Chapter 27: The Blood in the Past
Barry saw it.
The change wasn't sudden. It didn't happen overnight. It wasn't because of a single fight or victory or conversation. It was slow—quiet and almost imperceptible.
But it was real.
Dante was changing.
When he first arrived, he was a storm—a violent, brutal force of nature that didn't ask questions or wait for orders. He struck down metahumans without mercy. His justice wasn't poetic. It was final. Swift. Deadly.
Barry remembered the first time he watched Dante kill a metahuman. No hesitation. No remorse. Just lightning and silence.
And now…
Now Dante smiled.
He laughed sometimes. He made sarcastic remarks with Cisco, even entertained the idea of wearing a suit—a suit, designed by Cisco of all people.
He even stopped killing.
Not because anyone asked him to. But because he chose to.
And all of it—all that change, all that quiet evolution—it wasn't for the world.
It was for her.
It was for Caitlin.
Barry knew it. Everyone who paid attention could see it.
Dante's sharp gaze softened around her. His voice was gentler, his shoulders relaxed. He stood beside her in battle, let her patch him up when he bled, listened when she spoke like the entire world went silent just to hear her voice.
But Caitlin…
She had chosen Ronnie.
Well, no—Barry corrected himself—she didn't choose Ronnie. Ronnie had always been her fiancé. Her first love. Her tragedy returned from the dead.
And Dante?
Dante just smiled through the pain.
Barry had seen that smile. It didn't reach his eyes. But he wore it anyway.
Because Caitlin's happiness meant more to him than his own.
Barry felt a twist in his chest watching it unfold. He knew what it felt like—to want something so badly and know you could never have it. To run faster than light but still not reach the one thing that mattered.
---
Everything was calm again.
For a while.
Then Barry brought up time travel.
They were sitting in the Cortex late at night. Cisco, Joe, and Barry—just talking. The particle accelerator, the explosion, the night Barry's mother died. The night that changed everything.
"I want to know," Barry said quietly. "If I can ever stop it."
Joe looked at him, unsure. "You mean... stop it from happening?"
Barry nodded.
Cisco raised an eyebrow. "You're talking about going back in time?"
Barry looked at both of them. "I don't just want to talk about it. I want to test it."
---
The next day, Cisco and Joe went to Barry's old house.
It was still sealed.
Cold and untouched.
A grave without a body.
Using a modified forensic scanner, Cisco found trace blood samples still soaked into the floorboards. Hidden, long faded, but not gone.
He extracted it carefully.
When they returned to the lab, Cisco ran the tests.
Two samples.
One matched Barry Allen.
The other…
Cisco stared at the screen.
"Guys…" he called out.
Barry rushed over.
The unknown blood had no match in any system. It wasn't in any medical database. It didn't belong to any living person on record.
But it was human.
And it was old.
Not in age. In time.
The results confirmed it.
Temporal degradation.
Cisco looked at Barry. "This is future blood."
Barry blinked. "What?"
Cisco repeated himself. "This blood... it didn't come from now. It came from the future."
Joe's jaw tensed. "How do you know it's not just a bad sample?"
Cisco turned the screen. "Because the second match we did get… was you, Barry. But not you you. The Barry who went back in time."
Barry stared at the screen. His own name flashing beside a timestamp that should've been impossible.
"Your blood," Cisco whispered. "From the night your mom died. From the you that was already there when it happened."
Barry took a step back, processing it all.
Two Barrys in the same place.
Two blood samples.
And one mystery.
That second sample.
The unknown one.
---
Later that night, Dante returned to the lab. He didn't say much. Just walked through the halls quietly, nodding to Cisco and Joe, who were still going over the results.
Barry stood outside the Cortex, staring at the stars.
Dante stopped beside him, lighting a cigarette.
"You look like a man who just saw a ghost," he said.
Barry smirked faintly. "Close enough."
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good," Dante replied. "Means you're not numb yet."
They stood in silence for a while.
Then Barry asked, "What would you do if you could go back in time?"
Dante exhaled slowly. "I'd kill the guy who pulled the trigger on my little brother."
Barry looked at him.
"But that won't bring him back not really," Dante added. "So maybe I wouldn't."
"Then why think about it?"
Dante flicked ash over the edge of the balcony. "Because pain makes you dream of impossible things."
Barry nodded. "Like Caitlin smiling at you the way she smiles at Ronnie."
Dante flinched.
Only slightly.
Barry noticed.
"I'm sorry," Barry said softly.
Dante didn't respond for a long moment.
Then: "Don't be. That smile is worth more than anything I could've ever had with her."
Barry looked at him—really looked at him.
There was something else in Dante's eyes. Something old. Worn. Almost timeless.
"Hey," Barry said, watching him now. "You ever been to… my old house?"
Dante shook his head. "Why would I?"
Barry hesitated. "No reason."
But the thought stayed in his mind.
Cisco's tests were certain.
Two blood samples.
One was his.
The other was someone else.
Someone from the future.
Someone who bled the same night Nora Allen died.
And for some reason Barry couldn't explain, when he looked at Dante…
He felt like maybe—just maybe—he wasn't the only ghost in that house.
---
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