Running Over Water

[39 - The End (For Real This Time)]

***

Following the event that soon became known as Riptide Day, news outlets rushed to make their own reports and articles about what happened. There were many theories and speculations as to what happened, but the one thing they agreed on was that the Flash and Riptide saved them all.

Riptide's death left a massive hole in the hearts of those in Team Flash. His creativity, resilience, humor, and his loyalty could not be replaced.

On Riptide Day, Team Flash searched far and wide to find their missing friend who sacrificed himself to the singularity. However, deep down, the group of friends knew of Riptide's fate.

Percy Jackson was dead.

***

Barry

It's been five hours since the singularity.

Five hours since the rest of the team and I made the realization that our close friend was truly gone. Percy had sacrificed himself to save Central City and every last ounce of my body wishes that it was me who died instead. I regret not doing more about it earlier, I just trusted that Percy knew what he was doing. But now it's my fault he's dead.

How was I going to break the news to his family?

In the Cortex, we all sat in silence, the only sound was the ticking of the clock on the wall which Cisco soon snatched and threw to the floor where it broke into pieces. No more ticking noises.

None of us dared to say a word. We had shed our tears until there were none left to give. Caitlin and Cisco took the news especially hard. When I ran back down to the team that day, I expected to find Percy waiting there. I hoped to see his oh-so familiar smirk there to greet me. To my dismay, he was no where to be found. My friends insisted that we go search for him. I remember the worry that marked their faces. But they weren't there when I witnessed him get engulfed by the singularity. I should've realized it earlier. But I'm not proud to admit that I was in denial.

God, I can't get the look of my friends face's out of my mind. Iris broke down in a fit of sobs. Joe wrapped his arms around his daughter, and rested his face in her hair. Although subtle, I noticed a tear run down his cheek. Cisco stayed silent. That was his way of coping with traumatic events. He never acted out or started crying. He just stayed quiet. Caitlin stood there for a moment, processing my words. I watched as her face go through ten emotions at once before her eyes turned red, and she turned away from the rest of us.

Despite my insisting, they had me search the city for Percy, just in case he had fallen somewhere from the sky. While searching for him, I saw multiple car crashes, people running, fallen bicycles, and so much paper and trash on the ground. Central City will have a hard time recovering from this day.

It took me around five minutes to scour the city. But I wasn't surprised when I didn't find my friend.

So when we got back to the S.T.A.R. Labs, Joe had to leave to go help at CCPD, where I assume was overflowed with people and new cases from today.

Almost as soon as Joe left, Iris came up to me, something dangling from her hands. "Here," she said, grabbing my hand and opening up my palm. She set the item on my hand. "Before Percy left, he told us that if anything were to happen to him, that you should give his mom and Annabeth this necklace."

I looked down at my hand, and noticed the crafty-looking necklace with four beads on it. When I look up again to ask Iris what this was, she was already walking away. It had just occurred to me that today, Iris lost her fiancé and one of her close friends. I can't imagine how she's managing to handle her emotions.