Note: Sorry about the fanfiction code of doom in the last update. It should be working fine now

Caitlin

December 16th, 2018

As Caitlin flipped through the pages of Austin's journal her eyes got wider and wider. She almost didn't know what to think. The pages of notes that Cisco's thought were part of some experiment were actually much stranger. The notes in the book went back over the past two years and it was clear that there had been at least one book previously because there were references to things that weren't detailed in the journal. Caitlin had no doubt that they'd happened though. Actually she was certain that they had, because many of them she did. The book was full of notes of every member of team flash, herself included. Austin had been watching them since before she revealed her magic to the team. A long time before.

Caitlin reached up to touch her necklace. She flipped it around in her hand, wondering what Austin's intentions were. Almost everything in her told her to throw the necklace across the room and run out of the house but something stopped her. Maybe it was that the fear of being caught in the Realm was stronger than that of temporarily staying in an absentee stalker's house. As for the necklace, she really didn't know. Whenever she touched it it calmed her and she just couldn't bring herself to give up that piece of mind, no matter how misguided it was.

Caitlin had flipped through most of the book, trying to decipher why it was that Austin was watching them. One thing she noticed was that they seemed to be centered around the actions of the team, most of the day to day stuff was absent but any big choices or big team building moments were documented. Almost as if she wanted to make sure they were protecting each other. There was a whole two pages dedicated to HR complete with a blessed seal to thank him for his life. The whole thing was dizzying, especially when she realized that most of the notes were of them altogether or in groups, rarely alone. There was also no mention of Caitlin's spells until the more recent passages where Austin had capitalized, bolded and underlined CAITLIN IS A SPELLCASTER! meaning that until that point, Austin hadn't been aware of Caitlin's true identity despite her apparent infamy in the Spellcaster Realm. There was always the possibility that whatever Austin had been watching them for, she had been so focused on that that she ignored all else until it couldn't be ignored anymore. There was also the possibility that Austin had been suspicious of her identity before and that was the whole reason for the spying in the first place and that line was just a note of confirmation. Neither one explained things fully.

The entire reason for the existence of the journal was still a mystery to Caitlin, it seemed to just be a study of the Team Flash dynamic but with no real reason behind it. There were a few mentions of magic but not as much as she would have expected had that been the reason why she was so interested in them. In fact, most of the mentions of magic had been pertaining to Iris and her resilience, her ability to avoid the effects of magic had been mentioned directly at least once as well, before Caitlin herself had found out. There were also other suspicions and allusions of magic pertaining to Caitlin and her other teammates in the journal but none as direct as with Iris. It was strange that she was certain of Iris' ability to deflect magic before she was of Caitlin's ability to wield it.

The other interesting magical note was one scribbled in the margins saying, Superspeed+Magic=?. It was honestly something that Caitlin hadn't thought of before. Barry could move too fast for Cisco to open a breach so maybe he could go faster than the speed of magic too. Especially in an area where magic in the minority. Flipping that it would make sense that metahuman powers like Cisco's wouldn't work in the realm because the magic was essentially overpowering it and slowing it down before it got a chance to move fast enough to overpower it. Unless Caitlin could think of some way to either boost the power and speed of Cisco's breaches or decrease the power of magic then they wouldn't be getting home that way. Perfect.

The last few pages of notes are mostly from when Austin made contact with them so the updates were short and far between. The most interesting one probably one of the most personal entries in comparison to the analytic and scientific ones preceding it. It talked about how Austin waited until the last possible second to jump in and save Iris and how she was worried about the consequences from all sides and how even though she didn't regret it, she sighed it hadn't happened the way it did. Whatever that meant. The rest of it was mostly lists of things Austin needed to get from the Realm and outlines of the plans, many of which had been altered and moved up anyway.

"Okay, we have officially run out of useful English books," Iris said, flying into the room, Cisco following behind her.

"Did you find anything interesting in Austin's journal?" He asked. "You were pretty wrapped up in it when you walked out of the study." Caitlin didn't say anything for a moment, unsure of what exactly to say.

"Well, I do think that I've figured out why your powers aren't working."

"Why?"

"The magic her overpowers them and steps them before they can grow to the power required to overwhelm the magic," she explained. "I think the opposite happens with magic versus metahuman powers on Earth."

"Well that's just great."

"Why didn't Austin just tell us that if it's in her journal?"

"I don't think she actually put it together herself, I just pieced it together from some of her notes," Caitlin explained.

"What exactly is in that journal?"

"Austin's observations of us over at least the last two years," she admitted finally.

"What do you mean two years? She's only known us for like a month!" Cisco exclaimed.

"Yeah, but she's been watching us for much longer, apparently it's out knowing that I was a spellcaster and for some reason having advanced knowledge on how magic doesn't affect Iris…" Caitlin trialed off. "That's it!"

"What? That Austin's a magical psychic creep?" Cisco asked.

"No, magic doesn't' affect Iris!" Caitlin exclaimed to blank faces. There was a beat before she continued. "The magic around us isn't harmful necessarily so whatever weird thing you have going on didn't block it, but if you hold onto Cisco and focus on magic not working he should be able to open a breach!"

"Good, now we can get home and try to figure out what the hell is up with Austin," Iris exclaimed, grabbed onto Cisco's arm.

"Should we tell her leaving?" Cisco questioned. "I mean, stalker or not she's still on our side right?"

"I think that Austin is complicated if nothing else but we shouldn't say anything to her until we're sure of her motivations," Caitlin said her nose scrunching. "She'll figure out that we left eventually."

"But if she is on our side and tries to contact us and we don't answer she might risk getting caught to come check on us," Iris reasoned. "Either way I think we should act like nothing's changed." Caitlin's brow furrowed at Iris's words for a moment before reaching up to her comm.

"We found a way out, see you back at STAR Labs," she said quickly before cutting contact. "There, what's done is done, now let's go." Cisco nodded and ensured that Iris's hand was still on his wrist before both focused on opening the breach.

"It's working!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"This was your idea!" Iris said through gritted teeth. "Now hurry up, this is surprisingly difficult!" Caitlin nodded and jumped through the swirling blue portal and tumbling into STAR Labs. Cisco and iris jumped in right behind her ad the breach came to a close. All three were breathing heavy from stress.

"Thank goodness," Joe's voice said as the remaining member of the team filed into the room. Barry immediately ran over to Iris hugged her.

"You had me worried," she heard him mumble, Iris whispered something back as she returned the hug.

"What the hell took you guys so long?" Ralph asked.

"There was a threat in the Spellcaster Realm and they cut off all transport spells," she explained. "Austin was stuck at the castle and Cisco's powers weren't working so we had to figure out a way home." From there Caitlin explained everything, about Austin's journal and metahuman powers mixed with magic. Cisco and iris chimed in whenever they could and Cisco went off on a tangent about architecture for at least five minutes before Iris got him refocused.

"Wait, so Austin has been watching this team for at least two years?" Barry questioned, his eyes full of an emotion that Caitlin couldn't read.

"Evidently," she confirmed.

"She had no right to do that!" he exclaimed.

"Well I agree but we haven't exactly confronted her about it yet."

"We don't even know why she wrote it right?" Caitlin nodded.

"Who exactly is this girl?" Cecile asked.

"I honestly don't know," Caitlin admitted.

"Can we still trust her?"

"What if she's working with the magic creature guys?"

"What if she's more of a rogue guard tan she's letting on?"

"Guys! Don't know the answers to any of that! All we can do is take her wand and confront her when she gets back," Caitlin explained.

"And if she's evil?"

"Then we lock her in the pipeline."