⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥

CHAPTER THIRTY
I should be happier now, so why do
I feel this quiet?

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

JULIET WAS BUSY adding marshmallows to her hot chocolate when she heard arguing voices.

Her eyebrows knit in confusion for a moment, turning in the direction of the dining room before sighing. Obviously in the time that she had gone into the kitchen, the two of them had managed to fall into a new kind of argument. Juliet picked up her mug, leaving the bag of marshmallows behind as she walked back into the living room.

"Do you have a problem with me?" Barry asked.

Wally zipped up his backpack. "Who could have a problem with you? You're Barry, right? You're perfect. Never do anything wrong. Always this, always that."

Juliet put her mug down on the table. "I leave to get a drink for two seconds. What the fuck happened?"

Both of them ignored her. Figures.

"Wally," Barry protested.

"I mean, take a look around you, man," Wally continued. "You're in every picture in this room. You know, thanks for your help, but I'll just take care of this myself."

He went to leave, only for the ceiling to literally get torn apart, sending wood and plaster to the floor. Juliet felt Barry wrap his arms around her waist and pull her into him, taking her away from the gigantic hole that was being made in the ceiling. She looked up in shock to see an extremely tall shark standing above her, and her eyes widened.

"Where's the Flash?" King Shark demanded. "I know the Flash is here."

Juliet heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She turned, only to see Iris and Joe coming towards them. Joe had his gun pulled — as if it would do anything against King Shark — while Iris just stared at the Metahuman in horror.

"I can smell him."

"Everybody get out!" Joe ordered.

"Come on," Barry urged. "All right, come on."

Iris turned and raced up the stairs, Juliet and Barry right behind him. Wally started to follow, but he stayed on the stairs. Joe shot at King Shark, but the bullets did basically nothing but cause him to growl in anger.

Juliet grabbed onto Barry's sleeve, making him look at her. "Go. I'll look after them."

Barry nodded. He then sped off, running away in a flash of yellow lightning. Juliet stayed on the stairs — Iris was above her, Wally and Joe were below her. Keeping them safe was her main priority.

"Where is he?" King Shark questioned.

"Right here!" Barry shouted from outside.

King Shark turned in the direction of his voice, growling in anger as he thudded up to him. "Flash, Zoom wants you dead."

"Yeah, I know. Then you get to go home, right? Well, guess what, man. The breaches that Zoom used to bring you here, they're all gone. Scarlet and I closed 'em for good. There's no more Zoom. There's no way back to your Earth. You're gonna be locked up here for a very long time."

Through the window, Juliet could see flashes of Barry's lightning running around King Shark. She glanced over at Wally for a moment, only to see him staring at her in confusion and shock, like he couldn't believe what was happening. Juliet swallowed nervously. With him looking at her, she couldn't use her powers on King Shark to help Barry.

She rested her case by the sound of a body hitting a car. Juliet winced, her eyes shutting for a moment. That was definitely Barry, and from the way King Shark was walking, he was probably approaching him on the ground. It all ended, however, by the sound of tires screeching — A.R.G.U.S.

"You might be fast, but not as fast as I am in water," King Shark threatened. "You're not gonna catch me, Flash."

King Shark then turned around and ran off.

Juliet pushed her hair away from her face. "Jesus Christ."

Iris walked back down the stairs, staring at the hole in the ceiling. "Well, I love that."

She grabbed a broom while Joe got a trash can. Together, the four of them started to attempt to clean up the living room. Juliet, however, kept glancing back towards the stairs. Barry hadn't come back down yet at all.

Joe dusted off a picture frame. "I don't suppose my homeowner's insurance covers a Sharknado attack."

"I — I don't understand you people," Wally admitted. "Jaws busts through your house lie the Kool-Aid Man, the Flash shows up without Scarlet, and y'all just act like it's no big deal."

"Yeah, well, we've had a lot of weird things happen in Central City over the past two years," Iris replied.

"Weirder than a talking shark wearing pants?"

"That's one of the more tame ones," Juliet responded casually, putting a piece of wood in the trash can.

"Hey," Barry then said, and Juliet turned to see him coming down the stairs, slightly out of breath and holding onto his side. "Hey, you guys. Everybody okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine," Iris answered.

Juliet walked up to him. "You okay?"

He nodded, leaning slightly into her touch as she put a hand on his arm. "I'm fine."

"What'd you go hide under your bed?" Wally inquired, resentment and malice in his voice.

"Wally, come on," Joe scolded.

"You know, Joe and Iris told me a lot about you, made it out like you could walk on water or something, but they never mentioned anything about you being a coward."

"Okay, enough!"

Wally shook his head. "See you guys later."

He then grabbed his backpack and walked out the door. Juliet let out a deep breath, turning back towards Barry. She brushed some of his hair away from his face before kissing his forehead. Juliet then settled down next to him on the stairs, Barry immediately lacing their fingers together.

"Dad, you need to talk to him," Iris voiced.

"No," Barry argued. "It's fine, I get it. Look, I know you guys love me, but please stop telling Wally all this great stuff about me. Start telling him the truth. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes that even the Flash can't fix."

Juliet frowned, but his words spoke true to her. Sometimes even Scarlet couldn't clean up the messes she left behind, and it was like a weight dragging her further and further down.

"Okay," Joe stated. "What happened with you two on Earth-Two? The truth."

Barry looked up at Juliet, who shrugged a bit. "I shouldn't . . . tell you guys this, but, um . . . I met your doppelgangers." He pointed to Iris. "You were the cop in the family, a good one too."

Iris laughed a little. "I told you I would've made a good cop."

Joe shook his head. "Don't get any ideas. What about me then?"

"You were a lounge singer," Barry said. "Yeah, you had this amazing voice, actually, um, but you didn't like me at all. Uh, you actually blamed me for Iris becoming a cop, said that she only became one to help her selfish best friend's career."

"So we were still best friends?" Iris asked.

Barry nodded. "We went to go see Joe perform, and that's when everything went wrong. Um, some Metas that worked for Zoom showed up, they were looking for me. They knew I wasn't supposed to be there, and they attacked, and you got caught in the crossfire, and . . . you died. I knew that it wasn't you, that none of that was this life, but . . . I mean, watching it happen in front of me, living that, that — it didn't feel any different, because it was all still real. And Jay warned us not to get emotionally sucked in when we went there, and then that's exactly what happened. And now Joe West on Earth-Two is dead, because I showed up."

"Barry, that — that's not your fault," Joe insisted. "Not Jules' either."

"But it is," Juliet protested.

Iris looked to Juliet. "You weren't there?"

Juliet sniffled a bit. "Jay told us Zoom captured Witch. He wasn't lying. I found Earth-Two Juliet . . . when Zoom kidnapped me." She looked up at them to see them staring at her in slight shock. "Zoom took me and locked me in a cell with her. She was beaten and bruised, and she said Zoom made her repress her powers. I left her behind in a world full of hate where she had to deal with him, and now Jay's dead. She lost her best friend because of all of this, and that weight falls back on us."

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HER TEARS HAD dried, but it did nothing for the numbness in her heart.

Juliet and Barry had returned to S.T.A.R. Labs with Diggle and Lyla to tell everyone what had happened. She stood leaning against the desk, her arms crossed across her chest.

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

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

"Must be a reason," Harry insisted.

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

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

"Is there anything in Dr. Lamden's research?" Juliet questioned.

"I didn't think so at first, but then I found something that I think might help us," Caitlin told them, walking up to a computer. She pressed on the keyboard, and diagrams started to show up on the screen. "Sharks are predators. In order to track their prey, they use what's known as passive electrolocation."

"Passive electrolocation?" Diggle repeated.

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

"King Shark senses electricity in Barry's system," Harry realized.

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

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

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

Harry chuckled into his coffee. "That'll help us get him." He looked to Jesse. "You help me out?"

Jesse smiled. "Sure."

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

Barry nodded. "Okay."

"Let's get the team ready."

Instead of going to King Shark, they were going to let King Shark come to them. In order to grab King Shark's attention, they attached a dummy of the Flash to a buoy in the water so King Shark would come to them. Juliet walked in the rain in her suit at the waterfront with Barry, Caitlin, Lyla, and Diggle, heading towards the large body of water.

"What exactly is that?" Diggle asked, his eyes on the trap.

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

"You made a Flash lure?" Lyla questioned.

"It's the best I could come up with given the time frame," Cisco interrupted over the comms. "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. I also stuffed it with enough tranqs to knock him out for a month."

"Should make him a lot easier to reel in," Barry stated.

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

"It's made of promethium metal," Harry reassured him. "It's impenetrable."

"Meanwhile, we'll be able to keep track of King Shark with this, and the cameras that are on the lure," Caitlin added. "Whatever he does, we'll have eyes on him."

"Al right, then," Lyla voiced. "Let's go fishing."

Juliet stepped forwards, staring out at the water. "It's kind of strange seeing your boyfriend that's not actually your boyfriend tied to a buoy."

Barry dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "Sorry, J."

Diggle rested his gun on his shoulder. "Water is this monster's natural habitat. He's gonna be a lot stronger here. You sure about this?"

"This ends tonight." Barry then nodded his head to Juliet. "Besides, we've got her."

More time passed — aka hours, and there was still no sign of King Shark. Juliet looked down, absentmindedly kicking a rock with her boot. Well, this was boring.

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

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

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

Juliet squinted out through the darkness and the rain. She crossed her arms across her chest. Literally what more did King Shark want from them? All she wanted was for him to come so she could send his body flying into that container and let them leave everything behind them from Earth-Two.

Caitlin walked up to them. "Hey, Barry, Jules, are you okay?"

Juliet shrugged. "Something inside of you kind of breaks when you get kidnapped by an evil speedster and trapped inside of a small cell on a parallel Earth. I'm just tired of feeling beaten down all the time."

"Ever since Zoom beat me here and on Earth-Two, I've been running away from things, instead of towards them," Barry agreed. "That needs to change."

Caitlin gave them a small smile. "We'll get you back there."

"I know."

"Think of this as your first step. Or swim."

"Guys, incoming," Cisco warned. "He's headed for the bait!"

Juliet straightened up, suddenly on high alert. She glanced around, feeling the energy buzzing to her hands, begging to be released. And, sure enough, King Shark jumped out of the water, grabbed Barry's dummy, and dove right back in.

"He ate the lure!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"Reel him in, all right?" Barry ordered.

Diggle pressed on the machine, making the rope they had attached to the lure start to reel in. However, when it came all the way in, it was just the lure with no King Shark attached to it.

Juliet stared down at the dummy. "Well, shit."

"Where'd he go?" Diggle inquired.

"He's headed for the docks," Cisco announced.

Juliet turned to Caitlin. "Go, Cait."

Caitlin quickly ran off.

"Get ready to fire," Diggle demanded.

Juliet let her palm turn red, her eyes narrowed in concentration. It was quiet, eerily quiet, but then she noticed the water ripple in front of her. King Shark jumped high out of the water, splashing water all over the docks. The A.R.G.U.S. agents fired at King Shark, but it did absolutely nothing. King Shark landed in front of Juliet and Barry while growling in anger.

"Those guns won't stop me, Flash," King Shark said. "First I'll kill you, then I'll kill her, then I'll kill them."

"Oh, yeah?" Barry challenged. "Let's do this, then." He glanced over at Juliet. "Plan Charge."

Juliet smirked slightly. "On it."

"Come on!"

Barry then sped off, running effortlessly on top of the water, his lightning bright through the darkness. King Shark roared again and dove into the darkness after him. Juliet watched for a moment as King Shark jumped, trying to catch Barry, but Barry was too fast.

"Plan Charge?" Diggle repeated. "What's Plan Charge?"

"You'll see," she replied casually.

Juliet teleported into the shallow part of the water, it reaching her knees. She summoned more energy into her hand, her palm glowing the brightest red she had ever seen it. Juliet then reached down and placed her palm on top of the water. At once, she willed it to move towards Barry's lightning, which was now running in circles. Through the dark water, a line of bright red went all the way to where Barry and King Shark had ended up. Barry's yellow lightning and Juliet's red energy surrounded King Shark, and since it electrified the water, it continued to zap him relentlessly.

She sent her final push into one last pulse of electricity at the very same time Barry threw his lightning. King Shark flew up into the air before falling down in the water, now completely unconscious. Juliet teleported back up to the docks at the same time Barry sped in next to her. She breathed heavily, her head pounding over and over again from exerting her energy.

"Now we can reel him in," Barry breathed out. He then held up his hand for a high-five. "Nice job."

Juliet obliged. "Right back at you, babe."

King Shark was then reeled in and placed in the shipping container. Juliet finally felt like she was able to breathe a little easier as she walked away from the water with everyone by her side.

"Hell of a catch, you two," Diggle commented.

"Just make sure he doesn't get out again," Juliet pleaded. "I don't want him to be the one that got away."

"Won't let that happen again," Lyla promised.

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

"I don' know yet. But one thing's for sure, A.R.G.U.S.'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. She's done a lot of research, and I think it could be helpful to you."

"I'll do that," Lyla responded before turning to the heroes. "Nice to see you again."

Juliet gave her a smile. "Bye, Lyla." She then turned to Diggle. "Thank you for all your help, Dig."

"Hey, I got to thank you two," Diggle countered. "Got Lyla get her first win, I got to watch you run on water and you help electrocute a shark from miles away. It was biblical." He then looked at them seriously. "Look, Barry, Juliet, when I was in Afghanistan, I lost a lot of friends — brothers. So losing Jay, I know what it feels like. Question yourself. Blame yourself for his death. And that guilt, it can tear you apart, but trust me, man, you got to get control of it, or it'll rip you up inside. Use this, man, let it guide you, so it never happens again."

Barry nodded to him. "All right, thanks, man."

"You got it."

"Say hi to everyone for us," Juliet told him. "And tell Ollie I'll smack him upside the head if he doesn't answer me within the next five business days." She then offered her hand to Barry. "My turn this time."

Barry rolled his eyes playfully but grabbed her hand. "Fine."

And, with that, Juliet teleported her and Barry away.

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"THIS WAS ALL my idea, by the way."

"Shut up, it was not."

"Just because you built the box doesn't mean you get to take the credit."

"Okay—"

"Do you ever stop arguing like an old married couple?" Iris interjected, stopping the bickering between Juliet and Barry.

Juliet and Barry had called everyone to the cortex — Joe, Iris, Jesse, Harry, Cisco, and Caitlin — for something they had put together. Okay, they had come up with this idea together, but Juliet just really wanted to see Barry smile.

"Hail, hail, the gang's all here," Cisco announced, walking into the cortex with Caitlin. "What's good?"

"Uh . . ." Barry began. "I need to apologize to you all. Um . . . last year I made a choice to go back in time and save my mother, and that choice had a lot of consequences that will haunt me for the rest of my life, just like I know it haunts all of you too. Zoom, Jay's death . . . it's all because of me, but I own those choices."

Juliet nodded in agreement before taking over. "It was us who opened our world to Earth-Two. We brought Zoom here, but we also have the power to stop him. And we will."

"How?" Harry questioned. "How are we gonna stop Zoom, St. James?"

"You know Harry, that's a really good question that I absolutely do not have the answer to. What I do know is that those breaches we closed aren't gone forever, and we're definitely not done with Earth-Two."

Barry then pulled the curtain off of what they made, which was a glass case holding Jay's Flash hat on display. "Jay's death was not in vain. We will meet Zoom again, and the next time, Juliet and I will beat him, whoever that monster is."

Little did she know that the bitter sting of betrayal would return to her once she found out who Zoom actually was.

〖 ϟ 〗

a girl is tired (it's me I'm the girl)