Author's Note: LOL, it's weirdly weird (what a sentence) to be existing in the Eva plot after so recently watching the finale of Season 7, which has absolutely nothing to do with her.

Ugh. Season 7 was weird. And yes I know covid had a lot to blame for that but like… Legends made it work and Supergirl kinda also made it work so…. No excuses.

Caitlin should have known something was wrong right from the get-go. Barry calling her up, asking her to come help, after so many conversations where they'd decided against those very actions? It made no sense.

But she was just so excited to see her husband again, even if it meant (temporarily) leaving her daughter with Carla. Baby Nora would be safer out of Central City, at least while Caitlin completed the job Barry had tasked her with.

Or rather, while Frost completed the job.

The ice queen showed up to the scene just in time to make a dramatic entrance. Eva was about to destroy the reflective chip technology that her husband had created, but Frost shot out her hands and blasted her in the back.

Eva turned around and Frost smirked, striding forward. " 'Sup? Nice outfit, by the way."

"Why are you here?" Eva asked in condescending tone.

Frost glared at her. This was the woman that had made it so that Caity and their baby couldn't see Barry for nearly a month. "You know," she shrugged. "For funsies."

The two locked streams, Frost's of ice and Eva's of whatever mirror energy powers her gauntlets created. Eva let off first and Frost glanced towards the crates where she knew Barry and Cisco would be hiding. The plan was for her to distract Eva while Barry collected the tachyon particles they needed to complete their mission. It was risky, and they'd likely only get one shot, but Frost was confident that Barry knew what he was doing.

She shot out her hand, aiming a blast of ice at Eva's head. The mirror-woman dodged, leaving a stream of glowing teal particles in her wake. In moments there was a blur of lightning around her, but by the time Frost had blinked Barry had finished. She jogged towards a crate and dove behind it. Eva calmly sent a blast of energy directly at the crate.

Frost hadn't anticipated her hiding spot being so flimsy. The blast knocked her backward and her head cracked against the cement floor. She pushed herself dizzily to her knees, lifting her chin to see Barry and Cisco standing motionless in the background as Eva stepped into her line of vision and raised her gauntlet.

She didn't hesitate before she fired another blast of energy, hitting Frost squarely in the center of her chest. Pain exploded across her sternum and Frost felt the world go dark.

Frost awoke with a gasp, staring around her at the familiar surroundings of the STAR Labs med room. Cisco looked back at her, fear and horror scrawled across his face. Barry stood on the other side of the bed, expressionless.

"What happened?" Frost asked suspiciously.

"You took the brunt of Eva's laser blast to help us," Barry told her sedately. He waved an empty syringe. "I just returned the favor with a cryogenically-fortified paracetamol cocktail-"

"That fortified my cellular walls," Frost finished, flopping back on the gurney with a hand to her fuzzy head. "Yep, that'll do it."

"Of course, you wouldn't have had to take the brunt of the blast if Barry hadn't let you get hit in the first place," Cisco gritted out, glaring over his shoulder at the speedster.

"Cisco, let me explain," Barry sighed.

"Barry-" Cisco strode over to him, lowering his voice but not enough for Frost to not be able to hear him anymore. "What were you thinking? I saw you. You had the time to run her out of the way, and you just… stood there, like you wanted her to get hit!"

Frost eyed the two men curiously. Personally, she wasn't all that angry because they'd been able to complete the mission. She was always down to take one for the team. But the fact that Barry had let her take one for the team was weirdly out of character.

"There was a point zero-zero-zero-two chance of the Tachyon enhancer getting damaged in that scenario," Barry replied, lowering his chin to look Cisco directly in the eyes. "I couldn't risk that." His gaze shifted to Frost. "I also knew that I could reverse any ill effects Frost received from Eva's blast."

"These aren't ill effects!" Cisco exploded. "This was a light wound, like the kind that almost killed her. And we just got her back!"

"Cisco, it's okay," Frost spoke up, shaking her head. Cisco's reaction was sweet, he'd always played the protective older brother role well, but there was no point in making a big deal out of all of this. "I'm fine, and now we have a chance to save our friends. I'd take a hit for that any day."

Cisco looked at her incredulously, but his shoulders slowly relaxed. "You got lucky with that cocktail," he accused Barry.

"Luck had nothing to do with it."

"So," Frost said awkwardly, raising her eyebrows. "Super speed thinking, huh? What's that like?"

"Sometimes it's like a… barrage of images flying at me," Barry said. "Others, it's like a scene playing out in my head."

"So… what does your speed brain say our next move is?" Cisco asked, still looking petulant and perhaps a bit untrusting.

"You saw Iris' message," Barry answered. " 'Eva is watching'. She would no doubt see our attempt to open a portal to the Mirrorverse and stop us. I need to find a solution." He looked back to Frost. "You should recuperate for 14.2 minutes, then help Cisco gather our McCulloch intel so I can cross-reference it with our Eva data. I need to aggregate."

He turned to go.

"Um," Frost spoke up, squinting at his back. "Do you… wanna say hi to your wife first?"

Barry didn't stop his trajectory out of the lab. "Now is not an expedient time for reunions," he said, and left the room.

Frost blinked, and glanced at Cisco. "Huh."

Flash!

Apparently, Caitlin and Speed-Thinking-Barry had different opinions on what was or wasn't an "expedient time for reunions", because the minute Frost's 14.2 minutes of recovery was up, the brunette forced her way to the surface of consciousness and went to find her husband.

"Barry!" she cried happily when she spotted his familiar plaid-shirt-clad self standing with his back to her in the Cortex. She ran over and wrapped her arms around him.

Barry just stood there.

"Um…" Caitlin leaned back and squinted up at him. "Sorry, does my husband suddenly have a twin brother who forgot he hasn't seen his wife in person for three weeks and four days?"

Barry smiled robotically at her. "You require physical contact," he said with a nod, before putting his arms around her. "I suppose that is understandable considering the circumstances."

Caitlin frowned, eyes flitting around confusedly as she hooked her chin over his shoulder. Barry wasn't melting into her at all like he normally did. And he was… patting her back with his hand like someone was controlling him with puppet strings. She pulled away, forcing a smile. "Much better thanks," she said, and quickly turned away.

Cisco met her in the hallway outside the Cortex. "You have a weird look on your face," he accused.

"You wanna talk about weird?" Caitlin replied, eyes bulging. "Let's talk about Barry. He's acting like- like-"

"Like an animatronic," Cisco supplied. "I know. I'm… honestly, I'm starting to get a little concerned about him." He shrugged desperately. "But the fact of the matter is that he is getting us closer than we've ever been to stopping Eva."

"I know," Caitlin sighed. "I know."

Cisco reached out, catching her elbow. "But if he puts you in danger again- trust me, we will do something about this. Okay?"

Caitlin nodded, smiling tightly. She didn't like leaving this issue for later, but Cisco was right: they needed Barry at the top of his game right now, no matter what strange, sociopathic ramifications it might have.

Flash!

Caitlin decided to let Frost out again, knowing that her icy half was much more chill (pun intended) about how odd Barry was acting. Frost joined Cisco and Barry in the Cortex and found Eva's broadcasted interview playing.

"Why are we watching this?" she asked with a sigh, staring at the face that made her want to punch something as Barry fiddled away with a computer.

"At the stash house, Eva referred to herself as a phantom," Barry replied, barely lifting his gaze from whatever the heck he was doing. "It reminded me of Carver's dying words when Eva killed him: that she wasn't his wife. I've analyzed behavioral patterns, body language, even graphological handwriting… That," he turned to the figure on the TV, "is not Eva McCulloch."

There was a silence.

"What?" Cisco said finally. "What do you mean? She's… sitting right there, talking to Rachel Maddow 2.0."

"You slept in the same bed as a mirror duplicate of Kamilla without knowing the difference," Barry told him levelly. He let the implication hang.

"So you think this is a mirror Eva," Frost confirmed.

Barry dipped his chin quickly. "McCulloch's security database will show us."

His fingers began to fly across the keyboard at super speed. "Good luck," Cisco snorted. "I tried hacking them a week ago-"

There was a bleep as Barry was granted access to the server. Frost pursed her lips, impressed.

"What?" Cisco spluttered. "How- McCulloch's black box serves run a hybrid theorem-proving system with model checking!"

Barry simply nodded.

"His mind is getting faster," Cisco murmured, eyes wide with either amazement or alarm, Frost couldn't tell.

"Yes, it is," Barry said simply, and pressed a button.

In seconds, a video of Eva flying into a mirror surrounded by a wave of glowing gold light showed on an alternate screen. She crashed to the floor in front of the mirror and lay still. Video-Carver raced towards her and began to yell for help.

"Did… she just die?" Frost asked, frowning confusedly.

Barry began to type again, bringing up a new screen. "Whoa, what're you doing with that footage?" Cisco asked suspiciously.

"Exposing the truth," Barry said, slapping his finger against the enter key. The screen showing Eva's interview changed to what should have been her presentation. Instead, the video the Team had just watched of Eva's death filled the interviewer's TV screen.

It took Interview-Eva a moment to notice what was happening, but when she did her face filled with horror.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Frost cautioned. She wanted to see Eva hurting as much as the next girl, but an angry mirror-meta might not end very well for them… or anyone participating in the interview.

Eva began to panic, yelling for the video to stop. She lost control, and a glass of water burst, slicing the cheek of the interviewer. "I'm so sorry," Eva breathed, but the interviewers face had lit up.

"That footage we saw," she cut in, "does it show you killing the real Eva McCulloch?!"

"No!" Eva shrieked. "Of course not I- I- I wouldn't do that! I didn't do that!"

"What are you?" the interviewer demanded. "A meta? A shape-shifter? The world wants answers; we deserve to know! If you're not Eva McCulloch… who or what are you?"

"I'm not a monster," Eva breathed, before her voice rose to a scream. "I'm not a monster!"

She splintered into mirror particles and vanished into the TV screen.

Barry eyed the video with robotic satisfaction.

"Why did you do that?" Cisco demanded, exchanging looks with Frost.

"Eva would sense us opening a portal," Barry explained. "Now she is too distracted to notice."

"And there couldn't be another way to distract her-"

"There were 141 other ways," Barry cut in. "This was the most effective."

It had also nearly sent a woman (albeit a very guilty woman) towards the cusp of a nervous breakdown. Frost maybe wasn't super concerned about the morality of that, but she was concerned that Barry wasn't concerned.

"Uh, I'm not sure emotionally-wrecking an already whacked-out villain was 'efficient'," she commented, raising an eyebrow.

"Historically speaking, when our enemies are upset, which is exactly what I accomplished, they make mistakes," Barry said. "We need to prep the portal machine while Eva is on her heels, and then retrieve our targets."

Cisco stopped, and turned to follow Barry's path out of the Cortex. "You mean our friends."

"One and the same."

"Cisco…" Frost started.

"You were right," Cisco muttered. "Something's seriously wrong with Barry."

Flash!

The root of Barry's issues came down to the Artificial Speed Force. Thawn had used negative emotions to power his speed force, and the Team had been so concerned about avoiding that that they'd used an inert substance, an argon-xenon hybrid, that would generate no emotional fallout.

The problem was, no emotional fallout meant no emotions. Barry's emotional response was completely shut down, replaced with his newfound speed-thinking ability.

In short, he needed to be stopped; especially because, due to the lack of tachyon particles, he'd made the decision to save only Iris over Kamilla and Singh. The decision wasn't even based off the want to save his sister, but because she held the most knowledge about Eva and would be the most useful in their attempts to stop her.

Frost and Allegra walked into the Speed Lab just as Cisco was loading up the meta gun and leveling at Barry. Frost didn't like this, having to turn against one of their own when someone like Eva was on the loose, but at this point, Barry was more of a danger to them than even a deranged mirror-meta.

Frost, Allegra and Cisco ringed Barry on all sides. Frost raised her chin defiantly when Barry glanced towards her.

"We're going to give you back your heart, Barry," Cisco said quietly, "and it's gonna be by choice…" He loaded the gun. "Or by force."

"Don't make us do this, Barry," Frost pleaded.

Barry didn't answer, just lightly pressed the side of his suit so his cowl rose up over his face. Frost squared her shoulders, knowing he'd made his choice.

Cisco fired.

Barry took off.

But Cisco had aimed his blast at the Artificial Speed Force, which Barry had predicted at the last moment. He'd intercepted the energy bullet to save the technology supplying him with his speed, and now lay on the floor.

"You've just been hit with a Zero-Velocity charge," Cisco explained, lowering the gun. "It temporarily dampens your speed." He smirked slightly. "You're not the only one who can predict reactions."

Barry grabbed the ball that had been used to test his predictive abilities earlier that day and threw it. His speed surged back through him and he ran forward, knocking down Allegra and Cisco.

But Frost wasn't focusing on that. Instead, she was focusing on the needle pressed into her bicep, the syringe filled with Velocity X. She pressed a button and sent the serum swirling into her blood.

Barry took off towards her but Frost just smirked, steam billowing off her as bright-teal lightning crackled through her body. Her eyes glowed, and she sped off.

Barry chased her through the city streets, the two of them streaming yellow and teal lightning bolts as they ran. Frost attempted a few ice-blasts, trying to get an advantage, but it was hard to coordinated her new speedster abilities and her old ice powers at the same time.

She kept running, the two of them zipping around the city, past cars and up the sides of buildings. At the last moment, Barry got the advantage, rushing towards her and shoving her up into the air, off the top of a skyscraper.

Frost fell, pinwheeling through the sky until she crashed to a stop on top of a windshield.

"Your defeat is inevitable," Barry called, flashing to a standstill in front of her. "The Velocity X in your system is nearly depleted. Your time as a speedster is coming to an end."

Frost pulled herself to her feet, panting. "Maybe," she shrugged. "But I'm not only a speedster."

With one hand she formed a ball of ice and with the other she generated a lightning bolt. Then she threw them both together, sending the electrically-charged frost through the air towards Barry. It hit him with a crackle of teal lightning and Allegra dove from the shadows, throwing down one of Nash's teleportation smoke-bombs.

Barry appeared back at STAR Labs, crashing to the ground. Allegra and Frost arrived a moment after, in time to see him kept down by a blast from Cisco's gun.

"The Babel Protocols aren't just force fields and tech," Cisco said, gritting his teeth. "It's us."

"Sorry for the tough love," Frost added. "And if it helps, Caitlin thought we should all talk it out instead of all of this."

"But we need the real you back," Allegra finished.

"Don't worry," Cisco told him as Barry pulled himself to his feet. "We're gonna shut off the Artificial Speed Force and get your head straight."

Barry eyed them all, chest heaving. "You lost this fight before it even began," he said quietly.

A thunking echoed from down the hall, growing steadily louder. "Look out!" Allegra cried as the ball Barry had thrown minutes before came flying into the Speed Lab. It smacked into Cisco first, then cracked into Allegra's gauntlet, which caused a wave of light energy to burn into her face before flipping around and hitting Frost square in the chest. Frost crashed into the wall and crumpled.

Five minutes later, Iris had been pulled from the mirrorverse and collapsed. Then and only then did Barry finally raise his head.

Frost's hair had faded to brown, and it was the unconscious face of his wife that he stared into.

"No," Barry breathed, looking around him in horror.

What had he done?

"Caitlin," he muttered, crawling across the floor towards the doctor. He rested his hand on her shoulder, gently rolling her onto her back. Behind him, Iris thrashed. Allegra and Cisco began to stir. "Caitlin, Cait, please-"

Tears streaked down his cheeks, every moment from the last day or so flooding back to him. How he had recklessly put her life in danger when collecting the tachyon particles. How he'd barely given her the time of day after only seeing her via painful FaceTime calls for so long. How he'd fought against her in the street, sending her towards the ground without even a concern for the fact that maybe his calculations were wrong; maybe she would die.

"Caitlin!" he begged, desperately shaking her shoulder.

Caitlin stirred, blinking slowly. Her eyes blew open when she saw him and she flinched away, irises flashing blue, before she seemed to catch something in his face. Her gaze slid over his shoulder to Cisco and Allegra and she hurriedly sat up. "Wait, wait," she said quickly. "Wait. I think that it's… I think that it's really him."

Cisco lowered his gun, standing down. Allegra hurried to Iris and looked to him in concern. "Guys, she needs help."

Caitlin made to stand and go to the other woman, but Barry grabbed her arm. "Caitlin," he whispered, eyes glassy. "I'm so-"

"It wasn't you," Caitlin cut in, resting her hand on his cheek. "Okay? It wasn't you. Now we need to help Iris."

Barry helped her to stand up and they hurried to Iris' side.

Author's Note: OKAY, I know I put my twist on the beginning of 7x03 in this chapter, but that's because I wanted resolve for all of this and did not want to write that episode.

Ain't nobody got time for Iris or whoever powering Barry's lighting with tRuE lOvE. I just couldn't do that plot with Caitlin. This isn't Once Upon A Time, people *facepalm*

It's kinda funny; I've set the precedent so high for myself with this story. This chapter was actually pretty adequate but it feels so lame because it's… virtually just the episode.