"Open it back up," Barry demanded, still thinking there was a chance to save Jay. "Open it back up! Now!"
Wells shook his head. "It's not - it's not possible." He ground out. He looked just as upset as the rest of them, even though he had been known to hate Jay with every fiber of his being. "The breach's energy prevents it from ever being open again. Now that they're all closed... We're stuck here."
Jesse whirled toward her father, her face a mask of anger. "What?! We're stuck here forever?! What about my friends? But what about my life?"
"You don't have a life, Jesse," Wells roared, grief and fear bubbling into anger. "Zoom took that from you the second he kidnapped you. This is the only place we'll ever be safe. The only place you'll ever be safe."
Jesse let out a puff of frustration and stormed out of the room. Barry handed Angelica to him so he could take her to the medical bay for Caitlin to look over. Bobby walked off as well, followed by Miles and then Peter.
Barry tightened his grip on Caitlin, feeling her trembling against his chest. "It could have been you," she croaked. "It could have been you standing there, or Cisco. Zoom wouldn't have cared."
Joe placed his hand on Iris's back, his jaw tense.
Losing Jay felt like losing a limb. He had been a member of their team, a trusted person allowed into their tight circle to fight crime and save the world.
And now... now he was gone.
Opening her eyes slowly, Angelica wondered where she was. Everything looked different—it appeared to be STAR Labs, but she wasn't sure. She recalled using a dangerous amount of her energy to blast Zoom back to Earth to save herself from him.
When she then put it together, she realized she was in a medical bay on Earth-1. She turned and faced the back of the head of Caitlin, who was fixing her IV bag to help maintain her strength. When she heard the girl rustle, she turned and gave a reassuring smile to the young girl. But that was all it took for Angelica to freak out when she noticed that this girl was the doppelganger of Killer Frost.
"Hey, you're okay," Caitlin was trying to assure her when Angelica got out of bed to get ready to fight.
"Hey! Hey!" Bobby managed to get to the room in time to de-escalate the situation. "Hang on! Hold up! I'm not a bad guy."
Angelica quickly froze up when she noticed Bobby and had flashbacks to when she saw her friend get killed. "Bobby?"
"Uh, hi." Bobby figured that Peter must have told her about him. "Yeah, and you are...?"
Angelica sighed and a few tears left her eyes as she pulled Bobby in close for a hug. She had missed her friends so much, and she couldn't let her guard down when Peter was taken in by Miles. But this time around, she knew it wasn't really her friend, but she didn't care at this moment.
"These are the lost people in this new world." The Watcher felt sorry for these world travelers. Wells and Jesse were getting set up in one of the areas in STAR Labs until they found something more permanent. Angelica was finally getting over the shock of being on this new Earth; she started trying to get used to this new world.
Miles decided to stay with May and Peter for the time being, seeing as it was the best option available. Peter and Miles could work on their abilities, and Miles wouldn't have to hide his powers from them.
Angelica was offered a place at Caitlin's place, but she declined it because she didn't think she could trust her. Angelica saw that Caitlin wasn't the same person as the Killer Frost she had met in her own world. So she ended up staying over at Joe's place for the time being, seeing as he had Barry's empty bedroom.
"They needed time to settle, to try and get used to their new situations."
"But little did they know..." The Watcher then looked off across the world, to Washington D.C., where Nick Fury and Maria Hill were walking down the hallways of their facility. They were engaged in their normal routine and were getting their daily routines out of the way. "Something bigger was on the horizon."
Fury stated, "I thought that Poison's having synergistic sleeper containment was classified information. If word of these allegations gets out, it could cause hell."
"I'll put a word out to find out where the leak came from," Hill promises.
Fury wondered, "Is there anything else I should be worried about?"
That was when the entire Triskellion shook, causing them to freak out and wonder what was going on. Hearing the alerts going off, they realized that there had been a breach in the building, causing both of them to react by pulling out their guns and racing toward the area where the explosion had come from.
"How about that?" Hill asks, with sarcasm.
As they ran into the room, they were shocked by the sight of fire and several dead agents lying on the floor. Hill ran to check on a few of them while Fury made his way over to the area where he had seen a large hole. When he looked up, he saw the imprint of something flying away. The sound of laughter filled the air, and Fury's expression grew darker as he squinted his eyes to get a better look.
"Hobgoblin," Fury snarled at the maniac.
"Sir?" Hill got his attention. "What did he take?"
Fury took a deep breath to calm himself down and then became focused. He said, putting his gun away. "I need to take a trip to Central City."
"Sir, do you really think that's appropriate right now?" Hill wasn't entirely sure she understood what her boss was thinking.
"Considering that's where he's going, I feel it's not only appropriate but necessary," Fury stated as he walked out the door. "You are in charge here until I get back, Hill."
"What did he take?" Hill asked, following him to the elevator.
Fury made it to the elevator and stepped inside, hitting the button to take him to the hangar. "He took the one thing that can kill Spider-Man."
Hill didn't have the time to question further; the doors had already closed, and Fury was on his way to Central City.
"So, this is where you guys all hang out?" Miles asked as he strolled around the Cortex of STAR Labs. "Is this your headquarters?"
"Yeah, and in this world, our identities are a secret," Peter confirmed. He then looked over and noticed his brother seemed to be a little distant, which has been the case since they came back from Earth-2. "You okay, man?"
"Hm?" Barry asks, which he wasn't paying attention to him. "Oh, sorry, I've been...thinking."
"About Frost?" Peter guessed his brother was still thinking of his girlfriend's doppelganger.
"A little bit," Barry admitted that was one of the points in his mind. But there were a few other things. "I've been more thinking about all of this. Our lives. How fast we could lose everything."
"Yeah, that is scary." Peter nodded as he could follow what his brother was saying. "But we do all we can to make sure we can come home." But then he wondered about something. "Uh, did you ever tell Caitlin or Joe about Earth-2?"
"No, not really," Barry admitted. "You?"
Peter blew a raspberry when he was asked that. "There wasn't much to say, considering that half of us were killed. And that's not exactly something that I want to talk about with May."
"That makes sense," Barry agreed with his brother. "So, what do you think we should do now?"
"I have some ideas," Nick Fury said as he entered the room, everyone almost jumping to attention when they saw him standing in the doorway. "How about stopping the one breacher you forgot to stop before closing them all?"
"Huh?" Peter asks when he remembered who he was referring to. "Hobgoblin."
"Oh, shit," Miles said in worry, knowing exactly who the Hobgoblin is.
Fury then brought everyone up to speed on everything that had happened and why they had left Washington to make their way to Central City. He informed them of everything that had transpired, including someone breaking into the Triskellion and stealing something from their labs.
"The Hobgoblin broke into the Triskellion?" Caitlin gasped in surprise at what she was hearing.
"The cameras picked up a signature that was similar to a pumpkin bomb he had used in the past," Fury confirmed it was indeed the Hobgoblin.
Peter asked, "And what exactly did he steal?"
"An experimental weapon that was designed to protect people in case of emergencies," Fury said, knowing he would get some backlash for the comment.
"What kind of emergencies?" Miles didn't like how vague this version of Nick Fury was.
"In case Spider-Man ever turned evil." Fury decided to cut through the knife.
"What?" Peter jumped in shock. "You made a weapon that was designed to kill me?"
"It was a precaution, considering we figured if one of you existed, there could be others. Are you telling me that if everyone got powers like yours, they will all turn out good like you?" Fury asks him.
Peter considered others out there with powers and even eyed Miles, recalling he got his powers in a similar way that Peter did. If there were a chance that others out there got powers like his, then they could become unstoppable.
"Is there a way to shut it down?" Peter asks.
"The Hobgoblin has already taken down our firewalls and stopped the remote shutdown," Fury said, as he then showed them the blueprints of the suit.
The entire suit looked like a giant spider and man mixed with a bunch of armored plates to make up for Peter's strength. The head looked sort of like a Gundam, not to mention the weapons seemed to be the sheer strength the suit provided. The suit itself towered over at least three buildings and had a place in the chest to control it all.
"Whoa. That is going to take some hitting." Peter comments.
"There is a kill switch in the heart of the machine," Fury said and showed the arc reactor that was powering the suit. "Hit that, take it out, the suit goes down."
"Okay, seems easy enough," Barry comments.
"Except that it's built with an early alert system that would alert the cockpit if the Flash were to approach it," Fury warned them, looking at Barry. "You approach, it has defenses to fight back against you. The systems were designed to counter anything... except we could never counter Spider-Man in the same way. Meaning that if anyone were to approach it, the systems would fight back. But it will also track and attempt to hunt you down using your genetic marker."
"Which is why you never blew it out of the sky," Angelica guessed.
"Its defenses will keep the suit safe; the only one who might stand a chance...is Spider-Man," Fury said regretfully.
"Great, so I am on my own." Peter sighed.
"Well, you don't have to be." Miles offers.
Peter knew he was the only person with Spider powers...wait. "Did you guys say Spider-Woman helped you to fight Hydo Man?"
"Yeah, why?" Bobby asks, suddenly dawning on him. "Oh."
"We have to find her before they do, or she could become the Slayer's first victim," Peter whispered worriedly.
Jessica Drew was currently at home. The events that had gone down the other day against Hydro-Man hadn't exactly gone unnoticed by her mother. Jessica had some things she needed to answer for, considering her mother wasn't exactly aware of her going out there as a hero.
Miriam whispered, "I just don't understand it." She asked, "Why are you doing this?"
"You're acting like I caught you smoking or something," Jessica scoffed at what she thought was her mother overreacting. "I helped someone. I saved that girl and her sister. I did the right thing. I had everything under control."
"It didn't look like that from my perspective," Miriam said. "It looked like you were just winging it."
Jessica turned away, shrugging. "Well, it seemed to work out for the other heroes."
"You can't keep doing this, Jessica," Miriam stated. "I thought that after recently-"
"What happened recently is the reason I'm doing this," Jessica explained. "It...it was strange enough after you finally told me what you should have told me ten years ago. But how do you expect me to approach Peter Parker? After what I learned? I go to school with him. Do you know how hard it was for me to even talk to him last year? This...this is ten times harder to hide."
Miriam knew, but they needed to trust that he knew what he was doing. She tried to calm her daughter. "Just let him break the news," she said.
"When is he going to do that?" Jessica asked as she stood up from the table. "We've been dating for six months. Does that mean I have to wait another ten years before telling him-"
Jessica stopped herself when she suddenly felt her senses alert her to danger in the vicinity. She wondered what was going on and started walking away, almost as if she were in some sort of trance. Her mother tried to get her attention, but that's when the ground began to shake, getting both of them to hush and listen to the thumping sounds coming from outside.
When they reached the window, they watched as people ran frantically down the left side of the neighborhood. They wondered what was happening until a gigantic mechanical foot came crashing down from above them. Miriam shrieked a little, and Jessica grabbed her mother's arm and held her close.
Outside their home, the Spider-Slayer was in full swing as it began to search the neighborhood for Spider-Man, unaware it had picked up the scent of the wrong spider.
"Spider-Man!" the Hobgoblin cried out from within the chest of the armor. "Where are you?"
Jessica assumed that this guy was there looking for Spider-Man, but somehow managed to track her down instead. But she wasn't going to just wait around and wonder when Spider-Man would show up; as far as she knew, he was still a no-show. So, she was going to have to take matters into her own hands.
"This is why I do what I do," Jessica said as she tore off her shirt, revealing her spider suit beneath.
"No, you are not," Miriam quickly grabbed her hand to stop Jessica from leaving. "It's too dangerous."
The Hobgoblin shouted, "Come out and show yourself, you coward!" as he smashed the roof of a neighbor's house. Fortunately, its occupants had already fled after the robot appeared on the street. "I know you're out there."
Jessica declared, "It seems more dangerous if I don't do anything." She yanked her hand out of her mother's grasp. "I have to stop this guy."
As the Hobgoblin finished crushing the building, he began scanning the area to try and locate where Spider-Man was. However, just as he turned the suit around, Slayer's eyes were suddenly covered in webbing.
"Hey, did you know that it's inappropriate to spy on a girl?" Jessica asked as she swung around and used the arm of the Spider-Slayer to gain momentum for another swing. "It's honestly creepy."
"What? A Spider-Girl?" The Hobgoblin seemed surprised to see her.
"Spider-Woman," Jessica proclaimed as she used the momentum to kick the robot in the face, causing it to fall backward and crash into the road.
A few blocks away, Miles and Peter were running across rooftops, attempting to locate Spider-Woman. It was not an easy task; the attack by Hydro-Man had disabled the security cameras, making it challenging for them to pinpoint her whereabouts.
"We gotta find her before Hobgoblin finds her first," Peter whispered in worry as he looked around. "She could be anywhere in the city."
Then there was a gigantic explosion that got their attention in the suburbs of the city, and they figured that was where the Spider-Slayer was. If it wasn't, then they should still check it out.
"Do you think he's over there?" Miles asked.
"Guys, you seeing this?" Peter called his friends at STAR Labs.
Back at the scene of the crime, Jessica Drew was still hard at work as she was crawling off of the Spider-Slayer whilst the Hobgoblin tried to fight against her. "Will you stay still and let me squash you?!"
"You see, that isn't exactly something I want to do, since I want to live!" Jessica stated as she leaped off of him before Slayer could squash her. Then she shot a web to swing and reveal her web wings under her arms. "And staying still is the last thing on my mind!"
"I can see that," Hobgoblin said as he then activated the missile systems. "Oh, this looks like fun."
Then the missiles were then sent flying toward Jessica and she is beginning to slightly panic. With the small houses in the area, she couldn't swing away or get away fast enough since there arent tall enough buildings in the area. Then Hobgolin gets an alert that something fast was approaching them.
Then Barry came running into the neighborhood as he builds up the momentum to throw a lightning bolt. That bolt went upward toward the missiles and managed to blow one up, which set off a chain reaction that helped take the rest out, which was helped by Angelica flying and shooting fireballs.
"Whoa. That's a big suit." Barry comments.
"Meh, our Slayer looked a lot better," Angelica comments.
Miles and Peter managed to arrive while Jessica was falling to the ground when they both made their own web nets, entangling them with one another. Both of them are new to this, so Miles wasn't entirely good at making the net, and Peter was getting entangled with Miles' webbing. But that was fast enough for Jessica to grab onto the webbing and catch herself in the process.
"Well, thanks for the attempt." Jessica scoffed at the two of them. Then she got a good look at Miles and was a little confused. "Wait, who are you?"
"I'm...uh..." Miles looked over toward Peter and wondered what to go by.
"He's Kid Arachnid." Peter decided to go with a cool heroic name for Miles.
"Uh-huh," Jessica comments as she was a little confused. "Okay, what is going on here?"
"It's a bit hard to explain, but basically, it's a weapon designed to kill us," Peter explains to her and looked down. "Alright, listen, get out of here, and we will take care of this."
"What?" Jessica scoffed at the idea. "No way, this freak came to my neighborhood, I am taking him down."
"What?" Both of them ask as Jessica leaped back into the action.
Jessica came swinging into action as she shot two webs on the Slayer and yanked herself upward into the air. She then went closer as she activated her Web Wings to keep herself in the air and get closer to the robot. As the Hobgoblin used the suit to try and fight by shooting a web and spun around as she went through the gap in the arm and elbow to punch the robot in the face.
Peter and Miles were both watching in amazement as she was fighting the robot as if it were second nature. Yet again, getting used to their powers took about a week, and she did have a past year when they were fighting Thawne, Goblin, and taking care of that BRANCHes thing.
"Whoa. Can you teach me that?" Miles asks.
"I wanna teach myself that," Peter stated, and knew they needed to jump into action. "Come on!" But when Miles jumped into the fight, Peter stayed back and tapped his comm. "Cisco, remind me to add Web Wings to my things to work on."
Peter then shot out a web as they went into action to try and fight the robot. Jessica was shooting webs at the armor to try and pry the armor off, but it was too well designed to come apart that easily.
"Why won't this fall apart?!" Jessica cried when Hobgoblin fired some sticky gell to keep her in place. "Whoa! Hey! No fair!"
"This thing was designed to fight us!" Peter explains as he shot webbing at the weapons system, trying to pull them out. "We need to do something unpredictable if we want to reach the energy core!"
"And where is that?!" Jessica asks.
"In its chest!" Miles explains as he went in for a strike on the robot, only for it to backhand him.
Barry looked around the area and noticed a firetruck in the area and knew a way he could help slow the Slayer down. "Hang on, guys, I've got an idea." Then he sped over towards the firehose and ran towards the Slayer. He then began to wrap its legs in the process. "Now let's see if the bigger they are-"
Before Barry could even finish that statement, the Slayer began to activate its rockets and took off, rendering the feet obsolete at this moment.
"Nevermind," Barry comments.
Angelica got an idea as she flew towards the thrusters at its back. "Hang on!" She then ignited her fists and got ready to fire. "I got an idea!"
Except that she wasn't fast enough as she only ended up getting shot at by that sticky goo that was getting shot at Jessica a moment ago. When she was hit, it took out her fire and she ended up falling into the middle of the battle. She hit the ground and rolled onto the street with a groan in pain.
"Okay, this is going to be harder than it looked," Miles commented.
"Go for the legs!" Jessica cried as she felt if they took the thrusters on the Slayer's feet, it would solve all of their problems.
"No! Wait! it has-" Peter tried to warn her when Jessica was leaping in the air to hit her. When Jessica went for a strike, the suit reached out and tazed her, causing Jessica to fall unconscious into the robot's grasp. "More defenses."
"Okay, now what?" Miles asks. "What do we do?"
"I have some ideas," Hobgoblin said from within the suit. He then activated some sort of device within the chest that turned into a giant shredder of sorts. "I will just have to shred the entire street if I have to!"
Everything in the street began to get pulled in as Peter grabbed onto a lamppost and webbed Angelica before she could get sucked in. Barry turned and ran to try and help the people escape the drill, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. The longer it was activated, the stronger the pull as the buildings were starting to come apart. Then Jessica's house was next to get hit by the pull as her mother screamed. Jessica was starting to wake up and heard her mother and noticed what was happening. She looked down and noticed she was in the grasp of the robot and panicked.
"No!" Jessica panicked when she saw Barry, Peter, Miles, Angelica, and her mother were all there. "No! No! Leave...them..." She then started to feel something grow as she hit the fist she was stuck in. "ALONE!"
All of a sudden, two blasts of electricity shot out of her fists, and one of them were directly aimed at the Spider-Slayer. It wasn't as controlled as Miles' powers were, as he was able to zap a specific person, but these looked like two giant electrical blasts. The robot was hit with the full force of her bio-electricity and it took the Slayer down. When the Slayer shut down, she managed to get out of its grasp and the device fell over and slammed into the street.
"Whoa," Jessica said as she looked down at her fists. "I can do that?"
"Whoa," Peter said in shock. "She can do that, too?"
Barry sped over and looked between the three Spiders. "You guys okay?"
"I'm good." Jessica sighed in relief when she saw she saved Barry and Peter. She knew their identities, but this wasn't the time. She then looked over to Peter. "You good?"
"Yeah, we're good," Peter assured and looked at Miles. "You?"
"A little winded. But I'll live." Miles promises.
Then out of nowhere, an ice slide appeared as Iceman slid down to the area and looked between the group. "Just a quick reminder: super speed. I don't have it."
Peter nodded and almost forgot about his friend. "Noted."
Jessica smiled as she clapped her hands. "Well, it's been real. But I've got places to be." She then did a quick leap to get some distance between them.
They returned to STAR Labs, where Caitlin was able to examine them and determine that they were not seriously injured.
"Seems like you'll be right as rain in a few hours," Caitlin assured them.
"Thanks, Caitlin," he said, leaning in to peck her on the lips.
"Sorry, it took me so long. Should have given me a lift." Bobby comments.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Barry chuckled as Caitlin giggled. "Thanks for patching me up." He then walked off to give them some space. "See you later."
Bobby watched them walk away and looked at Caitlin. "You think you could teach me how to do that?"
"Do what?" Caitlin asks. "Kiss someone?"
"What? God no, I got that down." Bobby stated in disgust. "No, I meant patching someone up."
"You're really interested in that?" Caitlin was a little surprised to hear that.
"Well, with everything happening, I just feel there could be a chance I'd be more helpful here than on the field," Bobby explains.
Nick was on the phone as he was overseeing the relocation of the Spider-Slayer. As he was doing that, Peter was standing on the corner.
"Great to hear, I'll leave it in your hands," Fury said as he hung up and turned to Peter. "The Slayer is about to be transported to an offsite. And the Hobgoblin is being taken to one of our prisons. Nice work out there."
"You almost got me and my family killed," Peter stated angrily. "There's a million to one chance someone else out there have powers, and you knew that before Spider-Woman or Kid Arachnid. So, why would you build something like that? What broke in your mind to make you think you needed it?"
Fury sighed and tucked his phone away. "Because I'm a student of human movement, kid," he said. "And I thought, after everything done to you, after all, that's been said about and done to you... I thought we were watching the next supervillain rise. And I wanted the rest of us to be ready for the day you turned."
"Me?" Peter asks in shock. "The next big bad?"
"Kid, after everything that happened to you, you have every right in your mind to snap," Fury defended his hypothesis. "And it is my job to be prepared for if and when someone like you snaps. Your mother was killed, your father was sent to prison, your adoptive parents were killed by Thawne, your uncle was shot by a mugger, the Green Goblin tried to kill you, and then recently the Hobgoblin. Looked to me as if you lost your temper against the Sandman. Like you were going to kill him."
"But I didn't." Peter snarled.
Fury nodded, seeming to agree with Peter. "No, no you didn't," he said.
"And you were wrong," Peter wanted to hear him say it.
Fury sighed and swallowed his pride. "Yes," he said.
"Thank you!" Peter exclaimed as he threw his hands up in the air.
That's when something unexpected happened as Fury placed his hand on Peter's shoulder. "In fact, now I see that the opposite is true; I now… I can see that I am watching the birth of someone truly special."
Peter was frozen in shock when he realized that he had just received a compliment from the world's greatest spy. Fury smiled and turned back toward the elevator as he pushed the button and waited for it to arrive. The spy decided to get one more snide remark in as he turned to Peter.
"That is, of course, assuming you don't mess it up before you graduate high school," Fury said as he entered the elevator. He then turned back to the kid and smiled. "And remember… I've always got my eye on you."
Peter stood there, watching as the elevator closed and the spy disappeared. Barry chuckled as he walked over and noticed that his brother was standing there, like a deer caught in headlights.
"Yeah, from how Caitlin described him, that guy didn't seem to be good at giving compliments," Barry commented as he patted his brother on the shoulder. "But it looks like he likes you."
"Someone truly special," Peter repeated, recalling what Fury had just said. "I can't believe it."
"Well, he's not wrong," said MJ as she walked over from the other hallway, pecking Peter on the cheek. She and Gwen were helping Angelica wash off the goo from her suit. "You truly are someone special."
Angelica stayed back as she watched the tender moment between the loving couple. Gwen was also there, watching Mary Jane mess around with Peter's hair and call him "Tiger" a few times. Gwen remembered when she was with him before her father was killed by the Lizard. It was worse for Angelica, though; she had been dating Peter longer on her world than Gwen ever did.
"It hurts, I can see it in your eyes." Gwen comments, getting Angelica's attention. "Seeing him with someone else."
Angelica sighed as she looked over at Peter and MJ, watching as Barry walked away and gave them some privacy. "It's like it was just yesterday when we were like that," she said softly. "With Bobby walking away because he couldn't stand us."
Gwen chuckled. "Yeah, I was dating him up until two years ago. My dad died, and I left the city. But... that feeling is still there," she admitted, Harry was a nice guy, but she wasn't sure what kind of feelings she had for the boy. When she was with Peter, it just felt... different. With Harry, it almost felt like she was pretending. "But he's gone. Out of our league now."
Angelica scoffed and chuckled a little. "There was a time when he said I was out of his league."
"Yeah, but I guess the two of us can be in a league of our own." Gwen offered her a hand of friendship.
Angelica looked over at her and saw they could both use a shoulder to cry on. "I guess. It could be worth it."
"Hey, guys," Bobby got everyone's attention. "We were called to the cortex. Seems Barry has a bit of a surprise for us."
All of them wondered what their Scarlet Speedster was doing now and walked to the Cortex. When they reached the Cortex, they were a little surprised when they noticed that everyone was there. Joe, Iris, Miles, Harry, Jesse, May, Wells, everyone was here for some reason.
"What's going on?" Bobby wonders.
"Yeah, I feel like we walked into an intervention of sorts," Angelica agreed.
Barry stood at the front of the room, close to a display case covered by a white sheet. "Uh... I-I need to apologize to you all. Last year... I made a choice to go back in time... and save my mother. And that choice had a lot of consequences that will haunt me for the rest of my life, just like I know it haunts all of you, too. Zoom... Jay's death... it's all because of me. But I own those choices. We're the ones that opened the door to Earth 2; we're the ones that brought Zoom here. But we are also the ones that are gonna stop him."
Barry paused for a moment, letting it sink in with his team. Caitlin bit her lip, a love so intense bubbling up inside of her that it was all she could do not to scream or break down in sobs.
"How?" Harry asked. "The breaches have been closed."
Barry shrugged, shaking his head. "I don't know yet," he said, being brutally honest. "But those breaches aren't closed forever, and we're not done with Earth-2."
He walked over to the display and pulled the sheet off of the case. Beneath it lay a familiar gleaming metal helmet.
Jay's helmet.
"Jay's death wasn't in vain," Barry said. "We will face Zoom again—and the next time, we will defeat him, no matter who that monster really is."
Cisco took a shaky breath and nodded, and Caitlin followed suit. Peter was unsure about it as he crossed his arms and just shrugged. Angelica was all for the idea as she nodded. Miles also nodded, knowing he needed to go home soon for his mother's sake. Bobby was more relaxed and just shrugged the idea off like it was nothing. As Barry turned his gaze back to the group, his hand hovered over his pocket.
"If I've learned anything over the last few years," he said, looking only at Caitlin now, "it's that life is precious. It's fragile and it can be gone in an instant."
Bobby asks Peter in shock, "Is he doing what I think he's doing?"
Peter had to admit he was just as surprised. "I think he is," he said.
"It can disappear the moment you close your eyes," Barry said as he reached into his back pocket for something. "So you need to take every opportunity you can to embrace it." He paused and looked at Caitlin. "To love it. That's why..."
That's when MJ realized what was happening and pushed Caitlin forward, around the desk. As she did so, Barry dropped to one knee. Caitlin let out a strangled gasp, tears springing into her eyes and rolling down her cheeks as he pulled out a small velvet box.
"That's why I'm not going to waste another second without asking you this." Barry's eyes bore into Caitlin's; green and beautiful, sparkling with love. "Caitlin Snow, I have loved you since the moment my brother and your cousin set us up on that blind date."
"Yeah, and I'm still waiting for that thank-you note," Bobby stated.
Peter shoved his hand over his friend's mouth to quiet him, "Shh."
Breathing heavily, he nodded and wiped his cheeks on the back of his arm. "I'm never going to stop loving you, no matter what happens. Caitlin Snow... will you marry me?"
"Yes," Caitlin whispered, dropping to her knees. "A million times yes, Barry Allen. Yes!"
Everyone exploded into cheers and applause as Barry slid the ring onto her finger and jumped up. He pulled her into a hug and Caitlin hid her wet face in his shoulder, laughing and crying and hugging him as tightly as she could.
He kissed her before they were swept up in joy. And maybe - if only for a second - everything would be okay.
Fury wandered the streets of Central City and heard a faint rumbling in the distance. When he turned around, all he could see was darkness.
Wondering if he should be worried, he reached for his gun. But before he could draw it and turn around, he was punched in the face by a hooded figure. He groaned and felt his cheek from the impact, and then looked at who had punched him. He should have known who it was that hit him, but he was still surprised to see Mary Parker.
"You tried to kill my son?!" Mary asked as she grabbed Fury and shoved him against the wall. "My son?!"
"It was a precaution, Mary," Fury said defensively. "You know how I work; I'm always five steps ahead of everyone."
"It seems I am now ahead of you," Mary commented.
"Mary, I promise, I already sent the order to stop all progress on the Spider-Slayers," Fury says.
Mary sighed as she let Fury go. "You better hope so. If anyone goes after my son because of your orders, you'll see just how good of a spy I am."
Fury nodded as he watched Mary walk away and disappear into thin air. He sighed and fixed his coat and knew he deserved that.
Jessica watched as the Spider-Slayer was being dragged out of her neighborhood, from her newly rebuilt home. She sighed and knew there would be a lot of work to do before she could approach them.
She had been waiting so long for the truth; she just needed to be patient while they learned the truth.
(A/N) Yeah, it was Write-To-You's story that gave me that proposal idea, since I am changing the game. Trust me, it's going to be getting better when we reach Savitar.
