Oliver dug his thumbs into the pressure points in Dinah's heel. She made a happy little noise and nestled deeper into the couch cushions, stretching out to practically shove her feet in his face. They were curled up together watching bad daytime TV, a lazy afternoon routine for them. The kids were upstairs and not getting into trouble for once, so they tried to make the most of the quiet.

Not for the first time, Oliver found himself gazing lovingly at the stunning woman beside him instead of watching what was on the screen. His pretty bird's golden hair spilled over her shoulders, long legs resting across Oliver's lap as he massaged her feet. He couldn't remember ever being happier than this.

Except when he adopted Roy, of course.

Dinah's foot slipped out of Oliver's hands and tapped him on the nose with one toe, pulling him out of his daze. He jolted upright and looked down to find Dinah grinning playfully at him.

"You're staring off into space again," she prodded at his mustache.

Oliver caught her foot with both hands and pressed a kiss to the bare ankle, making her squirm, "Only because your beauty has struck me dumb yet again."

"You should write a book, baby. You can title it 'Over-the-top ways to wax lyrical to your lover'," Dinah laughed.

"Well, it would only make sense," he chuckled lightly and resumed massaging Dinah's legs. "I mean, look at my life: Spoiled rich kid, billionaire playboy, then tragic shipwreck survivor. Legit CEO after that, philanthropist, adopted an orphan boy, found a bombshell, trophy girlfriend…Isn't the next step writing a terrible book, and then…? Filming an even worse reality show about my life, right?"

Dinah shifted to get more comfortable, "I would love to see you try to convince Roy to be on a reality show with you."

"Really? I thought you'd find it funnier to watch me explain to Batman just what I thought I was doing agreeing to film it."

"Oh, you're right!" Dinah sat up with a delighted laugh. She affected a serious expression that was remarkably similar to Bruce's and pretended to be straightening a tie. "Oliver. It is staggering that you've compromised League security by allowing camera crews into your home."

Oliver threw back his head and laughed, "That's really good! You sound just like him."

She looked pleased with herself, "Well, I did just finish a two week monitor duty rotation with him."

"That'll do it."

Oliver reached for the glass of water beside him when a series of loud thuds from upstairs nearly made him knock it off the side table, "Jesus! What the hell are they doing up there?"

"Being destructive," Dinah eyed the ceiling cautiously but stayed put. "Probably."

"You mean definitely," Oliver snorted. They relaxed back into their seats, and Oliver moved onto Dinah's calf muscles.

It was almost a whole sixty seconds before the hallway behind them exploded outwards.

The first thing Oliver heard was ancient wood splintering in a series of piercing cracks, and the next was Roy's panicked voice yelling for him as he, Wally, and Dick came tumbling out of the wall.

"Ollie!" he cried out, voice hoarse and breaking. All three boys were shaking, covered head to toe in dust and cobwebs, eyes wide and frightened.

"What happened?!" Oliver shot to his feet. Dinah somersaulted backwards off the arm of the couch and ran to the kids.

"Go! Run!" Roy was waving his arms frantically, choking on uncontrollable coughs. He seized Dick and Wally by their shirts and shoved them forward.

"Roy!" Oliver kicked the couch aside and made to go to his son's side, but the boy shook his head rapidly.

"Weapons!" was all he could choke out at the same time that Dick gasped, "Zoom! It's Professor Zoom!"

Oliver barely had enough time to process that before the room became the center of an electrical storm.

If he wasn't as battle-hardened and used to things spiraling out of control at the drop of a hat, he might've been taken off guard. And so he managed to keep his cool when one of the deadliest super villains on the planet phased right through the wall and trained burning, murderous eyes on the five of them.

Several things happened in quick succession. Dinah sucked in a deep breath, Roy dragged his friends to the ground and covered their heads, Oliver launched himself towards an old grandfather clock that housed a hidden arsenal, and then Dinah let loose a concussive scream that hit Professor Zoom right in the chest. The yellow-clad speedster was thrown back into the wall and through it amid a hail of plaster and support beams. Paintings tore free from the walls, loose trinkets went flying, and the ceiling groaned ominously above them.

It sounded for a moment like the mansion might cave in around them, but Dinah didn't let up. She slid one bare foot back to brace herself and unleashed a second scream at the caved-in wall. Oliver hit the grandfather clock full tilt, shattering the ornate glass door and groping around inside for the release lever, "Roy! Take your friends down to the arrow cave and zeta out of here! Put your birthday in as the coordinates, and it'll take you to Mt. Justice! You'll be safe there!"

He caught the lever and pulled. Both sides of the clock sprang open, revealing two pre-strung longbows and three full quivers of trick arrows.

"You're not coming with?!" Roy army crawled beneath the rage of Dinah's sonic attacks. Wally and Dick were rendered motionless from the pain, hands clamped tightly over their ears and eyes screwed shut. Roy was dragging them behind Dinah, who couldn't let up even for a second to allow them to get clear. Once you had a speedster down, you didn't stop attacking until you physically couldn't anymore. Speedsters didn't stay still for long.

"We'll be right behind you," Oliver promised, slinging a quiver over his shoulder and activating all the explosive arrows. He and Dinah would be tag teaming a lethal metahuman in cramped quarters without any of their protective gear…including shoes…

Fuck.

"Then let's go right now!" Roy urged desperately.

Oliver nocked an arrow and fired directly into the pile of debris that Zoom had disappeared into. The arrowhead broke apart on impact, releasing a 360 degree spray of acid ten feet in diameter. He readied another and placed himself in front of the kids, "As soon as you three zeta out of here, Dinah and I will follow. We're going to stay here and keep Zoom busy to buy you time, so stop wasting it and go!"

"He'll kill you!" This time, it was Wally arguing. He looked very small and scared, and Oliver wondered if he knew that Zoom was here for him. He hoped not. "You two can't fight him alone."

"I know who he is, Wally, and we've got plenty of ways to fight speedsters. They aren't invincible," Oliver tried to keep his voice calm, but Dinah was already on her sixth Canary Cry, and she was going to need to stop for air soon. "I've sparred with your dad countless times. And for a good long while there, we didn't like each other, so he didn't pull his punches. We can handle this. Just go!"

"No! We can help!" Roy ducked out of Oliver's reach and made a beeline for the second bow still waiting in the clock.

"Roy! Dammit, there's no time for this!" he growled, whipping back around to face Dinah. He couldn't afford to take his attention off the fight any longer. He wasn't stupid enough to think that they'd taken down Zoom in one hit. "If you won't leave, then stay out of the way! I can't fight him and protect you three!"

"Ollie, he's gone," Dinah panted, doubled over to catch her breath. She pointed at the gaping hole in the wall, and Oliver could plainly see that there wasn't a body behind it. "Eyes up!"

Oliver tapped the voice activation switch on his League communicator and raised his bow, "Green Arrow to Mt. Justice! I need backup at Queen Mansion in Star City right now! Professor Zoom is here!"

He shifted his weight to one leg, and with his other foot pushed Dick behind him just a bit more, keeping his bow trained on Dinah's back. His lady would take lead in the fight, and his job was to support her. They'd run patrols together enough times to fall into their roles without having to discuss it. Now, if the kids could just get on board.

"Green Arrow, this is Booster Gold. Can you repeat?"

His left eye twitched in irritation. Great, one of the newbies…

"I said Professor Zoom is attacking us right now! Either send us some damn help or pass the phone to one of the big kids!" Ollie yelled into the microphone. He turned to Wally and Dick, both in ready stances but looking a little lost as to what to do, "You two, stick together! Robin, you attack to keep him at a distance, Wally you speed the two of you out of the way if he gets too close. Got it?"

"Yeah," they chorused together. Wally zipped over to Dick's side, and Oliver prayed the boy wouldn't realize that he'd be far more valuable in the center of the fight.

"Green Arrow, Belle Reve's last report is that Professor Zoom is still in solitary," Booster said over the comms.

A blinding streak of red, locomotive force charged Dinah from the front. She barely had time to duck her head and cross both arms protectively over her chest. Zoom hit her straight on, and Oliver swore he felt it in his own bones when he heard Dinah's break with a loud crack. She slammed a kick into Thawne's ribcage and screamed right in his face. The concussive power spun him around into a bookshelf, taking out several shelves and sending priceless knick knacks scattering.

"Well, I guess someone forgot to do a friggin bed check, now didn't they?!" Oliver screeched into the microphone as he emptied half his quiver at Zoom. The crazed speedster darted back and forth like an absurd pinball machine, dodging both Ollie's and Roy's arrows like they were hanging in midair. "Call the Flash and Green Lantern! Call everyone-send whoever's there right now!"

"Oh man, I got it! Everyone comin right up! Aww crap, what's the alert sequence again…"

Jesus Christ, they were gonna die…

Ollie grit his teeth and thumbed the switch at the end of his bow. The limb lit up with a hum of electricity, and he charged Zoom with a furious cry. Dinah rolled out of the way, clutching one arm to her chest that was bent at a terrible angle. It didn't slow her down in the slightest. When Thawne ducked under Ollie's wild swing, she released a canary cry at his legs, no doubt hoping to repay the favor.

Zoom dashed out of range, veering right towards Wally and Robin where they were crouched by the loveseat. Both boys moved to get out of the way, but Wally stumbled as he tried to grab Robin's arm. Oliver's heart leapt into his throat, a desperate cry of denial getting caught as he lunged for the boys - too far away to reach them in time. Then he heard the straining pull of a bowstring being drawn back and looked up to find Roy ready and waiting.

The very young teen fired three arrows in quick succession, all of them flying far too wide to land a hit on Thawne…but that wasn't the goal. Thawne continued to charge at the boys, smirking at Roy's failed attempt to hit him, until the arrows connected into a glowing net of field energy.

The net snared Zoom around the arms and torso, pinning him to the wall with a loud thud.

Oliver couldn't help the surprised smile that stretched across his face. It was a new trick arrow he'd developed for trapping criminals in one place - three quantum arrows that could be fired into whatever sized field you needed and would generate an energy net that was as solid as Hal's light constructs. He'd never used it in action with Roy around before. For the kid to pick up how it worked on the fly like that was pretty damn impressive.

Zoom hit the wood at a low angle and scrabbled to get his legs back under him. He snarled and thrashed in place trying to knock one of the arrows out of position, but Oliver wasn't about to let him go.

He thumbed the taser on his bow's limb again and barreled right at the trapped speedster. Oliver drove it upwards into Professor Zoom's jaw, snapping his head back and sending 50,000 volts of electricity right down his spine. Ollie moved to hit him again, but ended up striking the wall when Zoom vibrated his molecules to phase right through it and escape.

He raised the bow a third time and reached back to grab another arrow when the speedster came out of nowhere, seizing him by the throat and throwing him aside with the kind of strength only built up by momentum. Oliver crashed into a china cabinet shoulder first and collapsed in a heap at the base.

"Enough!" Thawne howled furiously. He darted after Ollie, but Dinah leapt between them with a concussive scream that the speedster easily avoided by dropping to the floor. Dinah raised one leg up high in the air and brought it down onto Zoom's back in a glancing blow. He rolled aside at the last instant and blocked another flurry of attacks as Dinah used every lethal maneuver she knew to try and land a hit. She might not have super strength, but she knew exactly how to cripple.

The problem was, she just couldn't keep up. Zoom was on the defensive for several vital seconds, but all it took was one kick that was too slow. Ollie watched in horror as Zoom caught Dinah's bare foot and turned with her momentum, swinging her at the window like a rag doll. She crashed through the glass and down onto the porch out of sight.

"I'm not here for either of you!" Thawne ground out with a voice sharp as knives. Ollie dragged himself to his feet, head pounding and room spinning wildly out of control. He watched Zoom slowly turn and point directly at Wally, teeth showing in a grimace, "Just this one."

Wally looked like he might be sick. His eyes were wide and round, face streaked with dirt and sweat. He was shaking so hard that he reminded Ollie of a leaf in a hurricane. Beside him, Dick was similarly fixed in place by that inhuman glare, both just kids too young to snap themselves out of it.

Oliver was going to be well and truly dead before he watched Zoom lay a finger on them.

He spat out a mouthful of blood and shot a freeze arrow into the floor between them. And since Zoom seemed uninterested in any attack that wasn't aimed directly at him, he didn't move. The arrow dug itself into the hardwood and swept outwards, flash freezing the ground in a twenty foot circle.

They all went down hard - Zoom, Roy, Wally, Dick - all except Oliver, who was already up and sprinting at the yellow-clad speedster with a war cry. He tackled Zoom around the middle, nearly blacking out from the pain, and sent them both sliding into the mess of shattered glass beneath the broken window. Oliver bodily hauled Zoom up and over the ledge, battered muscles screaming with the effort, and threw him down to the stone porch below. He landed in a sprawl a few feet from where Dinah was struggling to pick herself up off the ground. Oliver thanked their lucky stars that she was alright.

He summoned his best pro wrestler moves and leapt down onto the prone speedster in an elbow drop. The impact punched all the air from his lungs, but Ollie hadn't bothered trying to land safely. He planted his knees on either side of the speedster and leant his full body weight into what was probably the weakest chokehold of his career, "Mansion security level ten!"

Ollie wasn't exactly sure how his voice-activated security system deciphered the wheezing command, but he nearly cried in relief when he heard the telltale sounds of energy field generators firing up. Zoom bucked beneath him, roaring in desperate fury when a fluid, electric force field wrapped itself around the outer shell of the mansion.

Yes, triggering the energy shield from outside the mansion had effectively trapped himself and Dinah with a super-powered, homicidal maniac, but it also sealed the kids safely away inside. Even if Zoom killed them both, he'd never get to the kids before the Justice League arrived. Oliver grinned down at him through bloody teeth, "You lose, Asshole…"

Red eyes swiveled to lock onto his own, and Oliver glared back unflinchingly. It felt like he was sitting face to face with Death itself. Zoom managed to pitch them sideways and slam his forehead into Oliver's nose, breaking the tenuous hold and trying to get to his feet. Blinded, but still conscious, Ollie groped for Zoom's legs and dragged him back down to his knees. Something struck him hard in the side of the head, and he felt thick blood running down his neck.

Nausea churned his stomach, but Ollie stubbornly held on. He heard Dinah's hoarse battle cry and then Zoom grunting in pain as she tackled him with all her strength. His vision twisted in on itself like swirling watercolors, but he could just barely make out the shape of Dinah's powerful legs locked around Zoom's throat in a death grip.

If they could only hold him in place until help arrived, they might make it out of this alive. Ollie coughed up another mouthful of blood, no longer able to feel his arms, and turned his head from where it was pressed into the cold stone porch. Through the undulating blue waves of the energy shield, he could see Roy, Wally, and Dick yelling soundlessly as they banged their fists against the other side of the shield. Just like Zoom, they'd never be able to get through it. He fought to draw in another rasping breath, focusing on holding Roy's terrified gaze and staying conscious. Roy was desperately screaming something at him as he fought to get through the force field, but Oliver couldn't read his lips. He felt an odd peace settle over him once he could see for certain that his son was safe.

Before he could try to mouth anything back to Roy, Ollie's field of vision lit up with molten red electricity. Every muscle in his body seized up at once, fire ripping through his body from head to toe. His jaw locked shut, and he jerked helplessly in place for what felt like hours until Zoom cut off the attack. Ollie had been on the receiving end of a taser enough times to know what had happened, but he just couldn't shake it off.

One good kick from Zoom shoved Ollie away from him and onto his back. His head lolled to the side where he could see Dinah collapsed in a boneless heap and Zoom straightening up to his full height.

Fuck…

None of his limbs would cooperate, and so Ollie was helpless to watch as Professor Zoom drew back one deadly, vibrating arm like a spear and leveled a cold glare at him. Ollie had seen Barry slice through submarine bulkheads with that same vibrational attack before. He knew what was about to happen.

Zoom drove his arm down towards Ollie's chest at the same time that an indecipherable blur collided with the psychopath and ripped him off his feet. Ollie gasped as the elevated porch was rocked by hurricane force winds and the thunderous roll of a sonic boom. It took his brain several panicked seconds to catch up to the fact that he wasn't dead, and then another few before he had the energy to flop over to see what the hell had happened. He heard Barry's inhuman scream of rage before he actually saw him.

Speak of the devil.

Barry had carved a deep gash into the solid stone ground with his supersonic entrance, and he was dragging Eobard Thawne's face along the humming force field. Sparks exploded outwards like a welding torch, skittering along the rubble before fizzling out. Ollie's eyes rolled back a few times, and his hearing was reduced to a distant ringing in both ears. He could feel the earth shudder beneath him from devastating impacts, but heard none of it. The world went fuzzy and dim before everything lit up in an otherworldly green, and his body was enveloped in…something. Ollie thought he might be having a stroke. He didn't know why, but he started mumbling over and over, "Wally's alive. The kids are alive, they're safe, he can't get to them, they're okay…"

Something pressed very firmly to the side of his head, and then Ollie slipped into unconsciousness.

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The instant Hal landed on the pulverized ruin behind Queen Mansion, he dropped a shield construct around Ollie and Dinah's prone bodies. They had barely made it in time, Barry blasting in from his cross-country race at the same time that Hal rocketed up the coast. He'd arrived just in time to see Barry collide with Thawne, throwing him thirty feet with the full force of his momentum.

The entire mansion was lit up like Christmas, but all Hal saw was the rapidly spreading pool of blood beneath his best friend's head. Ollie's hair was soaked with it, and Hal immediately pressed a construct to his skull to seal the wound.

"Wally's alive. The kids are alive, they're safe, he can't get to them, they're okay…" the archer was repeating deliriously, even though he didn't seem to be aware of Hal's presence.

"Ollie, stay with me," Hal held his fingers to Ollie's neck, counting the miraculously steady pulse as he spoke. "Can you hear me?"

"Ollie!" Dinah rasped weakly. Hal looked up to see her half crawling towards them, one of her arms swollen and clearly broken below the elbow. "Is he alive?"

Hal picked her up with a ring construct and set her down carefully at Oliver's head, "He's alive, but he's knocked out. Can you hold pressure to his head?! I can't stay with him."

Dinah pulled the archer into her lap, wincing as she replaced Hal's hard light patch with her hands and trying to stem the flow of blood, "I've got it!"

Hal let his ring's energy pull him into the air, afraid to ask but needing to hear it, "Where's Wally?"

"He's inside with Roy and Dick. Ollie managed to force Zoom outside and activated the mansion's defenses. He's not hurt, Hal. We held Zoom off."

Dinah said Wally was fine, but it was hard to focus on anything beyond how bloodied and battered she and Ollie both were. He just couldn't believe that a fight that had done so much damage could leave his son unscathed. He frantically searched the energy shield walls until he could make out the windows behind it and Wally's stricken face staring back out at him. Relief that Hal had not dared to hope for flooded his body and threatened to take his knees out from under him. They'd made it in time. He wanted to run to Wally so badly, but it wasn't over yet. He forced himself to put all thoughts of the kids out of his head and turned back to Dinah, "Can you get back inside the mansion?"

She shook her head, "Not without taking down the whole shield. I won't put the kids at risk."

"Then stay here with Ollie. We'll try to keep the fight away from you," Hal clenched his fist, and his power ring started charging up with deadly force. "Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are on their way."

He saw the way Dinah's whole face sagged in relief, but he almost hoped their backup didn't get here too soon.

Hal still had a promise to keep, and he had a feeling that the others would try to stop him. There wasn't any time to waste.

At the other end of the destroyed yard, Zoom and Barry were moving too quickly for Hal to tell where one blur ended and the other began. He flew right at them, ignoring the lightning that arced in his direction like it was reaching out for him. Fortunately, he and Barry had been fighting together for so long that they didn't need to speak in order to direct each other. He flashed his ring twice in a quick signal that meant 'Get down now', and Barry dropped low to the grass without hesitation. Zoom, however, overbalanced in his swing at Barry's face and was caught off guard when Hal fired a wide blast of energy that slammed into his gut.

The force of the hit knocked Zoom all the way to the tree line at the edge of Oliver's property. He landed hard on his back, sending dirt and grass flying as he skidded to a stop. Hal tried to press the advantage, but Zoom rolled back to his feet and faced them both with a manic grin.

"So, you did get my message! I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to show," Thawne spat a mouthful of blood on the ground at his feet, and that was the only indication he gave that he'd been injured at all. God, Hal had forgotten how unsettling it was to be near him. "Cutting it a bit close, Barry, don't you think?"

Hal saw the exact moment that Barry snapped. His boyfriend made an aborted movement to charge at Zoom, barely stopping himself from being goaded into a sloppy attack. Barry dug his feet in, lightning scorching the ground where he stood, "Do you think this is a game?!"

"Well, if it is, I think I've been very sportsmanlike," Zoom pressed a hand to his chest like he was speaking from the heart. "I even gave you a heads up."

Neither Barry nor Hal rose to the bait, both standing tense and at the ready.

"But then again…" A slow, cruel smile cut across Thawne's face, and he leveled those black and red eyes right at Barry. "I warned you last time too, but I guess it was too subtle for you to figure out. Wish I'd stayed to see the look on your face when-"

It was too much. Barry was gone from Hal's side and swinging wildly at Thawne's face in a split second. The villain dodged all too easily, turning to follow Barry's stumble and leaving his back unguarded.

Hal wasn't about to waste the opening. He willed a giant clamp into existence and locked it around Zoom's middle. It yanked the speedster high into the air with one jerk of Hal's wrist, arcing neatly over his head. Below them both, Barry dropped into a runner's stance and started sprinting in one direction, throwing out the signal for a ground and pound.

Hal only spared a moment to mentally calculate the right trajectory, and then he was catapulting Zoom into the dirt with every ounce of his ring's strength. The instant he crashed down, Barry was right there, sliding feet first into Thawne's ribcage like he was coming in to home base. The dull crunch of bones splintering went off like a warning in Hal's head that this was too much; they were going to go too far. Barry wasn't holding back, and neither was Hal.

He ignored it.

Barry planted one foot firmly in the center of Zoom's back and kicked his arm out wide, lightning leaping off him in wild arcs. Hal watched him trap Thawne's arm under his knee and reach for his shoulder like he meant to dislocate it. At the last instant, Thawne let out a great scream of rage, and the outline of his body went fuzzy as he vibrated his molecules. Barry's hand phased right through Zoom's yellow-clad arm, grasping earth instead of flesh and throwing him off balance long enough to lose the offensive.

Zoom whipped his elbow back with the force of a locomotive, catching Barry right in the face and knocking him to the ground. Hal dove to his partner's aid, roaring as he fired a barrage of missiles down at Zoom. They carpet-bombed the psychopath, forcing him as far back and away from Barry as Hal could manage.

It bought Barry enough time to shake off the hit and get back to his feet, blood running freely from his broken nose. He looked as unhinged as Hal had ever seen him as he bellowed after Zoom, "How the hell did you escape Belle Reve?! We've been watching it 24/7!"

"Barry, don't bother!" Hal morphed his ring construct into a Gatling gun and laid down heavy fire in wide swaths around Thawne. Thick clouds of dust billowed up from the assault, obscuring Hal's view and making him lose sight of the yellow streak dodging between bullets. He slowed, eyes darting all through the fog for any sign of him.

"Who said anything about escaping?" The taunt came with a burst of electric red lightning launching through the edge of the dust cloud as Zoom circled wide outside of Hal's range. "They let me out."

He raced back around towards them and was on Barry before Hal could even bring his gun around. Red and yellow collided like thunder as Zoom rained a flurry of punches down on Barry like machine gun fire, "They gave my memories back, gave my legs back, took me on walks!"

Hal's eyes couldn't keep count, but his ears marked well over sixty hits a second. It was all Barry could do to block each strike, sparks jumping through the air in showers every time one of them landed a blow. He stayed tensed to leap in and help, but he couldn't see an opening until it was too late.

Zoom caught Barry's fist with one hand and seized him by the shoulder with the other. He yanked Barry towards him, turning and throwing him over his back into the churned up dirt, "I've been free for months!"

Barry hit the ground with a gasp as all the air was forced from his lungs in one rush. He arched his spine in pain, too dazed and winded to move. Thawne darted after him full tilt, both hands vibrating with lethal intent, "Hunting you down, watching you play 'happy family' while you thought I was rotting away in a cell!"

He stabbed them down at Barry's head and growled in surprise when they smashed into an immovable wall of glowing bricks instead.

"Bullshit!" Hal bent the construct backwards around Zoom's body into a straitjacket, trapping his arms against his caved-in ribs as hard as he could. "Who'd let a psychopath like you run free?"

Blood red eyes swiveled up to glare at him furiously, Zoom's whole body thrashing back and forth to get free. Hal could feel the immediate stress against his construct as the speedster fought to break out of the hold. He grit his teeth, gripping his ring hand tightly and lowering to the ground in order to put every ounce of his energy into keeping Zoom contained.

"You put too much trust in The Warden," Thawne said ominously.

Hal's ring flared with blinding light, squeezing Zoom with all his might and ripping howls of pain from his throat. Hal could hear more bones and armor plates cracking. He didn't let up, too enthralled in the feeling that this was finally the end. He literally had Thawne's life in his hands, fury and adrenaline mixing together and driving all rational thought from his head.

That was when Zoom twisted his neck around into an unnatural angle, shooting Hal a wide, deranged grin, "Barry really traded up, didn't he? Looks like you're going to be a lot harder to kill than Iris was."

Hal's whole body went rigid with icy shock, and that was all it took. His focus was completely disrupted long enough for Zoom to find the right frequency to shatter the straitjacket. Shit, why hadn't he gone for his legs when he had the chance?!

Zoom charged right at Hal, ignoring the pain and bridging the distance between them in the blink of an eye. One second, he was yards away, and the next second, Zoom was right in front of him with one vibrating arm drawn back at the ready. Hal barely had enough time to even think about putting up a shield, let alone creating one, before Zoom's molecule-scrambling hand was less than a foot from his face.

Barry was suddenly there, grabbing Zoom's wrist with a loud smack and wrenching it down away from Hal. He cracked his fist into Zoom's jaw with a burst of lightning, snapping his head to the side and disorienting him. Hal wasted no time lifting himself into the air and slamming his feet into Thawne's chest, knocking him back again.

He'd screwed up. He had Zoom trapped, and he'd let him break free. Hal would not hesitate again.

Barry chased after Zoom, dashing around behind him before he could hit the ground and throwing him forward with an elbow to the spine. Hal flew in close, driving a hard-light enhanced fist up into Zoom's chin and tossing him as far as he could throw him.

"Not toward the mansion!" Barry dropped into a runner's stance, lightning crackling along his legs, and tore across the lawn to where Thawne had landed in a roll just a few feet from the mansion's crumbling porch. Hal honestly didn't know how Zoom was still standing, much less able to meet Barry head on in another grappling match that the Lantern couldn't hope to keep up with. In the dark evening light, the speedsters clashing raged like an electrical storm.

Hal flew right at them, ring leading the way with reckless speed. He willed a massive, war hammer construct into his hands and flashed the signal for Barry to get down. Only, this time, Thawne had caught on to what it meant. When Barry ducked out of the way, Thawne drew all of their generated electricity into one white-hot lightning bolt and hurled it at Hal like a spear.

There was no time to dodge. The deadly lance of pure power was going to hit him square in the chest, and there was no chance of it missing. Zoom was so sure of it that he turned his back on Hal again, lips stretching into a sick smile, and focused all his attention back on Barry.

What Zoom didn't know - couldn't have known - was that Hal had taken a lightning bolt to the chest before and lived. Even more than that, he'd barely felt a thing. He didn't adjust course even an inch, flying into the bolt fearlessly and clamping his teeth together when it arced through his body. Instead of being ripped apart, his muscles were flooded with energy.

Hal swung the hammer back as far as he was physically able and then smashed it into the side of Thawne's head, pouring every ounce of his momentum into the strike. It happened in nearly slow-motion. Zoom's eyes went comically wide, and he was thrown sideways into the mansion's force field with a stomach churning crack.

Too late, Hal realized that he had aimed to kill. The whole world seemed to go completely still as Hal hung in the air staring at Zoom's crumpled body lying in a heap a few feet away. He let the war hammer construct fade back into his ring and listened to the roaring pulse in his ears. His chest felt strangely numb even as he felt his heart pounding against his ribs.

Something closed around his ankle, and Hal looked down to see Barry holding it, similarly struck dumb beside him. He let Barry pull him down until his feet were firmly planted on the earth, and Hal's eyes immediately started cataloguing every cut, bruise, and bloody smear on his love's face, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know…" Barry sounded shell-shocked. He unconsciously rolled his shoulders and started testing joints, but otherwise made no moves to approach Zoom's body. "Is he…?"

He didn't finish the sentence, but Hal didn't really need him to. Zoom looked dead. He clasped Barry's arm tightly for just a brief moment, and then he took a few cautious steps toward the downed villain, fist clenched at his side and ring at the ready, "I don't know, but I'm not taking any chances."

He willed his ring to weave a full body bind around Thawne, lifting him up and pinning him against the sizzling energy shield. Incredibly, the movement seemed to jostle him awake, and Hal watched in grim disbelief as hate-filled red eyes slid open to glare at him.

"Oh, come on," Hal groaned, coughing as his battered body protested the movement. Barry zipped to his side protectively.

Thawne lifted his chin defiantly, still trying to flash that manic grin at them both, "This isn't over. No prison can hold me forever. I'll find another way out, and when I do-"

"Y'know what?" Hal pressed him against the force field even harder, wrenching a growl of pain out of him. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears steadily louder with each inch he crossed over the line. "I don't think I want to take the chance…"

Hal couldn't tell if he was trying to speak or just struggling to breathe, but Zoom started rolling his neck like there was an itch he couldn't quite get to. His eyebrows pulled together into a frown, and Hal saw something small and circular glow bright red beneath the skin near his jugular. None of them had time to say a word before the glowing dot started chirping rapidly in warning.

On pure instinct, Hal pulled Barry close to his chest and threw a shield construct up around the both of them.

Two seconds later, whatever it was glowing in Zoom's neck ballooned outwards in a screeching explosion, blowing the villain's head clean off his shoulders.