⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
if the world was ending

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

UNBEKNOWNST TO RONNIE-STEIN, when he had picked Juliet up and flew her into the air, she had actually discreetly put a tracker on him so he wouldn't fully disappear anymore.

Juliet, Barry, Caitlin, and Clarissa all went to the location where Ronnie-Stein had been tracked. They found him in a secluded area, one where homeless people usually stayed. He was sitting underneath a walking ramp in the shadows.

"There he is," Caitlin stated. "Looks like the tracker Jules placed on him worked."

Barry nudged Juliet's side with his elbow. "You really got flown up into the air?"

"Yep," Juliet replied as Ronnie-Stein crawled out from under the shadows. "I never want it to happen again."

"Professor Stein?" Caitlin called.

Ronnie-Stein sighed. "I told you to stay away from me."

"And I will, but there's someone else who wants to talk to you."

"Martin?" Clarissa asked, making Ronnie-Stein stop in his tracks. He turned to look at her, and Clarissa cautiously approached him. "Do you know who I am?"

Ronnie-Stein's chest heaved up and down as he stared at her. "Clarissa."

"Is it really you?"

"I don't know. I hear the other inside of me. He wants to go home." He looked at Caitlin. "To her. But we can't. I want to be me again."

"Martin . . . what's my favorite color?" Clarissa questioned.

"You could — you could never decide, so you chose stripes," Ronnie-Stein answered. Clarissa gasped and reached out to touch his face, but Ronnie-Stein pushed her hand away. "You shouldn't see me like this."

Clarissa, however, placed her gentle touch on Ronnie's face. He leaned into it, clutching onto her wrist like it was his lifeline.

"I see you," Clarissa cried. She placed her other hand on his arm. "I see you, Martin. These people can help you. They say they can. Please let them."

Ronnie-Stein looked at Juliet, Barry, and Caitlin. "Please . . . help us."

Juliet, Caitlin, and Barry all brought Ronnie-Stein back to S.T.A.R. Labs. While they allowed him to go clean up — since it had been months of him roaming around in the same clothes — and take some medication, they stood in the cortex with Dr. Wells. Juliet leaned against the wall with her shoulder, her arms crossed across her chest.

"Well, we got him," Barry announced.

"Them," Juliet corrected.

"Now what?"

"Well, Stein clearly thinks he can separate himself from Ronnie's body using nuclear fission," Dr. Wells responded.

"What do you think?" Caitlin inquired.

"What do I think? Is it possible? Theoretically. But splitting an atom and splitting a man are two very different things."

Juliet then looked over and her eyes slightly widened. Ronnie-Stein had walked back into the cortex. He was in a fresh pair of clothes, and his hair was now cut shorter instead of it being long like it once was. She was handsome, she couldn't deny that.

"I don't suppose it's necessary to point out you're all staring?" Ronnie-Stein asked.

Juliet averted her gaze. However, in the meantime, she locked eyes with Barry. She gave him a small smile. Barry smiled back at her. She felt all tingly inside, like she always did with him.

"Our apologies," Dr. Wells said.

"It is remarkable," Ronnie-Stein commented, glancing around the cortex. "I feel clearer than I have since the accident. What did you give me?"

"A cocktail of anti-psychotics, depressants, and mood stabilizers."

"The same formula used to treat dissociative identity disorder." He looked right at Caitlin. "I assume this was your idea?" Caitlin nodded. "Very clever, Cait."

"Don't call me that," Caitlin insisted. "Please."

"I apologize," Ronnie-Stein replied.

"We'd like to run some tests on you, if you don't mind."

"Of course, Dr. Snow."

Ronnie-Stein walked off with Caitlin. Meanwhile, Barry pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered it. He snuck into the med-bay, which meant going past Juliet. Barry reached up and touched her shoulder briefly. Juliet felt her skin ignite even from under her clothes.

He said something about being sorry having to run out and made up some excuse about how it was police business. That wasn't technically a lie, but Barry was just awful at making things sound convincing. Juliet knew he was talking to Linda.

Their conversation was short, and Barry started to sound really sad by the end of it. Juliet looked back at him in concern as Barry stared at his phone screen in disbelief.

"You okay?" Juliet questioned.

"Linda thinks we should break up because I'm still hung up on Iris," Barry told her.

"Oh." Juliet paused for a moment. "Aren't you?"

"I . . ." Barry trailed off, looking quite confused. "I don't know." He glanced at her. "I'm starting to think that I'm hung up on someone else."

Juliet felt her heart slightly sink. Oh, great, another girl she would have to tolerate while pushing her feelings away? That was just exactly what she needed.

"Can I give you some advice, Barr?" Juliet continued, and he nodded. "You really like this girl. I know you do. Girls like it when you go out there and fight for them. Prove to her that you can make this work."

You're hurting yourself, Juliet, the left side of her brain said.

Shut up, the right side of her brain argued.

You shouldn't be doing this.

It's for him.

And what about for you?

Well, shit. The left side of her brain had a point.

"I — I have to go talk to Iris," Barry stammered. "See you later."

Juliet nodded. "See you."

Barry sped off to go to Central City Picture News to talk about Iris. However, Juliet had no idea that Iris wasn't talking about herself when she told Linda that Barry had feelings for someone else. Iris was talking about Juliet, and when Barry went there, the entire time she was just getting to try to get him to admit his feelings for her to himself.

Juliet rubbed her hand across her face. She was so tired of all these mixed feelings. For once, she just wanted something in her life to be clear.

A little while later, Barry came back from his little chat with Iris, not saying a word about it to Juliet. He kept pushing away how his heart raced when he was around her. The two plus Dr. Wells watched Ronnie-Stein and Caitlin in the treadmill room as their vitals were pulled up on the screen. From what Juliet was seeing, nothing about this was good.

"Dr. Snow, can we see you for a minute?" Dr. Wells inquired, and Caitlin came out, looking quite sad.

Juliet frowned. "Are you okay, Caitlin?"

"Yeah, it's just confusing," Caitlin admitted.

She nodded in understanding. Seeing the body of her fiancé but it being someone totally different . . . yeah, that was definitely confusing.

"What isn't confusing is what's happening to him now," Dr. Wells revealed. "Ronnie's body is rejecting Stein's atoms like a host rejecting a parasite. The resulting instability is causing an exothermic reaction. I worry if his temperature continues to rise, it'll set off a chain reaction."

"And then what happens?" Barry asked.

"He could go nuclear."

Juliet's eyes widened. Nuclear? She shared a concerned look with Barry. That would be, well . . . catastrophic.

They started to discuss more about it. Juliet sat down on one of the chairs in there, feeling all of her energy go right down to her fingertips. She moved a small spark of red energy through her fingers like she normally did, trying to figure out something to fix this. Cisco suddenly came back from wherever he had been the past day or so. He shut the door of the treadmill room behind him, looking quite confused.

"That's not freaky at all," Cisco commented.

"It seems Ronnie's fight with Scarlet has exacerbated the Firestorm Matrix," Dr. Wells explained. "It's unstable."

Juliet extinguished her energy and stood up with a sigh. "I love when things are my fault."

"It's not your fault, J," Barry reassured her.

Dr. Wells continued his explanation, and they followed him down into the cortex. "Exponentially increasing the rate of fission inside his body."

"How long does he have?" Caitlin questioned.

"If his temperature keeps rising at the current pace, no more than a couple of hours."

"But you can fix it, right?" Barry inquired. "I mean, you — you can separate them before it's too late."

"Any attempt we make to separate the two of them could be catastrophic — a nuclear explosion," Dr. Wells voiced. "And a nuclear explosion of this magnitude would level this entire city. Unless . . ."

"Unless what?"

"Unless the host body were no longer functional."

Caitlin's eyes widened. "You want to kill Ronnie?"

"No, I don't want to kill Ronnie," Dr. Wells responded. "But in this scenario, Ronnie is the host body."

"If you kill Ronnie, you kill Stein," Cisco interjected. "That's two people."

"I don't know how else to stop it. And my guess is that if Ronnie and Professor Stein knew the consequences that we were all facing, they would make the same decision. It's two lives for millions."

Juliet stared at Dr. Wells incredulously, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She didn't like the new shiver that was sent up her spine. How could he just be so okay, so willing to let people die just like that?

Caitlin looked at Juliet, Barry, and Cisco. "Can you give us a minute?"

Juliet walked out of the cortex with Barry and Cisco. She peered into the treadmill room, and the door was open. Ronnie-Stein was sitting there, now wearing a white t-shirt. She slowly approached the door. Cisco stayed leaning against the wall, and Barry said something about taking Juliet's advice and proving himself to Linda.

Whatever. Her love life was the least of her worries right now.

"Hi," Juliet greeted, and Ronnie-Stein looked over at her quickly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was just wondering if you needed anything, or . . ."

"A glass of Chateau Haut-Brion Pessac-Leognan 1982 might be nice," Ronnie-Stein answered. "Or maybe it wouldn't. This body's taste buds would obviously be different from my own. Perhaps I'm now a light beer man."

Juliet shrugged. "I personally hate beer, but I guess there are worse things to be."

"You mean like a living nuclear bomb?"

"What the fuck?"

"Language," Ronnie-Stein scolded.

"Sorry," Juliet responded. "It's just . . . you know."

"Unstable nuclear fission was always a danger in the transmutation process. Plus, you all argue very loudly."

Juliet followed after him as he walked out of the room. "I'm really sorry. About this whole thing. But I promise you my friends are going to figure out how to fix this."

"You're Mr. Allen's friend, right?" Ronnie-Stein continued, and Juliet nodded. "I remember meeting him on the train. He mentioned your name."

She suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe. "Did he?"

"He did. He was saying something about going to S.T.A.R. Labs with two of his girl friends, but not his girlfriends. Iris and Juliet, he said. His eyes lit up when he said the first name, but I saw his eyes light up just a little more when he said yours."

"Yeah?" Juliet said, her voice quiet.

"I've seen the way you look at each other," Ronnie-Stein stated. "If I learned anything this past year, it's life's too short not to live."

"I know what you're trying to do." Juliet sighed. "And I appreciate it, but he likes someone else."

"Are you sure it's not just a cover-up for hiding his feelings for you?"

Juliet looked down at the floor. "Everybody keeps telling me that he has feelings for me, but . . . nothing's happened. And I literally just told him to prove himself to the girl he likes."

"Only time will tell, Ms. St. James," Ronnie-Stein instructed. "Good luck."

She watched as he walked out of the cortex. The words from everyone — Iris, Oliver, Ronnie-Stein — echoed throughout her head. They all said the same thing — that her and Barry were meant to be. So why hadn't they been by now?

Caitlin and Dr. Wells soon came back into the cortex, working on what they could do to save Ronnie-Stein while not killing either of them. Juliet sat at the desk behind the computer, watching the replay of Ronnie-Steins atoms.

Barry ran in. "Hey, anything?"

"I have an idea," Dr. Wells admitted. "It's a bit of a Hail Mary, but Cisco and I are going to give it a try."

"Thank you," Caitlin stated.

"I'll get Professor Stein," Barry offered.

"Looking for the professor?" Cisco cut in, walking into the cortex as Barry started to walk out. "Yeah, he's gone."

Juliet's head snapped up. "Gone? What do you mean gone?"

"I mean as in he left the facility gone. We have to do this thing now."

Cisco and Dr. Wells instantly got to work on some metal piece. They worked underneath a desk light in the med-bay. Juliet and Barry paced around them in their suits, anxious to fulfill their superhero duties and save people.

"You guys almost done?" Barry urged.

"Hang on, hang on," Cisco insisted.

"I found Stein," Caitlin announced. "He's in the Badlands. Middle of nowhere, thirty miles outside Central City."

"Minimum safe distance," Cisco noticed.

"He's sacrificing himself," Dr. Wells realized.

"You said we had a couple hours," Juliet said. "It's been a couple hours. How much time does he have left?"

"Twelve minutes," Cisco replied.

"Fuck."

"And . . . we're done," Dr. Wells revealed.

"What is it?" Barry asked.

"This is a Quantum Splicer."

"Will it work to separate them?" Caitlin questioned.

"We'll know in twelve minutes," Dr. Wells insisted. "Juliet. You're the only one who can survive a nuclear blast with your teleportation, because even Barry can't outrun a nuclear blast. Get this device to Professor Stein and teleport both you and Barry out of there."

However, as he went to hand the Splicer to her, Caitlin took it instead and walked away.

"Caitlin, what are you doing?" Juliet protested, following her out into the cortex.

"I'm going with you and Barry," Caitlin responded.

"No, you're not," Barry argued.

"It's too dangerous!" Dr. Wells shouted.

"Neither Barry or Juliet knows how to operate the splicer."

"That's why we're having Cisco talk us through it," Juliet said.

Caitlin pulled on her jacket. "There's not enough time. Let's go."

Juliet and Barry looked back at Dr. Wells.

"Go!" Dr. Wells shouted.

Juliet turned to Caitlin. "Do you want to teleport or run?"

"Teleport," Caitlin answered.

She nodded. Juliet placed her hands on Caitlin's shoulders and closed her eyes, focusing on the two of them. The familiar tingling feeling spread throughout her body and it was over before she knew it.

When Juliet opened her eyes, they were in the Badlands. It was a place with a lot of hills that had some snow on them. Honestly, it looked quite pretty under the setting sun. Juliet would've enjoyed it if it wasn't for the situation they were in. She let go of Caitlin while Barry sped in next to them. Ronnie-Stein was in front of them, holding a gun in his hand.

"Professor Stein!" Barry yelled as he put the gun to his head.

"What are you doing here?" Ronnie-Stein demanded. "You can't be here! Get her out of here now!"

Caitlin ran down to him. "Please, look, Ronnie's still in there somewhere."

"All those people — Clarissa — I won't let them die! It's better I end this now."

"No, wait!" Juliet interrupted as Ronnie-Stein put the gun back to his head. "We can separate you and stop the explosion."

"How?" Ronnie-Stein inquired.

"A Quantum Splicer," Caitlin replied. "It's a fission device designed to bombard your atoms with as much energy as they experienced in the Particle Accelerator explosion. It should be enough to separate you. Please, Professor, you have nothing left to lose." Caitlin went to put the splicer on him, but she hesitated. "Ronnie, if you're in there, I love you."

Ronnie-Stein suddenly surged forwards and kissed Caitlin. Juliet frowned, reaching up and holding onto Barry's arm. Barry placed a hand on the small of her back comfortingly.

"That was from him," Ronnie-Stein told her.

Juliet felt tears well up in her eyes. That was so cute.

"I look forward to meeting you in person, Professor," Caitlin stated.

She put the splicer on his body. Instantly, it attached to him and grew arms so it could better wrap itself around him. One hand caught on fire, then the other, and then it was his whole body. Juliet's eyes widened.

"It's not working!" Caitlin screamed.

"Juliet, get them out of there, now!" Dr. Wells ordered.

She grabbed onto Barry's hand and pulled her down with him. Juliet then took Caitlin's arm in her hand. However, Caitlin resisted her grip.

"No!" Caitlin yelled. "No!"

Juliet felt a tear drip down her cheek at the pain in her voice. "Come on, Caitlin, we have to go."

She ignored the sobbing from Caitlin and tightened her grip on her arm. As Ronnie-Stein let out a scream, Juliet closed her eyes and imagined a place far, far out in the Badlands, away from where they had just been.

Juliet opened her eyes when the tingling feeling went away, only to see a huge mushroom cloud followed by billows of smoke come from the place where Ronnie-Stein had stood.

〖 ϟ 〗

why did nobody tell me that barry and linda don't break up until episode sixteen when we're only on episode thirteen hELLO

jesus christ sorry jules xoxo you'll get your time to shine soon