"Barry?" Oliver asked as he walked down the empty halls of Star Labs, hoping that this visit would end better then his last one. The place was quiet but Oliver could tell someone was here so he made his way to each floor searching for the scarlet speedster. Finally when the elevator door opened for a third time Oliver heard huge gusts of wind, like a tornado coming from a room ahead.
When he reached the room Oliver couldn't help but be impressed, looking at the huge track the was spread throughout. It was not surprising that the Flash was there, running around continuously.
"Barry!" Oliver called out again and this time he stopped running and appeared in front of Oliver, completely out of breath.
"Hey" Barry said, almost casually.
"Are you okay?" Oliver asked.
"I'm..." but Barry didn't feel like lying.
"Of course your not. Barry you look even worse then the last time I was here" Oliver told him.
"Thanks, Ollie". Barry replied grimly.
"Bar, you can't keep tearing yourself apart like this! It's not-"
"Healthy? Safe?" Barry asked. "You think I don't know that? I can't stop! But I deserve all this, you saw how everyone reacted"
"And you think that if they all found out how much you've been taking your guilt out on yourself, that they'd be okay with it?" Oliver asked.
"They'd probably tell me to do it harder" Barry muttered, thinking of Cisco.
"Listen to yourself, Barry!" Oliver yelled. "You haven't stopped have you?" He then asked.
"I have been listening, not just to me but to everyone around me" Barry said, ignoring the second question. "Now lets go stop some damn Aliens" He told Oliver before speeding out.
Over the next few days Barry remained quiet, helping to fight the Dominators with the rest but stayed on the sidelines as if he didn't want to screw things up for everyone. Sara had apologized what she had said to Barry and John told him he wasn't mad, but Barry knew they were all lying, and secretly they all hated him too, just like Cisco. He'd messed up all their lives and Barry knew it was his fault but he couldn't ever fix his mistakes. Barry should've know that the alien invasion would ended being his fault as well.
After him and Oliver had saved their friends from being controlled by the Dominators and Oliver, Digg, Thea and Sara had returned from the alien ship itself Barry had begun to get the slightest bit of hope that they would win this thing. And that's when the aliens blamed him. By time traveling back in time and changing the past he had pissed them off and they now saw metahumans as a threat and wanted to kill them all and take over Earth, unless of course, they were given the Flash.
Barry wasn't surprised and to be honest he thought it was a fair price, but his friends didn't think so.
"Barry, you're not actually thinking of sacrificing yourself are you?" Felicity asked nervously, but one look from him told her he was. "No, you can't".
"Of course, I can and I will. My life is not worth loosing anyone else" Barry told them all.
"You don't think you're life isn't worth anything, Barry?" John asked.
"Not after everything I did" Barry said and then he began to walk way.
"You think this is your punishment, do you?" Cisco asked from behind him. "No you don't deserve this" and Barry couldn't help himself but turn around to face him.
"I would think you would've been excited to see me die" Barry said and Cisco's eyes were full of tears.
"You think I want you dead?" Cisco asked sadly as he thought back to all the cruel things he had said to Barry after Flashpoint not realizing that he'd be the one to tear him apart.
"I killed your brother".
"No, you didn't man, and I'm so sorry. I made you feel like you were complete crap when I was supposed to be your friend, and stop saying you deserved it because no one deserves to feel like that. And there is no way in hell that I'm letting you walk out of here" Cisco said, walking up to Barry and throwing his arms around him in a huge bear hug. Barry didn't know what to think, here was Cisco who hated him for months now saying that he was his best friend. The voice in the back of his mind that usually made him hurt himself was telling him that Cisco was lying, apologizing in front of everyone as a show. But Barry knew that he'd been using Cisco as excuse in his mind to hurt himself, hearing Ciscos voice in his head before he would take out the knife. But Barry didn't want to listen to that voice anymore, he was done feeling like crap.
Barry wrapped his arms around Cisco tightly not wanting to let go. He expected to suddenly feel different or changed after Cisco had forgiven him but he knew that scars didn't go away like that and he still had a lot to heal and a lot more secrets to hide.
As Barry and Cisco broke apart, Barry now looked to the group not knowing what to say, but thankfully Cisco spoke instead
"Now how about we go kick some alien ass!"