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[thescarletspeedster]

They never had a chance.

Zoom took everything Barry had like it was nothing, and now he's trapped in a nightmare.
The world is a tangle. In the moments of sense left to him, Barry wonders if this is what it's like for the people he's carried at superspeed. Zoom has him by the scruff, runs with him like he's nothing, and it's faster than anything Barry's ever felt. His life is flashing before his eyes, but it isn't death - it's Zoom.

Barry can remember it in pieces, horrific memories that grab him by the spine and rattle him to his core. Zoom holding Linda over the ledge with inhuman strength. The firebolt Barry threw at him, and the sinking of his heart when Zoom caught it and threw it back like it was nothing. His brief sense of victory as they reached terminal velocity in an attempt to neutralize Zoom's superior speed. The fight.
The blow of Zoom's fist against his back. The crunch of bone. The way Barry's legs crumpled like a doll's beneath him.

What happened after that is less clear. Barry knows he saw Iris' tear streaked face. He remembers the flash of cameras as Zoom held him as easily as a bug for all of Central City Picture News to see. The brief, horrified glimpse he'd gotten of Joe's face as Zoom dangled him before all of Central City PD is still etched in his mind.

What will you do without your precious hero?

The memories shift with dizzying speed, and distantly, Barry realizes it's no memory he's trapped in now. Zoom has him by the collar and is speeding them away again, faster than Barry's ever dreamed of moving, and S.T.A.R. Labs comes all too quickly into view.

Caitlyn shouts, and Zoom is still speaking in that monstrous voice, but it's not until Zoom lifts him by the throat the Barry manages to open his eyes.

Zoom stabs a clawed finger into him, and Barry's eyes widen with pain, the first he's managed to feel through the numbness radiating from his spine in long moments. The world tilts and keeps tilting, and Barry gasps to find himself on the ground. Had Zoom dropped him? Is he gone, is it over?

“Stay with me.” It's Caitlyn, her hand pressed over the stab wound in his side, but he can hardly feel it. He can't. Barry's eyes slip closed, and in the darkness, only Zoom's voice is there to receive him.

Goodbye, Flash. You weren't fast enough.

He failed them. He wasn't fast enough, and he failed.

“Stay with me, Barry.”

He wants to, but he can't.

Comments

[likeahero]

Oliver has been guilty of wishing for any other familiar faces to show up. Happy as he is with Felicity and Thea being in the city with him, he misses his friends and team - even more so now that he's been saddled with a whole year's worth of new memories.

He just didn't think having someone show up would have been anything like this.

It took exactly two seconds for he and Felicity to take in Barry's sudden broken, bloody appearance in their apartment, another few minutes to triage and for Oliver to realize there was nothing they could do except call for an ambulance. Though wary about Barry healing in a hospital, it was the only choice to make; at least they could remove and hide the Flash suit, outfitting Barry with some of Oliver's clothes and keeping his identity safe.

Not much time seems to have passed at all since Barry's arrival, and Oliver's called off work once already to stay at the hospital and keep an eye on him as much as possible. The moment a doctor makes a note about how fast Barry seems to be healing is the moment Oliver's going to have to cement his plans to do what he can to keep him safe.

Until then Oliver spends much of his time in uncomfortable seats, trading off on Barry watch with Felicity.

[one_more_question]

Felicity's been a mixture of excited and worried and slightly terrified ever since Barry showed up out of the blue in her and Oliver's apartment. There hasn't been time for cheerful reunions, though, not in the shape he's in, and Felicity has a million and a half questions about what the heck happened but they're all going to have to wait until he gets better.

He will get better, she knows that, she knows - remembers - something about his accelerated healing. But that too has increased her worry, because they had no choice but to bring him to the hospital, and she's worked her magic with technology as much as she can, but she can't exactly hack into the doctor's eyes to stop him from seeing the recovery that will be far too quick to be normal.

She called out sick from work, refusing to be anywhere but at Barry's side with Oliver, and now she's bouncing between sitting in the chair beside his bed and pacing the floor, waiting until she can talk to her friend.

[thescarletspeedster]

The world moves from side to side.

Drifting his way upward from somewhere down deep, all Barry wants is for it to slow down, to stop just long enough for him to make some semblance of order in his head, but it never stops. Side to side. From wall to wall.

His eyes half open, Barry manages to focus on her. Blond ponytail. Nice dress. Amazing heels. A worried turn of mouth. It's Felicity, pacing.

Flashes from before come back to Barry, but he resists them, lying still until the memories have faded, but when he opens his eyes again, Felicity is still there. Shouldn't it be Caitlyn?

She starts her pacing yet again, and behind her Barry sees Oliver. But where are they? Stirring, Barry manages to open his eyes completely, even if his voice is a ruined little rasp.

"Where?"

[likeahero]

Oliver is on his feet and hovering over the bed the moment he hears Barry. Though he hadn't doubted Barry would be okay, it's a relief to see him awake and aware.

"Where is a long story," Oliver answers, "but you're in a hospital, and you're safe."

He has a million questions, least of which is what the hell happened, but Oliver keeps them to himself for now.

[one_more_question]

Felicity startles at the sound of Barry's voice, weak and hoarse, and hurries over, heels clacking as she rushes. She doesn't dare sit on the side of his bed, not with his injuries, and instead rests one hand lightly atop his.

"Barry," she gasps, "I'm so glad you're okay. Well, not okay, but awake at least. And Oliver's right, you're safe, and that's what matters right now."

[thescarletspeedster]

"Safe," Barry breathes as if to test the word. No one is safe with Zoom freely crossing the breaches into this Earth. Why hasn't he come back yet to finish Barry off? Has Oliver found a way to stop him?

The questions rise up as quickly as the memories of what Zoom did to him, and Barry gives a shudder, and then a wince as it pulls at his bruises. Zoom really did a number on him.

Barry turns his hand beneath Felicity's and squeezes her hand. Whatever's happening, he's glad for this moment of quiet they've given him. "How bad is it?" he asks. His body feels as heavy as lead, but he can't tell if that's the beating or the drugs.

[likeahero]

"If it were anyone else you'd be permanently paralyzed, if not dead." It occurs to Oliver that he could have answered the question with a little more sympathy, but better for Barry to know exactly what he's facing from the start.

"Barry, what the hell happened?"

[one_more_question]

Encouraged by the gesture, she smiles faintly, giving Barry's hand a gentle squeeze back. "It'll take some time, but you'll be okay," Felicity assures him as she glances at Oliver with a somewhat reproachful look, although she's not surprised by his lack of cushioning with the news. "How much do you remember? Who did this to you?"

[thescarletspeedster]

"He's called Zoom." Barry's throat sticks around the name, but he presses on. He needs to get this out so they can figure out how to stop him. "He's a speedster from Earth 2. He wants to be the only one, and he's been sending metahumans through the breaches between our worlds to kill me. We had a plan to bait him - "

Barry stops, his expression crumpling for a moment before he presses on. His gaze flits to the corner of the room, but Joe doesn't appear just because Barry wants him to. "To bait him, but he was so fast." Barry lifts his eyes to Oliver's. "I didn't stand a chance."

[likeahero]

There's a lot to take in from that, starting with what sounds like breaches between universes, but Oliver lets it sit for the moment. From what Barry says -- and from what he doesn't -- Oliver knows the physical recovery is going to be the easy part.

"You're alright now." The words feel empty even as he says them, because Oliver knows they won't mean much to Barry. He's been here before; beaten and broken down by someone better, bigger, and meaner. Twice. The first time had taken Oliver a long time to come back from. "We haven't heard about any speedsters terrorizing the city since you arrived."

[one_more_question]

"And we definitely would have heard if something like that was happening," Felicity assures Barry with a nod. "It would not go unnoticed. Right now you just need to focus on getting better..."

She glances back at Oliver. "And we will focus on figuring out a way to get you out of here before you're healed enough that the doctor will start to wonder what kind of miracle of modern science is happening."

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry exhales a small, nervous laugh. He hasn't gone to a normal hospital since S.T.A.R. Labs whisked him away, this one can't be remotely equipped to deal with his meta physiology.

"Why are we here?" he asks, "Why not S.T.A.R. Labs, where's Caitlyn?" His stomach sinks. After he was out, Zoom would have been free to get rid of his whole team. "Is she hurt? Who else is hurt?"

[likeahero]

Oliver shakes his head, more to get Barry to stop asking more questions than to say Caitlyn is fine. He has no way of knowing how any of them are doing, if they're even alive if Zoom can do this to Barry.

"We don't know. We're not exactly in Central City or Starling anymore." The last time he had to do this was with Thea and he's a little bit out of practice, but it helps that Barry has somehow been dealing with alternate universes already.

He has so many questions about that.

"You've been transported to a city called Darrow. Not sure how getting here works, and we haven't really found a way to leave, either."

[one_more_question]

"It's an alternate universe...which apparently you have some experience with now, and we are so going to have a conversation all about that later because I have lots of questions, lots and lots of questions," Felicity says. She can already imagine Oliver rolling his eyes fondly and tuning out once they do talk. "For now, just know that we're restricted to this city, Darrow, and a little of the surrounding countryside. I'm sure you'll want to test it once you're able, and frankly I want you to test it too, but if you try to leave the city you always end up headed back into it somehow, even though you never turned around. It's a little freaky."

[thescarletspeedster]

"What?" Barry asks, which feels like a startlingly inadequate word given the madness of what he's just been told. "But it's not Earth or Earth 2, and we didn't get here through a breach?"

Just when the insanity of parallel worlds was starting to make sense. He sits up, but as he does so, Barry realizes that something is missing. Two very important somethings, in fact. His eyes widen.

"I can't feel my legs.'

[likeahero]

Oliver shakes his head at Barry's questions, wanting to ask some in return, wants to know what the hell he means by Earth 2, but then Barry realizes what he and Felicity haven't told him yet.

"The doctors say you fractured your spine," Oliver says, and he tries to be gentle about it. Gentle for him, anyway. "As far as they're concerned, you're not supposed to be able to walk again."

[one_more_question]

Felicity squeezes Barry's hand again. "With your accelerated healing, you'll be okay, you just need to give it some time," she assures him. Even knowing that, it's scary watching him have to go through this. "And we'll be here to help you every step of the way. Literally and figuratively."

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry stares up at them both, at Oliver with horror, at Felicity with something like tentative hope. Felicity is kind, but practical - she wouldn't give him false hope, and after a moment Barry groans and lies back against the sheets.

"But I'll get better," he says, largely to comfort himself. "How long before they catch on that I'm healing too fast?"

[likeahero]

Oliver's glad for Felicity at his side (he always is). Her bedside manner is much better than his in that it actually exists.

"We might not have much time," Oliver admits. That Barry is conscious at all so soon after being admitted with his injuries will probably have the doctor raising some questions. "Our apartment is no S.T.A.R. Labs, but we can check you out of here as soon as it looks like they might start asking questions."

[one_more_question]

Felicity nods in agreement with Oliver. "You can stay with us for the time being," she says, her tone making it clear she's not really asking him. Whether Barry wants to admit it or not, he's going to to need help for a little while, especially since he can't stay at the hospital for as long as it'll take him to recover. "Everyone gets a kind of welcome packet when they show up, with keys to an apartment and money and some other stuff, so one of us will grab that for you."