A/N: I apologize for the short chapter, but it's just introducing Marianne. I apologize if the characters are a bit out of character. I also had a bit of Alabama-Rory's help writing this, but she had gotten busy so I had to finish this chapter on my own.

The face-claim for Marianne Strife is Kaya Scodelario.

The face-claim for Asher is Dylan Patton.

The face-claim for Jake is Ashton Moio.

This chapter takes place before season 4.


"Knocked off my feet, the earth moved beneath,
The edge of a dream and a nightmare."

Out From Under - Red


Chapter 1: Introducing Marianne Strife


Cisco thought he was going to have a good day when he walked in The Scoop, a new ice cream shop that had opened up, but he turned out to be wrong. He went to the counter where the teenage girl was standing. She had black hair in two little braids and when he approached the counter, the teen girl smiled widely at him. She was wearing a pink polo shirt with her name-tag on it. She wore a studded wristband on her right wrist.

"Good afternoon, Cisco," the teen greeted. "How may I help you?"

Cisco looked at the menu and gave her what he wanted.

"This will be on the house," the girl said.

Cisco looked at her name tag, to see that her name was Marianne Strife. Confused, he asked, "What?"

"It's going to be on the house," Marianne said as she went to get Cisco's ice cream. "After all, it's not everyday a hero walks in."

Cisco chuckled nervously, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Marianne laughed, "I'm just messing with you." She looked serious, "Don't worry too much. You're going to get your friends back."

Cisco was now a little suspicious, "What do you mean by 'get my friends back'?"

Marianne looked at him, "You look like the type of person who lost someone. My dad had that look after his best friend went missing. She was found safe, though."

Cisco nodded, "Right. Is there an aura around me or something? A neon sign saying so?" His voice was a bit sharp but he was worried. What exactly did Marianne know?

Marianne played with her ring, which had two rows and had stars on it. It looked topaz were dotted along the stars. Marianne shook her head. "I've been told I can sometimes read people very well."

Cisco eyed the teen and nodded, "Right."

Marianne smiled again and held out the cup to Cisco, "Well, here's your ice cream."

Cisco grabbed it and felt his fingers brush against the ring that Marianne was wearing.

Suddenly he was pulled into a vision.

He was standing in a church, along with Marianne, who looked around. There was a line of Nazis holding rifles standing at what looked to be the entrance of the church.

"Nazis?" asked Marianne, looking at the swarm and up to the woman that was floating in midair above the Nazis.

"I know, right?" replied Cisco, gaping at the sight before him. He turned to look at Marianne, noticing that she was wearing a pink, pleated skirt. The vision shifted and there was a samurai walking through what looked like a four part alley.

"Is…is that a samurai?" Marianne asked. She squinted at the samurai. "Samurai Jack?"

"I think you're too young to remember that," Cisco said.

"Never underestimate the power of the internet," Marianne said. "And never underestimate your nostalgic dad. Or revivals of the show. Or Blu-ray."

The vision ended, causing the two to stumble backwards.

Cisco looked at Marianne, who didn't seem to be surprised over what she had seen. However, she was the one who looked curious.

"What did you see?" Marianne asked. She sounded giddy over it, which was a little weird.

Cisco looked at Marianne and shrugged. "What did you see?"

Marianne shrugged and the bell over the door went off. Marianne looked over and smiled once more. She looked at Cisco, "Have a nice day."

Cisco nodded, a little wary now. "You too." Who was this girl? What was this girl? He left The Scoop, thinking over the interaction and feeling unsettled. He just realized that he didn't even tell that girl his name, which was even more weird. But the good thing was that he had her name. All he had to do was look into her a little.


That was how he found himself looking into Marianne's Facebook. He didn't really learn much, other than Marianne's eighteenth birthday is in November, that she was adopted by a single-parent, who turned out to be her dad, and she was in a 'complicated relationship' with a boy named Asher Thorne.

He also saw that she made predictions on who would win in sports, all of which turned out to be true, which was a little unnerving, but it could've been lucky guesses, although it was a little to lucky. He also saw that Marianne seemed to be a lover of space themed stuff.

He also saw that despite the complicated relationship between Asher and Marianne, it didn't seem that complicated, especially over their interactions in the comments. He figured that maybe off of Facebook, it was. There was also a boy named Jake Alexander that seemed like good friends with Marianne and Asher. He was always included in pictures of Asher and Marianne. It was interesting to note that Marianne always wore punk looking clothes, while the two boys wore all black.

Cisco noticed that Marianne was always in between Asher, the blond boy with shoulder-length hair, and Jake, the black haired boy with shoulder-length hair. Apparently Jake had dyed his hair red again two months prior. In some pictures Marianne would be pressed up against Asher, front-to-front and in others Marianne would be pressed up against Jake front-to-front, as well.

Cisco was positive that he wouldn't let his girlfriend, if he had one, be pressed up against Barry like that, even if he and Barry were good friends.

He scrolled through the pictures, sometimes there weren't pictures of Marianne pressing up against either boy, but they were always close together. In the recent pictures, he noticed how the three started wearing matching studded wristbands. Jake was wearing a black-and-blue studded wristband while Asher wore a red-and-black studded wristband, while Marianne wore a wristband with silver studs on it.

There were multiple pictures of a young Marianne doing things with her dad, like fishing, or being at Disneyland. There were some of her as a baby. There were also pictures with random quotes on it.

He stopped on a picture of Asher kissing a surprised looking Jake on the cheek and then decided that it was time to leave the album and went back to scrolling through updates. He stopped on a message that said: "'I'd burn the world for you and I.' - Let Go by Hollywood Undead."

He kept scrolling and stopped on a picture of a hole in a wall with the message: "So which one of you boys in man enough to tell my dad you put another hole in our wall?"

Cisco almost snorted at that. He scrolled and stopped on a picture of a galaxy themed curtain that looked burnt. There was a message: "If you ever feel stupid, be glad that you weren't the one that accidentally caught your curtains on fire."

Cisco admittedly chuckled at that.

"Why are you stalking some teenage girl's Facebook?" Wally asked.

Cisco jumped and sort of flailed around, before looking up at Wally. "I-I'm stalking her."

"I watched you scroll through her Facebook for five minutes," Wally stated. He was smiling like he found it funny.

"Five minutes? Couldn't you have done something better with those minutes than watch me?" asked Cisco.

"I was just wondering why you were stalking her Facebook, though," Wally said.

"I meet her at that new ice cream place and somehow she knew my name," Cisco said.

Wally shrugged, "Not enough reason to stalk her Facebook."

Cisco continued, "She knew that Barry and Caitlin are gone. She said 'don't worry, you're going to get your friends back.' How would she know that?"

Wally crossed his arms, "Okay. That is a little weird."

Cisco looked at Wally and added, "I accidentally touched her ring and I had two Vibes. And after that was done, she didn't even think it was terrifying or freaky that she was pulled into it. And she knows that I'm the Vibe. If she knows that, what else does she know about us?"

Wally stopped smiling and was now frowning. "Yeah, that is a little weird."

"Yeah," Cisco said. "So, I'm just looking to see if she might be a future enemy."

"You want me to go check her out?" Wally asked.

Cisco looked at him, "I think you should rephrase that. She's sixteen."

"Says the one that's stalking her Facebook," countered Wally.

"For a good reason," Cisco said.

Iris walked in at the moment and looked at them. "Who's stalking a Facebook?"

"Cisco," said Wally quickly.

Iris looked at Cisco, "Why?"

"I'm just trying to make sure that we won't have a future enemy on our hands," Cisco said.

"He got unnerved by a sixteen-year-old girl," Wally said to Iris.

Iris monetarily cracked a grin, before frowning again, "Really?" Cisco recounted what he had told Wally, making Iris falter momentarily. Iris blinked, "Well, stop stalking her Facebook."

Cisco logged out and pocketed his phone, deciding that he'll have to look later.


A/N: I promise the next chapter will be longer.