Secret ⇶ Barry Allen

thirteen [the puzzle pieces fit]

Barry was pacing the floors of Big Belly Burger, several glares were sent his direction but they remained unnoticed. The speedster continued pacing, continued annoying the costumers in the fast food restaurant. "You know, if you keep pacing someone might just throw you out." Ellie Miller called the young man she determined as Mr. Barry Allen.

"Ellie Miller?" Barry turned to the unknown voice, a girl with highlighted blonde chin length hair and grayish-blue eyes beckoned him to sit at the corner booth. The girl didn't look older than Barry, they were the same age. The girl nodded saying, "Then that makes you the elusive Barry Allen?"

"So, uh, I'm Barry Allen." The slim young man nervously extended his hand while the other rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, but he quickly retracts it back to his body. "But you already knew that." The forensic scientist chuckled nervously and threw a soft smile to the blonde in front of him.

"How about we grab something to eat?" Ellie offered, a sigh of relief escaping Barry. "So tell me about yourself, other than being a forensic scientist. How did you meet Lauren?"

Barry looked up from eating his fries, "Uh, we met when a friend of mine, Iris, begged her dad and I to reopen the case involving Eric Hall." Barry told Ellie, he took a bite from his greasy burger. "How do you know Lauren? What do you do as a living, seeing that you know what I do, even though I never told you that. Are you stalking me?"

"It's a long story, but we met in school. I'm a private investigator, and no I don't stalk you. I only know that your a forensic scientist because Lauren told me."

"What do you know about Lauren's... After work activities?" Barry said, struggling to find the phrase that says 'Hey, I think that your friend works for a secret society that involves in trying to punish the world.' But without giving anything away.

"If your referring to the RIP thing? I already know." Ellie leaned closer as she told Barry. Barry gives Ellie a questioning glance, clearly confused that she knew. "What kind of private investigator would I be if I didn't even realize my close friend works for a secret society that just destroys lives?"

"True, but how did you learn about the RIP?" Barry asked after swallowing his burger.

"I started tracking down 'E.M.' I noticed the small things, like their shoe size and what direction they pointed when they left the crime scene. All the shoe marks, I guess E.M. wasn't as careful enough, pointed north, to what I later found out as a secret hideout. And being the overly curious person that I am, I infiltrated the society. While pretending to hate people's the world, I learned more about the society. Through this society, I later learned that it was the RIP headquarters. I got to see my old friend from elementary school, Lauren Locke."

"Wait, what?" Barry asked, his brain still processing the given information.

"So I got into the society, then when I was tracking E.M. I noticed that it was a woman, the shoe size proved it-I bet you didn't see the shoe print in all those horrible taken pictures- the shoe was a six and a half. Just like someone I know. Then once E.M. started killing off more victims I noticed how the victims were all scientists, that had to mean something right? Well it did. It revealed a huge clue, but you would only know that it was a big clue if you knew E.M."

"The killings happened every year or two. But between Eric and the precious kill, it was a significant time gap. How do you know so much about E.M?" Barry noted.

"Did you know Lauren's birth name isn't actually Lauren? It's Eveline. And her last name isn't Locke? It's McZuller?" Ellie asked, confusing Barry.

"What are you getting at?" Barry questioned, slowly grasping onto the full meaning of Ellie's words.

"Do you also know that Lauren's-or should I say Eveline's?-father died of dementia? She went mad, her dad was the only thing that she had left. She even convinced herself that it was a chemist, a male one to be exact, that was the cause of her father's death. Did you know that Lauren has a shoe size is six and a half?"

All the 'Do you know?' questions were fired at Barry, making the scientist at a loss of what the young woman in front of him was trying to tell him. "What are you getting at?"

"Can't you connect the dots?" Ellie leaned over the table, confused how Barry wasn't putting the pieces together. "The Lauren Locke you know isn't who you think, she's E.M."

"I can believe that, her stories were different, she wasn't constant. But she seemed so genuine." Barry said, not believe what he was learning.

Ellie rolled her eyes at the supposed best forensic scientist. "She made one - two if you include joining RIP, that place corrupted her - mistakes, and all they ever will do is backfire. Doesn't she know the-"

"Villains never win." Barry finished for the blonde. "Exactly." Ellie pointed her finger as a 'I got what you mean and you got what I mean' gesture.

"How did you learn that? Disney movies?" Barry asked teasingly.

"Partly from experience, partly from Disney, and mostly from Once Upon A Time." Ellie replied with a hundred percent honesty. "But your probably wondering why I think my ex-best friend is the murder. Firstly, every piece of evidence eventually point to her. I bet you that she gave you a flash drive?" Barry nodded, finally getting to the point. "Well that's no ordinary flash drive it's-"

"It's a Memoria Dimirti Flagel. Yes, I know." Barry once again interrupted the blonde.

"How? That tech is rare and hardly known by anyone."

"I have connections." Barry said, smiling to himself thinking about his friends.

"Let me guess, blonde, glasses, is in love with Oliver Queen but won't admit it?" Ellie asked the shocked speedster.

Whispering, "How do you know about her?" Barry immediately questioned.

"I'm not stupid, I hack computers and Felicity is the best computer know-it-all out there. I know her, but she doesn't know me. We once had a computer battle, it was over some classified information, it was really fun. I won. I bet she's still mad." Ellie laughed, thinking about the girl raging on the other end of the computer.

"No way, your the Caliber, Felicity would shut up about you beating her, she was mad. I bet you'd like her if you met her face-to-face. You remind me of her, kinda." Barry laughed at the memory or the red faced computer nerd ranting about being beaten by some 'bearded man living all alone in Russia,' Ellie was no bearded man. "Okay so how do we stop Laur- or should I call her Eveline?"

"We?" Ellie raised an eyebrow in a questioning manor.

"Yes, I'm gonna need all the help I can get to show that Laur- Eveline- is guilty. I'm not going to let some grieving, vengeful, man magnet walk around Central City." Barry declared, determined to bring justice to all the men who suffered.

"Okay." Ellie agreed after thinking through the situation. "I'm not letting a psychotic lunatic who's stuck on her father's death walk around and not be put behind bars." Ellie stated determination in her voice.

"Than it looks like we have a partnership?" Barry stuck out his hand for the private investigator to take.

"It looks like we do, Mr. Allen."