Skyfall (The Flash) (Book Two) (Vera Pyra Series)

Chapter 11__Potential Energy

I was sitting outside of a restaurant, in a simple white dress and a black leather jacket, already ready for a date.

Barry zoomed up with a bouquet of roses, but they had catch on fire due to the speed he had been using. "Oh!"

I stood. "Oh, my..."

I took the bouquet, touching the flames on the flowers, drawing them into me, leaving the flowers barely harmed at all, but smoking. 

"Sorry," Barry told me.

I laughed. "It's all good."

"I didn't realize that roses were so flammable," Barry told me. "Oh, my gosh."

I chuckled. "At least they didn't ruin completely."

Barry smiled. "Yeah, 'cause you're here. Those are for you, by the way."

"Oh, I didn't realize," I told him sarcastically. Barry chuckled. "See, you're not the only one who can be a smartass all the time."

Barry smiled. "You... look like a dream."

I smiled. "You do, too."

We smiled, looking at each other for a moment. I bit my lip, wrapping my arms around his neck with the roses in hand, kissing him for a long moment. Barry placed a hand on my cheek, deepening the kiss.

We heard a rush of a speedster zooming past.

The flowers were ripped from my hand.

Barry and I pulled away, looking around in confusion.

Zoom appeared behind me, wrapping the stems of the roses around my neck, strangling me.

Flames appeared, wrapping around Barry, pulling him up into the sky.

Phoenix was using fire to fly, using the flames to dangle Barry so far up from the ground, the flames wrapped around him and burning him, making him scream.

Zoom spoke his demonic voice into my ear. "Everything you have will be ours."

I turned into fire to get him to let go, slipping over the concrete, returning to human form, kneeling on the ground.

Phoenix dropped Barry from the sky.

I reached out toward him with fire. "No!"

I caught him with fire, instantly putting him down and letting the fire fade.

It didn't matter that I had caught him. 

He had been burned alive.

Phoenix threw a ton worth of flames toward me, making the fire burn me alive.

~

I sat up in my bed at my loft in my room, gasping awake from the nightmare. I realized it was just a dream, breathing heavily, putting a hand to my head. 

Barry was lying next to me, woken, sitting up in concern. "Hey. You okay?"

I took a moment to catch my breath, nodding. "Yeah. I--I'm sorry."

Barry shook his head. "Don't be." We laid back down, his arm around me, my head on his chest. "It's okay. Just a dream."

I gazed off numbly. "Yeah."

~

At STAR Labs the next day, Cisco was getting us up to speed on another metahuman in Central City. "As some of you may well know, I've been deeply embroiled in a secret, one-sided battle with an invisible enemy."