Author's Note: Here we go! Hopefully this chapter is a little less disjointed after a week of relaxation, but I'm also rushing it out, so we'll see. Thanks for reading! Read, review, and enjoy!
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Guest – I'm glad you like it so much! Thanks for the review!
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Cameron was not made for this moment. He was not meant to be the one standing here, desperately trying to hold the Circus together as they tore themselves apart. Wally was supposed to be there, eyes narrowed slightly, taking a moment to just listen to what everyone was saying before he stepped in and started addressing concerns. His little frown would be there, the one that was reserved for when members of his family was fighting.
But it wasn't Wally that was there. It was Cameron trying to pull the Circus back together because Wally had gone missing. Well, since Wally had been taken by the Team. At least, that was the popular opinion. Cameron didn't want to believe that, but he did. There wasn't any other place that Wally could be. The only spot Wally would have stopped was at the Team's HQ and no one except Wally's Uncle Barry would have been able to catch him while he was running, so the only reason Wally could be missing right now was if the Team had captured him.
And that burned Cameron. It infuriated him and made his hackles rise instinctually. They've been helping the Team for weeks, for months. They gave up so much – Lorraine's body, a little bit more of Garfield's innocence, information about themselves, their spy. What did the Team give up? Nothing. And was the Circus violent or aggressive when they were absolving the alliance? No. They weren't. Then the Team goes and repays all of that by kidnapping the Circus's leader? Really?
Cameron couldn't let that bother him, couldn't let his own anger bleed over into the moment. With Wally's absence, he was acting leader and that meant that he had to approach this problem without any bias. He needed to disregard his own opinions while he listened to that of his teammates, only afterwards interjecting his own voice. He needed to encourage the others to speak peacefully and ensure that their thoughts were taken into consideration with the final decision.
That being said, it would be a whole lot easier to do that if the team wasn't screaming at each other. Cameron felt frustration tearing at him as he tried to get his voice heard over the sounds of squabbles all across the table. Billy and Jinx especially were at each other's throats, shouting not only opinions but obscenities at each other. Cameron wasn't even sure what point they were arguing. Garfield and Maser had tucked themselves into Kelvin's bulk, whisper-arguing at each other as Lorraine and Kelvin shouted each other hoarse over the younger metas' heads.
In the end, it wasn't Cameron who brought everyone to attention. It was Dinah. Her shoulders grew increasingly more tense, inching closer and closer to her ears before, finally, she snapped. Cameron only had a split second's warning before Dinah let loose a Canary Cry. Luckily, that split second was enough for Cameron to throw his hand over his ears, but unluckily, that didn't really do a whole lot against a Canary Cry. He still ended up reeling slightly in his spot, eyes instinctively scrunched closed.
He carefully blinked them open, noticing that the rest of the room was in significantly worse shape than he was, Kelvin and Garfield actually laid out – downsides of enhanced hearing. The room shakily got their bearings back, blinking carefully at each other and warily returning to their own seats, a silence settling like a balm over the room.
Dinah's lips were still pursed, expression terse. She turned to glare aggressively at Cameron, "You're the leader. Talk us through this." Her words were short and clipped, a clear sign of her fury.
Cameron swallowed nervously as the eyes of the rest of the group fell on him. He licked his lips and tried to stop the cold surrounding him from creeping further across the room in his agitation, "Okay, we're having a conversation right now to discuss only what we are going to do regarding Wally's situation. I'm going to preface the discussion by stating Wally's own opinion on the matter: he told me a while ago that if he were ever captured that we should just leave him because he could probably get out on his own. Now, I'm going to go from person to person. Each person is going to state their opinion on the matter, including an explanation if they so wish. They are not going to call anyone else out while they're speaking. Dinah can go first."
With the ability to speak first, Dinah's shoulders fully unfurled from around her ears, voice quiet as if in apology, "I vote that we leave Wally where he is. You guys know me. You know that I'm normally the first person to try to rally us into going after someone because I never, ever want to see any of you hurt. But… in this case… I don't think the heroes are going to hurt Wally. I think he's almost safer where he is than he would be with us." Jinx snorted, but followed the rules of discussion and stayed quiet.
Cameron waited a second to see if Dinah had anymore to say, but she fell silent. He nodded to the next person, "You're up Kelvin."
Kelvin nodded back to him gratefully, "I agree with Dinah. Like she said, you know that the two of us are as protective as we can get over the rest of you. As much as we understand that you aren't really kids anymore and that you don't need to be treated like kids, we're always going to think of you all as our kids and we're going to fight tooth and nail to protect you like you were our own. But, the fact of the matter is that we're in the middle of something big here and I have to treat Wally like he's our leader, not like he's my kid. And I trust Wally's skill and intuition as my leader. I'll go with his opinion and wishes. I trust him to be able to escape if need be."
Nodding to the next person, Cameron said, "Your turn Lorraine." He figured he'd go roughly by age.
Lorraine bit her lip slightly, "I'm going to be honest and say that I feel a little bit out of the loop, especially for this last little bit of time. I don't know what the Team saw when they were in Wally's head. I don't know what you guys said or did when you were picking up Garfield and Billy. I know you guys didn't mean to leave me out, but you have been, so I'm not making my decisions based on all the information, okay? That being said, I say we go and get Wally. He would never leave one of us behind, even if we begged him to. I get that he's the leader and whatever, so being self-sacrificing is basically written into his DNA, but it doesn't have to be that way. We need him to lead us. We need him to be here with us, with his family. I can't leave him there." She looked at Cameron imploringly, but he ignored it for the moment. It wasn't time to make a decision yet.
Looking over the last couple of people needing to speak, Cameron winced. Technically, if he was going by age, Jinx would be next (they were pretty sure she was the next oldest; some of them were a little nebulous on their ages). Deciding to avoid that bombshell until the end, Cameron said, "Billy, you're up."
Billy's voice was hard and firm when he answered, "Leave him. The Light needs to be stopped yesterday. We need to focus on that. Wally can get himself out." He left it at that, eyes dark with thought. He was in his Shazam form. He'd always claimed that it made him think better, something about the wisdom of Solomon or something like that. Cameron wasn't entirely certain.
He nodded to Billy before going to the next person, "Harold."
"I trust the heroes to treat Wally right. I mean, Hal at least will look after him. I know that Hal believes in us and won't let them mess with Wally. So, like Billy said, we should deal with the Light first," Harold said hesitantly, eyes skittering across the room before focusing back on his lap. Kelvin tucked the younger meta under his arm again.
Garfield spoke up before Cameron could even prompt him, "That's trash. We need to rescue Wally! Maybe Hal and the rest will 'treat him right' or whatever, but that doesn't really mean anything. It doesn't matter how well Wally is being treated. What matters is that he's family and he's been wrongfully imprisoned. We need to get him out of there!"
Cameron gave him a second, but when he didn't continue, he turned to the last person, "Jinx?"
Jinx's expression was dark, vaguely murderous, "I cannot believe all of you! We can't leave Wally there! The heroes have been trying to capture us from day one of our creation! Now that the alliance is over, they have no reason to stop at him. They're going to come after us. Stopping the Light is not the most important problem at the moment. Getting Wally back from the Team is what's important. The Light can wait."
Billy's voice was tense when he requested, "Permission to rebut?" Cameron nodded and Billy started off immediately, "I'm sorry, but you didn't see the Light. We need to deal with them immediately. Something that I was getting around to telling you guys is that the Big Day is coming soon. It's sometime around New Year's. We're running out of time to stop them from enacting their big scheme. I'd say that's pretty important."
"How do we even know that what they're doing is so bad?" Jinx asked, pink teasing along the edges of her fingertips. Cameron felt ice immediately coat his own fingers in response. He'd need to keep an eye on that.
Billy let out an incredulous laugh, "Are you serious? What have we been doing for the last several months? Why have I been undercover that whole time if what the Light is doing 'isn't that bad?' I mean, seriously Jinx! What are you even talking about? Of course they're bad!"
Jinx's cheeks flushed magenta, "Maybe you just don't know what they really stand for! Do you even know where they came up with their name?" Cameron's eyes narrowed. This was the most that he'd heard Jinx talk about the time she'd been captured by the Light. He winced when he thought about it. He should have tried harder to get her to talk about what happened, should have focused more of his attention on her. The rest of the team was in a similar state to him, eyes narrowed, breathing quiet as they witnessed this battle of wills.
Eyes flicking around the rest of the group, Billy let out another incredulous laugh, this one weaker, "I don't understand why you're asking me this. For a moment, I thought this was just an idle conversation, an example to, like, prove something, but you're still going."
The pink around her hands flickered brightly for a moment before fading, some of the self-righteousness permeating her actions disappearing with the pink glow. Jinx sighed, "Look, I know this is the worst possible moment to bring this up, but it's important. The Light aren't as bad as we thought they were. They're actually really pro-meta. Their whole point is to show humanity 'The Light.' They say that the heroes are preventing humans from evolving into metahumans. Since heroes are constantly getting in the way of the big-bads, humans aren't getting the chance to fight back, and they aren't getting stronger. Humanity is weaker than it should be because the heroes are preventing them from growing. What happens when the heroes are gone, huh? When something takes them down? When they quit? Humanity will be wiped out. Unless they evolve. Like we have. Unless they evolve into something stronger, like us."
Kelvin put out a massive hand, "Wait, I'm sorry. Did you just say that the Light wants to turn everyone into metahumans?"
"Is that such a surprise? I mean, a lot of the main group of the Light are metas. The leader – Vandal Savage – is a meta. The Light wants to decrease humanity's dependency on heroes in order to make sure that we survive. That's what the Light strives for. That's what they're doing. Is that such a bad thing?" Jinx asked, expression wide and earnest. Cameron wanted to puke. Was she… was she being serious?
Lorraine shook her head, horror written over her features, "Can we flashback to the little debacle where they split the world in two? When hundreds of thousands of people died? Billions of dollars in property damage? My paralysis? How about another flashback: Wally getting stuck in a horrible mind trap? I mean, seriously Jinx? What are you thinking? They've done so many horrible things! Killed so many people!"
"We've killed people too!" Jinx threw back.
Lorraine laughed harshly, disbelievingly, "Some! A few! Because if we didn't kill them, they'd kill us! Not the way the Light did it. I mean, seriously? Hundreds of thousands of people dead, Jinx. You cannot tell me that they were all guilty of something, that they were a genuine threat to the Light. There were metas in camps who died. You heard Wally talking about it all, telling us about the kids who were dead in the camps, having fallen or died in the middle of an experiment. They've killed so many people. That's not what we do."
"People need to die for humans to fully evolve," Jinx said.
Cameron finally felt the need to fully step in, "That is not how we think, Jinx. That is never how we've thought. No one needs to die. And do you know why we don't think that way? Because it would make us just as bad as the Collection Agency. They figured that some of us metahumans had to die to make the world safer, to find a cure, to finish whatever research they're doing, to build the camps. Some of us had to die for their plans. Do you want to be like them?"
"That… that's not what I'm saying," Jinx stuttered softly.
Billy shook his head, "That's exactly what you're saying, Jinx. I don't know why you're suddenly so pro-Light, but I don't think you fully understand what they're like. I was undercover with them for months. Please trust me when I say that they're not good people."
Jinx shook her head, some of her fierceness trickling back in from somewhere, "You just don't understand."
"Because there's nothing to understand!" Billy shouted, throwing his arms in the air. He glanced to Cameron, eyes pleading for some sort of help.
Cameron threw himself back into the conversation, "Jinx, as leader of the team, I'm putting my foot down. We are going to stop the Light. They are not our allies. They are not on our side. They are not doing the right thing. At the very least, they're not using the right means. My decision is final."
"You're not the leader," Jinx hissed.
Cameron felt that cheap shot right in his heart, glancing off the ball of stress that had taken residence there, wondering and fearing over where Wally was and if he was okay and how he was doing. He breathed through the hurt feeling, "I am the leader because Wally isn't here."
"Only because you're not willing to go and rescues him," she shot back.
Dinah cut in, "That was what we were trying to decide."
"And, based on the testimonies of the members of the team, Wally's own input, and my input, my final decision is that we are not going to go rescue him immediately. Our priority is going to be taking down the Light," Cameron said, trying to get some semblance of control back from the downward spiral that the conversation had become.
Jinx snarled at him, the suppressed pink glow flaring aggressively back to life around her fists. Billy and Lorraine, the two closest to her, backed away slightly. Cameron let the ice already gathered around his hands spread and release, creating a cool white mist that hovered over his clenched fists. Kelvin was drawing Garfield and Harold closer into himself, Dinah half out of her seat, hands loosely curling into fists.
Jinx glared around her, the whites of her eyes being overtaken by the same intense pink that surrounded her fists until they were two glowing points on her face, throwing the rest of her features into stressed relief. She grit out through clenched teeth, "What is this? Are you teaming up on me now?"
"We're not teaming up on anyone. You're scaring us, Jinx. Please release your powers. We can talk about this without the powers activated," Cameron said carefully. This conversation was far past his control at that point. He wasn't sure where this was going, wasn't sure if he wanted to know.
Jinx shook her head, a single tear, dyed pink by the light of her eyes, rolling down her cheek. She sobbed out, "Fine! If you can't believe me, I'll just have to show you! I'll get the Light to free Wally and then you'll see! I'll convince Wally! He'll believe me!"
"Jinx, what are you talking about? Please, just calm down. We're just going to talk this out. No shouting, no powers. Come on, Jinx, please," Cameron begged, vaguely hearing the others adding in their own pleas around him.
Wild pink hair shook again, a strand or two falling from her two gravity-defying horns of hair. Jinx took in a shuddering breath, skin turning a blotchy grey-brown-pink-magenta. Cameron couldn't tell if it was from stress, anger, or sadness. Probably a mixture. Maybe none at all. Cameron wasn't sure he could have ever said to have had any sort of grasp on Jinx's emotions. Wally seemed to be the only one who could really keep up with her.
Starting to really cry, Jinx pulled something out of a pocket. It was a strange device, dark and swirling and oozing this sense of evil that made the hairs on the back of Cameron's neck stand on end. Jinx sobbed as she took the device and smashed it into the ground, Billy letting out an aborted yell as the thing hit the ground.
It shattered there, a swirling red liquid sliding out of the remains, swirling tauntingly over the floor, shivering in what seemed to be delight when Garfield, who was closest to the strange liquid, flipped backwards, transforming into some sort of monkey and keening anxiously from his new spot swinging from the chandelier.
The swinging chandelier threw the room into twisting shadows, mocking them as the liquid spread out and swirled upwards, expanding and solidifying until a figure stood next to Jinx. The profile looked almost familiar and Cameron leaned forward for a second, thinking he could maybe… figure it out…
He didn't get the chance as his question was answered for him. The liquid shuddered for a moment before shattering outwards, shards of it flinging out towards the others. Cameron frantically threw out a shield of ice, but the hardened liquid just slid through the ice, teasingly bumping into Cameron's skin, but not actually harming him. His heart pounded desperately in his chest.
There, standing next to Jinx with hooded eyes and a huge, terrifying grin, was Klarion the Witch Boy.
Cameron shook his head, "No, Jinx. Please. Please don't do this. Please tell me you didn't do this."
She was still crying, shaking her head, allowing Klarion to grab her hand and start pulling her back towards a huge swirling vortex of red, dark energy. She didn't say another word as she disappeared into the vortex.
And then she was just… gone.
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Barry was stressed. That seemed to be a general state of being for him after finding his nephew again. Those two things were probably connected.
Patrick put a careful hand on his arm, "Look, they'd tell you if something went wrong. At least, that Icicle would if no one else. It's fine."
"It's been over a day and no one has contacted us to tell us what happened. Did they get their spy? Is Wally alright? Did he relapse or something? Are they mad at us? What's going on? Why is no one contacting us?" Barry was aware that his voice had gotten rather shrill by the end of that, but he was stressed, and he didn't care. He needed to vent. Well, he needed to know that his nephew was alright, but that wasn't really an option at the moment.
Patrick opened his mouth to say something else, but didn't get a chance. Ronnie skidded into the room, "Hey, that Icicle person is contacting us again. He wants a video chat between his team and our main group."
Barry's brow furrowed, "We told him that the whole video chat thing was a one-time only situation. We can't afford to do something like that again."
"He's insisting," Ronnie said with a shrug, "Said it was vitally important or something. Figured that we should have a conversation between all of us all at once rather than having to repeat the conversation and waste time."
"Did he say anything about Wally? Is Wally alright?" Barry asked frantically. What was going on that Icicle was so determined to meet up, that he felt he was so pressed for time?
Ronnie shook his head, "He didn't say. He just said he wanted the video chat."
Barry scrunched his nose, making a split second decision. He whipped over and grabbed Patrick, dragging him over to the control centre before returning for Ronnie and repeating the procedure. The others barely blinked at the abrupt entrance, but Patrick flipped him off, holding a hand over his stomach, still not entirely thrilled with being dragged around at superspeed, especially without warning.
Barry turned to Cisco, "Open up the video chat line, looking for Icicle's signal. I need to know what's going on with Wally." He addressed that line to the whole group, begging them to understand how he was feeling, the risks he was taking.
Everyone nodded back to him, understanding and empathy shining in their eyes, Iris coming over to wrap her arms around one of his. She rested her head on his shoulder and Barry tried to blow the nerves out of his body. He needed to get himself together. It was fine. Everything was fine.
The picture connected a second later, nothing but shadowy figures in the background. It was slightly easier to tell some of the people on the Circus's side. Ballistic was recognizable through his sheer bulk. Icicle's body shape was rough and spiked, making him distinctive as well. There was a monkey hanging from the chandelier that Barry assumed was Changeling. The rest of them weren't as recognizable. There also weren't enough of them. With the recovery of the spy, there should be more people. There should be nine people. There were only seven (if that really was Changeling hanging from the chandelier). Why were there only seven?
"Icicle? What's going on?" Barry asked, trying to ask after Wally without making it obvious. He wasn't sure what all Wally or Icicle had told their team and therefore wasn't sure what the other members of the Circus would feel about Barry asking after their leader.
Icicle sighed, shoulders sagging, "I wanted to propose an alliance between the Circus and, well, the Alliance."
"I… what?" Barry asked. This was what the whole big deal was about? What about Wally? What was going on?
"The alliance between the Circus and the Team has been absolved and our focus is fully on taking down the Light. We need your help to get that done quickly."
Finally giving up on decorum, Barry asked frantically, "Icicle, please. What's going on? Why are there only seven of you there? Is Wally alright? Did you get Changeling out safely? What about the spy?"
Even though the images on the screen are dark and fuzzy, Barry can see the moment where Icicle physically deflates, shoulders shaking slightly. One of the others puts a careful hand on Icicle's shoulder, trying to help him pull himself back together. His voice isn't clogged with tears when he speaks, though. It's cold, icy in a way that goes beyond simple cliché and into terrifying. Barry feels his own voice freeze in his chest and the icy, unfeeling tone that Icicle uses, words clipped and matter-of-fact, "The Circus and the Team retrieved Changeling and the spy without issue. Upon returning to headquarters, the Circus and the Team had a disagreement and decided to absolve our alliance. The Team stated that the moment we left the headquarters, we would be considered criminals again. Wally ran all of us back to our base, but was arrested by the Team when he returned to grab the last of our things. Later, we had a disagreement among our own team about our next course of action and Jinx left the Circus to join the Light instead."
"It hasn't even been two days," Cisco muttered wonderingly. Barry couldn't help but agree. It had been just over a day and it seemed like everything had fallen apart.
Barry shook his head, "Why aren't you trying to get Wally back?"
"He can rescue himself and we trust the heroes to not treat him badly. We need to focus on taking out the Light. Our spy says that the culmination of all of the Light's actions is happening soon. We need to stop them before that. Can we count on you to help us? Fully help us?" Icicle asked, voice still and emotionless in a way that would never not send an icy chill rushing down Barry's back.
Julian asked incredulously, "Are you asking us to fight?"
"Yes," Icicle answered instantly.
Caitlyn shook her head, "I'm sorry Icicle, but we don't fight. That's not what our organization is made for."
"Then the world is going to be destroyed. You need to get up and actually do something at some point. The Light needs to be stopped. We can't take them down without you," Icicle threw back.
Caitlyn spluttered a little bit, "I – that's… Icicle, you're asking for too much."
"I'm asking for the world's biggest threat to be stopped. I'm asking for a chance to save hundreds of thousands of people from dying. I don't consider that to be too much," Icicle said. There was finally a bit of inflection in his tone, but it wasn't one that Barry wanted. There was a hint of accusation in his voice, this little shift that said without saying that Icicle thought that since there were humans in the group that they weren't going to do the right thing. It made Barry sick to his stomach that Icicle would think that way, made him sick to his stomach to know that his nephew thought the same way.
Barry glanced around the group, saw the hardening resolve on each of their faces, took note of those who were slower to come to an opinion. In the end, though, everyone's face said the same thing. Glancing around them one more time and receiving a nod from each and every one of them, Barry nodded back. Turning to the screen, Barry took a deep breath and spoke for the entirety of the Alliance, "We'll fight."
Author's Note: Another chapter with a lot of dialogue, but we're getting somewhere here. We really are coming up on the big fight scene. I'm not sure how much clean up I'm going to do at the end, so I'm not sure how much longer this is going to be, but I'm definitely moving in towards the climax at this point! Thanks for reading!