It's Like Thunder ⚡︎ Barry Allen

29

The success of Barry getting his speed back was short lived.  I remembered the voice I heard whispering before and I turned to Barry with a solemn look. "I know who Psykik is." Barry's and everyone else's smile dropped and another thought crossed my mind.

"Turmoil!" Barry, now able to hear my thoughts again, flashed the both of us down to the accelerator, where the metas were held. He opened up the cell for Gabriel and stood back in shock.

"He's dead," he announced. I shook my head.

"But how? This was designed so metas couldn't use powers in there. How did he get through to him?" I asked, baffled at the concept.

"I- I don't know," he admitted. He put a finger to his ear to check comms. "I have to go," he ran off and I stood there looking after him helplessly.

"What happened? I'm, I'm here," Cisco wheezed as he ran in. I stepped aside to show him Turmoil and he groaned. "Another one? This Psykik guy is going all American Psycho on us," he shook his head.

"I know his name." Cisco gave me a big smile.

"That, my dear friend, is useful. Let's go search him up," he waved his hand in a gesture for me to follow and we went to go see Caitlin and Wells in the Cortex.

"You know his name?" Wells asked.

"Michael Weiss. I can't remember anything else about him but his name. But I-" I stopped and thought carefully about my next few words.

"What? Do you have a police file or something?" Wells prodded. I shook my head 'no.' He stared at me in disbelief, but at least I wasn't lying.

"Michael Weiss, sent to Central City Psychiatric Facility- ah, I see it now- because he went crazy after the explosion. Said he could see all, and he knew all, but he died. It can't be him," Cisco refuted my theory.

"I know who I saw," I pushed. "It was that man," I pointed to the mug shot on the computer screen. Cisco held his hands up in defense.

"If he's dead, then how can he be talking to all these people? And killing these guys? We have at least three or four dead metas on us now, and an evil Arielle look alike who knows all our secrets. I know a lot of crazy stuff has happened, but are we really going to believe in ghosts now?" he laughed nervously. I gave him a hard look. "I- I'm just kidding, I don't know anything. We'll figure it out," he lightly punched me on the arm and walked out of the room. If the matter weren't so serious I would've laughed.

I bid a farewell to my teammates and rushed home. I had the faintest idea of what to look for, and once I got home I found it exactly where I thought it would be. I put it away in my tiny hidden vault for safekeeping, not knowing the next time I'd take it out.

⚡︎

"Thanks for helping us out, Oliver. I really appreciate it," Barry expressed his gratitude to the pair in front of us. They came back to Central and had met up at Jitters for thank you to Oliver and Diggle, but Diggle was the only one who seemed to care.

"Anytime, Bar," he replied. By he, I meant Diggle. Oliver still wasn't too enthusiastic about the team up.

"I'm glad you got your speed back," was all Oliver said to him. I saw the underlying tension in his shoulders. Curious, I closed my eyes felt around astrally for the water in him, working my (literal) magic to relax his muscles. I opened my eyes to see a freaked out Oliver. "What did you do to me?" he asked, not even looking at me.

"I could actually feel the tension in your shoulders and I thought I'd help."

"How did you do that?" Barry whispered to me. I shrugged.

"I don't know. But I'm finding out that there are endless possibilities to what I can do with water," I laughed. I saw Iris come over with our drinks and she started smiling uncontrollably around Oliver, causing him to crack a smile.

"Barry, can I speak to you?" she spoke through her teeth and pulled him aside. I laughed at the conversation I heard them have and turned my attention back to the vigilante and his bodyguard in front of me.

"I appreciate what you're doing for Barry, Arielle," he thanked me. "I understand you've been through a lot now. I prefer not to do such team ups, but if you ever need anything then call. I'll gladly do something for you in return of the favor of relaxing my muscles like that," he laughed, rubbing his shoulders. I smiled.

"Such relief causes the release of oxytocin, boosting your mood. You live out in the dreary, dark and gloomy Starling City. Sometimes you need to lighten up," I offered him my advice. He nodded.

"I say that from the start and get nothing out of you, but one weird little water massage and all of a sudden you're a ray of sunshine?" Diggle scoffed. "Figures." I let out a loud laugh, causing my boyfriend and Iris to return back to us.

"Where's Eddie?" I asked, not having been called into work for a while. Just a couple days. Joe had something to do with it, I think. Iris's face fell and she looked between the two of us.

"Barry didn't tell you?" I shook my head, confused. "Eddie was shot."

It took a while for her to explain and me to process, especially when she cane and whispered to me how the Flash was still meeting up with her. She told me how she was a badass and the Flash came too little too late. I put on a fake apologetic look while fuming inside. First he kisses Felicity, then he continues these little meetings with Iris? I was starting to question if he ever actually did feel anything for me. I felt like second best at most. He knew what was coming.

Oliver and Diggle headed back to Starling, the exchange of hugs and handshakes being brief. After they drove out of sight, I began to walk away from Barry.

"Babe. Murray. Arielle, wait!" he called after me. I stopped but didn't look at him. "What happened to 'there are bigger things to deal with,' huh?" he asked breathlessly. I could feel where this conversation was going to go and decided to stay silent. "I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry that I can't make great decisions to save my life. I'm sorry that everything I do just hurts you now. Okay? I don't know what else to do, though," he was panting now and I shook my head.

"First Felicity. Then Iris? Are you even over her?" I asked impatiently. The look on his face said it all. I didn't need a psychological bond to know what he was thinking. "I take it back. I take it all back, everything. I don't want this anymore. I thought we found our own space, our own bit of peace amongst all this crap, but I was wrong. No more Team Cash from now on. It's either you, or it's me," I laid it all out for him, ignoring the feelings he was pushing onto me.

"You don't mean this," he said with tears in his eyes.

"I think I do," I corrected him, walking off, my heart aching.

"So you broke up with him?" Eddie asked me. I was sitting next to his hospital bed, leaning against the short railing. He was a little high from the medicine, but still able to hold a decent conversation.

"Yeah. I think so. He just kept keeping secrets, and I'm tired of it," I told him, knowing full well I was keeping the secret of his sister being alive from him. And the fact that I was his sister. He frowned at me for a second before suddenly getting the biggest grin on his face.

"I want to propose to Iris," he announced with slurred words. I laughed,

"You sure, bud? Joe will kill you," I warned. He shrugged.

"Bullets can't stop me, obviously. What harm could there be?"