I'm finally waking Caitlin up from her coma, but not the way any of you expected. This chapter will be pretty Flash heavy, so read if you wish. I hope that you find this little twist in the Arrowverse refreshing.
After she ended her call with Oliver, Laurel headed back to the Cortex.
"What's up?" Laurel asked as she looked at Caitlin, who was still out cold.
"I think I've found a way to wake up Dr. Snow." Harry said.
"Really, that's great." Cisco said.
"Yes, however, it appears that when the dark matter hit her, it affected her in a very similar way it did Martin Stein." Harry said.
"What do you mean?" Iris asked.
"What I mean is that due to what Caitlin was holding at the time, in this case, an ice cold beverage, it gave her cryokinetic powers, however, it appears that the ice in her system is slowly killing her, as it's disabled her body's natural heating system, that's why she has yet to wake up because her body is not able to handle to the amount of cold building up in it. I say she has a few more days tops before the ice reaches her heart and lungs and kills her." Harry said.
"But you said that you had a way to wake her up?" Barry asked.
"Yes, however, it's risky and it involves Iris." Harry said.
"Me, why?" Iris asked.
"To be safe, I ran DNA tests on you, Joe, Henry and myself after the explosion to see if anyone else had been affected by the dark matter and it turns out you were." Harry said.
"What, no, that can't be right, I don't have powers." Iris said.
"That's because the dark matter mutated your genes the same way it did Jefferson Jackson, meaning that unless something activates them, your powers will remain dormant. However, I crossed your DNA with Snows and it's a perfect match." Harry said.
"So what you're saying is that I have the ability to merge with Caitlin the same way Jax and Professor Stein merge into Firestorm?" Iris asked.
"Yes. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is that I don't believe you've touched Dr. Snow since the accident." Harry said.
"That actually makes sense. Caitlin needs a stabilizing agent, something to keep her warm, but literally and emotionally, to keep her from turning into Killer Frost." Cisco said.
"Yeah, but how do we know that Iris and Caitlin can separate like Jax and Stein. I mean, this is a decision." Laurel said.
"I'll do it." Iris said.
"Wait what?" Joe asked.
"This is my chance to be something greater than myself. My chance to truly help people. That's what I want to do." Iris said.
"Are you sure about this, because once you merge, there's no going back." Cisco said.
"I want to do it." Iris said.
"Okay then. However, before we attempt a merge, you'll need a quantum splicer in order to allow you to separate to keep a balance." Harry said.
"How long will that take? You said it yourself, Caitlin doesn't have much time." Laurel said.
"If Ramone and Jesse help me, not long hopefully." Harry said.
"Let's get to work." Cisco said.
"So, how you dealing with the fact that Iris might become a superhero?" Laurel asked Barry.
"Excited that I'll get to be in the field with her more often, strange that she's most likely going to have another woman in her head, possibly for the rest of her life and scared that something might happen to her in the process." Barry said.
"Well, if Iris is stuck being continually merged with Caitlin, you have to admit, there are worse looking options for her to bond with." Laurel said with a smile.
"True, I just hope that doesn't make it awkward for Caitlin." Barry said.
"So, are you and Iris officially a thing now?" Laurel asked.
"Maybe, we decided that once this whole metapocalypse is over, we're gonna give it a shot. What about you. Did you a get a chance to tell Oliver what you needed to say?" Barry asked, switching over to Laurel's love life.
"Yes and I decided that assuming we survive this nightmare and once Zoom is dealt with, I'm moving back to Star City and we can see what happens." Laurel said.
"I'll make sure you get that chance Laurel. I promise. We need to figure out how to take out all of the metas at once. We can't just keep running around at night, we need to be proactive." Barry said.
"Agreed, but I think that keeping Caitlin alive takes priority." Laurel said.
"Agreed. I just hope this works." Barry said as they walked back to the Cortex.
"Okay Iris, here you go." Harry said, handing Iris the quantum splicer.
"So what do I do?" Iris asked.
"Simply attach the splicer to your chest and touch Dr. Snow. If all goes well, the merge should take effect." Harry said.
Iris nodded as she placed the splicer in the middle of her chest and it extended in a fashion similar to a snowflake.
"Here goes everything." Iris said as she took a deep breath before touching Caitlin's hand.
Almost immediately, a merge occurred that was almost identical to that of Firestorm, only with frost rather than fire.
When the merge was complete, Iris was still standing there, but now Caitlin's bed was empty. Iris's eyes were now just glowing blue pupils and her nails had turned frost white.
"Iris, are you still there?" Barry asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Iris said.
"And Caitlin, is she there?" Laurel asked.
After a moment, Iris grinned and said "Yeah, she's alright."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief and Harry then said "Now comes the real test, try and separate."
Iris nodded and after a brief minute, she separated back into herself and Caitlin Snow.
"Caitlin." Cisco said, hugging her.
"Hey Cisco. Well, that was a rush. I feel like I owe Professor Stein an apology." Caitlin said.
"I think that you owe someone else a thank you first." Iris said.
Caitlin smiled and said "Thank you Iris. I know what you did for me couldn't have been easy. Talk about life changing."
"Yeah, but I'm honestly hoping for the better. I'm hoping that we can be a hero on the battlefield and not from the sidelines." Iris said.
"Not so fast, before Firestorm became too active they underwent testing and training to learn the extent of their powers and that's what you 2 are going to do as well. We need to know your limits and a metapocalypse is not the time to test them. You'll be staying here at STAR labs until we know everything there is to know about your powers." Harry said, right as the meta alarm went off.
"Speaking of which, everyone else, suit up, Cisco, Harry, keep trying to figure out to end this damn thing." Barry said as he, Wally and Jesse sped off and Laurel grabbed her suit to change.