The next morning, at the Ferris Air Testing Field, Cisco walked out of the parked STAR Labs van to find a confused Joe and Wally approaching the scene. "Mr. West, Mr. West," Cisco said as he began to approach some equipment with the two following.
"So, what are we doing out here, Cisco?" Wally asked.
"It seemed an appropriate venue. We've had good luck here before," Cisco answered.
"Why do we need good luck?" Joe asked.
"Because...we're bringing Barry back," Cisco again answered.
"Cisco, Kara said-"
"I know what Kara said, Joe," Cisco said before he placed something at the equipment, then faced Joe and Wally again. "I also know Barry said everyone would look to me and her after he was gone. Kara isn't doing anything, so look to me. Four of us, we can do this."
"What do you mean the four of us?" Joe asked.
"Hi, Joe."
Wally and Joe turned around to find Caitlin very cautiously approaching them. "It's okay," Cisco assured as Joe stared her down. "She's Caitlin again, our Caitlin. She's here to help us. So, what do you say?"
Joe looked at him for a moment, pointing at him. "You better be right," he said.
"I am," Cisco said before he turned back to the equipment. Joe then turned back to Caitlin who approached him fully.
"Joe, I know that I can never make up for the things that I did to you, to Cecile. I just hope— I just hope that one day you can forgive me," she apologized and Joe sighed before smiling.
"Come here," he said, gesturing for her to hug him. And she did.
After the hug broke, Joe slightly chuckled. "Let's bring everybody home today, okay?"
"You got it," Caitlin said.
"So how are we gonna bring Barry back without blowing a hole in the, uh, world?" Wally asked.
"Ha!" Cisco exclaimed before he walked over to a covered up equipment. "In the spirit of bringing back old friends, may I present the Speed Force bazooka." He then yanked the cover off revealing the Speed Force bazooka standing on a type of stand. "I made a few slight modifications, as Captain Solo would say. Caitlin and I spent all of last night working out some kinks, fine-tuning the Quark Sphere."
"What?" Joe asked.
"The Quark Sphere," Caitlin said and they looked at her to see her throwing around a small red ball. "...filled with Barry's unique genetic marker," she handed the ball to Wally before she started to head for the tent and van. "...and programmed to track his specific DNA, using the electrical current of the Speed Force."
"Once we track Barry and we pull him out, the Quark Sphere will trick the Speed Force into thinking he's still there," Cisco explained as he hooked up the bazooka to some things.
"Hey, Wally," Caitlin called out from the tent and he looked back at her. "Can you put that on the center pylon?" Wally zoomed off to put the red ball where she asked then zoomed back.
On her screen, her readings started to whir up almost immediately. "Ready."
"Let's bring our boy home," Cisco muttered to himself.
"Quark Matter scanning electrical current," Caitlin informed as red ball started aggressively shaking, glowing, then rising into the air. "Triangulating Quark Matter on his location." The wind blew harsh as her computer caught a target. "I've got a lock on something."
"It's him. It's him!" Cisco yelled.
"Now, Cisco!" Caitlin yelled and Cisco blasted at the floating, glowing ball. This caused the same kind of portal that showed up when Barry disappeared. But a few seconds it went away and nothing or nobody was there.
They all looked at each other frowning, but suddenly scared for their lives when Kara landed from flying behind Caitlin. She didn't look as mad, but disappointed.
STAR Labs
Kara angrily followed Cisco through the corridors into his workshop with Caitlin, Joe and Wally following. "I can't believe you did this behind my back. Again!" Kara snapped.
"You would've tried to stop us," Wally said.
"Because it's a waste of time," Kara said as Cisco looked over his calculations on his computer.
"This should've worked," he muttered.
"Or it could've killed us all," Kara added and Cisco tried to keep his mouth shut. "Like I said it could have done. The first time!"
"I actually think we were pretty close," Caitlin added, and Kara slowly looked at her, immediately causing Caitlin to regret saying anything.
"We?" She asked. "Last time I checked, you've been MIA for the past seven months."
"She was only trying to help," Cisco muttered.
"We need to concentrate on stopping this Samurai guy, who's trying to destroy the city, not on Barry," Kara stated.
"Dude!" Cisco snapped as he looked back at her and she looked at him as well. "What is your deal?" Joe stepped to the side for a moment when he got a call from Cecile. "It's like you don't even want him back."
Kara's eyes and eyebrows were full of clear fury, and was about to say something. "Hey, hey, hey!" Joe yelled, pointing at her, knowing she was going to say something very bad. "Cecile, can I call you back in a minute? We're in the middle of something here ——— what?"
Central City Police Department
Kara, Joe, Wally, Cisco, and Caitlin all followed Cecile as she led them towards a holding room. "State police picked him up on the 112 outside of Ivy City," Cecile informed.
"That's three-hundred miles away," Joe said.
"Yeah, one of the cops is a Keystone vet. Recognized him," Cecile said.
"I knew it would work. I knew it," Cisco said before Cecile stopped outside of the room.
"You should prepare yourselves," she warned before she slowly opened the door. Kara was the first to walk in, desperate, but she was slowly stopped when she saw what consumed the room.
On the walls was just odd symbols, and in the middle was someone drawing them, sitting down like he was a child. Kara stared at him tensely as the rest of them walked in. She couldn't believe it, it was actually him. "Barry?" Kara asked, her breath shaking and cracking. Barry turned back to face her and his friends, but he was different. His hair was longer and had a full on beard going on. He just continued to smile at everyone as tears developed in Kara's eyes. He got up, keeping his eyes on Kara when she whispered, "Barry."
His smile dropped when he gave Joe an odd look then his eyes back on Kara. "Emma and Nora shouldn't be here," he said, his words to Kara in seven months, and that's what he said. But Kara stared at him confused, shaking her head.
"Emma? Uh— your mom isn't here, Barry. Neither is Emma. It's...It's me, Kara," she told him, but this just made him confused. "You're home."
He then looked at Cecile, his eyes pleading. "Your Honor, I'm innocent. I didn't do this. I didn't kill anyone," he then looked at Joe, pointing his finger to the ceiling. "Can you hear the stars singing?" He then held onto his head, frustrated, as if there were too many thoughts at once. "Rhyming, chiming, timing, every hour, every minute." He then angrily looked at Joe, pointing at him accusingly. "You said the city was safe, that there was no residual danger, but that's not true! What really happened that night-"
"The city is safe," Kara suddenly intervened and Barry snapped his attention at her. "You saved it. You saved us all."
She smiled as he smiled down at her, hope shredding in her for the first time in a long time, that she brought him back to her. But it faded when he almost immediately started talking nonsense again. "Stars melting...like ice cream, dream, gleam," he said before he placed his hand over his mouth, as if he was so frustrated and scared. Kara watched him as he walked over to the window for a moment. "Nothing seems— Emma and Nora shouldn't be here."
"I'm guessing this isn't just shock," Joe whispered to Caitlin as Barry walked over to one of the walls again.
"Shock results from a drop in blood pressure. This is neurological," Caitlin whispered back.
Barry backed away from the wall, as Kara stared at him more concerned than she had ever been. "It's a whole new way of looking at physics," he geeked out, looking back at Kara. "It will change the way that we think about everything, from a single atom to an entire galaxy." He suddenly clutched onto his head, and dropping to the ground in pain. "God!" Kara covered her mouth in agony, having no idea how to help him. "Stars so loud! Loud, cloud, proud!" He then stared at the ground with love in eyes, and agony in his tone. "Dad and I are both okay. We're gonna be fine." He then stood up again and stared at Joe. "I'm just not sure I'm like you, Oliver."
"We need to get him back to STAR Labs, now," Caitlin said to Joe as she now held a tranquilizer. She approached Barry, who faced a wall again, and injected him with the syringe, which almost immediately, he began to back up, passing out.
STAR Labs
After Caitlin walked out from the med bay and into the watching area, Joe asked, "What's the diagnosis? Does he have brain damage or something?"
"He's actually scary healthy," Caitlin said as Kara, Wally and Cisco stared at her as well. "His neurotransmitters are functioning at five times the normal speed."
"Then what's wrong?" Kara asked.
"I have two theories. One is that he's suffering from a form of schizophasia. That's where you assign the wrong definitions to words," Caitlin explained.
"So, from his perspective, all that nonsense he's saying makes sense?" Joe asked.
"It's too bad we don't have a translator," Wally said.
"No, but we can make one," Cisco said.
———
Everyone followed Cisco out into the cortex, where he had been scanning the symbols Barry wrote everywhere. "If his brain's schizophastic and these symbols represent different words, he could be sending us a message, and we just need the right algorithm to decrypt it," Cisco explained, staring the screens.
"You said you had two theories," Kara said before she turned to Caitlin. "What's the other one?"
"We know that the Speed Force exists beyond space and time. To us, Barry was only in there for seven months, but to him, it could've been ten-thousand-years. All that time in isolation, it could've caused dementia. That may be all of him that's left," Caitlin explained and Kara stared at her taken back.
"So how do we find out which one it is?" Joe asked.
"I could decrease the sedative, wake him up," Caitlin said and Cisco suddenly turned back, pointing at her.
"I think I've got the perfect song for that," he said and Caitlin eyed him.
———
Everything seemed faint, and the only thing that could be heard was Lady Gaga's Poker Face playing in the background. Two figures stood over him, arguing. "Are you sure this is appropriate?" The female asked.
"Yeah. It's a good luck charm. I mean, it worked before," the male said.
"Last time, he was in a coma, not a pan-temporal extra dimension," the female said.
"Well, waking up to Gaga shouldn't seem too freaky," the man said.
Caitlin and Cisco slightly backed up as Barry slowly fluttered his eyes open. "Hey, Barry," Cisco said and Barry looked at him. "Hey. It's me, Cisco, AKA Vibe, BKA your BFF. Yeah. Hey, buddy." But Barry hadn't said anything, waking up still. "Hey. While you were gone, I made you a new suit. Do you wanna take it out for a spin?"
"The stars are raining," Barry muttered and Cisco cringed. "Draining. Paining. Too soon." He got up from the bed, clutching onto his head. "I think maybe later. No, thank you. I'm not hungry." He then looked at Joe, almost crying. "He didn't do those things. He didn't hurt my mom. I was there that night. There was a man, plan. No plan." He looked at a clear wall and started distressingly laughing. "We're gonna need more diapers."
He got a marker and started drawing symbols as Cisco chuckled awkwardly. "Diapers," he muttered. "You keep drawing, buddy. You keep drawing. I'm gonna figure this out."
"Caitlin," Joe whispered.
"I don't know," Caitlin whispered back as she examined Barry's behavior. Kara just kept quiet, watching Barry act so distranged, and it utterly broke her heart.
"Guys, can I get the room for a moment?" She whispered and very quickly, everyone left. Kara slowly approached him, wiping a tear away. "Barry...I...I don't know if you can hear me, or if you're trying to send us a message somehow." He just continued to write his symbols and Kara choked on a small little sob. "I did what you told me. I kept running, I kept moving forward, because I knew that if I stopped to look back, I would remember you weren't behind me anymore. And it's been so hard. I pushed Alex and Iris away, punished them for something that I was feeling. But eventually, I accepted you weren't coming back. So when Cisco said that he could bring you back, you know, I didn't know what to think. What if it didn't work? What if you were dead? I mean, I thought it would be like losing you all over again. I never imagined this, though." She slow walked next to him, to see him so focused, he didn't even know she was there. "I don't know what I would do if this is all that's left of you, if this is all that's left of the man I know and love. Please come back to me. Tell me you're still my Barry." She then hugged onto him, and by her touch, he looked at her. He started vibrating and Kara stepped back. "Guys?" He zoomed off and Kara ran after him.
When she got to the cortex, she saw Barry was zooming around and around, completely out of control. "Breach him into the pipeline!" Kara yelled as Cisco ran in as well.
"He's too fast!" He yelled.
Suddenly, Barry was blasted down by an ice blast. Kara and Cisco eyed him nervously before looking up to see Caitlin walked out of her old office, holding a cold gun. "Expecting someone else?" She asked.
"We need to get him in a containment cell before he does that again," Joe said as he walked over to him. Kara stared at the man she once knew sadly until the sound of the computers beeping pulled her attention away from him.
"Samurai's back," Caitlin said as she walked up to the computers.
"More like Samurai jackass. Nope, that's a rough draft," Cisco said as he followed her.
"It hasn't even been a full day yet," Kara said as Wally got up from being knocked down by Barr. "He said he'd level the city if we didn't bring in The Flash."
"Well, let's give him what he asked for," Wally said as Kara looked back at him.
Streets of Central City
The Flash, Wally in the suit, zoomed up to the Samurai who was walking by himself, while Supergirl landed next to him. "You wanted me," Flash said and Samurai looked back at the two. "Here I am."
But after a few fight moves and the Samurai was able to push The Flash down, Supergirl down with him, he knew. "You're not The Flash," he said. The Flash stood up and zoomed at him, but the Samurai grabbed him, and threw him against a dumpster.
Without a moment to blink, the Samurai then threw his sword into The Flash's leg, causing him to scream out in pain. "Wally!" Supergirl yelled before she quickly got to her feet. The Samurai pulled the sword out from his leg, then kicked him towards Supergirl, who stared at him in distress.
"If I don't get the real Flash by nightfall, this City comes down." He flew off and Wally watched him go as Supergirl leaned down, trying to see if he was okay.