It's Friday. The first chapter of season 5 is here. Now this one might not be that exciting, but it sets up for the rest of season 5 well enough. We'll see how the rest of the season goes.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash.
Everybody was just staring, feeling as though they'd been stuck there for months in those few moments.
"Does anybody need some more alcohol?" Cisco asked around, carrying a large bottle of wine. "No? Just me? Okay," Cisco began chugging directly from the bottle.
"Ha! Uncle Cisco, always the life of the party. Not always said, but always appreciated," Ace laughed. "Oh, I just noticed that you have hands Uncle Cisco. That's new."
Cisco blinked. "Of course I have hands. Why wouldn't I have hands? Do I not have hands in the future?"
"Don't even worry about it." Ace waved him off.
"Don't worry?" Cisco breathed. "This isn't about me losing my luscious locks, which would probably be just as bad, this is about my hands. How would I vibe without them?"
"I mean, they're just your flesh and blood hands. They can be lost in lots of ways. Blown off, burned off, chopped off. Maybe by some meta gang." Ace shrugged.
"A meta gang chops my hands off?!" Cisco yelped.
"I said maybe. That's not a guarantee they will slice both hands off."
"Oh, so I only lost one hand to the meta gang and the other to something else. That isn't exactly comforting." Cisco grit his teeth.
"Damn. I thought they were bluffing." Caitlin muttered at the same time.
She apparently said it a bit too loudly as everyone heard. "Excuse me?" Barry said to his wife. "Did I just hear that correctly? Do you have connections to a meta gang?"
Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Who do you think my underground contacts are?"
"A bunch of homeless people living on the streets keeping an eye on the city that reports to you. Not a freaking meta gang!" Barry yelled.
Caitlin looked thoughtful for a second. "Well they are that too I suppose."
"You're in contact with a meta gang?"
Caitlin huffed. "Well, if we want to get technical about it, yes. I was a member of them after Ronnie died, but then I left after the whole thing with Atom Smasher. Aside from a few favors every now and then just to keep some goodwill between us."
"Well it clearly worked, considering they are going to chop one of my hands off!"
"They are not going to chop your hand off Cisco! I just need to supply them with a few bags of clothes and everything is cool between us."
"Wait, is that why you buy at least 10 sets of outfits a month? I thought that was for charity. That's where the money is going? You're giving money to a gang?!"
"It is charity. I'm giving it to the homeless. It's not a big deal."
"They're a gang. And this is a big deal! They're dangerous." Barry yelled.
"They don't have homes. I helped them out a little bit when I was with them because they made me feel safe." Caitlin retorted. "They are good people who are just trying to survive on the street, and I help them out a little. They talk big, but they're harmless. Believe me, their most dangerous power is photosynthesis."
"They're going to chop off my hand!" Cisco yelled out again.
The sound of laughing interrupted them and snapped them out of their argument to see Ace with his head back laughing at their antics.
They all paused before a moment of realization struck Barry. "Oh my god. He's screwing with us."
"Yes I am," Ace settled down into small chuckles. "Oh, Mom was not kidding when she said you all overreacted way too much in your younger days. I wouldn't have needed TV if I had this going on everyday."
"Wait, so I don't get my hand chopped off by some local metahuman gang?" Cisco asked hopefully.
"No Uncle Cisco. That's not how you lose your hands." Ace nodded.
"Oh good." Cisco released a breath of relief before he replayed Ace's exact words again in his head. "Wait, that's not how I lose my hands? I actually lost my hands?" Ace smirked and turned away. "I can't tell if you're still screwing with me or not."
"I'm sorry, but can we get back to that- are you implying that you are our…" Caitlin tried to say.
"But my hands!" Cisco shouted.
"Your son from the future. Yes, I've pretty much been preparing for this since I found out about my powers, even if I didn't have them at the time." Ace ignored Cisco's shout.
"What are you talking about?" Barry asked.
"You explained this to me. You, Uncle Wally, and Aunt Jesse. Let me just-" Ace rushed out and returned with a whiteboard and some markers.
Everybody flinched at the sudden use of superspeed that wasn't from Barry. "I blame you for this," Caitlin mumbled to her husband.
"What are you blaming me for?" Barry asked ludicrously.
"I don't know, but I just know this is somehow your fault."
"Seriously, am I going to lose my hands?" Cisco asked, hoping for a response, but nobody said anything.
"Okay, so my use of time travel, to this point, was always meant to happen. I know we always use this, but let's imagine the timeline is this line." Ace drew a straight line. "And let's imagine that this dot," Ace circled a random point on the line, "is where we are now and this dot," Ace circled another portion on the line further down, "is where I'm from. Now what I did was travel back from my point to your point." Ace made a semi circle, connecting the two dots.
"Still with me so far? Good," Ace said when nobody spoke up. "This is where it starts to get tricky. Now you're probably aware that there are always multiple different versions of the future, but time wants to happen in specific ways, so sometimes, things need to happen to nudge the timeline in specific directions. We call this a time loop. My present is dependent on the fact that I arrived here in the past on this day, at this time, in order to make sure the timeline remains intact." Ace gestured, making a cycle over and over again.
"Wait, I think I got it!" Cisco exclaimed, looking at the board.
Everybody turned to him, hoping for a better explanation.
Cisco's face fell. "Actually you completely lost me. I'm still focused on finding out when I'm going to lose my hands."
"Oh my Force, this was so easy when you guys explained this." Ace groaned. "There is something that's going to happen in the near future that can only be dealt with by me. I came back from the future to deal with it before returning to when I left my timeline, ensuring that the timeline continues to produce the timeline where I am from. When you had me, you explained how I was needed in the past to make sure what happened will happen again. It's an endless loop where in the future, you're going to tell a younger version of me what I have to do, and when that younger version of me grows up, he's going to become me, coming back to this point, explaining this to you again for the first time."
"Wait, so if you have some important destiny awaiting you, what is it you have to do?" Ralph asked.
"I don't know. Mom and Dad never told me. Said I couldn't have too much knowledge about my future or it could crash the whole timestream. All I know is, this is when I'm supposed to be here. The rest will play out how it goes," Ace shrugged.
"Okay, say we believe you. Would you mind coming with us to STAR Labs? That way, we could-"
"Test my DNA, make sure at least some part of my story is true, that I really am your son. No, it's no problem. Could be fun to have some family bonding time. Race you there Dad,"
Barry was briefly taken off guard before sighing. "That's going to take some getting used to,"
"So everybody is just okay with the fact I'm going to lose my hands?" Cisco said. Still, nobody said anything. "I should have just asked about a girlfriend,"
Taking a deep breath, the person tried to relax themselves. "I don't want to do this,"
"Oh, come on. It's not like you're going into this alone. We'll be there right behind you. We'll never leave you." Someone said, two others appeared nodding in agreement.
"Besides, this was your idea. You're not going to back out now, are you?"
"This wasn't supposed to happen. I can't do it,"
"If you don't, who will? These people have been roaming the streets for years, and nobody is doing a thing about it. And why? Because they're scared. They're cowards." Another person said.
"I'm scared. What if something goes wrong? I don't want to die,"
"Being scared is fine. Nothing wrong with a healthy dose of fear. But if you let that fear control you, that's when it's time to do something about it. You need to face your fear. It's time to step up," the final person said. "Now, let's do this. It's time. Are you with us?" the person presented a glowing dagger to the frightened person.
The person seemed reluctant before finally reaching out to grasp the glowing dagger. "I have to do this,"
The other three cheered as they gave in. "It's going to be easy. We go in, take out everyone in our way, and get out."
"You're going to be by my side right?"
"Kid, we'll always be here. We're not going anywhere."
"Okay, while the machine compares our DNA, would you mind if we ask you some questions?" Caitlin asked.
"Go ahead and ask. Just know that I probably won't be able to answer." Ace said.
"What year is it that you're from?" Barry asked, figuring that was a safe enough question to ask.
"2041." Ace said immediately.
"Twenty-three years in the future. And how old are you?" Caitlin asked.
"I don't know if I should answer that. If I tell you, then you'd know when you'd have me, and that could be spoilers."
"The Crisis everyone is talking about. It's already passed for you. That means I saved everyone," Barry stated.
"I can't answer any questions relating to Crisis. That's a big no-no. That event is just too important to tamper with. But you made the right choice, don't let my presence influence you in any way," Ace shook his hands, not willing to let any knowledge about the Crisis escape from him.
"Was I there? Did I see you grow up to be the man you've become?" Barry asked, worried about whether he had left Caitlin to raise their child alone.
"I knew you were my father growing up. That's all I'm willing to say right now," Ace sighed.
Barry nodded. It wasn't a clear answer, but it gave him hope that he would be there for his child in some way or another.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Caitlin asked.
Ace pursed his lips and entered a deep thought. Pondering on whether to inform his parents about his three siblings. He supposed this yes or no question was vague enough for him to answer. "Yes,"
"How many?" Barry asked.
"I had three siblings." Ace stated.
"Had? Did something happen?" Caitlin caught on. She didn't want anything to happen to any of her children. The fact that Ace was here for something didn't help ease her conscience.
"I'm sorry. I will have three siblings? I'm not sure which tense to use. I mean, I know I have them, but they're not here. My past is your future, so for me right now, it's like they're gone, but not really. And not for you since you don't even know about them. Time travel really complicates things."
"You seem to really care about them. Are they younger than you?" Caitlin asked.
"Ah. Nice try. If I'm not willing to reveal my own age, no way I'm telling you anything about them. To be frank, it was a risk even telling you they exist."
Caitlin smiled and shrugged. "It was worth a try,"
"You're not getting anything about them from me," Ace shook his head, amused at his parents.
"I don't know. You've given us more than you probably thought you should. Older siblings?" Barry asked.
"I'm not saying!" Ace shouted.
"Barry, leave him alone. It's clear he's not going to tell us more about it, and we shouldn't ask." Caitlin said.
"There's no harm in asking some questions," Barry stated.
"There's harm if Ace answers those questions. So stop asking and expecting a different answer than no."
"Stop being such a killjoy. Ace doesn't mind, do you?"
"Well, actually-" Ace tried to say.
"Can't you recognize a rhetorical question? Don't answer that," Barry interrupted.
"Let our son speak. Go on honey," Caitlin urged him.
"Well I guess, technically, the questions themselves aren't going to be causing any trouble,"
"Well what do you know? You're just a child. When you get back, I am grounding you," Caitlin glared at the boy.
"Now dear, our son is free to speak his mind. What were you saying kid?" Barry asked sweetly.
"There are some questions you should just accept that I won't be able to answer, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't ask questions at all." Ace tried to come up with a compromise between the two. He didn't believe the rest of the family when they told him how much his parents had mellowed out when having kids. Looking at them now, he couldn't believe how childish they were, but over two decades was a long time for them to become the parents he knew them as.
They must have caught onto his expression because Caitlin then said, "I'm sorry. We must not be giving such a great impression to you. Do we not argue as much in the future?"
"You are definitely more calm where I'm from, but I guess having children will do that to you," Ace shrugged.
"Oh, well excuse us." Barry apologized. "In case it wasn't apparent, Caitlin nor I are prepared to have children right now. Maybe in a few… years?"
"Not telling. Having children is a big responsibility and neither of you should start trying until you both know you're ready. Besides, you haven't been married for a year. Plenty of time to think about kids," Ace shook his head.
"You know, we are approaching 30. We're in the prime of our lives, and obviously we don't have any financial strains. Maybe it is time we start talking about kids. Apparently we're going to have that big family you always wanted." Caitlin smiled at Barry, sultrily grazing her hands up and down his shoulders.
"No!" Ace shouted, shocking the couple out of whatever was happening between them. Barry and Caitlin turned to him questioningly. "I mean… uh… not yet. I can't let this happen just yet. Just pluck this conversation out of your minds and forget this ever happened, okay? I can't influence the flow of time anymore than I already have,"
"Sorry, I can't imagine how difficult it is to constantly be aware of what you say, and what you are and are not allowed to say without changing the timeline." Caitlin looked apologetic. "You can't even tell us anything about yourself without potentially influencing us to how we would raise you as a child."
"Yeah, it's hard, so don't mind me if sometimes I just don't say anything. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I'm unsure of whether I can say anything."
"Okay, how about instead of us asking you questions, how about we just ask what you want to talk about?" Barry asked.
"Well, I guess I do have a couple questions about you guys. Growing up knowing my parents were The Flash and Killer Frost, you're subjected to an image of who they are through the rumor mill. I never got the chance to ask my parents, but I guess I could ask you now. So there was some talk about how Killer Frost was once part of Zoom's army back in the early days. Was mom a bad guy once?"
"How did that come about?" Caitlin asked, shocked at the revelation that her alter ego was placed under such scrutiny to be thought of as evil.
"There was some talk about seeing Killer Frost on cameras standing guard over CCPD when Zoom took it over for that brief period of time. There's some speculation that Killer Frost had actually gone undercover, but the majority thought Frost was on Zoom's side before falling in love with The Flash. But I know you guys knew each other before that happened, so what's the story there?" Ace asked.
"Well, that's actually a little complicated," the couple said together. They went on to explain what happened, where Caitlin had been kidnapped by Zoom and then mistakenly released after posing as her doppelganger who was part of Zoom's army once. Then how Caitlin had to continue the charade for a few days before finding an opportunity of escape.
"But wait, why didn't Dad go after you?" Ace asked.
"I didn't have my powers at the moment, so I couldn't go after her," Barry explained.
"Okay. I guess that makes sense. There's something else I'm curious about."
"Ask away,"
"Thanks." Ace sighed. "Do I have a step-family somewhere?" Ace asked, shocking his parents with the seemingly random question.
"What are you- What?" they both asked.
"Well, Uncle Cisco once mentioned how Mom was married to someone else before Dad. What happened to him?"
"What exactly did Cisco say?" Caitlin asked.
"Something about how some guy left Mom on their wedding day. And believe me, Mom has told us all about how your wedding was crashed by Nazis, so it seemed pretty obvious that the guy Uncle Cisco was talking about wasn't Dad. Unless you guys got married, subsequently got divorced and married again like Ross and Rachel?"
"Friends is still popular in the future? That show seems to be standing against the test of time." Caitlin tried to avoid the question.
"Mom…" Ace groaned at her pitiful attempt.
"Okay, your mother was married to someone else at one point. But that was years ago. And he died saving the city the same day they married. So you don't need to be worried about a secret step-family we're hiding from you," Barry answered for his wife.
"Wow, wait." Ace suddenly realized something. "If he saved the city, was he a metahuman?"
Barry and Caitlin nodded, confused as to why that was such a big deal.
"If he was a meta, that means this was after you guys had met. I always heard how you guys were together from the moment you two met. Was Mom having an affair?"
"No! No, no, no, no, no. Despite popular opinion, your father and I were not together from the moment we met. In fact, we hated each other and couldn't stand the sight of each other." Caitlin said.
"Everybody just likes to make fun of the fact that it was love at first fight between us. Officially, we wouldn't get together for another 2 ½ years. And before that, we both dated other people." Barry explained. "There was no cheating involved on both sides. Wait… no, yeah. There was no cheating."
This time, both Caitlin and Ace looked confused at what Barry said. "Barry, what did you…?"
"Summer lovin'" Barry began to sing with a teasing grin on his face.
"Oh god. Oh, that's what you were- yeah, I understand the slight confusion now." Caitlin said with a tiny bit of relief in her expression.
"Is there a story there?" Ace asked.
"Well to be frank, your mother and I had a one night stand whilst she was technically engaged to that guy we were talking about. But at the time we all thought he was dead so it wasn't really cheating."
"Ew. I did not need to know that my parents first got together as a one night stand." Ace shuddered.
"Well technically, that wasn't the first-"
"Shut up! I don't want to hear this anymore."
"It was just a kiss before. Nothing to get so worked up over," Barry shrugged.
"I am so confused. I have so many questions right now. Mom was engaged to someone else, but then you all thought he died, so you two decided to hook-up. But when he comes back from the dead, Mom gets married to the other guy."
They both nodded their heads. "That pretty much sums it up," Barry said.
"To be fair, that first year was pretty confusing. We were just starting with this hero thing. Just wait until you hear about how my next boyfriend was actually Zoom."
"You dated Zoom? The guy who broke Dad's back, kidnapped you, and tried to destroy Central City by bringing a meta army?"
"We didn't know at the time he was Zoom. And we thought he was dead for a short time, so I don't think I officially broke up with him."
"When did you start dating anyway?" Barry asked.
"I can't remember. Christmas when we kissed under the mistletoe?" Caitlin thought out loud.
"Great. Now Christmas will forever be the day that Mom started dating a psychopath." Ace stated sarcastically.
"You're making it sound so much worse than it actually is,"
"Well, test results are in, and we are the parents." Caitlin said, looking at the results on the sheet of paper in her hand. "So we know at least you are who you say you are,"
"I told you. But this doesn't have to change anything. I can just stay here in STAR Labs until the event I need to take care of is over with. Nothing needs to change with you guys Mom and Dad." Ace said. "Just pretend I'm another set of hands to help you. Being your son from the future shouldn't impact your life at all."
Caitlin gave Barry a look, and if that wasn't obvious enough, she nudged her head at Ace.
"Hey Ace, you shouldn't be sleeping at STAR Labs. The beds here are terrible. I should know. Come home with us. We've got plenty of room. And the food service is going to be much better than what you might scrounge around here."
"You sure? I mean, I know this is all really last minute and you weren't prepared to have any guests, let alone your son, so-"
"We insist," Caitlin interrupted him. "Prepared or not. Past, present, or future, you are our son, and we are going to take care of you because we love you unconditionally. The mansion gets pretty lonely with just the two of us. Maybe with the three of us, it wouldn't feel so empty some days."
Ace just nodded. He knew when his mother got like this, there was no way of deterring her. He was just glad her determination was being spurned by love and affection.
"And not to mention we're going to need to buy you some essentials. Did you bring anything other than your suit and the clothes on your back?" Barry asked.
Ace paused for a moment. "Uhhh…"
"I'll take that as a no. So we're going shopping for clothes and other essentials. And we need to do some more grocery shopping. With two speedsters, we're going to need a lot more food." Caitlin said.
"I'll take care of the groceries. Anything we need to be concerned about?" Barry asked.
Ace shook his head no. "I'll eat just about anything. And you're leaving me clothes shopping with Mom?"
Barry lightly smirked and chuckled. "Good luck." He said before running out.
Ace was horrified as he slowly turned to face his mother, who he could swear had a malicious look on her face as she grabbed her purse and pulled him out the door.
By the time everybody was done shopping, the front door was overflowing with purchases, from the food Barry had to buy from numerous stores and all the things Ace would need for his stay as there was no telling how long it would take before he would need to return home.
"I'm going to take my clothes to my room, get everything setup. Where are the bed sheets we bought?" Ace asked Caitlin. Caitlin reached into a bag and tossed him the aforementioned sheets.
Ace sped off with all of his things, and Barry did the same with the groceries, somehow finding a place to put them all and leaving out things for dinner. "Do you think this is going to be weird for Ace?" Caitlin asked.
"What do you mean?" Barry asked as he began to make dinner.
"I mean this, all of this. It must be so strange for him to see us like this when he's grown up with us being his parents and we're not them. And the mansion. I wasn't lying when I said the place felt so empty. I can only imagine how crowded it was with three siblings for him."
"Ace understands that we didn't just start out like that." Barry shrugs. "Over twenty years are going to pass before we become the people he recognizes as his parents. Those people in the future are not us. Just like we're not the people we were even a year ago. But if we really love each other, we'll love a changed person as we ourselves are changing."
Caitlin hugged him and looked at him with a smirk. "You stole that. That's W. Somerset Maugham," Caitlin accused him.
"I paraphrased him. When you get kidnapped by a man who spouts quotes all day long, you pick up a few things." Barry shrugged helplessly.
"Let's not talk about him. He's gone. Everything he's done, it's gone. He's dead, and to prevent him from coming back, we're going to forget about him."
"It's going to be hard. He's done things that won't be easily forgotten. Made me do things that I can't even remember doing to regret. He made me hurt you," Barry ran his fingers through her hair.
"We're going to have to. We have the future to look forward to. Our son is here, along with three more kids in the future. And if we want that, there's something we're going to need to do soon."
"I know. That does have me worried, but I trust Ace to be able to handle it, with us right behind him."
"Are we bad parents letting our son, who seems to have just entered adulthood, take care of something that could either make or break his entire life? This is our future, his time, and we're dumping it on the back of a child."
"I don't think we're going to have a choice. We don't know what's going to happen. Even Ace doesn't know what's going to happen. His involvement could be something grand, or something minimal that just needs him to be here. His presence here could have already solidified the timeline and we just need to wait for the signal to send him home."
"You're right," Caitlin nodded. Barry was more knowledgeable to the workings of time travel. He would know better than her. That didn't make her feel better though. "It's still terrible though,"
"I'm not saying the situation doesn't suck, because it does. I'm just saying, we're not going to be able to do anything about it."
Like I said, nothing too exciting. We get my explanation of how time loops work, our first glimpse of Cicada, and an awkward interrogation between past parents and future child. Hope it was okay anyway. We're in for a long ride.
I'll see you all next week.