Only Because I Need You

Tell Me More

Caitlin's back was aching and her head was pounding. The gloomy darkness around her was beginning to get on her nerves. The only positive thing about her rocky cell was that it was warm. She lay flat on the floor in the centre of her section. She had forgotten how many times she had counted the number of bars that enclosed them, or the number of rocks that stuck dangerously out of the walls. The air was dry, musty and it made her throat itch. She had never been so bored in her life. She ran one hand over another. A small, solid lump seemed to have developed in the back of her hand. It must have happened whilst she had been in the cell because she had not had it before. Or maybe, perhaps, it was put there by whomever was keeping her captive. It was a stretch, but her mind was flexible.

She felt a rush of air escape her lungs. Time ticked aimlessly onwards. Was there nothing she could have done to fill her time? There was, "Ethan?" Her small voice bounced off the walls and thundered back into her own ears.

Thundering silence filled the air once more. She hadn't expected him to answer, and she was beginning to believe he wouldn't, when finally his gruff and gravelly voice grumbled, "What?"

"Where did they take you when you left the cell?" She asked. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared up into the darkness above her. She had been waiting to ask for a while but had not been able to pluck up the courage. Ethan was intimidating when you couldn't see him. You would never know for sure what he would do or say.

"To a fighting ring," he replied gruffly. She tilted her head and stared into the inky blackness of his side of the cell. If she stared hard enough she could barley make out his silhouette sitting against the wall with his head tilted backwards against the rocks.

"They made you fight someone?" She squeaked, her eyes widened in alarm. She hoped he had not received injuries and not told her. He had better not have pulled open his stitches either, they were pretty darn close to perfect.

"Yeah, it was the Jelly Lady from the Tornado," he mumbled lowly, "I felt like I was in the coliseum with the screaming crowd and the sandy floor," his humourless chuckle echoed through the blackness.

Caitlin felt her gut twist. How had they managed to end up in some kind of underground Meta fighting ring? She bit down on her lip. If he had to fight, then the chances were that she would too. She couldn't possibly fight anyone without Killer Frost, so in her mind she was as good as doomed. Another though popped into her brain, if he had been fighting the Sting, then shouldn't he have been mortally injured? The fighting ring must be free of whatever they were using to block their meta powers, "Are you Okay? You didn't get hurt did you?" She replied before she knew what she was doing. All she could hear was Barry, so she responded as such.

"I'm fine," he snapped, "I had my speed anyway," so Caitlin had been right, "but then they took it from me," his voice was laced with bitterness and disappointment.

"They took your speed?" She repeated him, raising her eyebrows. Maybe they had a meta that could remove or block powers. It was certainly possible.

"Yes, as soon as the fight was over my speed disappeared," he grumbled. Caitlin pulled her eyebrows together. She was willing to bet that someone was in control of their powers, wether it be a Meta or a normal human. Her brain began to tick faster, ideas sprung around in her mind. She needed more information for a definite conclusion, but to get information she just needed patience.

She sat in silence for a moment, her breath lingered in her chest, "after all this time, after all this city has been through there are still people horrid enough to exploit Metas and make them fight for entertainment," she shook her head, her top lip curled upwards, "I didn't think it could have gotten much worse than what we have already fought, but this is just disgusting,"

"Big money in the business I suppose," he replied, "but there is no use in getting all wound up over things you can't control Caitlin. People will be people, every person is evil on the inside, some are just better at hiding it," he snorted. Caitlin mulled over his words. She could feel betrayal lingering in his voice, but it was not aimed at her. No, it was aimed at team Flash. The team Flash of the future that both abandoned and forgot him.

"I suppose you are right," she replied softly. Her voice was not harsh or condemning, simply thoughtful, "everyone has their inner demons and a little red man that sits on their shoulder," she couldn't believe she was agreeing with him, but to a certain extent he was right. "However I don't think that good people are better at hiding their bad side, I think it is just that they don't let their bad side rule them. They don't allow the negative emotions to haunt every waking moment of their day, and that allows them to see the silver lining to every cloud and the good in otherwise rotten people,"

"Maybe," he grumbled so quietly that Caitlin wasn't even sure if he had said it. She knew that Barry always aimed to see the best in others, so she knew that Ethan once had too. She could only wonder what caused the time remnant's outlook on life to completely morph into a twisted version of what it had once been. A shiver ran down her spine, part of her didn't want to know, but the rest was dying to find out. Maybe one day she would be feeling brave enough to ask, but not that day.

Barry crossed his arms over his chest, the familiar squeak of his armour brought peace to his mind. Team Flash had joined together in the cortex. Cisco and Barry were sitting behind the main desk, Iris and Harry were standing to either side of them. Barry couldn't help but notice how their eyes were much darker than usual, they were glazed over and red. The cortex seemed empty without Caitlin. She was always there, she was as staple as a test tube in a laboratory. When she was not there, everything fell to pieces. Barry felt his heart quiver a little. They had searched for her for so long, almost nonstop for the past two weeks she had been gone. He clenched his hands, they had gotten no where and found no clues as to where she had went. They wouldn't stop searching for her though, not ever. For now though, they needed to think about Sonny, after all, the poor child was being hunted down by people from different universes, "What I don't understand is how he found Sonny," Barry queried, his eyebrows pulled inwards.

"Yeah, because the Captain and Sonny told us that he had not used his powers since he left the Lab," Cisco added, leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms over his chest with a huff.

"Well Maybe he left a trail of some kind because of the strength of his powers," Iris suggested with a shrug.

Harry nodded firmly, "Yeah that would make sense, the sheer magnitude of energy that he uses to open breaches though both time and space make his presence ripple through the universes, so it makes sense that the ripples have not yet lost their energy,"

"So it's like dropping a giant stone in a pond, the water is all of the universes and the stone it Sonny's breach. We just need to wait until the water stills and he will be undetectable," Cisco added in with a loose hand.

"Ah Yes, but like a pond, there will be mud kicked up under the surface, like changes in the timeline, but that too will eventually settle," Harry continued on Cisco's babbling thoughts.

"Okay, sorted," Iris added with a cheeky smile as she clasped her hand in front of her stomach, "we keep Sonny safe until his presence has become hidden again,"

"Let's hope it works," Harry snorted, "because I have a feeling it won't be that simple,"