Thanks again for the wonderful comments! You are all so great.
As happened a lot during this fic, I actually conceived of this "speed serum" right before the show introduced the concept with the Velocity series. As a result, the concepts are pretty similar, and you can probably just think of this serum as a version of Velocity 9 (nasty side effects and all).
Enjoy!
"Hello, Mr. Allen," Wells said, his drawl echoing down the chamber to where Cisco and Iris hunched. "I trust you're ready to begin?"
"Let Caitlin go."
"There's still time yet. Patience, Barry."
Iris peeled Cisco's hand away from her mouth, but it was hardly necessary. A moment later, he went back to his laptop, bringing up the video feed from Barry's cell. Iris' attention flickered from the scene being played out live in front of them and the one captured more intimately through the video monitor. She was struck suddenly by how small Barry looked, trapped in that cell. How could he be the hero she'd tracked for so many months?
"I'm more than willing to let Dr. Snow go if you're prepared to cooperate," Wells continued. "Believe it or now, I'm not keen on killing her. I've grown quite fond of everyone in this lab."
"Right," Barry said. "That's why you killed Cisco."
Beside Iris, Cisco flinched.
"Casualties of war," Wells said in a steely voice. "If you know what's good for you, Mr. Allen, you won't become one."
At the end of the pipeline, Wells stood stock still, arms crossed. In the video, Barry could have been his reflection.
"This isn't my world, my timeline, you know," Barry tested. "Why should I risk everything to protect it? I know what your plan is, and the risks."
"We both know you're better than that," Wells said. Iris couldn't see his face, but she knew he was smiling. "Besides, this is the world you left. It is still a world you know. These are still people you know."
But were they? Iris considered this for the first time, the possibility of Barry in his other timeline, the Iris of the other timeline—did he actually know her, as she was now? Or was she now a ghost? Was she already dead to him?
"If you're going to refuse me, go right ahead," Wells continued. "But realize that I still believe you can hurt, Mr. Allen. I believe that in this timeline, you can still feel pain. Just as Dr. Snow does, right now, as she slowly freezes to death just feet away from you."
There was a pause. Iris held her breath, afraid that even from this distance Wells would be able to hear her. Beside her, she thought Cisco did the same. At last, Barry's shoulders sagged.
"Give it to me."
"A wise choice," Wells said, pulling something out of his pocket. "For all of us."
The something from his pocket was pushed through a narrow slot in the cell that Iris suspected was used for meal delivery. Barry picked it up and examined it for a second, and Iris' heart dropped when she realized that it was a syringe.
"What, don't like to do the dirty work yourself?" Barry spat.
"Can't have an escape attempt," Wells said. "I don't want you damaged."
A tremor ran through Iris' body, though by now she didn't even feel the cold of the pipeline. She looked on with dread as Barry rolled up a sleeve and exposed the paleness of his forearm. She wanted to break away from Cisco, sprint down the pipeline and create her promised distraction now, before Barry did anything stupid—that's what she'd always done, tried to keep him from doing stupid things—but it was the wrong time, the wrong place. What could they do against Wells now, if he discovered them actually in the pipeline? They'd be locked up in seconds.
So she could only watch, horrified, her best friend taking the needle to his arm and pushing down the plunger.
She let out the breath she had been holding.
Barry dropped the empty syringe and it rolled away from him. He stood there a moment more before tipping sideways, his hand catching the wall before he could collapse completely.
"Vertigo?" Wells said. "It should pass. We are jumpstarting every cell in your body, after all."
He turned on his heel and started out of the pipeline.
"Wait," Barry said, leaning more heavily now on the wall. "Where are you going?"
"Oh, the serum won't be in full effect for another fifteen minutes or so," Wells said. "I've got better things to do than watch you vomit."
He kept walking, and Barry lurched forward, his fists connecting hard with the glass. "Let Caitlin out first!" he shouted. "I did what you asked!"
"You haven't done anything yet," Wells said. "I thought I taught you to be patient."
Then he was gone, and the doors hissed closed.
In his cell, Barry toppled to the floor.
Cisco and Iris looked at each other, and the communication instantly sparked between them.
"Caitlin," Iris said.
"Barry."
The launched themselves from their hiding spot, branching off in two directions halfway across the floor. Cisco kept running, while Iris halted at the door to Caitlin's cell. Even from the outside, Iris could feel the cold. It radiated from the cell door, condensing in front of her like the air from a freezer door. Inside, barely visible through the frosted glass, Caitlin sat huddled in a corner.
"Hang on, hang on," Iris muttered, reaching for the control panel. Luckily, Caitlin's cell hadn't been modified by Wells, and after a few swipes at the screen, Iris managed to find the unlock button. With a beep, the door rose, and with it came a tidal wave of freezing air.
Even before the door was completely open, Iris rushed forward into the cell. Her hands tingled immediately from the cold, but she reached forward toward Caitlin and grasped her by the sleeve.
"Cait," she said softly. "Hey, Cait, I'm here."
The rise and fall of Caitlin's shoulders was hardly reassuring when she failed to respond. Iris shook her some more.
"It's Iris, Caitlin. Cisco and I are going to get you out of here, okay?"
Finally, to Iris' relief, Caitlin shifted, slowly raising her head.
"Cisco?" she said.
Iris tried to conceal the worry that spiked at the sight of Caitlin's face. She was deathly pale, her eyes unfocused, her eyelashes crusted over with frost. Instead of voicing the concern, she tried a forced smile.
"He's here," she said. "We're both here to rescue you. Come on, let's get you out of the cold."
When Caitlin nodded, Iris gripped her under the arm and helped her to her feet, noticing the stiffness in Caitlin's body but the surprising lack of emotion on her face. Instead of wincing at the movement, Caitlin looked detached, curiously impassive about the ordeal. She kept her eyes focused ahead, and Iris tried to do the same.
Once they were out of the cell and into mildly warmer air, Caitlin finally spoke again.
"I don't feel anything," she said.
Iris gripped her around the waist and by the hand, leading her further down the pipeline like she might guide an old woman.
"I know," she said. "We'll get you warmed up."
"No," Caitlin said, at last looking her in the eye, devastatingly intense. "You don't know. I don't feel anything."
Her gaze was so unnerving that Iris was compelled to look away. She struggled to find words as they took shaky steps together. Caitlin was supposed to be the doctor. She was supposed to be the one diagnosing things and healing things and generally coming up with the right things to say in these situations.
Finally, Iris settled on: "You're just numb. It's one of the stages of hypothermia, I think. Losing feeling. Isn't that right?"
"I don't feel numb," Caitlin said. "I don't feel the cold. I told you."
Iris kept her gaze away. "Okay," she said, and gave up the conversation. Concern mounted in her chest. The sooner they got out of here, the better. Caitlin's hand was icy in hers.
At the entrance to the pipeline, Iris led Caitlin forward toward where Cisco was fiddling with the control panel to Barry's cell. His back was turned to them, his laptop deposited on the ground by his feet. Caitlin stopped in her tracks, and Cisco turned his head to look at them.
He and Caitlin made eye contact, and Caitlin broke away so quickly from Iris that it was almost as if she hadn't been nearly frozen to death at all. Despite the fact that Cisco hadn't moved his hands from the control panel, Caitlin threw her arms around him, a sob escaping her. Cisco extracted himself from his work to embrace her back, making brief eye contact with Iris over Caitlin's shoulder.
"You're cold," he said, his voice muffled by Caitlin's jacket.
"You're alive," Caitlin responded.
At this, Cisco squeezed his eyes shut and pulled a shaking Caitlin closer. Iris swallowed thickly and heeded the impulse to avert her eyes. Her gaze fell innately to Barry's cell, and, naturally, Barry himself. Her friend was now in a similar position to Caitlin when she'd been locked up: head pushed into his knees, shoulder pressed to the glass. Though he didn't have the same cold problem that Caitlin had, he shivered violently, and Iris could've sworn she saw ripples of yellow lightning along his arms.
Swallowing her fear, she crouched down next to the glass and put a hand up to it. She was reminded, suddenly, of her and Barry, squashed up together on the couch years prior, empty popcorn bowls reflecting light cast by the TV. Iris had put up a show of begrudgingly acquiescing to Barry's movie request—it was what she was expected to do. She'd heard him sniffing as two men from the future put their hands up to the glass in parallel to one another, but she hadn't dared look at him. She'd fled to her room after the movie was over, citing a headache. She'd cried for an hour, unsure of who she was crying for.
"Barry," she said now, quietly. "Hey, Bar. Can you hear me?"
Agonizingly slow, he lifted his head and met her eyes, and Iris' breath was stolen from her. Partly because of the way he looked—pale, shaky, pained—and partly because his look reminded her of that day at the park, the way they'd met like two people searching for something, pursued by fear and adrenaline. This Barry was her Barry, the one she'd kissed all of those days ago, but now she felt something thicker than glass separating them.
"You shouldn't be here," Barry said, shuddering as electricity shot up his arms.
"Neither should you," Iris said, and it hit her then how much she actually believed it. "This isn't your time anymore."
"I'm sorry…" Barry mumbled. His head dropped back down and he moaned into his knees.
"I knew that the serum would be dangerous," Caitlin said, crouching down beside Iris. Iris glanced over at her, concerned, but the other woman wasn't even shivering. "He's having a bad reaction."
"So?"
"So, he's going to be very little help if Wells comes back." She bit her lip. "The effects should wear off on their own, but…"
"But?"
"But if they don't, Barry could die. His body is unstable. I can make something to counteract the serum, something to neutralize the speed in his system…"
"Something like this?" Iris pulled out one of the arrowheads from her pocket and Caitlin frowned. "Cisco brought them. They supposedly took down the Reverse Flash in his timeline. Something about nanotechnology and…well, science?"
The smallest of smiles flickered at the corner of Caitlin's mouth. "Science, yes."
"We have a problem," Cisco said. "I can't get this thing open, and we're almost out of time."
"I'll distract him," Iris said, leaping to her feet without a thought. "That was the plan originally, wasn't it? I'll pretend like I've come through the main doors and try to reason with him. Buy you all more time."
"Iris, no," Caitlin said, also standing. "Wells is dangerous."
"He won't kill me if he thinks I can be used for leverage," Iris said firmly. I hope, she added privately. "Just do me a favor and get Barry out fast. We need him back to normal if we're going to take down Wells."
Though Caitlin still seemed hesitant, Cisco nodded. "Go. We'll have him out."
Iris tore herself away without looking at Caitlin—that crumpled expression was too much. She quickened her pace halfway down the hallway and broke into a run at the end of it. There was no time to lose. No time to waste. No point in arguing.
Facing Mardon had been one thing. Now, all of that seemed like a game. The Wizard Wand, the barn, the rescue mission, it all seemed like a storybook. The sterile walls of STAR squeezed all of that out of her, pressure forcing out every non-essential part of her existence. The only things that remained were incredible determination and overwhelming fear, and she struggled to place one over the other. They fought for place within the single thought that drove her: Am I going to die here?
She had just made it into a full-tilt sprint down the first hallway when the walls lit up with red and startling heat rushed over her face. She was too late, but she didn't stop running, couldn't stop running, even as her fingers clenched the arrowhead.
The Reverse Flash waited for her with open arms.
If you haven't noticed by now, cliffhangers are my jam. Stay tuned for Wednesday's update-we're nearing the end.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and please leave a comment on your way out.
Till next time,
Penn