We had a nice week of peace in the last chapter of this story but now we're jumping back into the action. Enjoy!
Two weeks after Sara returned from S.T.A.R. Labs, she was nearly fully recovered from the bullet wound to the stomach she'd received from Malcolm Merlyn. She was off of the pain medication and Leonard was spending less time at her apartment — Avery was confused about why he wasn't there to make breakfast with her anymore.
The day Merlyn's plan went into action was a Friday. Avery didn't have preschool on Fridays, and Sara wasn't back at work yet, so she was enjoying spending time with her daughter.
Sara was sitting on the couch with a book and Avery curled by her side. She was having a quick snack before dinner and watching a Disney cartoon while she ate. Sara had long since tuned out the TV show — she was pretty sure Avery had seen this episode at least four or five times already, not that she remembered.
"Hello Central City."
Sara jumped, startled by the gravelly voice that had interrupted a princess song about kindness and love.
"Avery, go to your room," Sara demanded. Avery's eyes furrowed in confusion.
"What about my show?" she asked.
"It's a commercial," she said. She lifted Avery up off the couch and stood her on the floor, nudging her towards her bedroom. Avery shrugged and obediently left the living room.
Sara turned her attention back to the TV to see not an animated princess in a red dress, but a dark, dimly lit room. The video was obviously being filmed with a phone, and not a good one, because the quality was grainy and the man, his face covered by a black mask and hood, was very close to the camera.
"I apologize for interrupting your scheduled programming, but I figured you'd appreciate a spoiler about what comes next," the man said. The electronic sound to the voice along with the manner of speech confirmed Sara's suspicions. This was Malcolm Merlyn hidden behind a mask and a voice modulator, "In just over two hours, your city is going to be subject to the wrath of what I like to call a Markov device. What's a Markov device, you might ask? It is a machine that can trigger an earthquake so powerful it will level your entire city. You have two hours to get your affairs in order before your entire city is brought to the ground."
The screen went black and then the Disney show started playing again as if nothing had interrupted it. Sara stood from the couch and opened her apartment door to see that Leonard was about to start knocking on it.
"Oh," she stepped back in surprise.
"You heard Merlyn?" he asked.
She nodded.
"We have two hours," she said.
"We have two hours," Leonard repeated.
The clock read barely past five o'clock, so they had until seven to figure out how to defeat Merlyn and the Markov device.
"We should get to the lab," Sara said, "Let me just grab Avery."
She turned and went into her daughter's room.
Avery was sitting on the floor playing with her dollhouse.
"We've gotta go, Avie," Sara said.
"But what about dinner" she asked.
"We'll get dinner later, but now we gotta go to S.T.A.R. Labs."
"Can I play with Barry and Jesse?" Avery asked, resting her bunny blanket on the floor as she got to her feet.
"I dunno about play," Sara replied, "We're gonna be working, but you'll definitely see them."
Avery jumped giddily towards the door.
"Don't forget bunny," Sara reminded her. Avery doubled back and picked up her blanket. As they left the room, she grabbed her mother's hand, but she let go just as quickly when they entered the living room and she saw Leonard standing by the door.
"Lenny!" she cried, jumping into his arms.
"Hey kiddo." Leonard lifted her up.
"Are you coming with us to the star building?" she asked.
"Yeah," he replied.
"Speaking of the star building," Sara said, "We should go."
"Just give me a minute to get my stuff and then I'll be ready," Leonard replied, setting Avery on the ground. He left the apartment for his own, and Sara busied herself with getting ready for what she, Leonard, and the team at S.T.A.R. Labs were about to do. If the next few hours went perfectly, the city would be safe, nobody would get hurt, and Merlyn would be somewhere he couldn't even plan to harm anyone anymore. If the plan didn't go as well as they hoped, which Sara suspected it would, things could end with a city in shambles.
They'd just have to see.
Sara quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a grey t-shirt, and her leather jacket. She helped Avery into her black high tops and a blue zip-up hoodie and then went with her into the hallway (and then a brief trip back inside when Avery frantically realized she'd once again forgotten her blanky).
Leonard soon joined them, his blue parka and cold gun in hand.
Avery's eyes fell on the weapon he was holding.
"What tha—"
"Don't ask," Sara warned.
"Okay," she shrugged.
They all loaded into the car and headed for S.T.A.R. Labs. Sara had expected the streets to be filled with panicked civilians, the roads packed with cars trying to make their escape from the city, but there was nothing. The only cars on the street was the usual Friday night commuters, people trying to get home to eat dinner with their families.
"I guess nobody believed Merlyn," Sara commented.
"This city's seen it all," Leonard responded, "We don't scare easy anymore."
Both Sara and Leonard preferred it this way anyway. Figuring out how to stop Merlyn would be much easier without fighting through throngs of panicked Central City civilians.
They made it to S.T.A.R. Labs in just under ten minutes, and went inside to see the Flash and his team gathered in the Cortex.
"You're here," Barry exclaimed when they walked in.
"I see you got Merlyn's message," Leonard said. Barry nodded.
"Caitlin, Cisco, and Harry are trying to track the Markov device, "He said."
"Trying is the operative word," Caitlin said, raising her head from the computer she was bent over.
"It's not still in the warehouse?" Sara asked.
"I wish," Caitlin replied, "No, that's too obvious. He'll have it somewhere he knows will be hard to find."
"We think," Wells added, "that it'll be underground because, as we know, earthquakes happen in the earth, but we don't have time to check every basement in Central City."
"Did you check the subway system?" Sara asked.
"First place we thought of," he answered, "But they're all running as normal. The Markov device would be in pieces if it was down there."
"It'll give off a heat signature when it's activated," Cisco said, "but by then it'll be too late."
The scientists continued talking about science things that Sara truthfully didn't understand. As they did, Avery pulled on her mother's sleeve.
"Mommy," she said when she'd gotten her attention, "I'm hungry."
Sara glanced at the clock and saw that it was around Avery's dinnertime.
"Avery," Leonard said, "Do you want to come with me to Big Belly Burger to pick up dinner for everyone?"
"Yeah!" she replied. She hopped out of her chair.
"Ave, leave your bunny here," Sara said, predicting the worst and wanting to prevent it happening before it did.
"But I wanna bring her!" Avery whined.
"If you forget her somewhere, I'm not gonna go track her down, so if you think you won't lose her, you can take that chance."
Avery pouted for a moment or two, but eventually relinquished her hold on the bunny. She took Leonard's hand and they left the Cortex.
About ten minutes later, Iris and Joe walked in.
"Is it true?" Joe asked, "What was on TV, was it true?"
"Yes," Sara nodded.
"The CCPD thinks it's a prank," Joe groaned.
"Them and the rest of the city," Sara replied.
"How long do you think we have?"
"A little less than two hours," Sara estimated, "But Joe, it's Merlyn."
"What?"
"Malcolm Merlyn, he's the one doing this," she said. She filled her boss in on Merlyn's plan.
"Wow," Joe said when she'd finished, absently rubbing his cheek.
"He's on a train back to Star City right now. Tell the CCPD or the SCPD or anyone who can catch him. It's the only way to make sure his plan fails."
"I'm on it," Joe said seriously. He gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek and then turned to leave the lab.
"So," Iris said warily, "This is it. This is the end of Central City."
"No, Iris," Barry said, taking her hand and leading her to the chairs, sitting down beside each other, "We're not letting that happen. We're tracking down the machine and we're gonna shut it down. I promise."
Iris nodded, looking slightly more reassured.
Sara sat and watched the team try to track down Merlyn and the Markov device. Cisco was bent over a second computer trying to track Merlyn's whereabouts. He was hacked into several different street-view security cameras, and on a map of the city spread out on the desk next to him was a thick line through the streets drawn in red permanent marker, marking the path Merlyn had taken through city, stopping at the Central City train station.
The second monitor on the desk displayed a satellite map that was following a swiftly moving red X, tracking Merlyn as he fled to Star City.
Sara was beyond frustrated that they had all this information right at their fingertips and yet it still wasn't enough to save the city.
For the first time in the duration of the mission, Sara felt completely useless.
She lacked the scientific knowledge to assist Cisco, Caitlin, and Wells, no matter how much she wanted to. Even Barry seemed to be struggling to keep himself occupied.
They were all relieved when Leonard and Avery returned with food.
"We bring sustenance," he announced, dropping the white bags onto the desk.
"Woah, watch the grease near the computers, Cold," Cisco said accusingly.
"Ignore him," Caitlin said, rolling her eyes at her friend.
"I don't need to be told that," Leonard replied.
"Thanks for getting dinner, Len," Sara said gratefully, "Was Avery good?"
"She always is," he replied, "How long do we have now?"
"A little more than an hour and a half," Barry responded, "I wish I could say we made some headway while you were out, but besides Sara letting the cops know that Merlyn's behind all this, we're still at square one."
"Why am I not surprised Sara's the only one getting anything done around here?" Leonard said.
"Hey," Caitlin said, and now Leonard was the one on the receiving end of her glare, "You're lucky we're helping you out at all. Be honest, you'd be nowhere near where you are right now without us."
Leonard rolled his eyes and said nothing, a telltale sign that she was right and he knew it.
The next few minutes were relatively quiet as they all ate. When they were done, Sara took Avery to Barry's track to run her newfound energy out. She stood on the lower level and leaned against a pillar as Avery ran around and around the circular track. Leonard walked in a few minutes later.
"I couldn't stand being around the nerd team anymore," he drawled. Sara rolled her eyes at his sarcastic tone.
"Lay off them," she said, "Caitlin's right, they're doing us a huge favor. It wouldn't kill you to be a little grateful."
"I beg to differ."
"Lenny," Avery shouted from above them, "Look how fast I can run!"
They watched as Avery tore around the track.
"You're almost as fast as the Flash," Leonard said when Avery was back at her starting point a couple minutes later.
"Keep going," Sara encouraged her.
"When are you going to stop her?" Leonard asked, his voice at a lower volume.
"When she falls asleep."
Several minutes later, they were all back in the Cortex. Avery was lying in her mother's arms, not quite asleep, but almost.
The team continued to test out theories, but they were all eventually debunked.
Finally, nearly an hour after Merlyn's announcement, they made a breakthrough.
"Electromagnetic waves!" Cisco exclaimed, sitting straight up in his chair.
"What?" Caitlin replied, turning in her chair to face him.
"Look, Merlyn's plan is to generate an earthquake that will spread across the city, right?"
"Right," Caitlin and Wells repeated.
"How's he gonna do that? With electromagnetic waves that will trigger the shift in tectonic plates," he answered his own question.
"Yes!" Caitlin exclaimed, realization dawning across her face, "And electromagnetic waves are strong enough that they'll give off a magnetic signature even when the Markov device is off!"
"We can use the tracking system we made for Blackout," Cisco added. Caitlin nodded and turned back to her monitor. One minute of frantic typing later, the tracker was pulled up on the screen.
"It's picking something up!" she said, "The service road in the highway tunnels."
"Let's go," Barry said to Leonard and Sara.
Sara passed Avery over to Jesse. She shifted and opened her eyes.
"Mommy?" she said in confusion, "Where're you going?"
"I just have to go take care of something, honey," she reassured her, "I'll be back soon, I promise."
Sara kissed Avery's forehead and then followed Barry and Oliver out of the Cortex.
They drove through the highway tunnels until they found the service tunnel Caitlin directed them to. The whole ride there, Barry's knee was bouncing up and down. It was clear he was itching to run, to take care of all of this.
"Relax, Allen," Leonard said, "You'll have your chance to save everyone."
The service tunnel was empty, blocked off to the other drivers, and very dark. The only source of light was a single flickering fluorescent bulb every ten or twenty feet.
Leonard pulled the car through a gap in the barrier and shifted the car into park.
They stepped out of the car and Barry turned to look at the traffic whizzing by with a nervous expression on his face.
"What?" Sara asked tentatively.
"If the plan goes wrong, this tunnel will cave in."
"Yeah I know, it sucks. We gotta go," Sara said, gesturing towards the tunnel.
"Everybody in here's gonna get killed," he continued.
"No," Leonard said, catching the look Sara was shooting him, "No that's not gonna happen because we're going to shut the Markov device down, but we have to go right now."
But Barry was already gone.
And then, in a flash, he was back.
"I'm just stopping traffic in and out of the tunnels," Barry said as Sara groaned, "I just gotta get all the cars out."
He was gone again.
"Not even two minutes and we're already off plan," Leonard commented.
"We better get this over with," Sara replied.
The Markov device was a few thousand feet away from the main tunnel, in the center of four intersecting underpasses. As they approached the machine, Sara had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Six guards jumped out of the other tunnels, all in an assortment of black leather. As one, they launched towards them. They had no weapons, but were trained in hand-to-hand combat; definitely Merlyn's men.
Sara immediately started fighting them, her fists colliding with cheeks and noses, her feet kicking at knees. Leonard joined her, his cold gun firing ice in every direction.
"Get the Markov device!" Sara yelled at him as she ducked underneath a guard's punch.
"But—" he gestured towards the guards.
"I got this! Go shut it down!"
Leonard ran to the Markov device. He switched on the comm system in his ears.
"Caitlin," he said, "We lost Barry."
"I know," she replied, "Sorry. He can't help it."
"Talk me through how to deactivate this thing," he said.
"Okay, so if my schematics of the Markov device are correct, there should be a metal hatch on the side," she said, wasting no time in getting to her directions. Leonard felt along the side of the machine until he found a raised panel, "Open that."
He did, revealing a complicated tangle of wires of varying sizes and lengths.
"There's one wire," Caitlin continued, "That acts as a failsafe and immediately triggers the earthquake, so don't cut that one."
"Really?" Leonard said sarcastically.
"All I'm saying is just don't randomly start cutting wires," she said defensively, "Just listen to me and it'll be fine. Okay, look into the control panel. All of the wires should plug in at one end into a row of outlets at the top of the panel, and plug in at the other end to another row of outlets at the bottom of the panel. Do you see that?"
"Yes," Leonard said, blasting a guard with a shot from his cold gun over his shoulder.
"There are ten rows of outlets for ten wires, right?"
Leonard quickly counted.
"Yes."
"Len!" Sara said, he whipped around to face her, his finger on the trigger of the cold gun, "They brought reinforcements."
Pounding footsteps of guards approaching from all four tunnels was added to the din.
Leonard shot at as many of them as he could before he had to turn back to the Markov device.
"Do you see the wire that goes from the fourth top outlet and the ninth bottom outlet?" Caitlin asked.
"Yeah."
"Cut that one."
He pulled the pair of small metal scissors Caitlin had supplied him with out of his coat pocket and carefully cut the wire.
"Okay," he said, "I did it."
"Did anything explode?" Caitlin asked.
"No?" he said, not sure why she was asking that question.
"That's a good sign. Now, is there one that goes from the third top outlet to the bottom fifth outlet?"
"No," Leonard said after a moment of squinting into the narrow panel, "But there's one from three to six."
There was a moment of silence.
"That's what I meant," Caitlin said after she returned, "Cisco's handwriting is awful."
There was a faint "sorry" in the background of the Comm feed that Leonard assumed came from Cisco.
"Cut that wire," Caitlin said, and Leonard did what he was told, "Just one more. Cut the wire from the first outlet to the —"
"Duck, Len!" Sara said. He crouched down and watched one of Sara's throwing stars whistle over his head and lodge itself between an incoming guard's shoulder blades. The guard arched his back and dropped to the floor.
"Say that again, Caitlin," he said, standing up.
"Outlet one to outlet eight," she repeated. He cut the wire and all the lights on the Markov device went out and a whirring noise Leonard hadn't even been aware of until now ceased.
"You did it!" Sara exclaimed. She ran towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He caught her, lifting her off of her feet, and spun her in a circle. He put her down and looked around the tunnel.
"So did you," he said, regarding the circle of unconscious guards forming a circle around the Markov device, "Where'd a homicide detect like you learn to fight like that?"
"A cop," Sara corrected.
A spot of red on Sara's shirt, falling right on her abdomen, caught his eye.
"Sara, You're hurt," he said.
Sara shook her head, "I think my stitches got pulled out in the fight. I'm fine."
"But—"
"Len, I've been through labor. This is nothing."
Leonard held his hands up in surrender.
A phone rang. Sara fished it out of her jacket pocket.
"Hello?"
"You think you've outsmarted me."
"Merlyn," she growled. Leonard took a step closer to her.
"You think you and your boyfriend can actually defeat me," Merlyn said, "Tracking down the Markov device, taking out my guards, shutting the machine down, I'll admit, I'm impressed, but not unprepared. I'll have you know that there is a second Markov device ready, this one not so easily trackable, and if you don't believe me…"
There was a quaking sensation beneath their feet. Sara grabbed Leonard's arm and he wrapped an arm around her waist, bracing her from falling over.
Dust fell from the shaking ceiling and the fluorescent lights flickered and sparked. They heard screams from outside the tunnel.
And then it was over.
"That was just a taste of what's coming in, oh, look at the time, one hour. Good luck."
There was a click and the line went dead.
They immediately went back to the car.
"Wait, what about Barry?" Sara asked as Leonard pulled the car into the main traffic tunnel.
"I'm sure he'll get back to the lab in time on his own," Leonard responded.
It was harder to get to S.T.A.R. Labs this time around. Merlyn's test drive of the Markov device had spooked Central City. The roads were already crowded with people trying to leave, cars honking and people shouting. A drive that normally would have taken no more than five minutes took twice as long.
When they finally got to S.T.A.R. Labs, they jumped out of the car and hurried into the building. As they had predicted, Barry was already there.
"What's the plan?" Sara asked, "Caitlin, can you track down this new Markov device?"
"I'm sure I could," Caitlin replied, grabbing a tray of medical supplies off of a side table. She too had seen Sara's wounds and was already starting to stitch her back up, "But I think it might be time to consider that we shouldn't."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, we don't even have an hour left," she continued, her eyes not leaving the stitches, "This device will be harder to find and probably harder to deactivate. With the first one, we had time to go over the schematics and figure out exactly how to disarm it. I won't be able to do that for this one. I think maybe it'll be better to get out of the city and do our part to help when all this is over."
"And you all back her up?" Leonard asked, addressing the rest of the team. They all nodded.
"Then what are we gonna do?" Wally asked, "Just stay here, at S.T.A.R. Labs?"
"We don't exactly know the range of the earthquake," Wells said, "This building has preventative measures against radiation, electromagnetic waves, nuclear energy, hell, even UV rays, but when it comes down to the basics of architecture and the fundamental foundation of buildings, there's only so much you can do. There's a chance this building may not hold up against a massive earthquake."
"I may have another option," Leonard said, "a safe house, about forty-five minutes out of the city."
"You're offering?" Barry asked, his forehead crinkling with skepticism.
He shrugged.
"Why not?"
"Okay, well, thanks," Barry replied, his confusion not yet fading, "We should go then."
"You're all set, Sara," Caitlin said, cutting the thread and lowering her t-shirt.
"Thanks, Cait," Sara said gratefully.
"Anytime."
Jesse stood and handed the sleeping Avery to Sara. She shifted slightly, but much to Sara's relief, didn't wake up.
"I'll text you the address," Leonard told the team, "You know I'm telling you this in confidence, right? I'm not gonna wake up one day to cops banging on my door?"
"Don't worry," Barry said, "Your secret's safe with us."
Leonard nodded curtly and followed Sara out of the Cortex.
Avery woke up as Sara was strapping her into her carseat.
"No-no-no," Sara said, "You're still sleeping. You're still asleep."
"Does that work?" Leonard asked, "Just telling her she's still asleep?"
"It usually does," she replied, seeing that Avery's eyes weren't closing.
She walked around the car and sat in the driver's seat. She pulled out of the S.T.A.R. Labs parking lot.
"Mommy," Avery said.
"Yes, honey," Sara responded.
"Where are we going?"
"We're going home for a few minutes and then we're gonna go on a little trip."
"For how long?"
"I dunno, yet, Avie. It's a mystery."
"Okay," she replied. She was quiet the rest of the ride to apartment.
Leonard briefly returned to his apartment, saying he'd come over to theirs when he was ready.
When Sara and Avery entered their own apartment, Sara immediately checked the clock. It read 7:32.
"Ave, you've got two minutes to go pick out a snack to bring in the car. We have to go."
While Avery was in the kitchen, Sara went into her bedroom. In her closet were two packed backpacks — one for her, one for Avery — that had been ready just for this. Inside each one was a few changes of clothes, Avery's had several of her favorite toys, and Sara's had a book she had yet to read. She'd had a feeling things would go sideways and was determined to be prepared.
Her efforts had clearly paid off.
Things had definitely gone sideways and now there was no going back.
Leonard was back in her apartment in minutes.
"Where's Lisa?" Sara asked him as she helped Avery into her backpack.
"She's going up to the house with Cisco," he replied.
"Ooh," she paused getting Avery's arm into the backpack strap to shoot him a suggestive look, "Is she now? And how do we feel about that?"
"We don't need to talk about it," he grumbled in response. She smirked at him.
"Mommy," Avery said quietly.
"Yes, baby, what is it?" Sara crouched down to her level. She knew that Avery could tell something bad was happening. They'd been trying to keep the details from her — a hysterical toddler was not going to help the situation they were in at all — but she was a smart girl. She knew something wrong, her subdued movements and the lack of her usual barrage of words said enough.
"Are we gonna be gone for a lotta days?" she asked.
"I don't know," Sara replied honestly.
"How are we gonna do the daily bubble if we're going away?"
"Oh," Sara said, understanding what Avery needed, "Do you want to bring the daily bubble with us so we can do it while we're away?"
Avery nodded.
"Okay, but you have to get everything really fast. It's time to go."
Avery dropped her bunny on the living room floor and made a mad dash for the balcony, she came back a moment later with the tupperware container filled with soapy liquid in one hand and the bubble wand in the other. Sara quickly placed them in a gallon sized ziplock bag and sealed it.
"Great," she said, tucking the bag into Avery's backpack, "Let's go."
Sara took her hand and they all left the apartment.
Leonard had offered to drive to the safe house, as he already knew how to get there, so Sara buckled Avery into her carseat and then opened the passenger side door and climbed in.
"Ready?" Leonard asked as he started the car. Sara nodded and he pulled the car out onto the street.
The CCPD was conducting a mass evacuation of the city and the streets were packed with cars all trying to make their escape.
Luckily, Leonard knew of backstreets and other various shortcuts — including even a parking garage with two entrances — that took them around the traffic.
They both knew that it would be impossible to get everyone in the city out of range of the blast, even under the best of circumstances. Most people would end up stuck in the middle of a collapsing city.
Sara and Leonard were both aware that the city they were leaving, with all its tall skyscrapers and little cafés and sprawling parks, was not the same city they would return to — if there was a city to return to at all.
The three were all quiet, all aware they were seeing the last of the city's true beauty.
"Mommy," Avery said as they were a few minutes away from the bridge that would take them out of Central City.
"Yes," Sara replied, looking at Avery in the rearview mirror.
"Where's my bunny?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know where she is."
"Did you put her in your backpack?"
Avery shook her head. Sara suddenly recalled the bunny blanket being tossed to the floor when she went onto the balcony to get the daily bubble tupperware and wand.
"Honey," Sara said, feeling a sinking sensation in her stomach, "I think you left your bunny at home."
"Can we go back and get her?"
"No, baby, I'm so sorry, but we can't. We really have to get where we're going," Sara replied, "Why don't you go to sleep Avie. When you wake up, we'll be at a whole new place to explore."
"I can't sleep without my bunny," Avery whimpered. Then, the waterworks started. At first it was a quiet sniffle, but soon it became loud wailing, a song that seemed to match all of Central City before its demise.
My month of craziness has ended so I should be back to regular updates again (until mid-June when finals start again. Yay.)