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CHAPTER 37- PORTRAIT OF HOPE
STAR WEST: Star City
Ray Palmer was working in his lab when a breach opened and came in Cisco Ramon.
"Ray!!" He jumped and hugged him "Nice to see you..."
"It's nice to see you too..." Ray replied with a hug.
"So... What was the emergency that you asked me to come here immediately?" Cisco asked. Ray had asked Cisco to drop in.
"War..." Ray was cut off.
"War?..." Cisco asked "Against whom?...don't tell me it's against one of your ' legends Demons'"
"No... against something bigger than before..." A new voice came in before Ray could answer. Cisco turned to see Kara walking in.
"Hi... Kara... How's Barry?" Cisco said in his cheerful way and Kara remained silent. "Okay..."
"Ray... how's everything going?" Kara asked.
"Everything is fine..." Ray said and Kara nodded "But... I think it's time we tell others..."
"Guys... Can you both tell me what's happening?" Cisco asked, annoyed. Ray was about to tell when Kara stopped him.
"Ray... Not here... We will tell all of them together... But the first thing we need to figure is that..." Kara said pointing to the board which had Oliver's clue written over.
"The Green has an answer... The god will be late... The fallen knight has a weapon"
"What is that?" Cisco asked, noticing it for the first time.
"That... is sort of a puzzle... Which will help us win the war" Ray said.
"Says who??" Cisco asked.
"Oliver... or whatever he is now" Kara cut in. Her mind was still on her time with her daughter... Alexandra Nora Allen aka Lexie.
"Oliver?... He's alive?" Cisco asked, shocked and looked over to Ray and Kara. "C'mon guys... Tell me!"
"Kara... I think it's better if you..." Ray said and Cisco turned to Kara for answers.
"Cisco... Look I'll tell everything when we meet at Star labs..." Kara said.
"I'll hold you to that..." Cisco said eyeing her. "What do you want me to do now?"
"I could use your help here..." Ray said and Cisco moved to him.
"I'll call you guys...and then we can tell everyone..." Kara was about to move out when both nerds stopped her.
"Where are you going?"
"I got some things to do..." Kara said and flew off.
"Did you notice?" Cisco asked.
"Notice what?" Ray asked.
"Kara... She doesn't look like herself" Cisco said and Ray stared at him. "I mean... She looks like someone who's going through a lot of hardships at once...before you tell it's about the war... I get it...that there's something bad that is about to happen... But C'mon... She wasn't like this during the crisis"
"You really don't know?..." Ray asked.
"Don't know what?" Cisco asked blankly.
"I thought you knew... Kara and Barry... They broke up..." Ray said and Cisco's eyes went wide.
"What?... When?... But why?" Cisco asked.
"It's been a while..."
"But why??" Cisco asked.
"Don't act like you don't know it Cisco... You know it!" Ray said.
"Caitlin?..." Cisco asked slowly and Ray nodded weakly. "So Barry and Caitlin got together?" Cisco questioned.
"No... they didn't... Caitlin's gone out of Central City... She said it was to find herself... but I think it was to avoid Barry" Ray said.
"I knew this was going to happen one day or the other... I've seen those two falling in love...not realising themselves for the past 6 years" Cisco said remembering the old times.
"Then why did you stay silent?.. why didn't you stop Barry when he got together with Kara?" Ray asked.
"Because he wasn't ready... sometimes we need to reach a point to realise things... sometimes a simple push in the right direction at the right time is needed... Somehow Barry got the push..." Cisco said.
"I hope everything goes well..." Ray said.
"Now let's see what we need to do..." Cisco said getting back to the work.
"I've been summoned..." A new voice came and they both turned to see Winn standing there.
.
Central City: STAR Labs
Two hours later:
Felicity was in the cortex, working when an alert picked up. Barry came in flashing.
"What is it?" Barry asked. Felicity looked over the alert. "Since when do we monitor extra-terrestrial matters?"
It was showing a new spaceship about to enter our solar system.
"I made this algorithm couple of months earlier..." Felicity was cut.
"But why?... and how did you track that?" Barry asked and Felicity gave him a 'really?' stare.
"Never mind... But why?" Barry asked.
"Because..." Felicity was cut again.
"Because there's someone coming..." A new voice came in. They turned to see a Cisco standing with Ray and Winn with a breach.
"Cisco!..." Barry hugged his best friend "How are you?..."
"I am good buddy... How are you?" Cisco asked and Barry nodded weakly. "She will come back dude..." Barry looked at that.
"I know..." He said patting Barry's back. Winn and Ray gave a weak smile and walked past them.
"So Cisco... who's coming?" Barry asked.
"I wish I knew..." Cisco said and Barry stared at him. "Ray asked me to come...". Barry turned to Ray.
"Look Barry... Kara came to me one day..." Ray was cut.
"Kara knows about this?" Felicity asked.
"Yeah she's the first...Wait... How do you know about this?" Ray asked.
"I would be the first to know..." Felicity said.
"Guys..." Barry shouted frustrated.
"His name is Steppenwolf..." A new voice came in and everyone turned to see Kara walking in.
.
CC Jitters:
Caitlin was sitting on a table sipping her favourite drink " The Flash" when she heard someone call her name. She turned to see Jessie standing.
"Jessie..." Caitlin said standing. She had been caught. "Hi... I just came back to central city"
"Don't lie Caitlin..." Jessie replied and Caitlin looked at her.
"You knew?..." Caitlin asked and Jessie nodded. "But how?" Caitlin was shocked because how could Jessie know when Felicity had taken care of everything.
"You are still using Star Lab's Credit card..." Jessie said and Caitlin sighed "... So I knew the moment you came back to Central City..."
"I'm... I'm Sorry" Caitlin said, laying her head low.
"Are you serious?"
"I...I'm really sorry..." Caitlin still laid her face down.
Jessie saw Caitlin crying. She hugged her immediately "Stop crying Caitlin..."
"No... I shouldn't have lied..."
"I understand why you did it..." Jessie said. Caitlin came apart from the hug.
"You do?" Caitlin asked.
"I know about you and Barry" Jessie said.
"What?... How?" Caitlin stammered.
"By this!" Jessie said pointing her finger towards Caitlin's eyes. "No matter how much one try to lie...Our eyes never lie" Caitlin rubbed off her eyes.
"Does Barry know I'm back in Central City?" Caitlin asked.
"Don't worry, he doesn't know." Jessie assured Caitlin.
"How's he?..." Caitlin asked.
"He's better now..." Jessie said. Caitlin looked at her confused. "Because now he believes that you would come back...to him!"
"I...I don't understand" Caitlin asked, not understanding 'to him' reference.
"Barry and Kara broke up!" Jessie said.
"What????... Why?" Caitlin asked, shocked. "But Barry loves Kara... Is it because of me?? Does Barry know about my feelings?... Oh no! I messed everything up... I never wanted him to know about them" Caitlin started panicking. Jessie stopped her and took her hands.
"Relax Caitlin... Barry broke up because he finally realized that he's in love with someone else... A bio-scientist who works at Star Labs along with us... That's You Caitlin!" Jessie said, giving a small smile to Caitlin "And now you're coming with me to Star labs... Kara has called in everyone there... it's important... which is why I came here to pick you up!"
"No Jessie..." Caitlin said but Jessie stood and started dragging Caitlin along her. "Jessie! Please understand... I can't... I can't face... I'm not ready"
"This isn't about only you anymore... It's about Barry too... By what Kara has said, everyone needs to fight... and Barry's mind is not going to be fully on it unless you come back..." Jessie said.
"Kara... She would hate me..." Caitlin was cut off.
"Believe me or not... Kara's the one who asked me to bring you back... Look she's not angry on you...nor on Barry" Jessie said surprising Caitlin. "Please Caitlin... Do it for Barry!... He needs you... You're his lightning rod... It was never Iris!... It was you!" Caitlin looked at her for that. She rubbed off her tears and decided she prepared herself to face her love... 'her' Barry!
.
STAR Labs:
Jessie and Caitlin walked into the cortex. Caitlin saw almost all heroes there which included The Man of steel - Clark Kent, The Girl of steel – Kara Danvers, The Atom – Ray Palmer, White Canary – Sara Lance, Commander Steel – Nate Haywood, Heat Wave – Mick Rory, Zari Tomaz, John Constantine, The Dreamer – Nia Nal, She finally saw her sort of brother/ best friend, The Vibe- Cisco Ramon. But her eyes searched for the man she was in love with, The Scarlet Speedster- Barry Allen, who was nowhere to be found.
"... We need to crack that" Kara finished showing everyone about the clue Oliver had given. Everyone looked at Jessie and Caitlin who just entered. Cisco immediately rushed to Caitlin and hugged her. He took her out of the cortex to talk alone.
"How are you?" He asked and she nodded weakly.
"It's nice to see you again Caitlin!" Kara said, walking to them. Cisco turned to see Kara.
"I'm gonna give you both privacy to talk" Cisco said and left back. Kara immediately hugged Caitlin. Which surprised her
"I...I'm sorry... I didn't want any of that to happen..." Caitlin said slowly to Kara, still hugging. Kara stopped her and came apart and looked into her eyes.
"I don't blame you Caitlin... I don't blame Barry either..." Kara saw tears in Caitlin's eyes. She could see how bad Caitlin was feeling for what all happened. Kara slowly rubbed Caitlin's tears. "Barry loves you... trust me I saw it in his eyes..."
"I don't know what to say... I'm selfish.." Caitlin was cut off .
"Love is the most unselfish thing in the world... And you didn't do anything wrong" Kara stated. "Now please go back to the strong Caitlin Snow we all know... We've got a fight ahead... And we need you ready for that... especially for Barry!" Caitlin gave a weak smile at that.
"What are we exactly against?" Caitlin asked.
"Just go inside... You'll understand everything..." Kara said and Caitlin nodded. They both started walking towards the cortex. They both stopped at the entry of the cortex. Kara saw Caitlin looking desperately for someone. She knew who it was "I know you are looking for Barry..." Caitlin looked at Kara. "He'll be back soon..." Caitlin gave a weak smile at that. Kara was about to move out when Caitlin stopped her.
"Where are you going?"
"I will be back in sometime..." Kara said. "You know where to find Barry..." With that Kara flew off.
Tears rolled down her face as she flew along the sky. As much as she acted strong In-front of Caitlin and others, after meeting her daughter, the feeling of loosing Barry was eating her from inside. She reached her loft and looked at the painting she drew a couple of hours earlier. It was of her daughter.
"Thank You Lexie... I have hope again..." With that Kara took the paint brush and named it "Portrait of Hope" "I'm going to make everything right... Everything you've asked..."
At the same time, Caitlin started walking towards Time Vault. When Kara said that she knew where to find Barry, she immediately understood where he would be. She stood near the entrance. It reminded her of the time when Barry visited her when she was working in Mercury labs... When he came to meet her after Barry disbanded team because of what happened during the singularity... The only change here was that Caitlin was in Barry's position. She looked at Barry who was working. All her heart was asking to run into his arms.
"Hey..." Caitlin called weakly. Tears already formed in her eyes.
Barry immediately turned back recognising the voice and looked at the woman... The woman he was deeply in love with... Doctor Caitlin Snow. Tears formed in his eyes as well
"Hey..."
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