Happy New Year sweet people!

I wish 2020 to be the best year so far for every single one of you. I cannot express what this whole experience means to me. Seriously, I'm in awe of the support and love you give me. So, in return, I hope this year brings you love, joy, and many accomplishments.

I love you all!

Enjoy!

This is smaller than usual, but after my writer's block, I wanted to get it up as soon as possible to greet 2020.

Chapter 57

Meanwhile...

In Star City, miles away from Metropolis and the Worldkillers, Oliver Queen, for once in his life, was enjoying himself. To put it in one word Oliver was proud. He was proud of his son, William and how acute he was. It had taken a lot of pestering from the young Queen 'You promised, dad!', but eventually, the Emerald Archer had given in and started teaching him some martial arts. Well... it was only a few self-defense moves, nothing fancy or extreme, but William was grasping at anything he could get out of the older man.

The Bunker was not as cold as William remembered it to be. But then again, he had worked up enough sweat to make one think he just came out of the shower –well, if it wasn't for the smell. William took a breath through the nose and exhaled from the mouth copying the rhythm his father had taught him. His brown eyes narrowed on the training mannequin and he ran one more time Oliver's instructions through his mind.

William exhaled...and then, with a swift move, he knocked his fist onto the fake nose of the mannequin. Immediately, a sharp pain shot in his knuckles. He winched hating that Oliver and Diggle were watching. William closed his eyes in embarrassment. He heard Diggle chuckle and Oliver sigh patiently.

"You were doing so well, Will. What did I say about posture?"

Well, at least Oliver didn't sound angry, so the teenager opened his eyes again to greet the elders. "Em, have your knees bent a little and straighten your core?" he replied shyly.

Diggles chuckled again, amused. Oliver, however, didn't show anything on his face. "Don't put your weight in the punch." The archer elaborated.

"I'll get some ice for your hand." Diggle offered.

Oliver moved behind William and started correcting his posture. He grabbed his shoulders with his hands and pushed his feet further apart with his own. "Your footing should be here and don't bend your knees that much." He corrected that too. "Your feet should be firmly planted on the floor. Find your balance." Oliver continued instructing and William tried to do just that. "Now, move your weight on your feet, not your back." Oliver continued using his hands to straighten William's back.

William frowned. "How do I do that?"

"First, relax your shoulders." William did that. "Now use your thighs for balance. Only your thighs." With a sigh, the boy attempted it. "Only your thighs," Oliver warned. "There you go." The man applauded and William felt weird at the use of the muscles. "Now keep your weight there and slowly move your arm in front of you. Which are the most sensitive parts of the body?"

"Eyes, nose, throat, groin, knees." William counted by heart. "But I should focus on the first four."

"That's right." Oliver agreed proudly. "Now, go for the nose again. Remember, don't put your weight on your fist and don't exhaust yourself with putting all your strength in the punch. You need to hit fast not hard."

William pocked his tongue out in concentration. Then he clenched his home keys around his knuckles and swung swift and fast. His fist didn't actually reach the dummy but attacked the air in front of it. Nevertheless, his technique was flawless.

Oliver smiled proudly and patted his son on the shoulder rewardly.

"Nice, kiddo." Diggle praised.

William smiled ecstatic, feeling his chest puff with air of accomplishment. "And I can do the same move without my keys?" he turned to his father.

"Of course," Oliver nodded. "But your palm needs to be different. Have you ever played volleyball?"

"In gym class." William frowned slightly.

"And do you know how to serve a ball?" The younger simply nodded not bothering with words. "Show me!" Oliver urged.

William raised his hand and fixed it in a stiff plank. Oliver, then, caught his thumb and pulled it apart.

"Like this." He explained.

William huffed with interest and tried the move again. Satisfied he nodded his head and beamed at his father.

"What's next?" he asked eagerly.

Diggle chuckled with amusement while Oliver sighed and shook his head lightly. "Now we have a break and you put some ice on that hand."

William's expression told them he didn't want to do that, but the kid nodded regardless and took the ice pack Diggle offered him.

#

In Smoak Technologies Felicity Smoak continued the endless hunt for the Queens' involvement with the 9th Circle. She had to give it to Robert, the man was spectacular at covering his tracks. If a mere person was to look into his bank accounts, all they would see was money transfers between banks and corporations. Nothing that screamed: "I'm funding an evil master plan!" And although –no, Felicity didn't expect those words to greet her- she had imagined this would go faster.

Felicity groaned and gave up, falling back into her comfortable chair. Perhaps she needed to give her eyes a break. For a moment she wondered if she should call Oliver, but she doubted he needed to hear about her failed attempts.

"Hey, Felicity." Kendra's head popped into the office. "Are you busy? Barry is here to see you."

The blonde sat up properly with a frown. What was Barry doing here? And why didn't he call?

"Bring him in." she urged curiously.

Kendra offered a smile and a nod before leaving only to return a few moments later with the lanky speedster.

"Barry!" Felicity greeted him with glee, moving from behind her desk to give him a warm hug.

"Hey, Felicity!" despite the cheeky smile that greeted her back, Felicity could see dark lines of fatigue on Barry's face.

Her expression was immediately replaced with worry. "What happened?" she asked leading him to sit. "I saw the alert but Sara said that Winn had it under control and not to come."

"I'm guessing she told the same thing to Oliver."

Felicity shrugged in ignorance. "I don't know, I haven't talked to him yet." Barry nodded darkly and Felicity felt her stomach drop. "Barry, what happened?" Felicity dreaded the answer all of a sudden.

"While Kara and Mon-El went to Metropolis to retrieve the device the Parademon left for Winn, they got jumped by the Worldkillers."

Felicity never thought it was possible but she felt as if someone dropped ice all over her. She opened her mouth to say "What?!" but her brain did not cooperate.

"We were all unprepared." Barry continued. "Kara and Mon-El tried to buy some time until we could come but Kara got seriously injured. We managed to send them into the faraway space, but only by luck and because they underestimated us."

Felicity's eyes her huge with terror and her stomach was threatening to spill out her lunch. Then...

"WHY DIDN'T YOU BRING EVERYONE!" she screamed her lungs out.

Barry winched visibly and lowered his head. "Because it would've taken more time than we had." He said softly raising his eyes to lock with hers. "And because we would be worried about how to protect those without powers when we didn't even know how to protect ourselves." He gulped before continuing. "Felicity the portal dimension is not accessible yet and everything we threw at them they threw back tenfold."

It was those words that made Felicity realize how close to death her friends came to be. The dread of the realization made her want to sit down, only she already was.

"How much time have you bought us?" she whispered.

Barry gave her a sad look. "I couldn't tell. But if they return before they manage to access the portal dimension then this time we won't be so lucky." Barry watched as a tear fell down Felicity's face. He fought the instinct to brush it away. "I'm going to contact Wells, Jesse and Wally to help me learn the Infinite mass punch." A spark of hope found itself on Felicity's eyes. "But I'm only one man. If they don't have the device ready before the Wroldkillers come, I'm afraid not all of us will survive until they're gone."

If it came down to that then the League would have to keep the Worldkillers at bay while Barry took care of them one at a time. Would he even be able to do that? Felicity wondered. What if he needed time to recharge after each attempt. Or worse, what if he could only do it once. Felicity bit her lip and kept her worries to herself. It would do no good to the speedster if she voiced them.

"There's something else." Barry's voice was pained. "Kara was very badly injured and has fallen into a coma. Alex and Caitlin don't know when she'll wake up."

She shock that came with the news was as hard as if punched by a Worldkiller.

"Anyway, I have to go back. The girls were still running tests on Kara when I left, but I wanted to tell you the news myself." Barry said getting up. "I trust you to tell Oliver. I don't feel like getting shot with arrows when I deliver the news."

His attempt to joke was a failure as neither felt it lift their lips into a smile. Barry sighed and walked to the door.

"I also have some lines of code I want to send you. I'd be grateful if you could look them over. It's for Gideon."

Felicity felt her mouth twitch but the smile still didn't come. "Of course. Who knew you'd be building an A.I. before I did?" she joked before sobering up. "And I'll tell Oliver. Just- as soon as I come to terms with the news myself."

Barry nodded silently. And then he was gone, leaving Felicity to deal with the disaster this day had brought.

#

Oliver attacked from behind. William immediately kicked back forcefully hitting Oliver's leg hard. Then he dug his nails in the flesh of the arm and finally caught it between his teeth. He did not bite down as his father had instructed. After all, he didn't want to hurt him. Pretending that it had actually happened, Oliver retrieved his arm freeing the teenager. Free to move now, William quickly turned around and fake-kicked Oliver in the groin and ended it with a final fake-punch on the throat. Oliver fell on the ground ending the demonstration.

A cheerful laugh escaped William's mouth. Oliver chuckled but smiled at his son.

"That. Was. Awesome!" the kid cheered.

"You did great, buddy." The fondness in his voice could not be masked.

William grinned at his father. "Thanks, dad."

"Your welcome." He replied. "Alright, enough of that. Go sit by the monitor in case Dig needs something. I've got to call Felicity."

William nodded without commenting. About an hour ago an alert had echoed in the bunker. Oliver seemed distressed at the sound, but before William could ask what it meant Sara had called and said something to her father. When William asked about it, Oliver simply said that other members of the League were handling whatever was going on. However, the kid could tell that his father's mind was occupied with worry over the situation, so he had requested to be taught more defensive moves in order to distract his father. From where he was putting on the Spartan suit, Diggle had given William a knowing look and then had gone out in the streets to patrol. Before he left, Oliver promised him he'd keep the comms on so Diggle could talk to them whenever he needed. Now, William spun around in Felicity's chair, while Oliver took the phone call at the other side of the bunker.

Felicity picked up rather fast –even for her.

"I was about to call you." She blubbered before he could talk.

Oliver couldn't decide if he wanted to sigh or hold his breath. "So you know what the threat was." He said bluntly.

"What?" Felicity said confused. "Oh, right, the alert." She remembered. "Barry left me in charge of telling you." Oliver had a feeling that she was talking to herself.

Oliver narrowed his eyes. "Felicity... What is going on?"

Felicity swallowed. "Well..." Her voice became unnaturally high. "Nothing really. Just -you know... There's every possibility that...maybe –perhaps...the Worldkillers might have shown up?"

Oliver blinked at what he just heard. And then, "WHAT!" he roared.

"But everything is fine now." Felicity continued her blabbing. "Except for Kara, who is in a coma, but-"

"WHAT!"

"But on the other hand, I discovered some very interesting things about your father."

There was silence after that. Neither of the two dared to speak. Until, of course, Oliver broke the silence.

"Felicity, what the hell is going on?" he asked more calmly this time.

He could feel Felicity biting her lip on the other side of the line. "Do you want to know about your father?"

Oliver greeted his teeth. "No. I want to know about the Worldkillers and the fact that KARA is in a coma."

Felicity hesitated. "Are you sure you don't want to know about Robert's secret?"

"No!" he yelled. "Felicity..."

The blonde sighed. "Look, all I know is that the Worldkillers arrived when Kara and Mon-El were in Metropolis. The alert went out but without the pocket dimension the super-powered didn't want to worry about those without powers, that's why Sara stayed out and told you to stay put too. They managed to send them away, but Kara was seriously injured and has fallen into a coma that neither Caitlin nor Alex can explain yet. And that's all I know. You have to call STAR labs for details."

Oliver's brain could not comprehend how they could fight the Worldkillers without the back up of the entire team. He was seriously thinking of portaling himself to STAR labs and give them a piece of his mind. However, Felicity had more to say.

"I'm mad at them too, but I understand why they told you to stay out of it. There's nothing we can do about it now, and that will stay the same until Lena Luthor finds a way." She said. "What I said before was true, however. I found a secret. It doesn't have anything to do with the 9th Circle, but Robert went to great length to keep it hidden."

She waited for Oliver to say something. It took him a long while to wrap his mind around their conversation. He was mad at them, oh, he was so mad. But he forced himself to calm down and finally registered the other thing his wife told him.

"My father had so many secrets. What is this one?"

In his days as a golden boy, Oliver thought of his father as a God. But after the on purpose accident, he came to realize that he was not that mad at all. In fact, Robert was more like a Devil than he was a God.

"I think..." Felicity hesitated on how to tell him. "I think you have another sister."

#

"This is absolutely spectacular!" Jeremiah exclaimed as he read through Thomas' research.

His wife, Eliza, had hooked Caitlin doing all sorts of tests. It was nothing that the woman herself had not done, but the married couple insisted on having resent data. The tests were not telling them anything new, however. Caitlin carried the cryo-gene of the experimental cure. And it was at this part of the body that the dark matter of the particle accelerator resided. When it was time for Frost to be tested, the meta was being difficult.

"Frost, please, you have to come out." Caitlin tried to reason with her alter ego.

I don't see why it's necessary. They already have your results.

Caitlin sighed. "We've been through this, Eliza and Jeremiah need to repeat the tests while you are in control."

We share the same body, Caity.

"Not entirely. Our spliced DNA differs and changes when you take over." She explained. "We need to note down these differences in our body."

Frost scoffed displeased inside her head. I'm not some guinea pig.

Caitlin replied to her with a groan. "Okay, I can understand not wanting experiments done on you, but that's not what this is."

It's what it seems to me, Frost chimed in before Caitlin could continue.

"Well, I'm sorry but there is not an existing solution for our condition. So if you want-"

The brunette was put out of her focus when a gentle hand touched her arm. Caitlin's hazel eyes zeroed in on Eliza's kind, soft eyes. She found herself smiling, half-embarrassed for Frost's childish behavior.

"Can she hear me like this?" the older woman asked.

"She can, now." She confirmed. "If she wants to."

Eliza took notice of the last part but did not comment. It was clear that the two personalities had come along way. This was a case unlike anything she had ever heard of. Eliza understood that there was a time when Caitlin and Frost could not communicate or function as they did now. But the bonding they had been doing and the acceptance and care for one another had changed that. So as she looked at Caitlin's warm face, she knew that Frost could hear her too, deep in there.

"I know that you are skeptical, Frost, but no one here wants to experiment on you. This is going to be like any check-up from your doctor." She reassured her.

I've never been to the doctor, Frost's sarcastic reply echoed inside Caitlin's head.

The younger doctor rolled her eyes and sighed annoyed. "Maybe one of the tech geniuses should build a metahuman activator instead of just dampeners. How would you like it not being able to hide underneath me?" she taunted.

If she was in control Frost would've narrowed her eyes. She decided to give Caitlin the silent treatment fuelling the woman's belief that she was acting like a child. Dr Snow gave an apologetic smile to Eliza and moved around to the cabinet with the surgical equipment.

"If you're not willing, there are more ways to force you out." She mumbled and then sliced her palm open.

There was a gasp from behind her. Eliza rushed to her, fear and shock written all over her face.

"It's okay, it's alright," Caitlin assured her.

But Eliza could not understand. Not until, mere seconds later, cold mist covered her hand and the wound in Caitlin's palm iced itself. Eliza turned her head upwards to look on Frost's icy, glowing eyes. In few blinks the woman's entire appearance changed, morphing to fit the other personality.

Frost frowned darkly, something that Caitlin would never be capable of doing. "I hate how smart she is sometimes."

Eliza schooled her expression to not show fear. Perhaps Frost was like dogs if she didn't notice she wouldn't bite. "Please, I swear, we just want to help."

The meta pushed it around in her mind for a dramatic minute before replying. "Fine! Since Caity forced me out I might as well let you test me. But," Eliza was expecting this. "if at any point I don't like what you or your husband are doing, I'll be very mean."

Eliza wanted to argue that she was being very mean right now, but she bit her tongue. She didn't want to receive an icicle through the eye. So, instead, she repeated the tests she had done on Caitlin one more time in silence and when the results came out she called Jeremiah to go through them together.

In the meantime, Frost retreated back into her Ice Fortress –as Caitlin called it- and resumed her silent treatment.

"The human mind is a remarkable thing," Jeremiah said in awe. "I'm not a psychiatrist, but I took a course in med school that had a section about multiple personality disorder. I was interested in the physical impact each personality's psychology had on the body."

"But Frost is not a typical second personality or an extension of me," Caitlin argued. "She was created chemically, not by some trauma that caused my mind to split those memories and create another personality in order to deal with them."

"Didn't it?" Jeremiah arched an eyebrow.

At the gesture, Caitlin felt as if she was a student back in med school again and one of her professors had caught her unprepared.

"Your father-"

"Icicle." She corrected him before she knew it.

Jeremiah arched his eyebrow again, but it was Eliza who asked the question. "Icicle?"

Caitlin bit her lip, her cheeks burning red. "I think he was my father's Frost." She whispered.

Was!

Both of them heard it. So both of them stayed quiet about it.

"This so-called 'cure' you were given as a child gave you another gene." Jeremiah continued. "It might not have changed your DNA back then, but the implementation of an entirely new gene should have shaken your system. Genes make us who we are, our hair color, our eyes, how big our nose is. The core of your existing being was shaken when the cryo-gene bonded within you. I think that is reason enough for your mind to split."

Caitlin understood, she really did. She was a doctor after all. But... "But I was not aware of that change."

This time it was Eliza who explained the science. "The conscious part of your mind didn't. But your body did and in extension your subconscious. And you know what they say..."

"The subconscious can be stronger than the conscious." Caitlin finished. Then she sighed. "Okay, how does that help me and Frost?"

"What's interesting about your case is that the cryo-gene was activated by dark matter. If you see here, the dark matter in your system is concentrated in the part of your brain that activates the Frost personality."

"This is why only she has powers and I don't." Caitlin realized.

"Indeed!" Eliza said. "When I did the metahuman test on you it returned negative. But when I did it again on Frost, then the results came positive."

"The tricky thing about Frost, as I'm seeing this, is that because she is a direct result of a cryo-gene, she can't survive in a similar warm body temperature like yours."

At his words, Caitlin felt as if her own body temperature dropped. "She can't?"

Jeremiah looked somewhat sad. "I'm afraid not –it's part of who she is."

Caitlin swallowed down a sob. "So, you're telling me that she is hopeless."

Eliza's comforting hand was once again on her arm. "We're not saying that, sweetheart." She said softly. "This is just the first diagnosis. Give us a little more time and perhaps we can find a solution. Maybe it won't be a perfect one, but the best there is."

Caitlin knew that she should feel comforted at the woman's kind words, but the truth was she felt far from it.

"Perhaps Eliza is right," Jeremiah said. "We can't completely revert Frost's temperature, and we can't dampen her powers without knocking her under Caitlin, but maybe we can suppress them enough." He added skeptically. "I read a file you had at STAR labs about a time when Oliver Queen used Ray Palmer's nanites to suppress Reverse Flash's speed."

And damn, had she forgotten about that!

"Perhaps I can tinker with that formula and make it work for Frost. She might be colder than a normal person, but no one will suffer a kiss of death."