Present

Pain was something I was used to by now. I experienced the feeling for as long as I could remember; the worst pain of all being when I lost my parents. Of course there was a difference between emotional and physical pain, and for the most part, I was used to physical pain.

But this was different.

All of my life, I was used to getting hit a few times here and there, not to mention almost dying more than once. That part was just included in the package of being a villain, so of course I got used to it. Soon enough, I bucked up and convinced myself that nothing hurt me. However, this type of pain was something I've never experienced before, and it drove me mad.

The ache that had been scattered throughout my whole body shifted towards my head in the matter of an hour, and it was something I've never felt before in my life. The dull ache turned into tiny pricks that felt like needles poking and prodding at my brain, almost as if they were just doing it for the fun of it. The feeling only grew stronger with every second that passed, and I was close to blowing my top off.

I squeeze my eyes shut as I press the palms of my hands to my head, trying to picture myself without this massive headache. It was hard for me to remember what it was like to not have one, and that only made the pain hurt more. A low moan escapes my throat then as I lean up against the wall, wishing that this would just stop.

"Barry!" I shout for no reason in particular. I wasn't sure if they were watching me or not, but it was worth a shot. "Cisco! Please, someone..."

I fade out as I knock my head against the wall, the other sharp flick of pain distracting me for a moment from the other pain before it was back. My ears strained to hear someones voice over the intercom, but there was nothing but the sound of my heart racing in my ears. I almost screamed; at least, that was until I heard Caitlin's voice in my ear, but it wasn't the Caitlin I wanted to hear.

"You feel that, Raven?" she asks me as she stands above me, blocking out the light coming from the celling. Her small shadow shielded my eyes, and it almost felt like it helped my headache a little. "You feel those sharp pricks at your brain...the never-ending void of an ache throughout your entire body...the feeling of insanity? That's how I felt when you injected me. Not so funny now, is it?"

"Make it stop," I plea as if it would do anything. "Please, I'm sorry for what I did, but just make it stop."

She makes the tsk sound with her tongue. "I said the same thing when you watched me suffer...it's a shame, really. I guess karma does exist."

"You're dead," I fire back at her suddenly, anger starting to flow through me. "Hunter killed you when he realized he didn't need you anymore...and now...he's killing me."

She kneels next to me then, her eyes burning a bright silver. A half smirk appears on her face then, and I knew she was up to no good. I tried telling myself that whatever she was going to say wasn't real; that it was only in my head, but it was so damn hard to focus on anything with this massive headache. I couldn't even decipher what was real anymore.

"You're right, he is killing you," she says bitterly before continuing on. "But you don't have to let him."

I shake my head. "Barry and the others are working towards an antidote-"

"You know there isn't a damn antidote," she whispers harshly, and I suddenly knew she was right. "You've known that all along; you just decided to have hope...the one thing that gets people killed in the first place. There hasn't been a cure for this since years past; you know they destroyed anything left of it."

A sharp pain shoots through my skull then, making me grow more agitated. "Then he won, didn't he?"

She smirks once again. "You don't have to let him win, Raven. You don't have to let him have the last laugh. You just sitting here in pain means that he won, but you don't have to. End this all yourself. You'll really show him who gets the last laugh then."

My heart sinks into my chest, but something about her words brought me comfort. "I-I can't-"

"Sure you can," she says, a little too chipper for my taste. "Think about it, Raven. He only did this so you would pay for what you did; for your betrayal against him. He injected you with this poison, and you sitting here letting it rot out your brain only means he got what he intended. But if you end this all yourself...then he won't get the satisfaction he wants."

I hated to admit it, but she was right. Hunter did this to me to get back at me; to torture me. Sitting here suffering wasn't going to fix anything, and it sure as hell wasn't going to fix me. I had to take matters into my own hands, and that meant to end this. Once and for all.

My legs shake as I stand, but I didn't pay any attention to that. I notice briefly that the bandage that had been wrapped around my wound from earlier already needed changing; blood was even starting to drip down the side of my leg once again. For some reason though, it didn't bother me, and the less I thought about it, the less it actually hurt.

"A gun would do the trick nicely," Killer Frost says from behind me, and I didn't have to turn around to know that she was smiling. I knew she was getting a kick out of all of this, and at this point, I didn't even care. I deserved to die. "End it quick, won't feel too much pain."

I ignore her as I stare out of the glass container, trying to figure out my means of escape. It was hard to process thoughts, but somehow, my eyes catch the cup of water that Barry had given me to drink just before coming in here, it just sitting up against the wall where he forgot it. My eyes flick between the cup and the control panel to my left for a moment before I get an idea.

It took everything in me to focus on my powers, and I wasn't even sure if they'd work through the glass interior Cisco had told me about, but miraculously, it did. I watch the cup with narrowed eyes as it lifts up into the air, floating seamlessly as I focused on it. I feel myself lose control for a moment as it starts to fall, but I get a grip on myself and keep it in the air.

My eyes start to shift towards the control panel as the cup starts to float in that direction, the water in it dripping down the sides of the glass. I hear Killer Frost mutter an "ah" behind me as I let it hover up over the button that released me from this cage, and with one last thought, I let the cup fall on top of it, causing the doors to open wide.

Some type of alarm sounds in my ears then, but that didn't matter right now. All I needed to do was get to a gun and end this...then they'll never have to worry about me again. They'll never have to worry about the girl who lied to them for so long, who wasted their time away.

I could have sworn I heard Barry's voice through the intercom before I race out of the cell, heading upstairs to the main room where I knew a gun was. I was ready to end this.

And surprisingly, I wasn't afraid.

-*+*-

8 years ago

"You psychotic bitch."

A smile forms on my face hearing those words out of Killer Frost's mouth, it only making this all the more enjoyable. After I injected her, I grabbed her and raced back home to lock her away in the empty glass cage Hunter had. I wanted to watch what happened to her; I wanted to watch her suffer.

I pace in front of the glass box as she continues to throw words at me. "Ronnie will come for me, you know that, right?"

"Ah, so that's his name?" I say, raising my eyebrows. "And no, I don't think he will be. He was knocked out by the time we left; he didn't even see where we went."

Her face drains, if that was even possible. It was then a wave of brief sadness rushes over her, and I knew she was thinking about how this was it for her; this was how she was going to die. A part of me wanted to feel bad for her, but the other knew it was what she deserved.

"You know what Tectroscylin does to you, right?" I say once again, pride in my tone. I don't wait for her answer. "It eats away your brain slowly, causing you to hallucinate and feel a never-ending pain. They say it makes you go insane; makes you want to gouge your own eyes out. Wouldn't that be sad...to claw out your pretty silver eyes?"

Her eyes glare at me, flashing silver just for my mere satisfaction. I laugh slightly before I look back down at the ground, continuing my speech.

"Then after it puts you on the brink of insanity, it all ends. Poetic, isn't it?" I breathe, half smirking. "And there is a cure, and that's the sad part about your story, Caitlin. There is a cure right in front of you, and you can't even get to it."

I hold out the vile in my hand then, watching her eyes light up when she saw it. She even scrambles to her feet then and presses her hands against the glass, as if that would do anything. Her eyes go colder than they were before.

"Give me that-"

"Tsk tsk tsk," I say using my tongue, looking back at her with a grin on my face. "Like I said, tragic, right? To be so close to an antidote, yet so far away."

Her eyes trail away from the vile in my hand as she glares at me, her eyes hard as stone. "I'm going to get out of here, and I'm going to wrap my pretty little hands around your throat and-"

"Whatever gives you hope I suppose," I say lastly as I shove the vile into my pocket, turning around and leaving her behind in the glass cage. She beats on the glass for me to come back, to give her the cure, but no way was I going to do that.

As I walk away though, I found it interesting to see how someone so cold could grow so desperate, all because of a simple poison coursing through her veins. It made me snicker at the thought that someone like her had a weak point, and death clearly was something she wouldn't face or accept. It only made this all the more enjoyable for me.

It also made me wonder what my weak point was, but I didn't think mine was death. Sure, I didn't want to die, at least not yet, but that wasn't the one thing that made me weak. For a moment I thought Jay would be my weakness, but I knew he wasn't it either.

I guess I didn't have a weakness.

-*+*-

DANG I have no comments for this, I'm just gonna say that it's heating up y'all!

And for those of you who watched the flash tonight...I'm still crying. The whole time I wrote this chapter, I kept replaying "Runnin' Home to You" and it makes my soul so freaking happy. I love Barry and Iris so much, and I'm so happy with how they ended the episode. Couldn't have done it any better, Flash writers.

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