Hi again. Sorry for the delay in updating-I had a frankly chaotic and emotional weekend, which made it impossible to do most anything productive. Things have mostly settled down, so here we are.

Without further ado...let's jump into some action.

Enjoy!

Ghost stories had never been Caitlin's forte, though Ronnie had often tried to convince her that they were the best form of entertainment. He would lie next to her in bed in the dark in the more comfortable months of their relationship and whisper the opening lines of a ghost story, just to freak her out, and she would grab the nearest pillow and shove it in his face.

The chill of ghosts haunted the STAR Labs cortex, and as she sat there alone at the computer bank, she desperately wished she had a pillow big enough to smother them.

The only light she had turned on was the one in the cortex itself-no need to draw attention to the fact that there was someone in the building. Besides, it gave her some kind of comfort, being in a bubble of light. Not having to face what she knew lay in the shadows. Who she knew lay in the shadows.

The logic was, if she didn't think about who was in the basement of the building, she wouldn't ever have to deal with him.

On one screen, she pulled up a map of the city. On the other screen, she found the files of Cisco's schematics for most of his tech. Some of the projects were half-baked ideas, systems and functions that had been abandoned partway through development. Some, though, were fully formed, many even labeled with their corresponding storage unit in the bowels of the building.

She browsed for a bit, scanning through sometimes unusually-named files: it turned out Cisco had a knack not only for naming supervillains. Caitlin couldn't help but smile as she browsed through the knickknacks, imagining Cisco sitting there with a pencil in his mouth and ideas at the tips of his fingers.

Finally she found it: the Weather Wizard Wand, as it was labeled in the folder. Multiple files indicated multiple prototypes. While the police had confiscated the final, functioning wand, she hoped Cisco had kept some of the earlier models—if she was as clever as Cisco had always made her out to be, she should be able to use his plans to reconfigure an early design into something more functional. So she hoped, anyway.

She bookmarked the folder and wrote down the index number of where Cisco had stored his works in progress, folding the tiny paper in the palm of her hand. On the other computer, she set up the weather tracking program—by mapping out changes in electric charge and pressure in the atmosphere, she might have a shot at pinpointing Mardon's location. It was better than nothing.

With that, she rose and strode to the elevator, firm in her plan. A few steps from the doors, however, she paused. In her walk to the storage area, she would invariably have to pass the room with the tachyon prototype. The room where—

She would not look, she decided. She would turn her head. Denial, she reasoned, was the only way to keep moving forward.

With the first step of her plan clutched tightly in her palm, Caitlin Snow stepped into the elevator and took a breath.

In the middle of the night, Iris opened her eyes. Though she had fallen asleep with little difficulty, she woke with the sense of something forgotten, something unsettling. She reached for the phone charging beside her bed and unlocked it.

The last text message conversation glared at her from the screen: text when you're back. stay safe.

Caitlin had never responded.

As much as she liked to consider herself a woman of strong convictions, Caitlin felt serious doubts as she drew closer to the warehouse. She didn't understand how Barry, even with his super speed, could just go running into danger without second thoughts—or maybe he did have second thoughts, and she simply wasn't privy to them.

Her plan with the weather program had worked, and through some careful analysis she had pinpointed this warehouse as the most likely location for Mark Mardon's current hideout. As she approached, gripping her prototype Weather Wizard Wand in one hand, she couldn't help but appreciate the appropriateness of the weather: the closer she got to the stone building, the more thickly the rain fell. The stuff of great horror movies, Cisco would say.

Lightning cracked overhead, and Caitlin scrambled forward to the warehouse wall. The main bay doors were open, perhaps for discreetness or perhaps just because Mardon wasn't concerned about being caught. Caitlin slunk inch by inch toward the gaping hole into the building, pausing at the edge.

Cisco had once taught her a trick of using her phone camera as a way to peer around corners, but she didn't want to waste the time. Besides, from what she could tell, the inside of the warehouse was dark. She hardly thought about it as she ducked sideways into the space.

It was a huge building, with rows and rows of boxes piled almost to the ceiling. Many of the boxes were dusty, and Caitlin wondered why the place had gone out of use. Or at least, out of use long enough for Mardon to establish it as his hideout.

There was no telling which aisle he might be in, or where Joe was being kept, so Caitlin crept quietly to one end of the room to begin her search more methodically. Her booted feet squeaked ever so slightly on the floor-and she realized after a few steps that she was leaving wet footprints behind her. No matter. She would be facing Mardon one way or another anyway. What did she care about leaving a trace?

More thunder shook the concrete under her feet as she passed aisle after aisle. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen... She lost track soon after, despite the counting acting as a kind of focusing device for her. When she stopped counting, she felt the fear building back up in her stomach. With every step, anticipation took away more and more of her breath.

Maybe she was wrong. Maybe her calculations, her speculations, had been off. Maybe Mardon and Joe weren't here at all. Maybe-

She rounded passed another stack of boxes and froze. Standing there, halfway down the length of the warehouse, was a lanky figure dressed in a long dark coat. His back was to her as he fiddled with something she couldn't see, but she knew it was him immediately.

"Don't worry, Detective," she caught the light sounds of his voice down the aisle. "I think it's about time to go for another ride. Are you ready? I stopped the Flash, but I think it's still fair that I stop your daughter's heart as well."

Caitlin clutched the wand more tightly, thumbing the release button, ready to switch it on at a moment's notice. She could see Joe now, too, even further down the aisle, drooping in a straight-backed chair. Still alive. Thank God.

Then, just like that, her boot squeaked again on the concrete. Mardon turned.

"You're awful brave, coming out in this storm," he hissed. He took a few steps forward. "Are you lost?"

The sneer in his voice was obvious. "I'm here to stop you," Caitlin said, but it didn't sound like how Barry used to say it. It had none of the confidence, none of the grandiosity, none of the dramatics that she'd heard Barry perfect over the months that he'd been working as the Flash. In comparison, her statement was weak. It was pretending. Play-acting.

Mardon laughed. "Right. You're one of the Flash's lackeys, aren't you? Come to avenge him? Is that it? Because, trust me, I have all of the avenging squared away right here."

As he lifted his arms, Caitlin knew what was coming, but her finger froze on the button of the wand. Paralyzed, she stood there watching, as if curious about the mechanics of Mardon's actions. The swirling of ice around his fingertips. The gathering coldness in the air.

Before she could process, before she could un-stick herself from the fear that kept her there, Mardon hurled the ball of ice forward. Barry had told her of the damage done by one of those balls of ice when they struck, and she had just the presence of mind to jump to the side as it approached. Still, the huge ice chunk caught her in the shoulder, and she was jerked backward by the force of it. The ice shattered across her collarbone, and she fell to the ground with a cry of pain. The distance had certainly been to her advantage, given that the ice ball hadn't done as much damage as it potentially could have, but Mardon was walking closer steadily.

Caitlin scrambled for the wand, which had fallen a foot away from her. The arm that had been hit screamed with pain, so she kept it tucked close as she gripped the metal of Cisco's device.

"You think one of your little toys can stop me?" Mardon yelled. With shaking fingers, Caitlin found the button on the wand and pressed it, brandishing the device upward as Mardon summoned a new force of nature. The energy siphoned through the wand and Mardon paused, feeling the drain on his powers. More confident now, Caitlin got to a standing position. Her grip on the wand was still unsteady, a huge gust of wind swirling about her. Mardon pushed his powers further and the wind increased, the wand itself now vibrating. With one more violent jolt, it warmed in her hand and then burst in a spray of sparks. Caitlin cried out as it burned her palm, casting the now-useless twist of metal to the ground.

"Nice try," Mardon said. "Thinking you could steal my powers? Thinking you're somehow above me? A god?""

He gathered the wind in his hands and let it explode.

Caitlin felt her feet leave the ground, and she was flying, spinning in the air. The world was a blur of gray and blue before it burst in a collision of stars. Dazed, she blinked-she was on the ground, with the cool cement floor pressed up against her cheek. The stack of boxes she had struck now tumbled around her, spraying her with the scent of dust and cardboard. She picked herself up from the floor and vaguely registered Joe's screams of "Caitlin!" before turning to see Mardon's approach. The boxes still fell, shifted, buffeted by the gathering wind. Warm blood ran down the side of Caitlin's face. The force of the wind gust had tossed her to the bay doors of the warehouse where she had entered, and the cold rain from outside dampened the back of her jacket. Mardon smiled.

And Caitlin ran.

Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the way out, and see you soon!

Till next time,

Penn