And now another bedtime story for you wonderful readers… Plus a very, very Merry Christmas to all.

I know this holiday is different than previous ones due to the current pandemic, but I do hope you're all enjoying yourselves as best as you can and that you're safe and sound.

Once again thanks for the Christmas greetings in messages and thanks for the reviews, they're awesome just like you guys.

Now to answer some reviews:

Starpottergeek: Glad you like it and I love the names you've come up with, definitely getting the gears turning in my head. Thanks for it.

Ultimatrix bearer: Thanks, and I will try.

Jason Hunter: I like the way you're thinking, man. keep them coming.

So, without further ado…

ENJOY!

Chapter 32: Twisted Flashback

Shakily Stan tilted the bottle of whiskey, the brown alcoholic liquid pouring into the tumbler glass beside it. A double. After so long in a coma, he wasn't gonna settle for a one shot. His shaking hand placed the bottle back on the bar counter and he reached out for the glass.

"Wouldn't do that, chief." Exhaling his annoyance, he turned his head and saw Seth placing two boxes of wine on the ground. "You just got out of a coma and-"

"And I have to take it easy, I know." Stan nodded. "But I hate this situation." He nodded to his shaking hands. "It's been four days of this."

"It's normal." Seth turned to him, pulling the tumbler with whiskey away and replaced it with a bottle of water. "Your body's been on slumber mode for the last year, boss. It's readjusting to moving."

"How long does it take?" Stan asked as he turned around, facing the shelves in his bar. "I can't let JC handle all this on her own."

"It takes it time, Stan. And don't worry about JC. Take it from me, the time you spent in the coma JC grew up to be able to do all this by herself." Seth explained with a gesture to the bar. "Believe me, it's hard not to think that the world is still the same after returning to it, sure, but it kept going and changing."

"Yeah…" Stan chuckled and faced the mutant. "Thanks for getting me out of the coma."

Seth nodded. "Course."

Stan took the water bottle. "What are you even doing here?" He shakily tried to unscrew the cap. "Shouldn't you be with the family?"

With tendril coming out of his palm, Seth unscrewed the bottle for him whilst answering. "Caitlin's dropping the girls off at school."

"Shouldn't you be doing that?" Stan wondered while giving him a nod of gratitude.

"I would, but she wants me to help you instead. This and keep an eye on Barry." Seth answered with an annoyed sigh.

Swallowing a gulp of water, Stan noticed his tone and inquired. "Things not good between you and him?" Even before the Singularity, he and his daughter had learnt of The Flash's true identity after the mutant's fight with Carnage. Seth thought it'd be best for them to know about this after all the things they've been through.

"They're fine, we're back on good terms." Seth rubbed his eyes. "But the thing is, the moment he learnt…"

"That he's been duped for the second time by someone he thought was a friend, a mentor, who turned out to be an evil maniac?" Stan tapped his head with his bottle. "My brain's not scrambled, you know."

"Never said it was." Seth sighed. "But he's been busting his ass and he's been hauling ours to help him get faster every second of every day."

"Sounds like hell." Stan joked.

"Close enough." Seth countered. "But I have no idea on how to help him?"

"Didn't your better half make something to make someone like him faster?" Stan asked.

"Not exactly a good solution to the problem. It's a drug, a fix, it will end up turning him into dust if he were to use it." Seth stated.

"Oh yeah." The bar owner nodded. "What do you think of this entire mess?"

"I don't know." Seth shook his head. Stan shrugged his shoulder and drank from the bottle. The mutant hid it, but he was furious inside of him. Jay didn't just trick his friends, his team. He also tricked his baby sister and his daughters and the love of his life.

Jay Garrick and Zoom…. They're the same person. They've been on this team…

Manipulating the people who've been defending this city. Manipulating his friends and family without a care in the world…

At the moment he found out that they were the same person, Seth swore to himself that he'd take down Zoom no matter what. On Earth-2, he swore to himself that he'd try to walk down a lighter path, try and avert himself from the darkened one he's been walking down on this entire time. But now…

He felt it was time for those two paths to intertwine… and take a stand as the Lethal Protector…

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

After his talk with Stan back at the bar, Seth decided to return to S.T.A.R. Labs. He came to a stop when he saw his sister leaning against the wall, near the entrance to Cisco's workshop. "Sis?"

Olivia perked her head at the sound of her brother's voice. "Hey, bro?"

"You doing okay?" He asked her in concern.

"Right about now, I feel like punching myself." Olivia confessed. "We all trusted Jay too easily. Me and Matty were suspicious of him, sure, but… We saw him put his life on the line so many times and we… We just trusted him along with the others, until you dropped Ruby and Evelyn to this world."

"What did my daughters do to change your minds?"

"Jay and Wells got suspicious of them, the latter pointing a weapon at them." Olivia explained and her brother nodded. "Think it's just… Annoying that we let someone else just… slither their way into our midst so easily."

"Remember training at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Operations?" Seth asked, his little sister turning surprised by the sudden reminder of the past. At the confusion on her face, he cleared it up with a simple question. "Deep Cover Tactics 101?"

The psychic chuckled in realization. "Perform selfless acts of bravery early on."

"Exactly." Seth nodded. "You said he put his life on the line for you guys and you guys had just lost Eddie, Ronnie and me. You were dealing with three layers of pain, grief and death, and when you saw this guy helping you, willing to risk his life for this team-"

"It's easy to get swept up in it." Matt jumped in, having walked out of Cisco's workshop and listened in on their conversation. "But we still trusted him, and he played us like pawns on his board."

"And what…" He frowned, shifting a finger between them. "You two gonna mope around all day? Sad that you got played?" Seth saw their fists clenching in anger. "Or you get back on your feet, take a stance and fight. That anger you feel?" He watched them both listen closely. "Use it, and wield it, not just like a fighter, but as an executioner."

Matt showed iron-cold eyes. "Yeah, you're right."

"We can't afford to play with kiddie gloves anymore, not with Zoom." Olivia agreed, inwardly she'd still want to keep her distance because she still has a child growing in her. "So, what's the plan?"

"Matty, make some contingencies or something, anything that can help us against Zoom or other threats that might show up. Maybe even armor up the entire facility." Seth gestured to the walls of the facility. "We need to be ready… Better than we did with Thawne and certainly better than with Zoom."

"I have some ideas I can take care of." Matt cracked his knuckles before turning back to Cisco's workshop.

"And me?" Olivia asked.

"Think you can up the girls' training?" The psychic's eyes widened to newer limits. "I'm not an idiot, not anymore, I know those girls can handle anything thrown at them, no doubt. And they're only gonna face bigger threats from now on… They need to be ready."

He hated asking this, he really did. But the threats in front of them… Only a miniscule of what's waiting for them. One day the girls will be facing pyramids of enemies, forces that will do everything in their power to strike down goodness in any form. Evildoers who will stop at nothing to get their will. They will show no mercy to anyone. Innocents will die and the streets will be drenched in fresh blood.

It was no life for teenage girls, but they had grown and could handle this life. He trusts his daughters to be the sword and shield of the innocents, of this entire city. But he'd fight alongside them as the Lethal Protector no matter what. They'd be the protectors of this city; he'd be their demonic protector.

"Think I can take it up a notch, sure." Olivia smiled. "I'm damn happy you finally realized your kids are badasses."

"With you, Felicia and Caitlin thrown in, I should have realized it sooner." Seth chuckled. "Again, thanks for making me realize that."

"Always happy to slap some sense into my pigheaded big brother." She laughed.

"Empathize on "slap."" The elemental quipped. "But when they get back from school, help them with homework and then intensify their training somehow."

"Anything that's math, biology or chem, I'm gonna give them wrong answers." Olivia clarified. "But what about you? You need to train too, right?"

"I am." Seth tapped his chest. "Remember, I got a sword in here I need to be better at using. Weapons combat is harder than hand-to-hand combat. Matt's been helping out a lot, but it's been failures at most."

Olivia chuckled. ""Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying", Roy T. Bennet."

"Nice." Seth inhaled sharply. "Gotta go check on the Speed-Freak. He's still in the Cortex?"

"Just like the last few days, yeah." Olivia turned around and walked into the workshop.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)

Seth walked into the Cortex. He quickly lashed out a hand and grabbed the book that almost flew into his face. Taking a look at the book, skimming through some of the pages the mutant saw that it was a book based on speed improvement.

"He's adamant on increasing his speed through physics." Venom noted.

"At least he's not resorting to drugs." Seth said as he dropped the book to a table before facing forward again. He saw the speedster speed-reading another book in front of the transparent glass board. "As a teacher, I should tell you not to throw your books."

Finishing with the book, Barry dropped it on a table and looked up. "Hey, sorry, just busy,"

"I can see." Seth commented on all the books spread every table. "What's next? Gonna go Beautiful Mind meets Se7en and write on the wall, floor, ceiling."

"Can't crawl on walls like you, man." Barry sighed. "But… I need to work on this." He pointed to the board with at least dozens of speed-related equations on it. "I… Just don't know how."

"Work, take a breath, work again." Barry looked uncooperative and faced the mutant who countered. "Fast as your brain is, Bar, it's not gonna be able to handle you working 24/7 nonstop. That's my opinion as your friend and as a doctor."

"Really?"

Seth smirked. "Well, either that, or I knock you out and tie you to a gurney."

"Should have expected that one, yeah." Barry chuckle.

Both of them turned around when they heard a thudding emitting behind them, they saw Cisco looking paralyzed at Jay's helmet with a stack of books in his hands. "Cisco, you okay?" Seth inquired.

"Yo." Barry greeted him.

Turning to them, he pleadingly asked. "Can we please get rid of Jay's helmet?"

"No, sorry. It keeps me motivated." Barry answered.

Having picked the book up, Cisco said. "Well, it's giving me daymares." He walked over to the speedster. "This is everything I could find even remotely related to increasing speed." Barry picked one up and looked at the table.

Seth snatched another one from Cisco's hands and asked while looking over the book. "Not to be Dr. Negative, but how are these supposed to help apply the speed equation to you?"

"The answer's got to be here somewhere." Barry argued with his eyes on the board. "Maybe Matt could take a look."

"He's busy with something else." Seth stated. In the corner of his eye, he saw Caitlin walking out of the side lab. "Cait, what's up?"

"Aside from the fact that our daughters got A+ on their last assignments, I think I found something interesting." Caitlin informed with a smile.

"A+?" Seth replied and he got a nod as response. "Damn proud of those girls." He smiled.

"Not to damper the parental love you two got going on or anything, but back to that interesting part. Good interesting or bad interesting? Cause that word could go either way." Cisco quipped.

Caitlin walked over to a monitor, which showed the three known speedsters, while handing the tablet in her hand to the speedster as the mutant walked over to his mate's side. She explained. "After running some comparative data, it appears that you," she nodded to Barry who looked at the tablet. "Reverse Flash, and Zoom are moving your legs at essentially the same speed."

As Seth took the tablet from Barry's hands, after he turned to the monitor, Cisco wondered. "Then why are they so much faster than him?"

Caitlin started. "Best I can tell, with each stride their feet spend less time on the ground…"

"Thus, propelling them forward much faster." Seth continued, realizing what her research meant. "And by almost 30%." He read the research thoroughly.

"Great." Barry let out in dismay. "All right, well, I got to make up that difference somehow."

The elemental saw Caitlin and Cisco share a look of conflict while the speedster walked over to another book. He realized what that look meant and turned to Barry. "Bar?" He faced him. "Look, I know how you're feeling."

"You don't, Seth." Barry countered. "You weren't here."

"You think I don't?" Seth inched closer to him. "This monster took advantage of my friends, my family and manipulated them. You think I don't want to stop Jay just as badly as you do…Then you're damn wrong. Because I want to find this fucking bastard and tear his legs off and watch him… bleed." He sneered.

He watched Barry shake in paralyzing fear and he calmed himself. Caitlin took over, holding her mate's hand and stroked the back of his hand as she explained to the speedster. "But what if the reason you haven't been able to run as fast as him yet is because you just can't?"

Barry looked away from the doctors' eyes and clenched his hands. "Then what do I do?"

"You just love making me repeat myself, huh?" Barry looked confused at Seth's words. "Think outside the box, try other methods. Get that through your head or I'm gonna tattoo it on your face." The speedster gulped before walking away in long strides.

"Back in less than two weeks and you're already making Barry shake in his pants." Cisco chuckled.

"Not exactly hard to do that." Seth laughed. "But… Matt's busy with his toys and Olivia's gonna train our daughters." He directed to Caitlin.

Caitlin predicted this. "Thought you'd do that. But what about Matt? What's he doing?"

"He's gonna make more weapons and hopefully place them around the facility in case of someone waltzing in here, which happens five times a year." Seth a scathing glance to the native mechanical engineer.

Cisco wagged his finger. "No, no, no, no. You cannot blame that on me, man."

"Fine." Seth conceded before snippily adding. "But I can blame you for not listening to the son of a self-centered, but brilliant inventor who built his own superhero armor which can practically level a skyscraper, when said son says that this facility needs massive upgrades."

"It's fine." Cisco argued before walking away.

As Seth dropped his head, another valid point for Cisco not able to penetrate his head, Caitlin walked over to him and cupped his head. Tilting it upwards to make eye contact with her, she leant closer to him and placed her lips over his mouth.

At the feeling of those lips on him again, he immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Even on the coldest of days known to man, a kiss from her would be able to warm even the freezing lakes of Cocytus.

Removing his lips from hers, he showed a smile. "What was that for?"

"Nothing… Just thought you needed the pick-me-up." She grinned. "How are you doing?"

"Right now? Best as I can be." Seth kissed her cheek. "But that might just have something to do with the beautiful woman in front of me."

"Charming." She captured his lips, kissing him again. "But… What do you think about this?"

"We're gonna defeat Zoom… and we're gonna use whatever we can to do so." Seth smiled. "We're gonna win and make Zoom pay, I swear."

"I know." Caitlin frowned. "But I wonder how the girls are gonna deal with your sister when she's serious."

"Probably not good." Seth surmised.

X

(Badlands)

"ARGH! /ARGH!"

The girls' screams overlapped with each other when they were hurled back to the hard ground by a psychic wave. Standing tall and confident in her armor as Angel Fury, Olivia reeled her bladed whip back. Watching her nieces writhe in pain on the ground, she swung her whip forward, making it crack on the ground and blow up gravel.

The three girls jolted away by the crack of her whip. "Is that all it took to bring you girls down? Huh?!" She stomped her foot into the ground, projecting a wave of condensed psychic energy through her limb.

After she was sure the girls were done with their homework after they got back from school, she had them get put on their suits and get ready. She had to get ready herself and went back to her apartment before telling the girls to go and wait for her at the Badlands on the outskirts of the city.

They got both surprised and confused when they saw her appear before them as Angel Fury. Their surprise dissipated quickly when she attacked them with a wave of psychic energy.

Magenta pushed herself back to her feet. "Seriously… Auntie is crazy powerful."

"I forgot this side of her." Destroyer smiled behind her mask. She couldn't believe that she would get to fight Angel Fury at full strength. It's been a dream of hers for a long, long time. She flipped herself back onto her feet and withdrew her Chakram blade from her back. "This is… I've been wanting to do this for so long."

Eclipse pulled out an arrow from her quiver, placing it on her bow and pulled back the string. "Not the best time to live out your childhood dream, sis."

"I think it's perfect." Ruby countered and threw her blade, watching it travel through the air.

But without even moving, Olivia's psychic energy wrapped around the blade and caught it mid-air. Yanking her hand back, the blade flew to her free hand. "Chatting in the middle of training, girls? Boy, you kids must be feeling pretty confident."

Destroyer ran forward, charging for the psychic who twirled the chakram blade around with her finger carelessly. When coming close to her aunt, Ruby swung her foot for her head. But a psychic wall formed in front of her, blocking the attack.

Glaring at her niece from behind her mask, Angel Fury dissipated her wall into energy and wrapped it around her niece. "What…" Ruby trailed off when she felt her body leave the ground and levitate in the air.

"You've got to do better than that, Rubs." Olivia sternly told her niece. Another psychic wave erupted from her body, catching the three light and darkness embraced arrows coming from the other side. She turned to her metahuman niece who lowered her bow in shock. "Same goes for you, Evie." She lifted Evelyn up in the air.

"Two down…" She didn't have to face the tendrils coming towards her from behind. With the assassin's blade in her hand, she thrusted it backwards and blocked the pink tendrils from touching her. Curling her fingers, she wrapped psychic energy around Frankie's form and pulled her up into the air.

"Three for three." She commented on the sight of her three nieces around her.

They tried to struggle their way out of their aunt's hold. Olivia sighed at the sight. Dropping both weapons in her hands to the ground, she crossed her arms and her mask opened up. "Gotta admit… I am disappointed in what I just saw. I expected more from you girls, but you guys are relying too much on your powers and not your powers."

Before they could form any confusion on their faces, Olivia explained.

She faced Ruby. "Ruby, you already know an incredible amount of hand-to-hand combat, your experience in that area surpasses that of your sisters here, no doubt. But that experience… It's blinding you right now and you're thinking too small. You're relying too much on it." Not moving a muscle, she pulled the Chakram blade up into the air and made it hover beside her. "I expected you to combine your gravitational powers with your combat skills, or at least your gravity powers itself. You could have even pulled your blade back with your gravity powers alone. You… You have to expand that armory of yours, combine your skills to get a whole new fighting style. You can use gravity powers; you can do even more than me."

"What?" She asked.

"My powers are limited by my mind… But you can do so much more than me." Olivia confessed. "Unlike me, at that age… You were trained for this, but you limit yourself and rely on your abilities still." She released her hold on the assassin. "You have to change that, otherwise you're stuck on the same track forever." Flinging the blade back to her niece, who caught it.

She looked to Evelyn. "Evie, you're a smart girl and you tried to keep your distance and attack from afar. That's a good tactic, for sure. But the problem is you keep using that same trick, resorting only to distance attack. Evelyn, what are you going to do when you lose your bow and arrows? It's scary sure, but honey, you need to consider a close-range approach. You can create a sword of light and combine it with darkness like you did against King Shark. Throw in your teleportation skills, you…You'd be freaking unstoppable, kid." She lowered her back to the ground.

"You really think that Auntie?" Evelyn questioned.

Olivia plucked the arrows out of the air. "Trust me, I know. My husband can fly and use aerial combat. Granted you don't have the same amount of experience and you can't fly but you can make up for that with your teleportation. Combine them and you'll be the greatest fighter there is." She threw Evelyn her arrows back and turned to the last girl.

"Now for you, kiddo." Olivia announced, facing Frankie in her Magenta form. "You're a great fighter now, Frankie, no argument on that. But right now, you're sticking with the same trick, Magenta's powers." Her niece's white eyes widened. "I didn't have to use my telepathy to know you attack me from behind, going for a blind spot. It's basic tactics, so you just proved you're basic. You could have used your magnekinetic powers and actually send me knocking on my ass."

"How? There's no metal here." Frankie stated.

Passively, she gestured to her armor. "My suit's metal, honey. You have to be more perspective of those things. I've fought against a powerful magnekinetic, much more powerful than you, a villain… And parts of me expect you to better than that, which I know you can be. This guy lifted a bridge alone, he could take someone with Matt's skeletal structure and actually pin him down without touching him…One day… I know you can." Olivia let go of the young magnekinetic. "But you have to put that magnetokinesis to use and not rely too much on your symbiote powers. No offense to Magenta." She quipped at the end.

Looking between the three girls, she said. "The three of you are powerful and strong and a whole lot of words I can't think up now. But the biggest problem is you three rely on one ability, power, skill… You're limiting yourself. If you don't get better, you're only gonna be running around in a box. Think up a way to burst that box open or you're all stuck on the same track…"

She walked forward, taking a spin and faced her nieces again with another stomp to the ground. "So how about I show you…" Nanites swarmed over her face and formed her mask again. "What that looks like?" Her body released psychic energy like a volcano erupting magma.

X

(Caitlin's Apartment)

With nighttime closing in on them, it meant that dinner was about to be served. Caitlin and Seth invited Olivia and Matt over for dinner. They did invite Cisco as well, but he declined, saying he wants to use the night to try and help out Barry's speed equation.

After placing a few plates of food on the table, Seth turned to his seated sister with her head pressed against the table. "Want anything to drink?"

"Got any chocolate milk?" Olivia looked up; her chin pressed on the table. "I want chocolate, man."

Chuckling, the elemental pulled out a carton of chocolate milk and a glass and placed them in front of his sister. "The girls came back, completely worn out and immediately went to sleep. What'd you do?"

"Was a hard ass." She sighed and chugged the glass of chocolate milk in one go. "I know you told me to up their training… But damn, I think I was too hard on them."

"Kinda of like how we were trained when we were in the academy?" Seth wondered as he took a seat at the table.

Olivia chuckled. "Yeah… Kinda like a superpowered drill sergeant. Remember how things were back then?"

"People hated us because we had powers and we were mutants, and we chose to ignore all of their scathing glares and focused on ourselves." Seth tipped his head, correcting himself. "Okay, I focused on you and Matty, whereas you two focused on each other."

"Give them a break, they were kids." Caitlin said as she moved towards the table. Taking a seat beside her mate, she asked. "What did you guys talk about?"

"The S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, our lives there." Seth smirked. "God people hated us back then."

"Big time." Olivia chuckled.

"About this academy of yours…" Caitlin reached a point where her curiosity had to be sated. "You mentioned this academy before… But it sounds like you went different ones. What's the deal about that?"

"While we do say S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, it's actually just a name used for three academies." Olivia explained. "But each one of them served the same purpose, training recruits for S.H.I.E.L.D."

Continuing for his sister, Seth held up a finger. "First of them is the largest one, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Communications. It was pretty boring; it's curriculum is mostly focusing on data analysis. Matt maybe took a couple of courses there. Definitely the most boring one of the academies sure, but it did interact with the other two the most. Also, the easiest to enter."

Oliva held up two fingers. "Then it brings us to the number two: S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Operations, the academy that trains specialists and field agents." She gestured to herself and her brother. "Like your two favorite mutants here. But Operations was always the harshest one of the academies. It has the most aggressive program; more people wash out of operations than most academies."

"Really?" Caitlin asked with shock.

"Oh yeah." Seth chuckled at her reaction. "But it was fun."

The psychic smiled. "And then there's the nerd academy." She directed to her brother.

Chuckling, Seth held up his third finger. "The academy where both me and Matt enlisted, S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology. It was a pretty cool place, it's responsible for guiding many of the world's best and brightest scientific minds. While Communications was the easiest to get into, this one was the hardest to get into."

"Why?" Caitlin wondered.

"You need a PhD to get into Sci-Tech." Olivia saw Caitlin's head snap to her so quick that she thought it might have snapped. "Pretty cool, and believe it or not, they don't all spend their time playing Operations."

Before Seth could even open his mouth, Caitlin beat him to it. "That game is anatomically incorrect." She sternly said.

Seth faced her and confessed. "I love you." Caitlin smiled in response before moving close to kiss him.

"But you know if Caitlin would ever visit Earth-616, she could give those young minds at Sci-Tech a course on dark matter." Olivia suggested. "Seth, you gave a course on Introduction to Klyntar 101."

Caitlin faced her mate with a skeptic look. "Really?"

"After graduation, my dad asked me to run a few courses on powered individuals, focusing on Klyntars." Seth chuckled. "They did not like that."

"Stupid brats." Venom growled. He remembered those stupid kids actually sleeping on what was probably the most interesting class those kids would ever participate in.

"But you said you had to have a PhD to get in?" Seth nodded to Caitlin's inquiry. "So you have a PhD?"

"Not exactly. Matt was enlisted in Sci-Tech, Livy and I were enlisted in Operations. But I would sometimes sneak into Sci-Tech with my powers and sit on the ceiling and listen in on the classes." Seth nodded. "My Dad found out and told me that he'd make an exception, allowing me to both be in Sci-Tech and Operations."

"Matt's dad, Tony, heard about that and didn't want to be outdone by Nick Fury and had him enlisted in Operations too." Olivia added.

"Sounds crazy, your world." Caitlin chuckled.

The door opened and Matt Stark walked into the loft. "Hey, guys, sorry for taking too long."

"You're forgiven." Olivia assured her husband who walked to her and kissed her forehead. "Where have you been so long?"

As he took a seat at the table, he explained. "Spent some time in the workshop, working on some devices that might be able to power up the team. I even stashed weapons around the facility that will definitely come in hand."

"Lovely." Olivia loved his warfare mind.

After looking around, Matt directed to Seth. "Didn't you invite Felicia over?"

"I did, but she had better things to do, like tracking Jesse." Seth casually said as he placed food on his plate.

"She's what?" Caitlin asked in shock.

Putting food on her plate, he answered. "Felicia heard that Jesse decided to go all Wayward girl, and said she'd keep us updated in case something happens to her. I've gotten some updates about her checking out an apartment right now in Opal City."

Matt chuckled. "Can't believe that she's willing to track someone she doesn't know."

Caitlin quipped. "Even cats change their whiskers, huh?" The three mutants laughed at her joke before digging in. They went back and forth, sharing small talk about everything. Ranging from the married couple's honeymoon and the two doctors' children. Seth used that opportunity to ask more and more about how they've felt with the villains while he was stuck on Earth-2.

He was shocked to hear that some of their previous foes decided to show up again, either in groups or alone. His daughters joined them, walking into the dinner table and ate together with them.

All the while they talked… Seth couldn't help but… see that this was a real family, one that he liked and would cherish…

X

(West Household)

While they were waiting for Wally to join them, Joe and Iris decided to talk to Barry about his constant training and everything about the revelation that hit them when they found out Zoom was Jay Garrick.

"Barry, you know what happened to Jay is not your fault, right?" Iris assured the speedster.

He sighed his regret. "Well, I should've known better." He drank from his wine.

"You?" Joe started. "With Wells last year, I should've learned my lesson and dug deeper into Jay, but… I didn't. Heck, we had a living lie detector and two agents, none of them knew about this."

"Come on, Joe." Barry leant back in his chair.

"Point being is nobody saw this coming." Joe finalized. "Nobody." He heard the timer chime and he walked into the kitchen, leaving the reporter and the speedster alone in the dining room.

The two shared a look and a smile in silence. Iris broke that silence when she slowly and unsurely began. "So, I… Kind of went on a date."

That took Barry by surprise. "With whom?"

"The new editor at CCPN. Scott Evans." Iris replied.

Realizing what that meant, Barry inquired. "Your boss?"

"Okay, it wasn't like that." Iris quickly assured him before his thoughts took a different turn. "He's a really nice guy. He's sweet and smart and…"

Barry noticed her trailing off. "What?"

"It just…" Iris confessed with a heavy heart. "It all makes me think about Eddie." Her heart was still scarred from his sacrifice. Noble as it was, it still hurt her greatly. "I think about him every day, Barry. It just feels wrong."

The speedster tried to assure her. "I know for a fact that Eddie would want you to find love again."

"Yeah, I know, but…"

"Look, Iris." Barry lurched forward, stopping the reporter for a second. He took Joe's seat to be closer to her. "You're the only person who's gonna know when you're ready to move on, but until then don't keep yourself completely closed off, you know? You're gonna miss out on something great."

"Yeah." She let out in a low voice.

The front door opened up and Wally walked into the house. "Hey." Barry greeted him.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Wally told them.

"No, no, you're just in time." Iris told him. Barry moved back to his seat.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow!" Joe chanted in pain as he dropped the piping hot tray to the table.

"Dad! Mittens!" Iris chastised her father. Both Barry and Wally laughed at that.

After a while of eating and drinking, the detective opened up another bottle just as Wally informed them happily. "So… My advisor loved my engine designs and even asked me to help her out with one of her engineering projects."

"Okay, big man on campus." Iris quipped.

"It's not that big a deal." Wally told his big sister.

Joe pointed at him. "It's a great opportunity, and you should take it because life doesn't give those out all the time." He looked to Barry. "Isn't that right, Barry?"

That snapped the speedster out of his trance. "Yeah. Yeah. What is the project about?"

"It's trying to push the speed limits with smaller propulsion systems." Wally explained.

"Yeah, that's cool." Barry nodded.

"Where do you even start?" Joe asked, even though the science will definitely go over his head in a heartbeat.

Wally explained. "Well, I really like to read the journals of the classic engineers, so their engine designs, how they increase horsepower, and learn from the best, I guess."

Those words echoed in Barry's head, inspiring him. "You read their journals?"

Wally nodded, sipping on his drink before joking. "I mean, it's not like I can just go and talk to Enzo Ferrari or Ferdinand Porsche cause they dead, but…" His sister and his father laughed, and Barry got a flash of inspiration. "You know, doesn't mean they can't still teach me."

In a hurry, Barry got up from his chair. "I got to go."

"You haven't even touched your food." Joe stated.

"Yeah, no, I'm sorry. I just…" Barry stammered as he searched for his jacket. "I just realized the key to a case I've been working on, so I'm gonna just... Thank you, Wally." He expressed to the former drag racer. He quickly ran to the exit, shooting out an apology and telling them he'd return later.

When he got out, Wally confessed. "That dude gets weirder every time I see him."

"You have no idea." Joe sipped on his drink.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

While he, and the rest walked through the corridors of the facility, Seth rubbed his eyes. "Had a lovely dinner with my sister, my best friend, my daughters, and the love of my life. Best memory for sure." He swung his head, facing the speedster. "Enter Barry Allen, The Master of Incredibly Shitty Ideas, and that memory's about to go down the drain. You've had bad ideas, sure, but this one takes the cake."

"And probably ate it, too." Olivia immediately regretted saying that. Now she's craving cake.

"Guys, it's not that bad." Barry assured him.

"Oh no, it's not bad." Seth shook his head before correcting bluntly. "It's the worst!" He exclaimed.

Cisco jumped in. "You mean the "old" Harrison Wells? As in Eobard Thawne? You want him to teach you how to run faster? Oh, that's rich."

"Not to mention, suicidal." Matt agreed. "You're talking about asking the same dumbass coward who wanted to kill you both as a kid and as an adult for help?"

"I agree with them, but for the sake of my curiosity," Caitlin couldn't believe she was actually asking this. "How are you even gonna do that?" The group reached the Cortex.

"By running back to a time last year." Barry answered.

"Barry, have you actually thought this through?" Matt inquired. "What about the other you, the one for that other timeline, the past? Two of you in the same place could screw up the entire timeline we have now."

"How much could be screwed up?" Olivia asked. Matt opened his mouth, but the psychic slammed her palm over his mouth, stopping him. "You know what? Don't tell me. I will regret it."

"Yeah, I'm still confused about this time bullshit, no doubt, but I don't wanna know anything about this shit, either." Seth clarified. "But Matt's right. What are you going to do about your past self? Invite him for a cup of Joe, have a heart-to-heart, hope he understands what you're trying to do?"

Shaking his head, Barry told them. "I'll knock him out with something. I mean, he's not like he'll see me coming, and then I'll have Wells teach me."

"Do you even hear yourself?" Seth asked him like he was stupid and oblivious to his own goddamn words. "I'll repeat what Matt said: You're talking about asking the guy who wants you dead more than anything… to teach you. How the hell does that not sound crazy to you?"

Olivia waited for her husband or her brother to point out two other important factors, but so far, they haven't gotten to it.

Barry then explained. "Seth you know how my research is going. Nothing I've read is pointing towards a solution, and if there's anybody that's figured out the key to getting faster without V9, it's him." He hoped the idea would wash over them and they'd see the logic. "What do you guys think?"

"Your plan is asinine." Harry got their attention from outside of the Cortex entrance. Wearing a black cap, a long black coat and a duffel bag, he walked into the Cortex. "Completely asinine."

"No kidding." Olivia surprised them with her words. None of them expected her to agree with Harry so easily.

Cisco looked to Harry. "Did you find Jesse?"

"Does it look like I found Jesse?" Harry countered.

Caitlin looked to Seth. "Doesn't he know about Felicia?"

Before the elemental could answer, Harry jumped in. "Snow, you trust Fury and Hardy, I don't. I'll find Jesse on my own." He already knew about the cat burglar tracking his daughter. But that wasn't enough for him to trust her or her findings. After dropping off his bag, he asked. "How many times have you traveled through time?"

"A few." Barry replied.

"Do you have any idea how many things you could screw up?" Harry asked and Seth agreed.

"All I need is one conversation with Dr. Wells." Barry held up a finger.

"For God's sake, Barry, he's not Wells. He's Eobard Thawne!" Seth shouted, hoping his words could finally drill into his thick skull.

"Listen to Fury." Harry pointed to Seth after throwing off his coat. He walked closer to the speedster. "I'm Wells! This man has been studying you for 15 years… for 15 years… And you don't think he's gonna know who you are?"

"Barry's pretty good at impersonating himself." Cisco quipped. "You should've seen him over on Earth-2. I was like, "Somebody give this man an Oscar.""

Seth sent him a scathing glare. "Yeah, he also tricked and kissed a married woman as he impersonated her husband." Barry gave him a dry look. "Just being honest, man, cause that's a sleazy-ass move. Joe would definitely not be proud."

Returning to the matter, Harry stated. "He will know, Allen. He will know."

Barry exclaimed. "All right, then what am I supposed to do? I mean, how am I supposed to stop Zoom? Do you know the answer to this equation?" He pointed to the glass board.

The Earth-2 scientist walked closer to him. "If Thawne figures out that it's you, the timeline will be altered. People can die. Others could live, and no one will know who or what will be affected, but I promise you, when you come back, things will be different. And only you will know what those differences are."

"Mind I jump in because you guys are all forgetting a few important dumbass factors." Every pair of eyes in the Cortex faced the psychic. Pointing both thumbs to the sides, she gestured to her husband and her big brother. "These two important dumbasses."

"Come again?"

"Excuse me?"

Seth and Matt respectively said in confusion.

Olivia groaned. "How you two are scientists is incomprehensible to me." She then explained. "Unlike me, who was in Stasis most of last year's adventures, these two bozos were part of them, with this team. And unlike most of this team, they're trained professional S.H.I.E.L.D. field agents. They can spot a liar pretty easily." She pointed to Barry. "You might be able to act like your past self, but with the knowledge of you working side by side with the man who killed your mom in your head, you're gonna be shaky, you're gonna make mistakes… And these two are gonna notice it too and watch you like a pair of hawks."

Understanding her train of thought, Matt added. "She's right. We see you acting differently, acting strangely than you were before…"

"We see that…" Seth lifted his eyes, pointing them at the speedster. "You're not going to be a friend to us, you're gonna be a target… One we might have to exterminate."

Caitlin had a realization. "Not just that. In the past, Seth didn't have made the deal to learn how to control his black flames. He might not have them back then, but he would be able to throw and discharge his elements."

"Lucky me." Barry couldn't believe the barrage of bad news hitting him like rain. "Well, if that's what I have to do to stop Zoom, then so be it, because if I don't, and Zoom gets my speed before I learn how to stop him, everybody I care about, everybody in this whole city… Their world will never be the same anyway."

Harry walked away, not believing that his words could reach him.

"Barry?" The speedster looked to the elemental. "Do you really think you can do this? Honest answer."

"Yeah, I do." Barry nodded confidently. "When I went back last year and I saw my mom die, it didn't affect the timeline."

"Yeah, but you haven't really time traveled on purpose like this before." Cisco said.

"I have to do this, you guys." Barry confessed.

"No use getting through that little thick head of his." Venom sighed.

Mentally agreeing with his partner, the mutant said. "Fine." Seth reached into his pocket, his symbiote's pocket dimension. "We can't go with you, but you might be able to turn our past versions to your side."

"How?" Barry asked intrigued.

Pulling out an item, he handed it to Barry. "At some point, you're probably gonna find us alone. When you do, show us this." Both Matt and Olivia were shocked that it was the photo of him, Stef and Bucky and Olivia from a trip to the beach on Earth-616.

"That… That's Bucky and Stef." Olivia smiled.

Barry took it, examining the picture. "You… You want me to have this?"

"Burrow." Seth corrected him. "I want this back when you return, in one piece. When you find us at some point, tell me and Matt the truth, show this as proof."

"Wow." Barry was surprised as he took in the photo. "You… Never seen you smile this much." He directed to the elemental.

"Oh God, don't get sentimental, would you?" Seth groaned.

"But if that doesn't work?" Olivia wondered.

"One other thing he could do…" Seth tapped his right side. "Say Carnage and say you know about my poisoned state."

"Sure that's a good idea?" Matt wondered.

"Matt's right. Wouldn't us knowing too early about your situation… alter the timeline?" Cisco asked.

"You guys wouldn't know." Seth corrected him. "The only ones at the time who knew about my situation, about me being poisoned, was me and Matt. We didn't know about Felicia till later, I'm assuming, so we're the only ones. He tells us, and only us…" He empathized. "No harm should happen to the timeline, seeing as we can stick and keep a secret. Instead, he'd have our support in that past other timeline."

"Cool, I'd have the two of you as my backup then." Barry smiled.

Matt tilted his head. "Chances are, you might have to fight us first."

"Okay, not so cool." Barry's smile fell.

"I think I have something that can help with that." Matt walked out of the Cortex.

"Seth." Barry got his attention. "I will give this back, I swear… And I'll make things right."

"… Course, you will." Seth passively said. Inwardly, he felt something else was slithering around in the speedster's core. He clapped his hands. "Now… Let's go for it. Back to the past."

"Not without this." Matt announced, returning to the Cortex with a flat metal device. In the middle of the flat device was a gray lightning bolt symbol like that of the Flash's emblem. "Take this with you." He walked over to the suit and took the emblem. Flipping it around, he placed the device on the back of the white emblem before placing it back on the suit. "If you're unfortunate enough to actually battle both me and Seth. Twist your emblem around 360 degrees, and your current suit will get some major upgrades."

That piqued the speedster's interest. "What kind of upgrades?" Cisco narrowed his eyes threateningly.

"Twist it, you'll see the toys." Matt smiled. "You go back to the past; you need to switch out the emblems along with the device I just put on the back of it. Otherwise, you're screwed."

"Looks like we have some work to do then." Seth stated.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)

After preparations had been made, Seth and Barry in his Flash suit stood before the opening gate to the Pipeline. The elemental turned to him and demanded. "Okay, go through everything again."

Nodding Barry repeated. "Okay, I'm going back to the time when Wells-" Seth gave him a look that made the speedster correct himself. "Thawne was distracted by the return of Hartley Rathaway, to quote Cisco, "the major jackass.""

"And?" Seth pressed.

"And this is the first time we found out Wells knew the accelerator might explode, and we were all angry with him." Barry continued.

"Yeah, and you acting differently or something about your behavior that might seem odd, Wells should attribute to that. And what's the checklist again?" Seth demanded.

"Back then, my Dad was still in prison. No Jay. I can't make Wells, Thawne suspicious of me, there's no Ronnie or Olivia."

"Also, no daughters, you can't mention any of them to me, especially Frankie. Back then, other than Caitlin and Matt, you guys didn't know about her. You can't mention Magenta either. Venom and I didn't know about her until after the Carnage debacle. Knowing it too early… Who knows what might happen."

"Got it. And I'm guessing no mentioning your sister at Firestorm's hands?" Seth nodded. "Or you being shish kebabbed by Carnage either? The fight itself."

"Obviously." Seth reached into his pocket and pulled an injection dart. "Caitlin and I made this. This is a tranq dart that should knock old you out for about six hours, which lines up perfectly for when you're going back because not much was happening until Rathaway attacked Cleveland Dam that night, and Matt showed up and kicked his ass. Assuming everything goes according to plan, which it rarely ever does, that should give time to learn what you need and return."

"Right." Barry nodded.

"And two important factors, you have to keep in the back and front of your mind at all times." Seth reminded him. "You cannot tell us the truth about Wells, no matter what. You must keep the timeline intact."

Having heard the rest from Cisco before, Barry cut him off. "And it's gonna be hard to course correct if anything gets altered, so I get what I need and come back, preferably to this moment, this exact time I'm leaving, or else I might see off some kind of "12 Monkeys" time loop I'll never get out of."

"Yeah." Seth chuckled. "God Cisco and his movies."

"Yeah, he's got an arsenal of movies in his head." Barry agreed. "What about that last thing?"

"You know what that is." Seth crossed his arms.

"No, I don't." Barry shook his head.

"Yeah, you do." Seth gave him a knowing look.

Barry saw his look and his defenses fell. "Seth, I-"

"You can't tell me about the Singularity and me going boom in it." Seth stated. "You don't know what kind of damage that information could do to me, or more importantly to the timeline." He watched Barry walk into the Pipeline, standing on the small bridge. Catching up to him, he placed a hand on the metahuman's shoulder. "I know you still feel bad about that entire mess, I know that. But you can't tell me that I shouldn't go into the black hole."

"Why not?" Barry groaned. "You'd spent time back here with the rest of us."

"And it'd be without Ruby and Evelyn." Seth reminded him and Barry gaped his mouth in realization. "The only reason they're here is because I sent them through the breach all those months ago, from Earth-2. You say anything, it might… Erase them or so worse."

"What could be worse than that?" Barry dared to ask.

Seth didn't hesitate and spoke. "Ruby would lose her powers to Zoom and live a cell forever while he'd be running around with possibly gravitational powers on top of his deadly superspeed. Evelyn would be on the run at all times because people would still believe she killed her own parents. Even for a girl her age, she'd be likely to end up with a bounty on her head. Those two girls would have been erased from this timeline because you would choose to protect your friend… Which I, said friend, won't let happen."

Barry ran his hands through his hair with a distressful expression. "Your family… Liv, Matt… Frankie and Caitlin… They all hated me for what I did last year… when I traveled back in time and created the Singularity."

"I know, Frankie and Caitlin gave me the rundown and I'm not surprised." Seth confessed. "They know how to hate, surprisingly enough… They had to because of their pain… But that's nothing compared to the pain they're gonna feel if you tell me about this…"

"They won't know." Barry reminded him.

Placing a fist over the speedster's chest he said. "But you would and knowing you… You'd probably never forgive yourself." Uncurling his hand, he placed his palm over the emblem and tightened his hold on his chest. "And if I didn't know… I swear I'd know it in my heart, and I would never forgive you because of that…"

Barry listened to his words and was stumped, unable to form words whatsoever.

"You don't know what it's like to be a parent, Barry… Not yet…" Seth expressed honestly. "But… I am ordering you right here and now… Do not tell me… Just go do what you need to do, get our past selves' help if you have to… and get back without changing the timeline. Understood?"

"… Alright." Barry nodded.

"Good." Seth held out a hand. "Godspeed, Barry Allen. You're gonna need it."

"I'll be fine." Barry shook his hand. "What could go wrong?"

"Do not jinx it!" Seth exclaimed before pushing him away. "Get out of here!" He walked back through the entrance. Closing the entrance, he briefly saw the speedster pull his cowl on before running off the bridge. As the entrance closed behind him, the elemental walked to the panel and saw Barry running around and around in the accelerator ring.

Placing a hand under his chin, Seth muttered as he saw the speedster. "Barry… Please, do not try and save me…"

X

In the past… He might have hesitated to meet that familiar white-ish blue-ish tunnel that led into the fabric of time itself.

This time, Barry didn't and ran into it… once again, running into time itself.

A pulse of blue light emitted as he entered the tunnel. He found himself running within the tunnel, each and every side of it running a series of images, different events appearing all around him from the past…. He listened as he continued to run, he focused on his destination…

It was hard as he also heard the sounds that accompanied the memories and events of the past.

He closed his eyes… before he could see the events unfolding…

… the Singularity tearing S.T.A.R Labs apart…

… Seth jumping into the Singularity in the middle of the streets…

… "Eddie!" Iris screamed. Barry realized that was the point where Eddie Thawne sacrificed himself to erase Eobard…

… Barry focused on the Cleveland Dam fight between Pied Piper and Iron Knight in his Frost-Flame armor…

… He saw the two of them striking each other with long range attacks…

His eyes snapped wide open when he heard an echoing screech. He looked ahead and he saw the bluish tunnel lose its azure color and turn black and gray… as a floating, haunting form spiraled towards him…

It appeared similar to a ghost-like decayed half corpse… It's body only consists of a corpse… The lower parts of its body wrapped in black tattered rags… and shadowy miasma coming out of it… Similar to smoke…

Its rotten bald head, facing the speedster as it charged him. Its eyeless sockets locked onto the speedster. His rotten and decayed… barely skin on its outstretched hands towards him… Fleshless mouths opening up in an echoing screech.

As it closed in on him, Barry snapped and ran to a turn.

X

(…Last Year…)

WHOOSH

Barry came out of the tunnel, panting heavily and lurched over and placed his hands on his knees. He couldn't believe that thing. He'd never seen anything like that before in his life.

And most of all… He didn't understand what he did to piss off a… a Dementor…

His ears perked up at the sound of sirens close by. Barry looked up, straightening himself. His eyes widened when he realized his location… more importantly, the time of his current location.

The speedster saw an array of police cars in front of Rathaway Industries, humongous glass pieces on the ground as the aftermath from Pied Piper's sonic attacks. Policemen and policewomen standing out of their vehicles, their arms raised and pointing their firearms at the criminal in front of them.

… whether or not he should be impressed or joyous… He didn't know how to feel as he saw himself… His past self… standing over the evil metahuman.

"Oh, no. I'm too early." Barry stated to himself.

"It's over, Rathaway." Past Barry told the sonic metahuman.

The future and present Barry Allen knew that Hartley was smirking even though he couldn't see him. "You know my name. I know some names too." Hartley said.

"This is not a good start." Present Barry shook his head in dismay as the sonic criminal continued.

"Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Harrison Wells."

The speedster heard a high-pitched ringing in his comms device, making him groan loudly… which unfortunately got Past Barry's attention. Not knowing what could happen next, he moved away, speeding into an alleyway out of sight.

"Something's interfering with his comms." Barry groaned as he continued to hear the ringing along with Cisco's words. "Barry!"

"Come on!" Barry slapped and hit the earpiece. "Damn it."

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs., The Cortex)

Caitlin Snow leant against the railing and looked to both Cisco and… Harrison Wells in confusion. "What's happening?"

"I don't know." Cisco replied, his eyes locked onto the screen which displayed Barry being at two locations for some reason. "Whatever Hartley's using must be shorting out his comms."

"Hartley's always been brilliant." Harrison admitted.

A lightbulb appeared and flashed over her head. "I know what to do." She walked around the console, pressing a key on the keyboard and started the comms. "Seth. You and Matt check out what's going on, please."

"You don't even need to ask us, Cait! We're going back!" Seth shouted over the gust of air and the sound of flaring thrusters.

X

From out of sight, Barry leant over a trash container, looking towards the confrontation between his past self and Hartley. From his distance, the speedster could clear-as-day hear their conversation. Mostly on account of his own earpiece.

"I can hear the radio waves emanating from your suit." Hartley said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember this." Barry recognized this. "This could still work." He realized out loud.

"About 1,900 megahertz. Are they on the other end, listening? Along with Venom and Iron Knight, maybe? Will they hear you die?" Hartley asked.

Confidently, Past Barry said back. "No. They're gonna hear you-"

""Get your ass kicked."" Both Barrys said in unison. Both of them are immensely proud of that counter.

"Okay." Like he did in the past, Hartley simply stated the words, like it didn't bother him, so he thrusted both his hands forward and projected a sonic blast, hitting the speedster and launched him off the ground. His body smashed into the glass sign with the name and logo of Rathaway Industries behind him.

As soon as he saw the sign shattering because of his past self, the speedster from the future sped towards him. He quickly snatched his past self from the glass covered surface.

Noticing the speeding lightning, Hartley chuckled. "Is that all it takes to scare you off?"

X

"And he chose you over me?" Hartley's voice spoke through the comms devices in Future Barry's hand as he kept his confused and baffled past self pinned to the wall.

"My comms? Who are you?" His past self asked, shifting his attention between his stolen comms and the face looking back at him.

Placing the comms away, Future Barry explained quickly. "I don't have time to explain this to you right now." He pulled the tranq dart out of his boot, readying it to stab his past self.

But Past Barry wasn't okay with that. He sped out of his future self's grasp. Groaning annoyedly, Barry ran after his past self who ran up a wall.

However, Future Barry quickly ran after him and caught him up to him in no time on the wall, slamming his arm into his past self's chest and sending him spinning in the air. Landing on a fire escape Past Barry barely got a chance to look for the other one when Future Barry took place in front of him on the fire escape. The two struggled in the small enclosure.

Past Barry punched the tranq dart out of his hand and into the air, out of Future Flash's reach. Both speedsters shared a look before both running off the fire escape. Barry pushed his past self out of the way with a mighty punch when they ran on the ground, continuing onwards up the opposite wall, snatching the tranq dart again.

His past self rolled on the ground, coming to a stop when he landed on his back.

WHOOSH

Hearing the lightning whooshing, he looked up again and saw his own face looking down at him. "I don't understand. You're me." Barry said in distress.

Future Barry pinned his past self to the ground before jamming the dart into his thigh, administering the sedative, making Past Barry groan in pain, as he said. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this. This'll all make sense eventually." He explained as he watched him go unconscious.

While he did feel mixed feelings rising to the surface, he had to push them down for now. Barry switched their emblems, placing his new one on his past self's chest whilst he re-equipped the old one. He made sure to place Matt's special device on the one on his chest as well.

He sighed. Parts of him hoped that he wouldn't have to use this device.

WHOOSH

He sped away, leaving his past self on the ground in the middle of the alley. Unbeknownst to him… two other pairs of eyes watched what happened…

X

Hartley Rathaway twirled around, looking in search for the Scarlet Speedster. "Where are you, oh, chosen one?"

Barry returned, adorned with his old Flash emblem, speeding behind an officer and pulled out his nightstick before throwing it at the evil metahuman. Hartley took it, forced to kneel and cover his head with both arms. Series of nightsticks came flying and hit him.

When he saw a moment to take advantage of, Hartley lashed out his arms, intent on projecting another powerful sonic blast.

WHOOSH

But not a single sonic blast came, as both his weaponized gauntlets were yanked off of his arms by the Scarlet Speedster. Barry threw them to the ground and pulled the enemy closer to him by the collar of his hood.

"Got ya again." Barry smirked victoriously. Hartley turned confused, but before he could voice it, the speedster said. "Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says."

Without a moment's notice, Hartley countered back. "Smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is. You see… I know his secret."

Like he did in the past, Barry let that sink in, so did the others back at S.T.A.R. Labs along with the mutants, who he knew had hacked his comms at this point.

"Barry, are you there?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm back." Barry replied before facing the hooded metahuman. "I'm bringing Hartley in."

With his hand on Hartley's hood, the speedster sped away with his prisoner.

X

"Barry? Barry?!" Matt tried to shake the speedster awake but to no avail. He turned around, facing the trenchcoated mutant doctor who stood over the metahuman. "What happened to him?"

Both Seth and Matt returned to the sight of Hartley's attack, but they were confused when they saw him alone and couldn't find the Scarlet Speedster anywhere. They quickly found him again, but not just him. The two mutants found two Flashes fighting each other in an alleyway. From afar on top of a rooftop, they saw the small differences between them, the different emblems on their chests specifically.

The one with the white emblem reigned victorious and stabbed the other one in the thigh, ending with him on the ground. They saw the victorious speedster switching out their emblems before running away to take care of Hartley, defeating him and dragging him away. The downed speedster was on the ground, alone for the two mutants to examine.

Not responding with his words, Seth crouched down on a knee and placed his fingers under Barry's nostrils. His tense expression eased a bit when he felt the downed speedster exhale through his nose, the air hitting the back of his fingers. "He's alive." He looked up to the nanite mutant. "Just… Unconscious."

"I shook him like a shaker, and he's still out?" Matt wondered.

"My guess…" Seth noticed a small, almost invisible hole in his right thigh. "He's been tranquilized."

"That's why he stabbed him." Matt realized.

Nodding his head in confirmation, Seth returned to his full height. "At least he's not dead… But that still leaves the important question… Who the heck was this Other Flash?"

"And why did he do this?" Matt gestured with a nod to the speedster at their feet.

"Maybe… It might be a metahuman with the powers to assume others' faces and clothes." Came the suggestion from the elemental.

"You mean like Mystique?" Matt asked. "You really think they have someone with that ability here?"

"You read the same files as I did when you showed up on this Earth. They had someone with almost the same powers as Storm." Seth reminded him.

"Good point… What's the plan then?" Matt asked.

Shrugging his shoulders, Seth said. "For safety's sake, we have to keep this to ourselves, not involve Cait and the others… We keep an eye on that guy for now." He gave a hollow chuckle. "Looks like we have to return to being agents for a bit."

"Seriously…" Matt ran his hands through his hair.

"What's wrong with you?" Seth asked confusedly.

"Why's he so agitated right now?" Venom inquired.

Matt faced him, giving him a dry look. "You're seriously asking that? We got to find Livia and Carnage… We've looked and looked… And we haven't even gotten a clue as to either of their whereabouts. And now this?" He gestured to the unconscious speedster. "It's a waste of time."

"It's not." Seth shook his head. "This guy with Barry's face could be greater than Mystique if they can copy more than appearances but also powers. You saw them run away, right? With lightning, like Barry." Matt nodded. "For all we know this is some shapeshifter on Reverse-Flash's payroll, trying to get the jump on the team or something. But whatever the case… This is a problem, a threat that we need to take care of ourselves. Worse case, we let this go, this guy could kill our friends in the blink of an eye."

"You're right." Matt agreed after a few moments of mulling it over. "I hate this happens while you're still the way you are."

"I might not be able to be saved, sure… But our friends can." Seth reminded him. "Let's go." He walked forward.

"Wait." Matt stopped him. "What about this… Barry?" He pointed to the speedster. "We can't just leave him here; his identity might be figured out if that happens. He could be mugged or something."

Seth dropped his head. "What's your idea then? Drop him off in a motel or something-" He stopped and looked to the side. "Huh."

"What?" Matt followed his direction. He paled at the sight before snapping back to the elemental. "You're not serious?"

"Deadly." Seth quipped before picking up the unconscious speedster.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)

What happened next was just like the past. Barry brought Hartley through the elevator, meeting up with Caitlin and Cisco who were disgusted and enraged by their former colleague's appearance. Even the two mutants had their guns pointed at him, ready to shoot him when something bad would happen.

Seth threatened him to ever speak so vilely to Caitlin, that he'd still put a bullet in him if he spoke like that again. They then all moved down to the Pipeline where they saw Hartley Rathaway in a containment cell, something that both Caitlin and Cisco relished in and enjoyed immensely, whilst the latter looked at the internal scans of his former colleague's head.

The scanners chimed at the objects they picked up on in his head, and Cisco faced him. "Scanners picking up foreign metallic objects in your ears. Take 'em out."

"I can't." Hartley stated.

"Can't or won't?" Seth demanded to know while standing protectively in front of Caitlin.

"I said can't." Hartley clarified. "I suffered head trauma when S.T.A.R. Labs exploded. My hearing was severely damaged." He pointed to his left ear. "Without these, I am in pain you can only imagine." He noticed Caitlin taking hold of Seth's hand, surprising him greatly right now.

"Try having boiling melted adamantium infused into your skeleton as a kid, you jackass. Then we can compare notes." Matt thought to himself.

Seth turned his eyes, pointing them to the possible speedster and saw him gain a thoughtful look, like a memory returning to the forefront of his mind.

What Seth didn't know was that the memory returning to him was a memory of Cisco being blown out of the way when the Pipeline gate exploded.

Barry asked. "Cisco, see if the devices in his ears are generating any low level electromagnetic pulses."

That statement baffled them all, especially Hartley, Matt and Seth who gave him shocked and suspicious glances. Cisco narrowed his eyes, facing his metahuman friend.

Matt lowered his firearm and asked. "You want to see if this guy has explosives in his ears?"

"Yeah, Hartley's a dick, but not a E-bomb-carrying dick." Cisco quipped, enjoying the hateful look coming from Hartley.

Stammering, the speedster said. "I just- I mean, don't you think that could've been what was interfering with the comms?"

Caitlin faced the elemental, leaning up to his ear quietly and whispered. "Did you or Matt find anything about that?"

Stealthily shaking his head, he answered. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Outside of this being an easy fight."

Cisco obliged to Barry's suggestion, scanning the devices in Hartley's ears with the tablet on the wall. "Well, well." The speedster was right as he faced Hartley. "Trying to go all "Mission: Impossible" on us? Use those things to bust out of here?"

Hartley didn't say anything, and Seth suggested. "Matt, you can hold him down and I can pull those things out without killing him." That made the sonic metahuman stagger back in fear, his face riddled with sweat till his back hit the wall. "If no one got better ideas…"

"Your silence speaks volumes." Harrison Wells announced his presence with his words spoken in flawless Latin. Barry faced him, knowing that it was Eobard Thawne wearing another man's face. "While I don't doubt Dr. Rogers' idea's effectiveness, or question his morality," Seth gave him a glare. "I do believe we can try a less messy approach. Pump in some sound stimuli to counteract his tinnitus. Then we'll make some nonexplosive replacements for him."

Seth looked annoyed at him. "You really know how to ruin my fun, Brains."

Caitlin covered his mouth with her hand. "Down, boy." She said like she was disciplining a dog.

"Apologies, Dr. Rogers, but I am a stickler for easy approaches." Harrison quipped and Seth rolled his eyes, his mouth still covered by Caitlin. "Deal with you later." He directed to Hartley before turning around. Barry followed him out of the Pipeline.

Caitlin walked forward. "Take them out, Hartley. Now." Hartley looked reluctant. She narrowed her eyes and looked to Seth. "Seth, how long would it take for you and Matt to take them out yourselves?"

"With a male of Hartley's size…" Seth made a show of looking him up and down, examining the shaking metahuman. "Five minutes. Eight, if he struggles." He showed a vile smirk.

Caitlin looked to Cisco who mentally questioned her questions. "Think we can spare eight minutes, Cisco-"

"Okay, okay. I'll take them out!" Hartley shouted and walked forward.

Seth smiled and faced Caitlin. "You're amazing."

"And you're a bad influence." She shot back with a caring smile, that made him shiver… and almost smoke.

X

While taking off his gloves, Barry reached Harrison Wells. "Dr. Wells."

"That was quite an observation you had about Hartley in there, Mr. Allen." Harrison noted.

"Yeah, but it was like what Seth said, it just seemed too easy taking Hartley down, you know." Barry admitted.

The S.T.A.R. Labs founder hummed. "Well, the likely reason for that is you're getting faster." He rolled into the Cortex.

Barry used this opportunity to ask. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."

"What is it?" Harrison stopped, turning in his wheelchair and faced the metahuman.

"Um…" Barry walked towards the glass board and took a marker before changing out of his suit. All of his research from his normal timeline, his speed equation, he quickly wrote it down on the board before Harrison Wells' eyes. "It occurred to me that maybe we've been going about improving my speed the wrong way."

As that equation was written down on the board, Harrison watched with narrowed and intrigued eyes. "How so?"

"Well, I've been learning different techniques involved running, and I was thinking that there's just as much science involved in speed as anything physical or technical." Barry glanced at Harrison who rolled towards the board. "I just can't figure out how to apply it to me when I run. Thought if anybody could help me, it'd be you."

"This is quite the…" Harrison paused. "Speed equation you've concocted here, isn't it, Mr. Al?"

"Yeah, I've been doing a lot of reading in my downtime." Barry informed.

Harrison asked. "Did you go to either Dr. Rogers or Mr. Almond about this equation of yours?"

Barry briefly hesitated, he had to get used to hearing the mutants' aliases again. He did know their real names after all. "Nah, thought… They're smart sure, but Seth's more of an evil doctor and Matt's more weapons of doom guy, you know? Thought… This might go over their heads."

He didn't disagree with that and Harrison gestured to the board again. "Then what on earth inspired you to adopt such a…What should we call this… Unorthodox approach?"

Slightly shaking his head, Barry explained. "I just know that I'm not the fastest man alive, and I need to be faster, a lot faster, if I'm ever gonna be able to take down the Man in Yellow." He watched Eobard Thawne take off his glasses after hearing that explanation, appearing to be deep thought. "So, what do you think? Can you help me?"

Putting his glasses on again, Harrison gently pushed himself up… Barry watched him carefully… before he straightened himself in the chair. He grabbed the marker and uncapped the screw. "Let me see what I can do."

They both turned to the board again and Seth walked into the Cortex and staggered in shock at the equation on the board. "The heck is that? Barry, did you have a brain baby or something?"

"Brain baby?" Barry raised an eyebrow.

Harrison gave a chuckle, gesturing to the speed equation. "I believe Dr. Rogers is referring to the equation you have here, Barry."

"Point one for Brains on Wheels." Seth chuckled. "But seriously what is this?"

"Maybe a way for me to… be faster to fight Reverse-Flash." Barry answered.

"That's some equation to you got going here, man." Seth said in shock.

"He made this in his spare time." Harrison replied.

"Nice job." Seth smiled impressively. But inwardly, he did find it… suspicious and confusing that he had this equation constructed in his spare time, when he's usually focusing on… Mostly Iris and working with Joe.

But for some reason… Barry's eyes or whoever he was… was looking at him intensely… which worried him.

Was he the target behind this? Why were there two Scarlet Speedsters?

X

(CCPD)

Detective Joe West couldn't understand why it happened, but for some reason the framed photo of his late partner, Fred Chyre didn't sit right on the wall. Maybe it was the spirit of his…

No…

Metahumans roaming in his city was enough for the seasoned detective. Throw in ghosts, he might just decide to retire early.

He straightened the photo of his late partner on the wall. Whilst doing so, he heard a voice greet him. "Hey, Joe."

Joe turned around. "Hey, Eddie." He greeted his smiling blonde partner. Noticing the smile on his face, he blinked confusedly. "Must have been a good lunch."

Eddie Thawne exhaled excitedly before explaining. "Iris is the first girlfriend I've ever lived with, so it's all very new and exciting."

"New? Yes. Exciting? No." Joe spoke his real feelings with a smile quickly fading from his face.

"Sorry." Eddie's own smile fell in realization. "Somehow I keep forgetting you're her dad."

"Hey, try to remember that for both our sakes. Come here." Joe placed his hand on his partner's back, pulling him close and continued in a whisper. "I was thinking about what you said about Wells, how there's something off about him." They moved into the lobby. "I need to you do something for me, off the books."

"Joe, come on." Eddie regretted stating the facts about Harrison Wells not being hurt back at his own to him, and being able to dodge glass despite being paralyzed.

"Just trust me, Eddie." Joe pleaded after making sure no one heard him groan. Eddie gave a reluctant nod. "Go back to his house. Search everything."

"Okay." He sighed. He then hopefully smiled, throwing in. "Does this mean you'll ease up on me and Iris dating?"

"Not in the foreseeable future, no." Joe confessed.

SCREAM

The scream of an officer from the upper floor echoed through the floor, reaching the lobby area. The two detectives and the others followed the direction of the scream, facing the upper floor and widened their eyes at the sight of the horrifying wraith being that showed itself at the top of the staircase.

It floated over the railing, looking down at the officers and screeched at them.

"What the hell?" Joe really, really regretted thinking of ghosts before. He just jinxed it big time.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)

Hearing the alarm chime on the monitor Seth snapped around along with Harrison. Barry kept his eyes on the board before him with the speed equation.

"CCPD." Harrison noted.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Who wants to bet it's a beat cop who blew up a microwave? Maybe they've been shooting at it."

"Dr. Rogers, your police force in your universe does not sound efficient." Harrison commented honestly.

"I'm sure they have it handled, right?" Barry stated, looking to both of them.

"Since when have they things "handled"?" Seth quipped.

Harrison faced him. "No. You and Dr. Rogers need to go." He looked to Seth. "I believe Mr. Almond will stay behind and help Cisco?" Seth nodded. Nodding back, he faced the speedster with a determined expression. "Run, Barry."

Sighing, he placed the marker on the board and sped out of the building.

Seth walked till he stood under the skylight. "Dr. Rogers." He turned around, looking at the S.T.A.R. Labs founder. "Keep an eye on him. Something… seems different about him."

"Sure." Seth nodded before facing the skylight. Flexing his body, the black symbiotic mass slithered out of him, enveloping his entire body and engulfed his head. He gaped his mouth, showing his white fangs and directed his white eyes upwards. White veins popped with his bulging humongous muscles. "Time to work."

He lashed out tendrils from the back of his hands, attaching them to the edges of the skylight, he slingshot himself out of the aperture.

As he was left alone, Harrison turned around and pulled off his glasses. His eyes focused on the unorthodox approach that involved this strange and new speed equation.

X

(CCPD)

Every single officer in the lobby and entire precinct shot bullets into the air, aiming at the wraith-like being before them. But despite the hail of bullets coming at it, the wraith didn't react to them. It didn't even flinch, and the bullets practically bounced off its partly decomposed body without leaving a mark on it.

Instead, it elevated itself, floating towards the window on the upper floor and looked around. It floated towards the window, passing right through it like a ghost.

WHOOSH

Speeding into the precinct, The Flash looked around and Venom appeared beside him. The elemental looked around but didn't find anything. "Nothing's here." He expected a reply from the speedster, but he didn't get any. "What's with you?"

He saw the metahuman stare deeply at Detective Eddie Thawne… Like it was the first time he's ever seen the detective.

Shaking his head, he stated. "You do you. We'll check outside." He jumped out of the nearest open window, and stuck to the wall. He crawled along the side and reached the other side. "Something's wrong with that one…"

"We might need to act soon." Seth heard his "other" reply.

"True." He replied. Sticking his feet to the wall, he straightened himself till he stood horizontally on the wall. Venom looked around, searching for what might be the source that alarmed the officers. "What the heck did the officers shoot at?"

What he didn't know… was that the wraith was looking down at him from the top of the building, crawling there and aiming its eyeless sockets at him…. watching him intently and closely.

X

(CCPD, CSI Lab)

"Looks like this place could need a remodel." Seth quipped as he looked around the completely devastated CSI Labs. He, Joe and Barry moved towards this place, which is where the ghost-like being came from.

The detective looked out the immense hole in the window. "For once, I think you're right." He considered sticking his head out of the large hole, but feared the possibility of him getting a fear of heights if he did.

Seth looked to the speedster crouching on the ground, examining the large glass shards. "Barry."

"Yeah?" He nodded.

Joe took over, pointing to the board. "You should cover that up."

"Oh, right, yeah." Barry agreed, flipping the map down and covering the case of his mother's death.

"Joe." Eddie got his partner's attention, including the powered men, as he walked into the CSI Lab. "No sign of it outside. It just disappeared." He glanced at Barry. "Hey, Bar."

"Hey Eddie." The speedster greeted.

"Seth." He looked to the unorthodox doctor.

"Detective Thawne." Seth greeted back.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie inquired.

With a gesture to the lab's condition, Seth explained. "Heard this shitshow happened and wanted to come back and check if anyone was hurt."

"Could have saved you the trip with a phone call. Thankfully, no one was hurt." Eddie remarked before facing the CSI scientist. "Any idea what that thing could be?"

Hesitating to answer, mainly because of seeing his face again, Barry finally replied. "No, I don't know. Not yet. If I figure it out, I'll let you know."

"Things just keep getting more and more strange in this city." Eddie admitted.

"Wouldn't be Central City if it didn't." Seth remarked sarcastically while brushing glass shards to the side with his feet. Both the mutant and Joe saw Barry look… distant and different, like he was in deep thought.

Eddie looked to his partner. "I'm gonna check in with Iris, let her know I'm okay."

"Great." Joe nodded.

"All right, see you, guys." Eddie directed to the powered men before walking out.

Facing the speedster, the mutant asked. "What the hell's going on with you?"

"What are you talking about?" Barry asked, moving down to another pile of shards and cleaning them up.

Joe took over. "Look, I know you told Iris that you love her, but you said you'd moved past this whole Eddie and Iris thing."

"I have, Joe. I have." Barry answered.

"Funny, cause we both have two things called eyes and they're telling us different." Seth quipped with crossed arms; his symbiotic partner's senses spread out to the max. They waited for something that might seem hostile. "If not, then explain why you're being so weird to Eddie?"

"Okay- Look, I'm sorry." Barry returned to his feet. "Let me just take care of all this, okay? I'll talk to you later, I promise." He said, directing his words to the detective.

"Fine." Joe accepted before walking towards the exit. "But soon." He demanded.

"Soon, yeah." Barry nodded, briefly glancing at his watch and checked the time.

Seth narrowed his eyes at that and looked at him. "You needed somewhere else?"

Barry quickly pulled his sleeve over his watch again and replied. "No, nowhere…. Just- Just checking time is all. You never know when it runs out or some-"

"If this is another of your Barry-Babbling, I'm gonna be blunt, cruel and leave without hearing another word from you." Seth interrupted him before walking towards the exit. "I'm gonna go back to S.T.A.R. Labs, see how far Matty and Cisco are with their replacements for Rathaway's earpieces. Clean this up, and come back to the facility, okay?"

"Will do. See you there." Barry agreed and watched the mutant walk out without facing him. When he passed the threshold, the speedster exhaled his relief. He felt like he was being interrogated by the elemental just now.

He had to be careful around him and Matt. The slightest mistake could cause him his identity… or his life.

"Barry."

The speedster snapped his attention back to the entrance of the lab, surprised to see the elemental return so quickly. "What is it? You already go back to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"Nah, just… Forgot something." Seth walked into the lab. Slowly, he slid the door closed and locked it.

"Why… Why lock the door, man? Don't tell me I have an appointment with you?" Barry joked.

Seth didn't respond and instead stated. "Tell me something: What was it like for you to meet my sister?"

Barry laughed. "Seth, what do you mean? You never found your sister, she's still missing, so how could I have met her?" Seth chuckled and lowered his eyes. "Besides, pretty sure her purple hair would have been the one thing about her to stand out, you know?"

At those words… Seth lifted his blue lifeless eyes and looked at him. "Funny you say that… When you've never met my sister but already know her hair color."

Blood drained from his face, his facial features paling, and he dropped two big glass shards into a trashcan. "Damnit." He turned-

"Don't move!" Matt ordered, appearing out of nowhere, in his Iron Knight armor and pointed his hand at him, the repulsor shining brightly with energy converging to it. "One wrong move, and you're dead, imposter."

"I-Imposter?" Barry asked.

Seth's arms and legs turned completely black with claws. "We saw you earlier, fighting the other Barry…. Weird, but nothing we haven't seen before."

"Guys, I'm…" Barry remembered what the future mutants said… and also that he has a spare suit with the emblem and his special device by Matt on it. "Damn."

WHOOSH

Snatching the two mutants and his suit, he sped out of the lab… he had to find a more suitable place for him to fight them.

X

(Badlands)

WHOOSH

In his Flash suit, Barry let go of both Matt and Seth after appearing in a flash of lightning, dropping off the mutants in the gravel. The speedster looked at them, waving his hands defiantly. "Guys, I'm not an imposter. I'm Barry."

"Sure you are, and I'm fucking Batman." Seth quipped, but had no idea where that came from.

"No, I'm serious. I'm your Barry!" Barry shouted.

Matt's helmet formed over his head and lashed out both arms, forming long energy blades around his limbs. "No, you're not."

The symbiote engulfed his head as his form enlarged till, he stood as Venom. "Tell us who you really are, or we'll tear it out of you… The hardest way there is." He sneered.

"Guess I have to fight my two friends now." The Flash realized and lightning course over his body. He ran forward.

Venom leaped from the ground, jumping into the air with his head reeled back. Flames escaped the gapes of his maw before thrusting it out and opening his mouth, a fiery blast came out of it and towards Barry.

The Flash dodged it, zigzagging and avoiding the wave of fire blasts coming for him. Barry couldn't help but feel smug and confident now as he continued to dodge the other fireballs. He came to a stop and faced the mutant who landed on the ground again.

Icy mist emanated around both arms, cracking sounds following as he formed ice scythes around his hands. Charging for him, he swung his right arm, aiming for the speedster's head. Barry saw it coming in slow-motion, leaning backwards to dodge it.

Performing another swing for his body, his blade didn't come to touch him. Seth growled, crossing both arms and lashed them out in a cross-shaped attack. Once again time slowed to a crawl, allowing the Scarlet Speedster to jump into the air, using the ice weaponry as platforms and jumping backwards.

Barry landed in a crouch, looking up to his eyes. "Gotta be faster than that, man."

"True." Venom showed a demonic smirk. "But we ain't alone."

That point was made abundantly clear when Iron Knight appeared behind the elemental and crossed his arms. Energy converging to his arc reactor on his chest place and missiles formed on his back. While charging his unibeam, he locked onto the metahuman with his HUD and fired off the missiles from his back.

The Flash ran away, avoiding the array of missiles coming for him. Each one he dodged connected with the ground and exploded, blowing up gravel and sent it flying around. Time slowed to a crawl and he saw a missile coming towards him. Behind that projectile, he saw Iron Knight's chest glow even brighter than ever with more energy in it.

Quickly thinking back to the fight with Trajectory, the artificial speedster who injected herself with a speed drug to gain her speed, he got an idea. Time was still slowed down, and he plucked the missile out of the air and spun around, gaining momentum before throwing it back at the armored mutant.

Time returned to normal and Matt uncrossed his arms, shooting out the unibeam and it met his own missile. An immense explosion followed their collision, and with it a massive smokescreen.

Barry pants in exhaustion, through the smokescreen he could see the silhouettes of both mutants, ready to resume the fight. "Goddamn it." He looked down at his chest, focusing on the emblem. "Matt, I hope your tech works."

He clutched the emblem on his chest and twisted it all around. When fully turned 360 degrees, a blue light shined behind his symbol. From behind it, nanites dispersed over his suit. They ran over his suit, creating dark-blue streaks, akin to veins on his red suit. They reached his arms, forming two golden lightning bolt shaped blade protrusions on the side of his arms. The backs of his hands covered by nanites, forming shining black paddings on his knuckles.

Nanites reached his cowl, dark-blue metal lines forming along the edges of his lightning bolt shaped earpieces.

Barry lifted his hands, clenching them and watched his yellow lightning crackle over his fists. The padding on his knuckles shining brightly. "Cool." Flash faced the mutants on the other side of the dissipating smokescreen. On the other side, the two mutants from Earth-616 turned surprised at his new gear.

"This doesn't prove you're Barry Allen." Venom said, clenching his hands with lightning and flames erupting over each fist.

"Does the exact opposite, you know." Iron Knight stated.

"Knowing you two, I have to punch my way to get you to understand." Flash said, clenching his hands before getting into a running position. He charged the two mutants. Venom jumped forward and clenched his fist, flames and lightning intensifying around his digits. Barry mimicked his action, the black padding on his fist shining even more with his lightning channeling into each one.

The two opposing fists met each other in a clash, lightning-cloaked flames erupting from his hand and Barry's padding releasing powerful gusts of explosive lightning. The collision of fists caused a hole to be carved into the ground, spitting up gravel everywhere like lava out of a volcano.

The two powered men were pushed back from each other as well, their feet digging into the ground.

"Holy crap!" Barry shouted, looking at his hands with surprise from the massive force that he just discharged. He saw the light in his padding dimmer. Curiously, he clenched his hands and lightning coursed over them, the light returned to the padding much more powerful. "Charges right up by my own lightning… Genius- ARGH!"

His examination of his new gear was cut short when the armored mutant entered the fight, kicking him in his stomach and pushed him to the ground. Before he could move, Iron Knight slammed his foot down on his chest and formed a foot clamp, locking him down.

"Seriously?!" Barry couldn't help but feel like a criminal in this position because of the lock on his chest.

Forming a lance-like blade on his right arm, lowering it till the tip touched Barry's chin, Matt demanded. "You're gonna talk. NOW!"

Barry chuckled and his body turned into a blur, phasing into the ground. Matt's foot clamp slammed down on the ground itself as Barry disappeared into the ground. "That's what-"

"The Reverse-Flash did." Venom finished Iron Knight's sentence. "So, we're dealing with someone who can shapeshift, mimic powers, has advanced gear and can enhance the powers of those he copied."

Matt tilted his head while searching for the shapeshifting speedster. "Any chance we could switch this out with the one we have?"

"Hey!" Barry exclaimed, garnering the mutants' attention. "You know guys, words hurt!"

He realized his mistake when he exclaimed, giving away his position when a pitch-black tendril wrapped around his form and pulled him into Seth's large, clawed hand. He tightened the hold with adamantium skin and made the shapeshifter groan in pain.

But Barry managed to slide his hands out of the mutant's hand and clenched his right hand, the padding around his fist tightening. However other tendrils wrapped around his arms and pulled them back before he could ever thrust them.

"Nice try." Venom walked closer to him. Black smoke came out of his mouth and Barry accidently inhaled it, making him cough repeatedly. "Who are you?!" He shouted in his face, demanding answers with a squeeze of his hand.

Barry knew he couldn't get out of this situation now…. Not with his fists or feet…

But thankfully, Seth did give him some ammo to use… Parts of him did feel guilty about using this, knowing of the pain that it would cause his friend… but he had to cross that line right now, or he'd lose his life.

Inhaling sharply, he released the word in a cry. "Carnage!"

….

….

This was probably the longest time he's stared into the mutants' eyes, even though their actual eyes were covered by either a helmet or a symbiotic face.

Venom's maw opened up like a snake's mouth, his head sticking out and he made eye contact with him. "How… How do you know that name? Tell me!" Seth demanded.

"I know about Carnage, Seth… And about what he did to you." Barry explained slowly. He grunted in pain when the tendrils let him go and Seth released his grip on him. Looking up from the ground, he saw the elemental mutant slither out of his form. "I know about Carnage, Seth." He reached into his pocket and pulled out an item. "And I know… I know about your son and your fiancée."

Seth widened his eyes at the item… The undeniable photo of him, Stefanie and Bucky and Olivia from a trip to the beach… Each of them were smiling widely. Seth saw his past self holding his son tightly in his lap, a wide giggling smile on his face. His sister was laughing too, looking solely at the little bugger in her brother's lap.

Stefanie had an arm wrapped around Seth's child and hugged him while he was still in her brother's lap. Both she and the elemental mutant smiled widely.

Taking the photo in his hand, Seth reached into his own pocket dimension and pulled out the identical photo in his hand. Matt looked confused. "What? How do you guys have that photo when Seth has his?"

Pushing himself back to his full height, Barry explained. "Cause…" He locked eyes with the elemental. "Because you gave it to me, Seth."

"Why would I give this to you?" Seth asked him like he was crazy.

"Because you knew this might happen… One year from now, you gave me this photo… and told me to give you this so you could believe me. Just like you also told me to tell you about your wound, and… Your Man in Yellow." Barry said pantingly, exhaustion still strong in him.

"Carnage." Seth muttered his realization. "You know?"

"About the three holes in the side of your stomach, yeah." Barry pointed to the right side of his torso. "… You told me to say this."

"Wait?" Matt jumped in. "You said… One year from now. That means-"

"You're from the future." Seth pieced it together. "Why are you here?"

X

Seth and Matt had to take a seat on the ground after hearing the speedster's story. It felt like the story itself took forever to explain and the mutants groaned at each detail. At least at the ones he could say without messing up the timeline.

"And that's it." Barry said.

"So, you're telling us that a Singularity's appearing in the future and you need Dr. Wells's help to figure out to get fast enough to stop it?" Matt asked for clarification.

"Yeah." Barry nodded.

The elemental faced him. "And Brains isn't there in the future?" Barry opened his mouth, but he was cut off. "Right, remembered. You can't say anything like that without screwing up the timeline, which is why you just lied right now."

"What? No, I didn't." Barry shook his head.

Tapping the side of his head, Seth stated. "Lie detector in here, Bar. You can't hide anything from me."

"Right." Barry realized.

The elemental got back to his feet. "But… I can't believe I actually gave you my photo of me and Stef."

"You talked about them after a while." Barry said.

"Careful with you spill, Barry. You might screw time up in a big way or something." Matt reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." The metahuman nodded. "But you guys understand, right? You can't say anything to the others."

"We can keep a secret, Allen." Seth stated. "We can handle it, don't worry."

"But before we go back to S.T.A.R. Labs, I got to ask…" The nanite mutant pointed to the streaks on his suit. "Is that my design?"

"Yeah." Barry paled. "Seriously, I have to keep my mouth shut sometimes."

"Bigger chance of Hell freezing over before that happens." Seth quipped bluntly.

As all speedsters are, their mouths instantly expel any information that pops up in their heads.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

After going over a few other topics, from their limited list of topics, the three mutants returned to the facility and walked into the Cortex. They saw Harrison in his wheelchair, looking at the powered beings with an awaiting look.

Caitlin heard the footsteps and turned in her chair. "Hey, you." She said with a smile at the sight of the elemental.

"Hey yourself." Seth countered and leant down to her and kissed her lips. "Sorry for being gone for so long now."

Cisco turned in his chair, looking at them with mock hurt. "Where were you, guys? Went for a superhero pow wow? What, the rest of us not good enough for you anymore?"

Seth pointed a thumb backwards to the founder of the facility. "No offense to Brains, but most places we go to are pretty hard for a wheelchair-bound man like him to enter."

Matt tilted his head like it was being weighed on scales. "Not necessarily."

Harrison looked to the nanite mutant. "Mr. Almond, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I will not have you arm my chair with either weapons or rocket thrusters. Might seem… Dangerous."

"Well, yeah, that's the point." Matt told him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But as this is very exciting…" Trailing off, Harrison faced the speedster.

"What's going on?" Barry asked at the look he was getting that glare.

Cisco looked over his shoulder to him. "Oh, don't tell you forgot about this entire mess we're in now. You know, trying to figure out how to find this Dementor that's apparently roaming through Central City right now."

The founder looked between the elemental and the speedster. "I assume that was the cause of the CCPD alarm."

"Yeah, you're right, Brains." Seth nodded. "And it was really weird too."

"What do you mean?" Caitlin directed to Seth.

"It attacked my lab." Barry revealed.

"You guys saw it?" Caitlin asked in worry, directing all of that towards the elemental mutant.

"No, we didn't see it, no." Seth shook his head, relieving the female doctor's worries.

Barry moved around the console, standing in front of it to look at the others. "We di- Well, we didn't get there in time, sure, but I have seen it before."

Matt turned confused. "You saw this Dementor knockoff before?"

"Where?" Harrison asked intrigued.

"It was earlier today, actually, when I was running to take Hartley down." Barry explained.

Seth rubbed his eyes. "You got a Harry Potter knockoff, a Dementor knockoff… Why can't you guys have a Draco Malfoy knockoff in this universe? We could off him, no one would have complained or shed a tear."

Normally Harrison would have followed with the mutant's joke, but the speedster's words got all his attention. Glaring at the metahuman, he asked. "You're just mentioning this now?"

"I- I didn't know what it was." Barry started. "I thought it was some sort of illusion. I don't know."

"Geez, Barr you piss off everything, don't you?" Seth joked.

"Okay, well, we need to find it before it hurts somebody." Caitlin said. "And when we do…" She locked eyes with the two mutants. "We're gonna have to call you guys to take him out."

Raising an eyebrow, Seth quipped. "So, we're the Ghostbusters now?" Caitlin smiled at that joke.

The nanite mutant jokes singsong-like. "Who you're gonna call?"

Barry laughed at that joke and stopped when facing Cisco. "Can you track it?"

"What is it with you guys?" Cisco asked. "It's like you think I have ESP or something. I can't just magically sense where things are."

"If only it were that easy." Seth laughed.

"What can you do, Cisco?" Harrison rolled around the console.

"I'm thinking I can reconfigure the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite to look for it." Cisco replied. "It might take some time though."

"I can help you with the tech." Matt stated.

"I'll take care of the bio and chemical parts with Cait." Seth nodded to the female doctor. "To heads are better than one and all that."

"I'm not saying no to that." Caitlin smiled.

"Do it." Harrison stated adamantly. "In the meantime, Mr. Allen, come with me."

"Sure." Barry nodded and followed him.

They moved into another room and Harrison gestured to an empty seat. "Have a seat."

"Is this about the speed equation?" Barry hopefully asked while moving to the chair.

"As a matter of fact, it is." Harrison assured him.

Barry smiled. The moment he'd get the answer, he'd be able to return to his own timeline again and he hadn't screwed anything up, so his timeline would be good. "Oh, great. Okay, good." He took a seat… while Eobard Thawne rose from his seat at the same time. "So, you figured it out?"

Eobard hummed agreeingly before punching the back of the speedster's head, knocking him out with ease. Watching Barry's limp body, the future evil genius took off his glasses.

"Yes. I've figured it out."

X

(Time Vault)

With a startle, Barry awakes and finds himself in the Time Vault. His right hand cuffed to the wheelchair and he looked around. His search came to an end when he saw Harrison Wells sitting before him in a chair, without his glasses and with a smirk on his face. Barry got a casual wave.

Eobard took notice of the person before him schooling himself, trying to regain his act. "Now… Who are you? I mean, who are you really?"

Keeping up with the act, Barry asked. "Dr. Wells, what are you doing?"

Leaning forward in his chair, Eobard started. "None of it adds up. The interference with the comms, the speed equation, the Time Wraith." Barry widened his eyes which the evil speedster noticed. "That's what we call them. Time Wraiths. Scary, aren't they? I thought, "Oh, no, a Time Wraith has found me." But then I thought, "No, no, no. You know what you're doing." Now, the Time Wraith is after someone who's travelled through time…"

He locked eyes with the speedster. "…and doesn't know what they're doing."

After a moment of silence, Barry chuckled and laughed at his words. "Dr. Wells come on. It's me. It's- It's Barry. I don't-"

"Really?" The evil speedster laughed. "You are good." Even giving a fake applause. "You are good, and I would believe you, except that…"

WHOOSH

He sped with red lighting emanating from his body, appearing beside the handcuffed speedster. Eobard noticed the lack of reaction on Barry's face. "Nothing? I move like this, you barely flinch." He stepped back, reaching the wall and leant against it with crossed arms. "You know who I am. Don't you?"

Barry had enough and phased his hand, trying to break free of the handcuff. At that sight, Eobard chortled and clapped his hands. Failing to phase out of the cuffs, Barry stopped and listened as Eobard continued. "And you're from the future. Do you know how I know that? Because I haven't taught my Barry Allen how to phase through objects… yet."

Laughing at those words, Barry stated defiantly. "Let me out of here, Thawne."

Eobard was relieved to hear that name again. As he walked to his chair again, he told the other speedster. "I know. You're upset. But it does me good to hear that name again. Now, onto the bigger question. Why are you here?"

Instantly, he replied. "Because I want to go faster, and you're the only one who can teach me. You're the only one who's figured out the equation. The Speed Force. You've manipulated it. How did you do that?"

Getting up from his chair, Eobard walked around the cuffed speedster in thought. In his mind, he walked through the pieces of information he got from Future Barry, piecing them together in a group and finding the commonality.

"No." And he didn't like that commonality. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No." Eobard chanted with a bothered expression whilst his fingers ran over the wall of the Time Vault. "You'd only come here if something went wrong." He stopped. "If you're still alive, then that means…" He turned around, facing Barry. "I haven't beaten you. If you're still alive… that means my plan fails. And if my plan fails-"

He kicked the chair away in rage. "I don't get to go home, and if that's the case, well, then…" He raised a phasing hand high up in the air before swinging it down on the other speedster.

"No, no, no! Hey, hey, hey! It's the opposite! It's the opposite!" Barry stopped him. Eobard awaited the answer. "It- You trick me. You harness my speed. We turn on the accelerator to create a path for you to go home. I go back in time. You go back to yours. You won." He lied his way through.

Taking in every inch of his expression, reading it thoroughly the evil speedster pulled his phasing hand away. "Then why are you here? Why are you here now?"

"Because when I got back, a Singularity had formed." He answered with another lie. "And now the only way for me to learn how to get faster and stop the Singularity from happening was to come here. Now." he clarified.

Eobard pondered it over. "Well, that's good to know." He walked over to the chair again, flipping back to its feet. "There's just… Just one thing that occurs to me." He said in realization. "I don't need you. Do I?" Turning back to him, he stated. "Not this you certainly. You probably should've thought of that… before you came back here. Shame." In mock laughter he continued. "You ran all the way back here just to die."

"You kill me… Barry…" Future Barry nodded to the ground, this world in this time. "This Barry, your Barry, he learns it all. There's a hidden letter telling him how it ends, how to beat you, everything. Anything happens to me; you never make it back home. Not to mention… Seth will find a recorded message of everything I know, about you, about who you really are…" He watched sweat slowly forming on the evil speedster's forehead. "You know what that means, right? You end me, Barry, this Barry gets that letter and Seth gets his recording… You end up in a body bag… In this timeline, forever." His words enraged the future evil madman.

"Go on." Barry challenged him. "Kill me, Thawne. See how this all ends… I can't see the future sure, but I think I can see you, hanging by your head… in Venom's claws."

Eobard shook, terrified of that happening and while schooling a passive expression, he walked to the chair again, retaking his seat. Barry faced him with a serious look. "Now… You're gonna help me get faster."

X

(The Pipeline)

(Note: Play "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley)

Cisco and Matt opened the Pipeline gateway, looking at the evil metahuman, Pied Piper in the containment cell who was miserable for having to listen to the same horrific, happy song on repeat. Hartley locked eyes with the two men on the other side of the cell.

"Please."

Listening to his groan, Matt chortled. "Gotta admit, this is golden. But I would have loved to see his reaction to listening to Hollywood Undead on repeat."

Cisco didn't think a rap rock band would do anything to soothe his dick-ish old colleague…. Which would have actually made the mechanical engineer very, very, very happy.

Returning to the matter at hand, Cisco raised the two gauntlets and tapped them against each other to empathize. "We want to know how these work."

"I'll tell you, just kill the music." He offered his deal.

Sharing a look and a nod of agreement with Cisco, Matt opened his mouth, calling out to the AI from his home world. "Jarvis, kill the music, but keep Hollywood Undead on standby, their loudest song. No, make that album."

"As you wish, sir." Jarvis obliged, shutting off the song and instantly finding the loudest Hollywood Undead album.

The moment the sound stimuli was shut off, Hartley's tinnitus returned in full force and he grit his teeth in pain, covering his ears to stop the destructive and earth-shattering pain storming into his ears.

Cisco whistled, gaining his attention while the cell door opened up and then threw him a small square-shaped container. Quickly opening it, Hartley plugged his ears with the non-explosive devices. Reluctantly, he looked back to his… friendlier former co-worker. "Thanks."

"The gauntlets, Rathaway." Matt returned them to the task. "What kind of frequency is this? Tell us now, or we're leaving alone with 24/7 of Notes From The Underground." He stated the name of the rap rock band's loudest album.

Hartley… He sweat bullets just from that thought alone.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)

"You think the others are doing okay?" Caitlin looked up to the ceiling, her eyes focusing on her boyfriend crawling on the ceiling.

Looking down, Seth shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. But don't worry about Cisco, Matt's there. He can handle anything. Much like my sister and myself, not to brag, he can handle anything coming at him. Even if it is a Harry Potter lookalike."

At the mention of his sister, Caitlin noticed a saddened expression take residence on his face. "Seth." She got the other doctor's attention, making him fall down to the ground and standing before her in his full height. "We're gonna find your sister. Don't worry."

Seth gave a chuckle with a closed mouth. "Sorry for being Debbie Downer so much lately, it sucks, I know. But I can't…" He sighed. "I hate that my baby sister is out there, and I can't find her anywhere. I've looked all over the city, I've got eyes in the sky thanks to Matty, but I haven't gotten a single clue as to where that girl is… Which is annoying."

"Is she anything like you?" Caitlin wondered. "Cause I'm pretty sure there's only room for one homicidal mutant on our team."

"I'm not homicidal." Seth scoffed. Raising an eyebrow, Caitlin crossed her arms and gave a defiant but knowing look. "Okay, I'm a bit homicidal. But don't worry, my sister's a peach, most days. But she has no respect whatsoever for people's privacies, including my own."

Sarcastically nodding, Caitlin stated. "Yeah, definitely a peach."

"She's weird and yeah, she has strange qualities, no doubt. But… push comes to shove, she's someone you want by your side, trust me on that." Seth confessed. "You'll like her."

"… I think I will…" Caitlin slowly said, moving closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "But there's only one Fury I like… And that's the one in front of me."

"Glad to know." Seth leant forward, placing his lips over hers.

In that moment, their lips connecting and sparks going off from their affectionate action… Engrossed in that kiss… The rest of the world faded away and the two… Felt happiness pour over them like rain on a stormy day. But it wasn't a bad day. It was similar to rain on a sunny day…

Mixing in with that rain… was sun… and it slowly gave birth to a new world…

But it was still… still shrouded by a thick fog that none of them could pass through… For now.

Parting their lips from each other, Seth and Caitlin inhaled deeply, trying to fight off the blush on their cheeks with the intakes of air. "Wow."

"Yeah. Wow." Seth agreed with Caitlin's words. "… I think…" He coughed. "I think I will check on what's going on with Matty and Cisco, they've been spending a bit of time down there."

"Sure." Caitlin nodded and patted his chest. "But come back again, alright? And could you maybe check the spare rooms first? Think some of them are ruined or something."

"Definitely." Seth nodded his assurance. He walked out of the Cortex, quickly giving her wink and a wave.

Caitlin smiled warmly, her fingers rubbing the necklace around her neck. The smile on her face widened at the feeling of the big demonic mouth around the snowflake in her fingers. Shaking off her feelings for now, she walked to her computer and took a seat in front of it.

Starting the computer, Caitlin began working on a file. Her work came to a momentary stop when she heard her phone vibrate on the table. She picked it up, turned it and looked at the screen. Her eyes raised in confusion when she didn't find any message or notifications on her start screen. Shrugging her shoulders, she placed the phone back on the table and returned to her work.

But it came to another end when she heard a strange… whooshing sound? It was similar to a small surge of wind… entering through a small access point like a vent…

She got up from her chair and looked around in search, trying to find the source of the strange wind whooshing.

Facing the direction of the Medbay, she got the shock of her life… Well second shock… when she saw the Time Wraith coming out of the wall and floating around in the lab, sniffing like a wild hound. It swung its head, making eye contact with Caitlin.

Fearing for her life at the sight of that wraith-like being, Caitlin ran out of the lab and into the corridors. The Time Wraith perused her after bellowing another loud screech. "Cisco, it's here!" she rounded a corner, coming towards Cisco and Matt standing in front of Hartley's containment cell. "It's coming!"

"Get inside the cell! Cisco, you too! I'll get my suit and hold it off." Matt shouted, running past the female doctor and into the corridors again, making his way to the workshop to get his experimental suit. With the new weaponry implemented, it could very well give him the edge he needs against this being.

"Get back quick, Matt!" Cisco shouted urgently while pressing the closing functionality on the panel before following his colleague into the containment cell.

"Sorry. What's coming?" Hartley demanded to know as his former colleagues joined him in the cell that closed following their arrival. That wasn't the only thing that followed them as the Time Wraith floated into the Pipeline, appearing in front of the cell. "Holy Harry Potter." He let out at that wraith.

The Time Wraith charged the cell, slamming its palms into the glass and it cracked around the areas of impact. Hartley sarcastically stated to his former colleagues. "Well, isn't this fantastic?"

"Look, we're gonna be safe in here." Cisco stated. "These cells are-"

The Time Wraith screeched, punching the glass again with its boney and skeletal hands causing the cracks to spread. Hartley faced him, finishing his sentence hollowly. "Impenetrable?"

Caitlin looked forward, screaming out for help. "Seth! Dr. Wells!" Even though she just asked for them, she really, really hoped both or the mutant alone would arrive and come to their rescue. "Where are they?" She directed to Cisco.

As if on cue, a large blast of flames came from behind the Time Wraith, pushing it against the cell door with a snarl. Caitlin, Cisco and Hartley were shocked to see the flames cloak their vision.

At the sight of those flames, Caitlin formed a smile despite the wraith in front of them.

Seth flexed his clawed arms and bright red flames engrossed each limb, dancing all the way over his arms. "Stay away… from them, you piss-poor Dementor bitch!"

Although he said those words, he was mostly, definitely only referring to Caitlin.

Howling at him, the wraith charged him like a hound, its hands stretched out for him. Seth ran forward, running up the ramp before jumping onto the pipes on the wall and placed himself in a crouch. Leaping from that position, he thrusted his flaming hand into the side of its face, sending it to the ground.

Tendrils shot out of his back, yanking the elemental to the ceiling with his palms meeting it. Both legs turning into adamantium with lightning crackling over them. Catapulting off the ceiling akin to a rocket, he slammed both his feet down on the wraith, embedding it into the floor. He rolled off it, crouching before the containment cell, he crossed his arms and formed long icicle blades in the gaps between his fingers.

The very moment the wraith raised its head, it was immediately assaulted by all the ice blades that Seth had formed. While they had been shrugged off at first, the Time Wraith was blown into the corridor by the massive burst of flames that emanated from the elemental's mouth.

Quickly facing his friends and girlfriend, he asked. "You guys okay?"

"We got a Harry Potter prob after us, and you're asking us that?" Hartley sarcastically quipped.

Seth quickly glanced at him. "Didn't ask you, Rathaway. I'm likely to throw you out as bait for that thing." He confessed before facing Caitlin and Cisco.

"We're fine, Seth, for now." Caitlin said with a shift of her eyes to their current place.

"Me and Matt will hold it off, you guys get out." Seth stated.

"Hold it off? Dude, take it out!" Cisco sternly said.

"I just punched, kicked and blasted flames into this thing's face, nothing worked! You got an idea, feel free to share with the rest of the class!" Seth quipped before swinging his arms back, throwing two fire blasts from his hands and pushed the Time Wraith back into the corridor, into the wall.

Before it could get the chance to strike again, a column of intense flames came from the side and pushed the wraith out of the elemental's field of vision. Seth then watched Matt appear from the side with his new Frost-Flame armor.

"Holy Fire and Ice." Hartley let out in shock at the sight of that armor.

"No kidding." Cisco said, both impressed and slightly disturbed that he was involved in the creation of this armor.

The mask opened up and the nanite mutant looked to his best friend. "You got more in the tank? This thing's gonna take everything we got."

"Always." Seth confidently said. "Let's take this thing out!" the two mutants moved after the wraith.

Hartley turned intrigued. "Gotta say, Caitlin, you certainly chose an interesting man for a boyfriend."

"Hands off, Hartley." Caitlin sternly said, feeling a bit protective of her boyfriend. Hartley raised his hands in mock defense.

"Okay, keep it in your pants, you two." Cisco jumped in. "Those two might be able to hold it off, but you heard Seth, they might not be able to off that thing." His eyes darted up when seeing flashes of bluish flames and red hot flames shoot out from the side. Seth followed, landing in a crouch whilst letting out pants before jumping back into the direction from which he flew from. "They might not be able to do anything against it…" He looked down at the sonic gauntlets in his hands, pointing them at the glass.

"You'll shatter the glass." Hartley pieced his reckless plan together.

"My friends are out there, fighting off that thing. You got a better plan?" Cisco bluntly countered.

"As a matter of fact," Hartley smugly said. "give me those!"

"No!" Cisco pulled the gauntlets back.

Their attention was diverted when they saw the two mutants be pushed back into their field of vision. The nanite mutant wearing his armor and the elemental mutant donning a skin-tight form of his symbiote form. The wraith charged them and was met with the mutants' attacks.

Iron Knight grabbed hold of the Time Wraith by the head and pushed it against the wall, the Heat Gun igniting before unleashing a powerful flamethrower at point blank range. "Burn, you son of a bitch!" Matt screamed while the flamethrower intensified.

"Damn it!" Matt spoke through gritted teeth when a warning symbol began chiming in the corner of his HUD, blinking with red light as he saw the output of his Heat Gun exceeding its normal capabilities. Pulling his arm back, he jumped back. He expected to see the wraith fall to the ground without a head.

But it was completely unscathed and unharmed and resumed its assault on the nanite mutant. However, Venom tackled it with an adamantium body. Its mouth opened and snarled in his head, making him groan in pain. Even its hands swiped left and right for his head, making him dodge the directions of each attempted strike.

Fighting through that pain, Seth pushed it back against the wall. In that moment, he feared his fingertips would be bitten off by the wraith as his digits were close to its mouth. But he had to dispose of this thing now!

Reeling back his other arm, he clenched his fist and turned it into adamantium and sparked lightning over his metallic limb. Releasing a war cry, he launched his arm again like a cannon, launching his fist into the wraith's decayed body and slammed it into the wall, cracking the surface.

Both mutants jumped back to assess the situation. "Think it's dead?" Matt asked his friend while keeping his eyes on the hole that Seth made.

"If all it took was a combined strike, then it would have been finished a while back." Seth remained skeptical.

And his skepticism was spot on when the Time Wraith appeared out of the hole and charged the two mutants.

Hartley gestured to the fight on the other side of the containment cell and told Cisco. "Cisco, you see your friends not faring any better against that thing. Do you want them to die or something?"

"Course not!" Cisco shouted.

"Never in a million years!" Caitlin followed up steadfastly.

"Then give me my gauntlets." Hartley held out his hands. "Now, Cisco!"

Reluctantly, but also for the sake of his powered friends' survival and safety, Cisco handed his former colleague his sonic gauntlets. At that moment, Hartley crouched down, and Caitlin asked him curiously. "What are you gonna do?"

Picking apart the gauntlets, Hartley answered. "These cells have speakers linked throughout S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Yes, and?" Caitlin impatiently asked, her eyes darting up and seeing the nanite mutant hurled to the ground and the wraith tear open his chest plate with ease. Her eyes widened in fear for a moment but then she saw Seth kick it away with a burning foot.

"I rigged these gauntlets to emit a destructive signal if ever they're disarmed." Hartley explained. The three of them looked through the glass to see the elemental deliver a series of punches to the wraith's face, an attempt to push it back which failed as it immediately swung its arm and pushed the mutant backwards. "If I can just find the right frequency of whatever the hell that thing is, well… let's just say you'll be glad you're in here with me."

"What about our friends out there?!" Caitlin screamed.

Hartley was surprised to see her so… heated. "Well, they look pretty tough, they'll handle it. Probably."

"What?!"

Before he could answer, not that he wanted to, he pressed the button on his gauntlet… and both emitted a destructive soundwave…

The wraith screeched in pain, holding its head with both hands. Cisco and Caitlin screamed in pain as did Hartley. Matt dropped to the ground and held his head in pain, gritting his teeth.

Seth was the one in even more pain than the others. He fell to the ground, writhing in agony as he screamed his head off in pain. Along with his symbiote, both felt their entire beings splitting open by the destructive sound wave. He punched the ground, hoping the pain from the impact would distract him from the earth-shattering pain coursing through his entire being but to no avail.

He couldn't see it, but he could certainly feel the symbiote shaking and slithering uncontrollably inside his body. Seth even registered the symbiote slithering out of his body and could feel it trying to separate from his body due to the destructiveness of the sound wave.

But Hartley's plan succeeded, the wraith continued to screech in pain before floating above the two mutants. It's presence… it's very form… dissipating into shadows and disappearing. When he saw that, the sonic metahuman shut off his gauntlets.

Caitlin removed her hands from her ears and saw Seth panting heavily on the ground. "Jarvis, open the door!" The AI obliged and opened the cell door. The female doctor was the one to rush out of the cell, almost jumping out of it before dropping down to the elemental's side. "Seth, are you okay? Please tell me you're alright?" She pleaded.

She couldn't handle losing him. She already lost Ronnie and the thought of losing Seth would break her into pieces she couldn't imagine being able to be pieced together again.

Pantingly, while the symbiote slithered back into his body, Seth formed a smile on his face at the sight of him. "Funny, I was gonna ask you the same."

"You just fought a ghost." Caitlin smiled.

"You were chased by a ghost." Seth smirked back before lifting himself off the ground, sitting on the ramp. "But seriously, are you alright, Cait? You're not hurt, are you?"

Shaking her head, she cupped his right cheek and stroked it with her thumb. "I'm fine. Thanks to you."

"Awesome." Seth wanted to kiss her so badly now, but he was honestly too exhausted. But even exhaustion couldn't keep him from leaning forward and capturing her lips.

Matt sat up and looked at the two, rolling his eyes. "Read the room, you two. Or better yet, get one."

Separating from Caitlin, Seth faced him with a glare. "Turn into rust, Junkyard."

"In your dreams, parasitic dumbass." Matt countered and returned to his feet. He glanced at Cisco. "You good, Cisco?"

"So far so good." Cisco nodded.

"And I'm fine, thanks for asking." Hartley threw in.

Seth glared at him. "Easy, Piper. You're still our prisoner."

"And if you had anything to do with that Dementor thing, Harry Potter…" Matt clenched his armored fist, the Heat Gun igniting its flame at the end of the barrel and pointing it at the sound metahuman. "I'm gonna turn you into charcoal."

Before Hartley could answer, Seth reminded his best friend while Caitlin helped him back to his feet. "Matty, stand down. Remember, that thing also tried to kill Hartley. Not to mention, he might be smart and brilliant like Wells said, but I doubt he'd even be able to control something that crazy."

"I could have, with time." Hartley smugly said, but that smugness faded when he saw the two mutants glared at him instantaneously. "But I didn't. I promise."

"Is he telling the truth?" Matt inquired of the elemental.

"Yup." Seth nodded and Hartley sighed in relief.

"Seth why are you so winded? That attack affected you more than the others here." Caitlin noted.

Mentally making sure no others were within hearing distance, Seth said between pants. "Sound isn't exactly my best friend." He disclosed his weakness. And Caitlin understood immediately, pulling him into a quick kiss.

But just as quick as it started, it ended just as quick when they noticed Harrison Wells and Barry walk through the Pipeline entrance.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)

"I'm sorry that we didn't come sooner." Barry expressed his apology to the team as they moved back into The Cortex, the speedster's eyes shifting between the two mutants who were wounded and hurt from the Time Wraith's attacks. "I mean, you had to fight it alone."

"Not the first time we chose to stand and fight, Barr. No worries about that." Seth expressed.

"But damn that thing was tough." Matt could see their attacks being shrugged off by that wraith. "Is it still in the building, Cisco?"

"It's alright, Inky's gone. I don't see anything." Cisco answered with his eyes pointed on the scanners on his computer while going through the security footage of the different areas of the facility.

"Thank God for that." Caitlin made eye contact with Seth as he still panted. "You sure you don't need to lie down, Seth. You look really winded."

"I'm fine, Cait. Sure, I'm a bit banged up, but nothing new on that front." Seth smiled. "I'm just glad you and Cisco are okay."

At that Cisco jumped in. "You know, we'd be toasted if it wasn't for Hartley and those gauntlets."

Seth raised an eyebrow and felt offended by those words. "Geez, no need to thank me and Matty for trying to save your ass or anything, Cisco, seeing as we're the ones who are literally banged up from fighting that god-awful thing."

"Hey, don't blame me." Cisco defensively said before pointing at Matt's armor. "You guys didn't tell me about that!"

"What's that got to with anything?" Matt wondered.

"Cisco, Dr. Rogers and Mr. Almond were the ones who really fought that thing and saved you and Caitlin back there. Self-preservation is a very strong motivator, which is why Hartley acted in the first place, and he stays in the cell until I say otherwise." Harrison clarified.

"Gotta agree with that one too. But mostly on the account of him using sound." Seth confessed.

"Eat him." Venom growled. The symbiote felt his entire being shaking and quaking due to the after-effects of that immense sound attack.

"Okay, I'm just saying." Cisco stated.

Caitlin looked around, stating her words. "So, the two places this thing has attacked are here and CCPD. The common denominator being-"

"Him." Seth pointed to the speedster from the future.

"Yeah, I know." Barry nodded. "I just- I don't know why."

"Well, you must have done something to piss him off." Cisco commented.

Matt walked over to his side and initiated a search for the wraith via the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite. "Damnit! The satellite's getting bupkis."

"Great so it could literally strike anywhere." Seth realized the fatigue and damage in his body healing quickly. "But we got to do something when it shows its face again. My attacks and Matt's attacks… None of them did anything against this thing, it just shrugged them off with ease. And it didn't even seem damaged in the slightest."

"That's troublesome." Eobard thought maybe the two mutants' combined assault would have at least damaged the Time Wraith. But the Speed Force enforcer was out of their league. "We need to find a more permanent solution to this problem. Start by repairing Hartley's gauntlets. That's about as good a first step as any. Dr. Rogers and Mr. Almond?"

"If you're saying you're putting us on bedrest, I'm gonna be pissed as hell, Brains." Seth threatened.

"Really dude?" Barry asked.

"Just saying." Seth casually said.

"Duly noted, Dr. Rogers. How about the two of you go with Caitlin and Cisco, help them out if possible?" Harrison suggested.

"Sounds doable." Matt agreed and followed the native scientists.

"Sounds like a good excuse to be with Caitlin." Seth said with a smirk, locking eyes with the female doctor who blushed. They moved towards the workshop with Hartley's gauntlets.

When they were out of earshot, Barry shot a scathing glance at the evil future speedster. "You don't know how to stop a Time Wraith?"

"None of us do." Eobard started. "That's why we always try and avoid them in our travels."

""We"?" Barry inquired confusedly.

Eobard returned his attention to him. "Speedsters. We're not the only two out there, you know?"

"This isn't the first time I've time traveled." Barry added. "How come I've never seen one of these until now?"

Getting up from his wheelchair, Eobard sneered. "Because you ran out of luck. And Time Wraiths hate it when speedsters manipulate the timeline, and now that's gonna do everything it can to end you." He inhaled deeply. "Here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna go to CCPD. You're gonna see what you can find to help us stop this thing… I'll do the same here."

Swinging his head to the other speedster, Barry asked. "Well, what am I supposed to be looking for?"

"You're in forensics, Figure something out." Eobard sniped while pulling on his wheelchair.

"Hey, what about the equation?" Barry gestured to the board behind him. "Me getting faster?"

Eobard returned his attention to him. "If we don't stop this thing, there's no point in me teaching you anything." He finished off before walking away and leaving the speedster alone in the Cortex with his thoughts.

X

"Cait, I'm fine." Seth said for what was probably the thousandth time in the workshop. He… liked how she was showing his concern and checking him over and over again in rapid succession. But at some point, she had to stop. "I'm a doctor too, Cait. I know my body better than anyone."

Caitlin removed her hands from his head, pulling off the gloves she used for her examination. "I know that, trust me. But I'm a doctor, too and I like to get my own answers."

After having taken off his suit and placed it on the table, Matt turned to them with a cheeky smile. "Sounds like Caitlin just found her excuse for groping you, Seth."

"Can it, Tin Can." Seth retorted, and Matt flipped him the bird without even looking at him.

Cisco was stunningly looking at the suit of armor with the two elemental guns equipped on its gauntlets. He… He was in love with it and was on the verge of tears. He really Bette didn't see that when he would see her again.

"This… This is magnificent." Cisco looked like he was gonna kiss the suit of armor. "Why didn't you tell me about this masterpiece, Matt?"

"I'm sorry. I really wanted to bring you in on this." Matt started. "But I wanted to keep it a surprise, till it was right. But…" He hollowly chuckled. "With this wraith showing up, I had to prematurely equip it."

"You stopped in the middle of an attack before." Seth noted.

Matt nodded. "The output of the Heat Gun exceeded the capabilities of my system. Any longer, and it might have overheated and burned my arm off."

"Would have been awesome."

Caitlin, Seth and Matt turned their eyes to Cisco when he obliviously let out his sentence. Realizing what he just said, the mechanical engineer lifted his head and stated. "I mean, I think it's time we move to checking out Hartley's gauntlets." He quickly placed the gauntlets on a holder before taking hold of a screwdriver.

Seth smirked villainy. "One day, Ramon, you're gonna regret being on my operation table."

"Down, Grim Reaper." Caitlin tapped his shoulders.

"I would advise against dissembling the gauntlets, Mr. Ramon." The AI stated before the engineer touched them with his screwdriver.

"And why is that Jarvis?" Cisco groaned, slamming the tool back on the table.

"After a quick analyze of your previous work, it shows that you do not possess the necessary knowledge for frequency manipulation."

"I'm guessing that's more Matt's area?" Cisco knowingly said, glancing at the nanite mutant.

"Unfortunately, neither does Mr. Almond." Jarvis countered. "Mr. Almond's specialty lies in weapons engineering which has the sole purpose of maximum and or absolute destruction."

Cisco looked shocked, facing the nanite mutant. "For real, bro?"

"What? I fly around in a high-tech suit that makes weapons on the fly for a reason. Maximum destruction is a pretty good reason." Matt said in his defense.

"Huh." Caitlin accepted with a shocked look.

"So…" They turned their heads to see Harrison roll into the workshop. With a nod to the gauntlets, he asked. "Can these gauntlets be salvaged?"

After quickly looking the sonic gauntlets over, Cisco announced sadly. "Their electron guns are fried."

Harrison stated. "So, it shorted the wave tubes-"

""And destroyed the amplifiers."" Both he and Cisco said in unison.

"But that's not all, Brains." Matt stated.

"What do you mean, Mr. Almond?" He wondered.

Gesturing between himself and Cisco, Matt answered. "Honestly, me and Cisco don't have knowledge on how to manipulate the frequency variance."

Caitlin then pitched in. "Hartley would know. He's the one who did it."

Seth looked worriedly at her. "Sure you guys are willing to ask for his help? He was pretty much a thorn in your hides the entire time he worked here."

"True, but that thorn did save the four of us down there, too." Cisco reminded before he and Caitlin looked to Harrison Wells for permission.

Conceding Harrison answered. "See if he can help, but he stays in the cell. Dr. Rogers, you and Mr. Almond keep a close eye on him in case he tries anything fishy."

"Okay, sure. But what then?" The elemental declared his question. "That thing's gonna come back, seeing as Barry did something to piss it off, for God knows why."

"I don't know, Dr. Rogers. This thing… Is quite the troublemaker." Harrison sighed.

"Dr. Wells is right; we need to find a permanent solution to fighting this thing." Caitlin admitted.

"Me and Matt will fight it again when it shows its face." Seth steadfastly said. "Best chance we got is to see if we can weaken its defenses somehow. Either that, or hope for a miracle."

WHOOSH

As if on cue, the Scarlet speedster sped into the lab and looked at the team, who saw Barry donning his suit… and a new Flash symbol with white behind the golden lightning bolt. "Where is he? Where's the other Flash?"

Harrison rubbed his forehead while Caitlin and Cisco looked confused. Matt paled, not knowing how to react. Seth slapped himself and groaned. "Perfect. Just…. Perfect."

"This universe's going to hell." Venom joined his host with a groan of his own.

The group collectively inhaled through their noses, and instantly covered their noses due to the disgusting smell coming from the speedster before them. "What?" Past Barry Allen asked them at their frowned faces.

"Right here." Future Barry Allen announced his presence, getting everyone to look at him. The natives on the team widened their eyes and the mutants chuckled hollowly at their situation.

Moving out of the lab, Cisco shifted his eyes between the two Barrys but kept his finger pointing to the one who just entered the Cortex. "Okay… Not how I expected today to turn out."

"Yeah." Future Barry agreed.

Caitlin noted the two mutants' reaction, seeing that they didn't seem surprised… but rather annoyed.

Present Barry pointed to himself and future… self. "Okay, so I'm- Who are- Who are you?"

Caitlin returned her attention from the two mutants, facing the speedster who sped into the room. "Who is he? Who are you?"

Looking confused at her question, Present Barry stated. "What do you- I'm Barry. I'm Barry." He looked between them all. "Your Barry. He's-"

Cisco jumped in. "Your doppelganger."

Future Barry absentmindedly corrected the mechanical engineer. "No, not yet." Harry gave him a glare that he didn't seem to even register.

"Oh, dear God, this is a nightmare." Seth felt the urge to gouge out his eyes. One Barry was a pain in the ass. But two… that was a recipe for disaster that no one wanted to make sure of. Everything he just said was noted by Caitlin.

"I am you, Barry." Future Barry told his present self. "Just… Different."

Cisco stated a valid question. "Wait a second, how do we know which one's the real Barry?" He pointed to both Barrys.

"The one question you can't ask, Cisco!" Matt groaned. He wanted to headbutt a concrete wall now, hoping it'd rattle his brain enough for him to get a concussion.

Present Barry felt hurt and looked to the engineer. "Dude, okay, I've watched "Wrath of Khan" with you like five times."

Convinced Cisco accusatorily pointed at Future Barry. "Imposter!"

Future Barry then added. "Yeah, and every time at the end, you turn to me and you say, "I have been and always shall be your friend.""

Convinced Cisco accusatorily pointed at Present Barry. "You, imposter!" Caitlin waited for a response from her boyfriend, but she didn't get any. Cisco felt… utterly confused. "What is going on here?"

Future Barry smelled the air and covered his mouth too. "What the hell? Why do you smell like that?"

Past Barry answered. "I woke up in a trash container."

Both Barrys looked to Seth who shrugged. "What was I supposed to do with him? You're the one who left him in the middle of an alleyway!" He directed to Future Barry.

"But you threw me- Him in a trash container?" Future Barry couldn't help but feel hurt.

""Dude!"" Both Barrys released at the same time, both feeling hurt.

Seth closed his eyes and begged. "Kill me."

"Seth." The elemental faced Caitlin. "You and Matt knew about this, didn't you?"

He couldn't lie to her. Sighing, Seth revealed with a nodding. "When we got to the scene before at Rathaway Industries, we saw that Barry," he pointed to Future Barry. "fight this Barry." He turned to Present Barry. "We thought it was some kind of imposter who could shapeshift and mimic powers, so we waited till the right moment."

"And fought me." Future Barry jumped with a sour tone.

"You fought Barry?" Harrison asked in surprise.

Seth shrugged before saying. "I thought he was an imposter who might try and kill the team, so I chose the obvious play and fought him."

"You two won, didn't you?" Cisco asked.

"Course we did." Matt nodded.

"He told us the truth before we… We might have killed him." Seth confessed. "But he told us to keep it to ourselves-"

"Okay, guys, I'm sorry." Future Barry cut him off. "This was not supposed to happen. The tranq dart that Caitlin and Seth made was supposed to last a lot longer." Harrison tried to get him to stop but he didn't.

"I did not give him a tranq dart." Caitlin corrected him.

"Neither did I!" Seth stated.

"Okay, no, yes, not you two, the yous from the time that I am from." Future Barry clarified. Harrison clenched his hand dismay, inwardly hating the future speedster carelessly throwing out facts.

Present Barry gaped his mouth. "The time that you are from?"

Before anything else could be said, anything that might just mess up the timeline Harrison stated. "I think what he's trying to say is… he's from the future."

"The future?" Present Barry asked.

"Yeah." Harrison nodded.

"The future?" Present Barry asked.

"Yes." Harrison nodded annoyedly.

"Wait, the future?" Present Barry asked.

Seth jumped in. "Is this a safe topic to talk about?" He directed to the smartest man in the Cortex.

"Unfortunately, no." Harrison said with a rub of his eyes.

"Are we saying I can time travel?" Present Barry asked, locking eyes with his future self.

Chuckling at that question, every single pair of eyes pointing at him, Future Barry said. "One day."

The pieces fell into place and Cisco pointed to the white Flash emblem on Present Barry's chest. "Oh, that explains the white on the symbol." The present speedster looked down at the emblem from the future. "Well, wait a second." Realization hit the mechanical engineer. "Suppose we now change your emblem. Will it be because we got the idea from this? Or, I mean, that would mean-"

"Stop talking." Harrison cut his employee off. He pointed at the future speedster. "You stop talking too, all right? More you say, the more the timeline is disrupted."

"Something you might have learnt before traveling to this time." Seth added. He then faced the future Flash and asked. "Wait a second. This thing that's been chasing you and floating around in the city and attacked us… That's because of you being in the wrong timeline, isn't it?"

"What? What thing?" Present Barry asked.

Cisco faced the present speedster. "Have you ever seen "The Frighteners"?" Getting a nod, he continued. "It's sorta of like that, but scarier and faster and it's after you- after him." He clarified, pointing to the future speedster.

"Yeah, and Seth, you're right too." Future Barry answered them both. "It's been chasing me ever since I got here."

"Okay, so how do we stop it?" Present Barry asked.

"We don't know." Harrison answered. "Even Mr. Almond and Dr. Rogers proved powerless to defeat this scary creature."

"Way to rub salt in the wound, Brains." Matt groaned.

"Then what are we gonna do?" Present Barry urgently asked.

"The one thing we can." Harrison rolled around the console and towards the exit, the future Flash following him.

Caitlin looked to Seth. "What did he say to get you when you fought him?"

Knowing full well, he couldn't say anything about his current condition as it could affect the timeline, he said the next best thing. "He knew about me making scrapbooks."

"You make scrapbooks?" Caitlin turned surprised as did Present Barry and Cisco.

"I needed a hobby back when I was a kid, and I had a bunch of pictures of me and my sister. Sue me." Seth explained.

"But dude, seriously, why the container?" Past Barry complained.

"I'm not paying to put you in a hotel. No way in hell." Seth steadfastly said.

X

After a while… It was time for the future Flash to return home. But he had to bring the Time Wraith with him. Thankfully, he got the teachings he needed from Eobard Thawne in a drive that he will bring back with him to his time.

Everyone stood around the console which showed the facility satellite scanning the city for the wraith. Matt worked on his suit, trying to fix the output issue of his Heat Gun and also check if the same will happen to his Cold Gun. Seth looked down from the ceiling and stroked his chin in thought.

Cisco stated. "Okay, our satellite has finally found our floating friend and it's coming back."

Seth looked down at the future speedster. "Sounds like your cue to leave, Barry."

"I know, but I need to know how to stop it." Future Barry stated.

Matt walked into the Cortex, donning his Frost-Flame armor while checking the changes he made on the two elemental guns. "We barely put a scratch on this thing, and you expect to find a solution to stop it in the next few seconds?"

"No, not now." Future Barry corrected him. "When I get back. You guys have a year to figure it out."

"Okay. We'll figure something out." Cisco breathed out at the challenge.

Future Barry shared a look before taking Cisco by his shoulder. "Cisco, come here." They moved to a spot to talk between themselves. "… Hartley knows where Ronnie is."

"Okay. What?" Cisco asked.

The future speedster walked away and looked up to Seth. "Seth?" The elemental dropped down from the ceiling and landed beside him. "Come with me." They moved into the corridors. When out of earshot, he asked the mutant. "Can you give me that photo back?"

"The one you gave me?" Seth asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you, future you, that is, asked me to give this to you to convince you. But he also told me it was a loan and that he expected it back."

"Sounds like me." The elemental pulled the photo out and gave it a look. "Gotta… Gotta admit it's weird I'd ever give this to anyone who's not family."

"You were a bit reluctant, sure, but it was the only way." Barry admitted. Seth handed the photo to him and he placed it in his pocket after folding it. "Honestly…" He stopped himself.

Noticing him trailing off suddenly, Seth asked. "What is it?"

"Honestly, I thought you'd be asking about your wound. The outcome, everything I've seen in the future and all." Barry stated.

"I made my peace with it a long time ago, Barry." Seth shrugged. "I live or die or whatnot, it's just the way. I'll be fine because it's the way I've chosen my life. Whatever the endgame is, I know one thing for sure, I'm going out either in a fight or protecting my loved ones. Short supply of that last one though."

"Just you wait, Seth… It's gonna change soon enough." Barry thought to himself with a smirk. He couldn't disclose that the mutant and Caitlin would grow closer and closer in a short few months and adopt three weird, dangerous but also nice children.

"Whatever the case… Thanks." Barry said.

Raising an eyebrow, Seth asked. "For what?"

"For trusting me." Barry said. "Even though I had to fight you two, I… I liked that you guys trusted me so quickly after that."

"Well, we did see that you're Barry Allen after all, you know." Seth chuckled as they moved towards the Cortex entrance. "Be careful on your way back home, alright?"

"Course." Barry said as they passed the threshold and entered the Cortex. "Seth?" The elemental came to a stop and the speedster leant close to him. "…Go to where Ronnie is… You'll get your answers there."

"What?" Seth asked but the speedster moved ahead and into the Cortex just as the scanner chimed.

Caitlin gulped. "The wraith… It's coming."

Harrison faced the future speedster. "You need to leave now."

"Yeah." Future Barry nodded, turning his head to his past self. He took hold of the emblems on their chests, switching them out and also made sure Matt's device was on the first speedster's chest.

"What's that thing?" Cisco wondered.

"A gift from Future Matt." Future Barry said. While applying the emblem on his chest, he twisted it all around, dark-blue light shining behind it, before nanites dispersed from behind it and spread over his suit. Like before, the nanites formed dark-blue veins on his red suit. They formed two golden lightning bolt shaped blade protrusions on his arms and forming shining black paddings on his knuckles. The nanites reached his cowl, forming dark-blue metal lines along the edges of his lightning bolt shaped earpieces.

"That's awesome." Present Barry said, mentally wondering if he should have Matt upgrade his suit instead of Cisco.

"Yeah, it is." Future Barry said, walking to the exit. He shared a deep look with the others. "I'm going."

"We're coming with." Seth said as he and Matt stepped forward. "Thing closes in on you, we need to push it back."

"And that's final." Matt clarified.

"Fine… Let's go."

The future speedster took hold of the two mutants, speeding them all down to the Pipeline.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)

WHOOSH

Venom and Iron Knight were dropped off by the speedster, landing in the middle of the small bridge in the accelerator ring, before running around in the accelerator ring. Hearing the familiar screech coming from the entrance, they saw the wraith flying towards them.

"Let's hold it off." Seth grit his teeth, flames coming out of the gaps between his fangs.

"Let's go." Matt agreed, raising the Heat Gun and ignited it with a clench of his fist.

The two thrusted out their head and their elemental gun before blasting streams of flames for the Time Wraith. Yellow light flashed over their forms from below as the future speedster continued to run in the accelerator ring as their flames connected with the wraith, pushing it back as much as they could.

But the wraith took another approach, floating out of the wall to the side and flying under the bridge to go after the speedster.

Venom thrusted out his arms, splitting them into tendrils and wrapped them around its arms before pulling on them. Forcing the Time Wraith up to their level, Seth swung the decayed creature against an empty cell. "Knight! Freeze the damn thing!"

"On it!" Matt thrusted out his arm and clenched his hand, igniting the Cold Gun on the side of his arm. But before that, he pointed the mini-gun over his shoulder at the Time Wraith and unleashed a hail of bullets. While they wouldn't break its rotten skin, they would push it back against the containment cell as much as they could.

A blue scope appeared over his eyes locked onto the wraith before Matt unleashed the bluish flames from the Cold Gun and hit the wraith. He and the elemental watched as the ice spread over its form and pinned it to the wall.

"Flash! Get run!" Seth shouted to the speedster who came to a stop and nodded before speeding up.

Both mutants saw the gateway into time itself open up before their eyes… and at the sight of that, the wraith's struggles to break the ice intensified and it crushed the ice off its body with its strong boney hands.

"No!" Matt tried to hit it with both guns and his mini gun but none of his attacks reached it.

Neither did any of Seth's long-range elemental attacks when he threw them or blasted them. But it was unnecessary as the future speedster neared the gateway into time and saw him run into it.

The Time Wraith followed him.

"Heh… World keeps getting crazier and crazier."

X

(One year later… The Present)

"ARGH!" Barry screamed as he came out of the Speed Force and landed on the ground. He looks up, glad to find himself in the Cortex, and saw Caitlin, Cisco and Matt there. "It's coming!"

"Did you even go?" Matt inquired.

"The Time Wraith." Barry sat on the ground, urgently telling them of the wraith.

"That's a good name." Cisco admitted.

"Looks like that's a yes." Caitlin alluded to the nanite mutant's query. She pressed the intercom. "Seth, get back up here, fast!"

Barry got up on his feet. "Did guys figure out how to stop it?"

Matt threw Cisco the handheld sound gun, branded the name Sonic Gun, that he and Matt made. The mechanical engineer heard the screech and saw the Time Wraith at the entrance of the Cortex.

Cisco pulled the trigger and shot a bullet of sound at the wraith. But despite it only pushing it back a bit, the Time Wraith was unharmed and charged for them. "Damn! We thought so!"

"Shit!" Matt thrusted his hand out and went to attack it.

But the Time Wraith passed him and the female doctor and attacked the speedster, pinning him to the ground and placing its hand over his chest. For time traveling, his punishment would be death at the hands of a temporal wraith being.

Barry choked, gagged, and coughed, but none of them barely came out as his life was drained slowly by the decomposed hand on his chest. The wraith snarled in his face, almost hating the fact that his life would end so soon.

However, that came to an end when Seth appeared beside the wraith, his clawed hands wrapped tightly around the handle of his crystal sword before swinging it down. The sword connected with the Time Wraith's arm…

And surprisingly enough… the blade managed to continue onwards, through its rotten, decomposed skin and sever it with a single slash.

Barry felt his life return to him, and he looked up to see the Time Wraith hold its severed limb with its free hand. Looking down in disgust, his fears became true when he saw the severed hand still stuck to his chest. He pulled it off rapidly and saw Seth stand in front of him.

"Damn thing. Took a whole year to finally wound this awful thing." Seth growled in annoyance, but was really happy that he could damage the decayed creature.

Before it could even snarl again, a pair of sound waves connected with the Time Wraith's body, forcing it up. The sonic waves intensified, and the wraith disappeared in a smoke… Almost like it evaporated…

Hartley Rathaway pants with a triumph smile on his face. "I suddenly realized. Low frequency, high intensity."

Realization hit them all and they smiled. Matt hit his head. "God damnit, that's so simple we should have realized it before."

"I knew that." Cisco admitted sheepishly.

Seth chuckled, placing his sword on his back. "Rathaway, you help Matt make sound-based weapons for his Iron Knight suit, okay?"

"Deal, Fury." Hartley agreed, tapping his shoulder with a fist. "Oh, hey, Barry. How was your trip?" He held out a hand for the speedster.

Barry dropped down in realization of what this meant… He changed the timeline… Hopefully not too much.

X

Having changed out of his suit, Barry held Matt's device in his hand and walked to the nanite mutant to hand it back. "Thanks for this, Matt. It helped a lot."

"I know, I was there, remember." Matt quipped and took the device back in his hand.

"By the way you never explained what this thing could do?" Barry reminded him.

Shrugging his shoulders, Matt answered. "Thought if it'd be best if you activated it yourself and went with your instincts. But it's pretty basic, it takes the lightning you release when you run and convert it into the paddings on your knuckles, All that energy that's converted into them is then released in explosive bursts of air when you punch something. Thought it'd work pretty well against us."

"Kinda yeah." Barry said with a sheepish grin.

"But not a bad idea." Seth nodded his agreement and walked to them.

Worriedly for other changes to the timeline after his visit into the past, Barry asked him. "Hey, where's your sister and your kids? Back at home."

Shaking his head, Seth answered. "Nah, Liv's training them again in the Badlands. Even the three of them were tired and beat from before, they were pretty raring to go again. Those girls got conviction, that's for sure." He was proud of his three daughters. "But at least you listened to what I said."

"Of course, man." Barry stated with a nod. "Oh yeah." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo. "Thanks for this again."

"Sure." Seth took his photo back and placed it back inside of his body.

Cisco then got their attention. "So aside from the fact that a Time Wraith came over here, nearly killed us and lost an arm, disgusting that last one, how did it go?"

Caitlin walked over to Seth and intertwined her fingers with his. "Thanks for that, you know." She kissed his cheek.

"Don't mention it, Cait." Seth smirked.

"It was interesting." Barry said.

At those words, Caitlin asked. "Good interesting or bad interesting? Cause that could go either way."

"So far so… Good." Barry said, glancing at Hartley for a while.

Hartley smiled. "The road from Earth to the stars is not easy." He spoke in Latin.

Caitlin chuckled and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "How many times do we have to tell you, Hartley? Ever since Evil Wells got erased from existence, no one speaks Latin around here anymore."

Narrowing his eyes, Hartley reminded him. "Sure about that Caitlin? I mean, Seth and Matt speak it when they have to, and Olivia does enjoy conversing in the ancient language as well."

"Well, she's a weirdo, you know." Seth joked.

"Possible, yeah." Hartley mock agreed. Waving his gauntlets around, he said. "Well, as always, it's been a pleasure working with you all on this little project. If you need anything in the future, call me. I'm off to a late dinner." He walked towards the exit.

"Dinner." Caitlin grew intrigued. "Anyone special?"

"Very." Hartley smiled.

"Oh yeah, who's the lucky guy?" Seth teased.

Chucklingly, Hartley corrected. "Not a guy… But my parents." He smiled before leaving.

"Good luck, Rathaway." Matt called out to him with a smile. Shrugging his shoulders, he added. "He grows on you, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, you're anxious for him to help you make sound weaponry, right?" Seth could see right through him.

"So?" Cisco directed to the speedster. "You got me on pins and needles over here. What about the speed equation?"

Seth nodded his agreement. "Yeah, did Thawne tell you what you needed to do?" He asked.

Having taken out the drive that Eobard gave him, Barry said. "Well, let's see… One thing's for sure, Matt's gonna love this."

"Wait, that's for Gideon's console in the Time Vault…" Matt connected the dots. "Tachyon enhancement…"

"Bingo, but hopefully with Wells' knowledge I don't get sick." Barry joked as they all moved towards the Time Vault.

X

After the team checked over the results from Eobard's drive, Seth and Caitlin walked through the corridors of the facility. They thought and mentally went through the equations and notes that Eobard Thawne gave them.

As they did, Caitlin let her eyes run over the sword on his back. "Thought you'd stop keeping that thing on you at all times?"

Seth chuckled. "Sorry, but I was thinking of examining this thing more, actually." He stopped and took off his sword. To empathize, he let his fingers graze the crystal blade. "In the past none of my attacks worked on that thing… But this sword, without any of my elements, could actually damage it somehow."

"Seeing as you can also destroy interdimensional gateways, it's not that surprising." Caitlin confessed.

"Guess you're right." Seth chuckled as the sword sank into his partner's pocket dimension.

"At least we know those things… Those wraiths are Time Wraiths now." Venom said. "That answers some of our doubts…"

"And eases our confusion for sure…" Seth thought back. "…At least we can put a name to those faces…" Even now, with his eyes wide open, he could still see the two Time Wraiths drag him into that strange thunder-like portal, where he was transported into a wide space… like he was inside of a lightning vortex…

Where he found himself in the middle of a larger group of Time Wraiths… Before one of them introduced him to skin-sizzling blazing pain…

"Seth, look."

Seth got out of his trance when his mate tapped his shoulder and directed his attention ahead, where they saw Harry angrily walking into his bedroom. "That looks interesting." He mused before he and Caitlin walked towards the bedroom.

Harry was in the middle of taking items out of his backpack when he saw Caitlin and Seth walk into his room. "Hey." He briefly greeted them before returning to his backpack.

"Hey, Wells." Seth greeted back.

Caitlin noted his expression. "Are you okay, Dr. Wells?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Harry said, pulling out a bottle of water. "Although it turns out it's easier to find a two-ton gorilla on this Earth than a teenage daughter." He sighed. "I don't know what I've done."

"You were being a father, Wells. You did what you thought you had to do." Harry faced Seth. "Father to father, parent to parent, if push comes to shove, you'd risk anything for your child. Even your life. Like you had to do with Jesse, I had to bring Ruby and Evelyn here to protect them from Zoom. You acted like a father, Wells."

Scoffing at his words, Harry recited. ""Like a father." You know, my wife had to… She had to talk me into having kids."

"Wow." Seth chuckled, facing Caitlin with a smile. "When I had adopted Frankie, you accepted her with open arms. No questions asked and just… Became her mother."

"Frankie wasn't a kid when you adopted her and introduced me into her life." Caitlin reminded him.

"But Fury you get it, you had a kid yourself." Harry knew about his late baby boy. "Kids, they're- They're small, loud, run around."

"Cries a lot, barfs a lot, gets hurt too easily." Seth continued from his own experience with a child.

"Exactly." Harry nodded. "All I needed was my science and my job for my joy and happiness. And then… The moment we had her… all that I wanted was her love. Now, I don't know if I'll ever see that again. It seems every decision I've made lately has…" He slapped the lid on the bottle. "Backfired on me."

"You can't think like that, Harry." Caitlin said and Harry turned to her. "She's your child, you're her home. She's gonna come back to her home sooner."

"What if she doesn't?" Harry couldn't help but ask. "… Jesse… She said I couldn't even see the darkness in my own actions. That I didn't… Acknowledge it… Unlike you Fury." He faced the elemental.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Jesse involved me?" He chuckled. "Geez, way to make a lasting expression." His joke didn't affect the stone-cold seriousness on Harry's face. "Guess… I've embraced that darkness is part of me a long time ago. Maybe, it's because I have a cannibalistic symbiote in me. Maybe it's because my home world has faced more darkness than this one. Or maybe it's because I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and was trained to make the hard call no matter the consequences… Or maybe that's just the foundation of who I am now… Whatever the case… I'm the guy on this team who's willing to walk on a path that's part light and part darkness… I know right from wrong, wrong from right… But… I accepted the darkness in me a long time ago."

"And what keeps to you from being swallowed by it?" Harry wondered.

Seth smirked. "Find a light source that can shine your way, Wells." He pointed a finger to the female doctor beside him. "I got a pretty good one here." Caitlin blushed. "But just another thing… Darkness isn't always bad…"

The elemental then added. "And before you say anything about not having a light source yourself… Remember you have a daughter who can help light your way." He smiled and gave a thumbs up.

Harrison Wells smiled. "Perhaps you're right."

X

(Badlands)

After going over the notes from Eobard Thawne about tachyon enhancements for a speedster, and comparing it to his designs for his device when he worked on tricking Harry Wells, Matt decided to fly over to the Badlands to check on his wife and their three nieces.

Coming to a stop in the air, Matt hovered in the air and his mask opened up, letting him take in the sight with his own green eyes. He huffed unsurprisingly at the sight of his wife standing before her three nieces who were sprawled around on the ground.

Lowering himself to the ground, he walked towards her. "You went full force on them, didn't you?"

Facing her husband, she answered with a shrug. "Seth wanted me to up their training, so I did."

Matt looked between his scattered nieces. "You didn't… Maybe go overboard."

"Don't worry, they're alright. They're just knocked out." Olivia assured him.

"Good to know, because I do love to piss off your brother, but I do not want to piss off Caitlin." Matt confessed.

With a chuckle escaping her mouth, Olivia stated. "Love the fact that Caitlin scares you more than my brother does now." She burped and placed a hand over her mouth.

"Hey, you're alright?" He asked in concern, stepping closer to her.

"I'm fine, just a burp." Olivia told him. But she saw that his face was still riddled with concern. Taking hold of his face, she assured him. "The twins… are fine. I promise."

Inhaling deeply, Matt stated. "Can we maybe bring in Caitlin, just for a quick check-up? You're supposed to be checked by a doctor regularly. If not Seth, then her. Please… for our kids' sakes." He let his hands cup her lower abdomen.

"Fine…" Matt smiled, and Olivia leant closer to him, nearing his ear. "But just so we're clear… No funny business in the bed for a while okay? My boobs got sensitive as fuck."

Matt's entire face turned red like a tomato.

From her spot on the ground, Frankie smiled with realization on her face. "You were right, Magenta."

"Of course, I was, Frankie." The symbiote mentally nodded.

The young symbiote had known for a while now that something was going on with the other two mutants… And she was damn happy to know she was right… that the psychic mutant was bearing twins…

To be continued…

And that's a chapter, peeps!

With the realization that he was duped again, Barry had to resort to other matters to become faster to finally defeat Zoom. Seth understood his rage and anger after Jay revealed to Zoom and only used the Scarlet Speedster so he could steal his speed. The entire team was used.

They had to be ready, be better.

Seth instructed his little sister to train his daughters and told Matt to stash weapons around the facility in case of someone else waltzing into S.T.A.R. Labs. The elemental himself would continue training with the nanite mutant, improving his swordsmanship.

After a training session with her nieces in the Badlands, Olivia returned back to the city and met up with Seth and Caitlin in their apartment. Their daughters went to relax whilst the adults talked and reminisced about their Earth-616 lives and S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, which piqued Caitlin's interest.

They had a dinner together, as soon as Matt returned, and the girls joined them shortly. But then Barry got an idea, inspired by Wally's words and decided to ask for Eobard Thawne's help, the only speedster who got faster without the aid of an artificial speed drug.

While reluctant in the beginning, Seth agreed to it as long as he didn't do or say anything that could erase his daughters from existence. But to avoid being killed by their past selves, Seth gave a treasured photo of his to the speedster so he could get the aid of his and Matt's past selves. Matt also included some tech of his which would help Barry in a fight.

He traveled to the past, but within the gateway to time itself, he met a Time Wraith that shocked him, making him travel too early into the past. He arrived at Rathaway industries when Hartley was attacking the place with sonic attacks.

Barry switched places with his past self and captured Hartley. He tried to ask Eobard for help but that interrupted by a Time Wraith that attacked CCPD. He and Seth stayed behind to check out the attack, which was weird because Barry saw Eddie Thawne again, alive. Things turned sour when Barry had to fight Past Seth and Past Matt. But with Future Matt's tech, he managed to stand his ground for a bit and then told the mutants the truth, parts of it anyway. They understood after he told them about Carnage and Seth's poisoned state, and his treasured photo.

They returned to the facility and Eobard showed his true colors, having figured out that Barry wasn't Barry. Future Barry told him the truth and he added a lie to get his help. Meanwhile that happened the Time Wraith appeared and attacked Caitlin.

Cisco and Caitlin had to take shelter in Hartley's containment cell. The two mutants arrived at their cries for help, fighting the Time Wraith. Their attacks were shrugged off no matter what they did, and the wraith attacked them back.

Hartley used his gauntlets to make the wraith disappear by finding the right frequency, even though it did greatly harm the elemental mutant and his symbiotic partner.

Past Barry returned and Future Barry, despite what Eobard said, stated he could time travel, which his past self will be able to. Eobard hastened the conversation and brought Future Barry back to the Time Vault, handing him a drive with his notes and designs for tachyon enhancements, the source of help that will allow him to run faster than ever.

The Time Wraith returned, and Barry had to run back to his present timeline. Thanks to the mutants pushing the wraith back a bit, the speedster made it into the gateway in time. Returning to his present timeline, Barry was saved by both Seth and Hartley.

As the others checked on Eobard's notes about tachyon enhancements, Caitlin and Seth had a conversation with Harry, telling him that Jesse would return to him.

Matt checked up on his wife in the Badlands with their nieces, unconscious and on the ground, as she is pregnant with twins now…

Her pregnancy, a secret for a long time, her niece Frankie found out about.

Stay tuned and find out what happens next!

Until next time, peeps!