She'd finally tracked the girl down. The newspapers had stopped talking about her, after she'd gone dark for a few weeks. Which meant now was the perfect time to collect her.
She'd sent Norvak to talk to the girl, once she'd seen her enter the bar. Unfortunately, the snake wasn't doing a good job of it at all. In fact, he seemed to be scaring her away, and before Amunet could say anything, Norvak tensed to grab her arm.
"I said stay away!"
A circle of ice spread around the girl at the cry, jagged points reaching for Norvak as he lunged for her. One caught at his arm, and with a quick glance at Amunet he slunk away, holding the bleeding wound. Amunet watched the coward retreat and stepped out from behind the bar, moving slowly towards the girl. She would have to handle this herself.
"I'm sorry about Norvak," she said, as earnestly as she could. "He's still working on his manners."
The girl didn't look up, staring at the drop of blood on the icicle that had scraped Norvak. Amunet stopped next to that spot.
"I'm Amunet. And what's your name?"
The girl finally looked away from the ice, but Amunet wasn't prepared for the tortured look in her eyes. "I don't know," she breathed.
She seemed so broken that Amunet acted on impulse, momentarily forgetting her plan to recruit the girl. She reached a hand out, gripping the girl by the arm and putting pressure against it, urging her slowly forward. The girl looked at her warily but didn't protest as Amunet led her to the back of the bar, to her private room. Once there, she motioned for the girl to sit at her table, taking a seat for herself across from her.
"Now we can have a nice chat," Amunet said.
"You know who I am," the girl said, looking up from behind snowy locks.
"I've heard about Killer Frost. You said you didn't know your name, though."
"Sometimes I think I'm Killer Frost. Other times I'm Caitlin Snow."
Amunet's eyes narrowed. It certainly wasn't the situation she was expecting, but she was good at improvising. "Who are you now?"
Brown eyes looked down at her hands. "Caitlin, I think," she said.
"Well, Caity, it seems like you could use some attention. I'll get us some drinks and we'll talk. Does that sound alright?"
The girl glanced up, unable to completely hide her surprise, and gave a small nod. Amunet stood and retrieved two beers, and when she walked back into the room, Caitlin seemed a bit more comfortable. She didn't look as tormented, at least, though it was clear to Amunet that Caitlin was a rather serious individual.
"Right," Amunet said once Caitlin had taken a sip. "Tell me what's going on. I'm all ears."
The girl spoke for thirty minutes straight, talking about how her powers had manifested and her struggle to contain her darker impulses. Amunet was intrigued by this Savitar person, but gathered something more important from that part of the story: Caitlin liked following someone. She said she had been part of a team before (though she wouldn't identify them), and then, when her powers had changed her, she had followed Savitar to fit those changes. Now that she couldn't follow either of those options, she had to be feeling lonely… now was the time to recruit her.
"Sounds to me like you could use some company. I do have a bit of a business."
Caitlin picked up her beer.
"Someone with your talents could be very useful to me."
"You finally said it," Caitlin murmured as she finished the drink.
"Pardon?" Amunet asked.
Caitlin placed the bottle on the table, though she kept her grip loose around it. "Why would you talk to me like this unless you want something from me?" Her tone darkened. "To use me."
"I hardly think that's fair. You were upset -."
"Don't lie!"
Amunet cut off at the abrupt change in the girl's voice – and the ice that formed on the empty bottle, sticking it to the table. She looked up and saw that her eyes weren't brown anymore. They were blue.
"Is this Frost?" she asked hesitantly.
Burning blue eyes locked on her aggressively, and then she dipped her head in confirmation.
"Well Frost, let me be perfectly clear: if I didn't want to listen to your story, I wouldn't have. Do you understand? I would have gotten straight to business, like I originally intended."
Frost stayed silent, looking at her with distrust. Amunet took that as a good sign that she wasn't too upset, and decided to actually move on to business.
"Do a little job for me," Amunet said.
"Why would I do that?" Frost asked.
"Don't pretend you're not interested," Amunet chastised. "We both know you're bored on your own, and want a reason to use your powers. I can give you that reason." And the leadership you must be missing, she thought.
Frost inspected her through heavily-lidded eyes, and then nodded. "Alright. One job, and if I don't like it, I'm gone."
"Of course," Amunet said. "Now, here's what I need you to do."
Frost did the job. She did is spectacularly, actually, much faster and more efficiently than Norvak ever did. When she stepped into Amunet's office after getting back, dropping the money on the desk and reporting that the next payment would be ready early, Amunet was thrilled.
"You're a natural, Chilly," she said as she started to smile.
Frost didn't react to the nickname much, though she seemed satisfied.
"I take it you'll do another job?"
Now Frost reacted, her lips quirking up into a promising smirk. "What do you need me to do?"
It was the next day that showed Amunet how broken the girl still was, though. When she showed up in the morning for the debriefing of her next job, her hair was darker, her eyes brown – and that haunted look was back in them.
"Amunet, I can't do this," she said. "I'm sorry."
"Caity, -."
"I can't! It's Frost that wants this, not me!"
"The way I see it, a part of you must want it, or you wouldn't have come here at all." Amunet walked closer. "You can't lie to yourself forever, dear. We all love a little destruction now and then."
She took a trembling breath, and when she looked at Amunet again, it was with confident blue eyes. "We do," she said. "Caitlin knows that, even if she doesn't like to admit it."
The dynamic still didn't make much sense to Amunet, but so far everything was working out, so she didn't dwell on it. She told the girl everything she needed to know about the pesky associate, and hoped that the girl stayed Frost more often than not. She didn't like how unpredictable the girl's mental state seemed to be, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
She wasn't with the girl all day, but whenever she did see her it was with bluer eyes and a colder demeanor. She sent Frost on the job at nightfall, and it was Frost who returned to report how it had gone.
Caity came back just before Frost was going to leave, and Amunet decided to convince her it wasn't just 'being a bad guy' all the time. She went with her to do inventory, talking with her all the way; getting her more comfortable with the operation that she clearly didn't think very highly of, but didn't want to leave either. Amunet knew she had to give Caitlin as much of a reason to stay as Frost, and knew that would most likely result from actual conversations. So she talked with her.
A week passed without a serious incident. Amunet was getting used to having both Caitlin and Frost around, as both had their uses. But the girl was still too unpredictable. One day she almost seemed to be in pain, her identity in flux so one moment she was beside herself, the next shoving Norvak against a wall for standing too close. Amunet decided to go with her on the job that night, to see what actually happened when she sent her out there.
Her going along seemed to help stabilize the girl; at least partially. The Frost side of her took control as they reached their destination, and entered the room with a purposeful stride.
Amunet was quite proud of her, actually. She was ruthless, and when Pinky wouldn't look at her, Frost gripped the woman's hand. Amunet heard Pinky scream in pain and fear, and when Frost released her hand, Pinky cradled it and backed away. Frost flicked her hand backwards, and in addition to the layer of frost that covered the floor was a pinky finger.
"Now look at me, or you'll need a new name," Frost threatened.
"Alright, I'm sorry!" Pinky cried between whimpers of pain, hiding her remaining pinky. A more beneficial deal was made quickly from there, and Pinky fled the second Amunet let her.
Once the thieves were gone Amunet laughed and turned to Frost. "That was wonderful! Really, Chilly, I don't know why I didn't scoop you up sooner! That's the shortest meeting I've ever had with her."
"Then you talked too much," Frost stated. "I've never been very good at talking to people. At least, people who don't know me."
The conversation had taken a dangerous turn, with the potential for remembering her old team. That always made Caitlin come out. But before she could redirect the conversation Amunet saw the change in her eyes, and cursed that it hadn't happened a few minutes later. After they'd left the scene, and Frost's handiwork wasn't in view. The woman's finger lay on the ground, the end that should have been bleeding frozen over. A lot of the room was frozen over, and there was blood in a few spots from scrapes and shallow cuts.
"I did this," Caitlin said.
"It looks worse than it is," Amunet started.
"I took off someone's finger because she didn't want to look at me!" She turned from the carnage. "Frost is taking over again. I'm losing myself."
"It's not that bad," Amunet tried to soothe. "You removed her pinky very cleanly."
She thought the appeal to logic would help the girl focus. She realized the girl probably didn't even hear her. She was almost in shock.
"Maybe I was always meant to be Frost…" the girl mumbled.
In the short time she'd known the girl, Amunet could see clearly that the two personalities really were very different. Frost was the one Amunet had originally wanted, but Caitlin could prove to be an excellent part of her organization. But this wishy-washy struggle the girl was going through, sorting out her two personalities… that would have to be taken care of before she could really be of any use. And if it wasn't, she didn't know how long the girl could function. If Frost went out on a job and Caitlin came out in the middle… no, that couldn't happen. If she ever did something more drastic than removing someone's finger, the girl would be too racked with guilt to do anything for Amunet again. But how to fix the girl? Amunet didn't have the scientific knowledge Caitlin did, and nothing Caitlin had done had worked.
An idea came to her, and she put a hand on Caity's shoulder to pull her from her thoughts. "What would you say if I told you I could fix this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I can separate you from Frost," Amunet said. "You'll be able to be Caitlin Snow, and Chilly can come out when you don't want to."
"That sounds too good to be true."
"Of course it isn't. Now, are you interested?"
"What's the catch?"
"Nothing too drastic, Caity. You'll work for me."
Amunet could see her weighing her options, and after a few seconds said "this is a limited time offer."
Caitlin looked over her shoulder for a second, and then back at Amunet. "Alright," she said. "If you can separate me from Frost, I'll do whatever you ask."
She really did look into it. She didn't want to completely lie to the girl if she could help it. But after a few days, she was getting impatient, and she couldn't risk the girl walking away. She needed her to be part of her operation. Honestly, she wanted her as well. She rather liked the way Frost did things, and looked forward to working with her.
So she pulled out a complicated-looking device and gave it a scientific name, and told the girl it would do what she needed. It would separate them.
"Now you're sure you want this? I don't think it can be reversed," Amunet said.
Caitlin looked at her from where she sat in the back room. "I'm sure."
"Then let's do it."
Amunet pressed the device onto Caitlin's forehead and pressed the button. She frowned slightly at how the girl stiffened, closing her eyes. Amunet wanted her to feel something, so the device was giving off a slight charge. Nothing that would hurt her, of course. Hopefully it would be enough to convince Caitlin that something scientific was happening.
Caitlin was still for a minute, her features tense, and then the device switched off. Amunet took a step closer, starting to think something was wrong when Caitlin still didn't move. She was just reaching a hand out to touch her arm when Caitlin breathed out very low; a relaxed, peaceful sound, and as she did, her hair darkened to a warm brown.
Amunet felt herself start to smile. She'd seen the girl's hair fluctuate between snowy white and slightly darker shades, but never before had it reached this color. Which meant that something in the girl had changed.
Brown eyes opened and looked at Amunet. Amunet carefully took the device off Caitlin's forehead as she assessed the change. "Well?" she asked.
Caitlin gave a kind of exhaling laugh. "I feel like me again." She stood up, looking at her hands. "But there's one way to test it." She thrust her hand towards the wall, palm out.
Amunet bit the inside of her lip.
But nothing happened.
"I'd say that was a success," Amunet said.
Caitlin turned to her, beaming. The confidence that was usually only in blue eyes was clear in the brown ones that looked at Amunet now. "Thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome," Amunet said, forcing the shred of guilt she was feeling away. This is what they'd both wanted, so why should she feel guilty about tricking her? The girl was much happier now.
Amunet smiled. "Come on. Let's celebrate."
"How?"
"By having fun, of course! There's a store I've been meaning to look into, and its contents will be prize enough for tonight. But we'll need Chilly's help to get them."
Eyes flashed blue, and hair turned white. Amunet clapped her hands together in glee. This was working even better than she'd hoped! The girl looked at her, all power and contempt in those eyes. "What happened?" she asked.
Amunet faltered. Did she not remember? "I separated you," she said. "We're going out to celebrate."
"Where's the party?" Frost's lips curled up in a promising smirk, and a wave of cold emanated around her hands. "Wouldn't want to be late."
Amunet mirrored the smile and grabbed her bucket of scraps. "Don't worry, dear," she said as they walked out of the room. "We're the ones starting it."
A/N: I like the dynamic between Amunet and Caitlin (their kind of mentor-friendship), and thought it would be cool to write about how they started working together, especially given the information from season four, about how the device that separated Caitlin from Frost was all a placebo effect. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought.