Chapter Thirty-Eight:
"We're almost there."
Despite some various obvious misgivings, Jinx allows Nora to lead her into position. She knows that they are playing with some very dangerous and very hostile magic, that could blow up in their faces in the worst possible way. Yet, it's not Jinx's place to really tell Nora what to do and more importantly, how to go about her life.
It's Jinx's place to give Nora the support she requires to get these things done. She brings in a deep breath, sighing in response.
"Are you with me?"
Nora senses that there's something bothering Jinx and she does not know what. She does wonder what is eating away at her HIVE associate.
"Are you with me?"
The second time Nora asks the question snaps Jinx out of her funk. She responds with a very strong nod. She has to be with Nora, she just has to be. The two of them cross the threshold, realizing that there's no turning back now.
The power surrounding Nora is about as blinding as blinding can be. She walks into a point of the universe which builds a barrier between life and death. Nora has a clear idea of what to do, or at least part of an idea. She holds up the palm of her hand and makes sure that it flashes to life in front of her. Nora takes a couple of deep breaths.
"Now or never."
That's the statement which exits Nora's mind. She approaches the stones. Runic symbols, one of them resembles the grim reaper's scythe of forklore, stare out at her. Symbols of death, something which chases her around for her entire life.
Nora pauses at the symbol and turns over her shoulder to Jinx.
"If something happens here, I want you to make sure that my younger self is protected. Make sure she gets the life that I was never allowed to have."
Jinx responds with a deep sigh and she looks very much like she wants to say something to Nora, something to discourage her from taking this next movement.
"You know, maybe it's not a good idea for you to do this, then."
A shake of her head follows from Jinx and she bites down on her lip.
"I've come too far to this. My father is here and he's going to tell me what to do. Everything is going to be fine. Dad hasn't steered me wrong before, he's not about to start now."
Jinx respectfully disagrees with that point, but regardless, she allows Nora to go on. She just hopes this does not blow up in either of their faces in the worst possible way.
"Now, the power will return. And it will bring him back. It will bring both of them back."
The guiding hand of her father from beyond allows Nora to drop her hands onto the stone. Her entire body flares up with a very intense amount of energy. Magic beyond all prior knowledge cascades through her fingertips, building up a very intense amount of momentum. Nora's palms shift on the rune stone.
Something rises, which means, something is working.
Jinx bites down on her lip and waits for the worst to happen.
"Nora?"
Nora Darhk's eyes shift back, her toes curl up, and something dark engulfs her body. Jinx attempts to yank Nora away despite the very real and obvious risks it will be for her. Only to find the beam of energy blasting her back a half of a step. Jinx screams in agony, the tips of her fingers burning from the shift of energy.
Something rumbles and cracks in the distance. The stone opens up and the dark magical force draws Nora deep into the stone. A looming, large, figure, surrounded by the same black energy Nora is negulfed with.
"Greetings, child of magic, my name is Nekron. And it's time for me to bring the world back to its proper place. Down on its knees."
Jinx shoots a beam of red energy at Nekron. He absorbs it. Jinx realizes fighting him his futile. She disappears a moment later.
"You're not one of my targets, so I'll let you breath for now. No one is going to breath and no one is going to run. For too long this world has cheated death."
Nekron drops to his hands, planting them firmly on the Earth. His eyes glow soulless and black.
"They cannot outrun me. They cannot outrrun their fates. Not anymore."
Power, connecting Nekron through the black light to both those who have passed and those who have cheated death in the past. He becomes a network of energy.
X-X-X
Sapphire puts the final touches on her new and improved super suit. She hopes for it to be field read before too long. A loud alarming blaring in STAR Labs catches her attention. Sapphire scrambles to join Jesse, who already scrambles to the lab. Caitlin sits down in front of the computers.
"What's up?"
Jesse's question only causes Caitlin to incline her head. She looks a bit forlorn and slightly lost when peering at the monitor.
"You know something, I'm not sure but…."
The portal opens and Flash comes through the portal. The second he steps through, he feels something. Something powerful knock him over.
"Do you feel that?"
Caitlin's body experiences chills and for once in her life, the chills do not have anything to do with Killer Frost. The STAR Labs scientist tilts her head back and shakes her head.
"Yeah, I feel it. And it's...it's coming from somewhere."
The scientist bites down on her lip. Jesse moves over to the chair next to her, to get a second opinion.
"And now according to the satellite, it's coming from everywhere."
Sapphire jumps back for a second. Barry catches her before she falls over.
"You're not going to believe this."
Barry pulls Sapphire closer into his arms, wrapping her up in them.
"Trust me, there's a lot that I believe these days that most people don't."
"Well, I saw him...my father...I saw him down the hallway."
The eyes of Jesse, Caitlin, and Barry all fall down on Sapphire. Jesse and Barry race down the hallway. A trembling Sapphire turns her head around.
"I know that there's….look I know Simon Stagg is dead...but I swear I saw him. Some kind of ghost, or something, I don't even know...but, I swear, it was him."
Barry feels some kind of presence. The goosebumps on the back of his neck stand up. He puts his hand on Caitlin's shoulder.
"Where is the highest concentration of energy?"
Caitlin locks onto the concentration of energy at the edge of town and informs Barry of it.
"Center of the city...center of Central City."
Barry's off to investigate it in a flash.
Sapphire sits down and keeps looking down the hallway. She sees nothing there, but seconds ago, she saw her father.
"You must both think I'm crazy."
Jesse responds with a shake of her head. They have seen some weird things, so spirits is not outside of the realm of possibility. Nothing was crazy.
X-X-X
Thea wonders how long it will be before Oliver is going to come back to claim the hood. She does not mind being out here, on the streets, fighting bad guys. It's just that Green really is not here thing and she much prefers red. She drops down, with Black Canary joining her.
Several goons look about ready to break into the side entrance of a building. It's not a big crime, but it's always the little things which make life a bit more interesting. And on this little thing, Thea launches an arrow into the back of the leg of the goon in question, dropping him to the ground.
"It's the Arrow...and…."
Black Canary rocks them with a scream and sends them all flying back down to the ground. One of the goons rushes her with a knife. She disarms him with some careful hand to hand, knocking him back down to the ground. It's a huge punch with Black Canary jacking his jaw with everything he has.
On the rooftop, one of them aims a rocket launcher. Thea's just a bit faster on the draw, shooting out an arrow and knocking the weapon out of his hand. Black Canary repels to the roof and knocks her enemy down with a running kick to the side of the face. She picks up the enemy and hits him with multiple punches. The goon tries to take Black Canary down, but Black Canary flips him over and nails him with repeated punches.
Green Arrow looks from one side to the other. She takes in a full view of her surroundings, just like her father taught her. Someone clapping slowly and loudly catches Thea's attention.
Laurel drops down and she opens her mouth up.
"No way."
They come face to face with a ghost of sorts. Tommy Merlyn, gaunt and more grim then he's even been seen in her life, looks at her. He looks completely zombified and sickly in some respects. Thea opens her mouth.
"How?"
"I'm back from the dead, only not all of the way. Something the two of you should be very familiar, given that you both cheated death in your own way."
Tommy cranes his neck and gives a sickening version of his charming smile.
"You should not be here."
"And neither should you….I made peace."
"Yeah, you moved on from me...everyone did. But, I'm not going to let you move on from the afterlife."
Tommy shoots a beam of light at Laurel and she dodges the attack. She takes a half of a flip over and sends a Canary Cry. No matter how much he looks and sounds like Tommy, he's not him. He's not him and Laurel's not about to be taken in by some fraud.
Thea shoots two arrows at the ghost only to find them fade into ash seconds before they would hit him. Tommy spins around and rocks Thea, sending her back against the wall. The wind knocks out of her from the attack.
"I'm going to bring you home. I'm going to bring you both home."
Laurel bounces off a black wall emitting from Tommy's body. He gives off some unsettling and dare she say it, but unnatural waves of energy. Laurel must find a way around it, for the sake of everyone involved.
'Not Tommy.'
She bombards him with the Canary Cry, only to find that completely and utterly useless.
Then, Tommy opens his mouth and nails Laurel with a cry that is more like a banshee wail than a Canary Cry. She finds her head throbbing with agony.
X-X-X
Barry rushes to the scene of the disturbance. The chill blew down his spine when approaching the scene, trembling very lightly.
"Barry, you're here. I know you would be, my special little boy."
Barry stops short and comes across Nora Allen. She's surrounded by bright light, with a smile on her face.
"No, it can't be...you're…."
"And so should you be, several times over. But the Speed Force kept bringing you back….kept allowing you to live."
Then, Henry Allen gives him a smile and a pat on the shoulder. Despite the warmth in his expression, Barry feels as if he's been dunked into a cold bucket of ice.
"We've come to collect you for the one true prophet. H will show ups all us all the light."
"No, I made peace with this…."
"Before Flashpoint you did. But you decided that the life you gave up is more satisfying to you then the new life you got through Flashpoint."
Nora steps closer to Barry. Barry tries to resist this perfect illusion.
"You returned, wiping out of the lives of all of those people, which were for the better. And then, you destroyed the lives of all of your friends. They were not like that when you came home."
"No, you're wrong."
Barry takes a deep breath. Henry moves closer towards him.
"You did not think of anyone other than yourself, Barry. That's not the son that I've raised. That's not the son that I wanted. You played a god and you erased them. Just like you cheated your own fate, several times over."
"You're wrong."
"Saying it does not mean it to be true."
Barry tries to slow everything around him to get a better assessment of what's going on. Time, has a funny way of snapping back around, but he sees the outlines. The dark energy coming to him. He shakes it off, denying the reality of any of this.
"You should know right now that Death is merely an illusion. The Blackest Night will come to us. The Blackest Night will come for this world."
"Not real."
"Very real, Barry. It's very real. And you will be taken to see the one true prophet soon enough. He will be the one who will set all of this straight."
Barry knows there's something going on. His head throbs and in the distance, he notices the flicker of something.
"You really aren't going to be gullible enough to fall for this, are you, Barry?
"Come with us son. Join us."
X-X-X
Oliver crosses his legs, while sitting up in the mountains. He just feels something, a presence of some sort, lingering ever so close to him.
"You can keep running from me, but I will keep finding you. We're drawn together. You can't stop this, Oliver."
The eyes of the emerald archer open up and he comes face to face with Felicity. She looks the same at least at first. When she approaches Oliver, there's something about her which looks more gaunt and more inhuman, on the account that she's been dead for close to a year.
"Are you happy to see me, Oliver? After all of this time, I'm still in your head."
Oliver draws the bow and arrow, pointing it at the woman in front of him. Felicity breaks out into a very sadistic smile when approaching Oliver ever so closer.
"Are you going to shoot me, Oliver? If you had the balls to do that, you would have done that a long time ago. Now, you're nothing."
Felicity steps a bit closer towards him. Oliver backs off, nearly losing his footing.
"Be careful not to fall. It would be a shame if you fell of of this mountain again. Remember what happened the last time? How you perished? How you should have never come back because you came back weak and pathetic?"
Oliver holds his bow and tries to reconcile with the fact that this is not Felicity. There's just something about her. He smells the stench of death practically irradiating off of this abomination. His hands shake when trying to hold the bow into place, but he cannot pull that necessary trigger.
"Even in death, I own your body, your soul, and your mind. You know why? It's because you're pathetic. It's because you're useless."
Oliver shakes his head. Not pathetic, not useless, not by a longshot. He holds his head up proud while facing Felicity. There's a huge part of him who knows what he needs to do.
"I'm over this."
"Are you? Then why don't you shoot me? Or why do you allow yourself to get suckered in by someone who looks like me? Don't you know there's such a thing as illusion spells?"
Oliver wonders what she's talking about. Felicity gives him a mock smile of sorrow.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot...when I'm not alive to do your thinking for you, you can't focus...you're just a weak and pathetic child, a real broken arrow. I put you under my thumb and you're not going to let go. The truth is, Megan Harris, was Nora Darhk. You know, Damien Darhk's daughter, all grown up, and with a bit of a vengeance complex."
"How…."
"The old Oliver Queen would have figured that out. Of course, he's always been a sucker for a pretty face. And it was very easy for her to get in your hand...and I wonder if she would have gotten even further...right before she sacrificed you for her own amusement."
Oliver draws back the bow. The dark spirit of Felicity breaks out into a smile.
"Do it. I dare you to do it. Make my day, Oliver….make my….arrgh!"
A sword slices through Felicity's back and causes her to disappear into an angry blast of black light which shoots up into the sky.
Tatsu appears next to Oliver a second later, a hand extended towards him.
"Are you alright?"
"Just...thank you."
"Don't thank me yet. She will not be the first. The spirits have gone restless and you have many demons in your past, many demons which you have yet to face. Those loved ones who have passed on, which you have not made complete peace with."
The protest in Oliver's throat turns into him swallowing the lump in said throat. To say Tatsu has a point would be a pretty good indication. She does have one, she does have a point. Oliver does not know what else to say, other than to nod.
"And I see them as well. The Sword it keeps them at bay, for now. Let's hope it remains keeping them at bay for as long as possible."
Oliver knows who Tatsu sees, her husband and son. It's here where Oliver feels a small swell of guilt.
"Do not apologize for the dead when the living need your help."
Tatsu holds the sword. It keeps them at arm's length for now. She senses something happening. Dark barriers between life and death begin to crumble and begin to falter. She does not know what to do, and she hopes that there's some kind of darkness coming for them both.
X-X-X
"And this guy was so two years ago."
The demonic form of Hath-Set, the man who claims to be Vandal Savage, charges at Sara. Given that she encountered two other men who also claimed to be Vandal Savage, Sara wonders if there have been many people throughout history to make that claim.
Amaya tries to nail Hath-Set with a hawk, appropriate given then two long gone and very much forgotten team mates.
"Could use a little help."
Nate pulls himself off of the floor and dodges in time for Ray to him with a blast of energy. The twisted abomination howls and stampedes towards the heros.
"You will be taken to the great one."
Sara feels something prickle down the back of her neck. To say that it's causing her just the tiniest bit of a distraction would be an understatement to end all understatements.
"You mean the great…."
He's not in a chatty mood. Trying to plunge the knife in Sara's gut, she dodges it and grabs the man's hand. Sara nails him across the back of the head with a series of rapid fire punches, knocking him down to the ground.
She's really not in the mood to die again. Not today. The monster of an entity rises to his feet, hands outstretched. Sara blocks the hand and then nails him with repeated punches.
A blast from Mick's flame gun causes him to get roasted. Firestorm punches him down to the ground and he crumbles into ash.
"Okay, anyone want to explain the entire Walking Dead thing to me?"
Ray's question goes on deaf ears as Sara feels something plunge her into an almost catatonic state. It's almost like someone shoves a large chunk of ice down the back of her neck and makes her shudder.
'I have never been far from you. You have cheated my embrace. You will not cheat me again. You will not cheat Death.'
Sara closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. They really got to get into this.
"And my old team back together again. How quaint?"
The Legends turn around to see the zombified form of Leonard Snart, better known as Captain Cold. Heatwave's eyes bug out.
"Oh, no, not again."
"This time, I'm not a time traveler, or an alternate universe doppelganger or a dream or an illusion or an imaginary story, and I've come for Sara...he will be pleased to have you."
Captain Cold's entire body emits cold energy. Heatwave blasts him with a blast of fire which only bounces off of him. He just smiles.
"You've always been a bit too quick to shoot, Mick. A real problem in your interpersonal relationships, no doubt."
Captain Cold lifts his hand and causes the team, minus Sara, to be frozen solid in a matter of seconds. Sara backs off, her mouth opening and closing. Captain Cold breaks into a wide smile when approaching Sara.
"I could break them, or you could come with me."
'Join him.'
Sara shakes her head. She drops down to her knees and screams. Images of her dying bombard the back of her head. Sara clutches her head and feels something trying to rip into her.
Captain Cold disappears into the night, but the damage has already been done. Sara rises up to her feet and moves out of the ship, leaving her team members completely on ice.
"Captain Lance, I must tell you this is ill-advised."
Sara moves like a zombie and gets to the jump ship before returning to Star City, circa 2018. She has a very important person to meet and to deal with.
X-X-X
Barry decides to do the one thing that he's capable of doing more than anything else and that's run. He runs as fast as he can, feeling the burn of energy emitting from his body. His lungs burn into the distance when gaining a heavy amount of mometum. Barry keeps speeding up.
"You can run from your demons. But they will find you."
Barry sees several faces in the shadows. He shakes his head.
Simon Stagg blocks Barry's path. Barry skids to a stop.
"It turns out Sapphire wasn't seeing things, Barry. But, I wasn't trying to get to her, she never cheated death. You on the other hand, you are his, you are always his."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Come with me, Barry, and we'll find out together."
"Yes, Barry, come with us all."
The chanting in the distance puts the hairs on the back of Barry's neck completely up. He runs as fast as possible, seeing several people in his life who have died, all things to the Flash. He moves a bit closer to the edge. His heart pumps a little bit more blood into his body.
He stops short at the edge, taking a deep breath.
"You don't have to run."
Nora's voice causes Barry to shiver one more time.
"What are you? You're all dead. Did I…."
"Death is merely an illusion. One which the great one will destroy when the Blackest Night occurs."
This hits Barry in the chest like a load of bricks. The Blackest Night, that was what Copperhead talked about when they met her. There's something really off about this entire thing now.
"Barry, Barry, Barry."
And now Captain Cold shows up to join the party.
"You know, we never had a chance to properly say good bye. You were the one responsible for pushing me to be a Legend, and it got me killed with my noble sacrifice. But that's the thing about you, Barry. Death follows you around everywhere, even when it should be happening to you."
Snart holds his hand up and Barry finds himself unknowing of what he wants to do.
"You don't have to keep running. All you have to do is join us."
The loud chanting continues and Barry finds the voices in his head about ready to overwhelm. There's nothing that he can do.
Henry puts his hand on Barry's shoulder.
"So, how about it, Slugger? How about we join the man who is responsible for this?"
X-X-X
Oliver and Tatsu climb down the mountains. Every step of the way, Oliver really does not know what to expect. He just feels something going on in the back of his head, something which he cannot explain by any conventional means.
And there's an army at Oliver's feet. Some people who he killed in the past coming off to face him.
"Oliver Queen, you failed this city."
Unlike Felicity, they do not hold any emotional attachment to him. Oliver withdraws his bow and starts unloading as many arrows as possible. They all disappear with one shot, and then more reappear. Oliver keeps fighting, unloading the barrage on his enemies in as many ways as humanly possible.
Tatsu's eyes bulge out and she charges them. Sword swings and she hits a glancing blow to her adversaries, dropping them down to the ground. They all back off from the sword. All of them avoid the shot.
Oliver and Tatsu fight off the legions. The swarm gets even more insane, and only
"Where is the end?"
"When we find the leader, the person who caused all of this. That's the end."
Several more arrows wipe them out. Oliver finds himself running a bit low on arrows, which is a shame. He decides to wack one of the zombies in the face and drop him down to the ground.
"Son."
This one word causes Oliver's hairs to prick up on the back of his neck. Robert Queen appears before him.
"I gave you a mission to rid Starling City of corruption. But yet, the city is still broken. Because, you failed it."
Robert picks up one of the discharged arrows and stabs Oliver in the shoulder. The image of the Felicity possessed Indigo flashes into Oliver's mind as he drops to the ground. The images pass through his mind.
Tatsu rushes to them, trying to break free. The zombified Robert Queen smiles and creates a gun out of thin air.
"Your ghosts will stop targetting her. Go ahead, Oliver, your life for hers. You know how it's done. Because, I've shown you."
Oliver holds the gun in his hand.
"You want the pain to be over, don't you, son" You want to return to your mother and me, Tommy, and...others. Go ahead...Ollie, pull the trigger."
The gun places underneath Oliver's chin and he hesitates for a second. Tatsu's eyes widen.
He turns the gun on his father and pulls the trigger. Only to realize that there's no bullets in the gun.
"Predictable."
A dark force swoops down and nails Oliver in the back of the head. A cold rotting hand places on his shoulder, causing Oliver to relieve the night Ra's al Ghul stabbed him and he fell off of the mountain. The images burn into Oliver's mind again and again and again.
"Come with me, Mr. Queen."
Nekron scoops Oliver off of the ground. Tatsu charges him, but the wall of spirits block her and push her back.
The second Nekron disappears, so do Oliver's ghost. It leaves Tatsu along in the cold valley.
"Weak."
Tatsu recognizes the voice, but blocks it out of her head.
X-X-X
Thea moves around the corner while Laurel keeps the imposter Tommy busy. She draws her bow back and fires an arrow to the spine of the zombie. The blast of flames and fire engulf Tommy and Thea repels down to nail him down across the back of the head to drop him down to the ground.
She pulls back, taking a deep breath.
"Good job, Thea. But it's time for you to join us."
Thea turns and her mouth widens a fraction of an inch. She comes face to face with her mother. Moira steps a couple of inches away from her daughter and leans down a couple of seconds later. Thea tries to step back from her.
"I'm proud of you. But, it's time to serve your true purpose. Your brother and father are waiting for us."
Laurel steps closer to Thea who looks transfixed because of some reason.
"Thea, fight it."
"She won't and you won't either."
The person who shows up to join them is Sara. Sara takes a half of a step closer to Laurel, breaking out into very wide smile.
"Come on, pretty bird, join us."
Laurel rushes Sara, something is wrong here. Sara dodges the attack and deflects some of Laurel's best attacks. Her reflexes, always pretty good, are now more on point. Sara goes behind Laurel and tugs the staff underneath her chin.
"You always were second best to me. That really got on your nerves, to think your baby sister is better than you. Just ask Oliver. I'm sure he would have told you...and maybe Barry would as well."
Laurel breaks free from the attack. Sara moves back and nails Laurel with a couple of punches to the side. Another one to the side of the neck and one to the back of the leg which staggers Laurel for a moment. She tries not to crumple down onto the ground.
Sara jumps up and hits a roundhouse kick which nearly comes an inch away from flattening Laurel. Laurel pulls herself up to a standing position, and Sara takes a dagger out. Laurel dodges it, while covertly sending a distress signal. She hopes that someone will get it, if there's anyone left to get it.
"Whatever is happening, you've been brainwashed."
"You say brainwashed, but my mind's truly been opened to all of the possibilities, all of the wonders of the universe. And each of them, are far better. I can join him and we don't have to worry about losing our loved ones any more."
Laurel rushes Sara and the two collide together. Sara knocks Laurel back and sends her flying back with a Canary Cry.
She blinks a second. Sara should not have that power naturally.
"It's a gift from my master. Among many others."
Another shrieking cry and Sara knocks Laurel back off of the mountain. Laurel's mind flashes to the pre-Flashpoint timeline of her battle with Damien Darhk and subsequently dying from complications of the battle later. She pushes back out of the maelstorm.
Sara nails her sister in the chest and knocks her off of the docks, into the water below. Laurel drops into the water, sinking like a stone.
The White Canary looks down at her sister for a few minutes until she does not reemerge.
"Well, your natural death will bring us closer together. My master will bring you back and you will be willing."
Moira steers Thea towards the portal. Sara steps through along with her, as they bring Thea over.
X-X-X
On four stones, Thea, Sara, Oliver, and Barry alls tand. Nekron looks over at them, along with the legions of others who have risen to heed the call.
"Soon, the entire world will fade to black. My Horsemen will ensure that the stones remain protected, until the time when worlds collide. And then, I will spread the Blackest Night further than ever before."
Barry's eyes close and open up, almost gagging in response. He drops down to a knee, shaking completely madly. A warm hand on his shoulder pulls him out.
"You're home, Barry."
Despite those reassuring words, he hears a voice hissing in his ear that not is what it appears.
X-X-X
The image of Damien Darhk for about the millionth time jerks Laurel out of her catatonic state. She's in a nice, warm room, with a roaring fire. Her Canary uniform sits on the table and she's in an overly long grey nightshirt. The lights flicker and Nyssa stands above her.
"I received your distress signal. And I find that what's happening is troubling."
Laurel wonders what. Nyssa hands her a hot cup of tea and Laurel takes a drink.
"Nora's been played as a puppet and she's unleashed the Blackest Night."
A few sounds of rustling from the next room put Laurel on high alert.
"And it turns out, I'm not the only one who has received the distress signal."
"What's the Blackest Night?"
"Doom. For the living and the dead."
To Be Continue on 10/3/2018.