It was nearly three a.m. when Caitlin woke up with a gasp and flew to a sitting position.

Peter rubbed his eyes and propped himself up on his forearm to figure out what's happening.

"Cait?" Peter mumbled. "Are you okay?"

Gasping for breath, Caitlin wrapped her arms around her stomach for some reason. "Oh my God," she whispered. "Peter, I-I can't do this. We can't do this. How can we have normal lives like this?" And she burst into sobs.

Alarmed, Peter sat up and pulled her into his arms. "Hey, hey, hey, Cait, calm down," he murmured. "What's going on? Where did this come from?"

"I had this...this dream," Caitlin blubbered in his shoulder. "That we...we had a baby and-and DeVoe was still around and he needed the baby's powers for some reason and he took its body just like all the others. Except he just drained its life force and the body was just lying there on the ground, d-d-dead. It makes me afraid for Frankie. What if he tries to take her?"

"Hey, we will keep her safe." Peter promises while rubbing her back to calm her down.

Caitlin shook her head, burying her face in his shoulder. "We haven't been able to save anyone we tried to protect so far."she sobbed. "We couldn't save the metas and we couldn't save Ralph and we couldn't save Crystal...how can we-how can we protect our own child?"

"We stop DeVoe." Peter tells her.

"How?" Caitlin wonders and Peter smiles knowing this will be helpful.

-

"He wants to make everyone stupid?" Joe asks as Peter and Harry explain what they figured out to the team.

"In a nutshell, yes." Peter tells him.

"How would that work?" Barry wonders.

"He is using the bus metas powers not to use them for his plan, but to help with his plan." Harry explains.

"Powers to shrink and grow, make things as light as a feather, technology stopping abilities to keep us away. I think he's using some of these powers just to keep himself safe. Like a forcefield so we can't interfere. But his plan? Is to enlighten the world." Peter says as he emphasized the word enlighten.

"He's the smartest man alive, and to him were a bunch of idiots, so he's going to reboot the entire planet's brains and enlighten us all." Harry says.

"Using the dark matter that he seemed to have collected during his time here when mr. Brain Box over here went back on his promise!" Peter says sarcastically, looking directly at Harry.

"Again, I'm sorry." Harry replies. "DeVoe got in my mind and tried to take away the thing I cherish."

"Yeah, that seems to be his thing." Cisco states.

"We just need to find out how and when to stop him." Peter finishes when there was a new alarm blaring.

"Satellites are picking up three different Pocket Dimensions opening in Keystone," Barry said. He glanced over his shoulder at Caitlin, eyes bright. "Let's use-"

He broke off abruptly and spun back around, pretending it hadn't happened. Caitlin tuned out, her face falling.

Cisco and Barry were heading for the door when Fox stopped them. "Whoa whoa whoa!" she called. "They all just closed."

"What?" Peter asks.

"Hm," Cisco muttered. "Wrong coordinates? Maybe he made a mistake?"

"He doesn't make mistakes," Peter replied. "He must want something in Keystone."

"Tracey's lab," Caitlin realized. "He's going after Fallout."

Barry nodded. "Call Tracey, tell her we're coming for him, okay?"

"Wait," Caitlin stopped him. "And...do what?"

Barry shrugged cluelessly. "Just to- take him somewhere else."

"Well, we can't take him here," Cisco said. "We can't even contain his fallout."

"Tracey's barely been able to contain his powers as is," Peter reminded them.

"This guy is basically a nuclear explosion waiting to go off," Cisco said. "And- I don't know about you, but I have had my fill of nuclear bombs this year."

"Okay," Barry allowed. "But if we can cool him down, we can get him somewhere safe."

Caitlin squinted thoughtfully. "What about Snart's cold gun?"

Cisco shrugged. "Well, I have a prototype but to modify it to our needs, that would take at least a day."

"We don't have that kind of time; DeVoe's coming for him." Barry states.

"DeVoe has anticipated our every move. We would need to do something he would never expect or account for." Peter adds.

"How are we supposed to get Fallout somewhere, cool him down, and still throw DeVoe with a plan he doesn't see coming?" Cisco asks them.

"Call Lyla," Barry told Harry. "Lets see if Argus has anything off-the-grid."

"Okay," Harry agreed dubiously. "But what are we gonna do about the other two problems?" He wonders.

-

Barry decided to get Leonard "Leo" Snart from Earth-X to help them out.

"So," Leo recapped. "You're trying to fight a guy that acts like he's smarter than everyone, and his true-believe lover, who are hell-bent on their evil machinations at any cost."

"That seemed to sum it up." Peter tells him.

"That's right up my alley!" Leo exclaimed spinning around.

"Except DeVoe actually is smarter than everyone, Leo," Barry warned him. "He created 12 metahumans just so he could steal their powers and he left everybody dead in the process."

"Including Ralph Dibney, who was a Team member of ours," Iris added.

"I'm sorry," Leo replied. "That's rough."

Barry brushed it aside. "All these deaths have been rough," he said. "We can't dwell on it right now. We have to focus so that DeVoe doesn't figure out what we're doing and we have a shot at saving Fallout. Which is why we came to you."

"Oh, I see," Leo nodded. "I'm just outside the box enough to catch DeVoe off guard."

"That," Peter agreed. "And we need your cold gun."

Leo popped his hand on top of it protectively. "Oh? For what?"

"We've been working on a transport truck and hasmat suit in order to keep his core from raising to the point of detonation during transport." Caitlin explains. "Your cold gun would be our backup."

"Must be happy hour, and I'm the two-for-one. What about your chilly friend?" Leo asked, frowning conspiratorially at Caitlin. "She doesn't want in on the fun?"

"She's gone," Caitlin said, and left it at that.

His eyes flashed with understanding before he turned around and checked his watch. "That's too bad. Alright! You get me for 24 hours. Not a minute more."

"Wait, why not?" Cisco asked, confused.

"Because I thought I'd make Ray an honest man," Leo said, stepping towards him and then flashing his left hand. A wedding band glittered on the fourth finger. "Tomorrow."

Barry's face lit up and a smile broke over Caitlin's face. "You're getting married? That's so exciting!"

Leo nodded and stepped forward to place his hands on Barry and Peter's shoulders. "I figured if you two could make it, so could we."

The smiles faded off of Peter and Barry's faces, replaced with confusion.

"No," Peter managed, pointing over at Caitlin. "We-"

"I tease," Leo cut him off, smirking.

"Oh," Barry said, smiling and scratching his head uncomfortably.

"So where we moving him to?" Leo asks.

"ARGUS has a facility in New Brighton." Harry tells him. "High tech, high security, he should be safe there."

"How close see you to finishing the suit?" Barry asks Caitlin.

"Few more tweaks." Caitlin reported.

-

It wasn't long before the hazmat suit had been completed, and she, Joe and Leo were in the truck with Fallout.

Joe was in the drivers seat with Peter in the passenger seat, and Caitlin was on diagnostics in the bed of the truck, Leo with her.

"Rads are good," she reported to them. "Heartbeat regular."

With Fallout confirmed to be stabile, Caitlin tucked her iPad pad under her arm. To her surprise, her hand brushed a pale sticky note stuck to the side of her jacket that she hadn't noticed when she put it on.

Reading the message, she laughed a little. Leo raised his eyebrow. "On Earth-X we have a saying...if you laugh out loud, you have to share the joke. Byproduct of living on an Earth where humor is a scarce commodity."

Caitlin smiled. "It's a post-it note," she told Leo. "From Crystal Frost. It's how we talk." She paused and corrected herself. "Talked. Broke the thermostat again, had to have Spidey fix it. I think it hates me."

Leo smiled faintly at the message. "That's cute. Do you miss her?"

Caitlin shrugged a little, looking for the words to explain how she was feeling.. "It's not that, it's just...we were starting to become close, lately. Even with Frankie and Peter started to fully accept her. And I know how crazy that sounds considering we're talking about someone who actually lived inside of me."

"I'm on an alt-earth world transporting a human bomb with an escort that can literally run back to the future and another who climbs up walls," Leo replied, smirking at her. "Your story is the least crazy thing I've heard all day."

Caitlin laughed a little. "One things for sure," she said with a soft sigh. "I will miss those little notes."

Leo shrugged. "Alter-ego or not, it's okay to miss someone you've lost," he said.

That's when Barry suddenly sped in the truck. "How's he doing?" he asked Caitlin.

"Good," Caitlin replied, glancing down at her iPad to re-check. "His rads are low, vitals seem stabile. I gave him a sedative and it seems to be working."

Barry nodded quickly. He seemed anxious, buzzing with nervous energy. "Okay, good, we're almost there-"

"Team," Harry interrupted through the coms. "There's pocket dimension activity!"

As he was still speaking, the truck went zero-G. Caitlin held on to her iPad for dear life as she, Leo, Fallout and Barry all floated towards the ceiling. Then, with a bone-rattling crash, the entire truck slammed back to the ground.

"Joe, you okay?" Peter asked from the passenger side.

"We're trapped. Doors are unlocked," Joe replied, grunting a little. "But- the door is stuck. It weighs a ton."

"Coms are out," Peter realized, struggling to his feet. "DeVoe's here." He quickly grabs the roof of the truck and pries it off before leaping to join Leo and Barry.

"Where is he?" Leo asks them when Peter's senses go off and they look to see a pocket dimension opens and DeVoe exits in his real body.

"Mr. Allen. Mr. Parker." DeVoe greets them. "As usual, you're a step behind me."

"You wanna bet?" Peter asks, raising his web shooters. "You're the one who's several steps away." He quips.

"Yay, puns." Leo says sarcastically. "You Earth-1 villains and heroes are sure a hoot."

"You have no idea, mr. Snart." DeVoe replies.

"You're not taking Fallout." Barry states.

"I can, and I will, if not here and now, then after your top-secret transfer to ARGUS. Yes, I know." DeVoe says cheerfully as he points to his mind and they remember he can read their minds.

"Good, I won't have to feel guilty about doing this." Barry says as he uses Harry's sonic scepter to take him down, but it only caused DeVoe to stretch out and back.

"Well, That de-escalated quickly." Leo says.

"The minuscule sound waves produced by that toy trinket of yours are far too weak for this new body of mine. What a gift mr. Dibny provided." DeVoe mocks to the heroes. "Well, it was a gift in a manner of speaking. Right, rookie?" He asks in Ralph's voice and it causes Barry to have an episode, so Peter quickly shoots a taser web when a cry came in and sent them flying.

Not just any cry. A canary scream.

"That's it," Fallout cried, unstrapping himself from his chair and hopping to his feet. "I'm leaving."

Caitlin darted in front of him. The plan had gone south but there was still a tiny chance they could keep Fallout safe. "No! I need you to stay here and calm down. Neil, wait-!"

It was too late.

Fallout yanked open the truck's doors and sunlight poured inside. Caitlin froze. Laurel Lance of Warth-X was standing holding a chunky gun at Peter's head.

"I want you all to listen to me very carefully," she ordered. "And hopefully I won't have to raise my voice. This truck is now mine."

Peter quickly gets up and sees DeVoe left through a pocket dimension and he sends a taser web to Lance and shocks her, sending her dropping.

"I'm getting sick of my ex's doppelgängers." Peter complains as he limps back up.

-

The rest of the transport went off without a hitch and Leo took the Laurel doppelgänger back to his earth.

Cisco even gave him Snart's old jacket and a breach device so he can come back and ask for help if needed to.

Peter found Caitlin back in the labs and finds Fox sent her results on her blood work.

"Hey, what are you up to?" Peter asks her.

"I don't know." Caitlin admits.

"Well, moving a dangerous metahuman across the state, keeping him safe, rescuing lives. Seems we're still strong even without Crystal, maybe she got the badassary from you." Peter tells her.

"You know, the thing I realized is even though I can live without Crystal, I don't want to." Caitlin says.

"And what did the Fox say?" Peter jokingly asks.

"I've been too afraid to find out." Caitlin admits while chuckling at his joke.

Peter walks behind her and caresses her shoulders. "Then lets do this how we've always done it; together." He says and Caitlin agrees and pulls up Fox's report and they look surprised.

"It's saying the reason the dark matter isn't registering in my body because there is none." Caitlin says. "But...Fox did say that she didn't come from the dark matter and there's another cryogenic anomaly in my DNA."

"That means she's still a part of you." Peter says happily.

"Just means we just have to figure out how to get her to appear." Caitlin says just as happy.

-

The first thing Caitlin and Peter did the next morning was work on the Crystal problem.

After some scientific consultation with Harry and Cisco, Caitlin was set up in the Speed Lab for some experimental get-Crystal-back attempts.

"The thing to do to get Crystal Frost to appear," Harry was saying as he connected a few wires to stickers on Caitlin's upper chest. "Is to get that massive spike in your adrenaline. So Ramon is going to use his vibes to shake-" he jostled her shoulders, as a demonstration, "you on a cellular level and let's see if we can't get your old friend Crystal Frost to come out to play."

Caitlin nodded her acquiescence.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Iris asked uncertainly.

"Well, I mean, like with any hypothesis, you test it to get answers. That's what we've all done since the fourth grade; it's known as the Scientific method." Harry supplied. "Ah!" He'd just spotted Cisco, who jogged into the Speed Lab with his hair bouncing behind him. "Here he is. Okay, good. So. Get in position!"

"Don't worry," Cisco said as he moved to his spot in front of Caitlin. "I lowered the amps on this thing."

Caitlin felt a knot twist in her gut but she smiled weakly and gave him a thumbs up.

"Ramon, you set?" Harry asked.

"Yep."

"Snow, you ready?"

Caitlin narrowed her eyes a little and planted her feet, preparing herself as Cisco tucked his hair back behind his ears and raised his gauntlet-covered hand. "I'm ready."

"Three...two...one...and..."

Cisco let loose a fairly gentle vibe blast. The blue light went straight through Caitlin's midsection and out the other side and she spread her hands, waiting eagerly to feel Crystal take her body.

But she didn't feel anything at all.

Frowning, Caitlin glanced down at her body. "Nothing," she reported with a shrug.

"Alright, Ramon. More power," Harry ordered.

Cisco tried again, and this time Caitlin felt a little bit of a burn when the vibe hit her. But there was still no Crystal Frost, and his frustration started to rise.

"You know what? This isn't working," Harry decided. "Ramon, full power."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. What do you mean full power?" Peter asked, looking at Harry with a slightly irritated expression on his face. "We don't want to blast Caitlin across the Speed Lab."

"Well, we want to spike her adrenaline," Harry said, shrugging blankly.

Now it was May's turn to look at him incredulously. "Harry, she could get injured."

"Well, I...this is...this is gonna work," Harry spluttered, making his way from the monitor back down to the floor of the Speed Lab. "Look, nothing has changed, alright? Snow's DNA tests, they confirm it. Her DNA was not spliced by Melting Point's powers."

"Yeah, but she doesn't have the same metahuman DNA as the others. She's like me and the mutants, not like metahumans. So what works for metahumans might just not work on her." Peter suggests.

"Good point." Harry snaps his fingers pointing at him seeing his reasoning. "We'll find out a way to make her come out." He promises Caitlin.

"Thank you for trying." Caitlin tells him.

-

Barry, Cisco were called in and found DeVoe stole a Alloy 1771 and they learned it's some sort of solar panel that they see this was part of something he's working on.

They called Gypsy to help them and they figured out that DeVoe's next target would be a shipping container down by the dox, but instead of catching him, Cisco and Gypsy ended up locked in a serious argument, DeVoe escaped with a new piece of tech, and the Team was back to square one.

By the time Team Spider-Flash reconvened, Instead of figuring out what DeVoe was planning, the two of them were thrown forcefully back.

Barry ran over to Cisco and Caitlin and Peter hurried over to Gypsy. Thankfully, both of them were fine, but Caitlin herded them into her lab to make absolutely sure there was no lasting damage, physically or powerfully.

When she walked out of her lab about a half hour later, Peter glanced up worriedly. "Are they okay?" he wondered.

She could tell he felt bad, and gave him a half-smile. "Tests show that, physically, they're fine. As a couple...not so much."

Peter gritted his teeth and began to walk towards Caitlin's lab. "Excuse me, mister, where are you going?" she asked him, raising her eyebrow.

"To find out what we can do, we gotta try and get ahead of DeVoe somehow." Peter explained. He turned back to the lab but Caitlin grabbed at him.

"Hold on," she said, giving his arm a squeeze. "I love you for trying, Barry, but...I think you've maybe done enough."

Peter looked at her, uncomprehending.

"Cisco and Gypsy are clearly going through something," Caitlin went on. "And it's not up to us to counsel them through it."

"Well then, who's it up to?" Peter asked, already trying to pull away.

"Just stop for a second," Caitlin pleaded.

"We can't stop!" Peter cried. "The second we do, everyone could fall apart. The Team's hanging on by a thread...even I'm hanging on by a thread."

"But we're hanging on," Caitlin reminded him.

"But for how long?" Peter asked. "Look what's happening, Cait. DeVoe is killing innocent people, killing our friends. He's stealing pieces of tech to make us idiots! Just trying to keep up with him is tearing us apart."

"Peter," Caitlin murmured, rubbing his arm. "It's not your job to hold everyone together. We are all struggling, and we all have to work through those struggles in the way that is best for us. For me, that is trying to get Crystal back. For Cisco and Gypsy, that's being able to work through their differences and their issues in their own way. Problems within a couple are hard enough at it is. I can't imagine the added stress of having to co-vibe to find DeVoe resting all on their shoulders is helping any."

Peter leaned back against the desk, his face falling a little. "I remember when I was about to think my way out of situations. Octopus, Rhino, Scorpion, Juggernaut, mr. Negative, Electro. I was able to defeat them even when they thought ahead. I was able to keep my sanity. But it feels like that's DeVoe's grand plan. Drive me to insanity."

"I know it's hard," Caitlin said softly as she rubs his shoulder. "I want Cisco to be happy just as much as you do. But sometimes, you have to let them figure out things on their own, whether their together or apart."

Peter blinked, a wondering expression coming over his face. "Wait, that's it," he muttered, turning to face her with a smile. "The pieces of tech don't seem to fit together because they don't. DeVoe's not building one thing. He's building multiple. But what is the question."

Peter then called everyone in to see how they think of his breakthrough.

"They're machines. Machines that work together, but they're still separate. Satellites." Peter says as blueprints show on the computers how the pieces work.

"So this guy really is a Bond villain." Cisco jokes.

"DeVoe would need a massive amount of computational power for these to be able to work." Harry tells them.

"Something that could triangulate navigation between each satellite." Barry agrees.

"Like a quantum computer?" Caitlin asks and looks to Peter who's now worried.

"Did we miss something?" May asks seeing their faces.

"Parker Industries. We just put a whole system of quantum computers online at our home base." Fox explains.

"But we might be able to catch devoe if we work together." Peter says and pulls his phone calling for backup.

-

DeVoe and Marlize walk through a pocket dimension portal and into the server room with the quantum computers.

"Behold. The key to communicating our message of the Enlightenment." DeVoe says as they walk through.

"Polynomial time computing." Marlize tells him.

"And a dream shall soon become...reality." DeVoe says as he starts using Dwarf Star's powers to shrink the computers and Marlize goes to pick them up.

Barry speeds in and Peter webbed the case holding the computers to him as DeVoe is crashed into their servers.

Miles comes in and webs DeVoe's hands and legs and Cisco stops Marlize.

Barry speeds around the room to charge a lightning strike and Gypsy hits him with a vibe blast.

"Stop it, you're killing him!" Marlize begs and takes down Cisco and she pulls out a sword that starts to float and they see Frankie is there wearing a makeshift outfit Cisco was able to throw together for her.

It was no different to Ralph's first suit design, but the mask was red tinted goggles that only covered her eyes.

"Sorry, I like my brain." Frankie quips as DeVoe starts to fight against Gypsy's attacks and Peter shoots him with a taser web.

"Enough!" DeVoe says as he does a super clap and sends them all flying when they hear the cold gun whirring ad see Caitlin holding the cold gun.

Without hesitation, Caitlin pressed the trigger on the cold gun and DeVoe was coated in a coat of ice.

"Caitlin." Harry squawked. "What the heck are you doing?!"

Caitlin gritted her teeth. "Bringing her back," she said, and let go of the trigger.

The ice exploded, and the ringing intensified sharply in volume. Caitlin's hand slapped instinctively over her ear as she felt pain shoot through her head. The moment she'd recovered, however, DeVoe waved his hand and she was immobilized along with everyone else in the room.

"Oh I get it," DeVoe said thoughtfully. "You'd like me to frighten you into becoming your better half." He smirked a little. "Gladly."

With another waved of his hand, Peter was lifted off of the ground in what looked like the DeVoe version of a force choke. Peter would have made the quip, but he can barely open his mouth.

It appears even DeVoe is sick of hearing his voice.

"DeVoe!" Barry grunted, pushing himself up.

Irritated, DeVoe rolled his eyes and immobilized him again. "Ugh. Children should be seen and not heard. Though..." he glanced over at Caitlin. "I'm very sure seeing your bestie die would be frightening enough, but I can't kill the Flash!" He paused. "Well. Not just yet. No, my plan for the enlightenment requires his further participation."

Still unable to move, Caitlin could only watch in horror as DeVoe dragged Peter forward. "You, however...are somewhat less fortunate."

Peter feels nothing in his throat as he gaps for air.

"Now, do you feel that around your throat? That is the gravitational equivalent of my boot busting your windpipe." DeVoe says when they get interrupted by parts of the metal wall being thrown at them and DeVoe gets knocked down and they see Frankie is using her powers, even while immobilized.

"Stay away from him!" Frankie commands as Marlize and DeVoe escape with the case and everyone was able to get back up.

-

Knowing his plan was comforting, though finding out what it was unnerved them all. Still, there was a certain occasion the West family had been planning for quite awhile, that being Cecile's baby shower.

Joe and Iris were insistent that it wouldn't be put off, and so the Team took a break from everything for that evening.

Speaking of breaking, Gypsy and Cisco broke up after Cisco got when he went to look at their Earth.

But Cisco was surprised how many heroes are apart of their world. They have their own Spider-Man, their own Flash, their own Vibe, their own Killer Frost and everyone they know. Even a few other heroes. Cal Kestus, Wolverine, Cyclops, Elongated Man, Thor, Hulk. It was confusing to him nonetheless.

"Oh Cisco," Caitlin murmured as she listened to her best friend spill the entire story of how he and Gypsy had decided to end things because he wanted to take the next step and she was just fine where they were. "Cisco, I'm so sorry. Do you want to skip the party tonight? I can head to your place and we can binge all of your favorite Star Wars movies and eat all the junk you want. I won't even comment on the nutritional factors."

Cisco let out a laugh, but Caitlin could tell he was crying. "No, no, it's fine," he declined. "I just, um...I wanted to tell you. I'll come to the party. I could use a drink, anyway."

"Okay," Caitlin replied simply.

At the party, Peter and Caitlin talked alone for a minute about what occurred. "Listen, Cait, can we keep the minimum of you running into the field, virtually defenseless, to try and scare yourself into getting Crystal back?"

"I don't blame you for being upset," Caitlin began, biting her lip hesitantly.

"I'm not upset," Peter interrupted her. "I'm just worried. Are you going to keep doing things like that? I know you're desperate to get Crystal back, so am I. But what if trying to get her back leads to me having to lose you, too?"

"I know, I know." Caitlin let out a sigh and put her hand on her boyfriend's arm, giving it a squeeze. "I'm not going to do anything like that again. Trust me. Clearly, it didn't work, and trying it again while expecting different results wouldn't be smart." She hesitated, not sure how much she should delve into the thoughts she'd been having about how to solve her issue. She decided to be a little vague. "I just...There are a few more things I need to try before I can give up hope on Frost entirely."

"And those things are...?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Remember how I told you that sometimes you need to let people do things on their own?" Caitlin said, not answering. "This is one of them. I love you, Peter, and I love you for caring. But I can't have your or anyone else on the team try to stop me from doing what I feel I need to do."

He nodded, giving in with surprising ease. "Okay," he agreed. "But promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Keep yourself safe." Peter begged, cupping her face in his hands. "Do what you need to do, but if you're going to try something dangerous, bring me along or let Fox know. I won't try to stop you, but I will stop at nothing to keep you or Frankie safe."

Caitlin's lips quirked a little and she nodded, leaning forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder.

"I promise." She assures him.