Pandemonia awakens to the sound of pouring rain against windows and thunder. She opens her eyes to darkness and discovers her face is against a wooden floor. She sits up slowly, her head pounding. She uses the wall next to her for leverage as she stands.
As her head begins to ache even more intensely and her vision doubles, then blurs for a moment, Pandemonia sways. She stumbles to the side and then sits down on a couch to her right. When her vision clears, her mind does also.
"What is happening?" She wonders aloud, gripping her head in her hands.
"Pardon me, Mistress." A soft voice says to her left, making her jump slightly. She looks up to see Dystopia standing next to her, her face maskless and concerned,
"Oh, Dystopia. Hello."
"Hello Mistress." Dystopia pauses before she continues, "I believe you have a concussion, Mistress. You seem to be not doing so well, indeed. I am quite surprised you made it all the way here on your own. My husband is quite, uhm, angry. Not with you, of course. With that boy you're so obsessed with..."
"Please tell me he didn't rip his arms off." Pandemonia says with a groan as she tries to stand again. Her legs give out underneath her and Dystopia rushes to her side. Dystopia carefully helps her to sit again.
"No, no. I convinced him to wait until I looked for you before he went to confront him."
"How long...?" Pandemonia asks.
"Have you been here?" Dystopia finishes her question. "About eight hours, I believe."
"Oh." Pandemonia is confused again. To her, it felt like days...maybe weeks.
"Mistress. I am going to call Chaos. You please, just sit here. I'm sure he'll be here soon."
"Okay..." Pandemonia says with a sigh, leaning back and resting her aching head on the couch.
"Where. Is. She?!" Chaos has the Flash pinned against a wall in S.T.A.R. Labs, one hand on Barry's throat and one hand on the wall. With every word, he smashes his large hand into the wall next to Barry's face. Barry's now-purple face.
"I don't know, I swear!" Barry gasps out as the sound of a ringing phone echoes through the Cortex.
Chaos rips the flip-phone out of his jacket pocket and opens it.
"WHAT?" He growls loudly into it. A voice on the other end, chiding and female answers. Relief spreads over Chaos's expression for a moment before it hardens again.
"Fine. I'll be there in a minute." He says, letting go of the now-blue Flash. Flash falls to the floor, gasping heavily for oxygen.
"You're lucky, you worthless worm." Chaos says viciously, swiftly heading towards the exit.
The residents of S.T.A.R. Labs are stunned for a moment after Chaos's exit, but they all rush to Barry.
"Barry!" "Barry, are you alright?" "Wake up!"
Caitlin pulls his mask off and then slaps Barry, who is unconscious now. Barry wakes up with another gasp.
"What?" Barry sits up. "Whoa." He tries to stand and Cisco, Caitlin and Iris help him.
"Exactly my question, bro. What happened?" Cisco says, looking around at the disaster that is the Cortex. "Is that guy the Hulk or something?"
Caitlin shakes her head, "No idea. But help me clean up this place and then we can decide."
Barry sits and watches as his friends clean up after the tornado that was Chaos. His mind is reeling as he reviews what happened. He is certainly glad he's not dead but...at the same time...
"Guys what do you think just happened?" He asks his friends as they finish cleaning and sit down. His gaze follows Iris for a moment, concern for her seeping in and fogging his confusion. But then she meets his eyes and smiles, and it's still Iris. But, in the back of his mind, Pandemonia's words echo: "You know, she'll never be the same."
"I don't know, Barry. What do you think happened here?" Cisco's aggravated and sarcastic answer jolts Barry back to his surroundings. "I think that a crazy-huge guy that may or may not be a metahuman invaded our place and trashed it before almost killing you."
"Yes, but why?" Caitlin asks, just as confused as everyone else. "I get that he's one of Pandemonia's henchmen, but he seemed sincerely upset. He was looking for...someone. Who?"
The group turns to look at Barry as if he has the answer. In response, he groans.
"How am I supposed to know!?" He exclaims. "It's not like I can just get into someone's head to figure out what they're thinking!"
"Fine. You're not Grodd. We are aware of that." Cisco snarks back, sparking a semi-playful argument between the two boys.
Caitlin rolls her eyes and glances at Iris to view her reaction. She is stunned to see that Iris is looking at her hands, fear evident on her face.
"Iris?" Caitlin asks. The boys stop arguing and glance at Iris as well.
"I...I think I know who he was looking for." Iris's voice is quiet, barely a whisper.
"What do you mean? Who?" Barry walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder.
"I think he was looking for her...Pandemonia." She glances up to meet Barry's eyes.
"Why would he be looking for her? It's not like they could lose their boss...right?" Cisco asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Have you ever seen Pandemonia actually get into a fight, Barry?"
"Well, no. I mean, it was pretty easy to pin her, I guess. But I figured that was just Speed. Why? Is there more to it than that?"
"Yes...I think so."
"What makes you think that?" Caitlin asks, pulling her chair over to sit next to Iris, who is shaking slightly now.
"I can't really...remember everything from the time I was there. But there is something I do remember clearly. Chaos and Dystopia did a lot of things for her..."
"And? She's their boss. They're basically her servants," Cisco rolls his eyes.
"Would a servant walk you out of a room because you can barely stand? There was this moment...it was when she was leaving. She stumbled...and Chaos had to catch her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. Then they walked out together, and it was obvious that she was using him as a crutch."
"When did this happen?" Barry asks, moving so he can see Iris's face.
"During my 'questioning.' When she left the room, I remember Chaos going with her and as they were walking down the hallway, I heard Dystopia say something...strange. Something about Pandemonia needing to eat something."
"Is she hypoglycemic?" Caitlin asks, her forehead creasing as she considered this option.
"No. It was something else. I have a cousin that's hypoglycemic. This was...different. It was like she had no strength. No physical strength anyway. I tried to get up and away from her at one point and I pushed past her. She didn't even stop me; she fell against the wall and Chaos threw me back to my chair before helping her sit back down."
"Weird." Barry says, thinking it over.
"It wasn't even the weirdest thing. Chaos and Dystopia....they were very strange."
"Strange? How?" Cisco asks. Iris shakes her head, pausing for a moment. Her shaking hadn't stopped and as she sat there, it grew worse.
"I...I don't wanna think about it anymore." Goosebumps raise on her arms as she wraps them around herself.
"You're right. We're sorry." Caitlin says, looking at the other two. "Let's get you laid down, okay? You've only been up and about for a couple hours."
Caitlin leads Iris away from the others, into another room to lay down. Barry and Cisco sit at the computers to talk over what Iris told them. Barry tries to concentrate on Cisco and what he's saying, but his mind begins to wander. One question keeps repeating in his mind:
Where is Pandemonia?
