I didn't know where I was when I woke up, gasping slightly, sitting up, breathing heavily. I looked around in confusion.

It was my childhood room in my childhood home before my family had died in the fire.

I stood, looking around, slowly walking out of the room, downstairs into the living room. I saw my things from when I was ten, my sister Kaylee's things, my brother Josh's things. I saw a picture of us with our parents. I chuckled slightly at remembering the good times with my family.

I walked into the dining room to see burn marks on the walls from the fire.

Kaylee was sitting in a chair, waiting for me. The grown up Kaylee that I had seen on Earth 2.

I looked at her in shock. "Kaylee?"

Kaylee smiled. "Good to see you, Vera. But I'm not your sister."

"You're not?" I asked.

"No," Kaylee answered.

I looked around. "And all of this... it's not real."

"How do you feel, being back here?" Kaylee asked.

I looked around the burn marks on the walls from the fire, beginning to feel guilty for being the one that caused it. "I feel awful."

Kaylee stood, walking toward me. "We thought you'd be more comfortable talking to someone who looked familiar, someone you love. Someone you miss, and in a place you knew."

"We?" I repeated. "Who is we exactly?"

"That's a little hard to explain," Kaylee told me. I nodded cautiously. "Sit, Vera. Sit." We both sat down. "How much do you know about the speed force and the fire force?"

"The speed force is the source of a speedster's power," I answered. "The fire force is the source of a blaze's power."

Kaylee smiled, nodding, pointing at me. "Yes. When the first sub-atomic particle sprang forth from the big bang, to form reality as you know it, we were there. When the last proton decays, stops vibrating and plunges the universe into heat death, we'll be there, too."

"I'm talking to the fire force?" I asked.

Kaylee nodded. "Just like Barry is talking to the speed force. See, these two forces, they're often referred to as one, because their like the different Earths, a breach away from being in contact. You can get to Barry from here, just like Barry can get to you from there. If you can figure out how to." I was overwhelmed, standing. "You need a minute? It's okay if you do. It's a lot to take in."

"So, you're saying I'm talking to the source of my power, which just so happens to look like my dead sister?" I asked. "And that Barry is somewhere in the speed force, talking to the source of his power. And that we can find each other, but we have to figure out how to move between the force. That's trippy."

Kaylee laughed. "We pretty much invented trippy here."

"Look, I'm not sure why you brought me here, but you need to send me back," I told her. "My friends are in danger from Zoom and Phoenix." I heard a whooshing from outside, looking toward the windows. "Did you see that?"

I saw a shadow pass the window, looking at Kaylee.

Kaylee shook her head. "You're not going back. Not until..."

"Until what?" I asked.

Kaylee stood. "Until you find Barry."

I looked at Kaylee.

Kaylee nodded, smiling.

I walked out, leaving.

~

I was walking around aimlessly, following this feeling that I had, but I couldn't find Barry, stopping in frustration, looking around, sighing.

My brother Josh was nearby. The grownup Josh I had seen on Earth 2.

I looked at him in shock. "Josh?"

"We're glad you made it, Vera," Josh told me.

I sighed. "Not Josh. It's just you again."

Josh gestured to a bench in front of us. "Sit, Vera. Sit. You're always on the move." We sat down. I sighed. "You remember this place? Where our parents took us when we were little."

"Yeah, of course, except that wasn't you," I told him.

"We thought you'd find this place and our appearance less upsetting," Josh told me. I chuckled without humor. "Yet you seem upset."

"My friends, my city, my whole world is in danger," I told him. "Zoom and Phoenix are on a rampage with the power that they stole from Barry and me, and you are keeping me here."

"You were given a rare and precious gift and you rejected it," Josh told me.

I shook my head. "No, I did not reject it. I gave up my powers to save someone's life, to be a hero. I nearly killed myself trying to get them back, when you brought me here. Wherever here is."

"That's not what we meant," Josh told me.

I sighed. "Okay, if you would rather have given these powers to somebody else, why did you give them to me?"

"Because you're Pyra, Vera," Josh answered.

I looked at him in confusion.

~

I was still talking to Josh. "I don't understand. If I'm Pyra, then why are you doing this to me? Why are you keeping me separated from Barry when I have to find him to go home? Please, look, I will do whatever you want. Just let me go back right now so I can help my friends."

I heard Cisco's voice in the distance. "Vera! Vera, turn around!"

I looked toward the waterfront to see a wormhole appear. "What is that?" I stood, walking toward the edge of the waterfront to take a closer look. "What is that?"

Josh stood, walking closer. "Those are your friends. They want you to come back."

"Can I?" I asked.

"Of course," Josh answered. "But if you do, it'll be without your powers."

I looked toward Cisco in the middle of the wormhole.

Cisco held his hand toward me. "Take my hand. Do it, take my hand."

"The choice is yours, Vera," Josh told me.

I looked toward Cisco, regretting leaving him and the wormhole, but I had to get my powers back, so I turned around and continued on my journey.

~

I was still on my way to I didn't know where. I came to the cemetery that my family was buried at, seeing a man standing at the Mitchell family plot where they all were with his back to me. "Who are you pretending to be now?" The man turned to face me. "Dad. I don't have time for this."

"Yes, you do, Vera," Dad told me. "You have all the time in the universe. Literally."

I walked toward him. "No, I don't. And how can you stand there in judgment and accuse me of rejecting my gift? Do you have any idea how much I've done since I was first burned alive? How many people I've helped with the power that you gave me? What I've sacrificed?"

"Of course we do," Dad answered. "You've saved countless lives. And now you and Barry are the only things standing in between your world and unspeakable evil." We walked toward my family's graves. "And yet for all of that, you've never been here."

I knelt in front of the graves, putting a hand over my mouth.

~

I was still kneeling at the graves of my family, looking at Dad. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Your family's death happened to you, too, Vera," Dad told me. "It made you who you are, but have you accepted it? Really accepted losing them? Maybe that's why you couldn't come here. Because that would make it real. Especially after you learned that the Reverse-Flash had manipulated the future you into starting the fire that killed them. You blame yourself for their deaths."

I had tears in my eyes, nodding. "I do blame myself. Every day. I had a chance to save them. You saw what I chose."

"And you're at peace with that decision?" Dad asked.

I scoffed. "'At peace'? How could someone ever be at peace with letting their family die after they kill them? With deciding that their life is more valuable than theirs?"

I started to cry from the guilt and the pain.

Dad knelt next to me. "Do you really think your family would have wanted you to die for them? And that all the people Pyra saved as a result of that decision. What about them? Do their lives have value, too?"

"Of course they do," I answered.

"You just think that no matter how many lives you save, you'll never be able to make amends for what happened to your family," Dad told me.

"I don't have to listen to this," I told him, standing. "I have to find Barry. Then we have to get home."

I walked away.

~

It was night now.

I was making my way down a street, finding that I ended up at my loft, walking in.

Mom was sitting at the table.

I was no longer surprised by the faces of my family that the fire force made me see, though I was still hurt. "Mom."

Mom smiled a small smile. "Hi, Vera."

I shook my head. "You're not my mother. You weren't my sister, you weren't my brother, and you weren't my father, either. Why are you doing this to me?"

"We're not doing anything to you, sweetheart," Mom told me. "You're just so tire's. Sit, Vera. Sit."

I sighed, walking closer, sitting down next to my guitars. "You were right all along. I haven't accepted it. Not for a second. I feel guilty about what I did to my family. I think about it every day. I can't stop blaming myself, and I don't think I ever will."

Mom took my hand. "My beautiful girl. You have to find a way."

I started to cry, shaking my head. "How?"

"I don't know," Mom told me. "But I know this. What you've become? It's wonderful. A miracle, even. But it won't make bad things stop happening to you. Even Pyra can't fly from the tragedies the universe is gonna keep sending your way. You have to accept that. You have to accept that what happened to your family was not because of you, but because of one of those tragedies. Once you do, you'll finally be able to live your life without the guilt and the blame. And then you can truly fly free."

I nodded. "I know. I just miss them. I miss them so much."

"What if I told you that they don't blame you?" Mom asked.  "That they're proud of you? And of the woman that you've become?"

"Who's telling me that?" I asked. "The force or my family?"

Mom put a hand on my cheek. "Both."

Mom kissed me on the head.

~

Mom and I were holding the guitars. Mom held the acoustic while I held the electric.

"You always loved singing and playing with your family," Mom told me. "The Christmases you spent singing songs together, and the days you just sang to sing. It left a mark on you to the point that you still sing today, even if it's just for yourself, and no one else. "I know that you love this song. And it has some relevance to this. To you." She started to play 'Holding On and Letting Go' by Ross Copperman. "Is anybody out there? / Is anybody listening? / Does anybody really know? / If it's the end of our beginning / A cry, a rush from one breath / Is all we're waiting for / Sometimes the one we're taking / Changes every one before."

We both sang together. "It's everything you wanted / It's everything you don't / It's one door swinging open / And one door swinging closed / Some prayers find an answer / Some prayers never know / We're holding on and letting go."

I started to play my guitar, singing alone. "Sometimes we're holding angels / And we never even know / Don't know if we'll make it / But we know, we just can't let it show."

We both played and sang. "It's everything you wanted / It's everything you don't / It's one door swinging open / And one door swinging closed / Some prayers find an answer / Some prayers never know / We're holding on and letting go."

I sang alone sweetly. "Yeah, letting go."

Mom sang alone, like she was singing a lullaby. "It's everything you wanted / It's everything you don't / It's one door swinging open / And one door swinging closed / Some prayers find an answer / Some prayers never know."

We finished together. "We're holding on and letting go."

We stopped playing the guitars, looking at each other.

I felt content for the first time in a long time, when it came to my family. I finally felt a peace.

Mom nodded. "You're ready."

I nodded, standing, placing my guitar down. I turned around, walking toward the door of my loft, opening it.

It seemed to be a portal to the speed force. I looked down, seeing that I was in in my Pyra suit.

The portal swirling around me was the color of fire with lightning the color of Barry's striking around.

I looked around, in awe, confused, because I didn't know where to go from here.

I heard Barry behind me. "Vera." I turned around to see Barry holding his hand toward me. "Vera, it's time to go home."

I looked behind me into the loft to see everyone in my family looking at me, nodding for me to go. I smiled a small smile at the sight of them together, even though I knew that they weren't really my family.

I looked at Barry in front of me, taking his hand. We looked at each other, breathing heavily, nodding, smiling small smiles. Barry pulled me into his arms. We embraced in relief with the portal swirling around us.

The portal around us faded, revealing the breach room of STAR Labs in its wake.

Cisco, Caitlin, Iris, Joe, Harrison and Henry stood around us.

"Barry," Henry told him.

Caitlin smiled. "Vera, thank God."

Joe and Henry laughed, hugging.

Iris and Caitlin hugged Barry and me.

Cisco laughed. "I'm so glad you're back, 'cause we're about to die."

"Wait, what?" Barry asked.

We heard a banging on the door, looking toward it.

"So..." Cisco trailed off.

"Girder," Harrison told us.

"Girder came back to life, and he's all young Frankenstein now," Cisco told us. "And he only recognizes Iris, and she lured him to my workshop, so we could demagnetize him, but the machine shorted out, so he's about to come through that door and smush us all into chunky salsa and possibly eat our brains. I don't know, jury's still out."

"All right, all right, we got it," Barry told them. "We'll lure him to your workshop and we figure out a way to turn the power back on, okay?"

"Plan H," Cisco and Harrison told us.

Tony, AKA Girder, took the door down, walking in.

Barry zoomed him and Iris to the door behind him.

"Hey, Tony," Iris told him.

Barry zoomed Iris down the corridor.

Tony followed them.

"He's taking him the long way," Cisco and Harrison told us.

"Let's go," I told them.

We got to the workshop.

Barry brought Iris inside. "I hope you're ready. He's almost here."

"Nope, not ready," Cisco told us.

"Power needs of these two electromagnets, too much for this wiring to handle," Harrison told us.

"We're gonna need a really big extension cord," Cisco told us.

"All right, I'll see what I can do," I told them.

Tony walked in, breathing heavily.

Iris backed away in fear.

Tony turned his arms into metal, trying to punch me twice. I ducked both times, shooting fire into his metal chest, making him fall. Tony backhand punched me in the head, sending me into the wall.

"Vera!" Barry told me worriedly.

I started to fall when I started to use fire to fly. "Tony."

Barry zoomed closer. "Tony, look, you were never my favorite person. But let's end this, so you can finally rest."

Barry zoomed circles around Tony to distract him.

Tony punched at the air aimlessly, unable to make contact because Barry was going too fast.

"He's using spin to charge the magnets," Cisco told us.

"Like an electric turbine," Harrison told us.

I used fire to shoot Tony toward the magnets so that they would work.

Barry stopped next to me.

Tony returned normal, falling to the floor, dead again.

"Sorry," I told them. "We got lost."

"It's okay," Iris told us. "You found your way back."

We smiled.

~

Jessie had been hit by the dark matter, and she was in the med bay, in a coma.

Harrison was sitting at her bedside.

The rest of us walked in.

Harrison looked at Barry and me. "You should rest. You don't need to be here."

"No, that's just it," Barry told us. "I think we do."

Barry laid a hand on Jessie's. Lightning passed between them.

Jessie started to wake up. "Hey. How did I get here?"

We all smiled in relief.

Jessie and Harrison hugged.

Caitlin looked at Barry. "How did you do that?"

"Are you like magic now?" Cisco asked.

"Did you know that was gonna happen?" Henry asked.

"Maybe," Barry told us. "It's hard to explain. It's..."

"It's the speed force," Harrison told us.

Barry and I nodded.

~

Barry and I were both in STAR Labs sweats, being tested and checked up on by Henry and Caitlin.

"It's been quite a day, huh?" Henry asked. "Not so much 'one damn thing after another' as 'every damn thing all at once'."

"It all worked out okay in the end," Caitlin told us.

"No, you worked it out okay in the end," Henry told us.

"It's funny, I never really understood where you were coming from with your whole fate and 'everything happens for a reason' point of view," Barry told him. "But now... I think that maybe I was wrong. Everything that's happened to us, good and bad, it made us who we are. And I don't think that I would change that, even if I could. Does that make any sense?"

I nodded. "Perfect sense."

"And since we're on the subject of changing minds about important things..." Henry trailed off. "You know the part where I told you I would leave Central City so that you could be the Flash without being concerned about me all the time? Well, forget all that. You're stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere."

We smiled.

~

The next day, I was at the real versions of my family's graves, holding an umbrella over the bouquet of flowers so that the rain didn't get all over.

Barry walked with me.

"My foster families offered to take me so many times, mostly my foster sister Patty," I told him. "I always found an excuse to say no." I placed the flowers on the grave plot. "We would always sing, you know? Play like I normally do."

"That's why you like singing," Barry realized. "Because of your family."

I nodded. "Yeah."

Barry took out a book called The Runaway Dinosaur. "My mom and I used to read this when I was little. Do you know it?"

"Yeah," I answered. "It's about a mother who was always there for her child no matter what." We walked toward Nora Allen's grave. "And not because of choice, but because of force, our mothers couldn't be there for us." Barry placed the book on his mother's grave. "Neither could my other family. We never had anyone who was just right for us."

Barry turned to me. "Didn't we? I'm seeing things a lot differently now. I wasted so much time being angry about what I had lost when I had so much. My dad, Joe, Iris. Cisco, Caitlin. And you. The truth is, Vera, I know that we both went through a lot, and I don't know where we go from here. All I know is you're everything to me. Together, we're a team. We can do anything. We can be anything. Together."

I nodded. We embraced in content.

~

Third person

Quinn was in Barry's lab, laying on the table after being burned by Natalia and then being hit by the dark matter. She was mostly healed, barely conscious, strapped to the table with restraints for when she woke up.

Hunter walked toward her, surprised to see her waking up. "Quinn?"

Quinn looked around weakly. "What happened?"

"Natalia was angry that your friends set off another particle accelerator explosion, so she took it out on you," Hunter answered. "She was burning you when the dark matter hit you. The explosion was mostly contained inside STAR Labs. The dark matter seemed to be searching for you."

Quinn looked around. "You mean the fire force. The fire force was searching for me. They wanted me to have my powers back."

"The only question is, did it work?" Hunter asked.

Quinn sighed painfully. "I don't know."

Hunter laid a hand over Quinn's. Fire and blue lightning crackled from each of their fingertips, making him pull away, surprising them both.

"It worked," Hunter told her.

"Good," Quinn told him. "Where's Natalia?"

"Talking to some of our friends from Earth 2," Hunter answered.

"Great," Quinn told him. "You don't have to have to fight me, Hunter. You can just let me go, and you can tell Natalia that I got away. Please." Hunter didn't answer, looking troubled. Quinn looked at him pleadingly. "Please."

Hunter hesitated for a long moment, tearing Quinn's restraints free. Quinn was stunned that he was doing this, but not entirely shocked. Hunter helped Quinn sit up on the table, as she was still very weak from being burned. They both looked at each other for a moment, and while Quinn was still hurt that he was going along with Natalia's plans, she was relieved that he was helping her escape. Hunter managed a smirk.

~

Downstairs in the precinct, Natalia stood on the balcony above a police station full of metahumans. "My brothers and sisters. My friends. We've brought you to this new world, which lay before us defenseless, ours for the taking. The humans think that this planet belong to them. Whose world is this?"

The metas chanted. "Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world! Our world!"

~

Hunter and Quinn could hear the chanting from Barry's lab. "Our world! Our world!"

Hunter helped Quinn stand, taking her wrist in his hand. Quinn let flames spark from her fingerprints, because they both knew that she had to hurt him to make Natalia believe that she had gotten away instead of being released. Hunter placed the fire from her fingers on his cheek to burn him, though the only sound that came from him was his searing skin. Even after everything, Quinn looked a little uncomfortable to be causing him pain, though he didn't seem to be bothered by it. 

~

Downstairs, Natalia stood on the balcony above the metahumans, standing tall, proud and victorious.