Chapter 8

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Oliver assisted the group out of the pit. The five of them stood behind a rocky wall that divided them from being seen. "Okay." Barry told them in a whisper. "I'll quickly scan the area. Take a look at what we are up against." He left and was back again in less than ten seconds, with a horrified expression on his face. He remembered what the Robert Sutherland imposter had told him.

"Aliens..." he told them.
"So what? How do we fight these... aliens?" Oliver asked. "Aliens! Really?" Oliver was having trouble believing the word.

All of a sudden, Astrid's phone began to ring loudly. She grabbed it quickly and turned off the sound. She had multiple missed calls from her assistant back at Sutherland Labs and an encrypted message. She read the message and showed it to Oliver without a word.

It was a series of numbers followed by the names 'Felicity' and 'Cisco'. "They're coordinates." Oliver whispered to them. He handed the phone to John to read.
"We're in the right place." Diggle confirmed in the same tone. John handed the phone back to Astrid.

Astrid removed her bracelet from her wrist and put it in her pocket, along with her phone. The moment she did so, there was an overload of voices that she could hear in her mind. At first she could not understand them, amongst the thoughts of her friends.

Her head hurt so fiercely, that it brought her to her knees and tears to her eyes. "The thoughts are too many and too strong!" She cried out.

Oliver knelt down beside her. "You need to breath, Astrid. You need to focus."
"I can't!" she told him. "My head! It hurts!" Oliver rubbed her back and continued to reassure her.

John kept a lookout towards the other side of the wall, ensuring that they would not be caught. He kept his weapon at the ready.

Astrid calmed her breathing down. She managed to focus on the thoughts in her head. She was soon able to understand the other thoughts. The ones that had been speaking in another language. They were communicating amongst themselves, using telepathy.

Astrid continued to observe the communication. The aliens had her friends. But her friends had managed to send out a transmission to some home base. There were more coming.

Astrid thought of the message that she had just received on her phone. The only message that her friends had sent was the one to her phone. Unless it had all been a trap. The alien thoughts confirmed that her friends had done their part. That they were no longer required.

Then something alarming happened. The thoughts registered that Astrid was observing. The aliens could hear Astrid's thoughts just as she could read their own.

It took every ounce of Astrid's mental strength for her to sever the link. She felt more drained than she had ever felt before. "Ollie..." Astrid said through tears of pain and fear. "They know where we are. There are more coming. They are going to kill Felicity and Cisco."

Suddenly, John Diggle was lifted off the floor and thrown into the next room by a large being with bluish skin. Oliver jumped to his feet and brought his bow into action as Barry had already began fighting the enemy.

Caitlin supported her friend, Astrid who barely had the energy to stand. Her own mind had been invaded and she had given up their secrets of where they were.

The two of them watched as their friends battled the reptilian beings, who seemed to be just as fast and strong as Barry was, which meant that they were quite a match for John and Oliver.

"Astrid you need to get up. You need to find the strength to get up." Caitlin told her friend.
Astrid knew what she needed to do. She needed to go back into their minds. She need to determine their weaknesses. But her fear was getting the better of her.

Diggle shot his gun at one of the aliens, but it did not seem to weaken it in the slightest. Barry was a mere blur as he did what he could to hold up his end of the fight and protect his friends.

Oliver shot an arrow into the back of the head of one of the beings. The alien made a very loud ear-piercing shriek, making Caitlin and Astrid cover their ears. The arrow had taken him down instantly. "Go for the heads!" Oliver yelled to his friends, as he quickly took up aim at another one and brought it down instantly. There were roughly five left.

Inspired by Oliver's act. Astrid pushed aside her fear and doubt and delved back into the alien's minds. Shutting off every secret thought that would prove to be of weakness to her.

There was an invasion coming. But it had not yet entered their solar system. Felicity and Cisco had repaired a computer that had been broken in the meteor storm and had used it to send out a message... That computer was part of a network to the main ship... in another system. Felicity and Cisco were now being held hostage in another room, filled with many more reptilian aliens.

Astrid's head hurt more than ever before. She wanted to scream, but she still needed more information. Where was this room and who was the third hostage that was being held with Felicity and Cisco?

Astrid probed deeper. She got the location that her friends had been moved to. And she saw the face of the third hostage...

"No!" Astrid stammered as she jumped to her feet.
"No, What?" Caitlin asked her.
Astrid had broken the link, she knew that she had alerted all the other beings of her listening in to their thoughts, but she had other concerns at that moment.

"My... My father! He is with Cisco and Felicity! I know where they are!" and with that Astrid ran. She ran past Barry, Oliver and Diggle who were just finishing off the last of the aliens.

She ran through the large room that the fight had been in and followed a long corridor made from the same black rock as she had grown accustomed to. There were firelights lighting the way and she knew exactly where she was going as if she had been there before. She made it to a door at the end of the corridor and was ready to go in.

Barry emerged in front of her, stopping her in her tracks and holding on to her so she couldn't go any further. "Barry! Let me go! My father is in there! Cisco and Felicity are in there. What are you doing? We need to help them!" she screamed.

"We will help them! Astrid. But not like this." Barry told her.
The rest had caught up with them now. "Barry is right, Astrid." Oliver told her as she turned to him. "Chances are they know that we are coming and that there is a lot more in there then we just fought. We need to do something that they won't see coming. Barging in there is the worst possible move and it will more than likely get you and us killed. Now, I know that you know that. And I know that you are not in the right mind at the moment, but I think that it would be best if you sit this fight out. When we give you the signal, you and Caitlin take Cisco, Felicity and your father to safety..."

"Oliver! Before we do this there is something that Astrid needs to know." Barry said.
They all looked at Barry. "That man in there is not your father. He might look like him but it isn't him. When I was trapped back at Luthor Corp he came and saw me, there was something inside of him. Those aliens they can take over bodies and I think that is why your father never came back. I don't think he was able to come back."

"Barry... No..." Astrid tried to argue but she knew that he wouldn't lie to her. Not about something like this. She didn't need to read his mind to know that. As much as it pained her to do so, she wiped her tears away and nodded. "Okay... Barry. I believe you. I don't want to, but I do."

She turned back to Oliver. "Okay. What do you need me to do?"


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