To Flash and Beyond (The Flash)

Chapter 4

"So where've you been working now Iris?" Barry asked trying to make conversation. They were walking on the footpath. The sun gleamed brightly and the bitter cold was replaced by the warmth of happiness and joy.

"What do you mean that where have I been working now ? The last time we met, we were just children, I wasn't a working woman then!" Iris smartly replied.

"Eh err...-"

Iris burst into a series of laughter. "Just kidding, Barry!" Iris patted Barry on the back. He felt the same feeling of friendship and love resurrect from the other timeline.

"I'm working at Ramon Industries as a lead scientist with my brother, Wally!" Iris answered. These words struck Barry like lightning(he knew how being struck by lightning felt).

How was Wally West known to Iris in this timeline?

But then Barry recalled that he had no role to play in Wally being known in the other timeline. Things might have worked out the same in this timeline too.

In the other timeline Joe learnt that his wife, Francine had never died. She came to Central City and told him that she would die soon because of some sickness. She gave him a shock by informing him about the existence of another child of theirs, Wally West. Francine was a drug-addict and to protect Iris, she left. What she didn't realize was that she was pregnant. Wally grew up to become a street racer to help pay his mother's hospital bills. Wally interacted with dark matter of the particle accelerator and acquired superspeed. But all of that had been changed. Barely anything was the same now.

Barry couldn't keep in the curiosity contained inside him for long.

"Your brother Iris?" Barry asked.

"Yeah! Didn't know I had one till I was ten," Iris replied.

Ten?

But Wally was known to Iris almost fifteen years after that.

"At ten?"

"Yeah! Well... Barry, it's a little personal. I don't want to discuss about that, anything but that please," Iris pleaded and the smile vanished off her face.

" I understand!" Barry replied. The truth was that Barry understand nothing at all. There was nothing personal between Iris and Barry and now Iris was feeling 'insecure" sharing things with Barry.

Suddenly Barry felt a pukish feeling take over him. Images flashed before his eyes. He saw himself as a nine-year old, staring at the mirror. He saw something written in black and bold letters -

Doctor Alchemy

A series of chills passed through Barry.

"Barry? Are you feeling fine?" Iris asked.

"Umm...yeah! I am feeling great!" Barry lied, cheering up a bit. Iris smiled.

Her phone rang.

"Yeah who's that?"

There was a long pause. Iris' smile faded away. She looked tense and stopped walking.

" I'll just be there... yeah just give me ten minutes!" Iris kept the phone.

" I am so sorry Barry I gotta go! Work call!" Iris said.

" I'll come too. I kinda like the name... Ramon Industries!" Barry said cheerfully. He had a strange feeling that this had some connection to Cisco Ramon.

Iris felt uncomfortable but thought it rude to deny Barry.

"Yeah let's go!" she said and called for a cab. In twenty minutes they reached the huge and tall building, The Ramon Industries. Barry was shocked. It was the same place where the S.T.A.R Labs existed in the alternate timeline. It's logo was in the same logo too.

Iris paid the cab-driver and then they used the elevator to reach the forty-eighth floor. It resembled the S.T.A.R Labs and reminded Barry of the workplace where he used to be The Flash with Cisco and Caitlin to help him at every step.

"Iris, you are really late! Boss ain't happy. You know that he doesn't need you and can buy ten like you!" a similar voice said. Barry turned around and saw a man dressed up in a suit, Wally West.

Iris angrily approached him.

" Show some respect lil brother!" Iris scowled tartly.

Wally laughed.

"Iris, let it be. Easy!" Barry said, trying to calm down Iris.

"Who is this now "elder sister"? One of your boyfriends?" Wally teased Iris.

"STAY IN YOUR LIMITS WALLY WEST!" Iris yelled, "I only have one boyfriend whom I am loyal to. Don't pass your stupid judgements!"

One boyfriend? This meant that Iris wasn't single in this timeline too and that Barry had let the love of his life go yet again.

Barry was indeed the unluckiest man. He had the girl twice and altered timeline, realizing that he lost her. Once, when he travelled a day into a past and once was now.

The elevator opened. A man dressed formally in the most expensive suit in town came walking with his hands on the waist of a really pretty woman, twice his height.

"That's my boss, the richest man in town, Cisco Ramon!" Iris stated.

Barry had now found his other best friend and was eager to see how their relation was in this timeline.