17.0 time travel
I watch as Barry works on his speed equation. Cisco walls in, and drops some books on the ground. He puts the ones he has down on the table next to me and says, "Yo. Can we please get rid of Jay's helmet?"
"No, sorry. It keeps me motivated," Barry says.
"Well, it's giving me daymares," Cisco says as I silently agree.
"This is everything I could find even remotely related to increasing speed," Cisco says as he picks up the books on the ground, handing them to Barry. "How are these supposed to help apply the speed equation to you?"
"The answer's got to be here somewhere," Barry says as I sigh, looking back at the book I was reading.
"I think I found something interesting," Caitlin says as I stare at the pages of my book, eavesdropping.
"Good interesting or bad interesting? 'Cause that word could go either way," Cisco comments.
"After running some comparative data, it appears that you, Reverse Flash, and Zoom are moving your legs at essentially the same speed," Caitlin explains.
"Then why are they so much faster than him?" Cisco asks.
"Best I can tell, with each stride their feet spend less time on the ground, thus propelling them forward much faster," Caitlin says.
"By almost 30%," Barry sighs. "Great. All right, well, I got to make up that difference somehow."
I look up at Cisco and Caitlin as they give me a look. I shake my head as they sigh looking at Barry.
"Barry? Look, after what that monster did, I want to stop Jay just as badly as you do..." Caitlin trails off.
"Right."
"But what if the reason you haven't been able to run as fast as him yet is because you just can't?" Caitlin asks.
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"Hey," I say to Harry. "You know Jesse is gonna be fine." Me, Harry, and Mom are having dinner together at my house. Harry had gone to find Jesse but came up with nothing and decided to have dinner with us.
"I know," He says. "I just miss her."
My mom puts her hand on his shoulder. "She'll be fine, Harry. She's a strong girl," She tells him. Harry looks at her and nods.
I take a drink of my wine as my mom asks, "So, how has it been going since I was away?"
Me and Harry share a look. "Umm- it's been going... okay," I say.
"Jay's Zoom," Harry says coldly.
"Harry!" I scold. "You could've eased into it."
He rolls his eyes as we look at mom. "We'll be fine," I assure her.
"We should've seen it coming," Harry says.
"You?" I scoff. "With Dad- or Thawne- last year, I can't believe I didn't see it."
"Hey, Jay seemed to be charming," My mom tells us. "From where I stand, no one could've seen that coming."
"Right," We both say sarcastically in unison.
"So how has committment been treating you? Where is commitment anyway?" Harry asks me pointedly, and my mom slaps his arm at the question. He waves her off and looks at me with a raised brow.
"He's having dinner with Joe and Iris today and It's actually going great," I say proudly. "Commitment is much easier than I thought."
"Only when you have the right person," My mom comments, making me blush. I open my mouth about to say something but suddenly, Barry speeds in.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt... but Liv? I need you for a minute," He says. I get up and walk over to him. He pulls me aside and says, "I think I know how to get faster, I need you to come to S.T.A.R. Labs with me super quickly."
I look back at Harry and Mom, who are laughing at something, then turn back to him. "Okay," I nod and he speeds me out of my home.
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"You mean the "old" Harrison Wells? As in Eobard Thawne?" Cisco asks. "You want him to teach you how to run faster? Oh, that's rich."
"How are you gonna do that?" Caitlin asks.
"By running back to a time last year," Barry says.
"And what about the other you, the one from that other timeline?" I ask.
"I'll knock him out with something?" He suggests. "I mean, he's not like he'll see me coming, and then I'll have Wells teach me."
"Barry, that's crazy," Caitlin says.
"Nothing I've read is pointing me towards a solution, and if there's anybody that's figured out the key to getting faster without V-9, it's him," Barry says. "What do you guys think?"
"Your plan is asinine," Harry says.
"I thought you were-"
"I hear you two talking, and your mom happily let me leave," He says interrupting me.
"Did you find Jesse?" Cisco asks.
"Does it look like I found Jesse?" Harry asks coldly. "How many times have you traveled through time? A few. Do you have any idea how many things you could screw up?"
"All I need is one conversation with Dr. Wells," Barry says.
"He's not Wells," Harry yells.
"Thawne."
"I'm Wells!" Harry yells. "This man has been studying you for 15 years... for 15 years... and you don't think he's gonna know who you are?"
"Barry's pretty good at impersonating himself," Cisco says. "You should've seen him over there on Earth-2. I was like, "Somebody get this man an Oscar.""
"He will know, Allen. He will know," Harry says. When Barry looks at me for support, I sigh.
"He's gonna know," I tell him softly.
"All right, then what am I supposed to do? I mean, how am I supposed to stop Zoom?" Barry asks. "Do you know the answer to this equation?"
"If Thawne figures out that it's you, the timeline will be altered," Harry says. "People can die. Others could live, and no one will know who or what will be affected, but I promise you, when you come back, things will be different. And only you will know what those differences are."
"Well, if that's what I have to do to stop Zoom, then so be it, because if I don't, and Zoom gets my speed before I learn how to stop him, everybody I care about, everybody in this whole city..." Barry says. "...their world will never be the same anyway."
"Um... Do you really think you can do this?" Caitlin asks once Harry leaves.
"Yeah, I do," Barry says. "When I went back last year and I saw my mom die, it didn't affect the timeline."
"Yeah, but you haven't really time traveled on purpose like this before," Cisco says.
"I have to do this, you guys," Barry says.
"Okay," I sigh. "Let's go for it."