Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry about the week long wait. I always try to get it up before a week passes, but I was quite busy. I hope the wait was worth it! Enjoy, and review if you can :) I really love reading them!

"Well, I have no idea who the hell he is. I thought that would be more fulfilling. It was kind of anticlimactic."

The voice belonged to Shawna, who had turned her head back to look at her team after tugging off Barry's cowl, leaving his face exposed for all of them to see. If the speedster didn't feel so helpless at the moment, he might have uttered a sarcastic response. Of course they didn't know who the hell he was; he was only a CSI, after all. It wasn't like their paths had crossed before outside of him being the Flash. But Barry still didn't like this; not at all. Now that they knew what he looked like, it would be far too easy of a job to figure out his identity, to go after his friends and family. And that to him was worse than being stuck here at their mercy.

"Doesn't matter." This time it was Mardon speaking, crouching down so that he was level with Barry, far too close for the hero's liking. "He's a thorn in our side, and that's all that really counts. Baby-face here is still gonna pay, and this damn city along with him."

Barry's eyes narrowed at the man. He wanted to lunge at him, to knock the triumphant look off of his face, but he couldn't summon the energy, nor would he get very far in his chains. He settled for the next best thing as his nose twitched, and he let out a sneeze right in the meta's face. The chains binding him went taut as he speedily pitched forward as far as the restraints would allow, then practically bungeed him backwards into the wall forcefully. He sniffed, blinking up at Mardon as the man swiped a hand over his face.

"Why you little -" the weather meta cut himself off with a scowl, sending a well-aimed, well-powered kick to Barry's abdomen. Barry in turn let out an unbidden yelp of pain, and suddenly bile was rising in his throat, and he turned his head to the side, retching, the contents of his stomach emptied out on the floor next to him.

"There's worse than that coming," he sneered as Barry ran the back of his gloved hand over his mouth. The speedster suddenly looked a lot more tired than he had moments ago, his expression sullen as the extent of his situation seemed to weigh heavily down on him.

"Shawna." Mardon turned away from Barry, his eyes flitting to the teleporting girl. Barry's eyes slowly tracked over to her as well, and he was vaguely surprised to find her already looking at him with an almost pitying gaze. She quickly turned her attention to her cohort, however, at the sound of her name, raising an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Where are the tools?"

"I cannot believe you made me do that."

Cisco's face was reddened once again as he hung up his cellphone and placed it back in his pocket, running a hand through his hair. He had just finished talking to Lisa, and it had been fairly awkward. For him, at least; he wasn't sure there was anything that could make that girl feel awkward.

"It was for Barry," Iris chided, arms crossed. "What did she say?"

"That Snart was off doing some 'business,' whatever that means; I really don't want to know. That he'd be back soon, and she'd talk to him. But she couldn't guarantee anything. You know he's stubborn."

Caitlin frowned at that, eyeing the computer monitors they had just been using to look at footage wistfully. "Maybe we should just keep combing through -"

"Caitlin." Iris cut her off, shaking her head. "It won't help, and you know it. There's no possible way we could have missed anything on them, not with all four of us looking," she said sadly. Joe placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder, attempting to offer her a sliver of comfort despite the fact that he felt just as worried and nervous as the rest of them did.

The doctor let out a sigh. "I know," she said finally, resignedly. "It's just -"

She didn't get to finish, this time cut off by the text tone of Cisco's phone ringing out from the pocket of his jeans. They all looked at the engineer expectantly as he pulled it back out, all faces serious as he looked at the text on the screen.

"It's Lisa," he said after a moment, seeming a bit surprised. "Snart - he said he'll talk with us. The dock, one hour, behind the old boat house."

"One hour?" Iris sounded antsy. "Barry's already been gone for over an hour. The longer we wait…"

The others shifted uncomfortably, and it was Joe to speak up. "Baby, one hour is pretty good, considering we're dealing with Snart," he said. "There was no guarantee this would even happen at all. We're in better shape than we were before." Iris let out a long breath, nodding.

"I know," she said. "I'm just - I'm worried, dad. I just want him back."

"We all do, Iris," Caitlin said softly. "We're going to find him."

"He'll be fine," Cisco added helpfully. "I mean, he's Barry - he's always fine."

The universe seemed determined to prove him wrong as, at that moment, the monitor displaying Barry's vitals began to let out a series of shrill warning beeps.

"Agh!" Barry grunted in pain, his breathing heavy and rapid as the steel pipe once again made contact with his body, the suit doing little to protect him from the blows. His heart was racing, his entire body aching. He had started shaking as well, though he couldn't quite tell at this point if it from the chill in the warehouse, the pain, his phasing powers acting up or, possibly, all three. He didn't care, either.

"You don't need to do this," Barry pleaded through gritted teeth. Yes, he had resorted to trying to reason with his enemies. A useless move, he was sure, but what else could he do at this point? "Please."

"What's the matter, Flash? Can't take it? Some hero." Mardon was grinning down at him from his right side, brandishing the pipe still. From his left, Tell chuckled, pulling a card from off his body and flinging it with scarily accurate precision. It grazed across Barry's cheek, leaving a bleeding line and sticking itself in the wall next to his head; the speedster winced, feeling the warm blood start to drip down the side of his face.

"He's not so impressive now, is he?" The voice was Clay this time, walking up to stand in the middle of the two metas flanking him. He was twirling a knife expertly between his fingers, and Barry's stomach lurched, his eyes tracking the movement of the weapon nervously. He licked his dry lips.

"Clay -" Barry started, but was interrupted by his own yell of pain as the only non-meta suddenly stopped twirling his knife and through it, the blade lodging itself all the way up to the hilt in Barry's shoulder. The hero's eyes lost focus momentarily, seeming to glass over as he blinked slowly. It was a few moments before he was able to look at the villains in front of him again.

"My friends are going to find me," he hissed. He really wished that the words sounded even vaguely threatening, but his voice was still hoarse, and cracked slightly from the pain he was still experiencing.

"Mmmh, doubtful," Mardon replied, grinning. He raised his pipe again (which in Barry's opinion he seemed to be enjoying far too much, considering he had powers), and this time aimed it at the speedster's head. Barry both felt the object as it made contact and heard it, a sickening crack and then blinding pain. He was sitting but he still felt himself double over, his head dropping, his vision blurring and black and red dots flickering at the edge of his line of sight.

"That's enough!" a voice rang out, but Barry could barely hear it with the ringing that had started up in his ears, and the way it seemed to be reaching him from a long distance. He probably had a concussion, he thought sluggishly.

"You wanted this," he heard a voice protest, the words muffled. "This was your idea, you bitch. You don't want to finish what you started?"

"I don't want you to kill him," the original voice seethed. "So that's enough."

"I didn't get a go at him yet." A third voice, and then a snort.

"What are you gonna do, Bivolo? Angry him to death?"

"We're not killing him." The girl, exasperated.

"Are you sure? I could do it, easily." A fourth voice.

"Bliss, shut up."

"Shawna, babe, cool it. Just - go get the video camera, alright?"

A pause, and then. "Fine. But he damn well better still be breathing when I come back."

Iris shivered slightly as a breeze blew past, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood on the dock, looking absently out over the water. Snart wasn't supposed to arrive at the specified location for another twenty minutes, but Team Flash had decided to get there early. It was better than staying locked up in the lab doing nothing. At least here they could feel productive again, waiting for the only real hope they had at the moment. Snart wasn't exactly the best person to place their faith in, but it was something. And something was better than nothing. After the incident with Barry's vitals spiking, they had all been far more on edge than they had previously been, which was saying a lot. But he wasn't dead. Iris clung on to that fact as she stood there waiting. He was in trouble; he was hurt, and sick, and he needed them. But he was not dead. She planned on keeping it that way.

After another few moments observing her wavering reflection in the water, Iris turned around so that she could see the others again, who all seemed just as antsy as she felt standing there. She bit at her lip, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the time again.

Eighteen minutes to go now.

The time seemed to be passing far too slow for her liking. She knew her dad was right, that an hour was not bad of a wait at all for Snart. And it was so close now to when he was supposed to be here, but yet it still seemed so far. It was still nerve-wracking. What if he didn't show? What if he did show, only to not help them? What if - no. Iris forced herself to break away from those thoughts, taking a deep breath. She couldn't afford to go down that road. If Snart hadn't planned on helping them, why would he agree to meet them? He had to help. Iris would make him help, no matter what she had to do. Barry Allen was damn well going to be gotten back in one piece, alive.

"Lisa definitely said to meet him here, right?" she asked, addressing Cisco, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the small group.

Cisco nodded. "Positive," he said, though pulled his own phone out to check the text message again, just to be safe. They couldn't afford to get anything wrong. Not now. Iris tapped her foot nervously against the hard wood of the dock, catching a glimpse of Cisco's phone before the screen went dark again.

Seventeen minutes. God, this was agonizing. Cisco shot her a half-hearted sliver of a smile.

"Deep breaths," he told her. "He'll be here, I'm sure of it. Everything's going to be fine."

That was Cisco, ever the optimist. Iris didn't think it was help, but she did it anyways closing her eyes momentarily. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath -

She was startled out of the steady rhythm by an alarm going off, and for a moment she was back in STAR Labs, hearing the earsplitting screech of the screen monitoring Barry's vitals again -

But no, this was Cisco's phone going off, and the noise had clearly startled everyone else out of their own thoughts as well. She found herself staring over at Cisco along with Caitlin and her father as the engineer fumbled with the phone in his hand, unlocking it to see what was causing the noise. His eyebrows furrowed, and Iris frowned.

"What is it?" she asked. "Cisco, what is that?"

"Breaking news alert," he said as he opened his phone. "It doesn't say what about though, so I -"

Cisco cut himself off, his breath hitching in his throat as he looked at the screen. That was all it took for the remaining three members of Team Flash to scramble over to his side, hovering closely and looking over his shoulders in order to view the small screen as well. Iris nearly choked as she saw a familiar face filling up the space. For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a voice from behind the camera, the person filming.

"Are you sure this is broadcasting?" the voice asked, the camera shaking for a moment before coming back into focus.

"Yes, I'm sure. This was the one useful thing I learned from that Trickster pest. Everyone in the city with internet access is seeing this right now."

That voice belonged to none other than Mark Mardon, and he was grinning something awful as he looked into the camera.

"People of Central City," he announced, his voice smug and triumphant. "We are taking over." There was a pause, and then the camera panned, and Iris's heart pounded painfully in her chest as she saw what it was now showing. There were the other metahumans that Captain Singh had told her father were involved in the Flash's abduction. But the part that was making her heart ache wasn't them; it was Barry, pale and still, clad in his familiar red suit but minus the cowl, beaten and only appearing half-conscious. Chained to a wall. Exposed for all to see.

"And your precious Flash can't help you now."

Author's Note: That's it for this chapter! Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger. Until next time ;)