The entire city is shaking, whatever it was that Professor Providence had done was tearing Central City apart. Inside STAR Labs the situation was quickly escalating, with Providence fending off attacks from both the Snart siblings and the members of Team Flash. Something wasn't right, the amount of effort being put into the attacks should have Providence flat on her ass and back to the prison in no time, but she was gaining strength somehow. Something was very different from the last fight, and everyone knew it.
Providence took a strong swipe at the nearest attacker, blood red nails dragging across skin and sending Lisa flying across the room, crashing through the laboratory equipment. Caitlin dashed to her side, gently helping her up. "Are you alright?"
Lisa shook her head slightly, gingerly holding her scratched cheek. Thankfully she wasn't bleeding much. "I'm going to be a little sore later, but I'm fine."
"You puny insects will all pay for your insolence! Paragon has risen!" The madwoman ran at her top speed out of STAR Labs, everyone else giving chase until they slowed to a stop, staring up they saw exactly what Providence had done. Some.. THING was in the wreckage of the parking lot, whatever it was, the proportions were all wrong. It had far too many arms, too many heads, too many legs and the joints in said legs took disturbing turns. Multi-ended tails thrashed the air, almost lacerating the very atoms with their skin was a complex mottled green/grey with odd protrusions, like spoilt milk that had been sitting in the refrigerator for a few months. Lumpy and gross. Fangs grew from beneath spit-slimed lips, jagged and sharp. With its every breath a stench of toxic, rotting meat washed over everything, and a sickening red tongue hung out of its cavernous maw. It lifted three of its mangled and twisted heads towards the sky, letting loose a multi-tonal powerful screech, the entire city shaking from the immense force. A clawed hand slammed the ground, and one of its twisted heads was almost instantly at the level of humans, dozens of yellow eyes focusing on the tiny creatures before it. The creature had huge gaps in its skin, Giant fissures and lacerations, white bone and red muscle showing through the injuries. There was the stench of death in the air, and the atmosphere tingled with the feeling of dread. It was already dying, but it had one last goal before it ventured into the great unknown of death. Paragon knew only that they had to make all of this right.
"What the hell is that thing?" Barry tried to keep himself between the creature and the people behind him, he didn't want to risk anything. "Providence, what have you done?"
"Oh, I haven't done anything at all Flash, they did it all themselves!" Providence grinned, walking slowly up to the creature before her. "Aren't they just perfect? My most beautiful creation..." The psychopath placed a hand on the mottled flesh of the beast. "Absolutely amazing, aren't they?"
"I don't know what you think beautiful means, but I don't think that THING is beautiful. Like, at all." Cisco had a good point, it was really gross. Too many limbs, too many heads, the thing smelled weird, it was just all wrong.
The creature made eye contact with its creator the best it could, and a malformed hand snatched Providence into the air. The creature spoke, its voice reverberating from all the flat surfaces, rumbling up from the earth itself.
"What is my Purpose?"
Providence shrugged, nonchalant about the fact she was hundreds of feet above the ground, gripped by a creature she had created with no reason. "You're the ultimate testament to my accomplishments, my greatest and grandest achievement!" She gestured to the city below, the simple people looking up in terror at the beast before them. "Look at them! Look at how they scurry around, wasting away their entire lives in the human rat race. They're just simple insects, never able to reach the heights of the Gods!"
"And are you a God?"
"I'm the closest thing to it!" Providence was angry, her creature wasn't obeying her as expected. The plan was breaking down. "Do you think any of this so-called heroes could ever do anything close to what I have done?"
Paragon appeared to briefly consider this, a few dozen sets of yellow eyes blinking slowly out of sync. The beast then snapped out a black clawed hand and grabbed the closest person to them. Barry was stunned by the speed of this lumbering creature, and he struggled in vain against the clawed hand. Paragon turned a heavy head towards its new captive.
"What is your intended Purpose?"
"Humans don't have an 'intended purpose!'" Paragon shook its closed fist angrily, rattling the speedsters brain into a dizzy scramble. Barry stopped struggling against the black claws and raised his hands up in surrender, not wanting to anger the beast. "Look, I don't know what it is that you want, but I'm not going to try and hurt you."
The creature snarled in irritation, that was not the answer they had wanted. They tightened their grip on the speedster, there was an audible crack of at least two ribs. A deep growl rumbled through the city, Paragon spoke again.
"What is your Function?"
Barry coughed weakly before responding, "people don't have a function! That's not the purpose of living!" Paragon loosened their grip before pulling the speedster close into their gaze. Sulphurous yellow eyes stared into the hero's own. The rest of the world seemed to fade into darkness and Paragon spoke once more.
"What is the Purpose of Living?"
A thrown rock smacked against one of Paragon's heads, directing their gaze to the human who had cast the stone. Rumbling of rock and a sweep of the tails showed their irritation before they turned their attention back to the captive speedster. They closed their claws tighter, hoping to elicit some sort of response.
"What is the Purpose of Living?"
Barry fought against the steadily tightening claws the best he could, like an ant trying to halt a runaway freight train. His lungs felt as if they were going to burst, and he faintly heard the yelling of the people in the parking lot below, they were trying to free him to no avail.
Providence laughed hysterically at the new developments, this was so much more than she could have ever asked for. "Their purpose is to serve! Don't deny it, Flash, that's the entire point of it all!"
"No."
"What?" Providence sounded surprised, an odd look gracing her easily forgettable features. "What do you mean by 'No?'"
Barry coughed up a thin stream of blood, he had a few cracked ribs and a punctured lung, but he could feel it all healing already. The grip of the beast loosened as if it knew he was injured. "I think they mean that you're wrong, Providence, you're wrong about the purpose of living, you've been wrong about everything!"
"Stop lying! I'm never wrong!" Providence angrily punched the clawed hand holding her aloft, not seeming to care if she dropped to her death. Her voice had lost the layers of power behind it, she honestly sounded shocked that she might have been wrong. "I'm a GOD! A God is never wrong!" She almost sounded scared, but she continued to rage instead of losing face in front of the enemy. "I'm not wrong! I'm right! I'm right ! I'M RIGHT!"
Far below them, the rest of the group tried fruitlessly to save Barry from the clutches of the beast but to limited success. Chunks of ice fell away from the creature as soon as they froze, hunks of flesh and shards of bone falling away in their wake. Blasts of gold solidified joints and limbs, only to crumble into golden dust. They were certainly not yet winning, but they were making a difference. Black blood was gushing from each wound, and the stench of death grew stronger with every pull of the trigger.
Paragon didn't try to fight back, they now knew their purpose.
Death.
The inevitable darkness and silence.
The beast steeled itself, knowing they had to die for the rest of the world to continue living. If they did not die, then they would kill the world. But before that was to happen they still needed answers.
"What is the meaning of life?"
The speedster struggled to come to an answer, he was a hero, not a philosopher. "That's… that's a complex line of questioning." He frowned in confusion, "why are you asking me this? I'm not the best person to answer this."
Providence almost growled in rage,"it's not complex at all! Humans are meant to serve!" She pathetically slapped at the clawed hand she was held in, perhaps subconsciously she hoped to drop to her death to avoid the shame of being wrong. "Humanity is meant to break, to be held captive! To serve my every possible whim!"
Paragon ignored the angry ranting of its creator, keeping their attention on the captive speedster. The voice rumbled through the earth once more, introspective questions posed by a naive genius.
"And what happens once you die?"
Barry blinked in surprise, that was not a question he had been expecting. "Well, there's a lot of different beliefs on-
"NOTHING HAPPENS AFTER YOU DIE!" Providence angrily shouted from her respective hand. "THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS DEATH, THERE IS NO DEEPER MEANING! DEATH IS THE ULTIMATE END! YOU ARE ALL NOTHING!"
A blast of ice shot past Professor Providence, silencing her rant and freezing half of one of Paragon's heads. Thick slabs of skin and muscle slid off the beast's skull, leaving icy tendons and shattered bone in its wake. Immediately a roar of pain and confusion rattled from the creature's many throats.
Crowds of police officers had surrounded the group, bullets ricocheting off the beast's thick skin. The bullets that hit the gaping, open wounds sunk into the exposed flesh with a sick *thuck* sound. Black vans skidded to a halt, dozens of SWAT team members armed to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons poured out of each of the vans.
A smug looking woman in a cheap brown suit, wielding an implausibly large megaphone, stepped up with a false sense of superiority and importance. Goddamn hostage negotiators. Huge fucking egos, worse than professional musicians. Seeing as neither Barry nor Providence were actually hostages so the police had no reason to send a negotiator, but did they call to verify the situation? No, they didn't. But anyways, back to the story at hand.
A grungy, rusty, beater pulled up behind the SWAT vans, Mick jumping out and running towards the insanity, gun already drawn and at the ready. It looked like he was asking Lisa something, but Barry couldn't be sure from this height. The negotiator was speaking to Caitlin and Cisco as the storm of bullets continued to rain down on the creature. Providence looked deep into the eyes of her creation and read the meaning hidden in the yellow. They both knew what they had to do to end this chaos. Neither of them had gotten what they wanted out of this, the only thing they had accomplished was causing more suffering in a world already full of pain.
Paragon seemed to frown apologetically through their fangs, and they gently set Barry back on the ground, somehow avoiding all of the flying bullets. Another blast of ice slashed across the beast's chest followed quickly by a bolt of gold and a blast of searing heat. Black blood poured from the wound, cascading across the pavement like a perverse river, flowing currents of death instead of life. A loud roar of pain echoed through the city, rattling the building on their foundations, yet still, Paragon did not attempt to defend or protect themselves.
Providence was raised higher, caught in a mental conversation with her creation. The two of them had something planned, and whatever it was would have to happen soon. With amazing speed and surprising grace, the creature leapt over the surrounding crowd, fire and lightning streaking in their wake. An echoing warning floated behind long after they had disappeared.
"Please do not follow."
***Providence Waits***
The field they were in was much further than Paragon had intended to flee, but it would work for its intended purpose. They couldn't have any unwanted casualties. A storm of lightning and fire surrounded the beast and its creator, yet the two remained untouched in the epicenter of the tempest. Providence knew what was expected, what she had to do, but she didn't want to go through with this. She didn't want to die. Sure, Paragon hadn't said she would have to die, but she knew how their plan would play out.
Die to save the world, need your creator to promise to not create another mutant army. Creator refuses, also must die. Simple really, she had to commend Paragon on that. Well, except for the part about her death.
She really didn't want to die.
All she had wanted in the beginning was to be a God, but now… now she didn't know if she had even really wanted that. All of her powers, her intellect, her creations, everything she had accomplished, all of that was for naught. She had no true purpose, no reason to keep going.
She understood why Paragon needed them both to die. She had looked through their memories and seen what they had seen. The entire history of humanity, and she hadn't contributed to the positive side in the slightest. She had only caused suffering and pain. People wouldn't remember Candice Providence, inventor, researcher, microbiologist and nano technician. They wouldn't remember her accomplishments and contributions. The world would only remember 'Professor Providence,' criminal mastermind, evil genius, villain.
"Are you prepared for this?"
Paragon was her only real contribution. Look where that had gotten her, an empty field surrounded by wind, fire, and lightning, preparing to die. She truly wished she was prepared for this, but death is not something you can ever prepare for.
"Prepared as I'm ever going to be," she steeled herself, standing tall on the palm of her dying creation. "Let's get this over with quickly." She placed a flat palm against Paragon's thumb, feeling the life force of the dying beast intertwined with her own power. She just had to pull the old power back into herself, unraveling Paragon's DNA and overloading her own abilities. Not exactly a murder-suicide, but close enough to it.
She looked into Paragon's fading yellow eyes, "last chance to back out of this… no? Alright then..."
She pulled in a deep breath, exhaling shakily. She felt her power reach out and pull back, like a hidden riptide, the current of energy pulling her under before she could even begin think of what she was doing. It was a fierce lightning storm, fueled by rage and sorrow. Dancing flames burning up all of the negative feelings she had ever held towards all of humanity. Her entire life was laid out before her, a tapestry of misguided anger and hatred. The entire history of herself written in a single moment. One grain of sand in the beaches of time.
The memories of Paragon leeched into her own, colors blending and bleeding in ways unfathomed by humanity. It was beautiful. Is this what dying was? Dying had never seemed so... beautiful. Death had always seemed to be something intangible, something to be feared and respected, not something to actually want.
Around the fading duo, the storm raged on, flames turning black and lightning crackling white-hot. Winds whipped the very earth, dirt flying into the storm. In the center of the chaos was only death, Paragon's body falling to pieces, muscle, skin, and bone crumbling into the dirt, black blood soaking into the soil. Providence herself was nothing more than an empty shell, something she had so long accused all of humanity of being.
It was all over. The reign of the New God was done before it had even started.
***Providence Waits***
"You're at the location where people said they went, what's out there?"
"It's just an empty field with a pile of dirt, no, it's not dirt, it's ash- wait, there's more…" Barry was on the comms with the rest of Team Flash, it had been almost two days since the whole Paragon incident. News outlets had called it the 'Paragon of Chaos.' Damn sensationalist media. The entire city was still in shock over the localized storms and earthquakes, trying to rebuild after everything would take some time. News had come to light about Professor Providence's involvement in the insanity and the entire city now knew where all of the missing people had gone the past nine months. At least they have closure.
"What else do you see out there, Barry?" Cisco's voice came through with a bit of static, the comms had some minor interference, probably residual electrical charge in the soil. "Any idea what happened out there?"
Barry was distracted as he walked carefully over the scorched earth, the criminals that had become an almost constant presence the last few days had up and vanished as soon as the police had pulled out of STAR Labs parking lot. No explanation, no messages, only a piece of paper in the middle of the lab with an address scribbled on it. Barry had grabbed that before anyone else had seen it. Anyways, back to the investigation.
The dirt had crystallized into a solid circle of smooth glass, a high silica content in the soil made for a nice, solid, finish on the glass. The entire field was intact except for the circle of melted dirt and the burnt grass on the edges of said circle. "There was enough heat here to melt the ground, some kind of electrical discharge." He stepped into the high rising pile of ash, "something burned out here, something big. Looks like there's a dead body out here, it's definitely been here a while but there's almost no decay… huh, that's weird, they look familiar." The Flash stumbled to a halt in the center of the field, looking down at the cold, grey, corpse. "Guys, it's Professor Providence."
"What? Cisco, give me the damn mic." There was a scratching sound in the comms, and Caitlin's voice came crackling through the tiny speakers. "Barry, is there any sign of a struggle? Any defensive wounds? Are you able to tell when this happened?"
"It looks like it happened right after they left, the ground is melted, there are scorch marks, looks like they're from lightning," Barry crouched next to the dead body, examining the hands of the dead woman. Lucky for him the Flash Suit had thick gloves, no chance to leave any prints behind. "There's some scorching on the hands, maybe some kind of power feedback."
He stood up slowly, careful not to disturb the pile of ash, "we should really call this in, I can do more to figure this out as plain old Barry Allen."
"Well, we should call this in, but you don't really have to figure this out, Barry." Cisco was back on the comms, the static still there behind his voice. "Joe said the detectives found some files in a locked safe in her mad-lab. You should get back here before the cops get there."
"Good plan, going dark until I get back." Barry switched off the comms, he had to make a quick detour before he went back to STAR Labs.
He set off at a leisurely, for him anyway, pace, speeding home to change and then winding up on the stairwell of a small apartment in the middle of downtown Central City. A solid wave of air caught up with him no more than a second later, rattling the plain door in front of him. Barry knocked tentatively, he wasn't sure how the conversation would go, but he knew for sure that it would be amazingly awkward and uncomfortable for the both of them.
Something along the lines of "hey, why'd you run off ? Is it because you remember everything that happened when I came to rescue you? Or is it because of this whole newly forming romance thing?"
The door swung open with a *click* and there stood Leonard Snart, obviously not expecting any visitors due to the fact that he was wearing what appeared to be pajamas covered in little snowflakes.
"Barry? What are you doing here?"
Barry grinned awkwardly, "I was, I wanted to talk to you about the whole…" He gestured between the two of them, obvious with his meaning. "Well, that and to check up on you."
Len blushed fiercely, backing away from the door. "Yeah, um, come on in."
"Thanks." Barry stepped across the threshold, carefully maintaining a reasonable distance from his, definitely not enemy. Friend? More-than-friends? Definitely not quite lovers, nor were they boyfriends. But that could still change. "Nice pajamas."
The red blush on Len's cheeks deepened, "they were a gift…" He looked Barry in the eye and looked back to the floor just as quickly. "I've been figuring out all the memories I've gotten back, and I wanted to apologize."
"What for?" barry knew exactly why he wanted to apologize, but this was pretty funny. "For sitting on you and for singing when you came to rescue me." He couldn't look Barry in the eyes, it was just too embarrassing. "And for refusing to believe you about it."
Barry laughed a little at that, "it's no problem, I wouldn't have believed me either."
Len smiled, leaning in a little closer to the speedster. "I should really thank you properly for this." A mischievous smirk played across his lips and he continued to lean in.
"I'm going to have to take you up on that offer." Barry leaned in, pressing his lips against the criminals in a soft kiss. Len's lips were surprisingly soft and warm. Barry moved closer still, his hands moving of their own accord, one settling at the back of Len's neck, the other on his hip.
The two continued, deepening the kiss before breaking apart, both of them out of breath.
"I think that was the best 'thank you' that I've ever gotten." Barry smiled fondly at the other man in his arms, noticing not for the first time just how attractive he was. "I just might have to thank you for that."
Len chuckled, content to stay wrapped in the speedsters arms. "I should give you my phone number so we can make this a regular thing."
Barry grinned and moved in for another kiss. "No need, you put it in my phone when you were drunk."
***End***