8 years ago

"What is she doing here?" Jay says to me as I look away from the TV screen, seeing him standing in the doorway. I didn't hear him come back already.

I turn the volume on the TV down a little. "Who? Caitlin?"

"Who else do you think?" he snaps back at me, and I knew then that he was going to be mad at me for what I did, but I wasn't exactly sure why.

"She's here to provide me entertainment as karma takes its course," I state simply as a small smile forms on my face, the thought of beating her bringing me satisfaction. "It wasn't hard to track her down; she should have picked a better nick name...Killer Frost kind of gives it away-"

"You're telling me you've been tracking her all of this time to get revenge?" he says with a little bit of lighter tone, but I could still hear the anger.

I raise my eyebrow. "Are you mad at me for doing what you taught me to do-"

"I'm not mad at you for wanting revenge," he says while crossing his arms. "I'm mad that you went out and did this on your own; you know you're still recovering after what happened last year, and this girl nearly killed you last time-"

"But she didn't this time. I beat her and now I get to watch her suffer behind a glass barrier," I say, a smile no longer on my face. I thought he was going to be at least a little proud of me, but it sounded like it was the complete opposite. "I went and did this on my own; this proves to you that I can do things by myself."

He shakes his head. "I don't care about you proving yourself; I saved your life long ago, Raven. It's an insult to me to see you risking it doing things on your own. It tells me that you don't care that I saved it-"

"I'm grateful for that, Jay, but like you said, she almost killed me. You can't expect me to let her get away with something like that?" I pause for a moment to see if his expression changed, which it hadn't. "I'm sorry for not bringing you into this, but I knew this would be your reaction. I'm old enough now to do things on my own-"

"You're 17, Raven. You aren't even considered a legal adult yet. You listen to my rules and my rules only, you hear me?" he practically shouts at me, making me bite my tongue. I wanted to say so many more things, but I just simply nod my head. "Good. I don't want to lose you too."

I take a deep breath. "You won't."

He simply nods at me then, just before I hear a blood piercing scream come from where Killer Frost was locked away. I exchange a look with Jay before I use my speed to race towards the glass cage, wondering what was happening to her now. It's been a few hours since I last checked up on her; I wanted to let the clock tick down until it got to the more interesting parts, and I was guessing now was that time.

When I stop in front of the glass, I was met with Caitlin lying on the ground curled up in a ball, still screaming at the top of her lungs. I hear Jay stop behind me as we both gaze upon the girl in utter pain. Deep down I felt a pang of strife, only because I knew that I was the person who caused this, but I also felt pride in it. I kept reminding myself that this was the girl who almost killed me; the girl who almost took my life away. This is what she deserved for her actions.

I take a step closer to the glass to get a better look at her, but when I do, she suddenly looks up at me with a crazy look in her eyes. They were no longer glowing silver like they had been previously; instead, they were their normal shade of light brown. For a moment I get lost in her eyes, only because of how insane they looked, but that before I looked down to the floor below her and saw pieces of white hair lying there in chunks.

"Make it stop," she begs as she crawls over to the glass wall, causing me to take a step back. Something about seeing her like this weirded me out; I mean, I knew that this was what it was supposed to do to her, but now that I was seeing it in action, it almost scared me. "The voices...they won't stop screaming. Please, just make it stop!"

"What in the hell did you do to her?" Jay says under his breath as he stares down at Caitlin in the glass cage, her hands now clawing at the surface for relief. I noticed then that there were bald patches on top of her head where she had ripped the hair out, almost making me throw up.

I take another step back until I'm standing next to him, my eyes still glued on Caitlin. "I injected her with Tectroscylin. I wanted her to suffer, and I thought this was one of the best ways-"

"How in the hell did you get your hands onto that?" he turns to me, eyes wide. I could hear that he was angry at me once again. "Actually, don't answer that. I just can't believe you picked the easiest option to get revenge."

I raise an eyebrow, finally turning away from Caitlin. "Easiest option?"

"Yes, if you really want revenge, you have to do it yourself. You don't let some poison that the military uses to take her life," he states, pointing at Caitlin for a dramatic effect. "Pathetic...I thought I taught you better."

I took offense, only because I thought the idea was better than what he was making it out to be. "Pathetic? It's tiring and messy to do it myself. This was the best way to end her life slowly and painfully while I kicked up my feet and watched."

He shakes his head then, his eyes going back down to Caitlin. "I don't care what you call it, it's not the right way to do things. It's almost humiliating."

"Well she's my problem to deal with, isn't she?" I state bitterly, turning and standing between him and Caitlin. "I only got into this mess because you left me that night she almost killed me. We were supposed to stick together, and you ditched. What about that?"

"You told me you could take care of yourself that night." I bite my bottom lip as I draw blood, anger starting to course through me. "I left believing you. Obviously I was wrong. Don't blame this on me because you can't do things yourself."

I stand my ground as Caitlin shouts one more time from behind me, begging for me to relieve her of her pain. Jay glances around me and looks at her before looking back at me, a look of shame on his face.

"I don't care what you think about the way I do things," I spit coldly. "Caitlin is the person who almost killed me, so she's my problem to deal with. If you have a problem with that, then stay out of it, Jay."

He eyes me up and down then, clearly angry that I didn't agree with his way of doing things. For a moment I thought he was going to argue with me some more, but instead he takes a step backwards before racing off, leaving me alone with Caitlin. Something about the way he looked made me wonder if he had something else up his sleeve, but I didn't care in that moment.

I turn around and face Caitlin once more, finding her in the corner now clutching her knees to her chest, her eyes wide as if she was on alert. They dart left and right as she whispers to herself, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. Seeing her there made me wonder if I should just kill her myself to get it all over with for her, but I wanted her to suffer more.

If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that I wanted my face to be the last thing she saw before she died.

-*+*-

Present

I flutter my eyes open slowly as the light blinds me from above, causing me to squint. It takes me a moment to gain my vision back as I look around the room, finding myself resting back in the same bed I had been before I went down to the pipeline. I couldn't remember what happened last...why couldn't I remember?

"Cisco, she's awake!" I hear Barry shout as I turn my head, seeing him running through the doorway to greet me. He stops beside me as he rests his hand on the pillow my head was lying on, happiness in his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

I shake my head slowly as I try to move, feeling stiff. "I-I can't remember what happened-"

"We almost lost you," he breathes then, sadness in his tone before he switches back to relief. "But Cisco and Caitlin figured out a way to reverse the poison. We weren't sure if it was going to work or not, but it did. At least, that's what the tests are telling us. You had a seizure before you passed out, so that might be why you don't remember."

After he tells me this, I start to remember the flashes of memory from the incident. I don't say anything as Cisco comes dashing into the room, a bright smile on his face. "Welcome back! I thought we lost you there for a moment, Rave. You really had me scared there."

"Rave?" I say in a groggy tone, a faint smile forming on my face. "That's new."

Cisco walks around the bed and starts to mess with some of the machines hooked up to me. "Is that okay? It's just short for Raven and I usually give everyone around here some sort of nick name. I call Caitlin freezie pop from time to time, and I used to call Harry buzzkill until he started throwing a fit about it."

I smile, something about what Cisco said meaning a lot to me. I didn't really have a nickname other than Silver Trickster, if that was even considered a nickname. I guess what really made me glad was that Cisco was accepting me again after everything that I did to betray them...it made me feel back at home.

"How did you figure out how to reverse it?" I ask, my eyes flipping between Barry and Cisco both. I was curious to know how they found a way to fix me.

Cisco speaks as if it was nothing. "Well, I remembered Star City having a little incident last year with a drug called Mirakuru, which was similar to what Tectroscylin is. The only difference was that Mirakura worked slower to mess up the mind and enhanced abilities while Tectroscylin worked faster to attack the brain. All it took was a call to Felicity to give me the antidote for Mirakuru, thanks to Barry for speeding up the delivery time, and then switching a few things here and there until I got what fixed you. It's still the first version of it, so of course it might not be the best-"

"Thank you, Cisco," I smile up at him as he smiles and nods back. "You saved my life...I'll never be able to thank you enough."

"Saving lives is what I do," he says casually once again, turning a dial on one of the machines before heading towards the door. "I gave you some of the power enhancing drugs that we gave to Barry awhile back to help speed up the healing process, so hopefully you'll be on your feet again soon. I'm glad that you're back with us, Rave."

I nod my head. "I'm glad to have put my trust into you."

Cisco grins one last time before leaving the room, turning the corner and disappearing from my sight. Barry grins as he looks down at me, pulling up a chair and sitting next to me. I turn my head to look over at him, a warmth filling in my chest just to have him here...to see his face.

"So what happened while I was out?" I say in more of a joking matter, hoping that there was nothing that went on, but the look on Barry's face changed as if there was more to that story.

"Actually, we've got a meta knocking down buildings now," he states simply as he looks down. "Destroyed Mercury Labs earlier. We think there was some sort of reason, which has to lead me to ask...do you know any reason why Zoom would need that place destroyed?"

"Mercury Labs?" I question again as Barry nods his head. "Not in particular, no. I mean, the last thing I heard of his plans was to take over Central City, and possibly expand that power. I'm not sure how far he means, but maybe it's connected to that somehow. I'm sorry, I really don't know."

"It's okay," Barry says as he nods his head. "We'll figure it out; we always do."

He reaches out and takes my hand then, squeezing it softly in a caring way. Something about it brought me comfort, but only for a moment. For that short time frame, everything felt okay in the world; like there was nothing more to worry about. But then I remembered Hunter and his plans, the metas, and that sometimes life isn't always on your side. Something about the fear caused something to settle in my stomach, and it was something that I've never felt before; as if something bad was coming. And I knew that whatever that something was...it wouldn't end well.

It wouldn't end well for any of us.

-*+*-

aw okay I loved this chapter cause of Cisco and Raven...I gotta make them BFF's, it's inevitable. but I predict at most 6 chapters left, if that. I'm already on episode 22, meaning there's this one and the one after left. So close to the end guys!

don't forget to slap that star icon and leave a comment! it's very much appreciated! xx