Vera Pyra (The Flash) (Book One)

Chapter 24__Fire Fast

Everyone was in STAR Labs, in the Cortex.

Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, Iris, Joe, Ronnie, Stein, and me.

I looked at the Flash and Pyra suits in the display cases, turning around, walking out, taking the elevator down into the pipeline.

Wells was in the cage in front of all the others. "What? No Big Belly Burger? It's one of the few perks of living in this time. We're out of cows where I come from. You don't care about that. You have questions. Go ahead."

I heard someone walk in from behind me, turning to see Barry. I looked at him for a moment, turning to Wells. "I'm not sure where to start. Thawne. That is your real name? Eobard Thawne?"

"Since the day I was born," Wells answered. "But I've heard one of the talks the two of you had through the cameras I had set up everywhere. You don't care what my real name is. You'll just call me Wells until you don't have to deal with me anymore because that is what you're used to. And I can't say that I blame you. For the last 15 years, I've gotten used to it."

"When were you born?" Barry asked.

"136 years from now," Wells answered. "This is not what you wanna know. Go ahead. Ask away."

"Why did you kill my mother?" Barry asked.

"Because I hate you," Wells answered. "The same reason why I manipulated Vera into starting the fire that killed her entire family. Her brother. Her sister. Her parents. But not you now. You years from now."

"In the future," I told him.

"In a future, yes," Wells answered. "We're enemies, rivals, opposites."

"Why?" Barry asked. "Why were we enemies?"

"It doesn't matter," Wells told us, turning away. "It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is neither of you were strong enough to defeat me. And I was never strong enough to defeat either of you. Even when I took you on one at a time. Until I learned your secrets. I learned your names." He turned to face us. "And finally, I knew how to defeat you once and for all. Travel back in time, kill you as children, wipe you from the face of the earth. But then you, each of the future you, that is, followed me back to those two separate nights to those two separate months but that same year. Barry and I fought in the Allen house. We both landed a few solid shots." He looked at Barry. "And then you, future you, got your younger self out of there. And I killed Nora Allen in rage." He looked at me. "Then I traveled back in time the night of the fire. I wound up finding you there, also. We also fought. Every time you would throw fire at me, tried to use your power against me, I got out of the way faster than you could throw. And the fire that I narrowly missed set fire to your home. Everything spread so quickly that you couldn't stop it and fight me at the same time. When I tried to kill the younger version of you, the future you managed to hit me with fire that was as strong as you and Firestorm threw at me last night. It damaged me very much. It burned the Speed Force right out of my system. It took away my power for 15 long years until I was able to charge myself back up to peak position. I was so mad. Because without it, I was stuck here, stranded in this time unable to return to my home, and the only one way back was the Flash and Pyra. But the Flash and Pyra were gone, and so I created them."

Barry shook his head, looking down, looking at Wells. "Why train us? Why help us save so many people?"

Wells leaned forward against the cell door. "Because I need you to get stronger. To get faster. More in control of your abilities. So that you could rupture the space-time barrier and create a stable wormhole through which I could return home."

Wells backed away from the cell door.

I shook my head incredulously. "Why would we ever do that?"