The Line Between Living and Dying

Headaches

"Clyde Mardon has a brother?" Caitlin questioned as she and the rest of Team Flashtex stared at the monitor that displayed both of the brothers' pictures.

"So, both Mardon brothers survived the plane crash and then the dark matter released by the particle accelerator explosion affects them both in--"

"Virtually the same way," Barry spoke at the same time as Dr. Wells.

"That's right." Wells turned in his wheelchair toward Barry, narrowing his eyes at the young speedster suspiciously.

"Only Mark's not like Clyde at all. He can do things that you couldn't even imagine." Barry said while shaking his head.

"You mean he's sort of like a..."

"Weather wizard?" Barry spoke perfectly in sync with Cisco.

Cisco gave Barry a dirty look. "Yeah." He agreed, taking a big gulp of his slushie. He immediately tensed up, the pain of a brain freeze pounding at his skull.

"Trigeminal headache?" Caitlin and Barry asked in unison.

"Mr. Allen." Dr. Wells called Barry. "A word please."

A worried expression crossed Barry's face. Nonetheless, he still said "Yeah." And followed Wells into the treadmill room.

While Barry and Dr. Wells left to have a private conversation, Dani stood off to the side rubbing her temples.

"Hey." Zander placed a gentle hand on his little sister's shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Dani pinched the bridge of her nose trying to stop her oncoming headache.

"You sure?" Zander asked.

"Yes, Zander. I'm fine." Dani insisted, finally looking her brother in the eyes. "I just need some fresh air."

Dani walked out of the cortex whilst rubbing her temples but she couldn't stop the headache. She barely made it to the halfway point between the cortex and the elevator when the pain became unbearable and she collapsed against the wall.

Dani could feel her heart pounding against her chest as the hallway faded in and out of her sight. Then everything finally disappeared and was replaced by the cortex and Team Flashtex.

"You'd have to be a weather wizard!" Cisco grinned. "Ooh, been waiting since week one to use that one." He took a drink from his slushie, instantly wincing in pain.

"Trigeminal headache?" Caitlin asked.

"What?" Cisco said through the pain.

"Trigeminal headache. Brain freeze." Caitlin clarified.

"Then why don't you just call it brain freeze?" Cisco snapped.

"So, I'm guessing you running around a twister in the opposite direction isn't gonna do the trick this time," Joe said, looking at Barry.

"Wait, that's what happened to that tornado a few months ago?" Zander questioned. Everybody nodded in response.

"Where have you been?" Dani raised an eyebrow at her brother.

"Under a rock apparently." Zander sassed.

"What the hell?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Dr. Wells confronted Barry about his suspicions. "You ruptured the time continuum, didn't you?" He questioned. "You're experiencing temporal reversion."

"Yeah," Barry admitted.

"How long?" Wells demanded.

"Uh, a day and some change," Barry answered. "It's like I'm living it all over again."

"Yeah, well that's good." Dr. Wells said. "That means there's not too much you could've messed up yet. How did this happen?"

Barry started to pace. "I--I don't know. I mean, I was running faster than I've ever ran, and the first time that I lived this day some really horrible things happened. There was a tidal wave and-"

"No." Dr. Wells wheeled up to Barry, holding his hand out to stop him from talking. "Do not tell me. I do not want to know anything about the future you experienced. Nothing!"

"Okay, but Dr. Wells, I--"

"Barry." Wells cut him off. "Time... is an extremely fragile construct. Any deviation, no matter how small, could result in a cataclysm. Now here's what you're going to do."

Barry sat down on the treadmill as Dr. Wells continued to lecture him.

"Everything you did before. Every word you uttered, every step you took, you're going to do again. And you're not going to tell anyone this happened."

Barry shook his head but found himself agreeing to Dr. Wells's demands nonetheless.

* * *

Dr. Wells wheeled himself into the time vault. He stopped a few feet away from the podium, pushing himself out of the wheelchair and walking the rest of the way to the podium where he laid his hand over the circle, activating Gideon.

"Good day, Dr. Wells." Gideon greeted.

"Time will tell, Gideon," Wells replied, taking off his glasses. "Show me the future."

"As you wish." Gideon complied, pulling up the holographic newspaper from the future that announced the disappearance of the Flash. "The future remains intact, Dr. Wells."

"If anything changes..." Dr. Wells slid his glasses back on. "...alert me immediately."

"Of course, Doctor," Gideon promised as Dr. Wells sat back down in his wheelchair and wheeled out.

A/N: I'm back!!! Sorry it's been so long since my last update, schoolwork and other things took up all of my free time but now that it's the end of the year I have time to write again! Yay!!

Anyways, thanks so much for still reading this book despite the long gap of no updates and don't forget to vote and/or comment if you enjoyed this chapter!