Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash. Yet.

The sound of brisk footsteps, more than one set, echoing down the empty cortex made Cisco tensed, causing him to pause in his work. He licked his lips nervously as he looked up to see Barry and Caitlin coming in, the temperature of the room immediately falling drastically and Cisco found himself automatically increasing the room temperature, his eyes on Caitlin. Then, out of pure disbelief even after several months, his gaze fell on their interlocked fingers, hands firmly pressed together. Inwardly, he marvelled at the easy way Barry was able to do that, an unconscious habit as easy as breathing.

"There was a disturbance somewhere to the north," Barry stated in a hurried tone, circling around the table to face the computer Cisco was working on, towing Caitlin with him. Cisco barely stopped himself from flinching visibly (though a shudder did pass through him, going unnoticed by the pair) at the sudden decrease of space between him and Caitlin.

Or so Barry insisted on calling her.

The girl with shimmering pale skin, wide, restless blue eyes always fidgeting, and cold cold body, hardly resembled the brown-eyed, warm Doctor Caitlin Snow he knew. She was still beautiful, as Caitlin had always been, but now there was a hunter's sharpness on her face, made prominent by the sharp angles and eager eyes, never still for more than a few seconds.

As if sensing his internal struggle to hide his repulsion from her, she stopped short a few feet away, her hand in Barry's hand outstretching their arms between them.

"Frank Miller," Cisco said, cursing himself mentally for being such an asshole, "A mine worker by profession. He was on duty when the particle accelerator exploded."

"At night?" Caitlin asked, making Cisco flinch visibly this time. Ever since her transformation into Killer Frost (a name Barry hated from the start), her voice had gone slightly hollow, a faint vibration of her windpipe vaguely familiar to the one Flash had used to conceal his identity.

"In mines, nights and days are the same," he replied, as normally as possible.

Get a grip Cisco, he scolded himself, this is the same Caitlin who was your friend. Or at least slightly the same person.

"Well, what's his specialty?" Barry asked, leaning forward to make sense of the grainy CCTV footage playing on the screen.

"Rocks? Sand?" Caitlin guessed, still trying to give Cisco his space while trying to see the footage between the heads of the two boys.

Cisco smiled hesitantly, glancing at her once before shifting his eyes back to the screen, "That's right . . . Caitlin."

If either Barry or Caitlin sensed his hesitation over her name, they ignored it.

"He can make boulders appear out of earth," Cisco nodded at the screen where the man was running down the street after stealing money from a store. The trio watched in silence as the police car chased after him, only to come to a halt after slamming into a six-feet boulder that appeared in the middle of the road, ripping the road around its base.

Barry looked back at Caitlin whose eyes were devoid of all emotions, wide electric blue pupils shifting restlessly. He squeezed her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. Her eyes shifted to him, quiet, empty.

"What do you think?" Barry asked as he closed the distance between them she had maintained because of Cisco.

She jerked her chin upwards, "Ready when you are," she said boldly. Barry grinned, his other hand coming forward to hold her empty one.

Cisco breathed deeply. Despite her blunt coldness, both physical and mental, Barry was hard bent on keeping her with him, of keeping her a part of S.T.A.R Labs, of their once golden trio. For the life of him, Cisco could not figure out how will he be able to do that for several decades to come. Killer Frost was exactly what the name implied; cold, heartless murderer, devoid of all feelings of love and sympathy. Yes, she had gotten a certain control over her powers in the last two years and, yes, she had never hurt Barry even in the earlier months of her transformation when she was maddeningly absorbing the heat from people, leaving them frozen and taut, to satiate her own hunger for warmth and yes, over the last eighteen or so months of her resuming her position back in S.T.A.R Labs, fighting metahumans and criminals with the Flash, she had slipped only but a few times to the murderer she was, Cisco's belief in her resolve was tentatively shaky at the best. It was not becoming easier for him to work when she was in the Lab, his eyes constantly trying to keep a check on her, making sure she was nowhere near him and he had outright refused to have her in the lab if Barry's not with her. He hated showing such open repulsion to someone who was once his closest friend but he couldn't help himself. The genius bioengineer he knew Caitlin to be had disappeared somewhere inside this cold body, no longer passionate about science but spending the long hours either in the most solitary parts of the city or if Barry insisted, in the Lab, staring emptily at the walls.

If Cisco was to be honest with himself, for him, Dr. Caitlin Snow was dead. Gone. Killer Frost may have her face and body, but she will never be what Caitlin was to him; friend, partner, sister.

So if he could not understand how on earth could Barry still treat her the same, still love her and want to be with her, still insist on having her as a part of the team, he really felt like he was missing something in all of this.

"Cisco," Barry's voice brought him back from his thoughts, "Did you get the position on this guy?"

"Yeah, actually," Cisco leaned over the screen eagerly, his fingers tapping a few more keys and a map of the city appeared, "He was last seen in this area."

Barry frowned, "That's one of the shabbier areas of the city."

"I know," Cisco nodded, "I think our guy lives here. He was a mine worker after all. That couldn't pay much."

"Alright, we should go right -"

"Barry, wait," Cisco interrupted, casting a quick glance at Caitlin, "Can I talk to you for a sec? Alone?"

Barry's jaw flexed impatiently at the clear attempt of excluding Caitlin from the group. He opened his mouth to argue but felt a tug at his hand, realizing her hand was no longer in his.

"I will be outside if you need me," her quiet suggestion left Barry staring after her guiltily, his eyes following her retreating form right up to the moment it vanished into the cortex.

Cisco pursed his lips remorsefully, his eyes downcast, "Sorry about that," he muttered apologetically, "That was inappropriate."

"You think?" Barry pushed his hair back with his palm, looking clearly irritated.

"Listen, man, you can not take her with you. Not this time," Cisco burst out, his voice both parts urgent and pleading. Barry frowned.

"What? Why not?"

Cisco gestured at the computer screen with a wave of his hand, "This man - I'm pretty sure he is not a hard core criminal. I mean - he stole some money from a store. With his powers, he could have robbed a bank. But he didn't," Cisco spread his palms in a shrugging motion, "Maybe he just needs help to understand the situation."

Barry nodded absentmindedly, paused, then shook his head, "But I don't understand. What does this has to do with Caitlin?"

Cisco stole a breath before saying what he knew would be the beginning of a heated argument, "It's just - she is still trying to control her . . . other instincts, you know, to not kill and in this situation I don't trust her to understand the difference between criminals and -"

"Well, I do," Barry cut in sharply and started to pace in front of him, his features frustrated, "Eighteen months - it's been eighteen months, Cisco, and you still don't trust her. What - why can't you see that she is the same person? Same Cai -"

"Because she's not," Cisco said loudly, impatiently, too tired of this facade, "She's not the same person, dude, she is not the Caitlin we knew."

"Of course she is. Look, she's still learning to control -"

"She has already slipped a few times," Cisco insisted.

"I know," Barry shook his head impatiently, "But she is improving. She has already gotten so much better at -"

"Barry, why don't you admit that it's never gonna work?" Cisco gave up pretense, coming out harsh.

Barry's steps came to a halt, "What are you - of course she -"

"She is a murderer," Cisco said bluntly, his voice thinning with grief, "She killed so many people . . . froze them to death, she - she -"

"She was scared, Cisco," Barry countered, sighing, his own voice low with the exhaustion of the same repetitive argument, "She needed to get warm and she didn't know what or how was she hurting people. And even after knowing that, she could not stop herself even if she tried. I know how she must have felt then, I've been -"

"She is not Caitlin," Cisco said loudly, throwing his arms in the air, "Okay? Caitlin is dead, Barry, and the sooner you realize that this - this Killer Frost -"

In an instant Barry was there, few inches away, his finger raised threateningly, "Don't call her that," he said quietly, his voice laced with fury.

Cisco stared back defiantly, his eyes full of sad defeat, "She is not Caitlin," he repeated once more, quietly.

Barry sighed as he took a step back, passing a tired hand over his face, "You just said she might not know the difference between criminals and innocents," he threw him a disappointed look, "When it's really you who is prejudiced."

"Barry, I -"

"I will talk to you later, Cisco," Barry said, turning around abruptly towards the exit, "Right now, we need to catch a meta human and you need to talk me through it."

Cisco watched in silence as another of his friends vanished down the cortex, feeling the cold chill of hopelessness slinking down his spine.

x-x-x

Barry met Caitlin near the high gates of S.T.A.R Labs, her pale body luminescent in dark against the black metal she was leaning on. He felt her glowing vacant eyes shifting to him as soon as he appeared outside in his red suit, her gaze devoid of all emotions, unsuspecting, unexpecting. He gave a faint smile as he flashed forward and came to a halt right in front of her.

"Cisco thinks this meta human might just be a person confused with his powers and we just need to help him," he told simply, knowing she would not ask, catching her hand in his and looking down at it, unable to meet her eyes.

He knew she knows. She had always been good at knowing him, reading him like a favorite book read over and over again, so much that she knows each line and dot. And he hated the fact that he could not say the same for himself, could not say that he knew Caitlin Snow like she knows him. And right now she knew he was lying. Or at least not telling the complete truth.

Eighteen months ago, he had thought that having her with him, once again a part of S.T.A.R Labs, a part of their missions, would be perfect, a continuation of the practice broken with her transformation. He could not have been more wrong.

For starters, she was having a hard time controlling her powers. It was a huge progress from her earlier days of transformation when she had escaped the facility, and when Ronnie, her husband, caught up with her, killed him in her uncontrollable, insatiable hunger for warmth, moving onwards to feeding off other humans' warmth. She had gone insanely rogue, going to any and all measures to get in contact with humans, making him putting everything aside and going on a search for her.

He had soon found her and came within inches of his death upon meeting her (a secret kept very well hidden from Cisco).

The sight of her; so pale, so cold, so inhumane, had reduced him to a stunned stop as he took in the truth through his eyes rather than just stories. He could not find a shred of Caitlin in her, not even a grey of her shadow. For the first time he had believed that this could very well be the person to kill her husband, had believed that maybe Caitlin Snow really was dead.

And then she saw him and he had noticed the slight hint of recognition in her bright blue eyes.

He had confronted her, then, accused her of killing Ronnie, of taking so many other anonymous lives. She had laughed, taunted him for his foolish sacrificing nature, told him that she needed all the warmth she could get but her narrowed glare made him only more certain of the evil that had now possessed the once warm heart of Caitlin Snow, clouding her needs with the hateful way she spoke.

They had fought that first time.

And she had almost killed him with the tip of an icy dagger. He barely made out alive, his body severely bruised and punctured.

Tending to his wounds alone, in an empty house, his heart ached with the loss of the person he had always held so close to his heart. He recalled the way she had always took care of his bruised and broken body, her soft fingers swift and gentle and firm, never flinching in her job. He recalled the way she would get angry with him for putting himself in danger. Or the way she would come running whenever he would enter the lab, her eyes wide with concern.

And that had reminded him of the way her eyes widened that day upon seeing him.

A reluctant hope dared to blossom in his heart.

Once the haze of the shock of seeing her so cold and distant had been replaced by that hope, he started remembering several things of their encounter that only fed to that optimistic assumption.

He acknowledged exactly how easy it would be to kill him if she had really wanted to kill him. He realized that she could have easily grown that last shard to a centimetre more and it would have pierced his heart. Or throw several hundred icy daggers at him from all directions and his speed would be useless. Or she could had just enclosed him in an ice grave.

But she hadn't.

He had suddenly realized that all that time she had been trying to drive him away, force him to leave. What he had been taking as an attempt to kill him was just her way to keep him safe.

The realization had made him sit up quickly, only to lie back down, wincing with pain from his rapidly healing wounds.

He had followed her the next day, closely but carefully. She seemed fairly in control of her powers as she went farther and farther away from the city, sometimes running, sometimes walking, and he had started wondering if she had any destination in mind.

And then it happened.

She had came to an abrupt stop, her head tilted sideways as a woman's screams reached them. For few seconds, everything went still, a long wail the only movement of air. Then she broke into a sprint.

He followed.

The sight that had met them after coming out on the other side of a hill left him horror struck. It was a car on fire and a woman standing near it, her face black with smoke and soot, crying loudly, hysterically.

Barry tensed in anticipation, observing from the opposite side of the road as Caitlin stepped towards the woman, her hands clawed. The ice around her fingertips started to grow, her pale skin shining in daylight. He gulped, leaning forward on his toes, preparing to whisk the woman away if Caitlin tried to hurt her.

"My son! He is in the car! Please help!" the woman was screaming, unable to register the freaky appearence of the girl in front of her in her panic.

Caitlin took another step towards the woman, a wild gleam in her eyes, a predatory shine of the blue irises. Barry was already planning on creating an air vaccum to extinguish the fire and save the kid when suddenly Caitlin tilted her head sideways, stared at the burning car for a second before she raised her hands and put them on the hood of the car. The woman screamed even louder and Barry was stunned back on the ball of his heels, unable to move.

In a matter of seconds the car was frozen, the fire extinguishing as Caitlin absorbed the heat blissfully. The woman's eyes widened in horror as she finally saw her for what she was. Barry stared, unable to feel the tug of a small unexpected smile at the corner of his mouth.

Caitlin sent an ice dagger through the windshield, breaking the glass to reveal the unconscious child slumped on the front seat. She looked at the woman expectantly, probably waiting for her to retrieve her child.

Instead, the woman shrieked in fear, "Get away from my son! Leave him alone! He has done nothing!"

Barry saw the rage that rippled across Caitlin's face in that moment, the blue of her eyes turning icy and almost white. She snarled in anger, making the woman cower and stumble back a few steps, before turning on her heels and walking away, her fists clenched.

And that was all the proof Barry had needed to know that his instinct was right.

The next time he had faced Caitlin, or as everyone has taken to call her Killer Frost, he stood there silently.

She had stared back just as quietly. He knew she could see that something had changed, see that on his face, in his stance and eyes. She had always been good at reading him. He used that knowledge to prove his point.

When he had extended his palm towards her, she had flinched minutely, shifting her own hands behind her.

"Do you want to die?" she had asked him coldly. She twirled her fingers and several icy daggers appeared out of the floor, surrounding him, poised and waiting for a single flick of her finger to pierce him.

"No," he had replied calmly, "I want to tell you something."

She smirked, "Oh really? And what would that be?"

"I'm sorry," he had whispered sincerely, his throat tight. His broken voice had made her tense, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"For what?" she hissed, her eyes restless as they kept jumping from his hand to his face and back again.

"Everything, Cait," the nickname widened her eyes in disbelief and she snorted, appearing to dismiss the fact, "For letting you go alone. For not being able to save you from HIVE. For all the . . . pain," his voice cracked, "For everything that made you feel like you can't come back."

She stared silently.

"To what?" she had asked at length, her eyes finally coming to a still on his face.

"To us."

She had laughed loudly, then, her humorless dry laughter trying to feed off his hope.

"The noble Barry Allen. Wanting me back on his team. Should I feel lucky?" she cocked her head sideways, taunting cheerlessly.

"Cait, you -"

"Don't you know what they are calling me these days?" she cut in harshly, the quiet and calmness of moments earlier dissipating, "Killer Frost," she waved a hand towards herself, the pale skin, blue eyes and all, "Sounds more appropriate, doesn't it?" One of the icicle jumped into her hand and she twirled it on her fingertips playfully.

"You are Caitlin," Barryy had said firmly, his voice low.

"Not anymore," she smiled, a cruel stretch of her pale lips, "Caitlin would never do . . . all of that. But she is dead, now."

"You are Caitlin. Dr. Caitlin Snow."

"Repeating things only lose their meaning," she pointed out icily, turning away from him, "You might want to save your breath." The icicle dropped to the floor and shattered.

"Caitlin, please, it's not your fault," he followed her, palm still outstretch.

She chuckled, "Of course it's not," she twirled a strand of pale hair around her finger, turning around gracefully, "But I have to live with it," her smile vanished, "And to live, I have to do whatever I can."

"Taking heat from people?" he had asked, not accusing but curious.

"Yes," she looked down at his hand, "Just like I took Ronnie's."

Barry stepped forward, "Ronnie's death was an accident," he insisted, "You didn't know what you were doing."

"Doesn't bring him to life, the fact," she had shrugged, trying to appear indifferent, "As you reminded me so kindly yesterday."

"And I was wrong."

"No you weren't," she smiled pleasantly, "So what changed? What bring about this change of heart, Barry Allen?"

He took a deep breath, willing himself to not go without her, not again, "I saw you with that woman yesterday," he told calmly, " You didn't took her heat even though you wanted to."

She stared at him, her eyes hard to read but Barry sensed something changing in her, "It won't happen again," she shrugged, failing to appear careless.

"You don't want to hurt people, Cait," he had pleaded, "You know you don't."

"It's no longer a question of what I want," she jerked her chin upwards, "I need the heat and I will take it. And I will keep doing it," she looked him in the eyes, "And you know that."

"Just -" he stretched his arm towards her, "Just hear me out."

She put up her palm, her smile now taunting, "You know, I just have to touch your hand," she waved her fingers close to his palm, "And as soon as you feel the cold touching your bones, you will be forgetting all about your rehabilitation plans."

Barry shook his head, putting up his palm to face hers, "Try me," he said boldly, inching his palm closer and she pulled hers back slightly.

"Do you have a death wish?" she spat angrily.

"No, but I do have a fast metabolism," he smiled slightly, "My cells regenerate at an accelerated rate. Any heat that you will take from me - it will be immediately taken care of."

She stared at him for a long moment, measuring his words, her eyes reluctant. At long last, she gritted her teeth and her palm covered the few inches between them, leaning against his gingerly. It was barely a touch - just finger tips and the base of the palm touching but that was enough.

The initial feeling was of a hard sting, a violent shiver through his arm accompanied by a bolt of pain. He had felt his palm going numb, the cold shocking at first, giving him a feeling of deja vu. It was the same pain he felt when Farooq Gibran fed on his energy, leaving him unable to run. He remembered realizing that he was not a limited resource, remembered pushing energy out of him and into Farooq, making him choke on it. He realized that's what he must do with Caitlin.

Before, however, he could test his hypothesis, she had pulled back, her eyes wider than usual.

"You will die," she whispered, "Just like Ronnie."

He realized the emotion in her usually blank eyes - it was fear. She was afraid of herself.

"I won't," he had whispered back, reassuring, gentle, "And I won't leave you alone either."

Slowly, he had placed his palm against hers again, more firmly this time.

And the second time he willed his body to provide heat, to let it flow between the contact.

It had worked.

He had noticed in the confused narrowing of her eyes that it had worked.

But that hadn't been the only convincing argument.

It took several hours worth of debate, several more days after that, until she had finally agreed to go back with him.

And that's when his second problem appeared. Cisco had thought him insane.

His frustration towards Barry increased even more when he refused to put her in the meta human prison after she slipped in her resolve and drained cold one of the meta humans they were tracking down. Or when she fell on a man in one of their fights against a particularly evil meta human and once coming in contact with his warmth, was unable to let go until Barry barreled into her, barely succeeding in saving the man.

It didn't help either that she insisted on leaving the city every time she slipped as furiously as Cisco insisted on not having her as a part of their group.

But he wouldn't - couldn't leave her. She was Caitlin. She was the person who had held him together when he was close to falling apart. She was the person who had asked him to stay until she fall asleep. She was the person who had hugged him because she knew he needed one. She was the person shouting his name over transmitter until he replied to tell that he was okay.

She was Dr. Caitlin Snow - his personal physician.

His partner. His friend.

And now that he had her back, nothing could make him lose her. Not even Cisco's warnings.

"Is that all he said?" she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her tone, her fingers entwined in his. It had taken an year's worth of frustrating determination but she had finally been able to refrain herself from feeding off his heat. The lust of warmth was still there, raging, burning up in her veins, but contained stubbornly just below the skin. For that one feat, she was extremely proud of herself.

He ignored the hint, "Yeah," he shrugged.

She shook her head slightly, a rare smile briefly appearing on her face before vanishing quickly, "So what's the plan?"

"I will flash you close enough to him and then could build one of your ice cages around him."

The pause stretched as she waited for him to continue.

"Then what?" she asked finally, an impatient edge to her voice.

"Then we talk," Barry said lamely, "Try to know why is he doing what he's doing."

She raised her eyebrows skeptically, eyes narrowed, "And that's gonna work?"

Barry gave a sheepish smile, "Only one way to know."

He stepped forward and picked her up. Her eyes shone with a steely determination as she placed her arms around him. She knew she could always ice-slide her way to there, but this way was always the fastest.

x-x-x

"You are here - that's the place," Cisco's voice on the transmitter brought them to a halt.

"Can you see our guy?" Barry asked softly, knowing Cisco has all the nearby CCTV hacked.

"No - not yet. He must be in the building."

Caitlin let go of Barry and landed nimbly on her feet, her restless eyes quickly taking in the surroundings.

"Are you sure he hasn't left the building?"

"Yes, yes - or one of the cameras would have seen him."

They stood still for a full minute, looking all around them. At this time of night, the place was eerily quiet.

"Do we go in then?" Caitlin's whisper in her transmitter made Cisco flinch once more.

"That looks like the only option," Barry whispered back.

"There will be other people in the building," Cisco warned and Barry knew who he was actually warning against, "You need to stay clear of them. Make sure no one gets hurt."

Barry glanced at Caitlin who was staring up at the apartment, her eyes moving from window to window. He silently cursed Cisco for being so stubborn in not trusting her.

"Don't worry, we'll be careful," he murmured.

"Barry . . . you know what -"

"Yes, Cisco, we'll make sure he doesn't hurt anyone," Barry cut in angrily, insisting on Cisco to get the hint.

Caitlin threw an amused look over at Barry, her lips quirking up one side in a knowing smirk, before walking towards the building. Barry quickly ran ahead, in the building and up the stairs, making sure no one was in their way. Fortunately, due to the lateness of the hour, no one was. He stood outside the apartment door, waiting for Caitlin to join him.

As soon as she stepped beside him, she froze the door knob and smashed it into powdery ice. The two shared a silent look before Barry pushed the door open and stepped in.

The apartment was an utter mess, dust and gravel on everything. All the stuff was strewn around the apartment like sprinkled salt. The TV was smashed in, the table lying on its side, the cushions lying near the window. Barry took in the whole scene in barely two seconds.

"Hello? Is any-"

His loud call was interrupted by an icy hand grabbing his arm. He looked around to see Caitlin glaring at him, her other hand pointing at one of the rooms. He cursed his stupidity of announcing his presence when Caitlin could feel the person by his heat only.

"Sorry," he murmured sheepishly.

The next moment they heard a window being smashed, the shattering voice coming from the same room Caitlin had been pointing at earlier. Caitlin hissed angrily as Barry ran ahead, barreling the door open and coming to a halt inside the room.

Caitlin ran in behind him to find the room empty with glass shards around the window ledge.

"He's outside guys!" Cisco shouted in the transmitter.

Barry ran to the window and flashed down the length of the building. Caitlin followed him, sliding down an icy arc stretching between the window and the road below.

"There!" Barry pointed in the direction of the man running downhill. The meta looked over his shoulder at the two of them and kept running.

With an impatient sound, Barry ran after him, a streak of light and speed. In a blinking second, before Caitlin could register the change of positions, the man was turning around, his hands raised. Breathlessly, her mouth opened to shout out warning even as she saw a boulder rising out of the road and heard the loud crunch of Barry smashing into it.

Caitlin's eyes widened at the sight of the boulder smashing on the contact, several of the larger pieced hitting a curled up, moaning Barry hard on his head and torso. He screamed in pain, his leg twisted at an awkward angle, blood flowing out of his mask down from his forehead.

"BARRY!" The synchronized screams of Caitlin and Cisco echoed in the empty night. People started pulling up their windows to peer out on the road, curious to know the source of noise.

Caitlin felt her hold on her fury and powers slipping as she ran forward, creating an icy sheen under her feet and slipping fast towards the meta human, her hands raised. Several icy daggers shot out of her fingers, cutting the wind and before the man knew, pinning him to the ground, piercing his arms and legs. The man screamed in agony.

Caitlin's eyes went white as she stalked forward and past Barry, her hands curled into claws, a cruel smile playing on her lips, "Did you think it would be that easy?" she growled, her tone dripping with menacing anger, "That you would just escape like that?" she put her arm in front of her, her fingers clenching into a fist. The ice daggers went further in the man's flesh and he writhed in agony.

"Who - what are you?" the man screamed in fear.

"Barry? Barry, she's losing it," Cisco's trembling voice in her ear meant nothing. She was possessed with a blinding fury, claimed by an intense hatred for the man who was emanating so much heat.

"Caitlin!" Barry's broken voice passed the barrier of her lust. She ignored it.

Instead, she imagined putting her hand on the meta's arm, letting the heat flow out of his body and into hers. She imagined him crying out in pain as he felt his body growing numb. She imagined the color of his face turning to blue as the blood froze in his veins.

"Caitlin! Please!" Barry's pleading voice disturbed her concentration. He sounded to be in pain. She should stop the pain. But she must kill this man, too. She shook her head slightly.

"Caitlin, you need to bring Barry to the lab!" Cisco tried desperately, "He's losing a lot of his blood. Fast."

The words registered slowly, cracking the shell of cold fury. It was harder to ignore this time. But she did it. She ignored the warning. She reached the man, hand outstretched, seeing the fear in his eyes and taking pleasure in it. She bent low into a canine prowl, a feral look to her face as her hand came down on the man's sleeve.

"Cait, no," Barry gasped, "You are better . . . than . . . this," his vision slipped in and out, tunneling into darkness.

The pain of Barry's voice broke through the last of her mental defenses, snapping her out of her anger. She stood up abruptly, her fists trembling as the ice daggers in the man's limbs melted away, leaving him a moaning mess. She turned around, staring at Barry, the white irises regaining their blue. Barry has blacked out, lying limp against the road, blood slowly pooling around him.

"You need to bring Barry back, Caitlin," Cisco insisted once more, unable to know whether she had stopped or not.

She looked back at the metahuman, still moaning on the pavement, his arms and legs bleeding. Distantly, she felt horrified at what she had done to him, the loathing disgust now directed at herself. But more importantly, she had to choose. Choose between capturing the meta or saving Barry.

There was no choice to make.

"I'm coming back with Barry. We have to let the metahuman go for now," she said quietly in her transmitter, listening to the breath of relief Cisco exhaled.

x-x-x

A/N: Okay, okay, before you all tell me how ridiculous this is, hear me out.

There were several Killer Frost in comics but Caitlin Snow was the mildest one. She did save that boy's life in the comics, though not in quite that way. It was another meta who put the car on fire so she came over her instinct to kill the mother and killed the meta instead (check the wiki page for killer frost). I just removed the meta to shorten the story. So that was some good she did, right? I have just this feeling that if any Killer Frost can be good, Caitlin would be the one. So I made this story. I mean, she's not all good. I tried to preserve her evil side as much as I can without actually turning her evil. But we'll see where the story will go from here. I'm not counting on many chapter fic. I think the next one will be the last. So...tell me what you think?

(Also, this is a totally lame name for this fic. I'm up for any good suggestions. I hate this name. Just give me anything to change it to.)