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"Damn it!" Joe stomped his foot on the floor and groaned, "I can't believe we lost him again!"

"Dr. Wells!" Cisco scrambled over to the scientist who was breathing hard on the floor, "Harry, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Ramon," he clapped the young engineer's shoulder, "thank you for what you did." This Cisco Ramon, the Vibe, was a night and day difference compared to Cisco Ramon, Reverb on Earth-2.

"I don't feel to good about it, though," he shrugged half-heartedly. He had injured Barry with his little screwdriver trick and he felt bad for his poor friend.

"Cisco, if you hadn't done what you did, I would've been dead now," Harry's voice was full of seriousness, "you saved my life."

A small, proud smile lit up Cisco's face, "Well, when you put it that way, I guess," he laughed.

"Help me up, Ramon," Harry rolled his eyes but a very very small smirk was on his lips.

"Joe-Joe, just calm down," a little farther away, Jay was trying to reel the detective/father in, "it's all right, Barry is going to be stopped."

"How could he do this?" Joe's voice broke, "he's my son, my children would never-"

"Stop right there," Jay cut him off, "don't talk like that. Barry is an admirable and righteous young man. Whatever has veered him off course-be it meta-human or not-he will find his way back. He always does," Garrick's chest puffed up.

"But what has made him like this?" Joe placed a hand on his forehead, "what could possibly make him want to hurt-" his voice trailed off but he looked at Iris sadly.

"I'll go check on her," Cisco saw that a moment was coming on and he didn't want to be reminded of what just happened. He wanted to do what he did best and right now that was helping Iris.

Jay watched as Cisco walked away to assist Iris. Softie, he scoffed, but his face remained concerned. I should've been an actor.

"That's not what we should be thinking about right now," Harrison's voice was hoarse and he rubbed his chest, "when we get back to the lab, I want to check the cameras one more time to see if Barry robbed the Central City Bank."

"The bank?" Hunter asked, confused, "Didn't you already check them yourself?"

"Iris raised a good point on the way over, " he explained, "Cisco's powers allow him to see what others cannot. In case there is any suspicious activity that my eyes are not in tune to, Ramon can see it."

"And why do you want to look at the tape if the bank robbery happened yesterday?" Jay continued to question the doctor, "Shouldn't we be out looking for him right now?"

"No," Joe finally spoke up but his voice was despondent, "because if we can get hard, tangible evidence against the Flash for robbing the CCB then the Captain will organize another meta-human task force. It will be a city-wide operation where the public will work against him to capture him," the detective said the last part in a grim voice, "and their orders are to take Barry out, not bring him in alive."

"We need to get to those tapes now," Hunter straightened up, turned around, and walked to the van.

"Damn!" Barry had to stop running, his leg felt like it was on fire and every time he set his weight on the ground blood and pain spilled from the gunshot wound. He gripped his injury with a gloved hand but stumbled to a clumsy stop against a locked car on a quiet street. He brought his hand to his eyes but the blood blended in with the burgundy color of his Flash suit.

The rendezvous warehouse he usually met the Man in Black was just another two blocks down but he didn't think with this hole ripping through his calf he was going to be able to run. Maybe I should head back to STAR Labs and have Cait check this out…

He growled and groaned in pain as his head exploded with a powerful new headache. These migraines kept getting more frequent as the night went on and more painful. He just needed to see the Stranger, his lulling voice and soothing eyes would give him a quick cure.

A powerful urge to run the rest of the two harrowing blocks surged through him. He felt the need to see the man now, at this moment.

Run, Barry, run, he sneered to himself and shuffled his feet on the floor for a little before bursting into a 700 mph sprint. Blood trailed in his wake and he was grinding his teeth in agony as his injured leg hindered his ability to run. Damn it, Iris, you and your meta-bullets. This would be a cinch if Cisco hadn't decided to mess around with the projectile's caliber and potent effect.

Barry saw the rusty old warehouse doors loom ahead and he almost shed a few tears in joy and relief. He skidded to an abrupt and painful stop and slid the last few feet. His leg dragged behind him and he burst into the warehouse like a batter sliding to third base. The area was quiet and dark and he savored these peaceful moments. Barry stretched his arms and legs slightly and leaned his head back to rest on the cool floor.

It was nice up until he heard a dangerous growl, "Barry Allen!"

Oh no, he thought to himself with caution.

"Where the hell were you!?"

He scrambled to a sitting position, despite his injured leg, and faced the Man in Black with self deprecation.

"I have been waiting her for an extra hour and a half wondering why you didn't answer my request, Flash!" he roared in anger and he saw the young speedster wince. It was time for a lesson to be learned, it was time the young man realized his faults didn't go without a punishment, "You disobeyed my orders!"

Barry met the man's gaze-a wrong move. The minute his eyes made contact with the Stranger's he felt his entire body-every molecule-break out in agonizing pain. He clutched his head in his hands with his nails and doubled over, writhing on the floor.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he yelled above the cacophony of noise and chaos erupting in his mind, "It won't happen again, I swear!"

"You must learn, boy," he spat the word like it was venom, "that consequences are received when I don't get what I want," he snarled and looked at the tortured CSI mercilessly-in fact, he even increased the pain.

Barry felt like his entire head was splitting apart straight down the middle. His eyes were burning so bad that they were watering like someone was washing his pupils with soap and acid. His arms, legs, and chest felt like they were being crushed by an invisible force that weighed as much as a piano. Make it stop! Make it stop!

"No," the man hissed, like he had read Barry's mind, "this is your punishment, Barry Allen, you delayed my plans and this is what it feels like to disobey my orders."

Garrison looked down at the agonizing speedster who was yelling on the abandoned warehouse's floor in front of him. The block was pretty much deserted and the boy could yell and scream all he wanted but there was no one who would hear him pitiful cries. This is what it felt like to have power, he loved it. To see the Flash, the face of Central City, bent to his every command was better than any drug. It was time this "hero" saw what it meant to be in the shadows, to feel beat by the meta-humans too abashed to reveal themselves to humanity.

His plans now needed to wait for a few more days until Barry Allen came to his senses and acted correctly. It was his job to save his fellow brothers and sisters who were hit accidentally by this freak storm two years ago. It was time for someone to step up and be the voice of all those unheard.

A sizable pool of blood was gathering itself on the floor and he curiously saw that it was from a gunshot wound in Barry's right calf and left shoulder blade. Unfortunate for him, he can deal with them later.

And all at once it stopped. The Flash gasped in relief and breathed hard and heavily. Remnants of the painful feeling pounding in his head like a sledge hammer still vibrated through his brain and he felt his stomach churn. The acid-like feeling that stung his eyes was starting to abate bit by bit and he closed them in relief and gratitude.

He moaned and rolled to his side on the floor as Garrison, hands clasped behind his back, circled him like a hawk.

"Do you know what you did wrong, Flash?" he asked calmly, cooly, like there wasn't a care in the world.

Barry's ears were still ringing so he barely heard the man speak to him. Paul rolled his eyes in agitation and kicked the speedster lightly with his boot.

He jumped with a start and looked at Garrison with red bleary eyes, "I failed to bring you the armored cars you asked for?"

"How many did I ask for?"

"Three."

"And how many have you provided me with?"

"None," Barry sighed in guilt.

"That's right," he snapped, "not even one, even after I specifically told you to bring them to this location an hour and a half ago, but you failed at that too. You're a failure, Flash," his lip twitched.

"It won't happen again," the Scarlet Speedster looked to the floor.

"Damn right, it won't," Paul was this close to using his powers on Barry Allen again, "because if it does, I will drag on your suffering and pain for hours on end until you slowly fade into a catatonic state from the degree of agony that you would be feeling, do I make myself clear?"

"Absolutely," Barry murmured and nodded like a child would being scolded by a parent.

"Good," he growled, "now stand up, boy."

As soon as Barry heard his orders, he forgot his pain and straightened his spine. The mesmerizing gradient of the man's eyes were hypnotic and Barry couldn't look away.

"You see that steel pole over there?" the man's eyes glanced to the corner of the warehouse darkly. The whole building was littered with steel pipes, iron bars, and other scraps, "bring it."

Barry limped over but he didn't express any pain or was his order and he would do it gratefully. He picked up the steel pipe in his fingers and brought it back for his master.

"Hand it to me."

The speedster gave the object to Garrison Paul.

"Mr. Allen," the stranger reminisced nostalgically, "do you know that I was a therapist back in the day?"

Barry shook his head.

"Did you know that I was a therapist at Central City Psychiatric?"

Barry shook his head again.

"Of course not," Garrison's voice was low and full of bitterness, "why would you?"

Barry didn't say a word, he just stared emotionless ahead.

"I was a good therapist, Flash, I did my job well because those mentally ill patients out there deserve a second chance in society rather than being locked up for their little idiosyncrasies," he snarled, "I was giving them a rightful, fighting chance and guess who took that away from me?" he looked down at Barry menacingly.

The speedster looked to the floor, guilt striking across his face.

Without notice, Paul looked to the steel pipe in his hands as it flashed against the moonlight. He raised it high above his head and brought it down hard on Barry's back, his own eyes red with anger.

The Scarlet Speedster shouted loudly in pain and surprise as he could feel a vertebrae in his spine slide out of place. He instinctively dropped to the floor, his body hitting the concrete hard as the bones in his back were compromised. He looked up to see Garrison staring down at him mercilessly, a glare in his seducing eyes.

"Get up, Barry Allen!" he growled fiercely and Barry flinched. Despite the immeasurable pain flaring in his body, he felt his muscles start to move and contract as his forced hands were pushing him up from the cold ground. He groaned in pain as his spine had to curl back and he fell to the floor again. He looked to the stranger's eyes and knew he was waiting for Barry to perform, to follow orders. He scrambled to his palms again and hoisted himself to a crouching position.

Garrison admired as the speedster's whole body quivered in pain and effort from barely crouching before him, but this was punishment for disobeying orders.

"Like I was saying," Paul removed his black jacket from his shoulders and threw it across the empty warehouse, "I loved my job till that freakish storm hit. I was in the middle of a successful trial for hypnotic therapy with a breakthrough patient when-BAM! This orange red wave crashed into the room," his eyes were distant from remembering, but alive with a fiery anger, "everything looked like it was on fire. The furniture, the table, the walls-everything was torn apart, including my patient," he snarled and looked at the struggling Barry Allen, "he died almost instantly, but not before I could hear his awful screams of pain and fear. It was truly terrible, Allen, but fortunately I was thrown back and the desk flipped over to protect me from the worst of the blast. I woke up a few weeks later in a hospital bed in a full body cast," Paul said with slight anger, "it took me two years to recover, Flash, two whole years of my life wasted by decomposing in a hospital room, with IV fluids pumped into you, with nurses and doctors poking and prodding your body, with painful surgeries and procedures, and what were you doing all that time? You were running around in the streets like some child! You didn't even know that some of us were suffering like we did, too," Garrison smiled with satisfaction as he saw Barry's arms were shaking and his legs were quivering with the strain of trying to obey his orders, "so here we are, Mr. Allen. You lived your life too long without orders, without someone buffering your actions because you felt like a god, you thought you were superior because of your powers, well-" Paul took a few steps back and rolled the sleeves of his black buttoned shirt up, "Here's what it feels like to obey!"

He charged Barry with the pipe and crashed it down on his head. Blood immediately pumped from the jagged and hard edge of the steel rod and the Flash's entire body went crashing to the floor. His arms and legs gave out, his back cracked, and he hit the cement ground fast and hard.

Paul saw as Barry lay on the floor helplessly. He smiled and lifted the pole once more high above his head and straight through Barry's stomach. He screamed in agony as fresh blood squirted from the wound and from his mouth.

His vision was going dark and a numbness was crawling over his head like cold water. Garrison wiped a few blood spatters that got on his arm and threw the steel pipe across the room. The vibrations as it hit the ground pounded inside Barry's skull.

"When you wake up," he heard a soft, low whisper, "you won't remember a thing that happened, you won't remember the CCPD armored car attempt, this warehouse, or me. You will go back to your STAR Labs and to your little friends but I expect you to do as I say tomorrow and take care of them, Barry Allen. Five cops should've died today," he snarled inside Barry's ear as blood was slowly starting to create a path down the side of his head. He saw Barry was falling unconscious, "stay awake," the Flash instinctively stiffened but he listened to orders and a series of painful groans escaped his mouth, "good," Garrison purred, "good, Flash," he clapped the back of his spine and Barry jumped and moaned louder as his injured vertebrae was disrupted, "but people must die, Barry, otherwise you'll be living a life of emptiness. Tomorrow, I don't care if it's bystanders, a few cops, or even your friends, but they must die."

The minute Garrison stopped talking, Barry's eyes rolled to the back of his head and his skull hit the ground motionlessly. Paul snorted and shrugged his jacket on his shoulders. He started to slowly walk out of the warehouse but he took one last glance back to see the Flash's body on the floor, unconscious, mask off, and blood oozing from his leg, his head, his shoulder, and his chest.

The Man in Black walked out into the dark night.

"This isn't gonna work," Cisco rolled his eyes as he sat in the chair Harry directed.

"It won't with that attitude, Ramon," the scientist was bent over a table typing into the keyboard.

"What's this even for?" Cisco asked.

"Iris had a point when she said that your powers might detect something I can't," Harry explained, "if we're dealing with a meta-human that can manipulate the brain then I won't be able to see anything, just what he or she might want me to."

"What makes you think we're dealing with another meta-human," the engineer didn't want to admit it but Barry might've just gone off the rails on his own.

"Because Barry wouldn't do that," it was as if he read Cisco's mind, "now all I'm asking of you is to take a quick look at this. It might not even work but it's worth a shot, alright?"

"Fine," Cisco sighed and crossed his arms. He watched as Harry pulled up the security feed from a few nights ago-the night of Barry's accident.

It started off pretty okay; the team brought Barry in where Caitlin started to get to work on his injuries. It saddened him to see the result of the gruesome accident and his friend so helpless and motionless. Barry Allen was one hell of a guy and to know that someone did this to him-corrupted that good nature-was almost impossible to grasp. The feed continued, Harry and Caitlin wheeled the speedster in one a gurney into one of medical rooms where he rested and healed on his own time. Most of the video was just watching Barry sleep (which was awkward on a lot of levels) and he was starting to drift off too when a movement caught his eye. He suddenly saw that Barry awoke and he was starting to move out of the bed. The speedster was stretching his legs and he changed into STAR Labs sweats before speeding out the room.

"What the-"

He concentrated more and looked closer. The time read 4:43 PM. Cisco switched around to the different camera views in the facility and stopped at the one of him and Harry arguing in the cortex. That was right before the suit was stolen. He switched the camera view again to the showcase where the Flash suit was usually displayed and gasped. Barry was standing right in front of the burgundy outfit and quickly switched into the suit, orange lightning crackling everywhere.

Cisco thought he felt a burning sensation in his eyes and a migraine building in the back of his brain. He shook his head to shrug it off but it stubbornly remained. The clock read 4:52 PM, only a few minutes before the Flash allegedly robbed the CCB.

"Oh no, Barry," Cisco shook his head with shock and hurt. For a little bit he had a sliver of hope that Barry didn't commit the crimes he was accused of, but now here it was clear as day.

He shut the monitor off roughly and pushed the chair away as he stood up. He walked angrily through the halls of the compound, his thoughts solely on the image of Barry stealing the suit and running off. He stormed into the cortex where everyone stood waiting for his reveal. Caitlin, Joe, Jay, Iris, and Harry looked at him with concerned and curious expressions as he began to speak.

"I-I looked at the security video," he started weakly. He suddenly felt hot and sweaty, his stomach doing flips, "and it was all Barry, he did it. He robbed the bank and he was really going to kill those cops out there tonight."

Joe turned around and shook his head, his shoulders sagging. Iris went to comfort him, a bandage on her head from her earlier fall, but even her face was a mask of disappointment and betrayal. Everyone felt it, everyone had been betrayed in different ways. The team's morale was low as the head of their little operation had gone AWOL.

"Does this mean that there was another meta involved?" Jay asked in his deep and thoughtful voice.

"We don't know," Harrison shook his head.

"But one more thing," Cisco spoke up again, "my eyes started to burn a-and I started to get this nasty headache."

All heads turned his way.

"That's what Barry felt when-" Caitlin looked around but she quickly stopped talking when she realized the same thought dawned on all of them.

"I felt it too," Harrison's eyes were cold and calculating, "when I was looking at the security feed."

"And Barry the night of the accident," Jay reminded them all.

"What does it mean?" Iris said, but she already new the answer.

"It is some sort of mind manipulation, right?" Joe walked forward and looked at Dr. Wells, "I mean the pieces fit."

"I would have to say that's my best guess," he nodded

"What's our best course of action?" Garrick asked the doctor.

"We need to trap this guy," Joe was determined, his voice sounded fierce.

"Or girl," Caitlin raised an eyebrow and piped up.

"Right," Harry nodded and looked to Cisco, "let's get to work."

"Okay-"

They heard a rush of wind-a familiar rush of wind; one they heard when Barry was running at super speed. A figure came crashing into the cortex. He was tall, skinny, brown-haired, and bleeding.

Everyone stared in shock and surprise as Barry Allen the Flash came to a panting halt and held the desk for support. His head was facing down and his chest rose and fell shakily. He had a gloved hand pressing against a gaping hole in his abdomen that went extremely deep. His leg was pointing at a side angle as the meta bullet still lodged in there hindered his stance; his shoulders were crooked as one was stooped low and the other supporting most of the weight. Blood soaked his brown hair and a steady trail of it was running down his neck.

"Barry!" Iris screamed and ran forward.

Caitlin came surging forward and Jay as well to support the injured speedster.

The other three men were staring with mouth open shock and confusion.

"Why aren't you helping?!" Iris yelled at them angrily, "Dad!?"

Joe stuttered for a moment then looked down to the ground not moving.

Barry coughed and blood stained his lips and the floor, he sunk to his knees and his suit was covered with the burgundy fluid once again. Caitlin was pressing her hand against Allen's abdomen wound while ordering Jay who was bringing over an oxygen cart. Despite it all, the speedster's hand had an iron grip on the desk.

"Dad!?" the detective's daughter shouted at him once more; he made no notion of going over to help. Cisco jumped out of his trance and ran to get the crash cart. Harrison was looking at the injured young man in front of him scrutinizingly. His eyes behind the lenses flitted back and forth suspiciously.

"Wells, what are you standing there for?!" Iris turned on him.

"How do we know this is our Barry?" he said in a low dangerous voice, "it could very well be a setup."

Barry coughed louder and more violently, the growing pile of blood was looking dangerous.

"If this was the other Barry then he wouldn't come here, this is the last place he'd want to be! Either way, he's in trouble and our Barry is still in there!"

"Dr. Wells, we need your help!" Caitlin looked at him pleadingly, "We're losing him!"

At the sound of that Joe ran into action. That dull gaze in his eyes had vanished and now he was the loving father with a fierce determination to save his son. Dr. Wells, although hesitant, assisted Cisco with the crash cart as they approached Barry.

Chapter 7 will be released soon!