In Time | The Flash

Chapter Six | Trillium

"Art is not always about pretty things. It's about who we are, what happened to us, and how our lives are affected."

- Elizabeth Broun

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CHAPTER SIX

>>> Trillium's P.O.V. <<<

When the explosion goes off from Barry hitting the windshield of the time machine, I feel my back hit the ground before the realization of what's just happened occurs to me. Glass sprays everywhere, and my ears are ringing. When I come to, moments later, I can see Cisco beside me through foggy vision. I spot Joe a few feet away. Barry and Eobard Thawne are already up.

After my ears stop ringing, and I feel my head for damage, I hear Thawne say something about my sister. "Her name is Aspen, and I will make sure that she is the first to die after I kill you."

After that, Barry lashes out angrily, pushing Thawne against the wall. From then, they dash off, fighting in a blur of scarlet and yellow lightning that makes it impossible to tell who is the evil psycho killer and who is the goody-but-nerdy CSI examiner. I pull myself to my feet, helping my best friend up as Joe brushes himself off. "You boys okay?" I ask, groaning at my broken paint brushes on the ground under the pile of glass.

Cisco nods, still looking dazed, as Thawne throws Barry against a far wall and starts threatening him with his Man-In-Yellow voice. "Just so we're clear, after I kill you, I'm going to kill Aspen. And I'm going to kill them. And I'm going to kill your father." He raises his vibrating hand. I look around in terror for anything I could use as a makeshift brush to channel my powers, but find none. "I always win, Flash."

After what seems to be a final move against Barry, I hear a gunshot from my right. Eobard drops his hand and Barry, and the latter slides along the wall and onto the ground. Thawne stumbles backwards. I turn to see where the sound originated, horrified at what I see.

Eddie Thawne stands with a gun in his hand, blood spewing out of a gaping hole in his chest. The gun slips from his trembling hand, and he looks at me with shallow eyes. I hear Iris scream, then Joe. Eddie mumbles Joe's name as Joe leaps over to his partner. "Eddie! What did you do?"

Eddie falls to his knees just as Joe reaches him. Joe is frantic as he continues to ask, "What did you do?"

The injured detective mumbles an phrase that sounds a lot like, "No such thing as coincidence." 

Eobard starts to shift in and out of view as Barry asks, "What's happening?"

The Reverse Flash mumbles, "Cisco, help me."

Cisco, with a look of fright, answers, "Eddie's his ancestor. If Eddie dies, he'll never be born, and..."

Before Cisco can finish, the face of Harrison Wells fades from Eobard Thawne's face. His true identity shows, and in an odd way, he looks less frightening now than he ever has before. He looks scared. "He's being erased from existence," I mumble, finishing Cisco's thought.

Joe continues to shout for Eddie as Iris storms through the doorway. She collapses on her knees, tears covering her cheeks as she begs him to stay with her. I see my sister follow after her, dressed in the S.T.A.R. Labs robes Dr. Snow changed her into when she stayed sedated.

Her eyes land on me, and her several long steps, she has her arms around me tightly. "Trillium Doli Penrose, I thought I lost you. I heard the gunshot and..."

I rub her back, comforting my older sister. "I know. I'm so sorry, Penzie. For everything. I never should've lied."

She shakes her head, sniffling. "It doesn't matter now."

She pulls back, kisses me on the forehead, then we turn out attention to Eddie. He smiles softly up at Iris. "I'm a hero after all."

Iris cries, "You are, Eddie. You are my hero."

Eddie's voice gets quieter. "That's all I ever wanted to be. Your hero." I hold Aspen's hand tighter, knowing this picture is eerily similar to the way she lost the two people she loved most, Glory and Vlad. She wipes tears from her cheeks, and I see green mist circling her wrists.

Eddie's eyes go blank, and Iris becomes hysterical. "No!" she shouts, holding Eddie's face in her hands. "We have to do something! He can't be gone!"

Joe tries to hold his daughter, saying, "Honey, he's--"

She pushes him away. "No, he's not. He's not!" She turns to Aspen, determined. "You said you have magic. Can you use that magic to heal?"

I turn, surprised, to Aspen. She stutters, her hands shaking. "I have no idea...And I have no control over my powers. I could--"

"--Kill him? He's dying. Nothing you do could be worse." She gives a small pause. "I had a friend in college who was into magic, like you. She was a Wiccan, and she said that the Wiccan's first purpose was to heal. Right?" Aspen nods. "Then heal him. Please, Aspen, I am begging you."

My sister nods, and lowers herself to her knees beside Eddie. She places her green hands on the body of the dying man. Behind me, I hear the grunts and gasps of Eobard, who is fading away into pieces of himself. He turns to Barry, saying his last words, "I've controlled your life for so long, Flash. How will you get along without me?" With that, he screams, and his body disintegrates into nothing, going into the air in particles of blue light.

"Nothing's happening!" Aspen exclaims, her hands shaking over the body of Eddie. His last breath passes, and Iris starts crying harder. "I can't do it, I can't. I'm sorry! I can't save him!"

"Yes, you can." Barry runs over to her, wiping the blood from his lip. He places his hands over Aspen's, steadying her trembling. He looks her in her terrified eyes, trying to calm her. "It's just like any other muscle. You control it, not the other way around. Just breathe."

Aspen stares into his eyes for a brief moment, then nods in agreement. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, and stopping her hands from trembling. Barry smiles for a moment. "Good. Now, use the words that cause your powers. Look deep into your mind. You know what they are."

Aspen turns her attention towards Eddie, placing her hands in a new position, one on his chest wound and one on his forehead. She takes a moment of silence, then speaks one word in a foreign tongue: "Leigheas."

The moment the word leaves her lips, her hands thrust out every shade of green there is into Eddie's body. Mist like magic swirls around his chest, seeming to heal him in seconds. One spiral of green mist moves into his nose and mouth, and moments after his chest cavity is whole again, Eddie takes his first breath since dying and his eyes open with new life.

He sits up immediately, and Iris smiles widely at both him and Aspen. My sister retracts her hands, and Eddie looks around in confusion. "What the hell just happened?"

END CHAPTER SIX