A/N: First, I want to say I hope you all are ok and staying healthy with everything going on with the coronavirus. I know things right now can be hard, especially financially with so many shelter-in-place policies going around. I hope this breaks up a bit of any monotony you may have in your day.
Secondly, thank you for being patient with me as I know it's been a while since I've updated this fic. Here's a long chapter for you to make up for it.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Double Blind
Henry jerked awake at the loud clang-bang of metal doors. His eyes popped open, only to narrow into a squint in the next against the harsh light. Then hands were on him, ripping the heavy, smelly, scratchy blanket from his body, pulling him from his bed. Air rushed around him before he hit the cool, damp floor.
"Come on, Al." A somber voice reached his ears. Henry was pulled out of his groggy state, as he was roughly lifted from the floor. His arms were forced painfully behind his back, handcuffs tightly snapped on. "It's time to go." Hands gripped his elbows and biceps, pads of their fingers pressing deeply into his skin, fingernails scratching at his skin.
"Whoa, whoa." The back of Henry's throat burned it was so dry. He licked his cracked lips. Swallowed repeatedly, trying to soothe his throat. "Hold on. What's going on?"
"This will be a lot easier if you don't put up a fuss, Al."
That confused him even more. No one outside of Iron Heights called him Al.
Iron Heights.
He looked around wildly as he was pulled out of his prison cell and shuffled along the walkway. Past all the other cells, through the common area. Men shouted. Whistled. Heavy items were clanged against the metal bars, adding to the cacophony of the room.
"Wait, this isn't right." The officers didn't listen to him. Or maybe didn't hear him. Henry dragged his feet, tried to plant them firmly on the ground. Still, he was pulled forward.
"Open pod door." A loud, klaxon-like alarm sounded before the door slid open. Henry and the officers stepped through it and upon the second command to "close pod door," it was closed behind them, effectively cutting off all sound behind them.
"Ok, wait, wait," Henry pleaded. "This isn't right." He looked from officer to officer. "I'm not supposed to be here. I can't be here. I was out. I was freed." All at once, the guards laughed. An evil cackle that rebounded from every corner of the room. Reverberating in his skull. "I didn't do anything. Just, please, someone, tell me what's going on."
"It's time to go, Al."
None of the officers' faces changed. They all stared straight ahead of them, eyes unfixed, mouths pressed into thin lines. None of the four men – two more men than usual that would escort him, would even look at him. Or blink. They just stared straight ahead. "Am I going to the doctor or something? A new unit?"
"It's time to go, Al." That voice sounded familiar. Henry looked over at the man and jerked back in surprise to find the unblinking face of Joe West staring back at him.
The hand on his right elbow tightened its grip. "Stay where you are!" A second shout, feminine. His eyes widened when he took in the site of the woman that was suddenly standing in front of him. Iris.
The hands on his upper arms tightened their grips. A foot connected with the back of his knee and Henry was forced down to his knees. His kneecaps collided hard with the ground, sending shockwaves up his body. Henry looked around wildly, trying to turn his head as far as he could to look over his shoulders.
"Mom?" His jaw dropped, and he watched in horror as the image of his mom slowly transformed, body elongating, shoulders broadening until he was face to face with his father. "Dad?" The deep frown of disappointment was the same across both faces.
"Right. Come on." A hard tug on his left bicep, pulled him sideways. Then a second, when he didn't movie, and a third, harder tug when he moved slower than the officer wanted. "Bloody hell, get up." Averey peered down her nose at Henry as he slowly, and shakily got to his feet. She slowly shook her head from side to side.
Before Henry could even breathe a word, he heard his name being called and he faced forward, taking in the site of the black man standing at the end of the hall in front of him, arms crossed tightly over his uniform. "Henry Allen," he said, "it's time for you to go."
"Stop saying that!" Henry's loud words burst forth, echoing around him. He licked his lips, swallowing thickly. "Officer Wolfe," he spoke quietly, almost a whisper, "please. No one's telling me anything. Where am I going? What's going on? Please. No one's telling me anything."
"You've been a great prisoner, Allen." Officer Wolfe took slow steps toward Henry. He blinked, an apologetic expression on his face. "But, I'm sorry; you're being transferred."
"Wh-what, no." Henry shook his head back and forth. "I can't. I can't be. I don't have a reason to. I have my—my son is here! I can't be away from him! I have a daughter. My family…"
His words died on his lips as he looked back over at Averey, whose eyebrows were pulled towards each other, a distasteful look on her face as she regarded him out of the corner of her eye. Then over to his dad, who click his tongue disapprovingly.
It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. To have his own family turn their backs on him. It had been a while since he had seen those looks, from anyone, and it still hurt. It hurt even more from those he loved and cared about. But even then, it had only been last year that anyone had started to believe that he could be innocent. Still, they were the she same looks he saw on the faces of everyone he sat across from in the court room. Friends. Family. Citizens of Central City. All silently judging him. Already have come to their own conclusions on whether he could murder the love of his life. His soul mate.
Henry closed his eyes at the now familiar rush of wind that enveloped the space. The Flash stood beside Officer Wolfe. The Flash performed a quick scan of Henry's form, upper lip curling slightly. Then, he slid his cowl up off his head. No expression was on Barry's face as he stared down at his father. His lip slowly lowered.
"Hi, dad." It was Barry's voice all right. But different. He could still hear his son's unwavering warmth and support, but just barely through the layer of indifference.
"Barry," Henry attempted to push a smile to his face. He grit his teeth, moaning in pain when he attempted to lift his arms in a hug, his wrist coming to a jarring stop. The handcuffs. "Hey, Slugger." A moment later his vision shimmered as tears filled his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm, uh, it looks like I'll be going away for a while."
"You never wanted me here, dad." Barry's stoic expression just briefly turned into a look of pain. The corners of his lips pulled downwards, a slight creased formed between his eyebrows. Henry turned his face into his shoulder to wipe at his eyes. Henry sniffed loudly. "You didn't want me around."
"I didn't want to scare you," Henry protested. "That was all. This isn't a place for kids. I didn't want you to see me like this."
"Like what?"
"Like I wasn't your father. Like I was just a criminal."
"I wouldn't have. You were always my hero." Barry slowly started to shake his head back and forth. Henry squeezed his eyes shut. "But I don't need you as my hero anymore, dad. I don't need you anymore."
Bowing his head, Henry let out a silent sob. His shoulder shook. Tears slid down his cheeks. A glob of saliva slipped past his lips and hit the floor with a splat. He swallowed thickly and sucked in a breath of air, nodding. "You haven't needed me for a long time," he agreed. "You always had Joe, and Iris." He could feel Averey's grip on his arm tightened with each word. "You have a great team behind you now."
"Come on, Al." Officer Wolfe stepped forward, shooing the guards away. He gently grasped Henry's elbow. "It's time." Shuffling alongside Officer Wolfe, Henry rolled back his suddenly stiff-feeling shoulders, and lifted his head. His arms felt heavy. He continued through the halls of Iron Heights, stepping through doorway after doorway until they finally reached a door that led outside.
A dirt walkway was flanked on both sides by tall metal gates topped with sharp spirals of barbed wire, leading to a van sitting idle at the end. Henry took one step outside and took in a deep breath of air, holding it in his chest. He closed his eyes, relaxing his muscles, only to tense a moment later, when a cold voice reached his ears.
"Henry Allen."
He opened his eyes to find Officer Wolfe standing in front of him. He wasn't exactly smiling, but his eyes were lit with a manic sort of joy he hadn't seen in about 15 years. Breath coming out in slow, shaky streams of air, Henry took a step back from Officer Wolfe. He glanced back over his shoulder, and found Barry standing in the doorway, watching the two of them, one hand planted on the door. Facing forward again, Henry gasped in horror when he found Officer Wolfe had been replaced by the Reverse-Flash.
The Reverse-Flash shifted and glitched from left to right, red lightning crackling in the air. Eyes glowing a blazing red. Henry felt the hair on his arms lift, sending a shiver down his back. The masked man's lips parted into a hint of a smile a second before it disappeared, and a cool, calculated expression appeared on his face.
"It's time for you to go," he said lightly before lunging forward in a burst of speed.
Henry was lifted off his feet, the breath expelled from his body when he was slammed against the wall of the prison. Gasping in pain, Henry turned his head to look Barry in the eye. Barry merely blinked before stepping back inside the building, releasing the door, allowing it to start to swing shut. Just as the Reverse-Flash shoved his rapidly vibrating hand through Henry's chest, the door crashed shut.
A crash that jolted Henry out of his sleep, eyes flying open.
Taking in a deep, shuddering gasp of air, he blinked repeatedly, staring out across the living room he quickly recognized to not be that of his hotel room. He attempted to push himself up, finding himself face first on the floor a moment later, arms splayed out; heavy and cold all at the same time. Unmoving. He had fallen asleep on them. He slowly breathed in through his nose, trying to quell the pain in the center of his chest. A second later, he heard something hit the floor and found his cell phone face down on the carpet from where it lay on the couch cushions, directly underneath where he had just been sleeping.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, mate." Gritting his teeth, Henry tensed his muscles, trying to push himself up into a seated position. Once he was up, he watched Daniel set down a spatula, his other hand pulling back from the cabinet door situated above his head. He turned down the flames on the stove. Daniel crossed the room and lowered himself onto the edge of the coffee table. Henry waved away the hand that was offered him. "Catch any zeds?" Daniel asked. "How was the couch for you?"
Henry didn't reply right away. Breathing steadily through his nose, he tried to slow the rapid beating of his heart.
"Just about anything is fine for me, nowadays," Henry said. He shook out his arms, finding himself slowly getting the feeling back in them, before he moved to sit back down on the couch. He let out a short laugh. "The couch is one of the bigger things I've slept on lately. Thank you for letting Barry and I stay over last night. I know it was last minute. Based off what you told me that Cisco explained to you, it was just easier to have him and Averey in one spot for check-ups."
"It was the least I could do," Daniel replied, "after everything I've heard, there's no way I could let Barry leave in his condition." Henry massaged his wrists, letting out a small sigh of relief when he found that they weren't bound, despite still feeling as if he had handcuffs on them. "And you came the second you heard there was something wrong with Averey." He paused. "You are her father, so..."
Henry's massaging slowed. Yes, he was her father. More so only in name. His stomach clenched when he cast his mind back to his dream. With the way she had looked at him. How everyone had looked at him. Henry shook his head. It was just a dream, he reminded himself. A bad dream. Still, a dream that shook him to his core.
"I've got to put my medical skills to good use at some point, right?" Henry asked. "In fact," Henry placed his hands to his knees and slowly got to his feet, "if you don't mind, I'll go check on them, again."
"Breakfast will be ready soon," Daniel replied with a nod, using his spatula to point towards the stairs. "You know where he is."
Henry laughed quietly: he had gotten up enough times in the middle of the night, he probably could make his way through the house in his sleep by now. How quickly his medical training came back to him; how many nights had he spent on-call, working extended shifts, and expected to navigate through surgeries and post-operation procedures on limited amounts of sleep? Traversing the dark hallways of the hospital on a caffeine-fueled autopilot was par for the course.
Taking the stairs up to the second landing, Henry stepped up to the closed bedroom door to his right and gently knocked on it before stepping into the room. Barry's soft snores reached his ears and Henry felt himself smiling, hovering in the doorway, just watching his son sleep. It was nice. For a moment, he wasn't the Flash.
He was Barry Allen.
He was safe, and away from the dangers of the world. Lying flat on his stomach, cheek pressed into the back of his hand, hands folded neatly under his cheek. The curve of Barry's cheek twitched, his back slowly lifting and falling with each deep breath. He didn't even bother to curl up under the blankets, instead splay out of over the mattress. Henry figured he must have just crashed after the last late-night check-in.
"Barry," Henry whispered, stepping further into the room. He knelt by the bed and gently shook Barry's shoulder – ignoring the growing tingly feeling situated at the base of his spine, the back of his neck the longer he kept his back to the door. "Come on, wake up. I have to check your eyes again." Barry mumbled something in his sleep, but still didn't rise. Shaking his head in amusement, Henry clicked on the lamp before attempting to shake Barry awake again.
Cracking open an eye, Barry groaned, and shut it a second later. He blindly patted the mattress around him, looking for a pillow to pull over his burning eyes. Finding nothing, he started flailing around, eyes squeezed shut. He only stopped, seeming to relax when he heard Henry start to laugh. "Dad?"
"You realize, Slugger, that you're only twisting yourself into a pretzel." Sighing, Barry pushed the blankets and comforter off his body. Barry rolled onto his back, rubbing at his eyes with his fists. Henry smiled gently at the image. He remembered the nights he and Nora would stand over Barry's crib, watching their tired baby settle down for the night. Fussy. Rubbing at his eyes as he tried to stay awake. "You were an active sleeper as a baby, too. Took ages for you to be comfortable sleeping with a blanket. You'd always kick it away from you over night, then whine and complain about being too cold."
Barry let out a tired laugh, dropping his arms up by his head, hands still curled into fists. Henry smiled to himself, recognizing the second sleeping position. "What time is it?" Barry asked, voice groggy.
"Morning," Henry replied. "The sun is actually up this time. About eight O'clock." He reached into his pocket for his pen light and clicked it on, slowly passing it back and forth from one of Barry's eyes to the next, using his finger to gently lift Barry's eyelids. "Any improvements?"
Barry's nostrils briefly flared as he breathed out of his nose. Gently pushing Henry's dad away, he sat up, pulling his knees up to his chest. "Still looks like I'm looking through a kaleidoscope. But, not as bad before, I guess."
"Even the Flash needs to remember that it takes time to heal, bud." Henry spoke quietly as he reached out a hand and mussed Barry's already messed-up hair. "Don't go running back into action right away."
"There's no one else who can protect the city, dad," Barry replied, swinging off the legs of his bed. "I still have to be the Flash. Somehow."
"You'll figure it out," Henry replied, lowering the pen light. "You always do. You and Caitlin, and Cisco." He tilted is chin upwards. "Is this Jay Garrick guy still around?"
"Yeah, but he doesn't have his speed," Averey said, slipping into the bedroom. She closed the door behind her with a soft click. Henry watched as she crossed the room, seeming to do her best to hold herself upright, shoulders rolled back, yet still looking stiff. Still, she made it to the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress. "My P.O. should be ringing for check-in soon, but I wanted to see how you lot were doing. Did you sleep well? The couch wasn't too uncomfortable?"
"No, it was great," Henry said.
"Yes, thanks," Barry said, rubbing his hands over his face. "But I thought you couldn't have more than one visitor at a time?"
"Family doesn't count," Averey said, waving her hand in the air. The light bounced off the black device strapped to her forearm. "In fact, my probation officer encourages the idea that I keep up with family ties. You know, so I 'stay on the right path'." She started scratching at her wrist, underneath the strap, her upper lip curling slightly at the effort. "Anyway, if any meta were to attack now, Central City would be a bloody buffet for them."
"Not necessarily," Henry replied. He shifted his gaze over to Averey and said, "there's always Visionary."
"Small potatoes compared to the Flash," Averey said with a short laugh.
"You help me a lot out there," Barry said.
"I wasn't a recipient of the key to the city, hey," Averey pointed out. She turned her attention back to Barry. "Don't think I'd be of much help now: I'm stuck living in a black and white world, dad." She shrugged. "I can't even tell what color you're wearing. Do you know how many doors I walked into this morning?" Her eyes widened and she put her hand to her chest. "And I know my own flat."
"Explain to me what's happened," Henry said, sitting back on his heels, "one more time. Start from the last time I saw you." He listened to his kids explain what had transpired the night before, nodding his head and asking clarifying questions as he did so. Once he finished, he let out a low whistle and a simple, "Wow." He got to his feet and started walking around the room, reaching each corner before turning around and going back in the other direction. "So, this Shadow Thief doesn't seem to have any connection to Zoom at all otherwise, he would have tried to kill you, too. He counted off on his fingers, "Atom Smasher, Sand Demon, and Dr. Light are. Henry Hewitt was being used as an accessory, I guess. But, from what Jay told you about Dr. Light, why would she need, let alone want, anyone else's help?"
"Zoom doesn't exactly seem like the sort of bloke to give you a high-five and tell you to get back in the game after a loss," Averey said. Seeming to give up on her scratching, she pulled her right leg up onto the mattress, tucking her foot against the inside of her left thigh. She plucked her glasses off her face and pinched the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb. Henry blinked at the movement, finding it a habit he himself had. "If she's up against a meta as powerful as Zoom, even she could be the type to bend over back towards to save their skin." She shrugged. "Everyone has a price."
"Lives are priceless," Barry quietly countered.
"Right, and if she values her own enough, she'll attempt to pass things off so if it fails, Zoom would go after the other sucker," Averey replied. Henry watched as Barry shook his head, scratching the back of his neck, and then watched Averey's response of widening her eyes, pushing her jaws outward. "Think about it, Barr."
"Iiii," Barry held out the word, shaking his head, "I just don't think she'd do that."
"Either that, or a ruse to keep going with Zoom's assignment for her," Averey replied. "Let someone else take the fall and she can keep on, undetected."
"Come on—"
"The Royal Flush Gang were the same way." She talked over Barry's noise pf protest. "You managed to get King, Queen, and Jack arrested, yeah? Brent, Casey, and Gavin were already stepping into those roles the second that happened. No questions asked." She shook her head back and forth. "Don't be surprised if there's already someone else taking over for them now."
"She's not the Linda you know, Barry," Henry said coming back to the side of the bed, kneeling on the floor, resting his arms on the mattress between his two kids. Barry opened and closed his mouth, shaking his head. "She lived a whole different life on Earth-2; something clearly happened that led her down this path. You can't expect her to be the girl you know." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked his two kids in the eye. "Take it from someone who knows first-hand; you could do everything in your life right. Everything. You could have someone that thinks the world of you. That you could do no wrong." He lifted a finger into the air. "It only takes one moment, Barry. One time that you act in a way people don't expect, and it will change their perception of you forever."
"Dad…" Barry merely sighed, seeming to fold in on himself. Averey twisted her mouth to the side.
"But if there's one person I know this city will never lose faith in," Henry said, "it's the Flash. And I believe he's overdue receiving the key to the city." He reached into his pocket and retrieved the long, slender key with the city's seal located on the head of the key.
"You've had that the whole time?" Barry asked.
"You just carry the key to the city around all day in your trousers?" Averey asked.
"Joe managed to get it from Mayor Bellows," Henry said with a shrug, passing the key over to Barry. "We both thought it was time for you to get it."
Barry carefully held the key with the tips of his fingers. Almost as if he was too afraid to truly grasp the responsibility of what it entailed. Then, a moment later, his fingers curled over the key, and a bright smile came to his face. "I still can't believe they gave me the key to the city," he said.
"Neither can I," Averey said, deadpan, "if the city saw how much of a dork you really are, I reckon they'd change their minds." She dissolved into a burst of loud laughter by the end of her sentence at the look of annoyance on Barry's face. Barry reached behind them for one of the pillows laid strewn on the bed and moved to smack the back of Averey's head with it, swinging in a wide arc. Averey ducked. Henry, quickly noticing the path of Barry's swing, did so as well. He could feel the woosh of the air above his head being displaced.
The force of Barry's swing sent him sprawling to the floor. Cackling, Averey high-stepped past him, and headed to the door, arms stretched out in front of her. She patted the wall a few times before finding the seam to the door. Twisting the door handle she yanked it open and slipped out into the hall.
"Nice try, chicken wings," Averey threw her taunts over her shoulder. Barry got to his feet, moving to chase after her and Henry winced when he crashed into the open door.
Grimacing, Barry pressed the pillow to his chest. "Ow." He turned towards Henry who was now sitting on the floor, laughing. "It's not that funny," he said, practically pouting.
Henry nodded his head in agreement, still laughing. It wasn't to make fun of his son. If he were being honest, this was the first time, in a long time, that he had a good laugh. Because he was happy. It may have been long overdue, but he was finally getting the chance to see his kids act like kids. When was the last time he was this happy?
"How am I going to work, today?" Barry asked with a sigh, running his hands over his face.
"The first thing is getting to work," Henry reminded him, his laughter fading slightly, the smile still on his face. "You'll figure everything out after that. Just take it a step at a time." With a groan, he pulled himself to his feet. He shuffled over to Barry and put his hand to his son's shoulder. "If anything goes wrong, you can always call me."
"I know," Barry agreed with a nod. He lifted his hand and placed it over Henry's gently squeezing his hand. His eyes, unfocused, shifted back and forth as Henry gently steered him out of the room and towards the smell of cooking bacon. "Offer still stands, to work at S.T.A.R. Labs. I know Caitlin would be open to it. It would be great."
"Ah, you don't want your old man bothering you at work," Henry said quietly, slowly taking the stairs.
"No, it'd be great," Barry said with a wide smile. "Working together? With everything you know, you'd be a big help." His smile widened. "And, I own S.T.A.R. Labs now, so I can guarantee good pay."
"You don't think it's time I hang up my white coat?" Henry asked. Barry instantly shook his head back and forth, making a humming sound of disagreement. "The world's changed while I've been inside, Barry." The two stepped into the kitchen and Henry helped Barry over to the table.
With a small sigh, Henry took in took in the view around him: Ellie greeted Barry with a smile, setting a glass of orange juice and an empty mug onto the table before she gently took his hand, guiding it to the glass; Daniel whistled to himself as he finished making breakfast, bobbing his head along to the music playing from the phone near his hand; and Averey was perched on the kitchen counter, a sleek black phone pressed to her ear, talking to her probation officer about her plans for the day.
Putting his hands over his ears, Henry excused himself from the room and made his way out the front door. Bowing his head, he let out a deep sigh, gripping the porch railing. "Everything's changed," he whispered.
He used to only worry about something as simple as Barry getting scrapes falling off his bike. Or coming down with a fever. Now meta-humans who could blind his son. Powers that his son, and his daughter, wielded? That wasn't something they taught you in medical school.
"Maybe too much."
All the chaos used to only be at work. He thrived on it. Now, all he wanted was some peace and quiet.
Just as fast as Barry opened the blinds to his office above the Central City Police Department precinct, he closed it. He pressed the heels of his palms until a burst of swirling color and shapes swam in front of his eyes. Upon opening them, he found the swirls of color stamped in front of his eyes before it slowly faded, leaving the blurry, shifting mass of light and colors in front of him.
His cheeks puffed up as he let out a heavy sigh, running his hands over his face, over the top of his head, and then clasped his hands behind his neck. His job at the CCPD wasn't the fastest thing in his life. In some cases, he even accepted how slow his day at work could be; just like being the Flash, it wasn't always the same. He could be buried under a pile of paperwork one day, and out on numerous crime scenes the next day – which inevitably led to a whole bunch of paperwork.
Joe managed to get Captain Singh from questioning him so much about the sunglasses he insisted on wearing during the day. "It's such a clear day today," Barry had quickly started to explain, clearing his throat, adjusting the dark frames situated on his nose. "All those windows in my office, it's just, um, very bright up there. You see, the sky is blue because the water reflects blue light, from the wavelengths of the sun's lights. And, um, the sun is usually positioned lower in the sky putting it a different angle so—"
"All right, all right," Captain Singh said, lifting his hand in the air to stop Barry from continuing to talk.
"He had a rough night, Cap," Joe commented, widening his eyes in Barry's direction. "Just feeling the effects of it today, still."
"Yeah, well," Captain Singh nodded, "we've all been there." He clapped Barry on the shoulder, nodding before pointing a finger in his face. "Don't let it happen, again. If you can't do your job correctly, don't bother coming in. You make one mistake; you're putting innocent lives in danger."
"Yes, sir, I understand."
Captain Singh nodded once. "While you're here, I have a question for you, Allen."
"Yes, sir," Barry said with a nod.
"Is there any way you can give Averey a call, get her down here?" Captain Singh asked. Barry lifted his eyebrows, shifting them up over the frames of his sunglasses. "I've been trying to get in contact with her, but she hasn't been returning my calls." Barry made a face. He had quickly learned that if Captain Singh was trying to get in touch with you, you returned his calls immediately, if not at least answering upon the second ring. "It's very important, and I'm not in the business of making house calls."
"I'll do what I can, Captain," Barry replied with a series of nods. He sighed when his sunglasses slipped forward on his nose. He hastily pushed them back up with his forefinger before making his way to his office.
Somehow, he had managed to make his way up the stairs to his office. Luckily, a lot of his work that morning was allowing all his machines to run tests. Not much was needed from him besides pressing buttons.
"Thank god for technology," he had said, pulling himself onto his wooden stool. It creaked under his weight, and again as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. He buried his face into his hands. "Why hasn't this cleared up yet?"
He repeatedly rubbed at his eyes before he opened them, alternating between squinting and opening them wide. Then, a moment later, he found himself chuckling when he realized it was the same thing that Averey did after a long day of her wearing her glasses, and after she took off her veyesor after a tough fight. He even remembered seeing his dad act the same way when his eyes got tired from reading.
A faint smile came to his face.
"Wow, those recruiters really knew what they were talking about," Patty said as she breezed into the room. Barry jumped, shooting his hands out to grasp the edges of the table. "You've got a lot going on here. It's so fast paced."
Barry allowed himself to relax, hearing the teasing in Patty's voice. He let out a laugh, trying to make it sound as normal as possible. "Whaaat are you doing here?" he asked, slowly sliding off the stool. Once his feet were firmly planted on the floor, he used the table as a guide to move himself towards the navy and yellow blob that stood by the gray and white blob, he took to be the door. "Not that I'm not happy to see you." He had to hold back the urge to snort.
"Eddie said you were up here," Patty replied. "I know you said you were very busy, but I was hoping you had a few minutes to spare to help me cram for the detective's test?" Her voice shifted to his left and Barry wildly spun to face that direction, walking directly into the table. He jumped when the legs of the table scraped against the floor, a loud screeching sound filling the air. "Oh, careful."
"Oh yeah, butter fingers," Barry laughed. "Or, butter toes I guess?" He made a face. Butter toes? What was that? He was happy that he couldn't see Patty's face in the moment. Still, he could hear the smile in her voice.
"My dad would always say, 'Looks like you put on your banana slippers again,'" Patty said, dropping her vocal tone down to a deep timbre. "I was always knocking things over. I was such a klutz."
"You couldn't have been as bad as Averey," Barry commented. He started slowly sliding to his right, looking for another place to sit at the long table. "When I first met her, she could fall over everything. It was like she couldn't see what was in front of her feet." As Patty chuckled, Barry's laughter quickly faded and he thought, maybe she couldn't, as he blinked rapidly in thought. With her abilities everything out of focus wouldn't matter to her. Why would she pay attention to what's in front of her feet? "You were, um, looking into becoming a CSI?"
"Yeah, it was kind of a dream of mine for a while," Patty replied. "I was meant to go to MCU – Midway City University – and be a part of their forensic science program, but I instead went to Hudson and I graduated with a triple major in biology, chemistry, and physics. So, you know." Barry heard the rustle of clothing and determined that she had shrugged her shoulders.
"Ah, but can you also pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time?" Barry asked. Again, he made a face. That was so stupid. Why did you say that? "Don't-don't answer that question." He let out a nervous laugh. "That was, um, yeah."
"Would it impress you if I could?" Patty asked with a laugh.
"It impresses me that you've been on the force a little under a year and you're already working to take the Detective's Exam," Barry replied.
"Captain Singh suggested it, and I know Joe and Eddie need more manpower on the task force," Patty replied. "I want to do as much as I can here, and I think this is a great stepping-stone. So…will you help me?"
"You're already here," Barry said, waving his hand in the air. His leg bumped into a stool and it fell over with al oud clatter. "What exactly is giving you trouble?"
"The portion about case laws," Patty replied.
"Search and seizure, interrogation, Miranda rights, that's stuff you deal with every day as a beat cop," Barry explained, lifting the stool. He placed a hand on top of it before lowering himself into a seated position. "You should have that down. Though, I'll admit, you won't always have exciting days while on the job. I know some cops here who've never had to fire their guns. Of course, with the Meta Task Force, you'll want to know you've done your job to a T so when you get called into court, you can be sure to put the criminal away."
"With the help of the evidence you'll find," Patty said. Barry balked. "I've read your reports, remember? You notice things that others don't. They're very thorough."
"You've really read them all?"
"Is it nerdy to say it's like…bedside reading to me?"
Barry's fingers twitched when something bumped into them. He patted his hands around the table and felt papers, pages. It was a book. He picked it up and flipped it around, holding it up to hide his face. Screwing up his face, blinking, widening his eyes, narrowing them into a tight squint, he tried to make out something, anything from the pages in front of him. A swatch of white swam in and out of his vision. Occasionally, he could make out a letter or two, a page number, but not much more than that.
"Not any more than all of the dinosaur books I used to read as a kid."
"Hey, dinosaurs are cool, ok? They'll never go out of style." Patty laughed lightly. "You should see all of my dinosaur socks."
"Mine have beakers on them." He cleared his throat. "Ok, um. These questions are, um, basically multiple choice. Just read them carefully, listen to every word carefully, and uh, deduce the answer from the question that way." At Patty's silence, Barry shifted in his seat. "Joe had Iris and I quiz him when he took his exams. "They'll ask things like whether or evidence can be used in a court case because the police entered a home and performed an unreasonable search and seizure. But you'll get other questions like, what car are you allowed to operate, when is it ok to fire your weapon, what to do if someone calls you out for being undercover. That kind of thing. Pretty simple, really."
"Ok, ask me a question."
Barry's head shot up. The book slipped from his fingers and the binding hit the table with a soft thump. "Sorry?" He squinted his eyes, trying to feign confusion. Thoughts whipped through his head at high speeds, all an attempt at landing on something that would get him out of the situation.
"Flip to any random page and ask me a question, see if all my cramming has been paying off." Patty rapped her knuckles on the table.
"Ok," Barry said. "Ok." He set the book down flat onto the table and started flipping the pages back and forth with one hand. With the other, he reached into his pocket and retrieved his phone, unlocked it quickly with his thumb, and brought up his text messaging app. "But, um, we should get some coffee, right?" He glanced down at his phone, making a groaning sound in the back of his throat at the pinprick of the screen he could successfully make out. "I mean, you can't study without some caffeine to keep us going."
"You should have seen me in college," Patty said with a laugh. "It's kind of embarrassing. The guys at the campus's coffee bar had my order ready practically as soon as I set foot in the area."
"They were probably just being nice," Barry said. Then, he realized with horror what he had said. "Not that – it's also a good business practice. Great customer service. Not that you're not a nice person. You're great, and, uh, you have a great smile."
"Nice save," Patty said, flatly.
"And yet, you're still smiling. I can hear it in your voice."
"Oh, can you? Well, I guess there's a reason why my parents always called me Sunshine, then?"
"Like I said, you have a great smile." Barry lifted his head enough to give her a smile. Then a second later, he dropped his head back. He put a hand to his forehead to shield his face from her.
"So, what else can you hear in people's voices?"
"A lot if you pay attention. I mean, you were the one that told me that you can learn a lot just by letting people talk?"
"I did say that, didn't I?" Patty asked. Barry nodded. "So, you won't hold it against me if I point out that I don't think you can see?"
Barry slowly lifted his head. He blinked once. "I'm sorry?" he asked.
"You can't see me," Patty replied. "You're using a lot of filler words like 'like', and 'um', and you're clearing your throat a lot. You've been fidgety. You're just about as clumsy as I used to be, and you've always been more composed to me than that." Barry stared at the blob in front of him, it was a bit clearer now, but still not much. Still, he let out a sigh of relief, knowing that his vision was getting back to normal. "The sunglasses on your head, while perfect for how clear of a day it is today, aren't that far from your face so you could see them again. Based on that, I could profile a light sensitivity." Her voice then suddenly lowered, yet took on a teasing tone as she said, "Or, you're nervous for some reason."
"Nervous? Me? No." Barry waved his hand in the air. Then, he quickly thought better of pushing away the thought. "I mean, I always get nervous around pretty girls with great smiles."
"Again, nice save," Patty said. She said this quietly, but still, Barry could hear the pleased smile in her voice.
"But, um, you wanted a question, so," Barry started rifling through the book again. "Question, question."
"I'm open to any questions." Patty cleared her throat. "Not just, um, about the exam. Just, so you know."
Barry hummed as he continued to mindlessly flip through the pages of the exam prep book in his hands. Why was it his thoughts could race through his mind, not too fast that he couldn't pick them apart from each other, but he couldn't land on just one thing to say?
Luckily, he was saved by Eddie rushing through the doors to his lab, gasping for air. "Barry," he managed to get out. Barry whipped his head around in the direction of Eddie's voice.
"Detective Thawne," Patty said over the sound of her stool being roughly pushed back from its position. "What's wrong?"
"What's going on?" Barry repeated.
"Barry, there's something going down at the Central City Picture News. Reports of windows breaking open, and screams." Barry was immediately to his feet. The sudden rush of swirled colors jolted his stomach, and he grabbed onto the table for support. "I've been trying to get in touch with Iris, but she's not answering. NO!"
Barry barely took a step towards Eddie's voice but came to a startled stop at his loud command. "You aren't going to do much help down there, Allen. I just wanted to let you know what was going on. To stay in the loop. Spivot, let's roll."
"I haven't gotten a call or anything."
"It's just come through the bull pen. Captain Singh is telling everyone to get down there."
"Did he say what was going on?" Patty asked. "Like a robbery or a meta-human? No one's said anything about a shark on the radios, have they? Some of started to call him Land Shark, or Street Shark. Cool, right?"
"Try not to give them a name, Spivot." Eddie suddenly sounded exasperated. "We've been over this before."
"The Flash gives all the metas a name—"
"Metas or not, if we start giving nicknames to everybody, we'll project the message that we aren't taking these cases seriously," Eddie said. Barry's eyebrows came towards each other at the sudden shift in Eddie's tone. It was equally scolding, and something else he couldn't define. Excitement? "It'll show that anyone can do this without repercussions. Like it's a game just to get noticed. Remembered. Listened to."
"Well, yes, I understand that, but—"
Patty's words were cut off by a loud commotion coming from the stairs. Barry's eyebrows moved closer together at the sudden swell of noise. Chatter was normal. Footsteps up and down the hall was always heard. But nothing like this. Not even when bets on results of firearms recertification came up. Patty's footsteps (light and quick), and Eddie's footsteps (heavy and slower) made their way out of Barry's lab.
Slowly, walking carefully, Barry followed them. Out of his lab. Down the stairs. Into the bullpen where Captain Singh commanded attention over the bullpen to the crowd of police personnel Barry kept bumping into. He could made out police chatter all around him for a 10-29 (person with a gun); 10-31 (crime in progress); and 10-78 (assistance needed) at the location of Central City Picture News.
Barry's heart started pumping faster. The tips of his ears, fingers, and toes started tingling. He tensed his muscles, willing himself to not burst forward and start running in Iris's direction.
"We need everyone to be alert," he commanded. "Calls are coming in through dispatch that we're still working through; we're still figuring out what exactly is happening in the city. I need some of you on standby in case we need to set up barricades. Some have already been notified and are suiting up and waiting on further instructions, just like I need you to do so now."
Barry lifted a hand to his mouth, resting his elbow in the palm of his other hand. Something's off, he mused to himself, tilting his head slightly to the side. He blinked hard, letting out a sigh of frustration through his nose at his slow as molasses returning vision. Still, he didn't need to see things with his own two eyes for him to take in all the information around him. He was a CSI. Gathering information from everything left behind at a crime scene was what he excelled at.
And something about this situation was nagging at him. So much information that he couldn't decipher.
"Barry," Joe said into Barry's ear, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Bare, you need to get over there, now."
"Joe, I still can't see anything," Barry whispered back, clutching Joe's hand. "I don't know what I can do."
"Bats have worse vision than you do, and they can still thrive," Joe said. Barry held back a snort. "And before you became the Flash, you weren't the greatest runner, either." Barry rolled his eyes and regretted it a second later. With the sudden shift of his vision, he started swaying on his feet and Joe tightened his grip on him to keep him steady all the while, moving him away from the group of cops. "And yet, you could still make it from home to Iron Heights before I even realized you were gone. If you could do that as Barry Allen, I can't wait to see the things you can do as the Flash." Joe's warm breath spilled over Barry's cheek. "Just get there, Barry. Run."
"Ok, but Joe," Barry said, "something about this is wrong. I can't put my finger on it."
"We're now dealing with people from another Earth that looks exactly like us," Joe said flatly. "I think we've left normal behind for a long time now."
"I know." Barry grit his teeth. "Something just doesn't add up here."
"Sounds pretty straight forward to me," Joe said, "Dr. Light is pulling another Atom Smasher. You found out she's an exact replica of your ex, and now she's going after—"
"Linda," Barry said, finishing his sentence at the same time as Joe. "Of course. Eddie was just talking about Iris, but I wasn't thinking." He hit himself in the forehead with his fist. "I should have known. At the fight, Ave and I identified her, we could have given Dr. Light the push to figure out why we recognized her."
Joe grabbed Barry by his shoulders, gently shaking him. "Go, Barry. Hurry!"
Barry rushed off without a second thought.
"So, what was so important you were calling me to make an appearance at your study date?" Averey asked. With one hand, she twisted the steering wheel in front of her with one hand, using the other to slam her palm onto the horn. The tires of the Cisco Cycle rumbled over the pavement as it spun around the corner.
"It wasn't a study date." Barry's voice filled the space around her head, coming out of each speaker.
Swerving around a delivery truck with its gray hazard lights flashing, she laughed to herself. She pressed on the gas pedal, speeding through a yellow light and with the press of a button, brought up a city map. Projected over the domed windshield – her gaze shifted over to the pulsating dot that indicated her destination. Also gray. It's just white highlights and black shadows, the photographer side of her piped up. Contrasting tones. She waved away the thought. It wasn't much of a comfort to understand why things looked the way they did to her. What was the point of living in a world when you couldn't take in all it's different colors? Even the teal blue tint to the veyesor over her eyes wasn't noticeable, just another layer of gray on top of gray.
"Boy. Girl. Alone. Examination books." Barry's chuckle came over the speakers. "Admittedly, I've played dumb a fair amount of times just to get some bloke to 'teach me' about a subject I already know enough about. Last I checked, this girl was a big fan of yours before you started talking."
"Yeah, ok, ok, I can see why you'd think that. Look, I couldn't see anything, I needed help."
"News flash, Flash," Averey said. She removed her hands from the steering wheel and quickly adjusted the seatbelt as it sat uncomfortably over the bunching of her suit. She could practically hear Cisco's admonishment now of slouching enough to leave a crease in the material. As if there wasn't already enough at her elbows, knees, and wrists. "Neither can I."
"But you could still read." There was a rush of wind, and a loud crackling and booming in Averey's ears. She made a face when that quickly was replaced by the sound of Barry panting. "I mean, you weren't on shift today, right? I heard you telling your probation officer this morning. I'm here, by the way."
"How'd you even make it to S.T.A.R. Labs with your eyes?" Averey asked, ignoring his question. Yes, he was right, she wasn't on shift at CC Jitters, but she was working in Keystone that day. But she didn't need a constant reminder, besides the lump that was her electronic monitor, strapped to her wrist.
Thinking she could finally get to work editing pictures that's been on the back burner for a while, she found it even harder to do now than ever before. She could recall each moment perfectly; the sunlight, the vibrance of the color of clothes, but it even her memories would soon have the hue and saturation sucked out of it. Black and white.
Upside down.
She knew she was clumsy.
She had tan lines of band-aids for a while for god's sake. That tripping spell seemed to be over and done with for a while, but her throbbing stubbed toes, and sore shoulders that hit the door frame just right reared its ugly head again. For things just weren't black and white, or gray. It was flipped. Shadows were white. Solid objects black. Still, it was her memories of how things were supposed to be that made it not so hard. It was harder to quell the sudden rage she felt when she stubbed her toe for the umpteenth time that day.
"Very carefully." Averey let out a yelp when Cisco's voice suddenly blasted in her ears. The Cisco Cycle shot forward when pressed in response to her jump. She made a face at the sudden pressure on her sore big toe. "Oh, yeah. You got your homeboy in your ears. Always been here. Always will be. You should know that by now."
"Don't ever do that again," Averey said, bringing a hand up to her heart.
"Sorry, Ave. Can't get rid of me that easily."
Caitlin's voice then came over the line. "You and Barry always could use the extra set of eyes out there."
Averey smirked. "I thought that's why you lot kept me around," she said. "I'm pulling up now. I can see Barry." Quickly spotting an empty parking space, Averey turned hard on the steering wheel. The back tires locked up and with a screech, Averey maneuvered the Cisco Cycle to slide into an empty parking space. She popped the buckle and reached upwards to press on the ceiling with the flats of her hands. With a hiss the top of the automobile opened upwards and Averey climbed out.
"You weren't on shift, right?" Barry asked, a slight frown to his face. His eyes shifted back and forth, occasionally focusing on her.
"Not at Jitters, no, but it's nice to know you were checking up on me." She put her hands to her hips. "I'll have you know, I had to take a bus from Keystone, mate. Had to drop an editing project to get over to S.T.A.R. Labs. You owe me for travel expenses." Walking over to him, she prodded Barry in the chest with a gloved finger. "And lost wages."
"For a trip that would take me less than a nanosecond?"
Averey lifted an eyebrow, popping it upwards above the veyesor sat on her face. "You're lucky I didn't have to put my cozzie on over my clothes, Barry."
He held his hands up defensively. "Travel expenses and lost wages; done. How was work?"
"Well, I guess the fact that I couldn't even spot Joseph's bloody technicolor dreamcoat right now won't make any difference." Averey lifted her hand and she bumped Barry's gloved fist with her own before planting her hands on her hips. "So, what are we looking at here?" Barry angled is head towards the blown-out windows. "Something tells me, mate, that this wasn't the coffee emergency you texted me for."
Barry shook his head leading the way to the darkened building. "Patty deduced pretty quickly that I couldn't see anything."
Impressed, Averey hummed, pulling the corners of her lips downwards, her eyebrows shooting up. "Clever girl."
"Yeah, I think she'd make a pretty good detective. She was able to profile it pretty easily."
Averey snorted. "That's not going to show up on the detective's exam," she declared. Barry struck out his fist, catching her in the side of her ribs. "Ow!"
"Didn't see that coming, did you?" Barry asked under his breath, carefully stepping towards the broken windows.
Averey aimed a kick to the back of his leg but ending up whiffing the air. Grumbling under her breath, she followed him to the front doors. They twisted in on themselves, barely hanging on by the frames. Jagged pieces of glass hung in the frames and was strewn across the ground. "Hey, Flash," she said to Barry, "check this out."
"What's up?" Barry asked, stepping over to Averey.
"These windows," Averey said. She lifted a hand to her veyesor, and carefully shifted the switch on the side. "Cisco, are you and Caitlin getting this?"
"Yeah, we're seeing it all." Cisco.
"It looks like someone tried to cut through the glass." Caitlin.
"With a very precise tool," Averey agreed. She took Barry's hand and carefully placed it onto the glass that was still intact. "Look. A straight line here. Jagged edges there. If these were the movies they'd be—"
"A perfect circle," Barry breathed. "Dr. Light is definitely here. Let's get going."
"How're your eyes?" Averey asked, looking up at Barry.
Barry smiled down at her. "I thought that's what we kept you around for," he repeated her words from earlier, sweeping his arm out in front of him. "Lead the way."
Averey carefully stepped into the darkened Central City Picture News building. Her boots crunched on the shards of glass on the floor. Barry behind her, taking slow, careful steps. She swung her head back and forth, gazing over the empty desks and chairs that would usually be filled. The room that would usually be bustling was now eerily quiet.
"I don't see anyone in the vicinity," she said quietly. Almost whispering.
"Neither do I," Barry said. He then lifted his hands up to cup around his mouth. "Is anybody here? Is anybody hurt?"
Silence.
"I don't like this," Averey said. "We were told people were still inside, but the police aren't here. It's too quiet." A shifting of the light caught her eye and she tilted her head upwards to gaze at the ceiling. One of the hanging lights slowly shifted back and forth. Eyebrows pulling together, she frowned.
"That light is moving," Barry said slowly.
"I noticed."
The two of them slowly turned themselves in a circle. Taking in the everything around them. Sirens could be heard in the distance. There wasn't even anyone on the streets that came from the news office. No news trucks. There wasn't even a breeze. And yet, this light was still slowly swinging from side to side, as if being gently prodded by an invisible finger.
Movement. A shadow stretching across the wall. Or was someone there?
"Iris!" Barry called again. With a burst of air and a crackle of lightning he rushed forward towards the hall, crashing to a halt when his side caught the doorframe and he went spinning to the floor. "Ow. Dang it!"
"So, I guess there's no point in asking how your vision is, right?" Averey asked, merely glancing at the spot Barry was lying on the floor.
"It's better than It's been." Barry let out a heavy sigh of frustration, pulling himself to his feet. "I saw someone. This way." He moved towards the back hall, waving for Averey to follow him.
"I didn't see anything," she said. Still, they fell silent as they continued through the building.
Something sounded further in front of them. Was that shuffling they heard? Or a muffled scream? Together they moved at a quicker pace, looking into the room of each open door they passed. All empty. But, the further into the building they ventured, the more swinging lights they found. Lights that flickered ominously. Lights that cast shadows onto each wall they passed. Until the lights no longer moved.
But the shadows did.
"Flash." Averey blindly reached out behind her until she had grabbed a hold of his arm. "Come here."
"What?" Barry asked. He looked around from point to point, head constantly moving. "What am I looking at?"
"Yeah, that's weird," Cisco said, sounding loud in the quiet space.
"What?" Barry repeated.
"Well, Barry, you and Averey are the only two people in the room," Caitlin said, voice high and tight. "So, why is there a third shadow on that wall?"
Barry spun at the waist, looking back behind him. Windows. No trees blocking the light. Not even a lamppost out on the sidewalk. Averey stared transfixed at the shadow, blinking repeatedly. Watched as it slowly, very slowly turned from a shapeless blob, into the silhouette of a man. Averey's gasp caught Barry's attention and she spun back around to face the wall.
"What?" he asked quietly. He lifted a hand and slowly waved it from side to side. His shadow copied his mirrored movements. Averey kept her arms at her side and rocked from left to right, watching as her shadow did the same. The third shadow was still for a moment before seeming to bow in the direction of Barry's shadow, and then bow in the direction of Averey's.
Then he leaped forward from the wall, hands reaching for their necks. A man with a pointed black goatee formed from the shadows, a sinister grin on his face.
"Shadow Thief!"
"It's a trap!"
They barely had the words out of their mouths before the shadowy hands wrapped around their necks and torsos. Pulling tight. Averey choked for breath. Barry gagged. They were lifted off their feet and pulled into the wall over and over and over. With each slam into the wall, what little breaths they could catch was knocked out of them.
Averey's head throbbed. Her vision swam. A swirl of blacks and whites and grays made her want to throw up. Her lips quivered. Her stomach churned. Still, she attempted to pull the oddly cool shadowy clutches from her body. Her fingers just passed through the shadows. Barry swung his feet, trying to get to do something, anything to build up enough electricity to strike him.
"I can't grab him," Averey choked out. She cried out in pain at the next slam into the wall. Her eyepiece shifted and struck her hard across the nose, jamming into her cheekbone. "Mate, I can't hold him."
"Me neither," Barry replied through clenched teeth.
"Maybe it'd help if we brought some light to the situation." Dr. Light stepped out from a darkened doorway at the end of the hall, twitching her fingers at her sides. The palms of her hands glowed brighter and brighter before she shot a blast of light towards them. Averey squeezed her eyes shut, turning to the side, feeling the heat of the light as it passed her. Barry groaned beside her before the shadowy coils slithered away, pulling at their suits and they both dropped to the ground.
"Linda," Barry gasped out, putting his hands up into the air as Dr. Light took slow steps towards them. He gazed in the direction of her voice, but his eyes were wide, blinking, looking around the area by her head. "You don't have to do this."
"My choices were taken away from me a long time ago," Dr. Light replied, her upper lip curling. "So, yes, Flash, I do have to do this."
Averey crawled backwards, away from Dr, Light, stopping when she bumped into Barry's legs. "Maybe we should call for Firestorm," she said.
"News-pay-per, Visionary," Barry shot back. "One wrong move and this place goes up like a match."
"All right, all right, it was just an idea." She ducked her head, pressing herself flat to the floor when Dr. Light shot another blast towards them. Despite squeezing her eyes shut, she could still see the flickering lights behind her eyelids. "Maybe a bad one." Lifted her head, she looked around the hallway. "Where'd Shadow Thief go?"
"Let's solve one problem at a time," Barry replied. "Let's stop Linda."
"Stop calling me that," Linda said. "I am not your Linda." She smirked. Her voice suddenly light. "But I could be. I plan to be. You see, I have you to thank for that, Flash." She pursed her lips and kissed the air in Barry's direction. "I'll be sure to send you a thank you card. I do have manners after all."
"You're going to kill Linda," Barry said, chest heaving, "and take her place."
"Is it really taking her place for all intents and purposes, I am her?" Dr. Light asked. She slowly shook her head before tensing her muscles, shifting into a fighter's stance. "I have to do this. There's no other way."
"And you don't care what happens to this Earth's Linda at all?" Averey asked. She slowly brought her hands down towards the weapons attached to her hips. Carefully, quietly, she unhooked a boomerang, clutching it in her hand. "You'll just murder anyone that gets in your way?"
Dr. Light laughed. "Is it really considered murder?" she asked. "All things considered."
"Just stop and think about this for a minute," Barry said. "Once you kill someone, you can't take it back. You've ended someone's life. That's a heavy weight to carry."
"I've hurt people before."
"But have you ever killed anyone?" He licked his lips. "If you're anything like the Linda I know, you wouldn't, you couldn't, ever do it." Briefly closing his eyes, Barry took in a breath of air through his nose. "Too many people have already died because of me. I may not have done it myself, but it still is my fault."
Dr. Light hesitated, and Averey took that opportunity to rush towards her. Dr. Light threw her hands up to block the boomerang that Averey threw towards her face. It flew past her harmlessly and Averey quickly dropped to the ground and kicked Dr. Light's legs out from beneath her. She hit the floor with a loud smack before rolling away from Averey's attempt at keeping her still with a leg hold.
"Nice try." Using her forearm, Dr. Light wiped a smudge of dirt away from her mouth. Then, with a show of swinging her arms in the air above her head, both the palms of her hands glowed a second before the room was filled with a brilliantly dazzling light. The force behind the expulsion of light knocked them Barry and Averey off their feet. Averey's boomerang clattered to the floor. "You're beginning to bug me." She licked her lips. "Forget about dear old Linda. I can get rid of you now and appease Zoom. Just like I always planned."
"Any ideas you guys?" Barry asked between deep gasps of air.
"I'd suggest one of the sonic punches, but you probably wouldn't make it a straight line without crashing into something," Cisco said.
"Ummm," Caitlin stalled, "try that lightning throwing thing."
"I don't have the space," Barry said, shaking his head back and forth. "But I'll give it a shot." He sucked in a breath of air and started running around the room. The lightning that trailed behind him crackled and lit up the small hallway. Averey watched as Dr. Light spun in a circle, watching, waiting for Barry to make his move. Waiting to make hers.
Averey squinted her eyes and blinked once hard. Dr. Light's helmet, which was across the from her, now sat in front of her face, as if only three feet away. She could see Barry's reflection as he did laps around the room. She could see herself, watching Dr. Light closely. And she could see the shadowy figure slowly peeling itself from the wall behind her, stretching from her own shadow along the wall, reaching for her.
"Flash!" Averey gripped her veyesor and ripped it off her face. "Catch!" She threw the device through the air and across the room as everything around her slowed.
She blinked, and the vision of Dr. Light's helmet cleared as a purple filter slowly spread across her vision. It covered everything in front of her, glowing brighter and brighter before it shot out of her eyes in a single beam of energy. The shadowy hands wrapped around her and pulled her backwards into the wall. The last thing she saw was Barry skidding to a stop, lighting crawling up his arm, inching towards his hand; her ocular blast inching towards Dr. Light; and Dr. Light shooting out a counterattack of her own.
Then everything went dark.
Flailing, Averey felt wind rush around her, pressing in on her. Pitch black. Unending.
"Hee, hee, hee," a taunting laugh reached her ears. "Now you're in my world."
Averey gasped, letting out a shriek of pain when a stinging slap shot her head to the side. A punch struck her in the stomach, and she folded in on herself. She felt a tug around on her arm and felt herself spinning before she landed on hard cold floor. Before she could take in where she was, the blackness surrounded her again and for a second time, she felt herself falling.
"Watch your back."
A blow to the back had her falling forward. Falling forever until she felt another tug on her body, and she found herself crashing over a table knocking a computer monitor off a desk. She was back in the lobby of Central City Picture News.
"Averey, are you ok? Your comms keeps cutting out."
Pulling herself up onto her elbows, she licked the grit from her lips and winced when her tongue passed over the split at the corner. She tasted blood. She looked around the empty room, spotting the police cars outside the windows. A few were hiding behind their cars, guns pointed towards the building. Caution tape was stretched across the doors and the broken windows.
"Look alive!"
"Ow!" Averey's hands reached up towards the hand that grabbed her hair. Reacting quickly, she twisted on the spot to face Shadow Thief. Hair pulling taught at the back of her head, she pressed her face into Shadow Thief's bicep, swinging her right fist into his crotch. Shadow Thief grunted, bending at the knees and Averey jumped upwards, swinging her knee up to catch him on the chin. Shadow Thief's teeth clicked as his head shot backwards. Then, ducking low, Averey drove her shoulder into Shadow Thief's chest, grabbing just behind his thighs and lifted him off his feet, slamming him into the ground.
Breathing heavily, she leaned over him, pulling back a fist. "I am looking," she growled into his face.
Shadow Thief smiled wide, stretching his mustache and goatee across his face. His dark eyes danced with mischief. "Then, watch this," he said. Before Averey could move, he grabbed her elbows, locking her into place before he started sinking into the floor.
"No." Averey tried to pull herself from his grasp. Shadow Thief let out a deep chuckle, wiggling his eyebrows as he sank more and more through the floor. As she sank with him, the gripping cold started at the tips of her toes, her hands, her stomach, and chest. "No, no." Shadow Thief tightened his grip on her, holding her in place. She could simultaneously feel the hardness of the floor, and the emptiness of the dark space he was dragging her into.
Her stomach dropped. Again, she fell in the vast space. Twisting, turning, cold air rushing past her with no seeming end in sight.
"The darkness against the light." Shadow Thief's voice echoed all around her. Gleeful. Mocking. Accentuating the blow that rocketed her across the space. "How compatible." Another slap to the face. Averey responded by sending an ocular blast into the direction the hit came from. It lit up the space for a moment before disappearing, swallowed up by the darkness. "How conflicting."
An orb of light suddenly appeared beneath Averey and she found herself falling towards it. It grew bigger and bigger, and shapes started to form in the center. Compact at first, because coming into focus. She could see Dr. Light. And Barry. Passing back and forth in front of the orb as if she was watching them from a window. Then, she passed through, and found herself slamming into the hard floor of the hallway, sliding between Barry and Dr. Light before the wall of windows forced her to a stop.
"Visionary," Barry gasped, quickly side-stepping a blast from Dr. Light. "Where'd you go? How'd you get back here?"
"Shadow Thief," Averey gasped out, grabbing her ribs, "pulled me through my own shadow."
"What?" Barry asked. His shocked expression was covered by her eye wear, but she could see his jaw drop open. Averey accepted his hand and Barry hauled her to his feet. He then removed her eyepiece and held it out to her, bending to the side to remove the boomerang he had tucked into his boot. "Here, I think these fit you better than me."
"Are you saying I have a small head?" Averey asked, taking the veyesor from him. She carefully placed it over her face and tightened it into a snug place, pressing the earpieces down over her ears until they fit snug.
Barry didn't have time to answer as Dr. Light started throwing blast of light one after another at the two of them. As Barry and Averey ducked and dodged the light, trying to get closer to the meta-human, Shadow Thief would stretch out from the walls, and the floors landing kicks, and punches, and tripping them up. "We can't keep doing this, Flash."
"I know," Barry breathed, stopping his running momentarily to gasp for air, hands on his knees. "But, what else can we do?"
"If we could just get close enough to her, I reckon we could damage her equipment."
"You got any ideas?"
"Just one." Averey nodded, swallowing thickly. "Follow my lead. I have a hunch. We need to light this place up as much as possible. Get ready to throw some lightning again."
"What am I aiming for?"
"You'll know." She leaned forward into a runner's stance, planting her feet on the floor. "Go!"
Barry took off, the wind of his exertion pulling at her in the confined space. Dr. Light looked back and forth between the ribbons of lightning that encircled the room and Averey who started charging towards her. Averey pushed off the ground, leaping over a shadow hands that stretched up towards her. Dr. Light turned away from Barry's lightning and put her focus on Averey.
Averey spotted the lift of Dr. Light's arm. The twitch of her left wrist. The charging glow of her palm device, and she quickly shifted directions. Then, Dr. Light shifted her weight and lifted her other arm. Twitched her wrist upwards. Averey ducked in the other direction, the blast just missing her side. Dr. Light spun on the spot, extending both arms out to their full lengths. Averey grabbed her boomerangs and threw them upwards into the air.
With a loud crackle, Barry threw the lightning from his body and aimed it at the boomerangs spinning rapidly in the air. The electricity instantly wrapped around the boomerangs and started shooting around the room. Dr. Light cowered, covering her head with her hands. Averey slammed her shoulder into Dr. Light's chest, knocking her back. Dr. Light backpedaled, taking quick steps to keep her balance. Averey grit her teeth, and clutched tightly to Dr. Light's suit sleeves, pivoting on her foot to force her towards the stairwell door. Clang! The metal door burst open, crashing into the wall behind it, and the two girls fell from the atop the top stair.
Wind rushed past their ears. Averey thought she heard Barry's shout. Thought she felt a cold human-like grip on her legs. Then, once again, the darkness reached up and pressed in around her and Dr. Light. Come on, come on, Averey thought frantically, feeling the emptiness below her. Comeoncomeoncomeon. A purple orb, glowing a brilliant purple formed just beneath them and stretched wide, beckoning them into the equally dark area meeting them on the other side. Averey pushed Dr. Light away her and a split second later, she caught herself in a stumble on carpeted, hard ground. Her knee collided painfully with the floor, the palms of her hands nearly slipping out from beneath her.
Dr. Light was on her feet in an instant, hurrying off, further in the darkness – hands held up in front of her, illuminating her path.
"Ow," Averey whispered, rolling onto her back. "That's gotten old real quick."
"Where are we?" Barry asked from somewhere above her, his voice also low.
"The archives," Averey replied, getting carefully to her feet. She massaged her knee, looking around. The room was absent of any light, yet she could still make out rows and rows of gray mobile shelves. "You want books to last for a long time, store in them in a cool, dark, dry place." Barry stayed silent. "Used to work in the archives back in Oz, remember? Reckon I could get lost in them for ages, if I wanted to."
"The perfect hiding spot," Barry said.
"And, Iris and Linda are here."
"How do you figure?"
"When Dr. Light confronted us in the hall, she wouldn't leave that space. Not even when she was fighting you alone, and not even to give her more space between you two, hey. She's a long-distance fighter, but still can only do so much in the space she has. Shadow Thief was her look out, telling her who was coming. Once she knew it was you, she stopped going after Linda and figured she'd get the chance to kill you like Zoom wants. She could be distracted easily but kept one eye on this door the whole time. And, Iris had found a lot of information about General Eiling for me, stuff she had to have gotten from the archives. I'd guess it's a room listed in the Emergency Action Plan for the building, too."
"But, how did we get here?"
"I'm pretty sure I did it."
"It's funny how often people talk. How smart they think they are." Averey whirled around at the sudden masculine voice. It didn't belong to Shadow Thief, but someone else. "No one's that intelligent. Not really. Because even smart people can make really dumb mistakes."
Heavy footsteps headed in their direction. Averey looked around, her eyes darting from place to place, until they landed on a flickering light. Almost like flames. No, exactly like flames, their shadows twisting and dancing along the wall. A foot emerged from behind a shelving unit. Then another. A man stepped out from between the stacks and stood before them. A cowl pulled tightly over his face, a suit stretched over his bodice, hand gripping a sword made from flames.
"Zoom," Barry said grimly.
Averey gasped, staring at the man in front of them. His eyes alight from the glow of the flames. Her heartbeat quickened. She suddenly felt hot under the collar, sweat prickled under her armpits. The hair on the nape of her neck, her arms suddenly stood up and she briefly wondered if it was seeing the man in front of him, or the electricity rolling off Barry's body that caused it. She didn't have time to think about it as he burst forward to attack the man. Averey followed behind him.
"First mistake," "Zoom" said, making a tisking sound with his tongue. Barry let out a cry of pain when, from the side, he was hit by Dr. Light's blast. He crashed into a shelf and hit the floor. Averey jumped over him, bending backwards to dodge a wall of blue flames that "Zoom" swung at her. She groaned and twisted away from the sudden, burning that erupted on her skin. Shadow Thief popped out of the ground, wrapped his arms around Averey's shoulders and pulled her to the floor. "Second mistake."
"Zoom" stalked forward and stomped his foot on Averey's chest. He didn't hesitate to lift his flaming sword and strike it down towards Averey's head. Shadow Thief's cold clutches removed themselves from Averey's shoulders. Curling in around his leg, Averey dodged the wall of flames, and tried to throw off his balance. To relieve the pressure on her chest.
"Hold on, Visionary." Barry rushed around "Zoom" landing punch after punch on his body. It didn't seem to faze him. Swinging out his arm, "Zoom" struck Barry in the chest with the hilt of his sword before striking him across the face with his elbow. Averey gasped for air punching at "Zoom's" ankle with her fists, kicking up her legs to try and land a hit on one of his pressure points.
"Third mistake." "Zoom" sounded almost like a disappointed parent. "You see, everyone tries to put up a fight, to stop the inevitable from happening. They beg. They plead. But it never works."
Gasping for air, Averey dropped her arms to her side. Even when going limp, "Zoom" didn't leave her alone or let up on her. He was smart, she could give him that. Her chest heaved, burning, as she took a slow deep breath of air through her nose. Gritting her teeth, she tensed the muscles in her face and concentrated on the pinprick of purple light she cast onto the ceiling. She shifted her eyes back and forth, and the dot moved around the ceiling as if she was waving around a laser pointer.
"They try to hide, act like they never existed in the first place. I can guarantee that happens. You will disappear, Flash. And so will everyone that tries to save you." Averey cried out when Zoom started twisting his foot back and forth on her chest to emphasize his point, the material of her suit twisting into a pinch. "Or anyone that fails in their mission."
"I brought him here, didn't I?" Dr. Light asked. Averey couldn't see her. But could see streaks of light shooting past the ceiling and feel the rush of wind that was Barry dodging her attacks. "Doesn't that mean anything?"
Growling in frustration, "Zoom" removed his foot from Averey's chest, turning in the direction of Dr. Light's voice. Coughing and sputtering, Averey didn't move, and kept her gaze on the ceiling, the pinprick of light growing brighter, to the size of a grape.
"Hold him down!" "Zoom" shouted. Barry let out cries of frustration before he let out a single long scream, the room lighting up with Dr. Light's attack. Averey looked around wildly, trying to find Barry. "Zoom" froze above her, seeming to focus on the purple light moving around the room. "What?" He looked down at Averey and she smirked before looking him in the eye. She widened her eyes and flashed a bright purple light from her eyes. It reflected in "Zoom's" for a second before it disappeared, but still "Zoom" stared down at her, wide-eyed, blinking.
He let out a scream of frustration, thrashing around, one hand pressing into his eyes. He started pulsating blue. Blue flames leapt across the room with each swing. Flames licked up his body, wrapping around his torso, growing bigger and bigger by the second. Averey scrambled away "Zoom," hurrying around the corner of a mobile shelf. She charged up an ocular blast and leaned around the corner to fire it off just as "Zoom" expelled all the energy from his body, Dr. Light released her energy wave, and Barry attempted another lightning throw.
The blue flames, Averey's ocular blast, Dr. Light's wave of light, Barry's lightning, and a white-blue pulse all collided together. For a moment, it all twisted together, a combination of colors and light before it imploded on itself, turning into a small ball of energy. Then, it quickly expanded, shaking the room with a loud boom, shockwaves of energy flying outwards in every direction, with a flash of bright light. So bright, it touched every inch of the room.
Averey crouched down behind her shelf. It rocked back and forth above her, sending box after box of materials falling to the ground, bouncing off her head and back before stacking up on the floor.
Then, it was gone. "Zoom" was gone. Shadow Thief was missing. Dr. Light lay on the floor, unmoving.
There was a shuffling sound, boxes shifting, the slow creak of a shelf moving. "Visionary?" Barry called.
"I'm ok," Averey called back. She pushed herself to a standing position, the boxes around her falling away, books and old pieces of paper sliding all over the place. She carefully stepped over the boxes and out into the space between the shelves, meeting Barry part way. "Dang it. They have rules about these things you know; like you can't touch pictures with gloves, and be careful with creases, and all that. Look! Fold, fold, fold."
"Better than breaking your neck," Barry replied, grimly. "Look, none of this burned, either." He massaged his chest with his hand. The emblem on his chest and the area around it was singed and partially melted. He put his hand up at Averey's gasp. "I'm ok. Really." He shook his head back and forth. "He left her."
"She didn't succeed in her mission, what does he need her for anymore?" Averey asked, stepping over to Linda's form. Barry looked at her over his shoulder, a deep frown on his face. "I'm just saying. If Zoom could get rid of her for something like this, imagine what he could do with a whole world."
"I'm afraid to find out," he replied.
"Trust me," a gruff voice said from behind them. Barry and Averey whirled around to face Harrison Wells as he stepped towards them, mouth forming a grim line. His hands clutched around a gun that he moved to sling over his shoulder. "You should be afraid. Zoom is not someone to underestimate." His lips twitched and he lifted his hand to adjust the strap on his shoulder. "You're welcome, by the way. For saving your life."
"Um, thanks?" Averey said. She turned to face Barry who took his eyes off Harrison Wells to look at her, jaw dropped.
"Probably a good time to tell you that I can see," he said. Averey slowly nodded.
A/N: Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this fic, but here it is! Writing from Henry's point of view was a lot of fun with this one, to see just how integral to Team Flash, and Barry, he can be, but at the same time feeling like so many things are changing rapidly for him despite trying to keep up with everything.
That little bit of banter back and forth with Barry and Averey when she was making her way to the crime scene was fun to do and pointed out to me, I haven't really given this fic, or the characters a chance to breathe, so to speak. Just to have a time to slow down and really react to things they've had happen to them. I'll be sure to put more of that into my fic moving forward. But, you've got a bit more with Averey's new ability here, and if you've been paying attention, I hinted towards it back in In a Flash and earlier in this story, too. Did you catch it?
Also: did you enjoy a specific spot in the chapter? Need further explanation on anything? Leave a comment.
Thank you for taking the time to read not only this chapter, but this fic.
-Rhuben
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Review Replies, Out of Focus:
Ethan Ambrose: Still liking that you have an actual account on here now. There is a point to Ellie and Daniel being overprotective that you will see as we get closer to them figuring out about Averey's abilities. I mean in this case, she can't exactly go home with her injuries and not have a story to go with it. Despite everything that's gone on between Cisco and Averey, especially as I bring Kendra in more, they still do care for each other, so I had to put some sweet moments with them here.
Proserpina: I have to write Cisco's perspective. I love the ideas I have for him and I don't feel like the show, especially around this part of the first two seasons, did a lot with him. I always knew he'd have a bigger part in my series. Thanks for reading!
annie: YES! I am going to do season 3 and Flashpoint, I have so many ideas for it already. And I can't wait to fully get into Earth-2 either. We'll see another scene set there in the next chapter, which will actually go on a bit longer than I've had it so far, but I can't wait to see what everyone says about what I have happen during "Welcome to Earth-2" and "Escape from Earth-2."
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Review Replies, In a Flash:
Leaf: (Replies to the first two chapters of In a Flash) Ahh, I'm so glad you're enjoying it so far! There's some things about the opening I would change now, but for how I have it now, I'm glad to hear it's enticing. Thank you for taking the time to read and review.
Iron-parker: (Replies to the first three chatpters of In a Flash) Thank you for choosing my fic, review buddy! I'm so glad you've enjoyed the start and I can't wait to see what your reactions are to everything else! you're enjoying the story and thank you for continuing with this one. Can't wait to see what you think as the story goes on.
