19

I Understand

Brady jerked his head back in time for a spray of bullets to miss his forehead. His heart leapt into his throat, a bead of sweat poured down the side of his head, dripping to his chin. After a few seconds passed, he slowly inched his way forward once more. Close enough so that he could see out the vent. He pursed his lips, watching as the men below slowly turned their attention back to the case they stood in front of.

Finally, he phased his head through the vent once more. This time he wasn't brazen enough to stick it out too far. The metal that had been struck but bullets were so twisted and snarled he hand to be careful of where he put his hands and knees. Even with his aversion of sticking himself on the edges, he felt the warmth from the projectiles launched from the gun.

"What happened?" He heard Barry's voice murmur in his Comm. Link, on the verge of falling into full-blown hysteria. "Are you okay? What do you see?"

Brady did his best not to roll his eyes, marked out by grease paint smeared on his skin. He'd only been quiet for a few moments, And the sound of bullets flying should've been something they were used to by then. Even if said bullets were flying towards a ten-year-old. Instead of allowing his sarcasm to permeate his words, Brady whispered back, "They're standing around the case. They haven't done anything yet. You know, other than try to beat my head with a bullet."

"That's not funny," he heard his mother say next. Though Brady knew her well enough to hear the light lift in her voice that betrayed her struggle to keep from laughing.

"Sorry." Brady blew his fringe from his forehead. "I think they saw me. Or thought they saw me. I've followed them this far, I'm blending in but…"

"They're starting to get nervous," Barry said. "Just wait a little until you see the money, until they actually get into the case."

"After that, move as fast as you can," Cadence added.

Thank you, Uncle Cisco, for the Shadowstriker, Brady thought. Then he frowned. Okay, that name wasn't the best, but he was still working on it. Either way, it was parked exactly where he left it. Around the corner. Besides, the moment he was on top of the bike, the moment he could turn it invisible and phase it as he needed. Getting away wasn't the problem. Getting to see what it was they were hiding, was. He was starting to get a crick in his neck and knew it was only a matter of time until he lost control and the rest of his body phased through the vent. As it was, he was surprised he still managed to fit in there considering how long they'd staked out the place.

Brady held his breath, waiting to see what the men below would do next. They continued to speak in hushed tones, looking over their shoulders as the seconds passed. Who knew something as tiny as an almost sneeze would run the risk of a spray of bullets to take off his forehead. Maybe one of them were a meta and had super hearing, could hear the drip of sweat that was barely moving to dangle off him and to the ground.

Finally, the men moved closer to the case embedded directly in the wall. To Brady's surprise, instead of one of them opening the case, a man stepped forward and gabbed onto the sides. He stuck his fingers in the grooves and yanked back as hard as he could, the case falling out of the wall with ease. Almost as if the man had only pulled a book off the shelf. Then, he lowered it to the ground. The second he backed away, there was a blast of light as bright as a bolt of lightning and the sound of a loud clang that made Brady jump and yelp.

"What was that?"

"I thought I heard something."

"Brady. Go! Go! Go!" Cadence declared.

Brady closed his eyes, knowing he had no choice but to reveal himself. He took a deep breath and phased through the air vent, flipping to the ground where he landed in a crouch. One of the men huddling around the case whipped around and pointed his AR-15 towards him. Brady planted his feet firmly on the ground as the front of the rifle started to bloom with light. Brady's shoulders jerked backwards as the bullets fired from the gun and passed through him. The bullets didn't hurt him, he hardly felt it when they struck him, but always had that slight pins and needles feeling when something moved through him or he moved through something.

The men started at him in surprise as the bullets continued to whiz through him. Finally, the tell-tale sound of clicking filled the air as the man continued to try to fire bullets, slowly coming to the realization that he was running out. With a smirk, Brady stepped forward. "You really need to think this through," he said. "If it's the Flash that wouldn't get to you, or even Flare, you should've known something was coming."

"Christ, he's just a kid!" The other man declared, making Brady purse his lips once more.

Brady sighed. Okay, he really needed to talk to Cisco about getting some sort of a vocal modulator for his suit. Not that those didn't think there was much to Shadowhunter as it was. Rumors were going around that he was young, but as young as a child? It wasn't going to bode well for STAR Labs or the rest of Team Flash when they found out.

The one who had been dealing with the case turned to Brady, holding up his hand. "Careful, kid. You don't know what you're doing. Why don't you go play 'hero' somewhere else?"

"Hard to play one when you are one," Brady replied. He brought his hand back into his pocket and found his slingshot and yo-yo. Exactly what he needed. Then he heard another sound that was familiar to him. The sound of a knife being flicked open. He had to move fast.

Before any of the men could react, Brady threw a flash bomb to the ground, causing the men to immediately scream, bringing their hands up to shield their eyes. The one who brought out the knife was the one who reacted the quickest, almost expecting everything to come. He'd turned away at the exact moment the flash bomb went off and was able to recover much faster than the other men. He immediately turned back and swung wildly, the tip of his blade moving closer to Brady.

Repeatedly, Brady backed away, moving his head as far as he could to keep from getting hit. He didn't need to worry too much, but the other men didn't need to know that. The two continued to repeatedly back across the expansive floor. Finally, when they were in the center of the floor, Brady shot out his other hand and extended his slingshot. He swung it around and struck the man on the side of the head. He cried out in pain and backed away Brady, giving him the opportunity he needed. He threw one hand forward, creating a shadow ball that encompassed the men. They screamed as it swallowed them and held them together. With his other hand, Brady threw his yo-yo so that it wrapped around them and pulled hard on the other end, tightening the man together. They screamed in anger and humiliation, working to get free. But they were stuck.

With a smirk, Brady used his abilities to levitate, soaring up until he made it to the rafters that combined to hold up the roof. He pulled the entire length of rope out of the yo-yo and wrapped it around the rafter, leaving the men hanging like a piñata before lowering himself back to the ground. Brady lowered himself back to the ground and hurried out of the building just as a line of police cars pulled to the front of the building. The silent alarm had gone off about ten minutes before; took them long enough.

Brady threw his leg over the side of his souped up ATV—which still didn't have a name—and revved the engine just as the officers leapt out of their cars, guns drawn. "I left a little present for you," he called then pulled on the throttle and careened his ATV out of the alleyway and back into the light traffic of Central City, back to STAR Labs.

He flew around the corner and drove straight towards the shuttered wall of the hangar. He continued towards it, not slowing down, even as it slowly started to open. Going head-on, he wouldn't make it without smacking face-first into the grated metal. Instead, he squeezed the brake into his palm then pulled hard on the handlebars. With a squeal of the tires struggling to gain traction, the ATV turned and screeched into the hangar as Brady ducked his head, pressing his body flat to the metal below him before screeching to a stop.

The sound of the engine revving filled the garage where the rest of the STAR Labs vehicles were stationed. Caitlin, who took a step back when he came charging through, gently shook her head. "Always have to have a bit of style when you return, huh?" She asked, voice barely able to rise over the sound of the engine.

Brady nodded before turning the key, cutting off the low rumbling immediately. "We can't all be speedsters or teleporters," he remarked.

"And we can't all be the ones who get to enjoy all the hard work I put into my inventions," Cisco announced his presence as he, Barry, and Cadence came through a doorway and strode to him. He waved his hand, shooing Brady off the ATV before kneeling to check the treads on the tires. "Do you have to come in like that? Do you know what it takes to make sure your tires don't wear out?"

Brady opened his mouth to repeat his defense against Caitlin. He needed some style every now and then. But a warning look from Cadence—she subtly shook her head and put a finger to her lips behind Cisco's back—made Brady press his lips firmly together. Although the corners wiggled as he fought off a smile.

"Sorry, Uncle Cisco. I'll be more careful next time." Reaching up, Brady pulled his hood back from his face and used the heels of his palms to start smearing away the grease paint. Then he turned his gaze to Barry and Cadence and asked eagerly, "So? How'd I do?"

"You did a great job," Cadence said seconds before Barry made a low sound in the back of his throat, waving his hand back and forth. "There could be some improvements, but for what you went after today, you did a good job."

Brady huffed, placing his hands on his hips. Then he lowered his head, listening to Barry's words. He was right, he knew Barry was right. He shouldn't have blown his own cover, making the robbers aware of his presence, making them nervous. It should've been an easy in and out. Wait until they got the money, get them together and wait for the police. No muss, no fuss. Having had them shoot at him…the weight of that slowly started to lay on him. It was always like that, Brady knew. While in the field his adrenaline was running so much that things like that didn't matter.

It was when things were slowing down that it all came crashing down. He felt his hands starting to shake and wiped them on the sides of his cloak, doing his best to keep from letting it travel to the rest of the body. He felt it every time, when a bullet would come through him, when he was stabbed, when something would impale him. He'd feel how it'd slide through his body as he phased but never felt the excruciating pain that came along with it. That scared him more than being able to actually feel it.

"Well, I don't think robbers in an art museum is that difficult," Brady said slowly, folding his arms. "They weren't even really trying to kill me. They just wanted the money." He ran a hand through his hair and started to scratch at the nape of his neck. When had he started to sweat so much?

"So you want them to try to kill you?" Cisco asked, raising his eyebrows. He stood up from the ATV, grease smeared over his hand, and said, "That's not something I thought I'd ever hear."

"As far as we know, these guys have a rule of not being able to kill a kid hero until they're eighteen," Cadence said with a wave of her hand. Barry gave her a look and she shrugged. "Look, you know as well as I do that if I ever completely got my way, Brady would never have gotten his powers. Unfortunately, it looks like I gave him the ability just because I gave birth to him. But it's not something we can ignore."

"I'm not saying we need to ignore it," Barry quickly defended himself. He looked to his friends, almost as if he were silently begging for help. Then he took a breath, turning his gaze to the ceiling, mulling carefully over the words he was going to say next. "I'm saying we need to take things slow."

"How slow?" Brady burst out. He couldn't help it. The words shot from him with pent-up frustration he could only hope to "I've been training for over a year now. Jesse was able to gout in the field in a few weeks. Maybe less."

"Jesse has had more training."

"Because she can run fast? Because she can move through everything faster? So what?" Brady gestured towards his mother. "I've gotten more training from fighting my own mom than anyone else could get. And I'm still not able to go out on my own unless it's something that you two don't want to deal with." He held up his hand and started to count on his fingers. "I stopped Geomancer on my own, I stopped Metallo, on my own, I stopped that glass guy on my own—"

"—I thought Leah helped you," Cisco pointed out.

Brady paused then conceded. "Okay, she helped a little. But I help save Conner from Damien Darkh on my own!" He lifted his hands and slapped them to his sides. "What else do I have to do?"

Silence stretched out in the hangar. Brady lowered his head, embarrassed. They really didn't get it. What it was like to be someone who had to sit on the sidelines and constantly wait and watch. Worry about Barry and his mother when they were getting thrown around at the streets of Central City. Wonder with baited breath when he was going to be tagged in and what he would do if he were out there to help them. He was invincible, with his phasing ability, nothing could hurt him. So why was he constantly being left on the sidelines?

"There isn't some sort of checklist you have to check off," Caitlin said, her voice becoming soft in the way that only Caitlin could make it. Equally filled with worry and warmth. "It's not like we're waiting for you to hit specific milestones before you can go out there."

"I know. You're trying to protect me."

"No," Barry said. Brady lifted his head and looked Barry in this eye. It wasn't the Barry who was his close friend, the one who he could talk to about nearly everything. No. This was the Barry who was The Flash. The Barry who was their team leader. The Barry who owned STAR Labs and did his best to protect the city with every hard decision he'd ever have to make with it. "It's not about protecting you, Brady. It's about making sure the Team is as strong as they can possibly be. No, you don't have the same sort of speed the rest of us, do. No, you can't teleport. That doesn't have to do with it. It has to do with being sure we're ready for Savitar."

"You know, whoever he is," Cisco pointed out. "We still don't know."

"At this point, his identity doesn't matter," Barry insisted. His face still held a stern expression. "There's nothing we can do about that at this point. We need to know where he is, what Alchemy is doing with him, and whether he's working with Breathtaker. The same meta who was able to get into Cade's head and beat her up while we could do nothing but watch. He has more strength and power than we thought was possible and Savitar has the same abilities with Alchemy working with him. We need to have all our bases covered and that can't happen until we're all ready. And if that means that I have to have you train a bit longer, Brady, then I'm sorry. But that's what we're going to do."

Caitlin's eyes narrowed as she folded her arms. She turned to Barry, looking him in the eye. "You went to Earth-3 to see Jay," she pointed out. "You were over there for a while. Is there something you know that we don't?"

"Yeah," Cadence added, tilting her head to give him the same look. "What'd he say?"

Barry sucked his lips into his mouth while Brady's eyes shifted back and forth over his friends and teammates. They were able to talk to each other without malice, without suspicion, even when things were being kept from them. He had to learn to do the same thing. Had to wait for when the time was right to get the answers they needed. And he'd just gotten his answer to the question that burned through him more than anything else. He was still a vital part of the team and needed to get to the point where he could hold his own against Savitar, if the time came.

"Jay said I needed to stop worrying about it," Barry said after a second, suddenly looking very tired, Brady noticed. Almost as if he had aged within the time he spent on Earth-3. "That I needed to slow down. He doesn't know Savitar's identity. All he knows is that he wants to kill me. Just like all the other speedsters we've come across."

"And with Julian?" Cadence pressed.

"Well, I think Julian is going to hate my with any identity I go to visit him as," Barry said slowly. "He already dislikes Barry Allen, but I think he has a special hatred in his life for The Flash." He looked his friends in the eye. "Especially considering he threatened you, again, Caitlin,"—he looked to her, noting the troubled way her mouth turned down. "And even went so far as to say that because I—we—do what we do,"—he looked to Cadence, who lifted an eyebrow curiously—"we've made people's lives worse. The CCPD are complacent, we've made them lazy, slow—"

"I'm sorry," Cadence interrupted, eyes flashing with irritation. "He's saying that we're messing up the CCPD when he was the one who singlehandedly almost ruined my case against John James because he just had to demand that Frankie was a meta?" Barry opened his mouth, no sound coming out then closed it as he nodded. "Talk about an ego."

"You think he has a thing against metas in general or just you?" Cisco asked.

"Both. But he gave me all the information we know about Savitar and the Philosopher's Stone and I'm thankful to him for that," Barry said begrudgingly. He placed his hands on his hips. "Not that I'd ever let him know that. But it did give us more information than we had before and at least now we've got a lead to go after."

Brady sucked in a breath and lifted his chin. "So…what are we going to do?" He asked. "Keep training and hope Savitar shows up again and we can trap him? Or…wait for some more information? Because it's not like it's going to drop out of the sky. Or out of Julian's mouth. Not when he hates the Flash and Barry so much."

"Do you guys always have to remind me of that?" Barry asked. He rolled his eyes, making Brady, Caitlin, and Cisco smile as they exchanged glances. What could they say? Ribbing Barry was some of the most fun any of them could have. Especially when he continued to take it without fighting back too hard.

Cadence smiled and looped her arm around his waist, using her free hand to pat him on the chest. "Yes, Tholly, we do. Because not only is it funny to watch the person who feels the biggest need to be liked dislike someone, but it does help prove a point." She looked at the rest of her friends as she thought, eyes narrowing slightly. "You said he hates you and The Flash. How can we know for sure that he's told you everything he knew?"

"Because I promised I'd never speak to him again if he told me," Barry said. He quickly clarified as he added, "As the Flash, anyway. Though I'm sure he'd do the same if he could take that same deal with Barry Allen."

Cadence nodded, the intense expression of thought still on her face. "So, how do we know he's telling you everything then? He could've just told you what you wanted to hear to get you away from him. I mean, you did say he'd written a thesis on it and that takes yea—"

Within seconds, Brady wind-milled his arms as he came to a sudden stop inside the Cortex. Using both hands, he brushed his hair back from his face and looked over to see Caitlin, Cisco, and Cadence straightening themselves the same way. It took only a few seconds for Brady to realize what'd happened. Barry had flashed them all up to the Cortex in the second it took for Cadence to finish her sentence. Even less time, actually.

"I hate it when he does that," Cisco grumbled, frantically raking his fingers through his hair.

"You always say it's so cool," Cadence reminded him.

"Yes, in theory. When it's a one or two-time thing. But do you know what it does to me? Have you seen what's it's been doing to my hair lately? It takes a long time to get it looking so luscious and perfect, Caitlin. A long time. And he keeps messing it up."

Brady laughed as Caitlin rolled her eyes. All the while Barry had pushed HR out of his seat at the computers and was rapidly running through the information stored inside. "I mean, if you wanted to see what I had planned for our opening, you could've just asked," HR was saying as his chair finally came to a stop, having been pushed across the floor of the Cortex. "It's not like it's a secret. I'd love to share my thoughts with you."

Barry ignored him and continued typing. His fingers moved so fast tiny wisps of smoke started to trail behind the movements of his hands. Cisco groaned, knowing the plastic that held the keyboard together was only seconds away from bursting into flames. There wasn't anything he could do, once Barry got going on something, it was hard to stop. And how did you stop a speedster, save from throwing him in front of a brick wall?

Instead of addressing Barry's destruction of Cisco's computer, Cisco asked HR, "You're still going forward with that whole museum thing? Haven't we talked you out of it by now?"

"I've got something," Barry said before HR could respond. "It's like you said, Cade. He wrote this thesis on the philosopher's stone. He had to spend a lot of time on it, years. It's not like someone to take that level of study lightly. He had to have put his entire life to it. He told me he used his inheritance from his parents to find it, spent years looking for it."

"So?" Brady scratched his head, confused. "It's a lot of studying right? Like we have to do in school?"

"Sort of," Caitlin said. Her words came out in a slow drawl as she tried to follow Barry's thought process was going. "But when it comes to a thesis, you're usually putting your studies to practice in some way. A control group, a focus group, surveys…you wouldn't just research and write about it."

"Not for something as big as a magical stone that can give people powers," Cisco murmured in agreement.

"Question," HR broke in, lifting a drumstick over his head. "But you said something about Julian looking for it for a while? What if he really was looking for it?" He twirled his drumstick around his fingers. "Has Mr. Julian Albert been missing and time from work lately?"

"No," Barry said. "But he did spend some time traveling before he came to Central City. Said he couldn't find the stone. But I managed to find something else." He turned the computer around so that the others could see the headline that'd jumped out at him. Researchers Found Dead at Research Site. "There was an expedition he led and…he was the only one who came back alive."

"Meaning?" Brady prompted.

"Meaning there's something about Alchemy and Savitar that Julian knows that he's not telling us."

"Because some newspaper article is telling you that?" HR asked.

Barry gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing with frustration. No. No more than frustration. With something that made Brady suddenly scared as he'd never seen it before. Defeat. Barry looked like he'd finally been defeated. "There's nothing else to go off. We have no other answers, and all this is doing is leading us to Julian. That's where we have to look now. And I'm sorry if you think there's something else that can be done, that a newspaper isn't telling us anything, but I'm tired of running out of options! I'm tired of knowing that I'm close to stopping everything that I've created here, that I've messed up and having that solution ripped from my hands. This is what we've been looking for?"

"Okay, but what are you going to do? Barge into the CCPD and accuse him of being Alchemy?" Cadence asked. Her eyebrows twitched upwards as she thought about it. "Actually, if you do, I'd love to be there to see it."

"If I have to!" Barry shot back, voice cracking. He brought a hand up to run over his mouth, shook his head. "I'm sorry, I need…I need to get some air. I'm going on a run." He turned on his heel and walked out of the Cortex. Brady exchanged a glance with his mother, who tilted her head in the direction Barry had just left.

Brady nodded and followed Barry. He knew he'd be able to catch up to him. Barry wasn't using his speed. He never did when he was angry. He worked out most of his anger with the long strides it took for him to get to the elevator of STAR Labs. Sometimes it was moving slower that was the better option. It wasn't until Barry was desperate to relieve himself of his rage did he superspeed and race as far as he could go.

"Barry," Brady called, hurrying after him. "Barry, wait."

"No offense, Brady, but I really don't want to talk right now," Barry said.

"I kind of figured that," Brady said, finally reaching the older man's side. He looked up at him, reaching out his hand to press his fingers into the button to call the elevator. "I was wondering if you wanted to get something to eat." Barry gave him a funny look. "I know, dumb question. You're always hungry. But I'm starving and I don't have any money, so I guess you're going to have to pay for me." He patted Barry on the arm as the doors to the elevator popped open and he stepped inside. "So, let's go."

The expression of confusion was still on Barry's face, still, he allowed himself to walk into the elevator with Brady. "Wait a minute," Barry said as the doors closed and the elevator led them down to street level. "Didn't you just get your allowance a few days ago?"

"I spent it," Brady said simply.

"On what?"

"The vending machine."

"You spent your entire allowance on the vending machine at school?"

"Do you know how much things cost now? It's like two dollars to get a freaking bottle of soda." Brady rolled his eyes as they two stepped onto the street and started to amble towards the heart of the city. "And don't get me started on how much the candy costs."

"So just ask your mom for some more money."

"I could or else I'd get the 'do you think money grows on trees?' lecture." Brady shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and widened his gait, almost skipping as he went along. Barry chuckled as he moved beside him. "And then she'd remind me that even though Mamaw would give me anything I want, that she's the one who has all the money and I'm the one that's broke." He shook his head. "It's like I can't win in either parts of my life, you know?"

Barry placed his hand on Brady's shoulder. "I know the feeling. Trust me. It seems like no matter what decisions I make now, even if I think it's good, something bad is going to happen either way. So why bother?" He shifted his gaze, dropping his hand from Brady's shoulder to open the door to Big Belly Burger. Brady went and sat in a booth while Barry went to the counter and bought food for the two of them.

Brady pulled out his phone and started to flip it back and forth between his hands. The screen was black, no notifications of messages. Nothing from his last message to Conner. He didn't expect to get anything. It'd take time. Now that he understood he knew it would. Oliver had talked to him at the party, after they'd finished taking down the Dominators. Explained what was going on with Conner's departure. He had to go into hiding, into witness protection, so that no one could figure out his link to Oliver and put him and Samantha into any more danger. If Damien Darkh could figure out about Conner then who was to say anyone else could, either.

Oliver admitted he didn't know where Conner was, and preferred not to know lest he went to find his son. Brady swallowed that bitter pill, but knew it was for the best. They still communicated through their Instagram account, it was all they could do. It'd bene a few days since their last conversation but at least Conner had read everything. Read what was going on in Central City. And they'd gotten a few more additions to the account, soon he and Leah would start talking to some of them in person.

Brady continued to spin his phone in a circle around the tabletop. He probably should mention something he and Leah were doing. The training he was getting was good enough to train others. They just needed to figure out when the best time was.

"I thought…" Barry's voice caught Brady's attention and he looked up. "I thought I was doing the right thing when I went to save my mom." He pushed a wrapped burger and a packet of fries to Brady, who slid them in front of him. He picked up a fry and tapped it against the table as he listened to Barry. "I thought I was saving people from all the pain we felt since her death. I wasn't just thinking about me, I was thinking about Joe and Iris and Wally. I thought about Francine. I thought about Caitlin and Ronnie. I thought about Cisco. I thought about Eddie. About you and Cade and your grandfather. I even thought about Eobard Thawne. I thought about everyone and all that we'd lost. I thought I was helping us when I went back in time. But it created Flashpoint."

"I thought I had done the best thing for us when I was going to let Eobard Thawne go home. Then he was murdered, the singularity was opened, and…we lost Ronnie. We faced off against Zoom, the man I chose to trust, and he betrayed us. Making it easier for him to get me where it hurt the most. Every decision I've made, it makes it harder to know how to move forward. If I try to go after Julian with what we know about Alchemy, how do I know he's not going to bust in there and have us all arrested?"

Brady blinked in surprise. "Can he do that?"

"Julian already knows that Caitlin is a meta. I can deny it as much as I want, but he knows she's a meta. He knows she works here. It's only a matter of time until he decides to give the police a head's up and everything falls apart. Most of us would be arrested for vigilantism, and then we'd probably be charged for neglect and child endangerment in your case." Barry shook his head. "There's a lot that could go wrong if things are found out. That's why…with Julian, we have to…we have to do things differently."

"How?"

"I don't know."

"Oh."

Brady ate a bite of his food. Looked around the restaurant. There were enough people sitting around, smiling, that it made him realize how long it'd been since he'd seen any of his friends and family actually have some downtime. He was at STAR Labs nearly every day, working hard to gain strength and work on his powers on top of going to school every day, doing hours of homework, and soccer practice. He could only imagine how much stress Barry was under, being the leader of the team and everything slipping into every area of his life.

"Hey Barry?" Brady waited until Barry looked directly at him. "How come you're telling me all this?" He asked. Barry's face screwed up. "When you came back from Flashpoint you told me how you were freaking out. And now you're telling me this. How come?"

Barry sat up straight, dropping his hands to his lap. "Because I trust you, Brady."

"Do you not trust mom or Caitlin or Cisco?"

"I trust them, too. With my life. But sometimes, it's easier to talk to someone who you know will truly get it. I've seen how you've been progressing with your training. You learn things very fast and you expand on them each time you're out in the field. You still have a little ways to go to realize why we're holding you back when we feel the time is right. You'll get it. But you still have some ways to go. You're a smart kid, Brady. You remind me a lot of myself. And I'm not saying that to stroke my ego, I'm saying it because it's true. You remind me a lot of me and I'm afraid that one day soon you'll have to start making the same hard decisions I've had to make."

"I don't get it," Brady said.

Barry sucked in a long breath through his nose and let it out, chest swelling as he did so. "But you will. One day, sooner or later, something's going to happen to me. Or your mom. Or Caitlin and Cisco. And I have a lot of faith in knowing you could handle whatever comes your way if and when that happens." Brady curled his fingers around his phone and pulled it closer to him. Does he know what Conner and I are doing? "I'm really proud of what you've managed to achieve so far."

Now Brady's entire face screwed up. "Are you dying?" He blurted, making Barry chuckle. "Because, if you are, that's probably something you should tell other people."

"No, I'm not dying. I just wanted you to know how proud of you I am."

Brady lowered his gaze and nodded. He got it. What Barry was trying to say. And he felt the same way. Still, he couldn't help but ask again, "Are you sure you're not dying?"

Barry threw his head back and laughed.

Maya's hands shook as she handed the papers Tess had given to her back across the desk. Tess took them and set it aside. She looked up at Harrison, who stood beside her, watching Maya's face closely. He lowered his chin and said, "I know this is really hard for you to hear, Maya. Knowing we kept it from you for so long."

"No, it's not that," Maya whispered. She cleared her throat and folded her arms, pulling her purse tighter against her body. "I understand how…how you guys needed to operate. Things had to be kept a secret. For…for our safety." She took in a shuddering breath. "Just as…as I'm sure Kent understood considering he kept his illness a secret. I just can't help but think—"

"—Had you known sooner you may have treaded lightly?" Harrison asked. "How you would've made different decisions. Done your best not to isolate and keep others away? I understand how all that feels as they're decisions I've made and have continued to make as the years tick by. Sometimes I feel it's something that I'd change if I had the ability to go back in time but I can't. And we've seen what's happened once Barry has done the same. Who knows how our future would've been impacted."

Maya took in another deep breath. "How did it happen?"

Tess reached out her hand and placed it atop of Harrison's wrist. The small, peculiar smile never left his face as he took in a breath and revealed the truth. "Eobard Thawne, just like he'd done to Barry Allen, made Cadence a metahuman long before she was to be one. Tess and I were to have made STAR Labs years in the future, where Barry would've become struck by lightning and become The Flash in his thirties. That same wave of dark matter would've been released and caused Cadence to turn into a metahuman. Instead, Eobard Thawne traveled back in time, inhabited my body, and made it so that STAR Labs was built sooner, thus making Barry a speedster sooner. However, he'd known there was another metahuman that would be as much of a formidable foe in the future."

"Cadence?" Maya asked. Her eyes darted towards the papers she'd relinquished her grip on. She didn't know much about science but DNA images direct from STAR Labs's database didn't lie.

Tess nodded.

"So much so that he deemed to also make her a metahuman long before she was meant to be. He forced me to inject her with dark matter to supplement her with the powers that would then change her DNA. Thus making it so that any children she bore would have the metahuman gene as well."

"Why?" Maya asked.

Harrison took a deep breath. "Because of Breathtaker."

A/N: So, what'd you think of the start of the new arc? I freaking loved writing it. Especially showing Brady more in the field. Writing the way he handles things (which I feel is a good mixture of Barry and Cadence) and how he's learning to be more of a hero is just so much fun and I'm glad the series is finally in a place where it can happen. Especially with his relationship with Barry. I don't show it a lot so having a chapter completely focus on it was fun.

And now we know for sure how Cade turned into a meta. But what does that mean in terms of what the team has learned about Savitar, Alchemy, and Julian as well? Guesses? Thoughts? With the start of this new arc it means we'll see more of White Hot, Black Blade, Savitar, Alchemy, Wally, and Jesse.

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: Cade definitely will try to get them together. She just wants her friends to be happy and she thinks they'll be happy together.

DarkHelm145: The Savitar stuff is going to come pretty quickly in this story. His motives and the way the storyline progresses will be largely different from the show considering it took way too damn long there and I thought it could be cooler.

PowerHero432: I actually had to move the scenes with Jay into the next chapter. It won't make much sense now but in terms of how things are re-worked, when you see why I re-ordered it, it will. Lol. Just trust me. I'm sure Deity has a pretty interesting idea of what Maya is like now. Everyone around Maya tends to be caught up in her cyclone and Deity wouldn't be immune.

Yummers: More with that coming soon.

Guest: Glad you did and continue to enjoy everything!