Flashpoint: Heroes

Claire held on as Caitlin cried, relieved to see her appearance go back to normal. It was entirely likely that Barry and Jesse had already seen part of the transformation, given their speed, so it was a relief when Cait seemed to agree about letting the truth come out. She didn't really know how to try and play it off beyond insisting that the mention of Killer Frost in the article was more of Thawne tricking them.

"We're not going to let that happen," she assured Caitlin, pulling back and offering a small smile. "Whatever you need, we're here." There was a pause as she considered how best to say this next part. "Cisco was really worried, you know. After you confided in us, because you were so afraid of becoming her. We were trying to think up ways to help you." There. That should hopefully be a way to explain it without giving away Cisco's Vibe and thus setting Caitlin off all over again.

"I know what it's like to be afraid you'll betray the people you care about. I've made some stupid mistakes, and I constantly worry I'll go back to those old, dumb habits. Maybe we can learn to rely on the people around us to help with that, together."

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The speedsters, though itching to follow had stayed true and let Claire handle it. Even if Barry was going nuts waiting.

"Cisco met Earth-2 Killer Frost too, so he knows what I'll become. His doppelgänger, Reverb worked alongside her with Zoom. You know, it's funny," But the laugh she let out was anything but humorous. "when Cisco was afraid his powers would make him evil because they were given to him by Thawne, I promised him that I didn't think any of us would turn evil if we suddenly had powers. And here I am. With evil powers." The laugh was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Cait pulled back just enough to wipe her eyes on her sweater sleeve.

"Thank you. I mean it. You don't want to know where my mind was headed." She'd been close to looking up Mick Rory and seeing if he'd put her down because she didn't know anyone else heartless enough to do so without regrets besides Snart's old partner.

"Why would you betray people you care about?" She asked curiously, not missing that statement.

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"The way you keep fighting Killer Frost makes it abundantly clear to me that she's not the real you. I don't think it's the powers trying to make you evil, but that other personality. Your powers aren't evil, and neither are Cisco's." She gave Caitlin's arm a squeeze as she pulled back a little more.

The question, maybe she should have expected it, but she also sort of forgot that Caitlin wasn't there in the Time Vault when she'd had her breakdown earlier. Claire took a breath to collect herself. "I have a long line of friends I left behind and abandoned, a couple who were more than friends, and a couple more whose lives I may have ruined a little bit. I hurt a lot of people because I was scared and selfish. Eobard reminded me in the voice message he left for me, even though he wouldn't have known about any of them. He also talked about changing the timeline, a future where... someone else is with Barry. I have to fight it when Thawne gets in my head like that, or else I might just run away like I have so many times before."

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"Killer Frost is my power though. I don't have the ice without her and when I reach for it, I can feel her fight me. Like she knows it's her power that I'm using and I have no right to use it." She looked down at her hands, turned them over then balled the into fists. "But I do need something stronger to hold her back." She rolled up her sleeve to show one of the power cuffs with a dim, barely there blue light.

"It's because you're not charging them, man." Cisco said as he stepped out of the dark hall and towards the cell door. He held up a data pad, waggling it back and forth in the air to indicate it. "Neither of you turned off the motion sensors. Made it look like one of the Metas broke out of the Pipeline." He walked up to Claire and dropped down beside her, criss cross on the floor with his head tipped down, black hair draped around his face. "You're not allowed to run away from us." He nudged Claire with an elbow. "If you think Barry's puppy eyes are bad, you haven't seen mine." He teased.

"Barry... had feelings for Iris. He always has." Caitlin said slowly, hazarding a guess. "But he's been slowly getting over that since she rejected him. She's in love with Eddie and you mended his heart. He's so in love with you, Claire. So whatever that future was, it's not meant to be. If it even existed in the first place. He wants to be with you." She reached out and gave Claire's arm a gentle squeeze.

"Thawne gets in all our heads." Cisco was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Claire. "It took me half a year not to freeze up every time Harry entered a room just because Thawne stole his face."

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Cisco's voice out of seemingly nowhere made Claire jump a little, but she was then immediately relieved and happy to see him. It made perfect sense that a room like this would have motion sensors. Neither of them were in a state to really think about it in the moment.

"Not you, too. Barry's are bad enough," she said with an almost strained laugh, nudging her shoulder against his. Just the thought of that kicked puppy look on Barry's face was enough to tug at her heartstrings. "You'd double-team me and I'd be done for."

She was still wrapping her head around a lot of the science about Metas (and hell, Evos too), but charging electronics was definitely something she understood. "Couldn't we get you a spare pair now? That way you don't have to just rely on the one. At least until we come up with some other way to help you. There have been Evos with an alter ego like that, could be it works similarly. I'll look in my dad's Company files."

The mention of Iris, and Barry having feelings for her, made Claire tense up. Damn, Caitlin cut right to the heart of it. It was hard not to worry, but she also knew Cait was right. Barry loved her. The proof was right there in how he acted with her, how he treated her. She could almost picture him now, pacing around the Med Lab or maybe even the Cortex, resisting the urge to run down here and make sure she was safe.

Meant to be wasn't really Claire's style. She chose Barry. To hell with all this timeline meddling, she made her own future.

"Thawne is trying to get me to leave Barry," she said finally. "What he said about the timeline, and then his message with the stupid newspaper. Something about that being my future if I stay with Barry. It's obvious, what he's doing. He either just wants to hurt us, or... maybe he wants me on his side. But it's not happening. I'm not leaving Barry, I'm not leaving any of you. I'm not dying in a year." At least not permanently.

She gave Caitlin's arm a squeeze in return. "And we're not letting Killer Frost take you over. With the truth out, we can all help you."

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"Clearly, I missed something important." Cisco said as he raked his fingers back through his hair to bring it out of his face. "I could build another set, but clearly they're not strong enough. Even at low power, they should still dampen powers. And this cell can hold Barry. It held Thawne! But I can feel the lingering cold. With your help, Cait, Harry and I can work on something stronger custom tailored to you."

Caitlin looked up to both of them. "Whatever works. I'm... I'm desperate."

"Then it's settled, because I'm not losing either of you. And I'm sure Barry agrees. No dying," he said pointing at Claire. "and no Anakin Skywalker for you." He pointed to Caitlin. "So, he left another future news paper, huh? If you want, I can try to Vibe you, Claire. See if I can't get any more details or disprove it altogether." He offered.

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"It was in an encrypted file with Thawne's research, password protected, with some headline about me dying and The Flash going missing, dated about a year or so from now," Claire explained to catch Cisco up. "It went on to say that Killer Frost and some... God of Speed, attacked STAR Labs, which is how Caitlin and I ended up here. She ran off and I followed."

She considered the offer. Nothing Thawne said or showed them had anything to do with her family, so they would probably be able to avoid a mishap like earlier. "It's up to you. Hopefully no one's having any dreams about it," she said with a wry smile. "The more info we have, the better, just be careful if you do it, okay?"

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"God of Speed. That's a new one. I mean, Zoom and Reverse-Flash are egocentrical but they both like to tack their names onto things." Cisco frowned and mulled that over for a moment. Zoom was dead, though and Thawne was... doing Thawne things. If he wanted to break up Barry and Claire, for whatever reason, it wouldn't make sense for him to think kill her.

Cisco pulled the Vibe glasses out of his pocket and put them on. They powered up with a hum and the blue light glowed between the slats. Then he held out his hands, palms up, to Claire. He took a steadying breath. "I may not get anything at all. Especially after that brain blast earlier. Take my hands."

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"Yeah, I didn't think Thawne would call himself something else, even if he'd somehow tried ascending to godhood." That thought almost made her shudder. Thawne was already faster than The Flash, what would he do with enough speed to call himself a god?

Maybe the Vibe would offer some insight. If they came up empty, though, that would be okay, so long as they didn't hurt Cisco's head again.

Claire nodded with a little breath of her own, then reached out to take his hands. She was nervous, partly because of what they might see, but she was also worried about her friend's safety. It was a relief that Caitlin was there to watch, just in case.

"Ready when you are."

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Allit would take was contact. And it would be instant or not happen at all. Harry programmes the Vibe glasses to stimulate the fear receptors in his brain to allow for instant access to his Vibes. So as soon as their hands touched, Cisco was jerked into the chilling sensation of a Vibe, bringing Claire with him.

"You stuck me in the Speed Force for an eternity of Hell! Now, welcome to yours!" A tall metal monster held Claire by the throat, plunged a dart into her chest. The metal monster moved with white hot lightning and he could see Barry scream, running towards the pair as fast as he could. But the monster was faster. "Now, finally I am free of you! You lose Barry!" It plunged a metal blade through the base of Claire's skull, severing her brain stem. She was dead before the metal monster dropped her and before Barry even made it to her.

The speedster slid to his knees catching her falling body in his arms, holding her against him, screaming in anguish. "No! Nononono! Claire! No! No Claire no! Claire, please! No!" Barry sobbed as he held her desperately.

Cisco slammed back into his body and jerked his hands away from Claire. Wide eyed and traumatised. He was stunned into silence.

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She braced herself for that now familiar sensation of being yanked into one of Cisco's Vibe. It was like a weird kind of dream. A nightmare, really. All she could do was watch in horror as that metal monster held her, moving faster than Barry. It was even faster than Thawne, wasn't it? It had to be.

Claire was frozen in place, watching Barry catch her body, hearing the agony in his voice, his sobs stabbing her in the chest just like the monster had. She quickly curled in on herself as Cisco pulled away, clutching her chest and fighting back tears. "That can't happen," she said, her voice and expression hollow, breaths uneven.

She didn't know if that would permanently kill her - it didn't look like the monster had taken her head off completely, it seemed to be more of an internal decapitation. But... she didn't want to find out. Mostly because she didn't want to put Barry through that. The memory of him so utterly devastated, the look on his face and the sound of him screaming, it would be haunting her for a while.

"Thank you, Cisco." And she meant that. He was clearly just as shaken up as she was. "We can work with this. If we know something like that is out there, we have a better chance of stopping it." She paused, frowning. "That monster had to be the God of Speed, right? White lightning, moving faster than anything we've ever seen..."

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"Faster than Barry, Thawne, and Zoom. That dart it stabbed you with... what if that's something that nullifies your powers for good? That thing seemed pretty confident that it was winning." Cisco's voice was shaking. He hated that she thanked him for that, because they were both probably going to have nightmares from it. "It said something about being trapped in the Speed Force." They had info to work with. There were also bits in that Vibe he could focus on, like news paper headlines and billboards if he looked back at them. Things to avoid or change. Ripples. Harry had described it as ripples in a pond that affected the whole surface. If they could ripple the pond, maybe they could change the outcome. Prevent that from happening.

Caitlin looked concerned. "So, you saw something." Cisco nodded.

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Claire hated that they'd both be suffering from the effects of seeing the Vibe, but the information they could gain from it was valuable. It was only right to show her appreciation for Cisco putting himself through that.

"This big metal monster, with white lightning and super duper speed, it stabbed me in the chest with a dart and then cut my--" She lifted a hand to the back of her neck as she explained to Caitlin, then shuddered. "Barry, he wasn't fast enough. He was... God, I never want to see him like that ever again." Her voice caught in her throat and she scrubbed at her eyes to keep herself from crying.

"You could be right, Cisco. About the dart, I mean. We were talking about Thawne's research and how it could possibly lead to ways to negate my regeneration." They'd been worried about Thawne using that information to weaken her. But he was trying to warn her, in his own twisted way. "That monster isn't Thawne," Claire said solemnly. "I'm sure of it. He wouldn't warn me if he was the one who was going to kill me, that makes no sense."

He didn't want her with Barry, but he didn't want her to die, either. Maybe Thawne really did care for her. Once again those conflicted feelings kicked up.

Edited (Mobile tagging, hit the button with my thumb lol ) Date: 2025-10-14 02:13 pm (UTC)

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"Barry was broken." He finished for Claire. "I don't blame him. It was hard to watch. And he's gonna wanna see the Vibe if we tell him. Because he's gonna wanna pick it apart and try to find a way to stop it just like we are." Which meant he was going to have to see it again.

Cisco nodded. "For once, I agree, this isn't Thawne. He's all kinds of messed up, but even this seems past his level of crazy on the crazy scale. If he warned you, he knew I'd Vibe the future. He knew we'd see this. Dude, can't we have one year without an evil speedster?" Cisco buried his face in his hands. "Don't worry. We'll find a way to stop this." He promised Claire, muffled from his position. "We need to figure out what white lightning means. Yellow is Speed Force, red is Negative Speed Force, blue is tainted by the Velocity drug, but we've never seen white."

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Broken was the word for it, and yet that still felt like an understatement. She felt a little broken, just remembering it. "We should tell him," Claire said sadly, giving Cisco's arm a squeeze. "We should tell everyone, really. But if you need some time to calm down before you show him, you take it. Whatever you need, I mean it."

She knew that in order to show Barry, Cisco would have to go through that all over again, just like he had when he showed her the Vibe he had about Caitlin turning into Killer Frost. After that brain blast earlier, she didn't want Cisco to push himself. It was as much for his sake as her own, though - she knew seeing that Vibe would upset Barry, and she had to prepare herself for that almost as much as Cisco would have to prepare himself to see the damn vision again. But there was more of a risk to Cisco, so she was leaving it in his hands. She could suck it up and deal with being sad.

Her gaze turned to Caitlin; she hadn't forgotten why they came down here in the first place. "And you too, if you need a little more time before you're ready to talk about your powers openly, you can wait. We'll all be here for you when you are."

With a deep breath, Claire moved to get to her feet. "Thawne... really doesn't want me hurt, I don't think. But he also wants me to leave Barry, and that's not going to happen. Maybe there's something in his research that can help us, or maybe there's something from Earth-2 about white lightning that Harry or Jesse know about. I wanna get cracking, and I wouldn't put it past Barry to come racing down here if we stay too much longer," she said, trying to laugh as she offered each of her friends a hand up. "He hasn't let me out of his sight all day."

Funny how in the past, that would've annoyed the hell out of her. Now it made her swoon a little.

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"I hate these powers, man!" Cisco lamented and scrubbed his hands over his face roughly before lifting his head back up. "The Breaching is fun, the blasts are useful, but I hate the Vibes!" Sure, they were useful, but they were nightmare fuel. He knew she was right, though.

Cait nodded. "Thank you." She took Claire's offer to stand and reached out so they could both help Cisco up. Once he was on his feet, he tugged them both into a group hug.

"We got this." Cisco said softly. "We have angles to start looking and we'll at least know to be ready when that metal monster shows its face. Maybe we'll get the jump on the bad guy this time since we know he's coming."

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As much as Claire struggled with herself and her regeneration, she didn't envy anyone who had a precognitive ability. It had its uses and advantages, sure, but most of the precogs she knew or heard of almost always saw horrific things happening in the future.

At least the vision that gave Cisco and Peter that weird feedback had seemed innocuous enough, but even that wasn't without an awful side effect for Cisco. Peter didn't seem to have any issues, not yet anyway. They'd have to see when her uncle visited if close proximity caused any more issues.

She was suddenly extra glad she'd gotten a few days of domestic bliss with Barry, because she didn't know how much time they'd have for that going forward. They'd need to carve out their moments.

Claire happily returned the group hug, stealing a moment with her friends just as eagerly as she would with her boyfriend. "It's a little funny how Thawne's attempts to get me to leave Barry are backfiring. He's given us a chance to prepare and fight back. I'm not going anywhere." She was so lucky to have this new family, and on top of that, it almost felt like her old family had a stronger bond than ever. It'd be foolish to walk away because there was danger. The risk was always there; she'd told Eobard as much, sharing those stories of her past.

She gave her friends one last little hug before pulling back with a sheepish grin. "I... have no idea which way I ran to get down here. I just followed Caitlin. Shall we get back?"

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Cisco could admit, though it hurt like Hell, that vision hadn't been so bad on a lasting standpoint. No nightmares would come from that one at least.

"It's... strange. I think I was the only one who believed Dr. Wells... I mean, Eobard, cared about us on some level." Caitlin began. "But you might be proof that I was right. He's capable of caring in his own way." She heard Cisco scoff.

"Yeah, say that again after you've felt his hand crush your heart." Cisco said bitterly. Caitlin reached over and gave his shoulder a squeeze.

"This way." Cait started leading the way back to the Cortex with the other two in tow.

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"I think you're right, for what it's worth," Claire said before she could stop herself, following along to the Cortex with her hands in her pockets. She decided not to elaborate for Cisco's sake in particular. There was no way he'd like hearing about how Thawne spoke so highly of them, and seemed to miss them. "Just... thinking back to my conversation with him."

At least Thawne was correct in his assumption that the three of them would get along. She adored Caitlin and Cisco, and was immensely grateful that she'd been accepted so completely into this little family.

Once they got back to the Cortex, Claire made a beeline for Barry. With the memory of him so devastated still rolling around in her mind, she desperately needed to hug him. She heard her dad saying her name with obvious concern in his voice, and she took a deep breath to speak. "The paper. It's horrible..." That was all she could get out at first, voice muffled with her face buried against Barry's chest. "We have to stop it."

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Claire had so easily worked into the fold. The fact that Harry of all people had been the first to get attached was enough of a gold star for them.

Caitlin offered a smile, but grew more and more nervous the closer they got to the Cortex. She started biting her lip and wringing her hands. She'd run out at the mention of Killer Frost and Barry wasn't stupid. He'd put two and two together. But bless Cisco. As soon as Claire was tucked against Barry and Jesse was looking curiously between everyone, he spoke up after Claire said her peace.

"I had a Vibe. Anyone who wants to see it is heading to the Breach Room because I'm not reliving it a third time. It's... intense." He said, glancing at Barry and Claire.

"So... it's true?" Barry asked, holding Claire even tighter. Cisco nodded.

"Noah, if... I'll show you if you wanna see it, but it's A vision of Claire's death." He saw Barry move and held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah. I already know you're gonna wanna see it so you can stop it." But his tone was tight.

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Claire figured mentioning the paper first would buy Caitlin a little more time, just in case she needed it. But mostly, selfish as it was, she needed that hug. She felt a little more composed after a moment, and pulled back with a shaky breath.

"I... don't think I need to see that," Noah said quietly. If they were dealing with something called the God of Speed, he wouldn't be of much use. It was strange and unnerving to feel so out of his depth. "Sorry, honey."

She shook her head. "No, Dad. It's okay. I'd rather not have anyone else see it, but can't deny that Barry's insight would be helpful. And I'm pretty sure I couldn't convince you not to, anyway. Just... babe." Her hand slipped in with Barry's, giving a squeeze. "It's hard to watch. I'm going, though. If Cisco has to see it twice, then so will I."

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Cisco really hated his powers. Jesse offered him a reassuring nod and he gave Cait a pat on the back.

"I don't blame you. I just didn't wanna deny you if you felt you needed to see it." Cisco said.

Barry shook his head. "I have to see it. I can stop it if I know what to look for. You're not dying. I'll stop it. I swear." He promised.

"We'll be right back." Cisco said and opened a breach right into the Breach Room. He stepped through the watery-looking portal and held it open until Barry and Claire were through with him. "Dude, this is gonna suck!" He said as he fetched two of the neural sets, handing one to Barry and one to Claire.

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She stepped through the breach and grabbed the neural set Cisco handed over. It was just like when he showed her before, so she knew what to do. This time she was even more nervous, though.

"I know if we have any hope of stopping this, we need all the help we can get. It's definitely gonna suck, though." Maybe if she looked away and tried focusing on the details of their surroundings, that would help, but that wouldn't save her from hearing Barry scream again. She kept a hold of Barry's hand, and waited for Cisco.

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Cisco picked up the third headset and put it on. He took a deep breath and approached the console. "I don't wanna see this again." He muttered but closed his eyes and hit the button anyway.

They stuttered into his Vibe of the future. Like Claire, he was looking around, not interested in watching Barry break down again. He was looking for other clues. A news paper in a paper machine read CITY STILL RECOVERING FROM GORILLA ATTACK with an image of down town wrecked and a blurry photo of a familiar Meta Gorilla. "Grodd." Cisco muttered.

As Claire would look around, she'd see, tucked against a tree, a third Barry. Not the one that came with them in the Vibe, not the one in the scene who was now running in slow motion towards her falling body, but a third. He looked torn. Like he wanted to run forward, but he was hiding behind the tree so as not to be seen. A wormhole opened behind him and an arm clad in red without gloves grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back through the wormhole. The hand that had pulled the third Barry back had been older by a large margin. It was something they hadn't noticed before because it had been behind them in the Vibe.

"Did you see that?" Cisco asked Claire. "That was a temporal breach and that gold stitching down the sleeve, I know that suit. Jay Garrick, Earth-3's Flash."

Barry had come into this prepared, but nothing could prepare him to see a blade pierce through the back of her skull and out the front, then watch Claire go limp as she collapsed. The anguish in his future self's voice reflected in the tightness of his throat as he stopped himself from running forward with his future self to catch Claire. He couldn't interact with anything in a Vibe anyway. Barry choked back a sob and dropped to his knees. When they were pulled out of the Vibe, Barry stayed on his knees, looking at the spot where Claire had been in the vision.

Cisco slowly walked up to him and took the neural headset off his head, not wanting to startle him with sudden movements. "We'll get him." Cisco said softly. Cisco looked at Claire helplessly.

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