A/N: What's up! Let's get started! First, review responses.
alaskanbirdfriend - 0. I like the freakouts. Keep em coming. 1. To be honest, I wrote the plot as I was writing the story. I didn't have one planned other than the idea of a resurrection. Thanks! 2. Yeah, he's my first full-fledged OC, so I'm kinda biased towards him. He's not based on anyone, I thought of someone with wings of fire one day and loved it. Obviously, I didn't keep the actual "made of fire" idea, but still. 3. I remembered the antimatter cancellation from a documentary on the big bang and how we shouldn't exist because the release of matter and antimatter should have canceled each other out as they should have been equal, but evidently matter had at least one extra particle. 4. Yes. 5. I plan on it!
Brian Hughes - A fellow Trekkie. Noice.
Second, milestones. We have recently reached 50 favorites! Awesome! Also, we have 49 reviews and 64 follows. Thank you, guys!
Third, future news. The end is nigh. Well, kinda. I can't really say much more without revealing too much of a spoiler, so I'mma leave it at that.
Lastly, updates. As I have previously said, I will update every two weeks on Saturday. I am now adding a time. I will post each chapter at 8 AM EST on said dates. If it isn't posted then, it will be by noon EST.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own DC, CW, or any of its shows or characters. I also don't own LOTR. You'll see.
As the cannon fired, Sam and Barry's bodies, surrounded by the capsule they were standing in, were shot through the top of the building and into the sky. As they flew upward, the smog in front of them parted, revealing a dark void. As they grew closer to it, the darkness seemed like a hungry wolf, opening its maw wider and wider to swallow its prey. Eventually, they were completely surrounded by the darkness, only being able to see it through the cameras on the outside of the pod. However, that wasn't the end of their journey.
About 10 minutes into the trip, as they were flying through the void, they discussed their mission.
"So," Sam began, "what do you think it will be like?"
"What 'what' will be like?" Barry responded.
"You know what I mean. The antiverse. What do you think it will look like?" Barry thought for a moment.
"I'm not sure. It might look like our suits did in the Edge."
"If that's true then it'll be bloody difficult to sneak around. My depth perception will be all jacked up over there."
"Well, let's hope that it's not. Maybe it'll look normal and our bodies under these suits will look weird."
"Maybe." They sat in silence for another few minutes before another sight astounded them. The black void around them began to dissipate. Except, it didn't seem to reveal anything. In fact, it revealed nothing. Not as in there was just nothing there. It's what you would see if you tried to look out the back of your head or through a wall. There is absolutely nothing that you can see. The darkness faded away to reveal nothing. Eventually, they could only see what was inside their lighted capsules.
"Umm... I think this is it." Barry said hesitantly. The pods stopped suddenly and opened up. Sam and Barry stepped out of their pods.
They saw in front of them a giant city. Nearly every building was completely made of metal with pipes running every which way. There was smoke billowing out of the top of nearly every building. The sky was a deep red, and there were vehicles flying every which way. The air tasted dry and dirty, and the wind was cold, almost bitter. Everything had a burnt scent to it. Sounds of flying vehicles and burning materials filled the air.
It was horrible.
However, for Sam and Barry, this was nothing. They had seen far worse. They looked down at themselves and saw that Barry's prediction was right. Their suits looked normal, but their bodies looked out of place.
Sam grabbed Barry and flew up to the top of a nearby building that didn't have smoke coming out of it. Sam lit the flames in his eyes and looked out to the edges of the world.
"Give me a moment." Sam started scanning the world in front of him. He moved his head side to side, even turning to get as much information as possible.
"What are you doing? We haven't even found a building yet to scan."
"Ever since I was released from the Overseers, I've been getting better. When I was first released, I could only coat from the top of my head to about the center of my torso along with my arms in a blue flame. Now, I can reach down to about halfway down my thighs. I'm much more powerful now than I was then. Just watch."
Sam moved to the center of the roof and sat down. He then engulfed his head in blue flame. He pushed the flame down both of his arms and placed them on the ground beside him, one on each side. Sam closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again to have his eyes explode in a blue flame. A wave rushed down his arms and through his hands. Waves of blue fire moved out around him, causing Barry to jump back and widen his eyes in surprise.
Circles of fire rushed out of his hands, creating a rhythmic pulse of power to rush out onto the roof. The size of the pulsing circle grew until it nearly engulfed the entire roof. The pulsing started to recede, but the flame surrounding Sam grew. Once the roof was all but clear of fire, Sam removed his arms from the floor. The flame around him grew and grew as he crossed his arms over his chest, making fists and creating a sort of X on his chest with his forearms. Not a moment later, Sam thrust his arms out.
He released his fists and threw his arms out to either side. As he did, a wave of fire so powerful it could knock down kings was released from his body and went out throughout the entire planet. The fire that was on Sam dissipated, causing Sam to fall over onto the floor. Barry rushed over to his side.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Barry shouted, not caring if anyone heard him, as the entire planet just saw a wave of flame pass over.
"Hehe." Sam chuckled. "That really took a lot out'a me. If you were wondering..." Sam raised an arm in front of him. His eyes glowed a weak blue, fire barely even leaving them. His hand was also lit with a weak blue flame. The fire slowly moved out of his hand and into the air in front of him. The fire danced in the air before creating a floating globe.
"What's this?"
"That, my old friend, is a global map of the planet that we are currently on. The entire damn thing." Barry stood and gazed in awe. He approached the globe and mimed spinning it. The globe twisted and turned just like any other. Barry tapped on a spot of land. The globe unfolded and became a large flat map that floated in front of them.
"This is amazing!" Barry paused for a moment before sighing. "We have to do a power transfer, don't we?"
"Yeah..." Sam said, hesitantly.
It had been a week since Barry and Sam left. No one was worried, as any crime issues could be solved by any one of the other resident superheroes, and they knew that, because the Speed Force existed outside of time, they shouldn't expect them back soon. This gave everyone time to think about the issue with Rising Star.
Joe had been completely filled in on the issue and had opinions of his own. Being a cop, he knew the struggles of enforcing the law. He didn't blame Barry for killing, and he certainly didn't believe the idea of Barry wanting to kill.
Caitlin had balanced out. Through peaceful debate with Cisco, she had come to rest in the middle. She no longer felt like her mind was being pulled apart. Granted, she was still on the fence about the whole "cold-blooded killer" notion, but that could wait.
Cisco had also changed in the debates that he had with Caitlin. He found himself pulled to be pretty much where she was: on the fence.
Another thing that came up while debating was the idea of contacting Rising Star again. Caitlin was pretty open to it, while Cisco was very apprehensive. After much deliberation, they decided to talk with him.
Cisco and Caitlin were both in the S.T.A.R. Labs hangar. They were building a device that, supposedly, would be able to send Rising Star a message telepathically. They had contacted Adisa - Barry's coworker from the Speed Force - and asked her to help them. They didn't tell her who they were trying to contact, as they felt like she would refuse if they had. The device was about the size of an old radio and looked a lot like one as well.
They had finished building the machine and were ready to begin.
"So," Cisco began, "you sure you wanna do this?"
"Yes. We need to get answers, and make sure that they aren't being filtered through people we aren't sure about."
"You do realize that he will be more biased than them, right?"
"Yeah, but we might be able to tell if he's lying or not."
"Whatever you say." Cisco flipped the switch and turned the dial. "Let's begin."
"So, we should go here first to get information," Barry said. After exchanging energy, they decided to look at the map.
The world was pretty small, about half the size of Earth-1. However, without Barry's speed, it would have taken ages to go through it all. However, with it, it only took a few minutes.
"Looks like. From the in-depth scan, it doesn't show much military force, but it does seem to be important."
"Cool," Barry said. Sam closed that map and was about to spring his wings before Barry stopped him.
"Wait! What if the antimatter kills you?"
"Oh yeah, you're right. Maybe the fire will protect them."
"I wouldn't risk it. I'll just run us there."
"Alright." Barry picked up Sam and ran them out to the building specified. From the analysis, the complex seemed to be a science facility, possibly researching the antimatter army.
They arrived at the building in question. It was a large verticle rectangle, standing sky high. It was surrounded by a wire fence with guards posted around the perimeter.
Barry and Sam silently moved into a nearby alleyway and watched. The guards were on a constant alert, keeping their head on a swivel and moving about constantly.
"How do you think we should go about this?" Sam whispered to Barry. Sam was never the stealth expert. Ever since Barry's death and adoption into the Speed Force, he became an expert at stealth and negotiations. Basically, he became the best assassin in the entire multiverse. Sam was more suited for actual battle, as he was trained to be a warrior, not an assassin, on Jewel.
"I'll do the sneaking in. You get to the top of these building and provide support. Be my 'guy at the computer'."
"You got it. Here," Sam put out his hand and revealed a small piece of metal. "It's a comms device." Sam then moved to the back of the alley. He stood and outstretched his hand to the roof of a nearby building. Out from his wrist came a red chain, not flaming, but glowing. It had a pointed tip that lodged itself into the wall right below the roof. Sam twisted his hand to grab the chain and retracted it, pulling himself up to the roof. "Can you hear me?"
"You're loud and clear," Barry responded. "I'll start moving in." Barry moved to the edge of the wall and glanced over the side. There were two guards headed towards the alley. Barry backed up and pushed himself against the wall. He closed his eyes and focused the Speed Force inside of him. He opened his eyes and ran up to a bar that was connecting the two buildings and waited there. The guards walked into the alley.
"So, what was it that you saw?"
"I don't know. It looked like some kind of beam of light." Right as they walked under Barry, he struck. He dropped down and fell onto one of the guards. He aimed his feet at the guard's chest and landed on it. The guard fell back as Barry landed on top of him.
During the fall, Barry had unsheathed his knife. Using the last of the momentum from the fall, Barry put the rest of the energy into pushing the blade into the neck of the guard. Barry's speed combined with his momentum from the fall allowed the knife to go through the guard's neck like a hot knife through butter.
The other guard jumped back in surprise, fumbling for his gun. Barry stood, chuckling while he fumbled. Just as the guard was raising his gun, Barry knocked it out of his hand and pushed the guard against the wall, placing the knife against his throat.
"Phoenix, get down here." Sam then dropped from the roof and approached Barry.
"Yeah?"
"Interrogate this guy. Make sure you learn everything he knows."
"Gladly." Barry backed up and Sam took his place. He forcefully placed his hand on the side of the guard's face, pushing blue flame into his head. The guard opened his mouth to scream, revealing a blue flame that burst forth from his throat. The guard's eyes erupted in flame as well. Before he could actually scream, Barry placed his hand over his mouth. After a moment, Sam removed his hand.
"Alright, I got it all," Sam said. Barry nodded. "Should I?"
"Yeah. We don't wanna risk it." Barry responded. The guard had, at this point, slid down the wall. His breathing was ragged and his jaw was clenched. Sam turned back to the guard and slammed both his hands on the guard's head. Sam's head erupted in blue flame, the energy spreading to his arms and onto the guard's face. The guard opened his mouth to scream, but he couldn't. His head exploded in a glorious display of blue before he could.
"So, what did you learn?"
"Well, they just had a guard change, so there's no point in waiting for that. Other than that, this guard didn't know much other than a few passwords for doors and safes which I will give when you get to them."
"Alright. Head back up. I need to move before others come to investigate."
"Of course. I'll get rid of the bodies." As Barry left, he felt immense heat behind him from the burning of the bodies.
Barry normally would have taken one of their suits, but if he took off his suit he would instantly be obliterated. So, he decided that he would instead go the sneak route.
He sped up to the edge of the fence and moved into a nearby guard tower. After cutting the throat of the guard and hiding the body, he looked over the fence and into the courtyard.
"Anything?" Barry asked through the comms.
"Got 5 guards in the courtyard. Two are on the other side of the building, one is patrolling, and the last two are talking by the doors into the building."
"Alright." Barry looked and saw the three he needed to worry about. The one that was patrolling had walked out of sight of the two by the door. Barry took the opportunity and ran up to him. He plunged the knife into the guard's chest and pushed it up, tearing through the rest of his chest. Barry caught the body and ran it back up to the tower and hid it there. He then ran back down to the side of the building.
He peered over the corner and looked at the two talking. They were both against the wall and looking out.
"Phoenix, how many people are in the lobby of the building? Also, is the door made of glass?"
"Uh, there are some receptionists in the lobby, but no guards. Oh, and the door is metal, so they can't see through it."
"Good." Barry stood and moved to the other side of the wall, just to the left of the guards, and drew his knife. They turned their heads to look. Barry dashed forward holding his blade out. He stopped on the other side of the two. Both of them collapsed, choking on their own blood, which was currently pouring out of their throats. He moved their bodies out of view of the door and into some nearby bushes and entered the building.
When he did, one of the receptionists looked up. Before she could open her mouth to question him, he spoke.
"I'm here with an important job from the Anti-Monitor. I need to get to your server room."
"From the ashes, a fire shall be woken; A light from the shadows shall spring." The receptionist replied. Barry cursed under his breath.
"Sam, get on it," Barry whispered into the comms.
"I don't know! The guard didn't know anything about that!" Sam responded frantically. The receptionist raised an eyebrow at Barry. Eventually, she sighed and started to move toward the alarm button. Barry used his speed to think.
"Alright," he thought to himself, "What could that mean? Fires, ashes, light, shadows. Come on, come on! Alright, it's about rebirth, obviously. It's probably from a poem, so I bet it rhymes. What rhymes with 'woken'? 'Spoken'? No, that doesn't fit the theme. 'Token'? That doesn't make sense either. 'Broken'? That might be it.
What about 'spring'? 'Sting'? No, what about 'ring'? Not that either... Wait a minute. I've heard this before. The beginning, what is it? All...all that is gold does not glitter! That's it! Alright, so the end would be..."
"Renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king! There." Barry shouted. The receptionist's finger froze at the button. She looked back over at Barry. She then nodded and stood up.
"Come with me." She began walking to a door across the room. Barry followed her. "Through here. The signs will guide you."
"Thank you," Barry said as he entered.
Sam was standing on a nearby roof breathing a sigh of relief from Barry getting through the desk. Immediately after, though, he felt something fly past his ear. He raised his hand to his ear, finding that his comms piece was gone. Sam spun around and saw a figure standing a few feet behind him. Sam put his hand behind his back and created a knife.
"Who are you?" Sam asked the figure.
"Who do you think?" The figure responded. It raised an arm and snapped its fingers. Out from behind him came the two guards that Barry and Sam killed earlier both with their heads back on.
"Riser," Sam said in disgust.
"Correct."
"How are you here?"
"Same way you are. Anti-anti-matter suit. If that makes any sense."
"Why?"
"To see you two in action. I must say, you two are a bit more bloody than I thought. Ah well, I guess that just makes my job easier."
"You're getting on to us about being bloody?! That real funny, cause I seem to remember a certain war you caused. You know, the one that killed the rest of my kind, my family, my wife, my child. Either way, what 'job' are you talking about?"
"You don't actually know that I started that war. As for the job, that's for me to know and for you and Barry to find out."
"Screw off. I'd rather not fight up here."
"Why not?" Riser brandished two daggers. "I didn't resurrect these fools for nothing." Sam sighed, then readied himself.
"Fine. Let's fight."