— 𝒮 —

"𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄 we here?" Sophia questioned as Cisco drove the both of them into a calm neighbourhood.

"Joe wanted to meet us here," Cisco replied with a small shrug. "Not sure why."

"And what's in there?" she asked as she pointed down towards the briefcase that was sitting between them in the van.

"Super top-secret weapon." Cisco grinned as he winked at her.

They pulled up to the side of the road and quickly got out to meet Joe, who had a grim look on his face as he approached.

"Hey," Joe greeted. "Thanks for meeting me."

"Sure." Cisco nodded as he looked around. "What exactly are we doing here?"

"That's Barry's old house," Joe told them as they began to walk towards it, using the folder in his hand to gesture towards the navy-coloured house.

"Where his mother was murdered?" Sophia questioned with widened eyes as they stepped over the snow-ridden grass.

"I have a theory about how might've been involved in his mother's death," Joe informed them. "Thought the three of us could re-examine the crime scene; you two could apply your technical expertise and help me prove who really did it."

"Sure," Cisco agreed with a small grin as they headed up the stone steps of the porch. "We should get Dr. Wells and Caitlin in on this."

"No," Joe quickly replied, "we should keep this between us for the time being. If too many people know, Barry will find out, and I don't wanna involve him until we know something definitive."

As the two of them gave nods of understanding, Joe knocked on the door.

It opened a moment later, revealing a blonde woman who looked to be around Joe's age, who was wearing a lace nightgown.

"Hello, ma'am," Joe said nervously, his eyes flickering over her. He shakily held up his badge as he introduced, "I'm Detective West. This is Cisco Ramon and Sophia Byun."

"Oh, please, it's Sherry—like the drink," the woman gushed. "What can I do for you, detective?"

"I don't know if you're aware but . . ." Joe took a breath, regaining his composure as he continued, "there was a homicide in this residence fifteen years ago.."

Sherry's face became grim as she sighed. "Oh, I know."

"We've re-opened the investigation," Joe told her. "Do you mind if we come in and take another look around?"

"Oh, not at all," Sherry agreed as she smiled at them, then taking a step back to allow them to enter.

The three of them brushed past her and into the foyer, where Joe turned to her. "You live alone?"

"Yes," she confirmed as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm divorced."

"Oh my God," Sophia breathed out, an amused smile on her face as she and Cisco walked into the living room. "Did she know we were coming or something?"

"Probably not. But I'm not complaining." Cisco grinned at her as he set his toolbox onto the table and opened it.

"Ugh, Cisco." Sophia punched him lightly in the arm, only getting a small giggle in response. He pulled out a white tool and turned it on, the front of it emitting blue light.

Sophia crinkled her nose as she watched him take it out; she had never seen that before. "What's that?"

"My super-light. It's a multi-spectrum ultraviolet laser enhanced scanner that detects molecular schisms in the six hundred-mega-volt range," Cisco explained, beginning to scan it over the green wallpaper. "I made it last week."

Sophia's phone began to ring, and she pulled it out to see that it was Barry.

"Hello?" she answered, walking over to the corner of the room.

"Hey. Where are you?"

"Um . . . why?" she asked, knowing that she shouldn't say 'the house where the murder of your mother occurred, which your father was falsely imprisoned for, and where you were left with emotional trauma and pain that's lasted for years.'

"We found something with the Ronnie case, and Dr. Wells wanted you to help."

Sophia sighed, shaking her head as she answered, "I'm sorry, I can't. I'm kinda busy at the moment."

Barry sounded taken aback as he questioned, "With what?"

She tried to think quickly. "Just, um, something with Cisco."

"What are you guys doing?"

Damn, why did he have so many questions? "Uh . . . important stuff. Oh, I've gotta go, I'll see you later, bye!" She quickly hung up before he could ask her anything else.

Smooth. He definitely believed that.

"I can't pick anything up. Even with my super-light." Cisco sighed as he continued brushing his super light against the walls.

Sherry came back, leaning against the door frame to the dining room with her hand on her hip. She had changed into a tight black dress, that was just as revealing as the nightgown in the chest area.

"Can I get you three anything to drink? Water? Soda?" she offered before she looked over at Joe. "Wine?"

Joe's eyes widened for a moment before he cleared his throat and shook his head. "We're uh, fine, thank you."

"Well, if you change your mind, I've been told my strawberry daiquiris are sinful." She gave a small shrug before walking away.

Cisco, clearly amused, shook his head as he promised, "I will not judge you."

"Funny coming from you," Sophia snorted, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Okay . . ." Joe took out a photograph from his folder and examined it for a moment before continuing, "Barry's mother's body was found here. Knife beside her." He walked up to where the table was, placing the folder on top of it. He pointed to the wall and said, "Blood spatter on the wall belonged to Nora."

"Joe, I think . . ." Cisco sighed as he put his super-light on one of the chairs. "I just think maybe it's been too long. And everything's different."

Joe looked at the photo and then up. "Except that mirror."

He pointed towards a small, rectangular mirror that was attached to a wooden vanity, which was pressed up against the wall. Cisco and Sophia walked up to Joe to take a look at the photo, and sure enough, the same mirror was there.

Sophia shrugged. "Sherry must've bought it at the estate sale."

They moved the vanity forward and went behind it. Cisco shone his super-light onto it, and his eyes widened in realization. "Silver nitrate. It was often used to back vintage mirrors." He began to walk away, putting his super light on the table. "If there really were two speedsters there that night . . . the sparks from their movement would've generated enough flashes to actually expose images onto the silver nitrate," he explained as they walked back to the front of the house, excitement exploding from him.

"So, the mirror could contain photographs of that night?" Sophia questioned, her eyes widening

"Exactly."

— 𝒮 —

Later that evening, Sophia and Cisco had managed to collect everything they needed to find those photographs. After bringing all the equipment into Sherry's home, they were all set and had gotten straight to work.

It didn't take too long—about half an hour to get it all done. Although, the last ten minutes were spent on turning it into a 3D hologram because . . . Cisco.

Joe walked into the living room, a small smile on his face. "I sent Sherry to the movies."

"Trust me," Cisco said as he adjusted the top of the projector, "the best show in town is gonna be in here tonight."

"So you telling me you can get actual photographs from this thing?" Joe asked as he leaned against the doorframe, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the glowing contraption.

"The science is solid," Sophia assured him with a nod. "It works exactly like an old film camera, we developed the mirror backing, and fortunately for us . . . the lightning went off about ten times that night."

A look of realization dawned on Joe's face as he nodded. "Multiple exposures."

"Now you're getting it." Cisco grinned. "I went ahead and enhanced them digitally, and just for kicks" —he lifted up a small device— "decided to extrapolate a 3D hologram from the original 2D."

Joe motioned for him to hurry up as he murmured, "Cisco."

"Lights," he instructed, causing Joe to flick the lights off. "Camera," he continued, "action."

Sophia turned the projector on, and immediately an image was displayed in the middle of the living room.

The images switched continuously as Cisco pressed on the tablet connected to the projector, all of them showing the seconds as Barry's mother—Nora—screamed in agony. The two speedsters chased each other, one red, one yellow, though their faces were difficult to make out. A young Barry stood at the door frame, tears pouring down his pale cheeks as he shouted.

Joe walked over to their side, though his eyes remained fixated on the hologram as it switched.

Once they had reached the tenth image, Joe requested, "Can you play it again, slower?"

Cisco nodded and heeded his instruction.

"There, there. You see that?" Joe quickly said upon reaching the image he wanted, pointing towards it as he walked over. He reached the end of the room, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at Nora. After a few moments, he instructed, "Next frame."

It flipped to the next image, and Joe stepped into the room connected to the living room. He looked back at them and pointed towards the farthest wall, which showed blood spattered on it.

Sophia and Cisco rushed over as Joe walked to the wall, and he quickly pointed out, "This wallpaper is new."

They watched with wrinkled noses as he tore the floral paper, but their eyes quickly widened as they saw the dried blood that was spattered onto the wall underneath.

"Oh, man," Cisco breathed out. "Is that blood?"

Joe, one hand still clutching the wallpaper, pointed towards the blood with the other and said, "We had a husband who was holding the same weapon that killed his wife. We weren't looking for any other suspects. That blood belongs to one of the two speedsters that was here that night—maybe the one that killed Nora."

Sophia nodded, quickly exchanging a look of excitement with Cisco as she said, "I'll get a sample kit."

— 𝒮 —

The next morning, Sophia and Cisco met Joe in Barry's lab and got started on the DNA analysis.

Cisco grinned as the computer screen showed them that two DNA samples were detected. "Yes, yes, yes. See" —he turned towards Joe, who was sitting on the edge of the desk— "we got two different blood samples."

"One for each speedster," Joe realized.

"That's right," Cisco confirmed as he clapped his hand with Joe's.

"One's A-positive and the other one's AB-negative—super rare," Sophia remarked with raised eyebrows.

"I'll run them both through the CCPD criminal database," Cisco informed both of them as he walked over to the computer on the other side of the lab, "see if I get a match."

"Can you run them against a specific person?" asked Joe.

"Yeah, sure, if we have something to match it to." Cisco nodded as he clutched the mouse and began to work. "Who are we looking at?"

Joe took a moment to respond, a little awkwardly, "Dr. Harrison Wells."

Immediately, Sophia turned to him with furrowed eyebrows, Cisco doing the same as she questioned, "I thought we were trying to solve Barry's mom's murder?"

Joe gave a slow nod. "We are. And I'm asking you two to keep this between us."

"You think Dr. Wells killed Barry's mom?" Cisco asked incredulously with raised eyebrows. He gave a small scoff as he began to walk towards them, "No way."

"He didn't even know Barry then," Sophia added. "Why would he kill his mom?"

Joe sighed as he stood up, "I don't know yet. But I do know that Wells keeps secrets." He slipped his hands into his pockets as he walked up to Cisco. "And this may be one of them."

"Dr. Wells is a great man," Cisco replied, his gaze hardening on the man in front of him. "I was nothing when he gave me a job—a chance to change my life. He has helped so many people" —his voice rose as he grabbed his coat off the rack— "he's not a murderer!"

"Cisco," Joe sighed as he walked over to him, "I'm a cop. I'm good at reading people. So I know I can trust you and Sophia with my suspicion. When I go talk to the family and friends of a murder suspect—somebody I know is guilty—and I tell them the person they love is a killer" —he gave a small shrug— "guess what they all say: 'That's not the person I know.'"

Cisco gripped the coat in his hands tightly as he muttered, "I think I'm done being a cop for today."

Sophia sighed as Cisco stormed out, and pursed her lips as Joe turned around to face her.

"Soph, you—"

"I understand where you're coming from, Joe, I do," Sophia said earnestly as she brushed past him and grabbed her jacket. "But I think you're reading too much into it."

It didn't take long for Sophia to catch up with Cisco, nor did it take long for them to arrive back at STAR Labs. The two of them quickly headed towards the entrance in the training room but were stopped short when they saw the sight in front of them.

Ronnie.

He looked much different from their last encounter; clean-shaven, his hair had been cut, and he wasn't wearing a shirt either. He looked exactly like the Ronnie they used to know.

"Ronnie," Sophia breathed out, exchanging a look of surprise with Cisco.

Ronnie looked up at them and slightly shook his head.

"Not Ronnie," Sophia realized with a wrinkled nose.

"Martin Stein," Not-Ronnie introduced himself as he extended a hand towards her.

"Sophia Byun," she replied as she shook his hand.

"Cisco Ramon," Cisco added on as the hand moved to him.

"Your colleagues are in the next room," Martin told them as he looked through the glass window, "not so subtly discussing my condition."

Sophia gave a small nod and grabbed a stupefied Cisco's hand to pull him towards the Med Lab.

"That's not freaky at all," Cisco stated to the group as soon as he shut the door behind them, his face scrunched up.

"It seems Ronnie's fight with the Flash has exacerbated the Firestorm matrix," Dr. Wells told them as he turned his wheelchair towards the exit. "It's unstable. It's exponentially increasing the rate of fission inside his body."

"How long does he have?" asked Caitlin as they followed him into the main room of the Cortex.

"If his temperature keeps rising at the current pace," Dr. Wells sighed as he turned around to face them, and he gave a grave shake of the head as he continued, "no more than a couple of hours."

"But you can fix it, right?" Barry asked worriedly as he leaned against the front of the main desk. "I mean, you can separate them before it's too late?"

"Any attempt we make to separate the two of them could be catastrophic," Dr. Wells pointed out. "A nuclear explosion. And a nuclear explosion of this magnitude would level this entire city. Unless . . ."

Barry, who had lowered his gaze to the ground, whipped his head around to face him as he desperately questioned, "Unless what?"

"Unless the host body were no longer functional," Dr. Wells answered heavily.

Caitlin's eyes widened as she incredulously questioned, "You wanna kill Ronnie?"

"No, I don't wanna kill Ronnie," Dr. Wells replied firmly as he turned his eyes to her. "But in this scenario, Ronnie is the host body."

"If you kill Ronnie, you kill Stein," Cisco cut in angrily as he took a step forward. "That's two people."

"I don't know how else to stop it," Dr. Wells said. "And my guess is that if Ronnie and Professor Stein knew the consequences that we were all facing, they would make the same decision. It's two lives . . . for millions."

Caitlin turned towards the other three and muttered, "Can you give us a minute?"

Sophia nodded and quickly followed Barry and Cisco out of the Cortex.

— 𝒮 —

"Do you really think this plan Dr. Wells came up with is gonna work?" Cisco questioned dubiously as he and Sophia walked towards the training room. "I mean—"

"Nothing's ever one hundred percent, Cisco, but we have to try," Sophia sighed as she opened the door. "Dr. Wells thinks that—what the hell?"

Sophia's eyes widened as she looked around, seeing anything but the life they were looking for.

Professor Stein was gone.

"Oh, shit," Cisco breathed out before turning to her. "Maybe he went to the bathroom?"

"We have to check the whole building," Sophia exhaled. "Let's split up."

Sophia then went on to search every nook and cranny of the basement and a few floors above but to no avail. And judging by the grim look on Cisco's face as she met him in the hallway, he had had the same outcome.

"Looking for the professor?" Cisco questioned as they entered the Cortex, which Barry was about to leave. "Yeah, he's gone."

"Let's get to work," Dr. Wells instructed, "Sophia and Cisco—you two come with me, Barry—get changed, Caitlin—find out where he went."

And with that, the group dispersed into their given tasks.

Sophia sat between Cisco and Dr. Wells in the Med Lab, her eyebrows furrowing more and more as they worked on the quantum splicer that Dr. Wells had given the idea for.

Only an hour later did Barry brush by them, asking, "You guys almost done?"

"Hang on, hang on," Cisco called.

"I found Stein," Caitlin told them as she walked in. "He's in the Badlands. The middle of nowhere, thirty miles outside of Central City."

"Minimum safe distance," Sophia murmured as she nodded.

"He's sacrificing himself," Dr. Wells realized with a sigh.

"How much time does he have left?" questioned Barry worriedly.

"Twelve minutes," Cisco answered gravely as Sophia waved away some of the smoke that was nearing their faces.

"And" —Dr. Wells pulled away— "we're done."

"What is it?" Barry asked as Sophia grabbed the base of it and held it out towards Dr. Wells.

Dr. Wells attached the top on, causing it to latch on and whir, as he answered, "This is a quantum splicer."

"Will it work to separate them?" Caitlin questioned, her forehead creasing.

"We'll know in twelve minutes." Dr. Wells sighed as he took the splicer and adjusted the top. "Now, Barry, even you can't outrun a nuclear blast, so you get this device to Professor Stein and you get out of there as fast as you can."

Before Barry could grab the splicer from Dr. Wells, Caitlin took it and began to head into the main room of the Cortex.

"What are you doing?" Barry called after her, his eyebrows knitting together tightly.

"I'm going with you," she told him as she grabbed her jacket.

"No, you're not," Barry said firmly as he followed her.

"It's too dangerous!" Dr. Wells exclaimed as the other three turned towards them.

"Barry doesn't know how to operate the splicer," Caitlin pointed out as she slipped her jacket on.

"Sophia and Cisco are gonna talk me through it!" Barry pointed out as he gestured back at them.

"There's not enough time," she replied. "Let's go."

With an exasperated sigh, Dr. Wells made a shooing motion as he instructed, "Go!"

And with a burst of lightning, they were gone.

Suddenly, a beeping noise came from a computer at the main desk, and Sophia rushed over to check it out.

"What was that?" Dr. Wells questioned.

"Uh . . ." Sophia stared at the computer, whose screen was showing her the results of the blood samples, for a moment before answering, "Comm system's on the fritz. I'll be right back. Cisco?"

"Coming." He nodded as he followed her out into the hallway. "Why do you need me for the comm—"

"Shh, I was lying, dude," she whispered to him as she grabbed her phone and dialled Joe's number.

Joe answered after the first ring, "Sophia."

"Listen, I'm not proud of it, but I ran the samples," Sophia murmured, causing Cisco's eyes to widen. "One wasn't identified. The other had a match."

"Soph, you're hesitating. Was it Wells?"

"No, it's not Dr. Wells," Sophia answered hastily as she pulled Cisco around the corner. "I told you, he has nothing to do with this. But I know whose blood it is." She paused for a moment as she glanced at Cisco. "It's Barry's."

"We already know Barry was there that night," Joe pointed out.

"No, no, no, you don't understand." Sophia shook her head before continuing, "The sample had high levels of P-16, that's a protein that builds up in the blood as we get older. And these levels were way too high for an eleven-year-old."

Cisco's eyes widened as he realized, "This sample was from Barry as an adult."

Joe was silent for a moment before he sighed and said, "Good work. We'll have to . . . figure this out later."

"Mhm, yeah," Sophia said quickly as she glanced over at the Cortex door, wondering whether the splicer had been attached yet, "we have to go. Bye, Joe."

"Bye."

The two of them immediately rushed back into the Cortex, where they reassured Dr. Wells that the comms system was now good, and in exchange, he told them that the splicer, according to Caitlin, wasn't working.

So . . . that wasn't good news.

"He's not gonna make it," Cisco said worriedly as he paced behind them. "He's gonna blow."

"Barry, get out of there now!" Sophia worriedly exclaimed into the microphone.

They waited for a few minutes but heard nothing but an explosion—Ronnie had gone nuclear.

"Barry," Dr. Wells said apprehensively as he turned a pen over in his fingers. "Barry, what happened out there?"

"Are you guys okay?" Cisco added on.

"I think so."

"Oh, God. The nuclear explosion," Caitlin breathed out. "There's no telling how much radiation we were exposed to."

Sophia looked over at Barry's suit analysis, and her eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, wait. This can't be. The Geiger counter in the suit—it's reading less than one millirad."

"But that's normal," Barry pointed out.

"There's no radiation," Dr. Wells realized, and the three of them then shared a look of surprise.

"Did it work?" Cisco asked after a minute, knowing that they were now back in the spot from before. "Did you separate them?"

"I don't know."

About a minute later, they heard the voice of an older man, "Uh, pardon me. Obviously, I need a change of clothes."

Sophia and Cisco exchanged a look of relief, smiles coming onto the three of their faces as their postures relaxed; it had worked.