Lightning Strikes Twice ›› Barry Allen [1]

22- Magic Tricks

A/N: SPOILERS. But you already knew that.

"Oliver's not answering his phone, I wonder what he's up to," I said, placing my device on my glass coffee table.
"He's probably busy," Barry says. "For now, lets focus on stopping Savitar."
"Right," I see my phone light up with an notification. I pick it back up. "Its my friend Izzie."
"The redhead, that was in your apartment on our first date?"
"Yep. That's the one." I read the text. "She wants to know if..." I stop.
 "What?"
"If we're available in late June."
Barry goes silent.
"I'm going to be gone by then. I guess I should tell her--"
"Don't do that. She may know you're Electrical Strike, but she can't know you're going to...But you're not. I'll make sure of it."
"You can't change the future, Barry. And if I die, you still have Iris."
"And know that you dying was the cause of me going to her?"
"You liked her before."
"I don't want her as a substitute for you. Besides..." the Scarlet Speedster pauses, and grabs his phone. "That's Joe. A pair of security guards drown."
"Looks like you gotta run," I smirk.
"Be right back," he kisses me on the cheek, and runs out of the room.



I adjust my mask, as I drop in on a thief. "Hello! Ya know, stealing is a hobby you need to leave."
The guy blinks at me. "Now I have both of the heroes."

"What are you talkin' about dude?" I glance over at the hero he's talking about.
Its Barry, of course. "Come on, Flash. This is my crime. I thought you were doing something else."
"This guy knows who Savitar is," Barry says.

I turn to the guy, who now just made the item he stole disappear.
"A magician knows who Savitar is?"
"Too bad you die," the guy said with a sigh. "Not by Savitar, anyway."
"But Savitar is supposed to kill me. And how do you know this?"
"I'm from the future. You weren't there, when I first met The Flash. But I learned about your existence, through my travels. Savitar kills Iris West, not you."
"But that can be arranged."
"Strike," Barry gives me a look.
"You're right," the magician remarks. "That can be arranged. People more powerful than I am have tried, but lets say Iris West was killed after you, shall we? And it was your fault she did, Electrical, and that was because you dropped your guard down. You die, she dies, and Barry Allen, over here, is left by his lonesome."

"No one's dying," Barry says firmly.
"That's where your wrong, Flash," the magician grins.

Then out of a breach comes Gypsy, and she attacks the thief.
"Gypsy, still seeking revenge I see," the guy says with the crooked smile.
"I'm going to get it this time," she said.
"We'll see." He pulls out a deck of cards.
"No!" Gypsy shouts.
Barry runs forward, and blows through the slips of paper. But the magician is gone.
I remove a card stuck in my hair. I glance down at a joker card. I shiver. "Where'd he go?"



"He calls himself, Abra Kadabra," Gyspy is standing in front of a mugshot of the criminal. "He has nanotechnology built into him, allows him top do some amazing feats, teleportation, telekinesis, you name it."

"So, he's using future tech to mask as magic?" Iris asks.
"Any technology from the future is indistinguishable from magic," Caitlin and Cisco say in unison.  
"I can teleport," I said. "I can handle him."
"No, Sky. You heard what he said, you die at some point before or after the attack from Savitar," Barry reminds me. "You're not taking any risks."
"Then that means I die instead?" Iris looks at him.
"No," I say, "it means I have a shot to get you out, before Savitar can get a chance to kill you. In return, I die instead. Last I checked."
"And I told you, you're not becoming a human sacrifice," Barry said.
"I'm not having you take the fall for me either," Iris chimes in.
"My decision only. I have to die at some point."
"Not now, or anytime soon, you're not," Barry stares me down.

"Abra Kadabra needs to be stopped," Gypsy says loudly over our talking, shutting us up. "All I want to do is bring his ass back to Earth-19, and face some justice."
"Don't worry, we will help you," Cisco promises.
"I'll check to see if Julian can help," Joe says.
"I'll come too," Caitlin adds.
They walk out of The Cortex.

I pivot to look at Barry. "I'm guessing by that expression, your brain's working over time."
"Just thinking," he replies simply.
"Why do I find that hard to believe?"
"Because you know me too well."
"I'm not the only one who does."
"True... I was thinking that Abra Kadabra could be the key to saving you and Iris."
"Savitar's only killing one of us."
"You don't know if that could change."
I go quiet; he's right on that one.



"Hi again," I teleport in on Abra Kadabra.

"You brought the whole team this time," he's talking to Barry. "That wasn't very smart, was it?"

"Ah, this guy sucks," Cisco says. He's in his Vibe suit. "I can see why you want to bring him down so badly," he talks to Gypsy indirectly.

"If you want," Wally said grinning. "You can give it up. There's nowhere to go."

"You can't out trick all of us, Kadabra," Gypsy says.
Cisco and Gypsy send vibing bolts at the villain. His image flickers blue a few times.

"I think I just did," he smiles crookedly. Then his holographic image goes out.

"It was a hologram," Barry said, with slight disappointment in his eyes.

I teleport back to STAR Labs, and find it in near ruins.
"What the--" My words get cut off, as a piece of debris goes sailing past my head, as I duck out of the way. I land on my back.
"Sky?" Caitlin rushes over to me. "What..?"
"Just run away," I said, spotting Kadabra behind her.
"Move!" Joe yells, as sparks fly, and the villain walks after them.

Julian, Joe, and Caitlin race to another room. While I lay on my back. Abra Kadabra glances down at me. "I'll deal with you later."
"You sure about that? I'm not planning on staying here for long." I teleport
back to my feet. "Oops. Missed your chance, magician."
"No I didn't," he said. Kadabra snaps his fingers and I collapse back on the ground.
"Man, he is just as bad a Grimhild," I grumble.