32This is a sequel to "Stand by me", covering Season 2 of The Flash. I haven't decided yet if I will write Season 3 too but I hope you will enjoy this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
Barry kept running around the black hole, trying to stop it as it kept sucking everything in.
"Brilliant! He's contained the singularity by adding to its angular momentum!" Stein said.
"Barry, it's stabilizing. Keep doing what you're doing!" Cisco called out over the phone.
"I'm not sure how much longer I can." Barry said. "Cisco!"
"Now what?" Joe demanded.
"We have to merge the inner and outer event horizons." Stein said.
"How do we do that?" Ronnie asked.
"By separating in the eye of it. The amount of energy from the fissure should do the trick." Stein said as Ronnie turned to Caitlin hesitantly. "It's our only hope, Ronald."
"Ronnie, no! It's too dangerous. What if you can't escape the inrush?" Caitlin protested, holding Ronnie by his arm.
Ronnie held Caitlin by her cheeks. "Cait, we have to try." He pulled away as he merged with Stein and flew up into the black hole.
"Ronnie... Professor..." Barry stared before realizing what were they planning. "No!"
Firestorm exploded as the black hole stopped, with Stein plummeting down to the ground as Barry ran down the building, trying to catch him before they landed on the ground, slumping to the wall, with Stein tired before he looked around. "Ronald... Ronald..."
Patty, Caitlin, Iris, Cisco and Joe neared them looking around before they realized that Ronnie was gone as Caitlin broke down in tears, with Barry hugging her in comfort. "I'm so sorry."
Six months later
"Everything fine?" Patty asked as she approached Barry, while they were at the crime scene in a construction site, examining the dead worker.
"Hey. Uh, good." Barry said.
"OK." Patty nodded. "Our victim. Al Rothstein. A welder here at the nuclear plant. Co-worker found him this morning." She knelt down, taking a closer look. "Petechiae on his face and the whites of his eyes, and this bruising around his neck—"
"He was strangled." Barry said as she nodded. "By someone very strong and very large."
"Or something?" Joe mused as he approached them.
"This wasn't Grodd." Barry shook his head.
"Oh, thank God." Joe sighed in relief.
"Look, I'll let you know when I find more." Barry said, getting up and packing his tools.
"Are you gonna show up on this Flash Day thing?" Patty asked.
"Ah..." Barry hesitated. "I haven't decided."
"Bar, I heard the Mayor's trying to give you the key to the city." Joe said.
Barry shook his head. "Yeah, I don't need an award."
"What about the science trophies you got as a kid?" Patty pointed out.
"Those I deserved." Barry argued. "I'll let you know what I find, all right?" He left as Patty followed him.
"Barry, I get that it must have been rough after the Singularity… but if you need—"
"I'm fine, Patty. Really." Barry assured.
Unknowing to them, a man with long hair in leather jacket was observing them from afar, taking pictures of Barry.
Later, CCPD
"Joe, where are we at with the murder at the nuclear plant?" Singh asked.
"Barry's still analyzing the evidence, but there was definitely something weird." Joe said.
"Yeah, which is why I let you have that Anti-Metahuman Task Force. Speaking of which, where's your scientific advisor?" Singh asked.
"Ho, ho, ho! Fear the beard!" Cisco quipped, entering with his cart of tools as Singh narrowed his eyes. "It's a very distinguished look... Sir."
"What is all this, Mr. Ramon?" Singh asked, turning to the cart.
"Oh, this right here? This is a little something I'm working on." Cisco gestured towards the cart. "I'm cooking it up for Joe and the task force to take down metahumans. I'm think I'm going to call it The Boot." He showed Singh a small sheet of paper. "Oh, here are the receipts." Singh sighed in annoyance, taking the receipts as he was entering his office before Cisco spoke up again. "Oh, um, Captain, one more thing—"
"You are not getting a badge, Mr. Ramon." Singh said, making Cisco frown as Joe chuckled, amused.
"He's really stingy with those badges, isn't he?" Cisco asked.
"Yeah, cops are funny that way." Joe nodded before Patty entered.
"Hey." Patty turned to the cart of tools. "What's all this?"
"Cisco's new anti-metahuman science project." Joe explained before turning to Cisco. "So you really think you can get this to work? Don't have us caught out on the streets with our pants down."
"Yes, once I finish the Boot, CCPD will totally have what it needs to take down a metahuman." Cisco assured. "Especially now that Barry has decided to go all Lone Wolf McQuade and fight crime by himself." Patty sighed as they turned to her, with Cisco realizing his mistake. "Oh. Patty. I'm sorry, I should've—"
"No, no. I'm fine, Cisco, really." Patty said. "Have you talked with him lately?"
Cisco shook his head. "Not really. Haven't even heard from Caitlin since she started work at Mercury Labs."
Then, Iris entered as she smiled at them. "Hey, Patty, Cisco. Hi, Dad." She hugged Joe and kissed him on his cheek.
"Hey, baby." Joe said.
"Hey, I was wondering if you'd talked to Barry about the rally." Iris said.
"We were just talking about this." Patty said.
Cisco chuckled. "I'm sorry, but, I can't believe they're gonna give the Flash the key to the city. Although technically, as members of Team Flash, we should all be getting keys."
"Well, you know Barry. The more we try to convince him to do something, the less he's gonna want to do it." Joe said.
"Yeah, but he should go. Someone should try and get through to him." Iris said.
"Maybe someone he loves." Joe said.
"Dad, I've tried." Iris said.
"I meant her." Joe turned to Patty. "Have you tried talking to him?"
"I…" Patty hesitated. "Well… I was never sure when to bring it up—"
"Patty." Joe gave her an imploring look as she sighed.
"I'll talk with Barry." Patty said.
After fixing the Jitters, Barry was in the lab, hectically working on the CSI reports before Patty entered.
"You've been busy. Very busy." Patty noted.
"I've got a lot of work to do, you know?" Barry said.
"Like fixing the Jitters or catching criminals and metahumans that never see you coming?" Patty raised her brows.
Barry sighed, realizing what was she up to. "Don't. Please."
"Barry, come on." Patty pleaded. "There have been dozens of reports of the red streak but no confirmed sightings of the Flash."
"So that's why you're here? You came to talk me into going to the rally? Because I'm... I'm not gonna go." Barry shook his head.
"Don't you think the people deserve to give a "thank you" to the man, who saved Central City?" Patty pointed out.
"Well, they can't, because that's not me." Barry shook his head. "You should know that, better than anyone."
"What happened to Eddie or Ronnie is not your fault." Patty said. "You may not believe in that the Flash is the hero anymore… but I still do. And so do other people in this city." She handed Barry the pamphlet of the rally. "Just think about it, OK?" She left as Barry considered.
The following day, Central City
The marching band and crowd cheered as Joe, Cisco and Patty were on guard.
"Are we expecting trouble?" Cisco asked.
"Cops always expect trouble." Joe said.
"Who knows what can we wait for in Central City. I hope it's not a flying monster this time around." Patty noted.
"That's a solid expectation." Cisco said as Joe and Patty chuckled before noticing Caitlin. "Well, I'll be."
The crowd cheered and applauded as Mayor Bellows approached the mic and the crowd stopped applauding. "Good morning, Central City! A year ago, our world changed. Our city became ground zero for… some pretty weird stuff. We got a new breed of criminal, men and women who defied not only our laws, but physics and reason. But we got something else, too. We got the Flash!" The crowd cheered and applauded. "Our wounds run deep, and I know many of you are afraid of what threats tomorrow may bring. But the Flash doesn't just protect us, he restores hope where it was lost. That's why I'm honored to present the key to the man who saved Central City: The Flash!" He showed the key as everyone applauded and cheered but stopped, when the Flash didn't seem to arrive until a moment later as the crowd cheered once again, chanting the Flash's name.
The Flash waved his hand to say "hello" to everyone as he and Patty smiled at each other at the distance before he turned to Mayor Bellows.
"The doors to Central City will forever be open for you, Flash." Mayor Bellows handed the Flash the key before people started to scream.
"Look out!" Joe shouted as a hot dog cart flew through the air and would have crushed Mayor Bellows if the Flash had not pushed him out of the way.
"You alright?" The Flash asked as Mayor Bellows nodded. He turned to see a man in black hood with a metal mask. "I got this, alright?"
The man neared Barry, putting down his mask. "The man who saved Central City, hate to rain on your parade."
The Flash rushed at the man but he knocked him away as the Flash crashed against a car. Joe, Patty and other cops pulled out their guns, shooting at the man, but it had no effect. The man threw a cruiser, knocking down some of the cops before Cisco suddenly had a strange vision of the man in the metal mask facing some speedster in black suit with blue bolt of lightning.
"Cisco!" Joe called out as Cisco seemed to be in some kind of a trance.
"Cisco!" Patty shook him as Cisco came to. "The Boot!"
"Right!" Cisco nodded as he opened the trunk of Joe's car and handed Joe the Boot. "Locked and loaded. Go!"
Joe aimed and fired at the metahuman some harness that wrapped itself around his ankle, electrocuting him. "Booted!" Cisco cheered.
Suddenly, much to their shock, the metahuman absorbed the electricity, getting larger as the harness broke.
"Cisco, didn't you say this would take him down?" Patty demanded. "Because it sure as hell didn't take him down."
"He went up." Cisco muttered.
"Run! Run!" Joe ordered, handing Cisco back the harness before the Flash appeared with propane tanks.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Patty demanded.
"I'm throwing, you're shooting." The Flash said, throwing the propane tanks at the metahuman, while Joe and Patty fired. The propane tanks exploded, knocking the Flash, Joe, Patty and the metahuman down, with one of the pieces of shrapnel getting the Flash, who groaned in pain before the metahuman took off his mask and the Flash, Joe and Patty stared in shock as they saw his face.
"It can't be…" Patty whispered.
"That's Al Rothstein." Joe pointed at him. "The body we found at the nuclear plant, he's alive."
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
"According to the coroner's office, Al Rothstein's body was in the morgue all night, so we can scratch off 'zombie attack'." Cisco said.
"Rothstein have a twin brother?" Joe mused.
Cisco shook his head. "Nope. Only child. And get this, the night the accelerator exploded, Rothstein was on his honeymoon, in Hawaii."
"So, a really strong guy, who can grow twice his size happens to look exactly like the guy he had murdered?" Patty asked, shivering from the thought. "Tell me this isn't like 'Taking Lives' or another Hannibal Bates."
"I would think this meta was really cool if everything about him didn't just terrify me to my core." Cisco said.
"Really? That's what happened to you back there?" Patty raised her brows.
"You looked really spooked there for a minute." Joe said.
"Uh…" Cisco hesitated before Iris entered.
"So, the hospital next to the Flash Day rally, the X-Ray and CT machines all failed at once. Was that because of you?" Iris asked, turning to Cisco.
"I did not do anything that would cause that." Cisco said as Joe and Patty shot him a look. "I'm 92% sure." Iris joined them as she shot him the same look. "I'm going to go make that 100. Excuse me." He left.
Barry was in his lab, looking at the newspapers before a man in a suit entered. "Mr. Allen. Barry Allen?"
"Yeah." Barry got up, turning to the man.
"I'm Greg Turk. I'm an attorney at Weathersby and Stone." The man introduced himself as he shook hands with Barry. "I don't usually make house calls, but I've been trying to get in touch with you for several months."
"Yes. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I've just, um..." Barry wiped his face. "I've been really busy with police work."
"We need to talk about S.T.A.R. Labs." Turk said as Barry nodded. "As you know, Harrison Wells left the property to you as part of his living trust."
"Yeah, which I did not ask him to do, but I've been keeping the place up." Barry said as he sat down.
"Well, it's going to take more than cleaning the floors to retain it, I'm afraid." Turk said and Barry nodded. "The facility and the real estate are scheduled to go into receivership at the end of this week unless... you watch this." He showed Barry a flash drive as he picked it.
"What is this?" Barry asked.
"A video message drafted by Dr. Wells." Turk said.
"What's on it? Have you seen it?" Barry wondered.
"No. He was very specific. It was only to be watched by you. The device will send me a notification after you've viewed it. And at that point, I'll have everything ready to execute." Turk said.
"I'm not gonna watch that." Barry shook his head.
"Well, that's up to you, Mr. Allen. I'm only here to represent Harrison Wells' final request." Turk said and Barry nodded before Turk left. "Good day."
Barry stared at the flash drive in contemplation. After how Thawne had double-crossed him before, how could Barry trust anything on that flash drive? What would be on it? A last taunt? Would it be worth watching? Barry threw the flash drive on the desk as he sat down, not wanting to think one second about his sworn enemy before an alarm went off, alerting him about an unauthorized entry into S.T.A.R. Labs, before he sped off.
S.T.A.R. Labs
Barry sped into S.T.A.R. Labs, noticing that Patty, Joe, Cisco, Stein and Iris were in the Cortex. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Working." Iris said.
"So, Caitlin was right." Cisco said.
"Yes, all humans contain small amounts of radiation due to contact with cell phones, microwaves, televisions, et cetera. Our bodies are natural conductors." Stein explained.
"I think our meta's been sucking up all the radiation around him and using it to power himself." Cisco said.
"Which is why the X-Ray machines at the hospital failed the day of the rally." Iris realized.
"So if we wanna find him, we gotta look for places without radiation." Cisco said, typing away.
"All right, guys, I don't want any of you here right now." Barry protested.
"Tough. You need your partners. You need your friends." Joe said.
"Barry, we all care about you but we care about this city too. You're not the only one trying to make it a better place. We all are doing it, by helping you fight the metahumans. You don't get to push us away to do this alone." Patty said.
"Guys, there's a three-block dead zone near a hazardous waste reclamation plant. It should be blooming with rads, and right now it's at zero." Cisco said.
"That's where you'll find your atom smasher." Stein said enthusiastically as everyone stared at him. "Because he absorbs atomic power, and he, well, smashes."
"Come here." Cisco hugged Stein, having found a kindred spirit as they chuckled at Cisco's antics. "That's a great name. Welcome to the team."
"Thank you." Stein nodded.
"Great, guys, thank you. You can go now, all right?" Barry said.
"Barry, you need to let Cisco and Stein figure out a way to stop this guy." Joe insisted.
"No, I don't." Barry shook his head before suiting up as he sped off and then Cisco and Patty stared as they saw the comms on the desk.
"Are those Barry's comms?" Patty asked.
"We can't talk to him. He's on his own." Cisco said as worry flooded through all of them.
Central City
Rothstein inhaled radiation fumes from barrels of hazardous waste as he was in the plant. The Flash sped in as Rothstein smirked at him. "Well, this is a curve ball. I thought I was going to have to come looking for you."
"I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else." The Flash said.
"I'm only here to hurt you, buddy." Rothstein said.
"Yeah? Then why'd you kill Albert Rothstein? And why do you look like him?" The Flash demanded.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Rothstein said.
"Try me." The Flash said.
"I'm about to." Rothstein said.
The Flash sped his arms, creating cyclones but Rothstein was unfazed. The Flash rushed at Rothstein, punching him but Rothstein knocked him back. "My turn." He smirked.
Rothstein enlarged himself and grabbed the Flash by his throat as he choked before Rothstein slammed the Flash to the wall. "He said you were some kind of big hero, but you don't seem worthy of him, or this city."
Suddenly, alarms blared, distracting Rothstein as the Flash ran off.
S.T.A.R. Labs
The Flash returned to S.T.A.R. Labs, staggering on his feet before he passed out from the pain.
Three years ago, CCPD
Barry had bumped into one of the officers as the reports fell off his desk. "Allen! Can you pay attention? You're gonna pay for my jacket, you—"
"Don't worry about it, Marty. Here." Patty handed the officer some cash. "Just leave him alone, OK?"
Marty gave in, glaring at Barry as he picked the money and left as Barry turned to Patty.
"Patty, you shouldn't have—"
"But I wanted to." Patty said. "Look, you're not alone in this, OK? Whatever happens, I'm always going to be here for you." She held Barry by his shoulder. "I promise."
Present, S.T.A.R. Labs
Barry came to, looking around as Patty held him, while he was on the stretcher. "Easy."
Barry looked around. "Where is everyone?"
"Joe and I thought you might not wanna be around anyone else, when you woke up." Patty said.
Barry scoffed. "Yeah, thanks."
"Look, Barry, this can't go on any longer." Patty said. "You can't do this alone anymore. For the last six months we'd been hoping you'd come to your senses and come back to us. And now you've showed us that you would rather just get yourself killed."
Barry snorted. "It's better than getting my friends killed."
"Barry, I know you think it was your fault what happened to Ronnie and Eddie but they both made their choices. We all made our choices to stop Wells and the Singularity and you can't hold yourself responsible for our decisions. Putting all this blame on your own shoulders is not going to help." Patty said. "It's hard but… you need to forgive yourself. And move on. If you keep wallowing in all that guilt and regret, you'll lose us all forever."
"What do I do now?" Barry wondered.
"Well, I know that you've been rebuilding Central City at night." Joe said upon entering. "It's just bricks and paint. Maybe you should start trying to rebuild... things that really matter."
Barry turned to Patty, who held his hand. "I'm always going to be here for you. So don't you dare push me away."
Later, Mercury Labs
Caitlin was working before she turned in surprise to see Barry. "What are you doing here?"
"Patty drove me here. Sorry, I should've called or something. I just... I wanted to see you." Barry said.
"It's been a while." Caitlin smiled.
"Yeah, Cisco said that he saw you at the Flash Day celebration." Barry nodded upon entering. "I was surprised. You, better than anyone, know that I wasn't the hero that day."
"Of course you were." Caitlin assured.
"No." Barry shook his head as he sighed. "Cait, Ronnie died saving me, and I should've saved him, and I'm... I'm so sorry."
"Barry, I know that you did everything you could. It wasn't your fault. I don't blame you for Ronnie's death." Caitlin assured. "I blame myself."
Barry blinked. "Why?"
Caitlin sighed. "When Ronnie first became Firestorm, he asked me to leave Central City, and go somewhere that we could have a normal life. And I said "no"." She took a breath, her voice breaking. "I couldn't leave S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Wells... you. If I had gone with him, Ronnie would still be alive. Being at S.T.A.R. Labs just made me think of that every single day."
"Here." Barry handed her a handkerchief as she chuckled.
"Oh, you carry a handkerchief now? What are you, 80?" Caitlin joked before the flash drive Thawne had left Barry fell off his pocket. "What's that?"
Barry picked up the flash drive. "Ah, it's uh... Apparently, in case of his death, Wells had some kind of a living will."
"And you haven't watched it yet?" Caitlin asked.
Barry shook his head. "No. No, I've... been too afraid."
"What if we watched it together?" Caitlin offered.
"All right." Barry nodded. He called Patty to enter as they sat down and watched the video.
Patty looked at the screen. "Is that—"
"Yeah." Barry nodded.
Thawne was in the Cortex, looking straight at the camera.
"Hello, Barry. If you're watching this, that means something has gone horribly wrong. I'm dead and the last fifteen years have been for nothing." Thawne said. "Bummer. 15 years. You know, when I realize that in all those years helping raise you, we were never truly enemies, Barry. I'm not the thing you hate." Barry glared at Thawne hatefully for ruining his life and murdering his mother. "And so, I want to give you the thing that you want most. It won't matter. You'll never be truly happy, Barry Allen, trust me. I know you. Now..." He cleared his throat, putting on his glasses. "Erase everything I said up to this point. Give the following message to the police."
What continued, completely shocked Barry, Caitlin and Patty as Thawne spoke up again. "My name is Harrison Wells. Being of sound mind and body, I freely confess to the murder of Nora Allen. In her home, on the night of March 18th, in the year 2000. I attacked Nora Allen in her dining room. I stabbed her in the chest…"
"Oh, my God…" Caitlin whispered.
"…with a large butcher knife..."
"He confessed." Patty said.
"…from the drawer to the left of the sink in the kitchen."
Barry laughed, disbelieving. "This is it. This is what I need to free my dad." He got up, hopeful before picking up his phone. "Hey, Joe. Yeah, hey. Can you have everybody meet me at S.T.A.R. Labs? Yeah. All right, thanks. All right, bye."
"I'll drive you." Patty said. "And I think we should talk with D.A. Horton."
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
"You think the video's enough?" Barry asked as Joe was on the phone with D.A. Cecile Horton.
"Wells gave all the right details. It's not a done deal yet, but the D.A. says it looks good." Joe said as Barry looked hopeful.
Barry then entered the Cortex, meeting the rest. "Is it good news?" Caitlin asked.
"I think so." Barry nodded.
"Is your Dad coming home?" Patty asked and Barry nodded before she laughed, hugging him tightly with Iris before they pulled away.
"OK, well... that still leaves Atom Smasher to deal with." Barry said.
"Last time you faced him, it did not go well." Stein reminded.
"No, it did not. I clearly can't stop him by myself." Barry said. "So how are we gonna beat him?"
"Well, ever since I was shown a drained radiation tag, which I haven't been able to stop thinking about, thank you, Cisco." Caitlin glanced at Cisco.
"You're welcome, Caitlin." Cisco chuckled.
"If this guy likes radiation so much, I say we give it to him." Caitlin said.
Central City
Atom Smasher saw in the sky light shining with the Flash's symbol as he went onto the street to face the Flash as he neared the source of light.
"What's up? I see you got my message." The Flash quipped.
S.T.A.R. Labs
"That light was perfect bait. What made you think of that?" Caitlin asked Cisco.
"I don't know, I think I saw it in a comic book somewhere." Cisco shrugged.
Central City
"You want me? You're gonna have to catch me." The Flash taunted, speeding off as Atom Smasher started to chase him.
The Flash ran into the nuclear power plant before Atom Smasher jumped in through the rooftop, much larger than before as he neared the Flash, who entered the reactor chamber.
"Didn't think I could catch you, huh?" Atom Smasher gloated.
"No, I knew you could." The Flash smirked. "Now, Cisco!"
Cisco turned on the reactor, with the Flash running away, closing it and trapping Atom Smasher inside.
"The amount of radiation about to flood that room..." Caitlin trailed off.
"Atom Smasher won't be able to absorb it all." Stein realized.
"Which means what for him?" Patty wondered.
Atom Smasher was absorbing the radiation until he couldn't take it anymore as he collapsed on the floor.
"The radiation's been cleared. It's safe for you to go in." Cisco said, opening the door to the reactor.
The Flash entered to see Atom Smasher on the ground. He knelt down, remorseful, realizing he just killed Atom Smasher. "I'm sorry. I couldn't let you hurt anyone else. Why? Why did you want to kill me?"
Atom Smasher gasped. "He promised he'd take me home... if I killed you."
"Who? Who promised you that?" The Flash asked.
"Zoom." Atom Smasher breathed out before closing his eyes, dying.
Later, Iron Heights
Henry was let out of prison as he faced Barry and they hugged each other tightly.
"Let's get out of here." Barry said.
"I'll race you." Henry said as they both laughed.
"You will lose." Barry said.
Wests' house
Barry let Henry into the house, with Patty, Joe, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, Stein and Clarissa celebrating Henry freed from prison and they cheered and applauded as Henry entered.
"Welcome home!" Iris cheered as everyone applauded before hugging Barry and Henry and celebrating Henry's freedom, all of them toasting and eating the cake before Stein clanked his glass.
"Gather around, everyone, please." Stein said as they converged. "Looking at all of you, thinking how far we've all come, and remembering those who are no longer with us, I'm reminded of a Hebrew word used during times of graduation. Kadima. It means, 'Forward.'" He raised his glass. "Forward."
"Forward." Everyone said, toasting and clinking glasses.
"Well said." Joe said.
"Thank you." Stein nodded.
Henry cleared his throat, uncomfortable. "You good?" Barry asked.
"Ah, yeah. Stuff goes to your head after being away from it for 14 years." Henry said.
"I bet." Barry nodded. "All right, well, look. I was thinking, what if, in the morning, the two of us started looking for an apartment for both of us, and Iris has actually been doing some research on how to get your medical license back so you could start your practice up again, or, if you wanted, come work with us at S.T.A.R. Labs." Henry didn't seem happy, much to Barry's surprise. "What's wrong? You OK?"
"Yeah, it's a party. Come on, we can talk about all this tomorrow." Henry said.
"Talk about what?" Barry frowned.
"Barry..." Henry trailed off before it hit Barry.
"Are you not planning on sticking around?" Barry asked, hurt.
"OK, do you think... can you be all that you are becoming... with me here?" Henry pointed out as Barry sighed.
"You're the only family that I have left." Barry pointed out.
"Well, that's not really true, is it? Don't you have another family in this room?" Henry pointed out, placing his hands on Barry's shoulders. "They need your help too, Barry. When you need me, I will be here, but right now, Central City doesn't need you to be Henry Allen's son. It needs you to be the Flash." He smiled at Barry with pride. "My kid. The superhero." Barry nodded. "I have to go. I need you to tell me that it's okay."
Barry nodded as he and Henry hugged each other tightly, with Barry trying to keep his tears at bay.
Later, S.T.A.R. Labs
"I hope that Henry's gonna be fine." Patty said.
Barry sighed. "It just… it just feels like every time I win, I still lose."
"Well..." Joe entered, showing them the key to the city. "It's not bad."
"No, it's not bad. It's pretty cool." Barry chuckled.
"It's really cool, come on!" Joe laughed before they saw Patty frown.
"What's wrong?" Barry asked.
"Atom Smasher. You killed him." Patty reminded and Barry winced. "Doesn't that bother you?"
"I…" Barry sighed. "I'd be lying if I said "no" but I was trying to keep it together in front of everyone."
"Cisco and Iron Heights are working on the metahuman wing, Barry." Patty reminded.
"I didn't know he was going to die." Barry said.
"It's not like Barry had another choice to stop him, did he?" Joe pointed out as Barry nodded.
"I'd just be surprised if you could shrug off what happened with Rothstein like nothing." Patty pointed out before they entered before entering the Cortex.
"Hey!" Caitlin smiled.
"Hey. Guess what? I added a little upgrade to your suit." Cisco said, showing Barry the new suit with white emblem instead of a red one on his chest as Barry chuckled. "It's just like the one from the future newspaper Gideon showed us. I was thinking, you know, you shouldn't fear the future anymore, right?"
Barry shook his head. "No, and it'll be here faster than we think."
"Well, see, I like it. The lightning definitely pops more against the white." Stein noted.
"And S.T.A.R. Labs is now safer than ever. Increased security and surveillance." Caitlin said.
"Re-coded, double firewalled, electronic lock sets. Nothing is getting through here without us knowing." Cisco said.
"So people can't just waltz in and out of here." Iris said.
"Exactly." Cisco nodded.
"You may want to rethink that statement." Patty said as she and Joe pulled out their guns, aiming at the man, who had just entered as Caitlin gasped.
"For real?" Cisco snapped.
"Stay where you are." Joe ordered.
"Who are you?" Barry demanded.
"You don't know me, but I know you... Barry Allen." The man said.
"Not another step or we will shoot you." Patty warned.
"The man asked you a question. Who the hell are you?" Joe said.
The man stepped out of the shadow, showing his face. "My name is Jay Garrick, and your world is in danger."
Atom Smasher is one of the few occasions that Barry did kill, yet it was shrugged off like nothing, alongside with Sand Demon and Zoom, who technically was left to be turned into a zombie speedster Black Flash at the grasps of the Time Wraiths and yet everyone pretends that Barry is this saint with his hands clean, not even a little bit bothered with Atom Smasher's death, whereas, when Oliver is concerned, Joe and later Iris had issues with him killing and it had been showed before that Iris called Oliver hot in front of Barry, which clearly makes the latter uncomfortable. It obviously shows that Iris shows little to no consideration to Barry's feelings and doesn't care when he is in pain, which is shown with her being fine that Nora had been lying to them from the start and working with Thawne, despite knowing what he had done, not once occurring to her that Thawne might be playing them all and genuinely believing that Thawne had changed, which shows how stupid she is.
My point is, Oliver kills, most people on Team Arrow shout "Help! Oliver is a serial killer and a monster!" And Barry's hands are not clean of blood, he had killed Atom Smasher, Sand Demon and Zoom, yet everyone, especially Barry, act as if Barry is some saint, who can do no wrong.
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.
