Un-Break His Heart

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Barry skidded into the Warehouse. Between Julian and Caitlin, he stopped, hands out towards Caitlin with caution. "Stop this," he begged. 

Caitlin hadn't reached the full appearance of Killer Frost, but she was clearly approaching it. Her posture had tightened, her hands no longer frail and kept close to her body, and her hair was shifting to turn white. Her eyes held pure frustration when she looked at Barry. No trace of the Caitlin he knew was in her own body anymore. 

"Get out of here!" she snapped. Her fingertips frosted over.

"Stop this," he said softly.

"Get out of here!" she yelled again. 

"You know I can't," said Barry.

"What are you doing?" whispered Julian harshly, wavering his finger in her direction. "Take her out!"

"You don't want to do this. You don't want to hurt anybody."

"She's willing to hurt somebody, knock her out!" shouted Julian. 

Barry knocked someone out, but it wasn't Caitlin. He punched Julian with lightning speed, waiting for the sound of his unconscious body hitting the floor, then he took a step toward. He said, "Caitlin-"

"Leave me alone," she said sharply. 

Barry shook his head. "What are you doing?"

"I have to find Alchemy," said Caitlin. 

"We will find him, together," he encouraged. 

"No, you don't understand! I don't want to lock him up! I need him to help me."

"Help him, what?" he asked. 

"I need him to get rid of my powers!"

Barry's shoulders fell. Softly, he said, "I don't know if it works that way..."

"You don't know that it doesn't," said Caitlin. 

"I know that we love you," he decided to say. He took a step forward. "And we will do everything we can to help you. You and I have been through too much together to let each other down now. Please. Let me help you." 

For a second, Barry thought his words worked. He thought he had brought her back. Her frosted fingertips had thawed, and the tip of her shoe inched for him, but then, with a shake of her head, she was lost again. Her cold, blue eyes returned. 

"Like you helped your mother?"

"Caitlin," he sighed.

"Or Wally? Or me? Or... Or Parker?" she jabbed, knowing it would hurt him. She kept speaking when he lowered his head shamefully. "You keep messing with everyone's lives, wrecking everything, and we're left to pick up the pieces from your mistakes. Some things you break can't be put back together."

"You don't think I thought about it?" he asked her, his chest physically in pain by what he was about to admit. "You don't think I thought about begging Alchemy to bring back my wife? If not for me, for my daughter. My precious girl has to live without her mother, and because of me. No matter what I changed, what timeline I'm in, she was destined to die. I can't make the same mistake again. I won't let someone else get taken, again, by death, or by darkness. I can fix this."

"Like you fixed Cisco's family? You didn't tell Cisco that you screwed him worst of all, did you?" challenged Caitlin. 

Barry felt his body freeze. 

Caitlin took notice. She searched for a security camera in the room, then nodded to it. "You hear that, Cisco?! Dante was alive! Healthy and happy, until Barry created Flashpoint. When he reset things, that's what killed him. Barry is the reason your brother is dead." 

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