Rocky Raymond //Book Two//COMPLETED

Chapter 37- Flash Back

MacKenzie's POV

I'm messing around with one of my gadgets when Cisco walks in with a pile of books for Barry. Then, he drops a few.

"Yo." Barry says from the whiteboard. He's writing equations about speed and stuff.

"Can we please get rid of Jay's helmet?" Cisco asks, putting the books on the desk.

"No, sorry. It keeps me motivated." Barry says.

"Well, it's giving me daymares." Cisco says and he picks the books he dropped on the floor up. "This is everything I could find even remotely related to increasing speed. How are these supposed to help apply the speed equation to you?"

"The answer's got to be here somewhere." Barry says, grabbing a book.

"I think I found something interesting." Caitlin says, walking in. I put my gadget down and start to pay attention.

"Good interesting or bad interesting? 'Cause that word could go either way." Cisco says and I walk over to stand next to him.

"After running some comparative data, it appears that you, Reverse Flash, and Zoom are moving your legs at essentially the same speed." Caitlin says and we look at the monitor with the three speedsters running side by side.

"Then why are they so much faster than him?" Cisco asks.

"Best I can tell, with each stride their feet spend less time on the ground, thus propelling them forward much faster." Caitlin says.

"By almost 30%." Barry says. "Great. All right, well, I got to make up that difference somehow."

"Barry?" Caitlin asks. "Look, after what that monster did, I want to stop Jay just as badly as you do... Right. But what if the reason you haven't been able to run as fast as him yet is because you just can't?"

I believe in Barry, but she's got a good point.

***

Later that night, Barry came back to STAR labs after his dinner with Joe and Iris.

"You mean the old Harrison Wells?" Cisco asks as him, Barry, Caitlin and I walk down the hallway and into the cortex. "As in Eobard Thawne? You want him to teach you how to run faster? Oh, that's rich."

"How are you gonna do that?" I ask.

"By running back to a time last year." Barry says.

"And what about the other you, the one from that other timeline?" Cisco asks.

"I'll knock him out with something." Barry says. "I mean, he's not like he'll see me coming, and then I'll have Wells teach me."

"Barry, that's crazy." Caitlin says.

"Nothing I've read is pointing me towards a solution, and if there's anybody that's figured out the key to getting faster without V-9, it's him." Barry says. "What do you guys think?"

"Your plan is asinine." Harry says.

"Huh?" I ask, looking at Cisco.

"Stupid." Cisco says.

"Oh." I say.

"Did you find Jesse?" CIsco asks.

"Does it look like I found Jesse?" Harry asks. "How many times have you traveled through time?"

"A few." Barry says.

"Do you have any idea how many things you could screw up?" Harry asks.

"All I need is one conversation with Dr. Wells." Barry says.

"He's not Wells." Harry says.

"Thawne." Barry corrects.

"I'm Wells!" Harry exclaims. "This man has been studying you for 15 years... for 15 years... and you don't think he's gonna know who you are?"

"Barry's pretty good at impersonating himself." Cisco says to Caitlin and me. "You should've seen him over there on Earth-2. I was like, 'Somebody get this man an Oscar.'"

"He will know, Allen." Harry says. "He will know."

"All right, then what am I supposed to do?" Barry asks. "I mean, how am I supposed to stop Zoom? Do you know the answer to this equation?"

"If Thawne figures out that it's you, the timeline will be altered." Harry says. "People can die. Others could live, and no one will know who or what will be affected, but I promise you, when you come back, things will be different. And only you will know what those differences are."

"Well, if that's what I have to do to stop Zoom, then so be it, because if I don't, and Zoom gets my speed before I learn how to stop him, everybody I care about, everybody in this whole city... their world will never be the same anyway." Barry says.

Harry leaves.

"Do you really think you can do this?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah, I do." Barry says. "When I went back last year and I saw my mom die, it didn't affect the timeline."

"Yeah, but you haven't really time traveled on purpose like this before." Cisco says.

"I have to do this, you guys." Barry says.

"Okay, let's go for it." Caitlin says.

"I believe in you." I tell Barry and he smiles at me.

"Okay, you're gonna go back to the time when Wells was distracted by the return of the major jackass..." CIsco starts.

"Hartley Rathaway." I finish for him.

"This is the first time we found out Wells knew the accelerator might explode, and we were all angry with him, so anything that might seem odd about your behavior Wells should attribute to that." Cisco says. "Also remember."

"Do not underestimate Hartley." I say.

"He almost killed you." Cisco says.

"This is a tranq dart that should knock old you out for about six hours, which lines up perfectly for when you're going back, because not much was happening until Hartley attacked the Cleveland Dam that night, so that should give you time to learn what you need and return." Caitlin says, handing Barry the dart.

"One more thing. You cannot tell us the truth about Wells." Cisco says.

"No matter what." I say.

"You must keep the timeline intact." Cisco says. "It's gonna be hard to course correct if anything gets altered, so get what you need and come back, preferably to this moment, this exact time you're leaving, or else you might set off some kind of '12 Monkeys' time loop you'll never get out of."

"Mm-hmm." Barry says.

"No pressure." Cisco says.

"Yeah. Cool." Barry says.

"So, we'll see you in, like, two seconds." Cisco says. "Time travel's so weird." They laugh and hug.

"Godspeed, Barry." Caitlin says, giving him a hug.

I give him a hug next.

"I'll be fine." Barry reassures us. "What could go wrong?"

Barry speeds out.

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