บท 35: Returning Demons...
Chapter 28 - Returning Demons...
It's said that demons are to be faced, not to be escaped or run away from.
Well, Seth's demon returned now to face him, evil as ever and ready to tear through anyone in his path.
The air was tense and filled with the smell of both the grotesque smell of the unique red poison and the smell of the asphalt being slowing burned because of fire. Black smoke and white mist mixing together in spiraling patterns. The ground beneath their feet beating as though Mother Earth's heart beat each second while lightning sparked around the alleyway. Wind gathered around the adamantium-enforced torso as they glared at each other. Clawed hands clenching as ice formed around them, forming ice spikes at his knuckles. Water coursing through his body, ready to thrust out and strike upon summoning.
The evil-symbiote's long tongue lashed out of his maw, licking the surface of his teeth before slithering back a chuckle came out of his mouth. "Been a while, Uncle. Months, we haven't seen each other in mouths, and you seem to have gotten along fine." While also insinuating to another young symbiote born in this world, but he knew full well that the elemental did not know of his child.
"Finally crawling out of whatever stinking hole you call home, did you?" The anti-hero fired back. Even though it was a joke, his tone was as hard and sharp as a sword. "Where have you been? We've been looking for you… Carnage.
Tilting his head around as though he was weighing his answer. "Here and there, made a new friend. Someone very important, you'd like to know. You'd love to meet them." He cackled as he felt the words leave a mark on the larger hero.
"What do you mean?" Cletus didn't respond to his words, other than a wide smile indicating no good intentions. "We said what do you mean?!" he roared at the red/black symbiote.
Widening his smile, he snapped at him joyfully. "Now why would I tell you Uncle? It'd spoil the surprise!" A loud laughter escaped his mouth as he saw the elemental anti-hero booming with more rage as each and every new word that came out of his mouth filled Seth with more rage.
"Then you're never gonna get the chance to spill it, cause you're going to die NOW!" Strengthening his entire body with the earth element inside of his body for increased power, he used the wind element to blast off against the other mutant. Reeling an arm back he appeared above the deranged killer.
Seeing his uncle above him now, Carnage used this chance to quickly reform his left hand and form a shield above to intercept the strike. But the anti-hero saw the shield and instead of going to punch through it, he unclenched his hand and grabbed it with long ice claws around his fingertips. Sending out tendrils from his back, he latched them into the walls around them before pulling on them, using them to propel them upwards.
Twirling around while the deranged killer was still in his hand, Venom threw him into the ground with a large swing. However, Carnage was not going to have that and used his tendrils, shooting them from his sides and up to his head and retaliated with a swiftly delivered kick to larger symbiote's stomach.
When he received the kick from the red/black symbiote, Seth was sent flying onto the rooftop on top of the building beside him. Getting back on his feet, he thrusted his arm out again, splitting it off into dozens of tendrils. Each of them of them accelerated with the power of his wind element and the tips of them turned into adamantium.
Carnage was still in the air as he saw the accelerated tendrils come his way, meaning that he didn't have a way to escape. Making both of the mutants think that it would end up with the evil symbiote being punctured and full of holes.
"Argh!"
However, something out in the universe was looking out for Carnage.
The tendrils that split of his arm was forced to assimilate again and form Venom's arm as he was forced down to one knee because of pain spreading inside of his body again, this time more painfully than before. Forcing him to let out a scream in agony at the hurt. Both arms went to his right side, clutching it tightly.
"No…it can't be." Seth thought horrifyingly as he realized the source of his sputtering pain.
"It can't be." Venom thought himself as he felt the pain as well. Horrified himself as the pain spread through his body.
"Argh!" Another surge of pain spread through his body, making the anti-hero force himself down to both knees.
"Look out!"
Venom warned Seth urgently, the hero looking up and saw other symbiote charge at him with his right hand unclenched and claws sharpened, even more so coated with his red poison. When he tried to dodge the incoming attack, another spurt of pain erupted in him, making choose another different strategy. Unlatching one hand from his side, he slammed it into the rooftop his claws piercing through the surface of the rooftop.
Using the earth element within him, he sends out a small earthquake to shake the ground Carnage was walking on. The evil symbiote lost hist footing as the ground shook, he decided to use an old tactic. Pursing his fingertips together, forming a quick red bubble and letting them pop. Realizing the powerful knockout gas from his fingers.
Removing his hand from the ground surface and gathering wind in his hand, Venom swiped it ahead, unleashed a large gale of wind. Glass and bricks ripped off of the rooftop as the windstorm blew, blowing away the gas and attacked the other mutant. Shards of either of glass and brick rained through the storm and pierced Carnage's body.
Red muscles flexing, pitch-black veins popping out of them, as did the shards of various materials as well. Carnage let out bellowing roar as he glared at the anti-hero. Raising his arms and sharpened them into blades, coating them in his uniquely red poison, the villainous symbiote shot his hands into the ground.
Seth saw the action, but another surge of pain spread from his right side. Rearing his head back, flames began coating his teeth before spreading to the rest of his mouth and holding it like that. Waiting for the right moment as small cracks appeared around him as well as spots turning red from the poisonous liquid underneath the surface.
Upon registration of those fissure cracks, Venom used his right arm, the left arm was used to clutch his right side, and shot of a powerful blast of wind at his feet, forcing the elemental off the ground in an instant. Just as red spikes with the poison sipping out of them and melting the ground which it penetrated through. Righting himself in the air, he thrusted his head back downwards again, unleashing a blast of a fiery flame stream.
The flames hit his former spot, some of his previous wind attack still lingering in the spot, causing the flames to be amplified and explode, sending them into the ground and against the red spikes. Putting the red/black symbiote through an immense amount of pain, causing him to screech out in agony while retracting his burning arms back to him.
Latching into the wall nearest to him, Seth ran along the side of it with a hand stretched out. Claws digging into the surface of the wall and ripping it up as lighting sparked around his arm. When near the other symbiote, he leaped like a bullet and went after the villain with a thunderous slash.
Carnage saw him and lashed out his own poison-coated claws to meet his lightning enveloped claws. But it didn't work as the elemental ripped off of his own, paving the way for the anti-hero to thrust his hand to the red/black symbiote. The evil symbiote felt his entire body vibrate before unleashing an explosion, a storm of red tendrils shot off in all directions. Ripping off the surface of the ground around them with vicious strikes
Venom removed his hand from the other symbiote and crossed his arms over each other, white mist emitting from them and formed together, and when it blew away, a large shield of ice with the strength of an iceberg formed around his arms. Taking on barrage of flailing strikes as though it was rampaging pythons with no other thoughts than berserk in their minds.
However, it looked as though the other symbiote had gotten stronger the time since getting to this universe, as his icicle shield began cracking and small pieces fallings off of it from each and every strike of the thrashing tendrils.
Carnage smiled carnivorously as he used a few tendrils to reach into the shadows and pull something closer to his back and wrapped it around his back, as though it was a backpack ready for school. But this one was a sipping backpack with a red substance dripping from it.
Seeing some movement from the corner of his eye, he turned his eye to the other alleyway connecting to their battlefield, where, to his delight, he found a couple of teenage boys there. All of them holding up their phones and filming the clash between the two demons. An opportunity arose in front of him, making him smile villainously. Sending out his tendrils in their direction, he slammed the phones out of their hands. The kids screamed and tried to run away from the red demon. But it was all for naught as the tendrils grabbed them by the waists, the tendrils slithered around their bodies and made their way to their mouths, gagging them in the process.
While the rest of his tendrils kept thrashing against the glacier-like shield, Carnage brought his newly captives around them and to his front, showing them off to the elemental anti-hero in front of him like newly acquired shiny toys. Halting his barrage on him, Venom lowered his shields and took a wide-eyed look at the captive teenage boys.
"Let them go! They've got nothing to do with this, Carnage!" Seth shouted, his eyes shifting between the teenagers with waterfalling eyes of tears and the sadistically joyful expression on the villain's face.
"You sure about that Uncle?" Carnage inquired in mockingly, one of his fingers trailing along one teenager's crying face. "We both know how you are with brats like these, don't we? Even though they are worthless… pathetic… wastes of…flesh." The teenager's scream came out in a muffle as he felt the villain's sharp fingertip apply pressure against his cheek. "It's a waste, Uncle…cause this world don't need these brats… just… their…blood." A small stream of blood came out of the wailing captive's cheek, running down it.
"WE SAID PUT… THEM… DOWN!" The anti-hero roared, subconsciously unleashing an earthquake following his voice and cracking the ground again in a small radius around him.
Carnage threw his head around dramatically, "Fine. Have a nice flight, kiddos!" He brought his tendrils up and swung them around a single time and threw them. The teenage boys screaming while closing their eyes shut as they were thrown straight for the elemental.
Without a single thought of hesitation, Seth jumped up and landed on a wall and leaped from it, catching one of the flying teenagers. His arm snapped in the direction of the other one, shooting of his arm and split it into various tendrils. Reaching the airborne kid, he wrapped them around him.
Looking over the two teenagers in his hands and making sure that the hurt kid was patched up with a small layer of ice blocking the blood from streaming again. Peering down to the kids in his hands, he said, "Sorry kids, but this is only for authorized pilots. Or for people with jetpacks." Placing the teenagers back on the ground again, he looked to where Carnage had been and wasn't surprised to find him gone.
"Argh!" Another painful surge spread from Seth's right side, making the mutant get down on his knee. Both of his hands went to clutch his right side, tightening the grip as a new flood of fresh pain erupted from his right side.
The kids saw the hero in pain and tried to console him, but he had already leaped away from them. However, it was a short leap as the pain kept spreading and Venom and Seth was forced down to the rooftop of the closest building.
Sinking his claws deep into the side, more pain forced itself to spread in his body. His head peering down with bile sipping out of from the corners of his maw. Thrusting his head back up into the air, he opened his mouth and let out a sound, both host and symbiote let out their next sound in unison, a sound anyone nearby in the area could hear.
SCREAM
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
The facility of S.T.A.R. Labs was filled with tension, the air thickening each and every second. Cisco and Barry stood at the main console alongside Dr. Wells. Caitlin and Ronnie were in the adjacent lab to the Cortex, her private lab was occupied by the female mutant Olivia. The psychic sent a threatening look at Ronnie whenever he'd look in her direction.
Her looks and beauty were able to enthrall any man, but Ronnie felt as though he was gambling with his own life on the line whenever he'd glance at the young psychic. Forcing him to gulp loudly every single time, and making the psychic smirk triumphally when she'd see him quaking in fear.
The computers at the main console began lighting and the monitors showed the notifications. Peering at the screens, the scientists saw the results, Caitlin and Ronnie stepping out the adjacent lab to look at the warnings themselves. Olivia glanced at the screens herself and recognized the results, images of SHIELD's monitors showing themselves after Seth decimated an entire forest area single-handedly coming to her mind.
Harrison looked them over and started, "Looks like a strange case of extreme vibrations near the forest area of Kolins Woods."
Cisco leaned over the screen himself and saw the same as he added, "And looks there's some freaking strange and high temperature fluctuations."
Standing up from his seat, Barry told them, "I'll go and check it out."
"Don't bother." Looking over to the private lab, the natives saw Olivia looking at the monitors and told them. "It's my big brother. He's the only one in this universe who has the powers to make vibrations of those magnitude, and static discharges of that level, as well as those temperature fluctuations."
"Maybe he's fighting someone?" Barry inquired.
"Is he okay?" Caitlin asked worriedly.
Thinking up a way to answer them both, she answered, "No, and maybe." Her answers directed to Barry and Caitlin. "He's blowing off some steam right now. It's healthy for him." Curious eyes went to the monitors again, "But even so, he's using more powers than usual." It was certainly strange for him to unleash powers of that level, it's strange and worrying at the same time.
"But of this magnitude, is it safe for him Ms. Rogers?" Dr. Wells.
"Dr. Harrison Wells, right?" The founder nodded to her query. "Good I had to be sure, Seth and Matt usually referred to you as Brains, so I was unsure if that was your actual name." the natives chuckled. "And to answer your other question, yeah it's fine. And he's probably imaging the trees are that spineless jackass's face." A finger pointed at the structural engineer. "I know I would."
"You do know my name's Ronnie, right?" he wondered of her.
"That would imply your name is important and actually worth remembering." Olivia told him bluntly. "And you are neither important to me nor are you worthy anything in my opinion. Alas, you're a piece of garbage." Once again, the natives were shocked with how blunt this beautiful girl was.
Cisco being the brave one asked her, "You Rogers really don't hold back your words?"
Looking to him, the psychic got a sweet smile, making Barry and Cisco blush immensely and they both became entranced by her beauty. "Aww thank you, Cisco. You're quite a cutie yourself. And no, we really don't, not with our backgrounds. Plus, I really don't like that guy." Her finger pointing at Ronnie without making eye contact, the sight of the finger made him subconsciously cup his crotch again. Fearing that an additional strike down there, would destroy him.
"You are not the only one." Said Matt as he came walking through the entrance to the Cortex with two large paper bags in his hands. Following him was Bette Sans Souci who instantly went to Cisco, giving him a hug. The nanite mutant passed by a restaurant and found the female metahuman there, so he told her the great news of Liv being found and brought her along to meet his girlfriend.
"Hey babe, where you've been?" She asked of her boyfriend.
Smiling to her, he held up the bags, showing her the logo of the restaurant chain unique to this part of the multiverse. "I know how much energy and stamina Stasis takes up, and you get hungry because of that. Thought you might wanna have your first taste of Big Belly Burger."
Sniffing the air, smelling the delicious smell of freshly fried fries in the air and burgers, her mouth began salivating and her stomach began rumbling comically. And her mouth waterfalled when she opened the bags and saw the meals within them, "Thank you so much." Matt placed a kiss on her lips before she shot for her gurney and began digging in after taking a seat on it.
Seeing that the psychic girl was occupied with her meal, Ronnie stepped closer to address his colleagues and Barry. "Hey guys, was wondering if I could ask you about something?"
"What is it, Ronnie?" Cisco the first one to ask, the other natives of this universe giving him the same attention as well. Caitlin was having mixed thoughts of, mostly because of what have happened to her and Seth, wondering if he was feeling better and hoping to come back, to them.
He was having troubles trying to come up with a way to tackle the matter and slowly inquired, "Um… that guy, Seth…" Matt narrowed his eyes at him. "..What do you guys know about him?"
"What do you mean, Mr. Raymond?" Harrison Wells wondered.
"I mean… he doesn't seem like the safest person to be around… does he?" His slowly spoken words got their undivided attention. "I mean, he looks like the kind of guy who'd kill and hurt people… I don't really trust him, I guess."
"Ronnie." Caitlin got his attention with her stern voice calling out to him. "Seth's a trustworthy guy, he's willing to do anything for anyone else. He might look like a hellbeast, but he's a hero in every sense of the word." Her voice was sweet and gentle, but her voice held a longing in it, for the elemental. "And he's been a hero longer than Barry here has, he's a great guy and you don't nor should you feel threatened by him."
"I guess so." Ronnie chuckled as he recalled another fun fact between them. "Kind of funny, that he and I look a bit alike."
"Dogs and wolves are always compared and thought to be the same because of their similar appearances and behavior." Matt got their attention with sharp eyes and sharp tone. "The real difference between a wolf and a dog is uncomprehensive to the blind eye. But to the understanding eye, the true difference between them is night and day… one is a considered man's best friend and a loyalist to humans… while the other is a protector and a predator."
Eyes of everyone around him wondered why the mutant chose to make that analogy and that comparison, and even more to how it applied to Ronnie and Seth. "So I'm a wolf?" The structural engineer asked unsure of the saying.
The question got the nanite mutant to scoff hollowly, "Not even close. Seth and you might look alike, when it comes to eye color and maybe hair. But anything else, you guys are nothing alike. Cause Seth would never agree to hurt a defenseless girl… and more importantly…" he stepped closer till he looked into the structural engineer's eyes with a steel-like coldness. "…He's the Lethal Protector."
Caitlin, Cisco, Bette, Barry and Harrison Wells wondered when and where that nickname came from. They spent many months with the elemental anti-hero helping them out so much. The female doctor registered the name and she was the one who was closer to him than any of the others, maybe Joe had heard the name before. But she had never heard this name before.
"What haven't you told me, Seth Fury?" She thought to herself.
Olivia heard her thoughts and wondered how and why Caitlin knew that his real last name was "Fury". Her thoughts then returned to how she behaved before with Seth, and how her big brother acted around her. She marked how the interaction between Caitlin and Ronnie caused his expression to fall down. Her eyes widened when she pieced the dots together, "Seth got a girlfriend now! No… ex-girlfriend now… that explains why he felt so sad before… Oh."
Walking off the gurney with her soda in her hand, Olivia took a long sip from her drink and told her boyfriend. "You know he hates that name now, right?"
"Doesn't make it any less true." Matt countered her.
"We've never heard that name before now." Barry said. "Why does he hate that name so much? It sounds pretty badass."
Matt then tried to explain, within his granted limits due to the elemental's orders, "It does, but-"
"Guys." Before he could explain, Joe came walking into the Cortex with long strides. He looked to be having a worried expression on his face, the attentions of everyone in the room turning to him. "We got incoming."
"What kind?" Barry asked the detective.
With a painfully sheepish expression on his face, he pointed a finger straight up. "Incoming." The sound of an echoing scream of a demonic hellbeast could be heard in the air, and it closed in on them and got louder and louder.
CRASH
Everyone let out screams and gasps of shock when they turned to the center of the Cortex. Their eyes widened in shock and disbelief, but the mutants looked in horror, when they saw Seth slithering out of his suit with his hands tightly grasp his right side while grunting in pain.
"SETH!" Caitlin screamed out in shock as she shot down to the floor on her knees and went to the mutant's side, seeing the unbelievable amount of pain on his face, it was surprising and unlike anything she had ever seen before.
"BRO!" Olivia shot down herself to her brother who kept aching his back in pain, her drink dropped to the table nearby.
"Argh!" Seth screamed out in absolute pain as he tried to grasp his side, trying to keep the pain from his side spreading but it was impossible to do so. Peering his eyes to the side, seeing Matt come down to his side, he thrusted his hand out and grabbed his collar, pulling him down to his eye level. The nanite mutant was shocked by the action. But the shock dissipated and turned to amplifying horror by the elemental's next words. "'He's here…gasp… Carnage's here…grunt…he's here."
"What?" all color drained from Matt's face as he registered the words.
Olivia placed her hands over her mouth as her colors disappeared as well when hearing the destroyed tone of her big brother. But her concern went to his wailing and hurting side, seeing him clutch the side and let out screams and wails of pain. "Bro are you okay?! What's happening?"
The next words to be spoken caused confusion to dawn over the natives. But horror to wash over the mutants and drain all colors from their faces.
"It's spreading."
He didn't get to continue as his consciousness faded and left him knocked out.
Caitlin, despite of the incoming exclaims of stopping and not continuing from Matt and Olivia, she removed his hands from his right side and pulled up the T-shirt he wore to reveal the side. The other natives went to her side and saw the same. Eyes widening, mouths gaping and hands shaking pressing them over their mouths, all of their actions soaked with one overwhelming feeling…
… horror.
On the right side of the elemental's torso… was three large holes… like the something sharp was thrusted into them…and worse was, the insides of them were leaking with blood… and another red substance that… seemed to sear his insides slowly.
With a pair of sharply and stone-cold amber eyes, the surfaces of her eyes swelled wet with tears, Caitlin looked to the mutants, her tone colder than any ice Seth could manifest.
"What haven't you told us?"
X
"HE'S POISONED?!"
Every single person in the Cortex backed away a few steps when they heard the roaring exclaim from the wet eyed Caitlin Snow. Even the mutants stepped back in fear and they have dealt with super villains of a citywide catastrophic level, but they were had yet to deal with an angered woman whose heart is now on a gurney.
After a few moments of Seth had lost consciousness, everyone else spent the next few moments patching up and hooking up Seth to a machine to help him heal. When that happened, Olivia and Matt shared a brief look and told the horrific truth… of Seth Fury's secret…
… he was poisoned.
And when the natives of the universe heard Matt tell that he was poisoned, Caitlin shouted at him in an exclaim.
"Yeah, he wa-"
"SHUT UP, MATT!" Caitlin cut him off with another exclaim directed at him. "How long has he been like this?" the mutants looked to each other again. "HOW LONG?!"
"Caitlin calm down." Olivia tried to cool her off.
But it didn't work for as the female doctor shouted again. "I WILL NOT CALM DOWN, OLIVIA." The psychic stepped back in shock. Caitlin turned to Matt again. "You've known about this, the entire time. And you still kept it to yourself. And Olivia can't say anything to it, because she didn't work alongside us for months. BUT YOU DID!" An enraged finger pointed at him, making him look down at the ground in defeat. "You've been with us this entire time Matt, and yet you still chose to keep this from us. Don't you care about what we feel about Seth?! He's important to us too! And you didn't hesitate to even keep it a secret!"
"Because I had to!" Matt exclaimed at her, halting her from continuing onwards. "Caitlin, you know what happened to us when we were kids." The others didn't know he was talking about, but Caitlin and Joe know what he talked about. "I would do anything for Seth, no matter what. It's because of him, that I even got a life back and the love of my life. And I hated it when he told me to keep his secret under wraps from you guys. Trust me the last thing I wanted was to hide things from my new friends. But I had to."
They were surprised to hear the nanite mutant pour out his heart like that. Full of emotions and feelings, and they knew that he was regretting not telling them of what he was told to do. And wished he could redo it. Olivia couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat when she heard Matt call her the love of his life, making him love him even more than before.
"Don't be mad at Matt." Everyone looked to Caitlin's private lab and saw Seth getting off the gurney, the right side of his torso clutched by his left hand as he returned back to consciousness. Walking to the entrance of the lab, he continued. "I told him to keep it a secret from you guys. If you guys have anything to say, then say it to me. I'm the one who didn't want to spill the beans, I'm the one who didn't want you guys to know." His eyes drifted to Caitlin whose eyes were swollen with tears. "Any of you. It's my fault, not his."
Everyone was unsure of what to make of this now. Seth had been lying to them for a long time, not withholding a secret from them.
And Caitlin was the who held a breaking heart as she learnt of this revelation, she felt like this was some sort of punishment by Karma. First losing Seth and revealing that she was going to lose him, for good now. And she hated the entire situation right now, even more that what happened before. She hated how Seth had been secretive to all of them, but she hated how her heart ached at the very thoughts of losing him, and never getting him back again.
"Seth…" Caitlin got his attention with her ethereal, but shaking voice. "Please, no more secrets. Tell us everything."
"…I can't take her becoming so sad." Seth thought to himself in hate before inhaling deeply. "Everything. I'll tell you guys everything." Thinking more thoughts, directing them to Olivia, who heard them and projected her thoughts of agreement. Matt saw them and deduced their interaction becoming mental, and gave him a nod when Seth looked to him. "Everything starting with our childhood and how we came to be. But before that. Liv."
At the mention of her name, she pointed her eyes to Ronnie's eyes and projected an array of thoughts into his head, forcing him into a sleep even while standing up. The natives of the universe were not surprised to see her do that, none of the three mutants were too keen on the structural engineer.
The elemental mutant, the nanite mutant and the psychic mutant spent the next minutes and talked about their shared past, how the three of them were kidnapped by the human military of their world, how they were captured and experimented to be biological weapons for upcoming wars, how their individual powers could be experimented and amplified to be used for the wars. How Seth's powers were an anomaly and he was enhanced to be a mutant killer in case of opposing countries using mutants themselves. How Matt was able create weapons out a unique metal from his bone structure via his nanites in the middle of a raging battlefield, and injecting searing metal into his bone structure. And the newest information, how Olivia was chosen to implant thoughts to the enemies by deception and her beauty, and more importantly her expanded psychic prowess. They were all disposable weapons in the eyes of the humans.
When Seth finished his story alongside his fellow mutants, the natives were surprised by this story. Their friends had been kidnapped by the human military and were used and experimented to be biological weapons.
Barry looked between the three mutants with disbelief that outweighed the disbelief that he overflowed him when Seth told them of his secret identity after breaking in to the facility. There was way more to the elemental than he knew, and it worried him that the humans of his world were thinking of mutants that way, like they weren't even creatures that are worth letting live. And it worried him that this might actually happen to their home universe.
Joe had dropped his arms to his sides and felt disbelief overflood his entire being. He knew more of the elemental's life than the others and felt himself be found with newfound information from this shocking revelation retold to him. There were truly a lot more to the mutants that have dropped into their worlds than meets the eye. But it angered at the thought of him and his fellow mutants being treated like animals that didn't even survive a purpose in their society.
Cisco was shocked as well, he knew that Seth had kept his life secret. He thought it was due to how he hadn't been able to overcome the pain of his past, which led to him becoming secretive and not disclosing his life to anyone but Caitlin. But this was harsher than anything they had imagined right now, beyond any of his wildest thoughts.
Bette knew that when Seth showed his Y-incision scar the day he made her the unique concoction in a spray can that counteract her explosive metahuman powers, that he was like her, a weapon. But to hear that not just the elemental but also his little sister and his best friend were like her it was unraveling in every sense of the word. The three of them put through a hellish year of experimentations upon experimentations at such a young age, younger than her. It was unbelievable… downright inhumane.
Harrison Wells kept his facial expression stoic and made sure that not a single emotion came over his face. While his eyes went over all three mutants with curiosity. The elemental was the anomaly all on his own, as were the two others. And he knew that none of the mutants were that powerful to begin with, not since they were still young children. He knew that something had happened to them, making them achieve these new powers and overcoming their limitations of their young age. And hearing that the mutants were in all reality former biological weapons intrigued him greatly, and with that in mind, he'd be able to find their weaknesses and prepare for the future. More specifically, finding Venom's weakness.
Caitlin was the only one who was truly surprised but at the same time unsurprised by this revelation. She knew more of Seth's past than anyone else in the facility, knowing that the three of them were put through inhumane experimentations because of their status as mutants and their powers, knowing that they were put through a hellish situation. To be the biological weapons for the army of their universe, regardless of their young age. But that was the last thing on her mind.
The thing that remained on her mind was the secret of Seth being poisoned this entire time, unbeknownst to everyone in the room. To Barry, to Cisco, to Harrison Wells, to Joe… to her. And it pained her to no end at the thought of him suffering and die because of the wound in his side. However, it also made her wonder why he never felt any pain before now, the wound looked big enough to have lasted for a very long time. But she had seen him without a shirt before, and she never seen that wound before now, like it was never there to begin with.
"The three of you…" Harrison shifted his pointing finger between the three mutants, "…were kidnapped by the military of your world and turned into military weapons."
"Yeah, we were." Seth said, the other two mutants looking down at the ground, not wanting to be reminded of their most horrible time of their childhood again. "There are files of what happened to us, but they're not in this universe."
Cisco looked between the mutant couple, taking in their saddened faces, and said slowly, "I'm so sorry about what happened to you guys. I didn't have any ideas." His face became saddened himself. "You guys never mentioned anything like this." After saying his words, he stepped closer to Bette and hugged her with one hand.
"It's… not a wound we want reopen again, Cisco." Matt said slowly, while rubbing his hand along Olivia's back for comfort.
The other men shared a look with one another, and looked to Caitlin who seemed to hold the same questions in her eyes. "While we are happy to hear the three of you confessing of what happened to you while young… I believe we are all more worried and interested and concerned in the peculiar wound in Mr. Rogers' right side."
The mutant couple looked to Seth, knowing that it is his secret above all else right now, meaning that it was his secret to disclose. Seeing the looks on him, he told them. "It's time to come clean about everything guys. Everything." They nodded their agreements with their heads, while the elemental inhaled deeply before readying to speak for them.
"You guys remember when I told you of my world? That there are two Venoms? Me and another one, who's full-on villain?" They nodded, recalling the story of what he told them on the day of their awaited meeting. "Well to understand the story of my wound, you guys have to understand more of the original's story."
"The original Venom is a symbiote like my mine, but it wasn't always worn by this villainous person. At first it was worn by another person, a true hero. The hero was the first host of the original Venom symbiote. And like me and Venom, they worked together. Thing is, the symbiote gave him a huge boost, but at the same it caused a change within him. Making him addictive and more aggressive with his actions. The hero's darker urges, his dark and negative emotions were fodder for the symbiote. It began turning into him something he wasn't, this… dark hero. When he found out, he removed it."
Joe stepped closer, "So it made him more dangerous?"
"To the point of where the symbiote began controlling him." Matt answered.
"And before you ask, the same didn't happen to me." Seth continued while answering their doubting questions. "My Venom is a modified clone product of a piece from the original Venom. My symbiote was modified to adapt to my X-gen, granting it the same qualities as me, like adapting to the elements inside of my body and using them out of his form as well. Frankly, it also removed a certain disadvantage of mine. And no." the natives of this universe drew blank looks. "No, just because the hero removed the symbiote, didn't make it over."
Olivia then continued for her brother, "The symbiote was able to find its way to another host, someone named Eddie Brock a man who was gunning for the hero and his alter ego, his secret identity. They became one with their shared negative feelings for the hero, wanting to demolish the hero to the point of death and suffering. It made him one of the deadliest villains of our universe, Venom."
"Stronger than you, Seth?" Caitlin asked, while fearing that the truth behind his wound never be revealed.
"Not exactly, I have little more in my arsenal to stop him thanks to my mutant powers. But he's more ruthless than I am, willing to take and use innocent hostages as shields to save his own ass." Seth answered her. "But the story's not over yet. At some point, the symbiote was separated from Brock and he was thrown in prison. However, it wasn't long before the symbiote was able to retrieve its second host again…and another ability of Klyntars were discovered."
A series of confused and impatient looks, made the elemental continue his explanation. "Klyntars, symbiotes, they possess the ability, probably their greatest ability, to reproduce asexually, at least once in a lifetime. The original Venom happened to do so in its little break-out plan."
"Reproduce?" Barry perked his head up. "You mean they can give birth…to a new symbiote?"
"Yeah. And this newly born symbiote found its way to the closest host it could find, and it happened also to be worst of them all. The host to the newborn symbiote happened to a man by the name of Cletus Kasady." Smoke began emitting from Seth's body while lightning began sparking around Seth's body as well. His fist was placed against the doorframe of the entrance to the lab, and when it clenched, it cracked around it. When the natives' eyes placed to the other mutants, seeing Olivia develop tears in her eyes, while Matt gritting his teeth.
Slowly stepping away from the entrance to the private lab, he walked over to the main console and with the help from the trusty AI from their world, Seth pulled up the mugshot of Cletus Kasady from the database held within the Jarvis' database. And showing the natives the same of the mutant behind Carnage. "This…man… is a psychopath beyond the levels of humans. He's a psychotic murderer who served eleven life sentences, killing dozens of innocents, and he happily bragged about… killing more than that like it's just a sick game to him..."
They took in the chilled and drained colorless looks on the mutants' faces, fearing where this story might lead to next. Collecting himself for a moment, he forced himself to continue. "Something you guys have to know is that each symbiote born becomes stronger than its "parent", the previous generation. In this case, the newborn symbiote became stronger than Venom in many ways. There's something that awaked in Kasady's body after the bonding of the two, but I'll get to that later."
"You said the original Venom grew and amplified this Eddie Brock's negative feelings for the hero, correct?" Harrison inquired of the mutant who nodded, "What about the newborn symbiote when it bonded to this Cletus Kasady? Did it do the same?"
"Kasady is a monster unlike anything that's ever been seen before." Seth told them steadfast. "You see, each and every newborn symbiote is like a newborn animal. And like them, the symbiotes imprints on the first creature they see when birthed. Venom, the original, imprinted on someone who held the same negative and vindictive emotions as itself. My partner, was like me at that point, just willing to get out of that hellhole and save Liv and Matt from more torture by those humans… but the newborn symbiote… that one imprinted on a deranged mass murderer with a never-ending bloodlust and a sadistic nature." His teeth began gritting again, loudly and to the very point of breaking to pieces.
Seeing the look on his face, Caitlin worriedly stepped closer to him and touched his hand, instantly snapping him out of his enraged trance. "Seth?" he blinked rapidly and looked at her with shaking eyes, shifting form sadness and rage.
"Sorry." He pulled his hand away from her fingers quickly. "And then the most surprising revelation revealed itself. After the bonding with the newborn symbiote, Cletus Kasady turned into the worst and deadliest villain of our world, calling himself Carnage. And he was dangerous and psychotic enough all on his own. Granting him symbiote powers, made him all the more of a threat. But… that was not."
"What do you mean?" Bette asked almost scared of what the answer might be. Sensing her scared state, Cisco walked over to her and held her closer for comfort.
"… the bonding of a host and symbiote is on a genetic level, and apparently the symbiote had found a… device inside of Cletus' body. And it forced it out of his body." Seth said slowly. "… and it revealed itself to be a device… to block mutant powers, like a dampener."
"Someone put a dampener inside of him? And he's a mutant, like you guys? He's like you, Seth?" Cisco asked.
Shooting him a hard glance, Seth snapped at him, "He's nothing like me!" Cisco backed away in fear, which didn't go unnoticed by the elemental, making him apologize. "Sorry Cisco, didn't mean to go off like that. But yeah, he's a mutant too, and like me he's also a symbiote bearer. His mutant powers are different though."
Barry asked him, not understanding why this happened. "Who placed the dampening device inside of his body?"
"His father most likely. Roscoe Kasady." Matt said to the surprise of everyone in the room. "There's a lot of red-tape concerning his life and work. But thanks to SHIELD, we found that he was doing work for the black market, concerning mutants. Not to sell anything, but to achieve the right materials for a device."
Olivia then started, "The world around saw Roscoe Kasady as an abusive man towards his wife and son, a violent man. But apparently, after a lot of digging around, he was some disgraced scientist who made illegal devices for mutants, to counteract them as well. And the one he made and focused on most was the device for his son. He had gotten help from a lot of different scientists, one of them was Otto Von Strucker, if I recall. He did the same to his own son, for some reason."
"But why would his own father do that to his own son?" Caitlin asked him out disbelief.
"Cletus had a troubled childhood. As a child, he was obsessed with his bloodlust and chaos, and it fed up to the point where his mutant powers manifested." Seth started before opening up another file attached to the murderer's file, he was showcasing to the others. "He has a mutation that allows him to generate a poison. It's like a living parasite that's incredibly strong, enough to overcome most if not all medicines made by humans…he used that poison to torture his mother's dog without any problems. When the poison is in the system of a living creature, it starts eating away. Red rashes spreading like veins, melting through the surface of the skin, and when near an organ it continues onwards. And it's never showed any signs of stopping, until the host is completely dead. It's a deadly poison that cannot be countered."
"So that's what happened to you?" Joe asked his friend, "He poisoned you, when?"
"Seth, tell us what does that have to do anything with you?" Barry asked almost impatiently.
"Barry, the Reverse-Flash the one who killed your mother, he's your man in yellow, right?" The speedster nodded to his words. "Well…" he pressed a few keys and ordered Jarvis to pull out another photo. "… this is my man in yellow."
When they turned back to the monitor, seeing the newfound picture of the villainous form of Carnage. They saw it, and they fell their blood turn to ice as they saw it.
On the monitor, is a form of a white demonic eyed blood-red creature. Pitch-black veins spread all over his form with even darker pitch-black fang-like teeth. Claws looking strong and big enough to ensnare and pierce through anything and anyone within an instant. Red tendrils shooting out of his back and flailing around like thrashing pythons. One of his hands, was squishing the life out of the human's face with the flesh eroding slowly because of the mutant's powers. It frightened everyone in the room, making them shake with fear of what monster might do to them.
But no one more than Caitlin. She began breathing heavily and began sweating bullets as she once again became enthralled by that blood-stained nightmare again, and she wished Seth was there for her again and hugging her for comfort. Seeing that face of that black-veined red monster again, looking right into her eyes with those murderous intentions. Once again forcing the realization that their enemies paled in comparison to their enemies.
However, it did make her mutter out to herself, "…Uncle…"
Seth heard her muttering to herself, so he turned to her, seeing the familiar sight of her riddled with fear again. Like the night of her nightmare, when she launched up from her bed with a loud and terrifying scream. The sight of her like that made the elemental wonder what happened in her nightmare, and he regretted not being able to let her talk about the terrorizing dream of her.
"Seth did this guy kill your mother, too?" The metahuman speedster deduced of him.
"No, I never met any of my birth parents. I just have my real father, the one who adopted me and my sister after saving from that hellhole." Seth quipped.
"Seth… you don't have to talk about it." Olivia said hesitantly with one arm grabbing her other arm discomfortingly. Her boyfriend pulling her to his body with an arm around her shoulder.
"Liv. It's time for them to know." The psychic woman took in her big brother's words and registered the confidence and urgency in his voice, letting her see the need. "You guys never asked me this, and I respect you for it. But it's time for you guys to know the truth."
At the memory of what happened, his face draining of all colors again. His hand running over the engagement ring from Stefanie. "He didn't kill my mother… but he killed… my fiancée after torturing…" they all watched as he lost all life in him, "… my 3-year-old son… in front of his mother."
Olivia began shaking with tears as she recalled the longing feeling of holding Bucky again in her arms when Seth brought him into their lives. The way little baby boy looked up at her and played with her long hair, like a little kitten playing with rope toy. It brought her tears of happiness seeing that little wonder of joy happy and smile such a little beautiful smile. "…Goofball..." She muttered out her nickname for the little boy, the same one her brother, her father and Matt began calling her as well. And she lost her best friend, the same one who would become her sister-in-law and make her big brother the happiest man on the world. "…Stef…"
Matt was no different than his girlfriend, recalling himself of how the elemental mutant brought Bucky into his life and told the nanite mutant himself, that he was gonna be an uncle to his little boy. And Matt remembered how his little nephew would clap his small hands happily whenever he'd use his powers to swirl nanites around his fingers, like it was the greatest show on Earth before his very own little eyes. "…Buck…" he muttered the name of the little boy, feeling pain in his heart. And he remembered how Liv was broken and how Seth was shattered into pieces when they found Bucky and Stef like that, after Carnage's attack on them. "…Stefanie…" His mind rewound to the sight of the broken and shattered Stefanie, with a bladed hole through her heart.
The sight of the mutant couple looking as though they were put through hell and back again were unbearable. But when their eyes turned to elemental, seeing the lifelessness in his eyes, the color draining from his face, the tears welling up in his eyes… they knew that all three mutants were put through hell again, right down memory lane.
Seth was reminded and brought back to the time when he found Bucky and Stefanie back in the destroyed remains of their little home again. He remembered the day that he bought the house, thanks to his father and his friends from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It was nice two-story home, and when he brought along Bucky for the first time was amazing. The young boy looking around in awe of the big house, looking like the place of giants in his eyes. It was absolutely adorable when the elemental saw his new little family member enjoy his new house. And when Stef joined their lives, it was amazing. Seth felt as though something was missing from his baby boy's life. Finally, the young boy had a mother, someone who'd finally love him like he did. And unlike other young women her age, she accepted the fact that he was a young man with a toddler. And loved her new son, and without any form of hesitation, accepted his engagement while also giving off his own engagement ring. The three of them would officially be seen as a family, together.
But Carnage then swooped in and destroyed any chance and any hope of that with his mutant powers. Plunging the two most important members of his life into a pit of agonizing hell, without a single shred of mercy.
The elemental breathed in and out repeatedly before telling them, his anger barely contained within his body. "After what happened… after their funerals…I tracked down Carnage myself. And fought against that bloody monster without holding back and I was going to kill him. But it didn't happen as he managed to run away, but not before I was able to tear off both of Kasady's arms."
"You ripped off his arms?" Cisco wanted clarity.
Seth nodded slowly, "Yeah, but it didn't make much of a difference. Thanks to his powers from his symbiote he was able to get new arms back, just as strong and as sturdy as his other arms. However, he managed to… stab me with his claws before running away, injecting his poison from his fingertips. His way of giving me something to remind me… of what I lost, every time I'd look in the mirror. That's how I got my wound."
Barry then asked him, out of confusion. "Wait. This was way before you came to our universe, right? And didn't you say that it was around a year ago that you lost them? Then how have you been able to fight off the poison this entire time?"
Shifting his eyes to Caitlin, he asked her, "How much did you tell them about my powers?"
"Not much aside from your bodily biology being like an environment with the elements living inside of your body, simultaneously and in harmony with one another. And that it allows you to use every and all elements in your body." Caitlin told him.
"Good, but there's more to it." Seth started. "Carnage's poison is embedded in my body…" Gesturing at his right side, "…but the poison hasn't progressed and been remaining in the same place this entire time, all these months, because of my elements. All of my elements act like additional countermeasures, like defensive mechanisms against pathogens and foreign threats, preventing the poison from spreading any further into other parts of my body. Fire and ice, keeps changing my bodily temperature every few seconds, burning and freezing a wall to stop the poison from spreading. Lightning and earth inside of me, forms like a barrier inside of me, stopping it like a barrier, and the water and wind and redirect it. Adamantium helping along with that. It's thanks to them that I'm even able to stand here right now, alive."
"But what actually happened before then?" Matt asked, "For months, for almost a year, your elements have been able to barricade the poison, and it from spreading. But now something did."
"What is different this time?" Olivia asked herself, returning to the matter of her brother's condition instead of the past now.
Curious what results Caitlin and the others had found while he was unconscious came to the forefront of his mind, so the elemental directed at Jarvis, "Jarvis? Bring up the scans from while I was knocked out and my previous scans." A moment later, two monitors lit up with light before showing the results on the wall of screens around the speedster's mannequin for his suit. On the left side, showing the previous and normal scans of his bodily functions, showing that all of his elements were indeed still alive and strong inside of his body. The other one, the one on the right side, showed the exact same. But it was different. It showed his elements being weaker than usual.
And worse, this time, the monitor on the right, showed that the poison embedded into his right side had spread to the right side of his ribcage, infecting three of the ribs with the poison, turning them red by the second.
At the sight of that Caitlin directed at Seth with tearing eyes. "Seth, how come we didn't see this before? I didn't see anything like this before?"
Seth looked down and answered, "Camouflage capabilities for your prying eyes. And I always concentrated lightning around the area to make sure none of the scans picked up on it. I'm sorry guys, for not telling you guys anything, for not telling you about my poisoned condition and for not telling you guys about my son and fiancée."
"It's okay, Seth. But what about your body? Why is it like this?" Cisco wondered.
Looking between the two results of the scans, Matt noticed something strange and remarked, "Wait? It can't be…" Everyone else pointed their eyes on him, "Jarvis place a Geiger counter over the second scan and compare them."
The AI from their home universe did as told and placed a Geiger counter over the secondary scans of the elemental's bodily scans. Every single pair of eyes widened as they saw the counter measure an absurd amount of radiation inside of his body… now.
"What the hell?" Seth said slowly in disbelief.
"That's why your elements haven't been able to counter and prevent the poison from spreading again." Matt stepped closer to the screens. "Your elements become irradiated and become weaker, weak enough to let the poison work again."
Seth let his eyes drift around the room while his mind worked double time to figure out how radiation entered his body. When he placed them on a certain someone in the Cortex, he began chuckling and laughing hollowly. His chuckle and laughter got the attention of everyone in the room, making them turn to him with narrowed eyes of confusion. Halting his dark chuckle, the elemental looked up and told them, "…back in the Badlands… I was irradiated there."
"How? And from where?" Olivia wondered curiously.
Raising a finger and pointing it at a certain someone, he said. "From him." Following the direction of his finger, they saw him pointing at Ronnie Raymond who still remained sleeping while in a standing position. "Back in the Badlands, I discharged three elements; wind, lightning and fire." Seeing the confused expressions on he confined with an explanation. "Discharging other elements from my body, is different when it's not lightning, it's the one element inside of me that is natural to discharge. But any other, ends up with the element becoming too weak. There's two ways for me to return it to its previous state, it's stronger state again."
Holding up one finger, he continued, "The first way, by waiting. The elements need time to time replenish themselves, it's usually around three or four hours, depending on how much was discharged of the element." Holding up another finger, he added. "The second way, by reabsorbing the element again. If time is of the essence then the quickest way is to absorb them again, like a new fire for example. One that can make it stronger again."
Olivia widened her eyes as she pieced together where this was leading, "Because of the explosion back there, there had to be fire from the explosion."
Matt then continued, "And it was a nuclear explosion, unleashing radiation into the air and infusing itself with the fire from the explosion."
"And because of my powers, in fight or flight state, my body can absorb an element without my consent to survive." Seth said while rubbing his head with a saddened expression. "Looks like I'm gonna have to hurry through that bucket list."
"Don't talk like that, it's not funny." Caitlin told him sternly.
"Sorry…" he apologized without fighting her, seeing the tears in her eyes made him right himself.
"Why didn't you just turn into… adamantium? Couldn't you just have tanked the explosion?" Cisco wondered of the elemental.
"Adamantium is not like lighting, wind, fire, water and ice." Seth started. "That element is unique and inside of my body, it can't be discharged from my body, that's why I can only change my skin into it. And I was trying to stop it with an elemental blast, not an elemental fist."
"But Seth, there wasn't any radiation when we used the Geiger Counter in my suit back there." Barry said, remembering what happened after the explosion.
"Yeah, that might be true Barry. But I was the one who was closest to the explosion. And the radiation must have dissipated by the time you guys checked for radiation." Seth explained.
"Seth." Harrison Wells got his attention again, "Why didn't you tell us this before? And why did you come falling down the skylight before?"
Sharing another meaningful look with the other mutants, Seth came clean and told them horrified. "What you guys never knew before now… is that Carnage… is in this universe."
This caused a chilling and tense silence to fill the air, shaking everyone to the core right now with fear. And Caitlin began shaking her head rapidly, fearing that this was the worst kind of nightmare for her to ever come true.
Barry however was furious, "Wait?! You're telling us that this guy, who's a monster like the rest of our enem-"
"Wrong!" Seth shot him down with a raised voice. "Barry, make no mistake in thinking that this guy is like the enemies you have faced before, because that is exactly why I did not tell you guys of this guy, until I was certain. And now that I am, I don't want you… anywhere… near this."
"Why?" the speedster demanded to know.
"Jarvis, pull up the faces and files of every metahuman, they've fought against since Barry became known as either the Streak or The Flash." Seth told the AI as he walked around to stand in front of the main console again. Jarvis had pulled up the mugshots of every metahuman the team have fought against since Barry Allen had become a metahuman. "Listen well, Barry."
Pointing a finger at Clyde Mardon, Seth said. "Clyde Mardon. Motive: greed and money, easily able to track." Turning to Multiplex, "Danton Black. Motive: Revenge. Easy to track because of Simon Stag." The Mist. "Kyle Nimbus. Motive: Revenge, easy to track and figure out after finding out his poison, correct?." Captain Cold and Heat Wave. "Leonard Snart. Motive: Money. Anything with a high value trickles his fancies. Like his partner, Mick Rory." Girder. "Tony Woodward. Motive: Troublemaker and Iris. Easy if to track again." Blackout. "Farooq Gibran. Motive: Revenge against Dr. Wells for killing his friends. No offense, Brains." The founder waved off his concerns. Rainbow Raider. "Roy G. Bivolo. Motive: Money and likes to create chaos with his flashing eyes. Follow the line of craziness, you got the guy." Peek-A-Boo. "Shawna Baez. Motive: Her boyfriend and money. Easy again."
After listing off the enemy metahumans, Seth said. "And let's not forget… The Reverse-Flash." The founder narrowed his eyes curiously as he awaited the next point to be explained. "Motive: You and for some reason, tachyon particles."
"And he's the worst of any of our enemies." Barry said steadfastly, feeling the murderer of his mother was the worst of them all.
"How many have he killed, Barry?" Matt asked him.
"The exact number, please." Olivia added.
The speedster then thought of the answer, "Dozens."
"Nine." Seth corrected him, to the surprise of everyone in the Cortex. "Two guards from Mercury Labs. Six officers from Eddie's taskforce that was gunning for you. And your mother fifteen years ago. Barry, the Reverse-Flash is the worst, that you guys have faced. But compared to Carnage… he's a joke." Harrison widened his eyes while gripping the handles of his wheelchair tightly. "Carnage, Cletus Kasady, was a serial killer way before he reclaimed his mutant powers and got his symbiote powers. And his motive above all else… he's got nothing like that. He just wants to kill and kill and kill… till the entire city is nothing but filled with screams and red from blood."
"And you didn't tell us why?" Cisco brought them back to the topic after a while of letting the news of this serial killer here.
"At first, it was because I didn't know whether or not to trust you guys." He started off bluntly. "But then I got to know you guys better, and I didn't want you guys facing the same nightmare… that I fought against… the same one that destroyed my life. So yeah, I lied to you guys. And I'm not going to apologize to you for caring about you. In the short time, I've spent here in this universe, I was able to feel like myself again." His drifted to Caitlin who still held saddened eyes. "You made me feel again after tragedy… like the bad stuff never happened. And I can't thank you guys enough for that, so once again, I'm sorry for hurting you guys like this. But I didn't want that monster to take you guys as well. I lost enough as it is, and I didn't want you guys to be put in that pile."
Hearing the serene and sincere and honesty in his words made the natives of the universe see reason and wonder how much pain he had been through. He did it purely out of their safety, to make sure that they'd never have to face off against the poisonous mutant with symbiotic powers.
"We forgive you, Mr. Rogers." The founder told the elemental after sharing a couple of looks with the other from the universe.
The elemental nodded before seeing the speedster about to ask, "But… why didn't you tell us about your fiancée and your son?"
"I guess… I didn't want you guys to know that I'm a failure as well." Seth said.
Matt then remarked, "You're not a failure, Seth."
"He's right, Bro. Don't think like that, Seth." Olivia told him. "You were an amazing boyfriend and fiancée to Stef and you were an even better father to Bucky. You were the only one to jump into that burning hospital, and saved the same little boy, who would turn out to be the best little pal in our family. And they loved you, above all else, as did you. Nothing more you could have done, you know that."
A few tears escaped his eyes, as he said slowly and with a shaking voice. "I still couldn't save them."
Matt then turned his eyes to the sleeping Ronnie Raymond. "Why did you bother saving him again? I'm pretty sure he's done nothing good since we came to this world. So we can't kill him?"
"I'm wanna know the same. And I call dibs for making him jump either in front of a moving car or into an airplane engine." Olivia said with an evil smile while she cracked her fists together, the knuckles cracking loud..
Joe looked to elemental and commented, "You Rogers are sadists." Seth flipped him the bird and his sister winked sweetly.
"Argh!" Seth winced again as he felt more pain spread in his side, from his wound, making him shot down to his knees in agony.
"Seth!" Caitlin worriedly dropped down to his side again, Olivia narrowing her eyes curiously.
And before the female doctor could touch him, Seth placed his hand out in front of her, stopping her from continuing. Forcing himself back to his feet, he said "Don't worry…sigh… I'm fine. Gotta get some air." While his hand clutched his wounded right side, he walked over to the exit and out of it.
"Why are you like that, Seth?" Caitlin muttered to herself.
"I thought you were smarter than that, Caitlin." She looked back to see the inquiring look on Olivia's face. "Seth certainly thought so anyway."
"What do you mean?" she asked the female mutant with her arms crossed over her chest defensively.
"Liv, stay out of it." Matt told her through clenched teeth.
Olivia however wavered her hand around and countered, "It's Seth, my brother. Besides these kinds of situations requires a woman's touch." She winked at her boyfriend, before looking to Caitlin. "Come with me."
Caitlin, out of confusion and curiosity, followed the female mutant and into the private lab. When Liv made sure that they were out of earshot she turned to the other woman. "I think it's better if we go somewhere private."
"Whe..," Caitlin trailed as Olivia's eyes began shining pink and so did hers.
X
"WOW!" Caitlin let out her scream with her hand placed at her chest. Eyes peering over her surroundings and found herself strangely enough once again in the Badlands outside of Central City. And upon closer inspection, she saw that it was the exact same aftermath as it was after Ronnie and Professor Stein exploded. But it was different because there's a… strangely colored fog passing over the entire wide area.
"Wow!" Turning around Caitlin found Olivia looking around the area with her hand shielding her eyes from the sun. Without turning to her, Liv addressed the doctor. "I know I haven't been around much, mostly because of that jackass Raymond and his boyfriend Stein, but gotta admit… there's not much to see here. Central City's pretty shitty."
Seeing the female mutant look to her, she asked her, "Liv, where is this place? What is this place?"
"It's normally my friends and my brother that calls me Liv, others call me Olivia. But considering what you and Seth had, I guess you can call me that too." When Olivia said "had", Caitlin looked down at the ground. "Sorry about that. And about what this place is, it's a memory from within your mind, it's actually the memory that's at the forefront of your thoughts. Can't blame you though."
Quickly making a deduction of what Seth have told her before in the past of his sister, she remarked, "Wait… this is my memories? And that means… we're inside of my mind right now."
Olivia merely nodded, quite impressed with what she heard from her. "Seth was right. You're very smart." Caitlin's cheeks blushed lightly. "I'm sorry for what happened between you two, you know. It's because of you that my brother returned to who he was before, and I can't thank you enough for that. I've missed that side of him."
"Then… I guess you're mad at me for what happened between us?" the doctor wondered of her with sadness in her voice, mind and heart.
"No, I'm not." Caitlin snapped her head up to meet her eyes with surprise. "Okay, I mean, I am little hurt that my brother has to feel heartbreak again. And this is worse than what happened before with Stef, but again it's not my business. And you're not a bad guy, I know that."
"It feels… wrong now. Without Seth…" Caitlin confessed her heart to the sister of the man she loves. "And now it feels like it's my fault for what's happening to Seth right now, him being poisoned again. He went out there for me." Tears began following out of her eyes, and because of their current place, the tears disappeared the moment they tried to fall off her face.
"I know that." Her tearful eyes looked back to the female mutant out of shock. "What I can feel from you… I can feel from Seth too. Looks like you both regret what happened, well Seth more than you."
Caitlin tilted her head and asked, "What do you mean?"
Instead of just talking and standing in the same spot, Olivia walked with her and continued with their talk. "Back at Kolins Woods, I could hear his thoughts even from here. When people's thoughts are fueled with anger or rage, I hear them from a long distance, even longer with heartbreak added." Caitlin saddened her eyes again. "But for what it's worth, he kept imaging that jackass Ronnie was one of the many trees he kept destroying. Can't blame him though." Peering her eyes around their new location, she pointed out. "Remember this place?"
Shifting her eyes around, Caitlin recognized the area to be the crater. The one where both Martin Stein and Ronnie separated themselves at. "The crater…" she also knew that this was the place where Seth saw her and her… former fiancée kiss.
"When I was in Stasis, I heard every single thought inside of Seth's head." The female mutant started. "I could hear what he thought when he went and jumped into this place, and what he thought when he saw you and Barry coming. And he never thought a single thought about The Flash… what's with that name anyway? Is he a flasher or something?" Caitlin went to answer her, but Olivia waved her hand and continued. "No matter, and all Seth thought of when he got here, was to make sure that you never came close to this mess."
"He chose to do this for me?" Caitlin said in disbelief while feeling his love envelop her again.
"Oh yeah, and even though he did it, he knew one single thing…" Olivia pointed a finger at the internal of the crater, directly at the center of it. Following the finger, the female doctor was wide eyed at the sight. "…he'd lose the very best thing that have happened to him since he dropped into this place… you."
Caitlin felt as though she was reliving a bad memory again, like it was on repeat. She saw herself being dropped off by Barry. And she didn't notice it before, but this time, she saw Seth looking on with enormous amounts of conflict in his eyes. Returning her eyes to her own form of her recent memory, she saw herself shot down for Ronnie. While metahuman speedster was the one who went to converse with elemental who saved their lives. As she looked on, Caitlin saw the most painful sight… herself kissing another man while the man she loves becomes pained. When recalling the kiss of that moment, the feelings of dread returned to her from the bottoms of her pit.
Worried for what might happen to Seth, she looked to the memory of Seth and recalled. "How is Seth here? I never saw him like this."
"You didn't, no." Olivia answered her doubts. "But Barry did, and Seth saw you in there. I pieced this together by prying into the minds of those two and you, along with the couple of those useless fire heads." She referred to the parts of the conjoined metahuman.
When she finally placed her eyes on him, Caitlin saw all emotions slowly fade away from his face, and they faded into million tiny pieces. And it looked like he had been dealt a fatal blow unlike anything before, much stronger than anything before… and looked as though it had impacted against a part of him that could never recover again.
"We're sorry, partner."
Caitlin looked around the area as she heard that familiar demonic voice.
"Where did that come from?" She turned to Olivia again.
"That would be Venom. Strangely enough he was the very one who told Seth to stop thinking that you'd leave him like that." Olivia added rather bluntly. "I also took in their thoughts to paint a better picture you know."
"It's hard." Caitlin recognized that voice as Seth's. "I guess I should have expected it." This time she felt her eyes sting with more tears again, threatening to unleash more and more tears until their combined current would take the form of a waterfall. She had brought Seth pain, forcing waves of massively heartbreaking pain over his heart… over the heart of the protector who have saved and cared for her… loved her. The very same one who made her feel like herself again, unfreezing her heart again and opening up her heart again to worlds of wonders beyond the ones she already knew about.
But the reality was… she was the reason behind Seth's heartbreak right now… and she damned herself for that.
"Is… is this why Seth won't even look… wont' even talk to me anymore? Because…I hurt him." She asked with a heartbreaking voice.
"Kinda. He's trying to make you distance yourself from him… by being harsh to you and to Ronnie." The psychic further stated to the other woman's surprise. Seeing the look of surprise in her eyes, Liv commented. "Seth openly threatened both Ronnie and Stein in front of you and the others. He thought that in his mind, you'd still hold some feelings. So for the sake of you both, he thought that it'd be easier if you started hating him. Same reason for why he never attacked that Ronnie and Stein before when they were together, he thought that it might end up hurting you more than him. He thought that you might hate him."
"I'd never hate Seth." Caitlin said immediately, gaining the mutant's attention. "Seth was the first one to ever actually make feel better again. Thanks to him, he showed me wonders that I could never fathom before. It was like he treated like the single most important woman in his world, and even though he was still hurting from what happened to his former fiancée… and his son, apparently, he still made time for me and made me feel like nobody else."
Turning her tear-filled eyes to her again, Caitlin continued while walking over to the mental manifestation of Seth. Stepping in front of him, she looked into his eyes, seeing the pain and heartbreak. And as though, it was the real Seth, she confessed. "You're nothing like Ronnie, Seth… kissing him was nothing like kissing you. I'm so sorry for hurting you Seth… and I know… I'm done horrible things, but… can we talk? Please? I know I hurt you, but please can we talk."
At that moment, an epiphany stroke Olivia's mind. She thought that Stefanie Panes was the one for her big brother this entire time, but perhaps it was not just her. Stef was the one because she could make him feel like a true being and make each and every day of his life unpredictable, making sure that they loved each other and showered each other with love. But Caitlin… was the same, but different, too. Maybe even better
After everything that have happened between them, Caitlin wasn't willing to accept the two of them breaking up. And something was on her mind… no, her heart. Words she desperately wanted to pour out in an instant. Because the person, the real person of her heart was slowly leaving her, with each and every step he took. And it was clear, but Olivia asked her anyway.
"Caitlin… do you still love Ronnie? Or someone else now?"
"I loved Ronnie, I did…but it's very different than before. And the love I had for him, doesn't feel anything like… what I have for… Seth." Caitlin confessed, making the female mutant smile widely with happiness and joy. "I didn't expect it and I never counted on it, but no matter what I think, I keep thinking of… Seth. All the times we spent together, all the things we've been through together, and even though he might have lost me or his own life… he was still willing to sacrifice himself, for me. Olivia… I love your brother… I love Seth Fury."
With a wider smile on her face, she stepped closer to the female doctor and turned to her before pulling her into a hug. "Then you gotta work up the courage to tell him that… and I think you're gonna like the answer, if that bloody jerk knows how to be honest with himself for once." Caitlin smiled and wrapped her own arms around the female mutant's waist.
"Thank you for this… Liv."
The world around them shined as did the pinkish fog around them, and the fog enshrouded them both, the two women disappearing out of that world of Caitlin's memories.
X
Caitlin snapped her eyes open again, seeing the female mutant in front of her, pulling out a hug with her, the two of them out of her mind and back in the real world. As she reached up to her own face and wiped the tears away, he saw the psychic wipe away her own tears, and the smile on her face told the female doctor that it was tears of happiness.
"Thanks Caitlin. Means a lot." Olivia said.
"You're the one I have to thank, Liv. Thanks." Caitlin said as the two of them held hands like best friends.
"Hey… I may have looked deeper into your mind, and I found the memory of a dream you had, a nightmare." Olivia said sheepishly, making the doctor breathe heavily. "You never told Seth about that nightmare, I know that. But why didn't you Caitlin?"
"It… scared me. Unlike anything the particle accelerator did, even though it vaporized Ronnie, it scared me. And I thought it might have been my mind playing tricks on me or something, you know because of stress." Caitlin explained.
Olivia nodded her head, "I get that. But… I don't know why your mind suddenly came up with an exact mental image of Carnage…maybe the bond between you and Seth are stronger than either of you thought." She could see that her words were making the female doctor blush. Releasing a chuckle from her mouth, she said. "Find him, and tell him."
She nodded rapidly and ran out of the Cortex, but then pointed at Ronnie, who still remained sleeping. "You gonna wake him up now?"
"Give him a few hours, I need to consider between plaguing him with nightmares, or remove the memories of his most important people." Liv said evilly. Rolling her eyes, Caitlin continued and ran after the elemental.
X
When Caitlin found him, she found Seth sitting in Cisco's workshop, his eyes peering down at the object in his right hand while his left hand clutched his right wound. Walking closer to him from behind, she saw him holding a picture in his right hand.
The picture was of him, Olivia and a little boy with short blond hair and wide brown eyes that looked directly in the camera lens that was capturing the moment of the four of them. The little boy was sitting in lap of a young woman with a goofy smile, the woman didn't appear to that much older than Seth, her blonde hair shining with the sunlight bouncing off of it and her emerald green eyes peering down at the little boy in her lap lovingly, her arms tightly wrapped around the child. The blonde woman and the child were in the middle of the picture. On her left side was Olivia making goofy smiles and peace signs with her fingers. On her right side was Seth who held the widest smile on his face, while his eyes looked down fatherly at the child in the photo.
"It's Stefanie and Bucky." Seth said when felt Caitlin looking over his shoulder. Making way for her, he pulled out another chair for to sit on, which she did. "This was taken on one of many travels to Hawaii. It was kind of our special place, the first place I took Bucky to after adopting him on our first vacation, the first place I took Stef with us when we began dating… the place where I proposed to her and where she proposed to me as well."
"Your special place, huh?" Caitlin wondered in awe.
Seth nodded, "Yeah. I always enjoyed tropical islands, far from the all craziness that I face off against in the bigger cities. And Bucky loved playing with the sand, I think in his mind, he must have been playing with snow, cause the little Goofball tried turn them into snowballs and throw them. But it never worked. And Stef loved the place there, and she very much enjoyed the Mai Tais."
"You both like Mai Tais? I thought you were whiskey guy?" she remarked in shock.
"I changed a lot after Bucky and Stef died. I love Mai Tais, but I never drank a single one after that monster killed them." Seth explained with a sigh. "I changed myself to a whole new level, making myself into someone I'm not. Something I'm not. Why?"
"I like Mai Tais as well. I was using that same argument for when me and Ronnie decided on our honeymoon destination. We chose Tahiti, mostly because of the Mai Tais though. And we could also binge-watch Orange is the new Black." She quipped with a chuckle.
"Not a bad choice." Seth agreed with her, "And the Mai Tais are great, at least in my world. In this world, you're gonna have to be the judges of that." For what felt the first time in… forever, he placed his eyes on her again, making the woman smile happily. "Guess there's a lot more between the two of us, we didn't know about each other."
"Guess so." she began while shifting her eyes between the picture of his happiest moment and the mutant himself as she continued. "Why didn't you really tell us about this? About Carnage? About Stef and Bucky? Or about this poison in your wound? We agreed to tell each other everything didn't we?"
Then to Caitlin's surprise, he countered, "Like the time you didn't want to talk about the nightmare you had before?" When he saw her eyes widen, he continued. "You have a horrible poker face, Caitlin. And I like I told you guys before, I'm enough of a failure as it is. Guess, I didn't want any more people to know it."
"He called you "Uncle", in my dream. I didn't know why." Caitlin explained.
"In hindsight, my Venom is kind of the uncle to the Carnage symbiote, I guess." Seth explained. "His father is the original Venom, he and my symbiote are the same symbiote in essence, brothers I guess. So yeah, I'm the Uncle."
Caitlin saw him hold something back and wince again in pain and asked, "Is it because of me and Ronnie? About what you saw before-"
"It's got nothing to do with that." Seth said with a half-lie, and then he saw her face, he told her the truth. "…exhale…Okay, a little. But it's mainly because of the fact that guy didn't do anything to stop Stein from burning my sister…otherwise I just need to accept it."
"You never even looked at me before in there…" she trailed off sadly and heartbreakingly.
"I'm gonna be honest with you… it's hard. And I'm not trying to be rude to you… I just need to process the fact that… everything's out on the table now… it's weird and hard… seeing you and Ronnie together, it's not exactly a walk in the park, it's hard, Caitlin."
Caitlin then asked from her heart, "Seth why didn't you ever tell us about your wound? How do we cure you? Maybe, we can-"
"There's nothing you guys can do." Seth cut her off. "When I got into access to your lab the day after the night, I revealed myself, I got into your files, looking for something that might actually help me, thought something in your world could help me. But there's nothing that can help me in here." He then indulged her with another piece of information. "Carnage's poison is a living parasitic poison that can eat through any form of medicine, even the experimental ones… but there's a way to save me. However, you're not going to like it."
"Why?" she slowly asked him.
"Because there's a link between Carnage and his poison. I found out about it after I ripped his arms off. Instead of 24 hours of excruciating pain that makes Hell look like a sweet Jane Austen novel, the time limit has extended to 72 hours." He then continued and explained. "Carnage's poison has three ways to be used. First way, he opens his hands and then lets the poison spread around his palms. When the liquid poison reaches his palms, the poison is released in red spores that induces paralysis for three hours when touched. The second way, he puts his fingertips together and he can let the poison form bubbles. When they pop, they emit a red gas that acts like an instant knockout gas. The third way, also the worst way, the poison's liquid form, he can coat his claws and weapons with it. If he's strikes someone with the poison, the poison spreads into red rashes, like veins. It's like their entire limbs are slowly being pulled off by piano wires, again and again and again. If someone is to be hurt by it, then they suffer for 72 hours."
"So you… have that long before… you…" she couldn't say it.
"No. Longer, because my elements are still working." Rubbing his right side, he continued. "They are still weakened but still active. But the point is… Carnage needs to be killed… for the link between him and his poison to be severed. And I'm the only one who's been close enough to do that, in this part of the universe. I need to do this, to fight Carnage… and end it once and for all." Tightly he gripping his side, he said. "Or die trying." He sneered out.
"We'll help you." She told him, while holding back her true feelings.
"No!" he raised his voice, making her jump. "Caitlin… this guy is ruthless unlike anything you guys have ever faced before. Stronger, merciless, dangerous, blood-thirsty unlike anything, he invites pain and accepts agony, and loves destruction upon everyone near him. And he's willing to do anything to get his goal… which is be the strongest symbiote bearer in this world… and he's going to get rid of me to achieve that."
Caitlin was about to speak but, then…
"SETH!"
Both bio-engineers jumped out of their chairs as they heard Matt's voice shouting out of the speakers in the room, calling out the elemental with an urgent voice.
"Get to the Cortex, NOW!"
Without any hesitation, the two of them ran out of Cisco's workshop and sprinted into the corridors, and ran all the way into the Cortex. And when they passed through the threshold and into the main room of the facility, the two doctors instantly saw the way everyone held paled expressions, blood drained from their faces and pure horror and shock oozing out of them, and Ronnie awakened from his psychically induced slumber. Especially Matt and Olivia.
"What is it?" Seth asked Matt.
Instead Matt answering, Joe stepped forward and explained with a shaking voice. "I… I got a call from Captain Singh… he told me to pull up a channel. And we found… this." He pointed a finger at a monitor, showing the results of the news footage. Seth's eyes widen and his face paled when they saw it.
It showed the place… of his workplace… completely… smashed in… the tables and the floors had been pulled up from the ground, thrown into the walls and the bar counters, turning it into pieces. Wood scattered everywhere, along with pieces of glass of either windows or bottles everywhere. The shelves pulled out of the floor and ripped to shreds. As Seth's eyes scanned the entire footage, he found traces of his red poison around the pieces of woods and metal, melting the places.
When he registered the corroded parts of his wrecked workplace, his mind turned to horrible places and he snapped to the detective. "Joe… did anyone get hurt?!"
"Only one… JC."
"Did she have any red rashes?!" Seth asked him urgently.
"Yeah…she's taken to the emergency room." Seth paled again, "She's poisoned right?"
Shooting to the computers, Seth rapidly pressed the keyboard rapidly and uploaded various files in a drive. Taking out the stick, he placed it in Joe's hand. "Take this to the hospital, and tell them, order them to follow everything in the exact order, and if they choose to do something off-script, then they're gonna have the death of a young innocent woman on their hands. GO!" Joe launched himself out of the room and out of the facility in record time.
"What's the matter, Seth?" Barry asked the elemental.
"Right now, JC has at least, 72 hours to live because of the poison, and she's got no chance at survival unless I find Carnage and rip his head off of his pathetic useless corpse." Came the sneered reply from his mouth with small tendrils shooting out of his body in response to his anger.
"Seth." Olivia got his attention. "That's not all they found at the bar."
"What else did they find?" Seth inquired.
"Who." Matt corrected him, while Jarvis pulled up the one and single removed piece of evidence from the scene of the crime.
Everyone's eyes turned back to the monitors, and saw the sight of the newfound horror and handy work of the red serial killer… they saw the unmistakable form of Clay Parker's body, crucified to wall in back of the stage of the bar. Half of his body split into two parts. His left side, broken and crushed joints at each limb, each joint on the side. His right side, completely red, but not of just blood. Red because of the flesh and skin removed. it was clear the skin of his right side had been flayed and cut of his body, like he was an orange. Everything on the side, peeled off cruelly. But the most eye-catching sight was the torso on his body.
In the middle of his chest, was a message written by a blade that was slowly engraving each and every letter into his chest, giving him more and more agony without mercy. And underneath it was a clear message.
"Time for a family reunion… Uncle."
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