"We're ready whenever you are, Barry." I told Barry as he ran in the Speed Lab, Barry's voice coming through, "I'm ready!"

"Are you serious?" Cisco looks at me.

"Please Cisco, just one more." I press my palms together, pleading, "I won't ask again."

Barry was training, trying to be fast enough to run into a breach Cisco would make, so he would be fast enough to do the same for Devoe.

I was dressed in black joggers, a white sweater, a braided beige beanie on my hair to contain the slight mess of my straighten hair, white slip on vans on my feet.

"She said two hours ago." Cisco shot me a look.

"You and I both know he's not gonna stop until he makes it through." I walk over to him, a innocent smile on my face, my palms still presses together, "Come on, just one more. You know how Barry gets."

He squints his eyes at me, before exhaling, "One more."

"Thank you." I chirp, Cisco walking to where Barry would come out from, holding his fist up, opening a breach.

"All right, here we go." I said to Barry, standing behind Cisco, "Three- two- one. Now!"

Cisco closes the breach right before Barry can get through it, Barry grunting, "Damn it! One more."

Cisco exhales deeply, "Zee?"

"Barry- let's take five." I began, crossing my arms.

"No, not until I get this, all right? Come on." Barry turns to run again.

"Listen, Miyagi-" Cisco began, "I've been here all day, opening breaches, all right, so unless you wanna rub your hands together and do some magic shoulder popping-"

"I'm not rubbing your shoulder." Barry stares at him, exhales.

"That's what I thought. I'm taking five." Cisco starts to leave the room.

"Hey, come on!" Barry tries to stop him.

"I'm taking five!" Cisco ends the discussion,'leaving the room.

"I- I don't understand why I can't get this." Barry breathes heavily, walking over to me.

I hum, "I don't know, maybe because we've been at this all day and you've been up all night?"

"That shouldn't matter." Barry shakes his head.

"Barry, a bridge closes in three -picoseconds. Picoseconds are a thing?" I look at him, confusion falling over me, as he shot me a look. I clear my throat, "Besides the point- Devoe's could shut even faster. Look, I'm just saying that this might not even be the best plan to catch him anyway."

"It's a plan, you know." Barry exhales, sitting down, "It's the only one we have right now."

"I know- we don't really have anything else right now." I walk over, sitting next to him, "But, you gotta stop acting like this is our only option."

"I don't know, Zee, but, I mean, we need something. We have no leads on the next three bus metas, no way to track Devoe, no way to stop him." Barry sighs lightly raising his voice, stressed, "I mean, he can't be this smart."

I got silent, as he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry, but, I mean, we've been at this for months, and we have nothing."

"Well-" I began, looking at him, "Maybe- that's what's placing a wall between you and- something to help us- something to go off on. You know, sometimes you have to take a breather and let the answer come to you. Do something else for a bit."

"Like what?" Barry questions, looking at me.

"Date night." I shrug, wrapping an arm around him, "You know, we haven't had any quality time, just you and me, since our honeymoon."

"Which was severely cut short." Barry comments.

"That's right." I smile softly, "We deserve a night to ourselves. I know, we're always preoccupied with the team and all-"

"We're also Barry and Zee." Barry nods, "No, you're right, yeah. All right, I'm gonna make a reservation tonight, someplace very romantic."

"Or-" I drop my head down, looking at him directly, "Instead of throwing the money that you don't have because of your recent unemployment and your refusal to apply at Big Belly Burger-"

"Zee-" Barry lets out a light breathy laugh at my joke.

"Okay-" I laugh quietly, "We could just-"

He cuts me off, "No- I want to treat you. I'll make a reservation, okay?"

"Fine." I give, pointing at him, "I'm only giving in this time."

Barry smiles lightly, nuzzling his head into my shoulder, my head leaning against his, "How is it we live together, work together, sleep in the same bed together, but it stills feels like we don't spend any real time as husband and wife?"

The device chirps, Harry's voice coming in, "Allen- other Allen- I mean- god- The Allens-"

The sound of shuffling, the voice completely changing to Cisco, "Zee, Barry, we need you in the cortex."

"You know, I really like the sound of your last name being Allen now." Barry smiles at me.

"Oh?" I smile softly.

"Yeah, Detective Allen." Barry presses his lips into mine, a smile on both of our lips.

Harry's voice comes in again, "I said, now!"

I pull away from Barry, "Duty Calls, Barry."

"All right, let's go." Barry pecks my lips, getting up with me, as we made our way into the cortex.

"So what's this?" I question as Barry and I stood by Harry, Caitlin and Cisco, looking down at what they brought us up here for.

"This is a signature field, mapping every time DeVoe's gone in and out of his layer in the pocket dimension." Harry points.

"All of these?" Barry questions.

"All of them." Harry confirms.

"So, how did you do this?" I look at him.

"I didn't do it, actually." Harry admits, "Ramon did."

"But all I did was just come up with a really complex and eloquent algorithm to track the warping signatures." Cisco trails off.

"Don't do that, all right? Don't do that. Don't be modest." Harry told him, "All right? It's unbecoming."

"You're unbecoming." Cisco shot at him.

"You wish I was unbecoming, all right?" Harry shot right back.

"Do you know that these are Devoe?" Barry stops them, questioning.

"These are Devoe, all right?" Harry starts pointing at different locations, "This is when Marlize grabbed him from Izzy at Lawrence Hills. This is when he showed up at Iron Heights prison."

Caitlin leans over, "This is Devoe's house."

"And this is the alleyway in the city center, where he abducted you." I point, looking at them, "How long has this been going on?"

"Oh, wait for it." Harry pauses, looking at Cisco.

"The past three years." Cisco answers.

"Three years?" Barry repeats.

"Devoe orchestrated everything to get the people he wanted on the bus." Caitlin spoke, "He's been planning this a long time."

"We got a planner, just like Thawne." Cisco held his own shoulder.

"So, how do we use this?" Barry asks.

"All we can do right now is just wait for the next marker to appear, try to get the jump on him." Cisco tells us, "That and keep an eye on Ralph, using the old buddy system."

"Has anyone seen Ralph today?" Barry questions.

"No, he's downstairs, moving in." Caitlin informs us, "He's very nervous."

"I don't know why." Harry says.

"I don't know why either. He's a superhero. People with powers are ready for anything." Cisco walks backwards, turning, only to let out a shriek, "Ah! Son of a breach!"

"Sorry-" Jesse Wells says with wide eyes as we look back at her, "I just came in through the breach room."

"Hey, Jesse, welcome back." Caitlin greets her, "What are you- what are you doing here?"

Jesse's eyes are fixed on Harry, Harry looking right back at her, Jesse holding some sort of cube.

Barry's head peaks from behind Cisco, "Wally's not here."

"Is that a breakup cube?" I question, looking at Harry, "You have your daughter a break up cube?"

"It's not a- I'm gonna- you know what-" Harry grabs his daughter, leaving the cortex.

A few minutes later, the alarm starts blaring, my head snapping towards Cisco who was already looking at the monitor, "What's happening? Where is that?"

"One of the hangars out at Waid Airfield." Cisco types away.

"Joe said CCPD was escorting ARGUS there this morning for something." I say, looking back at Barry, "Barry-"

"Yeah, we gotta go." Barry squeezes my shoulder, running off

"We'll meet you there." Caitlin said, slowly leaving with Cisco.

"Cool, I'll come too." Jesse spoke, "Could use the distraction."

My hands type away on the screen, staring at the footage that rested in front of me, speaking into the comms, "Guys, seven officers and ARGUS agents down. They just blew open the ARGUS transport container. West side of the hangar. One armed assailant inside."

"Got it!" Barry's voice comes through the line.

"Just you and us now." Barry's voice comes through the line again, showing me that they had defeated the threat.

"Nice work, everyone." I sigh in relief.

-

[ barry's pov ]

Everyone was frozen. Everyone was still. Everyone and everything that surrounded Jesse and I, was still. I slowly walked over to what was in the container, my eyes widening, tearing off my mask, Jesse coming to my side, speaking, "Oh, that's a nuclear bomb."

"I know." I sigh.

"And its core has already gone critical." Jesse spoke, our eyes glued onto the bomb.

"I know." I exhale.

"The second we slow down, it's over." Jesse said.

"I know." I look at her, "That's not helping."

"Well, how long do you think we have?" Jesse questions.

"We just have to keep moving till we figure out a way to stop it." I walk away from her, setting away from the bomb.

"Okay, we could run it to the Badlands." Jesse suggests.

"No, if we run that long, it'll speed up the reaction." I shook my head, denying, "We won't make it outside the city before it explodes."

"Well, we can't run everyone outside the city." Jesse exhales, "We're talking hundreds of thousands of people. I mean, if there were more than just the two of us, there's not enough time."

"Wait, that's it." I snap my fingers, "Jay Garrick."

"What about him?" Jesse questions.

"Uh, he might know what to do." I told her, "Go to Earth-3, get him, bring him back here as fast as you can, okay?"

Jesse nods, running off as I slowly walk over to Cisco, softly whispering to myself, "I need you right now, man."

I touch him, "Hey."

"Whoa, what is going on?" Cisco looks around, amused.

"You're moving with me at super-speed." I told him.

"What? Is this what it looks like when you run?" Cisco asks, "I have to say, it's a little uneventful."

"Hey, come with me." I lead him to the bomb, keeping my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm guessing this is our Ark of the Covenant." Cisco stares at it.

"Something like that, yeah." I nod.

"Whoa- yeah, that will definitely melt your face." Cisco stares at it, "That looks like an experimental fission engine, deuterium isotopes. That would make this an inertial confinement cage to stop the radiation. But with enough pressure, the isotopes inside, they split, they produce heat, they produce light. It starts out blue, turns yellow, turns purple, and then it's game over."

"Just please tell me there's a way we can undo it." I plead.

"I think we're way past that point." Cisco looks at me.

"We have to do something." I exhale.

"What if what if I breach it to a dead earth- like I did with Fallout?" Cisco suggests.

"Of course, yeah." I nod, backing away with him, "That's a great idea. All right, do it."

"What's wrong?" I question when Cisco's breach doesn't fully open.

"I think I might be all breached out." Cisco says, "I don't know, I think I breached one too many times today."

"No, that's not it." I shook my head, "A breach is a folding of space-time, right, so when we're moving this fast, we-"

Cisco cuts me off, "When we're moving this fast, when we're moving in Flashtime, then we don't have the time necessary- for a breach to form."

"Exactly." I nod.

"Then that means I can't-" Cisco gasps for air, falling into my chest, "That means I-I can't-"

"Hey-hey." I caught him, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Cisco admits.

"You're not a speedster." I sigh, "Your body can't handle moving this fast very long. I gotta let go, all right? Come here."

I run him back to where he was, Cisco grabbing my arm, "Wait- ask Harry. He'll know."

"All right. I hope so." I say, letting go of him, running to Star Labs and into the room Harry was in, touching his shoulder, "Wells-"

"A-Allen-" Harry musters out, "Uh, why are you touching me?"

I swallow, "Listen, you're in Fla- you're in Flashtime, yes."

"Flashtime? What is Flashtime?" Harry questions.

"I didn't- Cisco just came up with it." I began.

He cuts me off, "Wait, you did this with Ramon before you did this with me?"

"Hey, we don't have time!" I caught his attention, "The alarm that we left for was an ARGUS transport. It had a fission engine in it-"

"And it exploded?" Harry starts to ask.

"That's why I'm in this Flashti-" I start.

He cuts me off, "Wait Jesse. Where's Jesse?"

"She's no, she's fine." I assure him, "She left. She went to-"

"Okay, Allen, that's great, because if this city's gonna explode, you need to send her as far away from here as possible-" He let's worry of his daughters safety gets the best of him.

"No, listen- listen, she went to Earth-3 to get Jay Garrick." I told him, "We need his help."

"Allen, no, no, no, no, we cannot let her-" Harry began.

"Hey! Right now, I need your help, okay?" I caught his attention, "How do I stop the reaction?

"You can't stop this." Harry spoke, "You have to send it away from here."

"Well, I can't. Cisco can't open a breach." I told him.

"Cause there's no time." Harry realizes, "But you can."

"What do you mean?" I question.

"Allen, you can." Harry tells me, "Allen, listen to me, space-time breaches and the portal to the Speed Force operate under different physics. You open a portal to the Speed Force. You send it there."

"What will it do to the Speed Force?" I question.

"What is- why am I weak?" Harry leans into his chair.

"Wells- I know." I held onto him, "Wells, hey- It's the speed- listen to me, will an explosion that big affect the Speed Force?"

"I don't think so." Harry admits.

My eyebrows furrow, "What? What do you mean you don't think so? "

"I don't know." Harry sighs.

"Wells, hey, look at me-" I began, only to be cut off by a voice from behind me.

"What the heck?" Jay Garrick's voice comes from behind me, my head turning, my gaze landing on Jay and Jesse.

"Get her out of here." Harry says the minute his eyes land on Jesse, "Allen-"

"All right." I nod, letting go of him, looking at Jay.

"How'd you do that?" Jay questions.

"Um, I'm not sure." I admit, "I've- I've been able to do it ever since I came out of the Speed Force."

"That's a hell of a new trick." Jay admits.

"Look, right now-" I start, wanting to explain to him what was going on.

"I know." Jay nods, "Jesse showed me the nuke. We're in trouble, kid."

"Well, I don't know." I run a hand through my hair, "Wells has an idea that he thinks might work."

"Yeah? What is it?" Jesse questions.

"We send the bomb into the Speed Force, let it detonate in there." I told them.

Jay's expression changes, "Like hell you will."

"What do you mean? Why not?" I question.

"Because, Flash, if you do that, we may lose the Speed Force forever." Jay exclaims.

-

"We need to hurry." I say, walking over to Caitlin, touching her arm, "Hey."

"I see all these frozen people around me, Flash, and this time, it's not my fault." Killer Frost jokes.

"We need your help." I told her.

"Three of you now." Killer Frost eyes, "What's going on?"

"The cargo in this container." I began.

"It's a nuclear bomb." Jay continued.

"Yeah, and it went kaboom." Jesse finished.

"Dandy." Killer Frost exhales.

"Come here." I pull her over to where the bomb is, "We need you to cool it down."

"You want me to cool down a nuclear reaction that's already gone critical?" Killer Frost cackles, then notices the look on our faces, "You're serious?"

"Quickly, please, Ms. Frost." Jay prefers.

"All right, let's give it a whirl." Killer Frost nods, giving it her best shot, "Didn't go quite how I expected."

The bomb reacts, the container holding it cracking, light shining through it, everything freezing in its place again, as I hesitantly spoke, "Try again."

Killer Frost shrugs and goes at it again, only getting weaker, starting to fall as I caught her, her breathing uneven, "Huh, so that's what heat feels like."

"You're burning up. Come on." I lead her back to where she was before, "I have to let you go, all right"

"Barry?" Killer Frost stops me, "Don't let Caity die."

I nod, letting go of her, looking at Jay and Jesse, "Now what?"

"Guess we have to find that fusion machine after all." Jesse sighs, but then a thought pops into her head, "Wait a second, what if we're the machine?"

"How so?" Jay questions.

"Well, you said that we could offset the energy of the bomb with the energy from nuclear fusion." Jesse looks at him.

"Theoretically." Jay nods.

"Right, and the reaction in that container's giving off, I don't know, 3 million tons of energy?" Jesse guesses.

Jay nods again, "Give or take."

"So, 3 megatons of energy, that's 3 billion joules.

Each lightning bolt gives off roughly 1 billion joules, so if we all throw a lightning bolt- at the same time- It could be enough." Jesse looks at the both of us.

"That's enough." I nod, practically jumping at the opportunity, "That'll work. Let's do it."

We all run in a circle, running enough to throw a lightning bolt, Jesse and I doing so, Jay falling to his knees, my head snapping towards him, crouching next to him, "Jay! Hey-"

"I'm not used to going this long." Jay admits, breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay." I rub his back.

Jay breathes, "Damn legs- don't work like they once did. I'm not gonna be able to finish this one, Flash. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Just rest." I told him, rubbing his back.

"I'm so sorry." He apologizes one last time before freezing in his place, still like everyone else.

-

Beads of sweat slid down my head, tears slipping down my cheeks as I weakly punch the wall of the hall I was tiredly making my way down. My breathing was uneven in exhaustion, walking into the cortex, my eyes landing on Zee Allen.

She stood behind the console, completely frozen, turned to the side, her beanie slightly slipping off her head, her hair cascading down her shoulders, my eyes trailing down her hair, noticing the few inches it had grown since I had gone to prison.

One hand rested on the necklace I had given for for Christmas so long ago, her other hand at her side, her gaze fixed into nothingness.

Another tear slipped my eye as I took in that this could be the last moment that I saw her, a whimper leaving my lips as I walked over to her, my breathing uneven, grabbing onto her forearms, "Zee-"

She flinches at the sudden touch, not expecting me to be here, her eyes wide, glued to me, grabbing onto my arms, "Barry-"