My eyes are scanning the room for something to hit the clone with when Barry runs into STAR Labs, his eyes widening at the sight of Black. That's when I grab him to keep him from charging at the clone.
"Barry, it's okay," Caitlin says.
"It's not okay! Black's here, and he's just standing there.........." Barry's voice changing from anger and fear to confusion. "That's not him is it?"
"It's one of his replicates," Wells answers.
"How'd you get it?" Barry asks us and Caitlin beams with pride.
"I grew him. I isolated a sample of Black's blood from your suit to see if I could trigger the in vitro cultivation process and learn how Black multiplies. So I exposed the target cells to a protein gel, and they began replicating...into that."
"I honestly think he broke the petri dish he was in," I mutter and Barry finally smiles a little before poking at the clone.
"Why isn't he doing anything?" Barry asks, waving his hand in front of Black's face.
"We did a brain scan," Dr. Wells says. "Involuntary motor functions are active, little else.
"We think it's acting as a receiver," Cisco adds.
"The clones are an empty shell without Black." Caitlin starts.
"Shut down the real Black, and you might shut them all down." I finish and Caitlin throws a grin in my direction.
"But how do we know which one's the real Danton Black?" Barry asks.
"That occurred to me given your own passing out," Caitlin says. "Black has limits, just like you. Controlling all of those clones must require a tremendous amount of physical strength. So, look for the one showing signs of weakness or fatigue."
"He'll end up being the prime," I finish, typing rapidly on the computer to try and get a location on the prime.
Just a theory... But one you might want to put to the test, Mr. Allen," Dr. Wells says.
"Plus, I whipped up these high- calorie protein bars for you to keep your metabolism up," Cisco says.
Then, out of the blue, the clone starts moving right towards Caitlin. She screams and I push her behind me instinctively to shield her from the clone but when three gunshots ring out, I find someone pulling the two of us away from danger.
"Anymore of them?" Joe asks, lowering his gun.
"Nope!" Caitlin responds as Barry who had pulled us out of the way looks at me, nervous. I nod, signaling I'm okay and he slightly relaxed. "Why did it start moving?" He asks.
"The prime," Dr. Wells realizes. "The prime must be on the move and this one heard the summons for battle."
"I know where he was summoned," Joe says. "Stagg Industries."
"You should call it in," Barry says.
"Police can't fight this," Joe answers. "What Black's become, like Mardon... Beyond me. Maybe way beyond them, too. The only person it's not beyond is you. You gotta do this. I get it. So for once in your life, do what I tell you to do. Go stop him, and do me a favor and take Rani with you."
"Wait what?" Cisco asks and I look at Joe, shocked.
"After you walked out of the Stagg Industries warehouse with barely a scratch, I did some digging," He says. "Turns out your description matches the description of a dark haired, brown eyed Starling City vigilante who mysteriously disappeared about ten months ago. Fought under the alias Karma."
I let out a small smile, running my hand through my hair nervously, remembering my line from the field. "You can call me Karma....yeah those were the days."
The team looks at me shocked and almost so surprised it's offensive, but I shake it off, knowing right now we have bigger problems.
"I'll explain everything once this is over," I say before heading towards the exit of the cortex. "Because right now we have bigger problems."
"Rani, where do you think you're going?" Cisco asks.
"If you're gonna fight a war Cisco, you gotta wear a uniform," I reply, smirking, before walking out the door.
"I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE!"
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"Karma? Rani, are you in position?"
I sigh, sliding down the stairs from where Barry left me to find myself in front of Stagg's office.
"Yeah I'm here Cisco," I say before nearly slamming ungracefully into one of Black's clones. "Annnnd......so are they."
Black charges and I throw an electric bolt that grabs him and I swing my hand, sending him skidding down the hallway.
Barry whooshes by and brings Stagg up to his office. I lock the door and barricade it the best I can before I look over at Barry.
"You ready?" I ask.
He looks at me, the confidence back in his eyes. "Let's do this."
I smile and latch my grappling hook on the railing and leap over the bar, my fall slowed by the rope and I land on my feet, somehow still in one piece. You have no idea how many time's I've messed up that landing. And how many times Felicity has caught it on camera. It's embarrassing.
Barry runs down next to me and we finally noticed the sheer number of clones that Black's created. One starts running towards me, but I throw him back with a bolt of electricity.
"We know Stagg stole your research, but that doesn't give you the right to murder." I hear Barry say, most likely to another clone. (A/N: No Rani, he's talking to the janitor.)
A gunshot goes off and the other clones around us race into action. I look over at Barry to make sure he's okay just to see him speed matrix a bullet.
He'll be fine.
"You two think this is about my job!" The Black behind me says, before charging. I dodge his punch and sweep out his feet before moving on the next clone.
"This is about Elizabeth," a clone says, much farther away from me. I slide under the punch of another clone while leaping onto another and using my momentum to throw him to the floor. "She was my wife."
I leap aside just as a clone fires at me, instead, taking out one of his own. I twist the gun out of his hand and hit him with the butt of it as hard as I can.
"She had a degenerative coronary disease." Another says, his voice echoing from the center of the building. "She'd been on the transplant list for years, but...time was running out. So if I couldn't get her a new heart....."
"You were going to grow her one." Barry realizes. I flinch at the sound of a gunshot and duck into a hallway, dropping its magazine at my feet and throwing the pistol at an incoming clone, before tackling him to the ground. I grab him with the electricity in the wall.
"I was so close. Until Stagg stole my research. So he could reap the glory. And I got to bury my best friend." Black says from the center of the building.and his face seems like he's been hit with the freight train called reality. "Now... I'm alone."
To be honest, my heart ached for this man. Barry took advantage of Black's moment and I shook myself, running back beside him before skidding to a stop, desperately trying to process the sight of Black duplicating himself into dozens of clones.
"Anything like this happens in Starling?" Barry asks me and I scoff.
"Honestly? I've had more crazy happen this week than my entire time there," I say, charging up my hands and blasting the initial line of clones aside. "And that's really saying something." And for about 15 seconds, it works. But then, we both get overrun.
All either of us can feel are fists slamming into our sides and faces. One of them strikes me hard on the back of my knee, sending my straight to the ground. I can hear the other's talking to Barry and I in my ear, but I can't focus on the voices with the punches.
Almost instinctively, my hand charges up with whatever electricity I have left in me and I slam my hand to the ground, sending out a shockwave that knocks the clones above me unconscious. I force myself up on my elbows to see more charging up to me and I can't do anything other than brace myself for the worst.
Yet it doesn't come. All at once, the clones fall to the floor and I pull myself up, groaning as my muscles ache from the pain.
"Barry, Rani?" Cisco says over our earpieces.
"I'm fine," Barry replies and I see him flash to the railing, checking if I'm alright. "We're okay. It's done."
Then I see a figure behind Barry drop and the two of us just watch as Black falls to his death, unable to do anything but stare. My hand flies to my mouth as he hits the ground and I flashback to Starling City, when I was the one who almost fell.
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"Rani don't do this," Oliver coaxes.
"Don't you get it?! I killed them, Oliver. There was a father who won't be able to see his son turn five, a brother who's going to miss his sister's graduation, a son who isn't going to be able to see his mother tend to his garden. I didn't give them a chance to live, so why should I?"
"That wasn't your fault Rani," Sara says, cautiously walking up to me before wrapping her hands around my shoulders and pulling me into a tight hug as the tears fall down my face. "They were too far gone when we got to them. If you hadn't stepped up, all three of us would be dead."
"There's always another option," I say between sobs.
"That, Rani is life's great lie." Oliver sighs. "When it counts the most, there is no option besides the one you choose. And that's the one you have to live with."
"And if I can't?"
"You don't have a choice. Because we aren't giving up on you Raymond."
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"Rani, Rani!" Barry says, shaking me out of my trance. His worried emerald irises meet my darker, clouded ones. "Are you okay?"
"I will be," I sigh. "But first I have some explaining to do."
A/N: Hey guys!!!
So I am desperately sorry I didn't update last week. I've been extremely busy with school and I needed to solidify Rani's backstory. It took a darker turn than what I expected.....but.....yeah.
But now that I've got an idea for what her past and character is, I should be pretty consistent!
Unless I get lazy of course.....there's nothing that anyone can do for that.
But thank you for reading, and I'll hopefully see you guys next week!
Silver Arrow out!