Aiden was never particularly a lucky guy, he knew that. He always seemed to lose at card games, no luck was ever thrown his way.
But finally, after years of pining after Christina he was about to tell her just how she made him feel, and a supervillian had to get in the way.
Come on.
When he saw the 2 streaks running straight towards him and Christina, Aiden's thought was to protect Christina. But he was too much in shock, The Flash and Zoom were running straight towards them.
He had heard the stories of course, about the city's very own Scarlet Speedster, but he had never personally seen him before. Aiden had read the stories by that reporter who seemed to have a connection to him, Iris West.
The two speedsters seemed like they were about to hit them so Aiden tried his best to keep Christina safe. He wrapped his arms around her and tackled her to the ground as the two speedsters passed them, power energy, lightning, moving all around them. He looked over to Christina to make sure she was alright.
"Are you okay?" he asked her, unsure if he had hurt her unintentionally.
"I'm fine, just a little surprised." she responded.
"Yeah, you and me both."
Then to add fuel to the fire, Aiden looked up and saw clouds forming around Central City, some form of freak storm, and Aiden knew it was because of the speedsters. Inside the clouds he could see some brief flashes of light.
"Figures it would be lightning…" Aiden muttered to himself.
Christina turned to him and said, "So Aiden, what were you going to tell me it sounded like it was important?"
"Well-"
He never got to finish his thought because there was a blinding flash-pun totally not intended-and there was a lightning strike about 10 feet away from Aiden and Christina, the force of the strike sent them flying them backwards a few feet. Aiden fell on his back, knocking the air out of his lungs. He propped himself up on his right elbow and looked around.
There were many families and young children as they were near a park. Aiden looked at Christina, who was coming to. Something from the corner of his eye caught his attention, and then he saw it, a building.
He scrambled over to Christina to check if she was okay, luckily she was. Aiden knew what he and Christina had to do, they had to try and get these people to safety.
Aiden looked into Christina's beautiful eyes and said, "I have a really bad idea."
He explained his plan to her and she totally agreed to it, she always had a good heart and a willingness to help people.
Aiden ran over to a group of kids and started to usher kids over to the building, and he noticed that he was struggling to breathe properly. It was then that he noticed that the cloudy atmosphere had now suddenly turned into a full on gale storm. The winds were blowing people everywhere, but Aiden was determined to get these kids to safety. He kept pushing them forward and encouraging them, telling them not to give up, to persevere. Conveniently, these were also words he himself needed to hear, it was taking all of his strength not to pass out.
The grass under his feet was moving all over the place, moving with the directions of the winds. Aiden had moved to a young woman cradling her baby and started to help her towards the building, trying his very best to steady her and himself. Once he got her to the safety of the lobby of the building her turned to see if he could find Christina, and he found her sitting on a bench looking very run down and still despite the storm, Aiden thought she was beautiful. Her blonde hair looking messy but still somehow like she had spent hours trying to make sure it looked amazing. Her blue eyes searching around for Aiden, and her eyes met his, his breath hitched and she ran over to him a engulfed him in her arms.
Her hair smelled of lilacs and there was also some form of peppermint. Aiden gladly returned the hug, she thought it was just a friendly hug, but this was doing wonders for Aiden. He felt heat and warmth radiating from her, and his feelings for her only amplified.
"Are you okay?" he whispered into her hair, not wanting to break the contact between them for even a second of time.
"I'm fine," she said, "are you okay?"
"Just a little shaken but I'm just glad that we got everyone out of there."
The universe seemed to taunt him at this exact moment, because apparently him running around like a madman trying to save people while endangering himself and Christina wasn't enough. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an older Asian woman running around frantically, looking for someone.
The woman screamed out, "Has anyone seen my son Will?"
Aiden eyes widened and he looked towards Christina, and apparently she had the same thought too and ran towards the window to look around. They couldn't have missed someone, could they have? Aiden's eyes worked tirelessly, trying to locate the young boy.
Christina and Aiden both found him at the same time, hiding under a tree. Trying to shield himself from the world around him. In that moment, Aiden saw a lot of himself in the kid when his father died.
He then decided to do something incredibly stupid, he looked at Christina and she knew, she knew, what he was going to do.
Damn hero complex he thought to himself as he ran out back into the storm, trying to save a little boys life.
7 Hours Earlier
Barry Allen was never really a troubled sleeper, especially since gaining his speed. But sometimes he would find himself in odd places, his speedster body never really allowed for a peaceful slumber.
He had to get ready fast because today was the day that the he was testing out the tachyon enhancer after his close call with the Time Wraiths. According to Evil Wells last year, the tachyon device could make a speedster go faster than he ever thought possible. Barry's whole thing was going faster, and maybe this could help him stop Zoom.
Barry went through his daily routine of making himself presentable. After that, he ran out of his childhood house and made a beeline straight for Star Labs. Even though he was excited to test out the tachyon enhancer, his mind was running in every direction at once ever since they discovered that Jay Garrick was Zoom.
Why hadn't Barry seen this coming?
He was supposed to be able to spot danger, to protect anyone he could from danger. Not this time, just like with Thawne, someone who he trusted betrayed him, and this time it was all his fault. He had his suspicions of Garrick the moment he had stepped foot in Star Labs. Barry was cautious because of what happened with Thawne, and what it had cost them. Not only had it caused a huge amount of damage to the city, it had also cost the lives of Eddie and Ronnie, a fact he could never ever forgive himself for.
This time, it had caused Caitlin a lot of emotional damage. She had been one of the first people to trust Garrick because she had given him a lie detector test. Barry should have known, Garrick's answers must have fooled her. Not only that, but after the whole team had trusted Garrick, she had struck up a romantic relationship with him. Caitlin let herself try and love again after what happened with Ronnie, only to find out that he was a serial killer with quite literally a "need for speed."
Barry had made a promise to himself after the singularity, to keep his friends and family safe, no matter the cost, and he had failed.
Miserably
Now wasn't the time to think about that though, maybe with the tachyon enhancer he could take down Zoom, and make up for the mistakes he made.
He flashed into the Cortex where Caitlin, Cisco, and Iris were waiting for him.
"Hey guys, so when do we start?" Barry said to them all.
"Cisco is just making some last minute enhancements to the tachyon enhancer," Caitlin said, "but I want to walk you through the training regiment we have for you today."
"Sure."
Barry edged himself closer to Caitlin to look over her shoulder. She began to explain the training he would go through, he was really only half-listening. He found himself staying closer to her and staring at her ever since the revelation of Zoom's identity. He told himself that it was because with this piece of information he was afraid that maybe she would turn into her Earth-2 counterpart Killer Frost. But his heart knew better.
When Caitlin and Jay had started their relationship, Barry had felt something. He didn't want to admit it was jealousy but thats exactly what it was. Seeing Caitlin with another speedster that wasn't him made him angry, and when they discovered Jay was Zoom, he suddenly understood Oliver's old mindset.
Oliver had killed people in the past, granted they weren't really good people, but he had still killed. Barry had somewhat judged him for that, but now he understood. Jay had caused so much terror and killed so many people. Barry thought if he did end up killing Jay, it would be justified.
He had to catch himself though. This was one of his greatest secrets he hadn't told anyone, not even Iris. As a speedster, there is this primal urge, to go faster, to have more speed, and in his darkest moments, Barry sometimes thought that the team should capture Zoom, give him his speed, and then kill the demon speedster. The urge to be the fastest, to run without consequences, to free himself of his moral constraints. No, he couldn't, he was Barry Allen, the hero, not Zoom, he would capture him and put him away with the rest of the psycho metahumans.
Caitlin's voice pulled him out of his thoughts, "So that's the course, I think Cisco and Harry are ready, you good to go?"
He nodded and smiled to her to hide his deep thoughts. Barry knew that this was somewhat pointless, she knew his non-verbal cues, but, much to his relief, she let it go this time.
Barry dressed into his suit. Cisco approached him and placed the enhancer on his suit. Immediately he felt faster, stronger, and was ready to get going, but not before the Doctor Snow warning.
"Ok Barry, we'll be monitoring your vitals and energy output from here, but be careful."
"Yeah, last time you pushed yourself, you ended up on an Earth with a blonde alien hottie." Iris added.
"But would that be so bad?" Cisco asked from his seat.
Barry chucked, "Ok, don't worry I'll be fine."
He then set off for his running route. Barry could feel it, the power of running, the lightning all around him, pushing him forward. He felt himself move faster and faster. Through his comms he could hear Cisco's whoop of encouragement, he could feel Harry's smug smile, he could hear Caitlin's words of caution, instead he pushed himself a little further and he could hear her giggle quietly when he disobeyed her.
Suddenly, he could hear beeping on the other end of his comms, and an intake of breath courtesy of Caitlin.
"Dude, there's a breach opening downtown," Cisco explained, "you need to get down there fast!"
"But didn't we close all the breaches?" Barry asked.
"Apparently not, just get there Allen, we don't need any other inter-dimensional problems." Harry ordered.
Barry started weaving down streets, past cars, until he saw the break he stopped in front of it and waited. Minutes passed, and then there was an anomaly, he saw lighting, blue lightning.
"It's him." Barry said into his comms.
Zoom came out of the breach and looked at Barry.
"Miss me Flash?"
"This ends now Zoom," Barry clenched his fists. ready for his fight with this monster.
And then the race was on.
The Flash and Zoom, side by side, racing throughout Central City, fighting like two caged in dogs. There was no holding back, Zoom noticed that the Flash was running faster than normal, he was actually faster than him. The Flash was winning, he was finally ready to stop Zoom, once and for all. That was until he saw clouds starting to gather above his head.
"Harry, what the hell is that?"
"It seems as if your race and overall Speed Force energy is creating some kind of feedback storm."
Barry quickly looked around and saw that 2 kids were helping people inside of a nearby building to keep them safe, that enough released some tension, until he saw the boy run outside to save a younger boy huddling close to a tree.
Aiden ran, faster than he ever had, he knew that his time was limited, he had to grab the boy Will and make it inside and fast. The run to the tree was problematic, especially with the gale force winds knocking him all over the place. He pushed through, knowing that this kid needed to return to his mom, he knew how much it hurt when a kid lost a parent, and he knew that it would either be the same or much worse if a parent lost a child.
Aiden made it to the tree and looked at the young boy Will, "Ok come on buddy, I'm gonna get you back to your mom."
Will looked at him and raised his pinky finger, "Promise?"
Aiden smiled and linked his pinky finger with Will's, "Promise."
He then brought Will into his side and started to run back towards the building. They arrived there and Aiden pushed the kid into the building and was about to walk into the building was well, when The Flash and Zoom ran past him, the force of their speed knocking away from the doors and the doors closing. He got up and put his hand onto the street lamp to stabilize himself.
Big mistake.
A lightning bolt came down from the heavens and struck the street lamp, surged through the lamp and into Aiden. All he knew was burning, searing pain, the last thing he heard was Christina screaming his name, and then the darkness took him.
Barry looked over and saw the boy get struck by lightning, flashbacks to the night when he was struck by lightning bombarded his memory, and all of this while fighting Zoom.
"If it were me Flash, I'd leave that kid to die, but you can't do that, ever the hero."
Barry knew that this was possibly one of his last chances to take down Zoom, but he couldn't leave the kid there. The boy could be seriously injured, or worse. He glared at Zoom and ran over to the boy. His breath caught in his throat, the boy couldn't have been more than 17, 18 years old.
"Cait, there was a kid who was struck by lightning, and the lightning was created from the storm, I'm bringing him back to Star Labs, get a gurney prepped."
"You got it."
Barry looks over and saw a girl staring at him with wide eyes, he deduced that she must know him. He gave her a reassuring nod, picked the boy up and ran him back to Star Labs. The next few hours were a blur, and from Barry's POV, that was really saying something. They found out that they boy was in a coma, much like when Barry had been struck by lightning.
"Does he have a trace of the speed force in him?" Barry wondered.
"It's too early to tell, maybe further along in his coma more conclusive results will show." Harry
respond.
Jesse was also present in the Cortex and despite the terrible circumstances, she said, "He's kinda cute."
Everyone shot her a look and she decided to keep quiet.
Cisco walked into the Cortex with his tablet in his hand, "Kid's name is Aiden Riley, 18 years old, only family member living in Central City is his mom, Tracey."
"I'll go tell family and friends." Joe piped up.
"I'm going with you," Barry said, "this is partly my fault, I should be the one to tell his mother and friends."
2 Hours Later
Barry flashed into Star Labs and sat down, clearly depleted, not only physically, but emotionally. Seeing the kid's mom's face when they informed her of his condition shattered him on the inside. He thought it couldn't get any worse, he was dead wrong. His mother informed him that the kid, Aiden, he reminded himself, had 2 best friends who were sick about him. Aiden's friend Liam had gone silent after they told him, utter shock and despair written all over his face. The girl, Christina, would not stop crying, she thought it was her fault. It shattered Barry on the inside.
"We have a problem," Cisco piped up from behind his workstation.
"What is it?" Barry asked, trying to mask the pain he was feeling.
"Now that we have a kid in our care, we need to put him somewhere safe, Zoom is still a threat," Cisco said.
"We can't just abandon him!" Barry growled, he wasn't taking any of this. Aiden needed their help, now more than ever.
"We're not suggesting we abandon him Allen, but if he remains out in the Cortex like this—its a security risk, and right now, we really don't have anywhere to put him." Harry said, trying to calm him down.
Jesse's head perked up, "Yes, we do."
"We do?" Barry asked, not following her line of thinking.
"The time vault," she explained, "we can hook up the medical machines into the A.I and have it take care of him while we deal with Zoom."
"There's a slight problem though," Barry countered, "we can't have Gideon using any form of futuristic medical treatments on him, not only could it have side effects, it could alter the time stream."
"Well, Gideon will listen to you right?" Caitlin asked, "So just tell it not to use any of those medical treatments on him, and tell Gideon to use treatments found in 2016, not 2177."
Barry looked over at Aiden, on the hospital bed, machines working to keep him alive. For a split second he wanted to ask Gideon to help to the best of its abilities. None of this should have happened, and Barry just wanted Aiden to be home with his mother and friends. But he couldn't, they had to take it slow, let the kid recover at his own pace and pray that he would wake up.
"Alright, I'll go to talk to Gideon and get everything setup."
As he was walking out, Caitlin stopped him with a gentle hand on his arm.
"You okay?" she asked, clearly very worried about his emotional state.
"Not really," he answered, "this kid didn't deserve this, and it's my fault he's like this."
"Blaming yourself isn't going to help him, the best we can do is have Gideon help him, and hope for the best."
"Thanks Cait, I really needed that."
"Anytime."
They traded smiles easily, just like they always have and Barry continued his walk towards the time vault.
He reached the point in the hallway and pushed his hand out towards the wall. The scanner recognized his hand and opened the futuristic door. He walked inside the time vault and looked around. The braille covered walls still looked the same as the day he, Cisco, and Caitlin found it. It was just as creepy as well, the secret room no one had known about until it was too late.
"Good afternoon, Barry Allen," a robotic voice said.
Barry turned around and look at the futuristic hologram that was Gideon.
"Hello Gideon, I need a favour."
"Of course Barry Allen, what can I do for you?"
"We have just uh, received a coma patient and we have our hands full, and I would like you to care for the patient."
"Affirmative."
"On one condition, do not use any advanced medical treatments to bring him out of his coma, use treatments from 2016 only, understand?
"Of course, what is the patient's name?"
"Aiden Riley."
"Pardon sir? What is the patient's name?"
At this point Barry was a little creeped out, he repeated, "The patient's name is Aiden Riley."
"I have no records of an Aiden Riley ever existing sir, are you sure that is the name?"
"Positive," Barry paused, then had an idea, "Gideon search the timeline data for records of Aiden Riley."
"No records available."
"What about Tracey Riley?"
"No records available."
"His deceased father, Jack Riley?"
"No records available."
After a moment of silence, Barry said, "Oh, I've got a bad feeling about this."
Stiff
That was a good word to describe how Aiden was feeling right now. He felt stiff, and was on a hard surface. He slowly opened his eyes and had to blink a few times so his eyes could get used to the light. He slowly rises up and had to move his neck around a few times. It was then that he actually noticed where he was.
His room.
Aiden swung his feet over the bed. The last he remembered was—
Christina, children screaming, Flash, Zoom, lightning bolt.
He then heard the clinking of cutlery from the main floor. Aiden guessed that someone found him, they realized his injuries weren't that bad, and released from the hospital to go home, and that his memory was a little foggy.
Aiden got up from the bed and began to walk down the stairs, and he moved towards to sound. Nothing could have ever prepared him for what he saw—
His Dad, eating steak at his kitchen table.
"Hey pal, that was quite the nap you took."
"Dad, h-how are you here right now? Wait a minute, if you're here, then that means that I'm dead right? This is what the afterlife looks like?"
His Dad chuckled and motioned for him to sit down next to him, "I imagine you have a lot of questions, but I urge to just listen to what I have to say, and then your questions will be answered."
Aiden nodded and leaned in to make sure he didn't miss a word.
"To start off, no you aren't dead," Aiden let a sigh of relief, "and technically I am not your father. Right now we are in your subconscious mind, and I am just a manifestation of your memories of your father and something called the Speed Force."
"What exactly is the 'Speed Force'?" Aiden asked.
"That's a complicated question, but for right now I need you to answer a question for me, what's the last thing you remember?"
"Uh well, I remember taking Christina to Jitters, um and then we were walking back to her place, then the Flash and Zoom went full on bumper cars one each other. Then resulting feedback from their fight caused some sort of storm. Children were screaming and Christina and I began to get them to safety."
"Very brave, by the way, I'm proud of you." His dad said.
"Then we noticed that one kid was missing, I went out to grab him and I brought him back to safety, and then the wind blew me back and I grabbed onto a lamp post. Then…nothing, just darkness and then I woke up here."
"Son, this is going to be a hard pill for you to swallow, but you've been in a coma for 2 months."
Aiden's vision began to blur, darkness circled his vision as this information processed in his mind. 2 whole months, 60 days, 1460 hours, 87600 minutes gone from the real world. What's happened to his mom? What about Christina and Liam?
"Aiden, once you wake up, your world is going to get a lot stranger."
"We live in Central City Dad, it can't get much stranger than that."
"Well, that's where your wrong, but listen to me, your going to be confused once you wake up, but whatever questions you have you need to let the people taking care of you answer them slowly."
"Dad, your talking as if I'm about to wake up."
As Aiden said that, some form of lightning storm appeared in his living room, the storm shot off cracks of lightning in every direction. Then the storm opened itself up to reveal a portal.
"Well son, there it is, your ticket out of here, walk through that portal and you wake up."
"Really?" Aiden asked, bewildered that it seemed this easy.
"Yup, that easy, but Aiden, listen to me. Your going to face dark times ahead, and you need to be strong, and remember, I'm always with you. Now go get 'em kiddo."
Aiden nodded and walked towards the portal.
He recited, "In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again."
He walked through the portal, his world burst at the seems with light—
Aiden Riley was awake.
A/N: Well there you have it! Chapter 2 is done! For those of you who figured it out, yes Aiden will be a speedster, but I don't want to turn away from the story just yet. I have big plans for him and Team Flash. When we cover some of the more comic book stuff, I'm going to be shifting some of it. Also for those of you wondering this 2x17 au. Also disclaimer: Obviously I don't own anything. Also a little personal note, please leave me reviews, it helps me gauge your interest in my story and it motivates me to write a little more! So please R&R!
This is SnowmobilingSeal, signing off!