Hostage

Caitlin wakes up to see a dark room. Dim lights are randomly placed on the walls. Glass and caged cells fill the center of the room. She is sitting on what appears to be an old hospital bed. Her wrist is shackled to the side rail on the bed. She looks around and notices the cells aren't empty. In the middle of the room, in a glass-looking cell, is a man with an iron mask. In the cell furthest away from her, is a face she hoped to never see again: Killer Frost.

"Well what do you know." Killer Frost says in her token icy, breathy voice. "If it isn't my doppelganger. How are ya, Caity?" A knowing smirk spreads on her face.

Caitlin rolls her eyes and turns away to look at the man in the other cell. She isn't given much time to assess him until Zoom appears in front of her. She looks down to see a metal tray of food in front of her on the bed.

"Eat." Zoom growls out.

Caitlin looks up at him, uninterested, then away to the wall. Zoom takes his mask off.

"You can eat it. You're not a prisoner here, Cait." Jay says.

Caitlin looks down at her shackled wrist and wriggles is lightly before looking back up at him.

"Insurance." He says, smiling lightly. "Until you adjust."

She takes a deep breath. He takes a step toward her, causing her to flinch back.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He says, reaching out to her. "I care about you too much."

"The only person you care about is yourself." She says flatly.

"That may have been true once." He responds. "But you'll come to see, you've changed me. I can be whatever you want me to be." He runs from the room and returns wearing jeans and a black sweater. "I can be this. Jay. I can be him for you."

Caitlin just stares at him, her face expressionless. Jay chuckles and nods.

"Alright. I'll give you time." He says, smiling softly at her. Blue lightning is all that's left as he runs out of the room. 

"And people say I'm cold." Killer Frost jokes from across the room. "You might as well give in. That side of the cell is much better than this one. That is if he decides to keep you alive if you keep rejecting him."

"Well it's not gonna stop so he can get over it." Caitlin snarks, turning away from Killer Frost.

She starts to look around the bed. She sees that it's chained to the wall. She looks around for something loose to try to pick the cuffs. The realization that she has no idea how to pick them or how to get out of here or where the hell she even is dawns on her. Even if she did and she could, he'd catch up to her before she could even voice the thought of leaving.

She gets bored trying to squeeze her hand smaller to fit it through the shackle. She unties her shoes and attempts some hack job she saw someone do with a ring stuck on their finger once. Turns out it works better with a ring and finger than a wrist and a cuff. The skin around her wrist is getting raw. Every movement threatens to make it bleed. She looks at the metal tray with stale food.

"Eat."

Caitlin looks up to see Jay standing in front of her. He sits at the end of the bed, the tray between them. He reaches for some food on it. He smiles while he eats. He offers her some and she refuses. He shrugs it off.

"Why did you bring me here?" Caitlin asks coldly.

"You asked me to." Jay says as if he's offended she doesn't remember. Caitlin scoffs. Jay looks up at her. "I know you were trying to save Barry. But, Cait, I brought you here because I love you." He reaches out to touch her face, but she flinches back. "It may take some time, but you'll realize you feel the same way."

"You're delusional." Caitlin spits out quietly.

"You're in denial." Jay says back. "Cait, I know what I felt when I was with you and I know you care about me. I know you felt safe with me and you will again someday. I can give you something Barry never could."

Caitlin looks up at him, eyebrow raised, as if daring him to come up with something.

"You don't have to hide who you really are with me."

Caitlin glares at him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I know you've been fighting it. That side of you that would do anything to save those you love. The side of you that killed Atom Smasher and Sand Demon. You are, after all, the Reverse Flash's daughter."

"I am nothing like him. He was not my father." Caitlin snaps.

"Keep telling yourself that, Cait."

"Stop calling me that." She mumbles. He ignores her.

"But you and I both know that he passed more than just his intelligence onto you." Jay says, tilting his head at her. "Things you were scared to talk to Barry about. You came to me."

"Like I said, it's because I wasn't as close to you." Caitlin reminds him.

Jay chuckles and nods. "Like I said. In denial."

Caitlin's breathing is heavy. She's mad. She isn't in denial. She's doesn't hide those parts of herself because they aren't there. They just...happened. Atom Smasher and Sand Demon were accidents.

Jay smiles softly at her, his eyes returning to the kind eyes she met months ago. "Make yourself at home." His hand starts vibrating as he reaches down and breaks the cuff off her wrists. "You're gonna be here a while. Okay?" He asks gently. He smiles at her again before slowly getting off the bed and then racing off.

Caitlin looks around the room and hugs her knees to her chest, burying her head in her knees and taking one deep breath after another. The natural light coming in through some of the holes in the room start to fade, leaving nothing but the dim lighting.

"Gonna be a cold night." Killer Frost says from across the room. "Not in here, of course. Nice thick walls. Keeps me warm. Not that I get cold."

Caitlin looks up at her, annoyance clear on her face.

"Warm in a house too. Y'know. Out of this place. What do you say the two of us get the hell out of Dodge?" Killer Frost offers.

"I'd say you're crazy." Caitlin mumbles.

"Not as crazy as staying here."

"What do you suggest?" Caitlin asks. Interested in her idea, given the difficulty Cisco told her they had getting Barry and Jessie out of there.

"You're the brains here, not me." Killer Frost says, sounding equally annoyed with Caitlin.

"Then you're outta luck, cuz I have nothing." Caitlin informs her.

Killer Frost sighs and slumps down in her cell. "Fine. But if I have to hear you two gettin' it on tonight on top of this guy's CONSTANT KNOCKING," she yells, shooting a glare at the man in the iron mask, "then I'm gonna lose my mind."

Caitlin stands up from the bed. "Well you won't have to worry about that." She makes her way over to the cell with the man in it. "Who is he?" She asks, kneeling down to be eye level with him since he's lying on the ground.

"Don't know. Don't care. If he's here, Zoom must want something from him." Killer Frost says, uninterested.

"What does he want from you?"

"That's a good question, Caity."

"Stop calling me that." Caitlin says flatly, not looking toward her.

Killer Frost groans. "Don't want to be called Cait. Don't want to be called Caity. What would you like me to call you, princess?"

"I'd prefer if you just stopped talking altogether." Caitlin says, still looking at the man in the cell.

"You can't talk, can you?" She asks him softly, so that Killer Frost can barely hear.

He shakes his head.

"Does he come back every night?" She asks.

He shakes his head again. She looks over at Killer Frost's cell. "I don't know how to get us out of here." She says softly.

He puts his hand up flat on the wall and nods. Caitlin puts her hand up to his. She feels the material of the wall and taps on it a few times. Caitlin sighs and looks around the room. She sees a generator in the corner with loose cables dropped next to it.

"Carbyne." She breathes out. "Works like any other material, right? Heat it up....it should weaken, right?" She mumbles to herself.

She looks up and sees the man nodding. "If I can find a way to heat up the carbyne, can we break it?" He nods again.

She walks over to the generator and picks up a cable. She turns when she hears knocking. The man is knocking quickly against the wall. She points to the point on the generator where she thinks the cable connects. He shakes his head. She points to another and another until he nods. She connects the cable and moves onto the next. She moves it around the generator until he nods again, and she connects it.

Caitlin looks around the generator figuring out if it even works. She messes with a few buttons that stand out to her after her time with Cisco and she figures out how to work it. The cables get clamped to the outside of the of the carbyne cell.

"And how is this gonna work?" Killer Frost finally asks, having been watching Caitlin with skepticism for the last few minutes.

"The cables will heat up the molecules in the carbyne. The hotter they get-"

"The more fragile." Killer Frost finishes. "Hmm. Not bad, princess."

"If we can get it hot enough. Don't get too excited yet." Caitlin walks over to the man's cell. "I'm kinda scared something's gonna blow up, so I'm gonna do her cell first."

"Thanks." Killer Frost scoffs from across the room.

"Anytime." Caitlin says without turning to her. "Then I'm gonna get you out. Okay? And hopefully she doesn't abandon us up here cuz we need her to get down." The man nods, placing his hand on the wall again. Caitlin returns the gesture and smiles at him before going back over to Killer Frost's cell.

"So, you trust me enough to do this?" She asks, surprised.

"You helped save my friends." She reminds her. "And you're the only way I'm getting off this cliff, right?" Killer Frost nods. "Besides...I know someone who would be upset if I left you up here."

Killer Frost chuckles. "And who would that be?"

"Barry." Caitlin says, walking over to the generator.

"Just cuz you and your Barry and are all cozy, doesn't mean me and mine are." Killer Frost snaps.

"Not saying you're cozy. But he misses his friend." Caitlin says, turning on the generator and waiting for the cables to heat up. She walks over to the cell. "And he blames himself for you turning into this."

"I'm stronger than I've ever been." Caitlin spits.

Caitlin grabs a hammer off the table. "Maybe." She hits the wall, shattering it and causing sparks to fly around them. "But you're alone." She reaches her hand out to help Killer Frost step over the broken material. "And you don't have to be."

Killer Frost looks at her, her face softening, and for the first time, not looking cold. Caitlin smiles at her and walks back to the generator to turn it off. She walks over to disconnect the cables. After disconnecting them, she walks over to the iron-masked man's cell and connects the cables. As she's walking back over to the generator, she's stopped by it being suddenly coated in ice.

"Well...shit." Caitlin says, clenching her jaw. She turns around to see Killer Frost, hand out, ready to attack again. "You know...I'm trying to trust people more and you really just put a damper on that." She says, trying to bide time while she thinks of what to do. She sees a gap in the cells and tries to run through it. Ice appears beneath her feet and she slips. She slides and crashes into the cell in front of her.

"Should be a better judge of character." Killer Frost scoffs.

Caitlin slowly pushes herself up to her knees and looks up at Killer Frost. "Thought I might be able to trust myself." She finishes getting to her feet.

Killer Frost laughs. "That's just it. We're nothing alike except for our faces. The only reason Zoom kept me around was because I looked like you. Now that you're here, he doesn't need me."

She throws an icicle at Caitlin who notices it in just enough time to process that she's screwed. She feels something like a strong gust of wind travel through her and sees Zoom appear in front of her. The next thing she knows, Killer Frost is being held up in the air by her neck. Zoom shoves the icicle into her stomach.

"No. I don't." He growls.

Caitlin gasps and covers her mouth as she sees Killer Frost's face go from surprise to pain to fear before her eyes close and Zoom drops her onto the ground.

Zoom turns to Caitlin and takes his mask off. He walks toward her. "Try that with him," he points to the iron-masked man, "and he'll die too."

Caitlin swallows the nerves in her throat and stares up at Jay. He runs off, leaving her standing there. She walks over to the cell with the man in it and kneels down, putting her hand on the wall.

"I'm sorry." She says softly.

He puts his hand up to hers.

"I don't know how to get us out of here. But I'm not gonna leave you here."

He nods.

"I know you can't talk back, but is it okay if I talk to you? You're better company than him." She says, looking in the direction of where Jay was just standing.

The man nods again. She smiles at him.

"I'm not gonna risk your life. But my friends, Cisco and Barry, they're gonna get us out of here and stop him. It just might take them a little bit. But they will."

The man nods.

"I'm a doctor. I work at S.T.A.R. Labs. Do you know what that is?"

He nods.

"Are you from this earth?"

He shakes his head.

"Earth 1?"

He shakes his head.

"Where the hell did he take you from?" She whispers to herself.

The man drops his head, looking at the ground.

"Wherever it was, we're gonna get you home." She assures him.

Zoom runs back in and takes off his mask.

"Not planning your next escape, are you?" He casually asks. He walks up to Caitlin and pulls her up by her arm, leading her over to the bed. He connects new shackles to both of her wrists, connected to a chain on the bed. She sighs as he does this.

"I saved your life." He scolds. "You should be thanking me."

"I'd thank you if you let us go."

"No. You'll stay." He says, smiling at her. He sits down at the edge of the bed. "You'll come to realize this is where you want to be."

"Shackled to an old bed in a prison on a cliff." She scoffs. "It's my dream home."

He smiles sympathetically at her. "You'll be comfortable if you let yourself be. I'll take these off," he reaches for her hands, "when I trust that you won't try to run."

He stands and walks away, leaving Caitlin for the night. She curls up in the bed, hugging her shackled hands to her chest, trying to picture her and Barry's home in her head, and imagine herself next to him in their bed, keeping her warm.

Caitlin wakes up shaking. She sees a blanket thrown over her, and reluctantly curls up in it as much as she can. When she wakes up again, she sees Jay walking around the room.

"You're awake. Good." He says, looking over at her. He notices her shaking. He runs over and wraps his arms around her. She struggles to get away, but her body is weak. "Let me help you." He pleads.

"No." She squeaks out.

He hugs her tighter. "You need to eat. Keep your strength up."

He runs off and brings back another metal tray of food. She stares at it.

"Please, Cait."

She starts to reach out for the food but pulls back. Her shaking hands beg her to eat and she finally gives in, reluctantly reaching out for the food. She starts nibbling on it, causing Jay to smile.

"I'll be back." He assures her. She looks up. "Eat." He says, smiling and pointing at the food. He runs off.

Caitlin spends the rest of the day picking at the food on the tray and talking to herself, occasionally to the man in the iron mask and then to herself again. Mostly about things she thinks they might be working on back at home.

Zoom runs back as the light outside is starting to fade.

"You didn't try to run." He says proudly.

She looks up at him. "Didn't have any ideas that wouldn't get him killed." She nods to the other man.

"Funny, how the brain knows what we want before it tells us." He says, sitting at the edge of the bed. She narrows her eyes in confusion. "You don't truly want to leave, or you'd think of something."

Caitlin chuckles and shakes her head. "You don't know what it is to be loved. Your parents neglected you. You grew up in an orphanage and foster homes. You started murdering before you were ever old enough to form a significant relationship. Any sign of care or affection and you grasp onto it like a parasite. What I felt for you, was friendship. Nothing more. But you read into it because you wanted to. Because you didn't know better. Love? This isn't love? This is intimidation. Ownership. I. Love. Him." She emphasizes.

"I'm better than him." Jay snaps. "I'm faster than him. Stronger than him. I can give you everything."

"But you won't give me the one thing I'm asking for." She tells him. His gaze at her intensifies. "Take me back to Earth 1." She says softly, hoping to appeal to him.

He stands up and paces. "Y'know. I used to measure my success by the amount of victims I took. Now...I can widen my scope." Jay leans down, placing his face just in front of hers, a smirk growing on his. "I'll start counting the number of earths I conquer instead." He whispers darkly.

Caitlin's eyes widen as she leans away from him.

"You want to go back to home?" He asks. She doesn't respond. "Then let's go." He smiles at her, reaching for her arm. "Time to bring another earth to its knees."

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