"Hey, Dad. What's up?" I say, keeping my voice calm. "I thought you never wanted to see me again. Something about 'I lied to you and you can't trust me anymore' and all that." I scowled at him.

He chuckled, a dark glint shining in his eyes. "Ah, Madeline. That was before Cisco told me something. Something that you said, actually. May I come in?"

I wasn't sure if Iris was here, and I didn't want him anywhere near her. Since I moved in, she spent a lot of time here to talk with me, even though I insisted she go with Eddie. I wasn't about to take any chances.

I stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind me. "Sadly, this isn't my house, so I can't let you in." He wheeled back a little with a scowl and I sat on the steps leading up to the house, blocking him. "So. What did Cisco say?"

He smirked. "I like the gall you have at trying to keep me out of there, Madeline. It's quite... interesting."

I glared at him. "I don't get why you need to be an asshole about it. Just tell me what it is and leave."

"Fine. Cisco told me he and Caitlin and Barry joined you at Jitters and were discussing... something. That you came up with a name change for Barry."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, yeah. Because 'The Streak' is effing horrid and sounds like something disgusting. I came up with a new one because it's a lot better than that."

"Yes. And you came up with 'The Flash'." He says and steeples his fingers under his chin. Tell me. Where did you hear that?"

I was liking this conversation less and less and I raised my chin. "I'm really not sure what kind of question that is, because I didn't hear it from anywhere, Harrison. I came up with it."

His beady little eyes bored into me as he said, "I don't think you did. You're hiding something from me. I wouldn't want to hide from me, because it might just make your life more difficult." I stiffened and sat up straighter, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Are you threatening me, Harrison Wells?"

"Oh, yes, I am, Madeline. If I see on the news tomorrow that The Flash is now at large, I'll know and something... unfortunate... might happen." He turned his wheelchair away from me, then called over his shoulder, "Oh, and nice costume... Phantom."

A heavy weight settled in the pit of my stomach and I jumped when my pager went off. I got up and dusted off my pants and quickly stepped inside again and quickly changed into my uniform and strapped my gun to my hip, then made my way to the station.

Eddie was standing at our joined desks and looked up when he saw me approaching. "Maddie! Come quick. There's been a murder."

Just another day at work.

******

We solved the case a few days later, and all the while, my father's words danced through my head. No. He's not my father anymore. I'm twenty-five. I don't need him anymore.

Besides, a father wouldn't threaten their daughter, right?

I returned home and was looking over the files on Nora Allen's case. I shuffled through the folders and papers and watched little Barry's interview about the man in yellow "in the lightning". I watched it over and over, studying every moment and every word.

I went over everything in my head that Barry had told me about from what he had collected. At the station, I had informed him I was helping Joe with the case, and he had merely pulled me into a tight hug and whispered "thank you".

I paused at one of the files, a detail sticking out that hadn't before. The fact that Barry had suddenly appeared down the street. I wanted to ask him more about that, and what color the lightning was.

Barry left a trail of yellow lightning when he ran, but he had seen both red and yellow. Everything about what was being described screamed someone with super speed like Barry, but it didn't add up.

Because Barry's powers were the result of the particle accelerator's explosion, and his mother was killed fourteen years ago.

I frowned and picked up my phone and called Barry, and he answered quickly.

"If it isn't Miss Phantom." He said and I knew he was smiling. I could practically hear it in his voice. I couldn't help but smile, too. It was so good to hear his voice again.

"Barry... I need to talk to you. Can you meet me back home?" I asked. "It won't take long- I just need to task you about something from the file." I said as I tossed it onto the coffee table and leaned back into the couch.

"Home? I like hearing you call Joe's house 'home'." He said with a chuckle.

I smiled slightly. "Just meet me here, please."

"Your wish is my command." He says. "I'll be a couple minutes I just have a few things to finish up at CCPD."

"Ok. See you soon."

"I look forward to it, Maddie."

I hung up with a smile plastered across my face and dropped onto the couch and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to my chest.

It was late- probably around eight o'clock and I turned on the TV. I was watching the news and learned that Starling City had a name change- it was now Star City, and the vigilante The Arrow was at it again with another capture.

I smiled. Oliver had really come far. The whole not-killing thing was working well, and I was glad for the change for him. I remembered when I had first met him and Felicity. I had been sent to do his interrogation and hold his lie detector test. But, something about him was just... off. So, I followed him.

Right into his hideout.

Since then, I've received updates from Felicity from time to time, and even went there with Barry while researching something a year before the explosion.

I switched the channel and yawned, feeling tired. But that feeling didn't last.

Suddenly, a whoosh of air buffeted me and a streak of red lightning appeared and began to circle around me faster than my eyes could keep track of. I brushed my hair out of my face, struggling to breathe in the cyclone of air.

I screamed and wrapped my arms around my head as the blur began to circle faster and faster around me and then stopped.

I slowly removed my arms from around my head and there stood a man dressed head to toe in black and yellow. Glowing red eyes stared down at me and my breath hitched in my throat.

The man in yellow from the files...

"Who are you?" I yelled, trying to sound braver than I felt, slowly trying to get to my feet. I lifted my arms in front of me, preparing to defend.

The man pulled out a long knife and I gulped.

I stood and he lunged towards me with the knife and I managed to teleport away in time but the knife grazed my upper arm and I cried out, holding a hand to it.

Warmth flooded the area, but it didn't heal. Shit.

I gasped in horror as the thing ran at me again and I teleported outside, gasping for air. He appeared again and I began to teleport around, trying to evade the weapon, but I felt myself slowing down. Whatever was on that knife was weakening me, and while I had practiced evading Barry, this man was somehow faster.

I teleported back into the house just as he managed to grab my arm, and then stabbed me in the side. I let out a strangled cry and fell to the ground in the entry way, groaning and holding my side.

I went to sit up, putting weight on my left hand to hold myself up, but it buckled and I cried out in pain again as I fell back, struggling to crawl away as the man stalked towards me. I was bleeding heavily from my side, and I wrapped an arm around myself as I attempted to crawl away, but my wrist was injured.

It was the wrist with that persistent scar. The wrist that hadn't healed all the way for some reason.

"What do you want? If you're going to kill me, do it now, and get it over with!" I yelled at the speedster.

"I don't want you to die, Madeline Kennedy. I want you to suffer for what you will someday do." The man hissed, his voice coming out like static.

"What I will do? What is that supposed to mean?!" I yelled.

The man didn't answer and ran past me, then back out the door again in a flash of red lightning. I looked behind me at the wall the man with the super speed had went to and gasped in horror.

He had driven the knife he had attacked me with into the picture of Iris hanging on the wall. The files on Nora Allen's case were gone. Written in red I assumed was my own blood were the words "Stop or Else".

I choked on a sob and with fumbling fingers, I tried to heal the wound in my side, but nothing seemed to be working. The skin would almost reattach, but then it would bleed again. I dropped my head back onto the floor and groaned, trying to get up, but any movement only made it bleed worse. I just kept trying to heal myself.

My hands began to shake and I gasped as pain rocketed through my body. There was something on that knife, I realized with a start. Doesn't every superhero have a weakness in those stories?

Whatever mine was, that man knew what it was.

I coughed and a trickle of blood escaped my lips and I curled into a ball, trying to heal the wound, but still, nothing was working. I spit blood out of my mouth, feeling nauseous and light-headed as tears raced down my cheeks.

I had to stay awake. I couldn't pass out now.

The door opened again and I stiffened all over, raising an arm to shield my head. Then, I heard a gasp and Barry appeared above me, eyes wide and tears shone in his eyes.

"Maddie! Oh, gosh, Maddie! Please! Stay with me, I'm going to get you to a hospital, alright? Maddie, Maddie look at me, alright?"

He was saying my name over and over but all I could do was stare at him blankly. His hand moved to my face and brushed hair from my eyes, his face contorted in fear.

I felt him pick me up and my head lolled limply onto his shoulder and I managed to croak out, "Speedster... stabbed me.... Iris... is in... trouble." I grabbed onto his shirt tightly, turning my face into his neck.

He rested his forehead against mine and said, "Shhh, Maddie. I'm taking you to Caitlin, alright? Stay with me. Keep your eyes open, for me, please, Maddie."

I smiled weakly. "Anything.... for... you..."

"Maddie!" He shouted.

Then, my eyes closed.