We had just got back from Earth 2.

Jay was standing in front of the breach, looking at us, smiling.

Zoom phased his hand through his back into his chest, shredding his heart, pulling him into the breach.

Quinn screamed in horrified denial. "No!" The breach closed forever, leaving us horrified. Quinn turned to face us, in severe denial. "He's not dead. He's not dead."

I looked at her sympathetically. "Quinn..."

Quinn shook her head. "He's not dead. He's not."

"Quinn," Barry told her.

"This is not happening," Quinn told us.

Caitlin walked closer. "Hey. I got you. Come on."

Caitlin led Quinn out of the basement.

I looked at Harrison. "Open it up."

"Vera," Harrison told me.

"I need to go back," I told them.

"I can't do that," Harrison told us.

"Open it up!" Barry told him.

"Barry!" Harrison told him. "The breaches are closed. All the breaches are closed."

"Why can't we just open one of them?" Joe asked.

"The quark matter energy that we used to seal the breaches, it prevents them from being opened," Harrison told us. "Ever again. There's no going back to our world."

"Wait," Jessie told him. "We're trapped here for good?"

Harrison nodded. "Yes."

"Look, we can't just let them get away with this," Barry told us. "Zoom just murdered Jay right in front of us."

"There's gotta be something we can do," I told them.

"There's not," Harrison told us. "Not this time. It's over."

I was still burned and weak from Phoenix burning me alive, nearly falling after the exhaustion of the fight.

Barry helped me stand. "Hey. I got you."

Barry led me out of the basement.

~

Caitlin, Cisco, Barry and I were in the Cortex.

Caitlin was helping me manage the burns in my skin. "Those should have healed by now."

"They're from Phoenix," I told her. "They're not gonna heal for a while."

We looked toward the infirmary, where we could see Quinn lying down with her back to us, asleep.

"How's she doing?" Cisco asked.

"Not good," Caitlin answered. "I tried to get her to go home, but she said she doesn't have one. Not on this Earth, anyway. So I just sat with her until she fell asleep. She's pretty shell-shocked."

"Phoenix said that she wanted to make Quinn's life a living hell," Barry told them.

I sighed. "Yeah. We don't know why she hates Quinn so much, but she seems to be doing that very well."

Harrison walked in. "She'll be fine. Tate's strong. She'll get past this." Caitlin walked into the infirmary to check on Quinn. Harrison looked at Barry, Cisco and me. "In the meantime, I would not say anything about your friends' counterparts from my Earth."

"Why?" Barry asked.

"Because you don't want to influence their reality in ways that should not be influenced," Harrison answered.

"Like in the same way as when we time travel?" I asked.

"Exactly," Harrison answered. "But also, what's the point? Those people are not your people. Their lives are not your lives. Never were, never will be. Bury it. Move on. Yes?"

Cisco looked toward Caitlin and Quinn. "Yeah. That I can do."

"Barry?" Harrison asked. "Vera?"

Barry and I nodded.

~

So that was what we did. We didn't talk about Earth 2. We kept what happened there between the four of us and got on with our lives knowing there was nothing we could do now to stop Zoom and Phoenix. Instead, we tries to just adjust to our new circumstances. And cope with our losses. Jay's death took its toll. Left scars on all of us. Some more than others. And so to try to keep my mind off thoughts of the surreal other life I experienced that wasn't my own, I focused on healing. Waiting for some other metahuman threat to rear its ugly head and distract me from the frustration I was feeling. And as fate would have it, I did not have to wait long.

It was only a few days later in the Cortex.

Caitlin, Cisco, Barry and I were talking.

Caitlin was taking my vitals. "And there you go. Almost as good as new."

"Okay, we knew that blazes can absorb power to make themselves stronger," Cisco told me. "But this Phoenix girl is different. She doesn't absorb fire. She siphons power out of other blazes to make herself stronger."

"I guess that's why she's so strong," I told them. "She took Quinn's power. She took a little bit of mine. I just have to get back out there, you know, keep myself busy."

Diggle and Lyla walked in.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Diggle told us.

"Hey, Dig, Lyla," Barry told them. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to give you two the heads up," Diggle answered.

"About what?" Barry asked.

"A metahuman who escaped from Argus custody," Lyla answered. "Goes by the name King Shark."

"King Shark?" Caitlin repeated.

"You mean, the half-man, half-shark that tried to kill you two months ago?" Cisco asked. "I thought he was dead."

"That's what Argus wanted you to believe when they snatched him up," Diggle told us. "But believe me, the half-shark is very much alive. And his biological imperative is telling him to do one thing." He looked at Barry and me. "That's kill the two of you."

I scoffed.

"We're gonna need a bigger Flyra," Cisco told us.

Barry and I looked at each other, sighing.

~

We were still talking. Harrison and Quinn were here now.

"So how do you know about King Shark?" Barry asked.

"As the new director of Argus, Lyla's job is to clean up Amanda Waller's messes," Diggle told us. "King Shark was one of the bigger and weirder ones."

"And it appears under her directives, Argus had been monitoring metahuman activity for the past two years," Lyla told us.

"Why?" Caitlin asked.

"Well, to see if any of those powers could be exploited," Diggle answered.

"Weaponized," Harrison told us.

"How do you know that he's coming after us?" I asked.

"While in our custody, he kept saying the same thing," Lyla told us. "'Zoom and Phoenix want the Flash and Pyra dead'. And although he removed the tracker we had on him, the readings we did receive show that he was headed toward Central City."

"Let him come," I told them.

"Vera, this thing is a killing machine," Diggle told me. "We just came here to warn you. Let Argus handle it."

"No, we can't do that, Dig," I told him. "I'm sorry, but all year, we've been sitting ducks for Zoom, Phoenix and all their Earth-2 henchmen. This is the last one. I'm not gonna just wait for him to attack. I'm going after him first." I looked at Quinn. "I owe that to you." I looked at Barry. "And we owe that to Jay."

Barry nodded. "Quinn, he's from your Earth. What do you know about him?"

"Real name is Shay Lamden," Quinn told us. "He was a, get this, marine biologist before our particle accelerator changes him into King Shark, and Zoom and Phoenix put him under their control."

Caitlin looked at Harrison. "So, how did you track him when he attacked Barry and Vera?"

"Zoom and Phoenix sent him to this Earth to kill Barry and Vera," Harrison told us. "I just followed."

"Yeah, but you did track Grodd down," Barry told him. "Can you find King Shark, too?"

"I can try," Harrison answered.

"All right," Cisco told us.

Harrison walked out.

Barry sighed. "Okay, well, all these locations are next to a body of water."

"There must only be a few hours before he needs to get back into the water to re-oxygenate his blood," Caitlin told us.

"We can take the waterfront," I told them. I looked at Lyla and Diggle. "Can you your team handle the rest?"

"I'll get them on it," Lyla told us.

"All right," Barry told us. "What about Dr. Lamden's doppelganger? Maybe he could help us somehow."

Cisco looked up Earth 1 Shay Lamden. "Or not. Um, looks like he died when the particle accelerator exploded."

"What about next of kin?" Caitlin asked.

"Uh, he's got a widow, Dr. Tanya Lamden," Cisco told us. "She's a research scientist at Nautilis Labs, and she studies, wait for it, sharks."

"Okay, maybe the two of you can go and see of she's discovered anything in her research that can help us," Barry told them.

"Sure," Caitlin answered.

"Yeah," Cisco answered.

"I can go with," Quinn told them.

"Are you sure?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah," Quinn answered. "I need to do something."

We nodded in understanding.

"Great," I told them.

They walked out of the Cortex.

Barry looked at me. "Hey, I'm supposed to meet up with Wally. Joe and Iris want us to get to know each other a little better."

"Good," I told him. "That's great. You go. I can handle this."

"You sure?" Barry asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "I'm healed, I'm back up to speed. You go. I got this."

~

I was suited up as Pyra, using fire to fly across the skies on the waterfront, looking below to see Argus searching, landing on the ground in front of Lyla and Diggle, letting the fire fade.

"Anything?" Diggle asked.

"Nothing yet," I answered.

"So far, nothing on our end, either," Diggle told me.

"I just hope Wells is doing better than we are," I told them. I remembered that Felicity had been paralyzed from the waist down by Damien Darhk. "Hey, how's Felicity doing?"

"I'm not gonna lie, Vera," Diggle told me. "It was pretty rough there at first, but you know Felicity. She's tough."

I nodded. "Yeah. She's just not returning any of my calls."

"She has a lot going on right now," Diggle told me. "But, hey, I'll ask her if she can give you a call when this is over."

I sighed. "I just wanna catch this thing. If everything to do with Zoom, Phoenix and Earth 2 are put behind us, we could just move on with our lives."

"You're starting to do that thing that Oliver does, Vera," Diggle told me. "Carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. You gotta stop that, or it's going to slow you down."

Lyla walked closer. "Still nothing." She spoke into comms. "Status check, grid six."

"Hold on, I think we got something."

~

We found the bodies of two agents.

"So much for cleaning up after Waller's messes," Lyla told us. "If we don't find King Shark soon, somebody's gonna be cleaning up after mine."

"We'll find him, Lyla," Diggle told her.

"All right, I searched the whole area," I told them. "He's gone."

"He couldn't have gotten far," Diggle told us.

"Still, he knows we're here now," Lyla told us. "We lost the element of surprise."

"Not if Wells can figure out a way to track him," I told them.

"In the meantime, we'll keep looking," Lyla told us.

"All right," I told them.

I waved, using fire to fly away.

~

After dark, I had tracked King Shark to the West house, seeing that he tore down the roof to try and attack Joe, Iris, Barry and Wally.

I was still suited up as Pyra, using fire to push King Shark away from the broken roof, looking at the others inside. "Everybody, get back."

I continued to shoot fire into King Shark while they ran upstairs.

King Shark turned to me. "Where is the Flash?"

"Not here," I told him. "But I'm right here."

"Pyra, Phoenix wants you dead," King Shark told me.

"Yeah, I know," I told him. "Then you get to go home, right? Well, guess what, Shay? The breaches that Zoom and Phoenix used to bring you here, they're all gone. We closed them. For good. There's no more Zoom. No more Phoenix. There's no way back to your Earth. You're going to be locked up here for a very long time."

I continued to shoot fire at King Shark.

King Shark sprayed water all over me to put the flames that allowed me to fly out, making me fall toward the ground.

Barry, suited up as the Flash, caught me before I landed on the ground. "Sorry I'm late."

I chuckled. "You have a right to be." I looked toward the West house. "They okay?"

"Yeah," Barry answered.

I stood.

"You might be fast in the street and in the sky, but not as fast as I am in water," King Shark told us. "You're not gonna catch me, Flyra."

King Shark ran away toward the nearest body of water.

Argus vehicles drove past us. One of them parked next to us.

Lyla and Diggle got out of the car.

"You okay?" Diggle asked.

"Oh, yeah, we're good," Barry answered.

I looked at Barry. "Go check on the Wests. Make sure they're okay."

Barry nodded.

~

Quinn, Jessie, Harrison, Caitlin, Lyla, Diggle, Cisco, Barry and I were in the Cortex.

Cisco looked at Barry. "Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the suburbs, King Shark shows up at your house."

"Man, I don't even know how he found me," Barry told us. "It's not like I was the Flash while I was at home."

"Must be a reason," Quinn told us.

I nodded. "Yeah. Have you figured out a way to track King Shark yet?"

"No," Harrison answered. "I don't have enough information to create an accurate location algorithm."

"What about Dr. Lamden's research?" I asked. "Anything that can help us?"

"I didn't think so at first, but then I found something that I think might help us," Caitlin told us. "Sharks are predators. In order to track their prey, they use what's known as passive electro location."

"Passive electro location?" Diggle repeated.

"Yes, it's how they sense the bioelectric potential around a fish's body," Caitlin explained.

"King Shark senses electricity in Barry's system," Quinn told us.

"Okay, that explains how King Shark can track Barry," Lyla told us. "But how is that going to help us track him?"

"We flip it," Caitlin answered. "Instead of King Shark being the predator, we make him the prey, and we track him using active electro location."

"We reprogram our satellite to generate a specific electric field, and then measure any electrical distortions that correlate with a one-ton walking shark," Cisco told us.

Harrison chuckled. "That'll help us get him." He looked at Jessie. "You'll help me out?"

"Sure," Jessie answered.

They walked out.

"Great," Lyla told us. "Let us know when you locate him, and we'll take it from there."

I nodded. "Okay."

Lyla looked at Diggle. "Let's get the team ready."

They walked out.

Barry sighed.

~

It was raining on the waterfront.

Barry and I were suited up, standing with Argus, Lyla and Diggle.

"What exactly is that?" Diggle asked, nodding to a life size water lure of Flash and Pyra.

"That, my friend, is bait," Barry answered.

"You made Flash and Pyra lures?" Lyla asked.

"It's the best I could come up with given the time frame," Cisco told us. "It's rigged to mimic and enhance the electric field Barry's body generates. King Shark takes one whiff of that, and cue the 'Jaws' soundtrack. And I also stuffed Vera's lure with enough tranqs to knock him out for a month."

"Which should make him a lot easier to reel in," I told them.

"And that container, strong enough to hold him once he's sedated?" Diggle asked.

"It's made of promethium metal," Harrison told us. "It's impenetrable."

Caitlin walked with us, holding a camera. "Meanwhile, we'll be able to keep track of King Shark with this and the cameras that are on the lures. Whatever he does, we'll gave eyes on him."

"All right, then," I told them. "Let's go fishing."

"Caitlin, I don't understand why I can't be the one playing Quint in this scenario," Cisco told her. "I should be the one out there, not you."

"I need to do this," Caitlin told us.

"You know Quint dies, right?" Quinn asked.

"Water is this monster's natural habitat," Diggle told us. "He's gonna be a lot stronger here. You sure about this?"

I nodded. "This ends tonight."

We waited.

"Maybe he's not gonna fall for this," Diggle told us.

"He's a shark," Barry told us. "He'll come. Anything, Cisco?"

"Uh, nope," Cisco answered. "Nothing that looks like it could be him."

"You programmed the satellite, though, right?" Harrison asked.

"Yes, Harry," Cisco answered.

"And you punched in the correct perimeters?" Harrison asked.

"You're insulting my intelligence," Cisco told him.

"They've been waiting for hours," Harrison told him.

"I know they've been out there for hours," Cisco told him. "But you're insulting my intelligence with this, why? Okay? I know."

"Okay," Harrison told him.

"And you set the right distortion scope, right?" Quinn asked.

"Oh, for real?" Cisco asked. "Okay, you know what? We're gonna play a little game here. It's called 'If you're from Earth 2, you're gonna be quiet'. Okay?"

"Yeah," Quinn answered.

We continued to wait.

Caitlin walked up to me. "Hey, Vera, you okay?"

I sighed. "Ever since Phoenix beat me here and on Earth 2, I've been running away from things, instead of toward them. That needs to change."

Caitlin nodded. "We'll get you back there."

"I know," I told her.

"Think of this as your first step," Caitlin told me. "Or swim."

We chuckled.

"Uh, hey, guys?" Jessie asked. "What is that?"

"The big, big kahuna," Cisco answered. "Guys, incoming."

"He's headed for the bait," Quinn told us.

We watched as King Shark leaped out of the water to snatch up the Flyra lures, diving back into the water.

"Whoa," Barry told us.

"He ate the lures," Caitlin told us.

"Hey, reel him in, all right?" Barry asked. "Come on."

Diggle started to reel King Shark in.

All we saw were the lures.

"Where'd he go?" Diggle asked.

"He's headed for the docks," Cisco told us.

I turned to Caitlin. "Go, go, go."

Caitlin walked away to safety.

Diggle looked at the Argus agents. "Get ready to fire."

King Shark leaped out of the water toward us, roaring.

Argus, Diggle and Lyla fired their guns at King Shark.

I raised my arms toward King Shark to shoot fire into him, making him fall onto the dock nearby.

King Shark stood. "Those guns won't stop me, Flyra. First, I'll kill you. Then I'll kill them."

"Oh, yeah?" I asked. "Let's do this, then. Come on!"

I grabbed Barry, using fire to fly us away, luring King Shark away from the others.

King Shark followed by swimming across the water below us.

I got us closer to the water.

Barry started to zoom in circles around King Shark on the water.

I shot fire into a circle surrounding King Shark in the opposite direction that Barry was running.

"What are they doing?" Jessie asked

"They're heating and electrifying the water," Quinn answered.

The heat and the electricity in the water was enough to burn and shock King Shark, slowing him down.

I threw a bolt of fire into the water to hit King Shark, making him fall unconscious.

Barry and I got back to the dock.

Barry was breathing heavily. "Now we can reel him in."

We smiled.

~

Diggle, Lyla, Caitlin, Barry and I were walking away from the dock.

"Hell of a catch," Diggle told us.

Barry chuckled. "Yeah. Let's just make sure he doesn't become the one that got away."

"Won't let that happen again," Lyla told us.

"So what are you gonna do with him?" I asked.

"I don't know yet, but one thing's for sure," Lyla told us. "Argus's plans to turn King Shark into a weapon died with Amanda Waller. I think our time would be better served learning how he came to be and how to cure him."

"You know, you should really talk to Dr. Lamden," Caitlin told them. "She's done a lot of research, and I think it could be helpful to you."

"I'll do that," Lyla told us. "Nice to see you again."

I nodded. "Mm-hmm."

Lyla and Caitlin walked away.

"Well, thanks a lot, Dig," Barry told him.

"Hey, I gotta thank you two," Diggle told us. "Got Lyla her first win. I gotta watch you fly and run on water. It was biblical." We chuckled. "Look, guys, when I was in Afghanistan, I lost a lot of friends. Brothers. So losing Jay. I know what that feels like. Question yourself, blame yourself for his death. And that guilt, it can tear you apart. Trust me, you gotta get control of it, or it'll rip you up inside. Use this, let it guide you, so it never happens again."

We nodded.

"All right, thanks," I told him.

"You got it," Diggle told us.

"Say hi to everyone for us, all right?" I asked.

"I will," Diggle told us.

Barry and I zoomed and flew away.

~

The next day, everyone was in the Cortex.

"Hail, hail, the gang's all here," Cisco told us. "What's good?"

"Uh, we need to apologize to all of you," Barry told them. "Um, last year, we made a choice to go back in time and save my mother, save Vera's family. And that choice had a lot of consequences that will haunt both of us for the rest of our lives, just like we know it haunts all of you, too."

I sighed. "Zoom. Phoenix." I looked at Quinn. "Jay's death." I looked at Caitlin. "Ronnie's." I looked at Iris. "Eddie's. It's all because of that choice. But we own those choices. We're the ones who opened the door to Earth 2. We're the ones who brought Zoom and Phoenix here. But we are also the ones who are gonna stop them."

"How?" Quinn asked. "How are we gonna stop them, Vera?"

"I don't know yet," I told them.

"But those breaches aren't closed forever, and we're not done with Earth 2," Barry told us. He pulled a sheet off of a case that held Jay's helmet. "Jay's death was not in vain." Quinn looked at the helmet in pain. "We will meet Zoom and Phoenix again. And the next time, we will beat him. Whoever those monsters are."

We all looked at Jay's helmet in the glass case.