Hellfire (The Flash - Book 2) [RE-UPLOAD]

Chapter 19 - Flash Back

We let it happen again. We trusted someone we shouldn't have. Jay Garrick. Zoom. Just like we trusted Harrison Wells. Or Eobard Thawne. You see what I mean? We made the same mistake twice. We thought they wanted to teach us how to use our powers, train us to get faster, stronger, but they didn't come here to help us. They came here to use us and take everything we love away from us. But no more. We're gonna crack the code. We're gonna train harder, get stronger and be better than anyone's ever been before. And then we're gonna stop Zoom and Hellfire.

And we weren't the only ones feeling the burn of betrayal.

Amber was right there with us because Jay had pretended to be on her side, pretended to love her and she also had a connection to Hellfire nobody was prepared for.

Hellfire was Ruby Hale, Amber's twin sister.

Ever since learning the truth, Amber was more determined than ever to help us, even if it meant going against the only family she had left.

----->

Most of Team Phlash had assembled in the Cortex.

Amber was writing an algorithm on the board.

Cisco saw Jay's helmet on the table, dropping his books. "Can we please get rid of Jay's helmet?"

"No," Amber said. "Sorry, it keeps me motivated."

"Well, it's giving me day-mares," Cisco told her, picking up his books. "This is everything I could find even remotely related to increasing speed." Barry walked closer, taking a book. Cisco looked at him. "How are these supposed to help apply the speed equation to you?"

"The answer's gotta be here somewhere," Barry said.

Caitlin walked closer. "I think I found something interesting."

"Good interesting or bad interesting?" I questioned. "'Cause that word could go either way."

"After running some comparative data, it appears that Barry, Reverse-Flash, and Zoom are moving their legs at, essentially, the same speed," Caitlin told us.

"Then, why are they so much faster than him?" I asked.

"Best I can tell, with each stride, their feet spend less time on the ground, thus propelling them forward much faster," Caitlin answered.

"By almost 30%," Barry added. "Great. All right, well, I gotta make up that difference somehow."

"That's just one variable," Amber told us. "Other possible contributions could be diet, exercise, genetics." She furrowed her brows in frustration. "No, that's not right." Erasing the equation, she wrote it again, more furiously. "Come on."

Caitlin, Cisco, Barry and I looked at her in concern.

Caitlin approached her. "Amber? Look, after what those monsters did, we want to stop them just as badly as you do."

Amber nodded, still sad and bitter. "Right."

"Amber, you know what happened is not your fault, right?" I asked.

Amber finally looked up. "Isn't it? I brought Jay here, I'm the reason the breachers were sent to your Earth. Everything is my fault, what happened to Jay, what happened to Ruby . . ." She sighed, closing her eyes for a long moment. "Maybe the reason I haven't been able to figure out how to help Barry improve his speed is because I just can't. I'm not a speedster and I'm not even a flare anymore."

Feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, Amber walked away.

"Amber . . ." Barry trailed off.

Amber ignored us as she left the Cortex.