Barry's heart was in his chest. The entire Smythe lounge was filled with his past and present, all of them staring at Barry. Just as Barry was going to introduce them to one another, Stacey walked down the stairs.
"BAS!" She called, engulfing him in a huge hug, she let tears fall onto his shoulder. She didn't care that everyone was watching, she just wanted her older 'brother' and now that she had him, she couldn't care less about everyone else.
"Shh.. it's okay Stace" Barry whispered, pulling her closer and letting her cry into the crook of his neck.
They all watched silently, not wanting to ruin the moment they were having together but they needed to know more about Bas and his family, they needed to know what was going on.
"Okay.. before I go into explaining everything.. I-I have to show you guys something" Barry sighed, gently prying Stacey off of him.
Then, in a flash, he was gone and returned moments later, multiple tubs of ice cream in this plastic bag. Wes' eyes were as big as the tubs as were the others, never in a million years would they believe that they had grew up with the Flash?
"You're-you're.." Rachel stuttered, being the only person able to use their voice.
The man they spent two years with, the man who had acted as a total jackass to them, the man who had seen too much darkness in his life was the Flash. He was the man who saved thousands of lives. The man who had seen far too much from the attacks. The New Directions were silent, all staring at one another whilst the Warblers were all fangirling over their friend. I mean, not everyone gets to walk around saying that they're best friends with the Flash? People would surely make fun of them for saying that. Barry explained it all to them, about who Zoom was and who the Reverse-Flash was but he purposely left the part out about his dad, that didn't concern them right now.
"So Zoom wants to race you?" Wes asked, he was the only person to have been in Central City and to have heard of the name.
"He's obsessed with being the best" Barry put simply.
"Why would you guys trust him?" Thad asked, being the only other person to find their voice.
"He just wants to race. You know, actually, it sorta makes sense in a completely off your rocker type of way" Finn added, getting over the shock of everything that had happened to Barry.
"There's no-way that all Zoom wants with my son is to race!" Joe exclaimed,
"It isn't," Harry said, linking his laptop up to the TV and showing them what he was looking at, "this Magnatar, that's being developed by Mercury Labs, turns out it can act like a pulsar"
"Whoa.." Cisco said, he knew to what extent a Magnatar's powers could go to but he never believed that it could become a weaponised machine.
"What is a pulsar?" Iris questioned, eyes focused onto the screen that showed the structure of the Magnatar on.
"It's a power amplifier with a highly magnetised dense rotating core that can be easily weaponised" Harry explained.
"Nah. that's not dangerous at all" Iris retorted, sarcasm lacing her voice.
"That's what happens to Earth-2. What happens in my vibes is because of this machine" Cisco exclaims, watching as the miniature explosion on the screen fills the Earth with this purple substance.
"That thing is strong enough to destroy a whole planet" Blaine said, for once feeling smart compared to some of the people in the room. Cough, Rachel, Cough.
"A lot more then just a planet, if it has the right power source" Harry said, facing Barry.
"Like what?" Jesse questioned, staying next to Wally for protection incase her captor decided to make a grand entrance.
"Like me," Barry said, lifting his head up and looking at Jesse, "that's why he wants to race, he wants to syphen the energy I create when I run"
"He wants to syphen the energy off of both of you" Harry added, not caring how silent the others had become.
"When Hunter captured me, he said that he use to measure his success by counting the number of victims he had. But now, he was gonna measure it by counting how many Earths he conquered instead" Caitlin admitted, feeling terror pick at her insides.
"He doesn't want to just destroy Earth-2, he wants to take out every other planet in the multiverse" Harry realised, eyes dark with anger whilst his voice was soft.
"How many are there?" Stacey questioned.
"Infinite" Harry said coldly, staring at Stacey.
"Well can he do that?" Jesse asked, feeling outraged that every single planet in the multiverse could be wiped out of existence yet her father was acting so calm about it.
"If he can create a breach to Earth-2 all on his own—" Joe started, being interrupted by Barry.
"He can get to all of them"
"One pulse to destroy them all" Cisco added dejectedly, opening his eyes wide.
"Looks like there's no choice here. I have to race him. And I have to win"
The room went into an eerie silence. Whilst the New Directions and the Warblers were all trying to comprehend this new information, Barry was too busy thinking about his race with Zoom whilst the others all were having the same thought:
'Barry's gonna lose'
FLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASH
Thawne watched on the monitor the group of people in the Smythe residence. He watched and listened to the entire thing, he had already informed Hunter of their knowledge of Hunter's side of the plan but they had yet to realise that he had his own plan. One that Hunter wouldn't agree with.
"I think it's time to call in the Calvary" Hunter said with a smirk. Eobard immediately knew what he was going on about, they had formed a team of criminals to become the 'rogues' one of the members being Mr. Leonard Snart with his possé.
"I'm sure Mr. Snart would be happy to bring the bait as well, Zoloman" Thawne added, turning towards his partner–his equal– god how un true that was.
"We've got a plan to set in motion. Let's go Thawne" Hunter sped off, with Eobard hot on his trail.
FLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASHGLEEFLASH
Wes was sitting opposite Barry. He could see the stress lined in the kid's face. It didn't need a rocket scientist to realise that everything was hitting him hard, emotionally. Physically, well he just looked drained of everything.
Since they formed their plan, Barry had remained silent, not wanting to answer any questions or anything, it seemed as if he was battling his mind with conflict on whether to race him or not.
"Bear. Say something. You're the one who wants to race him yet you seem the most troubled out of us all. Open up" Joe—who Wes was mildly familiar with as the latter's foster father—said, placing his large hand onto his son's smaller shoulder.
The small chatter that was once a peaceful background noise fell silent, whilst no-one had bothered to fill them in on anything, they had formed their own hypothesis on this all. He was the man who murdered his mother all those years ago.
"What's there to say Joe. If I fuck this up, billions of people die for what cost? They don't deserve their lives to be ruined by that monster. He's already taken too much from people, myself included, he can't take anything more" Barry replied, not bothering to look Joe in the face.
The self-loathing in his voice had hit Wes right in the heart. He had never heard such anger come out of his voice about himself. The guy he knew always thought highly of himself but right now, all he saw was an insecure man who had been through too much with this man for his optimistic side to come through.
"You will win, Bas. Don't ever start to talk like that! You won't fuck up because I know you. Don't ever talk bad about yourself!" Thad scolded, standing up and walking towards Barry to slap his arm for him doubting himself.
"Well I'm sorry okay? But I'm already the cause of my dad's fucking death I don't wanna be the cause of billions of people's deaths when I'm already carrying that on my shoulders!" Barry retaliated, standing up and walking out of the room, leaving everyone stunned at what had just happened.
After hearing that, Blaine ran out of the room after him, fearing of what could happen if no-one bothered to. Santana ran out of the room as well, to her, Sebastian was like her brother and she was going to help him through it all. Finn pulled a crying Rachel into his arms, rocking her back and forth gently so she would calm down. Joe collapsed onto the couch, sitting where Barry was previously sitting and running his hands down his face, he knew that he'd have to eventually tell them about how his father was murdered but he didn't expect it to come out like that, to be honest—no-one thought that's how it would come out.
"We can't let him race Zoom. He'll lose" Iris explained, looking down at the floor, she couldn't believe what she was saying. Of course, she had faith in Barry but she wasn't so sure of how much of that was left after him exploding like that over the smallest thing.
"No. Barry's got this! I believe in him" Cisco explained, angry at how easy it was for Iris to turn her back against him just like that.
Just then, Jeff's phone went off, bringing the attention away from Team Flash and onto Jeff. He read the text aloud.
'I'm taking Barry to Dalton. The Warblers need to get back there to be on time for lights out so we'll meet you there'
Nodding, everyone except Team Flash started to pile out, leaving a very concerned Team of people and a very confused young girl.
"You're all gonna tell me everything that's happening. From the beginning"