Flashpoint Mayhem

by TrueHorror88

Another victory for the team, yet someone was unable to celebrate that and chose to make a world-shaking decision. Barry saved his mother from death, changing his past and his present, but it also affected others without him knowing. Seth and his family are just as affected, maybe more. The team faces newer threats, but they're not new to the Lethal Protector. They're threats.

25. Chapter 25 The Wrath of Savitar

Glad to see you all Wonderful readers far and wide again.

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the new year of 2025.

Been a roller coaster on my end, nothing new there, unfortunately. Started a new job and lots of different things happened, been taking up a lot of my time on my end. Been struggling to find time to write cause of that.

Which is why we're here again, after several months of waiting. I'm sorry for it, especially to those not just writing reviews but also sending me DMs. You're all awesome, your words keep me writing and I hope/wish nothing but the best to you all.

Now, time to answer some reviews:

Kylo Ren: Good year to you too, Kylo. Hope you're still holding on, despite the lack of updates on my end. Hope 2025 is treating you and your loved ones good. We're closing in on the answers behind Anti-Venom's obsession with our dear and favorite doctor.

Ace Xavier Omni Productions: Loved Venom: The Last Dance! The idea of Venom Family fighting off a Xenophage would definitely be a sight to witness. An amazing one at that. Hell, who even knows about Anti-Venom's real identity. Could be anyone at this point.

guest: Truly, truly sorry for your loss, my friend. Extend my condolences to everyone in your family. Keep doing your art, find your strength to do it and keep looking back on it. It's what you love, and you should keep doing it. And a belated/early happy birthday to you, buddy.

And now…

Without further ado…

ENJOY & HAPPY EASTER!

Chapter 25: The Wrath of Savitar

(Ferris Airway)

Nearing the sunset of the current day, a series of explosions and gunfire erupted from the normally abandoned airway.

Sitting in front of two computers with two sets of keyboards, Cisco's eyes were going back and forth between his computers, his keyboards and the training unfolding in front of him. He didn't expect this no matter how many times he was repeating the mutant's words in his mind.

But he did find amusement at the silver lining…

"So glad I made those extra drones with Matt so long ago." Cisco admitted while doing his part as best as he could.

From up high in the air, three armored drones were diving down and unleashing a downpour of bullets and missiles. Each bullet went in one direction and the missiles followed the target they're locked by honing on his abnormal body temperature.

Cisco could understand why the elemental was determined to push himself to the limit and then break them.

He knew what was driving Seth to avoid the bullets, what made him drive a fist into one missile and smash it into pieces. He knows what makes him destroy one missile with a flaming maw and crunch it to pieces. He knows what makes the mutant grab a missile and crush it with his overwhelming strength with one hand.

The viber looks up at the mutant who's facing him. "What?" He asks, noticing the look on his face, like it was one of disappointment.

"We told you to make this hard for us, Cisco." Venom reminds him, throwing the remains of the missile out of his hand. What remains of the missile landed somewhere between the two powered beings' locations. "This isn't hard."

"Oh, you want the "Extreme" level?" Cisco asked, acting offended by the challenge.

Despite him being the one to ask for his help in his training, the viber always found a way to make this humorous for everyone. Venom chuckles, "More."

Cisco laughs. "Ladies and Gentlemen of Central City, as the sponsor and host of the Venom Arena 100, I, Cisco Ramon, will never dare to disappoint my challenger. So, without further ado…" He inputs a series of commands into his tablets. "Venom, meet your demise!"

Both host and symbiote laugh at the viber's enthusiasm. Then, descending from the sky to point right at him, six drones appear before him and are looking right at him. Each of them armed with a series of different weapons, all of them ready to be unleashed upon him.

Venom smirks. His shadow casts far behind him, cascading the remains of the previous drones that faced him. Cisco's experiments with drones paid off in the end, leading up to the present where Seth has laid waste to dozens of his drones already.

And soon enough, the drones in front of him will face the same fate…

As if they could read his thoughts, the drones flew towards him.

Ready to meet their challenge, Venom runs towards them with an adamantium body.

The first one charges ahead of the others, flying up high over their heads. From the underside of it, two canisters were dropped. Both of them falling straight down towards the elemental.

Seeing them coming, Venom unleashes two massive tendrils from his back. They travel through the air, remaining in their adamantium form, as they get close to the canisters. They meet when the tendrils pierce them.

What surprised the elemental was that the two canisters exploded and unleashed a green smokescreen that fell over the area. This left the mutant completely covered.

Despite the thickness of the smoke, Seth could see the silhouettes of the remaining drones beginning to circle around him. He realizes the drones' next move, they're gonna shoot him from around him and pin him down before unleashing missiles at him again.

But…

That was far from Cisco's plan…

Venom realizes this when he feels something wrapped around his left forearm and pulls back on it, making him stagger. Looking in the direction of it, he sees a black cable wrapped around his arm. Following the cable, he sees it's ejected from one of the drones.

He reaches out to tear it off his arm, but another drone to his left ejects another cable which wraps around his right arm and pulls back on it. Both of his arms are restrained and pulled. From behind him, two more drones launch and wrap cables around his legs. Just as one of them is being pulled, forcing him down to a crouch, two more cables are launched from both above him and in front of him.

His neck gets enwrapped by the strong cable and the last one pierces into his chest.

Seth is shocked by the sudden penetration. Looking back up, he sees that the green smokescreen has dispersed and now gives him a clear vision of Cisco Ramon. The smirk was visible on the viber's face as he and the symbiote-bearer made eye contact.

"Get ready, Seth…" He presses a button on his tablet. "Things are about to get shocking."

Registering the command from their creator, the drones suddenly sparked with electricity and the cables suddenly ran with the powerful electricity. Once they reached his flesh, the massive shock was coursing through the mutant and making him scream in pain.

He remained down on his knee, being completely electrocuted by the six drones.

But even though the intense lightning was running through him, Venom still showed a wide smile on his face. "Finally, a fight we needed…"

Putting all his might into his legs, he returns to his full height and growls at the viber. Venom turns to the first drone that restrained him. Twisting his hand around, he grabs the cable and pulls on it. The sudden pull forces the drone closer to the mutant.

Releasing his hold on the cable, Seth ignites his claws with black flames and slams them into the drone, tearing through it. A burst of sparks came from it, followed by an explosion that created a powerful gust of air. Unfazed by it, he turns to the other drone holding his arm restraint and he shoots a tendril from the back of his free hand.

The tendril remains in its adamantium form. It reaches the drone, piercing through it. With a swing of his arm, he smashes it down on the ground. Before it could explode, he swung it towards the drone keeping his left leg restrained. Upon collision, it exploded and took down the other drone with it.

With the cables loosened around his arms and one of his legs, Venom jumps backwards and slams his leg down on the last drone behind him. Much like the others, it also exploded and was left in pieces.

Venom grabs the cables of the ones in front of him and pulls on them, forcing both drones to come closer to him. Once within arm's length, he grabs both of them and smashes them into one another.

The cables are loosened once their owners are completely destroyed, utterly left to pieces when the explosions devour them both.

Venom walks towards the viber, pulling out the cable from his chest with a small groan. "What kind of cables are these?"

Cisco looks up at the mutant. "Remember we had that Fake Kaiju episode? Turned out to be a hologram creature?" Venom nods, recalling that event where he was so close to living out a dream of his. "H.R. came up with this cable idea and we still had those lying around. They're incredibly tough, so using them for my drones was a good idea. Especially when our residential mutant wants a good sparring."

The symbiote slithers back into the mutant's body and Seth holds the cable in his hand. "Oh yeah, I remember Barry playing with something when we saw that Kaiju-thing."

He walks over to a pair of chairs, taking a seat in one of them. He reaches between the chairs, opening the cooler and pulls out two cold beers. "Thanks for the help with this, Cisco. It means a lot." He hands him one of the bottles.

Accepting it, the viber sits next to him. "Don't mention it. You promised to help me set up the course for our speedsters tomorrow. Figured helping you with some training and drone demolition would help you train and return the favor."

Both open the bottles and start drinking. Seth surveys the sight, the scattered remains of drones all over the runway. "You made a shit-ton of drones." He remarked.

"Too much free time." Cisco says in response between sips.

Removing the bottle from his mouth, Seth looks at him. "Figured Gypsy and you spend more time now…"

"Slow and steady." Cisco replies. "Why did you ask for this instead of using the Klyntar Lab?"

"The girls have been using it nonstop once they saw Anti-Venom." Seth grimly says.

Thanks to Evelyn's quick thinking, she had the D.W.A.R.F drone scan and record the fight with Anti-Venom. Seth had watched it countless times already, viewing how Anti-Venom was using his own powers but also the powers of his new weapons.

It was a surreal feeling when he watched it, mainly because of how it was like looking at another version of himself. Just like Eliza had said, this was a Venom, like himself, bearing different weapons, opposite his wielding of different elements, and bearing a stark contrast to his appearance.

A parallel Venom who was akin to a walking arsenal, using weapons from the Sinister Six…

He never thought something like this was possible, but yet…

Once again, the impossible had become possible.

"Anti-Venom needs to be stopped. Once and for all. Same with Eliza and her Thunderbolts." Seth states.

"That's the plan, Seth." Cisco assures him. "Something else on your mind?" He asks.

Seth shrugs. "Promised Joe I'd escort the Sinister Six back to Earth-616 tomorrow. Probably gonna do it while you handle the speedsters' race." Cisco could see the conflict on his face. He heard from Caitlin how their daughters decided to distance themselves from Joe due to his antagonism towards the mutant.

Seth was blaming himself for it, despite it being his children's choice in retaliation to their uncle's behavior towards their parents.

"Say the word, if you need help." Cisco reminds him.

"Will do…" Seth finishes the last of his beer. "Alright, let's go and set up the course for tomorrow."

"Alright." Cisco finishes his beer too.

But then he looks ahead and realizes. "Um… We may need to clean up here first."

Seth pales when remembering the mess he's caused. "Crap baskets."

X

(The Next Day, S.T.A.R. Labs)

"And Wally just beat his personal best." Cisco declares.

Along with Caitlin and H.R., the three of them are watching the three speedsters already running at full speed throughout Central City. Through their monitors, they're able to measure their individual speed and compare them to previous measurements.

And with measurement they take, the three scientists are left in awe of the speedsters' continuously growing progression.

"Barry's putting him through the wringer today." Cisco adds.

"Excus- "Barry"? Excuse me." H.R. asks, slightly offended by the statement. He starts walking around the main console. "Yeah, I suppose it could be Barry, or it could be his genius coach whose sole purpose on this Earth is milking epic greatness from those around him." He closes the distance between him and the viber. "Thank you very much."

"It could also be Jesse." Caitlin states.

"What?" H.R. faces her incredulously.

"Come on, I've got a daughter with a boyfriend at home. I know how he feels, Wally doesn't wanna get beat by his girlfriend." Caitlin says confidently.

Cisco raises a hand, saying. "Also, please, just refrain from using "milk" as a verb from now on, please."

"Glad someone said it before I did." Caitlin admits with a weak smile.

The viber faces her. "If Seth didn't have other business today, he definitely would've said something or other." Caitlin didn't disagree with that.

"Oh, he does? What?" Harrison-19 inquires.

Both look at him incredulously. Cisco asks. "H.R., don't tell me you actually forgot what Seth is doing right now?" His voice was full of incredulous suspicions.

Harrison-19 hums for a bit as he mulls over the question. "Is he on-"

"Not a coffee run." Cisco cuts him off.

"What abou-"

"Not getting you reading material either." Cisco states.

"Oh." Harrison lets out with a defeated look on his face.

Caitlin chuckles a little before stating, "Seth's working with A.R.G.U.S. right now to send the Sinister Seven members back to Earth-616. Lyla's gotten them out of Iron Heights and they're gonna send them through a portal in an abandoned area."

"Does this mean that your little gremlins are with their father too?" H.R. questions.

"Don't ever call my daughters that." Caitlin coldly warns him. H.R. nods his head hastily. "But no. Seth wanted to do this on his own. The girls are working out their frustrations in the Klyntar Lab right now."

As if on cue, F.R.I.D.A.Y. pitched in. "Ramon, the girls just broke another measurer in the lab."

Cisco gives a huge sigh. "Caitlin, you really need to tell your girls to hold back!" He announces as he opens the live feed in the Klyntar Lab to view the extent of the Snow-Fury girls' latest damage.

As he reviews that, Caitlin can't help but think about what Seth's doing right now.

X

In the middle of the forest near the outskirts of Central City, sitting on a tree stump, Seth awaits the arrival of A.R.G.U.S. convey which holds the incarcerated members of the Sinister Seven. He knew that a prisoner transport with so many villains from Iron Heights would take time to reach this area.

But he came to this forest before they even arrived at the prison facility, because he had to make sure everything was prepared on his end for them to be sent back to Earth-616.

Now he's just waiting and hoping his message reached the right person…

Any other time, he would've liked to overview the speedsters' race and see which of them is the superior one of the three. But the return of the Sinister Seven members takes precedent. Despite them all having been disarmed by Anti-Venom, it doesn't change the fact that none of them still has the wits, skills and strength to overcome any obstacle they face.

Be it walls, foes or anything worse, they can demolish them all.

A feat that his own team shares with the villains.

But what differs is that the Sinister Seven members are ruthless killers at their core. They kill for their own benefit; they act for their own greed and only follow orders from others if they get something out of it.

As his thoughts started to dwindle, the appearance of the massive portal beside him signaled that his wait had come to an end.

"Bout time." Turning his head in the direction of the gateway, Seth is unsurprised when he peers into the swirling portal and a familiar figure comes out.

As he returns to the familiar grounds of Earth-1, Matt Stark's boots crunches as he walks over the twigs and leaves in his path towards the elemental mutant. He is wearing black training pants, his torso covered by a red shirt that's hidden under his black training hoodie.

Coming to a halt in front of his brother-in-law, Matt gives him a dry look. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were missing me with how much you call me."

Seth dryly chuckles. "Sounds like all the diapers and late-night feeding finally turned your brain into mush." He looks up at him. "Thanks for coming."

"Don't mention it." Matt sits on the same tree stump, sitting down behind the elemental. With them both sitting on the same stump, their backs are facing each other. "Fury, Cap, Barton and Nat are securing the gate on the other side with at least dozens of agents, quinjets and weaponized Humvees. They also have the Helicarrier ready for transport. Stryker's Island's bout to get a huge shock when that hovers over their heads."

"And on this side, we just got… The two of us." Seth holds up two fingers.

"Yup." Matt looks over his shoulder. "Sounds like this Earth's still got all the action, huh?"

Looking over his own shoulder, the two make eye contact and Seth replies. "We got an Anti-Venom who's jacked up with weapons of all the Sinister Seven weapons. So yeah, Earth-1's not in any short supply of action."

"Read your message a few times." Matt states. "Octavius knows about our past. Not a fan of that." He admits.

"Chances are he already knows about your secret life as Iron Knight." Seth stands up. "And I'm not confident in A.R.G.U.S.' capabilities to keep the Sinister Seven in check."

Matt stands back up. "Which is why you invited yours truly…." He faked the arrogance that comes with being a Stark. "But… You also called me over to keep an eye on things while you talk with Octavius."

Seth nods. "He was pretty mellowed out when I spoke to him after he lost his arms. Felt like I was talking with someone else."

"Was his chip still there?" Matt questions. Seth nods again, he was confident in that as he had looked over the medical records of when the prison medical staff examined him. "Maybe he learnt his lesson when he felt betrayal and being used himself."

Matt could be right on that. Otto Octavius was always the one pulling the strings and others followed in accordance. He would use whoever he saw fit for his cause without any hesitation whatsoever, and once they had outlived their usefulness, he would throw them out like trash and never pay them a second glance afterward.

But now the shoe was on the other foot and he is the one to be thrown away now, about to be sent back to his Earth again. This time to a prison cell where he will rot in a cell for the rest of his life.

"You think he suddenly had a change of heart from this whole experience?" Venom voices his skepticism.

With a sigh, Seth answers them both. "Let's ask the man himself and hear him out." The mutant looks to the side where he and the nanite mutant sees a massive prison transportation vehicle coming their way. As it was getting closer to them, they could see the A.R.G.U.S. logo on the side.

They already knew this was their vehicle and it was them coming their way. But Seth was surprised they had come this quickly.

When it finally stopped near them, the two mutants could see it was a transport cargo van with several carts connected to one another via joints. With the exclusion of the driver's cart in the front, it was obvious why there's five heavily armored and secured carts. One of them being extraordinarily large and bigger than the average person, thus only one person could fit in there.

The passenger door on the driver's cart opened and Lyla Michaels hopped out of it. She makes a beeline towards the two mutants. "Gotta admit I didn't think I've ever met any prison warden so eager to get rid of their prisoners like Warden Wolfe was."

"Short discussion?" Matt asks while shaking hands with the Director of A.R.G.U.S.

"In and out of that room in less than 10 minutes." Lyla states.

Seth nods. "Lyla, about that favor I asked…"

She nods, handing him a keycard. "Last cart in the back. You can find him there. Need I ask if you kept up your end?"

Accepting the card, Seth gestures to his brother-in-law. "He wouldn't be here if I flaked on that part." He nods his gratitude before walking towards the last cart of the transport.

Several agents from the organization exited their Humvees that they drove in alongside the transport vehicle. They were armed with a variety of weapons suited for their organization and their individual roles.

Seth did not pay them any attention as he came to stand in front of the cart housing Dr. Octopus. Swiping the keycard over the scanner next to the door, the lock symbol on the screen turned green and replaced it with an unlocked icon. The locks whirred before the door unlocked itself, opening automatically.

A single glance into the cart, and the mutant could see that the villain was looking anywhere else other than in his direction. Even when he stepped into the cart, the villain did not look up in his direction. Walking into the cart, he takes a seat right in front of the handcuffed villain Otto Octavius. Sitting in front of the incarcerated man, he sees that his handcuffs are connected to a pair of ankle cuffs via another chain.

"How's the ride?" Seth starts the conversation.

"Bumpy, to say the least." Otto replies, raising his head to meet the mutant's eyes. "I expected you'd pay me a final visit before I return home."

Seth didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. When he did speak, he says. "Didn't send Clariss to an early grave, he's resting in A.R.G.U.S.' care."

Otto, with his cuffed hands, straightens his glasses. "I know. Gossip travels fast in close spaces such as Iron Heights. I don't suppose you want a "thank you" for fulfilling my request."

"No, and even if I wanted that, I couldn't accept it." Seth starts. "You wanted him dead; I kept him alive. Maybe just to spite you." Otto wasn't fazed by his words. "Found out about Eliza's little surprise. Anti-Venom."

"My companions and myself lost to that beast once, we stood up again. Second time we faced him; we not only fell at his hands but were also stripped of our prized possessions." Otto clenches his hands and grits his teeth. "All of this orchestrated by Eliza Harmon herself."

"Sorry for not showing sympathy." Seth replies sarcastically.

"I've lost my arms, not my intelligence, Fury." Otto reminds him. "I know this predicament is no different than what I've brought upon others before, Venom."

"You reap what you sow, after all." Seth says. "But I need to know… Why did you choose to warn me? Why did you want to save Clariss?"

"… I know of his situation, Mr. Clariss'." The doctor says. "He was just another tool for Alchemy. But despite his emergence as a speedster, he did not shed the blood of innocents."

"Not until Anti-Venom jammed a feather blade into the back of his neck." Seth realized. Everything fell into place upon hearing the evil mastermind speak. "You actually felt bad for him." Otto did not deny nor confirm his words, but his silence held all the answers that were needed. "Otto Octavius, the man who we all thought had lost his humanity when he got more arms, finally showed that his heart could care…. Never thought we'd see the day."

"You may have called him an enemy, a villain to your home… But you saw the same which is why you did not take Mr. Clariss' life, Lethal Protector." Otto states. Seth's silence spoke volumes. "Perhaps… This is the last time you and I will ever speak face to face again, Seth."

"Hope so. Everywhere you walk spells disaster." The elemental says. He stands up. "Your intelligence could do so much for the good of the world, Octavius. I hope that one day in the far future, you will be able to use your intellect to benefit the good of the world of Earth-616."

As Seth walks towards the doors, Otto stands up. "I remember a time where you wished nothing but atrocities to rain down upon me."

"I'm a mutant, Octavius. I was just reminded of how atrocities keep hurting the gifted not too long ago. Maybe I got tired of it." Seth noncommittedly says. "But make no mistake though…" He looks over his shoulder, shooting the evil mastermind with a fiery gaze that could burn holes in the average person. "If you threaten my world again, my home, my family… I won't be as forgiving as I am now." He says before stepping out of the transport cart.

"Of course, I know that." Otto says.

While the words that came out of his mouth were sincere and appeared to be quite caring despite them coming from someone who's been his opponent for a long time, Otto wasn't fooled. He knew and could see the blazing raging black inferno in the elemental's eyes. Behind all the seemingly caring words lies a flame that will forever be untamable by anyone other than the mutant himself, that is ready to devour any and all enemies that dare to try and extinguish it.

Or rather…

It is ready to incinerate anyone daring to destroy the elemental's home…

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

After having helped both A.R.G.U.S. and Matt send back the Sinister Seven members to Earth-616, Seth returned immediately to S.T.A.R. Labs. He wouldn't have done so immediately, but Barry asked if he would come to the facility for some important news he'd liked to share with the whole team.

Which is why he's now in the elevator, going up to the lobby. But as he stands there he wonders if it was possible for Dr. Octopus to have changed so easily. One encounter, one act of betrayal and his cold dead heart seemed to regain life and started beating once again…

"Couldn't have been so easy." Seth states, still in disbelief.

"Even if he wanted Clariss to be saved cause of his loyalty, no one changes that easily." Venom argues.

"Yeah, maybe." Seth says, rubbing his forehead.

Venom changes the subject with his next question. "Figured you'd have stayed a bit more, talk a bit with Matty."

"Matty came for a mission, he finished it." Seth replies. "He has his world to protect, we got ours." The elevator chimed upon reaching the lobby floor. "And our family is here as well…"

The doors opened and just as the mutant exits the elevator, Caitlin comes out from the side with a wide smile on her face as she lays eyes on the elemental. "Seth." Her happiness was evident in her words.

"Well, there's my favorite person in the whole multiverse." Seth's open happiness matches hers. The two meet each other in a warm embrace, quickly followed by their lips meeting each other in a passionate moment for them alone.

Once they pull back from each other, Caitlin asks him. "How are you?"

"Great, despite coming back from a prison escort." Seth says, leaning against the wall beside the elevator with his arms wrapped around his mate's waist.

Caitlin's arms are around his neck. "Must have been nice to see Matt again."

"Yeah, he said he was sorry he couldn't come and see you and the girls." Seth says.

"Well, I'm sure we can give him an earful next time we swing by 616 again." Caitlin says, sneaking in a kiss. "The girls are in the Cortex with the others."

"Nice. Oh, yeah, how'd the Speedster 100 go?" Seth asks.

"0.21 seconds. Fast enough to save Iris from Savitar." Caitlin announces happily.

"Damn." Seth lets out. "Whatever H.R. did to train Wally must have paid off. Did Barry announce his important news already?"

"No." Caitlin shakes her head, pulling out of the hug. "We're all waiting for him and Iris right now. Julian just returned, straight from the airport."

"Is Barry's news so important that he won't let a man rest off the jetlag?" Seth questions.

Caitlin shrugs her shoulders. "Shall we?" She asks with a gesture to the direction of the Cortex.

"We shall, my fair lady." Seth says, walking up to her and the two of them are walking together towards the Cortex.

Once they come within eyesight of the others at the entrance, Caitlin says. "Look what the cat dragged in." She points to her mate.

"Finally decided to come by, huh, Dad." Frankie says from the ceiling.

"How's Uncle Matt?" Evelyn asks, sitting cross-legged on the ceiling beside her sisters.

"Doing well, and he was sorry for not visiting you guys." Seth tells them.

Ruby scoffs, also sitting on the ceiling. "Wait till he swings by next time, he's gonna get an earful." Her comment made her parents share a knowing look.

"Hello, Doctor." Julian walks ahead, reaching out to shake the mutant's hand. "How we doing?"

"Welcome back, Albert. You missed some interesting stuff." Seth shakes the metahuman specialist's hand.

"From what I've seen on the news, it's a lot more than interesting." Albert argues. He gives a nod at Jesse. "Though I was surprised to find Jesse still here."

"Trust me, no one's happy she's sticking around." Ruby says, faking disdain.

Jesse looks up at her. "Oh, I think you're the one who wanted me around the most." Ruby gives her the bird.

Joe sighs. "Does anybody know what's going on?" A number of heads began to shake in response. "I mean, I've got a mountain of paperwork back at the office."

"No, not the foggiest. I was gonna ask you." Julian says.

"Ah! Welcome back, S.F." H.R. greets the mutant. "Would you like a cup of tea or a strong pick-me-up for you?"

"No need." Barry makes his presence known when he walks in, holding 2 trays of coffee cups from Jitters. Iris is holding two trays as well, but one with three frappes and the other one with two cups. "We hit Jitters on the way. Got everybody something."

Iris walks till she's under the three Snow-Fury girls. "Also got something for you three, heard you've been working nonstop in the Klyntar lab." The girls thanked her, using tendrils to pick their drinks up. They also noticed chocolate bars which they immediately snatched. She looks at their parents. "Figured you all wanted something nice." She holds out the tray.

"Thank you, Iris." Seth takes out their cups and hands the other to his mate.

Iris and Barry start moving to the middle of the Cortex, both looking fidgety. Joe looks questioningly at his daughter. "I thought you were on a deadline."

Iris turns to him, trying her hardest not to smile. "I am."

Barry looks at her. "You ready?" His own excitement was barely containable.

While the others were handing out coffee to each other, Seth was watching the two suspiciously. "What's gotten into them?"

"Maybe Iris is pregnant." Venom jokes.

That remark makes the mutant cough with a mouthful of coffee. Caitlin pats his back. "Alright, babe?"

"Um, yeah, peachy." Seth assures her. "Just coffee going down the wrong pipe, you know." "Wonder how Joe would handle that?"

"Guns blazing." Venom laughs.

As the two of them talk, Joe looks between Iris and Barry. "Okay, what is going on with you two?"

Iris looks at her boyfriend. "Do you want to?"

Barry shakes his head. "This is all you."

"Okay, here goes." Iris says, still brimming with excitement. She looks at the whole group, clearing her throat, and without saying anything else…

Raises her left hand…

Displaying a beautiful engagement ring on her ring finger…

An array of shocked expressions looked right at them. Caitlin lets out a gasp of shock, Seth's eyes widened with all the shock in the world.

"No!" Cisco says in surprise.

"Congratulations, that's so exciting." Caitlin rushes to Iris and Barry, giving them both a hug.

Both of them thank everyone that comes their way, expressing their gratitude to all their friends.

"Congrats, you two." Seth gives Iris a hug and the speedster a handshake. "Looks like West-Allen's in the near future."

"Yeah, it is." Barry nods. He hugs Iris again.

H.R. speak out. "You did it. This is fantastic. Well done, Joe. Congratulations."

Despite the words that H.R. gave him, the detective was left speechless and frozen like a statue.

If things were normal, the girls on the ceiling would've come to his side and asked about his state of mind. But they could only remember his animosity towards their father, which kept them from interacting with him.

Iris looked at her father who stood paralyzed. "Dad, say something, please."

He walked towards her, his eyes about to tear up when he looked at her. Joe opens his arms. "My baby girl." He hugs her tightly, which she reciprocates. He kisses her forehead. Pulling out of the hug, he says. "You have grown into a beautiful woman. You're marrying the best man I know." He hugs the speedster he raised.

"Is no one gonna point out the fact he raised them both?" Reap questions.

Ruby replies. "Yeah, that topic somehow never comes up in this place."

"You two bring me nothing but joy. I'm so happy for you." Joe tells the engaged couple.

Cisco walks up to them, gesturing to them. "Okay, this cuteness right here, I cannot…" He hugs the speedster. "Congrats!"

"Thanks, man." Barry says. "Thank you. And speaking of best man-"

Cisco smiles. But then H.R. jumps in. "I'll do it, of course. When Barry and I first met-"

Ruby cuts him off with a tap from a tendril from above. "Wells, he's talking about Cisco."

"Oh, okay. Good." He walks back to enjoy his two coffees.

"Thanks, Rub." Cisco tells the gravity manipulator who gives a thumbs-up upside-down. Returning his attention to the couple again, the viber says. "I'd be honored. Really. I mean, as long as I can get that plus-one…" Both Iris and Barry look at him teasingly. "Cause, you know, me and Gypsy, we about to tear up the dance floor for you guys."

Evelyn lands beside him. "Cisco, that woman's gonna devour you whole. One bite." She gives him a pat on his back in mock concern.

Cisco didn't deny that. Seth walks up to his child and ruffles her hair. "Don't scare the best man before the bachelor party."

"You're not gonna ruin that, are you?" Cisco asks.

"Define "ruin."" Seth grins like a hyena.

"Barr, can I talk to you for a second?" Joe got the speedster's attention, gesturing to the hallway outside the Cortex.

"Yeah, yeah." Barry follows his adoptive father.

The two walk outside into the hallway. As they disappear out of sight, Frankie lands beside her father. "You know, Dad, I always thought you and Mom would be the first to marry in our group here."

"Maybe it's about time you put a ring on her." Evelyn teases.

Caitlin blushes at the idea of them marrying but was not against it. Seth's head starts smoking when picturing Caitlin in a wedding dress and the two of them exchange their vows at the altar and promise to spend the rest of their life together. "Well…. That's…"

"Finally made our resident elemental speechless." Julian chuckles.

"Can it, Albert." Seth says through gritted teeth.

Caitlin asks her mate. "So you did this too, right? With Stef. Asked her parents for her hand in marriage and if she'd marry you."

"Last part, for sure, ended with her pulling a fast one on me and proposing to me at the same exact time." Seth chortles. "But the first part? No. Stef was an orphan. Didn't have parents to ask, and she didn't have any near relatives to take her in either."

"Sorry to hear." Caitlin says.

"Don't worry about it." Seth nudges her playfully. "How confident are you that your mother might give me her blessing to marry her wonderful daughter?"

"I'm her only daughter." Caitlin counters.

"Wonderful by default still counts." Seth kisses her cheek.

Caitlin chuckles. "And I'm confident my mother might have some thoughts about you."

Ruby lands behind her father, nudging him in the back. "Still got a long way to go with Grandma, Dad."

"You three really love teasing me." Seth sighs.

"Sorry to ruin the festive mood, but things aren't so good in the city, folks." F.R.I.D.A.Y. gets the team's attention.

"What else is new, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" Seth sarcastically says. "What is it?"

"3-Alarm inferno in the Raab building." The AI dramatically informs the team. "CCFD is taking care of evacuation right now."

"Great." Seth turns to Wally. "Wall, get your mentor out there and haul ass. Girls, with me. We'll meet up at the Raab building."

Wally runs out into the hallway with Cisco. Seth and his daughters jump out of the skylight, instantly being enveloped by their symbiotes and start swinging towards the Raab building.

X

Swinging from one building to the other with tendrils sprouting from his arms, Seth was closing the distance between him and the Raab building. His daughters followed him with all of their might, using their individual powers to keep up with him. Ranging from shadowporting, to catapulting oneself with gravitational force and running, jumping and copying Venom's method of traveling.

Regardless of the way they each use to travel; they still find themselves closer and closer to the burning Raab building. Coming closer to the building, they look at the apartment complex rooftop that is completely ablaze.

A single glance downwards and Venom sees the two speedsters consisting of Flash and Kid Flash running in the same direction as them. The Lethal Protector jumps onto the nearest building in an alleyway, looking around and seeing his daughters already far ahead of him.

But when he returns his eyes down to the speedsters once more, he is surprised when he suddenly sees Wally sent flying and spiraling towards the ground.

But what really surprised him… Wasn't that that the yellow speedster was hurled to the ground…

It was that… Savitar stood there…

Looking down on Wally West… And judging from how Wally was trying to crawl back but met a wall…

He was very much real…

"Wallace. Wallace West." Even his voice was audible.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., have the girls help out the fire department with the Raab building then get them to your location ASAP." Venom instructs the AI before jumping down to the ground.

Somehow….

He and the speed god manage to make eye contact.

Even when Kid Flash tries to speed-tackle him, Savitar simply grabs him by his shoulder and slams him into the wall behind him. He repeats this a few times before stopping and hurling into a car.

"Stop it!" Seth unleashes a flurry of tendrils in the direction of the speed god. Acting instinctively, his black flames erupt around each and every tendril.

But Savitar did not flinch nor move….

As when the tendrils reached him, they met…

Nothing.

Venom blinks, his eyes surprised to no longer find Savitar there. He runs over to Wally, tapping him and getting his attention. "Wally? You okay?"

WHOOSH

"Hey." Barry says, getting the mutant's attention. "What's happening here? What's wrong with Wally?"

"Where'd he go?" Wally snaps back to his feet.

"Who?" Barry asks.

"Where is he?!" Wally exclaims, his eyes shooting in every direction.

"Who?" Barry repeats.

"Savitar."

Venom's one word sends a chill down their spines at the same time…

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs)

After everything was handled at the Raab building, the defenders return to the facility where Caitlin and Seth examine Wally after his "encounter" with Savitar.

The only ones able to see him though were Wally and Seth.

"I feel fine." Wally tells the doctors as one of them is pointing a light in his eyes and the other is examining his pulse.

Cisco rolls in his chair within the medbay. "So now Savitar is mind-punking you?"

Frankie looks at her father who's removing the bandages from the speedster's body. Her doctor father wasn't surprised to find the wounds completely healed within the last hour. "And Dad saw him too?"

Throwing out the bandages, Seth nods.

"Oh boy! This never stops never stopping." Cisco chuckles sarcastically.

"Our life will never get easy." Evelyn says.

"Wally." Seth gets the speedster's attention. "Think you got some answering to do, pal."

Following the mutant's statement, Barry asks. "How long has this been going on, Wally?"

"Like a week." Wally replies.

"Seriously? A week?" Ruby asks. Wally nods his confirmation. "Dad, you've only seen Savitar-"

"Today. First time since we hurled that stone back to the great beyond that is the Speed Force." Seth tells his daughter.

Iris asks her brother. "Wally, why didn't you say anything before?"

Wally gets up from the gurney. "Because I didn't know what this was. I thought that this was just maybe in my head, you know. I wasn't looking at it like I was keeping it to myself-"

"That's exactly what you did though, Wally." Barry cut him off. "You did keep it to yourself, and with Savitar, that's not something we can do." He points to his fiancée. "This is Iris' life we're talking about."

"Yes, I know that." Wally tells him.

"Do you, though, Wally?" Barry challenges.

"Yes!" Wally exclaims.

"Both of you can it! Now!" Seth shouts at them, getting their attention. "What's happened happened, no use dwelling on it now. While it wasn't good that Wally kept this hidden from us for so long, he didn't do it out of spite. Only out of confusion and fear." Wally nods his confirmation. "Besides, until now, you only saw him, isn't that right, Wall?"

"Yeah." Wally nods again. "This was the first time it was physical."

"He wasn't there, okay?" Barry jumps out of his chair. "You weren't fighting him. He was messing with your head. He was all in your mind." He empathizes his point by tapping his own head.

"I've been there, done that. It's miserable." Julian chimes in.

"Look, even if that is the case, remember I saw Savitar myself." Seth reminds the Scarlet Speedster. "Not just that, Savitar looked right back at me. Our self-proclaimed godly foe could see me, but I couldn't touch him."

"So only Wally and our Dad could see him." Ruby notes. "Why? Did something screw up their brains or eyes?"

"That would've applied to us too, Sis." Frankie reminds her. "We could see Savitar the last time we faced him."

"But not this time." Evelyn adds.

Caitlin, inspired by her daughters' words, suggests to the team. "Why don't I run a brain scan on Wally, see if he was similarly affected to when Julian was possessed." She looks at her mate. "Might need a scan of your noggin, too."

"Poke and prod all you need, babe. So long as we find that walking-talking speedster tin can, and I can pry him open." Seth says, clenching his fist.

"Yeah, that's fine. Why don't we do that?" Barry shocks the whole team with his next words. "Wally shouldn't be in here anyway."

"What?" None were more shocked than Wally.

"Barry, he knows he messed up." Joe states in his Wally's defense.

"That's not what this is about, okay?" Barry starts. "Look, it's- If Savitar is using Wally the same way he used Julian, how do we know he's not spying on us through Wally right now?" Wally scoffs in disbelief. "Wally, we don't know how this works! How do we know he can't see and hear everything we're doing?"

With a stern look on his face, Barry tells his protégé. "Look, you're out."

Wally faces his mentor with another look of disbelief. "I'm out?"

"Barry…" Seth tells him slowly with a scowl.

"I'm sorry, Wally." Barry apologizes.

"Yeah, you don't sound real sorry." Wally counters, anger mixing with the disbelief on his face.

Harrison-19 says. "All right, fellows, let's take a quick 10?" He says, trying to keep the peace in the team. "We're all still the Four Amigos here, right?" Wally walks around the console, making his way to the exit.

"What?" Cisco asks.

"You don't have that movie on this Earth?" H.R. questions.

"They don't. Or the Five Bandits." Evelyn says.

"Stop talking, Sis." Ruby tells her sister.

Jesse says. "I'll go talk to him." She walks to the exit to follow her boyfriend.

"Yeah, talk some sense into him." Barry says.

"All right." Joe tells him sternly.

"Watch it, you idiot." Seth sneers at the Scarlet Speedster who looks at him in disbelief.

"Seth, come on, man. You gotta agree it could be possible." Barry tells him.

"Keywords: "Could be."" Seth starts. "And we don't know for sure that Savitar's peeping through Wally, so don't shut him out, you idiot." Barry opens his mouth to argue, but Seth cuts him off. "And even if Savitar's watching through him, right now Wally and I are the only ones who can see him. Means, we can be on the lookout for him. Not to mention, if Savitar can touch Wally-"

"Wally can touch Savitar." H.R. chimes in.

"Precisely. I tried to attack him, but Savitar was gone before I could connect." Seth looks at the speedster again. "So, Barry, you just iced out our best chance for keeping Savitar away. Great job."

Barry was left speechless from his words. Iris showed the mutant a look of gratitude and appreciation that the elemental could see the potential and worth in her little brother. Joe was still stoically looking away from Seth, but he could not deny the feeling of gratitude he had for him as he defended his son.

"So what now?" The reporter asks.

Barry says. "Well, we know from the future that Savitar gets out of wherever he is, but for now, he's still trapped, so…"

"So what, exactly, Barry?" Seth questions him, a look of anger on his face.

Julian got an uncomfortable expression, fearing what might come next.

"I need to talk to him again." Barry looks at him.

Julian shakes his head. "No. I knew you were thinking this, all right, and I won't do it. I'm not gonna be your personal walkie-talkie to him."

"Besides, it wouldn't work, even if Albert was gonna agree." Seth reminds them.

"What do you mean?" Joe asks.

"We don't have the Stone." Caitlin reminds them.

Cisco stated in argument. "Actually, we can." The others looked at him. "We still have Savitar's spatial frequency from when we plugged in Linda Blair here, so I think we can work without the Stone."

"Cisco, that's not fair." Evelyn tells him, not feeling comfortable with taking away Julian's choice in the matter.

"Sorry, guys and sorry, Julian. But man, we don't really have a choice."

"We do have a choice. I have a choice, and I choose to decline. Sorry." Julian says, walking away and into another room.

"We're starting to fray." Joe remarks.

"Well, we can't, all right?" Barry tells them. "Everybody just needs to trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"If you really think that, then you're a bigger fool than ever." Seth gets his attention. "Trust is earned, Barry. Not given because of a command."

Seth walks towards the room that Julian's occupying, his mate following him.

X

The two walk into the room, both look to the side. They find Julian looking into his own reflection on the cabinet window, staring intensely at it as he tries to muddle through the thoughts spawning within him as he thinks of the conflict at the team's hand.

Julian looks at them both. "The two of you come to talk me into it?"

"No, came here to restock the cabinet, but think you beat me to it." Seth jokes.

Caitlin playfully nudges him. "Be serious. No, we didn't." She tells their friend.

Keeping his eyes away, Julian says. "Barry's lost his bloody mind if he thinks I'm gonna volunteer to be… Abused again."

"Trust us, Julian. None of us are happy about Barry trying to use you as Savitar's sock puppet." Seth states.

"He's right." Caitlin agrees. "None of us are happy with his plan, but he's just trying to protect Iris."

"We all are!" Julian exclaims. "But not like that."

"Julian…" The metahuman expert turns around, facing the elemental. "None of us are gonna think anything less of you if do this."

"Is that why you don't wanna do this?" Caitlin asks.

Julian looks between them. "This… This team is important to me. You're all my friends. All important to me. Despite the fact that I was Savitar's puppet… I just think, hearing his voice coming out of me, it just makes it impossible for any of you to see as a normal-"

"Sorry to tell you, Albert." Seth cuts him off with a chuckle. "None of us are normal."

"Ain't that the truth." Caitlin chuckles.

Julian faces the mutant with a steely look. "Seth, I need you to promise me one thing."

"No." Seth shoots him down immediately.

His response left him shocked. "You don't even know what I'm gonna ask."

"You want me to kill you if Savitar's hold is too strong and Alchemy comes back." Seth confidently tells, surprising Julian once more with his words of deduction. "I don't kill my friends, Julian. Not now, nor ever."

Julian knew it was pointless to ask him.

But he truly hoped that if his darker side came out, this mutant would put him down before any more chaos would ensue…

X

(Breach Lab)

Everyone stood around Julian, preparing him so they could communicate with Savitar through him once more. And just like before, he was not comfortable with what's to come. The only ones not present were the Snow-Fury daughters, and Wally and Jesse.

"Is this… gonna go well?" Caitlin asks the mutant.

Seth looks at her. "I honestly don't know."

"Savitar means Anti-Venom's nearby." Caitlin tells him. "Think you can win?"

"The girls fought him once… I'm not gonna make them go through that again." Seth felt ashamed to call himself a father.

He knew more than anything his daughters could handle that creature on their own. They proved that, now it was his time to prove himself against that abomination. This time the Lethal Protector would face off against the Vile Destroyer.

And no matter how many weapons this monster has absorbed since his latest fight, Venom would reign supreme, and he'd make that clear when he stood over Anti-Venom's corpse.

"Julian, you're gonna be okay." Cisco assures him. "You know the drill." He picks up the headgear needed. "Just let your mind go blank." He hands him the equipment. "We'll take care of the rest, okay?"

Julian sighs. "Just let Savitar back in the driver's seat once more. Brilliant." He says as he puts on the headgear.

"Thank you." Barry says.

"Let's just get this over with, yeah?" Julian hastily says.

Cisco shares a nod with the others before turning the dials on his module. Julian closes his eyes, his mind going blank as he lets the familiar and uncomfortable feeling of Alchemy come back over him.

Underneath Seth's clothes, his symbiote starts to slither out of his body, ready for Venom to take action if something were to go wrong.

Julian gasps, abruptly getting the others' attention. His sudden outburst made the others step back in surprise.

With eyes wide as possible, looking straight ahead, and a blank look on his face, Savitar spoke. "Bow before my greatness. Be in awe as you are in the presence of the Almighty-"'

"Enough with the religious nonsense." Barry cuts his words short. He walks till he's in front of the mind-controlled metahuman specialist. Savitar is smirking the whole time. "You're just a man, like me."

"I'm nothing like you, Barry." The self-proclaimed deity counters. "You're cruel. You're selfish. From my perspective, you're the Big Bad."

H.R. scoffs. "Stupid."

Turning his head, Savitar faces the author of Earth-19. "Still here, pretender? Still trying to find your place?"

"I found my place." Harrison steadfastly says. "It's standing here with these people, against you."

"You know, the sad thing is that you live." Savitar says. "You survive my wrath. The coward. Irony."

"Like you're one to talk about cowardice." Seth gets his attention. "Not gonna poof into nothingness again, are you?"

Savitar smirks. "Why, Venom? Scared that's your fate? All that power… All that strength… Yet not able to reach a higher being. Pathetic for a man who's called a "demon.""

"Come out wherever you're hiding, you rat. I'll show you who's the higher being." Seth sneers, clenching a fist so forcefully his knuckles crack.

Inspired by the mutant's words, Barry asks. "Where are you? You said that I trapped you in the future. Where?"

"The only place that you could think of, the only place that could hold me." Savitar says.

"How long have you been imprisoned?" Barry questions.

"Long enough to lose my mind several times over." Savitar says. "It's only my will that keeps me on this side of sanity."

"You know, it's funny, when I think of sanity…" Savitar turns to face the viber. "I don't necessarily think of Savitar."

"Well, that's because you're small, Cisco." The speed god retaliates. "You've always been small. Reverb told you that you could've been a god, but instead you'd rather work… As tech support."

Barry then asks. "You wanna tell me why we're enemies?"

Savitar faces the Scarlet Speedster once again. "Because we had to be. Only one of us could live. You thought that Thawne and Zoom were your biggest foes, but… But it's me. It's always been me, Barry."

"Man, what did we ever do to you?" Joe asks.

"You took everything from me!" Savitar exclaims. "I never asked for any of this, Joe. I am only this way because of you. All of you!" He shouts at the whole team.

"When do we meet?" Barry asks.

"Not long now." Savitar starts. "You're there when I become who I am."

"You're saying I caused you to get your speed? I created you?" Barry asks.

"Oh, no, I created myself, Barry." Savitar corrects the foolish speedster. "Only I can bring out my greatness."

"That greatness include Anti-Venom?" Seth asks.

Savitar smirks again, turning to the Lethal Protector. "Quite the creation, would you not agree, Seth?" Seth said nothing. "Have you ever wondered if there was someone better than you? Someone more superior? Someone who could surpass you, who took years to kill Carnage?"

Seth clenches his fists. "You're saying that mutt of yours is stronger than me? That he's some better version than me? That he could've killed Carnage faster than me?"

"Even if you call yourself a mutant, you are still bound by your humanity." Savitar says. "You call yourself the Lethal Protector, but you haven't killed anyone of late. Lost your touch?" Seth remained unfazed. "My hellhound is greater than you will ever be. Evolved to heights you could never hope to dream of. My greatness brought out my hellhound's true potential." The mutant grits his teeth in rage.

"Your greatness?" Barry mockingly recites. "Well, you're still trapped, wherever you are, and I don't know how you're gonna escape. I mean, we got rid of the Philosopher's Stone."

Caitlin's hands shake, something no one saw.

Savitar directs a smug look at the speedster. "Did we?" His words sent a storm of doubt into the minds of everyone hearing his words. Caitlin's hand took Seth's, and he took it as a sign of her needing comfort in the face of this dangerous foe.

Slowly standing up from his chair, Savitar speaks. "I am closer to my freedom than I have ever been." Cisco moves closer to the module. "Every step, every move that you make, it only brings me nearer to it." His words were unsettling the team even more. "I only need one more thing."

Iris comments. "Man, do you love to hear yourself talk?"

Savitar shoots her a glare. "Iris, trying to show that you're not afraid, but I know you are. I'm sorry that you have to die… But it's you or me." Joe put an arm around his daughter. "And despite your feeble efforts to change the future, you can't…"

His eyes pointed at the Scarlet Speedster, but his words were directed to the whole team. The very team not only defends his city, but also the ones trying to challenge the path of their future and the ones trying to prevent Iris from being eviscerated by his blade.

"Because, I am the future, Flash!" Savitar shouts at the Flash. Barry went to move past him, but he was stopped. "Barry, you've had to suffer worse than anyone." The two look directly into each other's eyes. "You've endured pain your whole life. Your mother. Your father. Trust me, you'll never get over this." His smug look told everyone he was enjoying the turmoil brewing inside of his nemesis' foe.

Barry unplugs the headgear, returning Julian to the driver's seat and now in control of his body again.

The metahuman expert looked between them. "Well, good chat, was it?" He asks them, visibly angry and still uncomfortable.

X

(The Cortex)

After everyone has calmed down after conjuring Savitar again, they all return to the Cortex. All of them bearing heavy hearts. H.R. gasped. "I don't know if I can take another one of those seances." He looks back on the others following him. "Anyone else with me? I almost filled my drawers."

"Goddamn, crazy speedster tin can just fucking with us." Seth says, clutching the edge of the console table. He looked up at the ceiling. "Girls, show yourselves."

"What?"

Ruby's voice was full of annoyance and disbelief at her father's words.

The three girls revealed their forms out of thin air, all of them sticking to the ceiling and looking down on their parents. They drop down and land near the console. "I'm really getting annoyed with how easy you guys can find us." Ruby voices her annoyance.

"It's called being your parents." Seth tells them.

Caitlin looks at them. "How long were you listening?" The girls hesitated, looking at each other sheepishly. "Got my answer."

"Freaking crazy, like Savitar already knows we're trying to stop his plans and… He's not worried." Evelyn says.

"Almost like he knows what's happening and what's gonna happen." Frankie says.

"Any plans in store?" Frankie asks.

"Okay…" Cisco gets their attention. "So other than Savitar taking "scaring the Bejeezus out of us" to a whole new level, did we actually learn anything?"

"Please say yes." Julian pleads, hoping that he didn't subject himself to being a walkie-talkie for nothing.

"We got something." Seth gets their eyes. "We talked about the Stone but remember his words. He questioned whether or not we'd gotten rid of that space rock."

"But we did." Caitlin said, her voice was coming out more defensively than intended. "We threw it into the Speed Force. That's like throwing it into outer space."

Scratching the back of his head, Seth looks at her. "Babe, no one here trusts the Speed Force, especially me. And, who knows, maybe we didn't chug the whole thing into that space hole Barry tore open. Could be there's more to this."

"Something's off about Caitlin." Venom remarks to his host.

Seth stops, replying to his "other." "What do you mean?"

"Ever since we spoke with Savitar, she's been acting fidgety. Like she doesn't know how to act." Venom says. "Is she keeping something to herself?"

That question from his "other" left him perplexed. He wasn't trying to do it initially, but now he was doing his all to keep his questions from appearing on his face, to keep himself from arousing any suspicion and more.

Worse was, he was doing it to keep his mate from suspecting anything…

"Like, a second Stone?" Iris inquires.

Barry unsurely argues. "Or maybe the Stone that we had was part of a larger piece."

"How about the Acolytes?" Joe asks. "Maybe they know something we don't."

Caitlin looked sheepish again, something Seth noticed and engraved in the back of his mind.

"What about that one guy?" Cisco asks, pointing a finger at the detective.

"Craig?" Joe states.

"Yes…" Cisco turns to face Caitlin. "The Acolyte that you dropped in on when you went all cold?"

"Low-blow, Cisco." Frankie tells the viber. His words were distasteful.

"Sorry about that." Cisco apologies. He works away on the computer, scanning for Craig's vehicle through its GPS signal. "His car's GPS has him located somewhere near…." He waits for the scanning to complete before announcing the result. "Mount Buccelato."

"Buccelato? That's miles away." Ruby declares.

"What would they be doing up there?" Julian continues.

"One way to find out." Seth looks at Barry. "Check it out." The metahuman nods.

WHOOSH

The Scarlet Speedster runs off, making his way to Mount Buccelato.

Caitlin looks uncomfortable, walking to the medbay. Seth follows her, concerned for his mate and her mental state especially as his "other's" words from before had left seeds of doubt, all of them still growing.

"Cait." Seth gets her attention when he finds her near the cabinets full of vials. Caitlin faces him. "Are you okay?"

"I…. Honestly, I don't know." Caitlin says. "I threatened that guy, Craig. When I was her."

"You wanted to save our girls, Cait." Seth says, walking closer to her. Whatever drove Killer Frost to attack Craig that time, he knew it came from a good place in her heart where she was worried about her daughters above anything else. They were nearing Death's doorstep back then. "Even if another voice came out of you, you were there. Deep down."

Caitlin looks at him lovingly. "You were still able to see the real me."

"Always." Seth takes her hands. "Whatever's bothering you, you can always come to me. No matter what it is, I can help you share your burden."

Caitlin takes her hands out of his, sliding up his arms before wrapping them around his neck and pulling him into an embrace. "I know that, silly. It's just…" She stops, putting her head on his shoulder. "What happened before… I don't want it to happen again. It's… Something I don't want you or the girls to ever see again…"

"Whether we see you like that again or not… Don't forget, we know it's still you in there." Seth assures her, hugging her comfortingly. "Just using ice to fight back against those threatening us… You're still and will always be there."

"Thanks." Caitlin says with a warm smile.

Despite the warmth of his words coming over her, assuring her of what is real and what matters, Caitlin was still hiding something. Even now, without the aid of his "other", Seth could see it. Something about Caitlin was different.

Secretive, like she was bearing a burden that she did not know how to share or confess.

"What is she hiding?" Venom's words left a bitter taste in Seth's mouth. His tone even more so. It's one he's used several times before in the past when the two of them listened in on interrogations at S.H.I.E.L.D. and they could feel their captives lying through their teeth and suspicion immediately dawned on them.

He's never felt so awful as he does now, suspecting the love of his life of hiding anything.

WHOOSH

Feeling a familiar gust of air blasting into the Cortex, the two doctors turn their heads in the direction of the area and see Barry holding the familiar stone case that once held the Philosopher's Stone.

"I'll see if they need help." Caitlin tells her mate before walking off.

Ruby passes by her mother, entering the medbay and looking at her father. "Dad, what's wrong with Mom?"

"You felt something too?" Seth asks. Ruby nods. "I honestly don't know. Maybe she's got too much on her mind, fear of Killer Frost and Anti-Venom again."

"Got a gut feeling that says something's wrong?" Ruby asks her father as it was a feeling she's harboring herself but wonders if her father has the same.

"…" Seth doesn't want to answer that, as though he might admit to harboring suspicion about the mother of his children, the love of his life… About Caitlin…

"Something isn't right here." Venom states again, hoping that his mutant host will focus on something other than this.

"…Ruby…" Seth was struggling to say the words, or maybe he doesn't want to.

Ruby gives him a nod of assurance. "I will, Dad. Don't worry." Her assurance did nothing to ease the mutant's internal conflicts, not in the least.

The two of them walk into the Cortex, both looking at Cisco and Julian running their tests on the box.

"Good or bad?" Seth questions.

Cisco looks over his shoulder. "So far, not so good. Can't get any readings off of it."

Barry looks at the box intensely. "That's the same as the last time."

"Are we sure this isn't the same box?" Iris asks.

"That sounds impossible." Seth tells the reporter. "We chugged that damn thing into the Speed Force."

"Seth's right." Barry says. "I threw the whole thing in there, box and stone and everything."

"Yeah, but…" Iris looks at them. "You both said the explosion that followed hurled you both to the future. Well, Seth's mind at least on his part."

"Your point?" Frankie questions.

Evelyn catches on to the reporter's train of thought. "You think it could've done the same to the box, right?" Iris nods with a smile.

"Julian." Seth gets the expert's attention. "You studied this thing before, and longer, than any of us. What do you have to say about this matchbox?"

"Not exactly a matchbox, Seth, as you know… But I do hate to say this, guys…" Julian looks around the team members. "After all my years of research, I've never heard or come across another box or Stone. I think this is it."

"Definitely not good." Frankie sighs. "If what you're saying is true, then we have to prepare for the scenario that Savitar has that awful Stone."

"Anything we can do?" Joe asks.

Cisco, having removed all the patches and cables attached to the box, announces as he picks up the mysterious artifact. "I'm gonna check for radioactive isotopes or gravimetric force residue 'cause if it's the same as the last time-" He moves to the exit.

"We're in deep, deep shit." Seth clenches his fist.

Caitlin was trying to hide it as best as she could, but she was failing to hide the look of dread on her face as her mate's words sunk in.

And worst of all…

Through the aid of his "other" Seth could see the look on her face

X

(Thunderbolts' Hideout)

"Looks like your pet's owner is back." Taskmaster told Eliza while he's looking at the tablet displaying the scene of where Kid Flash is manhandled by an invisible presence. It didn't stop until Venom showed up, striking the empty thin air with his tendrils.

His eyes only glanced at the tablet on the table beside him, his hands and attention mostly focused on the arrows he's assembling in front of him. The tablet's right next to his arrows.

His words get the Thunderbolts' leader's attention, taking it away from the arrowheads she's making for the combatant chameleon's trick arrows. "What do you mean?" Eliza asks, turning the tablet around and looking at the footage. Her eyes narrow as she looks at the footage playing in front of her.

"Reminds me of how that speed god rag-dolled Clariss a while back." Taskmaster says nonchalantly, attaching another arrowhead to the correct projectile.

"This is worse, mostly because Kid's actual mentor is just standing there and watching his student getting thrashed. While the one guy with an actual body count tries to save him." Eliza chuckles to herself. "Gotta admit, it's funny as hell."

"To think that someone would actually entrust themselves to the incompetence of that red-suited buffoon." Scream notes. "Fascinating."

"Seen more competence in interns than the Scarlet Speedster." Eliza replies. She pushes the tablet away, looking at the master combatant. "You ever label those arrows? Might be a good idea in case you mix them up."

"I don't mix them up." Taskmaster counters. Looking up into her eyes, he remarks. "You don't seem concerned you're about to lose your biggest and greatest asset to Savitar again."

"Sorry, signed a contract. Return date is decided when the tin can pop out of his hiding hole." She quips. "And don't worry, my biggest asset isn't that doggy."

"What is then?" Taskmaster questions.

"Wait and see, Tasky. Wait and see." She chuckles.

X

(Breach Lab)

"No way!"

Make no mistake, Cisco has heard more than dozens of bad ideas since he became a core member of this team and aided numerous operations. But when H.R. and Wally came to him right now, explaining their plan of how to, not only to prepare Wally to save Iris, but also how to conquer his fear of Savitar, he was confident that this was the worst plan of all.

This idea involved Cisco vibing the very nightmarish scene again of the future that Barry and Seth witnessed themselves when they were hurled into the future, but this time Wally would be the one to have front row seats to the sight of his elder sister being killed by the speedster god.

This idea came to being when Wally was training to blow off steam, H.R. had timed him and realized his protégé was running slower than previously scored. Harrison-19 realized that this was because his student was too consumed by his fear of Savitar intruding and digging into his mind again, and it was affecting his abilities to run faster than Barry. This was combined with the fact that Barry had lost faith in him completely and he was doubting himself now because of it.

Both student and mentor realized that the only way for Wally to push all of his fears out of his head was for him to see the scene from the future himself…

In the same manner as Barry and Seth had done.

Which brought them to the viber himself.

"I'm not gonna vibe you there for you to watch your sister die!" Cisco continued speaking, his eyes still settled on his work on the box.

Before Wally could complain to him, H.R. tries to convince him. "Cisco, Cisco, Cisco. This is to help Wallace." Cisco was doubting that. "To help him see what happens so he knows what to do in the moment."

Cisco stiffens, not convinced at all by Harrison-19's argument. Wally chimes in. "Come on, Cisco, please. If Savitar's coming back, and I'm the only one that can save Iris, I have to do everything I can to make sure that happens."

"Wally, you're not the only one here wanting to save Iris." Cisco turns to him. "We got Seth and the girls here too. They can fight too. And they don't come to me for vibing nightmares, they train their asses off."

"But none of them are being mentally tortured by Savitar." Wally counters. "I'm the one to save Iris. I'm not gonna stop at anything to do that. To save my sister."

"And you're sure you wanna do that?" Cisco snaps back to him. "Because this is not something you can unsee, Wally."

"If this is gonna help me save my sister, yeah, I have to see it. Please." Wally pleads.

Every cell and nerve in his body was screaming at Cisco to deny his pleas and suggestions thousands of times over, but he was convinced by him despite it all. "Okay, if you have to see it…" He starts walking down the platform stairs and towards the gear he used during his previous vibes to the future. "Come on down, be my guest. H.R., you know how to work this, right?" He gestures to the computers and the module after rechecking the settings and calibrating them.

"I know how to work this, yeah." H.R. tells him, almost insulted by the metahuman's words before taking over.

Cisco nods but appears more unconvinced. He points a finger at him. "Anything goes wrong; you get Caitlin down here stat. I mean it, don't even think of getting Seth. Last time I saw him treat Barry, he was left with more bruises and scars after treatment."

H.R. looks at him. "Mentally or physically?"

"Yeah." Cisco calmly replies. His calmness scared both Wally and H.R.

The latter of whom states. "Also, neither of our doctors are needed here. I know what I'm doing. I was here last time. I saw what you did." Cisco and Wally each took a seat, sitting in front of each other while they're already equipped with the headgear so they can vibe to the future together. "All I've got to do is do this." He turns a dial.

…

…

Harrison turns to look at Cisco. Surprised to see the viber still looking at him with wide eyes. His eyes full of disbelief and doubt of his capabilities… Again.

"It's the other button."

"It's the other one."

Harrison and Cisco spoke over each other.

With a sharp twist of his hand, Harrison turns the dial. The vibe was brought to the viber and both he and the speedsters brought into it with a series of flashing lights.

X

The two of them snapped into the vibe instantly, standing in the future of the events of the day where Iris was struck down from the back by Savitar. The same vibe of the same day where Barry and Seth watched Iris get killed by the speed god.

Wally was still reeling from the sudden, abrupt and sharp jump into the vibe. Cisco, being used to this kind of experience, calls out to the Earth-19er. "Bit of a lighter touch next time, please, H.R.!"

"Copy, lighter touch." H.R. replies.

Cisco was unconvinced. "This way." He instructs Wally. The two of them walk ahead, closing in on the scene showing Iris' demise.

"Don't!" The exclaiming voice of Barry Allen shocks them and makes the two stop in their tracks. Barry from when he visited this vibe is there as well, standing by a tree and watching the scene unfold as well.

Cisco points to the area. "This is it."

Wally examines the distance between where Future Barry's standing and where Iris is held hostage by Savitar on the elevated ground. "Okay, so that's the distance I need to cover." He notes.

"Don't do this!" Future Barry pleads with the armored speed god.

His words got the younger speedster to devote all his attention to them.

"Now, finally, I am free of you." Savitar states, his hold on Iris tight as ever with one hand and his other raised high up in the air, about to eject the sharp blade that'll pierce her heart.

Future Iris looks at Future Barry, eyes full of tears. "Barry, I love you."

Future Barry shook his head, knowing why she was saying those words right now. "No, don't say that, all right? You're gonna be alright." He tells his fiancée. Tears still flow down her face. He turns to the speed god. "I'm begging you! I'm begging you! I'm begging-"

"Barry." Tears come down both of their faces.

Savitar looks at the Scarlet Speedster. "You lose, Barry." He ejects his blade from his other raised hand.

"NO!" Future Barry shouts, running towards the two of them before his nemesis delivers the final blow to his beloved.

But he might as well have run in slow motion…

As all it took for Savitar to stab Iris through her heart was not even a second…

"NO!" Wally screams himself, despite this event of the future having not become a part of their reality yet.

Savitar pulls his sword out of the reporter's corpse, dropping her to the ground before running away. This was the very moment where Future Barry catches her body and holds her close to his body while sobbing uncontrollably.

WHOOSH

Wally sped up to them, crouching down beside his mentor who's holding his big sister. Barry calls out her name. "Iris." He says, hoping for a response, any form of sign that she wasn't taken from this world too early. He shook her body. "Iris. Iris."

Wally was watching the whole time, not able to comprehend that this could become Iris. His big sister. Dead and killed by one of Barry's own nemeses. Cisco runs up to the distraught speedster he brought with him into this horror scene, putting a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

But Wally's eyes drifted away from the lifeless look on his sister's body to her left hand. The same hand where her present counterpart showed earlier an engagement ring on her ring finger. But now…

Her future self was without that same ring right now.

"Look." Wally gasps. A turmoil of thoughts brewing in his mind.

Cisco's own head was swimming with the same exact thoughts as the younger speedster. But before they could spiral further out of control, the viber puts both hands on the speedster. "Come on."

With his powers, he ends the vibe and brings them out of the nightmare scenario.

(Vibe end)

X

The two of them returned to reality. Immediately as they take off their headgear, H.R. bombards them with questions. "What did you see? Was it good? Did that help?"

Both stand up from their chairs. Wally handing the headgear off to H.R. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Harrison-19 asks.

With a solemn expression on his face, Wally states. "Helped a lot."

Even without hearing the words coming out of the speedster's mouth, Cisco knows what his intentions are. "Wally." He tries to warn him.

WHOOSH

But Wally runs off, intent on confronting his mentor and his hypocritical ways.

Cisco angrily exclaims. "Why does nobody ever listen to me?!"

X

(The Cortex)

Everyone in the Cortex was still struggling to come up with a counter to the situation they're facing right now.

And despite everything he was trying to do to not do it, Seth found himself more often than once glancing in his mate's direction. Taking in every aspect of her expressions, her body language, her every move. Even Venom watched her intently. The two of them feel waves of self-disgust as they watch their beloved one like she's a perp, a target to watch and examine as though she's just some criminal.

Worse was, Ruby is aiding them and spying on her own mother.

"Definitely the lowest we've ever fallen." Seth thinks to himself.

"Then we crawl back up and stand tall again for this is necessary." Venom tries to motivate and reassure his host.

"Really hope she's just scared about this and nothing more…" Seth hopefully notes. This is a wish that he shares with his "other." Both hope that this feeling in the pit of their stomach is something untrue in nature and wish it would just vanish.

But no matter how much one wishes for something bad to disappear… It's not that easy to become reality.

WHOOSH

"You're so full of it." Wally angrily snaps at Barry when he speeds into the Cortex, shooting daggers at his mentor who's sitting at the console beside his big sister.

"What?" Barry asks.

"Wally, what's wrong?" Seth asks, looking at the younger speedster.

"Him." Wally points at Barry. "Railing at me for not telling everyone about Savitar?" He steps closer to the console. "What about what you're not telling everyone, Barry?" Everyone inches closer to the confrontation between the two speedsters.

"What are you-"

"Cisco vibed me into the future." Wally cuts him off. "I saw what happened. Tell my sister why you asked her to marry you." Barry's eyes widened, as did Iris'. "Go on. Tell her the real reason, Barry."

Iris looks at him suspiciously. "What is he talking about?" She asks her fiancé. He looks between them. "Barry?"

Seth looks at the Scarlet Speedster. "What exactly haven't you told us, Barry?"

"That night…" Barry trails off, turning to direct his words to his fiancée. "The night that Savitar kills you… You didn't have a ring on your finger."

The pieces fell into place. "We weren't engaged yet." Iris realizes. Barry didn't say anything, but his lack of words were all the answers he needed. "So you thought that if we were…"

"It could've changed the future." Seth says the words that would've come out of Barry's mouth.

Barry nods in agreement with the mutant's words. The look on Iris' face was one of pure shock and disbelief. She stands up from her chair. "Iris." He tries to get her attention, but she walks out of the Cortex. "Iris!" He calls out to her, but she continues walking.

He gives chase, trying to catch up to her.

Amidst the whole confrontation, Caitlin had disappeared off to somewhere.

The pit in the bottom of his stomach was growing and growing and Seth had to answer it.

X

It didn't take him long for the elemental to search and find his mate. She's sitting by the desk in the side lab, her hands interlocked and resting against the board with a solemn expression on her face. It was as though she was wearing the weight of the entire world on her shoulders.

"Hey, you." Seth gets her attention as he walks closer to her. Caitlin gives him an acknowledging look. Once within range of her, he sits down beside her and wraps an arm around her. "You okay?"

To his surprise, and concerning him at the same time, Caitlin pushes his arm away from her with a guilty look on her expression. "I'm… Just worried."

Her action shocked him, mixing in with the confusion it also gave birth to. But he chooses to put it aside for now, telling her comfortingly. "I get it. Trust me, I understand." Caitlin looks at him. "Honestly, I feel… Responsible."

Caitlin narrows her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"We've had so many close encounters with Savitar, so many times we were right there in front of him. So many opportunities to defeat him." Seth says. "I've been right there so many times, but I still… Didn't take him out."

"Every time you've fought him, Seth, you weren't alone. It's not on your shoulders alone." Caitlin tells him.

"Doesn't feel that way." Seth argues. "No matter how much I want to deny it, Savitar's prophecy is hanging all over our heads."

"Which one?" Caitlin was shaking as she wondered what prophecy her mate settled on.

"One will betray you." Seth states. Caitlin closes her eyes tightly, her expression grim and…. guilty? "I honestly think this might happen because Barry keeps plugging Julian into that box again. His actions might… Betray us."

"It's too late to determine whether or not one's actions will betray one, Seth…" Caitlin says. "And it's not Julian. And it's definitely not you, babe." She leans back in her chair.

"Like you said, impossible to tell." Seth reminds her. "Heck, remember Wally's not the only dude who can peek back at Savitar's ugly mug, I can too. For all we know that bastard's watching through our eyes. The thought of me betray-"

"You're not the betrayer." Caitlin cuts him off, standing up abruptly. The wheels on her chair scraped against the floor, in a way that was deafening. She walks past the mutant. "I'm sorry." She makes her way to the cabinet, opening it and pulling out a small box.

"What's that?" Seth asked, standing up. His eyes followed her the whole time.

"Proof." Caitlin starts, grimly opening the box and pulling out a shining cyan shard. A shard that was impossible to mistake for some common rock was found on the side of the road. "That I'm the one who betrayed everyone."

"Caitlin…" Seth trails off in disbelief.

"I'm sorry." The surface of her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him.

This was a turning point for the couple… Something none of them expected of the other…

A betrayal…

X

"Cait…"

The two of them return to the Cortex, the mutant being forced to reveal everything to the rest of the team. All of them were left utterly shocked.

But none more than the female doctor's family.

Her beloved mate was finding it hard to look at her without hurt in his eyes. Even though he's yet to say anything about it, his eyes say it all. Even without her explaining her reasons for keeping a shard to herself, his eyes show that he has an inkling of what her reasons are for holding onto this fragment.

The three girls were just as surprised by what this meant. This had left them perplexed and completely baffled. Their mother took a dangerous gamble, completely putting the whole team, even the city, at risk as this very fragment was part of a dangerous element that the speed god was utilizing for his evil doings. While they, like their father, had an ounce of why their mother kept this shard, they were still not pleased with this situation they're in.

"Caitlin." Seth starts, his eyes finally settling on her but showing something else in them. Wasn't love or warmth, something else hid there. Comfort and concern were still there, but masking what looks like fear and something else. "How long have you had this?"

Despite everyone standing around them, listening and having their own thoughts about this situation, to the two of them, it was just them. No one else mattered.

But not in a good way…

"Ever since you helped Barry throw the box into the Speed Force." Caitlin finally answers, her voice cracking. Seth puts the fragment into the box, closing it shut. "I figured, since it's such a small piece, I didn't think it would really matter."

"I get that logic, Caitlin. I do." Seth places a hand over the now-closed box. "But still… Why would you even risk it… But I guess I already know the answer to that question."

Caitlin felt tears stinging her eyes again, seeing the hurt and pain on her mate's face. She didn't want to say the words, but she still had to. For the sake of those she loves. "Because… I thought I could use it… To get rid of my powers."

The pain on his face was evident. It was like a dagger to his heart. Like his efforts to convince her of the good her powers can bring and his hopes of her accepting his powers like he and so many mutants have on his Earth…

All of them were in vain.

Despite them going to Earth-616 and talking with experienced, caring members of the X-Men, and seeing a whole school of people living in peace and harmony with their powers. They were able to live happily.

But here… His mate was practically admitting that none of his efforts, none of his ideas… All of them combined never even began to melt the ice surrounding her like a shell. A wall he was hoping to chip away with each effort, each action he tried…

But the wall was impossible to break… Nothing he did worked on it…

"And? Can you?" Cisco questions, breaking the tense atmosphere between the two.

His question did nothing to the feelings of betrayal inside of Caitlin nor the look of hurt and betrayal on Seth's face. She answers his question nonetheless honestly. "I don't know. I haven't been able to figure out how to use it yet."

H.R. chimes in, trying to be the peacekeeper here. "Okay, well, look, gang, I think we can all agree that this is a simple case of the other side, the Killer Frost side of Caitlin, clouding her better judgement, so…" He uses his drumsticks, pointing at Caitlin the whole time as he says his peace.

Caitlin shoots down his words though. "No, H.R, this wasn't her." She turns her eyes to her mate whose face was riddled with heartbreak. "It was me. All me." Her words were more directed to her mate than the whole team. "I'm really sorry, guys… I'm really sorry, Seth."

Even though she was truly sorry, Seth didn't look the least relieved or anything. He didn't say or do anything.

Barry states. "Right now, we just need to figure out where Savitar is."

Ruby rolled her eyes at that suggestion. "Brilliant plan, sure everyone here wants the same thing. But we're struggling with exactly that, Allen. So how do you propose we figure out how we do that?"

At her question, Barry looks at Julian suggestively. He immediately snapped when he caught on. "No!"

"One more time?" Barry asks.

"No!" Julian says again.

"No! No!" Harrison-19 recites. "You wanna summon Savitar again?"

Julian stands up from his chair. "I'm not a human Ouija board, Barry. You can't just-"

"It's the last time, all right?" Barry tells him. "And only long enough to see if maybe we can track his location. Is that possible?" The speedster questions the viber.

"Ye-"

"No!" Julian cuts off the metahuman's acknowledgement. "No."

"Barry, we can't force him into this position all the time." Seth tells the speedster.

"I know, but still…" Barry turns back to face his work colleague, trying to convince him. "Julian, I mean, we've got to end this, for everybody's sake." He gestures to the whole team.

Julian looked uncomfortable. But his eyes went to everyone on the team who's been helping him, accepting him into their ranks despite his identity as Alchemy. "I'll see you downstairs then." He says, moving towards the exit.

"No!" H.R. lets out. "Okay, well, you guys can count me out, all right? Cause I didn't bring an endless supply of boxers to this planet." He says, moving away from the rest of the team.

Barry turns around, facing Seth. "Dude, I know-"

"Emotionally manipulating a friend of ours into becoming someone's meat-puppet again and again." Seth cuts him off. "And even faking a proposal to save someone you truly love…" He adds. Barry widens his eyes, but the elemental faces him blankly. "Quite the lines you're beginning to blur here, Barry."

Having said his peace, he moves to the exit of the Cortex. Making his way downstairs where another séance is gonna be prepared.

"Seth!" Caitlin follows him quickly. "I'm sorry, I should have told you."

Seth stops in the hallway, far from the others to hear and he turns around. "You kept that piece of the Stone around?"

"Yeah." Caitlin nods.

"Caitlin, that stone brought a lot of misery to the team. To the city. It turned innocent people into metahumans, plaguing them with visions of another life. Practically forced them to confront them, accept becoming metas again or go insane." Seth says. "Why?"

"I'm sorry, Seth. I just…" Caitlin bites her lip. "I don't want these powers." She felt her confession break his heart, inside of her chest. "I can't spend the rest of my life wondering if or when I'm gonna lose this battle and become Killer Frost."

She looks at him, a look of heartbreak on her face. "Seth, we're not the same. You were born into a place where you were taught how to use and embrace your powers once they manifested. I suddenly got these powers. Powers that take over who I am, and I'm terrified of hurting you or our daughters."

"I get it, Caitlin…" Seth looks at her again, a look of heartbreak on his face. "But what about everything I showed you on 616? Was that all… Just in vain? Was anything you saw there meaningless? My life? My upbringing? The family I had before I met you and our girls… Did any of that move you? Convince you? Was it just a waste of time for you?"

"No!" She exclaims, feeling disgust at herself for how she was making her mate feel. "I loved being there, I loved seeing everything you lived with, I loved hearing from your family… It's just…"

"Not the same for you." Seth finishes her sentence, already knowing everything she might say. He's seen and heard dozens of mutants or powered individuals have the same exact thoughts as her. She is struggling to accept her powers and will be doing so for a long time now. But he tried with all of his might, all of his heart, to show her that it was possible to control her new powers and she will not have to fear them. But it was all for naught.

He didn't know what was hurting more…

That his own mate was in fear of her powers… Or that all of his efforts had no effect on trying to help her see a brighter future where the cold doesn't bother her.

"… I get it, Cait. You're scared." Seth turns around. Caitlin's eyes sting with tears. "Let's make sure… That we find Savitar and take care of him once and for all…"

Unbeknownst to Caitlin… Seth's own eyes were stinging with tears too as he pressed on the button to call the elevator to the lobby.

Was this… How things would remain between them…

X

(Speed Lab)

The group gathered in the Speed Lab once again. Julian Albert was hooked up to the machines once again and the others prepared to initiate another séance with the speed god.

After the cables were connected to the machine once more to tune into the right frequency, Caitlin told the metahuman specialist. "We'll be here if you need anything."

"Okay." With a heavy sigh, Julian puts on the headgear. While he fastens it to his head, he gives a look at the elemental who was sharing a look. The look between them was one of reminding, hoping that the mutant would follow through on his end with the question from their last séance. The metahuman expert was fearing what more and more of these conversations would do to him.

And in the worst scenario of Dr. Alchemy returning to life, he hopes Venom can bring him down before more catastrophic events flood the city.

Julian gives the others a final nod. Cisco turns the dial, the specialist's eyes shooting close before snapping wide open again. This time…

Savitar speaks through him. "Back to worship me once again?"

Barry, intent on keeping the speed god talking, starts out confidently. "We just wanted to let you know that we're gonna defeat you."

Unfazed by the speedster's bluff, Savitar shoots back. "Unlikely."

"You told us that you're trapped, imprisoned for all eternity." Barry reminds his foe. "You're never getting out of wherever my future-self locked you up." Cisco was already triangulating the speed god's location, monitoring throughout the whole city. "You'll never know freedom again."

Cisco and Barry share a nod. Seth was watching Savitar speak through Julian, watching his every move and hearing all of his words carefully and mentally dissecting them.

"All will be revealed soon, Flash." Savitar smirks. "None of you will be safe. You will face my wrath. You will beg for mercy. And you will get none."

"Funny." Before Cisco could pull the plug, Seth speaks up and gets their attention. "Is that all you can come up with? Some false bravado? Last cries of a weak and caged mutt?"

"You say my words are nothing more than false bravado, Venom." Savitar's smirk widens. "Yet, I look at you and see the same: False bravado. Is this because you realized that you are nothing more than a slug before my greatness…" He glances at Caitlin. "Or is this what your mate's betrayal has done to you? Hollowed you out?"

"What?" Caitlin flinches at his words.

Cisco raises his hand to the device. But before he could, a tendril shot out of Seth's hand and plugged the plug out of the device. Julian's head slumped down once the devices were disconnected.

"You okay?" Caitlin asks her mate while removing the headgear from Julian.

"How… The hell did he know about that?" That was all Seth had to say in response to his mate's question.

"This was freaking minutes ago, half an hour at best, and he already knows what happened in our ranks?" Venom was just as puzzled as his host.

"Did it work?" Barry asks the viber.

"Did it work?" Julian questions him next.

Cisco sheepishly nods. "Yeah, we got a hit. It's just that… That hit is all of Central City." He says, gesturing to the map on his screen where the signal is pinging all over the city in a maddening way.

"That's not a hit. The whole city?" Barry questions.

"Yeah." Cisco nods.

"Fuck's sake." Seth says, a mixture of emotions twisting his insides as the results of this séance sinks in.

"Well, can we get a little more specific, pinpoint a location at least, something?" Barry questions.

Cisco unsurely suggests. "I think maybe we can get a little bit more precise, but I'm gonna have to give it the old metahuman try."

"You wanna vibe his location?" Seth asks him. Cisco shrugs. "That could be very dangerous, man. We still don't know what this bastard can do. Worst case, he shreds your mind into pieces."

"What do you suggest then?" The viber asks.

"Work out an alternative. If we don't find something, we circle back to your idea and we both vibe together." Cisco widens his eyes. "We're not soloing into whatever mess Savitar's got into again and again."

"Alright, fine. Thanks, buddy." Cisco nods his gratitude.

"Okay, it's Iris." Barry announces once his phone starts chiming. "All right, I'll be right back, but just let me know if you get anything, all right?"

"Okay." Cisco tells him.

Julian shakes his head, thinking that this was another waste of time and just another meaningless risk that he was taking.

Caitlin and Seth were both left baffled. The two of them are shocked by the depth of knowledge that Savitar possesses. He was even able to see and know of events that happened just mere minutes ago, like…

He was living them himself?

X

(Thunderbolts' Hideout)

Sitting on top of an adjacent skyscraper, Eliza was watching the peculiar sight in front of her with great intrigue and admiration.

Standing on top of the skyscraper next to the one she's occupying is Anti-Venom. Standing tall and mighty. Anyone looking up at him from the ground would assume he's standing watch over the city like a guardian. But being close to him as Eliza was, they could see that his eyes weren't peering down at the people beneath him. His eyes were pointing straight up into the darkened skies, the stars that've slowly started appearing and the moon raining down its light upon Central City.

"Kinda like a mutt looking up at the moon curiously." Scream compares. "Fascinating."

"One way of putting it." Eliza feels the presence coming up behind her. "What's up Evelyn?"

"You found him and you're just watching him lollygagging at the moon?" The sharpshooter from Star City inquires. "Must be nice having a lot of free time."

Eliza chortles. "Not like you're busy yourself, you know. Besides, watching Anti-Venom just staring into oblivion is kinda soothing." She jokes.

"You got a screw loose." Evelyn says.

"Considering you got training from a Robin Hood-knockoff, don't think you're in a position to judge." Eliza quips. Springing up to her feet, she asks her water-user. "Where are the others? Stuffing their faces?"

"Taskmaster's off brooding, looking all grim and focused while sharpening a dagger or something." Evelyn sighs at her own response. The mercenary wasn't at all friendly or talkative when she tried to initiate a conversation with him. "The others are eating and wasting their time."

"Nothing new then." Eliza blinks and her eyes widened in surprise at the sight taking place before them.

From Anti-Venom's pale white body… Strange white-bluish lightning erupts. Dancing over the titan's figure, but unlike when the mutant uses his lightning, Anti-Venom was howling in pain. He falls to the ground, rolling on the surface. He rolls to the edge, falling off the building.

It would've been comical, but this was anything but humorous.

Anti-Venom dug his claws into the side of the building, stopping himself from falling. He breathes heavily, in utter and complete pain from the intense pain he's feeling right now from the intense and powerful white lightning torturing him.

Lightning converges to his chest… Coming together into a circle…

And to the Thunderbolts' shock, they see a reverse lightning bolt symbol on his chest appearing in the middle of it.

"What the hell is that? Does this mean he's a "Flash Venom?"" Evelyn asks.

"Don't think of names anymore." Eliza instructs her before the two of them watch Anti-Venom jumping away.

Unlike the sharpshooter behind her, Eliza knew exactly where the Vile Destroyer was running towards…

And she knew that the end was near…

X

(Breach Room)

Lots of things were happening to the members of the team as they had scattered to different areas of the city.

Jesse and Wally were at the West household, having a heartfelt and deep conversation between them.

Barry and Iris were at their loft, having a conversation themselves about Barry's choices, his intentions and everything that led to him getting down on one knee before her and proposing to her.

The Snow-Fury daughters went to patrol the city, not knowing how to contribute to the others' work.

The others remaining at the facility went downstairs to the Breach Room, where they've put Cisco Ramon in the chair and he spent the whole time there, vibing with all of his might to try and find Savitar's location.

The others were helping him and doing all they could to optimize his vibe, whether by encouragement or adjustments to the machinery.

Seth was the only one not by their side. The mutant was on the platform, his back to them while leaning against the railing. Arms are crossed over his torso with eyes closed, thinking to himself and conversing solely with his "other."

"She's still looking at you."

"I know." Seth replies. Even without looking in her direction, he could feel his mate's eyes staring at him. Even without using his "other's" help, he could feel her concern and worry through her stare. He could feel her desire to speak with him more than anything right now, to try and talk this out with him…

But for the first time in what felt like forever…

Seth wasn't open to talking with the one person he loves more than this entire city.

"How the hell do I talk with her now? After her confession…?"

"Requires actual talking for that." Venom casually replies, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Which it was.

"What Caitlin did… It's risky." Seth says, but he knows the hypocrisy of his own words. He's done plenty of selfish things himself many times, just for himself. But this was…

Different.

"I can't see anything." Cisco's frustrated voice snapped the mutant out of his trance, taking off his Vibe Goggles with a scowl on his face.

"Give me those." H.R. plugs them out of Cisco's hands. "Are those things even working?" He walks to the nearest hard surface he can find.

"Yep, can't get through-" Cisco stopped talking when Harrison-19 began banging the goggles against the surface. "Stop it!" The viber retakes his equipment.

"I just wanna see if they're working." H.R. defensively states.

"What are you doing?!" Cisco practically screams.

"What are you seeing?" H.R. counters with a gesture to the chair the viber occupied mere seconds ago.

"I'm seeing…" Cisco struggled to find the words. "These white flashes. It's like-"

"Flashes?" Seth gets his attention.

"Yeah." Cisco nods. "It's like Savitar's speeding through, like, a storm."

"Hold the phone." Seth jumps off the platform. "Didn't you say something similar to when you vibed Barry last year? When you guys tried to turn him back into a speedster after Zoom took his powers, Matt told me you said he was in a storm, a vortex or something else?"

Realization hit Cisco in the face like a slap. "Yeah, I saw that because Barry was…"

"Inside the Speed Force." Barry finishes his sentence when he enters the Breach Room.

Joe and Iris follow the Scarlet Speedster. Behind them the three Snow-Fury daughters follow and stand on the platform next.

While realization rains down on the others, a wave of confusion comes over the elemental as the same train of thought runs through his head. "He's in the Speed Force." Cisco starts, voicing the exact same thoughts that the others have. "That's why only speedsters were able to see him."

"Doesn't explain Seth and his daughters, though." Julian points out.

"They may not be speedsters, but they were inside of the Speed Force for an unprecedented amount of time." Caitlin argues. "They've been influenced by the purest and most potent dark matter to ever exist in the multiverse on levels that are beyond that of any known metahumans. Same thing that made them speedsters is what kept them captive."

"So we're pseudo-speedsters in our minds?" Frankie questions.

"Does make sense, when you really think about it." Evelyn says but can't believe the words coming out of her mouth herself.

Ruby was left speechless for a few minutes. But then she asks. "Doesn't answer the big question though: Why is Savitar hiding in the Speed Force?"

"He's not hiding." Joe answers to the others' surprise, considering he's usually the slow one on the uptake on these matters.

Julian catches on. "That's where the future you trapped him." He says with a nod to the speedster.

"Speed Force is stretched across space and time." Seth realizes. "And that explains why Savitar pops in and out at a time cause the Speed Force drags him back in."

Caitlin looks at her mate. "But we threw the Philosopher's Stone into the Speed Force." A look of dread plastered on his face.

Seth realizes the origin of her fears. "And we gave him the keys to his prison cell…" He chuckles in realization. "Fucking hell, Cait, you saved us all." He says with a smile aimed at his mate.

"She did?" H.R. asks confused.

"She did." Seth nods with a smile. "He still needs one thing."

"He can't come out because he doesn't have the whole Stone." Barry finalizes.

"So we're not out of the game yet." Ruby says.

"No. Means we can just chug that piece we have into a black hole or into space and we're safe." Frankie says.

"Yeah…" Evelyn trails off, an eerie feeling coming over her.

WHOOSH

Her eerie feeling turned out to be true when suddenly Jesse Wells sped into the Breach Room. "Guys, Wally went after Savitar."

"What?/What?" The two West members stated in shock.

"What the hell happened, Jesse?" Seth asks her.

"Wally started hallucinating again." She starts. "He thought he was talking to his mom."

"No, that's not her." Julian shakily says, recalling how the speed god would use his late little sister to trick him into becoming Alchemy. "That's Savitar."

"Where'd he go?" Barry asks.

"I don't know. Okay, he was freaking out!" She urgently says. "He said he needed to stop Savitar from getting out. Then he sped off."

"Wait, to stop Savitar?" Seth asks, his eyes widened with another vortex of emotions. Dread and shock coming together and turning into a tsunami.

"The Stone."

X

WHOOSH

Having turned off his suit's telemetry, Wally ran towards the abandoned old Kob factory area without any fear of his team catching up to him and finding him. Once he learnt that Savitar was still manipulating him, using his newest and dirtiest tricks of using his deceased mother to fool him…

Wally knew it was time for him to take action and not make it easier for the speed god to mess with him and those he cares about.

While the others were busy downstairs in the Breach Room, some going out to have heartfelt conversations with their better halves and some leaving the facility to patrol their home…

Kid Flash had all the room left to take the final shard of the Philosopher's Stone and toss it into the Speed Force, making sure it'll never see the light of Central City again.

But little did he know… His plan would bring ruination upon all…

Coming to a stop at the abandoned factory area Kid Flash starts running around in a circle and forcing open a passage into the Speed Force. But despite all of his speed and efforts to make the portal…

It only resulted in a pulsating ring briefly appearing…

However, just as quickly as it came to be, it disappeared just as quickly.

Frustrated by what happened, Kid Flash shouts and growls. "Oh, come on!" He screams in the direction of where the portal was, his hand tightly wrapped around the Stone fragment.

WHOOSH

"Poor Wallace." Savitar's voice from behind had the yellow speedster spin around, the two of them making direct eye contact. Continuing in a condescending manner, he continues. "Can't even open a portal." His words sting and stab at Wally. "You can't get rid of that Stone, Wallace." Each word had him walking forward…

"Like you can't get rid of me." He adds.

Wally shakes his head, turning away from his foe. "Shut up, shut up." He repeats.

WHOOSH

Savitar speeds to another spot, still aiming his words at him. "You know it's true. You're not fast enough to throw it into the Speed Force by yourself!"

"SHUT UP!" Wally exclaims to the high heavens, his breathing turning ragged from frustration and anger altogether. He holds his head tightly, making sure not to look at him again.

WHOOSH

"I'm gonna get out of here, Wallace…" Savitar tells him once he appears behind him. "And then I'm gonna come for you and Barry and your sister…" He puts his hands on the speedster's shoulders, making him shiver from the cold metallic touch. "And I'll kill everyone you love."

Kid Flash's eyes flashed with anger, making him shake his hands off his body. "No, you're not real! You're just in my head, just-"

WHOOSH

"Oh, I am real, and I know the limits of your speed." Savitar states, standing in the same spot where the portal the yellow speedster tried to create was. "After all, I'm the one who gave it to you."

A surge of confidence goes through Wally, and he looks back at the speed god with a glare. "And that…" He breathes heavily. "Giving me speed, that was your biggest mistake."

WHOOSH

Wallace West speeds around a pile of crates, running around them at the highest speed he can achieve right now. Fueled by his desire to defeat Savitar, to save his city and most importantly of all, to save his sister…

His wish and determination were able to give birth to the power and speed he needed for the portal to come into being…

With his newfound speed, the same power that was granted to him by Savitar… He was able to tear a hole in the fabric of space and time, prying open a gate into the Speed Force.

Once the bluish pulsating rim surrounding the blinding white hole appeared before his eyes, Kid Flash stopped near it. Time slowed to a crawl before he hurled the small fragment into the portal.

However… This was wrong…

Upon connecting with the portal, a blinding pulse emitted from it, spreading out to whatever was near it. Being the singular being close to it, Wally was hit by the pulse. He gasped when suddenly he was being lifted from the ground.

The force of the pull was too much for him to escape, the power of the portal not unlike that of a black hole. An inescapable pull taking hold of him, dragging him into it like invisible hands that've long since grabbed onto Kid Flash's suit. Any harder, they'd start tearing into his flesh.

WHOOSH

Thankfully, both Flash and Venom appear in a flash of lightning.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, the monitors registered a massive power surge at the old Kob Factory and Flash ran ahead with Venom. The girls offered to join them, but they were immediately shot down by their father. Once they arrived, they were left speechless by the sight of Wally suspended and stuck in the portal.

"What the?" Barry exclaims.

"Wally!" Seth shouts.

In an effort to save the younger speedster, Venom swings his arm forward and splits it into dozens of tendrils. They race through the air before they reach Wally's body.

But the black tendrils were decimated when a violent pulse from the portal erupted, causing the symbiote mass to explode. Venom flinches at the pain, his tendrils morphing back into an arm and he clenches his fist in frustration.

And as though the Speed Force was copying the elemental's attack, ethereal energy tendrils sprouted from the gateway into the multiversal element. They wrapped around Wally's body, increasing in their efforts to force him into the Speed Force. He starts screaming, feeling the pull getting stronger, his suit beginning to disintegrate.

"No!" Wally utterly terrified screams. "Help me, guys!"

"Wally!" Seth shouts, stomping the ground before his entire body becomes enveloped in pitch-black flames. Wind and lightning surging around his body, intensifying both his abyssal inferno and the strength and ability he possesses before he leaps off the ground.

He gets closer into the portal, swinging his claws to the portal. With flames wrapped around his claws, he drives them into the rim of the Speed Force gateway. Despite all of his strength, amplified by earth and adamantium, Venom's claws were unable to bend or break the spatial element no matter how sharp his weapons were.

"Seth!" Wally shouts pleadingly, still feeling the pull.

"Hang on, Wally!" Seth exclaims, releasing hundreds of tendrils from around his body. They try to strike at the portal edges, hoping to break it but to no avail. They try to wrap around the yellow speedster's body, but to no avail as another pulse destroys them. But Venom doesn't stop fighting to try and free Wally.

The gateway was fighting back though, harder than expected. From behind Wally, a series of powerful blue streaks of lightning erupted and wreaked havoc around the area. More than once did the streaks hit Seth's body, tearing through his symbiotic flesh like his powers and strength was nothing. Several bolts were burning holes in his stomach, exposing the body underneath before striking the host's real body directly. They were doing everything to get Venom to stop, he wasn't budging and remained steadfast in his decision. Not even when a streak of lightning hit the skull-like extension over his face, destroying half of it.

"Pissy about a damn rock all of sudden, you overrated energy source?" Seth growls in anger at the Speed Force. "You love giving to whoever you deem worthy and steal from the rest of us, but… That's not happening again!" Venom's fangs ignite with infernal black flames.

This is one of the times when Seth discards the logical thinking that comes with being a scientist, and being a basic living being of the world, as Venom thrusts his head forward and bites down on the spacial gateway. Even when he tried to crunch down on the rims, his blazing fangs did not break or bend the gateway. Not even his flames were able to burn it.

Continuing to bite down on the gateway, Seth reels back his hand and he pulls out his crystal sword. But this brought out another reaction…

At the very moment his hand tightened around the handle; a series of pulses emitted from the gateway followed by bluish-white lightning bolts hit Seth. The powerful strikes sent destructive waves of information and pain throughout every nerve and fiber in his being. The combined attack of all of them was enough to make Venom loosen his grip before hurling him backwards.

"Seth!" Wally screams before his voice drowns when he's finally pulled into the portal. A piece of his suit was burnt off and fell to the ground.

As Seth was flying backwards, a gust of shadows erupted behind him. From it, tendrils of different colors shoot and wrap around the mutant's flying body. The combined force of all of them managed to put a stop to his acceleration. Though it ended up with the whole family slamming into a pile of metal crates.

Pushing off shards of metal from his body, Venom stands up and looks down with surprise when seeing his daughters behind him. "Girls?"

"Thank us later, Dad… Once you get off us." Eclipse says, feeling herself losing air the more her father lies on top of her.

"Sorry." He gets off them. "Why'd you come when I told you to stay away?"

Genysis jumps back onto her feet. "We're your children, Dad; we never listen to our father."

"Also, did you just try to bite an energy gateway?" Frankie questions incredulously. This was by far the strangest and dumbest thing her father's ever done.

"…" Seth was stumped. "Note to self: Never bite into a multiversal gateway again."

"The fact that we have to make a self-note about this is what's truly astounding." Venom states in shock.

Seth stands back up, he and his family look ahead to see Barry pick up the last piece of fragment from Kid Flash's suit. The edges burned and were still smoking.

"Bastard literally stood there while Wally got sucked into who knows where. What the hell is wrong with him?"

Even the symbiote was showing more compassion, care and concern for the young speedster than the mentor was right now.

Barry's done a lot of heinous and inexcusable things but just letting his own student get sucked up into a void inside of the Speed Force without making a single move to try and stop it was undoubtedly among the worst of the worst things he's ever done.

"Who needs villains when we have heroes like him among us…"

Seth couldn't help but think that, despite knowing lots of people would disagree with that statement.

But their thoughts were occupied by something else…

A roar emitted from in front of them… Their eyes darted to the source to see the portal reforming once again…

For a brief second, they thought Wally had somehow found a way out of the Speed Force's clutches…

But any thoughts of that being the case were instantly vanquished when suddenly a familiar metallic hand shot out. Slammed down on the asphalt, the claws easily dig into the ground. Another hand followed suit, appearing out of the spacial gateway and dug into the ground. Together the two arms pull out of the body of the familiar being…

Of Savitar…

Like something crawling straight out of hell, Savitar ventures out of the gateway on his hands and knees. Growling and grunting at every second. The speed god came to a halt once fully out of the gateway, which closed behind him.

With a sharp intake of air, he screams out.

"I'm free!"

His voice echoes through the surrounding area of the old abandoned Kob Factory, bouncing off every wall and shaking the air itself…

As though the air itself was shaking fear of his presence.

Flash grits his teeth. Venom clutches his sword handle, his adamantium knuckles cracking and screeching. His daughters stood tall and steadfast, ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Savitar runs his hand over the very ground dug his claws into mere moments ago, taking in the surface with admiration no one else could understand. "Ground." He breathes in heavily, exhaling just as heavily and the sound coming out a growl. "Air." He stands up again. "I can feel again. I can breathe again." He lets out, taking in everything like it was the first time in a millennium.

He snaps his head back to face the five heroes. "I've beaten you, finally."

Venom digs his feet into the ground, causing the surface to crack. "Wally… What the hell did you do to him?!"

"Me? Oh, I did nothing to him." Savitar chortles. He starts walking.

"What happened to him?" Barry asks, tightening the hold onto the remains of his protégés suit.

Savitar circles them. "Like the Greek myth of Atlas, who could not put down the sky until someone took his place, Wally has taken my place in the Speed Force. You know me. I love a good myth." He chortles again, coming to a halt.

"He took your place? What does that mean?" Evelyn asks, completely baffled by that statement. Her hands were shaking while holding onto her bow and arrow.

Resuming his walk around them, Savitar points a finger at Barry. "When he created Flashpoint, Barry unwittingly provided me with the means for my return."

"Wait?" Ruby's mind was going into overdrive, thinking about their situation and what've happened. "Are you talking about Wally?"

"Bright bunch, you siblings are." Savitar returns his attention to the speedster of the bunch. "You gave me the idea to turn Wally into Kid Flash, to make him fast enough to replace me in your prison. His youth and ego were my allies. So taken with his fame and speed, he never saw he was running right into my trap."

Frankie glances at him. "The entire time we worked on Wally's speed…"

"Merely increased the chances of my escape from my prison. You have my thanks." Savitar mockingly says.

"How do we get him out?" Barry asks, rage seething in his voice.

"Wally's gone." Savitar tells him.

"How do I get him out?!" Barry shouts.

"Suffering in an endless void for all eternity, another victim Barry Allen failed to save!" Savitar shouts with a stomp on the ground and his eyes flashing with bright colors.

Flames erupted around the mutant's body. "Then, in his place, you can die right here and now!" Venom jumps forward, swinging his sword.

Time slowed to a crawl, allowing only the two conduits of the Speed Force to move normally. Savitar turns to glance at the elemental, his eyes, hidden behind his mask, telling one thing…

Venom wasn't forgotten at all…

From above a white figure descends like a meteorite down on-

SMASH

A massive dust cloud covered them all, the result of the Vile Destroyer returning to the battlefield to resume his title once again as the speed god's hellhound. He made this abundantly clear when he slammed down in front of the Lethal Protector with his foot slamming down on the sword that he swung for his master.

Venom was glaring into the eyes of the wretched titan who's foot is still pinning down on his sword. "You…"

Anti-Venom returned his glare with one his own, applying more pressure on the sword that he's pinning down. "You…"

"Faithful to the end as always. As expected from my hound." Savitar gives a mock clap. Anti-Venom did not seem to disagree with that statement at all. He then ordered his hound. "Finish him."

The Vile Destroyer's bright red eyes surges with a sudden burst of hate. A flex of his back and four mechanical arms erupted out of him, pointing right at the mutant. They all converge on the elemental.

However, they never reach their mark though…

Two of them were deflected by two arrows, both of which were imbued with darkness and light.

The third one was pushed by a familiar gravity pulse that knocked it off course.

The last one was pushed back by a metal sphere made from surrounding scrap.

Feeling his mechanical arms being pushed back surprised Anti-Venom and he lifted his foot off the blade on reflex. Feeling the weight get off his sword, Venom turns the crystal blade into adamantium before delivering an upward swing.

Before the blade could even connect with his symbiotic flesh, Anti-Venom releases two powerful shockwaves from his arms into the ground under him. On top of carving up the ground, the devastating force of the two combined shockwaves launches both Venoms away from each other. A massive dust cloud was standing between them…

On one side, Savitar and Anti-Venom stood their ground.

On the other side, Venom and his family stood there. The speedster is still clutching the remains of Kid Flash's suit.

"Take care of them, hound." Savitar mockingly points at the Venom family. "Flash is mine." Anti-Venom growls in response.

WHOOSH

The two speedsters ran off to continue their fight in another part of the abandoned Kob factory area.

By doing this, the symbiote hosts remain behind. The entire Venom family glaring at the Vile Destroyer.

"Whatever happened to Wally, you're gonna experience it tenfold!" Venom shouted.

"Weaklings… Perish." Anti-Venom states. "Weaklings…Suffer… before… Death. Eradicated. Purged." His words come out in parts.

"Time for you to join the dead." Ruby jumps forward, catapulting herself with gravitational force and she gets closer to the evil lookalike of her father. She delivers a strike with her fist to it.

However, Anti-Venom knocks her away with a burst of shockwaves from his right arm, knocking her away. One of his mechanical arms went to slam down on her but never hit its mark when a series of tendrils from Venom pushed it away. The mechanical limb was pushed up against his face, covering his field of vision which allowed Ruby the opportunity to deliver a powerful uppercut into his face.

Even though her fist was enforced with gravitational force, her strike did nothing but merely push Anti-Venom back a few feet. But their opponent used that momentum to perform a backwards somersault to put some distance between them. Once there, the Vile Destroyer swung his left arm and released a flurry of razor-sharp feather blades towards the gravity manipulator.

A smog of shadows burst in front of Ruby and Eclipse jumped out of it. Upon landing on the ground, she digs her feet into the surface before shooting arrows in rapid succession at the incoming feather blades. Upon collision with them, there were a mix of results from it. Three of the blades and arrows bounced off each other, flying off in different directions. The last two on both sides that met each other caused a pair of explosions of both light and darkness, combining into a blinding flash akin to that of a flashbang.

Seemingly focused on the flash, Anti-Venom did not notice Magenta appearing behind him with two massive harpoon guns on both arms, lifting them both up and unleashing a storm of harpoons at him. But despite the projectiles being of many sizes, the Vile Destroyer was not fazed at all and sprouted his scorpion tail from his back. With a powerful swing from it, almost every single of the harpoons was deflected. The last one that remained was caught in the wretched titan's maw when he bit down on it.

"Creepy bastard…" Magenta grits her fangs as she watches the wretched titan tear the harpoon in two with its fangs.

Like a predator with its sights on its next prey, Anti-Venom charges towards her. Rather than a charge, he leapt and immediately crossed the distance between them. His sudden appearance in front of her like a shadow shocked Magenta into action, making her jump backwards.

Anti-Venom tried to grasp her with his mechanical arms. But Venom appeared in front of his evil counterpart. Using one adamantium foot to slam down on one clawed arm, his left arm cloaked in lightning to wrap around two others and the other was pierced with his crystal sword.

Anti-Venom tries to bite the Lethal Protector. But the dozens of adamantium tendrils shooting out of his chest and wrapping around his entire head. Putting all his strength into his arms and his tendrils, Venom spins around and takes his opponent with him. He swings the Vile Destroyer around; he finally lets go of him, hurling him towards a pile of steel beams.

Venom swings his head to face Eclipse. "Evelyn, with us. Frankie, Ruby, follow up!" With his declaration, he digs his feet deep into the ground to anchor himself, an action that his daughters mimicked and they fastened themselves for what they are about to do.

With all of her markings shining brightly on her face, Evelyn raises her wings and spreads them outwards. Mouths split open on all of them, sucking in each as they experience the open air. Pointing towards each other over the metahuman's body, elements were being released from them both. Two released darkness and the other released light…

Much like in the fight against Rhino… Darkness and light quickly became one… Forming into one entity with the powers of both supreme elements. An entity in the form of a miniature, shining black sun with white light.

Roaring at the Vile Destroyer, she thrusts out her wings. From the orb, a powerful condense beam of pure darkness and untainted white light was birthed. The force of it was completely astounding, carving up the ground as it travels through the air. Anti-Venom did not get a chance to react when the immense beam hit him.

Anti-Venom growls and screams as he is pushed up against the steel beams of diverse sizes behind him, all of them digging into his back and piercing through his body from behind.

But his pain didn't end there…

With a powerful roar from Venom as if to bring them forth, Venom's entire body was enveloped with pitch-black flames and had him covered completely like it was armour. Pulling his sword, the flames converge to his crystal weapon. Upon making contact with the blade, the crystalline element was utterly covered by abyssal fire.

Swinging his sword forward, Seth releases his fire in a pitch-black column of flames. That very fiery column incinerates the ground and scares the air itself as it makes its way to the Vile Destroyer. Together with the beam of darkness and light, the opponent's pain magnified. More and more beams behind him were being crushed, and even more were causing him to groan in pain.

His pain was only just beginning to worsen…

With purple sparks erupting around her skin, dancing over her flesh before bursting and taking the form of what looked like magenta-colored lightning streaks emitting from the metahuman. The same color of her lightning was flashing in her eyes, glaring daggers at the being that hurt her family for far too long. With her immense and violent lightning, she forces metal to orbit around her being.

Driving her feet into the concrete, the flesh on Magenta's shoulders bubbles like boiling water before new arms spring out. With her four hands lashing out, she forces the orbiting metal around her to spread out. She clenches her claws, morphing the countless metallic objects around her into spikes of many sizes. Some being the size of tires, pipes and the size of an entire human being. Purple lightning had completely enveloped every one of them.

With a mighty roar, Frankie thrusts her arms forward and releases every object in a barrage of projectiles. They flew as fast as they could, each of them flying like arrows of lightning. They immediately closed in on the wretched titan, piercing into his flesh that is covered by the intense and abyssal black flames. The rush of spikes was stabbing him thousands of times, delivering pain upon pain.

Anti-Venom was trying to deflect them, trying to get away. But he was being weighed down by an invisible force. A gravitational force was continuously forcing him down, every muscle was weighing a ton, and every movement was making it harder for him to breath.

Ruby gritted her teeth and fangs as hard as she could, concentrating solely on pinning down this bastard with everything she could muster. With another push, she forces the ground to rise up and asphalt wrap around his limbs, mechanical and more.

Everyone from the family was doing their all to put down this beast…

But it wasn't enough.

As if a surge of energy coursed through Anti-Venom, he suddenly gained the strength to push the attacks back. With a spin of his body, lashing out his arms, mechanical limbs and tendrils, releasing shockwaves as he moved, he forced a massive storm of gravel, asphalt and dust to come out. The heavy cyclone-like attack pushed back the other attacks, keeping him bound to the spot, but it was merely due to surprising the Venom Family into stopping.

They jumped back… But from that dust cloud that he gave birth to, Anti-Venom leaps out…

X

In the narrow alleyway of the Kob Factory, Savitar's hand was pressed against the brick wall to his left. Every tremor he was feeling coursing through them every few seconds was a sign of his hellhound fighting against the Venom Family.

A sign… That as they continue… Means that the Lethal Protector and his children are nothing compared to his being.

"Excellent, hound." Savitar praises his beast while pulling his hand away.

WHOOSH

A familiar gust of air hit him from the opposite side of the alleyway. Turning around to face him, Savitar shoots a look of pity at the Scarlet Speedster.

"I'm gonna kill you." Barry exclaims in rage.

"If you had the strength to end my life, you would have done it in the future…" Savitar continues mocking him. "But Barry Allen doesn't kill. He's a good guy, the boy Joe raised, the man Iris loves. You have everything and deserve none of it."

WHOOSH

Enveloped by his white-silverish lightning, the speed god slams his shoulder into the hero speedster's body and knocks up against a wall. Savitar grabs him by his throat, pinning him to the wall and delivers a powerful strike.

Before it could connect with him, Barry sped out of his grip and avoided the fist. With no red speedster to take his punch, Savitar's fist smashes into the brick wall. Tearing his hand free, the speed god turns around and looks at the hero speedster.

"I'm going to destroy this city like I did in the future so you can see the truth, Barry, and then you'll treat me like a god." Savitar tells him, inching closer to the speedster.

"You're not a god!" Barry jumped into the air, leaping off a crate and enveloped his right arm with lightning. He went in for a strike to Savitar's face, but it was easily dodged.

WHOOSH

The two speedsters ran up the side of a building. But the one that reached the top of the building was the speed god who easily knocked off the Scarlet Speedster. Barry was free falling to the ground, landing on top of a wooden crate that broke his fall… And more.

He went to jump off the roof to continue devastating Barry Allen…

But a bright flash of assorted colors from the side garnered his attention. Savitar was surprised by the sight.

Anti-Venom was launched into the air. Bile coming out of his open maw. With lightning and wind encircling his body, jumping up after his foe, leaping from building to wall, Venom slams an adamantium fist down on the back of his head. The powerful attack sends the wretched titan down on a warehouse rooftop.

From a smog of shadows over the air, Eclipse shoots spheres of darkness and light, alternating the blasts between all four of the mouths on her wings. This results in a massive barrage of blasts raining down on Anti- Venom. But it was though the impending threat of those attacks spurred the Vile Destroyer back up to his feet.

With a back flip, Anti-Venom avoids the first wave of attacks. Between dodging the next volleys of blasts, he swings his arms to launch feather blades and thrusting out his fists to vaporize the blasts with shockwaves. The barrage from the archer was too big and greater in number, making it difficult for his attacks to reach her. He still had to resort to avoiding the attacks, jumping back with each wave that came at him.

When he was nearing the edge of the rooftop, Eclipse disappeared again with another shadowport. This time she reappears in front of him, thrusting a broadsword of light into his stomach. Anti-Venom howled in pain when his flesh was torn up from the light blade.

He tries to grab her but she shadowports and avoids his grasp. He stumbles but only for a moment as Genysis takes his place and delivers an uppercut, imbued with gravitational force that knocks the wretched titan off the rooftop. Jumping into the air, she performs a spin mid-air to gain momentum. Using that very momentum to her advantage, she throws her Chakram Blade after Anti-Venom.

The Vile Destroyer lands on his feet and looks up, only to barely avoid the Chakram blade from cutting his head in two. But it did manage to slash his eye, making him howl once again and he held his face in pain. The blade dug into the ground after it slashed his face. The shock of the pain left him disoriented and he lost his focus on his weaponry, making his mechanical limbs lower. This was a mistake on his part, one that Ruby took advantage of.

A mere second later the chain of her Kinetic Kusarigama wraps around his neck. Ruby slams down behind him, pulling on her weapon with all her gravity-enhanced might. This amount of force would have been far more than enough to snap someone's neck, but the healing properties of the symbiote host prevented that. However, that did not stop what was about to happen.

Genysis roars and she manages to lift Anti-Venom off his feet and swings him around with her chain still tightly wrapped around his neck. She swings him around several times before she releases him. The momentum and gravity-enhanced prowess she put into her swinging was more than enough to send him flying through a wall.

Anti-Venom was hurled into a warehouse… But he wasn't alone…

One end of the warehouse… Magenta slowly steps out of the shadows. Her two arms are morphed into a war axe on the left one and a spiked mace on the right. Her additional arms that she had sprouted before are adorned with weapons made from scrap metal. The upper right one was equipped with a harpoon gun, fully loaded and ready for use. Her upper left arm was adorned with a large scythe made of scrap metal, resulting in it being a jagged blade.

On the other end of the warehouse… Venom returns to the battlefield. Dragging his adamantium crystal sword along the surface, causing sparks to go off. Flames ignited and vanished across his flesh with every step he was taking. Sparks of lightning thundering across his body. From his maw, black flames were coming out.

"You're gonna regret following that owner of yours." Venom snarls.

Anti-Venom snarls back. "Weak… Ones… Regret. Strong… Eradicates…"

"Time to reevaluate yourself." Magenta shoots back.

Enveloping her entire body with purple lightning she rushes towards Anti-Venom, delivering an upward slash with her war axe. It was dodged so was the spiked mace when Frankie elongated her arm to swing it like a chain. The harpoons she fired at him were immediately knocked away with swings of the mechanical tentacles.

What did manage to hit was the swing of her jagged scythe when Magenta managed to slash his right kneecap. The jagged blade managed to keep itself embedded in his leg, allowing the ferrokinetic to force him down on a knee.

This allowed Venom to strike when he appeared in front of him, digging his adamantium weapon into his stomach. With his other hand free, he slams fist enveloped with black flames into his face and pushes him back. The Lethal Protector pulls him back, unleashing an onslaught of fists into his head. Each strike was more than enough to disorient any other formidable opponent.

But Anti-Venom remained conscious despite the fists raining down on him. He finally counters, delivering a headbutt to his counterpart's head. With his sturdy horn, he pierces it into the elemental's shoulder. However, Venom counters with a kick to his abdomen and knocks him away.

Reinforcing his entire body with adamantium and earth, Venom grabs the Vile Destroyer by his horn and lifts him up high in the air before hurling him towards a steel beam. He collided with the pillar, ricocheting off it and landed on his stomach.

Before he could even think of returning to his feet, Venom slams down on his back, forcing him deeper into the floor with his adamantium-enhanced weight, and grabs hold of his mechanical arms on his back. Tightening his hold on the arms, he pulls on all four of them with everything he can muster. However, despite all he is doing to try and tear them out by the root, the only sound that came from it was creaking.

Instead of trying to pull them off, Venom jumps back and spins around once more, bringing his opponent with him and hurling him towards the wall furthest from him. The force of his hurl caused the wall to crack around the area of which their opponent was embedded in. Both Magenta and Venom shoot forward like a pair of missiles.

Anti-Venom barely got any time to fight back, much less think of a way to fight back before his two foes deliver a united strike into his abdomen. The combined force of their attack is what finally forced the Vile Destroyer through the wall, sending him across the ground with bricks raining over his form.

Venom and Magenta follow him, finding him on the ground, appearing to be barely responsive. The assault of the four of them finally stopped his rampage. But now…

Before they could even think of moving…

WHOOSH

A massive blur of white lightning put a stop to their ideas, knocking away Magenta and grabbing hold of Venom by his throat. Savitar rushes across the Kob Factory, purposely slamming the Lethal Protector every steel beam and wall with the force of a freight train.

He purposely came to a stop where Barry was getting back on his feet, which was the very moment when Savitar hurls Seth into the Scarlet Speedster. The two of them slam into a pile of garbage bags, causing them to burst and their filthy contents scattering all over them.

However, the last thing on their minds is the filth adorned on their body. The true object of their attention revealed himself as the sound of his metallic feet clanging against the asphalt gets closer and closer.

"Abusing a dog like that… Heartless as always, Protector." Savitar chuckles mockingly.

Venom gets back on his feet, punching the ground in anger. "Fucking shut it."

One thing is true among all speedsters, gods or not, and that is they love to run their mouths more than their feet.

"Who are you?" Barry demands to know.

"I already told you, Barry." Savitar stretches his arms out. "I am the future, Flash."

Barry and Seth share a look. Lightning crackles over their forms at the same time.

Venom is the first to move, jumping off the ground and thrusting his thunder-cloaked fist into Savitar's face. The first strike makes him stagger. The next attack comes up quick, striking the armoured speedster with his lightning-cloaked crystal sword. This attack pushed him further back, making him lose his balance and trip.

But the self-proclaimed speed god regains his bearings in a flash, thrusting his fist forward.

Flash jumps in, spiralling around the Lethal Protector with lightning-enhanced mobility and grabbing the fist. Making eye contact with the speed god, he speeds around him while keeping a tight grip on the arm to force Savitar in a chokehold.

"Show your face!" Barry growls.

But Savitar easily gets out of the hold, turning to face the Scarlet Speedster before ejecting a blade from his hand. That same blade he uses to immediately stab Barry. Feeling his flesh tear away for the blade to allow passage into his body, Barry's body went limp.

"Flash!" Seth swings his sword again.

Savitar blocks it with the blade on his other hand, cloaking it with his lightning. He looks between the two defenders. "I want so badly to kill you both, and I will, but you will have to live a little while longer, long enough to see Iris die…" He directs at Barry. "And for you to fall into the pits of despair from your own worthlessness." He aims his words at Seth.

His words cause Seth to think of the worst possible things to ever happen to him and those important in his life, which caused him to lose focus, and the lightning wavered around his sword.

"Moron!" His "other" berates him.

His actions revealed their consequences when Savitar knocks the sword away, using his now free hand to thrust Venom away with a swing of his arm. Barry uses this opportunity to flatten his hand like a knife, charging it with lightning. With a weapon of sorts on him, he cuts the blade embedded in him in two.

Barry fell to the ground, Savitar screaming as his blade was cut off as though he had lost a limb. He roars at the two heroes before speeding off, running towards where Anti-Venom is lying unconscious on the ground.

Venom wanted nothing more than to chase him down, but he ended up focusing on Barry who was howling in pain.

X

(S.T.A.R. Labs, Medbay)

After their defeat at the hands of both Savitar and Anti-Venom, Seth took everyone from the battlefield on his back before traveling towards the facility. Upon arrival, his daughters jumped off their father's back and showed little to no damage at all.

Their symbiotes' healing capabilities take care of all damage while they move.

But Barry was another case.

His vital signs swung up and down on the monitors, chiming and beeping loudly as he was writhing in pain on the gurney. Every move he was making was making the embedded blade rock back and forth inside of his body, making it stab every piece of flesh surrounding it.

Standing on either side of the gurney, Caitlin and Seth were examining the Scarlet Speedster. The female doctor started. "The blade didn't hit your organs, which is the good news."

Joe, who is standing behind Barry, turns to Seth. "And the bad news?"

"Blade busted his clavicle." Seth announced.

"Hang in there, man. Hang in there." Cisco comforted his friend.

"Cisco, you might wanna stay back." Seth raises his left hand, symbiote mass swarming over his hand. "We need to take it out. Now."

"Do it." Barry nods, giving his consent.

Caitlin jumps in. "Any medicine we give him; his metabolism would burn right through." She tells her mate.

"Never easy with this patient." Seth stated. "Hold him down." He tells Joe and Cisco, the detective holding him down by his shoulders and the viber holding his legs down.

"You're gonna be okay, mate. You're gonna be okay." Julian encourages him.

"Here, bite down on this." Seth places a cotton swab for him to bite down on.

After the speedster captured it in his mouth, he went to pull the blade out, but Caitlin grabbed the object before he could. Seth shares a look with his mate, surprise on his face but she gives him a confident nod. He accepts it with a nod of his own, placing a hand on Barry's body to keep him steady and from moving.

"I'm so sorry." Her words were directed not just to her mate, but also the rest of the team. Barry gives a final, but rapid nod to give her permission. "Three, two, one."

With all her might, she pulls out the blade and Barry screams his heart out. Screaming through the button in his mouth before he passes out.

"I… It's here. It's out." Caitlin says slowly between small pants, holding the blade above the unconscious speedster with a gloved hand.

"Caitlin." Seth gets her attention. "Here." He holds out his own hands to her. With a small nod, she hands him the blade which he puts on the tray beside him. "Right now, Barry's healing should take care of the rest. We wait and see what happens next. For now, we can bandage it to keep it from bleeding." He tells the others who nod their heads while he starts bandaging the wound. "Friday, keep us monitored and alert us at any unusual spikes in Barry's scans." He instructs aloud.

"10-4, Boss." The A.I. says, taking over the scans.

When he was done treating the wound on the speedster's body, Seth heard a voice call out his name. "Seth…" Joe asks the mutant, getting his attention. A crestfallen expression on his face. "W-Wally…?" He was trying his hardest to keep tears from raining down his face.

"I'm sorry." Seth reaches into his "other's" pocket dimension, reaching deep in till he finds what he needs to find. He pulls out the object, handing it to the detective who took it with both hands. "Couldn't get him away."

Joe looks at the object in his hands. The remains of his son's suit. The lightning bolt symbol and the front of his suit's torso, seared and charred around the edges. Even now, having been pulled out of the mutant's body, the strong smell of burnt rubber remained strong.

"Wally…" Joe couldn't stop the flood and the tears began to fall.

"Seth…" Caitlin looks at him. "Can you… Can you take a look at the girls?"

"Sur-"

"No, wait." Caitlin cuts him off, a look of shame and regret plaguing her facial features. "I'll see to them, make sure they're okay. You watch Barry." Caitlin didn't wait for a response, she immediately walked out of the medbay to her daughters who're sitting on gurneys in the other side lab.

Seth follows her with his eyes. He could see the dread, regret and despair on her face. Etched into her very being. The consequences of her keeping a piece of the Philosopher's Stone which have now led to Wally's imprisonment in the Speed Force is weighing on her.

Crushing her with an immeasurable weight.

"She blames herself for Wally's fate."

"Savitar planned all this…" Seth heard his "other" state.

"How long was I out?"

Suddenly hearing Barry's voice made the mutant's head snap right back to him. "One power nap, you're already awake. I'm impressed." The speedster didn't appear convinced. Joe remained by his side and Iris had joined him shortly. "You weren't out that long. Like I said, barely a power nap."

Barry puts a hand over his bandaged wound, groaning when the weight of his hand applied on the area. "Feels like I was out for an eternity."

"Pain does that to people." Seth says.

The speedster looks between the doctor and Joe on the other side of the gurney, his eyes settling on the piece of Kid Flash's suit in Joe's hand. The detective's face remained crestfallen and without hope, tightly gripping the suit fragment.

"I might be able to do something with this." Cisco announces as he picked up the blade from Savitar's suit.

Barry did not react to Cisco's words. Barely hearing them, his attention focuses on Joe. "Joe, I'm sorry." The detective was shaking his head. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." Joe assures him. He glances at Seth. "Or yours, either." Tears ran down the cheeks of Barry and Joe. "Where is he?" The detective's words were directed to them both. "I mean, is he in pain? Is he-?"

Jessie took a sharp intake of air before running off, her tears cascading down her face as she unleashes the flood of tears. H.R. follows her.

Recalling everything that they saw on the screen when Wally was taken in by the Speed Force, despite all of Seth's efforts to save the young speedster, Cisco could not help but think back to Savitar's prophecy. "One will suffer a fate worse than death."

"Wally's a prisoner in the Speed Force now." Seth grimly says, clutching the edge of the gurney.

"What are we gonna do now?" Joe questions. The others face him. "We have to bring him back. We have to save him." Barry looked heartbroken. "I can't lose Wally, Barry." He walks away, tears falling down his face.

Barry and Seth watch him away. The speedster turned his eyes to his fiancée. "I'm sorry." But when she went to squeeze his hand…

The engagement ring was nowhere to be found on her ring finger.

Seth sees it too, and his eyes immediately snap around to see Caitlin looking across the Cortex, peering into the medbay. She walks away, and from his vantage point, Seth could see the tears.

When she passed the threshold into the hallway, Seth didn't think. He reacted, running off after her. Leaping effortlessly over the main console and jumping from one wall to the other before landing on the floor again. "Caitlin!" Seth calls out to her.

Her back faces him and she stops at his voice. Turning around, her eyes riddling with tears. An emotional mixture of regret, sadness and hurt all over her, etched into every fibre of her being. "Seth. I- I'm sorry. So sorry." More tears rushed down her face.

Seth stands up to his full height, walking towards her.

"I should've never… I was afraid. I should've just listened to you. Believed in myself that I could live with this power and believed in everything that you tried to teach me. What Earth-616 taught you, I should've believed in that. But I was so, so scared of everything that could happen. That I could hurt you, our daughters… That I could lose. I'm-"

This time, Seth cuts her off when he grabs her by her hand and pulls her into the tightest hug he has ever mustered. Her tears show no signs of stopping when her mate embraces her and she reciprocates that very gesture with her own arms wrapping around him.

"I know. I know you were scared." He pulls his head away from her shoulders, but his arms remain around her. He looks into her teary eyes. "Believe me, I know. Fear can dictate us, get a hold of us. It can make us do lots of things that we shouldn't, things that we could end up regretting. I feared I might lose you to your… Fear."

"I thought I might lose you because I was afraid." Tears continued to stream down Caitlin's face.

"You're the love of my life, Caitlin. You couldn't lose me even if you tried." Seth put his forehead against hers, whispering kindly. "I love you, Caitlin Snow."

"I love you too, Seth Fury." Caitlin whispers back.

Seth leans forward, capturing her lips and the two kiss one another passionately. Standing alone in the hallway…

Just the two of them, embraced in their own little world that was plagued and hurt by their actions. Their fears had cracked their world, but it was still holding. But those cracks were healing, a path forward for them paved by forgiveness has revealed itself and it will aid them.

But their path was riddled with challenges, not unlike that of an obstacle course…

And their next obstacle lies within the realm of the Speed Force…

Where Wallace West is imprisoned…

To be continued…

Words cannot describe how sorry I am for taking so long with this chapter, everyone. I will try and make more time for the stories to come out, but things in life never go a straight line.

The team have suffered a great defeat, fulfilling not one, but two of Savitar's prophecies. Having send the captured Sinister Seven members back to Earth-616, the team received a new surprise when Savitar started haunting and mentally terrorizing Wally.

This drove the team to try and communicate with Savitar through Julian, taking advantage of his previous connection to the speed god when he was his acolyte, Alchemy. But none of their plans worked and it showed that the speed god still had a means of getting out of his Speed Force prison as Caitlin Snow revealed she had a shard of Philosopher's Stone remaining in her possession.

Wally, having reached his final straw when Savitar tormented him with hallucinations of his late mother, Francine, used the shard to his advantage and threw it into the Speed Force. But this was all part of his foe's plan.

Savitar was freed from his prison with Wally having taken his place. Upon his release, a fight ensued between Savitar and Anti-Venom against Venom, his daughters, and the Scarlet Speedster.

Their fight ended with their opponents leaving the defenders alone, having only suffered the loss of one singular blade on Savitar's side.

But their next objective is clear as day. The heroes need to venture into the uncharted realm of the Speed Force and save Wally.

Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!