We are almost there. After this, there is only one more chapter of season two. Hope you all are ready. Caitlin is getting Barry out of the Speed Force like many of you predicted, and their reunion is going to be about what you'd probably expect. I tried to add in a little humour at the beginning because the end is going to be pretty dark. And sad. Let's just get to it. My co-authors, Brightburn1985 and Bartholomew Henry Allen.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash.
Hours passed and Caitlin was getting impatient. Surely Cisco must have recovered enough to try again. They needed to try again. They needed to get Barry back. She needed to get Barry back.
Caitlin kept glancing over to Cisco every now and then to see how he was doing. He looked completely fine in her professional opinion and so she couldn't understand why he was just sitting there doing nothing. He was just eating a Big Belly Burger.
"Could you pass the salt?" Cisco asked. He gestured to the salt shaker across from him.
Caitlin wasn't paying attention and just grabbed the first thing she could reach before throwing it at him.
Cisco caught it to see what she had thrown him was not the salt, but an apple. Cisco looked at it, then gave a look of confusion at Caitlin. "This is the opposite of salt,"
"I know. We want to keep you in shape. Getting a little round there," Caitlin sarcastically commented on his unhealthy eating habits.
"I am completely fine," Cisco said, taken aback.
"Exactly. And we want to keep you that way," Caitlin retorted.
Cisco looked down at his stomach consciously before looking back up at Caitlin. He put his burger down. "Okay, we need to get Barry back because he is the only one that can stand your sass. I can't deal with this,"
"Finally, a good idea. Gets you out of that chair before you get stuck. Not sure how much longer it could have supported you," Caitlin said, rushing out of the Cortex down to the breach room to try to get Barry out of the Speed Force.
"I am in perfectly good shape!" Cisco exclaimed to her rushing form.
The two of them had called down everyone else. If Caitlin was unable to bring Barry back, they would have to use someone else until Barry would come back to them.
"Are you sure about this?" Cisco asked. "We're not even sure if this will work,"
"What other choice do we have? I can't face Zoom, he's too fast for me. If I were able to trap him, maybe but my powers aren't strong enough for that yet," Caitlin said.
They were putting the wires back on Cisco's head to stimulate his powers with his hand on Barry's clothes. Cisco offered his other hand to her which she took and Cisco brought the both of them into the Speed Force.
Their view transformed into an endless storm. Thousands of faceless figures stood all around them, but the only one they were focusing on was the person in front of them. Their Barry.
Caitlin reached out as far as she could go to try to get to him. "Barry! Take my hand!" she shouted desperately. They weren't leaving until Barry was returned to them.
Barry didn't know how long he'd been in the embrace of the Speed Force in the disguise of his mother, but it didn't really matter. It never seemed long enough when they finally separated.
"I miss her so much. I miss you," Barry said as if he were actually talking to his mother. This may be the closest thing he could have to see his mother once again.
"She knows that. And she loves you Barry. She always has, and she always will," She said.
Barry nodded his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. He tried to compose himself and took deep calming breaths to relax.
All of a sudden, it was like a light switch had been turned on in his head. He felt lighter. The quietness around him made way for the noise. The illusion around him was beginning to dissolve to show the true nature of the Speed Force.
Barry took one more look at his mother, smiled and gave her a nod. "Thank you,"
She offered a smile and a wave of her hand. Soon she disappeared from his vision as well. "She's waiting for you," they whispered into his ear.
"Barry!"
Someone was shouting his name. But who? The area around him was nothing but a storm. Trapped in the middle of a vortex with several other people standing motionless around him. They were just floating around him as if they weren't even aware of where they were.
"Barry!"
He heard it again. But where was it coming from? Was the voice familiar to him? He couldn't seem to place it. He was still in the Speed Force. That much he knew. But how could he get out? There must be some way he could get out.
"Come home Barry!"
Yes, that's what he wanted. He wanted to go home, but how? Maybe the voice was the answer. He needed to find where that voice was coming from. But there were so many people, how could he tell which one was calling him?
"Stop being lazy and turn around Fleet Feet!"
That name. Caitlin. Ms. Frosty. Who else would ever dare to call him that? What did she mean 'turn around'?
Barry swivelled his head to peer behind him, and there with her hand outstretched was his angel. Caitlin Snow was coming to take him home. He let out a relieved laugh and smile, which she returned.
"No need for such impatience Ms. Frosty," Barry replied as he stretched out his hand to meet hers.
Reaching to the absolute limit of the length of their arms, their hands finally managed to grasp each other and suddenly they were pulled away.
Caitlin remained standing, but Barry was unceremoniously dropped from the air and landed on his backside. Barry groaned in pain.
Caitlin laughed at him. "Classy," she commented.
Barry looked up at her when she spoke, almost as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Caitlin? Is that really you?"
"Sure is. I escaped, no thanks to you," Caitlin said, but Barry rushed her into a hug, so happy to see her.
"I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what you must've been through," Barry said. "I tried to get to you, but…"
"It's okay. I understand you did everything you could. Your powers were gone, and you needed to get them back before you could try to rescue me," Caitlin said. She released the both of them from the hug. "Nice job on that by the way,"
"Thanks. Listen, if there were any way I could have saved you earlier, I would have," Barry pleaded with her.
"But in the end, I didn't need it. I got myself out of there. Mostly because the metas over there lack in the intelligence department,"
"Oh yeah? You'll have to tell me about that someday, in the meantime, I need some rest. I was running around nonstop in the Speed Force trying to find my way out and now that I'm out, the exhaustion is finally catching up with me,"
"Well don't rest for too long. Zoom could act at any moment, so we need to be prepared," Caitlin warned him.
"I got it Ms. Frosty. No need to worry. Now that my powers are back, Zoom is going down,"
"Not if you give your powers up again. Or do something that causes him to gain the upper hand again Fleet Feet," Caitlin reminded him.
"That's in the past. Why are you always bringing up the past Ms. Frosty?" Barry said.
"You'd have to be an idiot to think that," Caitlin scolded him.
"Whatever. I've talked to the Speed Force. They told me I can beat him, and I will," Barry informed them.
"Would have beaten him already if you just left things alone," Caitlin mumbled to herself.
"I heard that!" Barry shouted.
"Good!" Caitlin replied.
The two of them stormed out in separate directions with the rest of the team left standing where the two had their little spat.
Cisco pursed his lips. "They're back. Everything's back to normal,"
Everybody nodded. They all alternated between looking back and forth at the two exits the metahumans left through.
"I need to get those wedding pictures Bartholomew and Caity gave me when I was on Earth-2," Cisco declared, needing some reassurance of the love between his two best friends.
"Can I have a look at them?" Iris said, needing some reassurance herself.
"I'll pull out the album," Cisco nodded his head. Iris followed him out the door. Joe hesitated for a moment with Harry staring at him, but Joe went off to follow them.
Harry was standing in the breach room by himself when he decided. "Yeah, why not?" and he made off to follow the rest of them as well.
Central City was swarming with metas. A siege of metahumans where everyone was attacked. There wasn't one place that wasn't being taken over by these people.
A saving grace came when a bolt of lightning came streaking through the streets, cleaning them up and taking these empowered beings away in the blink of an eye. It was as if they weren't even there if not for the damage around the city.
With hundreds attacking the city at once, The Flash was performing a miracle. Taking out these beings all at once across an entire city.
But there was only one person of interest among this entire army. The man who had manipulated them and rendered them nearly defenseless. The man who brought this army forth.
Barry wanted to strike down Hunter Zolomon.
There was only one place he could be. Caitlin's information told them he had taken control over CCPD. That had to be where he was holed up. There were no sightings of the black and blue speedster on the streets. Either he was able to hide, or he stayed behind in the station to watch the city fall apart by his army.
Once the immediate danger of the metas was taken care of, Barry raced over to the station. He combed every room, but he knew there was only one place that had any meaning to Hunter. His old CSI lab.
"You know I never saw the crime scene photos of my mother's death, but then again I guess I never had to. I had a front row seat to the whole thing," Hunter said, staring at the crime board of Nora's murder. "While you were whisked away 20 blocks before it happened,"
"So?" Barry asked. He had to be delicate with this situation. He had no idea what Hunter would do.
"Just goes to show we aren't so different. If things had gone differently, you could have just as easily turned out like me," Hunter said.
"I would never be like you. I could never be filled with such hate and emptiness to become you," Barry snarled. Besides their speed, the two had nothing in common.
"How's Caitlin by the way?" Hunter casually mentioned. "She wasn't in her cell when I checked on her. I assume she's with you now? Not that it matters. I already killed the guy who let her go, and soon she'll be dead as well,"
"You're not going to lay a finger on her. I won't let you," Barry glared at him for even daring to mention her. He didn't have any right to even speak her name after what he did to them, and especially her.
"I'll touch anything I please," Hunter said. "You think you can stop me? You couldn't stop me before, I destroyed your spleen, and back then I still needed you alive. Now that I'm cured, what use do you serve? Your nothing more than another pair of legs I need to break,"
"I will stop you. I promise you that. There isn't anything that can stop me, not even you." Barry said, his glare still fixated on Hunter.
"Not anything," Hunter smirked as he said that.
Barry was about to charge at him, but an explosion cut him off and he looked out the window to try to see where that came from.
"Now see, if it were me, I would let those people die and just try to stop the bad guy, in this situation, that's me. But you're not me." Hunter said. "You just can't turn away when there's somebody that needs you. That's the difference between you and I Barry. I care about the end result. You care about the means to get there. So which is it gonna be?"
Barry had a reluctant look on his face. He hated himself for this, but Hunter was right. He couldn't turn away when there were people out there that needed him and he could help them.
As he was moving to leave, Hunter called out to him. "You know, we're not so different. There's a fine line between you and I. It's there, but I know you're just one bad day away from becoming me,"
Barry had a scowl on his face as he raced off in search of where that explosion was coming from. Barry despised the fact that he was just leaving Hunter there when he had the chance to take him in, but he was right. Barry couldn't turn away from a cry of help.
Even with Barry's powers back, it was getting hard to keep up with the sudden intake of metas running rampant in the city.
The majority had already been taken care of in the first wave of the attack. Hundreds were already in cells at Argus since it was the only place they could hold them, but many more had escaped before Barry could bring them in.
They had managed to hide on this new Earth with a few popping up every now and then, but they still needed to get CCPD back under their control. At the moment, it was still swarming with Earth-2 metas with Zoom at the lead.
They needed to somehow create a weapon that would be able to take out all the Earth-2 metas simultaneously or else they would be cleaning up the streets of Central City for years. They didn't have that time because the bigger numbers would eventually wear Barry down, even with Caitlin and Cisco standing beside him. That was still only three metas against hundreds, maybe thousands. They would get overrun, and they would lose everything.
At the moment, all the Earth-2 metas were still within Central City. They needed to act before Zoom sent any minions out of their borders.
The only idea they could come up with was to exploit the fact they were from another Earth. People from another world have different vibrations than the rest. That's why Cisco's goggles didn't work on Earth-2. It was also why sometimes technology would suddenly stop working when Harry was around them long enough. His vibrations counteracted the vibrations of the tech, causing them to malfunction.
They could put that in reverse. If they could send out a strong enough sound wave through the city, every being from Earth-2 would collapse due to the contrasting vibrations. Nobody would be able to escape. Not even Zoom.
They had to run several tests on Harry to make sure they got the vibration correct to affect only the people from Earth-2. Everyone else would be safe. Sensitive people might experience a headache, but that was just the worse case scenario.
The plan was put into action. They would emit the sound wave from STAR Labs and Barry would be running around the border of Central City. That way, the sound wave would bounce off of him, causing the sound wave to amplify, making it that much more potent against the Earth-2 invaders. They would create special ear muffs for Harry and Jesse so they would remain unaffected.
Once they were sure the Earth-2 metas had collapsed, it was just a simple matter of rounding up every person that had mysteriously collapsed in the streets. They estimated they didn't have more than an hour before they regained consciousness. More than enough time for Barry to sweep the city and place them in a secure holding cell.
Picking up all these people, Barry saw a lot of familiar faces, but he tried not to let it bother him. When he got to CCPD, there were bodies littering the station, but no sign of Zoom. This confused Barry since he should have been affected just like everyone else. There was no sign of him anywhere in the city.
The only explanation was that he was gone. Somewhere the sound wave couldn't reach him.
The only question is how he could have escaped. Hopefully there would be some that would be helpful in illuminating that mystery.
But at least they had their city back. Now they just had to take care of Zoom.
"Hey, Ms. Frosty." Barry greeted the ice meta as he took a seat beside her.
They were currently celebrating the takedown of Zoom's army and Barry's return home. They even invited Dr. McGee, who was currently enjoying her time with Henry.
"Hey yourself, Fleet Feet." She replied, giving him a small smile.
"A little bird told me that you were pretty distraught when you thought I was dead." He teasingly said, earning a grumble from Caitlin, making him laugh.
"Who told you that? Was it Cisco? I bet it was Cisco," Caitlin mumbled to herself. "If it was Cisco, I swear…"
"Okay, let's tone down the rage." Barry tried to calm her down. "So it's true?"
"No!" Caitlin exclaimed in a shrill voice. "What you are hearing is complete lunacy. I was busy escaping from Zoom while you were comfortably in the Speed Force,"
"I wouldn't say comfortable. I was trapped in there. Stuck with nowhere to go. Nothing but the thought that I needed to get out of there and stop Zoom. Save you," Barry said.
"I can handle myself Barry. I think I've clearly managed to prove that," Caitlin said.
"I'm just saying, you missed me, didn't you?" Barry teased her.
"Until I remembered how annoying you can be," Caitlin said.
"Well you know, I missed you when you were gone. I was so torn up at the thought of losing you." Barry said. "I don't want to feel that ever again,"
Caitlin closed her eyes in frustration. "Why do you have to say such nice things? Makes me feel guilty, like I don't appreciate you or something,"
"Don't. I know. Even when you don't say anything, I know. I'll always know," Barry said.
"That's the problem. I don't want you to know. At least not yet," Caitlin whispered silently to herself so Barry wouldn't hear.
Caitlin was quickly glancing at everyone else at the house, trying to determine whether anybody else had managed to catch up on her feelings. She tried to maintain her facade, but inside she was dying. She was focusing on every little thing about her actions to make sure she didn't give anything away about how she was really feeling when she was confronted by Barry.
The both of them reconvened at the table where the rest of the family was, getting ready for dinner. Before they did, Joe wanted to propose a toast.
"Before we start dinner, I just want to say that it's been a hard year, but I'm just so glad that we're all here. Some old friends and the new. And may we be together for many more to come," Joe said.
"Yes, that is my kind of toast. Short and sweet. Alright, let's get to this dinner," Cisco said, just about to get himself a helping of mashed potatoes.
Cisco froze. His eyes glazed in a familiar way that the others were starting to recognize as his powers activating. Cisco was seeing something that only he could see.
"Tell me I didn't just see the end of the world!" He exclaimed, losing his mind at the thought.
"What did you see, Cisco?" Barry asked while all of the other guests just stared at Cisco in confusion.
"I saw Earth-2. It was being ripped apart. The ground split open. Everyone was dying," Cisco reported.
"I don't understand. How could he see these things?" Wally asked as he clearly did not understand what was happening.
"Sometimes, Cisco gets visions," Caitlin informed Wally so he was up to speed.
Then, it all happened so fast, even for Barry. Within the second Zoom appeared behind his father and choked him.
"Our story continues, Flash." The speed demon snarled before speeding away in a storm of blue lightning. Barry immediately followed him. Barry didn't have time to think about the fact that he just revealed his secret to everyone in the room, especially since not everyone at that table knew he was The Flash. Mainly Wally.
Barry chased Zoom down the streets. Turning down a corner, trying to find where Hunter was taking his father. Barry needed to get his father. He'd just come back into his life. Caitlin had barely escaped from this maniac. There was no way he could let Zoom take another person from him.
The blue lightning disappeared into his old house. The house where his mother had died. Barry followed him in. "Dad? Are you okay?" Barry asked tentatively.
"It's quite poetic returning to your childhood home." Hunter said while head locking Henry. His mask was now gone. "You still won't believe me when I say you and I are the same,"
"No, stop. Please, look I am begging you. Take me. Kill me instead," Barry pleaded.
"No!" Henry shouted. He wouldn't have his son sacrifice his life in order to save him. Henry wouldn't have his son die in his place. He refused to be the one to bury his son. His son should be burying him.
"So, I'm just going to make you believe me." Hunter continued, making the pressure around Henry's neck tighter. "You're going to watch your parent die just like I did,"
"Son, whatever happens, you have made me the happiest father in the world…" Henry started saying goodbye.
"No, stop saying that, you're going to be fine," Barry cried out.
"This is going to make you just like me," Hunter growled, rearing his vibrating fist back, ready to take the plunge.
"Your mother and I…" Henry tried to say.
"No, Jay!" Barry yelled out but it was too late, he was too late. Hunter's hand was already through his father's heart. "NO!"
Henry fell on his knees on a loud thud before completely falling on the floor while Barry kneeled down next to him, crying as he tried to wake up his father.
Nothing worked. His father wouldn't stir. His eyes were open, but they weren't truly seeing. They weren't alive like his father should be.
Henry wasn't moving at all. He was too still. That shouldn't be happening.
Zoom had left already, but Barry didn't even notice. His attention was fully stuck on his motionless father. If he squinted hard enough, Barry could almost pretend that his father was trying to talk. But that was just caused by Barry shaking his body.
Tears were rolling down his eyes as Barry continued to try desperately to make his father do something. Anything at all to indicate that he was still alive.
It wasn't until his eyes had been cried red and his hands sticky with blood that he had to finally accept that his father had been ripped away from him as well. Still, he stayed there through the night. Barry was ripped away from his mother that night, he wouldn't let the same thing happen with his father.
That was so sad, even for me. I knew I was going to let that happen, but it still weighs heavy on my heart. I completely skipped the part with Black Siren, but she was only in The Flash that one episode. I'll probably mention it in season 3, but right now, there's no need for her on The Flash.
By the way, I'm gonna ask you, as the audience, what I should do for season 3. It's mostly plot out, I just need to get it on paper. But I'm still a little undecided as to what to do with Wally. Should I make him Kid Flash or not? Because I can continue with the story if he is or not. It's just some scenes are going to be different than if Wally is a speedster. Like the training scenes and whatnot. So tell me what you think. Should Wally become Kid Flash or not?
That'll be it for me this week. I'll see you all in 7 days for the season two finale of I Hate You, I Guess That's Love. Afterward, I will be taking a break, especially now that school has started. But I promise I will be returning. Sayonara.