A/N: Welcome to this little piece I made after watching the trailer for next week's episode (5x07 O Come, All Ye Thankful). It's not my best work ever since I've done this a tad fast to get it out before the episode. I hope you'll still enjoy it.
Barry's difficult and shallow breathing was the only sound accompanying Nora's sobs over the comms that were making the relay between the speedster duo and the laboratory. Behind the computers and in all the cortex for that matter, heavy silence had fallen, and if it had been the hotter part of the year, all the runaway flies would've been heard sneaking around.
It couldn't be. It wasn't happening.
Maybe it was a dream. Maybe if the team could wish it strong enough it would make it go away.
Everyone was terrified of speaking, an action that might cause them to miss their friend's last breath. They needed to keep their silent vigil 'till the very end, even if the man was too unconscious right now to know what was going on and who was or wasn't listening.
"Dad..." Painfully sobbed Nora, rocking her dad's upper body and clinging to him for her life, "guys, we have to do something," she added to her comms between her tears that were cascading down her cheeks and splashing on Barry's red suit.
"No...Nora, we can't," answered Cisco with difficulty. Admitting these words were a death sentence and Cisco felt the bile rising his throat the second they came out of his mouth.
Their plan to take down Weather Witch was risky, for sure, but it could be done with relative safety. Against the woman's unique set of powers driving her more powerful than her father, the scientist team at S.T.A.R. created a paralysis gas that would safely disable her abilities. Except, there was one little, or more like huge, problem; that same gas could theoretically bond with the Speed-force and be dangerously poisonous to a speedster. The speedster duo needed to throw their gas bomb as close as possible to Weather Witch to engulf her in the toxic cloud, but do it from a distance that was far away enough not to be exposed to the danger zone.
Everything was going as planned, all the way to the moment Nora got pinned down and Barry jumped straight on their adversary, motivated by a deadly mix of heroism and fatherly concern. His action prompted him to violently tackle Weather Witch and break the gas cylinder on both of them.
Sure, that metahuman was down for the count and the good guys had won. Except, now, the counter effect on the speedster was devastating; the convulsions had started gasping for air before Barry had even hit the ground, leaving the hero desperately struggling for consciousness. He was dying faster than anyone could've calculated.
"Please, dad, don't leave me again," implored Nora when she felt the last bit of consciousness leaving her father.
The anguish in the young XS' voice was devastating and almost pushed Caitlin to cut down the comms.
'You can synthesize a cure,' said a cold voice in her head, jostling Caitlin out of her torpor. For a moment Caitlin had forgotten she was still wearing Harry's mental activity dampener device. It was going to take a little moment to adjust to hearing Frost.
"I can't, not in time," protested Caitlin, angry and gesturing.
It was Cisco' turn to look and stared at his friend in surprise. Was his best friend talking to herself really their new normal? Good thing she had the shining blue device on her forehead to remind everyone she hadn't gone mad just yet. Once the doctor and the ice Meta would be fully connected, that would be another story.
'How long?' Inquired Frost again.
"I don't know….a few hours, maybe. Barry doesn't have that kind of time," answered Caitlin, her crying altering the sound of her voice.
'Let me take over,' requested the voice in her head.
With nothing to lose, other than time and Barry's life, Caitlin didn't hesitate. Inhaling sharply and closing her eyes, she allowed the Ice Queen to take over. No, correction, not the Ice Queen, more like the Snow Goddess.
Under Cisco and Sherloque's confused eyes Caitlin's brunette hair turned into a stunning shiny greyish, almost white, tone, over her shoulders and blue jacket.
"Get the Interdimensional extrapolator and grab your jacket too. It's gonna get cold," ordered Killer Frost to Cisco before going to the comms, "XS; you bring the Flash here-"
"Frost?" The surprise and hesitation were all over Nora's voice as her gasping for air under the emotion stopped for a moment.
"-now!" Completed Killer Frost before turning to Cisco who was swiftly grabbing the requested items; the extrapolator and his winter coat.
"Where are we going?"
"North Pole. Back to the lab," confidently said Frost, her calm attitude posing a striking difference with Caitlin's barely holding together demeanor.
"Let's go!" quickly added the ice Meta when the purple and yellow speed-force characteristic of Nora West-Allen showed up in the lab while carrying the dead-weight of her father with a full-blown panic in her eyes and dry tears track on her face.
In this state, it was doubtful that Nora even realized that Barry's death would erase her from existence. The only thought roaming through her mind was the one of losing her dad again, after barely meeting him for the first time in her life earlier this year.
Helping the young woman by taking half the charge of Barry's weight, by grabbing one of his arms, Cisco half-dragged his best friend to the newly formed breach, followed by Killer Frost. The freezing room temperature whipped everyone in the face, even if they were protected from the wind by being inside. It was only then that Cisco realized he took his coat but forgot about taking winter gloves. One thing for sure, he wasn't going to turn back 'til he knew why Killer Frost had taken control of her host's body and decided to drag them here. Plus, there was worse as Nora was only wearing her speedster suit, but was too close to slipping into shock to realize the ambient temperature.
Between the two of them, Barry's breathing grew even slower and more erratic.
Without any explanation, no time for that, the ice Meta walked to the cryogenic chamber extremity and pressed a few buttons, making it open. Of course, cold. That was going to slow his condition for a moment, just enough to prepare an antidote. Why hadn't they think of that before? Well, other than because of their overwhelming panic?
"Put him in there," she firmly instructed over a short gasp from the dying speedster. There wasn't much time left.
Quickly and efficiently, Cisco and Nora maneuvered the man into the chamber with their heart clenching in anguish. There weren't even sure when their hands let go, and the chamber's wall started closing if their friend was still breathing.
Approaching the quickly fogging glass, Cisco laid his hands on it with the famous Star Trek popping back into his mind; I have been and always shall be your friend.
"Please, man, hang in there," he said, instead, in the next moment.
A/N: What do you guys think? Are you interested in a second part? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Just remember that English isn't my first language.