Chapter 32: more revelations

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Star Labs

Afternoon

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Oliver noted after Laurel was quiet for several moments. "So, I take it I'm dead on your earth?"

"You never came back from that damn bat trip," Laurel finally found her voice as she stared at him, noticing the look in his eyes. "I take it I'm dead on this earth?"

"You died almost seven months ago," Oliver said, his voice catching slightly at the end.

"I'm sorry…for your Laurel," Laurel said genuinely and Oliver nodded.

"And I'm sorry for your Oliver," Oliver told her.

"Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow. He just got so much hotter," Iris said dreamily from the cortex.

"She does still think she and Barry are together, right?" Clint whispered to Natasha.

"I think so," Natasha whispered back.

"Barry," Joe said as Barry walked into the cortex. "What is going on? You're really letting him walk out of here with that killer?"

"I just told him about her and agreed to take him to her. Whatever Oliver decides is up to him," Barry told him. "But either way, this thing where we keep Metas locked up down here, it stops. Now. No more Metas, no matter what the reason, no matter how short a stay, are going to be locked down there. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to start removing those cells from the pipeline."

"Bar, you know I've never been a fan of this arrangement, but don't you think that's a little…extreme?" Joe asked uncertainly, speaking what most of Team Flash is thinking but didn't have the courage to say.

"Well, why don't I leave you in there for the night and you tell me how extreme you think I'm being," Barry snapped and Joe recoiled. "This is not up for debate. This is my facility, so I'll do whatever the hell I want with it!"

"Barry, does this have anything to do with where I found you?" Cisco asked hesitantly as the rest of Team Flash looked confused.

"Yeah, it does," Barry nodded. "We were put in that cell, no judge, no trial, no lawyer, simply because we didn't sign a document. And while I was there, I realized something: that prison is no better than the one we have here. In fact, it's probably worse. At least the cells on The Raft had a bed, a bathroom more or less and some space for us to walk around. We don't even give our prisoners that! What right do we have to play god like this with people's lives?"

"We didn't have a choice our first year Barry," Caitlin spoke up.

"Did we really not have a choice?" Barry interrupted. "Cisco, when we needed to move the prisoners to Lian Yu, it took you a matter of hours to find a way to nullify the powers of the Metas, which is the whole reason for the prison to begin with."

"Yeah, but I had Dr. Wells' tech to do that," Cisco argued.

"And are you honestly gonna tell me that, with all the time between when we first created the prison and then, that you couldn't have come up with a way to do that without Thawne's tech?" Barry inquired.

Cisco opened and closed his mouth several times but no sound came out.

"I don't know," Cisco said after several moments.

"You know what I think? I think you enjoyed it," Barry said and Cisco started as they all stared at Barry. "I think you enjoyed the power it gave you. To tell you the truth, I think we all enjoyed it a little more than we should have. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"How could you have changed so much? It's only been nine days," Iris said in confusion and Barry finally snapped.

"NO, IT'S HASN'T IRIS!" Barry exploded.

Iris and the rest of Team Flash, minus Cisco, froze. The only sound in the room was Barry's heavy breathing as the words settled over everyone.

"This should be good," Clint muttered and Natasha nodded.

"Should we really be watching this?" Steve asked and they shrugged.

"What do you mean 'no it hasn't' Allen?" Harry asked and Barry sighed as he turned away, running a hand over his face.

"For all of you, it's been nine days," Barry began as he turned around to face them. "But for me, it's been over a year."

"And then my father pulled out a gun, shot the crew member, told me to survive, and shot himself in the head," Oliver told Laurel as they told each other their life stories. "I take it that didn't happen here?"

"The boat trip happened, minus you taking my sister with you, dick move by the way," Laurel said and Oliver winced. "Your father pulled out the gun, but that's where things happened differently on my earth. Instead of shooting himself, he shot you."

"What?" Oliver asked shocked and Laurel smiled sadly.

"I overheard him telling your mother. You were telling him how you needed to get back to me and he decided you would never make it out there. So he pulled out the gun and killed you. 'Putting you out of your misery' he called it," Laurel said bitterly.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Oliver muttered turning away slightly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Laurel said, surprised to find she meant it.

"It's fine. I probably needed to hear that. So, how'd you go from that to working for Zoom?" Oliver asked as he turned around to face her.

"I moved to Central City because there was nothing left for me in Starling City. It was going well, wasn't happy by any means but it was livable. Then things went to hell when Wells' Particular Accelerator exploded. Woke up one day with the poor to scream things into dust. Not long after that, I was rounded up along with a bunch of other people with powers like me. We were taken to a facility where we were experimented on and tortured for two years. Then, Zoom found us, freed us. By then, the world had already decided that Metahumans were the next ISIS and were to be treated as such. I decided then that if the world was going to treat me as a monster simply because of who I am, then I might as well act the part," Laurel said and Oliver stared at her silently, noting the look in her eyes that was so familiar.

It took him a minute to figure out it was the same look he had seen every day he looked in the mirror since coming back from the island.

"I came here to see if you were simply evil or broken. Then, I was going to decide if you deserved a second a chance, a chance to perhaps atone for your sins," Oliver said and she raised an eyebrow.

"And what did you decide?"

"So, let me get this straight," Joe said as he rubbed his temple after Barry and Cisco had explained things. "When you create a breach, it's also a portal through time?"

"It makes sense Joe. I was on Kara's earth for over twenty four hours but only a few seconds passed here. I was on Earth-66 for a year but only a week passed here," Barry pointed out.

"Does this make any kind of sense to you?" Joe asked as he turned to Harry.

"When Barry goes so fast he opens a breach, he's tearing a hole through the fabric of time and space. So it's more than possible that Barry could be traveling through time when he goes to another earth," Harry admitted.

"So, you've been living on Earth-66 for the last year? Why didn't come back to us?" Iris asked and Barry shook his head.

"I couldn't. My tachyon device was destroyed almost immediately after I got there," Barry explained, running a hand over his face. "Look…you all keep looking at me like you want things to go back to the way they were. But the things is, I'm not who I was before. I can't just go back. I'm not the man I was. He died over a year ago."

Without another word, Barry turned and walked out, leaving Team Flash staring after him.

"You've have to excuse him," Steve said as he walked forward and Team Flash turned to him. "He's been through a lot the last year."

"More than what I saw on your earth of nightmares?" Cisco asked sarcastically.

"That's his story to tell. Just…be patient with him," Steve told them kindly.

"You guys feel like you know him pretty well?" Wally asked as he eyed The Avengers.

"Like family," Clint said without hesitation.

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