Chapter 15
Crisis on Earth-X Part III
"In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going to find you anyway. "
-Bear Bryant
"It was too easy."
The gravelly voice broke through consciousness, and Katie harshly jerked back to reality. Once awake, she realized she was standing, her arms tied with rope above her head by the wrists. She's standing in the center of a drawn circle with symbols she doesn't recognize and candles surrounding her.
Soon his face appeared in front of her. Felix Faust, with a smile as he reached forward and let his hand slide down the sweat dampened skin of her cheek.
"I was hoping for a better fight out of you."
"Me too," spoke a voice from somewhere in the room.
Katie lifted her head because the voice sounded like her husband, but she's pretty sure it wasn't him. The man stood in the corner of the room.
"You know you were the one we assumed would put up the biggest fight. And some how this was the easiest part of the entire plan." Dark Arrow turned to Felix. "How much longer?
"We're ready. Once Thawne gives the go ahead we should-" Felix turned his head and groaned. "We have a problem." he turned back to Earth-X Oliver. "The Magi and sorcerer are back."
"Can you handle them?" Dark Arrow asks.
"I won't even break a sweat." Felix lifted a hand, opening a portal and stepped through.
Once he was gone, the Dark Arrow turned back to Katie whose eyes were open, and yet she had yet to speak. He walked over to her, his eyes once again looking at her in a way she wouldn't describe as hate.
"This place really does produce weakness." he says, before lifting a hand to her cheek, but she jerked away. "But there's some of her in you." he took another step closer, the distance between them non existent. "She was tough, and she had a tongue that could bite. A formidable opponent." a slight smile curled at his lips. "But she was also soft. And warm."
Katie looked back to him in confusion before looking behind him. He followed her eyes, turning back, now realizing his wife was standing there, and he quickly stepped away from the woman.
"Faust is dealing with the Constantine and Zatanna problem. But he says it shouldn't take long. He should be ready whenever Thawne is."
Overgirl didn't respond, her eyes looking from him to the woman tied up behind him. He sighed, before walking over to her.
"We're almost there. Soon you will be better and then we can continue the mission." he smiled as he placed a hand on her arms.
Overgirl turned her eyes back to her husband wanting to call him out. She knew he loved her, but she also had suspicions sometimes.
"I never questioned it." she suddenly said and he looked back to her in confusion. "I would watch you fight her, and I could see it on your face. You enjoyed it. You were obsessed with her."
"You should be careful." he said taking on a tone she knew too well. It was him, reminding her of her place. He slid an arm around her, and they both looked over to Katie. "She is going to die, so you can live."
"So this won't be a problem, like the last time?" she asked looking over to him.
The man didn't immediately turn to her, his eyes still staring over to Katie. Soon they heard footsteps, and turned to see Thawne already changed into his surgical gear.
"It's time." he said, a smile as he looked over to Katie and waved. "I guess I'm going to get that spark after all." he turned back to the Dark Arrow. "Is Faust ready?"
"He will be." Dark Arrow turned to Overgirl. "You go, get ready." he placed a kiss to her head and she nods before walking toward Thawne.
Overgirl stopped before leaving, once again turning to her husband who stood watching her with a smile. She can't help but notice he never answered her question. She just smiles back to him before turning and following behind Thawne.
Once again alone, Earth-X Oliver turned back to Katie who looked back over to him. She lifted her eyes up, now realizing the bracelet was gone.
"The circle prevents you from using your powers." he said and she dropped her eyes back to his. "Sickening how well I know you, isn't it?"
This time a smile pulled at Katie's lips as she looked over to him.
"Oh, you don't know me at all." she leaned her head against her arm. "You should go. Be with your wife."
He once again took a step toward her, but this time he stopped himself from going over to her. Things got confusing when he was near her. He just looked at her, letting out a deep breath before he turned and finally left the room.
"Fucking crazy people." Katie muttered once again looking up to her tied wrists.
It shouldn't have surprised anyone that during her time on Earth-X, Laurel had joined a resistance group. When they arrived, she was helping the escape of one of their members Ray Terrill. They cut it close, almost being executed by a doppelganger of their Earth's Quentin Lance, but they were saved by the sudden appearance of Earth- x Leo Snart.
Now they were in the resistance base, which ironically was located in the familiar bunker from Star City. After introductions, they found out that Ray was also from Earth-1.
"If you're from our Earth, then you know how we got here, don't you?" Barry asked and the man nods.
"Yeah, I have a pretty good idea." Ray replied before picking up a tablet."I think you guys came through this." He turned the tablet for them to see.
"A temporal gateway?" Barry asked.
"Same physics as a breach," Stein said looking over to the screen. " just more stable and larger."
"Yeah, much larger." Barry says.
"Large enough to get us home." Bruce said grabbing the tablet from the man's hand.
"So we have a way to get back." Alex said. She needed to get back to help her sister.
"So where is this thing?" Oliver asked, sharing her impatience.
He needed to get back to Katie. He wasn't sure what was happening to her right now, but he knows he needed to claw his way out of this place to find her.
"It's actually not too far from here." Snart said.
"22. 3 kilometers, to be exact." Ray added.
"So take us to it." Oliver said, a hint of frustration in his tone.
"Can't do that." Ray shook his head. "Because the gateway's in a facility guarded by a not-so-small army of Nazis."
"Yeah, well, we've faced worse, so-" Jefferson said.
"Look, it's our only way home. We're going through it." Barry insisted.
"Nobody's going through anything." a voice spoke and they all turned to the familiar face of Winn Schott. "Because we're blowing it the hell up."
"Winn?" Alex took a step forward as she kept her eyes on the man.
"Please, " Leo walked over to stand beside Winn. "Freedom Fighter General Schott."
The conversation went nowhere. General Schott was dead set against going to the breach. Instead he wanted to blow it up while Overgirl, Dark Arrow and Thawne were on the other side.
Their pleas to the man just went in one ear out out the other. He believed wholeheartedly this could help them turn this war around.
"We are blowing up that gateway right now." Winn said. "Final order." he stalked off, no longer patient enough for this debate.
"Sorry, he's a little rough around the edges." Leo said once the man was gone. "But he is the general, and he's issued his commands."
Alex walked after the man, but Ray moved to block her.
"Hey, hey, hey. You won't change his mind. No one does."
"Look, on my Earth, he and I are like family. And he would do anything to help my sister." Alex said.
"Ray, let her try." Leo suggested.
Ray glanced over to the man for a moment before he relented and moved out of the way to let the woman attempt the impossible.
Oliver turned away, letting out a frustrated sigh before turning to the rest of the group. His eyes turned to Laurel, who stood still holding Sara's hand.
"You should sit." Oliver suddenly said, looking around and spotting a chair and rolling it over to her.
"I'm fine." Laurel said, but she took the seat anyway, her hand sliding over her stomach. "I mean, I'm six months pregnant running escape stings." she glanced up to the look of her sister. "If it makes you feel any better, this was the last one Winn was allowing me on."
"Well it's the last one I'm allowing you on." Sara replied.
Laurel smiled over to her sister before turning to Oliver.
"How's Ethan? Is he ok?" she shook her head. "The last time I saw him, we were driving in this storm and we were arguing before the crash and then I ended up here."
"He's fine." Oliver said. "Well he's not fine, he's going crazy trying to figure out how to get you back. He moved back to Star City, figuring he'd stick close to the team in case they found something."
"He left Metropolis?" Laurel sighed. "He loved that job."
"He loved you more." Oliver replied before looking down to her stomach. "I'm guessing he doesn't know about the baby."
"I didn't know about the baby until a couple of weeks in this place." she replied. "Ray's right, Winn is stubborn. When I found out about the breach, I tried to talk him into helping me get inside, but he was dead set against it." she looked over to Oliver. "It's because of the last attempt. He's not risking that happening again."
"What happened the last time?" Bruce asked and Laurel once again turned to Oliver.
"I can show you." she stood to her feet and Sara grabbed her arm to help her. "But just Oliver." she said turning to the others. "And I'm not even sure I will be able to pull that." she turned to Sara and nods before walking over to Oliver.
Oliver followed Laurel around the bunker that he barely recognized. They stopped a few feet away from a door, that on their earth lead to the medical area. There was a guard outside.
"I think Twinkie is in trouble." Laurel suddenly said turning to Oliver who let out a heavy sigh.
"I know which is why I can't stay here. She's there alone, and I'm afraid of what they could be doing to her."
"You should be." Laurel replied before walking over to the guard.
Oliver stood at a distance, watching as she said something and then after a moment they both looked over to him. They turned back to each other, the guard seeming to refuse, but Laurel was persistent, and soon the guard sighed before moving aside. Laurel turned to Oliver and gestured for him to come over.
"We can't stay here long. Winn will throw a fit." she replied before pulling open the door.
Oliver followed her inside, not expecting to find there laying in a bed, a woman who looked exactly like his wife, a mask covering her face to help her breathe. He moved around Laurel, to get closer, unable to tear his eyes away.
There were slight differences. The woman in the bed had short blonde hair, and there was a faint scar he noticed on her right cheek.
"I thought she was dead." Oliver said before looking over to Laurel. "We were told she was dead."
"That's what the resistance wanted people to believe. From what I'm told, before I got here, she was the last one to attempt crossing the breach. And she went alone."
"Winn allowed that?"
"Winn didn't have choice. She was was the General and he was her second in command. No one questioned her orders." Laurel said turning back to the woman. "She's saved most of the people you see out there, or helped orchestrate their escape. They would die for her."
"What happened?" Oliver asked turning back to the woman in the bed.
Even though he knows it's not Katie, just seeing her like this, does tug on his nervousness and makes him worry that this is how his wife could end up again.
"No one knows. She went and she came back hurt and without her powers. She fell into the coma days later and she hasn't woken up since. The last thing she told him was that when the time was right, destroy the breach. It was her final order and he's not going to ignore it."
"I was given an order too." Oliver said, with a slight smile, his eyes on his wife's doppelganger. "I was ordered to be safe and to come home." he looked over to Laurel. "And I'm not going to ignore it either."
Katie tried her damnedest, but couldn't tug herself free from the ropes.
"Katie!" a voice suddenly called and she glanced up the vents. "Are you ok?!"
"Smoaks!" Katie replied.
"Yeah, it's me and Iris. Rory and the others were captured. We-"
There was a sudden appearance of light, and soon Constantine and Zatanna were tossed through, both unconscious. Faust stepped through after, a satisfied look on his face.
"If I'm not mistaken, I believe it's time." he said as the portal closed behind him. He walked over to stand in front of Katie with a look of disgust. "You really are a disappointment. Not just to your friends and family, but to the magi. The power is wasted on you, but you can rest assured it will be better served in someone more deserving. Too bad you won't get to witness it." And with that he turned and walked over to a book.
Katie glanced up to the vent and shook her head knowing one Felicity Smoak was contemplating on trying to save her.
She looked over to the man who began reading from the book, and the words seemed to stir something inside of her. There was a heat that began deep within her that seemed to slowly grow.
She looked up to her hands, and she could see the light. Soon the feeling was too much. Too overwhelming. She dropped her eyes back to the man who continued reading before Katie clenched her eyes shut trying to push through and stay strong.
"Look at me!"
Katie opened her eyes, and once again looked upon the face of her doppelgänger.
"This is going to hurt."
And just as she said, it did. Katie lifted her head and screamed. It felt as if her insides were being torn from her body. She couldn't focus on anything but the pain, not even the ray of light shooting out of her chest into some kind of device across the room.
Suddenly it stops when the power in the room goes out, and the sprinkler system kicks in. The water extinguishes the flames from the candles and slowly washes the drawn symbols away. Faust looks up to the water before looking back to Katie who's now unconscious and he grits his teeth.
Back on Earth-X, they got lucky. Alex was unsuccessful in getting through to Winn to change his mind, but Ray was able to convince Winn to allow them a chance to get to the breach.
They were all gathering around when Oliver spotted Winn standing off to the side, and so he walked over.
"Thank you, you have no idea how much this means to us." Oliver said.
"Yeah, well, when all is said and done, I will not hesitate to choose my Earth over yours. You should work fast."
Oliver nods before turning, but stops and looks back to the man and walked closer.
"I saw your former general." he said and Winn glared over to Laurel who he figures is the one who took him to Katie's room.
"You weren't supposed to go in there. No one goes in there." Winn replied turning to the man. "We keep the room as sanitized as possible and outsiders going in there could slow her recovery."
"So she is recovering?" Oliver asked and Winn nods. "I'm sorry, I didn't—it's just your general on my Earth is my wife."
Winn looked at him for a moment before turning away with a shake of his head.
"Isn't that ironic." he muttered.
"Because her and the fuehrer were enemies." Oliver said and Winn turned back to him.
"Partially. They weren't always enemies." he sighed as he turned away once again to the people who filled the room. "He wasn't always the evil piece of shit he is today." he turned back to the man. "Even though they were enemies, I think she was always trying to save him. Remind him of the person he used to be. I told her she was crazy, and she just slapped the back of my head. She has a thing about saving people."
A smile pulled at Oliver's lips. "Sounds like someone I know."
Winn folded his arms over his chest, his eyes looking over to the group and it looked like everyone was there.
"You should go." he said and Oliver walked over to the group.
The big question was how did they get into the hanger with one hundred soldiers patrolling outside and a meta human dampener inside. Getting inside with no powers only left one option.
Oliver placed the chess piece down on the table of the example model of the hanger.
"I know how we get in." all eyes turned to him. Oliver explained his plan on going in impersonating the fuehrer.
Leo and Ray headed off to grab a uniform for the man, while the others prepared to leave.
Bruce inventoried his utility belt and weapons before glancing up and spotting Laurel, Alex and Sara. He looked around and realized he didn't see Oliver.
"Hey, where's Oliver?" he asked and they looked over to him, before scanning around. They turned back to him and just shrugged.
Oliver wasn't sure why he came back to this room, to sit in the chair beside the woman who looked like his wife. He knew it wasn't her, and yet he didn't feel right letting her lie in this room by herself.
He reached forward and took her hand in his before looking up to her face.
"I know you're in there and I know you're fighting." He'd said the same thing to his wife when she was in a coma. He believed she heard him. "Just don't give up yet. I have a feelings things might turn around in this war, and these people will need you."
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before pulling away and standing to his feet. Oliver headed for the door, figuring it was almost time to head out.
The man was already out the door when the woman's hand twitched.
While Dark Arrow and Thawne were distracted with the power outage, Felicity and Iris went to cut Kara free, and carried her toward the elevator. They knew they wouldn't be any match for Faust and knew they had a better chance of freeing Katie with Kara's help.
"We need to get to Katie." Felicity said as they waited for the elevator to open.
Once it did, they didn't expect Metallo to be standing there. Their eyes went wide, when it shot a green ray of light from it's chest, sending Kara clear across the room before stepping from the elevator.
"I don't believe Mr. Thawne is done with you yet." Metallo said, glancing from Kara to Felicity. Soon more Earth-X soldiers appeared, surrounding them.
Constantine groaned, as the pain of his sore limbs seemed to pull him from unconsciousness. He lifts his head to see Zatanna awake and standing in front of Katie who seemed to just be dangling from the rope tied around her wrists.
"Zee?" Constantine pushed himself to his feet and Zatanna turned to him, letting him see the blood dripping from her forehead. He walked over to stand beside her before turning back to Katie. "Is she..."
"She's fading." Zatanna said before lifting her hands. "I tried a spell, but my magic is still drained from whatever Faust did to us back there." she looked over to Constantine.
The man closed his eyes, to test his own abilities, but he couldn't feel it either.
"Shit." he muttered before opening his eyes and looking over to Katie. "We need to cut her down and hide her some where before that bastard can comes back. She needs to wake up because she's going to be our ticket out of here."
"And if he did take her power?" Zatanna looked over to the man before turning to Katie.
"He didn't." Constantine turned back to Katie as well. "That power is tied to her and if he took it, I'm sure it's somewhere looking for her. We just need to get her some place safe until the happens." he spotted a broken piece of glass and quickly grabbed it before moving to cut the ropes.
Oliver knew at some point he wasn't going to be believable as the Fuehrer. It happened when the Quentin doppelgänger brought out a prisoner that looked exactly like Ari.
Quentin handed Oliver a gun, and told him that she'd been handing her rations to small children, which apparently was against the rules. With the gun, Oliver assumed meant that he was supposed to shoot her for her supposed crime.
Oliver looked over to the girl, her face and clothes smudged with dirt as she looked over to him practically shaking. He wanted to kill everyone in the room and the next for whatever pain she'd been through.
"Those children were starving." Her voice trembled with her eyes filled with tears.
Oliver tried to keep his features passive and unaffected. And yet in this moment, all he saw was his daughter, sitting in front of him scared to death.
"Well this must be hard." Quentin said. "I hear your doppelgänger on Earth-1 had a daughter that looked just like this."
Oliver gripped the gun in his hand and knew this was the make or break it moment. A test that he knew without a doubt that he was going to fail. He lifted the gun and aimed it at Quentin and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.
"Did you really think that I would hand you a loaded weapon before verifying who you are?!" Quentin yelled.
Oliver growled before swinging the gun across his face, before turning to the closest soldier and twisting his arm before disarming him.
"Stay down!" he yelled over to the Ari doppelganger as he continued to shoot and fight the soldiers who were attacking.
Soon he'd grabbed the arm of the last solder, before twisting his gun and forcing the shot of his own gun through his chest.
He let the soldier drop before looking around. He heard the soft whimpers and hurried over, dropping down to a knee in front of the girl who tried to move away.
"Hey, hey, you're fine." he said placing a hand on her arm. He looked at her for a moment before turning and spotting a discarded gun. "Here, take this and go."
"Why—why are you doing this?" she asked a small smile tugged at his lips.
"It is the strong's duty to protect the weak." he said holding out the gun to her. She looked down to the gun hesitantly. "Take it and go." she nods before taking the gun and standing to her feet and running for the door.
He stands there and watches her run, having to push down every parental instinct inside of him to go with her and protect her.
Back in Star Labs, Faust burst into the lab, to find Thawne with some woman pinned to the wall. The Dark Arrow turned to him.
"What is happening? I'd just began the spell when the power went out and the sprinklers went off." Faust glanced around the room before turning to Dark Arrow. "I don't think I have to remind you how bad things could go with interruptions."
"Were you able to get any of the light?" Dark Arrow asked and Faust just held up a lantern that glowed with a bright white light.
"This won't be able to contain it for much longer." he handed the lantern to the man. "If you're doing this, then you must work quickly, because if that escapes, it will eliminate every threat before returning to her.
Dark Arrow looked over to Thawne who nods before turning back to Felicity.
"Sometimes we think we're more clever than we are." he says with a shake of his head. "Because where I come from, the history books are filled with stories of this Age of Heroes: Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Flash. And yet no one, no one-" the man's eyes begin to glow red before he lifts his hand that's moving too quick for her eyes. "has ever heard of Felicity Smoak." he starts to move his hand toward her chest, and Felicity clenches her eyes shut and turns her head prepared for whatever happens next.
"Stop!" Kara comes stumbling into the room, still weak from the red sun. "Stop, please stop. You came her for me, so just take me. Please don't hurt anyone else." she looks over to Felicity. "Just give them the code."
"If I do they will kill you and Katie." Felicity's voice trembles as she looks over to Kara.
"It's fine, nobody's going to die because of me, and if Katie were here, she would tell you the same."
"Latte, Ada, Anthony, 0-0-0-0-0." Felicity said.
"Latte, cute." Thawne said before pulling away and grabbing his tablet.
After entering the code, they all looked up when the lights came back on. He smiled over to the woman before the guard grabbed Felicity and Iris' arm and pulled them away.
Felicity's eyes cast a look over to the lantern, trying to figure out how they were going to get to it before the bad guys tried to use it.
Snart and Bruce kept watch from outside of the base. Snart heard a beep and turned, pressing a finger to the comlink. It was Winn and he couldn't believe what he'd just heard the man say.
"What do you mean?!" Snart angrily said. "Call it back."
Bruce turned to the man with a furrowed brow, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Too late. It's been programmed and there's no calling it back now." Winn replied.
"You said we had an hour!"
"Yeah, well I changed my mind."
"The team hasn't gone through the breach yet."
"That team has nothing to do with us or saving our planet." Winn angrily snapped. "And everyone who can threaten it is on the other side of that breach." he shook his head. "They are not coming back through."
"General!" Snart urged.
"Leo, enough! I'm not risking any more time. We are blowing it up."
Winn ended the transmission, before turning and stopping dead in his tracks. It was Katie, awake and standing there, changed into her combat gear.
"General?"
"How long?" she asked walking over and grabbing a gun from a nearby table. She turned to Winn who seemed to be too stunned to speak. "You know I don't like to ask things twice."
"We just sent him out." Winn replied walking over to her. "It shouldn't be long." a smile pulled at his lips happy to see her awake and talking. "This is what you told me to do. You said when the time was right, we take the shot."
"I did tell you that." she replied grabbing another gun and holstering it. She turned to the man and without a word just smacked the back of his head before walking off. "It is not the right time Winn! Someone get me a damn car!"
The plan changed when they realized the impending explosion coming from Red Tornado. Ray and Barry were tasked with trying to stop it, while the rest of the team would work to clear the soldiers guarding the breach. Snart dropped down to his knee and pulled open the duffle bag before looking up to Oliver and Bruce.
"I thought it would be fun if we put on our costumes." he said.
Bruce knelt down, tugging the bag open a bit more to see his bat suit and Oliver's Green Arrow gear. Oliver reached down and picked up a bow that was in the bag.
"Where did you get a bow and quiver?" he asked looking over to weapon.
"Our former General collected weapons." he said before nudging his head to the bow. "She was particularly fond of that one, so use it well."
Soon they set off into battle and they were outnumbered, but the last thing they were going to do was give up. Gun fire and explosions surrounded them, but the team kept going. They were going to do whatever they needed to get back home.
Oliver pulled arrow after arrow from his quiver. His focus on this fight, while a part of him couldn't stop thinking about his wife and kids and how he was not going to stop until he got back to them.
At this very moment, he reached behind him, plucking an arrow from his quiver, and shooting it to a soldier across the room. He heard the cocking of a gun behind him and quickly reached behind to grab another arrow, but before he could even align it on the bow, the shooter is shot from behind.
Once his body drops, Oliver looks up and he thinks he's hallucinating when he sees her standing there. She's walking toward him, but her eyes and guns are moving, and shooting until she appears in front of him. She looks up and meets his eyes before grabbing his arm and moving him to the side to shoot another soldier. She turned back to him with a smile.
"You're lost." she said and he looked at her in confusion. "And I was sent here to find you." she dropped the barrels of her guns before reloading. "Now, lets kill these bastards and get you home." she turned back to him. "Shall we?"
Oliver couldn't help the smile that came to his face. He doesn't know how this was happening, but he's not sure why he's surprised. It would seem that where ever he went, some how, some way, she'd be there to have his back.
Oliver nods and they both turn, their backs to each other as they shoot the soldiers closing in on them.,
Constantine and Zatanna pulled Katie into a room and locked the doors. Constantine glanced out the window, glad there wasn't any of those soldiers around, but he was sure that wasn't going to last long.
"We need to get her out of Star Labs." he said walking over to Zatanna who stood above Katie who they'd placed on a table. "Zee, we don't have time for you to get your mojo back. We need to get her out of here before Faust finds us."
"That won't work." Zatanna said before reaching forward and placing her ear above Katie's nose. Her eyes went wide before she turned to Constantine. "She's not breathing."
Back on Earth-X, Dr. Stein had been shot during the attack.
"Grey!" Jefferson yelled. "Grey's hit, we got to get him out of there!"
Oliver stood, taking cover behind a truck. The soldiers machine gun fire aiming at anything that moved. Earth-X Katie moved from beside him to check on Stein, and took a step forward, but he grabbed her arm to stop her. She turned a glare to him and pulled her arm from his grasp.
"You can't go out there!" he said.
"And we can't leave him out there." she replied before watching as Stein began crawling toward the control panel.
The woman began patting herself down, before she felt something in her pocket and pulled it out and smiled at the grenade.
"Luck be a lady tonight." she said before turning to Oliver with a smile and handing it to him. "Cover me."
Oliver took the grenade and before he could say anything, she'd ran over to Stein.
Stein turned when the woman grabbed his arm and helped in his attempt over to the control panel. She held up her gun when they began to draw gun fire.
"I got you." she said as she continued firing, only stopping at the sudden explosion. She figured Oliver threw the grenade and they used the distraction to make their way to the control panel.
Stein dragged his feet, finally reaching forward, pulling the lever and opening the breach. The retreating soldiers are caught in the middle of the opening and all are killed on impact. Stein unable to continue standing, lets his body fall.
"Hey," Katie holds his arm, dropping to the floor with him.
"Grey!" Jefferson runs over, dropping to the floor in front of Stein. The others soon appear around them.
"You have to hurry." Sara says through her comlink to Barry who is still trying to take out Red Tornado with Ray. "Stein's hurt."
"He's alive." Katie said turning to the others who turned to her with wide eyes. "Uh, hi, I'm General Robins." she turned back to Stein. "Your friend is in critical condition and needs medical attention asap."
"Gidieon can fix him." Sara said.
"No, it's too dangerous to move him." Earth-X Katie replied
"Not if he's Firestorm," Sara said and Jefferson nods.
"Grey!" Jefferson holds out a hand to Stein who dazily turns his eyes to him. After a moment, he grabs Jefferson's hand and the two become Firestorm.
"Whoa," Earth-X Katie slides back before standing to her feet. "That was cool." she turns and nearly runs in the Batman and a smile pulls at her lips. "You're Batman."
"And you're blonde." he says looking at the woman's short blonde hair. She just laughs before turning and spotting someone familiar.
"Snart!" she calls, running over to the man and he turns, a smile pulling at his lips as he opens his arm to hug. She takes a step back. "You know I don't hug."
"Yeah, I know, but you've literally rose from the ashes, General, I felt the moment called for it." he said. "Did you give Winn a good slap to the head?"
She didn't respond before she stepped forward and slapped him in the back of his head before turning to Oliver.
"Thanks for your help." he said, his eyes still on her. This moment still felt quite surreal.
"We're not done helping you yet." she replied before nudging Leo's arm. She turned meeting Oliver's gaze once more. "We're finishing this. Our enemies are still on your Earth, Oliver." she moved around him toward the opening of the breach. "Or would you prefer Liver?" she called over her shoulder with a slight chuckle.
Earth-X Katie walked through the breach, stopping in the hall of Star Labs. She let her eyes move around the hall, a smile pulling at her lips.
"This is Star Labs." she muttered as the others began filing past her. "Oh, I should—"
She moved to catch up, finding herself walking beside Oliver. As they moved she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand, and she suddenly stopped walking.
Oliver stopped as well and turned to her with a look of confusion. She pointed down a hall.
"You need to go that way." she said.
They heard commotion coming from the opposite end of the hall. Oliver glanced down the hall she was pointing toward before turning back to the woman.
"Just trust me. Go, she needs you." the woman nods and without hesitation Oliver runs down the hall.
The General turns to the rest of the team and stretches her muscles a bit as she pulls out her gun.
"Let's stop some Nazi assholes and if you would leave the big one to me." and with that they all turn and run toward the fight.
Oliver wasn't sure where he was supposed to go. The woman pointed down a hall, but didn't tell him where down that hall he needed to be going.
He came to a stop, now nervous. The only thing he needed right now was to see his wife's face. He spun around, and spotted a door and so he walked forward, glancing inside, and his eyes went wide. Oliver grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open.
Constantine turned his head, looking over to the man, but Oliver's eyes were on his wife who was lying on a table as Zatanna's hands on her chest continued chest compressions. After a few seconds Zatanna stopped, her glassy eyes turning to Oliver.
"Oliver, I'm sorry, she's-"
Oliver didn't let her finish that sentence before he dropped the bow to the floor, and hurried over.
"Elbows straight." Oliver's voice trembled as he placed his hands on Katie's chest. He heard her voice in his head talking him through it. "Hand on top of hand, interlocking fingers and press."
Unavoidably he heard her voice in his head singing staying alive to help him keep the rhythm of the compressions.
After about thirty compressions, he stopped, tilted her head back.
"Tilt head, pinch nostrils, and breathe."
He brought his lips to hers and breathed into her. He lifted his head, and stared at her, wanting her to give any indication it was working.
"C'mon, breathe Twinkie!"
He once again dropped his lips to hers in mouth to mouth. When it didn't work, he repeated the process, his hands once again on her chest.
"C'mon Twinkie, come back to me!"
Author's Note
Wowzers!
Review Replies
RoseBud1923 : I don't want to give too much away. We've see through these last couple of chapters Katie's insistence to pull away from the life of masks and heroes and villains. And the more she pulls away the more it pulls her back. Will she finally accept the hero life as a part of who she is? That question will get an answer by the end of the story. Thanks for the review!
Adela: Thank You!
Another chapter done! As always, thank you dear readers!
Sneak Peek
"Just drop the arrow. This is over now." General Robins said, watching the man. "We will find a way to save your wife."
"Do not listen to her!" Overgirl angrily spat and Dark Arrow turned to her. "You were robbed once of the chance to kill her, now you can. Do it."
Dark Arrow turned back to the woman and he tugged the arrow a bit tighter and yet he couldn't release it.
"Do it!" his wife ordered.
"He can't." Earth-X Katie said turning to the woman. "He won't kill me." she turned back to the man standing in front of her. "He's still in there, isn't he?. The man I once knew. Who didn't want to follow the path of your father. The man who wanted to create change. You can still do that. There is still hope, you just have to—"
Her words were stolen when he released the arrow.