To highlander348, Rylee87, guest, and the lovely ocfairygodmother—Thank you so much for your fabulous reviews!
And Karen becoming the Flash's crime fighting partner? That would be so cool, highlander348—but let's just say Karen will resist to that idea for a while. Not everything is daisies and roses when it comes to our future couple ;).
I wish all of you are safe and enjoy this chapter. Comments are always welcome!
03 - And Then There Was One
Four Months After the Particle Accelerator's Explosion
"Good morning, Dr. Wells," said Gideon, and Harrison, not for the first time, wondered if the A.I. was humoring him. Her tone did not imply so, but there was something about her that was inexplicably... sentient. And as the years dwindled, he often forgot who she was and where she came from—but it was at times like these he was reminded he could trust no one but himself.
Everything he knew—the basis from which his plans had taken root—had come from archives of the Flash Museum and his one-time miracle—the hacking of the JL's Watchtower Network. Nothing but child's play to young Eobard Thawne, but the newspapers had labeled it as the greatest triumph any villain had achieved so far. And yet, as revealing as the data had proved, neither enclosed a sliver of Gideon's origins. In fact, Eobard had believed her to be a person at first with how often her name came up in the JL's communications.
But no, Gideon was not a person. She was Barry Allen's secret project, her existence guarded just as heavily as the Speedster's identity. Everything about her was a mystery, and Eobard had been oh so eager to steal her from under Allen's nose. It took a while to hack her systems but it paid off in a grand way.
Then the Justice League turned on their own Gideon and disbanded the Secret Society of Super-Villains with her. Suddenly, the world celebrated the introduction of the A.I. and the greatest institutions eventually counted with one of their own. It had been a huge blow to his ego, but still, he did not regret his actions.
This Gideon—his, now—had been the original. Of that, there was no doubt. And Barry Allen never did or create anything without being emotionally driven; there was definitely more to Gideon than the eye met.
"Good morning, Gideon. How far are our current subjects?"
Gideon's androgynous face vanished, replaced by a series of files. Each folder pictured actual surveillance evidence of the subject in question and, underneath, the name of the project.
The Flash. Green Arrow. Black Canary. Killer Frost.
Then, the lesser but still as threatening to his success: Batman. Vibe. And finally, his most recent inclusion—Kristin Wells.
"The immediate threats have not shown particular changes: Dr. Snow and Mr. Ramon are en route from Starling City." The files shifted into a single column as a screen popped up; a woman with auburn hair and a young man with shoulder-length hair walked together, the latter carrying a metal briefcase with the S.T.A.R. Labs logo. "The Arrow has finally began his preparations for his match against Deathstroke and the future siege of his city. He will likely be joined by the Lances.
"As for Dr. Snow and Mr. Ramon's dossiers, neither has manifested the metagene. Likewise, Mr. Allen's condition is progressing as scheduled."
"What about Mr. Wayne? Last we heard, he was mentoring his... third protégé, if I'm not mistaken."
"There was a slight miscalculation, Doctor. Mr. Wayne's grief delayed the timeline for a month, but Mr. Drake began his training regimen as of last Monday."
Harrison sighed, taking off his glasses to clean them with his sleeve.
"That's the bat for you," he mused. "Always pulling the rug under your feet when you least expect it. Don't worry, Gideon—as long as he isn't derailed, we won't have to worry about him in the long run." He smiled. "Now... what do you have about our recent inconvenience, mmhmm?"
A slight pause. A non-metahuman wouldn't have noticed, but Harrison was different. To him, time was nothing but play—a minute sometimes lasted hours, hours could be days, and days could be years.
He knew Gideon was aware of her slight too. So he did not comment when she immediately launched into speech.
"Your speculation was correct: there are no files regarding Miss Wells' existence—the name was devised at the moment. However, the evidence indicates she may have used the same ploy in a similar situation before. In fact, I dare say everything about the identity, from quirks to appearance, had been prepared long before that day."
"We have a smart intruder in our hands then. What about facial recognition?"
"I'm afraid we have hit a wall: No digital equipment has been able to identify Kristin Wells."
His smiled whipped off. "None?"
"None," Gideon confirmed.
"That won't do. Give me every file about Dr. Mathilda Harcourt, current timeline."
A different screen appeared, this time with a different set of tabs: Educational Records. Medical Files. Family History. Orphanage Files. Acquaintances.
With his forefinger and thumb, he touched the holograms of Orphanage Files and Acquaintances, then combed through them at his own speed. He did this three times, until he finally decided to pull out one picture.
A woman with blond hair and blue eyes with a taste for office wear. No one would've looked twice at her—at least, not for the same reasons as Harrison's—but the shape of her, the way she stood and looked at the world, made him pause. She reminded him of different women—women whose eyes burned as they looked at the world and thought it wrong.
Women like that could only be found in old comic books these days. Because women like that were not meant to exist yet.
Other than that, Kristin Wells and this young woman did not seem alike. But wasn't Harrison the master of disguise? It wouldn't do to dismiss the similarities over something so trivial like but they don't look the same.
"ID her."
Mathilda's files shifted, once again to give place to the influx of information. His blood ran cold when, instead of files, several police records popped up at the forefront alongside photographic and video evidence. And while there were many pictures in which Dr. Harcourt appeared, there was another person who cropped up just as much.
Barry Allen. Smiling at Kristin, laughing with her, glaring at her, both of them fighting—too many moments in too many places. An entire experience Harrison had not been privy to.
"Gideon, why wasn't I informed of this?" he snarled.
"The data was not relevant to your orders."
The lights flickered, and then Harrison heard his own voice—his true voice, coming from the speakers. He'd already come to own Wells' body, but he hadn't had the finesse in manipulating it to his whim back then.
"Gideon, you are to give me weekly reports of all possible factors that may prevent Barry Allen from becoming the Flash. Do so immediately, regardless of where I am or what I am doing."
"Yes, Doctor."
"Karen Starr did not impede your goals in any way whatsoever. In fact, it appears that her presence pushed Mr. Allen to reach the emotional state of the original incarnation. Progress stagnated when their relationship soured."
Harrison's lips stretched as he barked a laugh.
"I don't believe it. When did this occur?"
"Two years ago, circa Mr. Allen's acceptance into the Central City Police Department. They struck a spontaneous friendship that went on for six months—then Barry Allen and Karen Starr decided to further their relationship. This lasted four months."
He snorted. "That... was quick for Allen."
"Differing views pulled them apart. They did not end on amicable terms."
"Show me evidence of this... relationship, Gideon."
Two clips jumped to the forefront, playing at the same time. On the one to his left, Barry Allen and Karen Starr ate together in the former's laboratory, their bodies just a tad closer than etiquette required. In this moment, Starr looked incredibly younger with her shorter hair. The clip to his right played a collage of moments, all where Allen and Starr passed each other without a single glance—except, more than a few times, Barry hesitated. Glanced at her from the corner of his eye with an expression that was clearly longing.
Harrison laughed. He laughed because this had never featured in any of his plans. It did occur to him Barry Allen would be a fool for love, but not for this woman. It was always Iris West, even in parallel timelines. So what had changed this time? What had Harrison done to throw the Flash's love life so out of the curve?
Who exactly was Karen Starr?
000•000
If there were any differences within the city, Karen did not see them right away, if at all. After her break in at S.T.A.R. Labs, the rest of the world seemed to blur by: nothing she did left an impression, and if she had any problems adjusting or remembering what she was supposed to do, she only had to look at the people around her. At those who focused on their tasks with a laser-like focus, all to ignore the debris of the particle accelerator explosion.
Yes, it was an extremely tiring week for Karen. Her thinking process was not quite up to its normal speed yet her body more than made up for that. Sometimes, she found herself doing things she didn't want to; other times, her body fell back into old routines as if it had never stopped doing them. And while her priorities clicked into place by the end of that first week, a nagging feeling followed her everywhere she went.
Then more days passed. Responsibilities began to crop up. Half-remembered promises began to take shape. Her million promises to David. To Mattie.
To Barry.
No. Not him. David and Mattie only. And someone else. Someone whose face she could not summon, whose name escaped her memory.
A name she finally remembered on her first day back to work, just as she was on her way to the CCPD. It literally dawned on her when her bus slowed to a stop, right next to City Center. The wide open area was, for once, empty of people—but not empty empty as it should. Because alongside the rocky path that ran through the park, dozens (if not a hundred) of items were scattered. Among them, picture frames and half-consumed candles littered the grass.
It was the first memorial she had found after the incident and it moved Karen in a way that made her want to stare at it all day. Never had she seen one so dedicated, so well-kept. Back at Gotham, memorials didn't last long, not when three citizens were likely to disappear the next night. At Midvale, memorials were simply a private family matter. But Central City was not Gotham or Midvale—Central City hadn't lost its people, hadn't lost its heart.
The sight of so many faces peering up at her eventually sunk her heart to the pit of her stomach. Yes, she was forgetting someone all right.
But who? It couldn't be David or Rob; she had a brunch date with them in the afternoon. Certainly not Mattie, whose apartment she had just left (with the promise of returning all the following nights or risk the med-student camp at CCPD). It couldn't be Barry either, even if she dreamt about him every night as her mind furiously fabricated scenarios where she saved him.
Who, who, who...
No, it couldn't be. She pulled out her iPhone. Then, with a speed that almost alarmed her, she thumbed through her entire call history—an admittedly short list—two times before one name caught her eye.
Karen hesitated. She had this picture in her mind of a short woman with pretty blue eyes with her arm looped through a man's—and it was the man she couldn't remember, the one connection she couldn't make between the name and his face.
Then it hit her very much like the lightning bolt that struck Barry.
And Rao, everything in her life had to go back to Barry Allen, didn't it?
000•000
It was not part of Gideon's original programming to theorize. That, Harrison incorporated years into his exile, when he realized that yes, he was lonely and needed to speak with someone before he turned as crazy as Gotham's rogues. Even then, the A.I. still needed to be prompted for her to begin expressing the facts.
This time was not the exception. The connection between Allen and Starr was a tenuous one, but it had a very clear beginning—a person in common, in fact. The one to introduce them to each other.
Hard as he thought, Harrison couldn't believe Ralph Dibny was the catalyst of their separation. Perhaps it was the previous timeline blindsiding him, but he could not accept the shallow idea of a man getting in between as the reason Barry Allen broke up with a girl. Not when this Dibny was a carbon copy of the previous one—just as self-righteous and sickeningly honorable.
No, the problem lay in Barry. Of that, Harrison had no doubt. Barry was the determining factor of this timeline, the one equation Harrison could not predict. It was his experiences which shaped this world; his choices which changed people's lives. But what had transpired between the three of them for Barry Allen to lose his way to heroism?
It was a shame Dibny died. Harrison could've interrogated him to his heart's content, what with the man having so many liabilities. Unfortunately, he'd died young, just another casualty of the particle accelerator's explosion. The historian in him panicked at the fact that Ralph Dibny, AKA Elongated Man, had died way before his time; the Speedster in him could barely feel the stream of timelines shift. So he moved to his next target—Dibny's lovely widow, the socialite Sue Dibny.
Harrison remembered Sue. She was a spitfire, much like reporter Lois Lane. Clever like hacker Barbara Gordon, and as cunning as Selina Kyle in her early years. Such a combination had earned Mrs. Dibny a pass to the JL headquarters—the bat himself appointed her as the administrator of the Watchtower. Then tragedy struck the superhero community, and Sue Dibny was no more. Her husband spent much of his later years trying to communicate with her, and it remained a mystery for the historians of the twentieth-second century whether he succeeded or not.
In this timeline, the Dibnys had remained exactly as they were. Their marriage happened early, but the rest of their history was the same. They truly were each others' soulmates.
And now Sue was alone.
He made his homework before coming to see her. Upon her husband's death, Sue's estranged family had finally reached out to make amends for disowning her. Sue had not reacted kindly; she sold everything that had been in her and her husband's names, starting with their house. After that, it was their PI business. Slowly but steadily, she sold everything until all she had was a box full of mementos, her clothes, and their truck (a pickup that would've put Clark Kent's to shame). Sue truly wanted to vanish and never return, but as the days dwindled, it dawned on Harrison she was waiting for something to happen.
Then she appeared. Kristin Wells—no. Karen Starr. The girl who, according to Gideon's database, did not exist. And yet, there she stood in the threshold of the Dibnys' business, very much alive. Dressed exactly in the same manner as the first time he saw her.
So much for being a mystery.
000•000
Karen could count the people she trusted with one hand. David Singh. Mattie Harcourt. It had been only those two names for a long time, with another coming and going as she reached her twenties. She'd thought Barry would be part of that list—then off he went betraying her, and Ralph Dibny somehow found himself worthy of her trust shortly after.
Ralph was—had been a police officer in the CCPD. When Karen started, he'd already earned himself a reputation beyond his beat cop status; and when Barry finally joined, Ralph got his detective badge. By then, he was easily the poster boy of the entire police station. People clambered to have him at their service; those in high power threatened him on a daily basis, as they often feared Ralph would show their true colors to the public eye.
Barry had idolized him. Karen had grudgingly respected him.
And then Judy Gimlin's murder happened and changed everything.
Karen owed Ralph big time. His career—his life—had been irreparably damaged because of her. And yet he never failed to give her a call a week and tease her for her food choices. His wife made sure to invite her for brunch when they weren't on a case. Neither ever faulted her for the derailment of their finances or the sharp turn their reputation took. How could Karen have forgotten that?
She took a deep breath and knocked. The door in front of her was exquisite—the one expense Ralph and Sue could agree on. Made of mahogany and with the business' lettering printed in gold, it was certain to make an impression. We are respectable, we are unblemished, we will solve your case effortlessly. Or at least, that had been what Sue told her when she'd asked.
Shadows danced behind the crystal pane before the door opened. Baby blue eyes stared up at her, empty of recognition. Then life sparked in them, and Karen found herself being crushed to a tiny body. The sobs that racked Sue's chest in that moment rattled the blond, but she pushed the other woman gently inside the office and closed the door behind her with her foot.
Karen took in the changes objectively. Empty, except for the rented furniture and a box lying on the desk. The curtains, she noted absently, had made all the difference; it had given the office a noir feeling but now that they were gone, the sunlight filtered in and lit the dark crevices of the room. It ruined the effect the couple had been going for when they opened their agency. They'd been at the very bottom then, rising only through sheer stubbornness and lack of caring of the general public. All that, gone in the space of four months.
"I'm so sorry, Sue," Karen said sincerely.
The brunette drew back, silently accepting the hanky Karen offered. She wiped the snot under her nose before giving a quaking smile.
"Don't be. I'm glad you are okay—he would be too."
Would. Was. Karen tried to turn this new concept over, but the more she thought about, the more the rest of her resisted. Ralph had died, but it didn't feel like it. Not when he'd always been larger than life. Between both of them, it should've been her who died...
"What happened?" Karen leaned against the desk, and Sue, matching her pace, jumped onto it to make herself comfortable.
"What didn't happen." The woman gave a high-pitched laugh. Then tears gathered in her eyes again, but they didn't fall. "He was just being him. He just did what he thought was right. And I can't fault him for that."
It sounded to Karen like Sue had had to repeat this to herself too many times.
Sue then told her how it happened. Like with Karen, the Dibnys' day had started normally: they were tailing a crook who supposedly was behind the recent rise of taxes of a specific real estate company that sold faulty buildings. Karen had heard about it briefly, but Sue launched into a story worthy of a James Bond novel, bringing up armed thieves and scared families.
"We were inside Building 54 when the accelerator exploded. If it hadn't been for those bastards' avarice, it wouldn't have crumbled so easily. I was lucky to get out alive," said Sue bitterly. "The rest... some of them got out with grave injuries. Ralph didn't make it to the hospital."
Karen felt her eyes sting. It was poetic, how she, Barry, and Ralph had fought for their lives the same nigth and for the same reason. But it was just her now.
She told Sue about her own night. Sue's eyes darkened when she heard Barry's name, but didn't say anything out of respect for his current situation.
"And are you sure you are fine?" she asked. "Truly?"
Karen sighed. "David thinks I was saved because of the incident. You know—"
"Yeah," Sue nodded quickly. "I do. Not all details, but Ralph made sure I understood... well, everything. I hope you're not mad."
"I hope you aren't mad." Karen smiled humorlessly. "I destroyed his future. And yours too."
"I like to think that he just wasn't meant to go down that path. That fate had other plans for him." Sue's lip trembled. "God, I don't know how I will live without him."
"One day at a time," said Karen, and hugged Sue when the woman started crying again.
000•000
Harrison's eyes narrowed. So— something occurred between the three of them.
He wouldn't be forgetting any of this anytime soon. Karen Starr was the reason Barry Allen and Ralph Dibny hadn't stayed friends. The Yoko Onno, per say. But why? What did Starr have anything to do with Dibny's breaking of the rules? What had played behind Judy Gimlin's murder?
Another puzzle to solve. That was fine—Harrison had time. All the time in the world.
NOTE:
I'm aware of Hartley Sawyer's behavior, and I in no way condone it. But the character and the actor playing it are different entities, and the Ralph Dibny I'll be writing is based from the comics. Now, that one—he really won my heart. When season 7 premieres, we will see what will happen with him—in terms of writing, I still got a long way to go before reaching that point.