T W E L V E:
the cold hit

Electric Strom was back the moment Bibiana was suited up and had her electric mask. Barry dropped her off into the crowd of running people.

"Go to the exits!" Bibiana yelled. She let her electric take over her face to cover her identity. She quickly turned to see Barry being hit by a strange gun.

"Blur! Streak! Flash! Whatever you're called," Bibiana yelled. "Are you okay?"

Bibiana ran over to them and slid next to Joe.

"It burns," Barry said. Bibiana quickly got up and sent a stock of electricity to Snart. At least enough to make him pass out. Unfortunately, he dodged it. Snart aimed the weapon at Bibiana, but Barry sped her away.

"Time for a test run," Snart said, as Barry dropped Bibiana at another spot. She pressed her back against one of the walls. "Let's see how fast you are."

Snart aimed at the places where everyone was. Barry ran to each of them trying to save them. Bibiana didn't pay attention as she tried to hit Stark with her purple powers.

He dodged every single one of them. Bibiana let out a frustrated sound as electricity crackled around her body. Snart sent one Bibiana's way before he took off running.

The girl let out a shriek as she put her hands in front of her. The electricity compacted together and formed a shield faster than the ray could hit her. When it hit the shield, it froze and fell to the ground with a shatter.

Electric Storm ran over to where she last saw Barry. He was there in front of a man that he couldn't save. Bibiana covered her mouth, surprised.

⇝⇝⇝

"It's still numb," Barry said. Bibiana's eyes were glued to the area Barry was hit. It wasn't looking pretty.

"It's presenting itself like third-degree frostbite," Caitlin said.

"I thought he had hyper-healing," Felicity said. Bibiana looked down at the tablet in her hands. She looked over the information while she took out a piece of the shattered ice from her pocket.

"It's been slowed," Caitlin said. Bibiana tossed it at Cisco who caught it. "If your cells weren't regenerating at the rate they are your blood vessels would've been frozen solid. The nerve damage would've been permanent. You're lucky to be alive."

"Snart wasn't another metahuman," Barry said. "He has some kind of gun. It froze things. It slowed me down. Enough that I wasn't able to save someone."

"He doesn't seem intelligent enough to build one," Bibiana said, she looked up at Felicity. Both of them hacked into the same thing.

"According to his records, Snart didn't even finish high school," Felicity said, backing up what Bibiana said. "So how did he build a handheld, high-tech snow machine?"

"S.T.A.R. Labs built the cold gun," Dr. Wells said. Bibiana turned to look at him, frightened. If there was a weapon that could stop Barry, was there one for her too?

"Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Bibiana had nothing to do with this," Cisco said. Bibiana snapped her head to one of her closest friends. "I built the gun."

"You did?" Barry asked. "Why?"

"Because speed and cold are opposites," Cisco said. "Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms of something are oscillating. The faster they are, the hotter it is. When things are cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement, it's called-"

"Absolute zero," Barry said. Bibiana had so many questions bottled up inside her. It made her mind tick.

"Yeah," Cisco said. "I designed a compact Cyro-engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop you. I didn't know who you were then, Barry. I mean, what if you turned out to be some psycho, like Martin or Nimbus?"

"But I didn't, did I?" Barry asked, there was anger in his voice.

"We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good, and it blew up," Caitlin said. "You can understand why Cisco would wanna be prepared for the worst."

"I even built a weapon that could be used against me," Bibiana said, taking her friends' side. She would do anything for them. "Before any of you go to my apartment or my locker, I'm talking about a water gun or a shower. Because electricity and water don't mix."

"I can understand that, but I can't understand is why you didn't tell me what you did," Barry said. "After all we've been through, I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends."

"We are, Barry," Cisco said.

"If you had just told me I could've been prepared," Barry said. His face was burning red. "But instead someone died tonight."

"And I have to live with that," Cisco said.

"No, Cisco, we all do," Barry said. He then left the cortex. Bibiana didn't go after him, instead, she went into her lab.

She sat on her chair and looked at her tablet. Bibiana opened up a design that she was planning to build with her own hands. A weapon that could be used against her. She stared at it for a whole minute before she deleted the file. Then a purple spark ran through the tablet, frying it until it could no longer be used. Bibiana then threw it across the room.

Bibiana turned on her personal laptop and started to do some research. Like electricity travels at the speed of light, more than 186,000 miles per second. A bolt of lightning can measure up to three million volts, and it lasts less than one second. Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the ground

Her eyes scanned every piece of information while she curled her fist. Bibiana then moved to one of S.T.A.R. Labs computers and pulled up her information when she was training in front of her friends. She had managed to produce 4,000 volts which is a thousand more than static. Deep down, Bibiana knew she could do better than that.

"Hey," Felicity said. She walked into the room and took a seat next to Bibiana. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing is wrong," Bibiana said, as she deeply examined everything.

"Bibiana, we shared a dorm together for four years," Felicity said. "We even hung out as much as possible whenever you came to Starling City or when I came to Central City. You hide your emotions by being quiet or hiding it behind humor."

"Okay," Bibiana said, turning away from the computer. "I was shocked by my own phone on the night of the explosion. What should've killed me since it was so close to my brain, instead it put me in a week coma. First day back, I discover what my hard work did to people. I could've helped stop it if I had thoroughly triple checked my work. But now I'm stuck with something that I don't want. I'm only using the thing I hate because Barry Allen fucking inspired me to be a hero. Not a monster that I know I am. I'm looking at the amount of horror I can do to a person. Every time I use this curse. I feel a part of myself breaking away."

Bibiana had tears running down her face as she continued. She was ruined and she hid it behind a mask.

"I'm a monster. This shouldn't have happened. I should've been an S.T.A.R. Labs employee who had a normal life," Bibiana said. "I should've met someone by now. I should've been through love and heartbreak. I should've started a family as soon as I got married. Now I don't even know."

"Oh, Bibi," Felicity hugged the broken girl. She let Bibiana cry on her before they pulled away. "You aren't a monster. You are trying to help people. Your electricity isn't a curse, it's a gift. And I believe you did meet that special someone."

"If we are talking about Nathan," Bibiana said. "I'm going to slit your throat because he is gay and has a boyfriend."

"Not Nathan," Felicity said. "I'm not oblivious to your little crush on someone."

•○•
little edit for what Bibiana said.

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jmc