Chapter Three - Zion Astralline

   Barry stopped outside the building of S.T.A.R Labs and looked down at the girl in his arms. He wasn't hesitating about helping the girl, the only problem was, he was contemplating whether it was right to show her that the S.T.A.R Labs is still at work. That it serves as the secret headquarters for the team Flash. That inside the building lies the equipment and people that help the Flash on his daily routine. Saving people.

   Sighing to himself, Barry set aside all his worries for the moment and went inside the building. Something told Barry that it was the right thing to do, considering the girl's action earlier against the huge dog. He has the feeling that she's more than what she appears to be, and he needs answers. Especially, about the part where she just used a silver sword against the creature which the girl also seems to know about fully well. And that he somewhat feels that the real reason the girl asked him what he truly sees about the creature, was that the girl sees it as nothing but a huge dog. Not the fact that Cisco and Caitlin saw a bear.

   Then there's the possibility that the girl's a metahuman. Barry reached this conclusion on the fact that she precisely just brought lightning down the creature and it turned into a hip of golden sand. But he still felt that there's more to it than what he can apprehend, and the only way to get the answers he needs is to wait for the girl to wake up.

   Barry entered the main room with the girl in his hands, where he saw Cisco behind the computer desk where he monitors everything. Then there was Caitlin who let out a gasp at the sight of the girl in Barry's hand and runs towards the nearest cot where she told him to bring the girl over. Barry immediately complied, putting the girl softly down the white cot, while Caitlin, also known as Doctor Snow, put on a pair of latex gloves.

   She grabs a scissor from the nearest table and uses it to cut the girl's shirt. Barry takes that as a cue to leave and let Caitlin take care of the girl. But before he can leave, Caitlin notices the cut on his legs and call him.

"How about you, Barry? That looks deep, and in real need of stitches." Barry looks at what Caitlin was looking at and sees the deep gash on his leg. Blood already dried from it.

"I'll be okay. I can manage. How about her?" Barry asked, motioning his head to where the girl lies. Finally seeing how worse her situation really is.

   The blood from the deep cut on her arm was already dried just like the one on his leg, while her shoulder looks like it was about to be ripped out of its joints. Her cheekbone was swollen and there's a cut on her lip. She looks so tired more than earlier, now that she's unconscious. Caitlin might have noticed the worried look on his face because she taps Barry's shoulder and smiles.

   "She'll be fine, Barry. Her breathing is fine. Her pulse is stable, though she'll need a lot of stitches. Blood is not a problem. She didn't lose that much. So, why don't you get some rest first?"

   "Thank you," Barry muttered. He looks a bit longer at the girl before walking back to where Cisco is.

   Barry found the guy looking at something in front of the screens. Cisco was so invested in it to the point that he looks like he's about to push his face into it just to get inside.

   "Cisco?" Barry called. The guy turns around in his seat to look at him.

   "Right timing! Come here!" Without asking questions, Barry walk towards the guy and stopped right behind him. Folding his arms across his chest, Barry peak over Cisco's shoulder to look at what the guy is looking at. "Remember how about I told you that you're fighting a bear?" Cisco peak at him for a moment, before looking back at the screen when Barry nodded. Cisco then presses some keys in the keyboard, and point at something. "Watch this." Barry leans forward across the seat to see what Cisco is showing him.

   At first, he saw himself facing a somewhat 6ft tall bear, then in a blink of an eye, something blurry shifted into the footage. The bear turned into the huge black dog that he and the girl faced earlier. His eyes widen at the realization. He was right. Something is going on, aside from what he sees.

   Cisco shifts around his seat to look at him once again. The guy was now fully invested in whatever was going on, just like how Barry is.

   "I don't know what happened. For a moment, I feel like there's a veil covering everything, then when that girl appeared it was suddenly removed. That's why for a moment, I thought, we thought you were fighting a bear. Caitlin even thought I was crazy when I told her that you were fighting a huge dog, but when I pointed it out a couple of times, she finally saw what I was talking about." Cisco described, trying to come up with an answer by himself.

   Barry, on the other hand, looks back at where Caitlin is currently attending to the girl. The said girl was still unconscious and for a moment, Barry forgets how vicious she look like when she brought that lightning down on the creature. And at the thought of lightning, Barry then remembers what he initially deciphered about the girl's identity.

   "Cisco. Did you get the whole footage of the fight?" Cisco frown for a moment, before turning his chair back to face the screens. He once again presses some keys, before pushing the chair aside to give Barry space as he plays the whole footage that he got by hacking one of the camera footages in one of the establishments around the scene.

   Barry watches the whole video, before pausing it at the part where the lightning came. "Here. Watch this." Barry points out everything to Cisco. From the part where the girl screamed, even though there was no sound, to the part where the blinding and deafening lightning came.

   Cisco's eyes were wide when he finished watching the footage. He stands up from his seat and looks at Barry.

   "Do you think the girl causes that lightning?" Cisco asked, pacing back and forth in front of Barry who's still wearing his Flash suit.

   "I'm not sure. But everything happened in accordance. It was right on time. As if she snapped and that causes the lightning." Barry pointed out. Both of them looking back at the girl in unison.

   "If that's so... Do you think she's a metahuman?" Barry's head snapped towards him, and he let out a sigh.

   "That was my first assumption. But... I feel like there's more to it."

   "What do you mean?" Cisco gazes at Barry. Just noticing how he looks so exhausted, and confuse more than he ever sees him before.

   "The girl was carrying a silver sword, Cisco. A sword that turns into a necklace. I watched her fought that creature and ordered me around as if she knew how to defeat it. It was like, she knew the creature all this time. She was badly hurt and I know it's very painful, but she looks like it was a usual thing to her. She didn't even complain about the pain at all."

   Cisco felt that Barry was really confused. They both look back at the girl, but it was only Barry who remains staring.

   "I wish we have Sherlock Holmes here to decipher everything." Barry just stares at Cisco for a moment, before deciding to ignore his statement. "Come on! I mean, we barely understand anything at all. We don't even know the girl's name and you just fought what looks like a Hellhound!"

   Barry's head turns to look at Cisco, so fast he felt like he had just experienced a whiplash, but that's not what's important. Something about what Cisco said, somewhat caught his attention.

   "What did you call the thing that I fought with?" Cisco frown for a moment, before finally realizing what Barry was talking about.

   "Hellhound. Why? Wait! Don't tell me you're seriously thinking that it was a Hellhound? I mean, that's impossible." Barry slightly pushes Cisco aside and faces the screens. Settling himself down, where the latter was sitting awhile ago. Barry type some keys on the search bar and frown after the answer came out.

"It says here that, a Hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world. Features that have been attributed to hellhounds include mangled black fur, glowing red eyes, super strength and speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and a foul odor..." Barry then remembers how the creature he fought with earlier, looks like the one being described in the search he did.

He remembers how it has a mangled black fur, how it has vicious glowing red eyes, how it was really strong and fast, although not faster than him, and especially how it turned into a heap of golden sand after the girl killed it with a sword.

"See what I mean when I said it was impossible? The thing you fought with earlier can't be a hellhound. I remember reading it on a Greek Mythology book I once saw in the library, which I didn't intentionally want to read, and it says that Hellhounds are the guards of the underworld. Like a guard dog or something. If you are sure that that was a hellhound, are you saying you just literally fought a dog from Hell?" Barry looks at Cisco and shakes his head with a small smile on his lips. The guy is being rambling again, but even though he doesn't want to admit it, he is making a lot of sense.

Whatever is going through Barry's head, he is questioning it himself, and the only way to clear them is to wait for the mysterious girl to wake up. But looking at the said girl, Barry doubts he will get his answer that fast. The girl looks so tired, and... damaged. Caitlin is on her side and still attending to her wounds.

Caitlin shortly attends to Barry's wounds when she finished taking care of the girl. They move into another room at the far end of the hallway, just to make sure the girl won't see Barry's face once she wakes up. She might've helped, a lot, on taking care of whatever creature they faced earlier, but it was also a reason why they should be wary. They weren't sure whether she could be trusted with their secret. Especially knowing she also has some kind of abilities that most of their enemies have.

"What do you think about her?" Barry asked, glancing at Caitlin's face as she wraps a bandage around his legs.

"Miserable." the doctor simply answered, even though she doubts if that's what she truly wants to say. She also watched the footage before Barry can arrive at the S.T.A.R Labs, and she certainly saw what the girl did. Clearly than how Cisco views it.

"I'm not talking about her wounds, Cait. Do you think she's a Metahuman?" Caitlin tends to his other bruises, damping a clean cloth with alcohol on his small wounds.

"What else can you call her? If I saw the footage right and I wasn't hallucinating, she called that lightning. Who else could do such things aside from Metahumans?" she wrapped another bandage on Barry's elbow after the latter told her it must be broken.

Barry who finally strips off of his suit lets out a sigh as he leans back on the bed. Finally feeling the massive pain in his whole body, now that the adrenaline washes off. His head throbbing with thinking.

"Don't worry. We'll find it all out once she wakes up." the doctor assured him, patting his shoulder as he let his eyelids shut into a sleep.

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"GUYS! She's awake!" Cisco's shout echoed around the Lab, enough to reach Barry's sleeping state.

Barry springs up from the bed, speeding out of the room, before speeding back to grab his suit and wear it again. The moment he reaches the center of the Lab where the girl was resting, Caitlin and Cisco were already inside. Caitlin once again checking her wounds, while Cisco is seating on a chair in front of her.

   The girl's head lift when he entered the room. Her eyes meeting Barry's. Barry awkwardly leans on the door, his arms folded across his chest. They let Caitlin finished checking on her vitals before they all look intently at her.

   "What's with the looks? You all creeping me out." Barry let out an awkward cough, that makes everyone look at him. Caitlin with her brows raises, Cisco with a playful grin, while the girl's face remains stoic.

   "You're in S.T.A.R Labs." Barry started, trying not to spill their secrets, while also trying not to make the girl uncomfortable. Caitlin looked at him once again, this time rolling her eyes, seeming to know what's going on in his head. Barry ignored her, and look back at the girl.

   "May we know your name?" The girl stares right straight at Barry, remembering how the guy just helped her take the Hellhound down.

   She unintentionally looks at him from head to toe, a mannerism she built while spending time with the Ares' children. After all, they used to look down at the other half-blood, thankfully it wasn't one of the things she built while staying with them. Clarisse took a liking to her after she punch Percy when the latter annoyed her. Clarrise said that anyone who hurts Percy will always be welcome in the Ares Cabin. And she prefers the Ares cabin than the Hermes.

   Sighing to herself and admitting defeat within her battles of doubts, she leans back a bit and stares at Barry once again. Her name swiftly rolling off her tongue.

   "It's Zion. Zion Astralline."

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Pronunciation : (Zion - Zayon) (Astralline - Astralayn)