time_fragment_main | Once more into the breach? [action/video]

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Once more into the breach? [action/video]

He has no idea where he is or how he got here.
What Harry is at least somewhat certain of is that it has to be Cisco's fault. They were supposed to be breaching across the city and somehow wound up separated between one step in STAR Labs and a second step that landed him on warm grass with birds overhead and a godforsaken dinosaur browsing in the trees nearby. While it looks like California, he can make out landmarks that absolutely don't belong.

Perfect.
Not like they had pressing issues at home.

So after a long exploration that kicked up more questions than answers, Harry resorts to the device in his pocket. A device that absolutely was not there before he arrived.

"Ramon? Snow? Someone answer this damn thing and tell me where in the hell I wound up."

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"Doctor Wells?"

Guess who answers?

Allen? Where the hell are you? More importantly where are we?

Hang on. Tell me where you are and I'll come over to you.

I'm standing in the middle of a 1920s speakeasy and I have no idea how I've gotten here.

[In roughly fifteen minutes, Barry is also in the speakeasy. He waves at Dr. Wells, glad to see someone familiar]

Doctor Wells!

[That's not the right Allen. He's got glasses, that stupid bowtie and that wildly enthusiastic grin.

.. he's also not calling him Harry.] You're the Allen from Earth-2 aren't you?

Yes?

[He stops and sighs, rolling his eyes a little]

I'm starting to think people would prefer him over me.

[He's not touching that insecurity right now, thanks]

Don't be an idiot. It's not a matter of preference, it's a matter of understanding which version of Allen you are. [You know, the one that climbed an ice staircase in wingtips to save the other one.]

I'm Barry Allen, I've just been made a full CSI at Central City. Before coming here, you were still working on building STAR Labs. It was set to open next year or so.

In the next year or so?

.. what do you know about a man called Zoom?

Who's Zoom?

[Question answered.] Never mind. Apparently I was pulled out of time ahead of you.

Where are you, Allen?

I'm at a diner.

[He's brushing off crumbs from his grilled cheese sandwich and getting up]

But I can meet you where you are.

I'm near a tower that looks like Big Ben, but it's not in France so I'm not sure what happened here.

I'll be right over. I think I'm nearby, actually.

[He hangs up and eventually Harry will see Barry-2 waving almost wildly at him]

[SIGH.
He'd almost forgotten how.. happy this version of Allen had been to meet him. Harry slings his pulse rifle across his back as he approaches] Allen.

What the hell is going on here?

[before he can launch into how Wells changed the world of science, he's cut off, there's that brusque question that has him literally stopping in his tracks]

My understanding that some people broke time and now different instances of history have come together in this version of Los Angeles. Not only does it pull people throughout time, apparently, it pulls people from the multiverse. Dr. Wells, the multiverse theory has been proven! This can be taken home and patented and-and-and--!

[Broken time. He'll lay fifty bucks on the Legends.
Harry holds up a hand, trying to stop the excited flow of words.] That hasn't been a question for a while now. There are fifty three versions of the multiverse that have been counted so far.

Fifty three? When did that research publish?

No doubt some time in your immediate future. And if you think that's impressive, wait until we get into temporal mechanics. [Because if time is literally broken, they were going to have to figure out how to put it back together.]

Do you mean the temporal mechanics before this place or back home?

Both most likely. And we're going to have to all but reinvent them if somehow they well and truly have broken time beyond repair.

Excuse me, did you just say reinvent them?

Yes. I said reinvent.
If time itself can be broken that means everything we know about time is wrong.

What do you say? Think you're up for the challenge?

Y-yes! Yes! Ha! Of course, I'd love to work on a project with you!

What if I don't want to?

[AH.
Well. That's not a face Harry had expected to see and not one that is particularly welcome.

So distance is probably a very good idea.]

What are you doing here?

[ Glare, glare, glare. ]

The same thing everyone else is doing here. Very little.

[ Well, that's not true. Savitar still has a cast! ]

That's hardly an answer. [So much glaring. Much glaring.] What happened here?

That's exactly the answer. [ SCREW YOU, HARRY. ]

Who cares? Someone broke time. What does it matter?

[Bite him, Savitar.

However mention of time being broken gets his attention, brows knitting as he pauses to look around.] That's going to take a hell of a lot of energy.

It obviously wasn't you.

It could've been me! You don't know. [ ...Savitar, why are you offended that someone isn't accusing you of breaking time? ]

If it was you would have broken things more at home when you were trying to kill Iris and destroy Barry.

You don't know that.

[A smile that's hard and sharp. A challenge.] But I do.

You're not as smart as you think you are.

Oh very good. Are we resorting to name calling now?

I don't know. Are we?

Oh good. His favorite pain in the ass super genius. ~~Seriously, Harry, he's glad to see you. He'd been worried.~~

"Harry," he answers, doing his best not to look relieved. "It's kind of a long story, man. Are you in the park?"

It looks like it, from what he can see, but things tend to...shift a bit. Better to ask.

Cisco.
He's almost happy to see you.

Almost.

"I'm looking at a baseball park across from a park that's overtaken by primitives. Clearly this isn't your Earth, it isn't mine and it isn't any of the worlds that I have ever heard of or studied."

"Yeah, that's because it's not," he says. "Give me a second."

About a minute later, a breach opens and Cisco hops through. He'd go in for a hug if he thought he could get away with it. More than a month since he'd seen Harry. He never thought he'd actually miss the guy.

"Hey, Harry."

Harry might let him get away with it if they were in familiar surroundings. As it stands? No. No hugs. He needs to know what's going on right now.

"Where the hell are we? Why is Savitar walking around still alive?"

.. not that he's worried about his people or anything.

"We're in LA," he explains. "Sort of. The Legends broke time. So things are kind of mashed up. But as far as I know, this is still Earth-1."

As for Savitar? Well. That's more complicated.

"He isn't...he's not the guy Iris killed," he says. "He's not going to hurt anyone."

"Of course they did." Idiots. Not like Harry expected much more out of a ragged band of people who seemed to barely be in sync with one another, never mind everyone else trying to save the Earth from alien invasion.

"He's not." Flat. Dry. Completely disbelieving. "So he's not the person that stabbed Allen, killed HR and attempted to kill Iris? Did I miss something?"

"Easy, Harry. They were saving the world, okay? Things just got messy," he defends. Yeah, he hasn't missed how unforgiving Harry is of people's mistakes.

"Well, yeah. He is. But it's- it's complicated, Harry. Just. Don't shoot him."

Which shouldn't really be news to anyone. Harry Wells does not forgive mistakes lightly. At least when they're mistakes made by other people.

"Complicated," he repeats. "Enlighten me Cisco. How do we go from this is the mortal enemy of Barry Allen, the man who attempted to murder Iris and who successfully murdered HR to 'don't shoot him'?"

Mentioning HR is a low blow. Cisco still feels that loss on a daily basis, and it's one he'd tried to move past for the sake of building bridges.

"He's not the same person he was when he did all those things," he insists. "Just like you're not the same person who tried to steal Barry's speed. Or who murdered Turtle."

Scowl.
Speaking of low blows. Not that Harry regrets either - he had been doing them to try and save his daughter's life.

"You don't know that."
Who is he talking about? He'll never tell.

"I do know that." He's certain of it, regardless of which person Harry is talking about.

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Once more into the breach? [action/video]

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