"Dying?" Barry, Astrid and Cisco repeated in unison.
"What do you mean?" Barry asked Caitlin.
"I mean that when Ronnie and Martin first merged and created Firestorm, the essence that made them individuals was wiped. They need to continue to merge to survive." Caitlin explained as best as she could.
"Then why can't they continue to merge?" Astrid asked.
"When they first merged," Cisco began, "it was due to the meteor shower and projects that were held at Luthor Corp. We would need to recreate the meteor shower and even if we could do that, the research was left back in Smallville and we have no way of getting it back, since we cut ties with Lionel Luthor."
"…Besides, even if we had the research and the meteor shower, we would still risk a very cataclysmic explosion that could wipe out all of Central City." Caitlin added.
Barry stared down at his feet and Astrid could not choose the right words to say to console her friend.
"Caitlin, do you want to go back in there and talk to Ronnie?" Cisco asked her, "we will all come with you, if you like." Caitlin nodded and lead them to the room where Ronnie was laying in the bed in the bay beside Martin Stein.
"Hey, you guys." Ronnie said cheerfully as they entered the room. He seemed fine, despite the circumstance. Martin greeted them from his own bed. His wife was holding his hands in hers.
"So Dr Martin," Caitlin asked him, "Do you have any ideas on how we can make the two of you merge again?" she asked him, desperately.
"Ah, Miss Snow. It is just as I was telling the team over there. We need to be optimistic. If there is something that we can do, I am sure we will figure it out. But I for one, do not wish to risk the lives of this town for the slim chance of being able to merge Ronald again." Dr Stein told her.
"But the pair of you could DIE! Surely we could ask CCPD to evacuate the city. Astrid! You have standing in this city. You could do something!" Caitlin pleaded with her friend.
Astrid looked at Dr Stein and then the team of scientists who were standing on the far side of the room. Their faces all held the same look of defeat. Astrid knew that evacuating the city for the slim chance of the plan, working was pointless. The mayor would never go with it and it would cause panic throughout the city.
She didn't have the heart to tell Caitlin that she couldn't do it. Her face fell. Cisco and Barry tried to comfort Caitlin as they knew by the look on Astrid's face, just what she was thinking.
"I can't believe you, Astrid!" Caitlin shouted. "I thought you were my friend!" Amidst her fit of anger, Caitlin flung her hand up and a large bolt of ice shot forth, past Astrid's head and smashed some beakers on the shelf behind her. It left the group speechless.
Caitlin's face had changed. Her coloring had gone pale. Upon realizing what she had done, Caitlin brought her hand to her face as she gasped. She turned on her heels and left. Barry went to race after her, but Cisco and Astrid gestured for him not to. "She needs to have a little time to herself." Cisco told him. So he stayed put.
Suddenly the machines by Ronnie and Martin's bedside began sounding, alerting them to the fact that Martin and Ronnie were both having seizures. Clarissa called to the doctors, who rushed over ushering Clarissa, Astrid, Barry and Cisco back out of the room and closed the door behind them.
Clarissa broke down into tears in the waiting area, so Astrid tried to comfort her. Cisco and Barry sat down on the seats, clearly unsure about what to do next.
Suddenly, Barry's phone began to ring. It was Iris and she needed to see him immediately. "I have to…" Barry said looking from Cisco to Astrid.
"Go, Barry. We have this here." Cisco told him.
"We will try to contact Caitlin and let you know if we need your help." Astrid told him. Barry nodded and left in an instant. Clarissa who was still deeply distraught hadn't noticed his exit.
Barry entered Jitters to find Iris finishing her shift. She put her apron away and pulled out her laptop from her bag and invited Barry to sit with her at a table across from the entrance in the cafe. She opened her laptop and asked him to go over the article that she had typed up.
"This article is on The Flash?" Barry confirmed.
"It sure is!" Iris said. "… Well the Streak… but I don't see why you insist on calling him the Flash."
"Why are you showing me this, Iris?" Barry asked her.
"Because when it comes to the impossible, who better to talk to, than you?" Iris was excited about her article. "I've been posting these articles on the web. People need to know about the Streak. They need to have a hero to believe in… To aspire to!"
"What does Eddie say about all of this?" Barry asked her.
"He thinks the Streak is a coward, hiding behind a red mask. That the real heroes are people like my dad, him and the rest of CCPD. He told me to stop writing about him." Iris told him. She was in the process of uploading her blog on to the web as she spoke.
"I think you should listen to Eddie." Barry told her, "You will only make yourself a target if people think that you know the Flash."
"Barry… People are actually viewing my blogs. This will get me known as a journalist! I am getting the truth out there! People deserve to know what is going on!" Iris argued.
"I don't approve of it!" Barry told her. "Maybe you should look at writing about Sutherland Labs changeover to STAR Labs. Astrid is holding the grand reopening tomorrow. This will be the first time the public has been allowed to set foot inside since the fire a few weeks back. That seems like a safe enough topic."
"I'm not looking for safe! I'm looking for the truth! I don't need your approval, Barry! I thought you would be happy for me. Besides there is enough news on that changeover as it is. No one is reporting on the Streak. He is going unnoticed, and he deserves his credit." Iris was really angry now. She had just posted her article on the web, closed her laptop and had gathered all her things.
"Iris, don't go. Please!" Barry pleaded with her, "You and I haven't spoken, just you and I, in a while."
"Barry, I wanted to change that, but you can't even support me, I don't know why I even tried. All those years you told me something impossible happened to you mother, and I believed you. I supported you when you needed it. But now that I need your support, you just… You just can't do the same for me!" Iris left with Barry close at heel trying to reason with her.
Cisco put his phone back into his pocket. He was standing in the waiting area. He had been trying to call Caitlin but she had not been answering. The doctors had managed to help Ronnie and Martin back into a calm state, only they were both put into medically induced comas to prevent further complications from arising. Their situations were further deteriorating and Caitlin was unreachable.
Clarissa had gone back in to sit with Martin while Astrid sat beside Ronnie. She wanted to keep an eye on him for her friend's sake. Cisco reentered the room and sat by Astrid.
"No answer?" she asked him, referring to Caitlin.
"No answer." Cisco replied. "It's just ironic, considering what Caitlin was saying about being in a rush to marry Ronnie."
Astrid nodded, "She believed that if she didn't do it fast, it wouldn't happen at all." This time Astrid tried to call Caitlin, but her friend still did not answer, so she left a message informing her of Ronnie's current situation.
Caitlin found a secluded alleyway, to try and calm herself down. She was sitting on the ground beside a large dumpster with her head between her knees. Unfortunately, she still hadn't calmed down. She was still this other person and the love of her life was in danger. How did this become her life?
"Hey, baby!" she heard the voice of a man approach her. She looked up to see a group of rough looking guys approaching her. There were five of them. She stood up slowly and eyed them suspiciously. "Is everything ok, beautiful? We can make you feel better." The same man told her. As they began to inch closer to her.
"Leave me alone," she warned them.
They ignored her request and continued to inch closer. The man who had spoken told his friends to grab her. As they went to, she shot bolts of ice at their feet, with both of her hands, knocking them both to the ground.
"How did you do that?" The man yelled at her, pulling out a gun and aiming it at her. There were two men behind him and they were both holding weapons aimed at her as well.
A menacing smile spread across her face. It was evident that this other persona had taken over her body completely. She wasn't going to let anybody mess with her. "I warned you…" she said looking down devilish at the men that she had knocked down to the floor, "...to leave me alone..."