THE SCARLET ARCHER

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE BLACK FLASH PT. 1

Grey opened his eyes and found himself in the darkness to what seemed to be an endless void. He walked around for a few minutes but no matter which direction he walked or how long he did, the darkness wouldn't end. "Dads! William!? Aunt Thea, Uncle Roy!? Where is everyone!?" nothing, not a single sound but only the echoes of his own voice. Grey yelled louder and louder but there wasn't a response, Grey began to sweat and just as he began to pant heavily, he heard someone behind him. Grey quickly turned around and was shocked to see who it was, it was himself. . . as a Black Flash.

"What the hell is this?"

"There is no one here but us Grey," the Black Flash said with his eyes full of darkness and his body sparking with the negative speed force, "there's no one here to help you," the Black Flash sped to Grey gripping one hand around his neck and rising him off the ground. Grey struggled to break free but couldn't, his power weren't working, "you're weak, pathetic and that's why you will fail to save your fathers and there isn't a single thing you can do."

Just as Grey was running out of breath, the Black Flash's dark energy from the speed force began consuming Grey, his body sparked of the negative speed force and it was literally painful, Grey groaned in pain and then shouted so loudly, he found himself being awoken by Barry and Oliver!

"Grey! You're here. You're here!" Barry and Oliver said as they had their arms around their son, Grey was covered in sweat and he shook intensely, Grey was breathing extremely fast and he cried as he held onto his fathers.

~Nine O'Clock in the Morning~~

Grey was sitting on the couch in the living room with a blanket around him and Oliver brought him something warm to drink and he and Barry were sitting close across from him, "Grey, in the dream, what happened?" Grey didn't answer, he was only quiet. Barry set a hand on his knee, "Grey, we can't help you if you don't tell us what happened."

Grey set down his drink down on the coffee table and sighed, "when I was fourteen, I was kidnapped by this group of powerful witches, they used black magic to mind control me. They mutated the speed force cells in my body, instead of it being positive energy, it became dark energy, just like from the negative speed force. I don't remember much after that except, when I came round, I was in an endless void of darkness and pain, Constantine told me I was trapped in my own subconscious."

"Constantine? John Constantine?" Barry said.

"Yeah. Uncle Bruce said the Bat Family, the Birds of Prey and the other Justice League members tried to stop me but failed but he thought someone else could help since it was a dark magic matter. Constantine came to Gotham and he singlehandedly siphoned the dark magic from my body but the dark magic had merged with my body at that point. . . it became a part of me and it has been ever since. . . and so did the Black Flash. John also used a spell on me that would suppress the Black Flash's powers within me, he taught me how to use magic and to harness it for the wellbeing of others. Of course, Uncle Bruce was not happy with that decision but he also knew that it was better for me to learn how to control my new power than continue to be a threat to society."

"Grey, why didn't you tell us this before?"

"I thought I wouldn't have to. I just figured I'd keep this burden to myself, I hadn't had nightmares about in a few months so I guess that means the spell is wearing off," Grey explained.

"Can you do the spell?" Oliver asked him.

"I could but it'd be a lot easier if I had someone to help me with the spell," he implied a certain someone and Oliver knew exactly who he meant.

"I'll make the call," Oliver answered as he sat up to retrieve his phone and made a call to the one and only John Constantine.

"Grey, I get it. There are things you don't want us knowing, I understand but when it comes to things like this, you have to tell us. We're your parents."