.:22:.

"So how did it happen anyway? Were you just working late one night and then you looked over, allowing your hidden throws of passion to take you over and you jumped him? Or did he jump you?" Cisco rubbed his chin. "Well, I know he can't physically jump you, but this is Dr. Wells we're talking about. If he can figure out how to do something it's to—"

"—Cisco!" Caitlin snapped, her face turning red. She whipped around and grabbed onto his arm, pulling him back from the flow of patrons who were ready to go into the circus. "Would you please stop? It's already bad enough that you know," she noticed the offended look on Cisco's face as his head jerked back. "Oh, you know what I mean."

"What do you mean its 'bad enough' that I know?" Cisco brought a hand up to his chest and blinked rapidly. "It was horrifying to have to walk into your office and watch you making out like that." He dropped his hand then started to laugh lightly. "I mean you should see how badly you kiss. Has it really been that long?" Caitlin placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Okay, okay, fine. Just explain it to me. What's going on?"

"I…I don't know," Caitlin admitted, running a hand through her hair. "It started after everything with the Assassination Bureau ended, maybe even a bit before that. And…I don't know…with Ronnie and everything it felt good to know that someone wanted me." She lowered her head. "I haven't said anything because it wasn't for us to say and Harrison—Dr. Wells is a private man and—"

She broke off once more as Cisco starting laughing. "You call him Harrison?" He asked. "Oh, I get it. To throw off the trail you only refer to him as Dr. Wells when you're around the rest of us." He crossed his arms, still grinning. "This is the most entertaining thing I've ever heard. I mean, wow, I never thought you would do something like this Caitlin. But, well, I guess I should have. You were really open to more things when you were with Ronnie. Oh the things he would tell me."

Now Caitlin blushed even harder. "What did he tell you?" She demanded. She moved to grab onto the front of his t-shirt and he took a step back away from her.

"Whoa, easy there, tiger," he said. He held up his hands. "I'm the only one that knows about this, okay? I have all the power here."

Caitlin placed her hands on her hips. "Now you're going to blackmail me?"

"Just until I get all of the information." Cisco thought for a moment. "Okay, so you and Dr. Wells are dating and have been for a while. And then you got him that Christmas gift. Mhm. And he was the one who gave you the earrings and why you wore that spicy little number to STAR Labs at one point." He rubbed his chin. "It's all making sense now."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Caitlin crossed her arms. She looked over her shoulder as everyone stood in line to get their tickets passed through admissions so they could go inside. She smiled, watching as Brady and Connor continued to bob and weave, looking around each other to see what was going on. They were really excited. She hadn't been that excited for anything in a long time; it was very nice to see. When she was with Harrison she felt the same way, like things were new and fresh and that she could finally live life again.

"Wait a minute." Oh boy. Now Cisco was looking at her suspiciously. Caitlin tried to channel the way she was after Ronnie died, where no emotion came to her face. "You've been dating—"

"—we're not dating," Caitlin said quickly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Selena, you can keep denying your romance with Justin Bieber all you want but I know what time it is," Cisco interrupted her.

"Okay, you know a little too much about pop culture, Cisco. This is starting to get scary."

"Don't change the subject, Caitlin." Cisco lowered his voice and took a step closer to her, his eyes searching hers. "How far…I mean…what have…can he…did you…?" He stopped for a moment, clasping his hands over his mouth. "Oh dios mio I'm going to hell for asking this but…have you and two slept together?"

The mention of it brought memories back to her that made her face immediately turn into a tomato on fire. She reached out and slapped her hand against Cisco's mouth, hoping no one that was with them had heard. "Shh," she hissed. "Yes!" She lowered her hand from his mouth and took a step closer to him. "Yes, we have, not that it's any of your business."

Now the grin on Cisco's face fluctuated between amusement and curiosity. It flipped back and forth for a moment before he leaned to the side and scanned the faces in line. Then his eyes widened and he leaned back to face Caitlin once more. "Cait," he said slowly. "You slept with Cade's Dad!"

"I know. I know. That's the part that kinda freaks me out," Caitlin admitted. "I don't know how she'll react. And there's something else."

Cisco threw his hands into the air. "What? Did you go on a crime spree and murder someone, too? What could be worse?"

"Ronnie." The word was said so simply that confusion came to Cisco's face and his hands immediately slapped to his sides as he said, "Oh, yeah. That."

Pressing her lips together, Caitlin took in a deep breath. "I know I need to tell the others but I've been trying to figure everything out. He told me something and I looked it up, to see what could explain what it meant. F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. Fusion, Ignition, Research Experiment and Science of Transmutation Originating RNA and Molecular Structures."

"And?" Cisco pressed.

"It talked a lot about transmutation. I looked to see who wrote it; Jason Rusch and Martin Stein. So I tracked down Rusch and asked him about it." Caitlin shook her head. "He said it they had some beginning success with Professor Stein at the head. But they jumped ahead and went to a stage where they melted a concrete wall. We wrote the paper and had it published even though Hudson University wanted to stop it. They weren't happy about that."

"I can imagine," Cisco said. "They don't like it when you break the rules.

"And no one has seen Professor Stein since then. The army had then gone in and confiscated their research on it. But because of it being about transmutation I think that may be what happened with Ronnie, what turned him into the metahuman that he is," Caitlin said. "I don't know for sure and I won't know unless we figure out where he is."

"Okay." Cisco rubbed his mouth. "Okay. We can do that. But not right now, Cait. Not when it's Brady's birthday. Today's a day where we can sit back and have fun. We can deal with all of this mess later, okay?" Caitlin nodded and he leaned in, giving her a hug, which she gratefully returned. "Let's go have some fun." He put his arm around her shoulders and she did the same to him as they turned and walked back to the line.

Caitlin could feel herself smiling again. The weight of the world was off her shoulders now that someone else knew what was going on. She could relax a little bit, have someone to talk to about her budding love life, have someone to talk to about how she was really feeling. She and Cadence did talk about those things but she avoided a lot of the topics that could come up because of the fact she was going out—or whatever—with her friend's biological father. Now that the worry was all gone, she could put all of her trust into Cisco as she had done before, back when she was first going out with Ronnie.

Now she could smile.

"So, when you said you slept with him…how did that work exactly?"

Until then.

"Hey, guys!" Barry suddenly appeared in front of them and Caitlin let out a quiet sight of relief. Thank God for Barry and his potential crisis of the day. Anything to turn the attention off of her a little bit. "I need to ask you something. Cade added me to the emergency contacts list for Brady's school. That's not a big deal right?" He crossed his arms, blue-green eyes shifting back and forth from Caitlin to Cisco. "I mean, I didn't think it was but that means that she really trusts me with Brady, right?"

Caitlin opened her mouth to answer and found that Barry continued to ramble. She exchanged a look with Cisco, as he discreetly lowered his head and made the 'cuckoo' sign next to his ear causing Caitlin to burst out laughing before Cisco started to laugh as well.

Barry spread his arms in a move to show his absolute confusion as to why they were suddenly laughing at him. "What?"

Barry stretched his arms over his head as he settled down into his seat. Leaning forward, he looked around as the stands were filled with audience members that waited for the show to start. He smiled as he looked around at the excitement that filled the faces of everyone around him. It reminded him of all of the times he had gone to the Central City Circus with his mom and dad, before everything fell apart. Their trip to the circus was always an all-day event.

His mother would wake him up early and they'd go down to the kitchen to find his father making his famous pancakes, bacon, and eggs, something usually reserved for birthdays and holidays. Then they would go to the site where the circus would be set up with the Wests and they'd watch as everything was put together before going in to spend the entire day at the show, viewing through multiple showings and events going on inside and outside the tents as well. Those were his best memories of his parents; some of the few days when they were all together despite his father's busy work schedule. It was one of the last things they did together before the 'incident'; there were no birthdays close enough to have anything else to look forward to.

In a way he was surprised he was able to look at the circus the same way he used to.

At least until Cadence plopped down next to him, leaning left and right, flinching every time someone came near her. Brady, who was watching his mother as well, caught Barry's eye and smiled while Barry winked back at him. Cadence, seeming to know the two were silently making fun of her, scowled. "It's not funny," She said before a pout came to her face, shoulders slumping forward. Her knees bounced up and down, hand to her mouth, teeth clenching on her nails but not biting them.

Clearing his throat, Barry straightened himself, resting his hands in his lap. "Hey Cade, has anyone ever told you—"

"—that I look like Lana Lang?" Cadence interrupted. "Yeah, I've been told that so many times before. Honestly, I don't see the resemblance."

A startled laugh escaped Barry's mouth as he ran a hand through his hair. "Uh, no, that you can be really closed minded?" She snorted, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Clowns aren't that scary. Everyone has a job to do and for the circus some people had to put paint on their face and entertain the crowd."

"And little kids think its fun to sit back and cry whenever a clown comes their way?" Cadence lowered her head, resting her forehead into her hands as a clown walked by, honking its nose at the crowd. "I don't think so." She turned to Brady and poked him in the side. "You just had to have your birthday at the freaking circus didn't you?"

Brady beamed back at her. "It's my birthday," Brady shot back. "Deal with it." He leaned towards her and stuck out his tongue, causing Cadence to roll her eyes and push his face away as he laughed.

"Calm down, Cadey-Cat," Ryder said as he sat on the bench in front of them with Iris, Eddie, Joe, and Harrison. "It's not the end of the world."

Cadence lifted her head and glared at him. "Not funny, Ry-bug!" She shot back.

Barry's eyebrows hiked upwards at the mentions of the nicknames. That didn't seem to be the kind of nickname he would have expected her to have. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, before turning completely and giving him direct eye contact—which he noticed she never shied away from—and shook her head. "Don't ask. It's one of the few that I have that I don't question; the others being Cadey-Cane and BarriCade, and Cascade. But I've got some really weird ones before."

"You know mine?" Barry shot back. "I've been called Hairy-Barry, Scary-Barry, Barfolomew, and Awkward Allen." He bobbed his head back and forth as Cadence laughed. "The last one being pretty self explanatory with my gangly arms and legs and social awkwardness."

"I don't think you're socially awkward," Cadence said honestly. She nudged his side with her shoulder as she smiled at him. "A little talkative when you're nervous, but not socially awkward." She brought a hand up to her chest and mimed drawing an 'x'. "I promise."

"You promise?" Barry shot back.

"Promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"I never do." She then turned away, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Besides, I'm kind of partial to the nickname Tholly, anyway."

Barry laughed. He started to say 'me too' but his voice was covered by the sudden fanfare and tore his eyes away from hers, turning his attention back to the center ring, feeling his excitement well up once more though there was a tinge of sadness, too. He hadn't been there since before his father was sent to jail; Joe and Iris had asked if he wanted to go but he turned them down each time they asked. Eventually they stopped going and never mentioned when it was coming close. Now Iris turned around in her seat and grabbed onto Barry's hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Remember the last time we were here?" She asked. "When you and I were so excited that we couldn't eat any of the food we bought."

"Yeah, I remember," Barry said as he laughed. "So much wasted…food."

"And so many parents angry over the money they wasted over so much uneaten food," Joe said from beside her, shaking his head. "But I guess it's better than the year before when we spent so much money because you all ate everything in sight." He rolled his eyes. "And then there was the elephant…"

"Elephant?" Ryder and Eddie echoed in unison.

Iris swatted her father on the arm. "Hey! That elephant stole my cotton candy! I was going to get it back one way or another."

"One new lawsuit and a grudge later we were nearly banned from it," Joe reminded her. He pointed a finger in her face. "Don't think I've forgotten about that. I still have some of my former colleagues telling me it would've made headlines that I got jailed for punching out a clown for harassing my daughter."

"See!" Cade cried, throwing out her arms. "He understands that clowns are creepy, too!"

"Cade, you're the only one that's saying it," Ryder pointed out, teasingly. "No one else has or ever will share your opinion." With that, Cadence stuck her tongue out at the back of his head then used both of her hands to ruffle his hair into his face. Ryder pushed her hands away and slapped her on the knee instead.

"I'm with Cade on wanting to get out of here," Eddie spoke up. He sounded less than enthused, having to sit there. "I mean, the Circus? It's not my favorite place in the world to go."

"Come on," Iris said. "I sat through every episode of Reno 911! So you should stay as your end of the deal."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "I've spent just as long shopping online with you," he said. "Through nearly every sale you could possible think of. I think I've paid my dues." Iris pouted and Eddie leaned in, giving her a peck. Barry noticed once more that he wasn't jealous at their sign of affection anymore. "But I guess I'll stay."

"Thank you."

Conner laughed at the exchange through everyone and said to Brady, "I like your family. They're funny."

"Thanks," Brady replied with a bright smile.

Barry smiled and glanced upwards as the lights started to dim and a spotlight shone in the middle of the ring. He watched as the Ring Master strode confidently out into the middle of the ring and spread his arms out. "Welcome to the Central City Circus," he announced in a loud, booming voice. "I'm your Ring Master Nathan Bliss; I hope to give you a blissful time tonight!" He took a step back and bowed as the audience started to clap. "Now, I'm sure you've all heard before that it was the happiest show on Earth, but I can assure you that this is the happiest show on Earth! Have a good time everyone!"

The Circus had the same acts Barry remembered from when he was young; the snake charmer, the lion tamer, the acrobats, those that rode atop elephants, the human canon ball, and more. Every now and then Iris would turn around in her seat and the two would grin at each other, silently remembering everything they had experienced with past circuses.

Barry found himself enjoying much more than he thought he would.

The acrobats impressed him more than ever and those that stood atop the backs of the elephants on one foot, transferring to others with ease still made his mouth drop open with shock. Soon he found himself completely transfixed with the whole thing, unable to tear his eyes away. His eyes shot around to everything within the ring then focused on Nathan Bliss. The man stood off to the side, watching his co-workers and employees as they did as they were to do, a strange smile on his face.

What's that about? Barry thought. He tried to look away and found he was continuously stuck staring at the ring master. He tried to tear his eyes away, to look at his friends, to look at the people sitting in the rafters across from him but he couldn't. Panic seized his heart and he tried to stand up, to move away, and found he was stuck rooted to the spot.

And he continued to stare as everything around him melted away into blackness. Every nerve in his body screamed as he tried his hardest to wiggle a toe or even a finger but it wasn't working. Then there was the sudden sharp slap of pain that started in his gut and spread outward. Blinding, twisting and pulling at each and every fiber of his being. He slid to the side and fell to the ground. Or what he thought was the ground; everything around him was all black and as he fell to the ground it was as if he was floating on air. But the cloud was of blinding pain, lightning bolts shooting through his body.

"Awww, so sorry."

Barry's eyes shifted to the side and he finally found he was able to move. He sucked in a sharp lungful of air to the lungs that had just been paralyzed and started t drink in as much as he could get. Calm down, Barry. Calm down. You can breathe, you're fine. It wouldn't help if he were to start hyperventilating. Closing his eyes tightly, Barry pushed himself up into a sitting position, and then jerked back when he realized how close Mr. Bliss was to him.

Tilting his head to the side, Mr. Bliss brought his hands together and held onto the whip that sat in his hands. "I'm sorry to have done this but you see, this is the first time the Circus has been in Central City for a long time. And I don't know about you, but us freaks enjoy our day in the sun every once in a while."

"W-what do you mean?" Barry asked, surprised to find that he could speak as well. "I don't understand."

"Oh, but you will soon." Mr. Bliss took another step towards Barry and lifted his whip high above his head. "You just felt some of the pain that I've felt every day of my life for a long time. Now here's to take on the full brunt!" Barry shielded himself as the whip came cracking down next to him.

"Barry."

Twisting around, Barry scrambled to his feet. He stared at his mother and father as they stood in front of him. Both of them were smiling so wide that wrinkles appeared in the corners of their eyes. Henry put his arm around Nora's shoulders and hugged her to his side as they continued to smile down at him. Barry's eyebrows lowered as he watched the two of them.

"Mom," he breathed. "Dad." He reached out a hand to touch them then pulled it back. No. He had fallen for this one time before—when Mindboggler had mind-controlled him, trying to drive him crazy—and he wasn't going to do it again. But there they both were this time, not just his mother. They were both there, smiling proudly at him. "I don't…"

"C'mon slugger," Henry said, reaching his hand out towards his son. "Don't make us wait all day."

"Yeah," Nora agreed with the warm smile that only she could perfect. "I haven't seen my boy in so long. Aren't you going to give me a hug?" She brought her hand and rubbed Henry's stomach, causing him to smile and lean in, giving her a kiss on the side of the head. Barry could hear the light smack sound the kiss made. It had to be true.

They really had to be there.

Reaching out his hand, Barry slowly started to walk forward. Tears sprang to his eyes; he did his best not to let them fall but once one escaped the others did as well. He started off slowly, taking a few shaky steps, then he was running, sprinting as hard as he could, though the darkness and towards the light his parents radiated. Once he reached them they would be a family again. They would be together again. They would—

The intense heat struck Barry in the face, causing him to skid to a stop. Eyes widening in horror, Barry watched as his mother and father slowly started to morph. Flames licked at their feet before twisting, arching, and dancing their way up their bodies and as Barry watched, his parents continued to morph even further. Their faces twisted into grotesque, bony smiles, hands dripping pieces of melted flesh, teeth grinning at him.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" Nora asked, shuffling towards him. "Don't you want to give your mother a hug?"

"Yeah, c'mon Slugger," Henry added, starting to take long strides towards him as well. Trembling, Barry took a step back, away from his parents for the first time in his life. "Don't leave us hanging."

"No…"

The whisper escaped Barry's lips. He swallowed hard, forced down the lump that was threatening to choke him. No. Not again. Why? Why was it always him? Why did he always have to have his hopes raised and dashed so many times? How many more times was he going to allow his heart being pulled like that?

All of a sudden there was a loud screech and Barry looked up to find the Black Flash and Reverse Flash both running his way. As they got closer, their hands reached out towards him, both aiming towards his heart.

Then he found himself pinned to the ground, the demonic figure of his mother holding him down by her shoulders. "Why, Barry?!" She shrieked, putrid breath hot in his face. Her sharp fingers dug into his shoulders. Looking over her shoulder he could still see the Black and Reverse Flash closing in while Henry stood nearby, watching. "Why haven't you gotten the man that killed me in jail yet?"

As Barry stared up into his mother's face, he wept. Tears fell from his eyes and rolled down his cheeks to his ears. "Mom," he cried. "I'm trying."

"You're not trying your hardest!" Nora screeched. "You're not! You're not!"

"I'm sorry—"

"I'm going to kill you just like I was. Unless you do better. You have to do better, Barry! You have to!"

"No, stop please. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Mom." Barry continued to weep, holding his eyes shut. "I'm trying. I promise."

"Barry."

"No."

"Barry!"

"Not again."

"BARRY!"

"NO!"

With a loud gasp, Barry opened his eyes, feeling his upper body jerk forwards. He settled back on the ground, realizing hands were framing the sides of his face. He looked up and found Cadence kneeling over him, staring hard into his eyes. She must've been the one that was yelling at him. "Are you okay?" Her voice sounded a bit muffled and Barry shook his head, wiggling his ears as hard as he could. "Barry, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Barry replied, finally finding that everything seemed to shift back into focus. She grinned and gave him a quick hug and he hugged her back. That's when the sound of chaos suddenly shifted back into focus for him. He sat up even further and looked around. Half of the audience was fighting each other—punching and kicking—the other half were curled up on the ground, screaming in pain or in absolute fear. A man that sat nearby him stared straight ahead, eyes wide with abject terror, mouth open in long, loud shrieks. Barry then spotted Joe, Eddie, and Iris; Eddie was staring into space, staring at something in horror while Iris and Joe were yelling at each other, coming close to trading blows.

He couldn't see Caitlin, Cisco, Harrison, or Ryder but hoped they were safe as well. Shifting backwards, Barry ran into Cadence and then noticed her arms around Brady and Conner, holding them to her sides. Conner looked up at Barry then around at everyone around them.

"What's wrong with everyone?" He asked. "What's going on?"

"We'll figure it out," Cadence said, rubbing his back. She turned to Barry. "Something tells me this is in part of a meta."

"What happened?" Barry asked her as they finally got to their feet.

She shrugged. "One minute I'm watching the show, the next I'm looking at…" She trailed off, shaking her head as if she couldn't speak it out loud. Barry noticed a shadow come through her eyes and started to say something but she followed p with, "Then I woke up to everyone around us fighting or screaming. I don't know how I got out of it. There was something…someone in the back of my mind helping me out of it…"

Like she had done for him. Barry looked around; scanning the faces of everyone he could see. If this was being done by a meta who was the one that was doing everything? It seemed like everyone was being swept up in the sea of anger and chaos. His eyes finally settled on Mr. Bliss, who stood in the center of the ring, arms crossed and watching the chaos. Stranding around him were his co-workers, all watching as well, evil smiles on their faces.

"We have to get them out of here," Barry said, looking down at Brady and Conner. "Then we have to go save the others."

"Right," Cadence agreed. The four turned around and started to look for the exit, stopping when they found the snake-lady standing in front of them. They immediately came to a stop and before Barry could move, he found the snake darting towards Conner, mouth wide open, fangs dripping. Barry moved, using his super speed, to grab onto the snake, to pull it back, but found he didn't need to.

Brady, who was holding onto Conner's wrist, squeezed his eyes shut just as the snake shot forward. Rather than colliding straight with Conner's chest, sending its fangs with the venomous poison into the young boy's bloodstream, the snake went completely through him, falling in a heap on the floor.

"C'mon, we have to get them somewhere safe," Barry said to Cadence over the sound of the noise around them. She looked at him and nodded. "Hold on, okay?" held onto the three and raced them back to Cadence's apartment before taking Cadence to Star Labs. They changed into their suits and he zoomed back to the apartment while Cadence teleported back to the circus, which was only a moment after leaving the first time.

"Wow!" Conner's eyes widened. "The Flash! You saved us."

"You two stay here," Barry said. "We're going to get everyone else out of that circus, make sure they're okay."

"What about Barry and Miss. Nash?" Conner added. "Why didn't that snake attack me? You did that, right?" Beside him, Brady made a face, as if unsure how to answer the questions.

"Cadence and Barry decided to stay back so they could help everyone who was in trouble," Barry explained. "Now, I want you to stay here; don't answer the door to anyone, okay?" Brady and Conner nodded and Barry nodded back before heading back to the circus. He raced inside and darted around, taking as many of the audience members out as quickly as he could. Once they were outside, out of Mr. Bliss's reach, they came back to their senses. "Hurry, run!" He cried.

Barry didn't allow himself to relax a little bit until he had his friends outside. They all looked around at each other in confusion before getting a glance at the Flash and realize something had been going on. Caitlin, Cisco, and Harrison hurried to the S.T.A.R. Labs van they had taken to the circus to help them out. Then he finally headed inside, eyes widening when he saw members of the audience held up in metal cages.

His eyes quickly scanned the room and he felt his stomach clench when he realized he didn't see Cadence anywhere. But she wasn't in any of the cages, something else must've happened to her. He took another look around the ring and still didn't see her. His heart raced like an animal trapped in a cage.

"Flash! Look out!" He heard someone cry.

Before he could figure out what was going on, Barry was lifted up off his feet and thrown across the ring. He crashed into the side of the canon used to shoot out the human cannonball and fell to the ground. He rolled onto his stomach and looked up, staring as he found a very large, very muscular man standing in front of him. The man grinned, ends of his handlebar mustache twitching, and reached out towards Barry, lifting up with the ease of a toothpick.

With a cry, the man spun around and threw Barry as hard as he could. Barry flew across the ring and crashed into a concrete pole, cracking it in half and fell to the ground, the pole falling down around him. Pain shot through his arm and as he moved, he knew it was broken. Due to his painful breathing he could tell at least one of his ribs were cracked as well. Barry looked up as a portion of the tent collapsed and shakily got to his feet.

He took in a few deep breaths, psyching himself up. "Nathan Bliss," he roared, causing the ring master to turn his way. "What do you have against Central City?"

"You mean other than the one place where us freaks could go to be amongst others being torn down?" Mr. Bliss shot back. "Well, there's also the fact that our funding had been cut unfairly. Though it seems that you know that. You were the one that foiled our recent trip to the bank."

Barry's mind whirled, what was he talking about? Oh. That was it. One of the first things he had done when working on his powers was stop a bank robbery. He hadn't noticed the faces of any of them, stopping it within seconds. But there had been many of them around, and there was one man that had single handedly taken the door off of the vault. That must've been the man who had picked him up and threw him like a leaf.

"What do they say about you, Flash? That you're a freak? Then you should be glad to join us!"

Barry's arms were suddenly pinned at his sides and he found himself suddenly, painfully robbed from his breath. With a loud hiss in his ears, Barry twisted his head to the side and found that snakes were wrapped around his arms and legs.

"Joey Rose, lock him up!" Mr. Bliss called.

Barry was lifted off his feet and before he could blink, found himself shoved into the same sort of metal cage the others were. He tried to wriggle free but the snakes tightened around him, causing him to tilt his head back and cry out once more. It was then something caught his eye. From his vantage point he found Cadence crouching in the rafters, watching everything go on below them. He caught her eye and she brought a finger up to her lips, sending him a wink.

Nodding back, Barry waited in the corner of the cage, watching as Mr. Bliss and his circus acts all started to torture those that were waiting in their cages. Once more some started to scream at each other while others were screaming in abject terror. Barry continued to try and wiggle free, but every time he moved the snakes started to squeeze even tighter. He heard a distinct cracking sound and immediately froze. Mr. Bliss chuckled as he walked over to the cage Barry sat in.

"So, Flash, what is it that makes you hurt the most?" He asked. Barry gritted his teeth and stayed silent. "I have an idea based on what I've done for you before." He grinned a slow, evil grin, showing off all of his teeth; sharpened to a point. "Let's see how much of it you can handle now!"

Barry tilted his head back and screamed as the snakes encircled him even harder, this time combined with Mr. Bliss's powers of pain that he sent through him caused him the worst pain he had ever felt. Breathing through it, Barry squeezed open an eye and watched as Cadence continued to move undetected through the rafters until she reached the trapeze. Grabbing onto it she leaned backwards and jumped off the tiny platform. She swung forward through the air, let go at the last second, flipped once through the air, and stuck out her feet, hitting Mr. Bliss in the back, sending him forward into the metal cage, knocking him out.

"Back up," she said to Barry.

He shuffled backwards, wincing in pain, and watched as Cadence sent a stream of fire to the bars in front of him. Once they were molten red she grabbed them with her gloved hands and pulled hard, snapping them into tiny pieces. Then she grabbed onto the tail of the snakes, her hands still on fire. Barry gasped as he felt the snakes loosen against him and she pulled hard. Spinning in a quick circle, Barry found himself free form the snakes. He groaned in pain as his broken arm flung to the side, crashing into the side of the cage.

Reaching in, Cadence grabbed onto his broken arm and started to heal it as she pulled him out of the cage. "You should've stuck with gymnastics a little bit longer, Flash Fire," Barry said to her. "Maybe you could've gone and joined the circus."

"That's funny," Cadence said sarcastically. "Maybe you should've become a comedian." With the combined efforts of her healing as well as his body healing himself, Barry's arm quickly fixed itself. His ribs were going to have to wait. Turning around, he watched as the circus goes started to come their way.

Clenching her hand into a fist, Cadence pressed her hand against the ground and brought it up. A wall of fire followed her movement and the snake lady's snakes immediately launched themselves into the wall, incinerating them. Cadence then held out her hands and spun in a quick circle, causing the fire to encircle around them. Due to the intense heat of the flames, the lights within the tent went out, popping like sparks. Barry looked over at Cadence, finding flames flickering through her eyes.

She nodded at him and the side of his mouth turned up into a smirk, his eyes flashing with lightning. Lowering his head, he started to run around the perimeter of the circle as fast as he could. As he went around, a wind started to pick up, causing a fire tornado. Sensing that he ran fast enough, Barry stopped, the flames continuing to circle around. Cadence grinned and held up her hands, absorbing the flames as they continued to encircle around. He watched as her eyes turned a dark red, continuing to flicker, and then she did a strong punch forward.

The stream of fire shot out in a wide arc and struck the Central City Circus members, knocking them down. Once the fire cleared Barry took out those that had been captured in the cages and took them to safety.

"Now," Barry said, placing his hand on his hips as he looked down at the ring master. He clenched his teeth, thinking about how easy it was to manipulate him. He closed his eyes, seeing the image of his mother holding him down again, screaming at him, blaming him for not being able to take down the man that had murdered her.

If anything that just spurned him to work harder and run faster than he had ever done before. He was going to do it for his mother.

"What to do with you?"

Cadence jumped at the sound of a knock on the door to the apartment. Calm down, Cade. It's not like what you saw is going to come true or anything. It hadn't been long since she and the rest of Team Flash had put the circus metahumans down into the pipeline after making sure everyone was okay. They were shaken up, but okay. But she couldn't help but notice that Barry was more sullen than usual.

"You okay?" she asked him.

Barry looked at her, as if only noticing her for the first time since they arrived. Then he gave a small smile. "Yeah," he replied. "I'm fine."

"You promise?" Cadence raised an eyebrow.

"Promise."

She smiled a little. "Don't make a promise you can't keep," she warned him.

"I haven't yet," he had replied. Then the others had gone their separate ways, telling Cadence to wish Brady birthday again for them.

She looked over at Brady as he read a birthday card, spinning a gift card around his fingers as Conner inspected the action figure he had already opened. "Hey Conner, do you want to call your Mom and let her know everything's okay? I'm sure the phone lines are open now."

"Thank you, Miss. Nash," Conner said with a small smile. "I'll do that now."

"Please call me Cadence," she corrected him.

His eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed. "Why?"

"Because I'm short, I'm constantly mistaken for being 12 years old, and I'm tired of being carded at R-Rated movies."

"Mom," Brady called as she walked towards the door. "Mr. Chase the landlord, gave me a card, too." He said. Then he leaned over to a big box. "And there's one from Oliver and the others! Can I open it?" Cadence came to a stop and turned to look at the large box. Who knew what was inside it if it came from Team Arrow? "Mom?"

"Carefully," she said. "Be very careful."

"Ok!"

Chuckling, Cadence answered the door and invited Ryder inside. "Hey, is everything okay?" She asked him.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Ryder said, out of breath. He brushed his hair off his forehead and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I came back to check on you guys after everything with the circus went down." He blew his hair from his forehead. "Like, I get that you guys are used to how everything is going around here in Central City, but I'm not." His eyes shifted to the side. "I wanted to be sure you were okay," he repeated.

Okay? That really depended on what his definition of okay was. There was that she still had the CPS waiting for another meeting with her, she and all of her friends were attacked while at the circus, ruining Brady's birthday—though he seemed to still be enjoying himself—Mr. Bliss and the rest of the Central City Circus were down in the pipeline, her son's best friend had been in the line of danger, Stratos's last visit still weighed heavily on her mind, Snart and Mick knew her real identity, and there was the little fact that she wasn't improving with her powers at all and was running the risk of not being able to meet rent for the next month.

Other than that, everything was peachy.

"We're all fine," She said. "Thanks for asking." She studied him carefully. "What about you? I think this is the first time you've run into Central City's meatahumans."

"Other than wanting to constantly pinch myself and ask if it was real?" Ryder replied. He shook his head, flicking his hair from his face. "I'm great. But, I wanted to talk to you about something. I haven't been completely honest with you about why I'm back here in Central City."

"So you are a stripper," Cadence commented, her eyebrows rising.

Ryder chuckled. "No, it's not that." His eyes shifted over to Brady for a moment. "I came back because I wanted to get to know Brady better. I wanted to make up for the last eight years that I've missed with him. But, I've always wanted to be the father that I was supposed to be with him. Ever since my parents sent me to boarding school in California I always thought about you guys. I tried to track you down but you left Metropolis and it took a while for me to find you guys again." Cadence opened her mouth to say something but Ryder held up his hands. "Hold on, let me finish."

"I'm not saying that I want to get back together with you because I don't want that. I know you don't want that either. But I want to be able to give Brady the best life we can possibly give him and I think there's only one way to be able to do that." He licked his lips. "If you're willing to make it work, I'd like to have partial custody of him."

Cadence's mouth dropped open. She then closed it again and took a step back, peering up at him. This had to be a joke. Some sort of a way to get full custody, to take him away from her. To do…something. But she wasn't sure what. However a little voice in the back of her head told her she was wrong, that she still did know him as well as she used to, that she should trust him. Ryder tilted his head to the side and looked hard at her before waving a hand in front of his face.

"Cadey?" He asked. "Did you hear me?" Then his face cleared. "I'll give you some time to think about it." He started to back away. "I'll just head home. It's good to see you're okay."

Taking in a breath through her nose, Cadence stopped him. "Why don't you stay and watch him open the rest of his gifts?" She suggested. "I'm sure he'd like that."

Ryder grinned. "Okay."

He followed Cadence to the living room and sat down on the couch while Cadence sat on the floor next to Brady, watching in relief as he opened the mini salmon ladder that Team Arrow had given her. She felt her heart clench as she read the card that Team Arrow had sent, looking over Oliver's signature. It had obviously been acquired before his death, which made it that much harder to look at.

She set the card aside and reached over, ruffling Brady's hair. "Sorry your birthday had to be ruined," she said.

Brady sat back on his heels, shaking his head. "It wasn't ruined, Mom," he said. "I still had fun. We enjoyed the circus for a while, and we got saved by The Flash," Cadence rolled her eyes thinking, show-off, and Brady continued with, "and all of my friends came. The party before we left was really fun. And you're here, and so's my best friend, and…Ryder." Brady nodded. "I had fun."

"Happy Birthday, bud," Cadence said.

Brady beamed. "Thanks, Mom."

If only she had his bright view of the world.

If only she wasn't aware of how much could go wrong so quickly.

Harrison wheeled through the front doors of his house and stood up from his wheelchair as soon as the doors closed behind him. Stretching his arms over his head he walked to the living room as the lights automatically came on around him, showcasing the extravagance of the humble abode. His body was ready for some time off, but the rest of his mind was already moving through the possibilities of having Nathan Bliss and the rest of the Metahuman circus in the pipeline. A man that could control emotions, a woman that could control snakes, a strongman, an invincible man, acrobats that could clone themselves. There was enough power there to make a lot of his plans work.

If only it weren't Brady's birthday that had been the basis for his findings. He felt bad seeing that his grandson wanted nothing more than to hang out with his friends. But he did seem to enjoy the party they had before going out to the circus. He certainly did enjoy the tablet he had bought for the boy; smiling to himself when Cadence gave him a moderately disapproving look. That was a point of being a grandfather wasn't it, to spoil him? Besides, it wasn't as if her gift of getting him an Xbox One along with a guitar was anything less than extravagant.

Harrison paused by his piano, resting his hand on the side of the instrument. He looked around the living room then back down the empty hallway, staring at the doors that lined them. Then he shook his head. No. It was too soon to even think about it, to even ask. He was enjoying the time he was getting to know his daughter and grandson, he couldn't push the topic yet.

I need a drink. The thought immediately flashed into his mind and he walked over to the bourbon sitting nearby. He picked up a tumbler glass and filled it halfway with bourbon. Raising it to his lips, he took a sip, staring out into his spacious backyard before pulling his buzzing phone from his pocket.

"Harrison Wells," he answered. There was the sound of breathing on the other end.

"You know what you did," it said then hung up.

Harrison stared at the phone for a moment then turned it off. Whatever the warning within the message was, it didn't bother him in the slightest.

There were plenty things that he had done. This guy just needed to be more specific.

A/N: So, what did you guys think? I really liked the plot of the metahuman circus from the comics and thought it would be a cool idea to bring here, especially with Mr. Bliss's powers. And as you can see, Barry and Cade are really starting to work together now, as well as bonding a little bit more. Let's see how much further that can be pushed.

What do you think about Cisco now knowing about Caitlin and Wells? And what do you think Cade saw when she was put under Mr. Bliss's spell? What would you like to see more of as the story goes on? Also, Jay is Zoom?! I totally guessed that from a mile away, but as to how many Jays there are, that's an entirely other story, what did you all think of the reveal?

Also, thanks to everyone who has check out Sparks Fly.

Cheers,

-Riles