(A/N): What I kind of wish had happened in the finale. Nope. What I totally wish had happened in the finale.


The sound waves hit Zoom square in the chest, but it wasn't enough to cancel quite all of his forward momentum. He slammed into Cisco like a car plowing into a pedestrian, hurling them both through the far wall and halfway across the next room.

Barry had bolted toward them before the wall shattered. Caitlin's voice screaming Cisco's name stretched out into a long, low howl in his ears.

He was just in time to break Cisco's landing, skidding across the cement floor with his best friend in his arms. When they scraped to a halt and Barry was pretty sure that half the thickness of his suit had been road-rashed away, he propped himself up and checked on Cisco.

The other man's eyes were closed and his head lolled back against his shoulder, but his chest rose and fell. Though his arm lay across Barry's chest at a worrisome angle, no blood spurted.

Barry looked up to see Caitlin scrambling through the hole in the wall, ignoring the splinters that caught at her clothing and left long scratches along her arms.

"He's breathing!" he yelled. "He's breathing, he's not bleeding - " Internal injuries, Barry thought. And that arm.

But Caitlin needed to know that the worst hadn't happened.

She stumbled to a halt, shaking so hard he could see it from here. Her eyes went to Zoom.

Zoom, still crumpled on the floor like a pile of dirty laundry.

When his speed had been taken from him, Barry had stumbled and fallen, but recovered after a minute. But Zoom looked as if all his tendons had been cut at once. He craned his neck around, his eyes wild and uncomprehending. "What did you do?"

Though he still wore the monstrous mask, it was his Jay voice, small and helpless. Barry ordered himself - no. He was never Jay. Ever.

"I didn't do anything," he said proudly. "It was Cisco." He laid his friend down on the ground, wincing at Cisco's whimpering moan as he shifted his arm.

He looked up at Caitlin. "Cisco cut him off from the speed force. That's a thing he can do now."

"Cut him off?" Her voice trembled as hard as her body.

Barry nodded. "Permanently. He's harmless."

Her face hardened. "We've thought that before."

"Caitlin," Zoom croaked. "Cait - "

She stared at him, then went to her knees by his body. She reached behind his neck and unfastened the mask, peeling it away to reveal the handsome, deceptive face underneath. "Jay," she said.

She settled her hands on either side of his face, looking down into his eyes. His mouth shaped her name.

"Oh, Jay," she said.

Whatever he saw in her eyes made him thrash and writhe until she pressed her thumbs into the tender hollow of his throat, just above the neckline of his suit. He gagged horribly and fell back against the floor, panting, his eyes so wide Barry could see the whites even from where he was.

"This is what you want," she explained to Zoom, sweetly. "I'm giving you what you want."

She leaned over and pressed her lips to his.

For a moment, Barry didn't understand - what was this? Had she succumbed to some weird kind of Stockholm syndrome? Was this her doppelganger? Where was their Caitlin?

Then he saw the mist spilling from her skin, the white unfurling through her hair, and he understood what was happening.

"Caitlin! No!" He tried to reach for her, but the bitter cold froze his hands inches away. He stumbled back, his legs giving out so he plopped onto his ass a foot away from Cisco. Breathless with horror, he watched Jay Garrick, Hunter Zolomon, Zoom, thrash and convulse, his screams at first muffled by Caitlin's mouth and then fading as his vocal cords froze, as the air in his lungs turned to frost, as the killing cold spread down his spine.

When his body was stiff and white, she lifted her head to look at Barry. Her eyes were so blue they glowed, and he cringed back, shaking, thinking, Caitlin, it's Caitlin, it is Caitlin, right?

"It had to be done," she said.

"You - you - "

"It had to be done," she repeated, her voice hard. "But - but don't tell him. Please."

Cold spilled across the floor as if someone had opened a subzero freezer.

He hunched his shoulders against it, unable to stop the shivers. He reached back and laid a hand on Cisco's chest, comforted by the subtle rise and fall. "You mean - "

"I promised," she said and her voice broke. "I made him a promise. Don't tell him what I did."

The blue drained like water from her eyes.

FINIS