Surrender: The Flash (2)

18.2

18.2 the darkness

"You're all set. He won't even know it's there," Harry says.

"Cause whoever said aesthetics aren't important," Cisco jokes.

"Not me. Let's go," He says and they walk away to get something.

"Hey, Cait, I know how hard this is gonna be for you, but we have to stop him," Barry says as we walk over to her.

"I know, and I want to be supportive. I just... I can't face Jay. Or whatever his real name is," She says.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"Well, you remember when I was looking for his doppelganger, right?" She says.

"Yeah. And you couldn't find him," Barry says.

"Because there is no Jay Garrick on this Earth," She mentions. "His doppelganger's name is Hunter Zolomon."

"Hunter Zolomon?" Harry suddenly asks. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, because on my Earth, Hunter Zolomon was a convicted serial killer," Harry says pulling up a picture.

"That's Jay?" Caitlin asks.

"No, that is Hunter. Last public photo of Hunter Zolomon," Harry says. "Instantly recognizable. And people from my Earth... on my Earth, serial killers are an anomaly, so a lot of media attention to this. There was a podcast. When Hunter was 11, his father killed his mother right in front of him. Father sent to prison, Hunter grew up in the foster care system."

"Years later he was convicted on 23 counts of murder," Barry reads unbelievably.

"23? That's, like, some real Hannibal Lecter type level," Cisco says.

"After the trial, Hunter was sent to the Saint Perez Mental Asylum for the Criminally Insane... given daily electroshock therapy," Harry says. "Cure him of his urges and then faded from view."

"Until the night your particle accelerator exploded," Caitlin says.

"That's right," He says. "The dark matter crept into the mental asylum. I had thought... piping the explosion underground would limit exposure. I was wrong. All it did was create an unstoppable monster."

"He's not unstoppable," Barry says. "Jay doesn't know that we know who he really is. He thinks that his past is a secret."

"So?" Cisco asks.

"I think I have an idea of how we can stop him."

🔥⚡️

"You ready, buddy?" Barry asks.

"Yeah. You've always believed in me," Cisco says to him. "Thank you."

"You got this," Barry says.

"And if anything happens, I will be willing to burn that lying son of a botch to smithereens," I say.

"Or you could... not do that," Barry says. "Just a reminder... you're only coming to help if it's absolutely, absolutely necessary."

"Yeah," Cisco says and he then puts in his glasses and starts to open up a breach.

Zoom then jumps through the breach as I help get Cisco securely out of the place.

Once getting Cisco out safely, I fly up as high as I can, watching Zoom chase Barry. He starts to gain on Barry but Barry runs away just in time, indicating the tachyon device is working.

I slowly fly into S.T.A.R. Labs, hiding in the back closet of the training room. Barry and Zoom run around the training room, where we had set up pictures of Hunter's mother and father. The pictures cause Zoom to slow down, making it easy for Barry to hit him. Barry then shoots Zoom with a power dampened, making him fall to the ground. Barry pulls off Zoom's mask and punches him.

"How did you figure out who I was?" He asks as Barry pulls off his mask.

"You made a mistake. You told Caitlin who your doppelganger was," Barry says kneeling.

"I had to do something to get her to stop trying to fix me. She's a smart girl," Hunter says. "And that I was Zoom?"

"The Velocity-9," Barry says. "When you run fast enough, it turns a speedster's lightning blue. We would have helped you. We would have done anything we could to save your life."

"Not everything," He says.

"Caitlin found you a cure," Barry says.

"A temporary one!" Hunter yells. "I'm dying, Barry! There's only one thing that can get me what I need."

"And you just don't care how many lives you destroy trying to get it?" Barry asks. "How many people you kill?"

"No, I don't!" He yells. "That feeling was taken from me a long time ago." Barry gets up, walking away from him. "We're not so different, you know. What happened to us when we were kids. You could have just as easily become me."

"No. I'd never become like you," Barry says.

"I got to say..." Hunter says getting up. "That was smart. Using, uh, my parents against me. Oh, family. Such a weakness."

"Not for all of us."

"Well, that's where you're wrong," Hunter says. "It's time I get what I came for."

"You're not getting anything from me," Barry chuckles. "You're not getting anything from anybody ever again. On any Earth."

"You can't lock up the darkness," He says as I remember my conversation with Barry when we were fighting Savage. At the words, my hands starts burning up as fire erupts on it. I look down at them as I try to make sure they're not seen.

"What did you just say?" Barry asks, most likely remembering the same conversation.

"You can't lock up the darkness," He says again as Zoom. He suddenly pulls his power dampener down and runs out, making Barry fall to the ground. I then walk out of the closet as Barry looks at me with a look of worry. He then proceeds to run out after Zoom.

"You can't lock up the darkness," I whisper my voice wavering, and my hands shaking.