A/N: HUGE Thanks to each and every one of you who took the time to comment, your support truly means everything :) Working on draft for chapters 7 & 8, and you better get ready cause you're about to really understand everything that happened in the forest and what's going on at the moment with...everything.
Enjoy!
Shouldn't the pain disappear; or at least, ease significantly while he was out for the count? Wasn't the whole point of dreaming supposed to be to disconnect from your body for a few hours? If that's how things were supposed to be, then why did it seem like Barry's suffering were only growing worse? Worse or staying at the same levels than it was when he passed out.
These sensations also weren't the only weird elements in this dream. For the first time since Cisco's dead, Barry didn't get transported into the forest, nor did he find himself in that eerie void of complete nothingness. No, this time he was lying down on something, some sort of bed, and there were people around him. As much as Barry enjoyed that much-needed change of scenery, he wished it was under different and more comfortable circumstances.
The first thing that came to Barry's mind was the heat. The heat was so intense that it felt like his skin was on the edge of melting right off his body at any second. The second element that popped inside the speedster's mind was the feeling he was surfing on an ocean of pain in the middle of a wild storm and that he was drifting in the elements at the complete the mercy of the waves of agony washing with full strength. It wasn't anything near what he already experienced in his previous dreams, and it could only be compared to the sensation overwhelming him during the encounters with the shadow.
And, even then...
Barry's body arched in a desperate attempt to escape the sharp agony in his back that was high enough to make him wonder if daggers weren't genuinely digging deep and twisting in his flesh. Arching might've been a strong word as the hero's body barely lifted by an inch or so, just enough to break contact with the mildly soft surface underneath his back. Barry desperately needed to wake up and make the pain go away! His fingers dug deep in the sheet underneath, and his eyes struggled to open.
The hero's rib cage was expanding rapidly to accommodate the increased oxygen demand from his lungs while his mind drifted off and started wondering; could the shadow attack him psychically while he was asleep? Was Barry still under the hold of the creature's touch even after going to sleep? What if he couldn't wake up?
When Barry managed to slightly, very slightly, crack open his eyelids, it was to realize the whole world around him was completely blurry. Disturbed and quiet voices were speaking to him unless they were talking to someone else. It was impossible to tell the difference in this mental fog. Unidentified hands turned the speedster on his side and revealed the hazy and thin shape of the one person standing in front of him, a person with long auburn hair cascading down from the head and meeting the form's shoulders, two clues indicating it probably was a woman. Could it be Caitlin?
On the bright side, his torturous dream wasn't carrying the one constant that had been twisting his mind every time he would fall asleep. Or, it hasn't until now. Vibe's voice finally decided to make his dramatic entrance, whistling around;
"Fight this, Barry," whispered the dead meta's voice.
'I'm trying, Cisco. I am,' thought Barry before the ceiling drunkenly whirled in front of his eyes.
More voices spoke to him insistently, and surrounding him with incomprehensible words coming from nowhere and all around at the same time. In the next second, everything turned to black once more, and all the noises stopped.
As the man's consciousness was left drifting like a lost soul in a void filled with silence, a menacing growl started echoing from all around, and it was calling out his name. Opened or closed eyes didn't change a thing about the emptiness and the complete darkness surrounding the speedster, nor did it help to locate the position of the unknown creature calling him.
'I know that voice,' thought the speedster's foggy mind.
The voice spoke again and, as the seconds passed, the noises turned into barely distinguishable syllables before finally becoming the last world Barry thought he would hear from his spooky companion.
"Help-" called out the voice again, as Barry blinked another time and the world spun around him.
In a blink of an eye, an expression that felt way more literal than it should be in that particular situation, Barry found himself back in the medical bay. But, this time around, it was with a few noticeable differences.
To the hero's immense relief, the agony was mostly gone when he finally reconnected with his body and into the world of the living. He found himself lying down on his side in a similar position he was in his last dream; watching the medication cabinet in the back of the room with a limited view of Caitlin's back. Her loose curly brown hair was delicately falling over her shoulders and her white medical blouse.
"Cait?" Weakly rasped the speedster.
His whisper got lost on his interlocutor who, instead of turning around, leaned forward over her computer and typed a few sentences, unaware of the changes in her patient's condition.
After faintly scraping his throat, another noise that got missed by the doctor, Barry forced his sensitive body to change position and settle on his back. He sure was grateful to be able to do so without the unbearable sensations he felt earlier during the attack and during that weird, unexplained dream. The bed creaking underneath his shifting weight alerted the metahuman who turned her head around and instantly widened her smile.
"Barry," she let out as she dug her heels on the concrete ground and turned around. "How do you feel?"
"What happened?" He asked instead of answering. Pushing his palms on the mattress, he manoeuvred himself into a half-seated position to get a better view around, which allowed him to notice the impressive pile of empty IV bags lying on the table near the computer.
"You passed out," explained Caitlin who approached the bed and reached out for the man's closest wrist with her fingers without hesitation to feel the regular and strong pulsations underneath, "it's still a little weak."
Barry scoffed. "I already figured out the part about passing out. I meant; why? What happened after the shadow touched me? Did you capture him? What did you do with him?"
That sure was a mouthful of questions that needed to be answered, it was no surprise Caitlin didn't guess and answered them all from a two words interrogation.
"You passed out from exhaustion Barry; your glucose levels were pretty low. They still are. It's not surprising considering how you've barely been eating in the last week since it happened," said Caitlin with a slight pause and hesitation on the pronunciation of the next-to-last word; it. In an attempt to conceal the real reason behind the small break, she moistened her lips before speaking again. "It was bound to happen soon or later."
Barry frowned at this unsatisfying answer. "The shadow attacked me. He came at me and touched my shoulder, that's why I passed out. I was fine, mostly, before he appeared," he protested.
There was no denying he hadn't taken care of himself, and the nights had been pretty short and restless. But passing out because of it? That didn't sound right, especially since it happened right after the shadow made contact.
Biting her lip, Caitlin turned around and returned to the computer. Pushing a lock of brunette hair behind her ears, she changed the present tab to another one filled with countless medical data and test results to confirm her findings one last time before delivering them.
"Look," she said, straightening herself and turning around once more. "I did the tests while you were out and there was nothing in your scans or in your blood to indicate any external cause to what happened to you."
"What about the heat? What about my powers? It can't be a coincidence," argued back the speedster.
"Your temperature was normal by the time I got to you," said the doctor who approached the bed again and put the back of her hand against her patient's forehead. "What about now? How do you feel?"
"I feel good now," whispered Barry, looking in the distance before raising his eyes to meet his friends' after her hand was removed. "What happened? I remember feeling like I was burning from the inside out and feeling weak in the knees. I think Iris called my n-"
Suddenly remembering his wife, Barry exhaled and twisted his upper body to make a fast scan of the room while ignoring the instant tension that built his back at the movement.
"Where's Iris? Is sh-"
"She's fine, the shadow didn't hurt her," softly answered the doctor, interrupting her friend, before hesitating again. "Our mysterious visitor isn't going to be a problem anymore."
Closing his eyes in relief, Barry allowed the sudden tension to leave his body, for now, and gratefully welcomed the slight shaking in his body that was indicating the decrease of adrenaline in his system. Slowly and taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Barry pushed himself in a more seated and comfortable position. That's only then that his mind finally truly registered the last part of the sentence and an unexplained lump formed in his throat.
"What happened? What happened with the shadow?" He asked, nervously. Why was he worried when it sounded like the source of their problem was not going to bother them anymore?
"I think we might've accidentally destroyed him," admitted Killer Frost's host before biting her lip again.
"How?" As he was speaking up, Barry pushed the sheet away and moved his legs over the edge of the bed.
"Easy there, don't get up too fast," gently said Caitlin while helping her friend to sit on the edge with his feet dangling in the air.
Without trying to get off the bed entirely, Barry's head turned to a 45-degree angle from his initial position to silently stare at the doctor. He was still waiting for the answer to his earlier question. Since avoiding the subject wasn't going to work, Caitlin sighed in defeat and put her hands in the white coat's pockets.
"When Iris saw what was happening, with you falling on the ground and the shadow standing over you, she sent a distress signal on her phone. Nora was the first to arrive, but also the first to get thrown to the wall this time. Hearing the commotion, I grabbed the cold gun that was still lying close-" she said, pointing at the weapon on the table.
"It didn't stop it for long last time," noted Barry, whose brain was working fast to try and guess how his team destroyed their enemy before hearing the answer.
Agreeing, Caitlin nodded and took advantage of the pause to reposition herself right in front of her friend so he wouldn't have to twist his neck to see her. "But at least it got it off of me the last time and made it leave. So, I figured it was better than nothing."
It was Barry's time to nod before allowing his friend to continue.
"Well, as you guessed, I fired on that thing before it could attack Nora again. It froze on the spot, yet again... You okay?" She interrupted herself and took her hands out of her pockets at the sight of Barry frowning and seemingly lost in his thoughts, his glance slightly off his interlocutor's face.
"Barry?" She tried again.
The speedster slowly blinked and looked back at her. "Hmm, what?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just... something's not right here. Something doesn't add up; why did it throw you and Nora across the room and just touched me? Why didn't it send me flying too?"
Caitlin shrugged. "I don't know, but it's gone now. During the short instant when it was frozen up, Nora did a lightning throw at that shadow and it just fell apart. It screamed and disintegrated; there was nothing left of it."
Slightly lowering his head, Barry deposited his chin on his raised right hand, thinking out loud. "Could it still be alive? It wasn't made of anything solid. You said it yourself, there was nothing to collect, and there was no corpse. Is it possible he just, somehow, teleported somewhere else?"
Reaching forward, Caitlin grabbed Barry's arm to attract his attention back on her. "It's over, why are you overthinking it? Just stop fighting this."
Extracting himself from her grip, Barry jumped to the ground, grunting at the slight tension it caused in his back, and moved to the back of the room to gather his thoughts. Ok, this was going to sound crazy, but here came nothing.
"I know how it's going to sound, but I have a feeling this thing was trying to send me a message. When it touched me-"
To illustrate his words, Barry touched his shoulder at the same spot he got grabbed by the intruder.
"-and I passed out, I had this, I don't know, dream or vision. I was lying here in the medical bay, feeling worse than I did when I first woke up last week, and you were treating me. I think it might've been some memories from when Cicada stabbed me and you guys took me back." Rambled the speedster.
"Okay..." Caitlin trailed off; confusion written all over her face.
"Cisco was talking to me; I had a feeling he was right there in the room with us at the moment. And I think this shadow was asking for help. What if we were wrong about it, what if it wants to help Cisco?" He suggested before instantly seeing the way the doctor's face saddened and her curious, yet confused, eyes darkened with sadness.
"That thing tried to kill me, remember? Just like he sent Nora flying earlier, or sent you mental waves of pain. That thing could've killed us all, starting with you, we were lucky there were people close the last two times it attacked you. And Cisco's… he's..." she stopped. What was the point? It was like repeating a broken cassette at that point.
"Cisco was so close in my dream; it was like he was in the room with us, he was-"
"Barry, I'm sorry, but he is gone. It was just a dream, nothing else. It's not abnormal to have this kind of dreams after what unfolded. I'm sorry Barry. It can't be real, not with how confused and blurry it was."
Before the speedster could protest, a shiver passed in his back and goose bumps appeared on his arms accompanied by a familiar sensation running through his veins. Could it be?
"I think Nora's back," he announced in perfect synchronicity with the arrival of purple and yellow flashes of lightning coming from the other side of the door's window, which cracked a smile on his lips. He felt it, he felt the girl's Speed-Force for one microsecond before she arrived, just like he could feel a faint pulse of electricity coursing through his veins. There was the silver lining of the day, "it looks like my powers might be starting to come back," he commented with a smile.
"That's great news," approved Caitlin, also smiling, before adopting a more serious look and pointing at the door with her head. "Nora left for Earth 19, to try and find Gypsy after you passed out. She's back, we should go see what she has to say."
Finishing her sentence, the doctor moved to the door with her friend who followed her for the first three or so steps, before hesitating as he reached the newly open door. Barry was about to know if Cisco was somewhere out there, but the real question was; was he ready to accept the truth?
A deep breath and tremors going from head to toes were the extra pushes he needed to gather enough courage to step out of the room and walk into the cortex where the team was having an improvised meeting composed of not only Killer Frost's host and Barry's daughter, but also Ralph and Iris.
"Hey," he greeted, waving at his team.
The hero shivered a tad and almost gasped when he thought he saw Cisco standing in the corner of the room, next to the suit, but it only took one blink to realize Vibe wasn't there. Okay, maybe he wasn't ready for the truth.
Widening her lips and softening her features, Iris walked right to her husband to gently grab his left arm and drew him closer to her. "Hey, how are you feeling?" She inquired softly.
"I'm okay, I am," he automatically answered, without taking the time to consider his condition, before turning his attention toward his daughter. "What's the news? Did you find Gypsy?"
"I... did." Carefully pronounced Nora who threw uncertain glances at the team, confirming ahead of her words the information she was about to share regarding her little trip on Earth 19.
"And?" Asked her dad, inviting her to continue despite the cold feeling in his guts.
Sighing, Nora deposit on the desk the shredded pieces of the Vibe's suit she took with her, carefully looking down at it as she answered. "Gypsy didn't sense anything."
The silence that followed was deafening.
"What about-" started Barry, only to get interrupted by his daughter.
"There was nothing, he's nowhere in the multiverse. He's gone, dad. Cisco's gone."
A/N: Leave a comment and, as I said, get ready to know, very very soon, what's happening with all the characters. I actually planted an important clue right here; you might hit yourself when you'll come back later after realizing what that was.
EDIT: So, no one read this chapter or no one that saw lie liked it? :( Guess I'll just leave the story like that. Let me know if you guys ever decide you're interested in more