When Worlds Collide

Where It All Begins

My name's Barry Allen, and right now I'm feeling pretty damn good! I can feel the wind whipping past my face and the electricity working it's way through my veins, pulsing with new energy. The lights of Central City look beautiful tonight and a huge smile works it's way onto my face. I mean, we even have Eddy back! Which is a long story consisting of me accidentally going back in time to before Eddy was killed, and needing his help to get back to the future without changing the past, then having to tell him that he died, and bringing him back to this time. After he came back he and Iris quickly relit the spark and picked up where they left off, but I don't care! I only have one girl on my mind. I haven't felt this good since Zoom showed up, but now? Now I have new hope that I can beat him. "Barry! Come in man, that was so frickin' cool!" Cisco exclaims through my comms, drawing a laugh from Harry, and Caitlin.

"I know Cisco! Maybe. . .Maybe I can do this!" I can feel my smile grow and I can tell from the silence on comms that the others are smiling with me. For a second I let my mind wander to Earth 38, something I don't normally let myself do. I wonder what Kara's doing. Is she feeling this good? Is she thinking about me?

"Barry. Barry? Barry!" Caitlin calls through my earpiece, snapping me out of my blissful yet painful thoughts. My smile fades. Just a little.

"Yes Caitlin?" I ask through the comms, trying to sound innocent. I didn't want them to know that I had been spending those zoned out seconds trying to remember the lips of the perfect girl. The girl who lives on another Earth. "What is it?"

Caitlin clears her throat, hoping her voice will come back to her. She always does that when she has concerning news. "Get back to STAR labs. Now." My heart skips a beat and I turn to run in the direction of STAR labs. I race through the door and into the epicenter where Caitlin, Cisco, Harry, Joe, Iris, and Eddy were staring at a screen. 

"Barry, get over here." I nod and head to where Harry is standing. Caitlin points to a screen and shows me thermal video footage of a rift opening, a speedster running through it, and the rift closing. 

"So there's another speedster?" I ask, turning my attention to the swarm of scientists around me. 

"Not exactly," Caitlin starts, putting on her worried face. "That speedster, is Zoom." Her eyebrows pulled together forming a crinkle. Cisco looks at the screen determined, in an almost un-Cisco-like way. Harry just looks like Harry, you'd have to know him a lot better to even know anything was wrong. 

"But, why . . . ?" I ask, getting cut off before I can even finish.

"Do you have any friends in other worlds? Besides the ones we know, I mean. Do you?" Caitlin asks. "We think Zoom might be going after them." I think back to Earth 38,  and Winn, Alex, J'onn, and the DEO agents. Then I think of Kara, and I nod. I race to the cortex to start a rift, but Cisco grabs onto my arm before I can.

"We're coming with you." He insists.

"What? No-I" Iris and Joe grab onto my arm as well, then Eddy, and Caitlin. I sigh and usher them into a STAR labs van and brace myself to run, pushing the van in front of me. Cisco harnesses me in and I run, the van breaking the wind as we all hurry through the rift. Once the rift is closed behind us, I drop to my back on the desert floor as my friends rush out of the van and onto the sand behind me.

"Barry, are you okay?" Iris asks, dropping to her knees beside me, while Eddy stands over her.

"Better than okay!" I say smiling. "I missed Earth 38! I really missed Earth 38! I love our Earth, our Earth is my home, but man-" I start to laugh as the others stare at me smiling. "Earth 38!"