— 𝐵 —

"𝐈 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐓 it." Barry's eyebrows furrowed as the light of the bright screen in front of him reflected off of his face. He turned towards Sophia, his eyebrows still scrunched. "What do you want me to do?"

"Oh, come on," Sophia laughed as she inched her chair closer to his, leaning forward on the desk. "Have you never taken a Buzzfeed quiz before?"

He tried to ignore the fact that his heart rate had picked up by how close she was. "Do I look like I have the time to take online quizzes?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, well, I haven't." He shrugged before turning back towards the computer, his eyes narrowing as he looked over the screen. "What is this about?"

"What superpower you would have if you had one," Sophia explained, pointing to the bolded title at the top.

"But . . ." He squinted his eyes as he looked at her again. "I do have one."

"Just for fun!" she giggled, causing him to grin. "It's not like we have anything else to do, anyway."

"Okay," he chuckled. "What do I do?"

"Okay, well first, it's asking which side you would be on if you were a superhero," Sophia read the question. "I'm assuming you would be good?"

"Well, I hope this is the good side." Barry grinned.

She giggled. "Okay, so click that."

After he pressed his answer, it led to the next question, which Sophia read out once more, "'How often do you use your power?'"

"When I need to." He chose with a nod.

The raised eyebrows he received meant she didn't believe him in the least. "Barry. I saw you speed to get a doughnut from the other room."

"I needed that doughnut!" Barry insisted with a grin. When she just playfully punched his arm, he chuckled and continued, "Okay, I'll choose 'every day.' Next, 'Would you tell the people in your life about your superpower?' Only if it's necessary."

"Then 'Would you pick a code name?'" Sophia grinned when she saw the options. "'If my friends choose it for me.'"

Cisco had given Barry a superhero identity a few weeks before, naming him 'the Flash.' It was quite fitting and much better than 'the Streak,' which was what everyone had been calling him before.

"Thank you, Cisco," Barry chuckled as he clicked that option. "Last one, 'Would you join a team?' Hm . . . no."

"Hey!"

"Kidding, kidding, yes, I would," he laughed as he clicked that box. It immediately gave him his results, which he quickly read out, "'Emotion transfer: You can feel emotions of others, but you can also change their emotions in order to help them understand your perspective or even control them.' Wait. I don't want—I wanted to get super-speed." He turned towards her, nudging her arm as he shook his head. "This is your fault."

"Hey, that's not fair, I—wait, what is that?"

"What?" Barry furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around for whatever she was talking about.

She pointed to his forearm that was covered in blue ink. "That. Why?"

"Cisco."

"Got it," Sophia laughed. She suddenly paused, realizing something. "Oh . . . my . . . God . . ."

"What?"

"Blue ink . . . and you . . ." A grin spread onto her face as she clapped her hands together. "Blue-Barry!"

He laughed. "Really?"

She ignored his question and grabbed the straw that was sitting in an empty cup, shoving it into his hand. "Straw-Barry!"

"Is this a temporary bit, or are you always going to call me this stuff?" Barry questioned, though he was not going to complain about a nickname from her.

"Hm . . . We'll see, Rasp-Barry."

— 𝒮 —

"Facial reconstructive software," Cisco sighed happily as he took a seat to the left of Sophia at the main desk. "It was designed for archaeologists, and it should help us ID your crispy corpse."

Barry had just come back from a crime scene, where he had found a corpse that seemed to have been electrocuted. The sight of it was pretty disgusting.

"How did he even get fried in the first place?" Barry folded his arms, standing right behind Sophia.

"Maybe there's a meta-human that can control electricity?" Sophia suggested as Caitlin sat down on her right. "It'd take a serious electrostatic discharge to cause that much tissue damage."

"Guys, according to the software . . ." Cisco leaned back in his chair once the program was done analyzing. "There's an eighty-two percent chance your victim looked like this."

Barry, Caitlin, and Sophia leaned over to take a look at the sculpted face.

Apparently, that number wasn't promising enough for Barry. "Eighty-two?"

Cisco glared at him. "It was zero when you walked in here, pal."

"Cross-reference with the DMV database? Get a name?" Barry asked, pointing towards the computer.

"Absolutely. This software can do just about anything." Cisco leaned forward, a grin spreading on his face before adding with a small pout, "Now that Felicity reprogrammed it." After a few moments of typing, he found the victim's profile. "Casey Donahue. No wife, no kids. Used to work at the Petersburg electrical substation."

"That can't be a coincidence," Caitlin remarked as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"That's weird," Cisco said suddenly, his eyebrows furrowing at the computer screen. "Someone just used his ID to enter the substation."

"The Petersburg grid is experiencing a power drain right now," Caitlin added, her gaze quickly shifting towards Barry.

Barry nodded quickly before speeding into his suit and rushing out. The group couldn't see anything, but still, Barry's voice flowed through the speakers.

"I'm pretty sure this is a restricted area," he said to the intruder. "Easy there, zappy."

A different man spoke, his voice raspy and dark, "I have to feed."

Suddenly, Barry yelled out in pain, causing the group to look at each other with alarm.

"More of that," the man growled. "I need more."

Suddenly, Barry spoke to the group, "I can't . . . run . . ."

"What do you mean you can't run?" Sophia asked in panic.

"What does it sound like? I mean I can't run!"

"Then get out of there!" Cisco exclaimed.

Barry arrived at STAR Labs about forty-five minutes later, by Uber. Apparently, he told the driver that he had attended a cosplay party, which explained his suit. If not for the situation, Sophia probably would've laughed at him.

The team then immediately began to test Barry's powers to see if he really couldn't run. Barry ran on the treadmill, the speed going around seven miles per hour, opposed to the much higher rate he usually went at.

Cisco leaned towards Sophia. "He runs slow even for a normal person."

"You can't just lose your powers." Sophia raised her eyebrows as Barry sat down on the edge of the treadmill, his head in his hands. "Your DNA was transformed by the particle accelerator blast. There's no way to untransform DNA."

"So we were wrong. This meta-human doesn't electrocute people. He siphons electricity . . . thereby removing your power." Dr. Wells nodded from beside Sophia.

"All right, do we think this is temporary or . . . ?" Barry asked hopelessly as he looked around at the team for an answer.

Sophia sighed. "We have to run tests."

"Yeah." Barry got up, clearly upset. "I've gotta warn Joe."

Dr. Wells turned towards Barry as he made his way towards the door, reassuring him, "Barry, we will find a way to restore your speed. I promise you that."

Barry only nodded curtly before leaving.

— 𝐵 —

A few hours later, Barry was leaning against the wall, staring at his suit with longing. He found his mind wondering whether his powers would ever return and hated that the brief answer of 'No' kept flashing through his head.

He heard footsteps come up to him, and it only took him half a second to recognize the scent of vanilla.

"You think I'll ever wear it again?" he asked softly, though he kept his gaze on his suit.

"I hope so," Sophia murmured, and Barry didn't have to turn to know there was a smile on her face. "Otherwise Central City is in for trouble."

After sighing, he faced her. "I didn't have my speed for very long. But now that it's gone, it feels like part of me is gone, too."

"With or without your speed, you're still you, Barry."

"But I'm not." He looked over to the suit, a sad smile on his face as he reminisced. "I'm not the best version of me. I love being the Flash. I love everything about it. The feeling of running hundreds of miles per hour. Wind and power just rushing past my face. Being able to help people. I'm not sure I can live without it, Soph."

There was a moment of silence as Barry carefully inspected her face, and, judging by the fact that her eyes were roaming over his face, she was doing the same. There was nothing he adored more than her smile, though he could tell this one was more pitiful than it was cheerful.

Barry took a small step forward, decreasing the amount of space between the two. He wasn't really sure what his next move was, but all he could really focus on was his pounding heart and her pink lips.

"Farooq Gibran," Cisco cut in as he came up to them, a tablet in hand.

Barry silently groaned before turning to him. "Who?"

"The powers vampire who jacked your speed." Cisco handed Barry the tablet, which was an article with the headline: 'Two Dead, One Hurt in Freak Accident.' Cisco continued, "I hacked into surveillance footage from the substation. It was easy to find a match."

Barry read over the article. "He climbed an electrical tower the night of the accelerator explosion."

Sophia peered over his shoulder to read it, and she muttered, "No surprise where his powers came from."

Suddenly, there was beeping, and Cisco hurried over to the main desk, all eyes now on him.

He groaned. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. This is not happening."

Barry and Sophia followed him there, their eyes widening once they saw what had been displayed on the screen: live security footage of Farooq, him standing right outside of STAR Labs.

"Dr. Harrison Wells, I need to see you!" he screamed, his electrifyingly blue eyes staring right into the camera. "Come on. I know you're inside. Open the door. I just wanna talk, Dr. Wells. Let me in!"

There were a few minutes of silence as he waited but to no avail. Enraged that he wasn't getting a response, he left. Soon enough, the lights in the Cortex shut off; Farooq had turned off the power.

"City-wide blackout." Cisco's serious expression had a sudden change into a look of delight. "Blackout. That's it. That's his name."

Barry looked at the team, desperate. "I need my powers back."

"I have a theory. It's untested," Dr. Wells started, a nervous edge to his voice.

Barry nodded. "I'm willing to roll the dice."

"Okay. You've lost your speed. But nothing has changed inside you on a subatomic level. Your cells are still primed. They just need a jump-start," Dr. Wells explained.

Barry narrowed his eyes. "Okay, how do we jump-start me?"

"Replicate the initial jolt to your system."

Sophia's eyes widened. "But that would mean a peak current of at least twenty-thousand kiloamps."

Caitlin turned to Dr. Wells in alarm. "That's more electricity than they give to people in the electric chair!"

"Caitlin," Dr. Wells sighed, "with Farooq in the building, we're looking at a death sentence."

"The spare generator's offline. If we reboot it, we could get a charge that big," Cisco offered, folding his arms.

"We need something that can transmit the load from the generator to Barry without shorting out," Dr. Wells instructed.

"The treadmill." Cisco grinned. "My baby could take the charge."

"What if Barry can't?" Sophia looked up to Barry, her eyes widened with fear.

"Well, that's up to Mr. Allen," Dr. Wells answered as he turned to him.

Barry began to walk towards the door, barely having even heard what the others were saying. All he knew was one thing: He had to get Farooq to stand down—without using his powers.

Cisco raised his eyebrows as he called, "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna talk to him," Barry answered.

"Nope." Dr. Wells shook his head quickly. "Nope."

"Okay . . . you didn't see him at the substation," Barry retaliated. "He needed to feed. I got superspeed out of the particle accelerator blast. But his best friends died. He woke up with a disease."

"Earlier today, you worked a crime scene where this meta-human electrocuted an innocent man," Dr. Wells countered. "He's a murderer. And you are powerless to defend yourself against him."

"Just let me try," Barry pleaded.

Dr. Wells hesitated for a moment before sighing and giving him a short nod.

The rest of the group followed close behind as Barry entered the hallway, searching for Farooq. They stayed behind in the hallway as he entered the open space where the elevator was situated.

Farooq walked out, electricity sparking in his hands.

"Hey, whoa. Whoa, easy." Barry raised his hands in defence as he slowly approached, eyeing the sparks in Farooq's hands. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Where is Harrison Wells?" he growled.

"Look, I know what happened to you. The night of the accelerator explosion, it changed you. It changed me too." Barry gestured towards himself.

"You were the guy in the red suit . . . I fed from you," Farooq snarled. "I have to keep feeding."

"Right. I know this has to be terrifying." Barry nodded quickly. "That's why I wanna help you. Okay?"

He hesitated for a moment, then lowered his hands, the blue glow now gone. "The night of the explosion when the light hit me, it stopped my heart. Jake and Darya . . ."

Barry remembered the names from the article Cisco had shown them. "They were your friends."

He nodded slowly, blinking. "I woke up and they were beside me, dead. They tried to give me CPR. They were touching me and . . . I electrocuted them."

"This is not your fault," Barry said gently as he shook his head.

"I know." Farooq's upset expression contorted into an angry one. "Wells did this to me."

Barry sighed and raised his hands in defence once again. "Farooq, you need to listen to me."

Clearly not wanting to listen, he blasted electricity towards him, and it hit him square in the chest, knocking him back so that he was now next to the group.

Cisco immediately pushed a button, forcing a large, metal door to come scraping down to block them from Farooq.

"All right." Dr. Wells nodded as Sophia helped Barry up. "Before he comes back: Sophia, get Barry to the treadmill. Cisco, Caitlin, bring the generator online. Make sure Barry gets the charge."

Once Barry and Sophia were in the training room, she began to set up the treadmill as Barry went to stand on it.

She gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. When Dr. Wells has a theory, he's usually right. Also, I checked in with my brain, and my brain said there's a ninety-four percent chance that it'll work."

"Ninety-four percent only?" Barry repeated as he raised his eyebrows. "What about the other six?"

She paused before sighing. "That's the chance that you'll intake the blast and then die."

Then, a noise came from the Cortex, right outside the door. The two of them looked through the glass window to see Farooq standing in the middle of the room, searching for any sign of life.

Before Sophia had time to react, Barry grabbed her and pulled her down so that both of them were leaned against the wall, right under the window.

"Barry, I'll go, you stay here," Sophia whispered, trying to escape his grasp on her arm. "I'll distract him or something."

"No, no." His grip only tightened, pulling her closer to him. His heart was beating faster than ever, though he wasn't sure whether that was because of how close she was to him or because they were on the verge of death. Maybe both. Definitely both. "Stay with me."

He strained his ears to listen to Farooq's footsteps as he clambered around the Cortex. Only a few moments later did the footsteps fade away, and he knew it was safe. 

After muttering that it was okay to get up, he got to his feet. He knew he only had minutes to get this done—either Farooq would come back, or worse, hurt the others. 

He hurried toward the treadmill as he instructed, "Turn on the treadmill, we don't have time."

Sophia went toward the switch, but just as her hand reached the lever, she hesitated. "I can't."

Barry's eyebrows furrowed as he looked towards her and shook his head. "We don't have a choice."

"If I turn this on, it could kill you!"

"If you don't, we could all die!"

"Barry, I can't—I don't want to lose you." Sophia's hand was beginning to inch itself away from the lever.

"Listen. Someone once told me that I was struck by that lightning for a reason. That it chose me. I'm not sure I believe it. Right now, it doesn't matter what I believe." He gave her a pleading look, and she returned with a distressed one. "What do you believe?"

Her anxious eyes only kept his gaze for a moment more before she closed them and sighed. Nodding to herself, she grabbed the switch and flipped it, turning the treadmill on. Electricity flowed from the machine and onto Barry, the light enclosing around him.

Suddenly, he was flung back. His back hit the wall and he was met with the hard ground. He groaned in pain as he leaned himself up, aching in just about every inch of his body.

Sophia rushed over to him and knelt down next to him. "Are you okay? Did you feel anything?"

His hand vibrated for a moment, but it was clear that he didn't have control over it. He sighed. "It didn't work. Let's go to the others."

She helped him to his feet, and, while making sure that Farooq was nowhere near every time they turned a corner, they headed out of the Cortex. 

Only a couple of steps down the hall, however, was a body sprawled against the ground.

Tony, Barry's former bully, and a meta-human who could turn into metal that they had locked up a week before, looked up at the pair, blood painted on the side of his face.

"Tony," Barry murmured in concern as he knelt down next to him. "Tony, what are you doing?"

Tony should've been locked up in the Pipeline—how the hell was he out here? 

A small smirk came onto Tony's face. "Come on. You know me, Allen. I never run from a fight."

"All right. Well, stay with me. Okay?" Barry put a hand on his shoulder as he quickly muttered, "You're good."

"Run," Tony whispered. His head slowly dropped to the floor, and his body became stiff.

"Tony," Barry breathed out, his gaze transfixed on the back of the man's head.

Sophia put a hand on Barry's shoulder. "We have to go."

There was a small pit at the bottom of his stomach. As much as he hated the guy—he had made his life a living hell, after all—he couldn't help but feel a wave of sadness wash over him. This was a life. A man. Dead, in front of him, because Barry couldn't do the job he was supposed to—protect. 

"Barry," murmured Sophia, squeezing his shoulder, and he knew he couldn't waste any more time. 

He sighed, and then slowly got to his feet. Sophia offered a look of symphony, and all he could offer back was a frown. 

Cisco and Caitlin were meant to be with the generator, so that was the room they went towards. 

Barry sat down once they had walked in. "I can't believe he's dead."

Cisco's eyes widened. "Dr. Wells?" 

"No." Barry shook his head. "No. Tony Woodward. He escaped the Pipeline. He must've got out when the blackout hit."

Cisco's eyes narrowed. "Not possible. The Pipeline was designed to withstand power outage."

"Someone had to have let him go," Barry realized. 

"I did." Dr. Wells appeared in the doorway. "I released him."

Barry whipped around to face him, incredulous. "Why?" 

"To divert our intruder's attention while we worked to restore your speed," Dr. Wells explained, rolling inside the room.

"You used him as a distraction?"

"An unnecessary one as it turns out, it seems the plan has failed." Dr. Wells' small shrug was enough to spark anger inside of Barry.

He looked down at his clothes, where there were stains of red that clashed with the green material. "I have his blood on me. How could you do that?"

Dr. Wells tilted his head. "You're showing sentiment for a man who tormented you as a child."

"Tony might've been a bully then and now, but he didn't deserve to die!"

Dr. Wells' voice was low. "Does Caitlin, or Cisco, or Sophia, or me, or you? I had a choice to make, him or us. I chose us without a second thought."

"Well, all your talk about miracle cures and scientific breakthroughs . . ." Barry shook his head. "But you don't care about people at all." 

"Maybe you care too much," chided Dr. Wells. "Being a hero is important to you. I respect your ideals. I don't have the luxury of sharing them."

Barry nodded slowly, anger beginning to take over him. "I forgot. Your game's chess. We're all just pawns to you. Right?" He took a step forward, his voice rising, "So, what's your move, doctor? Which one of us gets sacrificed next?"

Dr. Wells swallowed before he changed the topic, "We have to get out."

"We just left him on D-level," Sophia informed them.

Caitlin shook her head, sitting in front of a laptop. "We'll never make the main entrance from here."

Cisco thought for a moment. "What about the garage? The mobile lab van?"

"Oh my God. Barry, look," Caitlin called as she pointed towards the screen. "Your cells are rapidly regenerating."

Barry tried to vibrate his hand, but it kept cutting out, like before. "I still don't have my speed."

"It must be mental." Sophia realized. "Not physical."

"Ho-ho." A grin spread onto Cisco's face. "You have the yips."

Barry furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the man. "The whats?"

"When a second baseman all of a sudden can't throw to first, or a golfer tries to putt, and they get all embarrassed and upset. That makes the yips worse, and it's a hot mess. They feel like even more of a failure," Cisco explained to Barry, who was still baffled.

"That's not helping."

Sophia placed a hand on Barry's shoulder, causing him to turn towards her. "You asked if I believed you were struck by lightning for a reason, if you were chosen. I believe. You should, too."

His eyes flickered over hers for a moment before he gave a small nod.

"Let's move," Dr. Wells ordered.

The group got to the garage, a few vans filling the parking spots. "Second van. Keys are inside," Dr. Wells nodded.

Barry headed inside and tried to start the car, but to no avail.

Dr. Wells stopped a metre away, his electric wheelchair no longer able to move. He pushed the controlling stick multiple times, but nothing happened. "He's here."

As if on cue, Farooq arrived, his hands sparking with electricity. He blasted the van, which Barry had jumped out of in time.

Caitlin, Cisco, and Sophia rushed to his side, their arms about to pull him up when a voice spoke.

Dr. Wells rolled behind Farooq. "You're here for me."

A smirk came onto Farooq's veiny face as he turned from the four to Dr. Wells. "Finally, you show your face."

Dr. Wells gave a small smile. "Well, I wasn't exactly eager to be killed."

"Neither were my friends."

"I know." Dr. Wells nodded. "I hurt a lot of people that night."

"People?" Farooq scoffed. "You don't even know their names."

"Jake Davenport. Darya Kim. Ralph Dibny. Al Rothstein. Grant Emerson. Will Everett. Bea De Costa. Ronnie Raymond. I know the names of every person who died that night. They mattered. And the fact that the world is now deprived of their potential . . . is something I have to live with every day, but these people . . ." He glanced over to the four of them. "These people have done nothing wrong. You wanna punish me? Fine. Let's do that. But let these people live."

"You died that night, too." Farooq blasted his electricity toward Dr. Wells, throwing him off of his wheelchair.

"No!" Barry shouted.

"You just didn't know until now."

Barry inhaled, feeling his blood begin to boil as he watched Farooq trudge towards the helpless Wells. It was now or never.

As Farooq outstretched his hands and blue lightning blasted in Dr. Wells' direction, Barry sped towards him. He kept his eyes on the slowly approaching lightning as he wrapped his arms around Dr. Wells and brought him back to the other three, who took him carefully.

Swiftly, Barry sped to the Cortex and changed into his suit before going back down to meet Farooq, who quickly turned to face him.

He dodged the few strikes of lightning the Farooq sent his way but was quickly caught. Grunts left his mouth as the electricity intensified, and he attempted to stay strong as he held himself in place.

Barry couldn't let him win. Not this time. He wasn't going to take his speed.

Blue lightning soon turned orange, and the two of them dropped to their knees. The pain was quickly subsiding in Barry's body, though the same couldn't be said for Farooq as he yelled and clutched at his head.

Suddenly, the lightning disappeared, and Barry was left panting.

Farooq was still for a moment before falling to the ground, dead.