You Bring Out The Worst In Me~

[nevergetshome]

It had been some time ago that Thawne had gotten the results of Claire's blood. He messaged her and to his surprise the text kicked back. A phone call told him the number had been disconnected. It only took a little bit of research with Gideon to get her address from this time period only to find out she'd moved. Recently. And where had she moved to? Of all places in the world but Central City. The hometown of his foe. A place he spent fifteen years of his life. It was time to visit his old rival.

Silent observation was key. He kept his distance, but immediately, he felt something interesting. Barry Allen was having trouble handling the Speed Force. The fumbles were small, but enough that he could feel them when Barry faltered. Ahh, so this was around his encounter with the Chameleon. That made sense. What drove a dagger into his heart though was to see Barry Allen and Claire Bennet together. After he'd shared everything with her. Told her how Barry ruined his life. Even if he never said Allen's name, he called him the Flash, and she clearly knew who he was. How could she betray him?!

Just one more reason to hate Barry. One more thing Barry stole from him. One more reason to destroy The Flash. He'd have to teach them both a lesson.

There was a knock at Noah's hotel door. Harrison was standing politely on the other side, waiting for Noah to answer.

Comments

[infinite1ups]

"It was in an encrypted file with Thawne's research, password protected, with some headline about me dying and The Flash going missing, dated about a year or so from now," Claire explained to catch Cisco up. "It went on to say that Killer Frost and some... God of Speed, attacked STAR Labs, which is how Caitlin and I ended up here. She ran off and I followed."

She considered the offer. Nothing Thawne said or showed them had anything to do with her family, so they would probably be able to avoid a mishap like earlier. "It's up to you. Hopefully no one's having any dreams about it," she said with a wry smile. "The more info we have, the better, just be careful if you do it, okay?"

[namesthevillains]

"God of Speed. That's a new one. I mean, Zoom and Reverse-Flash are egocentrical but they both like to tack their names onto things." Cisco frowned and mulled that over for a moment. Zoom was dead, though and Thawne was... doing Thawne things. If he wanted to break up Barry and Claire, for whatever reason, it wouldn't make sense for him to think kill her.

Cisco pulled the Vibe glasses out of his pocket and put them on. They powered up with a hum and the blue light glowed between the slats. Then he held out his hands, palms up, to Claire. He took a steadying breath. "I may not get anything at all. Especially after that brain blast earlier. Take my hands."

[infinite1ups]

"Yeah, I didn't think Thawne would call himself something else, even if he'd somehow tried ascending to godhood." That thought almost made her shudder. Thawne was already faster than The Flash, what would he do with enough speed to call himself a god?

Maybe the Vibe would offer some insight. If they came up empty, though, that would be okay, so long as they didn't hurt Cisco's head again.

Claire nodded with a little breath of her own, then reached out to take his hands. She was nervous, partly because of what they might see, but she was also worried about her friend's safety. It was a relief that Caitlin was there to watch, just in case.

"Ready when you are."

[namesthevillains]

Allit would take was contact. And it would be instant or not happen at all. Harry programmes the Vibe glasses to stimulate the fear receptors in his brain to allow for instant access to his Vibes. So as soon as their hands touched, Cisco was jerked into the chilling sensation of a Vibe, bringing Claire with him.

"You stuck me in the Speed Force for an eternity of Hell! Now, welcome to yours!" A tall metal monster held Claire by the throat, plunged a dart into her chest. The metal monster moved with white hot lightning and he could see Barry scream, running towards the pair as fast as he could. But the monster was faster. "Now, finally I am free of you! You lose Barry!" It plunged a metal blade through the base of Claire's skull, severing her brain stem. She was dead before the metal monster dropped her and before Barry even made it to her.

The speedster slid to his knees catching her falling body in his arms, holding her against him, screaming in anguish. "No! Nononono! Claire! No! No Claire no! Claire, please! No!" Barry sobbed as he held her desperately.

Cisco slammed back into his body and jerked his hands away from Claire. Wide eyed and traumatised. He was stunned into silence.

[infinite1ups]

She braced herself for that now familiar sensation of being yanked into one of Cisco's Vibe. It was like a weird kind of dream. A nightmare, really. All she could do was watch in horror as that metal monster held her, moving faster than Barry. It was even faster than Thawne, wasn't it? It had to be.

Claire was frozen in place, watching Barry catch her body, hearing the agony in his voice, his sobs stabbing her in the chest just like the monster had. She quickly curled in on herself as Cisco pulled away, clutching her chest and fighting back tears. "That can't happen," she said, her voice and expression hollow, breaths uneven.

She didn't know if that would permanently kill her - it didn't look like the monster had taken her head off completely, it seemed to be more of an internal decapitation. But... she didn't want to find out. Mostly because she didn't want to put Barry through that. The memory of him so utterly devastated, the look on his face and the sound of him screaming, it would be haunting her for a while.

"Thank you, Cisco." And she meant that. He was clearly just as shaken up as she was. "We can work with this. If we know something like that is out there, we have a better chance of stopping it." She paused, frowning. "That monster had to be the God of Speed, right? White lightning, moving faster than anything we've ever seen..."

[namesthevillains]

"Faster than Barry, Thawne, and Zoom. That dart it stabbed you with... what if that's something that nullifies your powers for good? That thing seemed pretty confident that it was winning." Cisco's voice was shaking. He hated that she thanked him for that, because they were both probably going to have nightmares from it. "It said something about being trapped in the Speed Force." They had info to work with. There were also bits in that Vibe he could focus on, like news paper headlines and billboards if he looked back at them. Things to avoid or change. Ripples. Harry had described it as ripples in a pond that affected the whole surface. If they could ripple the pond, maybe they could change the outcome. Prevent that from happening.

Caitlin looked concerned. "So, you saw something." Cisco nodded.

[infinite1ups]

Claire hated that they'd both be suffering from the effects of seeing the Vibe, but the information they could gain from it was valuable. It was only right to show her appreciation for Cisco putting himself through that.

"This big metal monster, with white lightning and super duper speed, it stabbed me in the chest with a dart and then cut my--" She lifted a hand to the back of her neck as she explained to Caitlin, then shuddered. "Barry, he wasn't fast enough. He was... God, I never want to see him like that ever again." Her voice caught in her throat and she scrubbed at her eyes to keep herself from crying.

"You could be right, Cisco. About the dart, I mean. We were talking about Thawne's research and how it could possibly lead to ways to negate my regeneration." They'd been worried about Thawne using that information to weaken her. But he was trying to warn her, in his own twisted way. "That monster isn't Thawne," Claire said solemnly. "I'm sure of it. He wouldn't warn me if he was the one who was going to kill me, that makes no sense."

He didn't want her with Barry, but he didn't want her to die, either. Maybe Thawne really did care for her. Once again those conflicted feelings kicked up.

[namesthevillains]

"Barry was broken." He finished for Claire. "I don't blame him. It was hard to watch. And he's gonna wanna see the Vibe if we tell him. Because he's gonna wanna pick it apart and try to find a way to stop it just like we are." Which meant he was going to have to see it again.

Cisco nodded. "For once, I agree, this isn't Thawne. He's all kinds of messed up, but even this seems past his level of crazy on the crazy scale. If he warned you, he knew I'd Vibe the future. He knew we'd see this. Dude, can't we have one year without an evil speedster?" Cisco buried his face in his hands. "Don't worry. We'll find a way to stop this." He promised Claire, muffled from his position. "We need to figure out what white lightning means. Yellow is Speed Force, red is Negative Speed Force, blue is tainted by the Velocity drug, but we've never seen white."

[infinite1ups]

Broken was the word for it, and yet that still felt like an understatement. She felt a little broken, just remembering it. "We should tell him," Claire said sadly, giving Cisco's arm a squeeze. "We should tell everyone, really. But if you need some time to calm down before you show him, you take it. Whatever you need, I mean it."

She knew that in order to show Barry, Cisco would have to go through that all over again, just like he had when he showed her the Vibe he had about Caitlin turning into Killer Frost. After that brain blast earlier, she didn't want Cisco to push himself. It was as much for his sake as her own, though - she knew seeing that Vibe would upset Barry, and she had to prepare herself for that almost as much as Cisco would have to prepare himself to see the damn vision again. But there was more of a risk to Cisco, so she was leaving it in his hands. She could suck it up and deal with being sad.

Her gaze turned to Caitlin; she hadn't forgotten why they came down here in the first place. "And you too, if you need a little more time before you're ready to talk about your powers openly, you can wait. We'll all be here for you when you are."

With a deep breath, Claire moved to get to her feet. "Thawne... really doesn't want me hurt, I don't think. But he also wants me to leave Barry, and that's not going to happen. Maybe there's something in his research that can help us, or maybe there's something from Earth-2 about white lightning that Harry or Jesse know about. I wanna get cracking, and I wouldn't put it past Barry to come racing down here if we stay too much longer," she said, trying to laugh as she offered each of her friends a hand up. "He hasn't let me out of his sight all day."

Funny how in the past, that would've annoyed the hell out of her. Now it made her swoon a little.

[namesthevillains]

"I hate these powers, man!" Cisco lamented and scrubbed his hands over his face roughly before lifting his head back up. "The Breaching is fun, the blasts are useful, but I hate the Vibes!" Sure, they were useful, but they were nightmare fuel. He knew she was right, though.

Cait nodded. "Thank you." She took Claire's offer to stand and reached out so they could both help Cisco up. Once he was on his feet, he tugged them both into a group hug.

"We got this." Cisco said softly. "We have angles to start looking and we'll at least know to be ready when that metal monster shows its face. Maybe we'll get the jump on the bad guy this time since we know he's coming."

[infinite1ups]

As much as Claire struggled with herself and her regeneration, she didn't envy anyone who had a precognitive ability. It had its uses and advantages, sure, but most of the precogs she knew or heard of almost always saw horrific things happening in the future.

At least the vision that gave Cisco and Peter that weird feedback had seemed innocuous enough, but even that wasn't without an awful side effect for Cisco. Peter didn't seem to have any issues, not yet anyway. They'd have to see when her uncle visited if close proximity caused any more issues.

She was suddenly extra glad she'd gotten a few days of domestic bliss with Barry, because she didn't know how much time they'd have for that going forward. They'd need to carve out their moments.

Claire happily returned the group hug, stealing a moment with her friends just as eagerly as she would with her boyfriend. "It's a little funny how Thawne's attempts to get me to leave Barry are backfiring. He's given us a chance to prepare and fight back. I'm not going anywhere." She was so lucky to have this new family, and on top of that, it almost felt like her old family had a stronger bond than ever. It'd be foolish to walk away because there was danger. The risk was always there; she'd told Eobard as much, sharing those stories of her past.

She gave her friends one last little hug before pulling back with a sheepish grin. "I... have no idea which way I ran to get down here. I just followed Caitlin. Shall we get back?"

[iamnotuptight]

Cisco could admit, though it hurt like Hell, that vision hadn't been so bad on a lasting standpoint. No nightmares would come from that one at least.

"It's... strange. I think I was the only one who believed Dr. Wells... I mean, Eobard, cared about us on some level." Caitlin began. "But you might be proof that I was right. He's capable of caring in his own way." She heard Cisco scoff.

"Yeah, say that again after you've felt his hand crush your heart." Cisco said bitterly. Caitlin reached over and gave his shoulder a squeeze.

"This way." Cait started leading the way back to the Cortex with the other two in tow.

[infinite1ups]

"I think you're right, for what it's worth," Claire said before she could stop herself, following along to the Cortex with her hands in her pockets. She decided not to elaborate for Cisco's sake in particular. There was no way he'd like hearing about how Thawne spoke so highly of them, and seemed to miss them. "Just... thinking back to my conversation with him."

At least Thawne was correct in his assumption that the three of them would get along. She adored Caitlin and Cisco, and was immensely grateful that she'd been accepted so completely into this little family.

Once they got back to the Cortex, Claire made a beeline for Barry. With the memory of him so devastated still rolling around in her mind, she desperately needed to hug him. She heard her dad saying her name with obvious concern in his voice, and she took a deep breath to speak. "The paper. It's horrible..." That was all she could get out at first, voice muffled with her face buried against Barry's chest. "We have to stop it."

[iamnotuptight]

Claire had so easily worked into the fold. The fact that Harry of all people had been the first to get attached was enough of a gold star for them.

Caitlin offered a smile, but grew more and more nervous the closer they got to the Cortex. She started biting her lip and wringing her hands. She'd run out at the mention of Killer Frost and Barry wasn't stupid. He'd put two and two together. But bless Cisco. As soon as Claire was tucked against Barry and Jesse was looking curiously between everyone, he spoke up after Claire said her peace.

"I had a Vibe. Anyone who wants to see it is heading to the Breach Room because I'm not reliving it a third time. It's... intense." He said, glancing at Barry and Claire.

"So... it's true?" Barry asked, holding Claire even tighter. Cisco nodded.

"Noah, if... I'll show you if you wanna see it, but it's A vision of Claire's death." He saw Barry move and held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah. I already know you're gonna wanna see it so you can stop it." But his tone was tight.

[infinite1ups]

Claire figured mentioning the paper first would buy Caitlin a little more time, just in case she needed it. But mostly, selfish as it was, she needed that hug. She felt a little more composed after a moment, and pulled back with a shaky breath.

"I... don't think I need to see that," Noah said quietly. If they were dealing with something called the God of Speed, he wouldn't be of much use. It was strange and unnerving to feel so out of his depth. "Sorry, honey."

She shook her head. "No, Dad. It's okay. I'd rather not have anyone else see it, but can't deny that Barry's insight would be helpful. And I'm pretty sure I couldn't convince you not to, anyway. Just... babe." Her hand slipped in with Barry's, giving a squeeze. "It's hard to watch. I'm going, though. If Cisco has to see it twice, then so will I."

[namesthevillains]

Cisco really hated his powers. Jesse offered him a reassuring nod and he gave Cait a pat on the back.

"I don't blame you. I just didn't wanna deny you if you felt you needed to see it." Cisco said.

Barry shook his head. "I have to see it. I can stop it if I know what to look for. You're not dying. I'll stop it. I swear." He promised.

"We'll be right back." Cisco said and opened a breach right into the Breach Room. He stepped through the watery-looking portal and held it open until Barry and Claire were through with him. "Dude, this is gonna suck!" He said as he fetched two of the neural sets, handing one to Barry and one to Claire.

More mobile mishaps!

[infinite1ups]

She stepped through the breach and grabbed the neural set Cisco handed over. It was just like when he showed her before, so she knew what to do. This time she was even more nervous, though.

"I know if we have any hope of stopping this, we need all the help we can get. It's definitely gonna suck, though." Maybe if she looked away and tried focusing on the details of their surroundings, that would help, but that wouldn't save her from hearing Barry scream again. She kept a hold of Barry's hand, and waited for Cisco.

XD It happens.

[namesthevillains]

Cisco picked up the third headset and put it on. He took a deep breath and approached the console. "I don't wanna see this again." He muttered but closed his eyes and hit the button anyway.

They stuttered into his Vibe of the future. Like Claire, he was looking around, not interested in watching Barry break down again. He was looking for other clues. A news paper in a paper machine read CITY STILL RECOVERING FROM GORILLA ATTACK with an image of down town wrecked and a blurry photo of a familiar Meta Gorilla. "Grodd." Cisco muttered.

As Claire would look around, she'd see, tucked against a tree, a third Barry. Not the one that came with them in the Vibe, not the one in the scene who was now running in slow motion towards her falling body, but a third. He looked torn. Like he wanted to run forward, but he was hiding behind the tree so as not to be seen. A wormhole opened behind him and an arm clad in red without gloves grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back through the wormhole. The hand that had pulled the third Barry back had been older by a large margin. It was something they hadn't noticed before because it had been behind them in the Vibe.

"Did you see that?" Cisco asked Claire. "That was a temporal breach and that gold stitching down the sleeve, I know that suit. Jay Garrick, Earth-3's Flash."

Barry had come into this prepared, but nothing could prepare him to see a blade pierce through the back of her skull and out the front, then watch Claire go limp as she collapsed. The anguish in his future self's voice reflected in the tightness of his throat as he stopped himself from running forward with his future self to catch Claire. He couldn't interact with anything in a Vibe anyway. Barry choked back a sob and dropped to his knees. When they were pulled out of the Vibe, Barry stayed on his knees, looking at the spot where Claire had been in the vision.

Cisco slowly walked up to him and took the neural headset off his head, not wanting to startle him with sudden movements. "We'll get him." Cisco said softly. Cisco looked at Claire helplessly.

[infinite1ups]

Claire really didn't to see it either, but she didn't want Cisco to be the only one to have to endure it twice. Trying to focus on the other details did help, somewhat. Seeing a third Barry was a trip, and she almost called out to him before she remembered she couldn't interact, only witness. Then he was gone, anyway, pulled back through that breach.

She noticed the other newspaper too, and also that they were in a part of the city that was actually familiar to her. Though her focus was quickly drawn away from it when she realized they were getting to the hard part. Instead of watching the horrific scene play out again, she watched Barry. The present day one. Seeing his reaction wasn't any easier, but it was still better than watching herself die again. Barry went to his knees, and she lurched forward, reaching for him, just as they were pulled out of the Vibe.

Trembling hands lifted the headset off and set it aside, and she only paused to share that helpless look with Cisco. Then Claire dropped to kneel beside Barry and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She rubbed his back and kissed his temple, then just held on tight, her head resting against his. "It's not gonna happen. We're gonna stop it," she quietly assured him. It felt like some miracle that she wasn't crying, herself. Her voice was still shaky with emotion, but she didn't break. He needed her strong right now. "You're not losing me, babe."

[namesthevillains]

Cisco let them have their moment as he set the headsets aside.

Barry turned and wrapped his arms around Claire, burying his face in her neck. "I should be reassuring you." He said softly in a half sob. "You're my everything. I won't let this happen. I thought maybe that was Thawne. But I know Thawne. And that isn't him. But Thawne will know who this is and how I stop him in the future. Because I will stop him. I just want to do it before he hurts you."

"Woah, you are not suggesting we invite Mr. Vibrating Hand over for coffee to talk about our angry Decepticon." Cisco sounded... scared.

[infinite1ups]

"We can assure each other, and get through this together," Claire returned. "I love you." Barry had been nothing but reassuring and comforting since they met, so she was keen to take any opportunity to return the favor. She pulled back just enough to kiss his forehead.

"I didn't think it was Thawne, either. That paper was a warning. Doesn't make sense if he's warning us against himself." She quickly cast a worried glance in Cisco's direction. "Hell if I know how I'll do it, Cisco, but I'll keep him away from you myself."

As much as she still wanted to talk to Thawne about everything else, she didn't really know if he'd offer her any more information about the impending attack, or the one who was carrying it out. Especially since she was still with Barry, and had no intention of breaking up their relationship. "I don't know if he'd help us, beyond what he's already done - and arguably he's doing it more to make me leave Barry than to actually help. It's the second message from Thawne with the theme of putting a wedge between us. I... could try to appeal to whatever part of him may have cared for me, but I don't know how well that'd work. If nothing else, the conversation might create an opportunity for us to get him locked up."

[namesthevillains]

Barry cupped her cheek. "I love you too."

"This is insanity!" Cisco only just barely got the words out. "Thawne is dangerous, Claire! If he knows you can die for good, he knows how and he will use it! He doesn't care about anyone but himself. Please don't do this! We'll find another way!" Sure, in the face of danger, Cisco could put on a brave face, but behind the scenes, he'd let himself fall apart around his friends. He didn't want to lose Claire to Thawne. He was terrified of the man! He'd been almost unable to look at Harry when they first met because it kicked him into fight or flight! That was part of how Harry had easily discovered the trigger for his Vibes; Fear.

[infinite1ups]

"Nothing is being decided right this minute, it's just ideas," she said, managing to keep her cool even as Cisco's fear had her unnerved. But Barry would feel her get tense.

"Not sure why he'd warn me if he truly wanted me dead, though. He could just sit back and wait for this weird ass metal guy to off me, or find a way to do it himself. I don't think that's what he wants." She knew it had to be difficult to hear her talking about Thawne not wanting to hurt her after he'd literally killed Cisco. Part of her thought there was some regret in Thawne's voice when he talked about the STAR Labs team, but she didn't think it'd help to mention it.

The pain in his voice in that recording haunted her again. "If we don't have much else in the way of options, it's something to keep in the back pocket." Her attention went back to Barry, gentle hands smoothing the collar of his shirt just to touch him. "Do you have any idea what the white lightning could mean? What could cause it?"

[namesthevillains]

"I don't. But he's fast. Faster than me. Than Zoom and Thawne. I haven't seen anyone move that fast before and I can break through the space-time barrier." God of Speed seemed apt and he hated to admit that. "We determined that blue lightning comes from moving at a speed faster than natural Speed Force allows. Boosted by the artificial speed drug called Velocity. Zoom was taking it, which is what turned his lightning blue. Eliza wasn't a speedster, but when she took Velocity 9, it gave her yellow lightning until she hit speeds faster than mine and it turned blue just before she died. So... white lightning might be even faster. But moving at that kind of speed..."

Cisco raked his hands through his hair and held his head. "Okay... so if you're gonna talk to Thawne, you need to be careful. I want to augment the watch first. So we can get to you if you need us. Which means involving Harry."

[infinite1ups]

None of what Barry said sounded good. And if he didn't know what the white lightning could mean, she wasn't sure if anyone else would have answers. Except... well, Thawne. Maybe.

"Harry's not going to like any of this," Claire grumbled, then briefly glanced at her wrist. "I'm wearing Harry's watch now. He gave mine to my dad until Dad's is ready, then we're all swapping back again."

She almost had her mind set on talking to Thawne, but she was almost afraid to say so out loud. There was a growing, lingering thought in the back of her mind that no matter what she did, it would be the wrong choice. It was a stupid feeling, one that annoyed her. They were just getting started, now was definitely not the time to be giving in to despair. Like so many other times in a crisis, she wasn't alone, and for once, it was easy to remember that.

"What do you think?" It wasn't quite a helpless look she gave Barry now, but it was pretty damn close. "As much as it sucks, talking to Thawne could be our best chance to learn something more to help us." Claire paused, frowning deeply. "I don't want to leave you."

Including dying, she was just trying not to mention that part. All the years of taking her ability to escape death for granted were sinking in with this new, permanent threat. She was trying not to seem as rattled as she felt, but Barry was already incredibly good at reading her. It was probably the superspeed; he could pick up even the subtlest changes that others might miss.

"I can't believe I'm this scared of some stupid ass monster looking like a Power Rangers villain," she huffed, rolling her eyes.