Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
The police cruisers were in a high-speed chase with a group of thieves before the Flash sped around the car and threw the thieves out of the car before Patty and the other officers apprehended the thieves.
"Thank you, Flash." Patty said.
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
Barry sat down, panting out. "I don't know how much I can take it. I need another recharge."
Harry was tinkering with the tachyon enhancer from Thawne. "Allen, at this pace, you're going to exert yourself. And besides, too much tachyons in your system could take a great toll on you. It's not going to last. I think a better idea, instead of playing 'Hoodlums and Holograms' would be to rebuild the particle accelerator to get Barry's speed back."
"Yeah, Wells, that's what you keep saying." Barry said, folding his arms as he sat down.
"That's right." Harry nodded.
"Last time the particle accelerator went off, it almost destroyed Central City." Patty reminded.
"Not to mention, last time we tried something like that, we blew a hole in the universe and created, like, fifty portals to your Earth." Cisco added.
"Which is exactly how Zoom and his henchmen got here in the first place." Iris pointed out.
Harry sighed. "I told you. I know how to contain the explosion."
"Are you sure?" Caitlin questioned.
"Yes." Harry nodded.
"You know how to contain a dark matter explosion that, last time, just radiated all of Central City?" Barry asked. "You tried this on your Earth, remember? Didn't go so well."
Harry sighed as Iris spoke up. "And, even if you could contain it, I thought you said that Barry couldn't tap into the Speed Force anymore."
Harry turned to them all. "It wasn't connected the first time he got his powers. Look, I have your Wells's data. The Harrison Wells from this Earth, I have his science. I know what chemicals need to be in your body. I know how the lightning needs to bond with the dark matter from the particle accelerator explosion. I can recreate the circumstances to get you your speed back. This will work. Your solution... is not gonna last." He pointed at the tachyon device. "You wanna be ready, should Zoom return, if Zoom returns, when Zoom returns... there is only one way to do it, and that's by getting your speed back, permanently."
Barry considered.
Later, Patty's apartment
"Barry, I don't like this any more than you do… but do you think you should at least contemplate Wells's suggestion?" Patty asked.
"I don't know, Patty." Barry said as he sat down, wiping his face before the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." He smiled as he opened the door to see Henry. "Dad."
"Hey, slugger." Henry smiled, hugging Barry tightly.
"I called him. I figured you two need to talk. I'll give you the room." Patty said, leaving them alone.
"Patty filled me in on what's been going on." Henry said. "You want to use the particle accelerator to get your powers back?" Barry nodded. "Do you think that getting struck by lightning again is the safest option, Barry?"
"No." Barry admitted.
"I've watched you grow ever since you became the Flash, and I am so proud of that man." Henry said as they sat down. "But ask yourself, do you really need powers in order to be that person?"
Barry folded his arms and considered. "It just feels like every time something good happens in my life, it's taken away."
"Well, maybe it's time we did something about that." Henry said.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"It looks like the Vacuum." Cisco said as he saw the blueprints on the screen.
"Uh, what's the Vacuum?" Jesse asked, confused.
"No 'Fringe' on Earth-2. Noted." Cisco said.
"What is that thing?" Iris asked.
"That is how Barry's gonna get his speed back." Harry explained.
"This is what you've been working on in your workshop?" Cisco asked, turning to Harry.
"Someone has to worry about Zoom." Harry explained.
"OK, Barry cannot do this." Cisco protested.
"He has to, Ramon." Harry insisted.
"You keep calling me that, but that's—" Cisco paused, when he saw a vision of his brother. "Dante?"
Cisco returned to the present as everyone realized he just had a vibe. "What did you see? Zoom? Did you see Zoom?" Harry asked.
Cisco shook his head. "No. I saw my brother. I gotta go."
"Hey."
Everyone turned to see Barry, Patty and Henry entered.
"Henry?" Iris smiled.
"Iris. Hi." Henry said.
"It's so good to see you." Iris said, hugging him tightly.
"Aw, you too." Henry smiled.
"I guess Barry dragged you back for a bit, huh?" Iris said as she pulled away.
"Looks like maybe for good." Barry said.
Iris looked at Barry in surprise. "Wait, what? Seriously?"
"Yeah, yeah, I figured I spent enough time away from my son." Henry nodded.
"Have you told Dad?" Iris asked.
"No, I wanted to tell him in person." Barry said, taking off his jacket.
"Yeah. I think he's with Wally at CCPD. I'll give him a call." Iris said.
"Good to see you." Henry nodded.
"Yeah. Let's get settled." Barry accompanied Henry.
CCPD
Just as Joe and Wally were about to head out, a blue bolt of lightning rushed in and the next thing they knew, Singh's head was 180 degrees backwards, as he collapsed to the floor, dead, everyone gasping in shock, facing Zoom.
"Hello, old friend." Zoom said, as he turned to Joe, who stepped up in front of Wally protectively, all officers aiming their guns at the speedster. "You tried your guns on me once before."
"What do you want?" Joe demanded.
"Tell everyone that this city is mine. Anyone who disobeys me, is going to end up like your dear late Captain Singh. The only reason I let you all live, is so you know how easy it is for me to kill you all. Anyone, who tries to stop me, will meet their end." Zoom warned before he sped off.
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
"Zoom killed Singh and then let you go, just like that?" Patty asked.
"That's exactly what he did on my Earth." Harry noted.
"What are you talking about?" Joe asked.
"The first thing he did, was to kill the police captain, to show his superiority and then he recruited every metahuman he could find. Some of them were laying low, afraid of him but Zoom hunted most of them down and eventually, either ensured their compliance or killed anyone, who refused to joined him. Some metahumans kept a low profile, not wanting to have anything to do with him." Harry said.
"Like Earth-2 Laurel. She's not exactly a metahuman but she has this… curse that allows her to have this sonic scream. She said she kept a low profile for years." Barry remembered.
Harry nodded. "Correct."
"What are the police now?" Barry asked.
"Outside the precinct." Joe said.
Harry shook his head. "He'll kill them, Joe. He'll kill them all. You need to get those guys out of there."
"What about the Jitters?" Patty suggested.
Joe nodded. "That's a good idea. It's just a block away from the precinct."
"And then what? What happens next? You saw what Zoom did on my Earth. He will do the exact same thing here." Harry snapped before turning to Barry. "Barry, we need to get you your powers back. That tachyon device can't charge you with enough speed to fight him for long."
"There must be another way." Henry protested.
"There's not. There's not." Harry said.
"With Singh dead, I'm the acting captain now. I'll go set up the task force in the Jitters." Joe said.
"And then what?" Iris asked.
"I don't know yet, but I'm gonna make sure Wally and Jesse are safe." Joe said as he left.
A little while later, Cisco entered, panting out and clearly terrified. "We've got a problem."
"He calls himself Rupture. Another metahuman under Zoom's control from my Earth." Harry said, showing them a photo of the metahuman wielding an energy scythe, who had attacked Cisco and his brother Dante earlier at night.
"Great, so he's bringing more of his friends over." Iris grumbled.
"That's what I told you he would do." Harry said, turning to Barry.
"Why did he attack you?" Patty asked Cisco.
"Well, Zoom must've lied to fake-Dante and told him I was the one who killed Reverb, 'cause dude wants me dead." Cisco sighed. "We got to do something."
"What else do you know about him?" Barry asked Harry.
"He gets his power from that scythe he wields." Harry explained.
"Thing's legit too, it almost took half the van with him." Cisco nodded.
"All right, then that's what we need to do. We need to figure out a way to get it away from him." Barry said.
Cisco nodded and sighed. "Right. OK, all right. I'm sure I can come up with something. I just have to figure out a way to not tell Dante why this psychopath looks exactly like him."
"We need to get my speed back as soon as possible. How long until you're done?" Barry turned to Harry.
"I need few more hours—"
"We don't have hours." Patty said as she hung up. "Joe just called me. Witnesses spotted Rupture on his way to Jitters."
"Let's hope I have enough charge to take him down." Barry hoped, putting on the tachyon enhancer.
CC Jitters
Rupture was in the café, looking around before the Flash sped in.
"Flash? Not who I was expecting, but you'll be a nice warm-up." Rupture said, using his scythe to blast the Flash, who dodged.
"Too slow." The Flash said.
Rupture tried to attack again but the Flash knocked him down before Joe fired from the Boot, restraining Rupture.
"Good job." Patty said as she entered.
But the next thing they knew, Zoom sped in, snapping the necks of the other officers, leaving only Barry, Joe and Patty alive as he grabbed the emblem Barry's suit before grabbing the tachyon enhancer and yanking it out of Barry's suit and picking the camera.
"Central City, the Flash you've seen in your streets is a fake. A man imitating his powers, trying to give you hope." Zoom said, knocking Barry down and smashing the tachyon enhancer. "But there is no more hope, there is no more Flash, and there's no one left to protect your city... from me."
Zoom put down the camera as he got past Patty and the next thing anyone else knew, she cried out in pain, falling down, clutching her knee.
"Patty!" Barry exclaimed. "Stop! Please, just stop! You've made your point!"
"Not just yet." Zoom said before he stepped on Patty's leg as she screamed. "How does it feel, knowing that you're powerless to stop me from hurting those you love?" He gloated. "You will all join your fellow police officers in death soon. When this city is mine… then you will all have my permission to die. The more connections you have… the easier it is going to be for me to break you."
Zoom sped off as they stared in despair, with Patty unable to get up on her feet.
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
Caitlin put a brace on Patty's leg and handed her crutches. "It's not much but I hope this helps. I think you should recover within few weeks."
"That's not much help against Zoom." Patty grumbled.
"Considering he just destroyed Thawne's tachyon enhancer and we don't have time to build a new one, there's only one thing we can do." Barry said, turning to Harry. "Is it ready?"
"Yes." Harry said, glad that Barry had not changed his mind. "We need to hurry. Zoom has bigger army of metahumans than the ones that he has sent after you so far and it's likely that he's going to recruit the ones on this Earth as well."
Barry got up as Henry was about to protest. "Barry—"
"One of the officers that died tonight, had two children. A son and a daughter. They were barely older than me, when we lost mom." Barry said, turning to Henry with pleading eyes. "Dad, I know you're afraid something happens to me but this is bigger than me. This is about the whole city at mercy of Zoom and his army of metahumans. I'm not gonna let anyone else suffer at Zoom's hand, just because I'm afraid. This isn't up to debate."
In the breach room, Harry and Cisco were working on the machine, while Iris was looking after Wally and Jesse, who were in the Time Vault.
"What exactly is going to happen?" Patty wondered.
"It's an abbreviated version of the accelerator evil Wells built, except Harry is isolating the antimatter and dark energy to direct it to Barry instead of the entire city." Cisco explained.
"Good. Last thing we need is more metahumans running around Central City." Joe muttered.
"So, what, my son gets on that thing, we turn it on and then he gets his powers back?" Henry asked.
"Yeah. No. Not exactly." Harry said. "In addition to recreating what happened with the particle accelerator explosion, we also have to recreate what happened to Barry."
"Getting struck by lightning." Barry realized.
"That's right." Harry nodded.
"It's not even raining outside." Caitlin pointed out.
"Well, Ramon, you have the wand." Harry said.
"The one I made for Mark Mardon?" Cisco asked, confused.
"No, the one you built for the Harry Potter convention. Yes, of course, the one you built for Mardon." Harry snapped.
"How do you know about the Harry Potter convention?" Cisco asked.
Harry sighed. "Get the wand. Get on the roof."
"Why the roof?" Joe asked, not understanding.
"Because we're gonna need a lightning rod, and that, Ramon, is gonna be you." Harry said.
Cisco went up with the wand as Barry got onto the apparatus, his hands and feet clamped down, while Patty neared him. "Barry. I need to know. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I am." Barry nodded, smiling at her. "Don't worry about me, Patty." Patty kissed Barry fiercely before pulling away. "Do you remember what I told you last year?"
"That you wanted to be with me forever and that you could not stand losing me. Or Joe or Henry." Patty nodded before kissing him again. "I can't stand losing you too, Barry."
Patty pulled away as Henry neared Barry. "Son... you don't have to do this if you don't want to."
"Being the Flash... that's the best version of me. If I don't have my speed, I'll never be that person anymore. I have to do this." Barry said as a tear rolled down his cheek.
"OK." Henry nodded.
"You ready, Allen?" Harry asked as Barry nodded. "All right, then. Here we go."
The chamber closed as Barry braced himself.
In the Time Vault, they heard noises, looking startled. "What's going on?" Wally asked.
"I don't know but I'm pretty sure we don't wanna go out to find out." Iris said.
"I know that sound. That's the particle accelerator. If I'm right, then it looks like Dad talked Barry into getting his speed back." Jesse realized.
The clamps held Barry tightly as the liquids from some circular containers were being drained into Barry's body.
"What are you doing to him?" Patty demanded.
"The night Barry was struck by lightning, he was doing fingerprint analysis. Those chemicals got in his system then, and they are going in now." Harry explained.
"Wait, you're injecting them into him?! That could kill him this time!" Patty exclaimed.
"We have to recreate everything that happened to Barry that night." Harry said.
"I'm OK, Patty!" Barry panted out.
"Hold on, Barry." Joe said.
"God!" Barry groaned as Patty stared in despair.
"He's going hydrostatic." Henry said.
"Almost there. Almost there." Harry said.
"Wells!" Henry shouted.
"Almost there. Ready, Ramon?" Harry called out.
"Ready!" Cisco said, lifting the wand on the rooftop.
"Now!" Harry ordered.
"Expecto Patronum!" Cisco yelled, channeling the lightning into the wand and into the S.T.A.R. Labs' lighting rod. "Great Scott! It's working!"
Central City
In CCPD, Zoom saw the lightning at S.T.A.R. Labs, realizing what was going on. "He's giving the Flash his speed back. No!"
Zoom sped off, running to S.T.A.R. Labs.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"Initiating collision." Harry said as the particles impacted, creating an explosion.
Barry screamed in agony as the orange and yellow energy covered him and he dissipated into nothingness.
"Barry! No!" Patty exclaimed.
The surge of dark matter energy knocked them all down and as the smoke dissipated, they got up and stared in despair before Cisco entered. "It worked! Is everyone OK?" His face shattered into shock, when he saw that Barry was gone and Patty covered her mouth, on verge of tears. "What happened?"
All that was left, was the burned emblem of Barry's suit as Henry got up, shocked and disbelieved. "No... what did you do to my son?"
Suddenly, Zoom sped in, picking the remnants of Barry's suit and turning to them all. "You thought you could give the Flash his speed back? Well done. You killed him instead."
Zoom sped off as everyone stared, with Henry and Patty devastated the most, both of them breaking down in tears, with Joe holding an assuring hand on Henry's shoulder, while Cisco and Caitlin hugged Patty, providing whatever little comfort they could to her as she sobbed.
I originally considered letting Singh live but frankly, there are many times Singh almost died in the show and the only reason he has survived so far, is because of plot armor, like pointed out in Stand with ward and Queen's story "The other side of the mirror", which can be found on AO3. Zoom killing the chief of police to show his superiority makes more sense. And it's stupid writing that Zoom didn't try to hurt Barry more by maiming or crippling someone from his friends. It gave me no pleasure to cripple Patty but I wouldn't put it past Zoom if he had done it to someone Barry loves.
Frankly, the Flash hologram was never gonna work for long. So, Barry was using Thawne's tachyon device as to temporarily charge up his speed, like how Thawne did it in Season 1, hope it works. Barry creating an artificial Speed Force after the main Speed Force was destroyed because of the Spectre's energy in Crisis on Infinite Earths is an interesting storyline, but unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we're going to have to wait until Season 7 for Barry to create his own Speed Force, alongside Thawne's return. But frankly, the fact that Barry caused the death of Speed Force in Season 6 by infecting it with the Spectre's energy during the Crisis is stupid and obviously more hate for Barry.
And I'm sorry to all WestAllen fans here but I'll be blunt here, 2x20 proves that up until Iris found out that her and Barry are married in the future and on Earth-2 shows she had not felt any romantic feelings about Barry prior to that point and the only reason she was with him after that was because of the news article from the future and their Earth-2 doppelgangers being married, which is one of the main reasons, why WestAllen just doesn't work in The Flash TV series. Don't waste your time arguing with me, since I'm not gonna care, all your arguments are going to be deleted and ignored. I have no intention of wasting my time debating with you.
Hope what I did here, works, since don't get me started on how stupid the hologram thing was from the start. And it's unbelievable that Barry was still reluctant to recreate the particle accelerator explosion to get his powers back, even after finding out what Zoom was doing.
And just like in Stand's story on AO3, with Iris with Wally and Jesse in the Time Vault, they did not get out and were not affected by the explosion.
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.