Chapter Fifty: Here and Back.
The minute Kara tells Alia what's going on, Alia rushes over there. She's there in about a minute to see Iris looking very hopeful at the thought of finding one of her former teammates. Kara, on the other hand, steps back ever so slightly and while she looks happy, there's a sense of potential dread working into her mind.
"So, Thawne said where she is?"
Kara nods up and down. There's a second where she bites down on her lip and releases it. "I'm just thinking that it could be a trap."
Iris throws her head back for a second. "With Thawne, it's always possible. And it's the best lead we have on her. He's planning something, he always is."
A small shudder comes over Iris. Kara turns to her, but Iris waves off Kara's attempt of a concern.
"It's fine, let's go."
The trio steps through the doors into Star Labs. As always, there's a lot of work and activity going on. Alia, Kara, and Iris step inside of the main lab. Alia stops short for a second. A giant threadmill hooking up to an energy portal sits in the middle of a large room. Several wires fasten the portal to the energy portal. Alia wonders about the process
She turns and sees two of the ladies who can potentially answer the question. Caitlin and Karen get to work on attempting to fix the item on the other end. They are heavily at work and carefully figuring out the necessary calculations on the item in front of them.
"That's about it?" Caitlin asks.
Karen confirms in response. She smiles the second Kara, Iris, and Alia turn up. "We're just making some last minute calculations. If Claire's in the speed force, we should be able to find her."
"And the technology's improve since the first time that we've used it," Caitlin chimes in. "So you should be able to enter the Speed Force without any complications. You should be able to get in, get out, and get Claire out of there in a blink of an eye."
"Or rather in a flash."
Iris gives Kara the side eye at that particular statement being thrown out. Kara responds with a cheesy grin and a smile which causes her to step back. Jesse steps into the lab with them.
"You've really improved on it," Jesse says.
"I like to say we've put some good work in on it," Caitlin says. "It should be stabilized just long enough to get them in…and we've tracked something."
Iris directs her attention to the screen where a blip of energy. Karen and Kara turn over and they follow the nice blip going across the screen.
"So, Thawne isn't talking out of his ass. That really is Claire in there."
"Or a good enough duplicate," Alia says. "Still, if this is the best chance we have to extract her from the Phantom Zone, I say we go and take it."
Kara smiles at the support that's given from Alia and boy does she ever appreciate it. Claire's death weighs on her mind for well over a year and it will continue to go out of her mind.
"I'm coming with you too," Iris says.
"Are you sure?" Caitlin asks. "I wouldn't think that you would want to go back in there."
A smallest blip of hesitation follows. Iris nods with absolute conviction in her words. "I'm going to have to be in there. Jesse's going to here to keep things stable."
"I'll do my best," Jesse says.
"I think we all will," Iris says. "I'll get the treadmill going. It's going to be like old times ago."
Kara and Alia stand by while Iris stands onto the treadmill. Despite her outward bravado, one can see that Iris is spending a lot of time psyching herself up so she doesn't psyche herself out. There's a feeling moment where it looks like she freezes up.
"Okay, let's do this."
Iris begins to build up momentum on the speed force treadmill. Sparks of light fly around her as she fires up the speed to open the portal and allow herself, Kara, and Alia to enter the Phantom Zone.
Thawne nearly wears a hole in the ground while pacing back and forth. He hates being kept waiting by anyone, especially someone like his partner. He checks the time and then makes his eyes dart back and forth and all around. His head constantly remains on a swivel.
'Where are you?'
A sound of a portal opening up catches Thawne off guard. He never knows when he has to run to keep one step ahead from the speed force wraiths who chase him. Thawne just relaxes himself ever so slightly when his partner the one and only Owlman steps out of the portal.
The Leader of the Crime Syndicate puts his gaze firmly on the Reverse-Flash. The Reverse-Flash tightens his knuckle grip.
"I thought you would be here much sooner."
The chill comes down Thawne's spine from the gaze Owlman gives him. "I'm here when I want to be. And you're right where I need you to be. And soon our mutual enemy will be right near where she wants to be."
"This plan should work," Thawne agrees.
The smile spreading over Owlman's face causes Thawne to step back. "Naturally, the plan should work. I would not have signed off on any plan which did not have a high probability of working. You have to realize that I don't back the plays of failures."
Thawne swallows the lump in his throat. He looks over his shoulder one more time.
"Time in the speed force has made me weary. Things are often not as they appear."
Owlman reaches over and fastens a hand on the Reverse-Flash's shoulder. "That's not just your time in the speed force. That is a logical lesson for life."
The two gentleman walk and Thawne feels they are going to do more than walk in a minute.
"The Light's serving their purpose nicely," Owlman comments. "They are bringing me one step closer to my plans."
"Savage is starting to ask some questions," Thawne says.
"You don't live as long as Vandal Savage without asking questions. His suspicion can be misdirected to other avenues if you play your cards right. And I trust you will do what you can to help me. Remember, if it wasn't for me, you would have been consumed by the time wraith."
Thawne remembers due to the simple fact Owlman keeps bringing it up. There's another thing which Thawne needs to tell Owlman about.
"I brought you Superwoman. I gave you the person who locked away the rest of your team."
Owlman chuckles and holds up his hand to prevent them from moving forward. A trio of time wraiths flash by. Thawne holds his breath and remains perfectly still as to not incite them. They move around the corner and disappear into the speed force as suddenly as they appeared.
"Yes, she does have her uses. I'm not going to deny that. But, it's hard for her to come up with any concrete information when her memories are scrambled after her temporary death."
Thawne closes his mouth and opens it back up again. Unfortunately, that's very true. There's no way to stop that, but still, he figures that Owlman cannot deny how useful Superwoman could potentially build.
Owlman waits for the time wraiths to completely pass. There's something else which catches his attention and most certainly piques his interest.
"You have that look on your face," Thawne tells him. "You know, the look that you know something that no one else is knows."
"Close your eyes, open your mind, and shut your mouth," Owlman advises him. "And see if you can feel what I feel."
Thawne tries not to lash out at Owlman. It takes self-control because as Owlman will not stop reminding Thawne, he needs him. Thawne does as asked, closes his eyes, shuts his mouth, and opens his mind. A shift in the speed force energies bring Thawne's thoughts completely to a certain point. He realizes that there's something coming in and he knows what it is almost immediately.
"They activated the Speed Force Treadmill. They've swallowed the bait."
"Yes, they have," Owlman says. "They're acting completely as I predicted they were."
"Don't get too smug. Our plan is not completely enacted yet."
"It's well on its way to doing so."
They take a short walk inside of a cave on the edge of a large valley of fire and swirling green eyes. They step inside of it to reveal the cave Owlman sets up for his own. Would it be inappropriate to call it the Owlcave. Maybe, and completely unoriginal as well.
Thawne stops and gazes upon a very small relay tower. It's sheer black with three red orbs on it. The orbs circle around and build up an insane amount of energy.
"Boy, have you ever been busy."
Thawne just fires a smile in the Flash's general direction as more waves of energy come. He sees how it disrupts the speed force and no doubt STAR Lab's speed force technology on the other end.
Strange waves of energy fold in on her the second Alia steps into the Speed Force. She gets the sense of being somewhere where she really should not be. Her stomach turns inward. Kara steps in behind her and Iris brings up the rear.
"Keep your eyes open," Iris warns them. "There are a lot of things in here that are not what they appear."
Alia closes her eyes. The goosebumps heighten all over her arms. "And there are other things in this place which are exactly how they appear."
"What do you mean?" Kara asks.
A loud rattling from above makes all three of the heroines stand up straight. Iris senses it, as does Kara, even though she does not understand it. There's no time to freeze up and there's even less time for indecision. Iris only can belt out one word.
"RUN!"
The trio run from three skeletal figures moving at them at the speed of light. Time Wraiths chase them and one of them make a beeline for Iris. The only good thing about spending what seems like decades sealed in the speed force is that Iris has a pretty good way to get them.
"Wait, they're going right after you?" Iris asks.
Alia throws a bright blue light over her shoulder. A wall shoots up out of the ground and blocks their further progress. They only smack into the wall the second they move forward.
"Yes," Alia agrees.
There's many questions Iris has in mind to ask. She goes for the most obvious one. "What did you do?"
The speed wraiths chasing the trio all throughout the speed force. They run to the edge of a cliff and stop short. There's a very long drop off from here.
"Right!"
Iris knows the speed force better than anyone else in there. Therefore, once she gives them the lead, Kara and Alia follow down the way. They move down at the speed of light, making three very super-sonic blurs coming around the corner.
The moment they had some time to breath, Iris turns her attention to Alia. "Seriously, what did you do?"
"Well, there was that time where I used a time turner that I might have taken certain liberties with it," Alia says. "Of course, the reason that I even had a time turner was utterly stupid in the first place, and it's not power that should be in the hands of….."
Those time wraiths close ranks on them. Alia repels one of them back. This only increases his velocity when charging at Alia. The three wraiths are joined by three more wraiths and a first wraith.
"They've never been like this before! Something must be riling them up!"
Iris stops and puts her hands on the edge of the cliff. Several large rocks shoot up to form a wall which the speed wraiths smack head long into. The loud crack echoes from when they hit.
Alia shakes her head while biting her lower lip. "That's not going to stop them."
As if on cue, the time wraiths break free from the rocks and continue their aggressive pursuit of the trio of heroines. They reach out and stop them. Alia holds her hands out and creates a large cylinder like object. It strains her abilities ad does the job at the same time. The time wraiths keeps smacking hard against the edge of the cylinder. Every attempt for them to break out only results in them smacking against the cylinder as hard as humanly possible.
"Claire's close."
"Yeah, she's close," Iris agrees. "We could get to her if the time wraiths don't rip us to shreads!"
"We should go before more come after us."
Alia, Iris, and Kara move their way over. The time wraiths do not follow them. That particular thing appeases them and yet there's a sense.
"Time storm!" Iris shouts.
Vortexes of glowing light erupt in the sky above them. Another couple of crackles bring more energy out of the air. Iris hitches in her breath the second they move over and turns over her shoulder.
"There's someone who is messing with the Speed Force. It's never acted like this."
The entire atmosphere takes a turn for the chilling. Alia knows there's something coming around the corner. Iris tenses up as well.
"What's that?" Kara asks.
Iris holds her mouth open. She can hardly believe what is coming for her, and yet here it comes. She draws in a deep breath to come face to face with a hideous creature who has no face and no soul and likely no purpose. It appears in front of them with its disgusting breath rattling.
"Black Flash," Iris hisses.
The force locks onto Iris like a bloodhound and goes after her.
"I'll lead him away!" Iris shouts.
She runs even though there's no running from the Black Flash especially now that she's stepped into his domain.
Jesse stands outside of the portal. Every thirty to forty-five seconds a small bolt of light shoots out of the Speed Force. She puts a hand on her face and digs her nails in. She turns around to Caitlin who is a the control panel. Karen moves over to check the power source.
"I don't understand. It's never done this before."
Working with something new, that's never a good sign. Jesse eyes the treadmill on the other end and the energy which is shooting out. One of those discharges could seal them off from the speedforce in addition to destroying the temple. Jesse moves onto the table and runs as fast as she can to stabilize the portal.
"I don't know how long I can keep this up! It's pretty wonky! Do you have any idea what's wrong?"
"No," Caitlin says while clenching her fist together.
Jesse throws her head back. "Well, you better figure out pretty soon. The speed portal is going to fry and I don't know how long it's going to take for me to get it back under control, if it's at all possible."
She keeps running until her muscles start burning. It's hard for her to keep going on the treadmill when there's sparks flying from it. Jesse takes her breath and keeps running as fast as she could.
"I don't think it's ever done this before!"
"No, it hasn't," Caitlin agrees.
She pours herself over the keyboard and sees that the speed force is developing some kind of strange reaction with the portal. Karen leans over Caitlin's shoulder and the frown only increases as time passes.
"The portal has been properly calibrated. This is the same calculations that we've used to open the portal to the speed force before."
"Yes, the technology has not changed," Caitlin says. "And I don't think the Speed Force has changed even. There must be some kind of third party that…."
A beam of black light erupts out of the portal. Some kind of speed demon appears in the lab with pure black skin and sinister yellow eyes. Caitlin turns her palm around and blasts the creature with a a concentrated blast of ice.
'At least one thing remains true. Anything coming out of the speed force doesn't really stand up well with ice.'
"You took care of one of those things. What if more come out? What are we going to do?"
Caitlin's mindful of Jesse's statement and she quickly comes to a conclusion. She gets Karen's attention by grabbing her shoulder. "Mind the portal for a bit. I think I have an idea. But, we're going to need to extra Kara, Iris, and Alia from the speed force."
"I can go in there, and get them out!" Jesse yells.
A shake of Caitlin's head causes Jesse to jump up. "You're not going in there. I'm not sending you in there, not when it's so dangerous. If the Speed Force storm gets any worse, we're not going to be able to get you out of there."
"There has to be a way to stabilize this!" Jesse shouts at the top of her lungs.
Caitlin agrees. She decides to get Karen's attention who is busy trying to find a solution to keeping more of those speed demons from getting out. As if the Phantom Zone creatures were not bad enough, they have to deal with these monsters.
"I'll be right back. You keep manning the controls. This should only take a second."
The two switch and Karen wonders if Claire is still there. It's hard to tell with all of the disturbance. The portal hisses which makes Karen become even more uneased.
"Get through the portal and save them. You want a chance to redeem yourself, here's your opportunity."
A bright blur passes through the portal. Jesse only sees the figure just barely pass her on her way through the portal. It takes her a minute to realize that Caitlin just sent Eliza Harmon, better known as Trajectory, through the portal.
"Did you just send….."
Caitlin holds up a hand. "Keep manning the treadmill. She can handle herself."
"Did you just sacrifice someone?"
There's no answer to that one. Jesse looks forward and keeps running as fast as she can. Sparks of energy rise up when she builds up enough speed and momentum.
"You know something? That's a very Thawne thing to do."
The force Black Flash knocks Iris back takes the wind out of her lungs. She struggles to a standing position as the wraith moves in.
Death dances in front of her. The Fastest Woman alive pulls herself up off of the ground and rushes the super-powerful time wraith. The time wraith blocks her punch and knocks her back with several more to crack her chest. She drops down onto the ground.
His hand tightens around Iris's shoulders. The speed force energy drains from Iris no matter how much she struggles. She kicks and fires punches, but each punch just fuels the Black Flash and makes sure he has Iris down on the ground where he feels she belongs.
"Finally."
That sinister, sadistic word puts Iris on alert. She kicks away at the Black Flash with a deep breath coming from her body. The sadistic speedster flies in the opposite direction and lands on the ground with a very violent thud. His hand vibrates against the ground and he comes at Iris again.
Black Flash grabs regular Flash around the neck and squeezes the speed force out of her. Iris senses her entire life flash before her. Every single instance of everything that happens is going right through her body. Iris twitches and pulls herself free.
Just in time for Alia to come down from the heavens with a concentrated cold bolt. The gust of wind erupts the Black Flash. The impact forces his control of the Speed Force to break. He turns around and then Alia whips her hands to send two concussive blasts at the same time to get the Black Flash back.
"That should do it. For now!"
Alia extends a hand to Iris. Iris takes the hand and pulls herself up. She's shaking very madly, but the energy returns to her.
"I'm fine."
"KARA!"
A voice shouts from the distance and Kara sees Claire floating in the midst of some kind of time prison. Kara sees her cousin and moves to her. Alia rushes in front of Kara and stops her.
"What are you doing? It's Claire. She's in there. There's…."
"Something wrong."
The time prison collapses to release three wraiths, one of them taking on Claire's form. An entire swarm of them dive towards Kara and Alia. Alia propels herself in front of them and draws two large swords out. Both of them flash with intense waves of energy.
"Get to the exit! I've got this handled."
Alia blasts the time wraiths which try and dive onto Iris. She's not going to let this storm of wraiths rip anyone apart, not if she could help it.
Kara's powers start going out on her when she's in the speed force. She's only running on reserves. Two of the wraiths dive at her, and a third raises a hand. Alia plunges the glowing sword into the back of the wraith and causes the time force energy to fade. He'll be able to pull himself back apart in a minute.
"GO!" Alia yells.
"Not without you!"
Iris grabs Kara and moves her through the portal. An entire wall of time wraiths appear in front of them like soldiers defending the line. She's never seen this many in one place before.
A blur bombards them from behind and rips through the time wraiths like a hot knife through butter. They turn their attention to the wraith which allows Iris and Kara to bolt away through the portal at the speed of light. They keep moving quicker and quicker, picking up enough speed and momentum.
Alia stands strong against her enemies and goes face to face with Trajectory.
"I'm here to get you out of here," Trajectory says.
"Thanks," Alia says. "Let's go."
They move over where the portal is. The portal rapidly shrinks behind them. Trajectory opens her mouth to say something. Alia pushes Trajectory through the portal.
"I'm right behind you."
Back in Star Labs, the portal breaks open. Supergirl and Flash come out first, and Trajectory moves by. The Speed Treadmill and the Portal both short out and close when the energy flings Jesse back.
The dust clears and Supergirl looks up with a look of horror on her face. The speed force treadmill and the fire shoot into flames, but Kara shrugs that off.
"Alia?" Kara asks. "Oh, Rao no."
"She's trapped…in there," Iris manages.
"I tried to get her out."
Alia remains in the speed force without any way to get her out.
To Be Continued on February 10th, 2018.
