Important: There is a second—and third—part to this story. This is the last chapter of Part 1, but the story doesn't end with this chapter.

An Empty Vessel

Pain.

It was all Barry knew now. There was no escaping it. There was no numbing it. It was simply there, and it was always demanding to be felt. Barry tried to channel it, to direct it on something other than himself, but it was overwhelming him.

It wasn't something he could run from. He couldn't block it out, and he couldn't stop them from giving him more of it. The pain was simply there now, and it was never going to stop. It was never going to let up, not even for a moment.

At first, Barry had tried to find a reprieve from the pain by escaping into his happier memories. He tried to remember the happy moments he had with Joe and Iris, with Cisco and Caitlin. He tried to fill his mind with memories of having enough, telling himself that he wasn't slowly starving, that his fingers and toes weren't numb with cold, and that his throat wasn't burning from thirst.

Soon, the memories weren't enough, though. They started to fade as he lost all sense of himself. After a while, Barry couldn't recall them at all, as hard as he tried. He couldn't remember. Barry could feel himself breaking down, the corners of his mind starting to unravel, having already reached his limit a long time ago. Each day, he felt more pieces of himself—his identity, who he was—being chipped away with each experiment they did on him.

The drugs they injected into him didn't help. They seemed to be affecting his thinking, making everything that much scarier for him. As more parts of him were stripped away, Barry became hollow—an empty vessel into which they poured only more cruelty and pain.

They showed no compassion, no remorse, and they never stopped. They were always doing something to him, always touching him. Even when they weren't, the feeling of their cold fingers lingered on Barry's skin. When they were hurting him, Barry no longer remembered why they were doing it. He thought they were doing it just for the sake of causing him pain, just to punish him.

After a while, he even started to believe that maybe he deserved this. Maybe he deserved the punishment they were giving him. He was worthless. He was weak and disgusting. This was what he was now. This was his life. Pain. Never-ending pain. Pain was a part of him now, replacing the parts of himself that he had lost, as if pieces of him were being taken away and being replaced by the darkness that they were injecting into him.

He no longer thought about his friends and family. They deserved better than him. He was tainted now, with a dark hatred in his heart that none of them would ever understand. He was impure. He didn't deserve their love and support. He deserved everything these people were doing to him.

He wasn't Barry. He was an empty vessel.

More weeks went by. Each day, Barry's friends and family lost a little more hope. They had no clue what was being done to Barry, or if he was even still alive. The room that had previously held Barry was now dark. Every now and then, the light in the room would turn on and they would look up hopefully, but only a single lab assistant or two would come in to grab something, leaving as quickly as they had come.

Cisco continued to use his vibe powers, trying to monitor Team Arrow's progress in their search…

Felicity sat behind the desk at STAR Labs, typing furiously on the keyboard.

"Did you find anything there, Oliver?" she said into the microphone.

"No," Oliver said, "It's just an ordinary military base. Are we even sure it was Eiling who took them? We could be wasting our time searching all these military facilities for nothing."

"You saw the security feed," Felicity said insistently, "The people who came in here and took them were definitely military. You should try Base 27. That's where Eiling was keeping metahumans for experimentation a year ago."

"You think they're experimenting on him?" Oliver asked through his earpiece.

"What else would he want with Barry?" Felicity asked, "That's why we need to find them as soon as possible."

"Right," Oliver said, climbing onto his motorcycle, "Base 27 it is then."

"They're getting closer," Cisco said to the others, "They know it was Eiling, and they're searching all the military facilities in the area."

"So it could be any day now?" Caitlin asked optimistically.

"Hopefully," he answered, "They still have a lot of searching to do. They're searching Base 27 right now, but they're not going to find anything there. Eiling is paranoid. He likes to move his research around a lot, so it's harder to trace."

"I just hope they're not too late," Joe said sadly, "It's been so long, and we haven't heard anything about what's happening to Barry."

"Barry will be fine, dad," Iris said shakily, "He's strong. He can survive anything."

No one said anything to contradict her. They all knew it wasn't true. Barry may have superpowers, but he wasn't immortal. They all knew there was a good chance that these scientists would end up killing him eventually. As for his mind…

"I'm sorry, guys," Cisco said, "I've been trying to vibe Barry. I really have, but I can't get through. It's like the signal's weak or something."

"When you vibe, you tap into the person's mental energy, right?" Caitlin asked him.

"Kind of," Cisco said, "Why?"

"Barry is probably extremely weak right now. That could be why you're having a hard time getting through. Maybe that's why you can't vibe him."

"Or he's dead," Joe said quietly.

"Dad!" Iris nearly shouted.

Cisco shook his head.

"I don't know, Joe. If Barry was dead, why would they still be keeping us here and feeding us? It's not like they would still have any use for us. They probably would have killed us, too, by now if Barry wasn't still alive."

They all took solace in this morbid thought. The days dragged by agonizingly slow. They all sat in the room with nothing to do but worry. Food was pushed through a slot in the door three times a day, but otherwise nothing happened. None of them complained, though. They knew that while they were sitting here bored, Barry was in another room somewhere probably wishing he could switch places with them.

They all wanted to see how Barry was doing, but at the same time they were grateful that they couldn't see. It made them feel helpless to watch those people hurting him while they couldn't do anything to stop it. They had no idea how much time had passed. Barry had spent about three weeks in the room adjacent to theirs, but now a much longer expanse of time had gone by, and they could only imagine what had been done to him during that time.

Dr. Holland watched calmly as she oversaw the procedure. The surgery was going well. They had now accessed his liver, and the surgeon was in the process of removing a portion of the regenerative organ. The subject's breathing was ragged but strong. His toes were curled in pain, and his fists were clenched, but he didn't move. He was too afraid to.

Dr. Holland's eyes locked briefly with the subject's. For a moment she felt the air leave her lungs from the look he was giving her. She thought that the light had left his eyes a long time ago, yet here he was, staring at her with eyes filled with emotion, filled with desperation. She felt something touch the hand that she had been resting absently on the table. She looked down with shock to see that the subject had extended his fingers to rest them on her own. She didn't know if he was trying to seek comfort from her or what, but for whatever reason, he was now desperately clutching at her hand, placing his fingers on the back of hers. Was he actually that desperate for comfort? She instantly thought about withdrawing her hand, but for some reason, she decided to leave it there.

She told herself that it was only because keeping the subject calm would help the procedure go smoother. She looked around at the other scientists in the room, but they were all so wrapped up in watching the surgery, none of them had noticed. She looked back at the subject's face. He was still staring at her, that same pleading expression occupying his handsome features.

"Help me," he said to her in barely a whisper.

Dr. Holland looked nervously around at the others, but they hadn't seen or heard anything. They were discussing the surgery, all eyes trained on the surgeon's hands as he continued to cut into the subject.

Barry clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut for a couple seconds as he rode through the fresh waves of pain, but he then opened them again to look at her.

"Help me," he said again in a weak voice.

Dr. Holland locked her jaw and maintained a stiff, blank expression as she pulled her hand away, slowly sliding it out from under his. She tore her eyes from the subject's face and looked back to the surgeon.

"We should go ahead and remove a kidney for testing as well," she said emotionlessly.

She stared straight at the surgeon and pointedly didn't look at the subject's face again, despite the fact that he was still staring at her.

"Yes, Dr. Holland," the surgeon said as he finally removed part of Barry's liver.

Barry fought back the nausea that was overwhelming him when he saw them pull the organ portion from his abdomen. He didn't know why he had thought Dr. Holland might help him. She was the head scientist of this whole sick operation after all.

He watched her face as she oversaw the rest of the procedure, but she never looked at him again. Her eyes were cold as she supervised the surgery. She had a long, thin scar under her eye now from where Barry had cut her, and Barry looked at it with satisfaction. He knew now that there was no way she was ever going to help him. He shouldn't have even asked. He was just grasping at straws in his desperation.

But it was a mistake that he wouldn't make again. She wasn't going to help him. She didn't have a soul. She was evil and she was sick, and Barry promised to himself that if he ever managed to get out of here, he was going to get his revenge. If he ever got the chance, Barry was going to kill her. He was going to kill her for what she did to him. He was going to kill them all.

It was a few more weeks later when Cisco suddenly stood up in shock.

"It's happening!" he said to them.

They all climbed to their feet, looking at him in alarm.

"What?"

"It's happening now! Oliver is in the building!"

"He is?!" they all said, hardly daring to believe it.

Cisco stared off into space with wide eyes.

"He has Dig and Arsenal with him. They're just getting past the exterior guards."

They all broke out into smiles. It was happening. It was finally happening! They were saved. Through vibing, Cisco anxiously followed Team Arrow's progress through the building, watching them take out guards and scientists as they went.

"They'll reach us soon," Cisco said quietly.

And sure enough, a minute or two later, they heard a commotion outside their door, and Oliver and the others rushed in shortly after.

"Thank God!" Caitlin cried.

"Come on!" Oliver shouted, "We need to go!"

They all rushed out of the room they had been held captive in for so long. Still not quite believing this was real, they rushed through the twisting and turning hallways of the facility.

"We need to find Barry!" Caitlin yelled as they rushed through the building.

They ran into two more guards, but the Arrow took them out easily. They paused when they came across a section where the hallways all intercepted.

"Where do we go?" Joe asked frantically.

"They took him to lab five," Caitlin said urgently.

"This building is too big," Arsenal said, "Barry could be anywhere."

"I can take you to him," a woman's voice said in a thick Russian accent.

They all turned to see Dr. Holland standing there staring at them, her hands in the air in surrender.

Joe instantly took three long strides towards her to close the distance between them. Not even caring that she was a woman, he roughly grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"Where is he?!" he shouted in her face, "Where is my son?!"

"I'll take you there," she said quietly, recoiling slightly under Joe's aggression.

"Why should we trust you?" Caitlin spat, "After all that you've done?"

"Do you want to find Barry or not?" Dr. Holland asked her urgently.

"It could be a trap," Cisco said seriously, "Barry might not even be in the building. He might not even be…alive."

"He's alive," Dr. Holland assured them.

She looked at them with pleading eyes.

"Please," she said sofly, "Let me take you to him."

It was this that did it for them. It was the desperation in her voice, the sincerity of her emotions, as if she actually wanted to help them find Barry. In this one moment she displayed more emotion than any of them had ever seen from her in their entire time with her.

"Please," she said again.

They all looked at each other and nodded.

"Lead the way," Oliver gritted.

Dr. Holland didn't need telling twice. She turned and started to quickly lead them through the building. They twisted and turned through several hallways and at one point, even went down a couple flights of stairs. It would have taken them forever to find the place where they were keeping Barry if they hadn't had Dr. Holland's help.

"Here," she said, pausing outside the door.

She held out a hand to stop them when they started to advance towards the door.

"There are guards and several other people inside," she told them seriously.

"Not a problem," Oliver growled.

"Please," Dr. Holland said, "I know these people. I've worked with them for years. I don't want any of them to get hurt."

"Are you kidding me?!" Joe nearly shouted, "They deserve it! They deserve anything they get for what they've done to Barry, with your help!"

"Please," Dr. Holland said, "I've decided to help you get Barry out of here. In return, all I ask is that you just let me get rid of the others before you go in there and extract him."

"Fine," Oliver snapped, "But do it quickly."

They all reluctantly waited around the corner while Dr. Holland entered the room where they were keeping Barry. After a moment, they saw several scientists leave the room and start making their way down the hallway away from them.

"Always asking for new MRI scans," they heard one of the scientists grumble, "As if she's incapable of getting them herself."

After the group of scientists had disappeared down the hallway, Team Arrow and Team Flash wasted no time entering the room. When they entered, Dr. Holland was already frantically opening the restraints on Barry's arms and legs.

"Woah," Roy said when he laid eyes on Barry.

"Dear God," Dig muttered quietly.

"Barry!" Iris cried, rushing over to the table.

Barry was a mess. His limbs all stuck out at odd angles, and he had several stitched up incision sites all over his body from where they had been performing surgery. More parts of his skin were bruised than not, and he was completely emaciated, each of his ribs visible under his bruised skin. His face was nearly unrecognizable with all the bruising and swelling.

Barry's eyes were only half open, and he didn't respond to Iris's touch. He simply laid there, staring blankly, not showing any sign that he was even aware of their presence in the room or that his restraints had been removed. He was completely detached.

"What did you do to him?!" Caitlin cried out, looking Barry over.

Dr. Holland didn't respond. She had turned around and was rifling through several papers on the table behind her. She grabbed certain papers from the stack and even a couple jump drives. No one paid her any attention, though. They only had eyes for Barry.

"Come on," Oliver said, "We don't have time."

Barry was shivering as they unhooked all the IVs and monitors that were connected to him. Caitlin wrapped a blanket around him to conserve body heat before Oliver lifted him up, easily carrying Barry's limp weight as they quickly left the room.

They all made their way back through the winding hallways towards the exit. When they were finally struck by the cool outside air, Team Flash was shocked to see that it was dark out. They had completely lost track of the time and the day. From inside the building they never knew whether it had been day or night.

The fresh night air was bliss to them, but they had no time to marvel in it. Barry needed medical attention. Oliver quickly loaded Barry's semiconscious form into the back of a van. Caitlin quickly climbed in after him.

"We need to get him to STAR Labs now!" she shouted.

Oliver climbed onto his bike, and Dr. Holland stepped forward to get into the van, but Iris roughly grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked the doctor lividly.

"I can help," Dr. Holland pleaded, "I know what's going on with him. I can help you save him."

"You're not touching him," Joe gritted, "Ever again."

"Please," Dr. Holland said, "Let me help. I can help him, if you let me."

Joe stared at her for a moment, battling with himself.

"Fine," he spat at her, reluctantly agreeing.

It killed him, the idea of this woman going anywhere near his son, but if she could help save Barry, Joe would begrudgingly accept her assistance.

"Help him," he growled.

Dr. Holland nodded gratefully before climbing into the van. Once she was in, they closed the doors. The others reluctantly jumped into another vehicle, knowing that it would have been too crammed if they had tried to fit more people into the van with Barry.

With that, they all took off, making a beeline for STAR Labs where, hopefully, they would be able to save their fallen hero.

Important: You can find part two, "Picking up the Pieces," through my profile if you care to continue reading.

—RedQ