Cisco

Cisco's eyes blinked open about ten minutes after the initial blast, he sat up, rubbing his head.

"What happened?" he heard Ralph ask from somewhere near him. His voice was thick and groggy.

"There was some sort of flash," Wally said, pulling his father up. Across the room, Austin and Caitlin were also starting to come to while Cecile had actually been one of the first ones awake and was currently leaning on the desk for support.

"Wait, where is Iris? She was with us when everything exploded," Ralph exclaimed. Cisco looked around, he didn't see Iris but saw Caitlin scrambling to her feet in a panic.

"Where's my wand?" she asked. "It was in my hand when I went down." Austin walked up behind her with her face ghostly pale, barely moving at all.

"We'll find it Caitlin but first we need to find my daughter, and Barry," Joe told the panicked Spellcaster.

"They're not here," Austin said, her voice was hollow and Barry above a whisper.

"Then where the hell are they?" Cisco asked, worried for his friends. Austin didn't get a chance to answer because she was cut off by a wail. Caitlin stumbled over to the trash can and pulled something out of it. It was her wand, broken in two pieces. Austin turned to look in her direction and fell to her knees, grabbing the broken pieces of her own wand in a trance like state. CIsco saw a tear trickle down her eye. Caitlin was practically hyperventilating.

"What happened?" Cecile asked.

"I don't suppose they just fell like that?" Ralph interjected.

"You can get them fixed right, or maybe get new ones?" Cecile questioned, her eyes soft.

"Wands don't work like that, it will take time to find new ones that channel our energy right and even longer to break them in," Caitlin said through sobs. "I can't get one, going back to the realm now would be suicide."

"Something tells me that explosion was deliberate," Joe said. "Last thing that I remember before it happened was Austin shouting something."

"It was a spell," Cisco said.

"What did you do?" Wally asked, storming towards the redhead.

"She didn't do anything, it was a dampening spell, she was trying to lessen the impact of the explosion," Caitlin said, wiping her tears and standing up. She still clutched her wandpieces to her chest. "What I don't know is why. How did you know something was going to happen, and how did you know it was going to happen in here?" Austin didn't say anything, just continued to stare at the ground, numb.

"Austin," Joe barked. "What happened here and what did it do to my kids?" She finally glanced up slowly and looked at Caitlin.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"We're gonna need more than sorry Red," Ralph said. Austin looked back at him and then slowly stood up. She braced herself against a chair and took a shaky breath.

"Sorry is the best I can give you," We breathed finally. "Anything else will break your hearts."

"I'll break something if you don't tell me where my daughter is," Joe growled.

"She's fine, I think. Probably," Austin said, not sounding convincing. Joe glared at her. "If she's not her that probably means he took her with him, which could mean a lot of things, but does mean that he probably wants to keep her safe, at the very least, to himself."

"Who does?" Cisco asked. There was a pause where Austin looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Barry."

"Come again?" Caitlin asked.

"Barry took Iris. He tried to blow us up and when that didn't work he ran and he took Iris with him."

"Why would Barry want to blow us up?" Wally asked.

"He doesn't, the Purists do. They're the ones calling the shots now."

"I'm confused," Ralph said. "How do the purists wanting us blown up make Barry do it?"

"If they were controlling him," Caitlin realized, her face lighting up in awe.

"But we blew up their machine," Cisco said. "Even if we didn't I thought that controlled people through their magic."

"Which is a problem seeing as Barry has magic," Austin said carefully, drawing out her words.

"No he doesn't. Barry hates magic," Caitlin said. "I would know if Barry had magic!"

"He's afraid of magic because he knows what it can do. What he can do," Austin pleaded. "He never told anyone outside of the Realm. Those that knew him there didn't know who he really was. Except me, his uncle and his cousin."

"Barry doesn't have any other family," Joe said.

"Sometimes I think he wished that were true, if only to uncomplicate his life," austin said sadly. "The truth is, Barry is a Spellcaster."

"No," Caitlin said.

"Cait-"

"No. Barry Isn't a Spellcaster, he would have told me. I would know."

"Caitlin!" Austin barked. "I know this is hard, believe me I do, but Barry is a Spellcaster, a very powerful one at that. The sooner accept that the sooner we can save Iris."

"Why does she need saving? Barry would never hurt her," Wally asked.

"Not at first, but I don't know how Barry is going to react to this spell, or how Iris will react to Barry. One little thing going wrong could spell bad news for Iris," Austin warned.

"This is insane, even if Barry is a Spellcaster, which is the insane part, magic doesn't affect Iris, she'll be fine. In his right mind or not, Barry could ever physically hurt her," Ralph said.

"Maybe not but she won't be invulnerable forever, especially if he gets mad," Austin said. "Barry has great power and while it protects Iris now, h can take it away in an instant."

"Wait, BARRY is why magic doesn't affect Iris?" Cisco asked in disbelief.

"Her engagement ring, he charmed it years ago with a powerful spell. So that whoever wore it would be forever protected from his past."

"Oh my God," Cecile said. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?"

"No! No! Are you all crazy? Barry isn't a Spellcaster. If he was that powerful I would feel it when he cast a spell. And he wouldn't keep that from me, he wouldn't let me keep feeling alone. He wouldn't let me think I was doing this alone if he could do all that!" Caitlin said, frantic, tears once again threatening to spill.

"Caitlin, Barry hasn't used magic in years," Austin said in a calm voice. "The ring charm was the last one here ever cast. He snapped his wand directly after it and handed it to me. Even if you knew you would have been alone, Barry made sure of that."

"He wouldn't do that," Caitlin said. "No Spellcaster would. We wouldn't snap our wands, cutting us off from our power. It's like cutting off our life force. It's a physical pain."

"In his mind it was either that or risk hurting someone else," Austin said, at the questioning looks she got, she continued. "My friend, the one who inadvertently sparked the Purist movement. That was Barry."

"No," Cisco said, tears starting to well in his own eyes." He could never do that."

"And he didn't because I was there," Austin said. "He wanted to make sure it never happened again. But he blames himself for the situation we are in now. I get that you are mad and upset, all of you, but Barry didn't want any part of this. Not anymore. He wanted to forget it ever happened. For all intents and purposes Barry was no longer a practicing Spellcaster. Telling you about it meant making it real again. I don't know if he could have handled that. Even Iris didn't know."

"That explains the journals, you weren't watching Caitlin, you were watching Barry, making sure he was okay," Cecile said.

"Yes," Austin nodded. "He's still my friend and it's still my job to protect him, no matter what. Though I would still choose to regardless." Cisco noticed Caitlin go white at something Austin said.

"No," she whispered. "Austin, please don't tell me...please tell me you're kidding, that you misspoke. Barry can't be them."

"I wish I could tell you differently, for all our sakes," she replied solemnly.

"Barry can't be who?" Joe asked.

"The Descendant," Austin said simply.

"The what?" Ralph asked.

"A myth," Caitlin said. "It was said that when the former kind gave up his throne, he did so he could marry a mortal woman and that she had his child. People said that there was another out there with claim to the royal throne of the Realm."

"Wait, so Barry's a royal?" Wally asked.

"King Henry died before I was born but when I met Barry I didn't know who he was. I found out later, by accident, and I promised to always keep his secret. Barry isn't just a Spellcaster, he is a prince and first in line for the throne, after his uncle, due to the arrangement Alexander had with his brother. He is a level ten master caster and was chosen by the Moon Goddess on the Day of the Eclipse. Essentially, he's the most powerful Spellcaster alive, maybe the most powerful ever, and the bad guys don't even know that they have control over him yet."

"Oh that's bad," Cisco said.

"This whole time," Caitlin said. "How could I not see it? How could he lie to my face like that? Every day."

"He was scared Caitlin," Austin said.

"That's not enough. I thought I was alone," Caitlin said.

"You were never alone Caitlin," Austin said. "You never will be."

"I understand him not saying anything before but after everything started...he had no excuse. He has done far worse in the face of fear Austin, you know that," she said.

"Perhaps, but he tried," Austin said. "He did more for you than I ever thought he would do again."

"What do you mean? He didn't do anything, that's the problem," she said.

"I never gave you any necklace Caitlin. You said it had a calming magical essence? That's Barry." Caitlin looked down and grasped the trinket.

"I found this in my apartment on Filmya day," she said quietly.

"Look, I think we are all upset and confused but right now we have bigger things to worry about than Barry lying to us," Joe said.

"You mean like Barry trying to kill us?" Ralph asked.

"Ralph!" Cisco barked.

"No, he's right," Caitlin said. "If Barry is as powerful as Austin says and he's being influenced by the Purists, we're all in danger. We need a plan, fast. Austin, you clearly know him best. Where would he have taken Iris?"

"I have a few ideas but you're not gonna like them."