Chapter 4

He came through the barrier…

Did he break it?

Who is he?

Bet you he's working for Hysteria…

Conversations flitted past in darkened alcoves and clustered groups as Leia strode past, her chin lifted, as if she didn't catch every word. She tried not to let it bother her but, frankly, her mind was racing. There was no point trying to catch any sleep as Wally had been ferried off to the techs, if only to gleam his half of the story. From the reports from Zim, he'd been forth coming, and Tamara assured Leia that he was being honest. Rather than pace outside the office, waiting for Zim to determine the status of the barrier, she'd retreated to her office. There, she'd showered, scrubbed herself clean and dressed in a fresh uniform. Staring at the mirror, she studied the sharp lines of her face and the long black hair that framed what she considered to be a cold face. It was a far cry from the angry, confused teen that had clawed her way out of the burning rubble of the lab that had held her hostage for years. With a sigh, she roughly braided her hair and headed off to Zim.

At the door to her tech's lab, she hesitated; then, with a shake of her head, she pushed the door open, striding in. The bright lights of Zim's computers nearly blinded her for a moment. She blinked, let her eyes adjust, and she realised that the new arrival was pacing on the side of the room. He glanced up, holding her gaze for a moment, then continued his pacing; glancing at her occasionally as she crossed the room and stood beside Zim, one hand on his desk. The bleary eyed lab tech glanced up at her, squinting for a moment, as if seeing doubles. He sighed and looked back at the monitors.

"Good news, the barrier isn't broken." Zim paused. "Our sensors detected a slight spike in energy levels, presumably when he came through."

"Stability?" She asked as her gaze ran over the data displayed.

"A slight fluctuation which caused energy surges throughout the low town district of Halview. There was some reports of fried wiring and a few blown power boxes." He gestured to a graph in the corner monitor, which showed a minor spike, which rose a little to close to amber territory for Leia's liking. "We're lucky it didn't surge higher, otherwise we would've had damages – fatalities like last time."

Leia nodded, digesting the information. "Can we tell what caused the weakness for our guest here to slip through?"

Zim's fingers flew across the controls and she brought up drone footage of a lab; the colours shifted on screen, revealing the heat signatures from within the lab, and the subsequent spike.

"We know Hysteria has been trying to prod the barrier, find any weak points. My guess is, she managed to cause a momentary weakness, which is understandable considering the planet's own decline in recent years. As for our guest here," said Zim, pausing to turn in his seat and look at the new arrival. "It's just blind luck or whatever you want to call it that his phasing out sucked him right through our weak spot. It's closed up now, though, so we're not at risk of any further damage."

Leia released a breath and nodded, then stood and straightened up. "Good, good. Keep the drones on the lab and scanning for any weak points. We need to keep them as strong as we can for now."

The speedster stopped and looked anxious for a moment. "If you do that, I can't go home."

Leia levelled him with a warning look. "If you do that and puncture the barrier, especially on a weak point, then you destroy this entire planet and kill us all."

He stilled. "What?"

Leia started towards the door. "Walk with me."

For a moment, he seemed to hesitate; wariness lingered in his blue eyes, which she found far too piercing for her liking. Why did he have to have such lovely eyes at all? She didn't wait for him to follow as she headed out. The air rushed behind her and suddenly he was in step beside her.

They walked along the long hallway, lit only by a series of lights strung haphazardly along, highlighting the cracks in the concrete and the signs of age. She glanced at him, walking along, seeing the tight lines of weariness on his face. How long had it been since he'd slept?

"I never got your name," she said conversationally.

"Kid Flash," he answered cryptically.

Not his real name, obviously. She smiled at the name. "Kid Flash? You look about my age. Why not the Flash?"

"Taken by my mentor."

"Oh. Fair point."

As they came to an elevator, she went in first and held the door open. Cautious, he followed but he didn't like the idea of being in a confined space with her. She felt his fear nudge her mind; several fears tangled with each other that set her on edge.

"You don't need to be afraid of me," she said conversationally as she stepped out of the elevator out onto the roof top. "Unless you're not the hero type I hope you are."

She strode ahead to the edge of the roof top, peering out across the ruins of the destroyed city. When she used to come onto the roof alone, she tried to imagine what it used to look like before Hysteria destroyed it all. What it might've been. Then she tried to picture what it might be, if they somehow managed to defeat Hysteria and heal their planet from years of abuse from Hysteria's machines.

When Kid Flash stopped beside her, she leant forward and rested her hands on the low wall before her.

"This city used to be the heart of trading; Clint tells me. It wasn't perfect but nothing could be under Hysteria's iron rule. Then, one day, some folk decided they didn't want to keep living like that – they wanted freedom from Hysteria's tyranny." Her grip tightened on the wall as a cold anger filled her. "Hysteria crushed it before it could be something – then she destroyed the city to send a message. All to keep her little secret."

"And what's that?"

"From what records we have, around two thousand of our years ago, our small solar system was siphoned off into a pocket universe – hence why we have no stars. This planet became a prison…made for just one. Hysteria." Leia pushed away from the wall, arms crossed across her chest. "Everyone else was just collateral damage and since then, we've been under Hysteria's thumb, biding our time. For years, we accepted this existence – we didn't know about other worlds or anything. This city's rebellion leaked out the truth. That's when we found out about the barrier."

"The thing you're all so worried about," he remarked sceptically.

Leia raised her hand before her and summoned an orb of pure black energy; then, around it, a hazy film, like a bubble.

"The barrier is an enigma to us but what we do know is this. As it weakens, there are spikes in energy which lash out – catastrophic storms, earthquakes, damage on a massive scale. We've been lucky lately as the weakening that's been occurring over the past hundred years or so has been slow, so issues have been…small. The problem is, we're noticing a rise again and Hysteria is using some sort of machine to prod it for weaknesses. Likely, her device caused the momentary thinning which you phased through." Leia drew in a shaky breath. "We found old records, a warning from what we think was originally the planet's warden as such, before Hysteria murdered her, that warn that if the barrier falls, it'll release a colossal amount of energy inwards. It would cause the planet to break apart."

Beside her, the speedster grew rigid, as her words settled with him. Whatever home he wanted to return to must've seemed suddenly so far away. If he dared return, he'd be risking the lives of millions. She only prayed he saw the truth, that he believed her.

She turned to him, letting all her walls slip away. If their world had any chance, it came down to her convincing a complete stranger who yearned for home, whom had been ripped away from everything he loved, to stay. With a deep breath, she reached out and brushed her hand over his arm; he flinched, then looked at her and, with both hands, removed his mask. That fiery red hair sprung free and those achingly sad blue eyes looked at her, searching. She let him see it all, all that she was, because she had to hope he wouldn't run.

"I'm not asking you for me. I'm asking you for my people." She gestured to the ruined city around them. "I'm asking you because there are people who gave their life for a cause – because they had hope in a life after Hysteria. They wanted to live, so please, let us live."