TITLE: Smooth Criminal
FANDOM: [CW's "The Flash"]
CHARACTERS: Barry Allen, Joe West, Iris West, Eddie Thawne, Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart, Mick Rory, Hartley Rathaway, [OC] The Gunman / Alexander Scott.
PAIRINGS: Barry Allen & Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart & Cisco Ramon, [SHADOWING OF] Iris West & Eddie Thawne.
WARNINGS: Plot twists.
STATUS: Finished.
SUMMARY: When the lives of the three closest people to our protagonist—Barry Allen—are threatened, the speedster begins a city-wrecking fight. What will happen when the Rogues—a group of villains that has had shaky alliances with Team Flash in the past—take it upon themselves to stop it?

OTHER
IDEA CREDIT: Myself.
DEDICATED TO: SarahMuffin.

CHAPTER 2: American Beauty / American Psycho.
SUMMARY: I think I fell in love again… Maybe I just took too much cough medicine.

"We had to perform surgery on his leg to keep it from healing wrong. The bone was completely shattered." Cisco started, pulling up the x-rays of Barry's leg from the day it was broken. The images loaded onto the large screen on the main wall of the Cortex, drawing the attention of Caitlin and the Rogues. The sight was painful to look at it—and imagining the agony that should have accompanied the injury made Len shudder. The bone was completely wrecked—almost beyond repair. It should have taken months for everything to grow back, and even then, it wouldn't have been the same.

But Cisco pressed a few buttons and a new image came up. "This is Barry's leg from the x-ray we took this morning." Cisco said, as Len looked up again—and damn. Barry's leg was nearly healed, as well as the muscle and other tissue around it. That kid was lucky as hell.

"I think we can take him off of the tranquilizers by tonight." Caitlin added, as she examined the x-ray from her own screen as opposed to the one across the room from her.

"Tranquilizers? What tranquilizers could you possibly need to give him?" Lisa asked incredulously, looking between Cisco and Caitlin. Len was curious as well. He already knew that Barry's metabolism burned through most drugs like morphine and Novocain, but to what extent that the scientists had to go through in order to keep Barry sedated was unbeknownst to him.

"Well, uh… we kind of had to use elephant tranquilizers. And a lot of them…" Caitlin responded, glancing at Cisco who met her gaze briefly before shrugging and leaning back in his swivel chair, unaffected by the topic. Meanwhile, Lisa's jaw nearly dropped to the floor as she turned to look at her brother.

"Elephant tranquilizers?" She asked, waving her hand in disbelief, though surprisingly, her voice remained somewhat calm.

"Yep." Cisco responded, grinning smugly at her as she turned to look back at him. Len rolled his eyes. Their 'thing' annoyed him to no end. It wasn't that his sister was getting along with someone—someone that he didn't particularly like—but it was that the two of them were just so basic and downright cheesy. It was adorable, but he'd never admit that—not even to himself.

"Elephant tranquilizers were the only thing that we could think of that even remotely fit into the equation of how quickly Barry's metabolism works. Each dose gave us about ten minutes to work on him—fifteen depending on other drugs that we were using as well—"

"So that's his name? Barry?" Lisa cut her off, crossing her arms as she rounded on Len.

"Barry Allen. Barry being short for Bartholomew." Len said casually.

At the mention of Barry's full name, Cisco broke out laughing, and even Caitlin pressed her palm to her mouth to keep herself from outwardly chuckling. Mick seemed to chortle slightly—along with Lisa whose slightly irritated expression shifted into amusement. Len did his best to swallow his own sniggering. Barry's name was devastatingly hilarious, unfortunately—unfortunately for him.

"I'm sorry- I'm sorry. Lisa, I thought you knew?" Caitlin said as she regained herself—bringing the others with her as the group collectively gathered themselves.

"I do now. Mick didn't know either, though. Lenny here refused to tell us." Lisa responded, placing her hands on her hips as she cast an annoyed glance at her brother once again. Len was unaffected by her ruthless glares.

"Why?" Cisco squinted.

"It was supposed to be a deal between the kid and me. I'm not sure about how he'll feel knowing that that little agreement was broken."

"Oh, please—it wasn't even your fault, Lenny. Caitlin's the one that said Barry first." Lisa waved at him dismissively. Len responded with an eyeroll that he was lucky she didn't see.

"I'm pretty sure that Barry already thought that you two knew, so you're good anyway. Unless he asks, don't mention it. That's how things usually work around here." Cisco said with a big—undoubtedly faked—grin; to which Caitlin looked at him with a glaring expression and smacked his arm.

Despite having taken him off of the sedatives the night before—just as they'd talked about—Barry didn't wake up until about mid-afternoon the next day, while Cisco and Lisa were out fetching lunch for everyone besides Mick. Heat Wave had taken off the day before, declaring that he was bored with waiting around, and that he was going to busy himself. Len had let him go because there was no need for him to stick around at the time being. Lisa only stayed because Cisco was there most of the time.

Right now it was him and Caitlin alone in the Cortex. She was working quietly while Len sat at one of the workbenches, feet propped up and hands busied with polishing the Cold Gun. It had been awhile since had tended to his favorite—and only—weapon, so it had gotten a bit crusty on the trigger and barrel—as well as around the chamber holding the liquid nitrogen or whatever else the thing used to freeze.

The two hadn't shared many words, other than Caitlin answering a few questions or asking some of her own.

The silence was broken by Barry's heartrate monitor spiking—which was startling as it was—as well as the once dormant speedster sitting up abruptly and declaring his return to consciousness with a groan.

Caitlin rushed over to Barry's side, followed by Len a few moments later.

"What happened? Where's Iris? Is she okay? What about the Gunman? Did you catch him? Is he in Iron Heights? Len—what are you still doing here? I mean I saw you and Lisa and Mick show up at the scene but I blacked out and—"

"Kid, kid, kid. Chill out. One question at a time." Len said, holding up his hand to cease Barry's rambling. Barry tensed in response, shutting his mouth abruptly as the heart monitor calmed itself down.

"Okay- uh- is Iris okay?"

"Yes," Caitlin said. "She's with Linda right now, recovering from what happened in the sewers. She's completely safe. Captain Cold and the other two apprehended the Gunman before he could cause any more damage to you or the city. No one saw your face, and no, he's in the Pipeline right now. We figured you would want to ask questions, and if not, we didn't want to make a decision without you knowing first."

Barry nodded, rubbing the back of his head as he gathered his thoughts, thinking over the new information. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" Caitlin titled her head to the side in confusion.

"Joe's really dead, isn't he?"

"I'm afraid so, Bar."

Barry had fully recovered at close to midnight that night. Cisco and Len had offered to stake out the night, be there in case Barry needed them or the Gunman tried to make a move, or something of the sort—Len had rejected Lisa's fervent invitation to stay with Cisco, which was something Barry was grateful for. He didn't want to witness them—alone—in a dark room. At all.

Currently, Cisco was asleep, and Barry believed that Len was too, since his eyes were closed and he hadn't moved in the last ten minutes from his comfortable position at the workbench—with Cisco behind the monitors as usual. Barry had to swallow his laughter. The two were practically in the same position—feet propped up on their desks, leaned back. The only difference was that Cisco had his hands behind his head, and Len had his hands in his lap.

Barry sneaked down into the Pipeline. He had questions for the Gunman, and he didn't plan on being nice about getting them.

"You." He hissed as he opened the lock door leading to the assailant's cell. After Len had betrayed him and team, there were no more meta-humans in the Pipeline, and any new ones that Barry had come across were now fitted with a nice spot in the revamped Iron Heights.

"Me," the Gunman responded, raising an eyebrow as Barry approached. "Isn't it kind of early, Barry? I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly a morning person." He said snidely.

He looked so oddly confident with his arms crossed, back against the far wall of the cell, one leg crossed over the other. Barry got a brief sense that the man knew how to break out of the Pipeline, and was just waiting for the right time to. Wouldn't that be now? With Len and Cisco asleep, and Barry weakened by his inability to use the speed force because of his leg?

"I want answers—and we both know that's not exactly true. You know a lot more about me than you're letting on. Why?" Barry demanded.

"Why should I tell you? You hate me after all."

"Will you answer any of my questions?" Barry immediately responded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, and settled glaring at the ceiling instead; eyebrows knitted together in agitation.

"I can. I don't suppose you plan on asking nicely?"

"Not at all. The way this is going to work, is I'm going to ask something and you're going to give me an honest answer. And in return you get to live here—where it's much nicer than Iron Heights. Trust me." Barry snapped, his gaze shifting from the pipes above his head to the person behind the glass in front of him.

"Sounds fair."

"Glad we could come to an agreement."

"Mm." There were a few minutes of silence as Barry busied himself with gathering his thoughts. But the Gunman spoke again, and Barry lost his train of thought. "I do know more about you than you think. That part you got right."

"Like what?"

"Pick your choice. I know that your full name is Bartholomew. I know that your dad was arrested for your mother's murder. I know that you were in a coma for nine months after being struck by lightning, and when you woke up you had superpowers like super-speed and increased metabolism. But, I guess, that's common knowledge, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Well, how about this. That newspaper about your disappearance that Dr. Wells had? That was previously written by Iris West-Allen?"

"Yes?"

"It no longer exists."

"What?"

"I don't know if you checked since the singularity—but, yes. It's gone. I suppose you already know it's from a clipping in the future?"

"Obviously."

"Right. Well, that timeline doesn't exist anymore, so that newspaper could never have happened. See, when Eddie Thawne shot himself in the heart, and it opened a hole—or a tear in the universe, that tear took more than you think it did. Boohoo, you lost some buildings, cars, people, and you may have come into contact with a few of the friends from Earth-2—yes?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, well, that singularity sucked up everything from my timeline—well, almost everything. The future is still in-tact, and you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because when your future was erased, and my past was erased… what do you think happened?"

"Our timelines combined?"

"A miracle."

"So… are you from the future, too, then? Just like Eobard Thawne?"

"I suppose you could say that." The Gunman sighed, uncrossing his arms and cracking his neck in displeasure. "But not as far ahead into the future as him. Only one generation, to be exact. Not multiple ones."

"Okay. That makes sense, I suppose. So why come here? Why kill Joe and Eddie?" Barry asked. His voice had lost most of its venom—and he hoped to god that it didn't break at the mention of his two lost family members.

"Well I wanted to get your attention, and because I already knew everything about you, I just had to make a big enough move that would not only captivate you, but make you upset enough that you wouldn't immediately ship me off to Iron Heights."

"And how did you know I wouldn't do that?"

"I know you on a bit more of a… 'personal' level."

"How so?"

"I don't know if you want to know the answer to that question." The Gunman responded, suddenly looking more guarded than he had before; head slightly tilted to the side.

"You don't get to choose whether or not I want to hear an answer. I do." Barry responded with a bit of heat. The Gunman raised his palms in defense.

"Fine, fine. But don't say I didn't warn you," he said with the roll of his eyes. "In this dimension that I come from—Earth-7 as you would call it—I had two fathers. One of them was Leonard Snart and the other was Barry Allen."

"What?"

"I warned you."

Barry was silent for a long while. He pressed his fingers to his temple and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to keep his heartrate from jumping ahead to some unspeakable speed. "Okay- yes. I'll try to keep an open mind. So, what? We raised you?"

"You two started dating in 2015, were married in 2016, and adopted me in 2018."

"What's your name?"

"…Michael Allen. Leonard wanted to take your name because he didn't want to keep his father's."

"Makes sense."

"Indeed. I don't suppose that your own parents are the same as they were in Earth-7?"

"What does that mean?"

"Unless Henry and Harrison Allen are your current parents…"

"Are you serious?"

"Very."

"Harrison—as in Harrison Wells?"

"The same."

"Oh my god."

Michael merely chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"So wait—does this mean that your future is also going to become my future?"

"Presumably. But of course, as many people have said before me, you can always change that." Michael responded, tilting his head to the side with a smile. "But you'll never get another me, sadly."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm an anomaly. See, the only reason that I wasn't sucked up into the singularity—that would have erased my entire existence—is because I was dicking around inside the particle accelerator before its second test run."

"Second?"

"Grandpa Harrison got permission from the state as long as he agreed to have Mercury Labs help with the rebuild and launch. So it's S.T.A.R.-Merc Labs where I come from." Michael responded coolly.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. This is a lot for me."

"I'm sure."

"So to sum up this conversation—I'm married to Leonard Snart, with a child. My parents are Harrison Wells and Henry Allen and there was supposed to be another launch of the particle accelerator because Harrison got Mercury Labs to help him with the rebuild?" Barry asked, still rubbing his temples.

"Pretty much."

"It seems so simple when put like that—wait, how old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

"Oh god. You're my son and older than me."

"Ew, is that were this dimension is? What year is it? 2015?"

"Yeah."

"That was a… haha… that was a year, wasn't it?"

"So far it sure has been." Barry responded with a slight groan.

"It gets worse."

"Comforting."

"Do you have any more questions?"

"Yeah. Was I the Flash in that timeline?"

"You were. As I said, they were about to run the particle accelerator for the second time. So, presumably, you were affected the first time there just as you were here."

"Right. What about Snart?"

"What about him?"

"I can't see me loving someone that's a cold-blooded killer."

"Oh, but he isn't. What most people don't realize is that beneath all that stone-cold outer-asshole, there's a lot of nice and caring. How else would he have raised a child like me?"

"Well it turns out that you aren't so great. You killed two men."

"I used to be a good guy."

"And?"

"I got bored."

Len didn't think he could pretend that he hadn't been listening to that whole thing. He had been awake—just on the verge of falling asleep when he heard Barry get up. Len was tempted to follow, but figured he only would if Barry left S.T.A.R. Labs, otherwise, he could watch from their security cameras. Cisco had conveniently left the footage up on the monitor, and it didn't take a genius to scroll down and click on the one focused on the Gunman—Michael—and Barry.

After watching the encounter and learning was Barry had, Len was left with such a raging headache is was almost physically painful. He didn't want to think about any of it—especially not in the tired state that he was currently in.

Barry returned a few minutes later, looking shaken and not at all at ease as he had been on the camera before. Immediately, he and Len made eye contact, but neither of them spoke a word.

Finally, Barry seemed to gather himself. Len would have had spoken, but he was too busy sitting there calmly, lips pressed in a tight line as he gazed at Barry through a guarded expression.

"You heard all of that, didn't you?"

"I did."

"Oh, and Mr. Allen…"

Both Barry and Len jumped slightly as Michael spoke through the microphone on the computer. Len looked over quickly to see that the Gunman was looking straight up at the camera.

"I had every intention to kill Iris before you showed up. You should know that it was fun to watch Eddie and Joe die. I'm stuck in this timeline without my gun, you know. I need it to leave. I should probably mention that I know how to get out of this Pipeline of yours—and out of Iron Heights if you try that, too. And you should know I plan on finishing what I started. And this time, it won't be just Iris."

"Why?" Barry asked, rushing forward and speaking into the microphone loud enough that it woke Cisco who had been happily sleeping beside the two.

"I lost everything, as you now know. Why do you think? If it's gone, I want it to stay gone. All that 'second chances' bullshit you hear about? Useless. Take it from me, Mr. Allen. If your life was ripped away from you—would you want it back? Entirely different, but the same? No. You wouldn't. It's all or nothing."

"You don't have to kill people to get it! Just take your gun and go somewhere else—some dimension where you're perfectly happy! Ruining my life won't make you feel better about your loss." Barry snapped back.

"We think very differently. I'm done talking to you, Barry, but I think we'll be seeing each other again very soon."

"What does that mean?" Barry asked sharply, staring at the screens. But he received no response, and much to his horror, Michael pulled a glove like material from his pants pocket, and when he put it on, he was able to reach through the reinforced door and punch in the code to open his cell on the keypad.

"Shit—go!" Barry yelled, running from the Cortex. He only made it a couple hundred feet before he toppled over. Cisco stooped beside him as Len rushed ahead of them.

"So, wait, how exactly did he get out?" Caitlin asked for about the fourth time in the last five minutes. Barry groaned and rubbed his face, feeling unnecessarily guilty about the whole situation. If he hadn't gone down there to talk with Michael, none of this would have happened—Michael would still be waiting.

"He had this molecule transforming glove that allowed him to reach his arm through the door and open it."

"But how did he get past the secondary door?"

"That we're still not sure of. Len said he had punched through it—probably with that glove—and got out that way. I examined the door and that's the only logical explanation I could come up with, as well." Cisco said, sitting back in his swivel chair. A deep frown settled itself on each of the scientists' faces, but Len and Lisa seemed indifferent as per usual.

"Does he have his gun?" Caitlin asked with a hopeful tone.

"Yeah, he does. And this is my fault. We have no idea what he's going to do, and it's probably go after Iris." Barry said quickly, dropping his hands to his sides. Iris—who had joined them after being warned of what had happened the night prior—simply walked over and placed her hand on his arm.

"I'm here, Barry. It's safe here."

"No, it's not." Barry responded testily, looking at her sharply.

"There is no safer place than right beside you, Barry. Not for me." His sister responded calmly. Barry didn't need a mirror to know that his eyes were red-rimmed from the stress—he always cried when he was stressed out. It was one of his least favorite things about his body.

Barry looked down at his feet, silent for a good minute before he turned and left the Cortex, not wanting any of them to see him right now. He decided to settle in the lounge—screw the cameras.

Len watched the whole thing and felt his heart ache. He looked toward his little sister and she returned his gaze, silently urging him to go after Barry even if the two were still on very, very shaky terms. He sighed and moved past them after the speedster, not failing to get a glimpse of Caitlin looking agitated at having Barry and Cold be alone—though it wasn't like they wouldn't be supervised.

When Len found Barry, the speedster was sitting on the couch, knees brought up to his chin. It was childish and yet adorable at the same time.

"Hey kid." Cold murmured, leaning over and resting his elbows on the back of the couch, not too close and not abnormally far from where Barry was seated. Hearing the older man's voice, Barry dropped his legs and looked up swiftly, before turning his head away, seemingly remembering that there were tears in his eyes.

"You don't need to hide from me."

"Why shouldn't I? You're my nemesis, remember?" Barry grumbled back unenthusiastically.

"And yet, here I am."

"What are you doing here?"

"I just came to talk." Len drawled, resting his cheek against his palm as he looked at the side of Barry's face.

"Enemies don't try and comfort each other."

"Well, you know that they say. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Len responded with a smirk. Barry chuckled slightly in response, but it faded quickly. "What's wrong?"

"What isn't wrong?"

"Fair enough—how about this, then. What's wrong right now?"

"Well my dad was killed, along with one of my closest friends—and the criminal that did it is apparently my son from the future; who also threatened to kill my best friend plus, probably, my other friends, all because something that wasn't my fault took everything away from him. I feel like an elementary schooler getting picked on at recess." Barry choked out, pressing his palms into his eyes.

Len pursed his lips, eyebrows rising as he considered it. Yeah, seemed like a reasonable excuse to be stressed out. "That won't happen."

"Who's to say it won't?" Barry asked, looking up at Len as another tear slipped down his cheek.

"The only one who doesn't have full faith in you is you, kid. The reason that Joe and Eddie died is because you didn't know that they'd been captured. And—well—yes, maybe Michael beat your ass the first time, but that doesn't mean he will again. Because you know now, kid. You'd be surprised at how much power that knowledge gives you." Len said casually.

Barry looked away, and Len sighed. There was so much doubt in the kid's eyes it was physically painful. He stepped over the back and settled on the cushion beside Barry.

"Comfy."

Barry smiled slightly, but busied himself with wiping his eyes clear. At least Len had gotten him to stop crying.

"Besides, this time, you'll have the Rogues to watch your back."

"What? Really? Why?" Barry looked up sharply, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

"This is my city, and if that son of a bitch—"

"—he's our son."

"—son of some bitches thinks he can come in and destroy it? He thought wrong." Len drawled, though there was some determination to his tone. That got Barry to smile, and it brought a tiny bit of amusement in Len as well. Not his fault that Barry's smile was contagious.

"What do we do now?" Barry asked after a few minutes of silence.

"While he's plotting out his next plan, we use the time to get better at what we do. For you, that's run. For me, well, I'm already the best at what I do. But Lisa and Mick could use some work."

Barry chuckled light-heartedly, all traces of sadness having evaporated from the younger's mood.

"Not gonna happen, I'm afraid. My plan's already been set in motion."

Len saw the horror spread across Barry's face before he felt the annoying sensation of an overly-large firearm barrel being pointed at the back of his head. "Ah, Michael. I thought you left."

"'Fraid not. I just know all the blind-spots on the cameras in this place, conveniently enough—grew up here, after all. I was a bit of a troublemaker for the parents."

"I can imagine."