If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means Im broken and lame
If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame
You Want it Darker, Leonard Cohen


Caitlin was gone.

Khione created in her place.

They had no idea how Cait pulled it off after Barry destroyed her home lab, but then they figured she must've sneaked into her mother's labs during the night and got inside a cryo-chamber while injecting herself with the necessary chemicals.

Only she didn't welcome Frost back in her body. She faded away instead, giving birth to neither herself with powers nor Frost. The woman who came out was someone else entirely, seeing the world for the first time and learning it. It was like a newborn with the brain of an adult. She had the knowledge, but she didn't have the experience.

And it was absolutely impossible to hate her because she was lovely, gentle and kind, not really having the meta gen but developing some kind of cold powers that had a mind of their own. It was still a long way to go for her, though.

Rachel just felt like she was grieving.

In fact, yes, that was exactly what she was doing. Khione might have the body of her best friend, but not the mind. It was as though there was suddenly a third twin sister. And they couldn't try to get Caitlin back without killing her. Especially when in the end they couldn't even be sure whether it would even work.

Rachel remembered when she'd met Caitlin, how they'd quickly became friends and how that friendship was ruined by her own mistake. Caitlin kissed her and instead of stopping it, Rachel was too curious, too young, too eager to explore the world and its possibilities. She went all the way with Caitlin before she realized it wasn't really what she was looking for no matter how exciting it felt. Her only regret was that their friendship suffered because of it. When she thought of the other woman, she didn't see the past anymore, the illicit affair, the exploring she'd done when her hormones were raging. She saw her best friend. And now she lost that friend.

She didn't even realize when she started crying.

"You're grieving," she suddenly heard Khione's voice coming from the door and she quickly wiped her tears. "Don't stop on my account. Don't be ashamed. Grief is a part of life. You need to process it, otherwise it's always going to be there, eating you up."

"It's just hard," Rachel confessed. "I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. The last time I saw her… it wasn't pleasant. I just hope…" she sighed. "I hope she didn't die hating me."

"I don't believe that. Something tells me she could never hate you."


In the meantime, Barry responded to an alarm in the cortex, coming to a sudden stop on seeing the look on Cisco's face.

The past few days were incredibly hard on his friend as well, considering his relationship with Caitlin. One could say that Cisco was barely holding on and now… now something very big must've happened.

"What is it?" Barry asked, already scared of the answer.

"Don't ask me how… but it's Thawne."

In that very moment Rachel's words that it all sounded like a plan reverberated in his head. Eobard Thawne always had a plan. He must've had a failsafe put in motion, one in case his creating his own Reverse Flashpoint would fail. Everything was exactly like Rachel predicted. He planned it all. Somehow him asking for help and losing his powers to avoid being erased fit in that as well. And now… now he was back. And Barry hadn't listened when he'd had the chance, dismissing his fiancée's fears.

"Where?" was all he asked.

"Downtown… I'll go with… What about…?" Cisco hesitated, clearly thinking of the woman in question.

"She'd been through too much. Leave her out of this. We can talk to her about it later. And I'm gonna need you to stay here."

"Barry, it's the Reverse Flash…"

"Exactly. It's my nemesis. Besides, we need someone in the cortex with Caitlin gon…" the name only brought pain and Barry immediately regretted his choice of words. "I can handle it," he only added before speeding away.


"I… I feel funny…" Rachel suddenly said, straightening up and putting her hands on her head. The gesture alerted Khione.

"Should I go get help? Is there anything you need?" the woman quickly asked, truly concerned.

"I… I don't… Wha…?" Poof.

"Rachel?!" Khione yelled, her eyes opening widely.

There was no trace of the other woman except some weird flying green particles…


"Cisco!" Khione ran into the cortex, her face terrified. "Rachel… she… she… just disappeared into thin air!"

Cisco paled.

"Shit… Barry?!"


Barry never heard Cisco and even if he did, it would already be too late.

He felt rage when he saw Thawne once again having his powers and he immediately attacked, not having the time to think about the how. He was once again duped, once again pushed like a pawn on a chessboard, being played by The Reverse Flash, tuned to do exactly what the other speedster wanted.

Only Barry's powers had leveled up recently, therefore he decided to generate his new superlightning and strike Thawne with everything he got. Maybe if he got lucky, he would again sever his connection to the Negative Speedforce. Even if not permanently, temporal fix would also be to his advantage. It would give him enough time to speed the Reverse Flash to the Pipeline.

The moment the lightning left his hands, something strange happened.

First, he spotted weird green particles dancing around right in front of Thawne and then…

Rachel appeared out of nowhere, the lightning striking her straight in the heart once her and Barry's eyes met.

He felt as though everything stilled. As though everything beside him and her stopped existing. His heart was beating so loud this was just about everything he heard along with the horrible ringing in his ears.

Yet, before Rachel hit the ground, he managed to speed to her and hold her, Eobard already gone.

"No… no… no… no… no…" Barry kept on whispering as he cradled her body - he couldn't sense a pulse anymore. She appeared to be dead. Dead because of him. Because he threw everything he got at Thawne and she appeared out of nowhere… because she needed help from Timeless Wells. Was that all a part of Thawne's plan too? Or a perfect timing, aligning himself just right before Deathstorm as his insurance policy?

But what all of that even had to do with killing Rachel?

It made no sense.

And it couldn't be happening.

"Barry?!" he vaguely heard Cisco's voice in his ear. "Barry! Barry, what happened?!"

"She… I…" He couldn't speak. Could only stare at Rachel, lying lifeless in his arms while he sobbed.

With his last effort, he brought her to the Labs and put on a cot in Cait's med lab. And oh, how he wished they had Caitlin to help!

"Do something!" Barry screamed, seeing Rachel's immobile form just lying there, his arms going up and his hands landing on his head in a helpless gesture. He was also shaking. "Please!"

Cisco ran to Rachel and checked her pulse, then he grabbed the defibrillator…

"Stop!" Khione appeared in the door. "Stop that. It won't help her. Electricity's already in her body thanks to him," she gestured towards Barry as she made her way to Rachel's body.

"What… what do you mean…? How do you…?" Cisco stammered, frowning as he understood nothing.

"I can… sense it somehow," Khione told them. "I don't know how, but I can. She needs… she needs a little boost…" She placed the palm of her hand flat on Rachel's heart and closed her eyes. "She's breathing," she then informed.

Barry couldn't believe this. He pushed Khione aside and pressed his finger to Rachel's neck, indeed feeling a pulse, but also… a spark. Her skin electrified under his fingertips.

"What the…?" Cisco started, his mouth widely opened.

Rachel took a breath.

The moment she opened her eyes, they flashed with lightning and suddenly, she sped off the cot and stopped just in the middle of the cortex, looking behind at the rest of the team and then raising her hands to also look at them as though she saw them for the very first time.

And maybe she did, because they were vibrating.

"What… What happened?" she gasped, holding Barry's gaze now.

He didn't waste time, superspeeding to her and stopping right in front of her.

"How… How is this possible?" he asked, tears still not completely dry on his face, though relief, hope and shock were all mixed with happiness that her coming back brought. "You have speed."

"The time particles I sensed in her body mixed with her metagene," Khione explained, "and once she was put directly in your line of fire and hit with your lightning, they reacted as a bonding factor. She has speed now. She's just like you."

They were all just standing there, completely stupefied.

"So… all of this… even putting me right there while you were fighting Thawne… all of that was to give me… speed?" Rachel gasped. "But why? It makes no sense."

"It would make even less sense if Thawne let you die," Barry said. "He cares about you in his own way, doesn't he?"

"So this is, what? His way of saving me?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. We all know him. His plans have plans."

"But… but… how?" Cisco still couldn't comprehend it all. "How could he foresee it all?! Rachel receiving her powers back to save Barry… Ronnie… Caitlin… Deathstorm… Rachel once again overdoing it and being saved in the last possible moment by yet another Wells… and then disappearing just in the exact time needed for her to be hit with lightning and get speed? Heh?!"

"Thawne's from the future and what more, he has knowledge from all the timelines he's ever been in. He doesn't forget them. He must've just had the perfect timing and the rest he manipulated on a quantum level like one can manipulate luck," Barry guessed. "I don't know. That's the only explanation that makes sense."

"It's one thing to keep me alive or protect me and another to give me actual speed," Rachel pointed out, still in shock. She tried to use her newly acquired powers and came to a stop in the other end of the cortex, awe written all over her face. "It feels… it feels so… like I can do anything. Like I am completely free and I can run so fast and…"

"I know," Barry agreed, nodding. "Now you can feel what I feel when I run."

She sped to him and kissed him, causing Cisco to look away whereas Khione, interested in everything, just stared.

"What do we do now?"

"We beat Thawne. Once and for all."