The Flash: Repentance

Chapter XX

"A symbiot?" Barry asks

"Affirmative." Gideon answers and crackles, "Zoom is an entity that needs a host bbbbody to live....crrrcchh. Amongst sssspeedsttttters he is also rrrrrrrreferred.....kkrrrrcch....to as 'Black Flashhhhh'." Gideon starts to glitch. Her image is starting to flicker and fade. Barry picks her up again and starts to look for anything that might adjust her.
Nothing.

He hits the device out of frustration. That seems to do the trick.
Gideon continues.
"His victims rrrrrrarrrrrrely survive... krr...He livesssss off their fearsssss and feelings of guilt. In it's own wwwwwwwwweird way, it thinks.....chchchcssssrrrr... it's correcting his victims mistakes. Once that's done, aaaand the life energyyyyyy of his victim is drained, he disappears in to the.....krrrrrrrcccchhh....speedffffforceforceforce. Wwwwaitingwaitingwaiting....chhhhhchh...for his next vvvvvvvi.....chchchchrrrr.......", And she completely dies down.

"No, no, no...." Barry hits the device repeatedly against his hand. "Come on Gideon, come on!"

"Barry, barry! She's gone!" Wenn grabs him by the shoulders. "She's gone. I guess the damage was too big."

Barry stares at the device in his hands. It weirdly feels like he lost someone dear.
He sets Gideon on the table and sits down. He looks at Wenn, "So... now what?"

Wenn furrows her brow, "Didn't Jay say that he heard Zoom say he needed to correct time or something?"

Barry chews on his thumbnail. "I guess...The clue to solving this is figuring out who it is that Zoom latched on to."

"Yeah, but how do we do that? Apparently Zoom is from the future, so his victim most likely is too. My best guess is that his victims are somehow connected to this mans future, but have no connection in this time." Wenn muses.

Barry gets up and starts pacing. He lets the events of the last couple of weeks, the murders, the victims, the evidence, pass by.
Then it clicks.

"I got it! I got the connection!" 

Wenn blinks at him, "Just like that?!"

Barry grins and taps his head, "Superspeed, super fast thinking. And I got to thinking about something you said, how it seems that he is deliberately leaving forensic clues. He is, because he knows we will be processing the evidence. WE are the connection."

"So... what, it's someone we know now? Or someone we will know in the future but knows we were already working together in this time. Or... oh man this is starting to get confusing." Wenn runs a hand through her hair.

"Yeah... I wish we still had Gideon to talk to, she might be able to answer some questions." Barry purses his lips, deep in thought.

"Wait a minute", Wenn picks up 'Gideon'. "This device is just the housing. Something to house the processor, the core and memory, and supply it with some sort of energy to run on."

"This is future tech. I, or an alternate me, might have designed it, but I have no idea how to fix her. Maybe Cisco can, he's the toymaker of the team." Barry replies.

"Yes, but didn't you say Wel... I mean Thawne had a version of her?"

"It's gone. The timevault is...still... there, oh my god you are a genius! Thawne destroyed his version of Gideon, but the whole set up is still at S.T.A.R. Labs!" Barry leaps forward and engulfs her in a hug.

Wenn smiles. She really loves his hugs, almost as much as his kisses. She untangles herself from him and steals one. Barry grins mischievously at her and kisses her again, he breaks the kiss and puts his forehead to hers, sighing,
"Damn this case... We really need to go to S.T.A.R. Labs and figure this out..."

Wenn groans, "I know... Alright then, lets go!"

They make their way to S.T.A.R. Labs and Barry leads them straight to the time vault.

"Wow... Okay, you really have to show me all these goodies stashed inside this lab! This is awesome!" Wenn exclaims enthusiastically. "So where do we plug her in?"

Barry points to the lit hole in the wall in the back of the vault."That's it."

The walk over to it and start looking for something to put Gideon's processor in. There seems to be a lot already in there, so it's hard to see where exactly they can fit the chip.

"What are you doing?" A voice behind them makes them both squeal and jump up.

"Cisco, man! Are you trying to kill us? And what are you doing here?!" Barry walks over to Cisco.

"I was putting the last hand on Wenns suit, now what are you guys doing here?" He asks Barry.

"I found another Gideon. She contacted me after Zoom almost destroyed her. She died down before she could fully help us figure some things out. So Wenn figured maybe we could get her to work again, here" and he points at the hole where Thawnes Gideon originated from.

Cisco's eyes grow wide, "You got that thing off Zoom?! And you took it here?! Another Gideon, belonging to another evil speedster, Barry are you insane?! What if it's a trap. AGAIN?!"

"Look, I thought of that, alright. But I don't think so. I think she is the key to unveiling Zooms identity AND break the symbiosis." Barry tries to reassure Cisco.

"ZOOM IS A SYMBIOT?! What is this?! A bad Spiderman movie?!" Cisco is now in full freak out mode. Wenn walks over, but when she tries to touch him he jumps back. "No, don't you try to pull your magic shit with me right now. This, this is reckless Barry!"
Cisco turns and stalks out of the timevault. Barry lets his head fall down and sighs. Wenn puts her hand in his neck and squeezes.

"You need to talk to him."

Barry sighs again. "Yeah..."

They head to the cortex and find Cisco tinkering with a suit, Wenns suit. It is now fully coloured. White with bright red and copper accents. Wenn looks at it, eyes shining with excitement.

"Cisco, this looks amazing!!! Can I try it on?" It's part excitement and part a way to leave the room so Barry can talk to Cisco.

Cisco sighs, "Sure"

Wenn grabs the mannequin and disappears in to an adjoining room.

Cisco is angrily tucking away his stuff. Barry carefully approaches him, "Cisco... I..."

"You what?! Almost being killed by an evil speeding maniac wasn't enough for you? You have to taunt that faith again?! That thing you brought could bring him here! Track you, surveillance us, just just just like Wells did, Barry. It almost destroyed you! And you seek out that exact same thing, again. Is it the thrill? Do you get off on it, or what?!"

Barry grabs Cisco by the shoulders and forces him to look at him, "Cisco..."

Cisco looks at Barry, tears shine in his eyes. "You are my bro, man. I... I can't lose you."

Barry pulls him in for a hug, "You won't alright. But I am sure that thing, Gideon, can help us get to the bottom of this, and I am also positive it's not a trap."
He lets go of Cisco to look at him, "You should've seen the place man. It's like he threw Gideon in to the wall in  fit of rage and I think that whomever he is latched on to is fighting him. That is why we are finding all these clues."

"So... Zoom isn't in full control of the symbiosis?" Cisco asks.

Barry shakes his head, "And I think he's frustrated by that. Whomever his victim is? Is extremely strong."

Cisco heaves a big sigh and pulls himself together, "Lets get to work on that puppy then."

As they turn to leave for the time vault, Wenn enters the cortex.

A bit self conscious she looks at the boys, "Well? How... do I look?"

Barry and Cisco stare at her, jaws on the floor.

"Wow..."