In A Blink ➳ Barry Allen/The Flash

23.

chapter twenty-three ; realistic sense of deja vu

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Barry leaned against the computer desk early the next morning at S.T.A.R. Labs while the rest of the team discussed their current threat that was Mark Mardon.

He had stumbled through the previous evening, scared out of his mind. It was like he was living some sick nightmare. When he had stopped in the intersection, Cisco's concerns spilling over through the ear com and Natalie's worries shocked him back to his twisted sense of reality and he did everything the same as he had done before. Though this time he was a bit jumpy and timid, everything happened almost exactly the same way. The coroner was killed by hail, Eddie revealed Mark Mardon's voice on the morgue's audio recording, and he had walked Natalie home only to talk about her concern about Iris.

"Clyde Mardon has a brother.." Caitlin said in disbelief as she stared warily at the screen of the two brothers' mugshots. Her voice pulling Barry from the madness in his mind. He drank up every little detail, knowing what was going to happen, dragging his hand across his face trying to wake up from his very real sense of deja vu.

"So both Mardon brothers survived the plane crash," Dr. Wells said as he wheeled in, "And the dark matter released affected them both-

"-in virtually the same way." Barry mumbled as Dr. Wells uttered the words himself. Shifting himself in the chair, Dr. Wells turned a wary eye on Barry as he stared at the screen.

"Only Mark's not like Clyde at all," Barry said, staring at the screen but his mind seeing the images of the tidal wave heading towards the city. Running, the power pumping his legs forward. "He can do things you can't even imagine," he said, trailing off.

Cisco tilted his head and smirked, "You mean he's sort of like a-"

"-Weather Wizard?" Barry said, joining Cisco in his trail of thought. He stared down at the floor, remembering the events that had previously happened, reliving the day over.

The smirk on Cisco's face fell, "Yeah.." He took a long sip from his slushie and clutched his head in pain.

"Trigeminal headache?" Caitlin and Barry asked. Caitlin brows furrowed as Barry crossed his arms, his mouth slightly agape as he predicted what was happening.

"Mr. Allen, a word with you please?" Dr. Wells asked as he started to wheel away, Barry trailing after him. "You ruptured the continuum didn't you," he concluded as he led the way into the training room, "You're experiencing temporal reversion. How long?"

Barry quickly shut the door behind them all of his confusion and panic pouring out as he stumbled over his words, "Uh a day and some change. It's like I'm living it all over again."

Dr. Wells focused on his legs as he clenched his hands, trying to grasp a hold of what was happening, "Okay. Okay, that's good. That means there's not too much you could have messed up yet." He quickly looked up at Barry, his face stoning over, "How did this happen?"

Clutching his hands together in an attempt to control the panic that was taking over his body, Barry frantically shook his head, "I-I don't know. I mean, I was running, faster than I've ever ran before.. The first time that I lived this day some really horrible things happened. And there was a tidal wave-"

"No, do not tell me. I do not want to anything about the future you experienced," Dr. Wells exclaimed, desperate to get Barry to stop rambling. "Nothing!"

Barry sighed and shook his head, "Dr. Wells I-"

Dr. Wells put his hands up stopping Barry, "Time is an extremely fragile construct. Any deviation, no matter how small, could result an a catastrophe. Here's what you are going to do.."