"I see you haven't left," Hunter entered Barry's lab, satisfaction not hidden in his monstrous voice when he walked in to find Caitlin facing the window, watching the silent city sky. "I feared you were going to leave me to join your friends," he said, his voice sending a shiver down Caitlin's spine. Walking towards and stopping right behind her, he took off his mask and confessed, his voice returning to normal. "Thank you for making the right choice."

Caitlin closed her eyes for a second and inhaled, trying to calm her senses. They were all acting at once – she was feeling too much. Anger, pain, fear, betrayal; they had all hit at once. She felt like she was turning her back to her friends despite the fact that she was not. She had chosen to stay for plenty of reasons.

Staying close to Zoom meant first hand access to all his plans, which she could probably figure out a way to warn her team about before something bad happened. Being close also enabled her to talk even the smallest bit of sense into him; stopping him from murdering innocents. He had spared her friends after all, and when she was by his side in the police station, he had not gone further than to verbally threaten the police. When he actually did kill them, it was because she was not there.

It was by no means a reliable way to minimise collateral damage but if her pleas could save at least some people, it was worth a shot. At least she had a better chance of keeping Cisco, Joe and the others safe when on Zoom's good side rather than running away and ensuring he would kill them all; including herself. It wasn't worth the risk.

Besides, she doubted having any chance to run away. Either one of Zoom's henchmen would catch her on the way out or Hunter himself would come after her. With Barry dead, as she was told by Zoom, they stood almost no chance against the rogue meta army she heard chanting outside, let alone a broken hearted Zoom with twice the speed force power seeking revenge.

On the other hand; how were her friends going to stop the army? Even if they managed to contact the Arrow and even Firestorm, Atom and the others; they would not be able to arrive on time. Her team had no idea that Zoom had hoarded a vast number of meta humans, a hypothesis she came up with by trusting her ears, and she had no way of contacting them right now. If she had ran, she might have found a way to at least give them a warning to let them prepare or even hide. She knew very well that Joe and Harrison would want to get Wally and Jesse to safety immediately.

But she had been too afraid, too selfish to run away. This wasn't whom Ronnie had fallen in love with; a scared girl who couldn't weigh the risk and benefits of leaving or staying. No, he had fallen for the woman who could make up her mind the moment she faced a problem, and managed to do the best for everyone.

Caitlin was feeling terribly guilty, and stupid. She was the one closest to the serpent among them; she was so close that he had fallen in love with her, even opened up about his sickness, his doppleganger, his 'feelings,' however real or fake they might have been. She should have figured out, connected the dots before all this harm had been done, and before her friends were hurt. Instead, she had let her guard down. Caitlin Snow, of all the people, who knew how much it pained to love, who was an expert in locking up feelings and being emotionless, had decided to let her guard down when this tall, handsome, heroic speedster waltzed into her life 6 months after she lost her husband.

It was her wounded heart's fault for looking for the warmth and safety of love to repair itself.

Overwhelm of the feelings hit her in the form of silent tears sliding down her cheeks and dripping on the window frame. Her eyes were already reddening but her face showed no emotion.

When Caitlin felt Hunter's figure behind him, she did not respond for a moment, she wanted to spare him the satisfaction of seeing her emotions, at least for that moment. She slowly turned back, gazing right into his eyes. "So you do feel fear," she stated, almost whispering.

Memories from his childhood flashed in front of his eyes; "Don't be afraid, Hunter," his mom whispered after he woke up to the sound of the front door opening downstairs. "I'll be right back," she whispered and placed a kiss on his forehead, trying to hide her fear from her son. She left his room to face the intruder; his father.

Hunter shut his eyes, taking in a deep breath, shaking off the memory from his eyes. Caitlin was slowly figuring out his weaknesses, the key words that triggered his painful memory flashes. While she was trying not to abuse the usage of these words to prevent loss of their power; at moments like this she at least tried to figure out new ones. Suggesting the idea of being afraid was on point, she took a mental note of that.

"Only when it's about losing you," he said, his smooth voice as gentle as it was the night they first kissed. Hunter wanted to reach out, touch her cheek, caress her face, but he knew she would just jerk away. Rather than suffering her rejection, he was simply avoiding actions that she would reject. Still, he reached out to grab her hand. She did not hold his, but did not pull away immediately; they remained in physical contact for a few seconds before she spoke back.

"Coming from the man who threatened to kill me and my friends had I left?" she asked, her tone making sure he knew that it was actually a statement. Her eyes were locked onto his. He had always been an expert at reading people, especially through the eyes. He had been able to read her as well; she had been so open all that time they were close. But right now, he couldn't see through the cold veil of emotionlessness in her eyes; he couldn't figure out what she felt, what she wanted to say, what she wanted to do.

He took a step back, knowing well that there was no proper justification for threatening her life. She looked like she needed the space, but he needed her more right now. "I did what I had to."

"That excuse is getting old," she shot back calmly. She had no idea what had gotten into her; she was talking back at the man who had the power to kill everyone in the city within a matter of seconds.

Hunter was taken aback, but also glad to see the brave spark in her eye, for which he had fallen for. "Caitlin," he said, putting emphasis on the name he had used rather than the nickname he adored. "I have to do this to succeed and I want you by my side when I conquer this Earth."

Something inside her snapped. "You had to kill dozens of innocents just to strike fear into the other handful left? Why, so you can enjoy killing them even more?" she cried out, her voice rising. "You say you love me, yet you threaten to kill me if I take my freedom back. You imprisoned me, you are unleashing an army on my home, you are killing the people I care about and you expect me to love you back? No, Hunter, I will never love you. The man I loved was killed before my eyes when Zoom shoved an arm through him."

Hunter had his breath caught in his throat for a moment, his mouth opened but no words fell. He wanted to tell her, tell her that he was the man she had fallen for, that she just needed time to learn to love him again, but he couldn't. He had threatened the woman he loved, and he meant it. He was going to kill her had she ran away, just like his father killed his mother.

"Don't look away, Hunter," his father's voice echoed in his mind. 'Bang!' and Ashley Zolomon's dead body fell to the ground, her hazel eyes blankly facing the ceiling, blood oozing out of her body and forming a thick, smooth puddle.

"I will not become him," Hunter groaned, talking to himself rather than Caitlin. Cupping his face between his hands, he took a step back, as if trying to get away from an invisible foe. "I will NOT!" he shouted, shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts.

His actions scared Caitlin, causing her to take a step back. Watching his actions closely, with widened eyes, she understood his fear. She had felt the same way about becoming her mother after Ronnie died and she isolated herself from the rest of the world. She did not want to become her and Hunter did not want to become his father; another similarity between the two which scared her almost as much as his threats.

"Then don't – " Caitlin began, but was cut off by a meta calling for Zoom at the doorframe.

It was a young woman, no older than 20, just a tad shorter than Caitlin. She had extremely long hair braided in a fishtail. It was in a gradient from deep orange to pale yellow, getting lighter as it went down to her knees. She wore a purple, leather, long sleeved skin tight suit; with a deep V shaped cleavage reaching from her chest to just below her belly button, revealing a large portion of her tanned torso. A matching pair of knee high boots accompanied the suit and a tiara decorated with bronze flowers finished off the look, making her bright green eyes stand out. She was beautiful.

"Siren said you wanted to see me," she said, her voice so sweet and enthusiastic it was hard to believe that she was one of the evil psychopaths in Zoom's army.

Hunter snapped back into reality, the intruder's voice postponing his mental struggle. He did not rush for his mask or tried to cover his face, it was obvious that the girl knew his real identity; or at least his face.

"I have a task for you," he said, making her grin.

"Finally, what can I do for you, Zoom?"

Caitlin couldn't figure out how the girl seemed so eager to help the man who could be considered the dictator of meta humans. She was sure that at least half of the meta humans downstairs were threatened into coming to a foreign Earth, just as Doctor Light and all others were when they first arrived.

Zoom turned towards Caitlin, talking to the girl but looking into her eyes with the usual smug smile on his face. "Stay with her, make sure she doesn't run away or try to pull off tricks, and most importantly," he nodded towards the door, indicating any potential threats, may it be a meta human or someone with team Flash, "make sure she is safe."

Guess who finally started writing that Zolomon story? Sorry for being so late, I've been waiting for the inspiration (which struck me at 5.11 in the morning).
I know I'm a little late but hey, after Barry screwed everything up in the finale, and since there are an infinite number of universes, technically my take on the story could have happened!

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed it, thank you!

P.S. Kudos to anyone who can guess whose doppelganger the meta girl is!

Aquixia