. Maybe every good thing he did was just to manipulate her. That didn't change how she felt about him.

It didn't change the fact that she'd never have a chance to know one way or the other.

She stumbled into a tree, suddenly lightheaded, probably because she hadn't had any food or water in the past twelve hours. When she tried to stand up straight, she felt the world spin around her before she collapsed.

Had she remained conscious just a moment longer, she would've felt someone catch her.


Hunter came-to abruptly, his eyes snapping open as soon as consciousness returned. It felt as if his arm and chest were impaled on a hot poker but that was infinitely better than the tearing, searing agony that had driven him into the blackness.

He distinctly remembered his heart stopping. Then... nothing. He couldn't recall anything between that moment and this, yet, instinctively, he knew it had been more than a few seconds. More than a few minutes, even.

Before he had time to reflect on his situation, the muffled sound of someone crying reached his ears. His heart stuttered through its next few beats when he wondered if she was crying for him.

Caitlin wouldn't shed tears over a monster like you.

He sat up carefully, getting the measure of his injuries. His arm was splinted stiffly, but there was no good way for him to support it once he stood upright. It flopped awkwardly to one side, inspiring an ache that went down to the bone. He nearly called out to her, but his voice failed him when he saw her stumble into a tree.

He raced to her side, and though his speed was at an all-time low, he made it in time to catch her with his good arm.

"Caitlin? Caitlin!"

Panic pushed his fatigued heart to its limit. Her pulse was steady, as was her breathing; she was only unconscious.

He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He wanted to hold her properly - to carry her - but the splint wouldn't give. He needed help.

"Totem!" he shouted. "Totem!"

He waited, and he couldn't help but stare as he cradled her against his chest. Her face was streaked red, and her long brown hair was plastered against her head from her cowl.

She was breathtaking.

Always.


The next few hours were the most confounding in Hunter's recent memory. Zoom couldn't be seen wounded, let alone in a cast, but removing it would risk re-injury, which was particularly problematic now that the only doctor he trusted was incapacitated.

With his options limited, he had to operate through a proxy, Totem. She had already seen him injured before, and she wouldn't dare betray him.

Caitlin was his priority, and she needed medical treatment and rest. Unable to carry her, he arranged for transport via Blink.

And that's when he found out about the boy, RJ.

Totem insisted that the child travel and remain with Caitlin, per her own demands.

In all likelihood, she had simply bonded with the youngster when she rescued him from the aftermath of the siege. She usually bonded with her parents. There was no reason to assume that this boy was special in any way. How important could he be, given that she'd set him aside when Hunter called?

Besides, the more relationships she forged on Earth-2, the less likely she would be to run, should the opportunity present itself.

So he ordered the boy's transport with Caitlin back to the Comet, where he was to be set up in her room for the time being. Then he waited, out of sight, until Blink came and teleported them away.

That's when everything began to go sideways.

It took half an hour and about nearly cheeseburgers to regain even a fraction of his strength and speed, but it was more than enough to get him running again.

He raced the perimeter of Fort Greene expecting to find resistance, but the entire facility was still and silent. Hazard and Haunt had maintained the lockdown without incident.

Yet there had been a secondary attack during the siege by a sizeable force that infiltrated the ruins of the building and activated its self-destruct sequence. For the most part, it had been foolish suicide mission that failed to kill a single metahuman, but it did force them to retreat much sooner than initially planned, which meant abandoning resources that could've been exploited. The computers alone could've provided endless information about the anti-metahuman technology being developed, not to mention the the research and surveillance on suspected metas.

Hunter had assumed that the strike force had come from Fort Greene, somehow taking out Hazard and Haunt before they could raise the alarm, but clearly that wasn't the case. So where had the unit come from?

He didn't have time to consider the possibilities, not with hundreds of metas out in the open in broad daylight, grouped around makeshift medical tents. They'd be sitting ducks for an organized military assault.

Hunter made Totem issue a full retreat, which meant prioritizing the transport of cleared individuals over procedures to remove Trojans and other malicious implants.

It was a polarizing decision that triggered a wave of resistance. Few were willing to abandon family or friends, let alone leave them behind in a warzone to endure dangerous surgeries.

The majority of it was sniping and backtalk, little more than kicking and screaming, yet Totem wasted hours quelling an uproar that never would've happened had the order come directly from Zoom.

Some of the more stalwart rebels began to linger, hiding out of sight and disrupting the already tenuous transportation schedule. He wanted nothing more than to make an example of somebody, knowing that the rest would fall in line as soon as they saw it, but his arm was too sore to remove the cast.

So he managed the situation from the shadows, occasionally knocking heads together, but mostly dragging stragglers into the open single-handedly in a flash of blue lightning so Blink could take them away.

Somehow, he kept his temper in check for the first few hours.

But then Totem caught sight of enemy forces amassing and moving in. A bird's eye view revealed that most of the troops were marching for Fort Greene, but a substantial number were heading straight for them, equipped with heavy artillery.

There wasn't time to think or discuss matters.

"Start burn site protocol," Zoom barked at Totem.

If she had questions, she didn't ask them. Neither did she comment when he ripped off his cast, freeing his arm.

It ached furiously, but he could handle the pain, especially now that he had something to distract himself with: a fight.

He took a secondary guard - Black Siren and a few of her minions, along with a new minion called Multiplex - and went to Fort Greene for Haunt and Hazard. He was pleased to find both minions already setting pitfalls and other traps for the next wave of soldiers.

Black Siren and Hazard seemed particularly invested in the various snares and deathtraps, so Zoom left them to whatever sabotage they could muster in the allotted ten minutes. He personally extracted Haunt and the Calculator. He wasn't a meta, but he had proven himself useful, which won him a modicum of protection for the time being.

By the time he and his secondary guard returned to primary location, Totem had called in the big guns. Any uninjured meta had returned, along with several injured metas who decided they were ready for another fight.

Unlike before, they didn't have the element of surprise, and their enemies had plenty of tactical advantage, not to mention drones. The ensuing fight was nothing but abject chaos; fire and brimstone with blue lightning to underscore it all.

Zoom always wins.

It was exactly what Hunter needed to burn through his frustration and rage. He tore apart drones and effortless snapped necks. He was a blur of broken bones and bloodshed, and even though his speed was still low, he felt like himself again.

Once he was done shattering these worthless foot soldiers, he would return to the Comet, victorious, and then he would finally get the one thing he wanted more than anything else: Caitlin's full allegiance. After everything she'd seen, there was no way she would side with anything other than the Cause.

Zoom always wins.


End of Chapter Notes


Warning: The end of chapter notes contain minor spoilers for the chapter. Read at your own risk.

Chapter notes: The title of this chapter comes from the Kauluakoko, the Hawaiian name for Betelguese, the second brightest star in the Orion constellation. Kauluakoko means "brilliant red star" (with koko meaning "blood").

Author's note: I hope you enjoyed the latest installment!