Only Because I Need You

Visiting Hour

Caitlin's heels clicked along the small corridor that connected all of the pipeline's containment chambers. She strode past empty cells that were displayed through a large pane of glass. Her mass of chocolaty curls swished behind her back, brushing against her bare shoulders. Despite working with only her friends, Caitlin liked to ensure that she always looked presentable and formal. When working as a part of team Flash, it could take one second for a peaceful day to spiral out of control into a living nightmare. Every day Caitlin woke up, she silently hoped that her day would go smoothly and without a hitch, but it rarely did.

Before she knew it, Caitlin was standing outside of the large glass window that peered into the cell of their only inmate. The cell was small, but it had what their prisoners needed to survive. The speedster in question was idly sitting at the end of the bed they had left for him. His eerie eyes flicked up to Caitlin the moment she entered his line of sight. He raised his eyebrows expectantly and he leant backwards onto his hands. A small metal cuff was secured tightly around his wrist, its lights softly blinked occasionally. Caitlin reminded herself that the cuff was the only thing that stopped Savitar, now deemed Ethan, from killing her where she stood, "Savitar, do you know where you are?" She questioned him, her voice sharp and steady. She could introduce him to his new name later.

"I know I am in the pipeline," he answered dully, jutting his jaw out to one side and narrowing his eyes to venomous slits. Her heart began to pound in her chest, echoing through her ears. She reminded herself that there was no way he could get to her, she just needed to remain calm.

Caitlin suppressed her relief from showing on her face, Cisco had mentioned that 'Savitar' or Ethan would no longer be getting Barry's memories, after all, Barry would never turn into Ethan. Iris would not die by the evil speedsters hands, so that severed Barry's bond with his time-remnant, "not only that, but you are in the past Ethan," she allowed the name to slip out before she was even aware of what she was saying.

He pulled his eyebrows into a frown and screwed up his scarred features, "Ethan?"

"Oh, sorry, that's what we have taken to calling you now, since your aren't really Savitar, since Savitar is dead," she clamped her mouth shut before she let anything else escape from her babbling body. Why was she apologising to him?She was spending too much time on skype with Felicity.

He raised his eyebrows and despite his best efforts to hide it, a small smile tugged at his lips, "Oh really?" His voice crackled. It was so different from the normally smooth version of Barry's yet so similar. They put the same emphasis on the exact same words and their accents were inseparable. He seemed to be at a loss for words, "that's..." he shook his head, "so typical," his voice was laced with venom, his lips curled upwards. A moment passed as Caitlin assessed Ethan. Everything about him screamed Barry, she wanted to help him, but at the same time she was almost to afraid to look at him. His creamy eye bore into her. It looked so out of place on Barry's features, but the scar was much worse. It clung slickly to his skin, spreading across his entire cheek, up the bridge of his nose and it curled up the edge of his forehead. She could barely look at him, but she could also barely take her eyes away from his scars. She had never seen one quite like it. He must have obtained it in a very peculiar way. "Is that all you came to tell me?" He asked with one eyebrow raised, his jaw was taught and a slight sneer was present on his features.

"No," she let a sigh escape her lips. She began to fidget with her fingers without even knowing she was doing so, "I wanted to ask you something," he didn't move a muscle, but his gaze flicked down to her fidgeting hands before landing back on her face. Caitlin stilled her hands, clasping them behind her back. He stared at her expectantly, "you have all of Barry's memories, you remember how much you loved Iris, you remember how much you enjoyed being the Flash and how much everyone depended on you, so why would you want to kill the very person you grew up loving, the person who's death drove you to near insanity?" She bit down on her lip the moment she said it. Her whole frame went rigid as she contemplated the words that had left her mouth.

He jutted his jaw out to one side, clenching handfuls of bedcovers behind him, "I don't want to kill Iris, it is necessary," he spat. He rose to his feet, his eyes still trained on Caitlin, "without her death I could never have been born," he strode forwards until he was towering over Caitlin, the only thing separating them was a few inches of glass, "you all mean nothing to me, you meant something to Barry Allen, but those memories belong to him, " he began to raise his voice, every muscle in Caitlin's body told her to back down, to run away, but she held her ground, "I am not Barry Allen," he hissed.

Caitlin analysed him for a moment, focusing her attention on his eyes. She had been wrong, the white eye was not dead, it was far from it. It was livid with life, but concealed under layers of scarred tissue and severe cataracts, "If you are not Barry Allen, then why do you care?" She bit back, he froze yet his eyes still bore into hers, "why did you go crazy with grief after you were rejected? Surely if you are not Barry Allen and you care so little for us, then it should not phase you at all," she had never heard her voice so venomous before, but she didn't mind, considering who she was talking to.

His chest began to heave and he violently ground his teeth, he looked at her in a way that Caitlin felt as though she was Eobard Thawne the night he killed Barry's mother, "I don't care," his voice was hushed and sharp, he annunciated every sound. She could see his struggle to remain in control posses his face and body, "Maybe I did once, back when I was the 'fake Barry', but now," a small and enraged smile crept across his face, "now I want to see you all dead and suffering just like I did when you, the supposedly righteous team Flash decided that my life was nothing to you, that I was disposable. After all, you had the real Barry Allen," years of torturous pain and torment flashed across his face, so quickly that Caitlin nearly believed she had imagined it. It was the face Barry pulled when he spoke of the death of his parents, it was the face of a broken man.

Caitlin felt her heart soften just a little, "the future team Flash may have abandoned you, but we didn't," she replied evenly, her tone calm and her voice relaxed. He took a step back as though she had slapped him across the face, "and despite everything you have done, we won't kill you, we won't torture you and if Barry Allen is in that cold heart of yours somewhere, then we will find him," he curled his hands into fists, glaring at her from behind the glass. He opened his mouth to reply but clamped it shut tightly. Caitlin felt a swell of pride in her chest, she had taken him by surprise for sure. She swivelled on her heel and strode away from his cell, her hair bouncing as she went. Ethan's eyes followed her maliciously until she was nowhere to be seen.