First, I know there's drama with Killer Frost and Savitar in Flash season 3 but I'm changing it because I forgot when I wrote this and I've already rewritten this chapter like twice so...yeah. Sorry if the inaccuracy bothers you. But surely y'all know how much I love changing canon by now so it shouldn't surprise you.

Second, this is unedited until I get around to it later, so please excuse that.

Third, uber long chapter/part. Longer than normal, like 6,000 something

Enjoy

---

Cisco had left Leonard and Dez alone to go work with Linda on a fake ID for Barry.

The other members of Team Flash were readying themselves for the plan. H.R. had brought everyone coffee. (Dez wasn't sure how he guessed she liked frappés though. She assumed it was because he was from her future.)

While Cisco and Linda worked everyone, omitting Barry, went to say their goodbyes to the Wests.

Len and Dez hung out in one of the numerous science labs in the building. It wasn't very big, only about twenty by twenty feet; shelves took up half the space, making it feel even smaller.

At the center of the room was a long, wooden work table, lab equipment taking up every inch of its surface.

Deserey was hesitant to enter the room, worried they might mess something up; but Leonard had insisted messing things up was half the fun.

Though, it wasn't long before Leonard got bored and started rifling through the cabinets and drawers.

Deserey watched him, making a face. "Oh, come on. You can't rob them now! They're distressed!"

"They're always distressed," Leonard pointed out. He pulled up a bucket from under the table. It was full of, what looked like, grenades. "Wonder what these are for..."

"Don't --" He didn't wait for her warning, pressing the button on top of the grenade. The thing emitted a small beeping; Leonard let it roll away from him on the table.

Just in time too, because a moment later, it erupted, ice covering the entirety of the work table at the center of the room. Any items that had been sitting on the table's surface were also covered in a block of frozen water.

Dez stared at the table in shock; Leonard made a look, impressed. He started pocketing the little ice bombs.

Deserey gave him a scornful look, which he replied to with a shrug. "What? Obviously, I get all the ice themed weapons. I'm Captain Cold. That's a right of passage!"

"You two planning on cleaning that mess up?" Deserey whirled around, surprised by the sudden new voice.

Stood in the doorway was Caitlin -- except she looked completely different. Her hair was snow white, like Elsa's from Frozen; her eyes were the same shade as an icy crystal, seemingly glowing. And her skin had gotten a shade or two lighter.

Her expression was much colder, and she almost looked bored, like everyone and everything was beneath her -- sort of like how Leonard looked whenever Rip or Ray started talking.

She'd changed into a pale blue leather jacket and tight skinny jeans. And even though she had only met her one other time, Deserey knew her shirt was far too low cut for Caitlin's style.

No, this wasn't​ Caitlin at all. Deserey imagined that this woman was simply sharing a body with her -- they must have had DID. 

Dez had spent plenty of time with Lucy, Dan, and Chloe to recognize the signs of DID, even if it was difficult at times to spot a switch.

Though she had never seen an alter able to change the body's appearance before.

So, if it was DID it must have been a brand new strand of the disorder -- probably thanks to the Particle Accelerator. (She'd have to ask Martin and/or Ray how probable that was when they got them back from the Russians.)

The colder Caitlin nodded to the icy table top, looking quite annoyed about it. "Because I'm not getting blamed for that."

"...Yeah," Deserey nodded slowly. "Sure. Um, who are you?"

The white haired woman shrugged. She stepped into the room, glaring at Leonard and Deserey like they killed her puppy. Still, she answered the question without much hesitation, despite the distrustful look in her eyes.

"Dad called me Khione, but that name sucks so I think I'll change it."

Leonard glanced at Dez, looking completely confused. She guessed he didn't have much experience with people with DID. This was probably his first time meeting someone with the condition.

"Yeah?" Deserey asked, focusing her attention on Khione. Khione's intense gaze reminded her a little of Chloe, who was a very hostile person. "What are you going to change it to?"

Khione shrugged, leaning on the table. She tapped her fingers along its surface, looking bored. "I don't know. Maybe I'll steal Caity and my earth two doppelganger's name: Killer Frost. Has a nice ring to it. The others have been calling me that anyways."

Her voice carried a slow drawl that was eeriely similar to Leonard's. Deserey thought in some way she might have even been mocking him, as she looked up at him with a small smirk.

"And with you gone I suppose Central City will need a new ice villain." She made a face. "Of course it really annoys Caity when I kidnap and stab all of her friends...But I'm sure we can work out a compromise." 

Deserey shared a concerned look with Leonard. He raised his brow at Khione -- Killer Frost. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Killer Frost looked up at him, snickering to herself. "Well, earlier this year I kidnapped this boy Caity likes and stabbed Barry -- twice. And --" 

"He meant the part about Central City needing an ice villain," Dez said.

"Oh that," Killer Frost said like it didn't matter. She stood up and walked to the other end of the room, running her hands over everything as she passed by. "You die."

"What?" Leonard and Dez exclaimed at the same time.

Killer Frost just shrugged indifferently. "Yeah, tough break."

Deserey shared another look with Leonard. She was silently freaking out. Her heart pounding in her chest, palms growing sweaty. But he looked oddly calm, like he hadn't just been told her was destined to die.

Dez was about to ask how it happened when Cisco stepped into the room, looking uneasy. He glanced between Leonard and Frost, his eyes darting back and forth between them.

"Captain Cold and Killer Frost in the same room," he mumbled. "Yeah, that's not scary at all."

He glanced at the table. "What!? Come on! Y'all are already tearing up the place? For real?" He sighed, exasperated, and shook his head. "Never mind. Okay, before y'all get any kidnapp-y and stabb-y ideas Barry is ready to go."

{~}

Leonard and Deserey met Barry in the halls as they prepared to leave. Len had changed back into his leather jacket -- though she had no idea how he had managed to stuff it into the coat of his parka and bring it with them.

Dez had stripped off her coat as well. (She was use to longer sleeves to hide her scars, but that coat had been unbearably hot in the slightly warmer weather.)

She couldn't stop thinking about what Killer Frost had said. How Leonard was going to die. She kept stealing glances at him, but he didn't even seem remotely effected by the news.

But Dez's mind was racing. How did it happen? When did it happen? How long did they have until then? Did Rip know about this?

Barry was setting a timer on his watch as they arrived. He'd changed clothes as well -- now wearing a stealthy black jacket and jeans. 

"What's that?" Len asked, nodding to the watch on the other man’s wrist.

"It's how much time we have left," Barry said.

"Before what?"

"Before we lose."

Deserey knit her brows together, momentarily forgetting about Leonard's supposed up coming  death.

She was really not liking the serious attitude of the Flash. Somehow, it just didn't look right at all.

Leonard fell silent a moment, as they followed Barry through the halls. He only broke it to add, "You do remember you have super speed right?"

Barry stopped walking, a perplexed expression forming on his face. "Oh yeah."

Leonard glanced over at Dez, and she could tell he was thinking something like, this is not going to end well.

She shrugged, not really sure what she could do about it. Barry was being faced with an impossibly difficult task, one that Deserey was still trying to wrap her head around even with all the other crazy meta human and time travel mumbo jumbo to vindicate it. Protecting a loved one from...well yourself.

She couldn't imagine any version of herself going after her family -- her kids, or even her ex. It was unthinkable. Barry must have been losing his mind.

Besides that her mind had drifted back to the thief himself. How could he seem so careless about learning his own fate? It was all too much…

In the blink of an eye, the trio was standing in front of, what Dez assumed was, the ARGUS building.

It was a big black structure, rounded so that it looked like an oval; the concrete below their feet was polished like marble.

Dez glanced up at the building as they ducked behind a sign that had: ARGUS building, United States restricted area written on it clear as day.

She snorted at the sign. "Subtle." Glancing at Barry with a raised eyebrow, "I thought you said this was a secret organization."

Her mind was still preoccupied with Leonard's fate and the Flash's mental stability, but bashing a government facility was much easier to think about at the moment. So, she focused all her attention on that.

"Uh, yeah," Barry said, sounding like he didn't really care either way. He probably didn't, but Dez kept going anyways, if not just to keep her mind off the news concerning Leonard…

"And our government can't afford proper school lunches yet clearly they have enough money for an expensive establishment for a not so top secret spy organization?" she vented. "What's up with that?"

Leonard shrugged. "Beats me. I never bothered finishing high school." He turned to Barry, changing the topic before it got too out of hand, getting them back on track. Like he wasn't apparently a dying man himself. "You said you had a plan on how to get in?"

Barry nodded, watching as a helicopter landed in the front lawn where they'd been standing just moments before.

A woman walked out with a group of guards surrounding her, stepping on to the copper as she talked on the phone. "That's the director of ARGUS. I'll disguise myself as her and bring you two in as prisoners."

Deserey gave him a once over. "Aren't you a little...masculine to be a female director?"

In response, Barry simply pulled out a small contraption from the pocket of his jacket.

At first, she thought it was a pen, but when he clicked it his form flickered; and in the blink of an eye the Flash was gone, replaced by a brunette woman. Her hair was styled into a cute little pixie cut, her hazel eyes glinting with an intense light in the night.

Deserey blinked, realizing Barry hadn't actually been replaced by the woman, rather that device had given him her face.

Even his clothes had changed from the dark jacket to a black bullet proof vest over a dark t-shirt and cargo pants.

"Whoa," Dez muttered, Len looking just as impressed next to her.

"Neat trick," Leonard commented.

"Transmogrifier from H.R.'s Earth," Barry shrugged. His voice sounded really odd being so much higher.

Deserey nodded slowly. She pointed at the device as Barry returned it to his pocket. "Why don't you just use that thing to disguise someone as Iris and have Savvy Boy kill them instead?"

Barry made a face at the nickname she'd given his latest big bad, but he didn't comment on it.

In fact, he didn't even comment on any part of her statement, because he looked like he was actually considering Deserey's morbid suggestion.

She blanched, smacking his arm purely out of instinct. "Stop! I was kidding! That was not a real suggestion, Barry! You can't save your fiancee by killing someone else!"

When he looked back at her it was hard to tell if his face was actually that passive or if Director Michaels had a naturally intense expression. "Yeah, no. You're right," Barry nodded. 

"We should get moving," Leonard said, as the helicopter the real Michaels had stepped into took off.

Barry nodded and tossed them each a pair of handcuffs to put on for their little ruse.

Then, he took Leonard's gun and attached it to his own belt. "Remember we won't have our powers in there," he added to Dez.

Deserey nodded and fiddled with the cuffs for a moment before figuring them out. She'd only ever been handcuffed two other times -- once when she'd been getting rather experimental in bed and once when Daren had been going through that magic phase and she'd agreed to be his assistant.

(Side note, Dez was not a very good escape artist and she'd ended up having to wear those tiny plastic cuffs around for a month afterwards.)

She glanced at Leonard as the Flash took them by their arms and lead them towards the entrance of the ARGUS building.

His face was more than a little hard to read, completely void of any expressions; she imagined he got like that when he was on a job. All serious and stone cold.

But maybe it had more to do with learning his own fate than anything this time. At least, she assumed he was more worried about it than he was letting on. It would be hard to be indifferent about something like that.

For a moment, though, she caught something else too. The look didn't exactly break his stoic demeanor, but it did shift his face around the slightest bit.

Something in his eyes was a little different, also. She didn't think this look had anything to do with himself, though. It was something Deserey had only seen briefly when he'd been talking about his sister.

It was the same look he'd had the night before, just before she'd confessed about her accidental spying.

The same look he'd had all this time, worrying about Mick in that Russian prison. The same look that he'd, surprisingly, had when he and the others formed the suicide watch for her.

It only lasted a split second, so Deserey almost thought it was her imagination, but she was sure it had been there.

She frowned, turning to face forward as they stepped through the doors. Was Captain Cold actually worried for the Flash?

Barry lead them to the front desk, where a single guard was standing. They passed over a large circle painted on the floor, the same words printed on it as the ones on the sign outside.

Besides the desk there was nothing in the room, stairwell leading up to platforms above them; the walls and floors were black marble, a faint blue glow emitting from the lights in the side of the wall.

Deserey blanched, thinking ARGUS looked strikingly similar to the place she’d momentarily visited when she’d fallen off Barry’s back. Briefly, she recalled the woman she’d seen. Who was she?

The guard stared at Barry's new feminine form, contorting his face in confusion. "Director Michaels, I thought you were en route to San Francisco."

"Plans changed," Barry told him, and Dez couldn't help thinking his voice still sounded odd with such a higher octave than it was supposed to have.

He must have thought the same thing, because he looked a little nervous. (Or maybe that was just because they were gradually running out of time.) "I received an unexpected gift from the Flash."

The guard glanced over at Leonard, his expression turning sour. "Captain Cold."

"Always nice to meet a fan," Len said sarcastically.

The guard turned his attention to Dez next, looking a little exasperated. "I see you've gotten yourself a new partner. What happened to the big guy?"

At the implication of Mick, Leonard stiffened the slightest bit. It wasn't enough for the guards to notice, but Deserey was right next to him so she'd felt him move.

"I'm taking the prisoners to lock-up," Barry said a bit impatiently.

"Of course," the guard said, his attention returning to the feminine Barry. "We'll just need your ID."

"I spent so much time on that ARGUS fake ID. That things a master piece." Dez jumped a little when Cisco spoke up through the coms.

She'd almost forgotten that Team Flash had Len and her trade in their comlinks from the Waverider and given them a pair from Star Labs before they'd left.

Barry pulled the ID from his pocket, though Deserey really had no idea how that worked since the ARGUS uniform he was wearing was part of the illusion.

He swiped it over the scanner, before returning it to his jacket pocket. The guard nodded curtly. "Your eye scan."

Barry leaned over, letting the machine scan his eye; the guard watched as the computer confirmed Barry's identity as Lyla Michaels, emitting a soft beep.

Leonard eyed the whole process, looking a bit bored. "You boys really dot the I's and cross the T's."

"Yeah, really," Dez nodded in agreement.

The guard ignored them, watching as Barry took a step back. "And finally, Director Michaels: Elvis, banana."

Barry and Leonard exchanged a brief look of confusion; Deserey raised her eyebrow.

"What the hell?" Cisco muttered.

"Search me. Elvis, banana," H.R. said before letting out a gasp. "It's word association. Barry must have to come up with the next correct words in the sequence."

"Ooh," Deserey said before she could stop herself. "I love word association games!"

The guard eyed her apprehensively, while Barry and Leonard gave her worried looks.

Meanwhile, Tracy, Linda, and H.R. had started throwing out random guesses through the coms. "Peanut butter, bacon?" Tracy said.

"Yeah. Kevin Bacon," H.R. said.

"Mellow, yellow?" Linda suggested.

"James Brown, split," H.R. added.

Cisco let out an exasperated sighed. "Okay, Barry, you're gonna have to stall!"

The guard looked at Barry when he'd failed to answer; the speedster was just standing there completely dumb founded. "I repeat, ma'am. Elvis, banana."

"Holiday, orange?" Deserey said.

She wasn't really expecting her response to be correct, but from the way the guard suddenly stiffened she figured she'd must have gotten it right. Dez laughed a bit. "Wow, really? I was just guessing. Was that really it?"

The guard squinted at her, looking suspicious. His gaze shifted from Barry to Dez a few times. "Director Michaels, how is it she is able to finish the sequence but you are not?"

Barry stood stalk still for a moment. But instead of coming up with a clever lie to get out of the situation, he leapt over the desk, slamming right into the guard.

They grappled around for a few moments, but Barry had knocked him out in a matter of seconds. (Deserey had to hand it to him, the guy worked fast, even without his super speed.)

"Boring conversation anyways," Deserey shrugged. Though, she didn't think either Leonard or Barry had understood her reference, (or maybe they just didn’t care) which she thought was a shame.

Barry took the transmogrifier back out, ditching the female get up now that their cover had been blown. In a flicker of light, he was once again a much taller, leaner male dressed in the stealth suit.

Leonard glanced him up and down, that look returning again, just for a moment. "My, my, you're getting rather violent in your young age."

"Yeah," Barry said, not sounding very amused as he returned the face changing device to his pocket again. "What were you doing?" He gestured at Leonard and Dez.

"Watching you beat a bitch senseless," Deserey said, taking her cuffs off after a bit of struggle.

Leonard twisted his cuffs off and held them up for Barry to see. "Magic." (She tried not to look too envious that he'd managed to do it with such ease.)

"Neat trick," Barry said, repeating the phrase Leonard had said outside.

Len hopped over the desk; Barry gave him his Cold Gun back. Deserey walked around the desk like a civilized person as Barry spoke into the coms. "Cisco, where to next?"

"Okay," Cisco spoke up.

Deserey jumped when she'd suddenly heard his voice again. "Jesus Christ!" she cursed. "You people talk loud."

"Sorry," Cisco apologized, quickly moving on. "You will take the...east elevator?"

It should have been a simple statement, but the way he'd said it made Deserey think he didn't exactly know what he was talking about. "Are you sure?"

"They should take the west elevator," Tracy said.

"I agree with Tracy," H.R. said.

"I second," Linda said.

"Barry, take the west elevator," Cisco said, sounding much more certain this time

{~}

The elevator lead straight into a long, narrow hallway with concrete flooring and walls. A faint glow was emitting from the lights above, just bright enough for them to see where they were going, giving off an eerie vibe that really unsettled Deserey. On one wall, written in big, thick, blue letters was:

🇱 🇪 🇻 🇪 🇱  🇿

From around the corner, Deserey heard something that sounded suspiciously like roars.

She tilted her head to the side as she followed the Flash and Leonard down the hall. "Are those animals? What the hell is this? A frickin' zoo?"

Barry shrugged as they passed one of the cells, a beastly growl emitting from inside. Leonard eyed the glowing touch screen on the side of the door, reading the name of the occupant inside. "Who's Grodd?"

"Telepathic gorilla," Barry said, hardly even sparing the cell a second glance as he briskly passed it by. “I spared his life on another earth so he could attack Central City. That’s what mercy gets you.”

The bitterness in his tone was a little startling; Leonard stopped walking for a moment, sharing a look with Dez. His attitude was all wrong, and she sensed it too, even though she had only met Barry one other time.

For as long as Leonard had been fighting the Flash he’d been annoyingly up beat.

Even when Leonard had threatened his friends, he somehow still managed to see the bright side of things. To see the tables turned – it was unsettling to say the least.

"So...it is a zoo?" Deserey asked, hoping to ease the tension a bit. She stopped to peak her head inside the cell.

To say the gorilla was massive would have been a huge understatement. Dez guessed he was easily over fifty feet tall.

His fur was a wild mess, tangled and twisted in all sorts of directions; his teeth were razor sharp.

One of his fingers alone could have crushed a human within seconds, she imagined. Rough dark brown patches of skin formed over his round belly, his eyes beady and menacing.

He growled at her as he spotted her poking her head through the window, pounding a giant fist on his harry chest.

Dez cooed, pressing her hands to her cheeks. "Oh my gosh, he is so cute!"

Barry turned around. He stared at her, looking more caught off guard than he'd been upstairs. "Did you just say Grodd was...cute?"

"I did," Dez said, still gushing a bit at the beast inside his cell.

"...He tried to level Central City not too long ago," Barry reminded her.

Dez shrugged. "Still cute."

"He kidnapped Joe in the sewers and later took Caitlin because he thought she could make other gorillas like him," Barry went on. "We had to send him to another earth just to stop him. Then, he came back to destroy the city. And you think he's cute!?"

It was almost comical how affronted he sounded. Deserey merely shrugged once again. "I have a thing for beings people say are no good for me."

She was suddenly very aware of the way she could see Leonard from the corner of her eye, shifting next to her. "Besides, I'm sure he had a good reason."

She turned her attention to Grodd again, her voice becoming a little higher as she cooed at him. "Didn't you, Groddikins? Yes, you did. Humans are so nasty. Yes they are. Poor baby."

Grodd huffed, but she didn't think he minded her tone because he flopped himself in front of the door, staring back her.

She placed her hand against the window; the gorilla mirrored the movement, making her smile a bit.

Dez felt the judgmental eyes of the Flash watching her; she imagined he was rolling his eyes at her. "He tried to kill people. Probably has killed people."

"So? He's a gorilla. An animal. You can't hold him to human standards," Dez said without facing him. Grodd was still staring back at her.

"Well I can't just let him kill people just because he's a gorilla," Barry said, sounding a little more offended.

"I mean you could," Dez said, her voice taking on a tone of melancholy. "But you probably shouldn't."

She watched as Grodd stepped away from the door, apparently growing bored of having a staring contest with her. "Still, it's gotta be pretty weird for him, doesn't? I mean it's one thing for us to get powers from the Accelerator, but imagine if you were just some animal in a cage and then -- boom. Suddenly one day you're sentient and you can do all this strange stuff without explanation." 

Inside the cell, Grodd curled up, going to sleep. "And then he's the only one like himself?"

"Eh. More or less," Barry mumbled.

"That has to be pretty lonely," Dez said quietly. "And I know what that does to a person, I don't think it's any different for any other animal. Kinda makes 'em like broken glass, I guess, all edgy and dangerous..."

She hesitated a moment, watching as the Gorilla drifted off into a deep snooze. "But everyone has some sort of tragedy. Maybe that's all anyone ever really is."

"What?" Barry asked, confused and maybe a bit impatient. "Broken glass?"

"No." Dez turned her head the slightest bit, glancing at him with a small smirk. "Edgy."

There was a brief pause in which they just stared at each other, Barry completely lost for words. It was only broken when Cisco spoke up through the coms again. "Damn that was deep..."

Leonard shook his head, walking further into the halls. "We're wasting time," he pointed out. "We didn't come here to psychoanalysis anyone, least of all a freaking monkey!"

"Gorilla," Dez corrected.

"Whatever. They're both primates," Leonard brushed off. "You keep watch. We'll get the tech."

She leaned against the wall, giving him a thumbs up. Part of her felt like he was just telling her to keep watch because he didn't want to be around her after he'd learned she'd invaded his privacy, accidentally or not.

Dez tried not to feel too hurt by that thought. After all, she'd be pretty pissed too if someone had been watching a private moment she was suppose to be having with herself.

Besides, she was pretty much useless on this one anyways. All she'd done was play a word association game with a guard, made a Star Wars reference, and wasted time ranting about the mental state of a gorilla. At least this way she was technically doing something and not making a mess of things.

Barry and Len walked off, leaving Dez alone with Grodd. A few seconds later there was a static-y noise emitting from the coms, making Deserey wince slightly. Barry's voice came through a second later. She could hear him from down the hall as well. "Cisco can you read me?"

"Loud and clear," Cisco responded.

"I think we found it," Barry said.

"Jackpot!" H.R. cheered.

"But," Barry continued. "There seems to be some kind of interference at the end of the hall, and the lock is the Montgomery 3000."

Deserey wasn't sure what that meant, but from the way he'd said it, she guessed it must have been something extremely high tech and advanced.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one confused, which she was relieved about. "Montgomery 3000?" H.R. said. "Wait. is that bad?"

"That's going to take some time to hack into," Linda spoke up. "We're looking at a twenty-five ton door that can withstand a thirty megaton nuclear blast."

"And aside from being completely bulletproof," Cisco added, "the Montgomery 3000 can only be unlocked by a voice-recognition system necessitating three different passcodes from three different people."

"And if that weren't already enough," Linda took over again, "the thing cost ten million dollars to build."

There was a loud clanking from down the hall, and Deserey heard Leonard speak both through the coms and as his voice carried down the hall. "Thirty-seven seconds."

"Uh, never mind," Barry told Cisco and the others. "Snart's got it apparently...ARGUS should ask for their money back."

"That was just a little over half a minute, and we were talking for more than half of that!" Linda said, sounding impressed.

Deserey had to admit, it was pretty awesome. She heard Leonard say, "Must be out of practice." But she wasn't sure if he was responding to Linda or not. She wasn't even sure he'd heard her remark with the dead zone down the hall.

Before she could even think about calling out and asking about it, another animalistic growl sounded throughout the hallway, and Deserey stood up right. She glanced into Grodd's cell but he was still sleeping somehow. Dez sighed and shook her head. This place really was a zoo

{~}

Leonard paused as he and Barry reached out to lift the massive red, metal door in front of them. "Wait..." he said quietly, recounting his rules in case Barry had forgotten them. "Make the plan, execute the plan..."

They jumped back as another animalistic roar emitted from the cell; at first Leonard thought he was hallucinating -- because that man shark inside the cell could not have been real.

Yet when he glanced over at Barry, it was obvious he was seeing the thing too. Unfortunately. "Expect the plan to go off the rails," Barry continued the rules.

They crouched down by the door, waiting until they heard the man shark stomp away. Leonard shook his head. "I've seen a lot of things, but a half man, half shark takes the cake..."

"I can't believe ARGUS turned King Shark into a guard dog," Barry muttered.

Leonard snorted. Is that what they were calling this thing? "King Shark," he repeated. "That's adorable."

Barry rolled his eyes. "Now you sound like Dez." There was a short moment of thought that crossed his face, then he spoke up with an idea that he clearly hadn't thought through. "Give me your Cold Gun."

Leonard eyed him apprehensively. His hand instinctively went to the gun attached to his belt. "So you can do what, exactly?"

"Snart, there's only one way that tech's getting out of here." Barry didn't hesitate to say his next words, but he still tip toed around what he actually meant. Good, at least that might mean some part of him still thought it immoral.

Still, it was more than a little off putting, hearing the Flash even insinuate such a thing. Leonard chuckled. "Oh, I see. You didn't just recruit me for my skills as a thief, did you? You wanted a partner who wouldn't mind if you got all murder-y."

Barry didn't even have the nerve to look guilty. He was so hell bent on stopping this evil version of himself -- Savi-stupid name -- that he was completely beside himself. "I told you what I'm up against, alright?"

His eyes held a sort of desperation that Leonard had always tried to prompt out of him. The kind where he'd have to sink so low as to ask for help from someone like him, to completely abandon his own morals.

It almost reminded him of the last time Barry had asked for his help, except this time it wasn't as amusing somehow.

Ugh, I'm going soft, Leonard scoffed inwardly.

"Give me the gun," Barry repeated in a tone of voice that didn't really sound like him.

Leonard shrugged, brushing off the uneasiness this new attitude was giving him. He withdrew the Cold Gun, passing it to Barry.

Barry stood up with the gun, aiming it at King Shark through the glass window. "Open the door."

Leonard found himself hesitating. It was annoying. He never hesitated. But something about Barry's tone was making him second guess his decision to come along on this thing.

Or maybe it was the fact that that Caitlin look-a-like had said he'd die at some point. Maybe people just naturally hesitated once they'd realized they were on the clock.

Either way, Leonard's sixth sense -- Alexa -- was starting to kick in, and he had a sneaky suspicious things were about to take a turn for the worst. He had to think of something to stop Barry, fast.

"Open the door," Barry ordered again when Leonard hadn't moved. Once upon a time, Leonard might have killed him for that. But now...

Now, he was just letting it slide and trying to think up a way to talk Barry Freaking Allen out of murdering a shark man even though he knew they should have probably just cut their losses and run. Because why? Morals?

God, I really am going soft, Leonard thought bitterly. What's Mick gonna say?

Absently, Leonard's hand drifted to his pocket, and he felt those ice bombs he'd found in the lab earlier rolling around. He paused briefly, an idea forming in his head.

"Have you ever seen Shark Week, Barry?" The speedster scrunched up his nose at Leonard's question. "Me, I can't get enough of it. Good thing the Waverider has cable."

Barry looked at him, perplexed, as he crouched down again. He was looking more and more confused the longer Leonard went on. In retro spec, it was probably a waste of time, especially with Alex gradually rising, but at least he looked some what normal again. "What's your point?"

"Most sharks are cold blooded," Leonard began explaining his idea, "but the great white shark, like our friend in there, is partially warm blooded."

Barry took a moment to think about it, and his eyes widened a bit as he realized what Leonard was thinking. "He's susceptible to cold."

Leonard nodded curtly. "Never strays into water colder than 53.6 degrees Fahrenheit. If we lower the temperature in the room to 53.5 degrees, King Shark will fall asleep like a little baby."

Barry nodded slowly, looking like he was coming around to the idea. "Or," Leonard added quickly, because he couldn't have him realizing he was going soft, "you can go ahead and kill him, and prove what a bad ass you are. Your choice."

He didn't say anything, just silently handed the Cold Gun back over. Leonard shot a quick glance around the corner, searching for Dez. He couldn't see her, though, and it worried him that he couldn't hear her.

With the interference at the end of the hall, they wouldn't be able to communicate very efficiently if something went wrong.

So, unless she screamed he'd have no idea what was happening on her end. He wasn't sure if it was good or bad that she hadn't said or done anything in a while. (He might have been annoyed with her at the moment, but he still made a promise to keep her alive.)

Alexa was rising steadily, now. They should have left. He knew it. Yet, for some reason Leonard found himself wanting to see this through despite the risk involved. He -- God help him -- wanted to help the Flash.

Leonard moved as quickly as he could, putting the Cold Gun back on his hip and bringing out one of the ice bombs.

Barry made a face at the weapons. "Wait a minute. Did you take those from Chloe and Cisco's lab?"

Leonard gave a brief shrug. He had no idea who Chloe was, but he didn't bother asking. Instead, he finished reciting the rules from earlier, "Throw away the plan." He slid the ice bomb under the door, as Barry lifted it the slightest bit.