"Actually Barry, can I come too? I want to see the accelerator come on." Tala asked, tossing her armor into a duffel, made of a material she knew couldn't be cut. She matched it to the color of the navy blue streak she'd dyed into her hair. Her silver nails flashed as she ran her fingers through her hair, pulling a tangle from it as it fell out of the braid she fought in.
"I'm sorry, do you even know what it is? You're an assassin, not a physicist." Barry laughed as he pulled on his jacket. Tala, Felicity and Oliver all scowled at him.
"I have my master's degree in Mechanical Engineering asshat. I have a bachelor's in Russian Literature and Criminal Justice. Before I became a vigilante, I was going to go to Central City and apply at Star Labs anyway - I've idolized Harrison Wells since I was twelve." Tala turned her best puppy dog eyes on him, pleading with him.
"Fine, you can even crash on my couch if you want" Barry sighed, hoping the apparently smarter than he realized assassin didn't kill him. "We have to hurry though, if we catch the next train, we should be able to just make it." Tala gave him a toothy grin.
"I've got that covered. Come along my dear - have you ever been in a private jet?" Barry turned to face her with his eyes wide. "I've also got you covered with your Captain - you won't be fired, I promise. Bye guys, I'll be back in about a week or so, promise. Love you Ollie." Tala kissed everyone's cheeks and dragged Barry along out of the club to where she had her bike sitting waiting for her. It took some rearranging, but the two of them and their bags were soon settled on the motorcycle. They headed off to the airport, where the Merlyn Jet was sitting, already started up.
"When my father died, he left everything to me and Thea. Well, me because I don't think Thea knows she's my half-sister yet." Tala gave Barry her weapons case and pushed him toward the stairs to the plane, before bending slightly and lifting her motorcycle with a grunt. It was placed in the hallway of the plane. Barry raised an eyebrow at her, confused. "Barry, you don't have a car. Central City's airport is ages away from everything by foot. This way we can go straight to your lab so you don't get fired." Barry just looked at her, blinking rapidly before they settled in for the flight.
"Captain Singh! I wanted to personally thank you for allowing Barry Allen to stay longer in Starling City and assist my company and me. I was with him when you requested his return, and I just flew him into town. He was incredibly helpful in solving what was apparently an inside job of theft. I couldn't trust the CSI's in Starling because I have had past issues with a detective there. Anything the Merlyn Global Group can do for you, just let me know." Tala shook his hand, and smiled at him, while Barry, Joe and the captain looked on in varying degrees of confusion.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Singh asked, bewildered.
"I'm sorry, I am Tala Merlyn, CEO and owner of the newly reformed Merlyn Global Group. We had an issue with someone stealing from my company, and Barry here actually solved it for me, so I thank you for loaning him to me." Tala beamed at him again, causing Singh to smile back.
"Of course, thank you for bringing him back - he is one of our best and I was worried you would poach him from me." Singh said, causing Barry and Joe to look at each other and shrugged.
"And deprive Central City of him? Definitely not. Now, I've got to go, sadly I'm not just here for pleasure, I am also here on business. I think it is about time Central City gains its own Global Group, and I am going to start scouting out buildings. Barry, do you mind if I leave my things in your lab?" Tala asked, finally turning to him and winking.
"Sure, yeah, sure. It's up here." Barry was blinking rapidly, trying to process what had just happened. He led the assassin and the detective up to his lab, where Tala started laughing.
"How did you do that?" The detective asked her, looking as confused as Singh was at first.
"Little trick I learned from my dad. Eye contact and a lot of suggestion. He was called the hypnotist for a reason. I picked up a few tricks. Ra's taught me a few more. Anyway, I'm going to leave my stuff here and take a ride, familiarize myself with the city, maybe commit a felony. I dunno yet." Tala left, pulling her belstaff coat out of the trunk and sweeping out of the room.
"Commit a felony? What is she talking about?" Joe asked Barry, worriedly looking where she had vanished around the corner.
"Don't worry about it, she's only a coffee obsessed assassin and a vigilante from Starling City. She won't hurt anyone that doesn't attack her first."
"You're friends with the Starling City vigilante? I'm assuming she is the blue one? Blue hair, blue bag, blue coat?" Joe asked, moving to sit on Barry's desk.
"Both of them. Why do you think I was late? The green one needed help, I was able to do that. She, Tala, she's interested in the particle accelerator, so she flew us both to Central City." Barry grabbed Joe's shoulder in excitement. " Joe, she flew us both here in her own personal private jet! How cool is that?" Barry was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement over the plane ride. Joe just smiled.
Tala sat, perched on the highest point of Star Labs and looked down at all the dots that were the scientists and engineers preparing for that night. She was so excited, but she was also nervous. She knew what could happen if this thing went wrong. Dark Matter was a thing that many people didn't know about, but people also thought that you couldn't live for over two hundred years. She didn't think anything would go wrong, but it didn't hurt to make sure. Tala stood and took a running jump, flicking out her bow and firing an arrow to the other tower. She swung and lightly jogged up to the top of the tower. She pulled out the last monitor and placed it where it wouldn't be found by anyone but an assassin. These three devices would record what came out of the particle accelerator, and wait for her to get them. They were setup to send the information to Nyssa and Oliver if she didn't get them within a year. Just in case something happened to her. She looked around and realized that a few of the dots down below had spotted her. She grinned. This would be hilarious. She pulled on the magic tether that forced her League Armor to materialize around her, the weight familiar. Instead of pulling up the cloth to cover her mouth, she put her vigilante mask on which activated her voice distorter. Her bow was still expanded, and gripped tight in her right hand - her burns meaning she couldn't shoot as well as she used to with her dominant hand. She took two steps back and took a running leap off the tower. She heard screams from down below and laughed. There was nothing better than a freefall. Tala turned over so she was facing up and shot a grappling arrow toward a tower, letting it catch her and slow her fall. She flew through the air and circled around to a good landing spot. She landed in front of two people, a redheaded woman, and a Hispanic man she thought she might have recognized.
"Kon'nichiwa chīsana koneko." Her voice modulator on her necklace kicking in, making her voice thicker and slightly lilted, like she had an accent that no one could place. Ollie's made his voice deeper, hers was more fun. "Worry not little one, I'm just looking around."
"You're the Starling City Vigilante! The blue one." He shouted, alarmed.
"And you are Absolyutno vkusnyy." The'eb Sagheer walked closer to him, ignoring the way the woman was trying to pull him backwards. She placed her arms around his neck and pulled him against her. The'eb Sagheer pressed a gentle kiss to his neck, leaving a blue lip print there, before she whispered in his ear. She grinned as she pulled away, shooting another arrow into Star Lab's tower to allow her to get away quickly.
"Cisco, Cisco! What did she do to you? What did she say to you? Are you alright?" Caitlin Snow frantically asked him.
"I'm fine. She kissed me, and she said..." He trailed off, his hand hovering above the lipstick mark on his neck
"What did she say Cisco?!" Caitlin asked, her voice rising with anxiety over his mental state.
"She made a movie reference. I thought I was the only one that did that." Cisco said, shaking himself slightly. Ronnie Raymond ran out to them, stopping to wrap an arm around his fiancée.
"The only one who did what? Is that, lipstick?" Ronnie tilted his head, looking at the blue mark that managed to stand out against Cisco's dark skin.
"The blue vigilante from Starling City. She was here. She kissed me and said; 'you be Han, and I'll be Leia. I'll tell you I love you but you'll already know.' She said she loved me. I think." The three of them walked into the lab and headed to the cortex, not realizing that Cisco had just had a recording device tucked into his jacket pocket.
"Don't let it worry you Cisco, if she's one of the vigilantes, she's crazy." Tala laughed as she heard Caitlin through the earpiece connected to the device on her little kitten.
"That's not reassuring. Crazy is dangerous." Cisco responded. Tala removed her hood and tucked it back into her coat, and removed her sky blue mask.
"Cisco, it's a great name. You'll see me again Little Kitten."
Tala returned to Barry's lab and changed into a deep blue dress with heels that matched the color of her mask. Her hair was curled and teased into a ridiculous crown, accented with jewelry she stole back when she was with the League. Ra's said she could keep it since the original owner was dead. She smiled at her reflection in the window of the hired car. Barry had gone with Iris, Detective West's daughter, but she - as a major investor - was invited to be at Harrison's side when he turned on the machine. She stepped out of the car with the practiced grace of an assassin, and the daughter of a billionaire.
A hand reached out to help her out of the car, she took it and smiled at, "Doctor Wells, I cannot tell you what it means to finally meet you."
"Well, after how much you and the Merlyn Global Group donated to Star Labs, this is the least I could do in return. And please, call me Harrison."
Tala smiled at him as she looped her arm through his as he led her into the laboratory. She looked around her at everything that was casually on display. Harrison stopped them at an elevator. There was a design for a pocket charger for cell phones on the wall. She looked it over with the careful eye of a mechanical engineer.
"Is this your design, for this charger?" She asked, running through a few different equations in her head. The elevator dinged and she allowed herself to be led into it before he answered in the negative.
"No, though it is a work of genius. That was designed by one of my mechanical engineers, Francisco Ramón. If you'd like, I could introduce you?" Tala smiled, wondering if that was the man she had accosted earlier that afternoon. Her free hand traced her voice distorter around her throat, carefully disguised as a tanzanite encrusted silver choker necklace.
"I think I would like that. I have an idea that could prevent it from overheating in the pocket that I believe, Francisco you said, would appreciate." Harrison looked at her questioningly. "Despite being a CEO, I actually have my masters in mechanical engineering. That is the reason why my father, and then myself invested so much into your company. I asked him to. I never wanted to fill the stereotype of the dumb rich girl. So I studied hard and joined the military. Before getting lost at sea anyway."
"You're a very well rounded woman, miss Merlyn." They stepped out of the elevator and Tala looked around the cortex, impressed.
"Wow." She muttered to herself.
"If I could have everyone's attention please? Allow me to introduce miss Tala Merlyn, CEO of the Merlyn Global Group. She has donated over a hundred million dollars to Star Labs toward the particle accelerator project over the past six years." Tala blinked as the people there actually started applauding at her. She glanced up at Doctor Wells before stepping forward, her heels making soft steps as she did.
"Thank you. Many people have asked me why I donate and invest into this company. Previously because they didn't understand how a fourteen year old could understand what a particle accelerator was, but more recently because of my father's legacy as the man who tried to destroy the Glades of Starling City. My reasoning is that with the advances this machine - your machine - could make, science and technology could advance to push my city to new heights and repair the damage my father has done. So I thank each one of you for your hard work. Thank you." Tala rolled her tongue in her mouth, trying to figure out where her speech had come from, and if it was as well received as she'd hoped. Before she could ask him, Doctor Wells was leading her over to Cisco from earlier. He had cleaned up and was now wearing a button up shirt and a very loose tie under a zip up hoodie. His hair was tucked behind one ear, making him look adorable, Tala thought to herself.
"Cisco, Tala here was asking me about your design in the main lobby - the pocket charger. Tala, I'm going to check on my speech for later if you need me, but I'm sure Cisco will take good care of you." He walked away leaving Cisco with the assassin.
"What is your interest in the pocket charger? Is it academic or personal?" Cisco asked, looking at the girl in front of him with a decent amount of interest. He idly wondered if she could be convinced to celebrate their inevitable success that night with him back at his place. She bit her silver painted bottom lip before answering him, in Spanish, which surprised him.
"Both actually. I use enough portable electronics in my day-to-day work and personal life to see the necessity of a portable charger. But what I really wanted to talk to you about is nitrogen. Your charger will overheat in the pocket, from the user's body heat and the heat from electricity. However, if you could infuse nitrogen through it, have it breath nitrogen from the atmosphere, I believe it would hold a longer charge, and stay cooler while in use." Cisco stared at her, impressed, both from her analysis of his design, and her flawless usage of his native language. Cisco was fairly certain he was in love with this girl. Tala smiled at his surprise, "I assure you Francisco, there is so much more to me than a pretty face." She winked at him, startling him enough to form a coherent sentence.
"Let me show you my design plans, you can tell me more about what you had in mind." Tala gave him a lecherous grin, having more in mind than just his design plans, but she followed along behind him.
Tala spent an hour with Cisco talking about his charger design plan. He not only knew his stuff, but he dropped movie references in every other sentence. Tala was already smitten with him. She was about to pose a question to him when Harrison came back into the cortex to start turning on the accelerator. Cisco pulled a chair up for her to watch from alongside Caitlin's office space.
"Doctor Wells, we just got the latest weather report." Cisco said, as Harrison Wells entered the cortex. Tala watched Francisco with a predator's eye and a slight smirk on her face. Her friend who used to work here had mentioned him to her before, but she couldn't see the disdain he'd had for the little mechanical engineer. "A big thunderstorm is rolling in." Tala shuddered slightly, her dislike of thunderstorms well known by her friends, especially Sara who had held her through a few.
"We're not launching a space shuttle, we'll be fine." Harrison countered, looking at two different computer screens monitoring the Labs from Star Labs satellite. Feeling slightly unsettled, Tala pulled her cell phone out and aimed the Merlyn Global Group satellites at the building she was in, hoping she could put another set of eyes on a potential problem. She shuddered again, and rubbed her left hand over the burn scars on her right shoulder. Cisco saw, and asked her if she was cold, already removing his jacket to drape around her shoulders. She pulled it on, rolling the sleeves up and zipping it slightly. Tala also removed a few pins from her hair, letting it fall in blue and brown waves around her shoulders. She quickly moved after him, hovering a few inches behind his place at the computers in the center of the room.
"Can you do me a favor to soothe a paranoid mind?" She asked him quietly, pulling gently on his arm.
"Of course Tala. What can I do for you?" He asked, smiling eagerly - whether at helping her or their soon to be success she couldn't tell.
"I don't like thunderstorms, never did, but the Queen's Gambit going down during one made that a dislike bordering on a fear. I have a duffle bag, dark blue with silver stitching in the CSI lab at CCPD, if anything happens to me, can you bring that bag here? Please?" She looked at him, genuine fear in her eyes. Cisco nodded and smiled at her reassuringly.
"I can do that for you. As long as you do something for me?" She looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "Tomorrow, go for coffee with me?" Tala beamed at him.
"Definitely, Chisana Koneko." She winked at his surprised face before moving back to the chair she was in earlier. She watched as he stuttered for a moment before pulling himself together.
"Doctor Wells," Cisco called from across the room. "The accelerator is primed and ready for particle injection." Tala couldn't help but grin at his proud and eager expression. Harrison turned and walked over to the computers.
"Well, I feel I should say something profound, like one small step for man." Tala giggled and stood, moving to stand nearer to Cisco and Harrison, excited not only as an investor who stood to gain billions, but also as an engineer who stood to gain knowledge. "All I can think of to say is I feel like I've waited for this day for centuries." Harrison looked at his team, before smiling at Tala and starting the process.
"That's it? You'd think there'd be like a loud bang." Cisco said, almost sounding disappointed. Tala laughed at him, moving to casually wrap an arm around his waist.
"If there was a loud bang, we'd all be in big trouble." Ronnie said, looking at Cisco and Tala in shock.
"Take it from the guy who helped build it." Caitlin said, her voice fond and full of pride.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we did it." Harrison crowed, a proud look of accomplishment settling on his face. Everyone in the room applauded, Tala leaned against Cisco excitedly. Harrison grabbed a bottle of champagne and popped it open, making Tala grin.
"I love champagne. Stop me after four glasses though. Else I'll never stop drinking it." She whispered in Cisco's ear, getting closer than strictly necessary. She could feel his arm tense under where she'd pressed herself against him. Tala froze when she saw the champagne float out of the bottle as if in zero gravity, a curious look on her face. She quickly stepped in front of Cisco, just in case, not knowing what to expect. The bubbly floated up, everyone watching it curiously before it fell to the floor at Harrison's feet. As it hit the ground an alarm went off. Tala felt every muscle in her body tense up in anticipation. There was a loud bang.
"There's your loud bang Francisco." Tala said, grinding her teeth. Cisco started typing on a computer, trying to find what went wrong.
"There's an anomaly in the ring structure." Cisco said as he figured out the problem. Tala leaned forward and started unstrapping her heels, knowing she would be of better help when she could run. She fingered the halves of her bow staff that she had secured to her legs, wondering if she would need them.
"The ring's structural integrity is holding." Caitlin informed them
"It started a chain reaction, we need to shut it down." Tala swore under her breath. He told her there was going to be a problem. He told her not to come, she didn't listen. "The system is collapsing. We need to shut it down." Harrison said, giving a series of commands to the computer. Tala typed a message to her friend, two words 'Damn you.' He would understand, he was smart.
"We can't ramp down the accelerator from here, we need to do it manually." Cisco said, shooting Tala a panicked look. She felt the world slow down as her assassin's instincts took over. She felt a calm steal over her, and she knew it reflected in her eyes when Cisco relaxed slightly. Tala ran her thumb over her lips, knowing they turned blue when his eyes widened. Cisco knew who she was now.
"Go!" Harrison said, still typing. Tala chased after Cisco, determined to do something. She knew an explosion here would cause catastrophic damage to Central City.
"I'll come with." Ronnie said, turning to run with them.
"Ronnie, no!" Caitlin protested.
"I'm the lead engineer, I know how to operate the shutdown valve." He explained, looking at her. Tala watched them, she didn't want him to come down, he was a liability.
"It's not safe!" Caitlin said.
"Cait, I have to go." He kissed her and turned, nodding at Tala. They both ran after Cisco to the accelerator.
"I'm helping, don't you dare tell me no, I'm an engineer too, I know that these things usually require three points of contact." Ronnie nodded, his face set in a grim line. The three of them made it to the door and Ronnie opened it before turning to Cisco. Tala pulled on the magic Damian taught her and rolled her shoulders as her armor materialized around her. "Better safe than sorry." Her voice wasn't distorted, as she didn't place her mask on. She adjusted the hood as Ronnie gave instructions to Cisco.
"Stay here, we've only got a few minutes before this thing blows. If I'm not back in time, initiate lockdown."
"No way! I am not closing this door, I won't be able to open it!" Cisco protested.
"Cisco, if you don't seal off this blast, everyone in this building will die, including Caitlin. Okay, now promise me!" Ronnie demanded. Tala nervously flexed her fingers, pulling at her fingerless gloves. The arrows in the quiver on her calf rattled as the building shook. Cisco heaved a sigh and nodded. "Set your watch, two minutes."
"You're coming back, both of you." Cisco said, showing a confidence he didn't feel. Ronnie took off running down the pipeline, Tala grabbed Cisco by his tie and pulled him against her, kissing him, turning his lips blue with her lip stain. She turned and ran after Ronnie, hoping that that wasn't her last kiss. She didn't see behind her that Cisco touched his lips gently in shock.
Her and Ronnie worked quickly, hitting every shutdown valve they could catch, but they weren't doing anything.
"Ronnie, we can't shut down something this far activated. This isn't a computer we can unplug. It's an explosion, we need to shape it. Send it upwards rather than out. It'll fill this area, but I think I can protect you enough to ensure your survival. Hit that switch, and program that to alter its course to a Z axis at fifty degrees." Ronnie did as she demanded, not wasting time arguing with her.
"Ensure my survival? What about your own?" He asked, programming a second set of commands to ensure the blast went up. Tala flinched as her mental countdown hit fifty seconds.
"I may adore Cisco, my Chisana Koneko, but he would not mourn me if am I to die. You have a fiancée and a future with her. If I can save your life, it will have been a good mission. My family will know of my passing. Hazards of an assassin." Ronnie flipped a switch and she knew their time was nearly up.
"You're an assassin?"
"Heir to the Lord of the League of Assassins. He and a man called Damian Darhk trained me. Damian taught me magic. I'm the blue Vigilante from Starling City." Ronnie glanced at her as they sprinted back to the vault door, hoping but both knowing they weren't going to make it. Tala was ten feet behind Ronnie, running as fast as she could, they had fifteen seconds. She looked up and saw Ronnie nearly there, he had six feet left. She tripped over the uneven floor, and tumbled, rolling. Ronnie skid to a stop and sprinted back to her, hauling her to her feet and pulling her along. They reached the vault door. It was closed, locked just before they appeared. Ronnie pulled out a radio.
"Cisco can you hear me?" He shouted into the piece of tech.
"Ronnie it's me!" Tala heard Caitlin's voice come out, she saw the pain flit across Ronnie face, and she hardened her resolve to save him. She would save him.
"Caitlin," Ronnie panted. The temperature in the pipeline was rising, making her sweat under her armor. "Is Cisco there?" He asked.
"Yeah, Ronnie, I'm here, I'm listening." Cisco's voice came through. Tala smiled, thinking of the cute engineer. She was glad he was her last kiss. Tala pressed the SOS button on her choker. It would send a message to Oliver and Nyssa, telling them both where she was and that she was in trouble, big trouble.
"We adjusted the magnets to redirect the beam. Tala's a genius. To try and vent the system so the blast goes up and not out."
"I'll need to reset the particle parameters to compensate." Cisco said.
"Cisco's doing it." Caitlin came through again. "There has to be another way out of there, you have to find it."
"Cait, the chain reaction, I can't reverse it. The doors need to stay shut to protect you." Tala leaned over Ronnie, to offer some protection from the sparks the accelerator was throwing off. "You still there?"
"I'm here." Caitlin sounded close to tears.
"Caitlin, whatever happens..." Ronnie fell silent as he saw past Tala, seeing the light of the explosion.
She turned over her shoulder and saw what she anticipated killing her. She fell to her knees, covering as much of Ronnie as she could. The assassin felt true fear for the first time since the Queen's Gambit exploded from under her. Under her breath, she cast a protection spell Damian taught her, but couldn't finish it before the accelerator completely exploded. Tala met Ronnie's eyes, and knew nothing more.
It wasn't until seventy-four hours later, that Francisco Ramón was able to get into the accelerator to see if Ronnie and Tala were alright. Doctor Harrison Wells sat in his wheelchair at the door, looking in at the damage caused by the explosion. Cisco found Tala to the right of the door, lying in a heap on the floor, with blood trickling from several places on her face, though at this point, all the blood was dry. Her dress had tears on her back and along her leg, some of which looked singed. Cisco's jacket was still wrapped around her, although missing one sleeve.
"Doctor Wells! I found Tala, she's alive, just injured, there's a lot of blood here." Cisco said, gently feeling for a pulse on her neck. He gently pressed his way down her spine, making sure nothing was broken before he tenderly lifted her into his arms to carry her to Caitlin's office, which they had turned into a makeshift doctor's office. Doctor Wells kept searching for Ronnie, but they already said they didn't expect to find anyone else down there - Tala's survival being something near a miracle. Cisco laid her down on the hospital bed they had appropriated for this specific purpose. After getting her relatively comfortable, he glanced down at the bag she had asked him to fetch. Cisco didn't know how she knew something bad was going to happen, but he couldn't deny that she was right. The particle accelerator had exploded, apparently had killed Ronnie, put Tala in a coma and nearly destroyed Star Labs. He shook his head in frustration at their failure. Cisco left the room and went back to his 3D model of Star Labs, trying to find what went wrong, his best working theory was that when the particles collided, they were at the wrong speed and had tried to cause an unstable singularity, which caused the explosion. He groaned in frustration, and reached for a red vine when the lights went out in the cortex.
"Damn it, Caitlin, the lights went out again - never mind. They're back on. That was," he trailed off as he turned, coming face to face with a very angry looking woman in all black, with a pink lining in her hood. "Who the hell are you?!" Cisco shrieked, his heart practically jumping into his throat.
"I am Nyssa Al Ghul. You will take me to my sister." She declared, staring at Cisco like a Queen would a particularly annoying servant.
"That would be possible, only if we knew who your sister was. We don't have, and haven't had anyone here by that name." Doctor Wells said as he wheeled into the room, his calm demeanor helping to soothe Cisco's rapidly beating heart.
"The'eb Sagheer, Tala Merlyn, I care not for what you call her, you will take me to my sister - I know she is here! You will bring me to her now or I will take great pleasure in killing everyone in this building, including the redhead hiding around the corner!" Cisco blanched as he realized that this Nyssa woman would kill everyone here, and wouldn't blink an eye.
"Tala is in a coma, we just found her in the Pipeline. She's over here." Cisco said, waving the intruder over to where Tala was lying. Caitlin came into the room, looking slightly pale. She started moving around the unconscious woman, hooking her up to an IV and an EKG machine to monitor her vitals.
"Ms. Al Ghul, how did you know Tala was here? We haven't contacted her family yet." Caitlin asked as she worked. She motioned for Cisco to help her get the dress off in order for Doctor Snow to place heart monitors onto Tala's chest.
"Her necklace. It has a button on it that sends an alert out to her partner and me. She pressed it three days ago. Since she didn't retract it within a day, I came running. Her partner should be here within a day or so." Cisco and Caitlin worked quickly to remove the dress and her shoes. Cisco tossed his jacket in the trash, but Nyssa took the dress, looking at it closely.
"She wasn't wearing this when your machine exploded. Where is her trunk, do you know?" She demanded, glaring at Cisco and Caitlin. Cisco kicked it while helping Caitlin move things around, not bothering to answer the angry woman.
"Why do you think she wasn't wearing it? That is the same dress she was wearing at the party, and it is what we found her in." Doctor Wells asked from the doorway, looking at her interestedly. Nyssa showed him the inner lining of the neck of the dress. It showed silver thread, stitched in a specific pattern.
"She was taught things by my father's rival. A man more evil than you could imagine. This is a spell, one for protection. Had she been wearing this during the explosion, the thread would've burned away. She was wearing her armor." Nyssa sighed, sounding relieved. Both the assassin and the now paralyzed scientist started when Tala's EKG monitor spiked. Nyssa turned and saw Caitlin trying to remove the necklace that contained her voice distorter.
"No! You must never take this off of her." Caitlin immediately removed her hands from the necklace, blinking in surprise when her heart rate went back to normal.
"Why, why can't we remove it? It looks uncomfortable." Cisco asked, looking down at the unconscious girl. He now carried a damp cloth and looked like he was about to try removing her makeup, and the blood on her face.
"It's connected to her spinal chord. If you remove it, she will die." A deep voice spoke from behind Wells and Nyssa. Cisco jumped and shrieked again and Caitlin lost the remaining color in her face. Behind Nyssa was the green Starling City vigilante.
"Alaiqtisas." Nyssa greeted, in Arabic. Oliver Queen nodded to her in return, only knowing the word from when Tala would call him Vigilante when they started their crusade.
"Only she can remove it. You will have to wait until she wakes. Take care of my little sister, or I will help Nyssa find you. Just because I've sworn off killing, doesn't mean I won't help her track you all down. Nyssa." The vigilante nodded to her, before turning and leaving. Nyssa sat down in a chair, and opened Tala's trunk, sitting on top was her league armor, covered in dust and sporting many scratches in it.
"She was wearing this. It would have protected her, and whomever she was with." Nyssa declared.
"She tried to protect Ronnie." Caitlin whispered sadly, looking down at her.
"She's the other vigilante. I thought so, she kind of told me that, before she kissed me." Cisco said, looking down at her face, now free of makeup and blood. He felt as though he'd just been on a roller coaster, his head was spinning with all the revelations he'd had today. Nyssa smiled softly, having made up her mind.
"You will be the one to take care of my sister. She will stay with you once she regains consciousness, my father and I will send you money and anything you need to take care of her. As long as my sister stays with you, you will want for nothing. There is a reason my people referred to her as the wolf queen. She has chosen you as her pack." Nyssa was looking directly at Cisco when she spoke, leaving no question as to whom Tala would live with when she awoke.
"I live in a one bedroom apartment. I don't know how she can live with me." Cisco stuttered, blinking rapidly.
"Not anymore. I will buy off your contract. You will find a house, at least two bedrooms, preferably three, with space for her to continue her training. I will buy it in your name. I will return in a month. Make sure you have decided on a residence." And with that, Nyssa swept away, leaving the blue dress lying on the chair she had just vacated.
Nyssa Al Ghul returned in exactly a month. Cisco had found a house in Central City that he liked, and Nyssa bought it. Caitlin helped him move his things in, but expressed her concern about doing what this woman asked.
"Caitlin, when some crazy assassin princess demands you take care of another assassin princess, one who is also a vigilante with a history of putting arrows in people she doesn't like, you do what she asks. If Tala decides she doesn't want to live here, or with me, she can fight with Nyssa over it. I'm just going to do what I'm told so I don't die." Cisco said as he carried a box of his clothes up to the room he decided would be his. Caitlin laughed at his declaration, before running up the stairs at his shriek of panic. She burst in the room, but stopped dead when she saw the Starling City Vigilante standing by the window.
"I just came to see if you needed any help." His deep voice boomed in the small room.
"There are a few boxes we can't easily lift. They're labeled in red." Caitlin answered when she realized Cisco wasn't going to. "Thank you!" She said at his back when he headed down the stairs to the front room where the boxes were stacked.
"The Starling City vigilante is helping me move into my house. What the hell happened to my nice normal life?" Cisco asked the ceiling, looking up, probably for divine intervention.
"It exploded with the accelerator. Not that it was completely normal before that - you were kissed by an assassin that jumped off the highest point of Star Labs. Then she ran into the pipeline, and according to Nyssa, tried to save Ronnie. I don't think our lives could get any weirder." Caitlin answered, going back down to get another box.
"Never mind, I was wrong." Caitlin said gritting her teeth.
"Wrong about what?" Dr Wells asked her, looking over Barry Allen's vitals.
"Last month, I said our lives couldn't get any weirder, now we have Mister Allen here, and apparently his heart is too fast for a normal EKG monitor. I had to tempt fate." Caitlin pressed the two sensors on Barry Allen's chest, and sighed when the new monitor that Cisco fixed appeared to keep up with his racing heart. Two months had gone by since the accelerator exploded, and they now had an assassin, and a CSI staying in her office, which her and Cisco had worked to turn into a medical lab.
"Don't worry, Caitlin. I knew you were wrong three weeks ago." Cisco joked, unwrapping a green lollipop and sticking it in his mouth.
"How? We didn't have Barry here then."
"No, but I got a receipt for my water bill. The League of Assassins is paying my bills. She hasn't even woken up yet!"
"But she will wake up." Nyssa Al Ghul said, causing Cisco to jump, and bite down on his sucker. He rubbed his jaw, shooting her a dirty look. "I have asked my father to bring water from the Lazarus pit, and he is considering it. Hopefully next time I come, I will have means to wake her."
"Lazarus? Like the bible?" Cisco asked, still glaring.
"Yes, it is a fountain of water that can heal any injury, revive any person, and bring anyone back from the brink of death. I believe a few drops can also wake up my sister. Until then, try bringing her coffee. She likes it with vanilla or hazelnut creamer. She's also partial to Tchaikovsky's music. I will be back in a month." She left Star Labs, leaving behind three bewildered people, and two in a coma. Cisco sighed and tucked his hair behind his ears. Caitlin shook her head at the assassin that liked to just appear in their lab.
"Well, it must be nice not having to pay bills. Or for your house." Caitlin said, trying to stick to something normal.
"Yeah, means I can buy more things to build. I just need her to wake up; she gave me the idea for infusing nitrogen into my pocket chargers, so I feel like her name should be involved in it. Her lawyers won't sign it without her." Cisco complained.
"Just go finish working on your fireman thing. We really need to get Star Lab's name out of the mud." Caitlin said, shrugging her shoulders.
"How is she doing?" Iris West asked Caitlin when she came to visit Barry.
"The same, we've seen absolutely no changes in her, unlike Barry. His cells are regenerating, and he has every sign of waking up, if not soon, then by the end of the year at worst. She doesn't look like she would ever wake up. It's worrying Cisco, and her sister keeps appearing giving us all heart attacks. Her best friend nearly shot Cisco when he suggested that they should get her affairs in order. Starling City is a weird place full of weird people." Caitlin said, checking over both of her patient's vitals, and drawing blood from them both to compare to the samples she takes every week.
"How is her hair still blue like that? I'd expect it to have grown out a little bit by now." Iris asked, gesturing to the blue streak in her hair.
"Tala's sister brought the dye she uses and has demanded that Cisco touch up the roots at least every other week. She said that Tala would cry if she woke up to find her roots showing. Apparently she is very attached to that color."
"That is an understatement," a man's voice said from behind them, making both women jump.
"Are you a friend of hers? Or did Nyssa send you? I doubt the vigilante would send someone without a mask." Caitlin asked him, giving him a dirty look.
"No. Nyssa hates me, and so does the vigilante you're referring to. Tala is my daughter." Malcolm Merlyn said, sitting down on her bed and taking Tala's hand.
"You died. The vigilante killed you when the earthquake destroyed Starling City." Iris said, leaning back, away from the supposed dead man.
"There are places on this earth where death is an illusion. Word has now gotten out about Tala's condition; a few people you probably will not approve of will visit her. I suggest you be careful. Keep her trunk nearby, and if you need anything, please, call me." Malcolm set a card down on the small desk nearby and left just as suddenly as he appeared. The two girls looked at each other and swore they would never mention father's sudden visit to anyone but the Tala when she awoke.
"Here she is. I'm glad she has friends out there who would visit her. So far her only visitors have been an assassin and a vigilante in a green hood." Cisco said as he led a man to Tala's bed.
"That sounds like her usual friend group. And I'm certain that many have provided for her, but I would suggest mixing this plant in with her IV drip." The man handed a large resealable bag to Cisco. It was filled with a plant with purple leaves.
"What is it? I don't want to do anything that could hurt her." Cisco said, warily eyeing the plant. He knew if he even accidentally damaged her chances of recovering, both the Arrow and Nyssa would see him dead.
"It is now extinct, but it is a healing herb, infused with magic. Soak it in water and just let it drip, it should help her heal. It also acts as a wonderful painkiller when eaten. Just never mix it with alcohol - it'll react poorly and will become a strong aphrodisiac, not just like a date rape drug, it has a chemical composition that will react like a love potion. I've got scientists working to remove that specific side effect though, and will bring you some more within a month."
"Thank you Mr. Darhk, anything I can do to help Tala is appreciated." Cisco said, shaking his hand. Damian placed a hand on Tala's bare shoulder and whispered a spell he had used on his daughter when she broke her arm. It healed bones and muscles, hopefully helping her recover without the side effect of muscle atrophy. He nodded at her, then Cisco, and left, hoping his protégé would wake soon.
"I swear if the two of you don't wake up soon I'm going to have our mutual friend in green come here and beat you both stupid!" Felicity muttered to her two comatose friends with a huff.
"I've tried everything, though Tala seems to be doing better since her friends have brought her things. A weird plant, coffee, hair dye, someone she considered a sister came and burned incense for two hours. I nearly had an asthma attack." Caitlin said, passing Felicity a cup of coffee.
"Caitlin, they've been like this since December! It's April now. Tala's going to miss her birthday if she doesn't wake up soon. I was going to make her a cake." Felicity pouted, looking at her two friends. "It's been four months, and her friends back in Starling are getting concerned. I'm getting concerned."
Cisco walked in and told Felicity that he felt the same way. He set a steaming cup of coffee down on the table next to Tala. Everyone watched as her face turned slightly toward the cup.
"When did that start happening?" Felicity asked, hopeful that she would wake up soon.
"About two weeks ago. After a few people suggested that we bring her coffee, we noticed that she would turn slightly toward the smell of it." Cisco said, smiling.
"Have you tried holding it in front of her? If she turns to the side to smell it, maybe she'll wake up if you put it directly in front of her." Felicity suggested, before reaching for her phone as it went off. "Alright, I'm needed back in Starling, you'll keep working on that cure I asked you for, right?"
"I've got a few different maspectromitors analyzing a few different solutions that might work. I'll let you know as soon as we do." Caitlin stood and went to show her out. Cisco took her recently vacated seat and turned on the radio, letting Tala's CD play throughout the room. Her face was turned away from him, but he could picture it just fine. She looked younger without her makeup on - less like a deadly assassin and more like a girl in a coma. He looked up as he heard Caitlin returning. He made a face when he saw Nyssa following behind her.
"I have water from the Lazarus pit. Put it in an IV and give it to her, she should wake. I would even suggest mixing it with the plant mixture you have been giving her. I would stay to watch her wake, but I am needed in Starling. Have her contact me when she recovers." Nyssa handed a vial of water to Cisco, and gave him a deadly look. "This is for my sister only. If I discover that you gave it to him, I will not kill you, but you will wish I had." And with that she left again. Cisco shook his head at the assassin, and turned to pass the vial to Caitlin who transferred it to a syringe. The Lazarus water was quickly injected into the bag containing the purple plants Damian Darhk brought a month ago. The two waited with baited breath. Caitlin sighed when it didn't do anything, and left the room to run another test on the blood she had drawn the day before. Cisco sighed and placed his hand on Tala's.
"Do you think I should follow Felicity's advice? You seem to follow the coffee scent like a bloodhound. Maybe that is why the green vigilante calls you 'Little Wolf'? You do seem obsessed with the stuff." Cisco paused, looking at the Jitters logo. " What the hell, it won't hurt things." Cisco scoffed and grabbed the still hot cup of coffee from Jitters, and climbed onto her bed. He straddled her legs, just above her knees and placed the cup parallel to her collarbone and watched as she turned to keep facing it.
"You know, if this wasn't so funny, it'd be creepy." He slowly pulled to cup toward himself. "Now sit up and wake up so your creepy friends can call you instead of just appearing in here." He watched as she slowly sat up, and he wondered about her abdominal strength, because he knew he couldn't sit up this slowly. She sat up completely, as Cisco pulled the vanilla coffee against his chest. She opened her eyes, and Cisco nearly let out a shriek.
"Coffee?" Was the first thing she said. Cisco held out the cup with a shaky hand, and watched as she took it and eagerly sipped at it, closing her eyes and smiling when the flavor hit her tongue. She then scrunched up her face and looked at him.
"Cisco, malen'kiy kotenok, why are you sitting on me? And why are you staring at me?" He just blinked at her, not even noticing she spoke Russian.
"Caitlin! Felicity was right! You need to get in here!" He turned and shouted toward the bio-engineer. She came running in to find Cisco sitting on Tala Merlyn's lap while she drank coffee. Both women had a very bemused look on their faces while Cisco looked like he was in the middle of a panic attack.
Tala Merlyn took stock of her body as Doctor Caitlin "call me Cait" Snow ran a few tests on her to make sure the assassin hadn't suffered too badly during her four month nap. She kept most of her muscle mass, but made a resolution to get her weapons together and make sure she still had enough to fight.
"Everything appears to check out, I don't think the particle accelerator affected you at all, besides the coma." Caitlin decided as she finished her last test.
"I don't think that's right. Something feels, off about me, I just can't tell what it is. I feel, a bowstring, under my skin. Pulled taunt, shaking, waiting to be released. But I don't know how. How can we even test to see if there is something different - oh! My sensors. Where's my trunk?" Caitlin looked at her, trying to catch up.
"Tala, you babble more than Felicity." Cisco said as he walked back in the room, tossing a shirt at her. She grinned at the design; it was the galaxy with a 'you are here' pin.
"Occupational hazard. Neat shirt by the way. I put sensors on the towers, I was hoping to double check whatever came out of the accelerator. I was going to offer Doctor Wells a load of money if he would consider a merger with Merlyn Global Group if my sensors picked up anything new. It could give my stocks the boost they need. Now I'm considering buying Star Labs just to keep you guys afloat." Tala pulled the shirt on over her head and tugged her hair out of the collar. Cisco told her she was babbling again, making her smile sheepishly. "I'm going to do something fun, wanna come Cisco?"
Tala pulled her trunk out from under the bed she'd been laying on just a few hours prior. Cisco was watching from over her shoulder, as he had never been able to get the lock open.
"How does that lock work? Only your assassin sister could get in it. We couldn't get it open." Cisco asked, peering at the thing that looked like a normal padlock.
"Blood, my dear. It's a blood ward. I'll probably add you or Cait to it at some point, in case I need anything out of it." Tala placed her now bloody finger in her mouth and opened the trunk, revealing a whole lot of blue.
"I take it that is your favorite color?" Cisco asked, his eyes wide.
"I had a friend, back in the sixth grade. He told me that blue was the only color that was worthy of me wearing it. He was an ass, but was the only friend I had that year. He also taught me Japanese. I took what he said to heart and from then on, blue was an integral part of my wardrobe. Much to my green counterpart's disappointment. He wanted me in a different shade of green so we could match. Nyssa wanted me in pink. I've never liked that color." She grabbed her bow and her mask, slipping it into place on her face. Her dark hair staying under the band, her blue hair falling gently over it, covering one eye, until she flicked it out of the way. "Come with me." Tala held out a hand, looking Cisco in the eye. Her voice distortion necklace doing its job and giving her a hypnotic sounding voice, thicker and full of an accent Cisco couldn't place.
"Okay. I trust you, Leia." Cisco said, referring to the first thing she ever said to him. Tala flashed a very white smile at him, before swiping the pad of her thumb across her lips. Cisco watched as they magically turned a shade of dark blue. She winked at him and led him out to the front of Star Labs. She held his hand within her left hand, and her bow in her right. "What are we doing out here? I expected your sensors to be in the pipeline."
"Not quite love." Tala drew an arrow with blue and silver fletching from the quiver fastened around her thigh, and fired it at the top of the closest tower. It had grappling attached to the belt of her league armor. She pulled Cisco close, her right arm around his waist while her left held her bow. "Hold tight."
"Wait, no!" Cisco shouted as he frantically threw his arms around her neck just as the wire pulled them both up to the arrow. Tala pressed her feet to the steel beams exposed where they landed, and pushed Cisco up to the flat surface. She clambered up herself once she saw he had his balance. "Why did you do that?! That was horrifying!" Cisco shouted at her, staring at the arrow still lodged in place.
"Just wait until we go back down. There's nothing better than a freefall. You can wait here while I get the other two if you want." Tala said, kneeling to find the sensor she left there back in December. She pulled it free and dropped it in her pocket on the inside of her armor jacket.
"Oh hell no, you are not leaving me up here by myself!" Cisco responded, turning to face her, some of his panic having faded by now.
"It's a great view, isn't it?" Tala asked, looking at the engineer in front of her, while he looked over the city. "The next tower has a better one, you can take a picture for Cait and Doctor Wells. C'mon."
Cisco enjoyed the next zip line better, as he was less surprised by the sudden takeoff. And he realized she was right, the view was amazing. He pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures for Cait. Tala took a selfie on his phone of the two of them with the skyline in the background. She sent it to her phone so she could send it to Oliver and Thea. She put the second sensor with the first and they zip lined over to the last tower. The view wasn't as good, this one facing the river and the forest nearby. Tala pocketed the last sensor and turned to face Cisco, who was facing the forest, taking more pictures, probably just to document his being up at the top of the towers.
"Ready to get to get back to the ground? I'll give you an option of a free fall or another zip line." Tala asked him, slipping into Spanish. Cisco spun around, shock on his face; he had probably forgotten she spoke it. Tala watched as his surprise about her language choices quickly morphed into sheer terror at there not being any ground beneath his foot. He looked at her and fell as if in slow motion. Tala screamed and reached out a hand, as if to catch him, even as she did, knowing that Cisco was falling faster than she could catch him. She knew she didn't have any arrows in her quiver to catch him - not without putting a grappling arrow through his shoulder. She took a step and a half forward, hoping to catch a last glance at him. When she looked down, she saw Cisco holding on to a blue tendril that appeared to have formed a basket around him. He was kneeling in it, one hand gripping the edge of whatever it was that caught him. He looked at her with wide eyes, not completely understanding what caught him. On a hunch, Tala thought about the basket moving up to place Cisco on the surface of the tower. She moved her hands the way a telekinetic would to help them concentrate, and gaped as it did exactly that. When Cisco had both feet firmly on the ground, the blue basket dissipated, turning into tendrils that appeared to flow back into Tala. She moved as quick as she dared toward Cisco and pulled him into a rib-cracking hug, babbling rapidly in Spanish.
"Oh Cisco, I thought I lost you! I didn't know how to save you, and I knew I couldn't have caught you in time if I'd jumped, I am so so sorry!" Her fearful apologies gave way to tears as Cisco gently returned the hug, rubbing circles on her back to calm her down.
"It's alright pequeño lobo. I'm alright, and you found out how the accelerator affected you. Cerulean Spellcaster." Cisco said, giving her a Meta nickname, making her giggle. She pulled out of the hug and wiped at her eyes around the mask.
"You know I already have a vigilante nickname, right? The'eb Sagheer. Come, I doubt either of us wants a free fall on the way down. I'll set up a zip line."
"Control over what though?" Cait asked as they walked back into the cortex.
"I think it's dark matter. Or, blue dark matter. It was definitely blue, but see through, like that glitter glue that every kid had when they were five."
"Mine was purple." Cisco commented, sitting at his workstation. Tala laughed at him as Doctor Wells wheeled into the room. He went past her and she felt something, but she didn't know what. The feeling passed, so she ignored it.
"Tell me exactly what you felt, what you did, what happened." Harrison said, resting his chin on his hand. Tala sat on the desk near Cisco and sighed.
"We were on the top of the towers. I was collecting data sensors I'd placed there last year. Cisco was with me, admiring the view. On the third tower, I asked him how he wanted to get down, a free fall, or a zip line. I'd slipped into Spanish, and I guess it startled him. He turned to face me too quickly and slipped. I wasn't fast enough to catch him, but the magic, the blue stuff did. It was like he was in a basket of the stuff. I was able to move it, whether it was responding to what I wanted it to do, or if it was my movements, I don't know, but it saved Cisco's life." Tala's voice shook slightly, and Cisco placed his hand on her shoulder. She took a steadying breath before looking up at him.
"You two were up on the towers?" Caitlin asked, incredulous. Tala grinned and nodded, removing the three disks from her inside pocket. "What would possess you to do something so stupid? I can't believe you were up there, and to put Cisco's life at risk like that? Are you truly so involved with being an assassin that you care so little for someone else's life like that? If you hadn't become a metahuman, Cisco - my best friend - would be dead, lying down on the ground, broken and alone." Caitlin screamed at Tala, ignoring the fact that the assassin in question had burst into tears and was shaking like a leaf. Tala was looking at her hands in her lap, before she took a deep breath and stood slowly.
"You're right. I shouldn't have taken those risks. I shouldn't have taken Cisco up there without knowing that he would be protected. Here is the data on everything that happened, or came out of the accelerator when it exploded. You'll probably have to translate it, it's in Arabic. Thank you for taking care of me while I was unconscious." Tala placed the disks on Cisco's desk and turned to leave. She was at the doorway when Cisco called out to her.
"Wait, Tala." The assassin heard him stand and start walking over to her. She felt for the new power within her and pushed, placing a clear blue barrier between them. "Tala," Cisco repeated when he felt the wall between them. Tala turned and looked him in the eye.
"I won't put you in danger. Not on purpose, or on accident. She's right, I'm an assassin - I'm supposed to be on my own, not around people. Give Barry my best when he wakes up. Goodbye Francisco." Tala climbed in the elevator, and a tendril of her magic brought her the blue trunk, closed and locked. Before the elevator closed, Cisco saw her pull her armor hood over her head and adjust her mask. After the doors closed, the barrier fell and Cisco let his hand fall to his side. He ran to his desk and started typing, trying to get the elevator to stop so he could get to Tala before she left. He let out a cheer when it worked.
"I will deal with you later Doctor Snow. For now I have to make sure Tala doesn't leave, or did you forget her assassin princess sister threatened me with death if Tala is ever unhappy?"
Tala felt the elevator shudder to a stop and knew that Cisco had hacked it. She couldn't believe she had put him in danger like she had. Oliver and Sara had been able to protect themselves, Cisco hadn't and she had nearly gotten him killed. She looked up and saw the service hatch. She easily popped it open with a short sword strapped to her right thigh. It was just climbing a rope upward to get to the next floor. Tala used the sword to get leverage to open the heavy doors. She pulled her trunk up and crawled onto the floor after it. Tala exited the front doors just as Cisco ran around the corner. By the time he got out the doors, the blue assassin was speeding away on her motorcycle. Cisco swore and slammed the door, running back to the cortex.
Caitlin watched Cisco chase after the assassin who nearly had him killed, confusion written all over her face. Doctor Wells saw this and moved his wheelchair to be in front of her.
"She nearly killed him. If she hadn't caught him, he would be dead. After Ronnie, I can't lose anyone else, especially not Cisco. He's my best friend, and he's been here for me after losing Ronnie." She sank into the chair behind her and buried her face in her hands.
"Caitlin, Tala's recklessness aside, Cisco did go with her willingly. And she did save him. When she was telling her story, she was terrified. I've never seen someone as scared as Miss Merlyn was when she told us she nearly lost Cisco. I've no fear that Nyssa will return for revenge - if Tala tells her that she left of her own free will, Cisco will be in no danger. The only danger will be Cisco beating himself up for letting her leave. I think our Cisco has grown quite fond of her." Doctor Wells stopped talking when he heard Cisco's hurried footsteps coming back into the cortex.
"She's gone. Where is that card, I need to call her father. He might be able to find her." Cisco walked into the medical room where an unconscious Barry still laid. He quickly found the card that Malcolm Merlyn had left there a few months ago and dialed the number.
"Merlyn." Malcolm Merlyn answered the phone, knowing that the only people who had this number knew who he was and knew he was alive.
"Tala woke up. The explosion gave her control over some weird dark matter thing that she used to save my life after almost accidentally killing me by startling me off the edge of a very tall building. My friend Caitlin Snow yelled at her for it and Tala appeared to have a depressive episode and she left, taking her things with her. Her control over her new powers aside, I didn't want her to leave, and I really didn't want her to leave thinking I hated her because I don't, and whether she stays here or not, I need her to know that. Do you know where she would've gone, or how I can find her?" Cisco rattled off as fast as he could, trying to make sure that the man Iris and Caitlin once described as 'Creepy and terrifying' didn't try and kill him over the phone.
"She's either returned to Starling, gone to Nanda Parbat, or went to find Damian Darhk to work on her control. I'll come to Central City. Do her a favor and make sure whomever it was that upset my daughter is well out of my way. I will not be as forgiving." The phone call ended abruptly and Cisco turned to face Caitlin and Doctor Wells.
"Her father is coming here to help me find her. He only asks that you aren't here when he is. Go home Caitlin. I know you said what you did out of compassion and fear for my life, but I am fine. I just want Tala to know that I don't hate her." Cisco said, worry filling his voice.