.:36:.

Barry took in a deep breath and launched himself forward, throwing out his fist as he did so. It was going to connect this time; he was going to send a strong punch hat would prove he knew what he was doing when he didn't have his speed factored in. He would become a good fighter so that it would aid him in his crusade against the metahumans that were destroying his city. He was going to finally be in enough shape to take down the Reverse-Flash with ease. He was going to—

-end up flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, with the wind knocked out of him.

Barry struggled to take in a breath as he heard Cisco sarcastically slow cap somewhere behind him. He wanted to stand up and give him a glare and the finger, but found that the rest of his body couldn't move either. There was a low sigh and he heard Caitlin shift in her seat, trying to resist the urge to go over and see if he was okay.

He was fine; they weren't using their powers so he would heal within a few seconds if not minutes. Besides, it was his pride that was bruised more than his actual body.

His eyes shifted upwards as Cadence face appeared above his. She looked like she was trying not to smile. He understood that. It was hard for them to act like everything was normal for them when they were potentially working alongside a killer. Someone who had lied to them more than they could imagine if what they said was true. At the moment that was the problem; finding out proof that would place him at the scene of the crime.

So far there was a layer of tension around them they were trying hard not to break, like a soap bubble begging to be popped. Still squatting over him, Cadence wrapped her arms around her knees and tilted her head to the side.

"You know I never noticed it before," she remarked. "But you have some really long eye lashes."

Barry let out a breath, resting his hand on his stomach. "It's not funny," he said.

Cadence quickly changed the subject. "You were closer that time," She remarked. "But I can still see where you're going to strike next." She reached out her hand and grabbed onto his, pulling him up with limited struggle.

Okay, so she had to shuffle her feet along the ground to get enough traction to pull him back up—being so short compared to him didn't help matters. But when he was on his feet once more, she tightened the sweatshirt that was tied around her waist then placed her hands on her hips.

"Every time you're about to come at me, I can see where you're going because your eyes are going everywhere." She waved her hands by her head to prove her point. "So you can find an opening to attack. You can't do that. That's how all of the others always managed to beat you. That's how the Reverse-Flash always knows where you're going to go."

Barry shook his head, trying to catch his breath. He still couldn't breathe, but he had to defend himself a little. The only reason he looked around so much like that was when he was backed into a corner with no way out but to rely on his speed. His eyes moved as fast as the rest of his body did, right? They didn't notice it did they?

"Yes, Barry, you do," Cadence insisted. "Or else you wouldn't have just ended up on the practice mat like that." She and Barry both turned towards Caitlin and Cisco to appeal to them.

Caitlin grimaced a little, wringing her hands together. "I mean, well…Barry…" she turned towards Cisco, lowering her voice. "My Mom and Dad always told me I'm not supposed to lie. What am I supposed to say?"

Cisco gave Caitlin an incredulous glance. "You're twenty-six years old and you don't ever lie?" He crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side. "So when you and Ronnie were together you never lied to him once?"

"I'm sure she's lied to him about something," Cadence muttered. Barry heard her joke and the two started to laugh. Caitlin turned and glared at her and the fire metahuman held up her hands defensively. "I didn't say about what, your mind supplied it for you."

Now Caitlin crossed her arms, jutting out her chin defiantly as well. "I'll have you know that when you're in a relationship like the one Ronnie and I had, you don't keep secrets from each other. So, no, I never lied to him."

She then lowered her gaze and Barry was sure he knew she was thinking about their relationship now. How they were acting like complete strangers around each other. Caitlin told him how Ronnie had asked her to leave Central City and how they hadn't spoken much since the conversation. And he knew how things were between her and Harrison at the moment…and she hadn't said anything afterwards since Barry told her about his suspicions. Just another conversation topic they were trying to avoid in case something went wrong.

"Wow, that had to be boring," Cisco remarked.

He turned back to Barry and Cadence, resting his hands on the railing of the balcony he and Caitlin were sitting on, missing Caitlin make a face behind his back. "Anyway, back to what's important. Why don't you two try it with your powers this time? I think throwing Barry around on these practice mats is starting to get a little old. I want to see some fireworks!" He rubbed his hands together eagerly.

Finally, Barry regained his breath and he motioned over to Cadence. "I don't even see why we're doing this; you're not even a fighter."

Cadence placed a hand on her chest. "Well excuse me for trying to help. I know I'm not a fighter; I'm a gymnast and I'm your physical therapist. Either way, I'm still stronger than you. But at least I don't give away everything just from my eyes. Mask or no mask, you wear your heart on your sleeve." She held up her hand and it burst into flames. "And you're going to pay for that one."

Hearing the challenge in her voice, Barry turned back to her, lightning flashing throughout his eyes. "Bring it on," he replied.

He took a step back and shot forward, being careful to keep his eyes on Cadence's face so that he didn't give away where he was going to strike first. That's what he was telling himself anyway. Barry came to a stop right in front of her and started to rapid-fire punch her, using his speed as leverage. Cadence backed away a few steps to give herself space and teleported, releasing a cloud of smoke in his face. Barry turned his head aside, starting to cough.

Cadence appeared behind him and kicked his back, sending him flying to the ground. She then brought up her hands and punched forward in a flurry of shifting hands, sending out small blasts of fire with each punch. Barry curled himself up into a ball, feeling the heat that radiated off the blast that shot overheard, nearly hitting him. He groaned again, feeling the singe on his unprotected skin. Rolling backwards, he watched as Cadence slid along the ground, swinging up her arms and sent a cloud of smoke in his direction. Under the cover of smoke, Cadence leapt towards him.

Barry tucked and rolled to the side and heard Cadence land where he had previously been and got back to his feet. Barry then grasped her arm and pulled hard, arching her through the air and onto the practice mat. She rolled to the side and flipped back to her feet. Barry got back to his and the two charged towards each other once more, throwing a punch at the same time, his hand covered in electricity and hers covered in flames.

Their fists collided and the blow from the combined attacks knocked them away from each other with an accompanying bright light; almost like a lightning bolt. Tumbling head over heels, Barry rolled backwards until he crashed into the wall behind him. Stars exploded in front of his eyes and he brought his hands up, rubbing them as hard as he could to get them to go away. Finally he regained his composure and stood up, mouth dropping open and letting out an incredulous laugh.

"Whoa, what was that?" He asked.

"I have no idea," Cisco replied. His face held an expression of awe as well, arms straight up in the air. "But that was awesome! Oh, I haven't seen anything as cool as that since the Supersonic Punch, baby!" Finally, he lowered his hands to his head. "I have to write this down. I have to see how it was done. We need to recreate this. For science of course," he added.

"Right," Caitlin said with a roll of her eyes. "Everything you do is 'for science'." She used air quote around the words then twisted her mouth to the side as she thought about it. "Even your obsession over trying to figure out what made some people more successful in speed dating than others was 'just for science'."

"Hey, I came back from that with a great paper that I hope is published one day," Cisco defended himself.

"And yet, no date."

"That's still a work in progress."

"Seriously, guys, what was that?" Cadence pulled herself to her feet as well, wiping off her hands on the seat of her shorts. Then she glanced at her palms and back over to Barry. "Remember when we were getting your Dad out of jail? It's happened then, too."

"Right, and some other times in battle," Barry added. He turned to Cadence and hesitantly held out his hand. Cadence did the same and they continued to stretch their hands until their fingers touched where there was another bright light and Barry felt a warm jolt move up his arm. He pulled his hand back and shook it out.

"Does it hurt when that happens?" Cisco asked, rapidly moving his thumbs over his phone to take notes.

"Not really, it's more like a feeling when your hand falls asleep," Cadence replied.

Barry stopped shaking out his hand and examined his fingertips. Nothing to prove that there was anything that had just happened. Just the same as the last time it had happened.

"Does this happen every time you touch each other or just when you're using your powers?" Cisco continued.

"If it happened every time they touched each other then they wouldn't be able to be in close proximity," Caitlin explained. She motioned to Cisco and the two left the balcony they had been watching from. "I've had this theory for a while…Barry and Cadence are able to have their powers combine when they use Cadence's ability of pyro-electrokinesis…what if they're powers were created to work together?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…let's say electricity or lightning is the basis of Barry's powers. Electricity at its core is really just charged particles which, looking even further, is a source of heat. Barry and Cadence have used their powers together before but what if they're supposed to be used together and maybe used as a way to charge each other. Like when they're weak."

Barry snapped his fingers. "Like when we were fighting against the Assassination Bureau and the Suicide Squad. I didn't feel like we could stop them, like I was strong enough to stop them, until we started using our powers together."

Cadence nodded in agreement. She turned back to Barry and held out her hand again. Barry grabbed onto it and tried to hold on to see what would happen. As the seconds passed a ball of light started between them and continued to grow as the seconds passed. Barry felt his arm start to shake as the pins and needles feeling continued between his body. He looked at Cadence's face and saw she was concentrating just as hard as he was, then the feeling of energy became too much and when the two let go it was like they were blasted apart.

"How do you feel?" Caitlin asked as soon as the two let go.

Barry placed a hand on his chest, eyebrows coming together. There was no mistaking it, he definitely did feel stronger. Almost as if he hadn't used any energy at all. "I feel stronger," he said. He turned back to Cadence and saw her worried expression. "What about you?"

"…I'm okay," She added after a second. "Kind of dizzy, though."

Cisco's thumbs now flew over his pone. "I guess it doesn't work both ways then. They can use their powers together but Barry is the only one that can actually be recharged by it. So I guess that's something else we can use against Harrison then."

Barry bit his lip as he watched Caitlin and Cadence both give varying degrees of responses. Cadence let out a huff of annoyance and made a show of pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she stormed over to her things.

"Cade—"Barry started.

"—It's my turn to take Ronnie and Professor Stein out, I'll catch you later," she interrupted and teleported from the room.

Caitlin, on the other hand, crossed her arms and turned a steely gaze over to Cisco.

"You just had to Cisco, didn't you?" She asked. Cisco tried to defend himself but she cut him off. "Don't you have to go help Ray with his suit or something?"

He looked at her for a long moment then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I do. I promised I'd held him after we were finished here. I'll get going now." He gave Caitlin a meaningful, apologetic look and left the practice area.

Barry rubbed his neck as he walked over to Caitlin. "Cait, you know we have to talk about this," he said. "I know that things are really hard about this but there's a lot that adds up to it. Everyone says he's changed since the car accident in Starling City—"

"—because the love of his life died? I think you would understand how that feels Barry," Caitlin shot back.

He paused in his tracks as the familiar ache burst through his heart. Caitlin was right, he knew that. Anyone would react badly to losing someone they loved so much; family member, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife. It was always going to be hard.

"But this isn't something we can ignore. Everything else adds up that he's the one that killed my mother."

"But why? Do you know that? Do you know why he would want to kill your mother? And your mother specifically? He didn't even know you back then."

That was the part that completely stumped him. He wasn't sure the motive behind the murder but that had to be something that made sense as well. It had to be him.

Caitlin was on a roll and she continued to throw questions left and right. "And why not just go ahead and kill you? Or me, or Cisco, or Brady, or Cade? Or anyone else that's come our way? I mean, he had the perfect opportunity to knock Cade off when she was in the hospital but instead she's still alive."

"That was before the accident, Caitlin," Barry calmly explained.

She threw him a withering look. "My mistake. He's at least managed to do something right. I mean, other than trying to help you get stronger with your powers and everything." She started to walk back towards the Cortex with Barry following behind her. "Look, I'm not saying Harrison is without his secrets—"

"—what other secret could he possibly have?" Barry asked. If there's anything else it has to be small compared to the Reverse-Flash stuff.

Caitlin let out a quiet sigh. "That he can walk," she said quietly. Barry stopped and Caitlin turned to face him, eyes downcast in shame. "I know I should've told you sooner, but he can walk, Barry. Not a lot, but he can. I guess he was using it as a motivator for you or something, because of being the one that made the Particle Accelerator go up in the first place but he can walk."

Barry increased his pace once more, now excitedly going towards the Cortex. "Don't you see? That's another piece of evidence that he's the Reverse-Flash."

Now Caitlin openly glared at her friend. Her voice continued to freeze over in tone, giving Barry the feeling that if she had powers she would've frozen his lips shut to get him to stop talking about it. "I'm starting to get really tired of this conversation, Barry."

"I know after everything Dr. Wells has done for all of it's hard to wrap your head around this but I need you to see the truth," Barry insisted. The two stepped into the Cortex and Barry watched as Caitlin made herself busy setting up hers, Cisco's, and Harrison's desks.

"The truth? The truth is that he saved your life multiple times."

"Look, I know. But if I'm right about this—"

"—If, Barry. If! Before I can believe anything that you or Joe or Cisco is saying, I need to see some proof."

"Proof of what?"

At the sound of Harrison's voice Barry whipped around, heart leaping into his throat. He swallowed hard, hopping the movement would shift his heart back into place but it continued to stay put. It beat painfully and caused his brain to short circuit for a second. Caitlin shot him a look, silently telling him he needed to change the subject and Barry thought hard.

Proof of what? Proof of what? "Proof that Cisco has actually found what's wrong with Ray's suit," Caitlin explained. She placed her hand on her hip and added, "He thinks there's a need for some stronger metal added to it and they're working on creating said metal."

"Huh, sounds like something that only Cisco could handle," Harrison said with a light smile. He pushed his glasses up his nose and turned towards his computer. "Is there anything else going on that I need to know about?"

That we're onto you. That we know you're the one who killed my mother and you're the Reverse-Flash, Barry thought, all the while staring at Harrison. He practically willed for Harrison to do something right then and there; get up from his seat, knock Caitlin out, maybe go as far as to try and kill him. Just to prove his theories wasn't as crazy as they sounded.

Then he caught Caitlin's eye once more and he cleared his throat. "Just that…I'm happy you've helped me out so far. And I don't know what I would do without you."

Harrison was silent for a moment, then he finally turned around in his seat and smiled so sincerely at Barry that he felt a little guilty. "I'm happy to have the opportunity to help you. I don't know if you've noticed, but Cisco, Caitlin, and I lost a lot when the Particle Accelerator…you know."

"Yeah…" Barry nodded.

"And despite the hard comings that have come your way, despite not having a normal life anymore, we're glad you've given us life again. In many ways."

Honestly, that was the last thing Barry wanted to hear.

.

..

...

Ronnie lowered the brim of his hat down over his face and glanced over at Professor Stein did the same. The older man rolled his shoulders forward and ducked in on himself to keep from appearing like a threat. The young man rolled his eyes and faced forward again, taking a few more steps then turned around to Cadence as she strolled behind them.

"We don't need a chaperone. We're not your dogs you don't need to take us out for walks" he said to her.

Cadence gave him a look, her eyebrows rising. "Trust me when I say I don't think you need one either. But as we have explained numerous times before, this is a precaution to make sure—"

"—nothing's going to happen!" Ronnie insisted. Now he, Professor Stein, and Cadence came to a complete stop out of the way of those continuing to bustle on the sidewalk. "No one even knows we're around anymore. They all think we're dead!" His voice cracked as he said it. "My parents, my brother, my cousins, aunts and uncles…they all think I'm dead. No one's going to come looking for me. Or for him for that matter," he motioned to Professor Stein who nodded soberly.

"My wife, Carissa, she would've stopped by now," Professor Stein agreed. He took a deep breath. "She's a woman with a very strong heart that believes in a lot. I don't concede she would believe I've been alive this long. I'd hope not. If anything I'd want her to move on."

"And I'm trying to do that, too," Ronnie insisted. "Move on. Move away from Central City. Start a life I can actually have. And now be like some sort of a lab experiment that's being held against his will!"

Cadence briefly closed her eyes. She knew she doing this was going to put herself and the others in more danger than ever before. And because it had to do with the Assassination Bureau again…maybe this will make everything else work out, Cadence thought. Where the Assassination Bureau was concerned things didn't always work out. But this didn't have to do with the Assassination Bureau; it had to do with General Eiling and what he was planning on doing with as many people he could influence.

"Do you really want to be out walking by yourselves one day and then get attacked and experimented on by General Eiling?" Cadence hissed. She looked back and forth between the two men that made up one metahuman. "This guy, he used to work with Harrison"—she paused for a moment as a bullet of pain shot through her. She had to stop thinking about this—"And he did some horrific things to metahumans. He sort of created this metahuman named Bette or Plastique and she became an explosive. And Eiling used her as a weapon and conducted surgeries on her to understand how to use her powers and put them in other humans. If he gets his hand on you guys and knows what he can do with that power, there's no telling what he'll do with that information."

"All the more reason for us to get out of Central City," Ronnie insisted. He looked at her curiously. "I don't want to only be known as a guy that can merge with someone else…who is also insufferably loud in my head—"

"—I wouldn't have to be so loud if you would just listen to what you were being told. It's not easy to not have control when your body is flying over the city at breakneck speeds because of an abundance of fire power."

Ronnie ignored him. "This isn't the life I wanted to have."

Cadence gazed at him with raised eyebrows. "Do you think this is the life that any of us wanted?" She pointed out. "If I didn't have my powers…by now I'd probably be married. Brady might not have been born by now and who knows if I'd even be in Central City. But I love it here and I've found a calling I didn't know I had. That's not anything I would ever chance now. There's a reason this has happened to you and you need to find it."

Ronnie nodded.

"If you and Caitlin were meant to be then it's going to happen, but right now we need to focus on keeping you guys safe. Okay? I promise it's not something we want to do but have to and once we figure out then we'll be—" She broke herself off as she looked over and watched Eddie come running up to the group, resting his hands on his hips, annoyed. "Eddie, what are you doing here? What's going on?"

Eddie took a minute to catch his breath before turning towards her. "There's been a robbery, a string of robberies really." He glanced at Ronnie and Professor Stein, who both lowered their hats once more and turned away, suddenly interested with the colorful billboard behind them. "I was just chasing the suspect but I guess the Flash must've taken him down, I thought I saw…" he trailed off then shook his head. "But the strange part is that each person that was found, after the robbery, swears it wasn't them." He looked at her for a minute. "This is a big case within the CCPD; I figured Barry would've told you."

"We've been really busy lately, haven't had much time to talk," Cadence explained. "Besides, I'm a medical examiner; if it doesn't have anything to do with how people died Captain Singh tends to pretend I'm not there."

"Yeah, I had the same problem when I first joined the CCPD," Eddie agreed. He wiped sweat off his brow. "And it didn't help that I was a replacement for a well respected man.

"So you were saying these guys don't know they're robbing things?"

"It's not like they don't know they're doing it, they're adamant they're not doing it. A woman this morning broke down into tears over it, and I've been doing my job for a long time. Those were real tears."

Something else must be going on then, Cadence thought, her mind immediately shifting to metahumans. If that were the case, chances are she was going to have a lot on her plate the next time she went into work. That is if Captain Singh didn't call her in that day.

"I just saw the suspect but he got away before I could really get a handle on them," Eddie explained. He placed his hands on his hips, shaking his head. "Looks like we're going to have to wait for the next robbery before we can get them. Actually, I've been looking for you." She waited patiently as he said, "I was looking through the robberies of Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, just in case they would come back into Central City, and I noticed there was a time they were back in your area; Metropolis. Around the time that there was a fire you had—"

"Miss. Nash, I don't mean to rush you but we seem to be running low on time," Professor Stein broke in. "So if you don't mind my interruption—"

"Right. Uh, sorry, Eddie, but we really do have to get going." She looked over as Eddie caught sight of Professor Stein and Ronnie, his eyes narrowing for a moment before widening once more. "Eddie?"

"I'm sorry," Eddie apologized. He continued to watch the two young men who subtly turned away from him. "It's just…you look so familiar. Have we met before? At a function or something?"

"Did you meet Oliver Queen the last time you were here? Because this is his cousin." Ronnie gave Cadence a look and Cadence gave him a look in response—which looked more like an evil grin—and added, "And this is his grandfather. You can see the family resemblance, right?"

Professor Stein coughed something into his hand while Ronnie glared back at her.

"Right, right, I see that," Eddie agreed. He reached out and patted Cadence on the shoulder. "I have to go report back to Captain Singh; I'll catch up to you guys later."

"Right. Keep me posted on what's going on with this."

"No problem."

Cadence finally let out a sigh of relief and turned back to Ronnie and Professor Stein, who both looked unhappy. "Cousin?" Ronnie asked.

"Grandfather?"

"You try coming up with something better than 'these guys don't know each other at all but have to pretend that they do because they somehow, with no good explanation of our own, they turn into a fire monster who uses their power to save little kids from mutant gorillas that live in the sewers of Central City'."

Professor Stein blinked for a moment. "That explanation would suffice, however it would be much more imperative that we remove the inclement of run on sentences in your explanation."

Cadence made a face and Ronnie rolled his eyes.

"Now you see what I have to deal with. Try having that in your head all the time while trying to control your fire powers."

"Technically it's not even fire—"

"—you see?"

"—I'm just making sure that you understand entirely what it is that we're in for. Understanding our abilities to the fullest, down to what they actually are, certainly qualifies."

"Wow, you two are like an old married couple it's not even funny," Cadence remarked with a light shake of her head. "I wonder how that works when you go out for something to eat." She placed her hands on their backs and pushed them into CC Jitters, directing them to seat at the window and went to the counter to order, nearly bumping into a blonde woman as she did so. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's my fault," the woman replied. She looked at Cadence for a minute then did a double-take before openly staring. "I should've watched where I was going. You seem to be in a bit of a rush."

"Not really, just making sure that my colleagues over there don't kill themselves or each other," Cadence replied. She took a step towards the counter where Iris was busy filling out an order and noticed the woman was still looking at her, seemingly not to blink. Or else she might've been in a daze. "Sorry, is there something I can help you with?"

"No, no it's nothing" the woman said. She lifted her cup of coffee, as if bidding 'cheers' and left the coffee shop.

Cadence watched her leave, tilting her head to the side as she did so.

That woman looked so familiar. And yet, Cadence wasn't sure where she would've seen the woman before. Maybe in an advertisement or something.

"Is everything okay?"

Being spoken to, Cadence turned back to Iris and saw her leaning against the counter. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought I might know who that woman is. She looked really familiar to me."

"Well, you'd know who everyone is wouldn't you," Iris commented. Cadence turned to her with a raised eyebrow and Iris continued with, "I mean, coming from Metropolis and going to Starling City and everything. It seems like you know everyone around here."

"Really?" Cadence decided not to mention sensing Iris's body temperature fluctuate, indicating either a rise in body temperature due to stress or by lying. "I thought you were making that obvious joke I get out of nearly every guy I've come across that figures out I have a son." She made a face. "You'd think by now they would be smart enough to come up with another one."

"Yeah, well, you know how guys can be; sometimes I wonder how they even manage to get dressed in the morning," Iris said. She smiled a little before her eyes shifted behind her towards Ronnie and Professor Stein. "Speaking of which, I don't think I've seen those guys around before. But the young one sort of looks familiar."

"Yeah, he's Oliver's cousin. And he's here with his grandfather." Cadence explained. She looked over at the door once more, unable to get the woman out of her mind. "Do you know who that woman was? The one who was just in here?"

"Tess? Yeah, she comes in her e a lot," Iris said.

Cadence froze for a second and as calmly as possible she leaned towards Iris. "Tess?" She repeated.

"Yeah, Tess Morgan. She used to be work here in Central City at STAR Labs or something." Iris then took Cadence's order as the fire metahuman took in the information she was just given. Tess Morgan. The only Tess Morgan she knew was her birth mother…whom she thought wasn't alive. "Actually, speaking of STAR Labs I wanted to ask you something about that."

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Well, the CCPD, or Barry and my Dad work with the Flash sometimes and I know that everyone at STAR Labs works with the Flash too. Do you have any ideas…or who the Flash is?"

Cadence kept her face as neutral as possible despite the fact that her heart rate immediately increased. Then she waited for a second to see if she could tell whet her it was due to lying or not but still was unsure. Nevertheless it wasn't a safe conversation topic and she was sure Iris was really doing her best to figure out the truth of a controversial secret.

"I have no idea, honestly. It seems to me that everyone is trying to figure out who he is right now. I mean, especially with that…Man in Yellow or whatever who's made its appearance back during Christmas." Cadence said, calmly drumming her hands on the end of the counter.

Iris's eyes narrowed. "You know about the Man in Yellow?"

"Nothing more than what Barry has told me. Otherwise I've seen a few reports about it on the internet. Not to mention Brady's school seems to be filled with a bunch of little gossips. He's always coming back home with a new story about things going on around Central City. The last thing I heard was this gorilla that apparently lives in the sewers."

"And no one at STAR Labs knows about that either?"

Now Cadence was starting to adopt Iris's habit of a clipped edge to her tone. If Iris thought she was going to get anything out of Cadence it wasn't going to work. "Not that I'm aware of. I'm not over there, usually. I'm typically at the fitness center or the CCPD."

"And no one over there has any ideas of these guys?"

"No." All of a sudden Cadence was a little annoyed that Iris hadn't asked anything about Flare but also found it was more important that at least Barry's secret wasn't revealed to anyone that wasn't supposed to know. "And I don't know anything about a freakin' gorilla either!"

"I'm just asking a question," Iris insisted.

Cadence could feel her temper rise and did her best to keep from saying anything else. Iris seemed to have the same thought for she fixed her drinks and handed it over, stiffly asking for the payment. Cadence handed over the cash and took the drinks to Ronnie and Professor Stein, who seemed to have calmed down from their argument before and were speaking quietly.

"All I'm saying is that you need to loosen up sometimes," Ronnie was saying as she sat. "And if that means have to start out with trying a few different kinds of pizza and beer rather than caviar and a wine spritzer as you older folk seem to enjoy then life would be much better."

Cadence laughed as Professor Stein moved his lips into a tight smile.

"And I'm saying you need to take what everyone at STAR Labs is saying seriously. This General Eiling fellow sounds like someone we don't want to be caught off-guard with."

"Why would he want to attack us in the middle of broad daylight?" Ronnie asked.

Because he's working with the Assassination Bureau and isn't going to let anything get in his way, Cadence thought. Her fingers twitched along her mug of hot chocolate as she grappled with whether or not to tell them of her work with the group as well. Ultimately, she knew the risk was too great and kept quiet, listening to the two argue with each other. Once they were brought back to STAR Labs she immediately went to the CPPD.

"Candace, I thought I gave you the day off," Captain Singh barked as soon as she came into contact with him.

Cadence glared at him. "There's someone I need to talk to or was there something else that you needed me to do?"

Whether or not Captain Singh was remembering the time Barry was whammied and spoke back to him or there was something about Cadence's aura that set him off, but Captain Singh simply nodded and took a step away from her. The fire metahuman continued through the CCPD until she reached Barry's lab. He looked up as she came in, taking goggles off his face and setting beakers down that he had been rapidly shaking.

"Geez Cade, you scared me," he said, bringing a hand up to run through his hair.

"I need to talk to you," Cadence said, coming to a stop beside him as she crossed her arms.

Barry stood up as well and looked down at her, eyes filled with sincere apology. "Oh, good, because I need to talk to you, too. Look, I'm really sorry about the way I sprung up the whole Harrison thing on you but I couldn't keep it in any longer. I really do think—"

"—I'm not talking about that, Barry; I'm taking about Tess Morgan. My birth mother? You knew she was alive, didn't you?"

Barry blinked twice and brought a hand up to cover his mouth. Then he changed his mind mid movement and decided to run it through his hair and over his neck instead. "I…wh…where…did you hear that?"

Cadence's eyes widened and she took a step back away from him. "You didn't deny it," she whispered. "You didn't deny that she was alive. That you knew she was alive. I can't believe you. You lied to my face…how long have you known? And don't act like you don't because Iris is your best friend and I know she tells you everything."

Barry took a step towards her. "Not for long, I swear. I swear I was going to tell you but I didn't know how. I've never seen her myself only Iris has. She says she's been trying to write an article about her and Harrison"—he saw Cadence's eyes start to widen—"but I talked her out of it. Me and Joe!"

"Joe knows, too?"

"He hasn't seen her either. I promise. I didn't want to hurt you, Cade. I just wanted to be sure that everything was on the up and up. That things were safe. I don't want anything to happen to you guys and—"

Now Cadence snorted. "You didn't want to hurt me. You don't want to hurt anyone Barry and you keep shutting them out. And it's not to protect any of us it's because you want to play 'hero'. You couldn't save your Mom and you're trying to save the rest of us. We don't need to be saved, Barry! I don't need to be saved! I'm not a burden or someone you leave behind to do things yourself. You can't just keep leaving me behind like this, to keep me out of the loop and seeing what's going to happen. You may be concerned about my well-being, but I think I've proven to you at this point that I'm completely on your side. I'm not your side-kick, Barry, I'm your partner! Your equal. You have to start trusting me to help you! Please!"

"I want to protect you! I can't…stand the thought of anything happening to you, Cade. Or Caitlin or Cisco…I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"You can't avoid any of that; something is going to happen sooner or later."

Barry removed his hands from his hair and placed them on his chest. His face started to turn red with the effort of the emotion he exhibited to show his plight. Tears started to come to his eyes. "Not unless I can stop it. I'm The Flash for a reason; I was given these powers for a reason! I can't just sit back and watch more people I love be taken away from me! So I can't just sit back and make up a plan all the time, I need to do something, even if it's in the moment. Even if it means keeping something quiet while I try to figure things out. I'm sorry!"

The voice that spoke next caused Barry and Cadence to whip around and stare at the doorway of Barry's lab.

"I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to walk in on this conversation," Eddie said. His eyes shifted back and forth between the two. "But I'm sort of glad I did."

A/N: If you've read Sparks Fly then you would have recognized the beginning of this chapter but now it's been expanded to give a reason as to why Barry's and Cadence's powers work so well together. I actually got the idea after Sialia-currucoides mentioned it in a review, so thanks!

Yeah, yeah, I changed the reveal to Eddie of Barry's identity as the Flash. Not only did I think a reveal as simple as that should've happened on the show by now, but I also realized I forget to put it where I originally intended and so I had to do it now. I hope it still worked out. Honestly, I actually forgot whether or not I had said that Barry already had the secret revealed to Eddie (and didn't find it when I went back to check) so if I did please let me know so I can re-do that part of the chapter.

So now only Iris is left to know and that's not going to take much longer since Grodd has already made his appearance.

More action in the next chapter and everything Eobard Thawne/Harrison Wells comes to a head. Also because I said the story ends in 50 chapters and we're almost at chapter 40. Lol!

-Riles