⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

CHAPTER FIVE
find the prime

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

JULIET STOOD IN her lab with Barry a couple days later. Multiple boxes of doughnuts that Barry had eaten were strewn across the table. Juliet had managed to steal one, but she still couldn't believe how much Barry had to eat to keep his metabolism up. Also, he didn't gain any weight because of his enhanced metabolism. Totally unfair.

The two of them were going over the two shootings that had happened in the gun store and at the award ceremony. Footsteps were then heard, and Juliet looked up to see Joe walking into their lab.

Barry sighed. "Come to yell at us again?"

"Simon Stagg's head of security was murdered last night," Joe revealed. He handed Juliet plastic evidence bag. "The coroner took some skin samples. Hopefully they belong to the killer. See if you can find a match."

"I don't think it's much of a coincidence that someone working for Stagg was attacked last night," Juliet admitted.

"I'm going to interview Stagg now."

"I'll come with you," Barry offered.

"Your job is in here with Juliet," Joe stated. "Stay in here and do it."

Iris then walked in. "Hey, dad."

"Hey, baby." Joe kissed her cheek as Juliet began to open the evidence bag. "Gotta go."

"Why is my dad mad at the two of you?" Iris asked, setting her coffee down on Juliet's desk.

"Work stuff," Barry answered, joining Juliet's side as she placed the swabs into the tester. When Iris didn't say anything, the two of them turned to look at her. "Why are you mad at us?"

"You two were supposed to meet me at Jitters to give me some scientific background for my article."

Juliet wanted to slam her head against the wall. "Oh my God, I'm an idiot. Barry, we're idiots. Why are we so forgetful?"

"And now I have to come up with a new article topic in twenty-four hours or I fail the assignment," Iris voiced.

"Iris, we—" Barry began.

"Don't say that you're sorry. Okay, I know that you are. What I don't know is what is going on with the both of you. We grew up one bedroom down from each other and Juliet practically lived in my room when her parents were away. Do you honestly think that I don't know when you're happy, or sad, or depressed, or lost? I'm gonna ask you one last time, Barry Allen and Juliet St. James, and you both better be honest with me. What the hell is going on with you?"

Juliet wished she could tell Iris everything about her new powers and what she was able to do, but she made a promise. Their conversation was cut short by the tester beeping, signaling that the test was done. Juliet turned around.

"We are not done talking about this," Iris told them.

Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion as she looked at the results on the computer screen, Iris joining their side. "That can't be right. Last night there was a murder, and these skin cells belong to the murderer, but they're naïve — that means that they're stem cells that can replicate to become any cell the body needs. Only babies have them."

"This means your killer is, what, a newborn?" Iris questioned.

Juliet and Barry shared a glance. There was no way.

Iris left, and Juliet quickly typed up the lab report on what the sample had found. She told Barry she could go deliver it to Captain Singh while he worked on some other evidence.

However, when Juliet descended down the stairs, she was met with the sight of a lot of officers putting on gear and rushing towards the elevators with guns. Her eyebrows knit in confusion as she made her way through the precinct, passing all the officers on her way. She finally spotted Captain Singh coming out of his office while pulling on bulletproof vest.

"Captain, what's happening?" Juliet inquired.

"Not now, Juliet," Captain Singh replied. "An armed gunman is shooting up Stagg Industries."

"Joe," Juliet breathed out, her eyes widening and her heart rate picking up.

She placed the lab report down on Captain Singh's desk and then quickly ran up the stairs.

"Do you have yours?" Juliet asked frantically once she entered her and Barry's lab.

Barry stood up, staring at her in concern. "J, what's wrong?"

"There's a shooting at Stagg Industries, and Joe's there, remember? We have to go."

He nodded in response. Juliet jogged over to the large drawer by her desk, where her suit was. She imagined herself in it, and in the span of a second, she teleported into it and her normal clothes were left behind.

In a flash of yellow lightning, Barry was gone. Juliet then teleported to Stagg industries, where she found herself in a warehouse. Joe was hiding behind a large barrel while three men who looked exactly the same were shooting at him. Thinking fast, Juliet lifted up her hand and concentrated on the guns. She pulled the three guns away from the men, and with the push of her hand, the guns flew far back and scattered.

Juliet looked down at Joe. "Get out of here."

"No," Joe refused.

Barry then ran Joe outside before running back to Juliet's side, and the two of them faced the three men together. "Whoever you are, give yourself up."

One of the men shook his head. "Sorry. We are not going anywhere."

"Until Simon Stagg is dead," the three of them chorused.

Barry apparently had enough. He ran forwards and pushed the other two men away so that only one was left standing. However, the man then only multiplied himself.

"He can clone himself?" Juliet whispered to herself. "Oh, no way."

She then stepped forwards. Juliet raised both of her hands, red energy traveling up and down her arms. She focused on the two clones and made them fly back. Once that was done, she approached the one man left standing and kicked him in the stomach. Much to her surprise, two more clones emerged from his back.

"You're kidding," Juliet said.

One of the clones from earlier got up and punched Juliet across the face. She turned to him and punched him back, all while fighting two more clones that were surrounding her. Barry was doing the same. They were hopelessly outnumbered.

There were too many of them. They overwhelmed Juliet to the point where multiple clones had forced her down to the floor and were now punching and kicking her in multiple places. She groaned as she was thrown against some boxes of things next to Barry, who seemed in just as rough shape as she was. The multiple men stared at the two before pulling their guns out. Juliet's eyes widened, but before she knew it, she was swept away by a gust of wind.

Barry had run them outside. Juliet slumped against the gate, blood trickling down her face and her body aching. She could feel many bruises starting to form.

"Caitlin," Barry wheezed out. "We — we need to get to Caitlin."

Juliet nodded. She squeezed her eyes shut and imagined the cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs, and when she opened them, she was there. Caitlin gasped as Juliet stumbled forwards to lean against the desk of computers.

"What happened?" Caitlin ordered as she gently maneuvered Juliet to sit down on one of the beds.

"So much," Juliet let out, her stomach blazing with pain.

Barry then ran in, wearing his normal clothes and holding Juliet's pile of clothes. Caitlin instructed Juliet to change so it would be easier to look at her skin, so Juliet obliged. She then started to inspect Juliet and Barry's wounds and clean them. Meanwhile, the two of them told Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells about the guy they had faced and what happened.

However, the strange thing was that every time Juliet looked down at a bruise she had gotten, the skin turned red, and then the bruise and the pain disappeared. In curiosity, Juliet reached up and touched the cut on her face that was bleeding. Instantly, the burning sensation and the dried blood disappeared. She shrugged. Guess she could heal herself.

Barry, on the other hand, still had to wait a little bit longer until his wounds could fully heal. Caitlin was currently tending to the wounds on his face, in which Barry let out a hiss of pain and winced.

"Sorry," Caitlin apologized. "The abrasions are already rapidly healing. And, well, Juliet can apparently now heal herself."

"Yeah, we got out asses handed to us," Barry responded.

Cisco then turned around, wearing a headlamp. "You got blood on my suits."

"Some of it could be his," Juliet argued, crossing her arms. "These Metahumans really aren't friendly."

Dr. Wells then pulled up a picture of the guy they had fought on the screens. "Danton Black. He's a bio-geneticist specialized in therapeutic cloning. Growing new organs to replace failing ones."

"Apparently Stagg stole his research and then fired him," Caitlin added.

"J and I saw Black create duplicates from his own body," Barry revealed.

"That's pretty ironic," Cisco admitted. "The guy specialized in cloning, and now he can make xeroxes of himself."

"If he was experimenting on himself when he was exposed to the dark matter wave released by the Particle Accelerator explosion—" Dr. Wells began.

"Meet Captain Clone." They all turned to look at Cisco. "Don't worry, I'll come up with something cooler."

Barry then began to walk away. Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion and she stood up.

"Where are you going?" Caitlin questioned.

He gestured to Juliet to join him, and she walked over to his side. "Joe was right. We're in way over our heads. Yeah, I'm fast, and J might be super powerful, but we're no warriors. Man, we could barely fight one Metahuman, let alone six."

Juliet stared at him incredulously. "Wow, you really brought my confidence down a lot." She scoffed. "Speak for yourself, but I am not giving up. We're new to this — we're gonna make mistakes."

"Barry, I understand," Dr. Wells stated. "Juliet is right, today was a setback, but any grand enterprise has them. And we can never learn to fly without crashing a few times."

He sighed. "This wasn't a grand enterprise, Dr. Wells. This was a mistake."

Juliet watched Barry walk off. A frown settled on her lips. There was obviously something deeper than what happened today — she just didn't know what.

"You two seem really close," Caitlin commented.

"We are," Juliet confirmed, glancing over at her for a moment. "He's my best friend — well, besides Iris or my little sister."

"Do you know why he suddenly switched up?"

Juliet shrugged. "All he wants to do is help people. That stems from not being able to help his dad get out from prison. I think he's really just beating himself up over what happened. He's pretty good at beating himself up over things. I often have to talk him out of it."

"Will you this time?" Caitlin continued.

"If I knew where he was." Juliet then paused for a moment. "But besides me, there's only one other person he'd want to talk to about things. And I think I have to join him." She reached over and grabbed her jacket that Barry had brought. "I'll be back soon. Just know that I'm still in this."

Cisco raised his hand for a high-five. She obliged with a small laugh before leaving the cortex. Juliet knew Iris would still be at work, so she teleported to Jitters in a secluded corner where no one would be able to see her. When she walked inside, she saw that Jitters was empty besides Barry sitting at a table with multiple empty plates and Iris making food behind the counter.

"Hey," Juliet greeted, offering Iris a small smile.

Iris grinned back at her. "Hey, Jules. You want some food, too?"

"No, I'm okay. Thank you, though." Juliet took a seat at the table. "Thought I might find you here."

Barry sighed. "If you're here to talk me back—"

"I'm not," Juliet cut in. "I'm here to talk to Iris, too. We've got some explaining to do."

Iris then walked over to the table with a glass of water, looking at all the empty plates. "Guess you were hungry."

"Stress eating," Barry explained, and Iris let out a small ah. "I came to say I'm sorry."

"Me too," Juliet agreed. "We've been distant, and I know we haven't been acting much like best friends lately."

Iris nodded. "Correct."

"Kind of a jerk," Barry added.

"You two should apologize more often. You're both really sensational at it."

Juliet scoffed. "Don't make me take it back."

Iris rolled her eyes playfully at her before looking back to Barry. "What were you going to tell me the other day?"

"I thought I had to do something," Barry answered, and Juliet tilted her head at him. "Something I thought was important, but it turns out that I'm not very good at it. But what I am good at is being your friend. So is J. So if you need help coming up with a new topic for your article—"

"I found one," Iris admitted excitedly. "Something that actually interests me." She stood up and walked over to the counter, opening her laptop. "I know this is gonna sound crazy . . . it's been all over the internet this week." Juliet and Barry stood up and joined her to look at the screen, which had multiple articles pop up about a red streak and a materializing figure. "At a building fire, at a bank heist, even the other night when those robbers shot at the security guard, he said he was whooshed outside. Something out there is saving people."

Juliet's eyes widened. This was about her and Barry. The two of them shared a panicked look for a moment.

"I thought you were taking journalism, not science fiction writing," Barry voiced.

Iris turned to look at him. "Ever since I have known you, you have believed in the impossible, and you made Juliet believe, too. What if you were right? What if you were right about the night that your mom died?"

Juliet's phone then buzzed. She pulled it out to see there was an incoming call from S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Hello?" Juliet began once she answered the phone.

"Juliet, thank God," Caitlin responded, sounding very panicked. "You and Barry need to get to S.T.A.R. Labs."

"How urgent is it? I'm still in the process of convincing—"

"It's very urgent! Please, just come right now."

Caitlin then hung up the phone. Juliet pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the screen for a second. Well, so much for being a good best friend.

"'Ris, we love you, but something just came up," Juliet told her. "We've been continually getting checked up by S.T.A.R. Labs after our comas and . . . and they detected some sort of abnormality and mine and Barry's systems."

"An abnormality?" Iris repeated. "Is it serious?"

"Not sure, that's why we have to go now." She sent a warning glance to Barry. "I'll text you later. You can tell me all about this article you're writing. Come on, Barry."

She grabbed his arm and began to pull him out of Jitters. Juliet then brought him to the same secluded corner she had arrived in.

Juliet was quick to speak. "I know you said you're through, which I really don't think is the right decision — that's besides the point. Caitlin called, and she sounded panicked. We have to go."

Barry sighed. "Fine."

She held onto him and focused on him being there with her before she teleported back to S.T.A.R. Labs. However, when they materialized in the cortex, they saw Danton Black standing there. Her eyes widened and she summoned a ball of red energy in her hand.

"Barry, Juliet, it's okay," Caitlin reassured him.

"It is not okay!" Barry insisted. "Black is here, and he's just . . . standing there. That's not him, is it?"

"It's one of his replicates," Dr. Wells announced.

Juliet extinguished the energy. "How is it here?"

"I grew him," Caitlin told them proudly. She then pulled up a cell on the computer screen. "I isolated a sample of Black's blood from Juliet's 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."

Barry waved his hand in front of the clone's face. "Why isn't he — it doing anything?"

"We did a brain scan," Dr. Wells stated. "Involuntary motor functions are active, little else."

"We think it's acting as a receiver," Cisco revealed.

"The clones are an empty shell without Black," Caitlin continued. "Shut down the real Black, and you might shut them all down."

"So how do we know which one's the real one?" Juliet inquired. "It would be like finding a needle in a haystack."

Caitlin pointed to Barry. "That occurred to me given your own passing out. 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's the prime."

"Just a theory, but one you might want to put to the test, Mr. Allen and Ms. St. James," Dr. Wells said.

Cisco then approached Barry. "Plus, I whipped up these high-calorie protein bars for you to keep your metabolism up."

Suddenly, the clone started to move. Juliet jumped back while Caitlin screamed. Two gunshots fired at Black, making him fall to the ground. She let out a deep breath as she saw Joe walk into the room.

"Any more of them?" Joe asked.

"Nope," Caitlin answered.

"Why did it start moving?" Barry questioned.

"The prime," Dr. Wells replied. "My guess is the prime is on the move. This one heard the summons to battle."

"And I know where he was summoned to," Joe revealed. "Stagg industries."

"You should call it in," Barry told him.

Joe shook his head. "Police can't fight this. What Black's become, like Mardon . . . beyond me. Maybe way beyond them, too. The only people it's not beyond are you two. You both gotta do this, I get it. So for once in your life, do what I tell you to do. Go stop him."

Juliet smiled at Joe before turning back to Barry, extending her hand out to him "You in?"

Barry took her hand with a nod, grinning back at her. The two of them walked over to the mannequins that had their suits, and with a quick change, they were off.

When they arrived, they saw the multiple clones of Danton Black. Three of them were pointing their guns at Simon Stagg while the rest were milling around the building. Barry ran Stagg away, presumably to a room where he was out of harm's way. Meanwhile, Juliet looked around at all the clones, pushing her fear away and allowing the power to build up inside of her.

"I know Stagg stole your research, but that doesn't give you the right to murder," Barry told Black.

One of the clones shot at Barry. Juliet reached out her hand, and the bullet stopped midair. She flicked her hand, and the bullet flew off to the side. Juliet then summoned two balls of red energy in her hand, and with focusing all of her willpower onto the clones, she pushed her hands forwards. Instantly, all of the clones got blasted back by a red wave of energy.

She stared down at her hands in wonder. "Cool."

"You think this about my job," a clone of Black stated, suddenly approaching Juliet with his gun pointed at her. She pushed her hand forwards, trapping him up against the wall with red energy. "This is about Elizabeth."

"She was my wife," another clone continued.

He fired his gun at Juliet. Barry then ran him away, but more clones began to circle around her.

"She had a degenerative coronary disease," another clone added. "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 gonna grow her one," Barry realized.

Black instantly shot at Barry again. Barry quickly ran away while Juliet kept pushing back the clones approaching her with energy.

"I was so close," another clone stated. "Until Stagg stole my research so he could reap the glory, and I got to bury my best friend. Now . . . I'm alone."

Once that clone was done talking, Juliet threw a blast of energy at him and sent him flying backwards. She looked to see that there was only one Danton Black now, but multiple clones emerged from him and charged at the two heroes. Juliet quickly glanced over at Barry for a second. They could do this.

Find the prime.

There were now a lot of clones. Multiple clones started to punch Juliet across the face and in multiple parts of her body. She gritted her teeth in pain but didn't allow herself to succumb. Thinking fast, she stomped her foot on the ground while extending her hands. Waves of red energy expelled from her and knocked all of the clones attacking her and Barry away from them. However, more kept coming.

"Find him!" Juliet pleaded, her body growing weaker by the second as she released more energy. "I can only do this for so long."

"There's too many of them to fight," Barry told the team at S.T.A.R. Labs over the comms.

"Barry, Juliet, you need to isolate the prime," Dr. Wells reminded them.

"I can't," Barry stated, Juliet now noticing that he wasn't speaking for the both of them. "It's impossible."

"Nothing's impossible, Barry," Joe said. "You taught me that. You can do this."

One of the clones approaching the two then fell. Juliet put all of her power into the final energy blast, clearing the path for Barry to get to the real Danton Black. Before she knew it, all the clones fell to the ground, but it wasn't from Juliet this time. She glanced up to the second floor to see that Barry had knocked the real Black to the ground. Juliet gently smiled at him, breathing heavily. She then looked back down to the unconscious clones around her.

They had done it.

"Barry, Juliet," Joe called. "Barry, Juliet, are you all right?"

"Yeah, we're good," Juliet responded. "A little tired, but it's done."

Suddenly, she heard footsteps. Juliet looked back up, only for her eyes to widen. Black had gotten up and went to charge at Barry, but Barry dodged with his super speed. This caused Black to run straight into the window, glass shattering everywhere. Barry sped up and caught him by the wrist. Juliet quickly teleported up to the higher level, running over to the window.

"Hang on!" Barry exclaimed.

"No!" Black refused.

He then started to grow an extra hand to force Barry's hand to let go of him.

"Don't," Barry pleaded.

Black forced himself out of Barry's grip and allowed himself to fall. By the time Juliet held out her hands to stop him, it was too late. He had already hit the concrete below. Her hand reached up to cover her mouth in shock. She was too slow.

And somehow, the victory that they had gotten tonight against another Metahuman felt so much like a loss.

ϟ ···················· ϟ ···················· ϟ

IT WAS THE next day, and the team was all gathered in S.T.A.R. Labs. Juliet had bags under her eyes — she couldn't sleep last night. She just kept replaying the memory of Black's body falling to the ground.

"Tried to save him," Barry announced as they watched the news about Black on the TV's.

"Doesn't sound like he wanted to be saved," Dr. Wells responded. "Some people, when they break . . . they can't be put together again."

Barry looked at him. "Some people heal even stronger."

"I hope so."

"Well, at least Multiplex won't be able to hurt anyone else," Cisco admitted.

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "Multiplex?"

Cisco placed his lollipop back in his mouth. "Told you I'd come up with a cool name."

"Yeah, J and I may be the one in the suits doing all the running and energy blasting, but when we're out there helping people, making a difference . . . you're all out there with us," Barry told Cisco, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells. "Finally realized something — we were all struck by that lightning." He then locked eyes with Juliet and nodded his head to the door. "Come on, J. Back to work."

"Another day, another motivational speech, huh?" Juliet inquired as they started to make their way out of S.T.A.R. Labs.

Barry shrugged. "Someone's gotta do it."

"Also, since when did you just start talking about us like we're some cohesive unit? I'm my own person, you know."

He bumped her shoulder with hers. "We're Barry and Juliet. We're like a package deal."

And underneath the Central City sunshine, she couldn't help but smile as she walked with Barry back to the CCPD, her heart racing as they talked about anything that came to mind.

It was now later at night, and the two CSI's were still in their lab, running tests on things for more cases that had come up. Barry was still working on his stuff, and even though Juliet had finished her work for the day, she always stayed a little extra. No, it wasn't because she wanted to spend more time with him. It was obviously to be there in case he needed help. Duh.

"Hungry?" Joe's voice then asked.

Juliet stopped spinning. She looked up to see Joe carrying four pizza boxes, and she immediately perked up. Finally. She was actually starving, and her and Iris actually had plans that night, so she guessed they didn't have to worry about dinner.

Joe placed the pizzas down on the table Barry was working at. "Pepperoni, olives, and jalapeños. Just like you like it."

"Gross," Juliet commented.

"Don't worry, I just got one with pepperoni for you."

She smiled. "Awesome." Juliet then stood up and pulled on her jacket. "Thanks, Joe."

Barry blinked at her. "Where are you going?"

"My apartment," Juliet answered. "Iris and I are having a girl's night to make up for me being an idiot, and now I'm about to take it there."

"Oh." For some reason, Barry sounded a little disappointed. "Well, uh, tell her I said hi."

She gave him an odd look. "Will do. Bye Joe. See you guys tomorrow."

Juliet then left Barry and Joe behind, ready to get her mind off of everything and just hang out with Iris. Little did she know how things were going to become a lot more complicated with her and her best friends.

〖 ϟ 〗

juliet's powers are so cool love that for her