S.T.A.R Labs [Central City]

2:43 pm

It had been a month since the Smythe gala and nothing was the same, especially with Barry. They all knew why though, it must've been torture for him to not know where his son was or even if he was still alive. Barry had asked Cisco countless times to vibe him, but it never worked, even with the photograph of his son, Cisco never managed to get anything.

Team Flash were having a meeting, discussing their next move against this meta, when the alarms started going off. Barry turned his attention towards Cisco, his stare demanding. Cisco knew what to do, he pulled up the security footage, making sure it was being displayed on the monitors in front of the room. Barry felt his blood boil at the sight. Why was he here? Better yet, why was he even alive?

Within seconds, Barry had sped out of the room, leaving the other members of Team Flash to stare at each other in fear as they watched the scene. They all knew Barry had a lot of pent up anger, but they just hoped that he wouldn't let that cloud his judgement.

"Barry.. I-I need your help," The man said, they could see that he was badly hurt as well, bleeding profusely from his right side. Barry sighed and looked as if he had deflated within seconds, like all of the fight he had in him had just gone.

"What do you need, Hunter?" He asked in a small voice.

Foundry [Star City]

3:12 pm

Oliver sighed as he listened to Barry explain to him everything that was going on in Central City. After the gala, Oliver had made sure that Barry would tell him everything about what was happening in his city, whether it was just the usual meta or something much worse, it would help him stop worrying about his friend. Barry wasn't sure as to why Oliver was so worried about him all the time, but he never bothered to question it, he didn't see the point in doing so. Only Thea knew the true reason as to why he was hellbent on making sure Barry never had to go through anymore issues.

He was scared to lose Barry. After seeing the way Barry was after losing his father, the way he blamed himself, he hated seeing that look on Barry. It wasn't right, seeing the usually optimistic man being brought down by so much anger, and pain, he never wanted to see Barry go to the dark side ever again. That was his thing, not Barry's, and he never wanted it to be Barry's.

Felicity eyed Oliver as he began to pace around the main area, he seemed stressed. She knew that it was about the time that Barry usually gave Oliver a call, so she knew something must be wrong in Central City for Oliver to be upset. He never seemed to be upset anymore, which she loved. All she ever wanted was for Oliver to be happy.

When Oliver hung up the phone, he placed it down on one of the many tables in the room and walked out, leaving Felicity to sit alone and think about Central City. She allowed for her thoughts to wonder for a while, allowing herself to forget her surroundings as a million awful situations floated around in her head, increasing her worry. She was brought out of her thoughts by a huge bang, making her jump. She looked around the room in shock, her eyes landing on Oliver, a bag in his hand, his bow and arrow set on his back. Was it really time for him to go on patrol already? It wasn't even dark out yet, was it?

"I'm going to go to Central for a couple of days," He explained to Felicity, grabbing his motorcycle keys and walking towards where his suit was on the mannequin. She looked at him in confusion as he pulled his suit down, folding it up and putting it in his bag, he somehow managed to stuff the bow and arrow set in afterwards, which amazed Felicity.

"Is everything alright?" She asked, upon seeing Oliver's puzzled look, she quickly reiterated her statement, "In Central City, I mean. Not with you because you've been really happy recently which is always a good thing but it's still a bit weird and all bu-"

She was cut off by a laugh. An actual laugh from the Oliver Queen. He was laughing hysterically, and it was quite frankly terrifying her. Since when did Oliver Queen laugh? And what had caused him to be on the verge of tears from laughing so hard? She hadn't said something funny, had she?

"What's so funny?" She questioned him, standing up from her seat and walking towards him. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she waited impatiently for him to stop laughing. It took him 5 minutes, but when he did, he looked at her with nothing but love in his eyes, and that made her heart skip a beat. She absolutely loved it when he looked at her like that.

"Just how protective you are, that's all," He said, moving closer to her. Felicity didn't back away, instead, she moved closer herself, her gaze struggling to focus on anything other than his lips. He seemed to see her gaze, and smirked. Felicity felt herself blush when he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her even closer. Soon, she found a pair of lips smashing against hers, and she couldn't help but smile into the kiss, adding as much passion as Oliver had.

They pulled away moments later, looking at each other. They were both smiling widely.

"I'll be back sooner than you think," And just like that, Oliver was gone, leaving Felicity alone in the Foundry by herself. Thank god no-one had seen the kiss.

S.T.A.R Labs [Central City]

9:54 pm

Caitlin, Cisco, Barry and Oliver were all in the pipeline, eyeing the cell that inhabited the infamous Hunter Clarington. After Barry offered to help Hunter, they allowed for Caitlin to check him out, only for him to heal and then be placed in the pipeline for caution. Oliver was busy glaring at the man whilst Barry just looked.. Empty? He looked like he was done with this entire thing, and it made Oliver's heartache as he looked at his right to everyone else.

"Why are you here, Hunter?" Barry asked him softly, tears building in his tired eyes. Oliver placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing in support as he felt Barry's body shaking slightly.

"I want to help you guys," He said truthfully, looking at them all with nothing but remorse in his eyes. Oliver scoffed whilst Barry looked at him, he looked perplexed. Caitlin and Cisco looked at each other, unsure on whether or not they could trust him.

"In 48 hours, Jessie plans to let the Enlightenment unfold, and I want to help you all stop it," He told them, his arms behind his back as he did so.

"And why would you want to help us?" Cisco asked, and it was a very valid question. Why would the man who used to work with the enemy want to help them stop the man he used to work for?

"Because.. I made a mistake, well I've made tons of mistakes but he was planning on killing me and Barry's kid at the same time, so when Jessie attacked me, before that I was going to sneak off with your kid so he could live, but I got knocked out before I even picked him up," Barry looked down at the ground at the mention of his kid, "All this time, I thought that bringing you all down, would give me some sort of peace for what happened between you and my dad, but I never wanted to become him. I never wanted that life"

Barry just nodded mutely, whilst Caitlin, Cisco and Oliver all looked skeptical.

"We've been betrayed before," Caitlin began, "How do we know you won't betray us?"

Hunter sighed. He knew convincing them he was on the same side would be difficult, but he didn't expect for it to be this hard. He looked at them all, his eyes lingering on Barry for a moment longer.

"Because, I'm the reason why Barry's child is still alive," He began, moving closer towards the glass, "If it wasn't for me, Jessie would've killed your kid a long time ago, Barry"

Barry sighed and looked up, his gaze meeting Hunter's. As he looked at the man, he felt all the betrayal he felt when he first found out that Hunter was Eobard's son. He felt so much hurt whilst looking at Hunter, but he could see the guilt in his eyes as they looked at him, they seemed desperate to make things right. Barry rubbed the tears out of his eyes and walked towards the control panel, hesitating before he pressed the unlock button. Hunter stepped out, not daring to go any further at the glances being thrown both his and Barry's way. Oliver walked towards Barry, placing a hand on the top of his bicep, a concerned look on his face as he looked at Barry. The younger man simply shrugged Oliver off and walked away, leaving the quartet in an unusual silence.

"Let's do this then," Oliver barked out, letting Caitlin and Cisco walk in front of Hunter whilst he trailed behind the speedster, he didn't trust this one bit.