Chapter 99: Interrogation

"Okay, so who's going to take charge of the interrogation?" Kara asked as Oliver, Laurel and her all congregated around a security screen showing the imprisoned Black Siren. "I know Amanda is handling the outlaw couple back in Central personally."

"'Outlaw couple'?" Laurel couldn't help but ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Nickname that Cisco came up with for Ronnie and Caitlin's doppelgangers. Since, you know, they're married and evil."

"But of course," Oliver sighed, not surprised. "Anyway, we could get a professional A.R.G.U.S. agent or we could do it ourselves. I suggest us — Siren has been dealing with Zoom for God knows how long as his top lieutenant. If she's gonna break, it's going to have to be someone that at least exudes a similar presence."

"Not you," Kara declared before Oliver could say more. "Either of you. Me, and me only."

"Are you sure, Kara? I mean, Ollie and I would know her better, especially after I read her file. We would know which buttons to push better than you would."

"Which could also go both ways."

The couple cringed. She had a point there.

Kara put her hands on her hips. "You two are compromised, so I'll handle it. Besides, I'm the most powerful out of all of us — if there's anyone here she'll be scared of, it's me."

"Okay, you two. Unless you want to be subjected to some very unethical experiments during your stay on this earth, I suggest you start talking."

Killer Frost and Deathstorm, still slightly banged up but very much conscious and lucid, both smirked. Amanda had opted to place them in cells next to each other and next to the imprisoned Doctor Light, who was too busy trying to make herself scarce for fear of them finding out she was here. Barry, watching a feed of the interrogation on a monitor in a separate room, wondered why; all three of them were in prison after all, and not even Zoom had any chance of breaking them out. The meta-dampening field around A.R.G.U.S. ensured that.

"And what would you like to know?" Killer Frost asked mockingly, her svelte voice holding that odd reverberating effect that made her sound so unlike their Caitlin.

"Zoom. What does he want?"

"Didn't Flash tell you?" Deathstorm snorted. "He wants this world."

That wasn't entirely correct, Barry mused. Zoom had said he wanted Barry's world, which could mean a great many of things. It could be metaphorical, after all. In his experience, those kinds of statements tended to have double meanings like that.

"And how does he plan to do that? In case you haven't noticed, the Flash isn't the only hero of this world, nor is the rest of the Justice League for that matter. Even if they fall, none of the rest will stand to let Zoom have his way."

"Then he'll just kill them all, like he did on our earth," Killer Frost retorted arrogantly. "You think our Flash was the only one to try and stop him? So many tried, and they all failed. It won't be any different here. Even your Supergirl hardly stands a chance against him, not when she can't even catch him."

"Don't bother trying to interrogate us any further, lady. We ain't saying shit," Deathstorm gloated.

Amanda narrowed her eyes, looking between the two metas briefly. Then, she nonchalantly held up a remote with two buttons on it. Using her thumb, she pushed one. A second later, the previously smug Killer Frost began to scream.

"Babe!" Deathstorm called out at the sound of her pain, banging against the translucent wall of his cell.

"Did you honestly think we would inter you two in here without some precautions?" Amanda asked coldly, ignoring the increasing wails of Killer Frost. "A chip has been implanted in both of you that induces currents of electricity throughout your bodies, accessing your pain receptors and amplifying them tenfold. All I'll have to do is press one of these buttons, and you're writhing on the ground, begging for it to stop."

"YOU BITCH!"

"The Bitch, Deathstorm. Remember that. Now, unless you want your precious little wife to start clawing her eyes out, I suggest you start talking. Now."

Deathstorm hesitated for a moment, but another scream from Killer Frost sealed it. "Zoom sent us here to gather more personal intel about the Justice League and their associates. He already had a difficult time trying to figure out the real identity of the Flash of this world, let alone what he was actually like as a person. When he finally figured it out, however, and saw that our doppelgangers, along with Reverb's and Black Siren's, were close associates of the Flash as well, he couldn't resist."

Amanda scowled. "That cannot be all of it. A few months of studying your doppelgangers is not enough time for you to fake being them for anything longer than a couple of weeks. He had to have some other alternative motive besides just having you gather intel."

The metahuman opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by another of his wife's screams. He angrily punched the front of his cell. "TURN IT OFF!"

The Director of A.R.G.U.S. eyed him suspiciously before finally clicking the button again. Almost immediately, the pain stopped, and a relieved Killer Frost collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Deathstorm felt his shoulders slump and relax now that he knew his wife was no longer in pain.

Only to start falling to the ground himself in pain, clutching his head as his entire body was suddenly on fire, and not the usual kind. "Talk," Amanda ordered.

"Dark matter! He wants to blanket the city in dark matter! He had us search for a way to do that since the Particle Accelerator of this world was dismantled!"

Dark matter? Barry clicked his teeth. Did Zoom intend to make more metahumans? But why? Unlike on Earth-2, Earth-1's Particle Accelerator Explosion had not been contained. There were no doubt far more metahumans present in this Central City than there were on the other one. If Zoom wanted more, then he only needed to ask around.

… Or break them out of the Iron Heights Metahuman wing. Barry reminded himself to tell Amanda to have security on that place updated when she was done. It would probably pay off one day, he was certain.

"See?" Amanda asked, now with her signature smirk, as she turned off the chip in Deathstorm's body. Having not endured the pain as long as his wife, he was still conscious, though his body was still noticeably twitching. "Was that so hard?"

"When I… get out of here… I'm gonna kill you," Deathstorm vowed haltingly.

Amanda, for her part, looked unimpressed. "You're hardly the first person to say that, nor will you be the last."

"Fuck… you…"

"Uh huh. That's it for now." Amanda turned to leave, but stopped for a moment, as if a thought had just occurred to her. "By the way, do you know the whereabouts of your earth's Hunter Zolomon?"

"The serial killer? What about him?"

Amanda hummed. "I'll take that as a no. Take care, Deathstorm. You and your wife will be staying with us for a very long time."

"How cruel of you, Amanda," Barry commented the moment his boss entered the meeting room.

Amanda snorted. "Like you wouldn't have done something similar, Allen. You're hardly a saint yourself."

"Touche," Barry smirked, before dropping into a more serious expression. "Dark matter, huh?"

"It appears so," Amanda confirmed, crossing her arms. "How far are you and your team on the inventory with S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"It's top priority; I'm already heading to the docks after I'm done here to see what those two and Reverb were doing over there. However, we've got another issue."

"Differentiating us from our doppelgangers, I assume?"

Barry rubbed the back of his head. "The Harrison Wells of Earth-2 suggested vibrational frequency, so I've called in Hartley Rathaway from his bereavement to help me with that. Problem is, we need a test subject."

Amanda smirked. "Have your pick. We've got four juicy Earth-2 metahumans, ripe and ready for experimentation."

"Great," Barry said dryly. "And to think I thought I left my mad scientist days behind me."

"It was rather foolish of you, Allen."

"Yeah, yeah…" Barry looked away. "What do you think he's after?"

"Well, dark matter suggests metahumans, as you've no doubt already figured out, but it can't be that simple. If he just wanted metahumans—"

"—he could just go to Iron Heights. Or here. Or even the A.R.G.U.S. base in Starling City. So that can't be it."

"You think they're still hiding something?"

"Maybe. Or maybe they could genuinely not know," Barry sighed. "They're mid-level enforcers for Zoom, according to the intel we got from Earth-2. The kind you use to scare and kill people, to remind the populace of your hold over them. Dumb muscle, basically. He wouldn't share his plans with them, only his top lieutenants. I bet the only reason they even landed a role in all this is because they were Ronnie and Caitlin's doppelgangers."

"So this is all we're getting out of them," Amanda scoffed. "Wonderful. I hope the base in Starling is having more luck."

"Don't bother asking," Black Siren said silkily as she leaned against the front right corner of her cell, twirling a lock of hair absentmindedly. "I'm not talking."

Supergirl tilted her head slightly. "Why ever not? Don't you know how painful we can make your stay here?"

Black Siren clicked her teeth. "Not any more painful than what Zoom would do to me if I compromised his plans. Even death would be preferable."

The Kryptonian hummed. "He's got quite the hold on you."

"Are you trying to insinuate something?" Siren narrowed her eyes.

"I don't know. Is there something?"

The metahuman scoffed. "Hardly. Zoom's not much for affection, in case you haven't noticed."

Supergirl nodded. "Must really suck in your case. I mean, after losing your Ollie—"

SLAM!

"Don't you dare bring him up!" Siren screeched as she slammed her fists against the glass barrier. "You don't know a damn thing about that!"

"Don't I?" Supergirl asked, sounding amused. "You know, before Flash and Canary and the others left your earth, they took their time to learn as much as they could about the metahumans there, including you. We know everything about you, Dinah."

Siren remained silent, the fist she had against the glass tightening.

"You lost your dad when you were thirteen to a drunk driver. You had a misspent youth as a troubled teenager, only to fall in love with your childhood friend. Then you lost your Oliver, the love of your life, to a boating accident when you were twenty-two. After that, it was just one bad decision after another until you found yourself in Central City when their Particle Accelerator exploded. Now even more of an outcast, you fell in with Zoom, because you had nothing in your life and you wanted to feel something again. Am I right?"

Black Siren trembled, now fully enraged. Supergirl was unmoved. She wasn't their Laurel, had tried to kill their Laurel, and was working for the monster that had nearly beaten her brother to death. Any sympathy she had for this woman was lost in the face of that.

"It must have really sucked when you started studying up on our Laurel. I mean, she's got it all. Her dad's alive, her Oliver is alive, she's got a job that she loves and is running around as a well-respected and beloved hero. You must really hate her."

"Hate her?" Siren seethed. "Hate her!? I despise her! When I get outta here, I'm going to enjoy screaming into her face until her brain is nothing more than a liquid mess, just like what I'm going to do to you!"

"What a wonderful imagery," Supergirl said dryly, unperturbed by the threat. "You would've made a great artist. I bet your imagination is what attracted Hunter Zolomon to you in the first place."

Siren froze.

"Oh, so we're right. Your earth's Hunter Zolomon is Zoom," Supergirl stated knowingly, watching how Siren started trembling again, this time in fear. "Tell me — was he Jay Garrick too?"

Finally recognizing how deep she was getting in, Siren backed away from the glass and remained deliberately silent. However, that was all the confirmation Supergirl needed. "So he was Jay Garrick," Supergirl hummed appreciatively, nodding. "I wonder how he managed that. Oh well, I doubt you know, so I'll leave you be for now. Don't worry though — we'll be getting to know each other a lot during your stay here."

Supergirl cocked her hip as Black Siren glared at her hatefully, then turned on her heel and left.

"Now that was just mean, Kara," Oliver commented as his sister entered the main meeting room. Next to him, Laurel could only nod, her fingers trailing the table in front of them as she ruminated over her doppelganger's words.

"I wasn't feeling very charitable with her and it's doubtful a lighter touch would work anyway," Kara responded, shrugging. "Anyway, at least we know for sure now that Zoom is Hunter Zolomon of Earth-2. The question is…"

"… what does he have to do with Hunter Zolomon of Earth-1?" Oliver finished, rubbing his chin. "If he actually has anything to do with Hunter Zolomon of Earth-1."

"We can't just grab the guy and interrogate him," Laurel chimed in, now tapping her fingers. "If he really is Zoom, then any team we send in will just get murdered immediately."

"Not if we trap him with a meta-dampening field," Oliver suggested.

"You know how difficult that is to set up on short notice, Oliver," Kara pointed out. "And even then, we technically don't have proof that guy actually is Zoom."

"When have we ever needed it before? We don't need to publicly arrest him."

"Except that we do. Oliver, you know as well as I do that if this guy is Zoom, Barry will have to be there in order to help with the arrest. You know, in case the guy somehow manages to escape. Nobody else, not even me, would stand a chance of catching him."

Oliver fell silent at that. Both women noticed the tension immediately. "Ollie?" Laurel ventured hesitantly. "What's wrong?"

"Are we sure Barry needs to be there?"

Kara, quickly realizing what this was about, could only groan. "Oh, Oliver…"

"Ollie, what do you mean?" Laurel asked, confused, "Of course Barry needs to be there for the arrest. Didn't you hear what Kara said?"

"Oh, he heard Laurel," Kara said dryly before Oliver could respond, "He's just being an overprotective big brother."

"Of course I am! The guy broke Barry's back! I don't want him anywhere near my little brother ever again!"

"That's not for you to decide, Oliver! Do you think Barry is going stand by and let the rest of us try to apprehend Zoom after what he did? He'd never forgive himself if something happened and he wasn't there to at least try and prevent it!"

"But…" Oliver trailed off, slumping into his chair dejectedly much to Laurel's distress.

"But nothing, Oliver," Kara sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. "I get it, Ollie, I do. I want to kill him too, make sure he never hurts Barry or anyone else ever again. But unless we somehow manage to work out a viable plan where Zoom's speed is useless, Barry is the only person that will be able to stop him. Not us, him. And he's not going to let you, or anyone else, try to keep him away when everything is on the line like this. He'd never forgive us for suggesting otherwise."

"He broke Barry's back, Kara. Left him barely hanging on a thread. I haven't seen him like that since Wintergreen."

Laurel flinched at that name. Oliver had told her of the man that had tortured him and Barry on the island. Of how broken they had both been in the aftermath. For him to compare what Zoom did to Barry to that experience…

"I don't like it either, Oliver. But like it or not, we have to accept the possibility that Barry will have to beat this guy on his own, without us. And if that is the case, then all we can do is support him and make sure no one else gets in the way."

"Right," Oliver dropped his head into his hands, "The metahuman army Zoom is supposedly building."

"You think he's planning another invasion?" Laurel interjected, face slightly panicked. "Another war?"

"I hope not," Kara groaned, "I'm getting sick of wars."

Thought about adding more but I think I'll finish here for now.

Anyway, this is the last update for a while. I'm going to finish updating the first half of one day at a time and then go back to this one later. Hope you can all be patient.

Please comment or review, flames will be ignored, constructive criticism welcome, and don't forget to update the TV Tropes page!