Months had now passed since Barry had fallen into the coma, and Lucy was no closer to finding out what had happened to their mother. To his mother. Lucy paced around the room while Anti's eyes went wide with curiosity.
"You could always go to Starling City," Anti offered with a grin. "Seems like an interesting place."
"Not relevant. There was no mention of anything involving a guy moving so fast to become a blur," Lucy retorted anxiously.
"No, just some men with superhuman strength. Definitely nothing strange there," Anti replied airily and smiled when Lucy narrowed her eyes at him.
With a sigh, Lucy looked at the reports that Anti had found. There was definitely something odd going on there, but would it lead them to anything that would free her dad? Barry's dad, she corrected herself.
"It couldn't hurt to check it out," Lucy replied tentatively. "It's not like I have a wealth of information here."
Anti did a celebratory shimmy and called out, "Road trip!"
"What makes you think that I'm bringing you?" Lucy asked, and Anti pouted.
"Hey, we're partners. That's the deal. And how am I going to keep Dark away from you from here?"
Lucy clicked her tongue but had to admit that he had a point. She sighed and agreed, "Alright. But it's a long train ride."
"You're taking the train? That's so boring!"
"Well, I'm on a fixed income now, so I need to be careful."
"Maybe you should actually go to work then," Anti retorted with a smirk.
Lucy rolled her eyes and replied, "I do. I just happen to have my work done before I get there. A fix here and there and they pay pretty well. I just don't want them to get too technologically advanced. That could lead to trouble."
Anti rolled his eyes and sang a song while Lucy packed up some supplies for the trip. A knock on the door startled her, and she went to open the door, shutting the laptop with a small protest from Anti. No one was there when she opened the door. Stepping outside, she heard a small snap. A rose sat on the doorstep. A note simply read: "I miss you. Very Much."
"Anti!" Lucy called and opened the laptop screen. "What do you think of this?" She turned it toward the door and showed him the rose.
Anti snickered before he seemed to realize something and said, "Oh no. We need to leave now. That's just like Dark. What a creep."
"Wait, what?!" Lucy asked and shut the door, locking the deadbolt. "I thought you said that he couldn't just get to this world."
"He must have found someone who can see him through the mirror, but he can't stay in that world. Not without your permission."
"Why mine?"
"I don't really know to be honest. Usually it's not difficult to bring someone into our world or travel between worlds, but once you're in a world we can't force our way through. It's what makes it easy for us to find you. It's the one place that we can't go. And since we can't get into the world, we can't drag you back with us."
"Why me at all? If you guys can go anywhere, why can't you just be anywhere I'm not?"
"That's boring. Normal people don't last very long… You're special. I'm mostly just trying to piss Dark off by hanging around you when he can't. That's fun for me, but… hanging around you isn't boring. I guess. You can occasionally be fun when you aren't so keen on having that giant stick up your—."
"Got it," Lucy interrupted him and checked outside. "So, whoever left the rose is a human?"
"For now, but soon Dark will have a hold on him. Then he'll be more of a puppet than a person. Dark is feeding off him. That's probably why he was so strong before."
"So, I should give up on Starling City for now and just focus on finding this guy."
"Nope. Then he'll go into hiding. Dark will want him to follow you. It's better to let Dark think that we've been fooled. Pack up. Leave for a bit. He'll send his toy to watch you… or you could just let me into that world," Anti pleaded and looked as innocent as possible for a black-eyed demon.
"So you can drag me back to your world and slit my throat? No thanks. I'm good. I like my throat how it is. One solid piece."
Anti pouted and argued, "That was before I knew you. I thought that you were a weak new toy, but now… you're different."
"As glad as I am that you finally see me as I person, no. Still no. This isn't my world, and I won't be responsible for you causing trouble in it," Lucy reasoned as she finished putting everything in the bag.
"You just don't want me to hurt your precious Barry," Anti mocked angrily, and his voice now had an odd echo to it. "Why is he so important? Weren't you trying to get back to your 'Missy'? Are you staying there now? You gave up on her that quickly?"
"NO! No… I just don't see a way to get back to her at the moment. Caan is gone… he was the one who knew what to do, but even now I'm wondering if he ever did. Or if he was just leading us away from trouble until it found us."
Anti went silent as Lucy got out the laptop bag and put the laptop inside of it. She quickly grabbed her backpack and threw it on before grabbing the bag with her free hand. No one was outside. Lucy checked behind her as she made her way to the train station. It was likely that Dark's accomplice would find her anyway, but she didn't want to make it easy. She paid for her ticket and sat in a seat. After a few hours the lull of the train put her in a trance, and as she looked out the window, the reflection showed Dark standing behind her. She glanced behind her, but no one was there. One of his tricks, she guessed.
Now Lucy was on edge. Taking the laptop out of her bag, she nearly jumped out her seat when she opened the laptop. Anti's face was up against the screen, and he whispered, "He was there, wasn't he?"
Lucy nodded and mumbled, "For a second."
Luckily, she seemed to be alone on the train. Due to the nature of Anti's powers, it would look like she was talking to a blank screen on a laptop. She put it on the seat beside her and closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry, you know," Anti said, startling Lucy. "I can see how much you care about him, and… it made me angry. You need to be careful with him. Dark already knows that he's important to you. Just don't let him see how much."
"Why?" Lucy whispered.
"We're jealous creatures, Lucy. We're made from the worst parts of you humans. The anger, jealousy, hatred. Dark is the worst. There's nothing light in him whatsoever. I at least have my wonderful sense of humor… That's why he wants you so bad. He got so angry after you left. He said that he felt an 'echo' of something. Something besides the hurt and the pain and the anger. Your love for Missy… he seemed to get a taste of that feeling, and now he wants more. You think that we infect the world around us, and that's true enough. But you infected our world. Us."
"How so? Because I love Missy? That doesn't make any sense."
"The world you found us in," Anti explained. "It's one of our own creation. Tailored to us. Our needs. Our personalities. Others don't usually influence it… because they're usually running or screaming in fear. Not you… You challenged us…. Fought us on equal ground and therefore our world treated you as an equal. You changed us, whether you meant to or not."
"So how do I get rid of him? Do I just keep running and hope for the best?" Lucy asked quieter this time as people walked through the car.
"Once you're in your own world… I don't think that we'll be able to follow. Certainly not to the degree we are now," Anti said wistfully. "You are an equal to us in our world, but… in your own, we don't stand a chance."
Lucy nodded and looked out the window thoughtfully.
"Is that why you can block him? Because I allowed you?"
"Yes, together we're stronger than him. I meant what I said before. If you allow me into the world, his hold will falter, but… you don't trust me. Probably shouldn't. Things have been much calmer for me lately. I feel… more… together. That may be destroyed once I get into that world. Perhaps this is better for now."
Lucy nodded. He sounded too disappointed to be trying to trick her, but she wouldn't let her guard down just yet. He may be preferable to Dark, but he was no angel. Starling City glittered in the distance as they approached.