Cisco worried a scrap of red suit polymer between his fingers as he finished his story. "She killed two more people that we were sure of. A woman on her way to work and some poor homeless vet. Frozen solid like Justin."
"What do you mean, that you're sure of?" Barry asked. He'd changed out of his suit and back into regular clothes, and he sat on the end of Cisco's work desk, eyes fixed on his face.
Cisco shook his head. "You missed it, man, but the winter before last, it was bad. Just, like, bitter cold clear through to April. I tracked it, and there were a lot of cases of hypothermia and freezing to death. They even ran a report on it in Iris's paper - you know, before it was Iris's paper. I don't know how many of them were her - Killer Frost, I mean, not Iris - or the winter. They stopped around springtime. I thought maybe she'd left town." He looked down at his hands and said very quietly, "Or - or died."
He didn't want to admit that he'd hoped that.
A little bit.
"Anyway, you know the rest. Robbing pharma companies, selling the drugs - "
"Are we sure she's selling them?"
"What do you think, she's taking them all herself? She'd be a human maraca."
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before? The first time I went up against her?"
Cisco tossed the little scrap of polymer away. "I told you what you needed to know, man. I told you she had cold powers, that she'd killed people. How would it help to know her whole life history?"
"I don't know, just, I wish I had! As your friend."
Neither of them mentioned the elephant in the room - that Wells hadn't said anything either.
Barry's face crunched up with concern. "Look. Cisco. I can tell that this was bad for you."
"You think?"
"But, um, you're pretty close to it. Like. Emotionally. We've dealt with a lot of metas who can't control their powers. And that's what this sounds like to me. I mean, we've helped others."
"She's not asking for our help controlling her powers. She just has this 'favor' that she wants - "
"Did you seriously just air-quote that?"
"And she won't tell us what it is. For all we know, it's an attempt to get a weapon out of us. She doesn't seem to be having a problem with her powers, anyway."
"You mean because she hasn't killed anyone in over a year."
"That we know of."
Barry rubbed his hand over his hair. "I think someone freezing to death in August might raise a few eyebrows."
"She doesn't want help with her powers."
"You're awfully sure of that for someone who doesn't know what this favor is."
"Yep," Cisco said grimly.
Thing was, he had tried to help before.
7 months ago
This apartment block was the scariest one yet.
Some of the others had been okay. Shitty, but okay, with kids and families running through. He was familiar with places like that, like the apartments his family had lived in when he was a little kid, poor but trying.
This one was just terrifying. The chicken wire fence drooped down as if someone had run into it with their car, and he was pretty sure the gate hadn't worked in years. The walls were crosshatched with graffiti, the parking lot was about half broken-down old cars, and there was a chemical smell in the air that he really, really hoped wasn't meth cooking because he didn't feel like being in an explosion today, thanks.
He didn't know whether to hope she lived here or hope she didn't.
He'd forgotten his gloves. He dug his hands into his pockets, doing his best to look tough and mean, like someone who might have spent their teen years in a gang instead of Robotics Club and Mathlympics. You know the Flash, you know the Flash, he thought. It wasn't much comfort, because he'd still have to get ahold of Barry, and Barry right now was kind of distracted. But it was sort of like a security blanket.
Also, he'd made sure to dig out his crappiest coat and jeans. No point in standing out around here, any more than a stranger usually did.
Trouble was, the reason they were his crappiest coat and jeans were because they were worn thin with age, and the bitter wind bit right through. He fisted his hands in his pockets, dancing subtly from foot to foot. He'd pulled all the strings he had, called four or five dozen friends of friends, and followed any number of rumors. Maybe this one would pan out.
Just when he'd resigned himself to leaving a note on the door, like he had at about seven or eight other places this week, he spotted her.
She moved like a ghost in her white coat. She wore thick mittens, a bulky hat. In the cold snap that had hit the city, she didn't stand out. She might almost have been the Caitlin he knew, walking into Star Labs, grumbling about the cold and the mess on her boots, ready to shuck layers and start her day.
She checked her stride at the sight of him.
"C-Caitlin," he stuttered. "Hey."
He hadn't seen her in nearly a year. That wasn't why she looked like a stranger, though. He was pretty sure of that.
"Go away," she said in a flat voice.
"Don't you want to know why I'm here?"
Giving him a wide berth, she started up the steps. "I don't know how you found me - "
He trotted after her. "I looked."
" - but I don't care." She peeled one mitten off so she could manage her keys.
"Look," he said. "I - I know that Star Labs probably isn't your favorite - "
"Don't you dare talk to me about that place."
"We're trying to do things, okay? We're trying to help. Have you been following the news? The - " He lowered his voice, aware of the people walking past. "The Flash. The particle accelerator made the Flash, and - and others - "
She got the door open.
"Caitlin. Wait." He reached out.
She grabbed his wrist just long enough to yank his hand off her arm. "Go away."
He stumbled backwards down the steps, huddled over his wrist, his breath coming quick. "Caitlin." The narrow gap between his gloves and his coat, where her skin had touched, burned as if she'd traced it with a glowing metal rod. "We can help you, we can - "
"Help me? With what? I don't need your help. You're why I'm like this."
"I - I tried to - "
"You failed. Ronnie's dead. And I'm - this."
It was the truth. He stood trembling from more than cold, holding his wrist. "Please," he said. "You were my friend. Let me try to fix it."
"Even if you could, I wouldn't trust you to. Friend. Go away," she said, and in the depths of her eyes, pinpricks of blue began to glow. "Stay away."
He hated himself, but he ran.
When he got up the courage to go back a week later, the landlord told him she'd moved out that night. A week after that, the first pharmaceutical warehouse was robbed, the locks frosted over, the wall crumbled with ice running all through it.
When Barry had looked at him expectantly, he'd thought of Caitlin's eyes, glowing with blue contempt, and said quietly, "Killer Frost."
And if his friend had noticed that Cisco hadn't said it with his usual glee, he didn't say anything, and neither did Wells.
Two days after Killer Frost visited Star Labs, the Rogues struck a jewelry store.
"No," Cisco said.
A week after that, they tried to hit an armored car. Barry stopped them, but it was a near thing, and they still got away. He said, "Cisco - "
"No," Cisco said.
A bank.
"Cisco."
"Ughhhhhhhhhh."
"Would you just consider - "
"No!"
The cold gnawed at her bones. Just a few moments, Caitlin promised herself, and skimmed her hand over the lock. The tiniest percentage of degrees' difference in the keypad - from friction, from an electrical connection, from the guard's last punch-in, two minutes ago - told her the code.
The lock beeped and disengaged, allowing her into the pharmaceutical warehouse. Shrugging into her wool coat, she moved swiftly and quietly through the shelves, headed for the ones she needed. She hunched over the cabinet.
Somewhere in the warehouse, the tiniest of clicks sounded. She paused and lifted her head.
A voice rang out. "I don't know that much about crime, but it seems to me like a full-length, bright white coat might be a liability when you're sneaking around at night, especially in September."
"Maybe, but it's a look I'm committed to," she said, and started to turn.
"Aa-ah," he said. "Slowly. Hands up. Each of the darts in this gun packs enough tranq to fell a rhino."
She went still, then lifted her hands into the air and rotated slowly."Cisco," she said, staring down the barrel of the dart gun. "Well. This is a surprise. How did you hide from my heat sense?"
"Like I'm gonna tell you," he said.
She raised her brows.
"Okay, fine, I lined a cabinet with a space blanket and hid out in there."
Caitlin had a few space blankets herself, layered over her bed. The thin foil and plastic trapped nearly all heat. No wonder she hadn't sensed him.
His hair and t-shirt were damp with sweat, and his face was flushed. In her heat vision, he glowed like a beacon. She shook her head. "You're lucky you didn't get heatstroke. Or suffocate."
"Not your problem, Killer Frost."
Her eyes narrowed. She cast around with her heat sense, more thoroughly than the cursory check she'd done when she came in. "So where's the Flash?"
His jaw worked a little. "About this favor of yours."
"You're assuming I still need it."
His eyes widened briefly. "Do you?"
"As it happens, I do, but go on. What about it?"
"What is it?"
"Not telling."
He pressed his lips together. "Is it illegal?"
"Aren't you supposed to start with animal, vegetable, or mineral? Since we're playing twenty questions."
"I'm not the one being all top-secret classified here. Is. It. Illegal."
"Okay. Fine. No, it's not illegal."
"Is it a weapon? Can it harm someone?"
"Anything can be a weapon. But no. That's not its intended use."
"Who does it affect?"
"Directly? Me. Only me."
"And indirectly?"
She smiled. She didn't have to answer every question in this game.
He scowled. "How long will it take?"
"I don't honestly know. An afternoon - a week - a month. I can't say."
At his look, she glared. "I'm not playing coy. I truly can't."
"And why are you coming to us for it?"
"You'll know when I tell you. Which will be after I help you get the Flash back."
He went tense all over. "How do you know he's gone?"
"Because he's not here. You are, even though you're far safer back at Star Labs, working the mikes. Where is he, Cisco?"
"He went to fight the Rogues four nights ago and he hasn't come back."
"Well, he's a big boy. Maybe he just decided to zip off to Mexico for awhile. Have a piña colada."
"Even if he didn't come to Star Labs, he'd never go this long without contacting - " He stopped.
Caitlin had her thoughts on whose name he'd been about to say, but she kept it behind her teeth. "So," she said. "We've gone from 'no deal' to 'please find my friend' in . . . what? three weeks?"
"You said it yourself. You've got one hell of an advantage against both Captain Cold and Heatwave. And this city needs the Flash."
"And my favor?"
He gritted his teeth. "Okay. If this thing takes a week, a month, a year, whatever - then you stay at Star Labs for the duration."
"In a cell?"
"Hell yeah, in a cell."
"Where I'm sure you'll study me. Take data. Test me."
"While we do your damned favor."
That would work out just fine, as far as Caitlin was concerned. "Done."
He blinked, but rallied. "Okay. Come back with me to Star Labs and we'll get started looking."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Right now? No."
"What?"
"I'll join you there in an hour. I have something to do first."
"How do I know you won't just take off?"
"The same way you trusted me to keep standing here."
"I have a gun on you."
She flicked her fingers, and a knot of ice formed at the end of the gun. Cisco looked at it, pressed his lips together, and let it drop to his side.
She folded her arms. "I think you underestimate the value of this favor."
"I could estimate better if I knew what it was."
Oh, what the hell. She deserved to be childish right now. "That's for me to know and you to find out."
"Nice. Mature. Okay. An hour. Works for me. I've got to make some calls."
"Bye, then." She reached for the door of the cabinet again.
"Seriously? You're just gonna carry out your robbery while I'm standing here?"
"Right now, it's burglary. It's not a robbery until I threaten somebody." She looked at him over her shoulder. "That can be arranged."
He pulled his phone out. "I have a police detective's personal line, and my coordinates cued up in a text."
She rolled her eyes and dropped her hands. "Fine." She wouldn't need the medicines anyway, if they found the Flash and she could go into the cell at Star Labs. "How did you find me, by the way?"
"Took your advice. I looked. You hit a pharm warehouse at least once a month. You hadn't hit this one yet. Lucky for me, Palmer Pharmaceuticals happens to be owned by a buddy of mine, and he took it as a personal favor that I was going to stop a robbery."
She turned, her coat swirling out around her like a gunslinger's duster. "And here I thought you were just going to turn up at my favorite Starbucks."