.:38:.

Barry and Harrison swirled around their enclosed room over and over again. At one point they were running through the sewers, another point they were back in the small room.

Over and over.

The blasts of lightning that bounced around created a mini-storm throughout the enclosed space. Barry and Harrison traded punches as they flung each other back and forth along the room. But that didn't deter them as they speed healed and quickly fired back another punch towards the other.

For a while Barry had the upper hand against Harrison. Due to being smaller, lither, he was able to move a bit faster in terms of the smaller room they were in. With quick thinking he blocked the punches and grabs Harrison tried to put against him. He ducked under Harrison's grab and sped around him, sending punches flying into his face, neck, chest, stomach, and back as he moved around Harrison. Harrison grunted and fell to his knees as Barry continued to punch him.

Then he shot up his arm, deflecting Barry's hits, and sent a solid punch into Barry's stomach. One filled with so much power and speed that he skidded backwards across the ground. Then he shot back to his feet with Harrison right behind him, starting the electrical storm all over again.

At one point he found himself behind the ladder in the middle of the room and Harrison punched through it to grab him. Barry then grasped Harrison's arm and pulled it hard through the ladder at a grotesque angle that broke his arm.

Harrison screamed in pain then phased through the ladder and grabbed Barry around the neck with his good hand, pressing Barry against the wall behind him. He squeezed hard on Barry's neck. Barry gasped for air; bringing his hands up to Harrison's to pry them off. He looked up into Harrison's face, eyes widening when he saw Harrison's glowing a crazed shade of red.

Harrison, with his free hand now healed, grasped Barry's arm and wrenched it, throwing him hard across the room. As he twisted and turned through the air, Barry saw he was heading towards the ladder and flung out his arms. He grasped the outside rung of the ladder and used the momentum to swing himself around. He kicked out his feet and struck Harrison in the chest as he leapt towards him, ready to finish him off. Harrison flew back into a concrete wall behind him, back first, with a sickening crack and fell to the ground.

Barry let go of the ladder and dropped to the ground in a low crouch. He watched breathing heavily, as Harrison lay on the ground, twisted in a grotesque shape; his upper half twisted towards Barry with his back and lower half seemed to be shifted in two different directions as if his body had turned into a Z. Barry watched as Harrison took a few deep breaths then reached up his hands and pressed them to the ground.

Harrison pushed his upper body upwards and Barry winced as there was a loud cracking sound as he did so. Due to his medical and forensics training he could tell Harrison's spine was healing at the same time that Harrison moved, causing the bones to creak and scrape against each other. Finally, Harrison pushed himself up enough into a sitting position. He reached behind him; laying his hands flat on the ground, then straightened even further, bringing his legs beneath him as he stood.

Finally upright, Harrison grinned as Barry looked on in horror.

He's a lot stronger than I thought. If he can heal that fast… Barr's eyes jerked around the room, looking for a quick escape.

Harrison glanced at him and let out a low chuckle. "What? You've never seen someone with a spinal injury before? That's the last time I'll take rapid healing for granted." He cleared his throat and started to stretch his arms. "You wouldn't understand how hard it is to not have the use of your legs. But I have to admit, your trick of using the ladder to your advantage was very clever." He started to walk towards Barry, with Barry instinctively taking a step back for each step forward. "Just not clever enough."

"What do you want?"

Harrison's eyebrows rose. "I just want to go home."

"Home where?"

"That's an even longer story I don't think you're able to understand at the moment. But you have a really big part in it. I would've been able to go home sooner if it weren't for your mother protecting you so well. Your father, too. I was going to kill you that night but instead you got away and I couldn't leave." Harrison shrugged. "And now here we are."

Barry continued to take steps backwards then bumped into something. From the way he hit whatever was behind him, Barry knew it wasn't the wall he had run into. He quickly turned around and found Harrison standing behind him. Barry looked over and saw Harrison still across the room. As his eyes widened he was grabbed around the throat and flung back across the room, where he was hit with a solid punch to the back.

Barry fell. Stars exploded in front of his eyes while his breath exploded from his mouth. A pitiful, wheezing grunt escaped his lips. He tried to turn onto his side but his body refused to move. His brain signals weren't moving to the right body parts. A sickening shade of maroon lowered over his vision and he continued to lie on the ground screaming at himself to get up, to wiggle a toe, to do something.

Barry breathed in and released what sounded like a whimper, causing Harrison to roll his eyes.

"Don't start crying now Flash, I'm not going to kill you yet. I want to have a little bit of fun first."

There was a low growl and Barry shifted his gaze and watched with growing horror as a shadow like figure lumbered towards him, the sound of it stomping feet drowning out the dripping water of the sewers. The low, threatening growl let him know who it was.

Grodd.

Barry whispered a quick, "No," as he was grabbed by the leg and lifted up into the air, dangling over the ground. He tried to twist himself back and forth but could scarcely find the strength within himself to move.

/Don't touch father/

The words rumbled through Barry's head.

"And to think you're supposed to be the Fastest Man Alive. Either way, this should be fun. I'm sure you know what it is that chimpanzees, or in this case a gorilla, can do."

Barry closed his eyes.

Everything happened at one.

There was a sudden burst of light and Barry found himself falling to the concrete once more. Rolling onto his back he found Ray in his suit, turning around in the cramped room from where he had just struck Grodd, who stumbled backwards. Grodd's eyes narrowed and he roared loudly, showing off his razor sharp teeth. Then he noticed Ronnie—or in this case Firestorm—and Cadence hovering in front of Grodd, sending blasts of steam into the gorilla's face.

Barry nearly screamed in fright as Brady suddenly phased up through the floor in front of him. He hadn't seen him coming and then there he was, as if pulled out of a rabbit's hat.

"Don't ever do that again," Barry said, trying to catch his breath.

"Sorry," Brady said. He helped Barry to his feet and they turned towards the others. With the steam blowing into Grodd's face the gorilla backed away, further into the tunnel.

Ray hovered by Barry's side, looking at a screen on his forearm. "Cisco, Caitlin, we got to Barry. But it looks like Grodd is blocking our only way out."

Barry let out a sigh of relief when he heard Caitlin say back, "It looks like Grodd is retreating. You should be able to get out of there soon."

"How are the others holding up?" Cisco asked.

Barry turned the other way and watched as Cadence and Ronnie continued to send vents of steam up to Grodd. Then Cadence lowered her hand and turned towards Harrison, who stood aside, watching the group.

Their eyes locked and for a moment Barry saw a flash of sorrow over Harrison's face before he took a step forward and raced out of the sewer leaving a streak of red lightning behind him.

.

..

...

Barry ran his hands over his face and turned to face the others. "I don't know what you did to fix your suit, Ray, but trust me when I say I owe my life to you," he said to Ray Palmer.

Ray smiled back at him. He tried to suppress the large grin that worked its way to his face but failed. "If anything I should be thanking you guys for letting me help. I mean what a rush." Then he noticed that no one else was smiling. "But I was glad to help. Though I couldn't help but notice that that gorilla got away."

"That's not the most important thing we have to worry about right now," Caitlin said quietly. She smoothed her hair out of her face. "What are we going to do about Dr. Wells?"

"You mean Eobard Thawne?" Barry shot back.

"Thawne?" Cadence repeated. "You mean like Eddie Thawne?"

"Like Eddie Thawne."

"Wait, how is that possible?" Cisco asked. He tilted his head to the side, eyes shifting back and forth. "Well, I mean, unless Eddie has something that he wants to tell us. Which would be convenient considering he only just found out about Barry."

"So what does he want exactly?" Ronnie asked. He rested his hands atop his head and let out a low breath. "It seems like you've really done something to piss him off."

"I have to agree," Professor Stein said. He sniffed and rubbed his nose. "Though not quite in the same words. He's targeting you specifically, Mr. Allen. I can't imagine what you could've done to make him so angry."

"I didn't die. He told me when he came to my house the night my mother died, that he wanted to kill me. But I got away." Barry closed his eyes.

He could still hear his mother's screams, his father's desperate pleads, and his shouting for his mother. He could still feel the rush of wind around him as the Man in Yellow raced through the apartment. He could still feel the cold air that hit him when he was taken from the house a few miles away.

"So is Eobard Thawne my grandfather? Does he really want to hurt us?"

Barry felt his blood run cold as he turned towards Brady. Or at least where he thought Brady was. He seemed to be the only one that noticed Brady wasn't there was Cadence and Cisco immediately started to argue with each other.

"You told him that?" Cadence asked.

Cisco looked offended. "No! I didn't tell him. I wouldn't ever tell him, you told me not to. He probably overheard us."

"Not when we were talking that quietly."

Barry continued to look around. His worried expression caught Caitlin's eye and she tilted her head to the side silently asking 'what's wrong?'

"Do you honestly think I would tell him that his grandfather is a murderer who may or may not be after us?" He grabbed onto Cadence's shoulders. "You know I wouldn't do that."

"Where's Brady?" Barry finally asked. That grabbed everyone's attention as they looked around as well.

"I'm right here," Brady replied.

But still Barry didn't see him. His eyes swept around the Cortex before finally landing on Brady, who sat cross-legged on a chair nearby. He frowned, almost looking offended.

"Did you just move? I didn't see you there a second ago," Ronnie said.

"Nor did I," Professor Stein agreed.

"No, I was sitting right here. I didn't move."

Cisco suddenly started to smile. He reached out and slapped Ray on the arm, who was smiling as well. "See, I told you that something else was going to happen. I just didn't know what it was going to be."

"What are you talking about?" Cadence asked.

"So Brady has the ability to phase. That obviously comes in handy considering the fact that because of those powers he's basically invincible. He can walk through walls, sink through the ground, anything basically. And it looks like he's also gotten the ability to 'phase into is surroundings' so to speak," Cisco explained.

"So like a chameleon that can match its coloring to the environments around him," Caitlin added.

"Exactly," Ray agreed. "It was actually something we were talking about earlier. While working on my suit. What other abilities can, hypothetically, be grown into. At some point I think Cadence would have enough control over her powers to be able to become smoke or become fire so to speak. Just as I think that Barry might eventually be able to learn how to phase as well; vibrating his cells fast enough he can move through anything."

"Well, if Brady can really do that then it'll come in handy," Ronnie agreed.

"More than that, I can give him his metahuman name," Cisco declared, rubbing his hands together.

"Really?" Brady perked up.

"I've been thinking about this for a while, trying to figure out what would be the best one. And with this new ability I know it's perfect."

"Quit with the theatrics, Cisco," Caitlin said. Her voice was dull and emotionless. As if everything in her life had suddenly been ripped away from her.

Barry understood how she felt.

Still, there had to be some bright spots in the darkness they were currently facing. Something that would keep them uplifted as they moved to do the hardest thing they ever thought they'd have to. Barry never thought someone so close to him could betray him so easily. He didn't think he'd fall for it for a second time.

"What about Shadowhunter?"

Barry smiled as Brady turned his way, silently asking for his approval. "I think it's a great one, Cisco. Dr. Wells won't know what hit him."

"It's not Dr. Wells, its Eobard Thawne," Cadence insisted, her voice suddenly breaking. "My dad wouldn't do this."

Barry took a deep breath. "He did do it, Cade. He betrayed all of us."

"No, he didn't. He wouldn't. It's not him!"

"Cade—"

"I spent a lot of time with him. I got to know him. That man that was in there wasn't him. I don't know how, but it wasn't. There has to—"

"Cade!" Barry crossed the room and grabbed the sides of her face, causing her protests to get stuck in her mouth. He looked into her eyes, sensing and feeling the imaginable amount of pain the truth exhibited upon her body. He could feel her starting to tremble at the same time her skin warmed under his hands. "I'm sorry but Dr. Wells of whoever this is is doing this! He wants to kill me! He wants to kill us. I'm sorry."

Cadence closed her mouth and nodded, turning away.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Brady asked, his small voice breaking the tension of the room.

"We'll have to track Dr. Wells…" Professor Stein trailed off for a second and briefly closed his eyes. He cleared his throat, clasping his hands together in front of him. "We'll have to track this person that is trying to hurt all of us. I mean, we were able to track Barry, we should be able to track him as well if my understanding of how this works is correct?"

"That might be harder than you think. He moves faster, faster than Barry. And he's outsmarted us so many times so far," Caitlin said.

"Well we can't sit here and do nothing. So our only option right now is to at least try to see where he would strike first," Ronnie insisted.

With that, the group spread apart. Cadence walked over to Brady and sat next to him. Brady looked up at his mother in concern, patting her hand. Ronnie and Professor Stein went to a computer to scan the city. Cisco dropped down to his desk and turned away from the others. And Caitlin let out a low sigh, pushing her hair behind her ears.

"Hey, are you okay?" Barry started towards her.

She eyed him warily and took a step back. Then her face softened and she appeared ashamed. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…a lot to get through you know? I mean, I didn't think you guys were lying. But it's still hard to believe that we were wrong about him. About everything."

"I know. But we don't have a choice of what to do to move forward. We need to stay one step ahead of him as much as possible and separate our personal feelings from it. Because it's not really him." He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him once more. Caitlin reached out and rubbed his shoulder, giving him a smile. Barry smiled back to say his thanks.

He started to turn away from Caitlin and something on Cisco's computer caught his eye. He noticed flashes of STAR Labs flying across the screen with a click of the mouse. He moved closer to the screen. "What are you doing?"

"After the Particle Accelerator exploded I built a 3D model of Star Labs so I could pinpoint exactly what happened," Cisco explained. He sighed and moved his long hair off his neck. "I never had a reason to check for anything outside of the Cortex or the Pipeline. But if Dr. Wells really is Eobard Thawne then he had to be hiding something somewhere in here. I've never seen him go anywhere else but here or his house. And something tells me he wasn't stupid enough to leave anything in his house."

"Especially not after we were there the first time," Caitlin agreed.

"Cait, did you ever see anything those times you were at his place?" Cisco asked.

Barry's eyes widened, Caitlin closed her eyes, and Cisco moved a hand to cover his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye Barry could see Ronnie turn around in his seat to look at the three, an indistinguishable look on his face. Cadence's eyebrows came together as she thought for a moment, and then an expression of clarity came to her face.

"I'm not calling you my step-mother," she said lightly.

Caitlin gave a very brief smile. "No, I didn't see anything," She whispered.

"Figures, he's always one step ahead of everything," Cisco murmured. He continued to scroll through the different rooms and levels of STAR Labs, suddenly coming to a stop when a room flashed red. "Whoa, what's this?"

"Is that supposed to be there?" Caitlin asked. She squinted, tilting her head to the side. "I don't think I've seen it before."

"Neither have I," Cisco agreed. He quickly jotted down where the location of the room was and got to his feet with Caitlin and Barry moving aside so they didn't get hit by his office chair. "Come on."

Cadence indicated for Brady to stay still before she followed the three. The group walked down from the cortex to what appeared to be an empty hallway. Cisco looked up from the screen of the device he held and up to the blank wall in front of him. "It says this is where the room should be."

"Maybe it's got a false wall," Cadence suggested. "Like in the movies."

Barry took a step forward and pressed his hands along the seemingly blank wall, looking for something. Anything. Then the door opened and the three stepped inside, the room illuminating. The sudden light was so bright the four shielded their faces with their hands until their eyes adjusted. Still, Barry blinked rapidly as he inched his way inside.

He held a hand up over his eyes, venturing further into the room. Finally, his eyes adjusted and he turned to find the Reverse-Flash suit in the otherwise empty room. The case holding the suit was very futuristic with some sort of invisible glass he hadn't seen before. Caitlin reached out a hand to touch the glass then quickly pulled it back as if burned.

"Well, that erased the last bit of any doubt I had," Cisco murmured.

Me too. Barry twisted around and found a small pedestal on the other side of the room and walked towards it, staring.

His mouth dropped open.

"Guys," he said. "Check this out."

Flash Missing: Vanishes in Crisis.

He didn't start reading until Cisco, Cadence, and Caitlin were all at his side. "After an epic street battle with the Reverse-Flash our city's very own Scarlett Speedster disappeared in an explosion of light." An explosion of light? Disappeared?

"Look at the date," Caitlin whispered.

"So this is from the future," Cadence said.

Barry's eyes shifted upwards and he found himself gasping quietly. April 25, 2024. He gaped at it, opening and closing his mouth as he tried to find words. "Guys, when I fought the Reverse Flash at Christmas he said we'd be fighting for centuries."

Cisco blinked rapidly. "That means that Dr. Wells is also from the future. Or Eddie's relative is from the future? I'm so confused."

"Check out the byline."

"Iris West-Thawne," Barry read. So that meant Iris and Eddie were going to be okay. He sighed in relief. Nothing was going to happen to them. But what did that mean for everyone else if this was from the future. He swallowed hard, trying to make sense of everything, and then jumped when a translucent face appeared in front of the four.

"Good evening Barry Allen," the face said.

Cadence started to conjure flames around her hands, ready to shoot the flames at the face but he quickly grabbed her arm, stopping her. He glanced at Cisco and Caitlin, who nodded, urging him to continue. "Uh, hi." He swallowed hard. "Y-you know who I am?"

"Of course." The face nodded once. "Barry Allen. Director of Central City Police. CSI Division. Also known as the Flash, founding member of the—"

"What are you?" Barry interrupted.

"And what are you made of exactly?" Cisco added.

"I am Gideon, an interactive artificial consciousness."

"Cool, an AI!"

Barry shot Cisco a disapproving glance and asked Gideon another question. "You know Dr. Wells?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who he really is?" That may have been a dumb question. They already knew from everything they've seen. But to have a 100% sure answer, to have a tool at their disposal to figure out what he wanted or planned to do was too much to pass up.

Gideon, however, didn't seem to understand Barry's sentiments. "I don't understand the question."

"Why did he come here?" Caitlin blurted.

"To kill Barry Allen."

"Okay, we've got that cleared up. He really does want to kill you," Cadence said, her voice flat.

There's still plenty of things we don't know. But what should we ask first? Barry rubbed his hands together. He breathed deeply and when he breathed out his breath hitched. Sadness washed over him the way it always did when he thought of his mother. "Why did he kill Nora Allen?'

"Because he was angry."

"About what?"

"That you escaped?"

"What does he want from me?"

"For you to be the Flash."

The sound of a record scratch would've been perfect at that moment, at the revelation. The perplexed expressions of the four would've been laughable if it weren't for the serious situation they were in.

"So that's why he let the accelerator explode. So you could become the Flash," Caitlin said. She gently shook her head. "Hartley was right. He knew about the effects, the dangers that the Particle Accelerator would cause and he tried to warn Dr. Wells. But Dr. Well, er, Eobard, whoever, know exactly what he was doing. This entire time."

"Which means he's been watching us. The whole time." Barry ran his hands through his hair, the truth bomb landing in his stomach with a sickening thud. He started to pace back and forth, unsure of what to do. Without Dr. Wells there in the moment things were too dangerous. He could get away and do whatever it was he wanted. They needed to stop him.

If only they knew how.

Barry came to a screeching halt when Cadence reached out her hand and placed it on his chest. She looked at him and nodded towards Gideon. "If this thing is here, maybe we can find a way to have Gideon in our possession. Tell us some things that Harrison"—painfully, she closed her eyes—"that Harrison had planned."

"Good idea, Cade. Gideon..uh, would you…um…if Dr. Wells ever comes back could you not tell him that we were in here?"

"Yes. Of course. I accept any commands made by you."

"Why?"

"Because you created me."

Cisco made a whining sound. "Aw, why does all the cool stuff get to happen to you? I'd kill to have one of these at my apartment. It'd make getting dressed in the morning that much easier." Caitlin glared and he corrected himself, "I mean, just think about how this is going to help us now."

"What are you going to do, Barry?" Caitlin asked quietly.

"I'm going to come up with a plan to stop him. No matter what."

A/N: This chapter was incredibly long before I split it in half, so chapter 39 will be up fairly soon.

We're almost at chapter 40 and then, just like the last chapter, is when the final part of the story starts. I think that's what I'd do with every story depending on how things play out. That being said, I plan to have the sequel to this, now entitled Fuel to the Fire to be up before season 3 starts airing. I originally said this story will be done in 50 chapters but depending on how things play out as I wind down it may finish earlier.

Thanks to those that favorited, alerted, and reviewed. The same day that the final chapter to Crossfire is posted, I'll post the first chapter to Fuel To The Fire so you don't have to wait so long. Then I'll be going back to Flash Fire and Crossfire and do some edits/fix things that may not have made sense, or that were weak.

Thanks for sticking with me, guys. I'll have the next chapter up soon.

-Riles

PS - If you had been reading Sparks Fly, its re-write When We Collide Sparks Fly is now up. So go check it out!