⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
the return of the reverse flash
. . . kind of?

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

"BARRY ALLEN, THE love of my life," Juliet announced.

Cisco and Harry were out, searching the three locations for Grodd and Caitlin. So far, the first two had come up with nothing, which left them with only one. As part of the plan, Juliet had hung back. It was strange, her being in the cortex with Barry while Cisco and Caitlin were out there when it was normally the other way around.

Keeping her distance from Barry had been a little challenging. Juliet wanted nothing more than to be there for him since she could see his confidence had been shattered into a million tiny shards. However, she lingered in the hallways, leaving Henry and Barry in the cortex alone. Barry saw Juliet everyday. He rarely saw his dad.

However, when Juliet came back into the cortex to check up on everything with Iris (who had just shown up again), she noticed that Barry seemed . . . different. Not in whole, just different from the sulking person he had been the past couple of days. He seemed to get a jumpstart from something. Juliet could only assume Henry had said something to him.

Barry's eyes narrowed at her suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?" Juliet countered, planting a kiss to the top of his head before settling down in the seat next to him. "Maybe I just wanted to make a declaration."

"She wants a coffee," Iris cut in, sitting down in the chair on the other side of Barry. "Don't let her fool you."

Barry nodded. "I should've known by her tone."

Juliet blinked at them. "What the fuck?"

"Oh, we talk about your mannerisms with each other," Iris said casually, looking at the computer screen. "Keep up, babe."

She scoffed and shook her head. "Unbelievable."

Barry kissed her cheek, which made all of the fake annoyance she was trying to portray wash away. "It's okay, they're cute."

The conversation immediately dropped, because the computer started to beep. That meant Harry was going up the third bell tower. It must've been the right one, because they immediately connected to Harry's comm system. Juliet sighed, sitting up a little straighter.

"Hey, buddy," Harry began. "Easy buddy. It's me. I'm back." Silence for a moment. "No. No, buddy, I didn't die. I just went away for a while."

"All right, that's great, Wells, keep talking," Barry instructed.

"But now that I'm back, we don't need Caitlin anymore, do we, buddy? So you can let her go."

A growl from the other side — Grodd. Juliet could slowly feel her eyes already start to glow red just from hearing it, but she pushed it away.

"Come on, buddy," Harry urged. "Let me get her out of here. Please."

That definitely was a mistake.

"Run," Caitlin voiced.

Then came the sound of crashing from Harry's comms. Presumably, Grodd hit him somewhere, because Thawne wouldn't have said please.

"Cisco, you gotta get in there, man," Barry stated.

"Oh, Cisco, thank God," Caitlin let out, which told Juliet Cisco had run in and put the dampeners in her ears.

"Okay, you guys gotta get out of there."

"Harry's trapped," Cisco revealed. "We can't leave him here. What do we do?"

Juliet started to stand up. "I'll go."

"No," Barry argued, holding out a hand to stop her. She looked over at him, only to see a vulnerable look in his eyes. "No. The — the drugs. The drugs that Grodd stole. Wells, an overdose of those drugs will shock his brain. Okay, just hit him with as much as you can."

"I am father," Harry insisted, his voice pained. "And you hit father. Grodd. Look at me. Look at me! I would never leave you here alone. Grodd, I made you a promise. I have bigger plans for you, remember? One day, this city will be yours. I promised you. I intend to honor that promise." A roar of pain from Grodd. "Go!"

The plan had worked. Harry had fooled Grodd into thinking he was Thawne long enough so that Caitlin could escape, but Juliet had a bad feeling that Grodd would want even more revenge after that stunt.

Caitlin, Cisco, and Harry came back to S.T.A.R. Labs not too long after that. Harry had immediately gotten out of that stupid yellow suit, but there was deep cut in his side. Caitlin stitched it up for him. For someone who had just gotten kidnapped by a gorilla, she seemed to be doing okay.

"Thank you," Harry said to her as Caitlin put a bandage over his stitches.

"Thank you for rescuing me," Caitlin responded.

"Well, we're a team, right?"

"I'm impressed," Barry commented, his hand running up and down Juliet's back as she stayed by his side, her arms crossed across her chest. "I think we all are."

"Yeah, well, we need to do something about Grodd," Joe stated.

"Like what?" Caitlin asked.

"Like get rid of him for good," Joe answered.

Caitlin seemed shocked by that. "You want to kill him?"

"Considering how many people he's killed, yeah. Maybe we can let him at Juliet, see who the real mind control master is."

Juliet shrugged. "It'd obviously be me."

"This isn't Grodd's fault," Caitlin protested. "He's only like this because Wells made him this way."

"Yes, but, Cait, he kidnapped you and you could have died," Barry reminded her.

"You didn't see what I saw. Grodd's getting smarter. He's lonely and sad. He wants more apes like him."

"What are you saying?" Cisco questioned. "He wants kids? 'Cause I'm pretty sure one telepathic Grape Ape is more than enough for this city."

"I know somewhere we could send him," Harry revealed, pulling a long-sleeved shirt over his head.

Juliet's eyebrows knit in thought. "Really? Where?"

"When the singularity exploded and I discovered the breach in S.T.A.R. Labs, I ran similar tests and discovered the same thing, fifty-one additional breaches." Harry walked out into the cortex to the desk of computers, and they all followed. "The difference being the breaches in Central City are scattered all throughout the city whereas counterparts in my world most definitely are not."

"And you know where they lead?" Cisco inquired.

"Well, I was in the process of figuring all that out when Dr. Snow so gallantly convinced me to stay, but if I am correct, this breach is gonna get Grodd as close to home as he's ever likely to get," Harry continued.

Up on the screen, highlighted and beeping rapidly, was one of the breaches.

"Okay, even if you're right, how do we bait Grodd to go through it?" Joe asked.

"My son and Juliet will do it," Henry suggested. "Won't you, Flash and Scarlet?"

Juliet smiled at Henry before looking up at her boyfriend. "You up for it?"

Barry's eyes flashed with determination — something she hadn't seen in days. "Let's do it."

Their plan immediately set into motion. Something that always worked was a game of catch me if you can. In order to trick Grodd to go through the breach, Juliet would teleport in increments and Barry would run around the city. With the two of them, it would be enough to disorient Grodd. Once they got him near the breach, Cisco would use the speed cannon to send him to Earth-Two. Seemed simple enough. All they needed to do was find someway to get Grodd to come out from his tower.

So, they started with the person who he had kidnapped in the first place.

Juliet hid around the corner in her suit, peering around in the darkness. Caitlin tilted her head back to look at the bell tower.

"Grodd?" Caitlin called.

Caitlin, Grodd's low voice echoed throughout Juliet's head, and she clenched her jaw, remembering the last time it had been like this.

Wood, concrete, and glass suddenly fell from the top of the bell tower, and Juliet watched as the enormous body of Grodd jumped from the opening he made. Grodd landed on the ground and immediately stuck a hand out, obviously going to pick up Caitlin.

That's when Juliet moved. She teleported up to Caitlin, grabbed her arm, sent Grodd a wink, and safely transported Caitlin back to the cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs. Juliet then teleported back to the ground by the bell tower, landing a little further from the original location. Barry sped in next to her, his yellow lightning fading away. Juliet resisted the urge to smile from seeing it after so long.

Grodd snarled at them. Scarlet. Flash.

"You want Caitlin, Grodd, you're gonna have to catch us first," Barry told him.

Barry then sped off. Juliet sent Grodd a two-fingered salute before teleporting away, heading to the nearby block. She glanced behind her for a moment to see Grodd jumping up to the tops of the buildings — clearly, he wanted to get the high ground. Juliet shook it off and continued doing what she was doing. She teleported in multiple places around the city, often catching the tail ends of Barry's lightning. Juliet could feel the Earth shaking from Grodd's jumps behind her, but she focused on getting gradually closer and closer to the breach.

"Cisco, we're almost there," Barry announced over the comms. "Are you ready?"

"I'm in position," Cisco confirmed.

After a couple more jumps, Juliet made it to the spot. Harry had drawn a large circle in the dirt with spray paint, showing where they had to be in order for the speed cannon to work. Barry sped in next to her, and the two heroes looked around. However, Grodd wasn't near them whatsoever.

"We don't have eyes on Grodd," Barry admitted. "Does anyone see him?"

There was then a growl and a roar from behind them. Juliet's eyes widened, and she quickly whipped around to see Grodd jumping over the bridge by them. She felt Barry put his arms around her and speed them out of the way so they wouldn't get crushed. He then dropped his arms from around her.

Where is Caitlin? Grodd demanded, his voice echoing throughout Juliet's mind.

Then there was the high-pitched frequency, signaling that Grodd was starting to infiltrate their minds. For a second, she saw the image of Zoom stabbing one of his claws into Barry's stomach. It was almost enough for Juliet to give in, but she remembered what she was fighting for. Barry wasn't so lucky — he stumbled back a bit, clutching at his head.

Get out of my head, Juliet recited, just like she did last time. Get out of my head.

The ringing faded away. Juliet stared at Grodd strongly, her eyes starting to glow as red as her energy. Grodd reached out a hand, going to smack them, but Juliet held out her own. Red energy traveled out from her fingers, and Grodd's entire body froze.

So, maybe Juliet had overestimated herself. She could feel Grodd fighting back harder, and harder, and harder. Yet Juliet seemed to keep her ground. Her muscles shook and she could feel pounding in her head, but she took Joe's words to heart — see who the real mind control master is. Juliet's energy and her eyes seemed to glow brighter and brighter as she took control of Grodd.

Where is Caitlin, Flash and Scarlet? Grodd ordered.

"Right here," Caitlin's voice replied.

Grodd growled, his eyes swimming with recognition as he stared ahead of him. Juliet didn't want to turn around and break her concentration. She continued staring at Grodd, her eyes narrowing as she strained to hold on.

"You need to leave them alone, Grodd."

Flash and Scarlet are my enemies, Grodd insisted, and Juliet felt a spike of pain shoot through her head when Grodd pushed back. Now you, too.

"No," Caitlin said. "They were trying to save me from you. We didn't understand what you wanted, but now we do. I can give you what you want. I can give you a home. You just have to trust me. Let him go, Scarlet."

Juliet didn't really want to, but she did. She let all of her concentration fall away from Grodd and her hand dropped. Immediately, her energy extinguished and her eyes went back to their normal green. Juliet felt her knees buckle from underneath her, but Barry quickly caught her, holding her upright. She breathed heavily, her head pounding more than ever before, as she watched Grodd walk up to Caitlin, who was now in the circle.

"Now, Barry!" Harry exclaimed.

Barry clutched onto Juliet and ran forwards with her. He grabbed Caitlin on the way and brought them away from the circle. Cisco flipped the switch, and the speed cannon turned on. Instantly, the breach — a portal of swirling clouds — appeared right by Grodd. Grodd roared and fought back against it, trying to get his way out as the breach tried to suck him in. So far, it seemed like Grodd was winning.

Henry's voice then came over the comms. "Barry, you can't let Grodd get free. Conquer your fears, son. Believe in yourself."

Barry let go of Juliet. Juliet looked up at him, only to see that his features had set. He took a couple steps back before speeding away. Juliet kept her eyes on Grodd — she would intervene if she had to, but right now, this could help Barry. Barry was gone for only a second before he came back at top speed, jumping in the air and letting his fist collide with Grodd's chest in a supersonic punch. It launched Grodd back towards the breach, and Barry flipped himself around in the air before landing on his feet.

It worked. Grodd, no matter how hard he fought now, got smaller and smaller until all of him was sucked in. Juliet let out a breath of relief as the breach disappeared.

Juliet let out a small laugh. "Holy shit." She jogged up to Barry, who was kneeling on the ground. "Dude, you did it!"

Barry took her outstretched hand and pulled himself up. "I did." He then put his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly. Juliet laughed a little more and threw hers around his neck. "You were incredible, too."

"Hey, don't mention it." Juliet hugged him for a moment longer before pulling back, looking up at his face. "I'm so proud of you."

Cisco then came up to them. "Welcome back, Flash."

Barry clapped his hand with Cisco's. "Thanks, bro."

Juliet leaned a little more into Barry, who in turn placed a kiss to the top of her head. Barry getting his confidence back and getting rid of Grodd? She counted that as a win.

ϟ ···················· ϟ ···················· ϟ

"I HATE IT," Juliet declared, staring at the suit in distaste. "Get it out of my sight."

The next day, they were gathered in the cortex so those at S.T.A.R. Labs could say goodbye to Henry. Cisco had put the yellow suit up on display on a mannequin, and seeing it again made Juliet feel positively sick to her stomach.

"I can't believe something good finally came from that suit," Caitlin admitted.

"First and the last time," Barry voiced.

"That thing still gives me the creeps," Cisco replied. "We should destroy it."

"Let's do that, but see if you can figure out how to get it back in this ring first." Barry threw the gold ring that Thawne used for his suit at Cisco. "Might be nice to have something like that instead of carrying around a bag all the time."

"I can help you with that," Harry stated. He then looked up to see them all looking at him. "What? I know a thing or two about micro-technology."

Cisco nodded. "Yeah, you know a thing or two about a lot of things."

Henry walked up to Harry. "Well, as long as what he knows keeps my son and these good people safe, the more you know, the better." He extended his hand to him. "Pleasure to meet you, Harrison. Again."

Harry shook his hand. "Dr. Allen."

Henry then turned to Caitlin. "Good to see you." He smiled at Cisco. "Cisco."

Juliet took Barry's outstretched hand, and together, they left the cortex with Henry.

Back at Joe's house, they had all eaten dinner together that Iris had made, before it quickly turned into making fun of Barry time — aka Juliet's favorite time. Joe and Iris had brought out a bunch of pictures of Barry over the years to show Henry, and Juliet could not keep the grin off of her face.

"Oh, this one is definitely a keeper," Henry said, turning it around to show Barry and his project at the science fair.

Joe laughed at it. "Oh, yeah. He could've done your standard vinegar and baking soda volcano, but no, Barry wanted to do a molecular structure of chocolate and nougat."

"That's my favorite candy bar," Barry voiced.

"Who does that in the sixth grade?"

"Why, a true science nerd," Henry responded, looking at Barry with a smile. "Like father, like son, I suppose."

Barry then sat up. "All right, dad, we should get going."

"Yeah." Henry held up the picture. "Uh, Joe, can I have . . ."

"Yeah," Joe immediately agreed.

"Thanks."

Barry looked over at Juliet as she stood up while Henry said goodbye to Iris and Joe. "You coming with?"

"Uh, no, I have some work I have to finish up back at the station about the case," Juliet responded.

"Cool." He leaned down and kissed her quickly. "I'll swing by after."

"Whatever you want, babe." She then looked over at Henry, her smile widening. "Henry."

Henry pulled her into a tight hug. "Jules."

"It was good to see you." Juliet then pulled away. "Come and visit whenever, and I mean it."

Henry nodded at her. And with that, Barry led his dad out of the house by the shoulders.

"Bye," Joe called.

"See ya," Barry responded. "Love you, J."

"I love you more," she stated, her heart beating against her chest as the door closed.

Iris looked at Joe closely. "You okay?"

Joe sighed. "It's embarrassing. I — you know, I love Barry like he's my own son, but when I'm reminded that he isn't, I start to wonder what it would've been like if, you know . . ."

"Dad, you would've been just as amazing with your own son, just like you were with me and Barry, and practically Jules and Noelle."

Joe gave her a smile as he stacked up the dishes in his hands and brought them into the kitchen. Once he was gone, Juliet turned to Iris to see a guilty look written all over her face.

"'Ris," Juliet began.

Iris shook her head. "I — I can't, Jules."

Juliet frowned — her and Iris had been keeping this secret for weeks. "Okay." She squeezed her shoulder. "I do have to get back to the station, though. Call me if you need."

She teleported out of the house into her lab. Juliet took up on her work again. The sun dipped below the horizon, causing the sky to turn black. Juliet was almost done with the things she had to catch up on, all she had to do was look at a sample through the microscope. She was hunched over the desk, looking through the microscope, when she felt somebody tug on her ponytail gently.

"Hey, you," Barry greeted, and Juliet picked her head up to see him smirking next to her. He turned himself around and leaned his back against the desk. "Sorry I left you alone to do all of this."

"Don't worry about it," Juliet told him. "You needed time. I wasn't going to take that away from you. Plus, you were recovering from a broken back."

"You know, my dad really knocked some sense into me." Barry's eyes softened slightly as he stared at her. "But you did, too."

Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion. "I don't remember yelling at you."

"Because you didn't," Barry continued. "You were just there, which I think I really needed. You didn't push me or anything."

Her mouth curved up into a grin. "Right." She folded up the case file and walked over to her desk. "Well, you know, I'll always be—" Juliet placed the case file down on her desk and turned back around, only to see Barry had followed her and was standing very close, making all of her breath leave her "—there."

"I think you forgot something over there, gorgeous."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah?"

Barry then reached forwards and hooked his finger through her belt loop, successfully dragging her closer towards him. "Yeah."

Without a second word, Barry dipped down and kissed her. Juliet wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back. And, like always, he managed to make her feel like she was fucking flying.

〖   ϟ   〗

this chapter is so short I'm so sorry but I do be trying out here