Yay! Thanks for all of your support of the last chapter! I've been so nervous about this story, especially these last chapters, but it's great to see that you guys are just taking it all in stride.
Enjoy chapter 17!
"Prove it."
Wells zipped sideways. Caitlin reached out to stop him, sending out a torrent of frost, but it was too late. He evaded it and reached his destination, scooping up Iris and holding her in front of him as a shield.
"Prove it, Snow," he said. "Prove that you're not something to be feared." He jolted Iris, his arm firm around her throat, and Iris locked eyes with Caitlin across the hallway. "Ice us both, you stop me. If not, I kill her myself, then Cisco, then you…and when I'm bored with that, I will torture Barry Allen until he gives me what I want. It's your choice."
Caitlin's arm was still outstretched, shaking. Her eyes were fixed on Iris', but at this distance she couldn't tell what the other woman was trying to tell her. Was it permission to take her shot? Risk Iris' life for the sake of stopping Wells? That was what they had been doing all along, wasn't it?
Still, Wells' words echoed in her ears. People fear you.
She lowered her hand incrementally, raised it again. So much adrenaline pumped through her that she hardly registered other sensations, but she was vaguely aware of how sick she felt, her stomach roiling with indecision. In the thrumming quiet, she could sense her power, practically touch it, and was aware of exactly which fear she might use to trigger it. Suddenly it seemed so easy.
Too easy.
"Kill me or not—I couldn't care less," Wells continued. "But I've waited too long for nothing. You have the remarkable ability to make your own future, right here, right now. I have no qualms about killing Ms. West, but if you make your choice—"
He was cut off by Iris, bringing her head back into his face, her free hand emerging from her pocket with her second arrowhead and jamming it into the soft flesh under Wells' arm. He released her and she dove sideways, and Caitlin took her shot. The fear that had been rooting her to the spot rose to the surface at her bidding and she harnessed it, launching a stream of ice directly at Wells. He was too slow, now, to move.
Caitlin relished the look of utter surprise on his face as he dropped.
"I really just wanted him to shut up." Iris panted as she lifted herself to her feet. She moved cautiously to the unconscious Wells, his chest covered with frost, and swiped at a bloody nose. "He should stay down for a while. Two doses of the Arrow's serum and your ice blast. But…you think he'll be okay, don't you?"
She looked back up at Caitlin, but Caitlin was immobilized in place. Behind Iris, Barry had gotten to his feet. His body crackled with electricity, his very skin buzzing as if it might soon dissolve out of existence. Even from a distance, she could see that something wasn't right.
"Who are you?" he said in a rough voice that wasn't a thing like that of the Barry she knew. "Your powers—you think they give you a right to terrorize these people?"
"Barry," Caitlin said, her resolve wavering, "it's me."
"Come on, man." Cisco picked himself up slowly from the floor, rubbing his head. "It's Caitlin."
"I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else." And the words sounded so distinctly Barry, and yet so much darker and deeper, that Caitlin stood conflicted for a moment more.
Then all doubt was erased as he zoomed forward. Suddenly his hands were on her arms, fingers digging in above her elbows, and Wells flashed before her eyes again, the panic and the helplessness. Her hands were on his chest in an instant, and he rocketed backward, clawing at the ice that had spread across his plain shirt and breathing hard.
"Barry!" Iris called. She began running toward them, but Cisco held out a hand to stop her. Her face crumpled. "What's wrong with him?"
"The serum Wells gave him," Caitlin said slowly, looking hard at Barry where he stood a few feet away. Aside from the electricity arcing across his body, his eyes now sparked and flared with angry light. Not his eyes. The eyes of some unstoppable creature. "It's wreaking havoc on his body, driving him mad. The Speed Force—it's overwhelming him. It was always a calculated risk, but one I thought I could fix."
"Yeah, until Wells locked you up," Cisco said. "Great, evil Barry. Now, again, might be the perfect time for a cold gun!" he shouted at nobody in particular.
Caitlin blinked. "We have one," she said, not daring to look away from Barry for even a second.
"No," Iris said. "Caitlin. You don't have to do this."
"Barry's dangerous." Caitlin raised her hand. "I can stop him. Wells said he's never been able to beat me."
Everything stilled so much she could count her heartbeats. Barry's unstable vibrations made ripples through the floor and rattled her bones, and she saw her future suddenly with stunning clarity. It was so easy, close enough to touch, and all at once her outstretched hand felt as if it might be reaching for that future also.
"Barry doesn't need Killer Frost," Iris said. "He needs Caitlin Snow. He needs his doctor."
Barry gasped and rubbed at the frostbite-inducing spot on his chest, the pain and shock of it clearly warring with the madness of the Speed Force. He was dangerous when injured and cornered—she knew that from experience—but gradually she lowered her hand and took a step forward.
He sensed her movement and looked up at her with those crazed, lightning-blurred eyes, and she paused. The doubt, the fear, welled up inside of her, but she forced it down, forced herself to control it.
"Barry," she said. "It's me, Caitlin. Can you hear me in there? You need to take a deep breath."
His head snapped up, and she stopped in her tracks.
"This isn't you. You don't hurt people. Your body—if you don't calm down, it's going to destroy itself. I know you're hurting, but that's never stopped you before. You can fight this."
Her breath caught as, for what felt like the millionth time, she was overwhelmed in the blink of an eye. Her back hit the floor and Barry's knee pressed down into her sternum. His hand found her throat and her arms automatically went up to his wrist in an attempt to pry it free.
The fear, the lack of oxygen, dredged up the reserves of her new powers. She felt them creeping through her veins toward her clenched fingers, the beginnings of frost trickling up Barry's arms, but she closed her eyes and focused all of her energy on silencing it. In her core, she willed the churning emotions to stop. And they did, slowly, the frost receding from the sleeves of Barry's shirt as her frenzies stilled.
She could have just been imagining it, but his crushing grip loosened ever so slightly on her windpipe. "Why aren't you fighting back?"
And, try as she might, she couldn't hold back the tears that sprang hot to her eyes. "Because you're my Barry Allen," she choked out, "and I can't lose you again."
She wheezed past the pressure, feeling the shockwaves of Barry's vibrations so vicious throughout her body that they threatened to tear her apart. However, at that moment, Iris appeared at the fuzzy edges of her vision. One hand gripped the final arrowhead that had skidded across the pipeline earlier, but the other reached for Barry's shoulder.
"Come back to us, Bar," she said. "Please."
His eyes never left Caitlin, but the words seemed to trigger a release in him. After a few more seconds of debilitating pressure, his hand left Caitlin's throat completely. Both of them breathed heavily for a few moments, and his tremors receded just enough for his next words to sound hollow, but still more like Barry.
"I'm sorry."
"Yes, we know," Iris responded, and her hand moved down his arm where she could safely jab him with the arrowhead.
The effect was instantaneous. All at once Barry seized, as if struck by something immobilizing, his tremors dwindling to nothing. Iris caught his backward slump as Caitlin dragged herself to a sitting position.
"Thanks," she said to Iris.
Iris gave a tight half-nod. "No, thank you. I didn't do anything."
"Well, anything is a bit of a stretch."
Iris' hand found Barry's forehead, which still glistened with sweat. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Let's get him up to the medical bay," Caitlin said. "He should be fine in a bit. Once he gets over the massive hangover. And the extra heaping of self-blame and embarrassment that you know is coming."
"Oh, I'm expecting it," Iris teased. She reached forward for Caitlin's hand. "Are you alright?"
"I—I think so." She knew that Iris understood by the softening of her features, the squeeze in their hands. There would be time to talk later, time for her own embarrassment, time for the fear to resurface and for the future to approach. "It's just a lot to handle at once."
"I know." Iris tried a smile.
"You're not afraid?" Caitlin blurted out. "Of me?"
Iris' lips tightened. "Please, Caitlin. Don't flatter yourself. I know which parts of you to be afraid of. Your intellect. Your pointy medical tools." Caitlin relented with a low chuckle. Iris nodded. "But not this. Because I know you."
Caitlin reached up to swipe away a tear. "Thanks." A nod down at Barry. "Help me get him upstairs?"
Remember when Caitlin and Jay were talking about the dangers of Velocity 6? That's kind of the idea here. Because, really...crazy Barry is terrifying, as we've seen in the first Arrow crossover.
There's just one chapter left, which is hard to believe! Thanks again for reading. Please leave comment with your thoughts, and see you Wednesday for the wrap-up!
Till next time,
Penn