STAR Labs in San Francisco!

[fleet_feet]

DAMMIT! You poison everything you touch, Ivy

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[jessequick]

Jesse is two steps behind him, letting go the poor paramedic at the door before following Flash inside. She wants to scream, she wants to throw up. "I didn't hit her that hard," she tells Wally, clearly terrified. "I don't know what happened."

[fleet_feet]

"You have super-strength, Jesse, and she's just - " he starts to snap, but he cuts himself off. Arguing not important. As the doctors spring into action and take her from the Flash, wheeling her off to the ward, Flash follows them, careful not to get in their way.

Oh god. He... might be sick again.

[jessequick]

Blood drains from Jesse's face. She's clearly been in a fight and beaten on and burned with acid, but Wally's point is a valid one. And a heartbreaking one considering the tone he used.

Something flutters to the floor between them: the crown.

Jesse turns away, cheek to the cold wall of the facility, and closes her eyes.

[fleet_feet]

He's so confused.

His brain... it's like it was just reordered again.

He has to wait now. He can't wait. He hates waiting. Every second is 40 years.

He slumps against the wall and drops to the floor, cradling his head in his hands as they head into the emergency room, where he's not gonna follow, for fear of getting in the way. Dammit, he should've KNOWN this wasn't done... he wasn't free. He was never free.

"What... what the hell happened?"

[jla_extras]

A figure in purple walks up to the door, and reaches up for her mask. She removes it, and walks up to the security guards, hands held out.

"Francis Kane, also known as Magenta. I trailed..." she stops herself. "The Flash here - so I could turn myself in."

[fleet_feet]

It's going. That happiness he'd thought he'd found again... it's all exploding, and he's not fast enough to catch all the pieces.

But he hears that familiar voice down the hallway... and for a moment, he has a focus to put all of his frustration.

He's down the hall in a flash, but he's keeping a little distance.

"What did you DO, Frankie?!"

She was involved. She knew what was going on.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

[jessequick]

Wally runs down the hall...

Jesse sinks against the wall and tries not to puke or faint. Or both.

[jla_extras]

"An angel offered me a chance to escape. She was no angel. I'm so tired of what I am, Wallace. A freak, an abomination - powers probably of the Devil and twice as bad. The angel said I could save you, but..."

She scowls in disgust.

"No matter who or what you love, Wally, you will always love the Flash more."

[jay_garrick]

Jay appears at the scene in a blur of red and blue, and he looks down at the two speedsters before him.

Two heroes who may as well be like children to him.

He looks down at them in silence.

[fleet_feet]

And if ever two children needed a father figure, they're standing in front of him.

Wally's arms are still wrapped around Jesse.

"It was an accident, Jay," he manages, softly, as the window still displays the body of Ivy behind them, being hovered over by a small group of doctors.

[jessequick]

Jesse might not know Jay's there. The way she's grieving she might not know Wally's there.

[jay_garrick]

He steps closer.

"I know."

He gently rests his hands on the shoulders of both of them.

[_darkknight_]

"Go."

[fleet_feet]

He'll notice that there's none of the Flash's usual lightness at all.

"Does Poison Ivy have regenerative abilities, or the ability to manufacture duplicates of herself?"

[_darkknight_]

"She's tried to replicate herself once. Didn't succeed. Her regenerative skills are unsurprisingly plant-like." Then the inevitable question. "Why?"

[fleet_feet]

"Because I'm looking at her dead body at STAR Labs, and it doesn't have the scar on her arm that Magenta gave her recently. I need this to be a clone. I don't know anything about how plants heal."

[jessequick]

A hand closes on Wally's shoulder. Jesse.

[fleet_feet]

He swallows back a lump in his throat, and puts a hand on hers.

[jessequick]

"Batman doesn't think she's dead," Jesse whispers. She looks cleaned up; nothing that happened in the battle was worse than cuts and scrapes and bruises, and the staff has taken care of those. She also looks more composed. "I hope she isn't. She...didn't deserve that. Please don't hate me, but I feel sorry for her. I really do. She's really messed up."

[fleet_feet]

His hand goes to his face to cover his eyes. To bury his head in his hand.

"I don't hate you," he whispers back. "And as much as I try, I can't hate her, either."