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.
Patty and Henry were in tears, hugging each other as they were all staring in shock at the burned remnants of the Flash's suit.
"Barry…" Patty whispered.
"This wasn't su—" Harry swallowed, staring in disbelief. "I didn't... I'm so sorry."
"We lost him." Henry realized.
Cisco shook his head. "No, no, no, no, he... he could've got knocked somewhere or maybe even run there." He typed on the computer but he found nothing. "Nothing on the GPS."
"Barry. Can you hear me?" Caitlin called out over the comms. "Barry, it's Caitlin, do you copy? Where are you?"
"He can't be gone. He's out there somewhere. Right?" Patty begged, on verge of tears, holding onto her crutch.
"Jesse, come down here, please." Harry called out.
"Dad. Is everything OK? Where's Barry?" Jesse called out.
"We need you down here, now." Harry said.
Patty picked what was left of Barry's suit and neared it to Cisco, while limping. "Cisco. He can't be gone. Please. We need to know."
Cisco took a breath and nodded, holding on whatever little hope they had as he touched the suit.
Barry was surrounded by storm, looking around in confusion.
Cisco pulled away as he breathed out.
"Cisco. What did you see?" Patty asked.
"I saw him! I saw Barry. He's alive." Cisco said.
Speed Force
When Barry came to, he was in his childhood home, back in his bedroom and he saw on the desk a book for children that his mother had read to him, when he was a little boy. Barry was confused, wondering what was going on as he went downstairs and saw the crime scene tape at the room, where Nora had died and was confused to see Joe, wearing a police officer's uniform. "Joe?"
"Good to see you, Barry." 'Joe' smiled. "But I'm not Joe."
"You're not?" Barry asked, confused.
"No." 'Joe' shook his head.
"And all of this?" Barry looked around the trashed living room. "It's not real?"
"How do you feel, being back here?" 'Joe' asked.
Barry held his chest, pain and trauma returning back. "I feel awful."
'Joe' moved past the tape to near Barry. "We thought you'd be more comfortable talking to someone who looked familiar and in a place you knew."
"'We'? Who's 'we', exactly?" Barry asked.
"That's a little hard to explain." 'Joe' said. "Sit, Barry." Barry was confused as 'Joe' smiled, sitting down on the chair. "Sit." Barry sat down across 'Joe'. "How much do you know about the Speed Force?"
"It's the source of my power. It's what makes me a speedster." Barry said.
"Yes... and no." 'Joe' said, much to Barry's confusion. "When the first subatomic particle sprang forth from the Big Bang to form reality as you know it, we were there. When the last proton decays, stops vibrating, and plunges the universe into heat death, we'll be there too."
"I'm talking to the Speed Force?" Barry asked, disbelieved. "Isn't that like saying I'm having a conversation with gravity or light or..." He paused and got up, processing as 'Joe' chuckled.
"You need a minute. It's OK if you do. It's a lot to take in." 'Joe' said.
"So you're saying I'm... I'm talking to the source of my power, which just so happens to look like... my adoptive dad?" Barry asked as 'Joe' nodded. "That's trippy."
'Joe' laughed. "We pretty much invented trippy here."
"Look, I'm... I'm not sure why you brought me here, but you need to send me back. My friends are in danger from Zoom." Barry said. He then heard whooshing as he saw a shadow outside the window pass by. "Did you see that?"
Barry turned to 'Joe', who shook his head. "You're not going back. Not until..."
"Till what?" Barry asked.
'Joe' got up as the door opened and he pointed at it. "Until you catch that."
Barry ran out and saw a shadow pass by down the street as he followed it.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"Harry!" Patty called out as she entered the Cortex with Cisco and Henry.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Cisco says Barry's still alive." Henry explained.
"If he's alive, then where is he?" Jesse wondered.
"I don't know. I vibed him in the center of a storm. It was, like, in, like, a vortex or something." Cisco said.
Harry stared and then his eyes widened in realization. "He's in... he's in the Speed Force."
"Get him out, damn it!" Henry ordered, nearing Harry.
"I—" Harry started.
"You can get him out, can't you?" Henry begged.
"I don't know if I can!" Harry said.
"Look, yelling at each other is not gonna help. We need to put our heads together and figure this out." Caitlin said.
"Caitlin's right." Patty nodded. "I'm sure we will find a way to save Barry but we can't do that if we don't calm down fir—"
They heard loud 'crash' coming from below. "Did you guys hear that?" Iris asked.
"What was that?" Wally asked.
"It came from below." Cisco said. "Let's check it out."
"Why on Earth do you guys have a morgue here? Really, Cisco?" Iris asked incredulously, walking down the darkened morgue with flashlights.
"Well, we had to keep the dead metahumans somewhere." Cisco protested lamely.
"Yeah, looks like you did a lot more than just store them." Iris said dryly.
"Fake Wells might've done a few dissections for study purposes." Cisco said.
Iris raised her brows. "And this didn't tip any of you off that he might be secretly evil?"
"It was a crazy time, OK? We had a lot going on." Cisco said as he looked into the computer. "I'll tell you what, it's a good thing Thawne was so organized."
They heard 'thud' and clattering of metal. "What the hell is making that noise?" Iris wondered.
Suddenly, they heard 'crash' and snarling as Cisco and Iris paled to see a man covered in metal stumbling out, snarling ferociously.
"A zombie? For real?" Cisco grumbled, realizing that the explosion must have reanimated Tony Woodward, the Girder as he tossed over a shelf of equipment.
"Tony?" Iris exclaimed.
"Nope, not Tony. Not anymore." Cisco said, stepping in front of Iris protectively. "Get behind me."
"You get behind me." Iris snapped, stepping in front of Cisco. Tony roared, throwing over a table. "Tony!"
Iris shined the flashlight into Tony's face, blinding him. Tony roared as he saw a reflection of his disfigured face in the mirror and smashed it before running off.
"Whoo. Didn't see that one coming." Cisco said.
"No." Iris shook her head.
"Zombie Girder. This..." Cisco trailed off as Tony ran off outside S.T.A.R. Labs, snarling.
Speed Force
Barry kept on running until he ended up in an alley, where was a dead body covered with a sheet as 'Patty' neared him. "Hey, Barry. Do you recognize this place?"
Barry looked around and saw the crime scene tape as he turned to 'Patty'. "Our first case together. But that wasn't really with you." He then sighed. "Why am I here?"
"You're here to understand something." 'Patty' lifted the sheet to reveal the dead woman as Barry groaned. "The man, who we arrested, insisted he didn't kill his wife. Reminds you of something?"
"What's the point of this?" Barry demanded.
"You didn't clear the husband's name because of your speed." 'Patty' said. "You didn't beat Thawne because of your speed. You're worried Zoom will destroy Central City, because you don't have your speed anymore. But it's not your speed that helps you beat him."
"Then what?" Barry wondered as 'Patty' smiled at him. "I'm not in mood for these games! How am I supposed to stop Zoom?!" He snapped.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"We got a new problem." Cisco said as he rushed into the Cortex with Iris.
"What's going on?" Patty asked.
"Our accelerator experiment seems to have reanimated one of the dead metas in our morgue." Cisco said quickly.
"'Reanimated', like brought back to life?" Joe demanded, hoping he had misheard Cisco.
"Life-ish. You ever seen 'The Walking Dead'? It's 'The Walking Dead', but without higher brain function and with major rage issues. Still unsure if our brains are on the menu, though." Cisco said.
"Who?" Patty asked.
"Tony Woodward." Iris replied.
Joe's and Patty's eyes widened. "The bully from school who turned into the metal man?"
"Last time we had Barry to take him down. How the hell are we going to stop the zombie Tin Man?" Patty said.
"Oh, God…" Caitlin groaned. "What are we gonna do?"
"We need to find him first. Wells, fake Wells, he had cameras all over the city." Cisco remembered.
Cisco rushed into the Time Vault, where was Gideon and looked at the cameras, with Patty following him, limping. "Where is he?"
"In Big Belly Burger." Cisco said.
"We gotta figure out a way to stop him before he kills someone." Patty said.
Later, in the breach room, Cisco put on some apparatus on his head built by Harry as he was leaning onto the machine they used on Barry.
"So how do we know this is safe?" Cisco asked.
"Well, define 'safe'." Harry said.
"'Safe', as in my brain's not gonna melt." Cisco said.
"No. It's a simple feedback loop, Ramon, all right?" Harry assured. "When you vibe on Barry, your brain waves send me the necessary data to pinpoint whatever dimensional pocket or corner of the universe that Barry is stuck in." He approached the computer. "And then we electrically stimulate your prefrontal cortex while opening a breach, which gives you physical access to Barry and lets you be the beacon to guide him home. Simple feedback loop."
"I'm sorry. Did you say 'electrically stimulate'?" Cisco asked, hoping he had misheard Harry.
Harry shot him an unamused look. "Ramon, do you want to bring Barry back or not?"
Cisco sighed. "OK." He took a breath and touched the remnants of Barry's suit.
Speed Force
"What is the point of all this?" Barry asked, talking to 'Patty'. "Please, look, I will do whatever you want. Just let me go back right now, so I can help my friends."
"Barry! Barry, turn around! Barry!" Cisco called out, appearing behind Barry as Barry turned around to see a vortex forming.
"What is that?" Barry asked. "What is that?"
"Your friends, Barry." 'Patty' said. "They want you to come back to them."
"Can I?" Barry asked hopefully.
"Of course." 'Patty' nodded. "But if you do, it'll be without your powers."
"Take my hand!" Cisco yelled, trying to reach out with his hand as Barry turned to him. "Do it. Take my hand."
Barry felt a gust of wind behind him as he turned around to see the shadow he had been following, pass by him. "The choice is yours, Barry." 'Patty' said.
Barry looked back at Cisco before running away, going after the shadow. "Barry!" Cisco shouted.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"Hey! What's going on down here?" Jesse asked as she entered with Caitlin and Patty.
"Just hang on a little longer, Ramon. A little longer." Harry said.
"Stop! Harry, that's enough! You're killing him!" Caitlin intervened, pulling Harry away from the controls.
Cisco panted out, leaning onto the apparatus as Patty neared him. "Cisco. Are you OK?"
"I saw him. Barry... he turned to me." Cisco took a breath. "I'm sorry. I lost him."
"Cisco's metahuman alert app is going crazy." Caitlin said as she, Patty, Cisco, Joe, Henry, Wally, Jesse and Harry met in the Cortex.
"Oh, Tony just trashed the hell out of Jitters." Iris read.
"I don't get it." Patty said, confused, pointing to the map. "He knocked over a hydrant on 4th and Stevenson, but he didn't go inside the building. Later, he smashed a Humvee in front of the Big Belly Burger but again, he didn't go inside the building."
"Gets to CC Jitters, he actually goes in." Joe added.
"Yeah, it's like Jitters was his target, but why?" Iris wondered.
"When I was in Iron Heights awaiting trial, I had a cellmate who always swore he was gonna break out." Henry said as they all turned to him. "At a pre-trial hearing, he stole a deputy's gun and escaped in a police cruiser." He then saw the confused looks Joe and Patty were shooting him. "Patty, Joe, there's a point to this, I promise. Now, the poor, dumb bastard could have gone anywhere, right? But he was apprehended two hours later. Do you know why? 'Cause he went to his old girlfriend's house looking for her."
"So you think that's what Tony's doing, even in the state he's in now?" Joe questioned.
"Henry has a point. People are creatures of habit sometimes at a level that is stronger than conscious thought." Patty said.
"No, I don't think that Tony had a girlfriend. I mean, not the way that he was hitting on me when he..." Iris trailed off as it hit them.
"He went to see you into the Jitters last year." Patty remembered.
"Wait, are you saying is that he's after you?" Wally realized and Iris nodded.
"So, when he was after you the first time, where'd you see him next, after Jitters?" Henry asked.
"Home." Joe remembered.
"He broke into your place and then took Iris into their old elementary school, where they all went together, with Barry." Patty nodded.
"Dad, this is good." Iris said.
"How is the walking dead chasing you a good thing?" Wally argued.
"We know what he wants and we know where is he gonna go." Caitlin said, catching up to Iris's thoughts.
"So, all we gotta do is to set up a trap and get ready for him." Patty finished.
"What exactly are we gonna do?" Jesse questioned.
"We use me as bait to lure him back to S.T.A.R. Labs…" Iris said.
"…and then we're gonna be there to stop him." Patty said. "Honestly, Iris, I'm not comfortable with the idea of using a bait."
"Do you have a better idea?" Iris asked.
Wests' house
"Iris, are you sure about this?" Wally asked as they looked outside the window.
"You know what? Two minutes ago, I would've said 'Yes, absolutely.' But now..." Iris shrugged as she went out with Joe. "What the hell?" Tony walked down the road as Iris whistled. "Tony! Hey! Come on, over here." Tony turned to her and ran after Iris as she and Joe got into his car and drove off, while Iris pulled out her phone. "Guys! We're on our way, with Tony after us!"
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
"Cisco!" Iris called out as Cisco turned to her and Joe as they burst in.
"Is that zombie still behind you?" Cisco asked.
"Good news is we lured Tony back to S.T.A.R. Labs." Joe said.
"Bad news is we lured Tony back to S.T.A.R. Labs." Iris said.
"No, no. This is good. OK, side note, you both might want to be on this side of the room, especially if you're wearing any jewelry or you have any metal plates in your body." Cisco said as Joe and Iris shot him confused looks.
"Huh?" Iris asked.
"Excuse me?" Joe asked, equally dumbfounded.
"The stray energy from the accelerator reactivated Girder's brain, well, parts of it, anyway. So, I disassembled our MRI machine to set up these. Electromagnets." Cisco said, gesturing to the machines he had set up. "So, when Girder walks through that door, and gets caught in the field they generate, it should disrupt the energy that turned him Abby Normal."
"Like wiping a hard drive." Iris realized as Cisco nodded.
"Lah-kah-tah!" Cisco cheered as Joe and Iris got behind him, while he was about to turn on the machine. "OK, now, I can only maintain full power for a few seconds, so I can't actually turn this on until he's in the room." Cisco said. A moment later, Tony entered, growling. "There he is. Hi!" He flipped the switch as Tony stopped and groaned in pain, caught in the energy field from the machine before it turned off.
Tony looked at them all, clearly angry.
"Why don't it look like it's working?" Joe asked worriedly.
"Because it's not. Uh, let's get out of here." Cisco said as he, Joe and Iris ran off.
In the breach room, Harry and Jesse were working on the machine as Patty, Caitlin, Wally and Henry observed before Cisco, Joe and Iris burst in.
"Plans A through G did not work." Cisco said as Joe closed the door behind them.
"Do we have anything in here that can stop him?" Joe demanded, freaked out.
"Barry could stop him if we could bring him back." Henry said.
"We tried that already, Dr. Allen." Harry argued.
"We need to try it again." Joe said before they heard banging on the door.
"That door's not gonna hold for long, we need to do something quickly." Patty said.
"Is there another way out of here?" Jesse asked.
"No, the breach room was designed to be sealed off." Harry said.
"What are we gonna do?" Wally demanded.
"Wait. I saw Barry. He had this look." Cisco remembered. "What if we couldn't get him out of the Speed Force because he didn't want to come back?"
Speed Force
Barry was back in his childhood home, sitting on the couch with his mother Nora, reading from his favorite childhood book "The Runaway Dinosaur" before the shadow entered and Barry caught it and saw himself in the Flash suit.
"You're ready." 'Nora' said.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"Turn it on. We gotta try again." Cisco said, putting the apparatus on his head. "Any of you got a better idea?"
"When you look into the Speed Force, can someone else see into it too?" Henry asked.
"Well, as long as you're in physical contact with Ramon while he's vibing, then... yes." Harry said.
"Cisco. Get me and Henry in there." Patty stepped up. "If there's someone Barry's going to listen to, it's us. Please."
"We can get Barry to come back." Henry said.
Cisco nodded as Henry and Patty held his hand, while Cisco reached with his other hand to what was left of Barry's suit.
Speed Force
"Barry!" Barry saw the vortex forming, with Patty and Henry reaching out. "Barry!" Patty called out as Barry got up.
"Come back to us, slugger. Come back to us. Barry." Henry said.
Barry looked back at 'Nora', who smiled at him. "Run, Barry. Run."
Barry reached into the vortex, as Patty and Henry held Barry by his hand.
S.T.A.R. Labs
The vortex around them faded as Barry was back in S.T.A.R. Labs.
"Barry!" Henry said as he and Patty held Barry, hugging him tightly.
"Thank God you came back." Patty said as she kissed him, while Iris joined in for the hug.
"Barry!" Iris breathed out in relief before they pulled away.
"I'm so glad you're back, 'cause we're about to die." Cisco said.
Barry stared in shock. "Wait. What?"
They heard banging as they turned to the door.
"So..." Cisco stopped.
"Girder." Harry said.
"Girder came back to life, and he's all Young Frankenstein now, and he only recognizes Iris, and she lured him to my workshop so we could demagnetize him, but the machine shorted out, so he's about to come through that door and smush us all into chunky salsa and possibly eat our brains out. I don't know. Jury's still out on that." Cisco stammered.
"All right, I got it. I-I will lure him to your workshop, and we figure out a way to turn the power back on, OK?" Barry said.
"Plan H." Cisco and Harry said in unison as the door flew off the hinges and Tony roared. Barry grabbed Iris and sped behind Tony.
"Hey, Tony!" Iris yelled as Tony turned around and Barry picked Iris and sped off, with Tony following them to the workshop, while Harry and Cisco had managed to run into the workshop and were currently working on fixing the electromagnet.
"I hope you're ready, he's almost here." Barry said.
"Nope, not ready." Cisco said.
"Power needs at least two electromagnets, too much for this wiring to handle." Harry explained.
"We're gonna need a really big extension cord!" Cisco said.
"All right, I'll... I'll see what I can do." Barry said as Tony entered.
Barry dodged Tony's punches and as Tony saw Iris, he stopped. Barry used the opening to tackle Tony from behind but Tony knocked him away with his arm as Barry crashed against the wall.
"Barry!" Patty exclaimed.
Barry groaned as he got up. "Tony. Look, you were never my favorite person, but let's end this... so you can finally rest."
Barry sped around in a circle, surrounding Tony, while dodging his punches as the electromagnets turned on.
"He's using spin to charge the magnets." Cisco realized.
"Like an electric turbine." Harry said.
The energy coming from the magnets were covering Tony, who groaned before he fell down, dead as Barry looked at his childhood bully sadly, seeing him die for the second time.
Later, Central City Cemetery
Barry was at Nora's grave, with Patty and Henry at his side.
"Where are your crutches?" Barry asked as Patty leaned onto Henry, with a brace around her leg.
"I think I don't need them anymore but still, it'll take a while before I can return to my running days." Patty said.
"Joe offered to take me so many times." Barry said, sitting down and putting the flowers on the grave. "I always found an excuse to say 'no'." He pulled out a children's book from his bag. "My mom and I read this when I was little."
"'The Runaway Dinosaur'. I remember that one. She used to read it to you when you were a kid. You loved it." Henry said.
"I know of this book but I've never read it." Patty admitted. "What is it about?"
"It was Barry's favorite book that Nora used to read, when Barry was a little boy." Henry explained. "It's about a mother, who's always there for her child, no matter what happens."
Patty looked sad as she considered, eyes getting wet. "I barely remember my Mom. She died when I was little but she was there for me, when she could. Most of the time, it was me and Dad. He… he wasn't much into classic bedtime stories for kids. He'd try to think of them himself to get me to sleep." He chuckled.
CCPD
"The Flash survived." Zoom said as he looked outside.
"How is this possible?" Frost asked.
"The Speed Force. I can sense it." Zoom said. "No matter." He put on his mask as he approached the balcony, putting on his demonic voice, facing his army, with Frost at his side. "My brothers and sisters. My friends. I've brought us to this new world, which lay before us, defenseless, ours for the taking. The humans think that this planet belongs to them. Whose world is this?"
"Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world!" The metahumans chanted.
If there was any proof that Iris would become The Flash's equivalent of Felicity, it was this episode. I mean, using herself as a bait, so that Zombie Girder would chase her into S.T.A.R. Labs is one thing, but running all the way from her house to S.T.A.R. Labs, hoping that he wouldn't catch up with her and then kill her, rape her or worse? Seriously, that was Iris's idea? * face palm and shakes head * One has to wonder if Felicity would think of something more stupid than Iris's plan, since Blondie's dumb enough to think of a plan that would be just as stupid, if not more. The least Iris could've done was to use a car to be sure that Zombie Girder would not catch up with her.
Iris pulling Barry out of the Speed Force makes no sense at all, since it was forced and stupid, since prior to this point, Barry had not expressed any deeper feelings to Iris, other than amicable. The only reason they "fell in love" with each other, was the article from the future written by Iris West-Allen and Iris didn't care about Barry at all prior to that point, she cared about the Flash.
Plus, at the end of the episode, when they came to visit Nora's grave, Iris basically insulted her by saying that Barry's mother was not there for him and that proves she does not understand Barry at all. Iris's mother had left her because of her drug addiction and Barry's mother was murdered. That does not mean that Nora was not there for Barry and that is another proof that Iris is not fit for Barry at all and that she doesn't understand him as a character.
The show tries to make us believe that Iris knows Barry better than anyone else but it's not so. If that were true, she would have suspected long ago that Barry is the Flash, considering how often he had disappeared prior to Iris finding out. In addition, considering her actions, from when Barry lost his memories in Season 3 and 4x01 or her anger at him for leaving her and entering the Speed Force, which was undeserved and selfish from her part, in addition her taking out her anger on him at the couples' therapy in 4x02 due to him abandoning her, which was undeserved since there was no time for discussing that it was either the world or Barry's friends and family, it's obvious she doesn't understand the burden that Barry carries as the Flash. Iris's line "We are the Flash." is complete bullshit, since Iris has barely contributed to Barry's exploits as the Flash throughout the show and more often she has made situation worse, rather than better.
So, the idea that Barry and Iris in the show deeply love each other, as the WestAllen fans would like to believe, is, to be blunt and brutally honest, utter and complete bullshit. I don't care if you disagree with me, I'm not going to waste my energy arguing with you. All your arguments and flames are going to be deleted and ignored, since it's a waste of time to try to argue with me.
Hope Henry and Patty pulling Barry out of the Speed Force, works here.
And the next chapter is going to have some creative changes, since I had mentioned earlier that I have no intention of having Earth-1 Laurel die. In the next chapter, it's going to be finally revealed who was killed by Darhk as Barry faces the doppelganger.
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.