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𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
bitter sting of betrayal

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JULIET WALKED OUT of the cortex without a second thought, following after the red-suited figure of her boyfriend. Harry had wanted to go after him originally, but after some convincing, Juliet made him see that it was probably better for her to go. She stayed a good distance behind him until they reached the hallway downstairs that led to the breach room before speaking up.

"Training, huh?" Juliet began.

"Yeah," Barry replied casually, walking into the breach room. "Just . . . have to get faster."

"Oh, you mean with the V-Nine?" Juliet crossed her arms across her chest as she stopped before the stairs, watching as he paused for a moment. "I know you took it."

"I haven't."

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"No," Barry confirmed. He turned to face her, holding the small bottle in his hand. "I took it, but I haven't taken it. Yet."

She walked down the stairs. "And you shouldn't."

"Why not?" Barry argued, exasperation written all over his face. "If the game is already rigged, why can't I level the playing field? I mean, if everybody else is cheating, how can — I want to be fast enough to stop Zoom and any speedster that tries to hurt my friends. Hurt you. Shouldn't I use everything in my power to do that?"

"Because you are not a cheater. That isn't the Barry Allen I know." Juliet flicked her hand towards her, and the Velocity-Nine flew right into her hand. "I'm not risking you destroying yourself for this."

Barry reached out towards it. "J—"

She clenched it tighter in her first. "No. You heard Caitlin — it was killing Jay. You don't need to go on a fucking suicide mission when you've got me."

He ran his gloved hand over his face. "Juliet. Just . . . give it to me. Please."

Juliet stared at him for a moment, her eyes trailing across his face, before extending it out towards him. Barry took it, and not moving his gaze off of her, he let it slip from his grasp. The glass immediately shattered on the floor, spilling the red liquid around it.

She gave him a soft smile, now offering him her hand. "Come on."

Barry sighed and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, we all have our moments of weakness." Juliet squeezed his hand comfortingly. "Now, come on. We've got a speedster to worry about."

The two went back upstairs to see that everyone was there. Joe and Caitlin had already texted that Eliza seemed to have no clue as to what they were talking about, which meant they were back to square one.

"I'm still working on it, but . . ."

All of the sudden, the lights above them zapped, sending sparks around the cortex. Juliet jumped in surprise before putting her mask on her face, turning towards the entrance of the cortex on high alert. However, it was no use. All she saw was a flash of yellow lightning before an arm wrapped around her waist and swept her away.

Juliet blinked in surprise once she got set down. She was now in a Metahuman cell in the pipeline with Barry right next to her. And, of course, the girl speedster stood in front of them, looking awfully victorious.

Barry slammed his palm against the glass. "Hey!"

The girl laughed. "Time to have some fun."

She then sped away.

Juliet slowly looked over at Barry. "I hate my life." She then glanced up, raising her voice to a yell. "Cisco! Joe! Cait! We're in the pipeline!"

It was horrifying, being stuck in a cell that dampened her powers when a crazy speedster was upstairs with everyone. Juliet's heart pounded against her chest and energy sparked at her fingertips, begging to be released, although she couldn't do anything about it. She slumped against the wall, pushing her red hair away from her face with her fingers.

After what seemed like absolutely forever, the doors to the cell finally opened. Juliet grabbed onto Barry's arm and instantly teleported them back upstairs. The speedster — or Juliet should call her Eliza — was nowhere to be found, obviously finding what she was after. There was no doubt in Juliet's mind that V-Nine was made again.

"Cisco, great job on the cell," Juliet told him.

"Jesse!" Caitlin exclaimed.

Juliet's eyes widened. Jesse was thrashing on the floor, foam coming out of her mouth. She ran up to her, watching as the others crowded around Jesse.

"What happened?" Barry questioned.

"Turn her on her side," Caitlin instructed.

"Eliza shot her up with V-Nine," Harry explained.

"She's going into shock. It's too pure."

"Stay with me, Jesse. Stay with me."

"What do we do?" Cisco inquired.

"We've got to get the V-Nine out of her system," Barry answered.

"She needs a blood transfusion," Caitlin added. "The new blood will flush the drug out of her system."

"What blood type is she?"

"PZ negative," Harry replied.

Juliet blinked at him. "The fuck is that?"

"Yeah, that's not a thing on this Earth, man," Cisco agreed.

Harry stood up and pulled off his long-sleeved shirt. "I'm a match." He kneeled down next to his daughter again. "Jesse."

They moved Jesse into a bed in the treadmill room, where Caitlin hooked up Harry to give his blood to Jesse. Once that was all set, they moved on to cleaning all of the things Eliza broke — and in Caitlin's case, patching up a cut Eliza had given to him.

Cisco poured broken glass into the trashcan. "Caitlin, I know she was your friend and all, but, uh, homegirl has gone cuckoo bird."

"Now she's out there with more V-Nine," Barry said.

"What she doesn't know is I put a micro tracker in the drug," Caitlin revealed.

"Hmm, that's a brilliant idea," Joe commented.

Cisco immediately sat down at the computer. "You can run, but you can't hide."

"I'm the one to blame for all this, so I need to help fix it," Caitlin insisted.

Harry walked into the cortex. "There's plenty of blame to go around, Snow. What's her location?"

"Central City bridge," Cisco responded as the computer beeped.

"Why is she running back and forth?" Caitlin asked.

"Villains gonna vill."

"She's creating friction," Barry began.

"And at that vibration and speed . . ." Harry trailed off.

Joe stared at him. "What?"

"Complete chaos," Cisco cut in. "She could destroy that whole bridge."

"And everyone on it," Barry stated.

"Not happening," Juliet protested, standing up straighter. "Let's go, Barr."

Juliet put her mask once again before teleporting to the bridge. Like Cisco said, it was complete and utter chaos. Cars were stopped, the windows and windshields shattered. People were running off the bridge and being knocked over by Eliza — or Trajectory, as she called herself. Juliet suddenly heard the bridge crack, the pieces falling into the water below.

"Guys, this bridge is coming down," Barry announced.

"Barry, JJ, there's about two-hundred people on that bridge right now," Cisco said.

Juliet nodded to herself. She then teleported all over the bridge, grabbing people as she went and moving them off of the bridge. Between her and Barry, they helped everyone off pretty quick. She then stopped, only for a fist to connect with her cheek. Juliet stumbled backwards from the force, and Barry caught her, setting her straight. She then looked up to see Trajectory standing in front of her.

"You're ruining all my fun," Trajectory complained.

Juliet's eyes narrowed and she pushed her hand back, sending Trajectory flying back. She crashed into one of the cars, rolling onto the pavement. Trajectory quickly regained her senses before turning backwards, sending her a smirk. She then sped off. In a flash of lightning, she caused the entire bridge to crumble. Only two sides of the bridge remained, a gap in between that dropped straight down into the water.

She extended her hand to Barry. "Ready?"

"Wait," Barry insisted. "I can make the jump. By myself."

"Barry, to make that jump, you'll need to go Mach three-point-three, but only for a second," Harry explained.

"Okay."

He then kneeled down to the ground. Juliet watched as lightning flickered in his eyes, and she grinned to herself. She then focused on where she wanted to go. The familiar tingling feeling spread throughout her entire body, and before she knew it, she was on the other side of the bridge, standing in front of Trajectory. At the very same second, Barry landed his jump and grabbed Trajectory. The momentum catapulted them forwards, and they rolled down the street. Juliet's eyes widened in shock and she teleported forwards to where they landed, staring down at the two speedsters in a heap on the ground. Barry got up, but Eliza struggled to get off the ground.

"It's over, Eliza," Barry stated.

"It is never over," Trajectory argued, picking up the syringe that had the V-Nine in it.

"Eliza, no," Juliet interjected. "You have to stop doing this to yourself. You don't want to hurt anyone, it's the V-Nine damaging your body."

"You don't know anything about me."

"No, we know you're not a bad person," Barry continued. "This is the V-Nine in your system. I also know what it feels like to want to be the best. It makes you feel like there's not enough time to accomplish things the right way, but it's a cop-out. And this is killing you. Look at yourself, Eliza. You're not well. Let us help you, please."

Trajectory looked up at them, tears spilling from her eyes and her hand shaking, before jabbing the syringe into her thigh. She let out a try and doubled over, the V-Nine sending a shock into her system. Juliet sighed and shut her eyes for a moment. There was only so much they could do.

She stood up with lightning crackling around her, back to being stone-cold. "That is all the help I need. How does it feel to know that I am faster than you will ever be?" She giggled. "See you around."

Trajectory sped off. However, unlike every time before, her lightning wasn't yellow. It was blue . . . like Zoom's.

"The lightning," Barry breathed out. "It's turning blue."

"Thank you, I can see that," Juliet replied.

The blue got further and further away, up until they heard a scream echo through the night. Barry grabbed Juliet and sped them up until where the lightning stopped. All that was left of Eliza was her suit and mask, still crackling with blue lightning.

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BLUE. BLUE. BLUE.

Ever since last night, Juliet couldn't get the way Eliza's lightning color changed out of her head. The only other person she knew with blue lightning was Zoom, which made sense as to why he was so fucking fast.

They all met in the cortex. Eliza's suit that they had brought back hung from a rack, and Iris stood by it, staring at it with her hands on her hips. Juliet leaned against the table Barry was sitting on, looking down at her hands. There was a spark of red energy that she had on her fingertip that she stared at. So many thoughts were swirling through her brain, and she didn't know how to regulate it.

"So Eliza just evaporated from running too fast?" Iris inquired.

"Looks like cellular degeneration, same as Jay's," Caitlin responded.

"Jay warned us V-Nine was dangerous," Joe said. "At least now we know why."

"You find Jesse?" Cisco asked to Harry, who had just walked into the cortex after trying to find his daughter.

"She went out," Harry replied simply.

"Barry, Jules, what is it?" Iris questioned, noticing the troubled looks on their faces.

"It's just, right before Eliza disappeared, her lightning, it turned blue," Barry announced.

"Right," Cisco voiced. "What if it's a side effect of the V-Nine?"

"Yeah, but Jay took Velocity-Nine, and his lightning didn't turn blue," Caitlin protested.

"About how fast was he running?" Barry inquired, rolling a metal tube between his hands.

"Not as fast as Eliza," Iris answered.

"All right, so what if V-Nine is what turns your lightning blue? I mean, that would explain why Zoom is so much faster than me."

"If that's true, then that means he's sick, right?" Cisco responded.

"He's dying," Harry interrupted before looking at Barry. "That's why he wants your speed. He's dying, and he needs a cure."

Juliet slowly looked up, her eyes widening. Oh, fuck. Bad thought — because who else said they needed a cure because they were dying? But he couldn't be him . . . yet again, she had been betrayed badly before.

"Jay needed a cure," Juliet let out before she could stop herself.

Caitlin instantly shook her head. "No."

"Jay?" Cisco repeated incredulously. "No. See, he died right in front of us. Zoom killed him right in front of us."

"Cisco, we've seen a speedster be in two places at once before," Barry argued.

Harry turned to him. "Then I guess there's one way to find out."

Cisco let out a deep breath. "I guess now would be a good time to tell you all I've been vibing Zoom."

"What? You . . . for how long?"

"It started when we closed the last breach. And every time it's happened, I've been near that thing."

Juliet followed his gaze to see him looking at the glass case Jay's hat was in. She felt her heart drop all the way down to her stomach. Jay had died when they closed the last breach because of Zoom, and now Cisco had been vibing Zoom when he was near the hat. She squeezed her hand into a fist, her fingernails digging into her skin.

Barry slid off the table and walked up to the case. At once, he lifted up the metal tube and brought it down upon the glass, causing it to shatter. Juliet slightly jumped from the noise. Barry let the tube fall to the ground with a clatter and lifted the hat up off its stand. He turned around and held it out to Cisco.

"We need to know," Barry insisted.

Cisco grabbed the hat. Instantly, he froze for a second. Juliet watched him carefully until he gasped, blinking a couple times as he came out of his vibe.

"Oh, no," Cisco breathed out, letting the hat fall out of his hands. "No, no . . ."

"Cisco, what did you see?" Caitlin asked, her voice shaking.

He turned back towards them, tears in his eyes. "I saw Jay. He's Zoom."

The biggest punch to the stomach ever. Juliet honestly felt like she had just gotten slapped across the face repeatedly. Not had this happened once before, but now it was happening again. There was nothing but anger inside of her, and she felt her eyes start to turn red. Barry apparently felt the same, because he sped away in an instant.

"Barry!" Joe screamed.

Iris looked over at Juliet worryingly. "Jules—"

"I'm going to kill him," Juliet replied. "That's not a threat, it's a fucking promise."

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ngl when I watched this episode for the first time this was the biggest plot twist of my life