Eris(Guest):I'm answering here because I can't reply otherwise and to make sure it's clear for everyone, Alyssa really didn't kill Eiling for Ronnie. She killed him because for her Eiling coming after FIRESTORM, hurting an old man on top of already hurting her brother was final proof that Eiling would never stop, he'd just keep coming after them and hurting the people she loves. This last straw would probably have been the soldiers attacking their apartment if she had been in any position to go after Eiling then.

I own nothing except Alyssa, so don't touch her or sue me.

Chapter 12: Family:

The man known as Eobard Thawn sat in his hidden room with a scowl on his face. He was puzzled, and that he did not like.

He had planned to bring Eiling to Grood, something to keep the Flash busy later if needed as well as revenge, for both himself and the gorilla. He did regret a tad what had been done to the giant beast, but that potential he had seen in his own time was too great, and he needed the time streams to coincided as much as possible.

But when he had arrived at the base he found the soldiers sleeping, knocked out with some type of gas from the looks of things, and Eiling dead.

It had been cleanly done, a single bullet to the back of the head, execution style. The general had been shot with his own gun which had been left behind. It was clean, the assassin had worn gloves, and the security tapes had been wiped. Efficient. Impressive and from the look of abject terror on Eiling's face, the general agreed-of course.

"Fool." Eobard muttered, pulling up the cameras from the West house and selecting the one from the room where Felicity and Alyssa were staying. Hartley's twin was sitting one the bed staring out the window, her face blank of all emotion, a dead yet somehow distraught look in her eyes.

Eobard grinned sharply. He had seen that look on the faces of people who had killed for the first time and were either reluctant to accept the fact or had started hating themselves for it. "Gideon pull up anything relating to Alyssa Rathaway." Why hadn't he done this before?

"Yes Dr. Wells." Newspaper articles filled the screen, he scanned them swiftly and gave a cruel smile.

"You're very clever aren't you, Alyssa Rathaway? You kept a low profile even with your parents, worked in the shadows and in the open for years, built ties with metas and criminals, impressive."

She certainly had blood on her hands. It had been so well known during his time that he couldn't believe he'd forgotten, anyone who did serious injury to the Rogues ended up maimed or dead, sometimes before they could actually get to the injuring. The victims had always been terrified afterwards, and the dead looked as if all their nightmares had come at once. They had been scared to death, and looking back on it, Eobard could see that this assassin, this Parallax, focused mostly on people who harmed or threatened the Pied Piper. Hartley.

But Alyssa hadn't been caught as Parallax, she'd been caught talking with the Trickster. The police had pulled her in for questioning and she had gotten off lightly, but the publicity had cost her some of her clients from her daytime job as a therapist for people with sever phobias and other fear-related disorders. Her night-time activities Eobard pulled from his knowledge of his time's Pied Piper, and Alyssa's ability to manipulate fear, she would be able to do more in time he knew.

Parallax had never concerned him as the Reverse-Flash aside from passing curiosity, she (it was clear Parallax was female, Eobard had heard her voice on one of her missions and as her fear had not been directed at him retained his memory of the details clearly) was not involved with the Rogues except in the occasional revenge business and thus had never come in contact with the Flash, at least as far as he knew. But now, now that he knew how willing his Alyssa Rathaway was to kill and that this one hadn't told anyone from the look on her face, he wondered if he couldn't turn her from the rest of them.

҉

Hartley was worried. Alyssa had returned from her bike ride when they had all been asleep, and had not moved from the bedroom she shared with Felicity since, save to use the bathroom. She barely spoke, and toyed with her food more than eating it. Both Hartley and Felicity had tried to worm out of her what was bothering her, even Joe, Cisco, and Barry had tried, but Alyssa was stubborn. If she didn't want to talk, nothing short of getting her to snap in anger would make her. That or finding out on their own why she was so withdrawn, and Hartley for once had absolutely no idea what to do with his twin.

Sometimes he reached out, testing her emotions, but all he could not identify what she felt. There was definitely hatred, but where was it aimed? There was disgust, some horror and fear and beneath it all exhaustion. At least he knew where that was from, Alyssa had started waking up in the middle of the night to vivid nightmares, her terror at times intense enough to wake up Hartley from a deep sleep.

Joe had his own ideas about was going on with Alyssa, but had not heard about any recent murders in the city and was not sure how to approach her. If this went on though, he'd have to figure something out.

Cisco knocked on the door. Hartley had told him Alyssa had been nearly entirely unresponsive for three days. The other man was so clearly worried and failing to hide it, it made Cisco's heart ach. Plus he liked Alyssa, she was one of the few friends he had. He sat on the bed next to where she stared blankly out the window.

"You know, I hear solitary confinement is bad for you."

It triggered a faint smile and Cisco pushed on. "You're scaring Felicity and Hartley, I've never seen him scared. Please Alyssa, tell us what's wrong."

Alyssa wasn't wearing her glasses, but when she turned to look at him there was no life in her eyes. Cisco couldn't be sure whether it was that or her ability that sent a shiver down his spine. He kept talking. "I read your book you know. I was bored and curious-you wrote somewhere in there that you don't try to push patients into explaining their fears instantly, that the first step is to establish trust. You trust us right?"

"Of course!" Her vehemence was the strongest emotion she had shown in three days.

"So we've got that done. Whatever's going on, you don't have to talk now, but you will need to eventually. You know that." A slow nod. "You don't have to talk now. But you need to eat, and you need to stop scaring your family."

Alyssa tilted her head, then in one smooth movement stood and set her sunglasses squarely on her face. "I've been foolish haven't I?"

"You tell me." Cisco said with a grin. She smiled.

"Let's get you to my brother, you're looking a little anxious. And Cisco? You're family too."

It was almost enough to bring tears to Cisco's eyes and he hugged her tightly. "Thank you." He pulled away. "Now come on! Joe's cooking."