An Important Line

 An Important Extra Line.

As well as you know, an important line not to cross.

 A brief conversation between devastating revelations:

“Doctor Wells, can I talk with you for a minute?”

“I'm always here to help Barry, what's up?”

“You seem different, like something's weighing on your heart that wasn't there before. And if this is because of Ronnie...what happened to him.”

“Barry, Ronnie's death was a noble sacrifice and a freely given choice. I don't feel anything for him other than he should be an example we all aspire to emulate given the opportunity. But before he...the last conversation we had together was very different...and, well you know how people regret 'never having the chance to say things' or to 'take them back'. Because of his death, I will never get the chance to tell him I actually heard what he said!”

“Do you mind telling me what it is he DID say?”

“The people who died or were changed in the accelerator are my fault. Even if I couldn't have seen it coming. But there is one death that can be placed ENTIRELY at my front door, from long before you and I ever met. Ronnie found out my 'deep dark secret' and told me to stay away from you. Something I actually admire him for, he wanted to protect you. And I can't help thinking that he had a weird sort of a point. If keeping you safe meant keeping my distance.”

“I'm the one who decides if I want you in my life Harrison. And I want you in my life. If YOU want to leave fine. But don't leave because someone who barely knows you...barely knew you... thinks you don't belong here anymore.”

Fully cognizant of the irony of his advice. “One day I might. And if I do, I just don't want you to think I'm leaving you out in the cold.”

Blissfully ignorant of the uncomfortableness of the conversation. “You do what you gotta do Doctor Wells. Just do it for yourself and no one else, a'rigte?”

21 months later:

“We did it...It's over.” Barry Allen sighed with relief.

“Not yet. You still need to end it.” Harrison Wells said from behind him. Barry turned around and saw the man he'd called his mentor standing beside him quiet and still, with his hands at his sides in a gesture of surrender. For a moment he didn't know what to think.

“What are you doing?” He asked nonplused. Wells actually seemed surprised at the question.

“You said when this was over and the city was safe, you'd kill me. And I promised I wouldn't fight you. I wasn't lying when I said I cared about you Barry, and I know what I've done. If this is what you need...” To Barry's lasting shock Wells actually lowered himself to his knees. “Then finish it.”

“Why, why would I do this?”

“That would be awkward. I don't think either of us need the remi...not what you meant is it?”

Vibrating his right hand Barry Allen, a hero known as The Flash, approached his nemesis. “I want to hear you say it.” He said strongly and softly.

“I killed your mother and I've done nothing to free your father. This may sound ironic coming from me but I'm tried of running, of trying to deny my past. For three years I've done what I could to make you better than the Rival and stronger than Zoom. After this you will be.”

“You're wrong about that.” Barry said lowering his hand and his voice. “Killing you wouldn't make me better than zoom it would make me the same as him. Killing anyone in cold blood would just make me as petty and self-absorbed as the Rival. I refuse to be either one. Get Up.”

Later Harrison Wells stood in the cortex, standing alone in front of Sisko Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Detective Joe West and young Eddie Thawne, Joe's partner on the Central City police force. He didn't seem willing to say anything more, he just stood there as The Flash filled his friends in on what he'd learned, and what happened 17 years earlier. “There's one thing more I need to show you...then we can finally be out of each-other's lives. “Gideon, bring up file ninety-four-thirty-one Zed please.”

“Of course Doctor Wells.” A soft, feminine voice spoke from literally thin air. A film projector, or the screen for one appeared and pages of information scrolled down the 'page' two fast for anyone but Barry to read. “Download complete Doctor Wells, will there be anything else?”

“You get to fulfill your original purpose now Gideon, Barry Allen will need your help.” He pulled a thumb drive from the interface. “This is a future database, I discovered when we first laid the ground-work at Star Labs. It seems to deal primarily with a hero called the Flash and his two closest allies: The Arrow, and the former villain Frost. When I first found it, I started following the history it presented like a script, trying to make sure the world had these heroes. It's why I fast-tracked the Particle Accelerator, why it blew up in everyone's face, why I'm so convinced Killer Frost will one day just be a part of you Caitlin and...it's why I see such hatred in your eyes right now Barry. Seeing the man in the yellow suit kill you mother as a child...it's what inspired you to investigate the impossible and is why you became a hero when you got your powers not a criminal or swollen with pride like most meta-humans. I know that sounds trite but take it from the expert here. “The world doesn't need another speedster, it needs the Flash.” That's what Gideon told me not long after I...activated her. I didn't realize what she meant til I started working with you. When you look at me and I look away, it's not me afraid of my feelings, but that I was afraid of yours. Afraid of your anger, your scorn...and I'd lose any chance of calling you my friend.”

“Prism, Firestorm, Robin's Heir, Cicada, Overlord, Pestilence...any reason we haven't heard of those bad guys yet?” Sisko Ramon asked in his traditional lightly sarcastic voice.

“You're not there yet.” Harrison answered. “The record covers 10 years of heroism; we're on year 3. Also, Firestorm's not a bad guy, just messed up...another victim of my hubris.”

“One question Harrison.” Joe West said peaceably. “What have you been doing since then?”

“I stopped following the pages like a script and started seeing them as guideposts and mile-markers. Until one of these creeps showed up I tried not to rely on it too much...or dwell on it. The ship where I found Gideon and this record, might have belonged to the Reverse Flash. It's where I found the Yellow Suit. It wasn't until Joe confronted me on something that I put it together.”

“What you told me about Tess, that was real?”

“Yes, Joe. I was more or less hunting the man. He DID take my wife from me. I've not seen a thing of him since the accident. He must've returned to his own time. After I read Gideon's records, I took it upon myself to fulfill his role in history when the time came. Barry is the hero the world needs, because of that tragedy. He's not just another meta-human: he IS the Flash.”

Detective Thawne spoke. “Time for the obvious question, who the hell were you talking to?!”

“Why don't you ask her, she's interactive you know?”

“Ma'am...Gideon did he call you?” Eddie said uncertainly. “Who are you?”

“I am Gideon, an interactive artificial consciousness.” The soft female voice that had sounded once before answered almost instantly. “Forgive the otherworldly effect of my disembodied voice, the visual circuits of my matrix were severely damaged. Doctor Wells has done his best to repair me..”

“Just tell them your manufacturing origin Gideon.”

“I've never understood your reluctance Dr. Wells. You are a genius by the human standards of this time. But in response to your prompt: Star Labs, research and development March 18^th 2024.”

“You mean to say, 7 years from now, Doctor wells invents you, here at Star Labs?”

“Incorrect Mr. Allen, You do.”

“In Gideon's original records I died tonight, supposedly helping you fight your newest 'big bad'. But I knew that was just the official story, a cover-up. I knew you'd killed me, for what I'd done to you. Anyway six years from now you discover something called the time vault and within it purely theoretical plans from an inter-active artificial consciousness that takes you less than a year to bring into reality you call her 'Gideon'. The ship I found had a copy of her program.”

“You integrated her into the Star-Labs mainframe.” Caitlin said in a strange voice.

“I figured it would be helpful having a future computer around, help interpret and analyze any threats, meta human or otherwise we come across. You can do the same thing if you want. Now can we get down to it please...What happens to me?”

“We record your posthumous confession, get my dad out of prison, burn your house to the ground, make an official report that you were inside of it...perhaps that one of your experiments quite literally blew up in your face, you leave Central City and NE-VER come back.” Barry said as calmly and emphatically as if he were rewriting history by sheer force of will. “Doctor Wells, you were doing what you thought was needed, to protect me and the city. And you didn't delude yourself into thinking it was justified. I don't know anyone else who could have made such a sacrifice and not lied to themselves about it. Also, I read Gideon's original report, just now. The one you must have read when you were looking for 'mile markers' as you call them. Originally when we went out to fight Clariss today HE revealed your secret, and I killed you in blind rage. The kind of mistake that cannot be fixed without screwing with the timeline. Which you regularly and quite rightly warn me against. You going to look me in the eye and tell me you didn't out yourself before the battle expressly to spare me that regret?” Wells shakes his head, slowly. “Get out of town, find something else to do with your life. I'm not sure I have the right to take your life. And you've made me a better man than to try.”