⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥

CHAPTER NINE
guide me

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

a teensy bit spicy . . . whoopsies?

IF THERE WAS literally one thing Juliet didn't fucking expect to see, it was Harrison Wells standing in the cortex.

So, last night, while Juliet was trying to comfort Iris while simultaneously thinking oh my God Joe has a son he never knew about, Barry had encountered the actual man-shark Patty had been talking about. He had been attacked by the man-shark, only for a hooded person to save him.

And that hooded person turned out to be Harrison Wells from Earth-Two.

Juliet had her arms crossed across her chest, staring at the man in front of her as he read the Earth-One Harrison Wells — or, really, Eobard Thawne — book. Honestly, she had no fucking idea how to feel. Seeing him again, even though it wasn't Eobard Thawne, struck a new surge of white-hot anger inside of her.

"Very strange to be holding your autobiography, especially when you didn't write it and it's not about you," Wells commented, shutting the book and tossing it on the desk.

"Juliet St. James, Dr. Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, meet Dr. Harrison Wells from Earth-Two," Barry announced.

"Hi," Cisco blankly said.

"Hi," Wells replied.

"So let me get this straight. You're the doopelganger of the man who murdered his mom and is responsible for both Ronnie and Eddie's deaths?"

"Yeah, but he's not even the doppelganger of the Dr. Wells that we knew because that Dr. Wells' body had been taken over by the Reverse Flash, who was really Eobard Thawne and Eddie's distant relative from the future," Caitlin added.

Juliet let out a deep breath. "My head hurts."

"Yeah, I didn't follow any of that," Wells responded. "I'm my own man. I had nothing to do with the murder of your mother or your friend Ricky."

"His name was Ronnie," Caitlin argued.

"Him either."

"You told me you have proof of your identity?" Barry asked.

"This almost hit me when I went through the portal," Wells revealed, walking up to the desk and picking up the pack that had been used to monitor Professor Stein's vitals, the very same one that he had thrown into the breach after Jay stabilized it. "Your stabilized breath downstairs connects directly to the S.T.A.R. Labs on my Earth."

Caitlin took it from him. "Technically, this could be mine, but I want to run some tests on you."

"I'll be genetically indistinguishable from my Earth-One counterpart. Your tests will reveal nothing."

"Great, still gonna run 'em."

"Be my guest," Wells insisted.

Cisco walked up to Barry and Juliet, lowering his voice. "Why are we even listening to him? How do we know he's not evil like the other guy?"

"He saved my life last night," Barry answered. "The question is why. I'm guessing you didn't travel between dimensions just to meet the Flash, and possibly Scarlet."

"That's exactly what I did," Wells voiced. "I came here to help you, Barry, to stop your greatest enemy."

Juliet rolled her eyes. She didn't miss how he didn't say her name. If she was going to be left out again in this, just like the last Wells had done, she was going to absolutely scream.

"He already did that," Cisco protested.

Wells looked at him. "I'm not talking about Reverse Flash. I'm talking about Zoom." He then noticed the expressions on their faces. "I see you've already heard of him."

"Yeah," Juliet said. "Zoom's been sending Metahumans from Earth-Two through the breaches to fight my boyfriend. I'm just an added bonus, apparently."

"Well, they're the symptoms. Zoom's the plague, one that's infected my world, and now he's coming for yours."

"What do you know about Zoom?" Barry questioned.

"Everything," Wells stated. "I created Zoom. I'm responsible for all the Earth-Two Metahumans, a fact I've ignored for far too long, but now I'm doing something about it."

"Yeah, well, we're batting a thousand against these breachers," Cisco replied.

"You're batting a thousand, Crisco? What's your sample size? Ten? Less? Zoom is obsessed with speed. He will never allow there to be another speedster in the multiverse, and he's gonna keep sending these Metas here, one after the next, all with the same goal — to kill the Flash, until we stop him together."

"And Juliet?" Barry urged. "She has to play a role in this, I know she does."

"I don't know. Witch has been missing on my Earth ever since the Flash has. Maybe Zoom wants to get faster so he can understand how to get her powers quicker. Ultimate speed plus her powers? He'd be unstoppable."

"Great," Juliet commented. She looked up at Barry. "Have I ever told you how much I love my life?"

"Last time we listened to a guy with your face, some bad things went down," Cisco told him.

"We lost people we cared about," Caitlin added.

"Everyone loses someone they care about, Snow," Wells countered. "The real test of character is what you do once they're gone."

Joe then suddenly walked into the cortex. The second he saw Wells standing there, he pulled out his gun and shot three times. Juliet's eyes widened and she immediately held out her hand. At once, the bullets stopped in midair, turning red. Red energy traveled around Juliet's hand as she let the bullets fall to the ground with small clinks.

"Joe!" Barry exclaimed. "Put the gun down!"

"How is he still alive?" Joe demanded, trying to walk towards Wells while Barry desperately tried to push him back. "How are you still alive?"

"I don't know, because you missed?" Wells responded.

"Um, you're welcome, I just stopped him from shooting you," Juliet cut in. "You're making it worse. Hey, Joe, let's go take a walk."

Juliet led the way out into the hallway. Barry and Joe followed her, but then Juliet suddenly seemed to realize that it was Joe. She swallowed nervously. You have a son was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say that — she promised. Iris had pleaded with her not to tell Joe about it, but it was practically begging to be released.

"I know that this is a lot to take in, but that guy back in that room, that's not Wells," Barry began.

"Dr. McGee swore she saw Wells," Joe revealed. "He broke into Mercury Labs."

"What? Why didn't you tell us this?"

"Holy fuck, was that the case Patty said you didn't want us working on?" Juliet inquired, placing the pieces together. "Joe, come on."

"Because I didn't believe her!" Joe exclaimed. "I didn't even want to consider Wells was alive."

"Eddie erased that Wells from existence," Barry insisted. "This guy is — he's someone else, and he says he's here to help us stop Zoom."

"How can you even look at him?"

"You think this is easy for me? The guy in there looks, moves, sounds exactly like the guy that drove a knife through my mother's heart. I have to resist the urge to kill him. I'm trying my best to get past that, okay? You shooting him, that's — that's not helping."

Joe sent a look to Juliet.

She shrugged. "Almost lost my shit when I saw him. It's taking me a lot to not completely slam him into the wall."

"After all our losses, I thought at least we were free of Wells," Joe admitted. "I just want one week where we're not surprised by somebody from our past. I better go fill in Iris."

Juliet sighed — she wasn't quite sure how Iris would react, since her fiancé died and all because of the other Wells. "Godspeed." She turned around and immediately found comfort in how Barry slung an arm around her shoulders. "What the actual fuck."

Barry pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Tell me about it, babe."

They went back into the cortex, where Cisco seemed quite literally all over the place. He told the two that he needed a drink, and although they could tell what he really meant, they took him to Jitters instead. Juliet had her hand tightly interlocked with Barry's as they walked into Jitters, settling themselves at the back of the line.

"You do realize when I said I wanted a drink, I didn't mean a latte, right?" Cisco asked. "I was talking about alcohol. Like, mind-numbing alcohol."

Barry put a hand on his back. "All right, look, you got to give him a chance, okay? He's not a speedster. He's just a regular, normal guy from another universe."

"I never thought I'd miss time travel."

"Time travel, huh?" a new voice repeated behind them.

Juliet slightly jumped, whirling around to see Patty standing there. "Oh Jesus fuck."

Patty slightly laughed at her. "I'm sorry, Jules."

"It's fine." She put a hand on her chest, trying to calm her racing heart. "All good."

"Is there a Metahuman who can time travel?"

"Time — no," Barry stammered, his cheeks flushing red as his grip on Juliet's hand tightened. "Time travel's not real."

"'Cause that would be pretty cool," Patty stated.

Cisco let out a fake laugh. "Not so sure about that."

"Uh, Patty, this is Cisco Ramon," Juliet said. "Cisco, this is Patty Spivot. She's Joe's new partner."

"Oh, yeah, you're the scientific advisor on Metahumans to the CPPD, right?" Patty questioned.

"Yeah, that's me," Cisco confirmed.

"Nice. Hey, Jules, did you hear I was right about King Shark?"

"King Shark? Nice name. I like her."

"Yeah, King Shark almost ate the Flash," Patty added.

Juliet's eyes widened in fake shock and her insides were screaming don't laugh don't laugh don't laugh. "No way, did he?"

"I'm sure the Flash had it handled," Barry interjected.

"Oh, no, I was there," Patty continued. "I — I saw it all. Some hooded guy saved his life. I'm not sure where Scarlet was, but she probably would've had it handled."

Cisco squinted at her. "Wait, and you're not, like, traumatized or anything?"

"I just watched a half-man-half-shark take on the fastest man alive. I love this city." Her phone then buzzed, and she pulled it out. "See . . . sorry. Oh, uh, Captain just texted me. He wants me to write my police report."

Juliet gave her a small smile. "If you need help, just let me know."

Patty nodded at her. "Will do. I'm gonna actually skip the coffee and go get a head start, so . . . good to see you guys."

Juliet waited until Patty walked away from them to laugh loudly and point up at Barry's red face. "This is hilarious. I love her."

"Shut up," Barry mumbled. "A man-shark tried to eat me and then Dr. Wells the sequel showed up. I really don't need your teasing added onto it about how I don't know what to do when the girl who asked for my number shows up when I'm around my forever lover."

"Okay, can we not use the name Dr. Wells?" Cisco pleaded. "I'm just gonna call him Harry."

"Okay. Harry, yeah."

"Listen, there's always gonna be Harry's out there, but you can't let the Harry's of the world get in the way of your girlfriend mercilessly teasing you." Cisco raised his hand. "Isn't that right, JJ?"

Juliet smacked his hand in a high-five. "Damn straight."

Barry rolled his eyes. "I hate you both."

"No you don't."

Cisco's eyes then set on the pretty barista behind the counter. "I know y'all are forever lovers and all, but . . . watch and learn."

Juliet leaned her head close to Barry's. "What do we have to learn?"

"Is he trying to teach us how to flirt?" Barry replied. "I thought I knew how to do that."

"You don't."

"Hey, now."

Juliet giggled a little. "I'm kidding."

"Hi," the barista greeted. "What can I get you?"

"Hi, there," Cisco responded.

"Hi . . . again."

"Uh . . ."

Juliet scrunched her nose up and turned to lean her forehead on Barry's shoulder, trying her very best not to burst into immediate laughter. She was definitely watching, but she wasn't sure if she was learning.

"Do you want some coffee?" the barista offered.

"Yeah, I'll get some coffee," Cisco agreed, but he rapidly changed his mind. "No, uh, no, I don't want coffee. You know what I do want, though? I want to ask you this. Do you want to go out with me?"

The barista stared at him for a moment. "Oh."

"To — we — I mean, we could — we could go get coffee or we—"

"No."

Cisco nodded. "That's a no. That's totally cool. It's cool. Respect."

He then walked away. Juliet watched after him with a frown, her heart sinking to her stomach. Poor Cisco. However, he then stopped in his tracks and stayed there for a moment, just frozen. Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion and she looked up, sharing a look with Barry. They approached him.

"Yo, dude, you good?" Barry inquired. "It's her loss."

"Cisco?" Juliet stated gently as he breathed heavily. "Are you okay?"

"We have another breacher," Cisco revealed, making Juliet blink.

"What?" Barry asked. "How do you know?"

"Central City Bank. You two gotta go now!"

"All right." Barry tugged on her hand. "Come on, J."

Juliet ran with him out of Jitters, glancing back at Cisco for a moment. She didn't know how he could possibly know that, but she trusted him. Juliet let go of Barry's hand and teleported into her suit at S.T.A.R. Labs before teleporting right into the bank. Multiple people were around on the floor, shielding their eyes and covering their ears. Meanwhile, a woman wearing a long coat and a mask was walking away casually.

"You got our attention," Barry announced, speeding next to Juliet.

The woman turned towards them. "Flash. Witch."

She then sent a blinding white energy blast out of her hands at them, one that made spots start to dance in Juliet's vision. Juliet held her hand out just before the energy hit them, sending her own blast of energy at it. Her red energy met the white one, and instantly, the white energy fizzled out.

"Scarlet, actually," Juliet corrected.

The woman then pressed her hands out onto the floor, sending a shockwave of energy throughout the entire bank. People that were on the ground flew up into the air, and Juliet lifted up her hands, catching some of them in midair while Barry sped around to get the rest. However, while they were doing that, the woman ultimately escaped.

Juliet lowered the rest to the ground before sharing another look with Barry. Today was just getting weirder and weirder, and there was really only one person who could try to at least explain to them what was going on. They went back to S.T.A.R. Labs and got into their regular clothes while telling Harry and Cisco what happened.

"Her name is Doctor Light," Harry announced, plugging in a flash drive into the computer and pulling up multiple news articles of the woman. "Small-time thief on my Earth until exposure to the dark matter from the Particle Accelerator and became a Metahuman with the ability to derive power from starlight."

"Oh, very cool," Cisco commented.

"Stars having a temperature of five-thousand-three-hundred degree kelvin and a blinding luminosity, I would say not very cool at all."

"You know, our Dr. Wells may have been evil, but you're just a dick."

"Okay, so obviously, Zoom brought her here from your Earth like the others," Barry voiced.

Harry took a bite of his burger. "Mm-hmm. Now that we know that, we can use that to gain advantage."

"What do you mean?"

"We capture Doctor Light and use her to lure Zoom here."

"You are insane!" Jay suddenly shouted, walking into the cortex with an angry expression on his face, trailed by a sheepish Caitlin. "Okay, we are not luring Zoom anywhere!"

"Apparently, they know each other, and Jay is not a fan," Caitlin explained.

"Huh," Barry let out.

Harry let his burger fall onto the desk. "Well, well, well. Like everyone else, I assumed Earth-Two Flash was dead. Why am I not surprised to find Jay Garrick here, still alive and in hiding a full universe away from Zoom?"

"I'm not in hiding," Jay argued. "Zoom nearly killed me and stole my speed before the singularity pulled me here."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Well, whatever the case, in your absence, which is probably also to blame for Witch's absence, Zoom has only gotten more powerful, faster," Harry pressed. He then looked at the two heroes. "Barry, Juliet, you have to defeat Zoom now while you still can."

"No, this isn't the time to be reckless," Jay protested. "We don't even know why Zoom sent Doctor Light here. She's a thief, not a killer."

"Zoom can make people do things out of character. Thief or not, she'll kill you."

"Okay, enough," Juliet interjected. "The first thing we have to do is find Light. Then we can figure out what to do with her."

Harry glared at Jay before picking up his soda cup, taking a very long, obnoxious sip out of it. He then walked away.

Barry then turned his attention to Cisco. "Hey, how did you know that she was breaking into the bank?"

"I — I got an alert on my phone," Cisco answered, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "There's a little ring-a-ding every time, like, there's a robbery at a bank."

Juliet blinked at him — he was acting strange. "Huh?"

"But you know what? I think I can get the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite to scan for any irregular solar radiation emissions and we can find Doctor Light's light."

"Okay, I'm gonna also, um, call Joe, see if CCPD has any leads," Barry added. "J, you're with me."

Juliet spared a glance behind her at Harry and Jay. "Let's keep them apart until we get back."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem," Caitlin said.

She sighed and walked out of the cortex with Barry. Today was just so weird.

ϟ ···················· ϟ ···················· ϟ

"WANNA GO ON a date with me?"

Juliet blinked in surprise and looked up from the case file. "What?"

It was the next day now. There was no mushroom-cloud explosion over S.T.A.R. Labs, so Juliet assumed that Jay and Harry hadn't killed each other. Since there was no recent news, Juliet and Barry had just gone to work as normal. She was sitting at her desk, reading some evidence, when Barry said that out of nowhere.

"You heard me," Barry insisted, placing his hands on her desk and looking down at her. "Staying in? Pizza? Wine? Movie? Kissing you?"

"Where's this coming from?" Juliet responded.

"I just . . . for a while, it's felt like we've been focusing on superhero us and not just us."

Juliet's eyes softened, and she gave him a smile. "Okay. Yes, I will go on a stay-in date with you."

Barry grinned widely and leaned down, pressing a kiss onto her lips for a moment. "Yes."

She rolled her eyes fondly. "Dork."

After finishing up some work, they went back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Juliet, Barry, Caitlin, and Jay all stood in the cortex by the computers while Cisco was downstairs with Harry. After a while, Cisco came back, and he looked like somebody — Juliet wondered who — got under his skin.

"Harry's starting to get on my nerves," Cisco admitted — there it was.

"The silent alarm just went off at the Bank of Central City," Caitlin stated.

Barry straightened up. "That's gotta be Doctor Light."

"Could be a trap," Cisco suggested.

"Barry, Julie—" Jay began.

"Juliet," Juliet interrupted.

"—trust me, Doctor Light is not a killer. You can talk to her."

"Okay," Barry agreed.

Juliet teleported into her suit before teleporting to the bank, right inside the vault where the silent alarm was. The huge vault that Doctor Light was going in had a very large stack of money, which was obviously her target. Juliet stood by the stack, and Barry sped in next to her right as Doctor Light came in.

"Looking for this?" Barry voiced. "I know Zoom sent you here to kill me. Good news, you don't have to do that."

"Not if I can get out of town with that cash," Doctor Light argued.

"I don't know about that," Juliet said. "I'm not sure Zoom would be very happy that you ditched him. My friends and I can help you, Light."

"Nobody can protect me from Zoom."

Doctor Light then lit her hands up, and the same blinding white starlight came back. Juliet slightly averted her gaze.

Barry put his hands up in a pleading way. "All right, why don't we take it down a lumen, have a normal conversation, all right?" Doctor Light extinguished her light. "Thank you."

Doctor Light then reached up and touched her mask. Instantly, it removed itself, leaving her in just a silver headpiece. However, the sight that she was met with immediately made Juliet's eyes widen in shock.

Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend . . .

"Linda?" Barry let out. "Linda Park?"

"How do you know my name?" Earth-Two Linda demanded.

"What the fuck . . ." Juliet trailed off.

"This was a mistake."

At once, before either of them could do anything, Earth-Two Linda put her hands out to the side and lit them up to the max. Juliet tried to close her eyes, but nothing worked. She instantly fell to her knees, her hands finding the floor.

Juliet could not see anything. Literally, everything was black. She blinked a couple of times, but nothing was working. All until she reached up and touched her hands to her eyelids. Immediately, the skin around her eyes and her actual eyes glowed red. Slowly, but surely, Juliet started to make out shapes again, and then colors, and then her eyesight was restored.

"Barry, Juliet, what's happening?" Caitlin questioned over the comms.

Juliet looked over at Barry, who was staring blankly ahead. "Oh no."

"I can't see," Barry answered. "Guys, I can't see."

"Okay." Juliet reached out and took his hand, and Barry tried to stumble backwards, but she held on tight. "Hey, it's just me."

"J?"

"Yeah. Give me your other hand." Juliet took his other hand, and Barry held onto her tightly. "You're going to be okay."

She teleported them back to S.T.A.R. Labs. After Juliet had gotten back into her normal clothes, Caitlin immediately did an eye exam, even though Juliet insisted that she healed herself and was fine. Barry, on the other hand, was still blind as shit.

"I still can't see," Barry complained. "How long is this gonna last?"

"You're suffering from solar retinopathy," Caitlin explained. "Your retinas are severely damaged. You're lucky you're not permanently blind."

"But with your rapid regeneration abilities, your sight should return soon," Jay reassured him.

"Six-point-two-five hours by my estimation," Harry added. "All this could've been avoided if you just stopped Light instead of chitchatting with her."

"She caught Barry and Juliet off guard."

"Always an excuse with you, right? He's the fastest man alive and she's the most powerful human alive. How could she possibly do that?"

"Because Light looks exactly like my ex-girlfriend, Linda Park," Barry revealed.

Juliet shrugged. "That period of time in my life was ruled by Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne."

"That's why Zoom sent her, because he knew you'd hesitate," Harry voiced.

"That means Zoom had to have known somehow that Linda was your ex," Cisco added.

"Which is why Barry and Juliet have to act now, before Zoom sends another double from their lives."

"All right, right now, I'm more worried about Linda," Barry insisted. "When I saw who was under the mask, I said her name. What if Light didn't even realize that she had a doppelganger here until I accidentally told her?"

"The first thing that Atom Smasher did when he crossed the breach was to kill his doppelganger," Cisco agreed.

"Yeah, but Light's not like Atom Smasher," Jay argued.

"We should keep an eye on your Linda," Harry voiced.

Barry nodded. "All right, I'll go."

He then stood up, only to run right into Caitlin.

"Oh!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"Sorry," Barry responded, right before barreling into Cisco.

Cisco stared at him. "Bro."

"Barry," Jay protested.

Her stupid, dumb, idiot boyfriend then continued to walk, right into the wall.

"Nope," Juliet protested. She lifted up her hand and focused on Barry, red energy traveling from her fingertips up her arms and surrounding Barry as well as she held him in place. "You are not going anywhere. There's literally nothing you can do until you get your sight back."

Barry sighed. "Will you let me go?"

"Sure, sweetheart." Juliet let her concentration go, only to link her arm through Barry's and lead him over to the desk. "Here you go, hold onto this little rail."

"I'll keep an eye on Linda," Jay offered. "Juliet, you can watch Barry."

"I'll go with you," Caitlin said.

Iris then ran into the cortex. "Hey, Barry! I came as soon as I heard—" She then immediately stopped in her tracks, staring at Harry in shock. "You look just like him."

"I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?" Harry inquired.

"Her fiancé died because of him," Cisco answered.

"Oh."

Harry then walked off back into the medbay. Cisco broke off as well, sitting at one of the desks in the cortex.

"Iris, I know it's weird seeing him," Barry stated.

She continued to stare at him. "Yeah, it's just a lot to process lately. Wells, my mother . . ."

Her and Juliet caught eyes. A secret brother.

"How are you doing?" Juliet asked. "I mean, after it all."

"I mean, now that she's gone, okay," Iris responded.

"Yeah, Iris, um, look," Barry voiced, reaching out in a vague direction towards her, and she latched onto him. "Thanks. You know you can talk to me about it. I mean, I know you have Juliet, but I'm here too."

"Yeah, I know. But really, I'm fine, okay? I should be asking how you're doing."

Juliet giggled. "He's so blind. And now I'm babysitting."

Barry let his head fall against the top of Juliet's. "We were supposed to have a date."

"Date turned babysitting adventure. Come on, I'll take you back to my place." Juliet then looked at Iris seriously. "Call us if you need."

Iris nodded. "Will do."

Juliet then tightened her grip on Barry and teleported them out of S.T.A.R. Labs, right into the bedroom of her apartment. She guided Barry to sit on the edge of her bed. Juliet laughed a little at how he kept blinking, like it would suddenly make him regain his eyesight.

"What'cha doing?" Barry questioned as Juliet took off her shoes.

"Getting comfy," Juliet responded. "Why? Do you need something?"

"Yeah." Barry held out his hands. "You."

Juliet was suddenly very glad he was blind so he wouldn't see the absolute redness of her face, and she walked up to him, taking his hands. "Baby, you're blind."

"So?" Barry argued lightly. "It's like a blindfold, minus the actual blindfold."

Her mouth dropped open in shock. "Barry."

"Oh, come on." Barry used her hands to tug her down onto his lap with her legs straddling him, making her let out a noise from the sudden movement. "Don't tell me you never thought about it."

"Uh . . ." Juliet's heart raced against her chest as Barry moved his head towards her neck. "I — I—"

It was almost pathetic how she was blabbing this much. But what can she say? Barry just had that effect on her.

He then brushed his lips against the skin behind her ear — the spot he knew she liked. Juliet shivered underneath it and she felt Barry smirk against her.

"Barry," she breathed out. "How—"

"Guide me."

〖 ϟ 〗

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO