— 𝒮 —

𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 team was back at the abandoned runway, where Barry was training.

Ever since their last encounter with the yellow speedster, Barry had gained some sort of new confidence, and it was obvious with the amount of training he completed. Determined more than ever to find and defeat the speedster in yellow who had killed his mother, Barry ran faster and faster every day, and hardly made time for rest.

Cisco flew a drone that followed Barry as he sped around, shooting at him. He dodged them, before stopping on his heels, sparks igniting under his feet. The drone shot at him again, and Sophia's heart lurched when the shot just missed him. 

"That was too close," Caitlin said worriedly as she walked toward the others, keeping her eyes on the speedster as he ran around.

"He told me to make it hard," Cisco responded lightly with a small shrug, watching his drone carefully as it flew overhead.

"He didn't tell you to make him dead!"

"Remember, this is just supposed to be a training exercise to improve Barry's speed," Dr. Wells chuckled at the two, turning to the front again to watch Barry.

Barry's voice came over the comms. "Cisco, you gonna bring it or what?"

Dr. Wells smiled, amused by Barry's enthusiasm as he reluctantly shrugged. ". . . Bring it."

A nervous look crossed over Cisco's expression as he glanced down at his controls and pressed a button, and Caitlin lifted her binoculars to her eyes.

Triggered by the push of a button, a small missile emerged from the drone and headed straight for Barry. It exploded soon after, sending Barry through the air as the impact took a hold of him.

To their relief, Barry slowly got up, groaning in pain.

"Why isn't he running away?" Sophia furrowed her eyebrows, watching as the drone headed straight toward him.

Another missile flew towards him, and he ran to it, grabbing it and turning it around so it headed back to the drone, making it explode.

Cisco stared at the spot that his drone had just been in, a sorrowful sigh escaping his lips as he mourned the loss.

Not seeming as upset as Cisco about this, Barry sped back over towards them, huffing slightly as he fell back into one of the chairs.

"Nice job." Sophia smiled as she sat down on the table in front of him.

"All in a day's work." Barry winked, his voice slightly muffled due to the whole burger he had stuffed in his mouth

After Barry had demolished about fifty burgers, Dr. Wells spoke up as he looked over at the stats on the computer, a satisfied nod accompanying his words, "Very impressive, Mr. Allen. Your reaction to stimuli at super-speed continues to improve."

Barry folded his arms, his head shaking. "It's still not enough."

"It will be," Dr. Wells reassured him. "Keep working like you are, stay focused . . . you will be ready the next time your man in the yellow suit shows up."

"I think you mean the Reverse-Flash," Cisco corrected him, his hands on his hips. When Dr. Wells turned to look at him, eyebrows raised, he added, "What? He said it, not me. And he's right—yellow suit, red lightning, and evil—the reverse of Barry."

Caitlin, on the other hand, didn't seem too fond of the name as she shrugged. "Meh."

"Actually, I kind of like it," Dr. Wells chuckled, turning back to the computer.

"I'm so ready for another round," Barry said as he got to his feet. "How many drones do you have?"

"Two, and they've got lasers!" Cisco answered excitedly, heading towards the box that contained the drones as he rubbed his hands together.

"No," Sophia, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells said in unison.

— 𝐵 —

"Captain Cold is back," Cisco sighed as they walked back into the Cortex.

"For a non-meta-human, Leonard Snart is quite the nemesis," Dr. Wells commented, shaking his head.

"He still has the cold gun, the one he stole from us." Sophia bit her lip before adding on, "The one I built."

A frown formed on Barry's face. He knew that she felt more than guilty about that gun, and no matter how many times he told her it wasn't her fault Snart got it, she just couldn't seem to feel any better about it.

He patted Sophia's shoulder, to which she responded with a small smile that didn't reassure him in the least.

Caitlin sat down on the main desk, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked around at the group. "What does he want?"

"The Flash," Barry sighed. "If Snart wants a fight, I'll give him one."

Dr. Wells pursed his lips, tilting his head to the side. "Well . . ."

"You don't think I should?" Barry asked as he raised his eyebrows.

"I didn't say that," Dr. Wells answered as he looked up at the man. "But, Barry, as fast as you are, you cannot be everywhere at once. And it becomes then a question of priorities. In the last month, you have made a commitment to increasing your speed, enhancing your reflexes. It's working. You're getting faster."

"Okay, but what am I supposed to do?" Barry asked incredulously. "Just ignore Snart?"

"The last time you had a fight with Snart, a train derailed. You were lucky to get all those people off safely," Dr. Wells sighed. "Now, if you don't give him that fight—"

"He may just back off," Barry finished his sentence, nodding slowly. "And there'll be no casualties."

"Look, Barry, Cisco and I will work with Joe and the police, and devise a way to catch Cold," Dr. Wells reassured Barry as he crossed the room. He then sighed as Cisco gave him a look of surprise, and gave a nod of defeat. "Yes, I said it. Soon as it came out of my mouth, I heard it."

Cisco grinned as he sat down at the main desk. "We can come up with ways to neutralize Snart."

— 𝒮 —

"Hey, Soph, can I, uh, ask you something?"

Sophia turned from the desk to see Barry standing behind her, his hands awkwardly clasped behind him. "Hey, Blue-Barry. Yeah, what's up?"

It was pretty obvious that he was nervous, given his flitting eyes and the way he rocked back and forth on his feet. She wondered if that was related to whatever he was about to say next.

He gave her a small smile. "I was just wondering if, uh . . ."

"Barry Allen, just the man I wanted to see!" Cisco appeared from the entrance, a wide grin on his face as he put his hands on his hips. "I've been looking for you, you little rascal!"

"Yeah, well," Barry mumbled as he turned, "I was at CCPD before, so . . ."

"Before Cisco does . . . whatever he wanted to do with you, what did you want to ask?" Sophia asked quickly as Cisco began to walk towards the two.

Barry glanced over to the boy who was only a few feet away before shaking his head. "Um, nothing, never mind."

"Okay." She shrugged as she got up from her chair and gave a small sigh. "I was going to go to Jitters, do either of you wanna come?"

After both of them shook their heads, she made her way out of the lab. She went to her car and drove to one of her favourite coffee spots in Central City. She didn't think she would be able to survive one day without a coffee from the place.

As she drove, she wondered what Barry could've possibly wanted. Maybe it was something about Captain Cold. Or the speedster in yellow—the Reverse-Flash.

She gave a small sigh as she reached the parking lot and parked her car. She'd just have to ask him later.

Humming, she got out of her car, peeking through the window right after to make sure she hadn't left anything. She had made the mistake of leaving her car keys inside the week before, and it took Cisco five minutes to stop laughing at her and actually help.

Then, a jet of blue light flew over her shoulder and hit her car, frost quickly expanding over the door. Sophia's eyes widened, and she nervously turned around to be faced by two men. She recognized one of them.

Both of them had their eyes covered by goggles, and one of them held the gun that had fired at her. Her gun.

Captain Cold smirked at her. "Car trouble?"

— 𝐵 —

"When the heat gun was fired, it increased the surrounding temperature" —Cisco pointed to the moving blueprint on the computer screen— "of the air dramatically. Sort of like an extreme heatwave." He stopped and leaned towards Dr. Wells, the idea striking him. "Heat Wave."

"Stop doing that," Dr. Wells warned, though the small smile on his face proved that he liked it.

"Okay," Cisco continued with a grin, "I measured the temperature output of both the cold and heat guns, right? And while the cold gun achieves absolute zero . . . the heat gun reaches absolute hot, or the hottest temperature an object can reach."

"Planck temperature," Barry added as he looked at Cisco, who nodded excitedly.

"So potentially, these two guns could cancel each other out," Dr. Wells theorized, rubbing the side of his face.

"Yeah," Cisco confirmed, folding his arms, "but to do that, you'd have to make them cross streams."

"You mean like in Ghostbusters?" Barry chuckled, remembering the end where they crossed the streams of their guns to create an explosion.

"That film is surprisingly scientifically accurate." He nodded slowly and shrugged. "And really quite funny."

Barry's phone then buzzed in his pocket, alerting him of a call. He took it out, seeing it was Joe, and picked up. "Hey, Joe. What's up?"

As soon as Barry heard the words he said, he felt his heart drop.

Sophia.

Without a word to the other two, Barry sped to the Jitters' parking lot, panic filling his entire body. The parking lot was mainly empty, save for the yellow police tape that sectioned off one area, and the few police officers that were inspecting around.

"Joe, anything?" Barry asked urgently as he rushed over to Joe.

Joe gave a solemn shake of the head that made Barry's heart drop. "There's no sign of Sophia."

Barry went over to her car, now seeing the ice that was frozen over the whole side of it.

"Oh my God," he breathed out as he put a hand on his forehead in distress.

He should've gone with her. She offered, but he said no, all because he was too flustered by what had happened just moments before. If only he had gone, she would be here. Safe. With him.

He took a breath and walked over back to Joe, who raised his eyebrows.

"We're getting her back. We have to find Snart," Barry said determinedly.

"Damn right we do." Joe nodded firmly before turning and walking away. "C'mon, let's go."

The two hurried over to CCPD and had just gotten off the elevator when Eddie rushed over to them.

"Joe! Joe, we got a hit," Eddie said hurriedly. "The second pair of prints belonged to a Mick Rory." He handed an opened folder to Joe that contained Rory's information.

"Who is he?" Joe questioned as he inspected the folder.

"Big-time arsonist," Eddie told them as they walked inside the office. "He and Snart worked a job last year that went bad. Half of Rory's body was burned in a fire that got out of control. He escaped from an ambulance and hasn't been seen since." He turned around and put his hands on his hips as he shrugged. "Why would they kidnap someone like Sophia? She's a good friend of yours, isn't she, Barry?"

His lips pressed together as he gave a short nod. She meant far more than that to him.

"Joe. Thawne. It's on every station," Captain Singh called out to them as he switched the hanging televisions on.

"Greetings, citizens of Central City. I am Leonard Snart, but you can call me Cold." Most of the footage was of Snart's face, which was up close, and you could see Rory restraining a struggling Sophia in the right corner.

Barry's eyes widened as he watched her flail in Rory's arms. It was obvious she was trying to say something. 

His clenched his fists, ignoring the way his nails dug into his palm. Joe's hand on touched his back, though that wasn't enough to calm his raging insides. It hurt just to know he couldn't speed off right now and save her (right after beating the shit out of Snart and Rory). 

"I'm gonna make this very simple for everyone. That red streak you've been hearing whispers about? The one mysteriously saving people these past few months? Well, surprise, he's real. He calls himself the Flash. Porter and Maine. Tonight. Sundown. Come out, come out, wherever you are, Flash. Show the whole world you're real," he taunted, "or this woman dies."

His heart missed a beat. 

"No, don't come for me! Stay away!" Sophia shouted desperately as Rory pulled her away. "He'll hurt—"

The video ended, leaving only a black screen.

— 𝒮 —

Rory finished tying Sophia up a chair, a wicked smile on his face as he looked at her.

"You're a friend of his, huh? He's fast." He took out a lighter, igniting it as he breathed out, "Like fire. Fire is undefinable. Heat, light, energy." He put his hand over the yellow flame as he grinned. "It's an evolution when things burn."

"You're sick," Sophia spat.

He quickly put the lighter away and brushed a piece of her hair behind her shoulder as he murmured, "Maybe you're the sick ones. You ever think about that?"

She scoffed. "Not really."

"Mm." He gave another creepy smile.

Sophia looked to his shoulder, which seemed to have a large burn that extended to his elbow. "You've got third-degree burns. Why didn't you get skin grafts?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

He glanced down at his arm and then back at her, a crazed smile spreading on his face. "The fire revealed my true self. It showed me who I really am." He leaned in, his face too close for her liking as he whispered, "I wonder what your Flash will reveal when I burn his suit and skin off?"

"Do whatever you want to me, but leave him alone," she said through gritted teeth.

"Ooh, okay." Rory pretended to be spooked. "You and this Flash must be really close if you're willing to die for him, hm?" He picked up his gun from the floor. "You want me to show you who you really are? That'd be fun. Hm?" He turned it on, a glowing red from the inside of the gun appearing. "Show you who you really are."

"Mick." Snart came up from behind as Rory aimed the gun at Sophia. "Time to go."

"You better pray the next people that come through the door is us," Rory warned. He then shoved a cloth into her mouth, tying it at the back of her head.

As she heard the two men's footsteps fade away, she looked around, trying to get a better sense of surroundings. As she looked behind her, she noticed a thin string that was strung across the entrance of the platform.

Was that a . . . bomb?

She sat still for the next few minutes, her mind racing. What should she do? Should she try to escape?

Her ears then picked up the sound of distant footsteps, them sounding closer and closer. Were Rory and Snart already back? Surely, it hadn't been more than five minutes.

"Sophia?" she heard a familiar voice call out.

Cisco.

She tried to shout, though all that came out was a muffled sound. She swivelled her head around as best as she could, but she couldn't see anyone.

Soon, Cisco and Joe came into sight, relieved expressions on their faces when they saw her.

"Sophia, we're gonna save you, okay?" Cisco exclaimed, rushing up the steps towards her.

She tried to scream at him to stop, furiously shaking her head, but gag prevented her words from coming out. 

"Cisco, down, get down!" Joe yelled, having already noticed the string Cisco was about to trip on.

Too late.

Joe pulled Cisco away and ran towards Sophia, grabbing her and throwing both of them down on the other side of the platform just before the small bomb exploded. Once the smoke was cleared, Cisco ran over to the two, untying the gag in her mouth.

"Thank you." Sophia gasped for sweet, sweet, non-rag-tasting air.

She pulled Cisco in for a tight hug, relieved that she wasn't going to die. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, the same relief seeming to be going through him as he held her close to him.

"Anytime." Cisco grinned.

"Where's Barry?" Sophia looked at Joe, who shifted nervously in his spot when he heard the question.

"Fighting Snart and Rory," he sighed. "C'mon, we've got to get to CCPD."

While Cisco made extra sure that Sophia was okay, Joe drove them to the police precinct. Once they had arrived, they walked into the office, where only a few other officers waited. It seemed as though most of them had gone to the fight.

"Okay, they've arrested Snart and Rory—thanks to a special someone," Joe told them as soon as he got off the phone with Captain Singh. "They should be here soon."

It was only a few moments until Barry came in. He didn't seem quite happy for a man who had just saved the city, with his furrowed eyebrows and frown. 

But when he caught her eye, that look was replaced with one of relief. "Sophia!"

She was immediately in his tight embrace, and she wrapped her arms around him. 

"I'm sorry that I couldn't come to save you first," he whispered into her ear. "I begged Dr. Wells, but he said—"

"No, don't apologize. Stopping them was more important," Sophia murmured, giving him a small smile as she pulled away.

He shook his head, a warm smile taking place. "Nothing's more important than you."

Before she had the time to blush, Rory's shouts could be heard, which were soon drowned out by applause. Captain Singh led the way, followed by two officers that were holding Rory, and two holding Snart.

"We'll burn every last one of you pigs! Get your hands off me!" Rory used his body weight to shove one of the police officers away, the officer falling against the door.

Joe quickly pulled out his gun, pointing it at Rory. "Hey! Hey, hey, hey!"

Captain Singh, along with two other police officers, grabbed Rory. "Yeah!" Rory screamed, welcoming the end of the gun with his mouth. The officers pulled him away, dragging him to holding.

The two officers holding Snart, who was calmly complying, approached.

"Your partner's a real hothead," Joe said to Snart.

"That's funny," he remarked, adjusting his hand position in the handcuffs.

"You know what's hilarious, Snart?" Joe folded his arms. "We got you." 

"Congratulations."

Joe nodded to the officers who were holding him. "Get him out of here." 

"Nice work, Eddie." Barry grinned over to Eddie, who had just come in.

"It wasn't me. It was the Flash." Eddie smiled back. He looked over to Cisco, holding out the cold gun and the heat gun towards him. "We're not gonna be needing these for trial. You'll make sure—"

"They'll never hurt anyone ever again," Cisco promised, taking them from him and putting them into a grey bin.

Sophia looked over at the guns with distaste. She was more than happy to never see those guns—especially the cold gun—ever again. They could smash them with a hammer and toss the pieces into the ocean for all she cared. As long as no one else got their hands on it. 

— 𝐵 —

Barry stumbled through the corridor leading up to the Cortex, using one hand to rub his eyes.

It was a little before three in the morning, and Barry had just remembered that he had somehow forgotten his wallet—which he usually kept in his pocket—in the Cortex.

He was soon surprised to see that the lights in the Cortex were on, and even more surprised to see that someone was sitting at one of the desks in the back.

"Soph?" he questioned.

She rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. "Goji-Barry? What are you doing here? It's three in the morning!"

"What are you doing here?" Barry questioned as he walked up next to her, leaning over her chair to see what she was looking at: research (which, judging by the number of red squiggles under the words, was written by Cisco). "What is that?"

"I'm not even sure," she sighed as she looked back at the document. "Some theoretical things that Cisco wanted to send to some scientist or something. He wanted me to check over it because of my three hundred trillion IQ, and for it to be done by midnight, but, y'know, I was kidnapped and all, so I didn't have time to work on it."

Barry heaved a sigh as he sat down in the chair next to hers. "Sophia, I-I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." She smiled as she shook her head and reassured him, "It's not your fault."

"Isn't it?" He looked at her with upset eyes. "I should've just gone with you to Jitters. Then there was no way Snart or Rory could've gotten to you."

"Oh, come on, Barry, how could you have known that was going to happen?" Sophia laughed lightly.

"Still, I—I feel terrible." He looked down for a moment before his gaze shifted back to her, and his voice softened. "Were you scared?"

Sophia leaned back in her seat, folding her arms. "It . . . it was pretty scary, how they tied me up and kept pointing their stupid guns at me. A small part of me was worried that I was actually gonna die, and at some points, I just wanted to punch their dumb faces, but . . . I knew that you were going to save me."

Barry looked down guiltily, hardly able to look at the smile she was giving him as he muttered, "But I didn't."

"You did," she said gently as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm here right now, aren't I?"

He shook his head. "Yeah, because Cisco and Joe saved you."

"Even if Cisco and Joe hadn't found me, I would've been okay. You stopped Snart and Rory, and that by itself would've saved me. It saved the whole city." Sophia smiled. "Don't worry about it, it's over now."

"All right, but next time I'm gonna save you first," he promised, his mood recovering slightly from her assurance.

"Are you suggesting that I'm gonna get kidnapped again?" she joked, giggling.

"Well, no—I, uh—"

"I'm kidding," she reassured him, causing a small grin to break out on his face. "But if I do get kidnapped again, I know you'll save me. You're the best hero I know."