Shield

Eighteen

"You okay?" Izzie wiped away her tears before turning to Finn. "I know this is a lot,"

"This isn't a lot...this is... insane. It's out of this world insane and I'd really like to wake up from this crazy dream now." She looked up at the sky hoping she wake up where she was left at the ARGUS building. All of this was just a nightmare and wasn't real.

"It's not a dream," Finn said. She closed her eyes for a second before covering her face with her hands looking down at the ground. A kind of grief she hadn't felt before. A grief for other peoples losses besides her own. " I knew him," removing her hands from her face she turned to him. "Ryan. We were friends as kids since our parents were friends but we kind of lost touch the last few years." Finn stepped closer with caution. "The last time we talked...he talked about you."

"He never said anything," she said. "I mean...I met his friends. I never met you." She crossed her arms.

"Like I said we didn't talk much. We ran into each other a bit before... He told me how happy you made him." Izzie's heart skipped a beat. "He...he wanted to be with you. He probably would have married you." Izzie let the tears in her eyes fall more. "No matter what happened that night, he died being yours. I never blamed you for it and tried to stop the others who did."

Izzie normally hated the silence. This time she liked it. A silence that spoke more than words."Why? I'm the reason we were there. I wanted to go to the movies he wanted to stay in that night."

"If it wasn't you, if it was someone else, would you tell them it is their fault?" Finn said. Izzie wouldn't have. It wasn't planned, it wasn't anything but bad timing and chance. If they had stayed playing games they wouldn't have been on that corner. So many if's proved it was just bad timing. "If you were supposed to save him you would have been able too. Your time with Barry should tell you that."

"Yeah...The timeline...it's crazy" Izzie look away for a moment before heading back to the door to the building. Finn stayed close and she didn't mind. They returned to the loft and sat down with Iris. Izzie let the thought of her broken heart and the boy she loved behind as Finn continued to stand by keeping a comfort around she didn't expect.

"What's the plan?" Finn said handing Izzie a water bottle. Izzie leaned back in her chair with the bottle wishing she would disappear as the other people in the space glanced at her.

"Izzie of this time can't hurt you. If she does she'll be hurt." Iris stood.

"Doesn't me knowing about this already change the future?" Izzie asked. "Why don't I just go back and do the opposite of whatever I did before?"

"No," Cisco said as he stood. "Because we're not sure what you did or what happened. All we know is that you changed. Future or past, this is happening. Your future will change but this won't, we'll keep moving. We just need to stop her. Only you're the only one who can." Taking a deep breath she leaned forward and put her head in her hands. She just watched and stood by Oliver and Barry as they rewrote reality. They did all most all the work with SuperGirl who helped her keep them in line from fighting.After shooting Oliver in the back it was tense only to have it followed by meeting more people she actually liked. Clark and Lois are more than unique.

How could she go through reality changes untouched? Yet something happens in the future that not only changes her powers but changes her. Turns her into someone that killed. Someone that ruined the city. No power has ever worked on her not even Barry. If no power worked on her how could she have changed that way.

"No power works on me. Meta power that comes from dark matter at least, as far as we know, so whatever changed me...changes me, can't be from a meta human though right?"Izzie looked at Cisco.

"As far as we know. It's not like we run across people with powers not from dark matter all the time. Reverse Flash, Zoom, Devo and countless other all had dark matter origin powers." Cisco sat down. "Your powers still have the potential to grow just like anyones. You could have simple grown to this point."

"Did Barry's lighting change when his powers got stronger?" Izzy asked. Nobody answered. "Anyone else power that grew significantly change something about their power?" She watched as everyone just seemed quiet. "Something or someone must have messed with me. There's no way I just grew into my powers and hurt you. I may be distant but I'd never hurt you. Any of you." Izzie dropped her head. "So...do we have any idea where current me is?"

Sitting on the bench she looked out the window. Knees tight and taking in the view of the falling apart city. The city she grew up in was no longer something she recognized. She felt like she didn't really recognized anything anymore. After all, she watched as reality rewrote itself several times before being pulled to a time she never could have imagined. Being told of a time where she's the villain brought a whole new kind of feeling she was pretty sure didn't have a definition.

She wanted to know how one minute she was helping hero's save the world to learning she couldn't be stopped by the same hero's she just saw hours ago. Oddly she found herself wanting to talk to Barry. Hear what he had say about this. He'd faced plenty of villains one of which was himself. Iris had sat down with her and told them all about DeVoe, Zoom, Thawn, and Savitar. Savitar was Barry. A whole different version of himself that wanted to hurt Iris. Hurt the ones he loved. He fought so hard to stop himself. How can someone stop themselves when they don't even understand how they became that way in the first place?

If the future her was truly evil why wouldn't she do everything she could to make sure she becomes that? If the future version of her was in her own time things might be different. She's on a playing field she didn't know. She didn't know if this was a fight she could win.

"Hey," Izzie jumped at the sound of his voice. Finn was in just a t-shirt and jeans. With his hands shoved in his pocket he walked over and took a seat next to her. Izzie continued to look out at the city she wished she could recognize. She could no longer point out the places her mother took her. The businesses her father bought out to protect them and keep them in business. She wanted to go back to her own time.

"I've hurt people..." she turned to Finn. "I've nearly killed..."

"Who?" Finn asked.

"The man who killed my baby brother. He did it right in front of me." Izzie looked back out to the city. "I tried to protect him...but I wasn't strong enough." Her heart hurt with the sound of her brothers laugh echoing in her mind. "Then Ryan," the feeling of his hands brought shivers to her skin every time they ran up her arm. They way he would hold her when they slept together. A tear ran down her cheek. "When team Flash showed me how to use my powers I went to the man who killed my brother. He still had foster kids in his care..." wiping the tear from her cheek she turned to Finn again. "Before he could hit the girl there I broke through the window and fought him till he was bleeding and unconscious. But my powers were finally working."

"Good," Izzie looked at him surprised.  "Someone like that doesn't belong in the world." Finn leaned back on to the wall. "But killing him or anyone else isn't going to fix the pain. He'll just be gone. But when he wakes up, he'll be in prison for the rest of his life..." surprise took over as he was giving her future information. "He'll be the one being beaten. That's what I remember every time we come up against someone who's bad. So instead of going after the guys who killed Ryan and killing them. Use your powers to drop them off at iron nights. Talk to Barry."

"Do you think that will stop this?" She asked.

"No...but it might stop whatever does this to you. You're right...your powers couldn't have just changed like that no matter how strong you get. Something does this to you."

"But what?" Izzie asked.