Hello! I'm back! Sorry I'm a little late, I've been trying to post on the weekends but it hasn't really been working out for me. Anyway, big things happening in this chapter. More angst. Mwhahaha. (I feel like this chapter might be a little weak, but it's advances the plot.)

Enjoy! :)
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For the third time in a matter of weeks, Barry Allen found himself standing in the cavernous lair of a madman. The first time it had been a rescue, the second time had turned into one. And the third time....you guessed it.

Barry walked soundlessly through the once-functional train station, eyes scanning the walls he was becoming far too acquainted with. The space was dirty and dark, the only source of light emanating from a few murky lamps, and the last embers of sunset that filtered through the windows near the ceiling. Barry swallowed thickly,
trying to ignore the dried bloodstain on the floor as he passed it. Trying to forget who it belonged to.

Almost unconsciously, his focus drifted to Caitlin. She was moving at a steady pace with Cisco, though there was an apprehension and a tightness to her step. Her eyes kept drifting to the corners of the room, and her head kept turning at the smallest clink of the chains that hung from the ceiling.
She was on edge, and Barry couldn't blame her. The place would've been enough to set off the calmest of people, even without the added weight of a near-death experience.

"Hey," Barry's voice was soft, breaking her reverie, "are you okay?"

Caitlin's eyes snapped to him, sharp and laced with anxiety. There were hints of white around the edges, providing a striking contrast to her otherwise brown irises.

"I'm alright," she answered, her gaze softening and the glow slowly draining from her eyes.

Barry nodded, giving her arm a light yet reassuring touch. The three of them kept moving, their footsteps quiet and their breaths shallow as they steadily made their way through the chamber of rock and steel.

"Let's hurry up and get this done," Cisco whispered firmly. "Zoom's more active at night."

"Well, we would've been here earlier, Caitlin replied, matching his tone. "but somebody took forever putting on their eyeliner."

"It's for the aesthetic, Frost," Cisco defended, absently taking a moment to adjust his gauntlets.

"Caitlin," she corrected.

"Fine, Caitlin," he echoed.

"What happened to you anyway," he inquired, his demeanor calming just a bit. "Did you lose your powers or something?"

"No, they're just dormant," Caitlin answered as she stepped over a pile of shattered glass. "And I'd like to keep it that way, for a while at least," she admitted.

Cisco gave a small gesture of understanding.

"What's this guys deal? Any Powers?" Reverb asked, briefly leaning forward to peer around a corner.

"This guy can hear you," Barry whispered sharply.

"Right, sorry," Cisco deadpanned, turning to him. "Any powers?"

Barry shook his head, "just someone who wants to help."

"Great, I'm flying solo here." Cisco mumbled under his breath. "Just try not to get yourself killed," he instructed.

Moments later, they rounded the corner, their objective coming into view. The man in the iron mask sat in his carbine cell, head leaned against the wall of the glass prison.

"You're up," Cisco informed, turning his attention to Caitlin. "You said you knew how to get him out."

Caitlin nodded silently, already beginning to gather up what she needed.
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It was less than fifteen minutes later, that Caitlin and the others found themselves in a vacant room of S.T.A.R. Labs, all crowding around the rescued prisoner.

"You're doing it wrong," Caitlin stated quietly as she held her screw-driver in place. "You need a Phillips-head," she informed.

"Which one of us actually went to college for engineering?" Cisco challenged, beginning to get a little frustrated with the contraption.

"I did," she countered, her voice echoing in the near-empty room.

"Really," Barry glanced up at her curiously, as he dug through their patch-work toolbox.

"Yes, bio-engineering. And I was also briefly trained as a neurosurgeon," Caitlin added, turning back to Cisco.

"Meaning," the breacher questioned, unimpressed.

"Meaning, I know how to preform a lobotomy," she answered, the threat evident in her tone.

His eyes briefly widened in shock and horror.

"Well, I went for mechanical-engineering," Cisco retorted, regaining his bearings. "I used to build stuff for a living. Have you ever worked with a tool in your life?" He added, immediately regretting it.

"I'm working with one right now," Caitlin muttered, a chill to her voice.

Cisco practically gasped in offense.

"Look," Barry interjected, attempting to play referee to the two meta-humans, "how about we just focus on getting the mask off. Then we can all go home, and nobody has to preform a lobotomy on anybody?"

"Alright?" he offered, taking a moment to hand Cisco a Phillips-head.

"Alright," both Caitlin and Cisco repeated.

They went back to working in relative silence, and Barry crouched down to pick up the scattered tools they had already attempted to use. The mask had proven to be a complex and difficult mechanism, one that was designed to make it nearly impossible for the wearer to get off without multiple sets of hands. Or, at least, two very fast ones.

"Ready," Cisco asked, getting his tool into position. Caitlin gave a confirmation, mirroring the placement.

On the count of three, they both pressed their screwdrivers downward, and into the designated metallic notches. Cisco quickly reached around, turning an additional lever on the back of the helmet. An audible click resonated through the air, and the bands on the helmet released. Caitlin slowly pulled the mask off, revealing the dirty and unkept face of a stranger.

"I don't know which is more annoying," the stranger spoke with more humor than one would expect, "being in that thing, or listening to you two arguing about it."

Caitlin felt a slight smile form on her lips. However, her smile disappeared as soon as she glanced at Barry. The look on his face was something she wouldn't forget. He looked so broken and so confused all at once, his gaze firmly fixed on the stranger.

"You're..." Barry whispered, rising to his full height.

"I'm Jay Garrick, the real Jay Garrick," he finished, his tone firm.

Barry stood motionless for several moments, as if he was trying to process what he had just heard. A thousand emotions flickered across his features, never settling on one for too long. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but quickly snapped it shut.

"What?" Jay asked, puzzled.

"It's...it's nothing," Barry spoke, his words tight and strained. "I'm sorry, I gotta...I'm sorry." He quickly walked across the room and stepped out, disappearing down the vacant halls.

Cisco looked at Caitlin and gestured his head in Barry's direction, his expressions bearing both curiosity and worry. She only shook her head, having no idea what was wrong herself.

"I know a place where you can get cleaned up," Cisco eventually said, ushering Jay to a door on the other side of the room.

Caitlin excused herself and set her sights on the exit. When she got there the halls were quiet and empty, the only sound being the soft echo of her own footsteps. It didn't take long for Barry's form to come into view. He was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall and his head in his hands.

The scientist's breaths were uneven and short, his glasses discarded on the floor next to him. Caitlin felt a sharp pang in her chest at the sight of him. She stood motionless for several moments, mentally weighing her options. Finally, she walked over to Barry and slowly sat down beside him. At first, no words passed between then.
They both sat there in silence, the floor awash with golden light from one of the nearby workshops. Eventually, Barry lifted his head and revealed his red-rimmed eyes.

"He looks just like my dad," he spoke, his voice raw with emotion.

The statement hung in the air for a beat or two.

"But I saw him die," Barry continued, more tears threatening to spill over his eyes. "Zoom killed him. I went to his and my Mom's funeral. I don't...I don't understand," Barry stammered, running a shaking hand through his disheveled hair.

Caitlin furrowed her brow slightly, attempting to put the pieces together.

"Zoom was earth-hopping," she reasoned, softly, "maybe he's a double?"

"But why?" Barry breathed out, a look of misery on his features. "Why take him, why keep him?"

Caitlin didn't have an answer. She had a few ideas, but she wasn't about to voice them. Barry once again placed his hands over his face, drawing in a breath that sounded more like a sob.

Caitlin reached out, gently placing a hand on Barry's shoulder. Admittedly, she wasn't very good at this type of thing, and it had been a while since she practiced her bedside manor. But she felt she owed him at least this. That, and Caitlin knew what he was feeling, she had felt it many times herself. She also knew that there was nothing that could be said or done to make it better.

"I thought...I thought I was okay," Barry whispered, his throat tight. "But seeing him...I'm not. I'm just not, and I don't know if I'm ever going to be."

Caitlin felt her heart clench and she moved to embrace him more fully. Barry squeezed his eyes shut and leaned in, his body heavy from exhaustion. Caitlin wasn't sure how it happened exactly, but somehow Barry ended up leaned all the way over, his head resting on her lap.

"I'm so angry," he continued, his voice raw and his shoulders slumped, "I'm just so angry and it hurts so bad."

"I know," Caitlin whispered. She was far too familiar with those feelings herself. "I know."

"And I know there's nothing I can say, and nothing I can do," she continued, a comforting hand on his arm and on his head. "But I can promise you this; it will get easier...eventually. It just takes time."

"How do you know that," Barry answered, his voice barely audible.

For a moment, Caitlin's mind flickered elsewhere. It flickered back to her brother, back to her father, and even back to Ronnie. She had become very accustomed to that kind of pain.

"Just trust me," she soothed, lightly combing a hand through his hair.

Barry exhaled heavily and closed his eyes, the tension draining from his muscles. He continued to lay there, and she let him. A calm silence settled over them as they remained, resting in the dimly lit hallway.
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When Barry returned with Caitlin, he somehow felt worse and better all at once. His head was hurting, his eyes were puffy, and he was just plain tired. That persistent ache still resided in his chest, but it had eased somewhat. Like he had released it just a little, and cleared his mind.

The pair walked side by side, heading in the direction of the lab. Well, lab was too generous a word, it was more like a large supply closet. Barry walked back inside, only to be met with an almost jarring sight.

Jay was clean shaven and dressed in red, a lightening bolt adorning his chest. He now stood next to Cisco, holding the metallic mask in his hands.

"You're the Flash," Caitlin stated, surprise evident in her tone.

"Yes," Jay replied, taken aback. "That's what they call me on my home world, anyway."

"You're from another Earth?" Barry spoke, keeping his voice steady.

Jay nodded. "I believe you'd call it...Earth 3?" he stated, unsure.

"Oh yeah, I know that one," Cisco chimed in. "Nice zeppelins," he added, earning an incredulous look from Jay.

"Wait, I don't understand," Caitlin continued, "your suit looks just like the Flash of this Earth."

"That was Zoom," Jay informed darkly, his demeanor shifting in an instant.

You could have heard a pin drop as the realization sunk in.

"He came to my Earth. We fought, I lost..." Jay stated, trailing off. "Then he put that damn power dampening mask on me," he added angrily, staring down at the contraption in his hand.

Suddenly, Jay's other hand began to vibrate. In one smooth motion, he cut the mask in half, watching it clatter to the floor.

"After that, he brought me here," the Flash continued, calmer this time. "He stole my suit and my identity."

"So Zoom was playing both the hero and the villain," Cisco blurted, smacking his hand against his forehead.

"He's not going to hurt you again," Barry promised, a finality to his words. "We're going to find him and we're going to stop him."

"We are?" Cisco blurted, having missed the memo.

Barry gave a gesture of affirmation. "I am, at least."

"No, no, no, no, no," the breacher contradicted, "that wasn't part of the deal. I did my end, I'm done. I already got a vibrating hand through my chest. Once is enough, thank you very much," Cisco declared, putting his hands in the air and stepping back.

"Very well," Jay replied calmly, "but I'm afraid I have to ask one more favor. Can you open another breach?"

"Sure," Cisco let out a small sigh, "you're home world?"

The speedster only shook his head. "Earth-1," was his simple reply.