"If no pain, then no love. If no darkness, no light. If no risk, then no reward. It's all or nothing. In this damn world, it's all or nothing."
- Glennon Doyle Melton
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3x2 (9yz) 4a
The speed lab of STAR Labs was lit up by yellow lightning. A see through board was filled with many equations while Cisco stood in the middle of the large room, staring at the red blur zooming around annoyed. "Ready when you are, Barry," a voice said and Cisco looked back to see Kara, standing by the computers.
"I'm ready!"
"Are you serious?" Cisco asked and Kara looked at him.
"Come on, Cisco," she said, stepping down from the computers, and towards him, "Just one more."
"She said two hours ago," Cisco said as he faced her.
"You know he's not gonna stop until he makes it through. You know how Barry gets," Kara told him and Cisco rolled his eyes.
"One more," he said.
"Thank you," Kara said, flashing her smile while Cisco faced the exit of the run-around, "Alright, here we go," she faced Cisco just when he opened up a breach, "Three...two...one...now!-"
Barry zoomed out right when the breach closed up, him missing it. Again. "Damn it!" He snapped, "One more."
"Kara?" Cisco said, hinting at her to talk to him.
"Uh, Barry, look, why don't we take five?" Kara said.
"No, not until I get this, alright?" Barry then began to walk back into the run-around.
"Listen, Miyagi," Cisco said and Barry swung back at him.
"What?" He asked.
"I've been here all day, opening breaches, all right, so unless you wanna run your hands together and do some magic shoulder popping-"
"I'm not rubbing your shoulder," Barry said.
"That's what I thought," Cisco said before he began to leave the speed lab, "I'm taking five."
"Hey, come on!" Barry called after him.
"I'm taking five!" Cisco yelled back, his voice breaking.
Barry sighed before he walked over to the board full of equations. "I-I don't understand why I can't get this," he said and Kara followed him.
"Maybe because you've been up all night," she said.
"But that shouldn't matter," Barry said.
"Barry, a breach closes in three picoseconds. DeVoe's could shut even faster," Kara said but saw Barry shaking his head annoyed, "I'm just saying that maybe this isn't the best idea to catch him."
"It's a plan," Barry said as he walked away, heading for the stair steps and Kara followed him, "It's the only one we have right now."
"What if he uses his force field against you? You don't know how to get out of it yet," Kara said.
"I don't know, Kara, but, I mean, we need something," Barry said as he sat down and she sat with him, "We have no leads on the next three bus metas, no way to track DeVoe, no way to stop him. He can't be this smart," he then looked at Kara to find her looking down at her hands, sighing to herself, "I'm sorry, but I mean, we've been at this for months, and nothing."
"Maybe that's the problem," Kara said and Barry looked at her, "Sometimes you have to take a breather and let the answer come to you. Do something else for a bit."
"Like what?" Barry asked and Kara looked at him, a smile on her.
"Like date night?" Kara said and Barry began smiling at her as well, "We haven't had an quality time, just you and me, since our honeymoon."
"Which was severely cut short," Barry added and Kara nodded with a smile.
"I know we're Supergirl and The Flash, but we-"
"We're also Barry and Kara," Barry cut in, and Kara smiled at him more, "You're right. I will make a reservation tonight, someplace very romantic."
"Ooh, sounds perfect," Kara said before she leaned her head against his shoulder while he held her close.
"How is it we live together, work together, sleep in the same bed together, but it stills feels like we don't spend any real time as husband and wife?" Barry asked.
"Allen, Danvers-Allen, cortex, now!"
Kara lifted her head up from his shoulder and awkwardly smiled at him. "I have no idea," she sarcastically said and he chuckled before placing a kiss on her.
———
When Barry and Kara walked into the cortex together, they found Harry, Cisco, Caitlin, Iris and Mon-El standing there behind the computers. "What's this?" Barry asked and they all looked back at the two.
"This is a signature field, mapping every time DeVoe's gone in and out of his lair in the pocket dimension," Harry explained as the couple looked down at the screen, seeing multiple different occurrences.
"All of these?" Kara questioned.
"All of them," Harry said.
"So, how did you do this?" Barry asked.
"I didn't do it, actually. Ramon did," Harry said.
"We just watched," Iris said, gesturing to herself and Mon.
"All I did was just come up with a really complex and eloquent algorithm to track the warping signatures," Cisco said and Harry looked at him.
"Don't do that, all right? Don't do that. Don't be modest. All right? It's unbecoming," Harry said.
"You're unbecoming," Cisco said.
"You wish I was unbecoming, alright?" Harry said.
"Do you know that these are DeVoe?" Barry asked and Harry looked back at him.
"These are DeVoe, alright?" Harry said before he pointed down at the screen, "This is when Marlize grabbed him from Izzy at Lawrence Hills," he pointed at another, "This is when he showed up at Iron Heights prison."
Caitlin cut in and pointed at another one, "This is DeVoe's house."
And then Kara cut in as well, pointing at one she noticed. "And this is the alleyway in the city center, where he abducted you."
"How long has this been going on?" Barry asked.
"Oh, wait for it," Mon said.
"Three years," Cisco answered.
"Three years?" Barry questioned.
"DeVoe orchestrated everything to get the people he wanted on the bus. He's been planning this a long time," Caitlin said.
"We got a planner, just like Thawne," Cisco said.
"Just like Thawne," Harry repeated.
"So, how do we use this?" Kara asked.
"All we can do right now is just wait for the next marker to appear, try to get the jump on him. That and keep an eye on Ralph, using the old buddy system," Cisco explained.
"Has anyone seen Ralph today?" Barry asked.
"No, he's downstairs, moving in. He's very nervous," Caitlin told him.
"I don't know why," Harry said.
"I don't know why either. He's a superhero," Cisco said as he began to back up, "People with powers are ready for anything," he then turned around, "AH! SON OF A BREACH!"
They all turned around to find Jessie and Kara Wells had walked into the cortex, almost bumping into Cisco. "Sorry," Jessie said, while holding an apology cube in hand. "Jessie...Kara," Cisco muttered, trying to catch his breath.
"We just came in through the breach room," Jessie said.
"Hey, Jessie and Kara, welcome back. What are you — What are you doing here?" Caitlin asked.
But when Jessie gestured to the apology cube in her hand, they all looked back at Harry, who was silent, whilst crossing his arms. Suddenly, Barry popped his head out, looking at Jessie confused. "Wally's not here," he said and Kara slapped his arm.
———
Jessie and Kara-2 walked into Cisco's workshop with Harry just behind them. "Uh, you know, an apology cube usually works better when there's an actual apology on it," Jessie said before putting the cube down on a table.
"You get the sentiment," Harry said as Kara-2 noticed the large bulky cap on display.
"What's this?" She asked.
"That is a, uh, mental activity dampener. It's for DA Cecile Horton. It keeps her from hearing other people's thoughts," Harry explained.
"Kinda clunky," Kara-2 said.
"That's what she said," Harry said and she shot him an annoyed look, "Literally, that's what she said. The second version's more streaming."
"What's all this?" Jessie asked, pointing to a board full of equations.
"Those are thoughts, musings. How to stop DeVoe," Harry explained.
"Wow, he's really in your head, isn't he?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, a lot of people are nowadays," Harry said and the two looked back at him, "Thanks to you two."
"I thought you wanted us to come here so we could talk about this," Jessie said.
"No, I want you to stop bringing up your mother," Harry said.
"I will...once you deal with her death," Jessie said.
"I have," Harry said.
"No, you haven't," Jessie said.
"Yes, I have. She died! Years ago, she died. There was nothing I could do to save her. End of story. Life goes on," Harry told the two.
"That's not dealing, that's avoiding," Kara-2 said.
"Dad, when Mom died, you didn't talk about it," Jessie said.
"There's nothing to-"
"Ever," Jessie cut in, "And you've been upset ever since. You've been miserable, and you make everyone around you miserable. I mean, why do you think we asked you to leave our team?"
"Your team's a bunch of idiots," Harry said and Kara-2 rolled her eyes, "No offense. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I came here to stop DeVoe."
"No, you stayed because of DeVoe," Jessie corrected.
"A distinction without a different," Harry said.
"Come on, Dad. There is always going to be some bad guy to stop. Or algorithm to write,"
"Yeah, that's it."
"Or problem to solve," Kara-2 continued.
"Yeah, thats my point. Exactly."
His daughters now stared at him sternly, while he was just doing what he always did. He avoided.
"Look, we didn't want to talk about her death, but we did, and it helped a lot. You are never going to be able to move on with your life until you talk about this-" Jessie started.
"Girls!" Harry snapped, causing the girls to flinch, especially when he began to slam his fist into the nearby desk multiple times, "I can't! I can't! I-" He then saw the looks on their faces and forced himself to calm down, "Look, girls...Your mother...you'll never understand."
"Yeah, I guess we won't," Jessie said before she stormed out.
Kara-2 stared at her broken father for a moment before she to walked out from the workshop, following her sister right when an alarm began to buzz throughout the facility.
———
Kara ran into the cortex to find Cisco, Caitlin, Iris and Mon-El at the computers. "What is it?" She asked before she looked behind the screen.
Right then, Barry, Jesse and Kara-2 entered the cortex as well, looking at the screens. They saw a distress call at a hangar. "Where is that?"
"One of the hangars out at Waid Airfield," Cisco answered and panic filled Iris's eyes.
"My dad said CCPD was escorting ARGUS there this morning for something," She said before she frantically turned to Mon, "He's there."
"It's okay, we'll go," He said before turning to everyone else, "Let's go."
He began to walk out with Barry following, along with Cisco, Jesse and Caitlin. "Okay," Kara muttered before she turned around to be met with her doppelgänger.
"It's okay, I got this," she said and Kara nodded, "Could use the distraction," and just like that, Kara-2 walked out, catching up with everyone else.
Kara turned back to the screens, taking a seat next to Iris. "Looks like it's just us," she said.
Waid Airfield Hangar
Bullets zoomed by, officers were injured, some dead, some hiding because they knew it was too much. One included Joe. He was sitting behind a police car with an injured officer, while the people trying to steal whatever from ARGUS kept shooting at the officers. "Come on, Flash," Joe muttered to himself.
There was a large container in the middle of the hangar, which the bad guys suddenly stopped shooting for. They headed towards it while the leader of the group unlocked it. The doors swung open while fog from the inside escaped it. The leader stepped inside of the container, though it wasn't clear yet as it was what was inside.
"Guys, seven officers and ARGUS agents down. They just blew open the ARGUS transport container. West side of the hangar. One arms assailant instead."
"Got it!"
The assailant unmasked to reveal themselves as a woman. She marched up to a large metal box inside before she placed a device on it. "Come on," she muttered and soon enough it opened, revealing inside a device that glowed with very light blue electricity, "It's ready." But she suddenly stopped when she heard commotion outside.
She turned and walked out of the container to find all her guys were down. All their weapons were confiscated, all of them in a pile nearby. Next to them were Vibe, Killer Frost, Mon-El, Supergirl-2, and Jesse Quick.
The woman slowly walked out, having eye contact with the heroes while officers stormed in, guns pointed at the bad guys. "Stay down! Hey! Hey! Move! Move, move!"
"Just you and us now," but she didn't have to turn around to know it was The Flash.
"Nice work, everyone," and by the sound of her voice, they all knew Kara was smiling in relief.
"It's over," Flash continued and finally, the woman turned around, facing the hero.
"For all of Central City," she said, while pressing a button on a remote she was holding.
He quickly zoomed up to her, just to see what it said, wanting to stop her, but it was too late.
NUCLEAR DETONATION:
ACTIVATED
Everything around him was frozen, he was going so fast it was like time had stopped but he was the only able to move around. He slowly turned back towards the container to see whatever was inside, was glowing blue, powering out. "No," he muttered as he began to walk towards the container, taking his cowl off in the process.
Barry now looked down at the device, realizing it was a nuclear explosion. "Barry..." He turned back to find Jessie behind him, a worried expression on her.
"We're too late," he said before Jessie stepped next to him, looking down at the device.
"Oh, that's a nuclear bomb," she said.
"I know," Barry said.
"And it's core has already gone critical," she continued.
"I know," Barry said.
"The second we slow down, it's over," she added and he looked at her annoyed.
"I know," he said and sensing his tone, Jessie looked at him, "That's not helping." The two then looked back down at the bomb.
"Well, how long do you think we have?" She asked.
"We just have to keep moving till we figure out a way to stop it," Barry said as he stepped back a moment, trying to collect his thoughts.
"Oka- Okay, we could run it to the Badlands," Jessie said, looking back at him.
"No, if we run that long, it'll speed up the reaction. We won't make it outside the city before it explodes," Barry told her.
"Well, we can't run everyone outside the city," Jessie said.
"I know," Barry said.
"We're talking hundreds of thousands of people. I mean, if there were more than just the two of us, but there's not enough time," Jessie said but gave Barry an idea.
"Wait, that's it. Jay Garrick," he said but Jessie raised an eyebrow.
"What about him?" She asked.
"Uh, he might know what to do. Go to Earth-3, get him, bring him back here as fast as you can, okay?" Barry said and immediately, Jessie ran off.
Barry then slowly walked off out of the container, and looked at everyone. But he found himself glancing over at his friends. Vibe, Killer Frost, Mon-El, Supergirl-2. He sighed before he headed for Vibe. "I need you right now, man," he said before placing a hand on Vibe's arm, which caused an electric circle to surround them for a moment, and disappear once Vibe began to move. He pointed at where he just saw Barry, then back to where Barry was, right besides him. "Hey-"
"Whoa, what is going on?" He asked.
"You're moving with me at super-speed," Barry answered.
"What?" Vibe asked, chuckling in amazement, "Is this what it looks like when you run?"
"More or less," Barry said as Vibe glanced over at Killer Frost.
"I have to say, it's a little uneventful," he said.
"Hey, come with me," Barry said before the two headed over into the container where Vibe saw what was going on.
"I'm guessing this out Ark of the Covenant," he said.
"Something like that, yeah," Barry said.
"Whoa," Vibe muttered, looking down at the bomb, "Yeah, that will definitely melt your face," he then pointed at it, noticing some things, "That- That looks like an experimental fission engine, deuterium isotopes. That would make this an inertial confinement cage to stop the radiation. But with enough pressure, the isotopes inside, they split, they produce heat, they produce light. It turns out blue, turns yellow, turns purple, and then it's game over."
"Just please tell me there's a way we can undo it," Barry pleaded.
"I think we're way past that point," Vibe said.
"We have to do something," Barry said.
"I- What if- What if I breach it to a dead earth, like I did with Fallout?" Vibe asked.
"Of course, yeah. That's a great idea," Barry said.
"Alright, let's do it," Vibe said before the two backed up a bit.
But everytime Vibe tried to breach, the energy of it couldn't ever reach the bomb. "What's wrong?" Barry asked.
"I think I might be all breached out," Vibe said as Barry realized why it wasn't working, "I-I don't know, I think I breached one too many times today."
"No, that's not it," Barry said and Vibe looked at him, "A breach is a folding of space-time, right, so when we're moving this fast, we-"
"When we're moving this fast, when we're moving in Flashtime, then we don't have the time necessary for a breath to form," Vibe continued onto Barry's statement.
"Exactly," Barry said.
"Then that means I can't," Vibe began, but he started breathing heavily, "That means I-I can't-" But he began to stumble around, having a hard time breathing.
"Hey, hey," Barry said as Vibe stumbled back into the wall, Barry's hand still on him, "What's wrong?"
"I don't know," Vibe said but Barry quickly realized.
"You're not a speedster. Your body can't handle moving this fast very long. I gotta let go, alright? Come here," Barry said before he zoomed them over back to the spot Vibe was in before.
"Wait," Vibe said before Barry let him go, "Ask Harry. He'll know."
"Alright," Barry said before he let Vibe go, and he went back to being frozen in place with everyone else, "I hope so," he then zoomed off.