Everything with speedsters moved so quickly. Michael shouldn't have been surprised. But now Wally was one too, and everything they thought they knew about the situation was crumbling.

Barry went to call The Flash to stop by Iris's apartment, but of course Light was no longer there. She was gone and could strike again any moment. Worse was that it delayed Michael's research even further. He had several people from the cancer ward at CC General in line for medical trials, and oh, how he wanted to save them, any of them, all of them, even though it would always sting that he hadn't been in time to save his mother.

Poor Wally too, he thought. He was a meta now, which Michael could tell his new friend wanted to be excited about, but now the girl he'd been crushing on was secretly a supervillain. At least with Barry and Len, Barry had known about Len's past. Wally had to be crushed, though he'd closed up so much after the reveal that Linda wasn't Linda that it was hard to tell what he was feeling.

They didn't even know what Light wanted the research for. Maybe The Flash was right about her not being all bad. Barry and Len were making things work—something was happening between them anyway. So why not Wally and Light?

Depending on if she wanted to destroy the world, of course.

But that couldn't be it. She had Michael's research. She knew everything good it could be used for. She had to want it for something else.

They'd called in Hartley again for an extra mind. Michael hardly knew him yet, but what he had gotten to know about Hartley Rathaway, he liked very much. He had this front he put up that wasn't the real him, but it slipped every so often, especially when he and Michael were alone. He said he hadn't been comfortable in his own skin until recently because wearing a shield or two had been necessary with his parents. The Flash had helped him shed that need. All of Team Flash had helped.

"Though clearly these idiots can't do anything without me," he said, doodling equations on a whiteboard.

They were in the corner of the Cortex trying to detail every possible way Light might use the new cold gun while the others attempted to track where she'd gone, giving Wally a moment to breathe before they grilled him with further questions.

"Maybe if you were more than part-time, you could change that," Michael said.

"Trying to get me a job and make me a hero, huh?"

"Just offering nudges." Michael took the marker from Hartley and fixed an equation he'd rushed through, to which the other man stared in surprise, impressed.

The way the gun had been built, a dark matter pulse was no longer viable, which was good, or Light might have been able to kill other meta humans by unravelling their DNA with a single shot.

"I'd never tell someone who they should be if they really want to be something else," Michael continued, handing the marker back to Hartley.

"If only my parents were that open-minded."

"I thought you and your folks had a good relationship now."

"They're over the fact that their imperfect son has a record, but my personal life is still a sore spot."

"Well, maybe they just—"

"They tried to set me up with a woman," Hartley turned to Michael with a raised eyebrow, "this girl I knew in prep school. Well, joke's on them, she's a lesbian, and we're combining forces to beard our parents into obscurity until they only realize they're never getting grandchildren after our respective gay weddings."

Michael erupted with laughter, though he could tell Hartley was deflecting how difficult this was for him. "What, no chance at adoption?"

Hartley snorted. "Never say never."

He really was brilliant—and funny and charming. He just needed to drop his guard a bit more. Michael liked to think he was getting good at breaking through barriers like that.

"Want to grab a drink later to celebrate your future engagement?"

Returning to the white-board, Hartley chuckled. "Once the current crisis is averted, absolutely. But that's the problem with playing hero, you know. It never ends."

"Isn't that why we need heroes?"

Another pause, followed by a hooded but sweeter smile thrown Michael's way. "Well aren't you smart."

This time, Michael picked up his own marker to continue through ideas before he forgot them. "They'll come around, your folks, and if they don't, then they don't deserve you. Good parents accept you as you are."

"I could only dream to have a father like Snart. You could get away with murder."

"He's actually pretty strict about me not doing things like that," Michael said. "Because he cares, not because he wants to control me. Sometimes it's just tough for parents to see where the line is between 'for your own good' and 'for my own good'. He's getting there."

"Speaking of 'for your own good' father figures." Hartley capped his marker as Detective West arrived with a booming voice that drew all the attention in the room, especially when he rushed Wally with that same look of concern that Michael's dad wore last night.

Wally's reprieve had ended. They had no other leads, and with Joe's arrival, the group gathered in the med room once more to get as much information out of him as they could.

He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Is there anything you talked about that might give us a lead as to what she's planning?" Joe asked.

"Now that I know she's been lying this whole time," Wally sat with his legs dangling off the med bed, "everything she said seems like supervillain monologues."

"I get it," Barry said, ever the supportive brother, "and I am so sorry this happened, Wally. She fooled me too. She got me to tell her everything she needed about that test run at Mercury Labs, and the whole time I thought she was helping us."

"She was so seamless about it, ya know. Asked if I spent much time helping Team Flash, and I admitted I only helped a little. I realize now she was getting an idea of who's here when, what entrances we use, where the portal is, because it came up when I told her about Jesse."

"You didn't know." Iris squeezed his shoulder. "But what that does tell us is she likely doesn't plan to use her new gun on Earth-1."

"She's heading home," Barry agreed.

"Which means as soon as she has the gun operational," Len said, "she's coming right for us."

"Just to play Devil's advocate." Hartley raised a hand like waiting to be called on in class. "What's wrong with letting her get to the portal and being Earth-2's problem?"

"We have friends there," Barry said with a stern expression. "And this is our responsibility."

"Wally," Joe tried again, "do you have any idea what she wants?"

The newly awakened speedster looked so small hunched on the bed despite his lanky six-foot height. "I think most of the things she told me were true. At least it felt true. She talked about how sometimes she wishes there weren't any meta humans, because they cause so much suffering when they decide to hurt others, and you can never tell who's going to be like The Flash and who might be another monster like Zoom."

"What noble sentiment coming from someone willing to kill an innocent man," Len huffed.

"She didn't try to kill me, Dad," Michael said. "It's just a couple burns."

"Sympathizing with supervillains—"

"Is exactly why you and Hartley are here."

He had them there, and while Hartley hid a smirk by glancing away, Len didn't try to deny his frustration that Michael was right.

He was though, and he'd never let anything convince him otherwise. They were here for a reason.

"Fine," Len said, taking in their large crew and finally resting his gaze on Joe, who was most likely to be skeptical of his suggestions, "then we might as well include the whole family. I'm calling in the Rogues."

XXXXX

This was what Len had been hoping to avoid—Michael getting caught up in an all-out Flash and Rogues team-up against a dangerous adversary. With Lisa and Mick added to the chaos, Michael refused to even consider leaving this to the professionals.

"I am a professional, Dad. Maybe not as a vigilante or facing meta humans, but I know the research better than anyone. I need to be here."

His logic beat Len every time, but if anything ever happened to him…

It would be all Len's fault for letting it get this far.

He was all in. He didn't want to push Michael or Barry or any of this away. He just wished some of it could be easier.

At least West had failed just as spectacularly with Wally. The kid was a fresh-faced Flash, after all, just untrained, and this was personal for him. He didn't want to leave either. If Len had still seen this group as his enemies, he'd worry about two speedsters for the price of one in his future. But none of them were enemies anymore.

Before West left, he even said, "Keep an eye on 'em, huh?" without any of the judgment Len once would have expected.

Lisa and Mick arrived just as Iris and West headed out, off to see if they could gather intel on where Light was or when she might attack. The rest of them prepared for an assault.

Cisco had placed dark matter censors everywhere in case Light tried to sneak in invisible. They considered turning out the lights for night vision, but opted for heat censors instead. Len and Mick's goggles already had that built in. Cisco passed around additional goggles for himself, Lisa, and Michael, who'd insisted. There were only three, not that it mattered if Barry had some. He had his own with The Flash suit.

"Where is The Flash anyway?" Michael asked.

"He'll be here when we need him," Barry said. "He's watching the perimeter."

The one lie they had left. Len clung to it stubbornly, as if that remaining deception could keep Michael safe all on its own.

They were a well-oiled group, all said and done, West out playing detective while his daughter investigated as reporter. Michael, Hartley, and Wally worked out equations to counter what Light might do, though coming up with a true anti-cold gun would take time. The rest had separated into predictable pairs.

"Just keep them on," Cisco told Lisa as she fit her goggles into place. "See how all of us are showing up red like you'd expect? If anyone we're not expecting shows up, they'll look blue."

"Then it's shoot first, ask questions never?" Lisa grinned at him, the goggles simple like Len's but with a glowing light on top to indicate heat vision.

"Sounds good to me," Mick gruffed out, following Caitlin toward the elevator, carrying extra sensors to setup around the portal downstairs.

"Contrary to your opinion, Mr. Rory," Caitlin said primly, "the answer is not always to burn something until it dies."

"Says who?"

"Don't let him fool you, Caitlin," Michael called from the far side of the Cortex. "Uncle Mick's a softie deep down. Good cook, good at fixing things, and loves classic horror and sci-fi novels. He's been reading through Bradbury lately."

"Hey." Mick barked at Michael for outing his laurels. "Keep that smart mouth shut, will ya? Like to hear yourself talk just like your old man."

Len shot his friend a glare for the remark, but Mick was already trapped since his arms were loaded down and he still had to follow Caitlin down several floors.

"Bradbury? You know," she said, glancing back at him on her heels, "I prefer his short stories. Do you have a favorite?"

Michael was clearly a menace, and Len loved him for it, even if it left him and Barry to twiddle their thumbs, watching surveillance footage from around the Labs.

"I'm really sorry about all this," Barry said when even that job was taken from them by Cisco and Lisa cozying close at the terminal.

"Not your fault," Len said.

"I know, but I'm sorry anyway. I know you wanted to keep Michael safe from all this."

Len glanced across the room at his son, who was thriving with Hartley and Wally. "Not gonna be my choice, apparently."

"I'm glad you talked things out," Barry said softly between them. "For the record, I didn't know he was working in cancer research either, though I should have guessed."

"He's still getting to know me. I don't make it easy for anyone to…open up around me."

"You know what could help with that?" Barry inched closer. "Opening up more yourself."

"Oh? And how open would you like me to be?"

Barry trailed his eyes down Len's body like he was imagining several options. "So I have these friends in Star City."

"Yes?" Len startled at the subject change.

"They have a lot of break-ins at Palmer Tech too and—"

"No," Len cut him off out of habit.

"Most situations won't be like this! It'll be fun like the night of the test run. Then you can relax at home with your son. With Lisa and Mick. With whoever else might be around." A familiar blush filled his cheeks.

Not the casual type. Len wasn't surprised to see that hold true. If they did this, Barry would expect more than some one-night stand. He'd want promises, a future. "Except I don't have a home," Len said, testing the waters for Barry's reaction as well as his own. "Not a stable one."

"Oh." Barry drew back like he was embarrassed not to have realized that.

"You've been checking out apartments to get out of West's house, right?"

"Sure. I figure it's time I got out on my own."

"Any pointers for someone looking for rent control?"

Brightening again, Barry was as quick to smile as he was to believe in someone—to believe in Len. "Maybe I could help you look sometime. I just got a line on a place myself, not that I've had much time to think about it."

No one seemed to be paying them any attention, so Len inched closer still. "All this stability might build up like a powder keg. We wouldn't want that. You might need to find other ways to keep me…cool."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Remember what I wrote on that napkin all those months ago?"

Barry choked on a laugh. "How could I forget?"

"You turned me down."

"You asked for 'The Flash for one night, no questions asked.' Which I thought you meant for a heist. You saying it was a seedier request?"

"Now, Barry, that would have been rather base of me. I'm offended you'd think that. But if you'd chosen to interpret it that way," Len tipped his head closer, "I could have been persuaded."

Barry laughed louder but still didn't draw any attention from the others. It would be easy to steal another kiss. "Does that mean one night with The Flash would buy me a night keeping Captain Cold off the streets, then we can see where things go from there?"

"Start building up a tab?" Len teased.

"Maybe get creative for how those points rack up?"

"I can get pretty creative, Scarlet."

"I'd love to hear about it. Maybe you can pass me another napkin sometime with the right request, and I'll say yes."

God, he made it seem so easy, but it wasn't, even if the banter was. Len would let Barry down someday, just like he'd let down Michael, like he let everyone down. Someday, he would. And it made him wonder if it was worth the risk when he was starting to get attached to what he might lose.

"Barry…"

The lights went out, making Len's already twisted stomach lurch.

"Uhh…guys?" Wally called through the blackness.

"Why did we decide against night vision again?" Lisa asked.

"Calm down," Cisco said. "All of these goggles have night vision too. Just reach up and click the button on the right side one more notch."

Pulling his own goggles into place and following direction, fuzzy green illuminated in front of Len—his goggles had been made by Cisco too, after all—revealing everyone like found footage. Except Barry, who'd disappeared, only to zip into view with a lick of lightning that made everyone groan from the brightness.

"Sorry," he said in his resonating Flash voice. "Everyone okay?"

"We can see ourselves, but what about Light?" Lisa asked.

"Some of us can see ourselves," Hartley reminded them. "Some are actually in the dark right now."

"Caitlin and Mick are downstairs," Barry said in his normal voice, hiding behind Len in line with Michael to throw off that he wasn't the same person.

"Mick has his goggles and his gun," Len said.

"Caitlin will know how to turn on his night vision," Cisco assured them. "Let me see what's going on." His green-lit form slumped into his roller chair at the main terminal, with Lisa poised over his shoulder. "No, no, no. I have protocols for this! How is she hacking me this fast?"

"Because she's a base level technopath, genius," Hartley said, staying put by the whiteboard so as not to stumble in the dark. "She can rewire anything you think up before you finish coding it."

A beeping noise began and trilled for several seconds to indicate one of Cisco's dark matter sensors had gone off.

"That's the main entrance," Cisco said.

A few moments later, another beep sounded.

"And that's the stairwell. She hacked the building schematics. She knows exactly where the portal is and is heading down. But it'll take her time to get there from where she's starting."

"Just a point of clarification," Lisa spoke up once more, "Mick is a softie under the right circumstances. He also will set that woman on fire."

There wasn't time to debate what to do next. "Those of you without goggles stay with Cisco to get the lights working," Len ordered. "Michael—"

"Don't tell me to stay behind," Michael said.

Déjà vu, but this time Len didn't argue. "Did you get anything finished that we can use against her?"

"Sort of." Michael picked up what looked like a bullhorn from the table beside him. "It's a pulse that should disable her gun temporarily."

"Should?"

"It'll buy us time, Dad. I got this."

Len honestly didn't know how West could stand watching Barry run headfirst into the line of fire every night. "Fine. Lisa, Flash, with us."

It took a bit of clever movement on Barry's part to not make it obvious that The Flash had replaced Barry, but Michael was too focused to notice.

"I've got Cisco on comms," Barry said once they were on their way. Good. At least the entire power grid hadn't been compromised.

"Tell him to warn us before the lights come back on so we're not blinded."

"Got it."

For now, they traveled in florescent green.

A few moments moving in silence, Barry whispered, "Cisco says another censor went off. She's getting close to the portal, but we'll still beat her coming from this side of the building."

"Don't zip ahead, Flash," Len said. "Better if we take this slow and stay together. Numbers might be our only advantage. And Michael's pulse."

STAR Labs was a large building, but it didn't take long to descend the stairs nearest them and reach the floor they needed. Once they came around the corner that led the last league to the portal, two green blobs manifested with a bright center point Len knew to be Mick's gun.

"Who's there?" Mick barked.

"Relax, partner, it's the cavalry. You both alright?"

"Is it Light?" Caitlin asked, holding Mick's arm for stability since she'd been left in the dark.

"It is, and she's headed this way," Barry said, resonating voice informing them that he was to be called Flash instead of Barry, not that Mick would likely call him either.

"Give us intel then, Red," Mick said, relaxing as they approached.

Len didn't like them dawdling here, even though someone needed to guard the portal room. There were too many winding ways that led to this spot, three possible directions Light could come from.

"Cisco thinks, judging by the sensors she's set off so far, that she's most likely to come from there." Barry indicated the center hallway.

"Doctor Snow, if you please?" Len reached out his hand to her, waiting for her to grope forward before he grabbed it and passed her to Michael. "Michael will keep an eye on you. The both of you stay back while we take point. Mick, keep at the door. Lisa, you take the far right, Flash center, I'll hold back to guard where we came from and keep these two behind me. Michael, if you get a shot with that pulse, take it, but don't be a hero."

"If you expect me to follow that advice, Dad, you're setting a terrible example."

Len could feel Barry and Lisa's grins, even if their faces weren't clear in black and green, which he promptly ignored. "Just be smart. That is the example I expect you to follow."

As a group, they got into position and waited. Every so often, Barry would whisper something from Cisco, an indication of where Light was traveling, but the usual adrenaline waiting for a fight didn't spike for Len like it might have if it was just him and his team against an enemy. Even if it was just him and Barry. Michael at Len's back made him prickly with nerves, remembering the other night, especially when a voice cried out from the center hall.

"Don't make me shoot you, Flash!"

Barry squared off into a ready stance. "I can see just fine, Light. As soon as you come around the corner, I promise you I'm faster."

That meant he couldn't see her yet, which left Len unsure of who had the upper hand.

"You sure you're faster than this gun?" she called. "All I want is safe passage out of here."

"Not happening. If you leave the gun, maybe we'll consider it."

"I can't do that."

Len couldn't see around the corner from his position, but when the next thing Barry yelled was "Down!" before he dropped to the floor, he envisioned Light firing without looking or revealing herself as a blast of…of…

Len couldn't explain it through the night vision, but it didn't look like ice erupting out of the mouth of the hallway. It wasn't even bright, more like glittering ripples of smoke that exploded like a burst of magic against the portal room door—and Mick.

"Mick!" Len cried.

The larger man froze, but not as if he couldn't move or like time had stopped, but from the shock of being struck by something unknown. Len waited for a delayed reaction, for a cry, a shudder, for Mick to topple to the floor, but he merely shook himself, seemingly fine.

Just as Light tackled Barry like she had at Mercury Labs!

Her hands burst with light at his goggles and comms, causing him to howl from the shock. She'd blinded him again and cut him off from the Cortex. At least she wasn't naked this time but back to the leather outfit Len remembered from the news.

Strafing to the right to blast her without ricocheting onto Lisa further down the hall, Len fired before Light could roll away, but she flattened herself on top of Barry so the ice missed her entirely, then jumped up to rush Mick before he could blast her next. Ducking and weaving, she avoided Mick's attempts to swat at her, finally firing a burst of light at his goggles too.

Right as Len and Lisa squared off to take her out between them, the lights in the Labs blared to life with the worst timing, blinding everyone who'd still been using night vision.

Len squinted in frustration as he tore his goggles from his eyes, unable to focus, knowing that Lisa and Michael were experiencing the same, while Mick, Barry, and Caitlin would be blinking past the startling change from black to brightness. None of them could see clearly enough to attack, but it certainly appeared as if a blob was pushing Mick aside to rush past him into the portal room.

A dance of yellow lights came next, not from Barry but from past Len's shoulder as Wally West zipped in like he'd been waiting for the baton to be passed.

"Linda, stop!" he materialized out of his lightning just as Len's vision began to clear, holding her against the wall beside the portal room door. Even through her visor, she finally looked as startled as the rest of them. "Whatever's going on, just tell us. We can help you. I promise. Just talk to me. I know you're not really like this."

As Barry scrambled to his feet, goggles tossed aside like the others, Lisa and Mick came forward aiming their guns despite Wally blocking any clear shot. Len felt Michael and Caitlin behind him still and moved subtly enough to allow Michael a shot with his pulse, just in case.

Light's hand remained tight on her cold gun, unwilling to loosen her hold, but her expression looked momentarily disrupted from its stony mask. "You won't understand. You don't know what it was like having Zoom controlling our city all those months. You only got a taste of him."

"But it's okay now. Zoom's gone. We can figure this out together, whatever it is you think you need to do. Please." He released his hold on her shoulders to slide down to her wrists in gentle comfort. "I didn't know I was a meta until this morning. I didn't mean to run out like that, it just happened. Do you hate me for being like this now? Do you hate yourself?"

Distracting Light to give them the chance to regroup was good, but Wally's tactic was also dangerous since he'd basically placed himself as an offering to the enemy and was giving her all the power to choose how this went.

Light took a breath, calmer now but summoning a resigned expression. "I hate what metas can be, and you can't control that. This can." She lifted the gun, causing Mick and Lisa to flinch forward, though Len waved them back. This was their chance to keep things from escalating. "I can even the playing field so no one can become another Zoom again, not in my world."

"If that's what you're scared of then stay here," Wally said, as ardently as Barry had ever sounded appealing to Len. "You can just stay here. Our villains even join our side sometimes, just look," he gestured back at Len, which Len couldn't exactly deny.

"They're not meta humans," Light said. "They're not as dangerous."

"Wanna bet," Mick growled with a warning pop of fire from his gun.

Light ignored him. "You really think nothing could ever turn The Flash into something like Zoom? Nothing at all just because he acts good now? Are you really sure?" she pushed before he could answer. "Are you sure of what you're capable of? Because I never expected what I was capable of until I had no other choice."

"You think I could be like Zoom?" Wally gave her wrists another comforting squeeze.

"No," she said, almost sympathetic but also cold—Len knew that resolve well. "But if you ever were, I'd rather you didn't have the power to take over an entire city. I like you, Wally." She shifted her free hand to take hold of his. "That wasn't a lie. I wish things could be different. I wish there was a you in my world…but this is something I have to do."

"Ah!" Wally cried as he lurched away from her, palm bright red from the burn she'd just given him, and before anyone could react, she yanked him back toward her, spun him around, and had the gun at his temple.

"Linda…" Barry tried, but she charged the gun threateningly, moving with Wally toward the portal room entrance.

Mick took two powerful strides closer, gun aimed at her head. "That toy 'a yers didn't do shit to me."

"Mick, wait!" Michael warned. "She must have tailored the output to affect metas! We don't know what it might do to Wally."

With a snarl, Mick backed off, but only because Michael was the one who'd asked.

"Just let me go," Light said, backing up further, "and you'll never see me again."

"We can't," Barry approached her cautiously with an outstretched hand. "We know other metas in your world. We can't just let you go on some revenge quest hurting others thinking you're helping. Even you don't know what that gun might do."

"I know what it should do," she said—should, a word Len hated, "and it's worth the risk."

Thrusting Wally into Barry's arms to unbalance him, she bolted into the room at a mad dash. Len gave chase first, confident he couldn't be hurt if the gun was meant for metas. She still had to turn the portal on, after all, and he tracked her movements, firing a blast that she only just dodged as she dove for the control panel.

"Linda!" Wally called, zipping forward at lightning speed before Len could yell at him to stop—just in time for Light to pop up and fire.

This time the arcs of glittering smoke impacted their target with a fizzle that doused the sparks around Wally's body like snuffing out a campfire. He stuttered to a dead stop, staring at himself, unable to understand how his newly minted powers had been stripped.

That was it. She wasn't trying to hurt metas; she wanted to stop their cells cold and make them human.

Before she could think to use the gun again, distortions like soundwaves struck her like a force push, causing the cold gun to fizzle out just like Wally's lightning. Michael's bullhorn worked as he beat even Barry into the room to lend them aid.

Growling in frustration, Light whirled toward the control panel, and the portal up on its platform roared to life. Len aimed another blast of ice at her turned back, but when he fired, she spun around to lift a glowing palm that melted it mid-air to splash to the ground.

Her own gun had already stopped sparking, temporary like Michael had said. Still, it was her light powers she charged next.

"I'm sorry I have to do this," she said to Michael, who she perceived as her greatest threat, "but I can't let you interfere anymore."

Time slowed as she shot out her powers, and the same way Len imagined the rest of the world looked to Barry, he saw his chance to go to Michael's aid before it was too late. It didn't matter if Light was aiming for the bullhorn or the boy himself, Len couldn't risk his son, so he dove in to take the searing laser shot in his stead.

Only when time sped up again did Len realize he could never be as fast as Barry.

Len almost tossed his gun aside in his haste to grab Barry's shoulders when the speedster slumped, right there in front of him, having taken the shot for him.

"I-I'll heal," he huffed, and then lurched out of Len's grasp to zip forward and capture Light before she could escape.

But he was hurt from the wound Len couldn't even see, and he didn't reach her fast enough before she lifted her gun and fired to stop him in his tracks as succinctly as she depowered Wally.

Only her cringe betrayed that this wasn't the outcome she wanted, not that Len cared when Barry sank to his knees, because she didn't hesitate to race the rest of the way to the portal and dive headlong into the blue.

Bolting forward to drop beside Barry, Len eased him onto his back where at last he saw the wound, a cauterized bullet-sized hole through the center of Barry's chest that was bleeding faster and faster without his healing factor to counter it.

"I-I-I…"

"Shh," Len shushed him, tearing the mast from his face to see him, to let him breathe, but all that mattered was that he wasn't healing, which was far more important than Michael's distraught voice.

"Barry?"

TBC...