(This is a long one, guys. Love you! AND: TO THE GUEST REVIEWER WHO SAID IT WAS THEIR BIRTHDAY TODAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This chapter is for you. -Doverstar)

"If I have to postpone my wedding, I just want you to know that I am gonna hold you personally responsible, okay?"

Caitlin rolled her eyes, grinning as she heard Iris suppressing laughter between words. She readjusted the bluetooth, pushing into Jitters, escaping the brisk wind outside. This Earth's version of their favorite hangout place had at least four trees just outside the building, all of them towering orange and red bushels of dying leaves, some of which followed her into the warm cafe when she opened the door.

"You know I won't stay here that long," Caitlin reassured the other woman. "Besides, Barry promised to forcibly eject me from the premises if I'm not back on time, so you have nothing to worry about."

Iris' smile was still evident in her voice. "He really misses you, Caitlin. And while you've been gone, I found something out that is really discouraging for someone who's about to be a full-time wife, by the way."

"What's that?" Caitlin rifled through her purse, pulling out change to pay for her drink.

"I have no idea how to treat a cold. Not for a superhero."

Caitlin burst into breathy laughter, making the woman in line before her turn around. "Barry's still sick?"

"No, it lasted about a day," Iris sighed. "But while he was I couldn't get him to eat anything. His superpowers just burned out literally every medicine I gave him. And we ran out of Kleenex, and I left the stove on too long while I was making him soup."

"I thought you were a great cook," Caitlin said, scanning the menu distractedly. She knew what she wanted—she always got tea—but she'd never had a pumpkin spice latte before, and Earth-66 was shaping up to be the right place for starting new things.

"I am!" Iris sounded indignant. "I am a scary good cook, thank you very much. It was just the canned stuff. But between the shopping for tissues and keeping him from running off on missions all day, I forgot to make sure it didn't burn. That pot was murder to wash."

"Well, at least now you know what to do next time it happens," Caitlin offered sympathetically. "I'm sure Barry appreciates the effort."

"He's sweet like that." Iris sighed. "Speaking of effort, how are things going? You know...with Savitar."

She sounded a little awkward, and Caitlin tried to think what it would be like, being Iris. Seeing your fiancee, the man you grew up with, scarred and broken and wicked. So different from the person you had known your whole life. Not to mention the Infantino Street incident. She couldn't imagine.

"Barry told me you said he was adjusting," Iris went on, and Caitlin heard running water in the background. She must have been doing dishes. People on Team Flash still washed dishes? It was funny to think about. At least the Wests could always be counted on to bring some form of normalcy to the crew.

"He's fine," Caitlin assured her, a pang of sympathy for the other woman's predicament rushing through her. Iris still cared about the man who had tried to kill her. She wanted him to live a good life. No wonder Barry was so in love. "He's doing fine. He's...keeping busy. Going on missions, ignoring my advice, leaving his burger wrappers all over the place, that sort of thing."

"Barry told me you guys caught Heat Wave? That you're trying to find the—the Mist guy, to save Stein's wife?"

Caitlin paused to place her order, thankful that the bluetooth could be clipped to her ear as she balanced the mug and croissant. "We...found him," she admitted, clearing her throat.

"What?"

So Caitlin told her about their encounter with Nimbus. She told Iris how The Mist had infiltrated the Pipeline and freed Mick Rory. When she came to the part about being attacked, about how Savitar had saved her by using her necklace, Iris stopped her.

"Wait, wait." Iris' voice was sharp. "You inhaled poison gas?"

Caitlin took a deep breath. "Yes—I mean—I did, but I told you, the situation was handled. My powers crystalized—"

"Caitlin!" There was a clattering, as if Iris had set a pot down too hard. "You almost died. On some other Earth! Do you hear yourself? All on your own, how could you not call us?"

"I know. I'm sorry, believe me. It wasn't ideal," Caitlin admitted, setting her mug and saucer down on a nearby table. "But I wasn't by myself," she reminded her friend. "I had Savitar, he...he saved me, he knew exactly what to do." She waited for that to sink in, for Iris to hear it and feel hopeful for once, to see that the time remnant still had a dash of Barry Allen in him like she'd suspected.

But Iris didn't seem to focus on that part. "It doesn't matter! You should have told him to contact us. You should have told us right away!"

Caitlin blinked in surprise, and a worm of guilt gnawed at her stomach. "You're right. But...I came here knowing the risks."

"Oh, you knew there was a Kyle Nimbus on that Earth and you were totally prepared?"

Caitlin closed her eyes, counting to ten. "No—but—"

"Dying on a parallel Earth without us there is a big deal," Iris exclaimed, tone not any less hard. "Do you have any idea how hard that would've been on your friends? On me, on Cisco? On Barry?"

"You cannot tell Barry!" Caitlin interrupted, sitting up straight. She almost knocked her tea over. "This is exactly what he was worried about."

"I'm not keeping secrets from the team," Iris argued. "And I'm definitely not keeping secrets from Barry. We've done that before, and I'm not gonna do it again."

"Iris," Caitlin huffed, "you know what he'll do. He'll run right through the multiverse and bring me back, and I've barely accomplished anything yet!"

"Or he'll stay there with you to fix problem and stop Nimbus himself," Iris agreed. "I get it. Okay? But you can't just survive an attack from a metahuman and not tell him about it. He'll wanna know."

"Why?" Caitlin warmed her hands on her mug, waiting for her laptop to boot up. "So he can worry?" Didn't she see what kind of trouble this whole thing could cause? Unnecessary obstacles.

"No," Iris objected gently. "So he can help you if something like that happens again. Even if you're on another universe, Caitlin, we're still a family. You still need us."

Caitlin smiled at the irony. It was exactly what she'd been preaching to Savitar. "I'll try to remember that next time."

"There better not be a next time," Iris warned, sounding a little lighter-hearted. "And don't worry about Barry. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." After a moment, she added, sounding thoughtful and confused, "Hey—how did The Mist know about the Pipeline? How did he know you guys had Rory?"

Caitlin paused, a chill running up her spine as she remembered the eerie confidence Nimbus had walked with when he'd breached their facility. "I'm not sure. They both knew about Savitar—they were planning on killing me as some kind of...warning to him, they said." She stared at the tabletop, thinking. "And they both mentioned following orders."

"Orders?"

Caitlin nodded, forgetting Iris couldn't see her. "Someone told Nimbus to contaminate that bistro Clarissa Stein got caught in. And Rory said something about following orders again in the bank the day we stopped him." She felt her heartbeat quicken, her mind whirling. "They're definitely working together."

"Caitlin," Iris said slowly, sounding more concerned than ever, "it sounds like you guys are onto something big."

"Mick Rory said Savitar was in over his head," Caitlin agreed, tilting her head.

"You can't tackle something like this so soon," Iris fretted. "I mean, you guys haven't even been there a month yet. We have to tell the others, you need a team behind you for this."

"Of course." The realization hit Caitlin all at once. There was something grander going on on Earth-66, and she and Savitar had walked right into it. Obviously they couldn't sit by—at least she wouldn't. But they couldn't do anything on their own. "The first thing we need to do is find Nimbus and Rory," she went on. "We can save Clarissa and get some answers once we've got them back in the Pipeline."

"Maybe Cisco has something that can—I don't know—protect you from that poison gas stuff?" Iris offered. "So that you can catch Nimbus without practically dying next time?"

Caitlin's eyebrows rose, she finished a sip of her tea. "That's a good idea."

"Excuse you, don't sound surprised!" Iris chuckled, indignant. "I'm full of those."

Caitlin managed a grin in spite of the weight of this new conclusion they'd come to. "I mean—if we had something like the power-dampening cuffs Cisco sent, something we can use if we get close enough to him—"

"I'll tell him," Iris offered. "We'll get right on it."

"Thank you, Iris."

"Of course. And you know—" Iris' voice took on a sly tone. "You're gonna have to come back here to get them. I don't think any of us will be satisfied with just tossing them into a breach and sending them gift-wrapped. I know Cisco's not going to let you get by without a visit."

The thought made Caitlin out-and-out beam. "I think that can be arranged." She glanced up, spotting a familiar face coming in the door. "Besides," she added quietly, "I'm working on the whole team problem a we speak. I'll talk to you later, Iris."

"If you hang up I'm gonna have to go and tell the others what happened," Iris sighed. "I don't have anything else to do. It's my day off."

"Good luck."

"Bye, Caitlin."

Professor Stein reached her table just as Caitlin pocketed the bluetooth device. He looked a little disheveled; hair not perfectly combed, the collar of his jacket a bit crooked. It was similar to the way his Earth-1 counterpart looked just after he and Ronnie had split.

But his eyes were as sharp as ever when he glanced at her. "Good morning, Miss Snow," he greeted breathlessly, sitting across from her.

"It's good to see you, Professor," Caitlin replied, smiling. "How's Clarissa doing today?"

Martin waved a hand. "The same as ever, I'm afraid. Though there is a silver lining, I suppose, in that her condition hasn't worsened."

Caitlin nodded. "I'm glad."

"Miss Snow," Stein cleared his throat, giving her a firm look. "Your rather vague message on my answering machine—it gave me the impression that you didn't intend to meet today for mere small-talk and a cup of coffee. I have a meeting to attend at precisely 10:30, so I hope you'll forgive me if I ask that we come straight to the point." He raised his eyebrows when she didn't respond right away. "If...there is a point? Am I mistaken?"

Caitlin looked at her now-cold croissant, wondering how she should proceed. "Professor Stein..." She bit her lip. "Do you remember when you told me you couldn't get a clear description of the man who hurt your wife?"

Stein nodded, gaze calculating.

"I—" Caitlin hesitated, preparing. "I've seen him."

Martin's entire face went slack. His eyes grew harder, his hands tightened around the edge of the table. He scooted his chair forward. "I beg your pardon?" he managed to whisper.

"A few nights ago," Caitlin began. "He—he attacked me." She rubbed the pendant on her necklace. "I got out alive," she added cautiously, avoiding a lie, "but I did see him. I know who he is."

Stein's blue eyes seemed very wet suddenly. But his mouth was a tight, straight line. "Who?" was all he could get out.

"His name is Kyle Nimbus." Caitlin had already pulled the newspaper article up on her laptop. She turned the computer around so that the Professor could examine it. The page was about Nimbus' arrest, his death sentence. It was nearly the same set of circumstances that had condemned him—and eventually led to gaining abilities—on Earth-1. The difference was that there had been no Flash to stop him over the past three years, and she shuddered to think of the long list of people who had met the same fate she'd been so close to meeting.

Stein stared at the picture of Nimbus for what seemed like an eternity, jaw set. Finally he moved onto the actual article, reading it much quicker than Caitlin had expected, pausing only to scroll or adjust his spectacles.

He looked up at her shakily when he was finished. "So this is how he's evaded capture," he murmured. "The public, the authorities—they all expect him to have died after the trial. But the opposite is true." He searched her gaze. "How is this possible, Miss Snow? How can this be the man who attacked my wife?"

Caitlin cleared her throat, winding her hands together. "Three years ago," she murmured carefully, "when S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator failed—the wave of energy—I believe it may have altered several people's DNA. It—changed them."

Stein glanced back at the article. "Yes of course, I-I hypothesized such a reaction, just after the accident, in fact. There were rumors, of course. A young lady who could, eh, change her physical form into something resembling metal. The death of a man who supposedly manipulated playing cards in order to carry out particularly gruesome crimes, as ludicrous as it sounds." He reached over, zooming in on Nimbus' photo. "But how could—" Caitlin barely had a chance to keep up a his mind worked his mouth, scanning the column on the screen. "Ah. A gas chamber."

Martin sat back in his seat, teeth clearly ground together, knuckles white on his knees. Caitlin watched him warily, unsure what to say next, unsure if he was finished yet. He needed to take it all in, she knew. But she had to be careful. Soon enough more questions would come spilling out. Someone as intelligent as Stein, she couldn't give him all the information she possessed. It wouldn't take much for him to piece together exactly where she was from—and she wasn't ready to let him in on all the details just yet.

"So this—this Nimbus character can literally become a toxic substance? Affect the unprepared, the innocent people who don't know enough not to breathe him in? Like yourself, like my wife?" Stein's voice was low, slightly dangerous.

Caitlin nodded.

"And he isn't the only one," Stein breathed. He shut his eyes for a moment. "There are others out there, yes? Other—other—"

"Metahumans," Caitlin offered quietly.

He opened his eyes, pointing to her. "Metahumans. It's all true. The particle accelerator endowed certain unlucky individuals in the city with incredible abilities," he murmured, gaze far away, "and one of them is a murderer." He glared at the screen of her laptop. "He has taken Clarissa from me."

"Not yet," Caitlin interrupted quickly, leaning forward. "There's still a way we can save her. Professor, I want to help save your wife. I think there's a way, especially now that—now that we know who he is, what he can do—if we could somehow find him again—"

"And extract a sample of his gas, yes," Stein agreed, speaking quickly, the way Caitlin knew only scientists could when coming up with solutions. "There might be key components inside—if one could decipher precisely how the gas affected others, how it affected Clarissa, it could..." He didn't allow himself to finish the thought. "But it's nearly impossible. We would need proof, proof Nimbus didn't die after his trial, the way he should have, in order to get help from the proper authorities. That alone will be difficult enough, not to mention the hours of research it could take to devise a reverse once we have the gas..." He removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes. "The particle accelerator. What was supposed to be Harrison Wells' greatest achievement, and this is what comes of it? All those people whose lives have been—been so dramatically altered—"

He stopped after looking up, eyes bright. Focused on something just past Caitlin' shoulder, off in the corner of the room. At first she wondered if he was just ruminating, thinking, but with a glance backward she found he was transfixed by the television mounted on the wall behind them.

It was Sandra Peterson, the newscaster. Subtitles framed by black at the bottom of the screen told them he was doing another segment on Central City's savior, the 'shadow'. Caitlin felt her face cement in interest. They'd managed to snatch a photo of Savitar—or something close to it, anyway. A bird's-eye view shot showed him racing through the streets, just a blur of black, but definitely a humanoid figure. According to the subtitles, Savitar had stopped another robbery downtown the night before.

"There," murmured Stein, and Caitlin's head snapped back around to look at him as he spoke. The Professor was gazing at the television screen, a spark of something similar to hope in the corners of his mouth, in the way his fingers relaxed. "That, Miss Snow, is how one should take advantage the extraordinary curveball life threw at us the day Wells' grand scheme backfired. Instead of hurting the innocent, this...this shadow, or whatever it is they're calling him, is risking his life to keep them safe." A small smile graced his tired old face. "He is a metahuman, I see that now. Like so many others. If only those others were also inclined to help, and not to harm. What a fantastic place this city would become."

Caitlin couldn't help grinning back at him. That sealed it. "Professor, I have to ask...do you mind my doing this? I mean—do I have your permission? To track down Nimbus? This is your fight, after all."

Stein's far away look cleared. He laced his fingers together, elbows on the tabletop. "Miss Snow, it would be an honor to have you assist me in saving my wife and defeating that criminal." He frowned. "But—forgive me—how are you going to achieve what I spent the past three years trying and failing to do?"

She watched him, thinking it over. She couldn't tell him everything. But...to help and not to harm. That proved it, proved more than ever that he was the person she should be looking for, the man they needed on this Earth's Team Flash. It was time to give him the information he needed to get that ball rolling. He was already on their side.

"I won't be doing it alone," Caitlin began. "I have a friend who can help us. And contrary to popular belief, he's not a shadow," she went on, chortling.

Professor Stein's jaw loosened. He controlled his surprise, instead squaring his shoulders and leaning forward.

"He calls himself Savitar..."

On Earth-1, Iris West was having a hard day.

Not only had she had to wash all of her dishes by hand that morning, after discovering their dishwasher was broken, but she had spilled coffee all over her favorite skirt on the way to S.T.A.R. Labs. Cue turning around to change clothes, which took a good 45 minutes with city traffic—cursing the day the accelerator had gone off, giving her fiancee super speed instead of the people who really needed it. Then she'd gotten a call from her boss, demanding she come in to work later that evening to finish up an article that hadn't been due until next week but was now being moved to tomorrow's paper. It was supposed to be her day off.

She was on a strict low-carb diet in order to make sure she fit her wedding dress, and of course, upon arriving at S.T.A.R. Labs, she saw that Cisco had surrounded himself with products from Big Belly Burger (which smelled amazing), Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlor (which smelled amazing) and a whole bag of licorice (which smelled a little strong, but when you were hungry it still smelled amazing). And she couldn't have any of it, and he was very happy about that and took the opportunity to eat all of it really slowly in front of her as the day wore on.

Now, on top of it all, she had to tell Barry—who had just run in from a successful mission with ruffled hair from his suit's hood, looking downright adorable—that one of his best friends had almost died a few days ago and had neglected to call him. And she somehow had to keep him from rushing to another world to drag said best friend back home, or staying there himself and prolonging the time leading up to their wedding, because he couldn't not help. Which she loved. But today it was testing her.

"Barry." Iris hadn't meant to awkwardly interrupt his fist-bump session with Cisco, but if that was what it took, fine. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

The Flash glanced at her, grinning, totally clueless. "Sure."

She led him out into the corridor, thinking hard about how she was going to keep him here. Cisco watched them leave, and Iris wondered if it was a good idea doing this privately, instead of breaking it to the whole team at once. No, probably best it was just one person at a time freaking out on her. Besides, Barry was easier to control when an entire group of people weren't backing up his stress with their own.

"What's up?" Barry asked as soon as they were alone, expression only slightly concerned, but obviously all ears.

Iris leaned her back against the wall, trying to look as calm as she could. That would probably help. "So...I talked to Caitlin this morning—"

His eyes immediately lit up. "Yeah? How's she doing?"

"Great." Her smile felt forced. She made it wider, licked her lips. "I mean, she's okay now, she—"

Barry spoke over her, eyebrows coming down. "Now? What happened?"

"She's fine, she's fine," Iris informed him, waving her hands. "You remember how she told you they caught Rory—"

"Iris." His voice was hard at this point, and he moved forward two steps, eliminating the space in between them so that he was standing over her, head tilted. "What happened?"

"I'm trying to tell you, Barry," Iris countered, standing a little straighter herself. "Caitlin said she was looking for The Mist the last time you talked, right?" Barry nodded, using a thumb to run over his chin, resting that elbow on his other arm. His fretting pose. "Well, they found him."

Barry's eyebrows shot to his hairline. "Don't tell me he—"

"He freed Rory from the Pipeline," Iris explained quickly, "but he got Caitlin before he left."

Barry turned away, running both hands through his hair. She could hear him struggling to control his breathing. Iris moved to put a hand on his arm, but figured it was probably best to let him ride it out. She knew Barry's biggest fear was losing anyone else in his life, no matter how they went. Especially anyone on Team Flash. They were his anchors, the people he'd do anything for. He'd lost so much already, and though Iris had a significant lack of a mother and a certain blonde fiancee in her own life, the only other person who had gone through that particular kind of trauma (speedster-induced, particle-accelerator caused trauma) was—then it clicked. She knew how to keep him here.

"How did she survive?" Barry demanded, turning on his heel. "You said she was okay."

"Savitar," Iris was pleased to report. "He got her out. She said he...took off her necklace, her powers—healed her, somehow." She let out a half-hearted chortle. "Science stuff, I don't know. But the point is, she's alive. And obviously she's not Killer Frost, so...I mean, she definitely sounded fine earlier."

Barry put a hand to his forehead, looking at the floor. "Why didn't she call me? She can't just—"

"I told her," Iris cut him off, hands sliding into the pockets of her jeans. "But I guess it's hard to think when you can't breathe."

That was the wrong thing to say. Iris wanted to give herself a good slap the moment it left her mouth. Barry went pale, worse than he had when he'd had that cold a week ago. His mouth grew tight, eyes like rock. He shook his head at the ground, staring at nothing. Finally, he erupted.

"No. This was a bad idea," he muttered. "Nimbus, Rory—I shouldn't have let her go. She's the only one there. She could've—"

"She didn't," Iris assured him. She did put a hand on his arm now, drawing his attention back to her. "Savitar was there, he stopped it. She wasn't alone."

"It doesn't matter, Iris, she almost died," Barry scoffed, raising his voice. "And I wasn't with her. None of us were!" Another shaking of the head. "I'm getting her back, we can't lose her. It's too—"

"You're not hearing me." Iris stood in his path as he tried to storm past. "She wasn't alone, Barry. She had Savitar. You were there." Her eyes flicked away for a moment, then back again, adding in a baffled sort of way, "Sort of. He wasn't gonna let her die."

"You don't know that," Barry growled. He hadn't looked this angry since Infantino Street, since H.R. "He took off her necklace. He knows what that could do to her, She would rather die than become Killer Frost, but he did it anyway. And where was he when Caitlin went into the Pipeline, why didn't he stop the Mist before anything could happen to her?"

It was very odd, watching him talk about his time remnant like this. Iris knew it was one part blaming himself, one part blaming someone else. If she felt weird about Savitar, she couldn't begin to understand what her fiancee felt. Not everyone had the chance to criticize themselves—at least, not with an actual, physical copy making decisions you were free to disapprove of. Barry loved to take the blame for everything. It was all too easy for him to cast it on a duplicate.

"Hey," Iris interrupted sharply. "At least he got to her before it was too late, right? It's not like this is the first time a metahuman outsmarted us. He saved her, that's what matters."

But Barry didn't seem to be listening. "I'm bringing her home."

Iris took his hand and didn't let go. He couldn't blast away to some other Earth with her hanging on. Or maybe he could, but it probably wouldn't be easy, and that was better than letting him run off. Mission halfway accomplished? Even if she was holding on for dear life in a trip through the multiverse?

"You can't, Barry, that wasn't the deal. Caitlin can take care of herself. Okay? Trust her."

He let out a bitter little puff of laughter, turning to look down at her. "No, Iris, no she can't! She can't take care of herself, she was this close to dying! And we had no idea."

"Then trust Savitar." Iris kept a firm grip on his hand, locking eyes with him. "Savitar is you, Barry. He has your memories, he has your feelings."

Barry still strained, just a tiny bit, in her grasp, but he was watching her with focus now, at least. Some knowing flash in his eyes made her plow on, and she wondered for a minute what he was referencing in his own mind, picturing his double.

"I was late to this whole S.T.A.R. Labs party," Iris continued confidently. "But I know you and Caitlin have a connection. You have always had her back, and she's always had yours. Savitar knows what that's like. He saved her, Barry," she repeated. Millionth time's the charm. "Doesn't that prove that he'll have her back too?"

Barry relaxed, she felt it in the hand she held, and he sighed. "Okay," he muttered. "You're right. I know she can do it, I just—"

"You want to help," Iris' eyebrows bounced. "I know." He grunted, looking into the distance. She could still see the worry in his eyes, so she added, "We're gonna get Cisco to help stop Nimbus. He's gonna make something, and she's coming back to get it." Iris gave him a little smile. "Then you can yell at her for a change."

Barry grinned then, and she laughed when he admitted, "Okay, that I'm looking forward to."

Caitlin was exhausted. Swapping plans with Stein over Nimbus and fielding all his questions—even the ones he texted after they'd both left Jitters—about the renovated S.T.A.R. Labs and Savitar really took it out of a person. That and the fact that Barry had treated her to a very long, very all-over-the-place video chat in the Cortex about calling the Flash when the Flash's friend was in trouble—she was ready for an early night.

The corridors were dark on her way to her room; some of the lights were still dysfunctional. She tried not to see Nimbus' eyes and hear Rory's step every time she passed a dark patch, training her brain to flick to something else instead when it happened—like reconstructing the Periodic Table from memory. This was one of those times she wished she carried her phone everywhere with her, the way normal people did. Cisco's interdimensional walkie-talkie did not come with a built-in flashlight, to her surprise and irritation.

When she reached the doorway to her quarters, a noise made her whirl around, but thankfully this metahuman intrusion was welcome.

Savitar was coming around the corner, leaning against the wall as he came to a stop several feet from her.

Caitlin gave him a tentative smile. "I heard you had a busy day," she greeted him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Did I?"

"You are apparently Sandra Peterson's favorite topic on the Central City news," Caitlin elaborated, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She looked at the ceiling, rattling off, "Stopped a mugger, prevented a suicide, zero casualties in a head-on collision...oh, and the robbery last night." She mimicked his raised eyebrow. "You've become quite the vigilante, Flash."

He glanced down the corridor, shaking his head slightly, but there was the hint of a smirk in his voice as he said, "We're not calling me that."

"You're going to need an official title eventually," Caitlin informed him. "The media is very interested in the shadow. They even got a picture of you."

"We're not calling me that either," Savitar ordered, looking at her now. "And I don't need everybody knowing who's behind all the hero work around here."

Caitlin cocked her head. "I don't follow you."

Using his speed, Savitar was an arm's length from her in a heartbeat. "I can save as many kittens from big, bad trees as I want to," he murmured, squinting down at her, "but this—" a hand flickering up to the web of scars, "—isn't a face people are gonna trust."

She took a good look at the damage in the half light. Particularly gnarly near his mouth, stretching up to cloud one eye and curling over his left eyebrow before fading out at his hairline. It even grabbed at his ear, down his neck.

"How did that happen?" Caitlin asked quietly. Louder, she added in a flustered sort of way, "If you don't mind my—"

"I got in a fight," Savitar said dryly. "With myself."

Of course. The day he'd been created—also the day he'd been cast into the Speed Force. The day he'd slaughtered 2024 Barry's time remnants—also the day he'd been the only surviving one.

Caitlin winced at him, both for the migraine it must have taken to have to think about all that, and for the pain he must've felt.

"Nah..." Savitar seemed to read the expression perfectly, and he did smirk now, looking down at her with eyes a little more open. His voice was still low, though. "You should see the other guy."

Caitlin rolled her eyes halfway and said, shrugging a shoulder, "Maybe we can fix them."

Savitar's snort was very soft, but she still felt it, he was so near. Felt his skepticism too.

"I mean it," Caitlin insisted. "You're right—those are definitely going to be a challenge when it comes to getting you to fit in here. But I talked to Cisco a few hours ago..."

Savitar visibly seemed to stop listening; he turned so that his profile was facing her and leaned with his back against the doorframe. She went on anyway.

"He's working on something that will protect us from the Mist's powers when we see him again. I'll need to make a trip back to Earth-1 to get them, and when I do...maybe I can find something there that will help." She glanced again at his scars. They weren't pretty to look at, obviously, but she wasn't afraid of them anymore.

Savitar stood up straight again. "When?"

"Hmm?"

"When are you going back?"

Caitlin fidgeted, not sure why he wanted to know, scrunching her nose up. "Whenever Cisco is ready with the device. It...could be a few hours, it could be a few days. You know how he is—he could call me in the middle of the night and I'd have to pack up and go, so...it'll only be for a day, at most..."

Savitar stared at her. His eyes moved from nose to her eyes to her hair to her mouth, back to her nose again. He stared at her for much longer than people should stare—two minutes at least—and she wondered what on earth he was thinking about now. She could read Barry's expression like an essay, but Savitar's was so closed-off, it was impossible. Just when she was starting to get uncomfortable, he spoke.

"I guess we'll find out, won't we?" He made the sound in his throat that people made when they talked while stretching, a kind of rasp, and turned and began heading down the hall to his own room. "See you tomorrow, Caitlin." Over his shoulder he added in a deadpan, "Or not."

Caitlin relaxed, watching him go, more than a little perplexed. "Goodnight," she muttered, shaking her head. Time for some much-needed rest.