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They had stopped Zoom. It had been difficult and hard and they would all need time to recover, but they had stopped him.They’d won.And Eddie had made a promise.He’d been afraid at first. At whether he would find the man in the iron mask alive. He knew Caitlin had said he was still there, but Zoom had presumably abandoned him days ago at least. Weeks.But he’d been there, and he’d sat up when he’d heard Eddie’s voice. He’d used so gentle hands to feel Eddie’s arm as he’d pulled him free.Eddie hadn’t known how to get the mask off. He’d run then back to S.T.A.R. and he’d left Cisco cursing with a promise to come back with food.Blue lightning circled his hands now as Eddie grabbed what he could out the break room. He didn’t understand why.The Negative Speed Force hadn’t been in a hurry to explain. It had stood there, wearing Barry’s face with a sneering look that didn’t belong, and echoed Zoom’s words. Echoed that it was impossible for Eddie to try, that he was destined to be a villain, that he would never be the Flash.Unlike Zoom it had seemed curious though, when Eddie had argued anger didn’t have to mean hate. He could let anger at injustice drive his passion to fix it.It had seemed more curious still when Iris had reached in with a hand outstretched, calling him home.The moment Iris had touched him the red Eddie had been surrounded by, that he’d been bitter at and hated and tried to get rid of for months, had faded to blue, and he’d embraced the Speed.Someone needed to stop Zoom. He was right, the Flash couldn’t.Barry had thrown himself and Eobard into that Singularity to save Eddie.He felt Iris before he heard her. That had been happening too.“Are you all right?” she asked.Eddie smiled at her and nodded.“I always am when I’m with you,” he said. He leaned down to kiss her. “How’s Wally?”“He’ll be fine,” Iris said. “Grateful to you.”“He’s your brother,” Eddie said. “I didn’t want it then anyway.”“And now?”“I don’t know.” Eddie looked at the flickers of blue clinging to his hand. “I don’t feel so angry now.”Iris tip-toed up to kiss him softly. It had been so hard, losing Barry then having this last parting gift from Eobard trying to pull them apart, but Iris was so wonderful, and Eddie didn’t know if he could have done any of this without her.He loved her so much. He’d been thinking about asking her to marry him, before this. He’d take her name, of course, put the Thawnes behind him entirely, finally lay his past to rest.He had no desire to meet the parents in the future Eobard claimed adored him so much. He couldn’t trust anything Eobard had said.“I love you,” Eddie said. “Meeting you was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”“One of?” Iris teased, but Eddie knew what they were both not saying.“You said you were bringing food,” Iris said. “Enough for a speedster. Do you want help carrying it?”Eddie nodded.Caitlin had been on edge since Zoom had kidnapped her. Lost and not sure what to do with herself, and Eddie didn’t blame her.She was sat next to the man in the mask now though, holding his hand. Eddie wasn’t sure if that was for his benefit or hers.Wally seemed less certain, though he’d met the man too, but Joe was with him, and Jesse and Harry were going home, they’d decided that, but Jesse had insisted on staying long enough to see him.He’d tried tapping messages. Neither Jesse nor Eddie had been able to understand them, but Jesse knew he’d been trying to comfort her.Wally had been closer to figuring it out. He’d said something about a five-by-five code and said the man had tapped something about Iris. Presumably Detective West-Allen, which would mean they could send him home with Harry and Jesse.He was a warning, Jesse said, to other metahumans of what would happen to them if they tried disobeying him. If he let them live. She knew he was a speedster too, that it had been his speed Zoom had tried to take first, but it hadn’t worked. His hadn’t been compatible, not like Eddie’s was.Positive Speed Force, not Negative.Cisco laughed as he finally cracked the mechanism. He winced as he eased the mask off, the marks where it had rubbed against his skin clear even from Eddie’s distance, but that wasn’t where Eddie was looking.When Eddie had first seen Barry Allen of Earth-2 his heart had skipped, a brief moment of hope that had faded before it could even begin. When the Negative Speed Force had walked into his childhood bedroom wearing Barry’s face the hope had bloomed again, wilting as the words fell from lips they didn’t belong to.When Eddie had travelled back in time he’d wanted to tell Barry more than anything, and the wraiths had stopped him.The scraggly beard this man was sporting helped a little, but Eddie felt Iris grab his hand and grip tight, heard the silence from Joe and Caitlin. She hadn’t had to do this; Eddie hadn’t wanted her to have to do this.But this man looked so pale and gaunt and Eddie had promised him food. He needed help, his resemblance to the man they loved couldn’t stop Eddie helping him.“Hey,” the man who looked like Barry said, his voice hoarse from disuse. “Knew you guys would find me.”“I promised I’d come back,” Eddie said. “Here, I wasn’t sure what you ate, but-”“Eddie,” he said, “I know it’s been a bit, but you are my Eddie, aren’t you?”Eddie’s heart tugged and he froze in disbelief while Iris rushed forward, flinging herself at Barry, grabbing him and kissing him firmly.“Don’t you ever do that again,” Iris said, her forehead against his. “And you’re getting rid of that thing on your face before I kiss you again.”He laughed, so bright and so him, and it was all Eddie could hear as the others sprang to life, a joy filling the room and Joe rushed to him, as Cisco and Caitlin hugged him tight, as Wally was finally introduced to the man he should have already known, as Jesse and Harry were pulled in to meet the real Flash, not the imposter Zoloman had made himself.And Eddie stood frozen, an echo of the Negative Speed Force in the back of his mind, a Speed Force Eobard had given life to in his quest to destroy Barry, a Speed Force that itched to reach out and destroy its counterpart’s originator-“Eddie,” Barry said, his hand outstretched, the world around them frozen as golden lightning trailed across Barry’s skin. “I missed you. I think we’ve got a lot to talk about.”“So much,” Eddie said and he forced the thoughts back. He wasn’t Eobard, and he could never hate Barry Allen, no matter what his lightning thought.Eddie broke into a smile and rushed forward to join the group hug.