Nothing But Each Other
PenPatronus
Chapter 3
Barely
Barry wrapped his arms around the iron bars, clenched his eyes shut, and held his breath. The cuffs broke his ankles for the sixth time, right on schedule, and his screams reverberated down the hallway. Sweating, gasping, trembling, Barry collapsed to the cell floor, landing on his back. The agony was exhausting. Each time he healed slower and slower, which meant that the pain he experienced between the breaks lasted longer. His stomach growled. It had been a day and a half since he'd eaten or had any water, and he was almost out of energy. He couldn't shake the bars apart, claw through the wall, phase, or stand, let alone run.
A scream suddenly echoed down the hallway. Oliver's scream. Barry winced and put his palms over his ears. Hearing his friend in pain was just as bad as his physical pain. All he could do was lie there, alone, staring up at the strobing lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.
The light. The way it was flashing. The rhythm of it. The pattern. The pattern.
B-A-R-R-Y the light blinked at him in Morse Code. B-A-R-R-Y.
Relief flooded Barry's senses, making him feel like he was lying in freezing water. "I'm here," he whispered to the lightbulb. "I'm here." The bulb must have been a concealed camera and microphone his friends had hacked, because now it was flashing the letter F over and over. "Hi, Felicity."
O-L-I-V-E-R… A-L-I-V-E…?
Tears stung Barry's eyes. "Yeah, but he's in trouble," he whispered. The bulb went dark for a moment, as if in mourning, then started flashing once more. C-O-M-I-N-G… F-O-R… Y-O-U.
Barry smiled slightly. "Bring a sandwich."
H-A-N-G… O-N.
"Hurry," Barry whispered. "Hurry."
When Barry heard the guards' footsteps, he crawled to the bars and did a pull up, raising his chin high. From there he could see that they were carrying a body. Knowing they'd make him do it anyway, Barry crawled to the back of the cell and raised his hands in surrender. The guards unlocked the door and dumped the body inside. They left without a single word.
"OLIVER!" Barry crawled to his friend as quick as his weak arms would take him. He found Ollie conscious, but unmoving. He wore his half-burned gray t-shirt and still-wet blood covered the bottom left side of it. His navy sweatpants were intact. Barry found a taped piece of gauze on the inside of Oliver's left arm. He gently pulled the gauze aside and found a wide needle mark. "They drugged you," he said mostly to himself.
Oliver blinked lazily. "Not this time," he whispered slowly, elongating each syllable. "Just drained me… Drained my blood. Went into hypovolemic shock twice."
Barry gently pulled up Oliver's shirt and revealed two knife wounds. Oliver had been stabbed, then the knife had been dragged down his skin, then he was stabbed again. "Oh, no." Because the needle wound was already clotted, Barry took that and placed it over the wound. Oliver bled through the gauze almost instantly.
Oliver propped up one eyebrow and sighed. "I've had worse."
"That doesn't make this hurt less," Barry theorized. The speedster quickly took off his bloody t-shirt, rolled it up into a bandage, and pressed it against Oliver's wound. His concern mounted when Oliver didn't even flinch from the pressure. "Did they put you under that iron arch?" Barry asked. Oliver nodded. "What did they say to you? Anything?" Oliver shook his head. "What the hell is going on? What's the point of torturing us if not for information?"
Oliver's eyes rolled back into his head, but he started himself awake before he could pass out. "Have a theory," he said. "Those women… Barry, didn't you notice?"
Barry frowned. "Notice what?"
Oliver stared off into space for a long moment. He brought himself back to the present a second before Barry called his name. "Same person…" he whispered. "They're the same person… The younger one is an exact copy of the older one."
Barry's jaw dropped. "Cloning," he realized. "That's what they're trying to do to us. That arch thing… It was scanning us."
Oliver shut his eyes. "Mmm," he grunted.
"They took blood from both of us. Got our DNA… They scanned our brainwaves." Barry shook his head. "Can they duplicate my powers? But, why the torture. I don't get it! Why torture us?"
Oliver's eyes remained closed. "Fun," he said, barely loud enough for Barry to hear. "Some people do that… For fun."
Barry's makeshift bandage was holding its own, but some streams of blood were still seeping through. "Dammit. Oliver, can you hold this against the wound? Just for a minute." Oliver grunted, and Barry took that as a yes. A minute went by before Oliver got up the strength, but then he did as he was told. While Oliver held the shirt, Barry gently ripped what was left of Oliver's shirt off his body and added it to the bandage. "Sit up for me. Just for a second," requested Barry. "Let me get the rest of it. Need all the help you can get.
Oliver groaned. "Roll over," he sighed, and he did, just long enough for Barry to grab the extra fabric. Oliver's hand let go of the bandage and slid to the floor. Barry grabbed the shirts before they fell. When he looked up, he saw that Oliver's eyes were closed.
"Oliver?" Barry shook his friend's shoulders. "Oliver, maybe you should stay awake."
"Tired…"
"I know. I know, but listen. Look up. Oliver, look up!"
Oliver opened his eyes and looked where Barry was pointing. "That is a lovely lightbulb, Barry."
"Morse code. Look for the Morse code, Oliver."
Oliver obeyed. Gradually a smile broke through his strained features. "Love you," he told Felicity. "Love you, too." Then he twisted his head to the right and looked into Barry's eyes. "Sorry," he croaked. "I tried…"
"Stay awake." Barry shook him again. "Oliver—Ollie! Stay awake!"
Oliver couldn't. He passed out. Barry put his forehead on his friend's chest and let the tears fall.
To Be Continued