Chapter 44 – "The Final Door"
The night air around STAR Labs carried a strange stillness. Everyone had gathered in the Cortex, the soft glow of screens casting pale light across their tired faces. Barry stood with arms crossed, Caitlin and Ronnie huddled near the monitors, and Cisco anxiously clicked his pen. They were all waiting.
Jay Garrick had returned.
He stood at the head of the room, eyes shadowed, shoulders tense. The moment felt heavier than usual—thicker somehow, as if everyone could feel that something was coming.
Barry stepped forward. "Alright, Jay. You said you had something to tell us. Something we needed to hear."
They were expecting the truth.
They were expecting confessions. Secrets. Answers.
But instead, Jay said, "We need to talk about Earth-2."
Everyone paused, unsure if they heard right.
"I've found a way to close the breaches," Jay continued. "Permanently. If we do this, Zoom can't come through anymore. It'll cut him off from this world."
Cisco tilted his head. "Wait, what?"
Caitlin glanced at Barry, confused. "Jay, what about… the other thing?"
Jay shook his head. "There is no time. If we don't act now, he'll come again. Stronger. Faster. We close the doors—we stop him."
There was hesitation in the room. But only for a moment.
Because he wasn't wrong.
Zoom was a monster. They'd seen what he could do. And if there was a chance to seal him out—to stop him without another fight—then it had to be done.
They threw themselves into the work.
Blueprints flew across screens. Wells-2 joined them, surprisingly cooperative. His own vendetta against Zoom made him laser-focused and driven. Together, with Cisco's tech, Barry's speed, Caitlin's intellect, and Ronnie's steady hands, they engineered a device. One that could travel through each breach and collapse the wormholes from the inside.
Through it all, Dante lay above the Cortex, sprawled across the roof of STAR Labs like a shadow, eyes closed. The night sky stretched wide above him. He didn't stir. Not even when the lightning started below.
Inside, the team moved with purpose. There was no talk of Jay's secret now. No doubt. No questions.
Only the mission.
They closed the first breach near the edge of the city.
Then the second near the power plant.
Barry ran with speed and precision, throwing the breach-closing devices one by one into the swirling portals. They collapsed like imploding stars, each flash of light shrinking to nothingness.
Cheers echoed after each one.
By the time the team reached the final breach—inside STAR Labs itself—everyone was smiling. Tired. But hopeful.
Jay stood beside Barry, holding the last device.
"This is it," he said quietly. "One more."
Barry nodded. "Let's finish this."
He turned, readied his stance, the lightning already sparking around his legs.
Then he ran—wind ripping through the Cortex, hair blown back, light and speed blurring around him as he hurled the device toward the breach in the wall.
It spun perfectly through the air, reaching the center of the portal.
A blast of blue began to unfold.
And then—
Claws.
Dark, jagged claws of pure speed lightning ripped through the breach and pierced Jay's chest.
Everyone screamed.
Jay gasped in shock, pain blooming through his face.
A black blur surged from the breach—Zoom. Inhuman. Merciless. His face a void of hatred. His hand wrapped around Jay's body like a spider coiling its prey.
Then he dragged him back—into the breach.
And vanished.
The breach snapped shut.
Gone.
The device fell to the floor with a clatter, harmless now.
The Cortex was dead silent.
Ronnie stood frozen. Caitlin had a hand over her mouth. Cisco's eyes were wide and hollow. Barry just stared at where Jay had stood, fists clenched at his sides, lightning still dancing around his feet.
Then footsteps echoed from the roof access stairs.
Dante descended slowly, hoodie pulled halfway over his face, hands tucked in his pockets. He looked groggy, his hair wild, face lit faintly by the hum of machinery. He stopped at the edge of the room, blinking at the stillness.
He looked at them all.
"…What?"
Barry turned to him, something sharp in his expression. "You called him a liar," he said. "You told us not to trust him."
Dante didn't answer.
Barry stepped forward. "You said he was hiding something. But he helped us. He helped us close every door. And Zoom took him because of that."
Dante glanced at the ground. He understood what had happened—his mind connecting the dots faster than he let on. But he said nothing.
Ronnie looked up, his voice low. "If you hadn't pushed him so hard… maybe he would've stayed. Maybe Zoom wouldn't have taken him."
Caitlin added, "He was trying to protect us."
Cisco's voice was soft. "Maybe… maybe he really was trying to change."
Dante looked at each of them. One by one.
Their faces said everything.
They were angry.
They were hurt.
They were looking at him.
Like it was his fault.
And Dante knew that look.
It wasn't hate. Not yet.
But it was close.
He didn't speak.
Didn't defend himself.
Didn't argue.
Because he knew.
He knew there was more to Jay's story. He knew the breach closing was only part of the play. That Zoom didn't take Jay on accident. That none of this was as clean as it looked.
But it didn't matter now.
Not to them.
He could see it in their eyes—Barry, Caitlin, Ronnie, Cisco.
All of them.
They were seeing him as the outsider again.
The one who always saw shadows when they wanted light.
The one who never flinched at the monsters.
The one who refused to believe in redemption.
He wasn't sorry for what he said.
Not at all.
But he was something else.
Despondent.
Not at Jay.
Not at Zoom.
At them.
He looked down at the floor and exhaled softly. His eyes were unreadable.
Then he turned, pulled his hood up, and walked away without a word.
Back to the roof. Back to the sky. Back to the silence.
And far, far away from the looks that felt like knives.
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