"Where the hell are you!?" Belén raged on the phone while Datura mirthlessly laughed. "This isn't funny! If you think for one moment that I'm going to stop looking for you, you're sadly mistaken! I will find you, Datura."

"Oh, you will," Datura said. "I see it. I'm checking in, dear, that's all. I was fair and warned you what Barry would do, didn't I?"

"You knew he was going to change the timelines," Belén shook her head. "HOw do you even remember it? None of us could."

"I'm guessing the multitude of my psychological powers helped shield me."

"So you knew this was going to happen and you did nothing to stop it?"

"Why would I? It was going to thoroughly screw you over. How could I ever let the chance pass by? Me being able to escape was a pleasurable surprise."

"You are—"

"Enjoying this," laughed Datura. "And before you even get the idea to, I'm on a burner phone. I just wanted to check in on you. He told you, right? He told you in our original timeline you managed to put me away. You won. But he took that away from you."

"It's not his fault," Belén mumbled. "And I did win, by the way. You're cured and you're alone. No way home, no Poison Ivy." She took her confirmation in Datura's pause. "And absolutely no husband." She was ware of the heavy pause that followed after that last mention. In retrospect, maybe it was a remark too fast but after the hell that Datura put her through, she deserved it.

"You don't know to what extent Barry's decision will affect you and your stupid team," Datura came back strong.

"Do you?"

"You've talked to Caity, right?"

Belen froze again. "How do you—"

"I do. I don't get to see everything but I know that you're all upset with each other too. Your team will never be the same."

"I'm not listening to this. The only thing you need to know is that I'm coming for you. This time, I'm hunting you."

Even though they weren't face to face, Belén knew her doppelganger was smirking at the challenge. "Bring it on, Bells." She hung up.

It took everything Belén had not to throw her phone across the room. But she did grab one of the cushions from her couch chairs to scream into. This was beyond frustrating. The other timeline had her imprisoning Datura but now she was free as a bird.

"Belen?" Caitlin's voice startled her. She spun around, her fingers gripping the cushion in her hands. "Are you alright?"

Belen didn't have the words to begin to describe what she was feeling right now but if anyone could feel slightly anything similar to her, it would be Caitlin. "She knows, Caitlin." Caitlin turned her head slowly. "Datura called. She...she knows."

"A-about..." Caitlin began to gesture to herself.

"She wasn't explicit about everything but I know she knows. She's just that cynical!" Belen smashed the cushion to her face and screamed again. Caitlin made a face as the scream went on. "I hate her so much, Caitlin!" she exclaimed into the cushion.

"I know," Caitlin whispered. "But we can stop her, we can bring her in."

"Can we, though?" Belen lowered the cushion from her face. "Cos I'm not exactly at my best and you know that. Shivhan is gone too."

"But we're still a team, I'm sure the others will help us—"

"No," Belen said quickly. "I...I can't risk Datura telling them what's happened. It'll have to be you and I."

"Me?" Caitlin's eyes went wide at idea. "But...Belen, you know that I can't go out there."

"I don't mean that, just...I just need someone to help me. You and I...we make a good team. In the last timeline, Barry said we imprisoned Datura. We can do it again." She had to believe that they could.

~ 0 ~

Barry's sneakers squeaked as he cautiously made his way into his lab — their lab. Julian worked at his desk on something Barry would deem as...dolls? Who knew.

"Hey, um, I need your help…"

Julian barely regarded him. "It's the four words I seem to hear you most often say, Barry. That and, 'I hate that guy.'" This time he met Barry's look. "Which, the feeling's mutual, so…"

Barry rubbed his hands together and kept himself on business. "Mm-hmm. Okay, um, this is gonna be hard for you, but I just, for a second, need you to imagine that we're actually friends—"

"Can't do it," Julian shot him down.

"Friendly—"

"Equally as challenging, Barry."

"Okay fine then do it for our mutual - and possibly only - person we care about?" Barry knew he'd gotten Julian with Belén.

The blonde stopped his work and leaned back on his chair. "You can't keep using her. It's fairly offensive, actually."

"Spare me that, please," Barry barely held the urge to snap. "I would have believed you if you hadn't said, just this morning, how fun it was to see our argument unfold."

Julian made a gesture that Barry had a point. "Alright, what are you after?"

"I need to read your report on one of the husks."

"Which one?"

"The one from this morning. Edward Clariss."

Julian raised an eyebrow. "Edward Clariss?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"May help me figure out a case I'm working on…"

"Well," Julian tended to the case beside him, "The nutshell is, uh, the hyaluronic acids were found to be above normal. Uh, androgen degradation atypically low. Cellular regeneration seemed to occur at a staggering rate. It's quite a bit different from the previous husks that we found. That's about it."

Barry tentatively reached for the file on the desk but drew his hand back when Julian gave him a hard look. "Could I... could I maybe just take a peek at it? I'm sorry, it's just something I need to see to know what I'm looking for."

Julian scoffed and handed him the report. "Sure."

Barry eagerly took the report and started skimming through it. "Wait, why does this say the body's place of discovery was Williamson when it was found on the waterfront in Leawood?"

"The body ended up in Leawood. There was a strong current this morning, so chances are that it originated from Williamson. Somewhere near the old Prescott sawmill." Julian watched Barry apparently think like he'd been wrong. His impatience got to him and so he held his hand out for the report. "You done?"

"Yeah, uh, yes. Thank you," Barry quickly gave him the report back and started out, missing Julian's highly suspicious eyes follow him.

~ 0 ~

"Eugh, it is getting way too hard to walk around like this," Nina said as she entered the cortex. She battled a brown coat around her that no longer wanted to close over her stomach. "Elliot's going to pick me up in an hour so why am I here?"

Everyone had regathered in the cortex but there wasn't much discussion going on. Iris spoke up since no one else seemed to want to. "We have something to tell you." Nina nodded and waited for this 'news'. "Barry, uh...changed the timelines and...we don't know how that changed us completely—"

"Oh yeah, I knew that," Nina said and subjected herself to various degrees of stares. "What? I'm the only one he didn't screw up. Well, me and Shivhan. Actually, if we're being technical, Shivhan is the only one whose life didn't change because mine—" she waved a hand over her stomach, "—certainly did."

"He told you first?" Belén asked, unable to not feel offended by that.

"Oh please, don't put so much thought into it," Nina motioned Cisco to get out of his chair so she could take it. "He was scared, and rightly so - he royally screwed up. He wanted to tell you but you weren't speaking to him and...he was afraid cos he changed lives..."

"Except for you," Joe pointed, "Because…?"

"Because I wasn't married nor about to pop," Nina shrugged. "I asked him what the differences were about me and he told me."

"Well, we don't know what to do," Iris gestured to their side of the group.

"Nothing," Nina said like it should have been obvious. "That's the thing that's driving Barry crazy. He can't actually do anything about it anymore except apologize and tell us what our lives were like before he changed the timelines."

"He changed our lives," Cisco snapped. "And he kept it a secret. Kind of a hypocrite too…"

"I am not saying you should all be up and ready to forget but we have to be realistic," Nina shrugged.

"She's right," Belén leaned on the desk and massaged her temples. There was an aching on both sides that just wouldn't go away. "I let my brother go when he was a clear menace to the city - and twice. Cisco, you told Captain Cold that Barry was the Flash and you gave him my name all to protect your brother."

"Okay, not my finest moments…" Cisco admitted in a low mutter.

"We've all been rather...wrong with our decisions…" Belén admitted herself.

"You know, I was always hesitant to join this team for real," Nina leaned her head back in thought. "I didn't see it until I finally committed. You guys are like a family. And like a family, you screw up. I just think that as a family we should also...forgive."

"Nina is right," Caitlin nodded. "We all have secrets. We've all screwed up, but this is Barry we're talking about." At the same time, the computer in front of her came to light with an alarm. "Who...apparently is in trouble."

The others quickly gathered behind to see what she meant.

~ 0 ~

Barry was having a hard time getting up from the ground after being blasted by God knew what that hooded-cloak man had used on him. "And who are you?" Barry languidly gestured to the cloaked man behind the golden metal mask. He could hear Clariss' laughter from the rail above him.

"I am Alchemy," the cloaked man responded with a slow, raspy voice.

"Okay, well, what do you want?" Barry pushed himself up despite his balance being off.

"To help people achieve their true potential... such as he has," Alchemy gestured up to Clariss who gave a little smug wave at Barry.

"And why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm preparing this world," Alchemy was left behind as Clariss sped down and pinned Barry against a wal..

"Remember what happened here last time, Flash? It's where I died," Clariss yanked off the comms right from Barry's ear and punctured them - rather strongly - against Barry. "And I'm not gonna waste this second chance I've been given. This time, I'm gonna show you who's the fastest man alive!" He took off with Barry to fufill his promise.

~ 0 ~

"Where is he, Caitlin?" Belén was already in her suit and was just waiting for Caitlin to give them the location.

"His comms aren't working," Caitlin murmured with knitted eyebrows after trying to get in contact with Barry. "He's at the Prescott Mill, though."

"Great, that's right around the corner," Belén took in a deep breath and let her Azaleas and vines form her usual mask over her eyes.

"Wait…" Cisco stopped her though still seemed unsure as he spoke next.

~ 0 ~

Both Belén and Cisco arrived at the prescott mill with Cisco's help. It was rather quiet, eerily quiet.

"We need to split up," Belén indicated Cisco to the building just up ahead.

"Careful, okay?" Cisco asked, making Belén smile.

"Of course. But you, you're the rookie here, so be careful," she pointed and chuckled when Cisco pretended to fix his goggles for the show. It did feel good to get somewhat back to normal.

Cisco went after the building while Belén went around the mill searching for any lurking speedsters with a trick up his sleeve. "Caitlin—" she tapped her comm. "—can you get in touch with Barry yet?"

"No, I'm trying, but it's not working," Caitlin did sound frustrated she was unable to help. "But you be careful…"

"Mhm," Belén continued walking but stopped when she heard metal clanging behind her. She whipped her head back and scanned the area. Since it was dark all she saw a wavy cape through barrels and structure. "Come out," she ordered and prepared herself for a fight if need be. Vines entangled her fists and continued to swirl as a figure in a hood and golden metal mask emerged from the darkness. "You're not Clariss."

"I am Alchemy," he re-introduced himself. "I am preparing this world…"

"Oh great, a whackadoo," Belén mumbled and pulled her arms back to attack.

"The Azalea will fall so that Amalgam can rise."

Belén involuntarily dropped her arms to regard his words. "What—"

Alchemy raised his weapon which turned out to be a stone of some sort and emitted the same blast of energy he'd used on Barry. However, it turned out to go directly beside Belén who only had time to shield herself from the blinding light.

"Belén?" Caitlin's voice rang in Belén's ears afterwards. "What happened!?"

Belén lowered her arms from her face and saw that she was completely alone again. "I have...no idea."

~ 0 ~

Cisco had found Barry and Clariss inside the building and did what he could to help bring Clariss down. With his gauntlets he emitted his vortex energy that threw Clariss away. Barry took the opportunity to speed around Clariss who was on his way of getting back on his feet. Punches were delivered from every possible angle to keep Clariss down. The force of his speed chucked Clariss back towards Cisco but Cisco himself was prepared and gave the final blow of a smack.

"Thank you," Barry released a breath and leaned back on a crate. His body was aching but at least their battle was over.

"Sorry it took so long," Cisco gave a weak smile.

"You were just in time," Barry returned the smile.

"Guys?" they heard Belén coming in to look for them. She rushed in and saw Clariss on the ground, out cold, and smiled at the two. She gave Cisco a quick high-five then rushed to hug Barry.

"Ow…" the speedster groaned as she squished his injured body with her force. "Maybe...no hugs…"

"You change the time line, you get a bone crushing hug," she refused to let go of him.

~ 0 ~

"There is no mention of Alchemy anywhere," Caitlin pushed herself away from her computer after a long, exhaustive search for the mysterious man.

"Definitely no mask-wearing monk metas," Cisco agreed beside her. He got up from his chair and walked around to stretch his legs. Belén dropped into the seat instead.

"We didn't find any known aliases in any of the records at CCPD," Joe also said.

"And Clariss is suddenly Mr. Silence," Veronica crossed her arms, rather upset their interrogations weren't working.

"All right, well, keep at him. Alchemy is the one that gave Clariss back his speed," Barry said, still misunderstanding how that was even possible.

"He's kinda like a doctor, that way, don't you think?" Cisco suddenly asked. "Come on, don't pretend like 'Doctor Alchemy' doesn't have a nice ring to it," he gave a warm smile that hadn't made an appearance in months.

"Okay, well, that explains why he didn't have any traces of dark matter in his cells. He didn't get his powers from the particle accelerator, he got them from Alchemy," Caitlin leaned back on her chair.

"What was that?" Cisco gave her a look until she revised her sentence.

"Doctor Alchemy," Caitlin playfully rolled her eyes.

"But how could he do that?" Belén asked, still thinking about the man behind the mask. "Is he a meta that can restore powers or...just plain give powers to people?"

"I don't know, but we need to figure it out. There's gonna be more," Barry sighed. "Alchemy...Doctor Alchemy said that he is preparing this world."

"Preparing the world?" Belén immediately remembered Alchemy's words.

"I am preparing this world…"

"The Azalea will fall so that Amalgam can rise."

"Is that supposed to be like some rapture or something?" Nina made a face from her chair.

"He's just...crazy, that's all," Belén gave a wave of her hand at the group. "Every bad meta we meet has some crazy agenda. We can't expect his words to make any sense nor for them to have any truth in them."

"It's still an agenda we need to keep a look out for," Veronica pointed at her daughter. SHe was not going to take any chances dismissing even the smallest of details a crazy meta threw at them. She didn't want a repeat of Datura.

"An agenda we'll be happy to report on," Iris gave a smile to Belén. They were sure to get some deets about those husks now.

"I think that everyone that had powers in Flashpoint is gonna get them back," Barry meant that as a preparation for what they were about to face.

"Well, we already found four other husks, which means there's at least that many running around Central City right now," Joe reminded.

"We need to find him before he changes more people's lives."

"Speaking of changing lives, we all talked about it, Barry, and most of us decided we don't want to know what our lives were like in Flashpoint," Belén spoke up about that delicate matter.

"Most?" Barry began looking at one person to the next trying to see which one had chosen the opposite.

"I want to know," Belén's voice went soft, but it still caused Barry to freeze with fear.

"Um...Dad, you want to stop by Jitters?" Iris asked her father in an attempt to get people out of there for privacy.

"Yeah, it's on me," Joe smiled, more than happy about it.

"Oh good, then I'm coming too," Wally was all for it and trailed after his family.

"Cisco…" Nina grunted in her chair. She couldn't get up and so she held her hands out.

"When is that kid going to pop?" Cisco mumbled as he went over to help her. He'd been on chair duty ever since she stopped being able to get up on her own.

"I'll let you know," Nina rolled her eyes.

"Men are so inconsiderate," Veronica waved goodbye at her daughter and helped Nina walk out.

"For real?" Cisco called after them and marched after them intending on explaining why he was most certainly not inconsiderate.

Caitlin chuckled. "Glad to see everything's starting to get back to the way it was."

"Almost," Belén was the one to mumble, reminding Barry of their pending conversation.

"Bells, whatever you want to know, I will say it," Barry promised her and briefly glanced at Caitlin.

"We made the decision Barry," Caitlin revealed with an apologetic smile. "Belén was just brave enough to say it for the both of us."

"Oh…" Barry blinked, taken aback of course but got himself prepared for any questions thrown at him. "Okay, well...what do you want to know?"

The two women shared glances before Belén spoke up. "My fight...with Datura? Do you know...how that ended? In the other world? Like, I know we imprisoned her but do you know how I took her down."

"Uh...well I wasn't there - was I there in this time line?"

"No," Caitlin shook her head. "I went with Belén with a meta-dampener and the siphoning device."

"Yeah, that's what happened in the other timeline. You, Caitlin and Shivhan went to the community theater to bring Datura in."

"How did the fight end?" Belen asked.

"Oh, um, well you were the one who told me the story," Barry reminded only to realize that it was the other version of herself who told him the story. "It went like this..."

"There we go," Datura bent down in front of Belén. "The start of the end."

Belén stopped struggling with the embedded piece and focused on ending that smug face once and for all. "You're...actually right." Belén revealed Caitlin's device and stabbed one end on her palm then smacked it over Datura's shoulder to embed the other end.

The device whirred to life instantaneously. A golden stream of colors was extracted from Datura while a green glow came from Belén. The two doppelgangers felt the immediate pain followed through. Datura, however, seemed to be taken a worse hit. Her eyes began to flash from gold to scarlet red to frosty blue and so on. Electricity began to spark from her body and into the device. Belén felt the wasps of electricity and hissed louder and louder until it became a true scream, coupled with the pain she already had from her wound.

Caitlin rushed towards them but there was an explosion that made her fall back. A bit of smoke emerged from the doppelgangers as far as Caitlin could see. She waved her hand in the air and coughed as the smoke drifted towards her.

"Belén? Belén! Are you okay?" she called out and used the chairs beside her to get up. Without thinking, she shot the meta dampener neckbrace at Datura who was out cold.

Datura was outcold but Belén was coughing from her spot. "Someone...get this off me." She waved her burned palm over the wooden piece in her chest.

"Oh, oh, right," Belen smiled awkwardly. Caitlin flipped her head in Belen's direction, her eyes asking the ombre-blonde what she was doing. "Yeah, okay. Same thing happened then. The flow of my DNA fused with hers and stabilized her. We were just curious if anything about us really changed."

"Did it?" Barry nervously asked. "Besides the obvious of course."

Belen shook her head. "Nope." She saw the relief flood his face and couldn't help herself but to bring him in for a tight hug. "You're good, Barry." Caitlin, however, stepped away from them. She couldn't be sure her face wasn't outing them both.

Barry nuzzled his head in Belen's neck. He missed her so much. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm so sorry."

"I know," she patted his back. "I know you are. You always have the best intentions."

"I have to get back to the precinct...I can still come home, right?"

Belén chuckled. "Yes you idiot. And who knows, maybe when you come back you'll find some nice chocolate amaretti cookies you like so much."

Barry couldn't believe the rush of relief he felt upon hearing those words. Something as minuscule as cookies staying the same helped so much. Even though Belen thought she wasn't baking them right, he thought they were delicious. They were hers. "I would want nothing more than that," he pulled away from her to meet her happy gaze. He cupped the side of her face and gave her a short kiss. "I'll see you then, okay?"

"Mhm," Belen nodded, still wearing her smile.

"I'll see you then. Bye Cait," he waved at the brunette and left them on their own.

Belen's smile fell from her face once he was gone.

Caitlin bit on her lower lip. "You didn't say anything..."

"Yeah," Belen whispered. "I couldn't do that to him. He already feels so terrible. Imagine what would happen if he found out that he drastically changed the ending of that fight."

Caitlin lowered her gaze. She knew Barry enough to know the answer. She raised her hands and watched as icy smoke billowed from them both. Belén was already used to that. Her mind had wandered back to her fight with Datura. The way Barry had explained it, described it...it wasn't the real ending, at least not in this timeline.

"Belén? Belén! Are you okay?" Caitlin called out after both Belén and her Datura were thrown in opposite directions by the siphoning device. Caitlin rushed down the aisle of theater chairs and looked at the two women. Her siphoning device was still whirring and, concerned for the effectiveness of it, she dashed for it first. She grabbed it, but the moment she did she felt an icy current prick her fingers. She whirled around in Belén's direction, the ombre-blonde still unconscious, and though Caitlin was still under pain, she saw an colorful hue around Belén's hands.

Had the siphoning device transferred more than just from Belen to Datura?

~ 0 ~

Julian purposely dropped his finished report right on top of Barry's current work. Barry, startled, closed the lid of his pen and looked up at the blonde. "What's that?"

"That's the finished Edward Clariss report. Or should I say The Rival?" Julian rolled his eyes at the ridiculous name. "At least, that's what the Flash called him last night when he took him into Iron Heights. I thought you might want to see it," he tapped a finger on the file. "You know, to do with your other case."

"Actually…" Barry leaned back on his chair, "...it turns out there was no connection."

"Hm," Julian gave a small nod. "You know, I have to ask you how did you know his name?"

"What?"

"Yesterday, you came in and you asked for Edward Clariss' report, but I didn't tell you who that husk belonged to, so that means you stole a sample when you showed up to my crime scene. How did you do that?"

Oh my God he was stupid, yes he was. Barry mentally smacked himself for being so...stupid. "I…" It was even worse when he realized he had no excuse to give out.

"Oh, wow. You've really got this good guy routine thing down, haven't you? And everyone just buys it," Julian spat, and Barry was sure there was a little name - a mutual person - Julian was just on the verge of saying. "There is something not right about you, Allen. They don't see it...but I do."

"Is that right?" Barry calmly put down his pen on the desk and leaned forwards, feigning interest in the conversation.

"You know, I learned from Detective Green that she didn't trust you either in the beginning—"

"But now she does," Barry reminded, and maybe that smirk just came out on its own…

"Yes, well, unlike her I am not going down that road. You know why I don't actually like you, don't you?"

"Hm, I've got some ideas…" Barry frowned, "Want to see if they corroborate?"

"I don't trust you," Julian enunciated slowly for Barry to understand. "Ever since I got here there are things about you that do not add up."

"Look Julian, why not, for Belén's sake, we just keep it civilized? You don't like me, that's fine—"

"Whatever you propose, it's not happening," Julian took his leave. "I can't ever like things I don't trust!" He called on his way out.

Barry scowled and found it incredibly difficult to get back to work when all he could think of was…

~ 0 ~

"I hate that guy," Barry plopped down on the couch next to Iris.

Iris snorted and popped in a piece of popcorn. "Yeah, you say that a lot."

"I now know why," he muttered and crossed his arms. "You know, I'm sure he's just looking for some excuse to badmouth me to Belén. I can almost swear it."

"Yeah, you say that too," Iris gave him a brief look which resulted in a small laughter.

"I'm being serious!"

"You're both ridiculous," Iris rolled her eyes and got more comfortable on the couch. "Take your win for today - which is being back in your girlfriend's place and, oh yeah, getting your friends back," she nudged him on the side.

Barry playfully rolled his eyes. "What are you still doing here anyways?"

"Belén said I could stay until I'm ready to go back to my Dad's," Iris smirked at him. "Did I put a damper on your romantic attempts?"

"Shut up," Barry reached for her bowl of popcorn but Iris smacked his hand away. He did wonder where Belen was. She was supposed to be baking cookies.

"Don't worry, I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I just got lazy," Iris admitted and picked up the television control to turn the volume up.

At the same time, the apartment door unlocked and in came Belén with a rather hasty movement.

"Bells?" Barry sat up straight on the couch. "Hey, what happened to the cookies—"

"Gotta shower, be back in a couple minutes," Belén gripped her purse's strap and made a beeline for the hallway.

"What just happened?" Barry got up from the couch and peered into the hallway in time to see Belén practically slam the door to their bedroom.

"She went to meet up with Caitlin," Iris said. Her sour tone did not go unmissed by Barry. "They're up to something," she elaborated.

"Like what?" Barry slowly sat back down and waited for Iris to swallow her popcorn to explain.

"I have no idea, but I'm a reporter...so I'll find out," Iris pointed at him.

"She's a reporter too, Iris."

"You know what I meant," Iris playfully hit him on the arm. While she managed to smile it off, Barry did not.

He wondered if there were, perhaps, things about the timeline he still had yet to know about.

Author's Note:

Things are getting staaaaaarted. Excited to see it all unfold!

So Belén is OC #1 out of 3 total Arrowverse OC I now write! The second one is Graciela Haynez from my new Legends of Tomorrow fic too and the 3rd OC is Anais Mjorkland from my Supergirl fic! Feel free to check their stories out under my profile! They will, eventually, have some future crossovers!

*So I'm trying to come up with a name for this series and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas? I don't know if I'm clever enough for the task xD. SO far I've thought of like "Azaleaverse" instead of 'Arrowverse'? I'm asking because I'll eventually post another Barry/OC story and I want them to be separated from each other. So, any suggestions are well appreciated!

As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"