100 Ways
97. I'll pick you up at the airport.
Barry was racing laps around the city, trying to focus on the patrol he was conducting. The Reverse-Flash had been busy all weekend, stealing items and chemicals and machine parts from places all over the city. Caitlin and Cisco couldn't figure out what he was trying to build, although it seemed to be some kind of generator.
In addition to patrol, he was also running off his restless energy from not-so-patiently waiting for Eddie's plane to land back in Central City.
Finally, finally, his phone buzzed. He answered it on his suit's comms.
"Well hello there," Barry said.
"Hey, Bar, did you miss me?" Eddie asked.
"A bit," Barry said. "Did you just land?"
"Nah, we landed about twenty minutes ago. I'm all disembarked and headed out of security."
"I'll pick you up at the airport," Barry said, changing direction.
Eddie laughed. "Barry, it'll be faster for me to grab a cab that's already here."
"No, I'll pick you up at the airport," Barry repeated.
There was a small pause, then a breathy, "Oh."
"See you soon," Barry said, then ended the call.
He changed direction and raced down the streets, excitement and anticipation making his feet pound even harder. The training lately had been paying off. The most recent spot the Reverse-Flash had stolen from was Mercury Labs, and there Barry had actually been able to land a few punches and chase him closely before losing him.
Barry arrived at the airport, startling many people coming out of the arrivals doors. Some people clapped, and others took out their phones. He grinned and waved and waited for Eddie.
Then, he saw him. There, just beyond the circular glass doors, his hair mussed and a duffel bag strapped across his shoulders. There, just stepping onto the sidewalk with a wide smile meant just for Barry. There, just ten feet away from him, right as the Reverse-Flash appeared and wrapped his hand around Eddie's throat.
"No!" Barry screamed, fear jolting adrenaline through his veins.
Eddie's feet jerked beneath him, trying to find purchase but only coming up with air. People screamed and began trying to hide or retreat into the airport or vehicles. The yellow speedster turned to look at him, a wicked grin on his face.
"It's time for our showdown, Barry," he said. "Let's see if you can keep up."
And, with Eddie in tow, he ran. Barry cursed and followed after him.
"Cisco, Caitlin, I need you!" he said into his comms, but there was nothing but silence. "Guys?"
The Reverse-Flash raced on ahead of him, teasing and baiting him as they ran through the city. Barry's hand itched with the urge to throw lightning at the villain, but he couldn't risk hurting Eddie too.
Finally, the Reverse-Flash seemed like he had finally picked a destination, and the destination was S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry raced into the building, going straight to one of the rooms they never used where he saw a massive generator has been assembled. He also saw Eddie, Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, and Iris tied up in a corner of the room.
"What do you want?" Barry asked angrily.
"What I've always wanted," the Reverse-Flash answered. "To defeat you."
"Why me? Why are you doing this?"
The Reverse-Flash laughed. "Because you're my archnemesis. In the future, at least. But you see, I could never defeat you in the future, where I come from. So I came back. I killed your mother in the hopes that you'd be too traumatized to ever become a hero. But that didn't work. So I came back again to kill you before you got your powers, but my connection to the Speed Force had dwindled, so I was forced to allow you to become the Flash, all for this moment."
"And what is this moment, exactly?"
"It's the moment I steal your speed and return to my future, a future without the Flash," the Reverse-Flash sneered. "I idolized you as a child. I wanted to be you. But when I realized I couldn't, when I discovered my destiny was to be your enemy, I became the opposite of you, or the reverse."
"How are you going to steal my speed?" Barry asked.
"My Speed Force Tachyon Transfer Machine," he announced proudly.
"Bit of a mouthful," Barry said scornfully. "You should've let Cisco name it."
Cisco grinned around the gag in his mouth.
"Funny," the Reverse-Flash said in an unamused voice. "But I'm done monologuing. You clearly haven't come up with a plan to stop me yet, so I suggest you cooperate or I'll kill all of your friends."
To emphasize his point, he suddenly had Caitlin by the throat. "You have ten seconds to attach the red sensor to your chest before I break her neck."
Barry complied. He grabbed the red sensor, which was large and circular and fit around the insignia on his chest.
"Good. Now start running around the track," the Reverse-Flash instructed.
"The what?"
The Reverse-Flash sighed. "For the life of me, I could never understand why you lot insisted on using a treadmill rather than the track built into this room," he said, gesturing around.
For the first time, Barry noticed the tube running around the room. The Reverse-Flash was right, it would make a great space for training and monitoring his speed. Like a Speed Lab or something.
"Perhaps I should've taken a different approach to all this," the Reverse-Flash mused. "I could've infiltrated your ranks and taught you how to use and improve your speed, then betrayed you in the end. Now, wouldn't that have been entertaining?"
Barry ignored him. "If I do this, you'll let all of them go?" he asked.
"That remains to be seen," the Reverse-Flash replied. "But I will definitely kill them all if you don't. It's up to you."
Barry looked over at his friends and family-at Eddie, Cisco, Caitlin, Joe, and Iris, who still didn't know he was the Flash and had no idea why this was happening. She was probably terrified out of her mind. They all looked terrified, in fact.
He looked at Eddie, who shook his head furiously. The others all did the same, but he had to protect them. So he went up the ramp and started running. His mind raced, trying to come up with a plan, trying to think of a way he could sneak up on the Reverse-Flash or startle him or something.
But as he ran, he could feel himself begin to slow down. The generator was sparking and crackling, which meant it must be working. He watched as the Reverse-Flash attached the yellow sensor up to his chest, then a gunshot rang out in slow motion, and Barry stopped running.
The bullet flew through the air and hit the generator, ruining it.
The Reverse-Flash let out a furious growl and slammed the person with the gun against the wall—Joe. Barry saw Iris' purse overturned by where Joe had been, and he guessed they must've fished it out from there. Barry made a mental note to ask Iris why she was carrying a gun.
"You missed," the Reverse-Flash said. "That was your one chance to kill me, and you missed."
"I wasn't aiming for you," Joe mustered, the gun slipping from his bound hands. "Now you've lost."
"I never lose," the Reverse-Flash growled, then turned to see Eddie scrabbling for the gun, his fingers having just found purchase on it.
"And what do you think you're going to do?" he asked snidely, dropping Joe back to the ground to focus on Eddie. "Shoot me? When I can phase around the bullet? What, do you think saving the day will win you his heart?" He jerked his head toward Barry, who was trying to come up with a way to get the Reverse-Flash's attention away from his friends.
"The saddest part is, you've lost him and you don't even know it yet," the Reverse-Flash growled. "You know, in the future that I come from, he marries Iris, not you. And you? You're a nobody. You die having done nothing extraordinary in your life. You want to know how I know this? Because my name is Eobard Thawne, and you're one of my good-for-nothing ancestors."
Barry's heart stopped, and he looked at Iris, who looked back at him in bewilderment because her brain was still putting the pieces together. The Reverse-Flash was still growling furiously in Eddie's face. Barry's mind began racing to come up with a plan to safely separate the two of them when the Reverse-Flash spun away from Eddie to face Barry.
"Now, luckily I always have backup plans," the Reverse-Flash said, turning his head toward Barry. "You have one minute to go break into—"
Another gunshot rang out. Barry half-expected the Reverse-Flash to stumble or fall, to see a bullet break through or a red smear grow on the costume. But it appeared the Reverse-Flash hadn't been shot at all.
They both looked behind him to see Eddie crouched on the ground, gun pressed against his stomach, where blood was seeping out onto the concrete floor.
Everything began moving in slow motion, though Barry wasn't moving at all. Joe, Iris, and Caitlin screamed while Cisco looked completely shell-shocked. Eddie's fingers lost their grip on the gun, and it laid in the pool of his blood as he slumped to the side. Cold fear spread slowly through Barry's body, his eyes locked on the gunshot wound.
"I…" Eddie panted, "…am not…a nobody…"
The Reverse-Flash screamed in frustration, his whole body vibrating, and his eyes glowed red as he took a step toward Eddie.
"And now…you'll never…be born…" Eddie said triumphantly, a pained grin on his sweat-beaded face.
Stricken, the Reverse-Flash turned and ran. Barry followed him, dogging the Reverse-Flash's every step until he saw that the Reverse-Flash was running for a swirling red vortex. At first, Barry was going to chase after him, to hunt him down and make him suffer for everything he'd done to them. But then Barry remembered Eddie, lying on the ground, waiting for Barry to save him.
Barry slowed down enough to watch the Reverse-Flash run through the time vortex, then he turned around and went back to S.T.A.R. Labs. He rushed to his friends, quickly freed them all from their bindings, and then cradled Eddie's head in his lap.
"I wanted…to be…your hero…for…once," Eddie groaned. Caitlin's pressed her hands firmly over the wound in Eddie's abdomen.
"You are," Barry sobbed. "You are, Eddie."
"Barry, we can still save him," Caitlin said. "But you have to get him to a hospital."
"Barry!" Joe said, shaking his shoulders and breaking him out of his grief. "Hospital, now! Run, Barry, run!"
A sense of purpose filled his veins and pushed the sorrow away. He scooped Eddie up into his arms, then sped off toward Central City General Hospital.