"Every warrior must learn the simple truth, that pain is inevitable and suffering is optional."
Vanishing Point, N/A
"My they left it in a mess, didn't they." Ally shoved a slab of metal to the side, wrinkling her nose as a cloud of dust drifted through the air. Coughing, she waved the dust away before crouching to tug a piece of broken machinery free. "Still, they left lots of toys for us to play with, so that's nice of them."
"Yes, I'm sure that's exactly what was on their minds as they vaporized, Little Runner. Helping us out." Eobard cocked an eyebrow at his daughter before frowning back down at the generator he was working on. "Hand me the-" A tool was placed in his gesturing hand before he could finish and Eobard blinked at it before smirking. "Clever girl."
Ally grinned and tossed her hair over her shoulder. Carefully setting the broken machine down the woman sped around the room, clearing out debris and setting salvageable equipment onto three set up tables arranged in a box shape. Spinning to a stop, she reviewed the area, sharp eyes ticking over the floor and walls before settling on the heavy laden tables.
"We're going to need more materials. I doubt the discount Time Lords kept welding supplies in their little hideout." She pointed out, peering over her father's shoulder as he worked.
"Very true." He agreed, leaning back on his heels and replacing the cover panel. Rising to his feet he flipped a switch on the side of the machine, grinning as it roared to life, the lights above them flickering on in response. "That's better. Now, who's going on the supply run?" Turning to face Ally he met her eyes, expression softening.
Hands clasped together, Ally gave her best puppy dog eyes and watched with delight as her father, the notorious Reverse Flash, caved. "Right there and back as fast as you can, no side stops, stay out of trouble, and no longer then absolutely necessary at Home Depot." He ordered sternly. Ally cheered, pressing a lightning fast kiss to his cheek before speeding out, tossing a "No promises!" over her shoulder as she went.
Chuckling, Eobard shook his head. "That girl. She really does take after you, Rosie." Smile turning wistful, he turned to face the photograph that Ally had carefully pinned to the wall of their sleeping area at eye level. Brushing his fingers over the faded picture he rubbed his thumb across the woman's face, her smile radiant as she looked down at the bundle in her arms. "Soon," He promised in a whisper. "Soon we'll be a family again. And nothing will tear us apart ever again."
Jump City, 2017
Perusing the shelves of Sears, Ally threw things in her cart with barely restrained glee, enjoying the sidelong looks various employees and fellow shoppers were giving her as she passed. Pushing her cart to a corner, she scanned for cameras before loading her arms with as much as she could and phasing through the wall, running to the car she had 'borrowed' for the day and loading the trunk. The entirety of it all took only three trips and with a satisfied smile she started the car and headed for the happiest place on earth. Well, for her anyway.
Entering the store, Ally paused as a shiver crawled up her spine, setting the hairs at the back of her neck on edge. "Odd." She mused, walking swiftly down the aisles, plucking equipment off the shelves and loading them onto her flatbed. "Must be this years Flash." Dismissing the thought with a shake of her head and deciding to cut her shopping fest short, Ally gathered up the rest of the essentials, paying this time as the larger materials made transportation significantly harder. Handing over her black credit card, Ally had a moment of unease as the cashier swiped the card. While the card connected to her personal bank account and should still be viable, it was also connected to Harrison Wells' personal bank account and by extension; Star Labs.
Anyone currently working at Star Labs like, say, a certain engineer, could notice and subsequently track down the payment. Ally had no intention of running into 'The Flash' and so, accepting the card, pushed her cart to the car and loaded as fast as she could get away with, falling only barely short of peeling out of the parking lot.
Mere seconds after her car had turned onto the highway, a black clad figure wreathed in red lightning skidded to a stop in the middle of the road, half rotted face turning to each side as opaque eyes scanned the area. An animalistic growl rose from the beings throat as its search proved fruitless and it sped off before any passers by could snap a photo.
Driving up the warehouse ramp, Ally drove past a pain of dumpsters, parking behind them and killing the engine. Getting out, she cast a furtive look around the area before popping the trunk and starting to unload. Grabbing an armful of tools, she walked over to where a large tarp draped over a rounded shape. Pinching the fabric with her left hand, Ally drew the tarp back, pulling until it reached a point and slid away by itself, revealing the glass spherical time machine. Mechanics hissed as the glass parted and Ally carefully set down the tools on the floor of the machine. She sped through the process, leaving the large and unwieldy components for last.
She was almost all the way through when the same shiver tracked down her spine. Before it had felt like a vague unease. Now it was a screaming warning. Acting on pure instinct, Ally phased through the floor, head tilting up to catch sight of a gloved fist closing around air where her chest used to be. Hitting the concrete floor below, Ally set off at a dead run, not even pausing for the half second required to release her suit. Most of her clothes were designed to be friction resistant enough for her to run without the concern of lighting said clothes on fire.
Sprinting through the city, Ally felt the terror tighten around her throat and chest. Sliding around a corner she cast a quick look over her shoulder, eyes widening even further as she caught sight of the face of what was chasing. Or rather, what was left of the face that was chasing her. This was not the Flash or one of his many speedster associates that would hesitate at her youth. This was a Wraith.
Decision decidedly made, Ally easily regained her footing and slammed her hand down on her watch. The metal expanded, crawling over her forearm to form a metal bracer that lit up with a blue glow.
"Hello Alora Thawne." A pleasant voice greeted as a blue wire framed face appeared above the gauntlet. "How may I-"
"Call Dad!" Ally cut across the AI who exhibited no resentment at the interruption, simply nodded and faded away, replaced by a three inch tall hologram of her father.
"Hey little runner, how's the-" "Wraith!" Immediately the man's smile dropped and he disappeared from the holo's view. Lowering her arm, Ally raced up the side of a skyscraper, kicking off the roof toward a nearby crane. Running along the support she dove off the end, neatly somersaulting through an open office window. Not pausing to take in the dumbfounded looks of surprise on the women's faces, Ally gave a little hop and fell through the floor, phasing through concrete, metal, plaster, and the occasional person until she reached the basement.
Now she took a moment to breathe and focus, glancing to the side as an Echo appeared on her left. They shared a nod before the Echo took off toward the street and Alora phased down one more level, landing knee deep in sewage. Pressing her back against the wall, she took a deep breath and phased, sinking back into the brick.
Seconds seemed to last an eternity as they ticked by and Ally had to check she wasn't subconsciously slowing time as she phased, something that happened more often then most speedsters admitted to. Outside of her hiding spot something gave a rumbling growl and Ally had to remind herself to breathe. Finally, lightning crackled and the almost overwhelming presence of the Time Wraith left so abruptly Ally's knees almost gave out.
Taking deep breaths, she started to ease out of the wall when a hand clamped down on her forearm, yanking her forward. Heart in her throat, Ally acted on instinct, letting out a scream and swinging wildly.
"Ally! Easy little runner, it's just me." Pulling the distraught teen to his chest, Eobard wrapped both arms tightly around his daughter, holding her close. "It's alright, little runner, I'm here."
"Did you see it? What the hell was that thing?!" Ally clutched at his jacket, crinkling leather under her fingertips. "Dad, that wasn't an ordinary wraith, what the hell was that thing?!"
"I don't know. And I don't intend to stick around waiting to find out." Pulling away, he brushed the errant strands of blonde hair that had escaped the young woman's tight braid away from her face, offering a tense smile. "We'll go back to the Time Sphere and you'll ride it back, I'll follow as soon as you're gone. Alright?"
Ally hesitated, eyeing her dad with a healthy amount of skepticism. "Promise you won't wait too long? If you get caught, so do I, remember?"
Rolling his eyes, Eobard ran his pointer finger across his heart in an X. "Cross my heart." He promised. Only slightly encouraged, Ally pressed a kiss to his cheek and took a careful look around before speeding away back towards the Time Sphere, Eobard a half step behind.
Spinning to a stop, Ally hopped into the chair and started to tap at the controls, the sphere lighting up blue as it powered on. "Diagnostics check came up clean," she reported, glancing at the screen then up at Eobard. "So whatever that was, it didn't mess with our ride." The man leaned against the corner of the opened part of the glass, sharp eyes not straying from the surrounding area.
"Well that's good. Fire it up and get going, don't want to be stuck here when your little friend gets back." Pushing away from the sphere, Eobard gave her a few feet of space as the glass closed and sealed, machinery whirling to life. Slowly the sphere rotated on the spot, turning to face the blue tinted swirl of energy that had formed. Inside, Ally double checked the energy levels before inputting the destination and activating the time drive. Resisting the urge to glance back at her father, she determinedly kept her eyes on the swirling blue of the time stream, hands clasped tight on her armrests.
"Little friend my ass."
Vanishing Point, N/A
"I think I've figured out a solution to our problem."
Turning at the words, Eobard raised an eyebrow, lowering the welder and offering his full attention. "Which problem would that be little runner, we have many."
Flapping her hand dismissively, Ally offered a flat laugh. "You're hilarious. Our Time Wraith problem."
Intrigued now, Eobard set the welder down on a nearby table and walked over to Ally's work station, peering over her shoulder at the schematics on the screen. "A Speed Force detector?"
"Correction, a pure Speed Force detector. Time Wraiths are made up of pure Speed Force as an extension of its will. They practically ooze it, to the point that there's no other energy signature like it. It is uniquely Time Wraith. So, by using a sample of that signature and implementing the device to be constantly on the lookout for it, it can be a warning for when the Wraith is close enough to detect. Obviously it can't be tested unless one of us wants to play chicken with the Wraith, ideally that would be me-"
"Which is never happening, so you can stop thinking about it." Eobard drolly put it, eyeing the young woman disapprovingly.
"But since that isn't likely to happen, the theoretical range is within a year of your current time and a distance of a thousand miles." She finished, rolling her eyes once Eobard had looked back at the screen.
"Over protective" she muttered under her breath.
"Adrenaline junkie." He countered. "And may I remind you, you were terrified of this thing last time."
Ally was a young woman of great poise and dignity and as such did not squawk at the reminder, though it was a near thing. Instead, she drew herself up, voice going cold. "Only because I was caught off guard, by both the situation and the opponent. I have more of a measure of it now, and knowledge is power."
Eobard grinned and ignored. "The design is good, but you can't be certain of the results until the device is bui-"
Metal almost smacked the man in the face if it weren't for speedster reflexes equal to those of the one who threw it. Examining the watch looking device, Eobard cocked an eyebrow at Ally. The woman smirked and lifted her arm, revealing her bracer. "Best part is, it doubles as an accessory. No one will be able to tell its true purpose. Like so." Fingers placed on either side of her hologram projector, Ally twisted counterclockwise and the bracer shrunk, metal shifting until it had reformed into a nondescript looking black watch.
Slipping the device onto his wrist, Eobard chuckled as he tightened the straps. "You never cease to amaze me, little runner."
"What can I say, like father like daughter."
"I think I've found something!" Ally called, eyes not straying from her monitor. A gust of wind pushed hair into her face and she irritably tossed her head, flipping the strands over her shoulder. "Perfect, thanks for that."
"You've found the first piece of the puzzle?" Eobard questioned, leaning over her shoulder.
"Indeed I have. The first half of the map was logged in the database of a one Justice Society of America by its leader, Rex Tyler, circa 1942 after it was retrieved from a Nazi operative. The only reason it took so long to dig up, was because Tyler didn't know its true value, he only knew that the Nazi party was interested in it. I had to track it down on visual alone. It was titled as 'Unknown Nazi artifact.'" Rolling her eyes, Ally pulled up the photo of the golden disk set in a glass display case with a title card propped up against it.
"So, we know where it is. Who's going to get it?" She posed, casting Eobard a sidelong glance.
Meeting her eyes, Eobard held up a fist with raised eyebrows and a challenging smirk. Matching the expression, Ally held up her own fist.
"On three?" At his nod, she continued.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" Looking down at their combating hands, she groaned as her scissors were beaten by her father's rock. "Fine, I'll stay here. However, I did have a couple of ideas on how best to retrieve the artifact."
"Pray tell." Eobard prompted, hiding his smugness well.
Another photo appeared on the monitor of a white haired man who smiled widely at the camera with an unsettling sort of glee. "How do you feel about making new friends?"
Three hours later, Ally was about ready to climb the walls. She'd done six loops of the Vanishing Point, fixed several bugs in the mainframe, finished four of her side projects and watched the last season of Dexter. Now with nothing left to do, she paced relentlessly, wearing a pattern in the metal floor as sparks of lightning flickered in her wake. The smell of ozone hung heavy in the air, further testament to her unease.
Ideally, Eobard would have been back mere minutes after he left, returning to roughly the same time he left with enough buffer to not run into himself. Only if something had gone wrong would he take this long. And even then the delay would be an hour at the most, not three. With all that said, Ally was about two seconds away from leaving the Vanishing Point and tracking her father down to drag him back by his ear if need be.
Glancing at her watch for the nth time, Ally finally decided. "Twenty more minutes. If he's not back by then, I will go after him." Crossing the room, she plopped herself into her office chair, spinning around with a sigh. Left alone to her own devices, Ally was an enemy to herself capable of over analyzing to the point of near insanity. Her middle school psychologist had diagnosed her with ADHD which had only worked out well for her in the end. Teachers were more willing to believe a child was spacing out instead of that they were mentally redesigning the Opportunity Rover from blueprints that they had download from the NASA server they had hacked into last weekend because their dad got home late from work.
Ally wondered if maybe she should be concerned at how much of her impulse control her father actually was.
Regardless, it had made the four years that Eobard had forced her to remain in Middle and High school, so as to maintain a cover of normalcy, that much easier. By the time she had physically entered college instead of taking the online courses she was much better at acting like everyone else, as much as a fourteen year old in college could be.
The point was, Thawnes' were brilliant to the edge of madness and when left alone with their thoughts, they had a habit of mentally over analyzing the situations and persons around them. Eobard had, on more than one occasion in his fifteen years stuck in the twenty first century, spent his free time predicting the lives of his many employees at Star Labs. He would watch hours of surveillance footage until he understood his underlings to their very cores, then predict their life trajectories from that moment on.
It was mainly that near obsession that had led to the rumor of Dr Wells being a mind reader or psychic. He would wander through your lab one day and make some tiny, seemingly harmless, innocuous comment and one or more of your co workers would freeze, their faces going white. Wells would smile genially and wander off to the next lab while your lab partner looked like they had had the rug pulled from under their feet.
Man did she love her dad.
Speaking of, an idle glance at her watch told Ally that her self imposed time limit had been reached. Giving herself one last spin, she sprang to her feet, crossing the room to snag her latest project off her work table. Slipping the slim wire frame on her face, Ally tapped the left arm of the glasses and smiled with satisfaction as text started to crawl across the lenses.
"Hermes, get ready for a trip." She informed the air, feeling a rush of pride as a bland male voice answered her.
'Are we retrieving your father, Miss Thawne?" He inquired, entirely monotone. Sound quality was a little tinny, she'd have to fix that when she got back. And move the speakers closer to her ears, it wouldn't do for anyone standing next to her to eavesdrop on their conversations.
"Indeed we are, my pedantic friend." She replied, slipping her gloves on and fastening her watch over her left wrist.
'I am a fabricated artificial intelligence and as such am unable to form attachments.' Hermes drolly informed her.
Pausing for a moment, Ally frowned and tapped the frames chidingly. "Remind me to program you a personality when I get back. And while you're at it, ping father's watch for me."
'Of course, Miss Thawne. Scanning now...'
Slapping her watch face, Ally watched as black metal expanded over her forearm, lighting up once the last shaft had slid into place. Studying the bracer, Ally wondered at the chances of wandering into a war zone. Mentally shrugging, she turned her arm palm up, flicking a switch at the top of the bracer. Again metal shifted and expanded, this time to cover her hand, ending in sharpened points at her fingertips.
'Eobard Thawne located, transmitting data now.' Hermes reported, a line of numbers appearing at the bottom of the lenses. A date and a string of coordinates.
"Thank you, Hermes." Ally hummed, stretching her legs out before falling into a crouch, lightning licking at her heels. Then with a flash of black lightning, she was gone, plunging headfirst into Time Stream.
New York City, 1942
Ally emerged from the Time Stream and spun to a halt by her father, startling the man stood beside him. Blinking, Ally took in her surroundings, glancing over the metal walls, the floor stained with cooling blood, and the plethora of bodies that littered the floor.
"I leave you alone for two hours, and this is what you get up to?" Propping her hands on her hips, Ally frowned at Eobard, expression pointedly chiding.
"Certain complications arose," Eobard smoothly excused. "and were overcome."
"This is your version of fixing?" Ally's tone was dubious and with good reason. Reaching out she prodded a nearby body with her foot, pushing it onto its back. "Hm, Nazis. Why is it always Nazis?"
"And who might this lovely young lady be?"
Ally glanced over at the white haired man opposite her, looking him up and down before offering a cool smile.
"Alora Thawne, the pleasure is all yours I'm sure." Dismissing him entirely, she turned back to her father, reaching out and wiping a smear of blood off his jacket. "You've certainly made a mess of the place, I'll give you that. Did you get it?"
Eobard scowled and cast Damien a suspicious look before responding. "Quod non lapsi sunt in illum manus Iustitiae societates tamen. Diximus ingressus primo quoque tempore acies, duce adhuc tenet possessionem." (It hasn't fallen into the Justice societies hands yet. We've entered the time line too early, the leader still holds possession.)
Damien raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
"Tunc princeps nobis suadere ut deliberaretur. Miles eximius seri oportet tentare." Ally paused, then added with a shrug, "Quod non esset mens iusserit eum occidere." (Then we persuade the leader to hand it over. The super soldier serum should tempt him. Not that I would mind killing him outright.)
"I can't help but get the impression you don't trust me" Damien interrupted, taking a step closer to the duo. Ally didn't miss a beat.
"We don't. Just as you don't trust us, so quit your whining."
"Little girls should watch their tongues." Damien started to reach toward her before his arm was caught in a steel grip. Electricity crackled as Damien turned to look into blazing red eyes.
"As you should watch yours when addressing my daughter. Reach for her again and I will ensure your death lasts an eternity."
Smiling placidly, Ally clasped her hands together and offered Damien a mocking half bow. "It's been a pleasure working with you, Mr. Darhk, however we will be moving on to bigger and greater things. We wish you the best in your own future endeavors, and good luck in figuring how to get off the submarine now that the crew is all dead. Tootles!" And with a sharp crack of lightning, the two vanished, trails of red and black quickly fading behind them.
Damien stood silently for a moment before chuckling softly. "What an interesting young woman."
I offer no excuses besides the fixation wore off and now it is back in full force. Please enjoy, we are officially in LOT season 2.
-Thawne Enthusiast