Thanks for the overwhelmingly-positive response to the first chapter! I'm glad you are all as excited as I am.
Warnings for this chapter (which show up puzzlingly often in my fics?) are needles and forced injections/blood draw. If that squicks you out, you may want to skim over some of this chapter.
Enjoy!
With a spike of fear embedded in her chest, Caitlin scrambled backward. Eiling, flanked by three of his cronies, took a stride into the room and looked around as if returning to an old haunt.
"Nice to see you again, Dr. Snow," he said. "I trust everything has been going well here at…STAR Labs." He rolled the name over his tongue like it had an unfamiliar, unsavory taste.
"Well enough that the military doesn't need to get involved," Caitlin said. "What do you want?"
Eiling continued looking around the space curiously, ever-advancing. "Oh, same as always."
Caitlin steeled. "Barry's not here," she said coldly.
"Shame," Eiling said. "Most people would use the Flash as a warning to intruders. 'The Flash will be here soon to rescue me,' that spiel."
"I don't need to be rescued," Caitlin said. Eiling barked out a laugh and kept advancing. Caitlin continued backing up until she hit the wall. Then she grabbed the first object within reach and brandished it.
"Oh, that's rich," Eiling said with sick amusement. "Are you going to staple me to death?"
Caitlin held out the stapler threateningly, but when Eiling gestured and his men wrestled the item away, she didn't put up much of a fight. There was only so much she could do against four army men.
"Funny enough, Mr. Allen is not the sole reason for this particular visit," Eiling said. "Gentlemen, would you please accompany Dr. Snow downstairs?"
Caitlin squirmed, but two of the men pressed close. They frog-marched her out of the cortex and to the stairs, the third man trailing close behind and Eiling leading the charge. As they marched, hollow with silence, Caitlin couldn't decide what was worse—hoping that Barry would be delayed enough not to confront the General, or hoping that he wouldn't. Surely, surely Eiling didn't intend to kill her. But, then again, predictability had never been one of his more memorable traits.
She knew exactly where they were going the minute they started descending, but she didn't know why. When they stepped into the pipeline, her skin prickled with unease.
"Care to do the honors?" Eiling said, motioning at the control panels.
"I think you know your way around underground prisons enough," Caitlin countered.
Eiling smirked, then reached for the controls. A whirr, a clanking of pipes. Then the door opened—to nothing.
Eiling stared. "Where is she?" he said, frowning hard at the empty pipeline cell. "Where's the meta?"
"We don't keep metas down here anymore unless absolutely necessary," Caitlin said. "I have no idea who you're talking about."
"I thought it was your business to take care of hazardous metahumans." Eiling whirled on her, his eyes suddenly dangerous. "What did you do with her?"
"Who?" Caitlin said.
"Canton," Eiling said. "Rose Canton."
And it all clicked.
"Sh-she's not here," Caitlin said. "She wasn't our prisoner. We—I—let her go. You won't find her at STAR. You won't find her anywhere."
"I highly doubt that," Eiling said. He snapped his fingers at one of the army men. "Double check." The man shouldered his way forward toward the empty cell, and Eiling turned back to Caitlin. "My intelligence reported that Canton was being held here following her interrogation at the police station."
"I guess your intelligence was wrong," Caitlin said. "I'm shocked you even have any."
Rather than make him angry, the barb only seemed to charm Eiling more. "Sharp. Just like your friend Thorn."
"I don't know how you know about her," Caitlin said, "but clearly you're looking in the wrong place. There's nothing for you here. So, if you wouldn't mind, I have work to do."
"A-a-ah," Eiling chided. "While I've got you here, there's just one more thing I need."
"And what's that?" Caitlin started to say, but she was cut off by the two men at her side grabbing her by the arms and slamming her backward into the wall.
With the breath knocked out of her, she didn't have the energy to scream. But this time she did struggle. Viciously. She bucked against the hands on her arms and shoulders and kicked out, catching the third man in the shins. However, as if it didn't faze him, he drew a syringe from his pocket and moved closer.
Caitlin thrashed now, at the sight of the syringe, remembering the last time she'd been forcibly injected with an unknown substance. But, as it got closer, she realized that the syringe was empty.
The goon on her right side bared the crook of her arm. The three of them were so close to her now she could hardly breathe; she couldn't move, couldn't speak. The needle pricked her arm.
Then they were gone. The release of force was enough to make Caitlin collapse to the floor. She looked up just in time to see Eiling take the now-full syringe and pocket it.
"Thank you for your services," Eiling said, motioning his men backwards and tipping his hat. "I have no doubt that we'll see each other soon."
She just had enough time to register the words as a threat before the group disappeared back down the hallway.
She sat there, shaking, until she heard the basement door resoundingly close; then, unsteadily, she picked herself up off the floor and made her way to the stairs.
It was a long, slow walk back up to the cortex. Step by step, she felt herself growing heavier rather than lighter. It had been so long since their last encounter with Eiling that she almost felt as though she'd been transported back in time. Familiar, but no less terrifying. What did he want with Canton?
And, more puzzlingly, what did he want with her?
She was so engrossed in the weighty silence of the stairwell and her own solitude that the sound of chatter up in the cortex nearly caused heart failure. She stopped in her tracks, heart crashing against her ribs, until she recognized the voices.
Sure enough, when she reached the top of the stairwell and rounded the corner into the cortex, Barry and Cisco were there, obliviously raucous. Both were still in costume, though Barry had put his cowl down and Cisco had removed his glasses. Barry sat in one of the chairs with his feet up on the table, while Cisco appeared to be in the middle of reenacting something from their escapades. Cisco was the first to spot Caitlin. He threw out his arms dramatically.
"You should have seen it! Barry was all, 'You're so full of hot air,' and then this guy was like—" He made an exploding motion with his hands.
"Sorry we got sidetracked," Barry said, swiveling her direction. "We may have stopped for pizza on the way. But, look, we brought you some!"
He wore such a relaxed, happy expression that Caitlin didn't have the heart to say anything. But her silence, and the fact that she didn't move a muscle from her place in the doorway, drew his attention, sucked away the joy in his features.
"What's wrong?" he said, getting to his feet immediately.
Cisco too paled as he took in the sight of her. "Cait, are you bleeding?"
Caitlin looked down for the first time and saw that, yes, a thin red line trickled down her skin from the crook in her arm. She took in the sight numbly, looked back up. Lost. Barry registered her aimless appearance and sped forward, but the sudden movement made her flinch back violently.
Ashamed at the way her body betrayed her, she lifted a hand to her arm to staunch the bleeding.
"It was Eiling," she said. "Eiling was here. In STAR."
"He took your blood?" Iris said with a frown. "Why would he do that?"
Caitlin shrugged mutely. Barry and Cisco had somehow cajoled her into a chair, where she'd remained ever since. They'd also called over Iris and Joe, which Caitlin thought was frankly unnecessary, though she was too spooked to complain much. The pizza Barry and Cisco had brought back after the mission sat cold and forgotten on a side table.
"He wasn't just here for the blood, that much is clear," Barry said. "Eiling was here for Rose Canton."
"And you, probably," Joe pointed out. "It's a miracle you weren't here."
"If I was here, I could've stopped him," Barry said, his eyes flicking to Caitlin, his jaw tightening. "I'm a lot faster than I was last time."
"It doesn't matter," Caitlin said. "It's done. But I think he's still going after Canton."
"But why?" Joe said. "Why would he be going after her?"
"I don't know." Caitlin shifted. "But I received a text from her earlier today. She said she thought that someone was following her."
"She still texts you?" Joe practically bristled. To be fair, he'd been one of the least accepting of the fact that Caitlin had let Canton go. Probably due to the fact that he'd seen surveillance footage from the warehouse. That he'd been the one to storm that warehouse, twice. That he'd been the one to rescue Caitlin while Canton held a knife to her throat.
"I gave her my number for a reason," Caitlin said. "The fact that she did text me tells me that she was legitimately concerned last night."
Iris frowned. "You think some of Eiling's men were following her?"
"I think that she's in trouble," Caitlin said. "And I think that it's our responsibility to stop Eiling from getting his hands on her."
"Looks to me like you're in trouble, too," Iris said. "He didn't want your blood for nothing."
"And how exactly are we supposed to stop Eiling from kidnapping Canton?" Barry said. "Keep a tracker on her at all times? Take her in, integrate her into the team?"
The sarcasm in his voice grated against Caitlin's skin. She shot him a look. "Be willing to help her. Just like we would any other metahuman who was under Eiling's thumb. Like Bette."
It was a low blow, she knew. But it had the desired effect. Subdued for the moment, Barry turned his eyes down and crossed his arms.
"So, you're just going to call her back, ask her to willingly come back to the place she was once imprisoned?" Cisco said. "Somehow I don't think she's going to buy that."
"We'll have to try," Caitlin said. "In the meantime, Joe, can you figure out if Eiling is still working officially with the military? Maybe find out where he's stationed?"
Joe huffed out through his nose. "I don't know how much I'll be able to find out," he said. "But I'll try." He pulled out his phone and strode out, apparently all-too-eager to leave what he considered a madhouse.
Caitlin watched him leave and chewed on a nail. Cisco, who was closest to her, reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Hey. It'll be alright. We'll get to the bottom of this."
"Maybe," Caitlin said. "All of this just gives me a really bad feeling."
"I think you'd be dead inside if it didn't," said Cisco. "But how many times have we had a bad feeling about something and overcome it?"
"I'm just tired of being taken by surprise in this place where we're supposed to be safe," Caitlin said. "I think that we—"
She was cut off by the vibrating of her phone on the desk. This time it wasn't just a text, but a continuous ring, cutting through the silence. Everyone in the room looked at it as if it might come to life. Certainly everyone was thinking the same thing: the only people who would normally call were currently in the room.
After the first three rings, Caitlin picked up the phone and looked at it.
Rose.
With a glance up at everyone else, Caitlin hastily answered the call and put it on speaker.
"Rose?" she said. "Is everything okay?"
"I'm in trouble," came a staticky, breathless voice. "Snow, I need help."
"Where are you?" Caitlin demanded. "What's going on?"
"They're here, they're—" It was clear that Canton was outside, and she was running. She panted into the phone, and the sound cut in and out sporadically. "I can't, they're—wait!"
Shouts cut through Canton's panicked words, and Canton herself yelled in fear.
"Where are you?" Caitlin said. "Are you in the city?"
"I'm—145th Avenue," Canton said. "Wait, stop, I—"
There was a resounding crash that sounded suspiciously like phone hitting pavement; an extended scream; bootsteps. Caitlin looked up just in time to see Barry's eyes set with determination, and the sight sent her panicking.
"Barry, don't!" she said, reaching forward for his arm. But just as her hand wrapped around his forearm, it ripped away, and Barry was gone in a burst of speed. "No!"
More muffled sounds of struggle though the phone. A thud and a shout. Distressed, Cisco put his balled-up fists to his temples and Iris looked around, lost. The phone line cut out.
Joe chose that moment to come back into the room, phone in hand. The lines on his face made Caitlin's heart sink even more.
"I've got bad news," he said.
"Oh, there's more?" Cisco deadpanned.
The disastrous phone call, and Barry's rapid disappearance straight into the line of fire, might have been enough—but they also compelled Caitlin to ask, "What's the bad news?"
"I just spoke with the Chief," he said. "Do you remember when I told you that Jason had been transferred out of Iron Heights by higher-ups?"
Caitlin remembered the text message well; she also remembered not being fazed by it. Something told her now that she should have given it more attention. "Yeah. Again, what's the bad news?"
Joe clutched his phone, let out a heavy breath. "Jason wasn't transferred out of Iron Heights by just anyone. He was transferred out of Iron Heights and into Eiling's custody."
Thank you for reading! I appreciate any and all comments!
Till next time,
Penn
