Chapter 11

As soon as he read the headline, he knew what had happened. The media had done this to Batman, Superman, and countless others. It was nothing more than a theory, but Barry knew Anna would take it as fact. He was hoping she would take it as well as she had when he had spoken to the reporter, but this time, there were more convincing words running underneath the headline, with photographs, and he knew it would be bad.

His first course of action was to change out of his Flash suit, privately, and then run back into the mall to the place he had spotted Anna in. Sure enough, she was still there, looking dumbfounded, and there were even people looking at her strangely.

Barry walked up to her nervously, and she didn't notice him until he tapped her shoulder.

"Anna, dear, come on, we need to get back-" he began, under his breath.

"No! No!" she cried out. "How could-?"

But this time, he covered her mouth, knowing if she began accusing him in public, people would look at the television, and put two and two together.

"Not here, Anna!" he insisted, and suddenly she stopped fighting and let go. What dealt the final blow was seeing her free herself from his grip, and storm off. He was pretty sure he had even seen tears from her, which really crushed his heart.

"Anna, wait!" he tried, but she wouldn't listen, and was soon out of sight. He sighed, and looked down as he closed his eyes for a moment, before chasing her.

He finally caught up to her outside, when she turned around and saw him. She took off running even faster, and he still called her name, when he realized she was running straight into the street without looking. He quickly took action and shot out the suit in his ring, putting the suit on instantly, and ran after her. He reached her in time before she would be hit by an oncoming car, to save her life, and then placed her on the sidewalk. He returned to the car, and corrected its path so the driver wouldn't crash.

When Barry saw everything was going smoothly, he ran back to where he had put the suit on, and he put the suit back into the ring. When he returned to the scene, he found a small crowd of people surrounding who he could only guess to be Anna, and as he neared them, he saw it was her. However, she also saw him approach, and her face turned from disoriented to a frown. And now he saw that the tears he had seen were real, and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her and explain the truth and apologize, but he knew there was no chance of that.

As he began excusing himself to pass, Anna stood up and began walking away, but not before yelling at him, "I don't want to see you!"

The crowd of people slowly dissipated, but Barry continued walking towards her.

"Anna, we need to talk, please!" he called, but she didn't stop walking.

"There's nothing to say!" she shouted back.

As soon as they had turned corner, he began running towards her, and now positioned himself in front of her.

"Anna, please," he begged. "You must listen to what I have to say!"

"You know what the worst part about this is?" she said, between mid sobs. "The worst part is you did it in front of me and I never noticed."

"No, please," he pleaded. "None of what you saw on that television is true! Remember what I told you? I'll always love you and only you."

"I'm tired of your lies, Barry," she yelled at him. He grimaced in pain, but kept trying to persuade her.

"Anna, that's not true," he said. "Why won't you even hear me out? What if I am right?"

"Because-" she began, but then realized he was right. She hadn't even given him a chance to explain himself.

"Let's go home, where we'll have a bit more privacy, shall we?" he offered, and she reluctantly nodded. He carried her all the way to Arendelle as fast as he could.


"Anna, whatever you think you saw, it's not true," Barry began. "Those news articles are made to make money by having outrageous titles that will draw anyone to watch it."

"That doesn't explain the pictures, Barry," she said, tears building up again. "You only smile at me like that."

"Well I was feeling pretty proud of your sister," he defended. "She told me that she was glad I had helped her find her true purpose of helping people."

"Hey, where is she?" Anna suddenly noticed.

The living room immediately became a lot colder, and they both knew she was upstairs in her room.

"Anna, I need you to tell me what you think happened," Barry said calmly after the cold had passed.

"Okay," she agreed, and took a deep breath.

"You brought my sister with you to help fight your villains because you wanted to spend more time with her since you like her over me."

"No, no, no, no!" he cried out. "Anna, please, there's nothing more I want in the world but to make you happy. Everything we've lived through can't have been a lie, I won't allow it! If you really love me, you'll know I have never cheated on you, or have ever had thoughts to do so!"

For a moment, time stood still, and he couldn't feel his heartbeat, until Anna spoke up.

"Barry, I'm so sorry," she began sobbing, as she collapsed onto him. "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"I'm sorry I gave you a reason to doubt me," he said with his eyes closed as he embraced her.

"It's just that I feel like every time I leave you alone, you do something other than you say," she said, taking deep breaths.

"I have a microphone that records every time I put on the suit," he told her. "I use it for evidence and clues in my investigation, but I'll let you listen to it so you can hear nothing ever happens."

"I'm sorry Barry," she repeated, this time with more emphasis. "I'm sorry for doubting you."

While this had happened, Elsa had snuck downstairs and stayed around the corner, listening to their conversation, and feeling hopeless. She almost ruined her sister's relationship, all because she had been feeling 'alone'. She could only hope time would mend these wounds.


A day had passed, and Elsa hadn't spoken to either of them, but Barry and Anna had quickly mended their relationship.

By the time Barry returned home from work, Anna was waiting for him, looking as beautiful as ever.

"Anna, my love!" he said, as she ran towards him.

"Barry!" she returned, as they kissed in celebration of his return.

"How have you been, darling?" he asked, as he still held on to her.

"Fine, but I could be better," she said. "Elsa still doesn't want to talk to me."

"If you want, I can try to speak with her," he suggested, but Anna shook her head.

"No, I think that would only make things worse," she thought. "It's just going to be a while."

"Well, are we going to do anything special this night?" Barry asked, teasing her.

"No, not really," Anna replied, as she sat herself on the couch and turned the television on.

"What did you do without me today?" Barry called to her, as he zipped around the house.

"Oh, nothing much," she called back. As she changed the stations to ones from Central City, however, she noticed that each one reported a strange man breaking into the Justice League embassy in Washington DC.

"Hey Barry, who protects Washington DC?" Anna called out, as she kept watching.

"That would be Wonder Woman," he said, finally coming to a stop behind the couch to watch the news.

"Well, it's not a wonder that nobody stopped him," Anna said, pointing.

As soon as Barry saw the man, he knew it was the same one who he had encountered only days prior. The same suit, the same wings, and now, he was being labeled as the "Blue Beetle" by the news.

"He's the man I encountered," Barry said to Anna. "The blue and black man I told you about."

"Are you going to go find him?" she gasped, and Barry activated his Flash ring to use his suit.

"I'll be back in a Flash," he smiled, and before she knew it, he was gone.


The morning after the encounter Hans had with the Flash, he had woken up in his bed, having completely forgotten about the little problem on his back. When he groggily got up, he heard a voice begin speaking to him, although strangely enough, it wasn't speaking English, and he could understand it. What was even stranger was the questions it was asking. Where are we?, Who are you?. The usual.

Until he finally came to his senses and realized there was no one else in the room but him. He blinked once and remembered the scarab that had implanted itself on his back the day before, and upon touching his back, he felt its presence, still there.

"Hello?" he asked, fearfully.

The scarab beeped back at him, which he understood by some miracle.

"I'm Hans," he told it, to which it responded.

"We're on Earth, but where are you from?" he asked it, and it gave him an answer.

"Okay," he said. "I don't know where that is, but here's another question you. Why didn't you help me yesterday?"

The scarab sounded mad, and Hans quickly discarded his question. "Okay, okay, sorry. It's just that I could have used your guidance yesterday."

And as he heard the words come out of his mouth, he realized how ridiculous he sounded. "Oh, I must have gone insane-"

But he was cut off as he received a shock, presumably from the bug, and a not so nice message. "Alright, I get it."

"Listen, I know you probably don't care very much about what I do, but you're stuck with me, so-" he began to say, until the bug started 'speaking'.

"Your master?" Hans said, with his eyes wide open. "I'm your master now?"

The scarab sounded tired, but it responded, and Hans got an idea.

"Well, I need help with something," he said, thoughtfully. "There's this man I need to bring down, but to do that I need to find evidence and-"

Hans realized that he had forgotten about work, and he quickly ran around his room to get himself properly dressed. Once he had finished, he noticed the scarab had retreated deep into his back, almost so it was level with it. He didn't know how he wasn't feeling any pain from it, but he wouldn't question it, because it would be easier to hide.

On his walk to work, he noticed the scarab was very chatty, and because of this he had many instances where he would say things to seemingly thin air, while ongoers looked at him strangely. He kept trying to hush it, but it wouldn't, and he could only hope it wouldn't be noisy when he was at work.

Once he arrived at the Central City Citizen building, he greeted the secretary on his way in, and he made his way to his desk, where Iris was missing from her desk.

He looked around, and to his surprise, she was talking to another coworker. He noticed she tucked a curl of her behind her ear, and he felt a little tinge of something radiate through him, though he didn't know what it was. Ignoring it, he sat down and began to mind his own business, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Where have you been?" came the impatient question. As he turned around to face her, he was smiling like a kid who had been late to dinner at her.

"Would you believe there was a lot of traffic?"

"Hans, you and I both know you walk," she snorted.

"Well," he sighed. "I had a rough day yesterday."

"Tell me about it," she said, as she rolled her eyes.

"Listen, Iris, I need some pointers on the Flash," he said, and she lit up.

"What do you need?" she asked. "Height? Eye color? Top speed?"

"No, no and no," he responded, mildly confused. "Is there any official place where he meets with the heroes of the Justice League?"

"Are you kidding?" she said, bored. "Yeah, the JL Watchtower."

"And where is that?"

"In space...?" she said, concerned. "Hans, are you okay?"

"Sorry, you know I'm new around here," he said sheepishly. "How can I get there?"

"The fact that you have never heard of the Watchtower is scary," she said shaking her head. "You can't get there."

"What?" he asked, as the scarab squirmed around on his back, and he tried his best to appear normal.

"Yeah, there's no way to get in there, unless you're part of the Justice League, or the president," she scoffed. "What, are you trying to get in there?"

"No," he quickly answered, as he hit his own back.

"Are you alright?" Iris asked, as she leaned closer to him.

"Yes! It's just I have, uh, a rash!" Hans offered. "Anyways, are you sure it's not accessible?"

"Well, if you were really that desperate, you could try the Justice League Embassy in Washington DC," she said. "It accepts visitors from like, 9 to 5."

"Perfect!" he said, clapping his hands.

"But Hans, aren't you working on the Peterson story?" Iris protested.

"Tell the chief I'll be back by 12!" Hans said, as he quickly organized his desk.

"Hans!" Iris yelled, as he went running out of the building.


Luckily for Hans, Central City wasn't very far from the capital of the United States, and he took a bus to get there. It had been uncomfortable, because of the scarab, but he had managed, and now he was finally at his destination. The building was rather large, and looked more like a museum than an embassy. When he entered, he realized why. It was a museum, at least partly, and the embassy part was off limits to the public. He tried to enter multiple times, but was stopped every time from advancing by security guards.

It wasn't until lunch time he realized he wouldn't be getting in as Hans. And while he walked the streets of Washington DC, he had an idea.

"Hey, scarab," he asked. "Would it be possible for you to get me in there with that fancy armor of yours?"

It beeped back angrily at him, and Hans was surprised.

"Well, no, but-"

It beeped back, even more angry now, and Hans had to admit his mistakes.

"Yes, I don't know what I'm looking for, but I was thinking that you and I together would be-"

Once more the scarab beeped at him, telling him it would equip the armor on him.

"No no no!" he stuttered, as people who walked past him looked at him strangely.

"You can't do that here!" he ordered, to which the scarab yielded.

"Look, we can do it in private, but I need to know if you have a plan," Hans told the scarab. When it responded positively, he asked again.

"What's the plan?" Hans questioned, but it refused to answer.

"We're going to go in without me knowing what the plan is?" he said. "How are we going to-"

The scarab reassured him, and Hans quickly ran into the back of an alley, where the tranformation happened almost instantly. He felt his senses increase tenfold, and his vision was clouded by an interface on the inside of the helmet.

"Turn that off, will you?" he complained, to which the scarab complied.

The scarab automatically took off without the knowledge of the man in the armor, and he quickly panicked, until it reassured him again that he was in control. The view was incredible and breathtaking, but Hans had no time to appreciate, because they flew directly to the building, where they entered through one of the windows, crashing in.

Immediately, alarms went off, but thanks to the armor, the noise was minimized. Guards came running at him, and he began to panic, but fortunately for him, the suit had automatic defenses which shot down the guards. That, or it was the scarab's doing.

"Where do we go?" he asked it, frantically. It responded that it would take control, and Hans felt the armor moving by itself. He didn't question it, since it had gotten him this far, but he did begin to worry.

They broke into a room that said "Clearance Only", which he assumed was where he wanted to go.

The scarab used its control of the armor to throw furniture at the entrance, so no guards could get past it, and it began hacking into the computers that were in the room.

"What are you doing?" Hans hissed. "Don't we need to find the documents?"

The answer from the scarab was that the documents had been uploaded to the Justice League servers in the building, and the computer they were hacking would give the access to said documents.

As they finished the downloads, the guards who had been hacking away at the furniture that had been piled up finally busted in, but by then, the man in blue and black had blasted a whole in the ceiling, and gotten away.


As Hans flew back to his apartment, he got a bright idea.

"Scarab, see if you can make phone calls," he instructed. The scarab complied, and soon enough, the interface in the helmet showed him a very, very long list of phone numbers and IDs next to them.

"Call Iris West of the Central City Citizen," he told it, and it did, placing a call.

"Hello?" the voice came in. "Who is this?"

"Hey Iris, it's me, Hans," he said, as he landed on the roof of his building.

"Hans?" she shouted, and then lowered her voice. "Was that you? In DC?"

"Listen, I didn't want to break in, but-"

"Are you crazy?!" she yelled. "You can't break into government buildings! You're going to go to federal prison!"

"Okay, I need to explain this to you," he panted, as ran down the flight of stairs to his floor. "I'll send you the address and room number."

"Wait, I thought you didn't have a phone-" she said, before he hung up.

Hans cleaned himself up, and had the scarab deactivate the armor. The scarab insisted on decrypting the documents he had taken, and it got to work immediately.

He didn't know if she would actually show, him being a criminal and all, but much to his relief, she appeared about half an hour later.

When he heard a knock on the door, he got up from the bed, where he was waiting for the scarab, and opened the door. A very frightened Iris stood in front of him, but he welcomed her in.

"Come in," he told her. "I wasn't really planning on anyone dropping by, but I have some tea if you'd like."

"No thank you," she stuttered, still looking at him. "Hello?"

"Oh, yes," Hans remembered. "I'm the blue man."

"How long have you been like that?" she asked.

"Remember when we went to the abandoned camp?" he reminded her, and her eyes widened.

"You took something," she realized, and Hans nodded.

"I took this," he said, as he took his shirt off, and turned himself, so she would see his back.

Iris took several steps back in horror, and asked, "What happened to you?"

"This was being 'protected' in the camp we found, and I took it to investigate it," he explained. "Unfortunately, before I could, it came to life and stuck itself on my back."

"It gives you powers?" she said in awe.

"Flight, better senses, you name it," he boasted. "Hey, did I make it to the news?"

"Are you kidding?" she hissed. "You're page one stuff! And also a criminal. Turn on the TV!"

He did, and to his surprise, he was on all of the news channels. Apparently, breaking into a highly classified government building got you places.

"Well would you look at that," Hans said softly.

"Why did you even do it?" Iris asked, and he turned to look at her.

"Look, I didn't want you to find out like this," he started, and she raised an eyebrow. "But do you know if the Flash has any weaknesses?"

"Are you insane?" she shouted angrily. "This is all because you want to take him down? Do you know how much good he's done for the city? The world? Did you forget already?"

"I'll explain everything," he said, worried, as the sound of a helicopter's engine seemed to approach.

"Hold on, I think I better go," Iris said, now realizing the situation she was in, as she started to retreat out of the apartment. Before she could, the scarab on Hans quickly put on the armor. She didn't even have the chance to turn around before he took ahold of her, and they both made their way for the top of the building as she tried her best to defend herself. Once they were on the roof, Hans could make out two helicopters surrounding the building, and one of them began sending a message.

"Put the woman down, and surrender peacefully while you can, or we will open fire," came the words from a man in one of the helicopters. Using the megaphone, he repeated the message, until the scarab beeped a message to Hans.

"Then let's get out of here," he ordered, and Hans, holding on to Iris by the waste, took off like a rocket into the sky.

"Let me go!" Iris demanded in fear, looking down at what would be an instant death.

"I don't think you want me to do that," Hans said behind the armor, looking straight ahead.

"Where can we hide so the Flash doesn't find us?" he asked the scarab, but not before Iris answered for him.

"You can't," she said triumphantly. "There's nowhere on Earth he won't find you."

"Okay," Hans thought, remembering the documents they were after. "Then what are his weaknesses?"

There was only one the scarab could give him; space.

"Can I go into space?" Hans asked, and the scarab affirmed it was indeed possible.

"Is it possible to bring her into space without killing her?" he asked, and before he had finished, the scarab had created a suit around Iris, completely encasing her with the same armor he had.

"Perfect," he said, and they both began their ascent to the stars.


Thanks to the scarab, they had made the trip to the moon by nightfall in Washington DC. Iris had to wonder if the little bug was literal magic or from another dimension.

Once they touched down on the moon, Hans landed first, and then let Iris free. In his mind, there was no way she could escape, even if he let her.

"I'm the first woman on the moon," Iris whispered, as she looked at the Earth.

"Iris," Hans said, as he took a few steps around. "Let me explain where I'm from."

"Yeah, you never really told me where you were from," she thought. "Only that you were from far away."

"Well that's true," he said slowly.

"Don't tell me you're a moon alien," she said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

"No, I'm not," Hans laughed, appreciating her ability to make light of a tense situation, and then became serious. "I'm from the past."

"Like, you were brought from the past...?" she questioned. "Or you were born in the past?"

"I was brought from the past," he said. "I come from the year 1843."

"What are you doing in the future then?" she asked.

"Well, here's the whole story," he began.

"I come from a kingdom that was known as the Southern Isles, in Northern Europe. A few months ago, at least for me, I was in the past visiting a northern kingdom known as Arendelle. I doubt you know either of them?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Well, in any case," Hans continued, "it doesn't matter. They don't exist anymore. Except, Arendelle does. You see, when I was visiting, the Flash appeared."

"In 1843?" she said, doubting his account.

"Yes, in my time," he said impatiently. "Wasn't he missing for a while here in your time?"

"You're right," Iris realized. "He was gone for a while, until he came back, sort of under the radar, until he died."

"Well guess what?" he said, anger brewing in him. "He's the reason the real Arendelle doesn't exist anymore."

"Don't tell me he blew it up," Iris scoffed.

"He did," Hans said. "I don't know how he actually did it, but I know it was him."

"How?"

"He brought everyone from Arendelle to this time, including me, and then he rebuilt it in its original spot," Hans said, looking at the Earth. "Everyone has their home back, but not me."

"You could have brought this to me," Iris said, as she approached him. "We could have figured this out."

"I was there, Iris," he growled. "I don't need to 'figure it out'. I need to destroy him. He ruined my life, so I'll ruin his."

"Hans, you can't do that," she said nervously. "And even if you did, there's no way you could stop him."

He paused, and then answered, "You're right."

"But would he risk stopping me when you're at my mercy?"


When the Flash returned home from his search, he phased through the front door, to make less noise. It was late in Arendelle, and he assumed the sisters were asleep. Upon entering his room, he discovered that one of them was still awake.

He noticed Anna in bed, with one eye open, but as soon as he turned the light on, she quickly closed it, and couldn't help but smile.

"Hey," Barry said in a low voice. "How were you?"

"Fine," she yawned, as she made herself more comfortable. "Did you get him?"

He shook his head, replying, "I couldn't find him anywhere on Earth."

"Are you sure you looked everywhere?" she grinned.

"Yes," he said, as he instantly changed his clothes to ones for bed. "It'll have to wait for tomorrow."

"I'm just glad you're back home," she confided, putting her arms out to hold him as he laid on the bed. It was in this moment, where he saw his past, present and future, and knew what he would have to do. Knew what he would have to ask of her.

He gave her a goodnight's kiss, and they both went to sleep.


"Will the plan still work?" Weather Wizard asked, as Heat Wave watched the news.

"Hey, Scudder, get a load of this guy," Heat Wave called, ignoring the weather man, as Mirror Master was reworking the plan.

"Rory, if this isn't important, I swear you'll-" he started scolding, but stopped when he took a closer look at the man on screen.

The Blue Beetle, as they were calling him, had robbed a Justice League installation. If he could do that with the Flash around, then maybe they could use a guy like him in the Rogues.

"Mardon, find out everything you can about this new guy," Scudder ordered. "I want to see if we can use him as bait."

The plan would still go ahead.