I wake up in the morning to the sun shining in my eyes. I groan as I turn over in bed wanting to cuddle into Barry, but feeling an empty space beside me. I sigh as I open my eyes and turn to look at the ceiling. I get out of bed and take a long shower, letting the hot water run along my back to wake me up. Once I was out of the shower, I was fully awake and got dressed in a cream-colored crop top and a pair of light wash short overalls. I buckle one suspender and let the other hang off. I do my makeup and curl my hair, then I put on studded earrings and put a gold dipped amethyst necklace around my neck, letting it hang around my neck. I put on converse, grab my phone, and my keys, and I head to S.T.A.R. Labs. When I get there, I see Caitlin sitting at the desk typing away. "Hey, Cait." I say as I take a seat next to her. "Hey, Tori." she says with a polite smile as she glances at me quickly, then turns back to the monitor. "Where is everyone?" I ask her as I look around with furrowed brows. "Barry and Cisco went somewhere with higher levels of residual trans-dimensional energy to open a breach. Harry, on the other hand, I have no clue where he is." Caitlin says and I nod.
After a while, the three walk into the Cortex and I see Cisco a bit shaken up. "What happened out there?" I ask as I look at Barry. "Nothing." Cisco says as he walks away and I look at Barry confusingly. "I don't know. We tried to open the breach with the goggles Wells re-vamped and he was doing it, but then stopped." Barry says and I nod. "Well, maybe he just needs a little talking to. I'll see what's up." I say as I start to walk away. "Tori, wait." I hear Barry call me as I stop in my tracks in the middle of the hallway and turn to him. "Yeah, Bar?" I ask him as he walks up to me. He wraps his arms around me and kisses me by surprise, but I kiss him back. "What was that for?" I ask him as he pulls away. "Nothing. Just wanted to do that." he says and I chuckle as I peck his lips and walk over to Cisco's workshop to see him working on the goggles. "Hey there." I say and Cisco turns to me. "I'm really not in the mood to talk, Tori." Cisco says as he turns back to his work and I walk in a bit further. "Ok, but that doesn't mean I can't give it a shot." I say as I take a seat beside him.
"What's going on? Why didn't you wanna open the breach?" I ask him and he sighs.
"It's just... It's hard to explain." he says.
"Ok. Then don't." he looks at me confusingly.
I use my telepathy and see him looking at his Earth-2 self, and him feeling like he would become Reverb. I stop reading his mind and frown as I look at him. "Cisco." I say with sympathy as I hug him tightly. "You will never be like him. You're kind, sweet, smart, and an amazing person at heart. He was just a cruel person who was selfish. You're selfless. You'd do anything for us just like we would do anything for you." I say to him and he pulls back. "But when he had felt that power, he said that he felt powerful and that he was like a god." Cisco says. "You and I both know there's only one God in this universe, and in any universe in that matter. But, just because you have these powers doesn't mean that you'll become him. When I learned about my powers, you were there for me. You were there for me when Barry was pissed about me keeping it from him. You were there for Barry when he learned new abilities. You were there for all of us, and we're all here for you because we're all family." I say as I put my hand on his shoulder and he smiles. "I may not be a fan of opening a breach to bring Zoom back in this earth, but when Barry has his mind set, he never goes back on it. He's stubborn. So, you wanna put these on and give it one more try?" I ask him and he nods with a smile. "Let's do this." he says and I nod.
We make our way out of the workshop and head into the Cortex to see Harry add something to the emblem on Barry's suit. "Hey. Cisco's ready to give it another shot. What's going on?" I ask as I look at Harry confusingly as Cisco walks up to him. "Harry's adding the speed enhancer to the suit. It's gonna be hidden behind the emblem in Barry's suit." Caitlin says and I nod. "You're all set. You won't even know it's there." Harry says and I could confirm that the device wasn't visible to the naked eye. "Because whoever said aesthetics aren't important?" Cisco says. "Not me. Let's go." Harry says and I look over to Caitlin. "Hey, Caitlin." Barry says to her and she looks over to him. "I know this is gonna be hard for you, but we have to stop him." Barry says to her. "I know, and I want to be supportive. I just... I can't face Jay. Whatever his real name is." Caitlin says and I look at her confusingly. "What does that mean?" I ask her and she looks between Barry and I. "Well, you remember when I was looking for his doppelganger, right?" she asks and Barry and I nod. "Yeah. I mean, you couldn't find him." Barry says to her. "Because there is no Jay Garrick on this earth. His doppelganger's name is Hunter Zolomon." she says to us.
"Hunter Zolomon? Are... Are you sure?" Harry asks and we turn to look at him.
"Yeah, why?" Caitlin asks.
"Well, because on my earth, Hunter Zolomon was a convicted serial killer." Harry says as he types something on his meta-human tracker and a news article from Earth-2 appears on the monitor. We all, apart from Harry, look at the picture in shock as we see Jay have long blonde hair and a long blonde beard along with a crazy look in his eyes. "That's Jay?" Caitlin asks as she looks at the article in shock. "No, that is Hunter. Last public photo of Hunter Zolomon. Instantly recognizable to people from my earth. On my earth, serial killers are an anomaly, so a lot of media attention to this... There was a podcast" Harry says. "When Hunter was 11, his father killed his mother right in front of him. Father sent to prison, Hunter grew up in the foster care system." Harry continues to say. "Years later, he was convicted on 23 counts of murder?" Barry reads the article and I widen my eyes. "23? That's, like, some real Hannibal Lecter-type level." Cisco says and I nod in agreement. "After the trial, Hunter was sent to the St. Perez Mental Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Given daily electroshock therapy to cure him of his urges, and then faded from view." Harry says.
"Until the night your particle accelerator exploded." Caitlin says.
"That's right. The dark matter crept into the mental asylum. I'd thought piping the explosion underground would limit exposure. I was wrong, all it did was create an unstoppable monster." Harry says.
"He's not unstoppable." Barry says and I look up at him. "Jay doesn't know that we know who he really is. He thinks that his past is a secret."
"So?" I ask him.
"I think I have an idea of how we can stop him." Barry says.
*~*~
After Barry had told us his idea, he and Cisco would open the breach, we would all hide in the time vault until Barry was able to stop him. "Are you sure Jay can't get in here?" Iris asks Harry as we walk in. "Pretty sure. But just in case..." Harry says as he holds up the gun and gives it to Joe. "How do you use this?" Joe asks Harry as he stares at the gun. "Alright , so you aim it and then you pull the trigger." Harry says and I try to hold in a laugh at the response. "Smart-ass." Joe says and I roll my eyes as I look at Iris. "Barry and Cisco are in position." she says as she, Caitlin, and I stare at the tablet in her hands. "Let's hope this thing works." Caitlin says and I nod in agreement. "Be careful, Bar." I mutter under my breath. We then watch as we see the two Speedsters speed through the city. "Zoom's gaining on Barry." I say as I look at the tablet and bite my lip. "He can't catch him." Joe says. "Better not." Harry says and I nod in agreement. We suddenly see Zoom get close to Barry, then Barry accelerates his speed as he activates the speed enhancer. "That was close." Joe says as we watch. "Too close." I say as I continue watching. "The tachyon device is working." Caitlin says and I nod.
"Yeah. Here they come." Harry says as he and Joe take position in front to the vault door and aim the guns at it.
I look back at the tablet seeing the two Speedsters head straight for S.T.A.R. Labs. "They're here." I say and Iris, Caitlin, and I stare at Joe and Harry. We watch them head to the basement where we had trained Linda. We see them speed around only for Zoom to stop when the cardboard cutout of his father appeared in front of him. Barry then punched him and I smiled as I watched. "It's working." I say as I look at Iris and Caitlin. Barry speeds away, and Zoom was about to chase him, when he was stopped by a cardboard cutout of his mother. Barry then shoots the boot at Zoom and it zaps him. Once Zoom was on his knee, Barry takes his mask off showing Jay, but his real name being Hunter. Barry pushes him down as Hunter stares at Barry, "How did you figure out who I was?" Hunter asks Barry as he takes his mask off. "You made a mistake. You told Caitlin who your doppelganger was." Barry tells him as the five of us watch the tablet. "I had to do something to get her to stop trying to fix me. She's a smart girl." Hunter says and Barry chuckles. "And that I was Zoom?" he asks Barry again. "The Velocity-Nine. When you run fast enough, it turns a speedster's lightning blue." Barry says to him.
"We would've helped you. We would've done anything we could to save your life." Barry tells him.
"Not everything." Hunter says.
"Caitlin found you a cure!"
"A temporary one! I'm dying, Barry! There's only one thing that can give me what I need."
"And you just don't care how many lives you destroy tryin' to get it? How many people you kill?" Barry yells angrily, something I hadn't seen in a while.
"No, I don't! That feeling was taken from me a long time ago."
Barry stands up and turns to walk away from Hunter, "We're not so different, you know. What happened to us when we were kids?" Hunter says and Barry turns to face him. "You could've just as easily become me." Hunter says to him. "No. I'd never become like you." Barry says to him with a glare. "I gotta say..." Hunter says as he stands up, "... that was smart using my parents against me." he continues to say and he sighs. "Family. Such a weakness." Hunter says to Barry. "Not for all of us." Barry says to him. "Well, that's where you're wrong. It's time I get what I came for." Hunter says and Barry chuckles. "You're not getting anything from me. You're not getting anything from anybody ever again. On any earth." Barry tells him. Hunter mutters something under his breath that seemed to be inaudible for us to hear. "What did you say?" Barry asks him. "You can't lock up the darkness." Hunter says in Zoom's voice as his eyes turned pitch black and blue lightning surrounded him. Hunter vibrates his hand and breaks the boot off of his leg, then speeds out. Barry then speeds after him, but I know that Hunter was long gone from here.