A/N: Another mostly word-for-word scenes from the episode(s) chap. Things will start picking up with alterations to the show in the coming chapters.

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 10 -

The pounding headache, ringing in her ears, and the feeling of being crushed woke Iris what felt like hours later. At first, she couldn't remember anything. Then slowly, her eyes blinking open, forcing her awake, she remembered.

Savitar. Killer Frost. Barry and Savitar.

She felt her stomach lurch.

Before she could empty any contents of her stomach though, the crates amassed in a pile on top of her drove her into action. She pushed them off of her with some effort and when they were gone she found that she was completely and utterly alone. Moonlight shone through the windows on the far side of the room, in addition to a hanging lamp over one of the large metal tables, but as far as Iris could tell, neither Savitar or Killer Frost were anywhere nearby.

"Hello?" she called into the room, half-expecting one or both of them to suddenly appear in front of her with a wicked, menacing grin.

She fully prepared herself to throw up on whoever it was if that happened.

But nobody came out.

She looked down at her hands, saw they were untied from the thick chains Killer Frost had tightly wound around them after the water incident.

"In case she gets daring," she'd said, presumably to Savitar, who had held no objection to it.

Iris couldn't figure out what happened, why she was alone. Had Savitar and Killer Frost gone out? Maybe to retrieve something before she was taken to Infantino Street and killed in front of Barry and everyone else? She didn't think they'd risk leaving her alone. She might try to escape. She was considering it now.

Would it be a trap though? Would she get very far even if she tried? She couldn't just sit here and do nothing. Especially if the showdown could be completely avoided by her getting to safety long enough for Savitar to be erased from existence.

Walking toward what appeared to be the nearest exit, Iris stopped. There was a tall mirror in the corner, slanted against the cement wall. She approached it slowly but her reflection never changed.

It wasn't the visage of Iris West. It was that of HR Wells.

And that's when she remembered.

Earlier, she couldn't recall exactly when – it wasn't as if there was a clock in this dingey old building – Iris had sat against the wall, chains clasping her wrists tightly behind her back, awaiting her death. She'd almost been looking forward to it.

Not the pain, of course. That was unavoidable. Not everyone else's pain due to her death. She would never have wished for that. Not the future she'd planned that she wouldn't even begin to explore. But in light of the information she'd recently received, courtesy of Killer Frost and Savitar, death was a welcome avenue when the alternative was a sickening feeling of betrayal and heartbreak. Ever since she'd known Barry, she'd defended him against anyone who wished him harm. She'd defended his insistence that his dad was innocent. She'd defended his decision to go back in time and save his mom, and then to undo it because it had caused more harm than good. She'd even come around to his reason for proposing to her, even though she had every reason to make that a deal breaker in their relationship.

But how could she defend him from this?

He had totally and completely betrayed her trust. He'd broken her heart. And he'd lied to her for months. And with the man – a time remnant of himself twisted into an evil shell of a man – who was hell-bent on killing her and had tormented Barry for months before he even met him outside of that ghastly suit.

Spurts of that video Killer Frost forced her to watch flashed through her mind. She hadn't even known Barry was bi. For everything she knew about him, she didn't know that. She felt as blindsided as when she'd accidentally found out he was the Flash. Except this was so much worse. This was…

It hurt to think about it. She wanted to scream at him for his betrayal, demand how he could claim to love her when he was fucking her murderer behind her back. Every tender moment, every instance of sexual euphoria, every promise that he would save and protect her felt wasted, something to make him feel less guilty about what he had been doing.

She wondered how she could ever love him all after this. And wouldn't it be so much better to just let Savitar kill her. Then she wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath. She wouldn't have to live with the knowledge of what Barry had done to her. She wouldn't have to physically restrain herself from pushing him into a dark hole by joining likely everyone else on the team – should they find out – when they cast him aside. She wouldn't have to sever not only their engagement, their entire romantic relationship, but their friendship as well.

Never in the entire time she'd known him, even when she'd mad at him, had she ever truly complicated casting him out of her life. He was her best friend. Without him, half of her would be missing. He'd said there was no Flash without Iris West. Well, there was no Iris West without Barry Allen either. She was her own person, but all the love she held inside her flourished because he was in her life making it grow.

After months of emotional exhaustion, fearing her own death and everything she'd have to lose, and how her absence would affect everybody – especially after Barry had returned from 2024 to see the devastation seven years past her death – a new weight would replace the old one. She'd be alive but not really living. She'd be ringing herself dry, trying to return to a life that no longer existed.

And yet, how could she just forgive Barry for what he'd done? Even if he managed to save her life. Would that really be enough to wash away his sins from the past two months?

The decision alone would destroy her. It got her to thinking that if Savitar didn't end up killing her, maybe she would just do it herself. Not once had she considered taking her own life. She had too many people depending on her and too much she wanted to live for. But this… She'd never experienced anything like this.

Amidst her very depressing thoughts, Iris had seen a blue flash simultaneous with a quiet buzzing, and when she turned to see where it was coming from, since it definitely wasn't coming from the occupied villains across the room, relief flooded through her as she saw a familiar face.

"HR?" she gasped, making sure to keep her startled state quiet so as not to draw attention.

He met her eyes behind the several objects cluttering the floor, separating the two of them.

"Hi."

Her relief was palpable in her voice. Despite everything, her heart soared for what she suspected he was there for.

He hurried over to her, speaking for the first time.

"Hi," he whispered, raising the blue spike from Savitar's suit to slice through the chains binding her hands together. "Let's get you out of here."

"Where is everybody else?" she whispered back.

Glancing over at Savitar and Killer Frost, he continued his work.

"I couldn't tell Barry…or Savitar would know I was coming."

A soft clink signaled her freedom. Quickly they scrambled towards the exit.

"Let's get you out of here," he said again.

"Okay," she said, hope rising in her, as she scrambled with him towards the exit.

And it should've been enough. It should've been what saved her, what saved all of them. But the spear HR held in his hand was magnetized, and it flew from his hand back in place on the suit Savitar and HR were standing right beside.

Iris and HR made a run for it, but Killer Frost was striding after them, determined and yet in no hurry after Savitar's "Get her" drove her into action.

A dead end, as Iris should've known there would be. They hadn't thought enough to figure out a successful exit, only that they needed to get away.

"We can't outrun them," she told HR, worried but still hoping he had a plan.

"No, we can't," he said, then slowly turned to her. He lit some sort of stick, what almost looked like a small flashlight in his hand, at his chin, and before Iris knew it, she was looking at herself.

"What are you doing?" she asked, HR's voice pouring past her lips.

"I'm the reason Savitar found you," he said. "I need to remedy that."

She shook her head. "Not like this. Give me tha-"

But she wasn't able to save HR from his noble cause, because a blast of ice flew at her and she dropped to the floor. Everything faded to black.

And now, here she was, all of her memory restored, still looking like HR and frantic with what to do, how to stop it.

She remembered Tracy who had helped to put together the speed bazooka, and then she thought of HR, whose odd personality had made him a reluctant addition to the team. Her relationship with Barry might be very uncertain and complicated once all of this was over, but HR and Tracy had each other. They had a sure, simple love with a promising future.

If Iris had anything to say about it, they were still going to have that.

She snapped out of her thoughts, ran to the correct exit and down the street, praying that Infantino Street was close by and that her hero could still be saved.

…

Barry could feel the prickle ripple down his skin beneath his suit. His fingers and toes curled. He fought to stay still. Everyone was in place. Joe was prepped with a gun overhead. Tracy was in a van nearby, ready to enact the speed bazooka just in time to suck Savitar back in the speed force he'd managed to crawl out from. The only thing left was for his enemy to show his face, so he could defeat him. And he would do it before he stabbed Iris through her back, killing her before Barry could reach her.

But that wasn't going to happen. The Flash was going to win.

And he didn't have to wait long.

In a blink, the man in grossly large metal armor was before him, clutching a frightened Iris in his arms.

"Flash, this is it. Now the moment is upon us. My ascension to become a God."

A hint of a smirk shown on Barry's face. It was easy to believe he could beat him when he was so sure they'd uncovered the perfect solution. It was easy to ignore what had been between him and his time remnant outside of their mutual hatred when his human face wasn't staring back at him.

The cockiness slipped off his tongue. He didn't bother to stop it.

"Not tonight."

"Show me you're the hero."

Savitar pushed Iris onto the ground, and Barry was briefly distracted. Was this a chance? Should he run to save Iris now? Was she hurt? Was she okay? Does she know what you did, Barry?

He brushed aside that last thought. He couldn't afford to feel guilty right now.

Save her, Barry. Save her the way you planned.

"Let's see what happens," Savitar taunted.

His confidence rising again, he whispered, "Oh, I'm going to stop you."

Barry flashed to the speed gun, fired it up, and powered it at Savitar. The supposed God of Speed ran from it every which way. Barry couldn't keep it on him. It was too slow. But then Savitar came back to the first place he'd arrived, and really then, Barry should have been tipped off that it was too easy.

But it was too thrilling, the feeling too victorious, that the gun was electrifying Savitar, causing him to fall to his knees to be filled with that sheer power that would end him.

"It's working," he said to himself, feeling higher than ever, so close to winning he could taste it.

But then Savitar slowly stood up, consuming the power instead of being crushed by it. And then the stream stopped, burst into nothingness, and the gun died in Barry's hands as his nemesis stood tall.

"What?" Shock and fear slammed into him as he tossed the gun to the ground. "Why didn't it work?"

"I spent an eternity in a trap just like that." He lifted the Philosopher's stone in his large claw grasp. "You think I didn't know how to prevent it from happening again?"

"The Philosopher's stone," Barry whispered, going numb.

"It's made of calcified speed force energy, and you gave it to me."

"No." Panic raced through him. He directed his voice into the com. "Guys. Guys!"

"I failed," Tracy whispered.

Barry looked above. "Joe!"

But it was too late. Savitar raised Iris up beside him. There was no way Joe could get a clear shot without fatally injuring his daughter in the process.

"You stuck me in the speed force for an eternity of Hell," Savitar accused. "Now welcome to yours."

Iris' fear-stricken face would be ingrained into his mind every day for the rest of his life. He didn't even realize as his actions, his words spilled out exactly as they had since the very first time he'd been propelled to the future nearly six months prior.

"No. Don't do this." He reached out his hand, begging for mercy in the last hour. "Don't do this."

"Now, finally I am free of you."

Savitar raised his arm, preparing to pull forth the blade that would end Iris' life.

"Barry," Iris gasped, the weight of what was happening finally really falling on her.

"I'm begging you, just-"

"Barry!" Frantically, she pleaded. Tears filling her eyes.

"You lose, Barry."

The blade thrust forward, and all of time stilled.

"No!" Barry cried out, feeling nothing at all but desperation and failure.

He ran as fast as he could to save the woman he loved. His whole life flashed before him, but no pep talk, no confidence, no alternative solution was granted him. And fast as he was, he wasn't fast enough.

The blade plunged through Iris' chest no sooner than a second before Barry reached her. It was yanked out and Savitar fled as she fell into Barry's arms.

"Iris, Iris, Iris, Iris…"

He couldn't stop saying her name, couldn't stop trying to shake her awake, couldn't stop hoping this wasn't real. But it was.

His head fell back, crying out to anyone and anything that could hear him, though he knew there was nothing to be saved. There would be no salvation for him or any of them.

By all appearances, Iris West was dead.