Barry's POV

It's amazing to me how quickly things can change.

One minute, life is normal, and then the next, you're struggling to keep up. That was how I felt almost every minute of my life, but this time felt especially different. 

It's been a month since Raven's mother returned and we got Caitlin back. All it took was for me to tell her to kill me to bring her back. I knew she couldn't do it, and I'm happy that I was right. Caitlin was a wreck when she finally came back, but we helped her get through it. I'm just hoping that we'll be able to keep Frost at bay for awhile, if not forever. I still hate myself for doing this to her...for creating flashpoint.

On the more positive side, Raven and her mother have been enjoying their time together. Raven hasn't been around a whole lot for this reason, which is fine. I understand completely. If it were my mom, I'd want to spend every minute with her. 

Tessa seems like a nice person. Raven, her, and I have gone out for dinner a few times and I've gotten to learn more about her. I trust her more than I did when she first got here, and I do believe her story. It's just always been hard for me to trust ever since Harrison Wells turned out to be the man who killed my mother. I can't decide if that's a good trait to have or a bad one.

As for Tessa's powers, they're unbelievable. She has lightning coursing through her veins, but it's not lightning like mine. Instead of speed, she can summon that lightning and use it to her advantage. I like to call her the female Thor. Cisco's been running some tests on her and H.R. has been somewhat training her to use her abilities, along with training Wally, so he's been busy.

In terms of my love life, Raven and I have sort of put things on pause. Of course our first date wasn't the best and I promised her another second first date, it just hasn't happened yet. With her mother returning, aliens showing up, and Christmas just right around the corner, we haven't really had the time to focus on us. But that's okay...I'd wait forever for her. 

Savitar has been on my mind a lot lately too. I ended up going to earth three to bring Jay here, mostly to ask him what he knew about Savitar, but also because I have a gut feeling that I'll be needing his help with this one. A large part of me prayed that Jay wouldn't have any clue as to who this guy was, but to my amazement he did, which scares me even more. 

Jay didn't know much, but it was better than the little to zero information we had already. Apparently he was the first man to be granted speed, which is why he calls himself a god. I still find it foolish. 

As for Alchemy....we finally figured out who he was, and it didn't surprise me one bit.

"Julian," I state, crossing my arms behind my back as I stare into the pipeline cell. Earlier, Jay and I had caught Alchemy at the waterfront, so naturally after seeing his face, I put the douche in the pipeline. It was what he deserved. 

"What is this?" Julian questions as he stands, finally waking up from the sleep I had put him in with my speed punch. "Where am I?"

"Let's just say you're going to be our guest for awhile," I spit, feeling some sort of pride coming over me. I guess for the past few months I've been sick of letting Julian get all of the punches on me at work...and now I get to finally strike back.

Julian shakes his head, and I knew from the look on his face that he was about to say something that was going to piss me off...and I was right. "You. Flash. I would have suspected you had your own private facility for holding metas...care to explain what I'm doing in it? Because last I checked, I'm not a psycho meta that runs around town causing chaos or wearing a suit and playing hero."

I roll my eyes. "Well while I'm playing hero, you're worshipping Savitar and turning people into metas. I know that you're Alchemy, Julian."

As I finish my sentence, he seems almost offended that I would dare to put his name near Alchemy's. "That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard of. You think I'm Alchemy? Right, and Santa Clause is real."

I pull out the mask I had behind my back, waving it in front of me like some sort of trophy. "Oh yeah, then what's this? I caught you wearing this mask!"

He points a finger at me, sticking it against the glass that separated the two of us. "You're setting me up. You're framing me, aren't you? Flash, of all the people to do so...the hero!"

I step forwards to shout at him some more, to let my anger out about the entire situation, but before I can do so, a flash of lightning separates the two of us, and the only thing left standing in its place is Raven. She gives me a look to calm down before I step back, lowering the mask to my side.

"Oh great, another so-called masked hero!" Julian shouts, spinning around in a circle with his hands in the air. "You here to tell me lies too?"

I grit my teeth as Raven turns around, taking a deep breath before speaking. "We just want to figure out what's going on, Julian. We want to help, so please...just let us." 

Julian bites his lower lip for a moment before taking a step back, his eyes scanning the both of us and the cell around him. "If this is what you call helping, then I might want to recheck your definition." 

Once again, I start to shout something back, but before I can, Raven is reaching forwards and closing the pipeline door. As the seal on the door shuts, I reach upwards and rip my cowl off, anger still radiating off of me. 

"Something isn't right," Raven says to me as I scoff.

"Of course something isn't right. That guy is literally insane...I still don't know how-"

"How you've worked with him? Yeah, I know Barry," she cuts me off while chuckling a little bit. 

I start to loosen back up. "I do say that a lot, don't I?"

"All the damn time," she fires back.  "But no, I just find it weird that he's not admitting to being Alchemy. You'd think someone like him would take pride in that."

My eyes drift towards the mask in my hands, trying to picture Julian doing all of the things that Alchemy has done the past few months. "Maybe...or maybe he's just like all of the other people we've trusted before that turned out to be liars-"

I stop myself before I can go any further, my eyes flashing back up to Raven's face. Her eyes fall to the floor, and I knew in that moment that I shouldn't have said what I said. "Raven, I'm sorry I didn't-"

"No, I know what you meant," she sighs, not sounding upset. "You trusted Harrison, Jay...and me. And we all turned out to be liars, especially me. So trust me when I say that if Julian is lying, he's doing a pretty damn good job. I thought I was the best liar out there, so he takes the cake if he is really lying. But if there's one thing you showed me, it's that sometimes even a liar can be telling some truth, and that they can be saved. Maybe we should consider that before locking Julian away in here for good."

She was right, and I knew better. "You're right...I'll talk to him again later and try and hear him out."

"Good," she slightly smiles before taking her mask off, walking towards the door to leave. Before she can however, I call out after her.

"Hey!" I shout as she looks over her shoulder, giving me a questioning look. "You're still the best liar in my book." 

A grin forms on her face as she continues forwards, shouting over her shoulder. "Damn right."

-*+*-

Raven's POV

"I cannot believe you convinced me to come with you," I say as I watch Iris march in front of me, at least five bags in each of her hands. 

"Oh come on, you can't say Christmas shopping isn't fun!" Iris exclaims, spinning around to look at me as she walks backwards. "Plus, I thought maybe you'd enjoy it since you never really had a Christmas before." 

My mother perks up beside me. "We celebrated Christmas every year before the accident. It was so cute...I would usually work on setting up the tree while you and your father built the gingerbread house, which almost always resulted in you eating the tub of icing and getting a stomach ache."

I smiled at what she said, but for some reason, I couldn't remember ever doing those things. I'm not sure why, but I decided to play along as if I did. "Oh yeah, I loved Christmas time before...you know."

We stop walking for a moment as Iris stares between the two of us, empty silence filling the air. Finally, Iris tries to set the mood back to how it was. "Well, no matter what happened in the past, we're all here together to have an amazing one this year. We do it best at the West house, that's a known fact."

My mom looks over at me then, a huge grin on her face. I softly smile back at her as I realize what this Christmas meant for me. I haven't celebrated this holiday since I was eleven years old, and this will be the first one I'll get to spend with people I love. With my mother. I might not know what the future holds, but in this moment...I was happy. 

"Thank you for being so kind of us, Iris," I hear my mom say, snapping me out of my little trance. "I know that I've probably said this a million times, but I really am happy that you guys have been so good to Raven and I both."

Iris smiles as she grips tightly onto the bags in her hands, and I wondered how she was even managing to hold onto all of them at once. "Of course, you guys are both always welcome here with us."

Suddenly then, all three of our phone alarms go off, indicating that someone had pressed the panic button at S.T.A.R. Labs. Iris' eyes goes wide before she looks over at me. "Care for a lift?"

I give her a sly smile before using my speed to flash Iris and my mom both to S.T.A.R. Labs, dropping the shopping bags off at the West house while I was at it as well. In no time I was back in the cortex, watching Iris frantically type away at the monitors, trying to figure out what was going on and who had triggered the alarm.

"Oh my God," she breathes before throwing some type of video feed up on the screen, showing the speed lab. Lightning starts to flash behind my eyes when I see Barry there, along with Savitar, who was throwing him around like a rag doll. "What's happening to him?"

"It's Savitar," I say as I look back at Iris. "Someone opened the box. We need to get it closed! I'm going to go help Barry-"

"Be careful!" I hear Iris and my mother shout after me as I race downstairs, heading towards the speed lab. As soon as I step into the room however, I watch as Savitar stops his chaotic piñata swinging at Barry and decides to stop directly in front of me.

I stare up at him with large eyes, a mixture of fear and hatred brewing inside of me. Barry tries to sit up against the wall he was now leaning on, but he fails. He gives me a look to run, but why in the hell would I do that. 

"Raven," I hear the creature speak out, sounding the exact same as it had the first time it had talked to me when he gave Wally his powers. "I see you're back on your feet again."

"Yeah, thanks for that," I spit before throwing a fist at him, striking the metal suit hard. Nothing but pain shoots up my arm as I gasp, hearing the damn thing laugh at my stupidity. All that I knew in that moment was that I was even more pissed than I was before.

Before I can hear him let out one more chuckle, I'm holding out both of the palms of my hands, using my other set of powers that fate gifted me. I smile slightly as I watch Savitar lift off of the ground, hovering in front of me. I felt powerful again. 

"You call yourself a god?" I question, lowering one of my hands to show him how easy it was. 

I didn't grow afraid again until I hear him chuckle once more, speaking in that same damn raspy voice. "Of course. I'm the god of speed."

In the blink of an eye, I watch as he disappears into a blue ball of light right where he was floating. Before I have any time at all to question what had just happened, I feel a metal fist come into contact behind me, sending me flying across the room. I scream as I land and roll up next to Barry, feeling nothing but a sharp pain radiating throughout my entire body. 

"Raven! Are you okay?" Barry shouts at me, his voice sounding distant to me. I feel his hands grab my shoulders as I try to make sense out of what just occurred, but only coming up short. 

"Of course she's okay, thanks to me," Savitar speaks out one more, walking towards the two of us. I find myself crawling closer to Barry as he nears us, two metal spikes appearing from both of the arms of the suit. "At least, for now."

Right before he gets within distance to hurt us both, he's disappearing into yet another blue ball of light...only this time, not coming back out. I sigh a breath of relief as I fall into Barry's arms, feeling him pull me close as I listen to his heart racing in his chest.

"You said you were good at detecting lies," Barry breathes as he looks down at me. "So tell me...was he lying about being a god?"

I shake my head. "I really don't know anymore."

-*+*-

this is the part where I tell you guys how sorry I am for not posting in ages, which I still am, but I wanted to save you from me saying the same bullshit I've been saying the past like twenty chapters...but yes, I am sorry.

I think I've finally found some more inspiration to writing these chapters, so I am ~praying~ that I'll be writing more of them more often now. so beat my ass if I don't. 

I hope you guys are having an amazing day/summer/night, and I wanted to thank you again for being so damn patient with Raven and I. It means so much to us, and we are both very sorry for my bullshit.

oh, and how do we feel about the new cover? yay or nay?

anyways that's all, make sure to comment and vote! xx