"Barry, stop! Think this through. We've been up against Metas who can shapeshift before."
Derek raised his arm, preparing himself as he witnessed Barry bend his legs.
Nevertheless, Derek hated to admit it, but he was in a horrible position. This was the second time he'd seemingly been caught lying.
Any trust Barry had in him was practically non-existent.
"He's right, Barry. Just calm down and we can..."
Despite Caitlin's best efforts to mediate the situation, all while Cisco darted his eyes before the projection and Derek, it didn't change a thing.
"That was your Eclipse in the video! The time before the hailstone and when I left you match perfectly!" Barry yelled once again.
"Think, Barry! Why not create a gun with my Eclipse rather than having a real one, in my back pocket no less, rather than stored."
"To make it look like it wasn't you! Leaving a real bullet in the victim that can be traced to a gun will immediately rule you out as a suspect for exactly that reason."
"If I wanted to make it look natural, I'd have let the hailstone crash down without the wasted bullet!"
"You did!"
"So why couldn't you find the body?!"
In the next second, the others found no chance to interfere as the two engaged in a relentless back and forth, finally resulting in Barry biting his tongue, stumped for a second.
"I saw it with my own eyes..."
"I'm sorry, Barry."
[Bloodlust]
-SHUUU
The life and colour was suddenly sucked out from the air as Barry immediately felt his heartbeat racing for a different reason.
His eyes widened as it felt like a gust of wind sent him back a step, cold sweat dripping down his back.
But just as quickly as this aura came, it was gone.
"GAH..."
Barry remained on his feet, only taking in a deep breath as he returned to normal.
"Barry, are you okay?" Caitlin asked, seeing his peculiar behavior.
"What was that?"
"What was what?" Cisco retorted, looking around as hairs stood up on his neck.
Barry looked up, staring into Derek's eyes.
"Are you calm?"
But rather than a straight answer, Barry replied, his words surprising the others.
"Storing. That's how you'd have hid the body. Empty your Eclipse."
"Barry, that's enough." Caitlin hissed.
"I think we should take a break, Barry. You aren't looking too good..."
"But there's no way we'd know whether your Eclipse is truly emptied. Therefore..."
-CRACKLE
-WHOOSH
In an instant, Barry disappeared, and just as quickly returned. Only this time, Derek now had glowing blue handcuffs around one of his wrists.
Upon the three of them seeing this, they stared, dumbfounded.
"Your clothes...are still intact."
Cisco couldn't help but mention.
Derek stood there, expressionless as he could almost see the realization dawn on each of their faces.
"You aren't even a Meta human."
'And that's strike three. Well done, Thawne.'
"Don't move." Barry bent his legs, his eyes dangerously sharp as he prepared to leap at any moment.
"I'm sorry, Barry..."
'Anything I say now will be void. I need to fix this...but nothing will work now. He's too...'
This was the first time even Derek was seeing this from Barry.
Though his expression was controlled, he could feel the fire inside him.
Pure, unbridled rage.
"But I can't do that."
-BLOP
Eclipse manifested around Derek's wrist, shattering the handcuffs off him as the youth stared with straight eyes.
"Then so be it."
-BLOP
-CRACKLE
-WHOOSH
-CRASH
~Outside STAR Labs~
-CRASH
-THUD
Derek's shot out of STAR Labs, crashing through its wall and dropping to the ground, his back hit the ground hard as he took a second to groan, shooting to his feet in the next second.
'Shit. Well, what did I expect trying to run away from the Flash.'
He thought, looking around to find he was at the front entrance of STAR Labs, behind the fences and before the colossal towering structure.
However, he also found that Barry was nowhere to be seen...
-CRACKLE
-WHOOSH
Derek witnessed Barry suddenly appear, speeding toward him, now wearing his suit.
But what surprised the Derek was the fact that Barry wasn't stopping.
He continued running toward him until...
-BANG!!!
Barry cracked his fist across Derek's face, the youth spitting blood as Barry didn't stop running.
At that moment, both thinking at super speed, they had similar thoughts.
'That...hurt.'
'He's...tough.'
With Derek's enhanced durability, there weren't many punches that could make him stumble.
However, this punch made his brain smash into the walls of his skull, threatening to shut down and make him fall unconscious.
If it weren't for his regeneration that fixed this problem in a mere instant, he might have just been done after one punch.
'The power of a punch travelling at near supersonic speeds is nothing to scoff at.'
Meanwhile, Barry felt his knuckles ache after he landed the attack. He could feel his bandana felt...tougher than regular clothing. Like Kevlar on steroids.
But even the skin underneath felt harder than usual.
Despite this, Derek instantly brought his arms up, falling into a guarded position, not before suffering under half a dozen other punches.
'Shit, he isn't giving me a chance to counterattack. He won't even stand still.'
Derek thought, trying his best to endure the torrent of attacks falling onto his body.
And though it was doing little to put him down, due to his regeneration, it still hurt like hell.
-BLOP
-SHING
Eclipse manifested into a ring protruding sharp spikes around him, threatening to impale anything it touched.
However, Barry had already stepped back quite easily upon seeing it.
With this, retracting his Eclipse, Derek kicked off from the ground, taking this chance to close the distance with a single thought on his mind.
'He isn't trying to kill me, despite the rage he's feeling. His goal is to immobilise me. Knock me out so I can't use my Eclipse.'
And as he thought, Barry kicked forward too, watching Derek freeze from his point of view.
'I'll phase him through the ground and end this...'
But just as Barry thought this, he witnessed Derek's eyes glued on him, making a shiver run down his spine.
'Drop.'
-CRACK
Barry's knees hit the ground so hard that the concrete cracked beneath his weight.
'What...'
Barry thought, feeling his weight increase one hundredfold. And though it was a second, it was enough time for Derek to pull back his leg while the weight on Barry only increased until...
-BANG!!!
Barry shot through the air, blood escaping his lips as Derek kicked his head in like a football. Despite hitting the ground, it did little to slow him as Barry tumbled roughly, coming to a stop seconds later.
'I can fly away, cloaking myself in the clouds. It'll be hard with the tall buildings. He'll just jump off to catch me. I need a single moment to find a definite way to escape, but that's hard to ask against a speedster. Damn this good writing Barry...'
"Damnit!"
Despite Derek being deep in thought, he paused as he witnessed Barry smash his fist into the hard ground, yelling, his voice laced with uncaged frustration.
"I trusted you, damnit! I-I...you..." Barry raised his head, the corner of his lips bloodied.
The rush of emotions he'd been bombarded with in the last hour finally burst out of him, his voice breaking and his eyes red as he stammered, yelling the first thing that came to his lips.
"Why!"
For once, Derek's expression softened as his mind went blank, staring.
'I did it for the Perfect Story.'
That was the first answer that came to his mind.
'That's the only reason I do anything.'
But with this answer came another question.
'For who? That's easy, myself. I want this Story to be perfect.'
But Derek had long discovered this world and the people living in it were no longer "Characters" or "Fictional".
He knew this, so he asked himself again, for who?
'For...'
The question Barry had answered had indirectly set off a chain of question that Derek didn't realise had been hibernating in his mind.
He hadn't realised it, but as time went on, the more he stopped referring and even perceiving this world as a story.
It didn't feel like fiction...and he didn't want it to be.
So he could only ask himself again, why...
'Shut the hell up! You're in a battle, for god's sake. Get your head straight.'
Derek grit his teeth, pulling himself back before he could go any longer in his trance.
But despite this, there now lay a sour taste in his mouth he couldn't get rid of.
"I already told you, Barry. I didn't kill your father."
-CRACKLE
-WHOOSH
Barry shot forward, prepared to finally end this. However, just as he took his first few steps…
"KHRM!"
Barry froze, his knees about to touch the ground once again due to the pressure that suddenly dawned on him.
'I knew it. It isn't me, but something on my body.'
But Barry was quicker, realising something before he even hit the hard concrete. With this, a BRRR rang out as Barry's body vibrated so fast his entire figure blurred.
As he did, he instantly found his body returning to normal, not stopping as he looked up, only to find his foe was nowhere to be seen.
'Where? Left, right…no, up!'
Because he was canvasing his surroundings at super speed, it didn't even take him a second to figure out where Derek had run off to.
However, as he looked up, his eyes widened as he witnessed a familiar glacier split in two right above him, Derek seemingly flying above it.
'Weather Wizard's Hailstone…'
Barry immediately noticed, remembering when Derek stored it to prevent the burial of the prison.
Well, the first time.
Despite the shadow being cast onto the speedster and the chill of the ice running down his back as if he were naked, Barry's eyes narrowed in determination as he breathed in.
-CRACKLE
-WHOOSH
Barry sped off to the other side, seemingly in an attempt to dodge the glacier.
However, surprisingly, he turned back, sprinting toward where he once stood.
Finally, his front foot slammed into the ground as he bent down, his eyes moving upward until…
-WHOOSH
Barry shot off from the ground, darting through the air like a bullet, landing on the glacier's flat surface and sliding on his feet, a result of the immense momentum he'd built up.
It wasn't long until he arrived at the edge, using it as stable ground and launching himself off to come face-to-face with Derek.
"This just isn't your week, huh?"
Derek was still perceiving things in slow motion, watching Barry approach at a speed that should have been impossible for how slow everything else was moving.
And beside Derek was a familiar figure.
'Beat it, Savitar.'
Savitar loomed in the air beside Derek, a mocking grin on his face.
"First you're outsmarted by Thawne, then my time remnant kicks your ass and now you have no choice but to listen to me mock you."
Derek ignored this all.
"My mind is constantly being bombarded with new memories due to your interference, and it's like watching a movie you know you've watched yet can't quite remember when or where you did."
"I can tell you how Thawne did it, if you'd like. You won't be able to figure it out on your own…"
'You're not getting out. Piss off.'
Savitar's grin faded as he stared for a few seconds, completely motionless and emotionless.
Derek's eyes shifted to him.
'Lemme guess, you just got a new memory? Trust me, Thawne hasn't beat me just yet.'
——————————————————————————————
Now do your job and hand over them powerstones.
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