(no subject)

[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.