A/N: It's been a long time. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who followed this story and encouraged me to keep writing. I know the Flash fandom is full of some really toxic people, and those hateful and homophobic reviews really got to me and discouraged me from continuing this story. But after re-reading it and all of your kind reviews, as well as re-watching all the Barry and Patty scenes from Season 2, I decided it was an injustice to not continue. Now, I am aware that since it's been a few years there have been a lot of changes to the canon Arrowverse, so I just want to make it clear, this universe is a deviation from about halfway through Flash Season 2 and Arrow Season 4, so Legends never happened and the timeline went in a much different direction. Obviously. So without any further ado, please enjoy!
Even with only one arm left, Oliver Queen was still a natural at going up and down the salmon ladder. Even after their divorce, Felicity Smoak still found it hard not to be aroused by watching him. Things had been complicated for Team Arrow ever since Damien Darhk murdered Laurel Lance in cold blood. Diggle had retired to raise his family in peace mere months before he was chosen by an alien power ring and was never seen or heard from again on Earth.
With Oliver out of commission thanks to Ray Palmer, Sara Lance and Nyssa al Ghul had repurposed what was left of the League of Assassins to serve as Star City's new protectors. But Oliver had refused to let this be the end of him. For years he has been training to one day reenter the battlefield, and Felicity refused to leave his side.
She was snapped out of her daydreaming by an alert on her computer. She swivels around and opens the news broadcast from Central City declaring "Flashback: Our City's Original Hero has Returned!"
Her jaw dropped and she was immediately dialing her old friend who she hadn't spoken to in years; Barry Allen
"Hey Felicity," he sounded unenthused to hear from her, but she wasn't going to let that stop her.
Oliver dropped from the salmon ladder and asked "What's going on?"
She neglected to answer him and instead proposed a question for the Flash.
"Wanna start explaining?"
She heard Barry sigh over the phone.
"I'll be there in a second."
Whoosh.
"Oh wow, you weren't kidding. I forgot how much that took me off guard."
Barry simply shrugged.
"Barry…" muttered Oliver, shocked to see his old friend, wearing his costume nonetheless. Barry turned to face him and his eyes widened. They hadn't spoken since the Green Arrow's bloody battle with the Atom all those years ago. Barry had tried to reach out, but Oliver was an expert at freezing out the people who cared about him.
"Oliver… it's good to see you, man."
Oliver nodded slowly, "It's good to see you too, Barry," he extended his right arm as Barry shook it hesitantly.
"Okay, now that we've gotten the awkwardness out of the away, what the hell, Barry?!" Demanded Felicity.
"What?" He defended shyly. Felicity simply motioned to the fact that he was wearing the Flash suit.
"Yeah, it's a long story."
Felicity crossed her arms.
"Do we look like we're doing anything?"
Barry sighed and hung his head.
"Alright."
As Barry started explaining, in that same second back in Central City, Caitlin Snow sat in her cell in Titanium Heights, under complete lockdown and constant surveillance. Yesterday's breakout had put the guards on high alert. Caitlin sat reluctantly in the corner, cursing everything that had led her to where she was now.
She remembered the sensation from when Zoom had first kidnapped her. With the Killer Frost on his world dead, and his new infatuation with Caitlin, he enlisted Leonard Snart's help to recreate Killer Frost on Earth-1. The procedure drove Caitlin crazy, giving birth to a much deadlier Killer Frost than the one he had known on Earth-2. One he would regret creating.
As she thought about all of this, she noticed the walls around her beginning to freeze. She rose an eyebrow curiously, and noticed her power-dampening collar had been tampered with during the breakout.
But how? she wondered, I was surrounded the whole time… no one could have gotten close enough to me… unless…
She narrowed her eyes and breathed out cold to freeze her collar and break it off. Smirking, she formed an ice sword around her fist and lunged at her cell door.
Meanwhile, Cisco Ramon sat content in S.T.A.R. Labs, feeling like he was in the old days as a member of Team Flash. But there was something missing. Caitlin. Funnily enough, just as he thought that, he had a vibe of her fighting off a group of guards in Titanium Heights.
Scrambling to get to his communicator, he contacted Ronnie and Jax urgently.
"Guys! Caitlin's escaping!"
Ronnie had gone to Jax for comfort after seeing Caitlin for the first time, and they immediately merged to go confront her as Firestorm. They blasted off and quickly arrived outside Titanium Heights, where Killer Frost had just made her escape into the open.
They stood across from each other, staring intensely, both too afraid to speak first.
Killer Frost clasped her fist and Firestorm ignited his in response.
"Don't even think about it, Caitlin," warned Jax.
"That's not my name!" Angrily, she blasted a frost beam at Firestorm, who was barely able to melt it in time, flying up to outmaneuver her as he blasted fireballs down at her.
She was barely able to dodge them as she began throwing ice daggers up at him, eventually managing to land a blow hard enough to knock him out of the sky. As Firestorm hit the ground and attempted to recover, Killer Frost walked towards him.
"I don't want to fight you, Jax. I just want Ronnie."
Firestorm sighed.
"Ronnie, no, we can't-" Jax argued with the voice inside his head, but it was pointless. Ronnie initiated the separation and looked at Caitlin sorrowfully. He raised his hands into the air.
"Caitlin-"
"My name is Killer Frost!"
"Your name is Caitlin Snow! You were my wife! You were my everything. This isn't who you are… but you have every right to blame me for the way you feel. So if it's what you need to… kill me. But don't hurt Jax or Barry or Cisco. We all love you."
Killer Frost raised an arm at him as frost began to emanate off of it.
"And you mean nothing to me."
"Caitlin, no!" Screamed Jax in a last desperate plea.
However, before she could land the killing blow, she disappeared in a flash. Pun intended.
Jax and Ronnie shared a confused look.
"Thawne." Determined Ronnie, his voice dripping with disdain.
Meanwhile, in Star City…
"And then I took down the Parasite and got a call from you," finished Barry as Felicity and Oliver stared at him in disbelief, "It's been kind of a crazy few days."
"Barry!" Barry flinched as Cisco screamed into his communicator.
"Cisco, what is it?"
"Caitlin escaped from Titanium Heights! Jax and Ronnie think that Thawne took her… Barry, what are we gonna do?"
Barry hesitated, completely unsure. Thawne was back. Captain Cold had been reunited with the Rogues, who Barry knew have been planning something big. Wally was missing. Now Killer Frost was back?
"It's time to start putting together a team."