Chapter 5: Everything has changed

Wells

It's an easy enough fix before Barry has conquered the latest villain, with word also coming back from Earth 2 that our collaboration on the new weapon has helped Jessie to save the day in the other Star City as well.

A day of victories, but for me, nothing else matters but her.

We're wrapping up the work for the night, again, Cisco and H.R. helping out as the latter keeps giving me a weird look.

"What's the deal with that guy?" I ask Caitlin under my breath.

She looks up from her laptop and grins, stabbing my heart with happiness and disbelief that this is really happening between us.

"Well, for one thing," she shrugs lightly, "He's gorgeous."

I roll my eyes and groan, half-annoyed. "Come on!"

"It's not my fault," she winks, going back to her typing.

Cisco's busy on the other side of the room, and H.R. comes sidling over, a conspiratorial glint in his eyes. He adjusts his ridiculous hat — what is with the way this guy dresses, anyway? — and addresses us in a murmur.

"So, this is happening, huh?" He points his finger back and forth between Caitlin and myself. "Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?" H.R. smiles widely and nods, impressed with his own ingenuity, one quality of his I do understand all too well. "By the way, I'm not sure how that's making me feel. It's kind of confusing, you know?" He pauses and strokes his chin in thought. "Kind of turned on? Is that weirding you guys out at all?"

"You cannot be serious," I say accusingly stepping towards H.R. with a distinct instinct to smack him upside the head.

"I-we have no idea what you're talking about," Caitlin replies distractedly, standing up beside me and placing a halting hand on my arm, then dropping it quickly, looking around the lab like everyone else has suddenly reappeared and might be listening in, which is of course, not the case. She clears her throat nervously.

I cross my arms and glare at H.R. but he raises his hands in a peace-making gesture.

"Guys, guys! I'm not gonna tell anyone! What do you take me for? I get it! This is new, this is…vulnerable and exciting, and keeping it a secret is also making it exciting, and—" H.R. is so bubbly with glee right now that it's frankly nauseating.

"If he doesn't shut up, I'm going to punch him," I warn, and Caitlin smothers a giggle.

"Thanks, H.R.," she says simply, to which he absurdly points between us and himself in an "I-can-keep-a-secret" gesture before returning to whatever exactly it is he does around here.

She steps into the elevator with me a few moments later and as soon as the doors close, our lips crash together, my hands running through her hair, tracing the lines of her supple body, the curve of her breasts enticing under my palm as she moans and returns the torturous favor by sliding her fingers in a direct line down from my hips. My breath catches and, as the doors open, we both yank ourselves back into a pathetic facade of normalcy.

"How long do you think we can keep this under wraps?" I wonder, and she smiles expectantly at me, inquisitive.

"I don't know. How long are you staying?" There's a softness in her eyes that conflicts with the lightness of her tone.

I open my mouth to tell her I'll be wherever she wants me to be as long as she wants me to be there. All I want is for her to tell me I can stay here, with her.

But the moment is disastrously interrupted by the cold, hollow voice of Doctor Alchemy, materializing in back of us out of nowhere and hissing, "Caitlin Snow, you are attempting to deny your destiny. It is time you became one with your powers, as you know you must."

"Get away from her," I demand, stepping forward, but Alchemy knocks me aside like I'm a rag doll and cackles humorlessly.

"Julian, you don't know what you're doing!" Caitlin cries out, and Alchemy nods.

"No, he doesn't," he confirms, knocking her out with the slightest of motions. I'm back on my feet rushing towards them, but another casual movement of Alchemy's hand sends me tumbling into blackness.

Caitlin

I wake up panting, strapped to a chair, in a typical enough abandoned warehouse, Alchemy stalking around me in a circle. "What's next, a villain's monologue?" I smirk haughtily at Alchemy, hiding my fears, trying instead to think about how this whole scenario would have Cisco making Bond movie references. If I'm amused, I can't be panicked, right?

Well, in theory.

"Caitlin Snow, you will embrace your powers. You will become Killer Frost once again, as you were always meant to. Savitar will have it no other way."

"Give me a break," I practically spit, straining against my bindings in frustration. "I don't care what either one of you want. I'm not Killer Frost and I never will be again."

Savitar appears, a dark, shining form, shimmering in and out of phase before my eyes. His savagely evil visage bears down on me as he decrees, "You will become her, for she is who you were always meant to become."

I decide not to complain about his repetitive phrasing.

I look left, I look right. I try to think my away out of this one and come up empty, which is pretty unusual for me. There may not be a way out of this.

Uh-oh…

Wells

Obviously, the rest of the team and myself are en route to Caitlin's location within minutes of my regaining consciousness. Terror-stricken and infuriated by my inability to protect her, I fume as we track Caitlin's cell phone. Barry sets off at once, the rest of us following at a vehicular pace I've never found so utterly agonizing.

When we get to the warehouse, Barry's holding off Savitar and Alchemy by the skin of his teeth, and there's little else for the rest of us to do but cause distractions so that Cisco can get to Caitlin and release her. She's free amidst the scuffle, but Barry is struggling to hold the villains off. When Alchemy throws Cisco out of the way and grabs Caitlin again, she elbows him hard in the stomach and stomps on his foot with all her might, and I rush forward to shoot him with a tranq from my laser rifle.

That takes care of Alchemy, but Savitar growls and hits me so hard that I almost miss getting my ass handed to me by Alchemy. As I struggle to stay conscious, I see a flash of blue-white light in my periphery and hear Barry shout, "Caitlin, no!"

Rolling from my back to my stomach, I squint, my glasses shattered a few feet away. Where Caitlin stood, Killer Frost is now standing, her hands held upward, icy fumes flowing out from her fingertips in thick waves. She glares at Savitar, a look of total hatred twisting her blue lips.

Before launching her attack on him, she says simply, "You really shouldn't have done that."