The Line Between Living and Dying

Captain Cold

"It still feels numb," Barry hissed as Caitlin as she checked over his frozen flesh. Barry had just gotten back from a fight with Leonard Snart, also known as Captain Cold.

"It's presenting itself like third-degree frostbite," Caitlin informed.

"I thought he had hyper healing." Felicity 

"It's been slowed. If your cells weren't regenerating at the rate that they are, your blood vessels would have frozen solid and the nerve damage would have been permanent. You're lucky to be alive."

"Wait a minute," Zander spoke up. "You're that Streak guy?" He pointed at Barry.

"Um, yeah." Barry nodded, not liking that his secret identity was now revealed to more people.

"Streak guy?" Michael questioned, his eyebrows furrowed.

"You know, the super-fast blur-slash-streak that's been running around the city, saving people?" Dani asked her father.

"Never heard of him." Micheal shrugged. "So, you're a meta like Dani?" He turned to Barry.

"I am," Barry confirmed. "Speaking of which, Snart wasn't another meta-human. He has some kind of gun. It froze things, slowed me down... enough that I wasn't in time to save someone."

Dani shot Barry a sympathetic look while Zander and Michael sent her questioning ones. "He fights evil metas." She whispered to them. Both men nodded in understanding.

"According to his records, Snart didn't even finish high school, so how did he build a high tech snow machine?" Felicity asked after reading up on Leonard Snart's history.

"S.T.A.R. Labs built the cold gun." Dr. Wells spoke up.

"Dr. Wells and Caitlin had nothing to do with this." Cisco stepped forward, ready to admit his mistake. "I built the gun."

Barry stared at Cisco with anger, surprise, and confusion. "You did? Why?"

"Because speed and cold are opposites. Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms are oscillating. The faster they are, the hotter it is, and when things are cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement at all, it's called--"

"Absolute zero." Barry finished for Cisco. 

"Yeah." Cisco nodded. "I designed a compact cryo engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop you."

Dani's eyes widened at Cisco's confession. He had seemed so nice so... harmless when she had first met him. Yet here he was, telling everybody about a weapon that he built that could kill Barry Allen.

"I-I didn't know who you were then, Barry. I mean, what if you turned out to be some psycho, like Mardon or Nimbus?" Cisco went on.

"But I didn't. Did I?" Barry shouted.

Caitlin stepped forward. "We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good, and it blew up. In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst."

"I can understand that, but what I can't understand is why you didn't tell me what you did. I mean, after all we've been through, I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends." Barry argued.

"We are, Barry." Cisco insisted.

"I mean, if you would have just told me, I could have been prepared. But instead, someone died tonight."

"And I have to live with that."

"No, Cisco. We all do." Barry left the cortex, needing a chance to cool off.