Chapter Text
Cisco and Barry had the best of intentions when they’d done it, and she was going to keep reminding herself of that. It wasn’t like they had known what was going to happen when they’d reopened the breach. It was just that Wally had come into his own speed force powers and since Jessie had gone through the same, they just wanted to see if the same had happened to her. It was dangerous, but they were insistent.
But the breaches were still a mystery, and though Cisco had been working on his vibing ability, there was only an eight-five percent chance that the right breach would open. And of course because it wasn’t foolproof, they’d opened a breach to the wrong Earth. And that Earth pulled Caitlin right in.
Right into an empty Star Labs, the equipment scattered around like it had been right after the Particle Accelerator had gone off, a coat of dust on the familiar workspace. A picture of her deceased husband hung in one of the hallways, right next to one of Doctor Wells, pictures she’d never seen before. It was like no one had been in there for years.
She blinked slowly. Maybe if she closed her eyes long enough, when they opened, Cisco and Barry would have reopened the breach and she’d be back on her own Earth. She opened her eyes just as slowly, but the cortex hadn’t changed.
“Barry?” she called out into the silence. The only sound was her heels clacking against the floors, echoing eerily through the room. “Is anyone here? Joe? Cisco?”
She paused by the desk, wiping a finger through the dust on the computer she’d just been using that morning to look up the newest metahuman threat. She was starting to get the same feeling of wariness that she’d gotten in that cell on Earth-2.
As if right on cue, she heard something suspiciously like a voice from down the hall, though she couldn’t quite make out the words. She hurried out of the cortex and down the long hall – down a flight of stairs – to a very, very familiar room of Star Labs. That feeling doubled when she opened the door to see vast cells of the Pipeline.
On her own Earth, she was used to seeing them empty. Ever since Ferris Air and the new Metahuman unit in Iron Heights, they hadn’t dared use the Pipeline as a cage for long periods of time. Sure, they’d kept Eobard in one for a few days and Barry during the fight with Zoom, but that was all Caitlin had allowed.
What Eobard Thawne had done down there – kept the metas locked up and half-starved – had been horrible and all three had felt terrible for letting it happen underneath their noses. But what she had seen almost two years ago had nothing on what was in front of her eyes right now.
Lines and lines of cells, all filled with metas she didn’t even recognize, their voices so quiet that she wasn’t sure how she had even heard them from upstairs. She couldn’t even see the familiar patting of the cells she remembered, that doubled as cots but at least it was a place to sleep. Now she could see some metas just curled up at the bottom of their cells – and that had never been her favorite word choice since Eobard but now – like they had no strength to even stand.
One of her hands strayed up to cover her mouth unconsciously as she gasped, and took a step backwards in shock.
“Can I help you, miss?” A male voice rang out gently from behind her and she turned to see two men she could only describe as guards. The one who had spoken she couldn’t recall, but she had a feeling he worked with Iris. The other one was Hartley Rathaway, a sight she could decide if was welcome or horrifying. “The prison is closed. Did you get separated from your group?”
Her group?
She opened her mouth, shaky hand falling back to her side, but no words came out. She glanced back at the cells. Now that she looked at the pathways inside, she could make out more guards walking like they were on patrol. Were these metahumans?
“Come with me,” Hartley’s words pulled her from her stupor and she turned back to the two waiting men. “I can show you back upstairs and to one of the shuttle buses. Its fine if you did get separated.” He chuckled and she couldn’t seem to follow the motion. “People do tend to get so passionate about the metas that they stray from their groups.”
She could only bring herself to nod. She needed to get away from the Pipeline, no matter if it was by herself or with the assistance of her once-coworker turned villain and Rogue. The other guard just waved at them as Hartley grabbed her arm and pulled her none to gently away from the metahuman prison.
When they were a distance away and heading up the stairs back towards the cortex, Hartley stopped walking. She blinked curiously at him, and he sighed, running his hands through a ponytail she couldn’t ever remember him having on her own earth – and was he blond? That was new. Maybe he wasn’t so condescending on this earth either. If he was blonde, anything could happen.
“Let me guess,” he muttered, “you’re not from here, you came through a breach. You’re obviously not the Frost I know.”
Caitlin perked up at his words. “Yes!” she exclaimed. “I came through accidentally. We were trying to get to another earth, and I got pulled through. What – Hartley, what was that?”
“That,” he explained, “was the bane of every meta’s existence and the reason I’m here. Wait a few minutes and I’ll return with a decent explanation. For now, all you need to know is that where we just came from is not a place you want to end up again.”
At least she could agree with that.
Before she could ask him anymore questions, like maybe why the metas were locked in the cages, an alarm she’d never heard before blared and Hartley took off back down the hall to the Pipeline. When she heard more footsteps coming her way, she darted back into the empty cortex and behind the desk. Sure enough, just like she had thought, more guards were running in the same direction of Hartley.
The only difference was that the moment they passed the opening of the cortex, the footsteps stopped and all she could hear was the notes of a flute. The music was hypnotizing, luring her to move away from the desk and around the corner towards it. She shook her head, trying to lose the haze that was quickly filling it.
The music stopped abruptly, and the moment she looked up in concern, Hartley reappeared, a group of metas from the pipeline behind him. Some were able to walk, sticking close to the man, and carrying those who looked like they might fall over in death at any minute, and one had gripped the familiar green cape like a lifeline. Hartley didn’t seem to mind, much less notice.
“Well?” he demanded impatiently. “Do you want answers or not?”
She quickly jumped up and followed after the trail, trying to keep her eyes off the flute in his hands and the guards she’d hid from face down on the hard floor. She should feel bad for the pain Hartley had caused them, but all she felt was anger, the same burning anger she’d felt a year ago, and she couldn’t resist kicking one of the guards at the entrance as they headed to a black van.
xx
The last place she expected for the van to stop, a rough stop where she was practically thrown from the passenger seat, was in front of Saints & Sinners. No, it wasn’t the same bar the Rogues had frequented on her earth. This one was a polished masterpiece amidst ruined buildings and torn up roads, the two stores she remembered being beside the bar burnt and marked with the initials RD surrounded with lightning bolts.
“You all need to get inside the building. They’ve already been alerted that we’re here, so you can just go through the front door. The Captain will tell you the rules inside, and if you choose to comply, you’ll be seeing me again soon.” Hartley turned around in his seat to face all the metas. “There are already a few sectors here. They can help you find a place to sleep.”
The crowd slowly moved from the van, dispersing in waves of two or three before finally the vehicle was empty save for Hartley and Caitlin. “Now I can explain,” he said, finally turning to her. “Regardless of how metahumans are treated on your earth, on this one they are far from celebrated.”
“On my earth, most are criminals,” she added helpfully.
Hartley smirked. “They were here too. I suppose you have the Rogues there as well,” he replied. “About two years ago, Eobard Thawne was awarded a high-up spot on Central’s council for bringing down one of the vigilantes, the Flash. A year ago, after an incident at a local hospital, he decided metas like Flash were dangerous and he wanted them locked up.”
Caitlin’s eyes widened. “Wait, Eobard won? That – Eddie Thawne died so he wouldn’t come back!” she protested. “We have a meta prison unit at Iron Heights.”
He interrupted her. “We have a meta prison too – and you just saw it. Star Labs was converted into one of the worst penitentiaries in North America, and the only residents? Metas. They’re starved, ridiculed, and forced to wear power-hindering bracelets. The people of Central that weren’t metas didn’t want to fight against it, so they just let it happen, and eventually they started to believe the lies Eobard was telling them.”
“How many years has it been since the particle accelerator went off here? I saw the amount of dust – it was only two years ago for us.”
“It’s been ten years,” he answered, before looking out the window at a few figures standing by the door of the former bar. “We should probably get inside, which – you’re looking at the Rogues’ Den, the only meta safehouse in Central. You’re welcome to stay as long as it takes for you to get back, but try to keep a low profile. Most know you as Killer Frost, and only the Rogues know about alternate earths, so it’s best you stay out of sight.”
She could only nod and get out of the van after him. When they’d reached the front door, she’d quickly seen just who those figures were. Just like Hartley, they were familiar Rogues, and she couldn’t keep herself from being relieved at seeing faces she actually knew, even if they were criminals on her earth. From what she’d seen so far, they were the lesser of the evils.
Lisa Snart, Mark Mardon and Shawna Baez, two of which had been in the pipelines on her earth.
“Is that Frost?” Mardon asked when Hartley stopped in front of the small group. “I thought she went down to Keystone a month ago?” At the weight of his gaze, she almost felt like stepping behind Hartley to keep him from looking at her.
“She did.” Hartley replied, his voice a bit strained. “This is Caitlin Snow – from another earth. She was at the Labs today. I’m going to go introduce her to Len after all the newbies get settled in. How far is he?”
Lisa scanned Caitlin’s figure before rolling her eyes. “Obviously it’s not Frost, I’ve never seen her dress so modestly,” she scoffed. “Lenny’s about halfway through, but this little bunch isn’t as conceding as the others were. There’s about five that don’t want to learn how to work their abilities, all they want is a safe haven, and Lenny’s having a hella time trying to talk them down.”
Caitlin wasn’t exactly sure what to make with the new information. Leonard Snart – Captain Cold – was clearly still the leader of the Rogues, apparently a multiversal consistency, but this Central was practically run by Eobard Thawne? And from what she was hearing was these criminals were practically the superheroes here, keeping the metas from dying by Thawne’s hand and even helping them with control. It was a vastly different image from what she was used to seeing.
“You might as well just drag him away from the masses.” Shawna said with a shrug. She was the only one who wasn’t looking at Caitlin suspiciously. If anything, she looked calm. “I’m sure James could handle a few metas for one night. This is more important anyway, isn’t it?” Then she turned to Caitlin with narrowed eyes. “You aren’t injured, are you? The last time Hartley brought someone else from the Labs, they were near death.”
Another familiar voice joined the rest, one Caitlin was surprised to hear so relaxed with the present company. Iris West. “Barry wasn’t near death, he was dead,” the woman added in. “That’s a good idea though. Len’s been stressed lately, and to see this one,” she looked pointedly at Caitlin with a grin she was only used to seeing on Captain Cold’s face, “would give him something else to obsess about.”
She opened her mouth before she fully heard Iris’s words. Barry. She had said Barry was dead. “Barry Allen?” she gasped.
Iris looked solemnly over at her, and it was then Caitlin noticed her appearance. Long hair cut almost as short as Shawna’s, with dark glasses perched on her head and a black suit not unlike Barry’s Flash one. She was dressed almost like Zoom had been, but the cowl was pulled down and gloves resting on her belt. “Yes, Barry Allen,” Iris answered with a sad smile. “It’s been a few months, but – he was a big part of the Rogues’ Den. He died a hero – was he the Flash on your earth?”
Caitlin nodded. “I think what’s different between our earths is that Thawne defeated Barry here, but he was killed on my earth. On my earth, we were heroes and the metas were people with powers. Criminals,” she looked away from the group, “like the Rogues were put in jail because of their actions, not because of powers they received from an accident.”
Hartley nudged Caitlin’s arm and she looked over at him. “James took over for Len – we should get in there and talk to him before he disappears. Come on, Snow,” he said and walked through the door into the Den. She tried not to make eye contact with Mardon or Lisa Snart, and quickly followed him inside.
James Jesse, the man she saw in the front of the large crowd of metas, was not who she thought he was when Shawna had first mentioned him. She was thinking the older Trickster that had caused them so much trouble in the last two years. This man was much younger, probably a few years older than Caitlin herself, and was dressed in a bright costume, a rubber chicken hanging from his belt. This was not a man she knew.
Hartley didn’t seem surprised like she was. When James looked away from the crowd to give him a blindingly bright smile and a “Hey, Pipes!”, the man just glared at him and led Caitlin farther through the building to where she remembered the pool tables to be. The Trickster just pouted from behind them and went back to his speech, dramatic hand motions with every word.
When Caitlin raised an eyebrow at the Piper, his only explanation was, “He’s new, not originally from Central, and deep in his closet.”
That was when Leonard Snart saw them. He was leaning against the back wall with a bottle in his hand, clad in a short sleeve blue suit and looking decades younger than he did on her earth. And if she was watching correctly, in his other hand was a small flurry of snowflakes. Impossible unless – unless he was a meta. He smirked when he saw them.
“I heard you on the comms,” he said. “Ice cold reception over there. Some are with us; some would rather move on to Keystone.”
“It’s no better in Keystone!” Hartley sneered. “We’re the only safe house in the Gem Cities. If they leave, it’s a return ticket to hell. James can charm them all he likes, he’s damn good at it, but not everyone’ll stay.”
“Shame,” Leonard agreed, and Caitlin wasn’t sure if she was on another earth or another universe in itself. “Now is there a reason you’re back so soon, Frost? I thought you were going to ice Thawne all on your own – and the man is still kicking.”
Caitlin interjected before Hartley could. “I’m not Killer Frost,” she explained. “I’m from another earth. Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon were trying to open a breach, and they opened the wrong one. I’m not supposed to be here – and Hartley said the Rogues were the only ones who knew of other earths? Do you know how to send me back?”
His face fell at the mention of Barry. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to send you to another earth. The problem will be getting the time to set it up,” he replied. “Lise and Hart have been working on a way to open breaches, preferably to move the metas through or to dump Eobard’s dead body into.”
“What do you mean getting the time?” she asked desperately. “I have to get back as soon as possible!”
Leonard shrugged, and the snowflakes in his hands changed to form a lightning bolt like the one of Barry’s suit – and on Iris’s if she remembered correctly. Something had happened there, and she had a feeling she knew exactly what it was, but there wasn’t exactly time to try and figure it out.
“Miss Snow,” he continued, his voice taking on the dramatic drawl of his Captain Cold persona, and she scowled. It was a sure sign she wouldn’t like his answer. “There is a limited window to get the rest of the metas out of Star Labs, and getting you back to your earth will take all of my Rogues help, and we can’t spare a single person for the next sector. It will be at least two weeks until we can attempt to send you back. Call me coldhearted, but you aren’t the main concern.”
An idea formed in her head, and she matched his smirk. “How many more sectors do you have to get here?”
“Five more,” Iris answered for him, coming around from a side door and latching on to his free arm. Lisa joined her, but chose instead to grab the bottle from her brother’s hand and downed the rest of it. Caitlin watched with a sympathetic wince, but the woman barely looked fazed. A testimony to the stress they must be feeling.
“I might be from another earth,” Caitlin continued, “but Star Labs still looks the same. You’ve only been to the pipeline. I can show you another way in, and you can get more people out. It won’t take nearly as much time, and then I can get back to my earth.”
“You’re willing to steal some metas with a bunch of criminals?” Lisa asked with a sly smile.
Caitlin thought back to the prison she’d seen not even two hours ago, and she felt the same burst of anger she had when she’d kicked that guard. She wasn’t a criminal, she didn’t know how to break into a prison much less out of it, and she didn’t really want to learn. But – that was cruelty and it had caused Barry, maybe not her Barry but a version of him, had caused him to die.
“I’m willing to free metas if it means it will get me back home and keep people safe,” she corrected, staring straight at Leonard. “On my earth, Barry sees the good in you. At least one version, even if it’s not on my earth, needs to prove him right.”
xx
The problem with helping the Rogues was that Leonard Snart was a perfectionist. Every little detail had to be perfect, had to go off without a hitch. The last thing they wanted was to get caught, and he’d told her the one time he hadn’t planned for long enough, Cisco Ramon had been taken.
Cisco – he was one of the metas still locked in in pipeline, apparently in the farthest sector, and it strengthened her resolve even more. She was not leaving without her friend, and to do that, they would have to break all the other metas out. It worked with Snart’s plan.
And in this plan of his, she couldn’t be seen as any different from Killer Frost, so the first thing Lisa Snart did when Caitlin woke that next morning was drag her from the couch and downstairs to the room that functioned as Hartley’s lab for a few upgrades as Lisa had called it.
It had the same setup as Cisco’s lab on her earth, just in a different building, but in this one she could see where the two had shared. Cisco’s side was riddled with posters and a whiteboard full of equations she could barely keep up with. Hartley’s side was pristine, and his cape was hanging from a hook in the corner, and that flute rested below on a shelf. There was an entire bookcase dedicated to inventions she didn’t even recognize.
Hartley greeted them by spinning the chair, looking her up and down with a disapproving look and said, “We’re going to turn plain Caitlin Snow into Killer Frost – welcome to your latest upgrade, Cait.” He gestured to his desk and her eyes followed the motion.
On that desk lay the same outfit Cisco had described Killer Frost on earth-2 wearing, and next to it, large metal bracelets that looked eerily similar to the power-inhibiting ones the metas she’d arrived with had been wearing.
“No.”
Hartley stood up with a sigh. “Caitlin, you said you wanted to help with this. If you want to help, you have to look like your doppelganger, and you have to act like her. Otherwise, you can say no, and just wait the two plus weeks before we can send you back,” he replied.
She frowned. The ice white hair of Killer Frost she could deal with, and the clothes would make her extremely uncomfortable, but she could handle a few hours in them. The problem was acting like the other woman. She’d never saw her in action, not since Zoom had killed her, but Cisco had told her stories. Heart as cold as her namesake, words dripping with threats or a purr – that wasn’t Caitlin. She wasn’t sure she had it in her to convince the guards successfully.
“Once you’re ready,” Hartley added after a moment, “we’re going to try this out on Heatwave. If he believes you, you’ll be –”
“Golden,” Lisa finished with a purr. “Absolutely golden. Get dressed, Frost, and let’s get this show on the ice.” She threw in a wink for good measure.
If it was a multiversal consistency that Leonard Snart led the Rogues, it was another one that both Snarts loved their puns. In the span of not even a full twenty-four hours on this earth, that fact was obvious. It was enough to drive a girl insane, and if Hartley started, she might just take her chances finding her own way back.
With a sigh, she grabbed the outfit from Hartley’s outstretched hands, ignoring the two’s matching triumphant grins, and darted back down the hall to a bathroom. It only took a minute to switch outfits, but she immediately felt uncomfortable. The pants were as tight as Barry’s suit, and the shirt, well, she wasn’t even going there.
The bracelets snapped into place easily, and at least those felt natural – grounding. They were cold on her bare arms, the metal pressing hard against her skin. There were no buttons like she had been expecting, and she gave her wrist an experimental flick.
Caitlin jumped back when ice struck the wall in front of her, coating a small area with a glittering white. Well, she thought, that’s how these work.
Hartley grinned when she walked back into the lab, stumbling in the too-high heels. “Well, you do look the part,” and Lisa nodded in agreement. “Now you just have to speak like Frost – and learn to walk. That’s pathetic, Caitlin.”
She looked at him with a frown, unimpressed, and tried to imitate the same drawl she’d heard from her earth-2 doppelganger. “I’ve always hated the name Caitlin. So unflattering, so – weak. I like the sound of Killer Frost.” For effects, she moved her hand slightly, the shirt grazing the metal of the bracelet, and sparks of ice shot out. They coated the shelf underneath Hartley’s flute. “It’s much more me, don’t you think?”
“Oh yeah,” Lisa said with a twinkling laugh, “I’ll get Mick.” She disappeared out the door, and Caitlin watched her leave, before turning back to Hartley.
He shrugged. “If you can convince Mick, you can convince everyone else,” he added, and turned back to his desk and the papers scattered on top of it. “Don’t screw up like you always do.”
There was the condescending Hartley Rathaway she was used to. Was it strange to say she might have even missed it? A nice Pied Piper made her feel like she was out of her league – though she couldn’t really say much, considering she was dressing up as her evil doppelganger just so she could be part of a prison break.
And weren’t those words she never thought she would have to say, much less ever relay back to Barry and Cisco when she got home.
“Why is it so important that I convince the resident arsonist that I’m Killer Frost?” she demanded after a moment of waiting for Lisa to return. “Is this some backwards earth where Mick Rory is more than just Captain Cold’s pyromaniac partner?”
Hartley scoffed immediately, “No, there hasn’t been any role reversal. Thank science, that would be the weirdest universe ever. He might not be as dumb as he looks, but he’s not as smart as the boss.”
“Then why is this necessary?”
Another voice joined them, not Lisa or Mick, and she couldn’t quite place it until she turned around. It was Iris again – and she was never going to get used to her being a Rogue – and she explained, “Because on this earth, Killer Frost is Rory’s fiancée.”
Caitlin stared at her in silence.
“I take it you two aren’t together on your earth?” Iris asked with a chuckle. It sounded so much like Caitlin’s Iris, she had to shake her head out of memories. “Well, here, everyone looks out for each other. There’s no hero versus villain thing anymore, so there weren’t any reasons for Frost and Mick not to start dating.”
She answered faintly, “He strapped me to a bomb.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember that.” Iris smiled. “You hated each other for a while there, but then Barry and Leonard starting dating and you were forced to talk.”
“I thought –”
“Me and Len? It was complicated,” Iris finished before Caitlin could. “They started dating, hanging around the house, and then the thing with Eobard happened. Barry was killed, and Leonard comforted me.”
Hartley scoffed again, not turning around from his desk. “Yes, and I had to fork over money to Cisquito because the three of them couldn’t get their acts together before Allen was out of the picture. Complicated? It was pathetic, that’s what it was.”
Iris slapped Hartley’s shoulder with a glare. “And which one of us is sleeping with an unavailable man?”
“You, clearly,” he replied and rolled his eyes.
Lisa stuck her head in the doorway, rolling her eyes at the argument in front of her, and then motioned for Caitlin to follow her back into the stairwell. She stumbled on the heels as she moved past Iris and Hartley, who didn’t even seem to notice her leaving the room. As Caitlin caught up to Lisa, the younger Snart whispered in her ear, “Just act like a colder version of yourself,” and left her standing there by herself.
Mick was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the railing like he fit right in with the dark wood railing. She could almost believe that if she didn’t know he was more apt to burn it than to look at it. He looked up when she was halfway down the stairs.
“Back already, doll?”
Caitlin took a deep breath, and when she exhaled, her eyes snapped back open again. “Heard there was another prison break,” she said with a low hum, “I’ll have more of a chance finding Eobard there. Keystone was full of nothing but cold leads.”
He looked up at her, finally, and looked down her figure slowly – more appreciatively than anything, and Caitlin was surprised not to feel the disgust that came with being objectified like that. He pulled her into a chaste kiss, lips barely touching and his fingers trailed across her stomach before resting on her legs and when he pulled away, she was perched on the railing.
…maybe there was an advantage to that strength after all, she thought, but she’d need a few more test kisses before she could make up her mind about those skills. If he kissed the way he looked at fire, she was in trouble.
“Glad you’re back, babe.” he said with a smirk. “You can see Piper’s modifications in action.”
She raised an eyebrow and drawled, “For your gun?”
“Yeah,” and he leaned in, his hands hot on her thighs, “Larger radius, like Lenny’s new cold field, an’ now it burns hotter. It’s gorgeous.”
“Mm, I love it when you’re all smart,” she purred and tried not to think too hard about how the words were flowing so easily out of her mouth, “But I thought I was the gorgeous one in your life.” She put her hands on top of his callused ones, and with a slight flick, a thin sheet of ice covered their joined hands.
He smirked down at her and replied, “Fire can’t hold a candle to you, sweetheart.”
And she was really starting to like the pet names. She’d missed that from when Ronnie was still alive, the first time at least. It was nice.
Lisa cleared her throat from above them, and when Caitlin looked up, she looked positively devious. “Save the PDA you two. Lenny’s got a plan ready, and you know how impatient my brother can get when we’re late. He’s got important news. Come on, Mickey.”
She winked at Caitlin, and Caitlin faltered. They were going to reveal the plan, obviously, but she must have done good at convincing Mick if they were going to reveal to the rest of the Rogues that there was a doppelganger here and her part in the plan. She wasn’t sure if she should take it as a compliment, or if it was bad if she could pass as Killer Frost. But, being herself, she would overthink it so much she’d miss half of the meeting.
He cursed under her breath, Caitlin just barely catching a few words about how much crap he was going to give Leonard after the meeting, but she just laughed and slid off the staircase. The ice evaporated from their hands, and she let go quickly.
“Come on hotshot,” she said with a large grin. “I think you’ll want to hear this.”