You haven't heard the last of me. You didn't think it was over, did you? Well I'm here to tell you that, yes, it's true. Barry is dead. Sorry.
That being said, we're not finished just yet. Hope you all have a good day.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash.
Caitlin crying over the body of her husband and one of Cisco's best friends was the image that greeted Cisco when he returned from canvassing the area. The scene was just too emotional and tense that he had to get out of there. There was nothing he could do in the situation anyway. Without his powers, there was too much risk of increasing the damage done to Barry's body if they moved him. He wouldn't have made it to STAR if they tried. So he left because he couldn't handle having to say goodbye to someone who meant so much to him.
It was a coward's move, and Cisco will fully admit to it, but he needed to get out of there. He couldn't handle it. He just…
Cisco softly touched Caitlin's shoulder and she lifted herself off of the body to face him. There was a wide range of emotion when she laid eyes upon him. Relief, sadness, despair, anger, and perhaps worst of all; betrayal.
"Where were you?" she asked, accusingly. "Why weren't you here? You could have helped me! We could have saved him!"
Cisco bit his inner lip and sighed deeply through his nose and slowly shook his head. "No, we couldn't have,"
"You don't know that! You could have breached us all back so I could stabilize him. I could have helped him there. But you weren't here. You ran!"
"Caitlin, you know as well as I do, better even, that Barry wouldn't have made it. There was nothing we could've done. He only had moments the second he hit the ground. His powers were almost completely sucked out of him. He suffered too much damage to safely bring him somewhere else. It was too late,"
"You're wrong. It's never too late," Caitlin cried. "People have come back from the dead. I can do it. I can bring him back,"
"Caitlin…" Cisco gasped. "You don't know what you're saying. That's dangerous. You shouldn't mess with that."
"I don't care. He wasn't supposed to go, not now. If you won't help me, I'll find someone who will!" Caitlin shouted.
"I can help," a voice spoke that Cisco didn't recognize. The two turned and saw a man that was sporting pitch black eyeballs. Cisco didn't have an idea of who this was. He seemed slightly familiar but Cisco couldn't place him.
But evidently, Caitlin did.
"Ramsey? They got you too?" Caitlin said in a concerned tone.
"No my dear. It's the other way around. I got them," Ramsey Rosso grinned and his eyes turned back to normal but his demeanor didn't change. He didn't seem to be under the influence of someone else, but then again Cisco didn't really know the person that well. He wasn't acting like a savage animal though.
"It's you?" Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "You're the one causing all of this? You're the meta cannibal?"
"It was a gift. I needed to feed, and the metas provided." Ramsey breathed. "Their blood was my sustenance. And once they'd been infected with my own blood, it took them over with me at the helm,"
"So what do you want?" Cisco had to ask. Barry was dead. Nothing else really mattered at the moment.
"The two of you made me possible. The dark matter you gave me? It made me this. So as my thanks, I'm willing to offer my services just this once. My powers allow me to manipulate blood. With it, I can rework it to bring one back from the brink, such as your husband there," Ramsey pointed to the body lying on the ground.
Caitlin's eyebrows shot up. "You know?"
"Of course," Ramsey drawled. "For a moment, Barry became mine, and with it, everything he was. Even now, my blood is lying dormant in him, waiting for me to activate it to reawaken him. I could do it right now,"
"I don't trust you," Cisco accused him. "If you do it, why don't you? Why would you give us the option?"
"Because it is all part of the deal. Once I bring Allen back, he will be mine. He will be mine to control, to do whatever I should please. But in respect to my past friendship with Caitlin, I'm giving you the option to let him go. To let him pass and move on." There were still traces of a smile, but it faded it be more forlorn. "If I do this, he will be alive, but he will never be the man you knew again,"
Caitlin was of two minds. One more prominent than the other, but still there. She couldn't let this happen to Barry. Not again. She'd already lost him once to a megalomaniac that seeked to control the world, enslaving people to do his bidding. Barry would rather be dead than let that happen again. But he would be alive. He would be here in some capacity. But that would be the only highlight if she agreed.
"Make your choice," Ramsey demanded. "He's fading fast,"
Looking down, Caitlin realized he meant that literally. Barry's arms were starting to disappear. She'd completely forgotten! The Speed Force was trying to claim Barry's body now that death had set in. Pretty soon she wouldn't even have a body to mourn over. This just wasn't fair.
"I can't let you do that," Caitlin reluctantly shook her head. "I won't let you make him your servant."
Cisco seemed to relax slightly as Rosso scoffed. "So be it, my friend." Rosso spoke that last word as though it were poison, but turned around to leave.
Did he think they were just going to let him leave? Cisco didn't think so. He was about to go after him when Caitlin quickly shouted "Wait!"
"Yes?" Rosso leered at her.
Caitlin paused for a moment. "If I were to give you something else, would you still do it? Would you bring him back?"
"Something as good as The Flash? I'd like to see that. But you have my curiosity. What is it you're offering?"
Caitlin bit her lip as her nerves shot up with the decision she made. "Me. In exchange for Barry's life, I'm offering myself to be yours instead."
"Caitlin no! Don't do it!" Cisco shouted. Cisco wanted to just breach the both of them out here. Why was she entertaining such a notion? And did she really think he would let her? "I won't let you do this."
Cisco stepped toward her to get away from Ramsey, but Caitlin shot ice particles out of her hands, encasing him in a block of ice with only his head free to move around. His mechanical hand was vibrating though so he might have a chance to escape before Caitlin did something she regretted. "Barry wouldn't want this! Think about what he would want you to do,"
"I am thinking about him!" Caitlin shouted in response. "He would want to be alive again. He would want to be here with me, to raise our daughter. And if this is what I have to do, so be it,"
"Caitlin…" Cisco sighed.
"Barry is my husband. He's my responsibility and this is my decision. You can't make me change my mind." Caitlin remained firm in her choice.
"Mmm, Killer Frost for The Flash," Ramsey contemplated the offer, wetting his lips in thought. "You'd be the perfect opponent for when he would come for me. The fight would be glorious." Ramsey smirked. "Alright, you've convinced me. I infect you with my blood, I bring your husband back to life, and then we go our merry way."
"As long as you promise you will remove any of your influence from him," Caitlin made her condition known.
"I promise. It's a deal." Ramsey took out his hand for her to grab, his black virus squirming in his palm, waiting to take root in a new host.
Caitlin walked up to him and slowly moved to take his hand.
"Caitlin, stop!" Cisco shouted in vain.
The moment Caitlin's hand made contact with his, the black substance seeped through her skin, traveling through her veins. Caitlin grunted in pain at the sensation of something forcing itself into her. She was brought to her knees as the feeling settled down. When she opened her eyes, though she didn't know it, they were pitch black.
"Now for me to hold up my end of the bargain. Step away from him," Ramsey commanded her.
Caitlin didn't have a choice. Her body obeyed him, but her mind was still intact. She wasn't sure if this would continue, but it didn't matter anymore. She trapped herself. She just hoped it would all be worth it.
Ramsey crouched over the rapidly fading body of Barry Allen. His arms had disappeared up to his shoulders, but there was still a good bit left of him before it would overtake him. Caitlin swore this process was faster with Barry's brother but maybe Ramsey's blood was delaying the process. Either way, he would be back.
"You have made your choice," Ramsey declared. He slapped his hand over Barry's mouth and all of a sudden, Barry's arms returned, his eyes were open, but they were black. Barry's body was twisting and squirming as though he were in pain but Caitlin couldn't do anything about it, simply watch.
Cisco still had that luxury though.
"What are you doing to him? Stop that!"
"Relax. The process is disturbing, but I'm forcing his brain to reconnect with the rest of his body, making his heart beat again, air to move through his lungs. It's unnatural. You didn't think this was going to be easy, did you?"
Barry's convulsions were winding down before he stilled. Ramsey removed his hand and as soon as he did, black goo seemed to leak out of every pore of Barry's skin. It seemed he was keeping his end of the deal.
Barry suddenly gasped and shot up, reminiscent of when he'd first awoken from his coma, but his eyes were unseeing, glazed over and dull. Not the vibrant green she'd always known.
Slowly, Barry picked himself up, but as though in a trance. He put his cowl back on and let the lightning run beneath his eyes that they seemed to be two yellow suns. He was taking deep breaths to steady himself but he wasn't moving.
"As agreed, I've brought back The Flash. The only suggestion I've placed in his head is to return back to your base of operations with your companion immediately. After that, he will be free of me." Ramsey suddenly smirked and Caitlin got a disturbing feeling in her gut. "And you,"
"What are you talking about? What about her?" Cisco asked, still stuck in his ice cube, but his prosthetic seemed to be moving a little more than it had before.
"When Barry awakens from the trance I've placed him under, he will resume his life with no memory of Caitlin Snow," Ramsey chuckled.
"What? No! That wasn't part of the deal," Caitlin shouted. "Why did you do that?"
"It was something I added as a last minute countermeasure. I can't have your husband after me when he knows I have his wife. The simple answer is; make it so he doesn't know you're his wife."
"That's cruel. You're doing this for your own enjoyment, you bastard!" Cisco shouted more profanities that didn't need to be said.
"Maybe I am. What are you going to do about it?" Ramsey breathed.
Ramsey snapped his fingers and Barry twitched in response. The next second, both he and Cisco were gone.
"Come my pet," Ramsey grabbed her chin to force her to look at him. "We have much to do."
The events of the next few weeks were, to sum up, complete chaos. When Barry brought Cisco back to STAR Labs, he got Cisco out of the ice cube and demanded an explanation.
"Don't you know?" Cisco asked cautiously, testing to see whether Barry would remember what happened.
"No, I don't know. That's why I'm asking you. Don't ask such obvious questions. Now tell me who did this to you so I can find them and lock them up at Iron Heights." Barry commanded.
"Don't do that. Trust me, you really don't want to do that,"
"Why not?" Barry's shoulders raised in agitation.
"Because it was your wife, man," Cisco told him bluntly.
Barry snorted and Cisco looked shocked at the response. "A wife? I don't have a wife, Cisco. I'm not even dating anyone. My last girlfriend was Patty Spivot almost 5 years ago."
"You have a wife. Her name is Caitlin Snow. You've known her for 6 years and have been married to her for the last 2. She's the mother of your child, man." Cisco insisted.
Barry raised an eyebrow. "Ramona doesn't have a mom," Cisco scoffed. "Okay, she does," Barry amended. "But she's not in the picture. God forgive me for saying this, but Ramona was an accident. I didn't know about her until she showed up. You know this. You were there,"
"No, listen to me. You are married. Your daughter has a mother. And that woman's been kidnapped. You've just been made to believe that. Your memories have been erased."
"I think I would know if I had some blanks in my memories Cisco. I am fine. This is just another attempt to get me to date and find a mother for Ramona when the last time this happened, Ramona was the result,"
"You have to believe me. I have proof. Photos of the two of you together. DNA records-"
"All of them were altered. Fakes. Or maybe just pictures you picked up from my alternate from Earth-2. The one who actually does have a wife. This is just some prank you're trying to pull, well let me tell you, it is not funny."
"I have your marriage certificate. I have Ramona's birth certificate stating that Caitlin Allen, nee Snow, is her mother. The government states that you are married to this woman!" Cisco shouted, pointing at the documents he pulled from the computer.
Barry took a quick glance at it, which was all he needed. "I see what this is about,"
Cisco let out a breath of relief.
"This is just another prank. The mother of my child, who incidentally is named Caitlin Snow, registered Ramona before dropping her off on Joe's doorstep for me. And then, as an elaborate joke, you decided to send official documents that would marry me off to the woman I had a one night stand with. Very funny,"
"Are… are you thinking about 'The Accidental Husband'? I didn't do that!"
"Well what am I supposed to believe? That my memories have been altered, but I don't feel any differently. I'm supposedly married, but the wife I have is the one who trapped you in an ice cube and is currently kidnapped. You have photos of us, when everyone knows you brought back pictures of my alternate and his wife when we visited them. I just can't believe what you're saying, Cisco. So I'm not,"
Cisco took a moment to recollect his thoughts. He needed to find someway to convince Barry he was telling the truth and what he'd been led to believe was wrong.
Barry sighed. "Look, if you don't want to tell me who it was, I will understand if you just tell me what happened tonight,"
"There was a meta disturbance. We went to handle it, but we were overwhelmed. You died. In exchange for her enslavement, Caitlin, your wife, made a deal with a person who had the power to bring you back. But the dude tricked us and erased your memories of her because he thought it would be funny." Cisco explained honestly.
Barry stared at him for a moment. "Do you have a girlfriend that you just don't want to tell me about? Is that what this is, a little kink in the bedroom that you're embarrassed about? Because I would understand. You're my best friend. I wouldn't judge,"
"EWW! No!" Cisco shouted. "That is not what this is! I'm telling the truth. You have to believe me," Cisco begged.
Cisco could see Barry had already come to his own conclusion and was sticking to it. "Alright. I believe you. I won't push. I'm gonna check on Ramona and relieve Allegra of duty. I'll see you tomorrow,"
"Ask her about it. Ask anybody. They'll all tell you the same. Caitlin Snow is the love of your life!"
"Caitlin Snow does not exist! Even if she was the mother of my child, she gave up that right when she abandoned her. I want nothing to do with her. Now, or in the future." Barry sped off.
Cisco groaned and rubbed his head as he felt a headache coming on. This was decidedly not what he'd been hoping for.
Nothing seemed to work! Barry just thought everybody else was in on some joke or covering for Cisco's 'girlfriend'. Any photos Barry saw were accused of being fake and planted by Cisco or Joe or copies of pictures Cisco had taken from Earth-2 and promptly returned to Cisco. He was suddenly regretting asking for those.
Cisco thought, short of getting his memories back or some other divine intervention, Barry was going to die on this hill; he wasn't married and he never knew Caitlin Snow. Honestly, Cisco didn't even know if it were possible for him to regain them seeing as he had no idea what work Ramsey's blood did on him.
Work… blood. Blood… work. Bloodwork! That was it. He was awesome.
What was he talking about again?
"Iris… Iris… Iris, listen. Hey! Hey hardhead! Listen to what I have to say!" Barry shouted into his phone as he entered the Cortex. "I don't know why you are obsessing over this Caitlin person. Okay, I might have slept with this woman. Maybe I got her pregnant and she's Ramona's biological mother. That does not make her my wife or soulmate or whatever you want to call it. Whoever she is, that does not concern me. That woman is not part of my life. I don't know her! Get that through your head!" Barry promptly hung up.
Now Cisco remembered. There went that hope. If Iris, Barry's best friend since childhood couldn't convince him what they were saying was actually true, nobody would. Maybe The Speed Force, but Cisco couldn't see The Speed Force concerning themselves with such a matter. At this point, Cisco was praying that when Barry would inevitably meet Caitlin again it would jog his memories. That was a slim chance though if he were to be honest with himself.
In addition to the change of memories, it created a ripple effect with Barry. Cisco feared what type of person Barry was now that Caitlin's impact on his life was missing. What new memories Barry had established in order to maintain the belief that Caitlin never existed in his life. How would Barry explain to himself some of the things they'd gotten up to if Caitlin truly never existed.
When questioned about it, Barry relegated the important events to someone else. Killer Frost became an entirely different character, one that was never involved with the team. Her actions were seen through the lens of an outsider. Achievements Caitlin assisted in were given to someone else. The Fake-Wells, Harry Wells, even Julian.
"I swear on my sister's life, I did not do the things you're saying I did," Julian insisted.
"Don't be so modest, Julian. You're an integral part of the team and have contributed a lot over the years. You don't need to downplay your involvement," Barry smiled at him.
"I'm not!" Julian shouted. "I'm not taking credit for something I didn't do."
"And humble too," Barry commented. "You're a good man, Julian."
They could probably show Barry a record or some other evidence of everything that happened the last 6 years and he would still vehemently proclaim that Caitlin Snow doesn't exist in his life.
And then there was the case with Ramona. "How do you explain Ramona's powers? She didn't inherit her cold powers from you,"
Barry just raised an eyebrow at the statement. "I'm not really sure how that's relevant. It doesn't matter who her mother is, she's not here. But to answer your question, let me introduce the concept of mutations. It's random. Ramona could have come out with any power at all. It was a lottery that gave her cold powers. And her mutation is due to dark matter, which she did inherit from me." Barry said in a tone like he was explaining to a child.
Cisco sighed and dropped his head in his hands. "Barry, who could tell you that your memories have been altered and would believe it?"
"There's nobody who could convince me unless I suddenly regain those memories. I can trust my own mind Cisco. We haven't dealt with any psychic metas in a while. I feel reasonably confident in my assessment. There is nothing wrong with me. I would know if there was,"
"That's an inherent contradiction. If something is messing with your mind, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference," Cisco practically shouted.
"That's nice," Barry waved him off, handing him his regular order of coffee but Barry stared at his cup. Glaring more like.
"What's up?" Cisco sighed, deciding to drop the conversation for the meantime.
"I ordered my regular, but it doesn't taste like how I remember. Too sweet. Did I suddenly stop putting in as many sweeteners lately?"
Cisco remembered this. A discussion about coffee Barry had with Caitlin. When she was pregnant, obviously she wasn't allowed to drink any coffee, so Barry offered to boycott it along with her. In fact, this was his first cup in almost a year since Caitlin still wasn't drinking any coffee. Eventually, it just slipped their minds to take up drinking it again. But it looked like they were taking it back up again. At least Barry was and Caitlin was sure to follow when she came back.
"Don't you remember? You offered to stop drinking coffee while Ramona was still in the womb," Cisco said tentatively, careful not to mention Caitlin. Maybe he could jog his memory back leading to Caitlin.
"Hmm," Barry hummed thoughtfully. "That seems like something I would do. But I wasn't there for the pregnancy. It's not that. Maybe I just put too much sugar in," Barry shrugged it off and walked off.
Cisco groaned in frustration. He was close to giving up, he was getting nowhere. And he would be getting nowhere unless he could somehow get Barry to regain his memories. But he didn't dare attempt to build a machine to help with that. In theory he could, but in terms of the brain, he was so far out of his depth. He would usually consult with Caitlin about this but she was unfortunately unavailable at the moment. Maybe Julian could help…?
Caitlin wasn't like the others. She was given freedom that the others did not receive. She could move of her own volition, make her own decisions. Ramsey didn't control her as much as the others.
When asked, the only answer she was given was 'she was special'. Caitlin just thought he liked torturing her with the idea that she could leave, to return to her husband and daughter, knowing how she would be greeted. With eyes that held no recognition. He would reject her and she wouldn't be able to handle that. Loathe as she was to admit it, she needed to stay with Ramsey so he could fix Barry. Plus she had nowhere to go. Even if one of the others were willing to take her in, she would prove a liability with Ramsey able to move in and out of her mind seamlessly.
At least most nights she was left alone. Ramsey preferred to hole himself up in his lab, perfecting what he called 'his cure to humanity'. It was mostly the underlings that went out into the night, killing and draining dark matter from unsuspecting victims and bringing it back for Ramsey to feast upon. Most of Caitlin's work was to collect the blood for Ramsey to more easily consume. As well as to offer her own blood for him. She'd never had to 'donate' this much blood before in such a short time.
"Why are you doing this? There's no reason for this at all," Caitlin said to him once.
"No reason? Our world is a sickness. It is plagued with disease and destruction. There is danger at every corner. I am working to prevent that. The mortality rate has dropped significantly since the time when humans weren't expected to survive past 20. Now we have people living to their centennial years. Advancements in medicine, in technology, life itself. Why are you standing in the way of the future?"
Caitlin laughed. "I find it funny how you proclaim to be wanting to help people, to help them survive, only for your research to be drenched in blood."
"Sacrifices need to be made for the betterment of society. The first condition of immortality is death. Like a phoenix, I bring them back from the ashes to begin their life anew. With no fear of what lies beyond. Do you truly know what happens? Nobody does. Do you really think you'll see all the people you've lost? Or maybe it'll just be cold and dark and lonely. Like the bottom of a grave. Maybe there's just nothing. Once I achieve what I sought out to do, we will never have to worry about that again."
Caitlin paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "I see what's going on now. You're scared. Scared of death. And that's completely understandable. You were confronted by it when your mother passed and you couldn't handle the fact that it happens to all of us, but Ramsey, that's just life. It's the unknown that makes life so much sweeter. But you need to see that you're not liberating people from death. You are trapping them in life. And that's no way to live,"
"How do you know? Do you really want to die? Everybody always says they want to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. What I'm doing is making a life where people have no need to fear the unknown. The next big adventure is put on hold indefinitely. And if anybody says they have a problem with that, they're lying. They'd rather live a half-life than no life at all." Ramsey proclaimed.
"You need help,"
"What I need is to finish what I started with you,"
Amnesia. It feels like a cop out, but since I skipped over the amnesia episode in canon, I decided to make this happen. And I didn't want to make Barry a slave again, so I had Caitlin do it.
Also I wanted to have a full on Flash vs. Killer Frost battle in the future, and I couldn't do that if one of them were holding back.
Barry has had all memories of Caitlin wiped from his mind, and to compensate for it, his mind has created false memories of events that make sense of what he does remember. Like 'I have a daughter, but I don't know who the mother is. The answer; it was a one night stand and the baby was dropped off on my doorstep.'
I hope this is satisfactory for all of you. It's too late to change it. Bye-bye.