A week passed after Cisco's revelation about Ronnie and Martin Stein with no word on or sign of either of them, and found Kara doing her best to return to business as usual and Barry trying to navigate dating while also working as a hero. He'd recently started dating Linda Park, Iris' colleague at CCPN, and he'd lamented to Kara about how he kept having run out on their dates to stop crimes.
"I know I'm fast enough to be there and back before she notices that I've left, but that's not the point," he'd complained. "I just want to have one date, one, where I don't have to."
"Sorry, Barry," Kara had replied. "But that's the trade off you made when you decided to do this whole hero thing."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Barry had grumbled. His romantic troubles were quickly forgotten when they recieved news that a physicist had been attacked by, according to several unsubstantiated- though probably no less true for being that- reports, the so-called "Burning Man".
"Well, it appears that letting Ronnie roam free is no longer an option," Wells said grimly when the team assembled in the Cortex to discuss how best to handle the situation.
"He's not even Ronnie anymore," Caitlin pointed out. "He's Martin Stein walking around in Ronnie's body, like a vampire."
"Is there a reason that Stein's brain is in control Ronnie's body, not the other way around?" Barry asked.
"Darwism, I suspect," Wells answered. "A brand new organism will select the strongest parts of itself in order to survive. Survival of the fittest- in this case, Ronnie's body, Stein's mind. In any event, he badly hurt an innocent man, and we have hunted metahumans for less. Caitlin"- He turned to her- "We need to know that you're on board with whatever needs to be done here." There was a long silence while they waited for Caitlin's answer, then she asked "How do we find him?"
"Quentin Quale, the scientist that Ronnie attacked, is a former colleague of Martin Stein," Wells replied. "If Martin is indeed in control, he may be trying to figure out exactly what happened to him."
"What do we know about him?" Barry asked. "I don't even know what Stein looks like." Wells pulled up a picture of the man in question on the nearest screens.
"Martin Stein," he said, gesturing toward them.
"That's Stein?" Barry asked.
"It is," Wells confirmed.
"I've seen him before," Barry said, sounding astonished by the realization.
"When?" Caitlin asked.
"On the train the day the accelerator exploded," Barry replied. He sounded like the sudden remembrance of the encounter had left him reeling, which Kara thought she understood. She was still having trouble wrapping her brain around it, and getting caught in an endless spiral of what could have been in the process.
She was still pondering it some hours later, sitting in the STAR Labs van outside of Stein's house while Barry, Caitlin and Wells were inside talking to his wife. She had opted to stay outside for two reasons- first, because she'd doubted that she'd have anything meaningful to contribute to the conversation, and second, so that if Ronnie- or Stein, rather- showed up unexpectedly, she'd be there to stop him from hurting anyone.
A short time later, the group emerged from the house and convened next to the van.
"So it appears Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond have something in common besides sharing a body," Wells said. "They both feel the need to protect the women they love."
"Clarissa said she feels like she's being watched," Barry put in.
"Well, then, this has all the makings of a stakeout," Wells remarked.
"But Barry has a date tonight," Caitilin pointed out.
"I'll cancel," Barry said resignedly.
"No, no, go," Wells replied. "If we need you here, something tells me that we can get you back in a hurry." Barry nodded and raced off.
"Same goes for you," Wells told Kara before she could ask if they needed her here for the stakeout. "We'll call you if we need you." Kara nodded and set off in more or less the same direction that Barry had gone.
It was late at night before she heard anything. When she did, it was a text message telling her that she needed to get to Stein's house because he was there and he and Barry were in the middle of a tense battle. Kara arrived just in time to see Ronnie grab hold of Barry and launch himself into the air. Kara followed, not sure what she could do but knowing that she had to do something. Just as she caught up to them, Ronnie let go, and Barry plummeted toward the ground that was now hundreds of feet below. Kara dove after him, only just managing to grab hold of his shoulders and slow his headlong plummet into a more or less controlled dive, but they both still hit the pavement hard. Ronnie touched down a moment later, and readied fireballs to hurl at Barry.
"No!" Caitlin cried, leaping out of the van to step in front of Barry. Ronnie stopped in his tracks, then turned and flew off.
"Well, that was terrifying," Barry said when he was gone.
A while later, Kara waited in the Cortex for the rest of the team to return with Stein, whom they had managed to track down by means they hadn't bothered to explain to her. When they did return, Kara couldn't stop herself from staring. She was still having trouble deciding whether to refer to the person Caitlin was ushering off to get cleaned up and settled as Stein as Ronnie.
"Well, we got him," Barry said when Caitlin returned to the Cortex. "Them. Now what?"
"Well, Stein clearly thinks he can seperate himself from Ronnie's body using nuclear fission," Wells said.
"What do you think?" Caitlin asked.
"What do I think?" Well replied. "Is it possible? Theortically. But splitting an atom and splitting a man are two very different things." At that moment, Stein- Kara had decided to refer to him as Stein, seeing as that was who was in control- entered the room, and everyone turned to stare at him.
"I don't suppose it's necessary to point out you're all staring?" he asked. At those words, they all immediately found somewhere else to look.
"Our apologies," Wells murmured.
"It is remarkable," Stein said, striding further into the room, his formal manner of speech sounding strange emerging from such a visibly young body. "I feel clearer than I have since the accident. What did you give me?"
"A cocktail of anti-psychotics, depressants, mood stablizers," Wells replied, reading off a mental list.
"The same formula used to treat dissociative identity disorder," Stein remarked. Turning to Caitlin, he asked "I assume this was your idea?" Caitlin nodded, her eyes downcast.
"Very clever, Cait," Stein said with a slight smile.
"Don't call me that," Caitlin whispered, pain in her voice. She kept her gaze fixed on the floor. "Please."
"I apologize," Stein replied.
"We'd like to run some tests on you, if you don't mind," Caitlin said, back to business, which in this case Kara saw was more a coping mechanism than anything else.
"Of course, Doctor Snow," Stein said, and allowed Caitlin to lead him out of the Cortex.
Time passed and found them all in a panic, desperate to figure out a way to separate Stein and Ronnie before they did so forcibly and leveled Central City in a nuclear explosion. Wells disappeared for a while and returned with plans for something called a quantum splicer, which would, as he explained it, allow Stein and Ronnie to seperate from each other without harm. The only problem was getting it to them on time- while they'd been debating Stein had gone out to the badlands, clearly intent on sacrifing himself.
"Now, Barry, even you can't outrun a nuclear blast, so you get this device to Professor Stein and you get out of there as fast as you can," Wells said, handing Barry the quantum splicer.
"What are you doing?" Barry asked when Caitlin snatched the splicer out of Wells' hand before he could grab it.
"I'm going with you," Caitlin said.
"No, you're not!" Barry cried, following after her.
"It's too dangerous!" Wells declared.
"Barry doesn't know how to operate the splicer," Caitlin said in counter to Wells' words.
"Cisco's gonna talk me through it!" Barry protested.
"There's not enough time," Caitlin said, shaking her head. "Let's go." Barry looked back at the rest of the group.
"Go!" Wells said, making a shooing gesture.
"Good luck," Kara murmured, but Caitlin and her brother were already gone.