A/N: Welp. That happened.
That was completely unintentional. I did not intend on it taking this long to update. To those who are tempted to stop following this story because of the update times, I will be updating every two weeks on Saturday, and that is final. If something comes up that stops me from meeting this deadline, I will put out a chapter saying this and when to expect another chapter. Anyways, as promised, here are review responses!
FanHubClub - Thank you! I think it would be more like episodes if I updated regularly...
Alaskanbirdfriend - Yeah, if you can't tell, I like drama.
Guest - Thanks for the notice! It was fixed as soon as I saw it.
Brian Hughes - Well, here you go!
Hope you like it! Disclaimer: I do not own DC, CW, or any of its shows and characters. I do own the plot of Resurrection.
"Who's 'The Rising Star'?" Cisco asked.
"He's a myth." Barry started. "A legend. He's the boogeyman of the speed force enforcers. There are stories of a man, more powerful than any army. He is known by many names. The Evening Sun, Child of the Fallen, King of the Air. But he is most well known by 'The Rising Star.' Legend has it that he is a necromancer. He has used other's weaknesses against them. No army could ever stop him. After all, how do you win a war against someone who controls the dead?
Supposedly, he uses deception to gain the trust of people before using his power to betray them and take power over entire planets. He hasn't been seen in thousands of millennia. Either someone wants to spook me, or he is real, and coming for me. That symbol is his, the one of the star. It represents a star rising above everything."
"Why would he be coming after you?" Caitlin asked.
"I don't know. Cait, can you check the blood? See who's it is. It might give us a clue as to where to find him." Barry responded. Caitlin nodded and moved to collect a sample.
"What do you mean by deception? How does he deceive?" Cisco asked.
"From what I remember, he will target a certain person and use their weakness against them. Sometimes he will even turn his target's allies against them."
"Great."
"Yeah," Barry said. "Come here." He then pulled Cisco into an adjacent lab, opposite the one that Caitlin was in. "If he does try to turn people, he will go after Caitlin first."
"Seriously? Just because she's against you killing, doesn't mean that she'll join this guy."
"I'm not saying that she will. I'm just saying that you need to protect her. If he does go after her, you need to be the one to pull her from his grasp."
"She won't abandon us. She won't abandon you. None of us will. We're here for you, alright?" Cisco laid a hand on Barry's shoulder.
"Yeah," Barry said. They walked out of the lab and back into the cortex. As they did, Caitlin walked out of the other lab.
"Barry? You might want to see this."
"What is it?" Barry and Cisco followed Caitlin back into the lab.
"I analyzed the blood and compared the DNA with multiple databases. after a few minutes, I found a match. Look." Caitlin then pulled up the results of the test. A name appeared on the screen. A name that sent Barry stumbling backward. Nora Allen. The blood was her's. The Rising Star was sending a clear message. I know who you are, and I know how to break you.
"So he knows who you are? How?" Cisco asked Barry.
"I don't know. Maybe he found information somewhere in the Speed Force. Maybe he found out on his own. Either way, he is coming after me."
"Well," Caitlin began, leaning against the table, "what should we-"
"Hey, guys, what's..." Sam walked in, voice trailing off as he saw the words in blood in front of him. His wings involuntarily sprung out, flaming up from an unforeseen rage. Sam grit his teeth and snarled, the flames in his eyes growing ever bigger, ever brighter. "What the hell is this?" Sam asked, almost whispering.
"It's him. Not some fake. It's really him. And he's coming after me. But, for now, you need to calm down." Barry said, inching his way toward Sam, with Cisco and Caitlin following close behind. Sam slowly started to calm, eventually losing the great flames altogether. The wings were still out, however.
"How do you know?" Sam asked, relaxing.
"The blood used is my mother's. A fake wouldn't even go that far." Barry explained.
"Hey, I get that he's not good, but what's with the violent reaction?" Cisco asked Sam. He opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out.
"There are rumors." Barry began to explain. "Rumors that Rising Star is the one that incited the war on Jewel."
"Oh. Is there any evidence?"
"No, but you can understand that even the notion of finding the one that caused all of your heartaches can incite many different things."
"True."
"Alright, listen. We will need some rest if we ever plan on making any progress in this case. We should all head home." Barry suggested.
"Yeah. Alright, see you guys tomorrow!" Cisco shouted as he walked out.
"I'll head out too. Stay safe guys." Caitlin said before following Cisco. Barry and Sam looked at each other and nodded, leaving to go to their rooms.
Barry stood in the center of a field. He looked around for a moment, attempting to gain his barrings. It was daytime, around noon, he estimated. The field was green and seemed to go on forever. The sky was blue and had not a single cloud. The air smelled sweet, as if the rivers he saw running occasionally through the pasture was, instead of flowing with water, flowing with milk and honey. Plants and trees scattered the land, producing large and beautiful fruits. Directly behind Barry was a throne, and around it was pictures of memories with his mom, with team flash, with Iris. He attempted to approach the throne but couldn't move.
After another moment, he turned to see that the day had suddenly turned to night. He looked around again, startled. The pasture was still green but had lots of patches with a dry brown, as if was starting to die. Soon, his eyes rested upon a star. It shone brighter than all the other stars.
The longer he stared at it, the brighter it seemed to grow. Eventually, it had the brightness to challenge the sun. As soon as it stopped growing, a deafening screech shot through the air, like nails being dragged down a chalkboard. Barry covered his ears and gritted his teeth at the sound. It lasted for about a minute, before ending abruptly. Barry looked back up to find that the star was starting to pulsate.
As soon as Barry saw this, he heard a thud from behind him. Barry turned and saw the throne and objects lying around it to start flying towards the star, along with the rest of the trees and grass around him. Barry felt an immense urge to protect all of those objects with his life. He tried to run and get them back, but he couldn't. He could walk and run at a normal pace, but his speed was gone. Barry had to watch helplessly as the star swallowed up everything that he held dear. The photos and memories were destroyed, but the throne remained.
The star morphed into the shape of a man. The man then took his place on the throne. It shot out a hand to Barry and made him fly forward. He stopped right in front of the star. The star clutched its fist and Barry felt insane pain. Slowly, but surely, every single bone in his body was broken, just like the first time he died. Then, as Barry was still barely alive, The man placed both of his hands on Barry's head. After a moment, he crushed Barry's head.
Then Barry woke up.
Barry shot up with a blood-curdling scream. He was breathing heavily as if he were just in the middle of a war. Eventually, he calmed down enough to look around. It was just a dream, it was just a dream, Barry repeated to himself. He hadn't had this bad a nightmare since the destruction of that world he couldn't save.
While scanning the room, something caught his eye. Just beside the window was a silhouette. Barry already had curtains, so his first thought was that they were simply curtains. However, when some wind blew in from the slightly open window (When did he open that, by the way?) the curtain didn't move. It didn't flutter, sway, nothing. That's when Barry knew that someone was there. Standing in the darkness. Watching him. Before Barry could speak to warn the interloper, it spoke.
"I wondered how long to would take you to notice me." The figure said. Barry straightened up and moved to get out of bed before feeling a cold metal resting across his throat.
"You know I can just phase through this, right?"
"Yeah, but then all of your friends will get it too. All I ask of you is your time."
"Maybe you should tell me who you are first."
"Gladly." The figure responded with a barely visible smirk. He stepped forward into the light from the city outside. He was white, looked to be in his late twenties. He was tall, but not towering. He was thin but had some muscle to him. He was wearing a white suit and tie. "Nice to finally meet you, Wraith."
"Once again, who are you?"
"Oh, please. It should be painfully obvious by now." The man said. It took another moment before it clicked.
"Rising Star?"
"Oh, please don't call me that. It's too... formal. Everyone else should call me that, but when we're talking, you can call me Riser. No, it's not my actual name, but it's better than addressing me with such a tediously long name."
"Okay fine, Riser. What are you doing here?" Barry asked, definitely on edge.
"I just came here to give you a heads up. I am going to win. No matter what you do, you can't defeat me. You know why? Because of your killing obsession, you simply continue on increasing my numbers."
"That doesn't matter. I will stop you. What do you want, anyway?"
"Oh, my goal is noble. 'I only want to stop you from killing.' At least, that's what I'm going to feed to your companions. In truth, I just want all to bow before me. And to do that, I need you out of the way."
"They will never bow to you. No matter what lies you spew at them, you will never make them work with you." Barry spat.
"Oh, just you wait. I will take them. And when I do, You won't be able to stop me. After all, they don't call me the King of Lies for nothing." Riser said. At that, his silhouette disappeared, and the metal pressed against Barry's throat left. He breathed out a sigh of relief before running around the city to make sure that everyone was okay. Everyone was still sleeping, so they didn't even know that they were all at a sword's edge. Barry returned to S.T.A.R. Labs to find Sam standing in the cortex.
"What are you doing up?" Barry asked.
"I heard you scream. I sat up, about to find you, when someone put a blade to my throat. They said they worked with him." Sam turned to face Barry. "I take it he had some words with you?"
"Yeah. Basically taunting me and the team. He wants power, and intends on corrupting the team to get it."
"Fun. Don't worry, we won't break."
"I know. Still, tomorrow we should address the team. Make sure that their intentions lie with us, not him. He said that his true intentions were power, but that he would feed some false narrative about getting me to stop killing to the rest of the team to turn them against me."
"Do you they would buy it?"
"I don't know. With the way Cisco and Caitlin have been acting lately, I'm not sure."
"Well, there's nothing we can do now. Go to everyone's houses and leave them a note saying to get to S.T.A.R. Labs first thing. That includes Harry and Jesse from Earth-2."
"Alright. Head back to bed. It's only 2 o'clock, so we can get some more rest. After all, we have some work to do in the morning."
It was 7:30 now. Nearly everyone was standing in the cortex, it seeming smaller now because of the number of people inside it. There was Harry, Jesse, Iris, Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, Sam, and Barry. The team was forming a sort-of half circle against the side behind the main desk, with Barry standing in front of the glass case holding his suit. Everyone but Sam, Cisco, and Caitlin was slightly annoyed that they were summoned this early, along with it being Christmas morning.
"Thank you all for coming so quickly. Except for the ones who came to returned to S.T.A.R. last night, I need to explain the issue so you all understand." Barry then went on to explain everything that happened. From the blood writing that was now cleaned off the wall to who the Rising Star is and from having everyone held hostage to Riser's threats. He didn't actually mention the name Riser, preferring to keep it a secret.
Barry finished up his discussion by talking about Riser's true and false motives. Everyone reacted differently to the false motive. Caitlin tensed up, Cisco furrowed his brow, Wally and Jesse nodded, and Iris raised an eyebrow.
"So," Caitlin began, voice stretched out and tensed, "he wants to turn us on you by convincing us that he is only trying to help you? Is that it?"
"Yes," Barry responded. "I understand that I need to stop killing, and I haven't killed since Delmond. Whatever he says to you all, don't give in." Caitlin simply nodded. "Alright, well you all can be on your way. Ideally, we will have some more time before he returns."
Caitlin was in S.T.A.R. Labs late that night. She was furiously typing away at the keyboard. Barry and Sam were out so she didn't have to worry about anyone catching her. For an hour she was searching for something. She didn't know what that something was. Ever since that discussion that morning, She was curious. And frightened. Regardless, there she was. Looking for a way to contact him. To contact the Rising Star. Half of her was screaming to turn away, to not follow this path, and the other was telling her to look, to learn, to find out what he really wants, and maybe even threaten him into it.
The latter won.
After another 15 minutes or so, Caitlin heard a sound behind her. She jumped up and spun around to find a tall man about 10 feet from her. Before she could respond, he spoke.
"You were looking for me?" The man asked. Caitlin instantly knew who it was.
"How did you know I was looking?"
"I have eyes and ears everywhere. Either way, why are you seeking me out?"
"I wanted to get information for myself."
"Oh? I must say, that's very brave of you to contact me."
"Stop trying to flatter me." Caitlin straightened her stance. "Barry said that you intend to lie to us, to turn out backs on him. I want the truth. What do you really want? Oh, and I am willing to hurt you for it."
"I understand that. All I want is to bring back peace to this world. With him killing, he is just adding to the chaos."
"Cut the shit, Star. Tell me the truth."
"That is the truth. Listen, I understand that what he went through isn't easy. However, that doesn't make it right to end people's lives. I'm sure that you share the same sentiment too." At this, Caitlin faltered a bit. She knew that he was trying to turn her, but he sounded so sincere.
"How do I know that you're telling the truth?"
"You don't." Something beeped on the Rising Star's body. "Listen, I have to leave. All I ask of you is to pay attention to Barry. I promise you, you will catch something eventually. I'll be in touch." With that, he left. Caitlin slumped down into the chair that she was previously sitting in and sighed.