Friction

by DarkElements10

SEQUEL TO FUEL TO THE FIRE. Barry thought saving his mom would fix his life; but Flashpoint made things worse. His best friend is doomed to die. Cadence thought she could handle the Assassination Bureau's plan. But what's harder; your rival being your best friend or knowing the impending destruction of the world is your fault? -S3- Barry/OC

11. Alien Invasion (1)

11

Alien Invasion

---

Deity, who you may recognize from Fuel to the Fire, is owned by PowerHero432, who also co-write this crossover.

---

"I swear, she gets faster every time we test her," Harrison said, shaking his head as he watched Jesse continue to blaze around the Speed Lab.

"Mach 2 and climbing," Tess agreed from beside him. She folded her arms, tilting her head as her blue eyes shifted back and forth over the computer-generated form in front of her. Reaching out a hand, she ran her fingers over the hologram, pinching and pulling at different parts. "Not showing any signs of slowing down either." She called to Caitlin over her shoulder. "How are her vitals?"

"Running economy lactate threshold are above expected levels," Caitlin said.

"Looks like we've got a prodigy on our hands," Cisco crowed, making the adults laugh. "Like a Wizard of Whiz."

"And Harry's not here to see it?" HR asked. "What a shame! What a shame, indeed. She needs that support that she can only get from her father and,"—he gestured to himself, raising his hand—"I for one will be glad to step into that role."

"Wouldn't it make more sense for Harrison to do it?" Tess pointed out. She nodded her head towards her husband. "Considering he already is a father."

"Well, just because I don't have an actual daughter doesn't mean I haven't sired any children," HR pointed out. He rubbed his chin. "Come to think of it, I may actually have thousands—"

"Okay!" Cisco held up his hand, squeezing his eyes shut. "We don't need to hear anymore, thank you." He turned and gave Caitlin a look, one that clearly read 'can you believe this guy' making her smile a little. A beeping sound came from his computer and he leaned towards it, cheering loudly. "Whoo! And it looks like she's beating Barry's time record. Is there anything this girl can't do?"

"I mean, yes, it's impressive," HR said. "But can she engineer her own—"

"—she's got five degrees, if she wanted, she could reverse-engineer you. Though I don't know why anyone would want to do that."

"She may have the speed, but that doesn't necessarily mean she'll be able to take down Savitar," Wally called from where he stood with Iris and Joe. His tone, a dark, almost longing tone brought a serious tone to the room. "Or this Alchemy guy that's working with him. If Barry couldn't stop him, our best bet is to have Jesse help, too. But can she do it?"

"She's got the speed," Cisco reminded him.

"But speed isn't everything," Iris agreed. She ran a hand through her hair. "She's been training as hard as she can, but she's hardly seen any battle. And it's all she wants to do." She waved her hand towards Jesse. "Why else would she be working so hard?"

"And she's not like me," Caitlin agreed. "She doesn't want her powers gone. We're going to have a hard time convincing her not to go out there."

"We'll have to," Iris insisted. "Not until she's ready."

Joe gave a sarcastic laugh, running a hand over his head as he asked, "How?" at the same time Wally whipped his head around to his sister, staring hard at her.

"And why would you want her to do that?" He demanded. "With that sort of power, with that sort of speed she can really help Barry and Cadence out there on the field. Having two speedsters is better than none, especially if this Savitar guy is so fast that no one but Barry could see him." He clapped his hands together. "People would give anything to have those sort of powers and you want her to stop using them?"

"I don't want her to stop using them," Iris replied, affronted. "I just want to be sure everyone's safe. And no one's safe if Savitar is out there. We won't be able to do anything until we know what he can do and what he wants."

"He wants Barry, dead," Wally insisted. "I don't think its a stretch considering Zoom and what you've told me about the Reverse-Flash."

Tess bobbed her head back and forth. "Iris does sort of have a point," she said slowly. Then she lifted a finger. "In terms of training, not in the refusal of her powers." She folded her arms and turned to face the group. "There's a psychological theory called PERMA created by Martin Seligman that speaks about this."

"Martin who?" Joe asked.

"Martin Seligman," Harrison explained. "He's an American psychologist and the founder of positive psychology. Very nice man, though there's a lot to say about the collection of gnomes he has around his house and garden."

Tess threw a knowing smile his way and continued her explanation. "His theory, PERMA, meaning Positive emotion, Engagements, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishments all stems to the positivity of man and what makes life meaningful and worth living. In Jesse's case, you have to think about what makes her life worth living. Right now, it's her excitement towards her speed. And why has she thrown herself into it so much? Because she doesn't have her father around for that positive reinforcement of her abilities. So, she's trying to fill the void by training to go out there with Barry.

"Iris is right when she says Jesse's speed use is reckless." Iris smiled and nodded. "But I don't think it's something that should be hidden," Tess added firmly. "It's only going to spur her further."

"What should we do?" Caitlin asked. "We can't keep telling her she's not ready. She'll just keep thinking it's because she's a girl."

"We just have to remind her that in Harry's absence, we're her family," Tess said calmly. "And that she doesn't have to prove anything to us in lieu of her hurt."

Harrison shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. "People wonder how I was able to get STAR Labs off the ground," he remarked the nodded towards his wife. "And it's because of that woman there. Had it not been for her, things would've fallen apart. Especially with the way I treated my staff."

"Yeah, don't think we've forgotten about those super late nighters," Cisco muttered under his breath. "That was a week of sleep I'll never get back."

"But then you wouldn't be the talented mechanical engineer I know," Harrison said sincerely, making Cisco beam with pride.

Cisco jumped when there was a sudden blast of air and Jesse appeared beside him. "You'd think we'd get used to that by now," he remarked, pulling his hair back behind his shoulders.

"So?" Jesse asked. "How was that? How was I? Did I do a good job?"

"Mach 2," Cisco relayed to her, after studying Harrison's and Tess's faces for approval. "And climbing. Girl, you're going faster than a rocket!"

Jesse grinned, pumping the air with her fists. "Yes! I knew I was getting faster!" Her eyes roved over the group standing in front of her and she eagerly rubbed her hands together. "Okay, so when do I go out with Barry?"

"There's still time for that," Tess said gently.

Jesse nodded slowly, seeming to accept it, but still frustrated if the way she chewed her bottom lip was any indication. Wally quickly stepped forward and grabbed her attention. "Hey, you must be starving," he said. "Why don't we get something to eat and get out of here for a while."

Jesse immediately brightened. "I know just the place," she said, taking his hand before super-speeding the two out of the cortex.

Tess smiled for a moment before it faded. She turned to the side and Harrison followed her gaze, watching the computer generation in front of her. She pressed her thumb and index finger into a portion of the hologram and opened it, causing it to zoom in. A low hum escaped her lips when she noticed something strange by the projection of Jesse's hand.

"What?" Harrison asked, moving closer to his wife. "Do you see something?"

"You tell me."

Tess motioned to the spot on the screen and glanced over her shoulder to see the others were distracted, most notably Joe and Iris. Harrison leaned close to his wife's side and glanced at the projection. Just as Tess had seen, there was a sparkling that occurred around Jesse's hand. And while the projection ran at the top speed Jesse was moving—indicating she and Wally were still heading towards wherever she was taking them—the capacity to move much faster was shown.

She'd only seen that a few times before and it was when Barry was locked in battle with other speedsters, and when Cadence was giving him a recharge after he depleted most of his power and energy.

But there was no fire metahuman around this time.

The smile that came to Harrison's face was a mixture of glee and awe. "Seems we've got another speedster in our midst," he murmured.

"It seems so."

---

With music blaring from the speakers around her, Cadence lowered her head and did a low butterfly twist across the wooden floor before launching into a series of pirouettes. She whipped her head back to the front every time she spun around, keeping her eyes locked on her reflection in the mirror.

After six successfully rotations, she bent over to a cartwheel then did a series of backhand springs to the beat of the song before finishing with a back tuck. Cadence flipped her hair back from her face using both hands and turned back to the class—full of tween and teenagers—that stared back at her, looking stunned.

She laughed, clasping her hands together.

"I'm not saying any of you have to do that, but if you want to put in some extra stuff into your competition pieces then you may want to think about it," Cadence said, placing her hands on her hips. "I at least want to see you working on your pirouettes, the more you can do in succession will really come in handy when you want some show stopping moments, alright?" She smiled and clasped her hands together. "Okay, that's all for today, I'll see you next time."

Cadence waved to the girls as they hurried to gather their things calling, 'Bye Miss. Nash' or 'Bye Miss. Cadence' as they went giggling out the door. Their excitement was so cute, thankfully it was matched while in the dance classes so that Cadence didn't have to become a 'drill sergeant teacher' like her cheerleading coach from years past.

Cadence danced her way to the boombox to turn off the music, doing a roundoff to start backhand springing again. As she did so, a blue, swirling vortex opened in the corner of the room and out popped a Kryptonian-Alien Hybrid. Deity landed on the ground in a crouch before standing up, eyes widening when she noticed Cadence coming towards her. Before she could move, Cadence planted her feet firmly on the ground in front of her and sprang upwards, grabbing her legs to her chest to flip over Deity and land on the ground behind her.

The second she stood up, Cadence thrust out her hand and sent a blast of smoke up towards the video camera that sat nestled in the corner of the room. Deity Ann, also known as Debby Danvers, turned to her, pushing her hair back behind her ears and adjusting her glasses on her face.

"Has anyone ever told you to look where you're flipping?" Deity asked.

"I've never had someone run out in the middle of my dismount," Cadence replied, lowering her hand once there was a significant haze floating at the top of the room. She thought for a moment. "Well, Brady never made that mistake again after the first time." She smiled. "You're lucky I didn't take your head off."

Deity chuckled and turned back and forth, glancing around the dance studio. She took in the mirrors on the side of the room and walked closer to study her reflection. She frowned, as if not seeing what she wanted to. "I knew you liked to dance, but I didn't know you were that good," she remarked. "It was amazing."

"You didn't come all the way here just to tell me that, did you?" Cadence turned off the boombox beside her, the sudden silence in the room more jarring than usual. "Because that would've been a waste of a trip."

Deity's lackluster greeting was curious. Cadence expected a bone cracking hug, a squeal of excitement. It'd been a while since their last meeting; first on her Earth, Earth-38 to take on Live Wire and Killer Frost, then back to their Earth to take on Ragdoll.

Cadence frowned as the thought of Earth-38's Killer Frost entered her mind. She'd vowed then that if she saw another Killer Frost, she'd kill her. How was she to know that months later the same would happen on their Earth but Caitlin would ask to be killed instead? The request had stunned Cadence, sticking in her mind for hours that night. She barely slept within the last week, unable to think of anything else. Could she really do it? Kill one of her best friends?

If she were being honest, killing was as hard as it was easy. It took a lot of energy and strength to kill someone if you didn't have the powers to aid in doing it. With her abilities it was easy; smoke inhalation or crushing the trachea only took as much as closing her hand into a fist. When the emotions were put aside it was as simple as a movement of her arm and she was back doing her day job without a second of thought. Could she put aside thoughts of her friend to do it?

"Maybe, maybe not," Deity said. She flashed a teasing smile over her shoulder. "I still have a lot of Earth stuff to learn, and dancing is pretty…weird at the best of times."

"That's only if you don't know what you're doing," Cadence said. She giggled to herself, remembering the last time she'd gone dancing with her friends. "Or if you're Cisco." He certainly had the enthusiasm for dancing. Not that she and her friends had spent a lot of time together without a bit of tension around them.

She hadn't talked to Cisco about his remark of her not originally wanted to be part of Team Flash or what was making him making snide comments towards Barry every now and then. Clearly, there was something bothering Cisco about Barry since he returned from Flashpoint, but not even Caitlin knew what it was. Their friendship was falling apart and Cadence didn't like it.

Instead of addressing it, Cadence folded her arms and smiled at Deity. "So, where's Kara? Should I expect another breach to open up in my shower?"

Deity's smile faded in reaction to Cadence's light joke. She reached up to scratched the back of her head. "Uh, she's not coming. She's, uh, still back there on our Earth. With Alex and the others."

Cadence lifted an eyebrow. Something wasn't sitting right with her. She'd seen how Kara and Deity were with each other, almost as if they couldn't go anywhere without each other. Traveling through dimensions wasn't as dangerous but it wasn't so safe either. "And she let you come here by yourself?"

"What can I say? I like to travel." But the enthusiasm didn't reach Deity's voice. Cadence made a noise of disbelief and folded her arms, stepping towards the teenage girl. Cadence eyed her for a long moment. Women's intuition aside—adding in the mother's intuition of sensing something was wrong—this wasn't the feisty Deity she knew, who could rival her own enthusiasm and excitement for life. Deity spoke up, realizing that Cadence didn't believe her. "I like a sense of adventure?"

"Try again."

"I left," Deity finally admitted.

"There you go," Cadence conceded.

"I told Kara where I went, but…" Deity reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out second Tachyon device, the first being pressed against the front of her shirt. "Unless she can go at the speed of sound, it'll be hard for her to get here."

Now Cadence's eyes widened as she studied the Tachyon device. Cisco had given them to her and Kara when they were last on Earth-1, giving them the opportunity to go back to their Earth whenever they wanted to. If Deity had both, then something was really going wrong. She looked into Deity's eyes, her own narrowing for a moment and found the teen looking away taking in a deep breath.

She didn't have to use her own perception to know her intuition was right.

What was wrong was something big.

"What's going on, Deity?" She asked, lowering her voice to a calm, gentle level.

Deity was silent for a long moment. So long Cadence was about to repeat the question. But then Deity started to speak quietly, as if afraid to let the words escape. Or maybe it was relief? Cadence could see her shoulders drooping slightly as Deity folded her arms and turned her head away. "I can't go back there," she said.

"Go back where? Krypton?" Cadence tilted her head in confusion. "That should be a difficult trip considering it's gone."

Deity smiled a little at her joke. She rubbed her arm, tugged at the bottom of her sleeve. "I can't go back to my Earth. I can't go back to…I can't go back to Kara." She reached up and scratched at her temple, though Cadence was sure she was wiping away a tear. "Not right now."

"What's going on?" Cadence asked.

"I can't say."

"Can't or won't?"

"Won't."

"But—"

"Not now," Deity insisted. She turned back to Cadence, eyes brimming with tears that threatened to fall. "Please."

Cadence nodded. She would never push anyone to talk, especially when it looked like Deity were about to break down completely. No, now certainly was not the right now. "Okay, well, are you hungry? I was just about to head home."

"You mean you don't go feed the homeless after this?" Deity sniffled, wiping at her eyes.

"When would I have time?" Cadence teased. She clenched her hand into a fist and the smoke dissipated. Hopefully he wouldn't have to do too much to convince Cisco to erase the footage of Deity's arrival. A drawer full of candy or a date with one of her co-workers could probably do it. "Come on. Lucky for you I drove today, all of that interplanetary flying must've worn you out."

"Thanks."

Cadence drove Deity back to the apartment, taking the elevator to the top floor. She unlocked the door, tossing her keys aside once she made it over the threshold, Deity following her with her mouth and eyes wide. "Wow," she gasped. "You live here?"

"Yeah, we moved," Cadence explained. It had surprised her when Barry had asked if she would move in with him. It certainly wasn't the question she'd grown to expect. Not that she truly thought he was going to propose to her, but every girl knew when a guy you had seriously been seeing said, 'I have something I need to ask you' with the way he was looking at her, it was serious.

"Okay," Cadence replied slowly, bracing herself for a flash of confusion. No pun intended.

"With everything that's been going on around here; with our villains and rivals being able to find us so easily…" Barry shook his head. "I don't think where we're living is safe. And I don't think it's right to keep putting Joe and Iris and Wally and others in danger every time one of them comes close to us. I think it's the right time to…take a new step in our relationship,"—Cadence made a face, unsure of how to respond—"and I think we should move."

Cadence tilted her head. "Who's 'we'?" She asked blankly.

Barry blinked back at her, startled for a moment. "You, me, and Brady." Then he shifted uncomfortably, running a hand through his hair. "I mean, if you want to. I'm not forcing you to or anything. It was jut an idea. It's not like I already have the place picked out. I mean, I sort of do. But you know me, I do everything fast. Not that I've already signed for it, I just looked around, and it's perfect. For us. For all three of us, but I know this may be a little fast and you might want to talk about it more but it was a steal and I can pay a lot of the rent from the money that was left to me from my mom and dad and from dad being wrongly jailed and there's the money you have and…" he finally trailed off. "What do you think?"

Cadence thought the idea was crazy, but after a few days of thinking, talking to Brady and Ryder about it—as it affected the two of them as well—and talking to Tess (who had dragged it out of her after a failed training session where it was obvious something was on her mind), Cadence agreed to the idea and they quickly moved in to the new apartment. A loft sitting at the top floor of the building near STAR Labs, Jitters, the CCPD, and Joe's house. With the fire escape that led from the master bedroom they were able to get in and out at top speed when needed, and go through the front door when trying to be normal for everyone else.

"Not too long ago, actually," Cadence explained, closing the door behind her. "I still have some stuff to unpack." She headed towards the sound of clattering pans and voices. "I'm back!"

"Hi, mom!" Brady called back.

"Hey, Cay," Barry shouted. "How was class?"

"Fine." Cadence waved a hand and motioned for Deity to follow her to the kitchen. "Leah says 'hi' by the way," she said to Brady, ruffling his hair as she passed him.

"Okay." Brady smiled at her and, without looking over his shoulder, tossed a pancake out of the pan he was holding. Barry caught it on an elevated plate. Brady gave Barry a high-five before he smiled at Deity. "Hi Debby," he greeted her.

"Hi, Brady," Deity replied, a little self-consciously. She lifted her chin and gave a soft smile to Barry. "Hi, Barry."

"Hey, Debby!" Barry lowered the plate to the counter and rounded it to give the hybrid a hug. Deity backed away for a second before allowing him to wrap his arms around her. "It's good to see you! Where's Kara?" He looked over her shoulder and caught Cadence's eye as she frantically waved her hand back and forth over her throat. "I mean, uh, Kara who? I don't know any…how did you get…uh…" he pointed over his shoulder as Deity rolled her eyes and smiled. "Dinner's almost ready."

"Okay, great. I was just going to show Debby to her room," Cadence said.

"Is she staying here?" Brady asked. He nodded at Cadence's response of, "Just for a little while."

Barry gave Cadence a curious glance and she mouthed, 'I'll tell you later' in response. He nodded and said, "Okay, we'll have everything ready by the time you're done," Barry said.

Cadence started to turn away but Brady's cry of, "Wait!" caused them all to stop and look at him. Brady regarded Barry with wide, pleading eyes and gestured with the spatula. "Don't you have to ask my mom something?" He rhythmically tapped the spatula against his palm while waiting for Barry's answer.

Cadence raised an eyebrow and looked at her boyfriend, who set his jaw while staring at the young boy. It wasn't the first time it'd happened. When Cadence had explained to Brady how Barry had asked them to move in with him, he'd seemed disappointed and borderline confused by it being that they were moving. Almost as if he were expecting something else. Since then he'd ask, a little too innocently, if Barry had something he needed to ask her.

She was glad they were really getting along, but it was starting to be a little ridiculous.

Barry cleared his throat and scratched his neck saying, "Uh, no. No. I don't have anything to ask her, Brady."

"Are you sure?" Brady pressed. Impatiently, he waved the spatula back and forth. "It's as good a time as any."

"No, Brady, I don't think so," Barry practically growled, making Brady roll his eyes.

"Are you two just going to pretend that I'm not here, or...?" Cadence asked, planting her hands on her hips. She looked back and forth between her son and her boyfriend. "Does someone need to ask me something or not?"

"Hm?" Barry looked at her as if he just noticed she was in the room. He pressed his hand against his mouth, resting his elbow in his other palm. His eyebrows rose, mimicking Cadence's movement, before he dropped his hand. "Oh! Me. Yeah, no, I uh, just wanted to know…"

"Iiiif?" Brady pressed.

"If you figured out what color dress you're wearing to Captain Singh's wedding," Barry said. He started to speak rapidly, moving across the expansive kitchen to grab Brady's shoulder. "Because, you know, we need to match and everything. Or maybe not. Am I supposed to match with you when I'm in the bridal party? Who would've thought Captain Singh would've wanted me in the bridal party? Me, little old Barry Allen." He grabbed Brady's shoulder and started to drag him out of the kitchen. "What a joke, right?"

"Everything okay, bud?" Cadence asked her son.

"Everything's fine," Brady replied, sounding suspiciously like Barry as he kept talking. "Why wouldn't everything be fine? Everything's fine. You worry too much, mom. Geez."

Deity turned to Cadence with a questioning look and Cadence held up her hand. "Don't ask," she said. "Things have been really strange around here lately and those two are the least of my worries. Though Brady's babbling made me realize he might be spending a little too much time with Barry."

"I don't know, I haven't heard an accent from him before," Deity said, shifting her bag over her shoulder.

"That's from spending a lot of time with Ryder."

"His dad?"

"Yeah. I'll introduce you later, I think he may be coming for dinner. Anyway, I'll show you to your room." Cadence left the kitchen, practically skipping as she did so. Deity laughed at her display of energy, it was obvious she enjoyed the new space.

"You don't have to give me a room," Deity said. "I don't want to put anyone out. I can just…sleep on the couch or something."

"You're not putting anyone out, it's a three-bedroom loft," Cadence explained. She waved her hand towards the stairs set by the front door. "Barry's and my room is up there." She pointed down a hallway. "The laundry room is over there. That's Brady's room. And this guest room can be yours for as long as you'll be here," Cadence said. She leaned in and flipped on the lights, stepping back so Deity could go inside.

It was certainly set up as a guest room, Deity noted. Almost like a hotel room, complete with a basket filled with toiletries at the end of the bed. She doubted Barry had much to do with the decorating of it. She looked around for a few moments before nodding. "It's nice. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Cadence said. She lifted a finger. "But I do have some rules."

"Rules?" Deity repeated. Her eyebrows furrowed. "I thought…" Well, she didn't know what to think, really. A free space to live for a while. Some food. Then she could be on her way. She didn't know how long she'd be there, as it was.

"I know you're running from something, something that you're not ready to talk about. I can respect that. But if you're going to stay here, there's going to be a few rules." Cadence quickly rattled out the rules she gave to any of the kids she took from their homes—only when they were in any immediate danger—and waiting to be put into the foster system. (Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard from Frankie in a little while and needed to catch up with her again). "1) You have do some work around here to earn your keep." Deity's nose wrinkled as if she didn't understand. "Chores," Cadence clarified. "Laundry, dishes, picking up after yourself, cooking. We rotate on what we do…except folding clothes cause Barry hates it, but I hate to actually do them. If you don't know how to do anything I'll teach you."

Deity nodded.

"Two; you have a curfew. No later than 11:30. If you're going to be late I would prefer that you tell me than try to sneak in, but I'll give you until at least 12 if you'll be late. City curfew." Deity opened her mouth to protest but Cadence added with, "Or you'll have to find somewhere else to stay."

Deity closed her mouth and nodded again. "That's fair," she said quietly.

"Good. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes," Cadence said. She was surprised for a moment when Deity moved forward and wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

"Thanks, Cadence," Deity said quietly.

"You're welcome, Debby," Cadence replied, hugging her back. She stepped back and repeated that dinner would be ready soon.

"I don't have to dress for it, do I?" Deity asked with a teasing smile.

Cadence held a blank expression on her face for a moment then said, "Have you been talking to my mom?" She laughed and left the room, leaving Deity's confused expression behind. Barry met her in the kitchen, holding onto two glasses of white wine. Cadence took hers with a grateful smile, started to take a sip, then pulled her head back, eyeing it warily. "You didn't do anything to this did you?"

Barry swallowed his sip and shook his head. "No. Why would I do that?"

"It'd explain a little about why you and Brady have been acting so weird lately," she said.

"It's nothing, Cade, just guy stuff. You were the one who told me that you wanted us to do more things together, right?" He took her hand and led her towards the living room. He placed his glass on the coffee table in front of the couch and lowered himself to the floor. Cadence followed his lead and did the same.

"Yeah, I think I'm starting to regret that," Cadence said. She turned towards him, resting her cheek against her open palm, resting her elbow on the couch and pouted. "I didn't think I'd dislike sharing him so much. I was used to it just being the two of us." She thought for a moment. "Though I'm good without his talking so much."

"I heard that!" Brady shouted from his room, making Barry and Cadence both laugh.

"He heard that," Barry repeated, gesturing back towards the bedrooms.

"I noticed," Cadence said.

"Speaking of 'share'." Barry turned and mimicked her stance, lowering his eyebrows as he stared at her. "What's up with Debby? I thought Kara would be with her, but she hasn't mentioned her at all."

"That's because Kara doesn't know she's here," Cadence explained. "Well, by now she probably does, but Debby didn't tell her why she left. She's avoiding something, I can tell."

"Well, if anyone would…"

"Shut up!" Cadence punched him on the arm.

Barry laughed. He reached out his hand and tapped his fingers against Cadence's, running their fingertips over each other's. Finally, they had time to relax. With Alchemy, Savitar, and the Assassination Bureau running around, and Killer Frost a constant shadow over their lives, it was good to take some time to themselves when they had the chance.

"I'm just saying, she obviously need someone to talk to and it has to be something big or else she would've found someone from her team to go to." Cadence nodded, mulling over Barry's words. How true was it for her own life? There were a lot of things she could tell her friends and everyone in her life, but some things with the Assassination Bureau she was sick even thinking about telling them. The guilt would get to her at some point, she knew that was true. "Or even Kara. So…maybe it has to do with her. Like how Brady—"

"—Had some problems with me?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Barry quickly amended, seeing the hurt that flashed through her eyes. Cadence tried to hide it, but no matter how much Brady apologized for what he said and how much better they were, knowing at one point he thought he hated her was hard to handle. He was justified in how he felt, his best friend was moving away; and he was having a hard time handling it, but all the same it made Cadence's insecurities of being a mother come back to the surface. "But yeah, maybe something like that. And, you know, if there's anything I can do to help, I'm always here. I'm not sure what it is I can do, but at least I can do it fast."

"I know." Cadence reached up and gently brushed his bangs back from his forehead. He gave a goofy smile in response, making her giggle. "You know, you're really sexy when you're caring like that."

Barry smiled modestly. "I know."

Cadence giggled and leaned in, giving him a kiss. Barry brought his hand up and pressed it to Cadence's neck, increasing the passion in the kiss. Cadence closed her eyes and allowed herself to get lost in him, enjoying the way his fingers gently grazed over her skin, mimicking how his lips glided over hers. She pulled back long enough to get some air, smiled, and leaned in again, resting her hands on Barry's forearms. Anything to know he was still there, to know he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Hey, where are the towels?" Deity asked, floating into the living room. Then she noticed Barry and Cadence's embrace and dropped to the floor saying, "Woops. Sorry. Ruined a moment."

Barry sighed as he pulled back from his girlfriend and looked at Deity over his shoulder. "I live with a ten-year-old boy," Barry said. "There are no moments to ruin."

Cadence laughed. She pushed her hair behind her ears and tilted her head back, saying, "They're in the closet by the bathroom."

"Thanks."

She left the room. Barry was silent for a moment eyes shot open and he whipped around, holding his hand out feebly. "Wait! Debby! Don't!"

Barry and Cadence both jumped at the sound of Deity's startled scream before a loud thumping sound. The two got up and hurried towards the source of the sound. Rounding the corner, they found Deity crouching on the ground with her hands covering her eyes and Ryder standing above her, tightening a knot in the towel that rested low around his waist.

He caught Cadence's eye and shrugged while Barry smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot that he came here straight after work."

Cadence sighed and did her best not to burst out laughing quickly noticing the irony in Ryder's predicament and Barry's from months before with her mother. "Well, I can't say this is how I wanted you to meet but at least you'll remember," Cadence said. "Ryder, this is our friend Debby. Debby, this is Brady's dad, Ryder."

"Nice to meet you," Deity squeaked, using one hand to continue shielding her eyes, the other to hold out to Ryder.

He chuckled and shook her hand. "You too," he said.

"She's a Kryptonian-Alien Hybrid," Barry said, then added when Ryder didn't react, "You're okay with that?"

"My life has been nothing but a freaking roller coaster since I met her and the rest of y'all," Ryder said, nodding towards Cadence. "Nothing phases me anymore."

Cadence smiled. Their lives were weird, there was never a dull moment, but she was glad she had the chance to stop and enjoy it every once in a while.

---

Barry ducked out of the way when Jesse sent rapid-fire punches to his head. Then he attacked when she was the most vulnerable. He had the upper hand, knowing her inexperience was going to be her downfall. When her arm stretched around for a punch, Barry grabbed her arm and kneed her in the stomach. Then he flipped her over his arm and onto the floor, where she landed on the practice mats with a loud thwack.

"Ah!" Jesse squeezed her eyes shut, the wind knocked out of her. Barry gave her space, waiting for her to catch her breath, and moved to the speed bag that was set up in the corner of the room. With a burst of speed, he continued to punch the bag, the motions blurring in front of him. "Wow, that hurt."

"Sorry." Barry managed a small smile and stopped, pressing his hands to his waist as he fought to catch his breath. "I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"It wasn't you, it was coming to a stop against the mats," Jesse said. Finally, she sat up and looped her arms around her legs. "If that hurt, I can't imagine what it'd be like to run into Savitar."

"Trust me, you don't want that," Barry said.

He could still feel the cool metal of Savitar's claws against his neck, squeezing tighter and tighter as the seconds passed. Could still see the edges of his vision growing darker as he came close to passing out. Could still feel the ground slam against him every time he was thrown. Savitar's eyes haunted his dreams, the glowing blue that bored into him seconds before he was crushed by the bashing of his fists.

"Barry?" Jesse's question brought Barry to join her on the mat. He sat in front of her and mimicked her stance bringing his arms around his knees. "What's it like? Being the Flash? Being a speedster that saves the city? Just…being a speedster?"

"I think you'd know what it's like to be a speedster," Barry said gently.

Jesse shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, you and Cade have been doing a great job in my training. I hadn't realized how much I needed to learn but…on Earth-2, my dad wouldn't let me do anything. He worried, and his worries turned into him being controlling. He'd only let me take care of small crimes, someone who as trying to rob someone or maybe steal a car. I've stopped a few people from being jerks just by messing with them." She laughed a little, finally smiling. "That's always my favorite part, just messing with people a little bit because of my speed. Making them think that the thing they put down a second ago, they moved."

"I know what you mean," Barry agreed. He thought back to the first few weeks of having his powers. He'd been so excited about his abilities and what he could use them for that he became excited when he was being robbed. And he had used his powers for the same reasons that Jesse had admitted to. He messed around with Cisco and Caitlin a little; moving their mugs a few inches to the left or right when they weren't paying attention. Moving so quickly it seemed that he hadn't even left his chair despite the tell-tale wind that would follow him. "Having these powers…it makes you feel even more alive than you ever felt before. And, you think it's not possible, to be more alive. But when you have the Speed Force in you, you understand what it means to feel every particle in the air and how it can be used with you."

"What about being The Flash?"

"Being The Flash is the icing on top of the cake," Barry said after a minute. "There's a lot I had to learn to be The Flash. I didn't know how to do a lot of my abilities until I put the work in. And having my team behind me, they've helped me along the way. They've gotten me out of more jams than I could ever imagine. And they've helped me grow as a hero." He tapped his fingers against his lips as he thought about it. "Cade's taught me how to be strong and how to stick by my decisions; to see things in gray rather than just black and white, good and evil. Cisco's taught me how to think on my feet and to figure out creative ways to take down the metas we come up against. Caitlin's taught me…" he trailed off.

Caitlin.

Now that she had Killer Frost as a persona when she used her powers, Caitlin was starting to shut down and Barry felt for her. She had powers that could be very helpful. And yet she was afraid to do anything because of the persona she was afraid of coming out. Cadence had said she feels it's just Caitlin's fear that's created Killer Frost and Barry agreed. But how do you convince someone who's afraid of their powers to use them to help?

"Caitlin's taught me that everything isn't as it seems," he said. "That there are real people underneath the villainous masks that were put on and that they have their own lives that we don't know about. It's hard to keep that in mind when doing what we do, but it helps."

Jesse nodded.

"Being able to do all this," Barry gestured around STAR Labs with his hands. "That's nothing compared to knowing that I'd do it even if I didn't have my powers. There was a point last year when I had to give my powers up and even though it was frustrating, I still wanted to help. I can't imagine people getting hurt even if I don't have the ability to help them as fast as I can." He looked Jesse in the eye. "Why do you like having your powers? Is it because of the powers you can show off? Or because you really want to help people with it?"

Jesse thought for a long moment. Then she lowered her gaze and shrugged. "I guess…I don't really know," she admitted. "Sometimes, I think about what Zoom did to me and my dad and…and I want nothing more than to be ready if he comes back, so I can take him down. In the mean time I helped rebuild the city. But…sometimes I just like having the powers."

"And that's fine," Barry said. "But you need to decide whether you want to be a hero, or if you just want to have fun. I'm sure there are plenty of people out here who have powers and use it for fun and for their own gain. But they're also not masquerading as a hero, either."

Jesse nodded. "I get it."

"Good. Practice is over, you can go rest."

Jesse nodded and left the room slower than Barry'd seen her leave in the last couple of days. Typically, she had a bounce in her step and a grin on her face, ready to take on the speed that could take her to Paris and back in a few minutes. And, he couldn't help but notice, the same bursts of speed she'd use to see Wally. They'd certainly grown close since her appearance on their Earth once more. He hoped things worked out well for them and that they could get through any issues having powers could bring. No matter how glamorous it looked, everyone, metas or not, had problems.

And his continued to swirl in his mind, no matter how hard he tried to push them away. Keeping both parts of his life separate was becoming harder than ever before.

"You're really growing into being a leader." Harrison's voice captured Barry's attention, making the speedster whip around to face him. Harrison leaned against the doorway to the room, legs crossed at the ankle, and hands in the pockets of his slacks. "Having to make tough decisions for what's best is always something that'll be hard to grow used to, but you're taking it with style and learning really fast. No pun intended."

Barry smiled.

"The advice you've given Jesse, is probably the same advice I'd given you once upon a time."

"Thanks," Barry replied. He let out a long sigh running a hand through his hair. He looked Harrison in the eyes, suddenly finding him easier to look at. Before, he wouldn't be able to look at Harrison despite how close he'd been able to work with Harry. Harry's demeanor had been so far from the Dr. Wells he knew that it'd been easy to fall in with him. Harrison's having been his Dr. Wells for a while, even if it had been Eobard Thawne the whole time. Their faces and demeanor were the same, and even Harrison wasn't sure where Eobard started and Harrison ended. "Does the uncertainty ever go away? The uncertainty of being a good leader?"

"Well, I think you'd need to ask Caitlin and Cisco that question for me," Harrison said. "Because I think they'd tell you I wasn't a good leader form how hard I rode them and my other cohorts with their work." He shrugged. "Of course, that was all before the Particle Accelerator went online."

"And you still made the decision to turn it on?" Barry asked.

"Oh, no. I could tell that was going to be a disaster. I created it, I knew the numbers that went into it and the outcomes. As far as I knew, it was always going to fail." Harrison held up a finger. "It was Eobard that decided to go along and turn it on. But that's the tricky part of it, isn't it? If he hadn't turned on the Particle Accelerator, you wouldn't have become The Flash until…I'd say…your thirties."

Barry could hardly imagine himself in this timeline with his parents around let alone making it to thirty. He was sure he'd be dead before then. It wasn't an admission he'd given to anyone. A secret he kept to himself.

"But I can't imagine you think that far ahead," Harrison continued, as if reading Barry's mind.

"I could always take a trip through time," Barry joked.

"As far as I know you can only make it into the past and I feel you've learned your lesson with that one." Harrison's smile widened as Barry nodded. "There's a reason Tess and I are leaving STAR Labs to you. There's something about you that reminds everyone that there's always something to hold out for. To believe in. And that, Mr. Allen, is something that can't be taught. It's a good quality of a leader."

"So, it doesn't get easier?"

Harrison smiled, his eyes flashing. "Not that I'm aware of."

Barry smiled back then tilted his head when he heard HR's voice coming over the loudspeakers. "Test! Test! Fellow STAR Labs employees, your presence in the Cortex would be greatly appreciated." He rolled his eyes.

Harrison's lips twitched. "I told Tess installing those speakers was a bad idea."

---

Deity had no idea why Cadence rushed her to STAR Labs, she'd been having a good time catching up on Earth-1 movies she'd missed, but since she was getting a free bed and breakfast from her, as well as all the other meals, she didn't have much room to argue when the short woman asked her to do something. It still amazed her how both Cadence and Brady were so much taller than her now, last time they'd been about the same height but now Deity had to look down at her friend.

Standing in the Cortex, they were all dressed casually, having been summoned in by HR. At first Deity had thought he was an improvement on the old grumpy model but after spending more than ten minutes with the hyperactive version Deity was starting to miss the old grumpy fart.

She was sat along with Brady and Caitlin behind the main desk in the Cortex with Barry, Cisco, and Cadence standing on the other side with HR.

"You want to open STAR Labs to the public? In two weeks?" Barry asked slowly as he and the entire room frowned at HR, who stood proudly by the mockup that was presented to them on the monitors surrounding the Cortex. It baffled Deity, the whole idea did. Why would you want to advertise where a secret base was? It would be like the D.E.O. operating out of a shopping center, they'd never get any work done. Plus, even more people would notice Team Flash coming and going.

"Soft open. Not a hard open," HR pointed out. "But, you know, I'll use your input. All right? Right now, it's very important 'cause the clock is ticking." He tapped at his wrist before motioning towards the images on screen once more. The ones that read STAR Labs Museum. The ones that made Team Flash stare at the images with open mouths that HR ignored. "My vision is set to include, but not limited to...bam!" HR used the remote in his hand to bring up an image of people on Segways. "A personal transportation tour of the facility. Or, for the faint of heart, we have...pow!" He hit the remote again and the screen changed to a short video. "A virtual reality alternative. Both set to include particle vision."

"Particle...vision?" Barry said aloud though the whole room was thinking it.

"Particle vision, which is…" HR paused, waiting to see if anyone could guess. No one had any idea. "A moment-to-moment reenactment of the particle accelerator explosion, but seen from the point of view of…"

"A particle," Cisco began to say in dread before HR said it more in enthusiastically over him. For a moment the whole room started at him, waiting to see if he really was serious. When it became apparent that he was in fact serious Deity turned to Cadence with a lowered brow.

"You dragged me away from the couch for this?" she groaned.

Cadence didn't respond. She had a hand clasped over her mouth and turned to exchange a glance with Brady, who looked as baffled as she did.

"Listen, HR, I know you're trying to figure out how you add value to the team, I get it, but this…" Barry said sympathetically before being cut off by HR

"Let me stop you right there, B.A."

"Don't call me B.A…." Barry mumbled.

"I can make STAR Labs the powerhouse in the scientific community that it once was, and, moreover, earn back the people's trust," HR explained while around the room the everyone groaned. Cisco was banging his head against the desk, Caitlin was running her hands down her face, Barry was pinching the bridge of his nose, Cadence had her head titled back as a groan purred from her throat and Brady and Deity shook their heads.

"Look at you guys." HR pouted, placing his hands on his hips. "You just...your faces are so darn gloomy. Here's what we'll do. I'm gonna make you guys a-" Thankfully a loud alarm noise cut HR off as everyone stood to attention.

"Thank God," Brady murmured, earning an elbow in the side from his mother.

"Was that...was that the satellite?" Cisco asked looking to Caitlin who nodded. "I hope that wasn't the satellite," he said as he made his way over to the nearby computer bringing up on the screen what appeared to be a meteor heading for Central City.

"Is that a meteor?" Caitlin asked, tilting her head to the side to study it closer.

"Why, yes, that is a meteor, and yes, it is heading for downtown," Cisco announced after glancing over the screen.

"We got to go," Barry said to Cadence.

"Right behind you," she agreed.

The two quickly got changed and rushed out of the room. Deity and Brady weren't asked to go along so they stayed in STAR Labs. Whatever it was, they would be called if and when they were needed.

"You guys get a lot of meteors crashing around here then?" Deity asked ideally as they watched Barry and Cadence's trackers race towards the impact soon of the meteor. Luckily it was down by the river in a hopefully quite park area and since it wasn't all that big it shouldn't do that much harm to the surrounding area.

"Nope, first one," Brady said as they started at the screen.

"Guys," Barry's voice came through his comm-link a few seconds later. He sounded strange, almost statled by something.

"What is it?" Cisco asked but Barry didn't respond. "Barry, what do you see?"

Still no response.

"Can we see what's going on?" Brady spoke up and after a few clicks from Caitlin one of the monitors showed the nearby security camera's footage.

"This isn't a meteor," Barry said as the footage came into focus and the jaws of everyone in the room dropped. Barry was right it wasn't a meteor, it was space ship and not a friendly looking one at that. "Are you guys seeing this?"

"Yeah, Barry, we're seeing it," Caitlin said, still shocked from the sight.

"Debby, do you recognize this thing?" Cadence asked as she and Barry slowly made their way towards the ship. Deity moved out for behind the desk, walking over to minor to get a closer look but even up close she still could remember seeing anything like this.

"No," Deity said. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Maybe you ought to come down here and—"Cadence began before Barry was suddenly flung off his feet by a bright blast of energy. "Barry!" Cadence ran over to him after he hit the ground.

"What the hell?" Barry asked as he sat up. Cadence knelt beside him, a hand on his shoulder, ready to get them out of the way of an attack if needed.

"So, it's got a forcefield," Cisco said.

"Are you okay, Barry?" Brady asked, frowning in concern.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good," Barry said. With a whoosh of escaping air, a hatch to the spaceship opened. Deity narrowed her eyes at the screen watching as part of the space ship opened up.

"Guys…" Cadence said slowly seconds before a herd of monsters came running out.

"Oh my God!" Cisco cried in a mix of excitement and horror.

Caitlin gasped, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. Then she lowered it and shouted Barry's name along with Brady who cried out for his mom. As for Deity she just stared wide eyed at the screen, taking a step back when she realized what was coming out of the ship. Dominators. Just like the one she'd fought on War World. Fighting one she had seen how violent they could be as well as a glimpse at some of the power. But that was one and now there were thirty streaming past her friends, swarming like ants. Even she wasn't sure she could take on that many.

However, that wasn't what was at the forefront of her head. All she could see was the first Dominator she'd met, the one she killed in cold blood. Other aliens she'd killed in the area began to flash through her head again.

Deity cried out, clutching her head wishing it would stop. In the background she faintly heard Barry cry out "Aliens?" Deity collapsed to her knees, now shaking. She'd come here to escape all that pain and the memories but clearly the Gods didn't want her suffering to end.

"Debby. Debby, what's wrong?" Caitlin asked, suddenly by her side.

But Deity couldn't answer, she just brought a hand up over her mouth as she began to whimper, looking up at the screen from the ground. She couldn't stop thinking about how this was potentially her fault, how everything was her fault.

---

"Government officials are saying the unidentified aircraft that has landed in downtown central city was simply a DOD aircraft in a training operation."

Joe shook his head as he listened to the reporters crowding around the waterfront. He looked over at Iris, who stood beside him, sunglasses covering her eyes and hands placed in the pockets of her coat. It was starting to get colder outside; the closer Thanksgiving came. And the closer it got to Christmas, the more it seemed that stranger things happened in Central City.

When he'd been called in by Captain Singh to investigate the 'UFO' crash that had been on every news channel, Joe thought it was a joke. But went along with it anyway and finding some of the big wigs of the police, CIA, and the military in the area, he knew it was serious. Iris joined him shortly after he arrived, saying she'd quickly jumped on the story when it was passed around the CCPN office.

It had to be for the same reason Joe thought she was there, because there was a chance it was meta related and they needed to be in the know. "I'm not getting anything," Iris said with a light shake of her head, watching the news reporter that stood at the front of the crime scene. "I've been asking around and these guys are tight-lipped." She pointed with her chin towards the reporter. "She asks more questions than anything else, trying to see what I know."

Joe managed his words around a wheezing laugh, "That's what you want to do, baby," he reminded her.

"I know, but at least I'd have some more tact about it," Iris said. She reached out and shoved her father's arm. "It's not funny. Stop laughing."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Joe lowered his voice to a low murmur. "Do you know if anyone else is saying anything about metas?"

Iris shook her head. "No, they really seem to believe this is something else. I'm not getting a lot from any of the men in black over there either. Barry's been circling the area, he should get back to us with some information, soon." She jumped as there was a blast of air that pushed her hair back from her face and looked over at Barry—dressed in his suit—as he stopped by Lyla Michaels.

Lyla looked around and motioned for Joe and Iris to come over as well. "So, what is it?" Joe asked.

"I saw the crash last night," Barry started, folding his arms. "And—"

"—you saw the crash?" Lyla demanded, her head immediately whipping over towards Barry. Her eyes shifted back and forth, mouth growing tight with tension. "What else did you see?" Her questions came out rapid-fire.

"Enough to give Ridley Scott nightmares," Barry replied. He couldn't get the image out of his head, of the aliens that had towered over him and screamed—or screeched, he wasn't quite sure how to describe the sound. Only that it's been startling him awake nearly every hour he slept since then.

Lyla nodded. She motioned to Joe to move closer. "Meet me at star labs and I'll tell you everything we know." She kept her promise. Once Team Flash were gathered in STAR Labs, she explained the presence that had crashed into Central City was indeed, aliens.

"Aliens?" Cisco asked, unable to keep a bright smile from his face. "Like alien-aliens?" He held up his hands, placing them in front of him then shifted them over. "Or the green ones?"

"Both," Barry muttered.

Deity sighed, bringing a hand up to scratch at her forehead. Then she rubbed her arms before folding them over her chest, trying to shrink in on herself. "They're the dominators," She said.

"She's correct, that's what they've been called since the 50s," Lyla explained.

Joe's eyebrows rose. "That was them?" He asked. "Redman, Oregon, the government tried to cover it up." He then noticed all eyes that were turned his way and made a face of offense. "What? I watch Syfy. I may not understand everything you're telling me, but I enjoy some science-fiction every now and then."

Lyla gave a small smile. "In 1951 they appeared in the same circumstances. A crash of a ship that suddenly entered out atmosphere without warning. We learned they were abducting humans to gather intel about us. They attacked, and hundreds of soldiers lost their lives." She paused for a moment, looking towards her feet in a moment of silence. Then she continued, stronger than before. "Then, for some inexplicable reason, they left. All contact had been lost until three months ago, when the DOD received this."

She pressed a button on the remote she'd been given by Harrison and a distorted, malicious voice started to play from the speakers. The moment the voice started to speak, Deity closed her eyes and tuned away. "We pose no threat, human inhabitants. Understanding is or purpose, any action against us, as shown to us in the past, will cause retaliation." Stunned silence filled the room after the tape played.

"So when we discovered four ships coming to earth, we thought it was happening all over again," Lyla said. "And one of them landed here."

Joe snorted. "Right, like we don't have enough crazy happening here."

"it's a Tuesday," Cadence reminded him with a shrug with a shrug.

Caitlin smile a little before she asked, "Do you know that they want?"

"They've ignored all attempts to communicate," Lyla said, voice tinged with frustration. Clearly it was something they'd been dealing with for a long time. "But they want to gather more intel about us."

"We have to do something," Jesse said.

Barry opened his mouth to say something about a plan but was cut off by Lyla once more. "We are! The UN is in talks to coordinate a response." Her eyes darted around all of the faces that gaped back at her, almost daring them to defy her ruling. "Action is being taken."

"So, wait, what are we supposed to do?" Brady asked, his nose wrinkling in indignation. "You want us to just sit this one out?"

"These things are like World War Z zombies," Barry pleaded to Lyla, not noticing Deity wince at his words. "If they decide to attack, no military can stop them."

"Neither could you," Lyla shot back. "Not by yourself." She ejected the tape from the player and tapped it against her hand before turning off the monitor. "Just let us handle this for now." She looked at Barry for a long moment, making sure he got the message. Barry nodded and looked away from her, unable to keep strong under her intense gaze. "I'll be in touch."

The second Lyla left the Cortex, multiple conversations broke out at once. Deity sucked in a deep breath and turned her back to the group, trying to keep herself together. She sensed Cadence coming up behind her and said, before Cadence could ask if she was okay, "I'll help," she said quietly, though continued to stay turned away from Cadence and the others. "I guess this will make up for the lack of chores so far," Deity said, but the humor didn't quite make it to her voice.

"If you don't want to, you don't have. This isn't your fight," Cadence said reassuringly.

"No. I want to...just..." The girl was at a loss for words suddenly, having finally turned to face Cadence. A step closer in leading to better communication for sure, but Deity kept her eyes down to the floor, refusing to meet Cadence's eyes suddenly.

"It's okay, Debby. You don't have to explain it. I already know the answer." Deity looked up at that and a smile formed on Cadence's face as she stared back into the teenager's brown eyes. "You're a good person," Cadence said with complete and utter certainty. Deity softly smiled back, embarrassed as she brushed some loss hair strands behind her ear.

"We're not going to sit back and do nothing, are we?" Brady demanded, his voice breaking through the churning conversation around the Cortex.

"No," Barry said, simply.

"You heard her," Iris pointed out. "You can't do this alone."

Cadence slowly smirked. "Who ever said we were going to be doing it alone?" She turned to Barry, who smiled back at her and the two bumped fists.

---

"Whoa! This place is so huge!" Brady shouted, his voice echoing around while the rest of Team Flash set up the equipment in the hanger that Barry had directed them to.

"Take it easy, bud," Cadence said patting him on the back as she smiled at her son. His excitement was cute, but the way his voice reverberated off the walls was the last thing she wanted to deal with. She thought she got over the mindless screeching when he learned how to talk.

"Please," Deity added as she patted her ears, trying to get her hearing back to normal.

"Sorry," Brady said sheepishly as he averted his gaze from Deity. He ran a hand through his hair and continued to examine the hangar then turned to Barry with a questioning look. How much more stuff did he have that he wasn't telling anyone? If he got a car from his parents' inheritance, he'd dibs it first.

"Cadence!"

"Oh, jeez," Deity groaned as she wrapped her hands around her ears again.

Cadence looked over as her name was called and grinned when she spotted Thea Queen walking her way, the lapels of her red peacoat fluttering behind her. "Hey, Thea!" Cadence trotted over and threw her arms around the younger girl, rocking back and forth. "It's good to see you. Good to see Oliver hasn't gotten you killed."

"By now, that's the least of my worries," Thea joked back. Then she turned to Brady and grinned. "Look at you, Brady. Getting bigger every time I see you," Thea said as she looked the boy up and down.

"It's nice to see you too, Thea," Brady said with a smile and blush at her praise.

Then Thea spotted Deity and her eyes lit up mischievously. "And who's this? Your girlfriend?" She teased.

Brady's eyes shot wide open then lowered. "No, she's not my girlfriend," he muttered. Cadence smirked and immediately wiped it off when Brady turned to looked at her. Thea, on the other hand couldn't hide hers and looked to Cadence, who shook her head and waved her hand across her throat. The corner of Barry's lips turned up, but he stayed silent.

"Alright," Thea drawled, still smirking. "So. If you're not Brady's first girlfriend, then who are you?"

"Debby Danvers," Deity said, folding her arms while she flashed a friendly smile.

"Thea." Thea held her hand out to her. Deity watched her for a long moment before reaching out and shaking her hand. "Thea Queen." She lowered her hand and tilted her head back to look around. "So, what is this place?"

Barry led the group outside, answering as he went. "It's this old hall hangar thing that STAR Labs owns." He paused. "Or I guess I own it." It was hard to explain, technically STAR Labs had been left in his name by Harrison and Tess but considering they were still alive…and he still believed Cadence, who was their birth child, may as well be the one to take it over despite her insisting she had no idea what to do with it. Then he noticed Felicity Soak and John Diggle standing outside and hurried toward them.

"Well, you should do something with it," Thea suggested.

"Could I use it as a club house?" Brady asked eagerly.

"Now that's a good idea," Deity agreed as the group grinned to one another before stopping next to Cisco.

"What would you do with it?" Cadence asked him.

Brady shrugged. "Use it for paintball? At least put a fire pole in."

"All right, so let me get this right," John Diggle said as he folded his arms, scanning the sky. Since he'd been plucked from Star City his annoyance at Barry's having made him nauseous once more had lessened once their mission had been explained. Now he waited patiently with the others. "Our time-traveling buddies in a flying time ship are supposed to just pop up right here, right?"

"Yeah," Felicity Smoak said slowly. "This is the time and place I gave them, so if they got my message, they should be here…" She trailed off, scanning the sky. Then a smile pulled at her pink lips when she noticed a space ship break through the skyline and aim right for them. "Right now!"

"You know why I've never done drugs?" Diggle stated, watching as the spaceship arched towards the ground. "It's 'cause I was always afraid I'd see weird stuff."

"And how's that working out for you?" Cadence asked with a smirk. Diggle smiled back, shaking his head. "There's so much weird crap we've seen so far that this should be the least of your worries. Honestly, I'm more concerned about whether or not I'd wake up spontaneously combusting than anything else."

"So am I," Barry murmured. He cleared his throat and said, "Okay, take everybody inside, all right? Tell Oliver I'll be right back," Barry said to Cadence and Felicity.

"Where are you going?" Felicity asked while Cadence nodded.

"Well, since we're fighting aliens, I figured we should get one of our own, right? Or another one rather," Barry said with a grin before looking over to Deity who turned away. "You sure you don't want to come?" Barry gently asked her.

"I'm good." With that, Deity turned on her heel and walked back towards the hangar, slowing as she passed the space ship.

"And who's that?" Felicity asked, watching her go. She leaned over to watch the teen girl, eyebrows raised and eyes alight with curiosity.

"We'll explain later," Cadence said waving off the question.

Barry's eyes shifted back and forth as he watched Deity before turning to her to ask, "You going to stay as well?"

Cadence tilted her head back towards Deity. "Yeah. I want to keep an eye on her. Make sure she's okay." Besides what difference did it make if she went to Earth-38 to get Kara? Chances were she'd either be crushed by a super strength hug simultaneously for a greeting and as a thanks for watching her daughter, or get potentially sucker punched for not saying anything about her being there.

Either way, her bones could take a little longer before the need for her healing powers to kick in.

"Well, in the meantime, you and Felicity can—" he paused, seeing the annoyed expression cross Cadence's face. "What?" He asked, suddenly getting the feeling he was missing something. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just you're putting a lot of faith into two people who hate each other," she said.

Barry blinked in surprise. Felicity and Cadence hating each other? When did that happen? He figured it had something to do with Flashpoint, but had to ask just in case. "Since when…?"

Cadence looked at him indignantly. "Since the only thing that can get between two girls got between them. A boy." Barry continued to look at her and she said, "Conner, got between us. Remember? At the farm house when we were stopping Vandal Savage?"

Right, Barry remembered that. That was something that'd happened before Flashpoint, but the time traveling must've mad the minor disagreement that much worse. Barry sighed. Was there anything that Flashpoint was going to get right?

"Alright, I'll see you soon then," Barry said as he kissed Cadence on the cheek before turning back to Cisco. She watched the two leave through a breach Cisco opened and went to go back into the hangar.

Deity was sitting on a crate alone while the others did various things. The remaining members of Team Flash were working on finishing off the equipment and Team Legends were catching up with Team Arrow. Deity sighed, letting her head drop onto her hands as she waited for her mother to show up. She still wasn't ready for to be reunited with her mother. She couldn't tell Kara what she'd done, how she'd broken their one rule. When she started to picture War World again she started to shake her head, desperate not to relive those horrible days.

She looked up noticing that no one was watching her. Her tachyon device was back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco had insisted that he upgrade them upon getting his hands on them. But they were still working as far as she knew. She could back, grab them and run off again. She just wanted more time to work things out, was that so bad? Telling herself Kara would understand, Deity swung around on the crate. She hopped off and was about to super speed out when a hand clamped down around her shoulder.

"Not so fast." Deity cringed and turned back around to find Cadence behind her. She could see no one else was looking there way, not even Brady who seemed to be chatting with HR.

"I was just-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Cadence snapped before pointing to the crate. "Sit," she ordered. Deity lowered her head and sat back down, huffing before she looked back up at Cadence. "Alright, serious chat time. What's going on? You told me you were stabbed in back by these Hybrids and thrown into this War World. Then you got away and went back and nearly killed one of the Hybrids. But Kara already knows that, so what else has you so scared of her knowing?" Cadence asked, watching the girl carefully. She was hesitant to speak, looking everywhere but Cadence's eyes or towards anyone else. Cadence waited patiently, not wanting to push the girl too hard and eventually she looked up, ready to speak.

"I…I…" Another long pause as she rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, tears beginning to well up. "I killed people," she said quietly. For a moment Cadence was taken aback. She thought she'd misheard at first but after a minute she realized it was real.

Thinking back on her own experiences, Cadence quickly knew how harrowing it could be. Especially at that age.

Cadence's head suddenly shifted to the side, as if an invisible hand had grabbed it and turned it aside. At the same time, a flash of Breathtaker and Mindboggler entered her head. Searing pain shot across her brain, making her cringe, making her muscle tense up. As soon as it came, it passed, allowing her to release her grasp once more with a gentle gasp. Again. It'd happened again.

What was happening?

Cadence glanced at Deity, and was surprised to see she still was looking at Cadence, as if she hadn't moved at all.

She kept her cool. Deity hadn't noticed…if it happened at all. Luckily, Cadence managed to keep her cool, at least in front of Deity, and took a silent inhale through her nose before thinking over what she could say. There was only so much she could say without going into too many specifics. She's never told her friends how many people she killed and would never do it, the number would probably make them look at her differently. As people said, ignorance was bliss and this was certainly one of those times.

"Okay," Cadence breathed out, lowering her chin. "That a big thing," she said honestly.

"Yeah," Deity agreed quietly before feeling Cadence's hands on her shoulders. She looked up into the woman's caring green eyes and sudden was overcome with a feeling she hadn't felt since she last looked into Kara's eyes. The feeling of hope, that somehow everything would work out and that all she had to do was believe. Strange how the feeling made her miss Kara even more than she already did.

"But I know your mom, Debby. She won't blame you, just like Barry and Cisco and Caitlin don't blame me for what I had to do to survive. Now, I don't know all the facts, but I do know you're a good person. I know it's hard to tell where you are right now, but I promise, you're going to get through this. You just need some help," Cadence said with a smile which Deity softly returned.

"Good thing I have you then," Deity said softly.

"Yeah," Cadence agreed. "But Kara needs you, too. So. you're staying right here and saying hello when she shows," Cadence said sternly as Deity's face and head dropped.

"Fine," Deity said quietly.

"Hey. I know if Brady pulled what you're pulling right now I'd be going out of my mind and on a rampage. I can only imagine Kara's going through the same thing," Cadence added a little more angrily.

Deity could understand why, it was a stupid thing to do, she knew that. But she just couldn't do it, not when running away was so easy. However, she knew that if she did try Cadence would stop her. So she sat quietly with Cadence standing and waited.

Cadence's gaze swept over the newcomers. Brady had already gone to greet Professor Stein, now speaking to him rapidly about…something, Cadence couldn't quite hear. Sara, whom she barely remembered from a few meetings when they were young, Jax, and Ray were there as well. Cadence felt her muscles tense, felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, recognized the tell-tale sign she was being watched.

That only left…

"Hey Princess."

Cadence cringed at the low, gravelly voice, damaged from years of smoking and turned around to find Mick smiling at her. Or leering, she wasn't quite sure. Nor did she put it past him. Deity inched closer to the two, looking around all the newcomers, as if unsure of what to do.

"Mick," Cadence replied shortly.

Mick smirked and held open his arms, waiting for her to walk into his embrace. "What? No kiss 'hello'? Figured you owed me something from helping save you last time."

Cadence slowly smiled.

"Okay, so we've got Team Flash here, Team Arrow is here, Team Legends, and Debby," Felicity said, taking count of everyone in the hangar, oblivious to the tension mounting between the wo fire bearers. She paused and looked over Sara, Jax, Ray, and Professor Stein. "Aren't we…I'm sorry, aren't there more of you?"

"Nate and Amaya are watching the Wave Runner," Sara explained. She held up her hand and added, "The Newbies," as if it explained everything.

"I think that's everyone, right?" Felicity asked, coming to a stop between HR and Caitlin.

They looked to each other and nodded. "I think so," HR concurred.

"Actually, Mick, there's something I wanted to give you," Cadence said. Mick's eyes lit up and he took a step closer to her, practically salivating as he looked her up and down.

"Cade?" Deity asked.

A swirling vortex opened in the hangar of which Barry, Cisco, and Kara—dressed in her Supergirl uniform—leapt through. At that moment, Cadence snapped up her foot and caught Mick between the legs. Uttering a groan, he bent down to clasp his groin, giving Cadence the chance to sucker-punch him in the side of the head where he fell over with a resounding thud.

"Whoa!" Brady cried, eyes growing wide.

"For real?" Barry and Cisco chorused.

"Is he alright?" Kara asked.

"I'm sure Mick deserved it," Sara said dismissively.

Cadence turned to the others with a sweet smile and said pleasantly, "I was just saying 'hello'." Then she noticed Kara and started to say something then stopped, noticing her eyes on were on her. With her enhanced speed, Kara streaked across the hangar towards her daughter.

"Don't ever do something like that again, you hear me?" Kara said to Deity, enveloping he in a tight hug, resting her head against hers daughter's.

Deity clung to her mother, resting her cheek against her. "I'm sorry…I-I-"

"It doesn't matter," Kara cut in, squeezing her daughter as tightly as she could. "All that matters is that your safe and your you and that I'll always be there for you no matter what. You know that right?"

"Mom," Deity whispered as she hurried her face in Kara's shoulder, tears starting to flow as Kara kissed her forehead.

Cadence who had teleported out of the harm's way, landed next to Barry and Cisco. "How'd it go?" She asked Barry.

"Getting her here was easy," he said. "She was ready to go. It was the traveling back that was kind of hard."

"You try opening multiple breaches only within minutes of each other," Cisco shot back. He ran a hand through his hair, wiping sweat from his forehead. "A guy gets tired, you know."

"We filled her in on everything that was going on here while we traveled through," Barry continued, ignoring Cisco's jab the best he could though Cadence could see the pain flash in his eyes. "But…she really wants to know what's going on with Debby."

"Hopefully now that she's here, Debby will tell her," Cadence said. "But, honestly, I won't hold my breath about it." She paused for a moment. "I want to tell you, but I'd need to get Debby's 'okay' first." She hoped with the way she looked at him that he understood.

With a blink of his eyes she knew he did. "No, yeah, I understand."

"Are we going to do this briefing or what?" Cisco demanded. "We can't all do everything fast, you know."

"Cisco, knock it off," Cadence said sharply. "Now's not the time." Whether Barry was her boyfriend or not, Cisco's attitude was really starting to get on her nerves. He'd apologized a hundred times about Flashpoint nd explained why he did what he did. She couldn't understand why Cisco was so adamant on holding a grudge for so long. There were much more important things to worry about.

"But we have the time for a family reunion, right?" Cisco asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Now wasn't the time for the conversation. As it was, she could tell Kara's reunion wasn't exactly what she hoped. Her smile was waning, excitement ebbing away as she tried to talk to her daughter, who wasn't talking to her. The hangar was spacious enough so that even their low voices could be heard.

"But why'd you come here? I don't understand," Kara said quietly though her voice still carried around the room like the low hum of a machine.

"Not now," Deity mumbled in reply now avoiding Kara's eyes just as she had with Cadence.

"But—"

"Just drop it," Deity almost snapped before taking a breath. "Please."

"Debby—" Kara tried again only for someone else to interrupt her.

"—Barry, I thought you were bringing us an alien!" Oliver Queen's dominant voice broke in. Barry cringed and turned to his friend and mentor, who stood with his arms crossed, eyeing Barry with a serious stare that held an air of impatience. It was time to get down to business.

"Yeah, uh, we did," Barry said. "Everyone, this is our friend Kara and Debby Danvers. Or as they're known on their Earth, Supergirl and Deity." Kara turned away from Deity and flashed a smile, bashfully clasping her hands together in front of her, rejuvenated from seeing her daughter again. Deity lifted a hand in a wave.

"What makes her so super?" Jax asked, voice laden with as much suspicion as the gaze that roved over her. Everyone other than Supergirl and Deity had been people that had been part of each other's lives for years in some capacity. With the Dominators and now these newcomers…it proved there was more than met the eye for vigilantes and heroes alike.

Barry held up a hand and Kara and Deity floated into the air. With narrowed eyes, they used their heat vision to carve the Kryptonian symbol of their house crest—and S—and the 'D' on the front of Deity's suit into the floor. The flames flickered and smoldered away as the seconds passed.

"I'm convinced," Diggle said, voice low with an air of awe.

Brady snorted. "It's not like she's the only one who can fly."

"Or shoot heat vision from their eyes," Cadence agreed.

"Can you do it at the same time?" Thea asked.

Cadence and Brady both shared identical pouts, making the others laugh. Kara then walked up to the groups of teams, clearing her throat. "Okay, I got a crash course along the way, I think I got this." She pointed at Oliver. "Oliver."

"Green Arrow," he explained.

Kara nodded and rattled off the names of all the others she hadn't met before with them giving their superhero names in response. "Diggle. Thea. Okay, and…Sara. Jax and Professor Stein. Ray. Mick...?" She looked around for him and Cadence pointed to the floor, where he had uncurled from a ball and let out and groaned a response, hands still clutching the front of his stained jeans. Kara nodded and stepped over him, hurrying to the others and said with a flourish. "And, Iris, Caitlin, Felicity, Cisco and Harry!"

"HR," Team Flash chorused.

Kara's eyebrows came together in confusion then shook it off, pointing at Caitlin. "And you have cold powers but you can't…use them?"

Caitlin shook her head, pressing her lips together. Cadence felt her heart hurt, watching her best friend, seconds before their eyes met. How much longer could they pretend that their friendship was going to be tested if and when Caitlin turned back into Killer Frost. A much as Cadence could boast about putting feelings aside to kill someone, when it all came down to it, she was unsure if she could do it to a friend she loved so much.

"It's a long story," Caitlin finally said, sounding as if she hadn't slept in days.

"Wait a second." Iris moved forward and grasped Barry's arm tightly. Her brown eyes searched his, wide with wonder asked she asked, "So, Barry, Oliver's the Green Arrow?" She asked.

"Yeah." Barry started to grin, feeling pride for knowing his friend's identity.

"Oh my God, he just got so much hotter," Iris murmured, her eyes shifting over to Star City's vigilante, who smiled and chuckled at the praise. She turned and whacked Barry hard on the arm. "Why didn't you tell me? I can't believe you knew Oliver Queen and I didn't, but to know he's the Green Arrow, too? What else haven't you told me?"

"Oh my God," Barry whispered, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. Beside him, Cadence snickered and Barry glared at her.

She quickly defended herself. "What? I didn't say anything. And you know I'd never date Oliver." She nudged his arm. "I chose you, didn't I?"

"For better or worse," Brady added and smiled innocently when Barry then glared at him.

"Barry, we should get started!" Oliver's voice brought their attention to back to the task at hand.

Barry cleared his throat and nodded. Standing in front of all his friends from the last couple of years, Barry explained what he and Cadence had seen when they went to inspect the spaceship that had crashed into Central City and the creatures that had come out of it. Kara quickly chimed in with her own explanation.

"They're called Dominators," she said, nostrils flaring at the mere mention of the aliens. "They're really strong. I've heard a lot of stories about them when I was a kid. They came to my planet when before I was born and experimented on a lot of people, killed a lot more…"

Cadence heard Brady let out a low gasping sound then lowered his gaze, lest anyone heard him. Cadence looked down at him and he looked back at her. It took a second for it to flash through her head. She had a feeling—which was corroborated by his nod—they were thinking the same thing.

Oliver, on the other hand, came up with a plan the second he heard Kara's story. "We should use Kara and Deity as stand-ins for training," Oliver suggested.

"Since when is Robin Hood calling the shots?" Mick drawled, earning Oliver's ire.

Jax quickly stepped in before a fight could break out before the two muscled heroes. "What I think Mick is trying to say is it would be nice to know who's in charge here," Jax suggested.

"Maybe we should take a vote?" Ray suggested, earnestly throwing his hand into the air. "Choose a leader of someone who we all trust."

"Well, I trust Oliver," Cisco said, pointedly looking away from Barry. "He's got my vote."

Stung, Barry lowered his head. He knew Cisco was mad at him and had been since he vibed him, direct from coming back from Flashpoint. He'd wanted to confront Cisco about it, but never found the right time. Seemed like there was something going on every week. Not to mention Julian continuously watching him while at work. He made a mental note to visit Julian in this hospital once everything with the Dominators ended.

Oliver noticed Barry's hurt expression and took a moment before saying, "Well, Barry's the one that brought all of us here. I think it should be him." Barry looked to him in confusion and Oliver nodded back, subtly pushing him to take on the leadership role.

"You're really growing into being a leader." Harrison's voice captured Barry's attention, making the speedster whip around to face him. Harrison leaned against the doorway to the room, legs crossed at the ankle, and hands in the pockets of his slacks. "Having to make tough decisions for what's best is always something that'll be hard to grow used to, but you're taking it with style and learning really fast. No pun intended."

Blinking in surprise, Barry lifted a hand to the back of his head and rubbed it nervously. "Okay. Well, uh…" He looked around at all of the faces looking back at him. Waiting for direction. "As Team Leader, I guess the first thing we should do is um, we should, uh—"

"Do a test run," Oliver murmured, loud enough for Barry to hear.

"Yeah, do a test run," Barry agreed.

"Against Supergirl and Deity," Oliver murmured again.

"Against Supergirl. And Deity. Yeah, do a test run against Supergirl and Deity."

"Are we just supposed to pretend we don't hear him?" Sara asked, voice dripping with sarcasm as she motioned between Oliver and Barry.

"Okay, so everyone suit up! And look alive! Okay? We're going to fight aliens by fighting aliens, so…?" He waited for them to move before grasping Cadence, Kara, and Deity's attention, bringing them over to Oliver. "Wait, uh, really quick. I was excited about you guys meeting. Oliver was the first person to train me."

"Until I got my hands on him anyway," Cadence teased.

"Really?" Kara asked, her positivity unflappable. Deity on the other hand, eyed Oliver closely. "Well, you did a really good job training him." If Kara expected to get a smile in response, she didn't find it.

Instead, Oliver took a second before saying, "That's because I didn't hold back." He nodded towards Barry with an almost sadistic gleam in his eye. "I shot him. You can't hold back either."

"He did shoot me," Barry confirmed. And he would never forget it. His back still ached when it rained and even after a thorough head to toe examination, Caitlin said there wasn't any residual scar tissue, and suggested the pain was psychosomatic. There was nothing psychosomatic about being shot by an arrow.

Kara and Deity both winced in surprise. Kara chewed her lower lip and said, eyes wide, "Ouch. Okay, um…" She and Deity exchanged glances. "Are you sure about that?" A nervous laugh escaped her lips. "I just met these people."

"These people need to understand this isn't going to be easy," Oliver explained, his eyes boring into hers. "Don't hold back. Especially against me."

"Y-yes, sir," Kara said.

Deity frowned. "No. I'm not doing it." Oliver's glare shifted over to the teenager, clearly not liking her tone. "I'll help you fight the Dominators but I'm not fighting these people," Deity said gesturing off to the room.

Oliver gave her the same look he gave Kara and said, "It wasn't a question."

"You're not the boss of me," Deity bit back harshly as she stepped towards Oliver, her eyes flashing with anger. Barry and Kara exchanged worried looks while Cadence watched passively. "You can't force me to fight them. Besides what good's it going to do?"

"If you want to help then you'll do what your told," Oliver said matching Deity's glare.

"I'm not a child," Deity growled.

"Then stop acting like one," Oliver snapped back.

Deity clenched her jaw before continuing stubbornly. "I'm not fighting anyone but the dominators." She couldn't risk training with these people, not in the way Oliver wanted to. What if she got another flash back to War World? What if she hurt someone. She wasn't in the right place of mind to be doing something like this. She could tear half these people limb from limb before they even knew what was going on. She wouldn't do it, she wouldn't fight the people she was supposed to be helping.

"Fine," Oliver conceded. "But you stay out of our way," he warned as he leaned over the girl. With that the two went their separate ways, while Barry, Cadence and Kara watched.

"Great start…" Barry murmured.

"Well, think of it this way," Cadence said, patting him on the shoulder. "He didn't shoot her."

"Wow." Kara whistled. She took a step closer to Barry, giving him a curious look. "Does he not like me?"

"No, he's like that with everyone. He'll warm up to you." Barry looked at Brady in confusion, who had started laughing hysterically. "What's so funny?"

"My mom…Oliver," he managed to say between his laughter. Finally, he pointed at Barry and said, "You're dating Oliver!" Before laughing hysterically once more.

"I'm not that bad," Cadence defended herself. "I mean, sure, we've both killed people,"—she said it as calmly as if she were to mention it was sunny outside—"But you're acting like my looks could kill someone."

Barry lifted an eyebrow. "Have you seen some of the look s you give?" He looked around the hangar, feeling trepidation slowly fill his stomach. Everyone he knew, hero and vigilante alike was together, was one team. And he was the leader of that team.

He just hoped he was ready for it.

---

A/N: Well, that really was a long one. But I hope you guys enjoyed it. You'll see the rest in part two of the Invasion crossover! I know a lot of this was pep talks with each other but that means that the next one is filled with action and fights. And the pep talks were needed because it's revealed some things that needed to be revealed. There's going to be a lot of characters in these two chapters so POVs will switch to give some indication in what's going on with them in their own shows.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

Cheers,

-Riley

Review Replies

Ethan: Well, now you know that he didn't propose. I think it would've been a bit too soon for that. Besides, I have some more things to do before then.

DarkHelm145: I pride myself on making sure emotions are able to be felt by those who read, so if I don't feel something when I write it, it's not strong enough. Emotional scenes are the ones I do my most editing on.

highlander348: There's a lot that can be said about why Caitlin is Killer Frost and I just hope my interpretation is as good as any that others can come up with.

WinterRain36: KillerFlareFlashVibe (my name for the four of them together), do have some great friendship scenes, but I really do like their fight scenes as well. Plenty of stuff that can go on there.

Guest 1: Thank you so much. Glad it worked out well.

Guest 2: I'll definitely be doing more of Killer Frost. vs. Flare. It was fun to write.

spinquin142: Savitar won't take too long ot be figured out in the story. It was done way too long in the show and I'm going to try my hardest to avoid it.