Jay made his way to a darker side of the basement, probably the section that used to be the storage rooms. Most of them have been emptied after the incident until this place could be reopen again and there were still pretty much that way. The speedster slowly entered one room after another, carefully checking before stepping foot in any of them, in case the person who broke in was still there. He wasn't going to let anyone take the Scarlet Speedster away. Was he ready to blow up his cover in order to keep Barry alive? It wasn't a question Jay's mind wanted to answer, not unless it was absolutely necessary.

He entered a dark room with an empty, bloody, chair in the middle of it and a camera placed not too far from it. That was definitely the room where the broadcast came from, just not the one the real Barry was being held. Jay felt he was getting closer and closer to his target. Barry had to be somewhere around.

As on cue, when he slowly exited the place, he heard noise from the adjacent room. Grabbing his gun in front of him, Jay moved toward the next door, noticing once again his open state, the person inside not bothering to hide his tracks. Jay carefully stepped inside, observing a man kneeling in the middle of the room. Short dark hair, slim, wearing a dark hoodie. That's how the man was. Jay knew him from somewhere, the speedster just couldn't put his finger on where, yet. One time for sure, he needed to stay on his guard, seeing the big gun laying on the ground, at hand distance of the mystery man.

That person looked very busy with whatever he was doing. When Jay made his first discreet and vigilante steps into the room, making sure to stay unknown 'til the last moment, he started seeing a figure sitting in front of the kneeling character. With one quick glance, Jay knew it was his target: Earth 1 Flash, Barry, who was sitting on the chair, his head down, his chin resting on his shirtless chest, unmoving. Even from this distance, Jay could see Barry and heard the speedster's laboring breath. On the bright side, it wasn't too late for a rescue, but the Scarlet Speedster didn't look so good either.

Jay got so focus in getting closer and making a plan that he barely noticed how chilly this room was compared to the rest of the building.

Alright, so take down the stranger, knock him out, grab Barry and get out. He couldn't care less that his plan included letting a man unconscious in an impending explosion. As he got a couple of steps closer, it hit him:

''Wells?!''

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

Joe was nervously alternating his glances between his watch and Amelia. Time was going to run out and soon. Without losing sight of the woman who took and hurt his son, he tried activating his earpiece.

''Cisco, is Barry out yet?...Cisco? Can you hear me?''

Static was the only answer he got.

''Trouble with your radio?'' Amelia asked innocently.

Of course this place and her powers would make interferences in the comms.

''I'll make your choice easy. Let me go with my formula and I'll tell you where to find your speedster and how to get him out of here. That simple.''

That was almost a tempting offer. Let a murderer go free to save his family? But what were the chances she would just leave without activating the bomb right after exiting the building? He couldn't let her see how tempted he was feeling, not for now at least. The best shot was to keep her in his sight, keep her talking, and make sure she wasn't going to pull the trigger until at least the end of the countdown. Joe was willing to wait 'til the last second if it meant giving every chances Jay had to find Barry and get him out of there. He wasn't exactly feeling ready to die, but if his death could save Barry, so be it.

''I can't. You killed an innocent man. That other Barry Allen you killed, he was from your Earth and he wasn't a speedster, wasn't he? Not to mention your partner we found in the lake ''

''We're at war, war makes casualties''

''Stand down and come with us, let us find a way to stop that...Zoom.''

''You won't, you can't. Nobody can, expect me. I'm the only one smart enough to do it. My formula is the only weapon we have against these speedsters. The only chance we have to kill them all.''

***FLASHFLASHFLASH*

The mystery man, Harrison Wells, paused what he was doing and turned around to look right in the speedster eyes, piercing through them.

''Well, well, well…Mister Garrick, so we meet again. I thought you were dead. So that's where you were, hiding from Zoom in a whole other universe. I should've see it coming.''

There was no lost love in Wells' voice. Jay wasn't about to let himself get intimidated, acting like he didn't even hear the comment. He wasn't going to bite.

''What are *you* doing here, on this Earth?''

''What does it look like I'm doing? I'm doing your job, Garrick; saving people while you're too busy being a coward and hiding in another universe.''

Obviously deciding the conversation was over, Wells returned his attention to the younger speedster, to this Earth's Flash. Jay carefully closed the distance between himself and the two of them. There was one metal cuff to each of the speedster's wrists and ankles. The ones around the ankles being tied to each other by some sort of metal cable laying on the ground, same for the ones around his wrists. At the same time, he could notice all the blood on the shirtless man. It was the understatement of the year to say Barry didn't look too good right now.

For the first time since entering the room, the Crimson Comet noticed that Wells was holding some sort of portable machine with a keyboard and a screen.

''What are you doing with that? I don't know if you're aware, but we're all going to blow if we don't get out of this place in the next 4 minutes or so.''

He heard the man sighed with frustration.

''How about you let me do my work and go hide somewhere else?''

The machine that Harrison was holding let the men heard a small, but high pinched alarm. Before Jay could make any comment or question, Barry's body let out a grunt of pain and started shaking violently, hit by a sudden and sharp electric shock. Dr. Wells let out another frustration grunt, rapidly typing on his keyboard to try make it stop while Jay moved closer.

''You're killing him!''

''I highly doubt a couple more shocks will kill him more than the bomb that's about to destroy this whole building.''

Barry's body stopped convulsing and returned to his motionless, almost lifeless, state: not moving a single muscle, barely breathing, irregularly and painfully taking in and expulsing small amount of air. Earth 2 Flash glared at the scientist, conflicted between continuing the argument or letting Wells works, whatever the hell he was doing. What was he playing at with this machine? There had to be a better way to do this.

Wells kept on working, but sensing the skeptical eyes on his back, he started talking about it while working:

''Believe it or not Garrick, but the Flash is actually important to me and I need him alive. I made these special speedster's handcuffs myself and Mrs. Wandel decided to steal them from S.T.A.R. Labs. I designed these specifically for speedsters, to stop Zoom. If the wrong frequency is enter or if the speedster tries to get free by phasing, it delivers a shock. I just need to find the right frequency that was put in these. Only Mrs Wandels knows for sure and we're running out of time to go find her and ask.

Now if you don't mind, you can stand there and let me work or you can coward your way out like you usually do. ''

Jay stood back, watching the fallen hero with a smile at the corner of his mouth. If it wasn't for all the power he wanted for the kid, he probably would be on his way out already. Sadly, until that moment where he would finally be able to steal The Flash's speed, he needed to keep that kid alive. A very sad fact considering the situation they were into. He started considering the possibility of just leaving and letting Barry perish in the blast. Maybe he could eventually tell Caitlin about his condition and hope she'll find a cure. She was a smart girl after all.

A click interrupted his thoughts. The metal cuffs around the speedsters' wrist finally opened on their own.

''Nice one Harrison, now free his ankles so we can get out of here.''

''That's if Mrs Wandel putted the same frequency code on the other pair of handcuffs too...''

Wells moved down to work on the ankle, sending the same signal and hoping for the best. He jumped and cursed under his skin when the young prisoner started shaking again.

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

Joe kept on looking at his watch while watching the metahuman in front. 3 minutes left, 2 minutes left. She looked awfully calm for someone who was also about to die with them. She seemed pretty resigned to her fate. But, what else could you expect from such an unstable person? The actions she did weren't the ones of a sane individual.

In the time allowed, Joe's mind worked overtime to try figure out any way to make her deactivate the bomb and surrender, but he couldn't find any. The only thing remaining was the hope that Jay already got Barry out or was doing so at the moment. Maybe he was on his way back or he figured out there wasn't any time left to come back.

Was Joe supposed to stay there and die? What if Jay and Barry were already out of the building? His death would be pretty useless. But if they were still inside, his death would also be pointless. Someone would need to carry the torch. What about Iris? She couldn't lose both her adoptive brother and her father at the same time. The detective looked at the time once again, one minute, less than one minute...55 seconds. It was decided. It was going to be all or nothing. He took a quick glance around the room to spot the location of the window they saw earlier.

It was from the 2nd floor, but what other option was there?

''Last chance Wandel! Surrender or we'll all die!''

Probably tired of all the talking, she just chuckled. That's it. Time up. All or nothing. At his top speed, Joe made sure he aimed for the heart and fire the shot. The bullet hit the target with perfect accuracy. Mrs Wandel's eyes opened widely, as in shock that the Detective indeed shot her, her hand muscles tightening against the device. A detail Joe didn't even see since he was too busy on his backup plan to stick around and watch her reaction. As soon as the shot was fired, he figured, or more like hope, it would take a couple of seconds for the woman to drop the trigger and make everything explode.

He just let his gun hit the ground and ran as fast as he could for the window. Amelia stumbled to stay on her feet for a second or two before dropping dead, her body moving quickly toward the ground. Touching it as Joe went right through the window, upper body going first, his arms raised in front of his face in an effort to protect his head.

The detective's body didn't have time to hit the ground before he heard a huge sound coming from behind him. Sound and heat barely had time to register right before he crumpled on the rock solid ground. Pain exploding in his arm that contacted with the ground first, pain exploding in his shoulder too, not to mention his back. His mind almost went blank, his body wanted to get away from the pain, but Joe needed to fight it, for his children. He knew staying on the spot meant risking being buried alive under the building as he heard it breaking, exploding, and burning behind.

The pain was paralyzing him, he couldn't get up. Joe tried to grab the asphalt in front of him to drag himself away, but in the confusion of his mind, he ended hitting the ground with his injured arm. Screaming in pain, his whole body fell back to the ground, before a debris fell on his back.

Joe's last thought before another one hit his head and send him into oblivion was Barry. Was he out? And safe?


A/N: Congrats Dont be such a sourwolf -Dylan on guessing it right!

Alright now...who do I kill? Joe, Barry or both? ;)

Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Was it a good 2 parts rescue?