broken
part one
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eight months later.
LIFE HAD SLOWLY gone back to normal for the S.T.A.R Labs team. While most of them were still broken from what happened eight months prior, they all put on brave faces and continued to show up to work every single day.
Cisco and Anna had taken the events from eight months ago the hardest. Anna wasn't the only one who lost HR and Shannon, the whole team had, but she and Cisco were the ones that had the closest relationships with both people. Shannon, of course, was Cisco's girlfriend and Anna's best friend. HR was Anna's uncle and Cisco had looked up to him like a father figure or even an uncle.
HR had gone down a hero and did something so courageous that it made the team proud even though they had lost someone they loved dearly. Shannon had been killed in cold blood before she fully got a chance to live. The world would never know her acts of courage as Rupture, but the S.T.A.R Labs team would always remember even if it hurt them to do so.
After HR had died, Anna had travelled to Earth-19 to find his niece and family. When she had found them, Anna had explained who she was and where she came from before they got the chance to bombard her with questions. It broke her heart to watch the family fall apart before her eyes and it was even harder to keep herself from crying along with the people she loved on Earth-1. Earth-19 Anna had crumbled to her knees and let out a sob that made Anna want to throw her arms around her and hug her, but she held her ground and remained respectful.
After Shannon's death, Anna and Cisco had gone to meet up with Shannon's parents. Neither of them had known about their daughter's powers or her superhero alias, but they soon learned after Anna and Cisco walked them through every single detail. The part that hurt the most was telling them their daughter had been murdered by two speedsters who looked exactly like Anna and Barry. Mr. and Mrs. Gates could hardly keep themselves together. Shannon's mother had dropped down onto the sofa with a hand clamped over her mouth as she cried, while Mr. Gates had stared off blankly at a wall with tears streaming down their faces. Cisco and Shannon had said their quick apologies, wished their condolences and left before they fell apart themselves.
HR and Shannon had both been buried in Central City not too far from each other. Mr. and Mrs. Gates had bought a plot of land at the cemetery for themselves when they passed, but a fresh grave with their daughter inside took it up instead. HR had no one on Earth-1 besides the team so, without giving it a second thought, Anna had him buried on the family plot where Elizabeth was buried. Their funerals were days apart, but it gave the team the closure they needed to keep themselves together.
Anna woke with a start as soon as Shannon's scream echoed through her head. She sat up quickly, clutching her chest as her heart raced and slammed against her ribcage. She looked around the dark room and practiced the breathing her therapist had taught her; inhale sharply through her nose, exhale softly through her mouth, and repeat. Anna reached out and rested a hand over Barry's chest as he slept peacefully, closing her eyes as his heart thumped rhythmically against her palm.
Just days after Shannon's and HR's funerals, Anna and Cisco took it upon themselves to sit through therapy sessions together. Each day, they grew closer together and their pain slowly subsided as they poured out their feelings to an older woman with salt and pepper hair. It was hard finding a therapist willing to see them both at once for something other than couple's therapy, but Dr. Lynn Reid had happily accepted.
"Grief," the therapist had said during Anna's and Cisco's first session together after they had asked her to fix them, "is the way your body shows how deeply you cared for someone after you lose them. Grief is not a bad thing, but a thing that reflects how human you are. You are not superhumans, you are just normal people. Grief can be healed, but you don't have to be fixed."
Anna closed her eyes and rested her head against the pillow again, repeated her breathing exercises over and over again. She turned her head and looked at the clock, exhaling deeply at the time which told her sunrise would be happening soon. Anna slipped out of bed and slid into the blue fuzzy slippers Barry had gifted her for Christmas last month. She grabbed a cardigan from the back of her makeup table chair and slid it over her arms, wrapping it tightly around her.
Before leaving the room, she paused by Barry's side of the bed. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to his cheek and kept her lips against his warm skin for a second longer than normal. "I love you," she whispered and stood up straight, glancing at his rising and falling chest before leaving the room to head to the living room.
.: ｡
THE SUN STARTED to poke through the curtains in Anna's living room around 6:30 am. The sun's rays casted the perfect amount of light over the blueprints in front of Anna and the light was at the perfect angle so that it didn't blind her. Anna was on her third cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and hadn't stopped flipping through the blueprints of the S.T.A.R Labs museum that she had drawn up based on the notes she found with HR's things after her died. It had taken Anna three months to find the proper team for the construction project and she had to go through a lot of paperwork to prove she owned part of S.T.A.R Labs, but after 5 months, the repairs to the outside had been finished and the inside was almost done. The only thing left to do was figure out the inside layout for all the exhibits.
"Why do you want your old suit?" Cisco asked in a drowsy voice once he picked up Anna's call. His voice was muffled, meaning his head was probably buried deep in his pillow. "And, yes, I do still have it. But why do you need it?"
"The museum is almost complete, Cisco. I'm making a Swift and The Flash exhibit and I need my old suit," Anna said and chewed the back of her pen as she analyzed the blueprints in front of her. After a few seconds, she heard Cisco's heavy breathing and soft, muffled snores coming from his side of the call. "Cisco Ramon!" She snapped.
"Yup, I'm here," Cisco mumbled lazily. "Meet me at the lab. I'll dig out yours and Barry's old suits," he said before hanging up the phone.
Anna smiled softly and scribbled 'Swift and The Flash Exhibit' onto a section of the blueprint that had been boxed off by white marker at the back of the room adjacent to the door entering the "Hall of Heroes" area — HR's and Rupture's exhibits stood front and centre in that room. "I hope I'm making you proud, HR."
"Why are you up so early?" Barry asked from behind his girlfriend. She glanced over her shoulder at him as he walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Barry leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head before nodding toward the blueprints on the dining room table. "More planning?"
"Almost done, actually," Anna replied and slumped back against the chair, resting the back of her head against Barry's chest. "Cisco's giving me our old suits so I can hand them over to the construction workers to finish off the last exhibit."
"That's great, babe. I'm proud of you," Barry said and pressed another kiss to Anna's head before walking toward the kitchen. He grabbed Anna's empty mug and carried it to the sink, rinsing it out. "Shall I make you another hot chocolate?"
Anna hummed and nodded in response before diving back into the blueprints once again. She stood up and tilted her head at it, a smile tugging at her lips as her eyes washed over the white boxes that each had a label. In the main area just inside the door was the check-in desk, along with some holograms that displayed glimpses of the different exhibits. Directly off from the main foyer was a hallway with different doorways labelled for each new area. The first room was labelled Gadgets which contained all the weapons and gadgets they had taken from previous metas they had defeated as well as some of their own tech that had been crafted, but never used. Next was the Hall of Villains room which was filled with plagues and displays that gave quick, but detailed, descriptions of the villains they had overcome. At the very back of the room that would only be filled after the final battle, was a box that was labeled Alacrity and Savitar. Two empty mannequins would stand in the empty box, waiting to have suits slid over them once the two speedsters were taken down.
After the Hall of Villains room, there were countless other small rooms full of extra information about the speedsters, other heroes and heroes, as well as trivia games and first-person games where could play as the heroes that Cisco had designed and perfected. Finally, was the Hall of Heroes room. Inside that room was reserved for the best of the best. Swift and The Flash would be on the left wall with a large exhibit that had a holographic screen outside with pages upon pages of articles written by Iris West.
At the back of the room, there would an exhibit with an In Memoriam plague hanging above in. Inside the glass case would be Rupture's olive green vest and her back goggles with glowing olive green lenses. To the left of Shannon's accessories stood a pedestal with HR's hat and drumsticks that Anna had kindly handed over to be kept safe forever. On Shannon's right would be Eddie Thawne's badge along with his gun and other things he had used before he died. In front of those three sections would be a holographic screen with facts about each hero that the team had lost, and outside on the glass of the exhibit, was a golden plague with a thank-you note written on it that was written out by Swift and The Flash, thanking those three heroes for everything they had done.
Central City had lost two heroes within minutes of each other — one of which they hadn't even gotten to know, and the other was someone they hardly got to see. HR and Shannon would never be forgotten no matter how long they were gone. They were heroes, and heroes deserved to be remembered.
.: ｡
TWO WEEKS AFTER Anna had made the final adjustments to the museum blueprints, it was soon time to open after the construction workers had finished placing everything inside the glass casings — everything except Alacrity and Savitar's suits that Anna still had to acquire.
Reporters and news outlets swarmed the new main entrance of S.T.A.R Labs, desperate to get a look at the new museum that Anna had funded thanks a hefty loan and some some fundraising that Swift and The Flash had "conveniently" showed up to and had donated to — it was almost like she was robbing the public by using her alter ego to coerce people into donating, but she has to do whatever she could to get the museum built.
Anna squeezed through the main entrance doors and shut them quickly behind her before any reporters could squeeze inside. She locked the door quickly and closed her eyes, exhaling a breath and thanking the gods that she had the doors made with frosted glass so no one could see inside. "You're all so needy," she whispered and adjusted her jacket that had been shifted around uncomfortably as she slipped through the crowd.
"Good morning, Ms. Wells," Gideon called out over the speakers, causing Anna to jump at the sudden greeting. "My system is perfectly up and running thanks to Mr. Ramon. I can now be accessed anywhere in the building with a single shout for my name."
"Oh, Cisco, you always outdo yourself," Anna said softly and looked around the completed main reception area. The front desk had two screens on top that would be used to take care of the fee for the day pass and family pass. Joined on to the front desk to the left was a counter where you would pay for any souvenirs or treats picked up from the small food court to the right of the room before entering the hallway for the exhibit rooms.
On either side of the front desk were glass display boards with holographic words displayed on them. They were only three feet in width and about five feet tall, but they both displayed information regarding the museum and each exhibit. Anna watched the screen to her left, eyes narrowed as she waited for one specific slide to appear.
Once Alacrity's slide appeared, Anna clenched her jaw and took a step toward the glass screen. At the top of the screen was Alacrity's name in large white letters. Under that were empty square sections, waiting to be full of information. At the top of the screen, directly under Alacrity's name, was a low-quality picture of her blurred face, red hair and glowing red eyes that a security camera had caught somewhere in the city.
Anna stared at the screen, anger coursing through her veins. She felt lightning ignite inside her chest, aching to be used for the first time in months. She was going to destroy Alacrity even if it took every ounce of power she had in her. Alacrity had taken enough from Anna, and now Anna was going to do anything to stop her.
"Ms. Wells, I'm detecting familiar activity outside the building," Gideon suddenly spoke up from overhead, breaking Anna out of her anger-fuelled trance. "I sense Speed Force particles outside. Are you expecting Mr. Allen today?"
Anna glanced down at her watch — Barry was at work. She clenched her jaw and turned toward the frosted glass doors, watching as the shadows of reporters dispersed on the other side. "No. Not yet," Anna replied and clenched her hands into fists, feeling her lightning creep up her arms. "Gideon, call in the team."
As soon as the words left Anna's mouth, the frosted glass doors shattered, sending shards of glass all over the freshly tiled floor beneath Anna's feet. In the doorway stood Alacrity, her red hair flowing in the wind as she came to an abrupt stop. Red lightning curled around the speedster's feet and ankles as a wicked grin tugged at her lips.
"Guess who's back."