(The Flash) Frozen Flashpoint: Chapter 25 - Liquid Improvement

Chapter 25 - Liquid Improvement

Summary: A surprising character visits the lab and sheds light on important information.

Caitlin was quick to turn where she stood. She had to rub her eyes twice to believe what she was seeing. In the entrance to the cortex next to her frowning fiancé was standing her mother.

After their first honest conversation, thanks to Barry, Caitlin kept calling her mother to talk with her once a week and was always surprised when her mother did the same by choosing a different day and calling her to catch up.

Even though their calls were much less cold and more familiar than since she was a child, there was still some distance there. It was like talking to an old friend you got to meet again after so long rather than a mother and daughter reunion.

Caitlin wondered if she would have put in the effort and met her mother in person a couple of times, would that have increased the strength of their newly developing bond? Caitlin asked herself that often but always came back to the same realization—without knowing her fiancé was the Flash, her mother could not understand the presence of Lyra.

And Carla was a clever woman; she was surely going to inquire about a teenage girl living with them and spending her time in STAR Labs, and an explanation would lead back to things Caitlin wasn't sure she wanted her mother to figure out.

So, while they did get closer since Lyra showed up, there was this constant distance Caitlin always felt like she had to keep. But right now, as her mother stood next to Barry in the heart of STAR Labs, Caitlin could feel this distance beginning to disappear.

Cisco looked confused for a moment and asked, "And not to be rude, but who are you?"

Her mother took a step forward and introduced herself. "Doctor Carla Tannhauser."

Cisco's eyes almost left their sockets as he stammered out, "As... As in..."

Her mother's lips twitched slightly at the edge before she replied in what Caitlin could only describe as an amused tone, "Caitlin's mother. Indeed." Her eyes locked on Cisco's, and she said, "And you are Cisco Ramon. My daughter spoke very fondly of you."

Her eyes then moved toward Jesse and Wally. When did they get here?! Caitlin was so deep in her own thoughts she missed them. Her mother's eyes were soft as she said, "And you are Jesse and Wally. Caitlin told me a lot about your cleverness. Such traits in young ones like yourselves are always impressive."

The two young adults blushed under the praise. Then her mother moved her stare toward Harry and began to speak in the same soft tone, "You must be Jesse's father. I heard much about your mind, maybe..." She paused when she got a good look at his face, and with a scowl and cold tone she amended, "Are you not Harrison Wells? The man who admitted to the murder of many?"

Harry sighed and was about to defend himself while her mother's eyes already traveled toward the silent Lyra, who seemed to try and blend with the walls of the cortex. In the same cold tone she added, "And who are you? I don't believe Caitlin mentioned you..."

Wally cut her off this time and asked in a surprised voice, "She never mentioned your granddaughter?"

Barry shot Wally a look that caused the younger man to take a step back and hide behind his girlfriend a little, realizing he said the wrong thing.

Caitlin began to dread the situation, and the pit in her gut began to grow deeper and deeper. Her mother turned toward Barry, and her fiancé took a step back with a loud gulp.

Caitlin took a step forward, intending to interfere and stop her mother from causing any sort of damage to her fiancé, but she was stopped short when instead of the glare and chilling tone she expected her mother to use, the woman just let out a deep sigh and asked in a tired voice, "Mr. Allen, have you been messing with the timeline? You must understand the risk of..."

The fear was quickly fading from Barry's face to be replaced by pure offense as he screamed indignantly, "Why does everyone assume I'm the one to blame every time the timeline is a little messed up?!"

Lyra then decided to throw a little more oil into the fire and pointed out, "Well, Mom did say that if you were still around, you would be the first to run back in time instead of me."

Barry shot their daughter a betrayed look before his entire body slumped in defeat.

Her mother, on the other hand, perked up and raised her eyebrow toward the future teen, saying calmly, "So you were the one to run back in time, and you are saying your father wasn't around anymore... Does this have anything to do with the Flash?"

This time Caitlin didn't remain frozen and demanded to know, "How do you know about Barry being the Flash?"

Her mother just shrugged and replied, calm as ever, "I suspected something was odd when you returned to STAR Labs at the request of the young man after settling nicely at Mercury Labs, but then when Frost began to take the field alongside Flash, it was quite easy to connect the dots."

Caitlin's mind froze for a moment. Of course, her mother would recognize Frost. A voice in the back of her head said a little sadly, 'Of course she will, Caity. She lived with me for a year.'

Before anyone else could comment on the situation any further, Harry, in his usual dry voice called out, "How about we do catch up later? Right now, Dr. Tannhauser said she recognizes the drug. We should hear more about that."

Her mother's gaze shifted toward the screen displaying the chemical structure before she spoke, "I developed this in one of my attempts to..." She quickly shut her mouth, and her eyes drifted to Caitlin for a moment.

And suddenly Caitlin remembered what she learned in the Speedforce. The last 24 hours had been so chaotic that Caitlin had to push that information aside and didn't have time to let it sink in yet. Now though, seeing her mother's eyes drifting to her after trailing off, Caitlin knew what she wanted to say.

With a deep breath, Caitlin finished the sentence for her mother, "While you were looking for cures to my ALS."

For the second time in years, Caitlin saw her mother in shock. It took the older woman almost a whole minute to shake it off before she could ask in anything resembling a calm voice, "You know about it?"

Caitlin could feel the guilt rising in her chest, but she was quick to shake it off. Now was not the time for it. With another deep breath, Caitlin replied, "I only figured it out today. We will talk later, Mother. Harry has a good point—how was this drug supposed to help with ALS?"

Her mother shook her head. "It wasn't."

Caitlin was confused. She stared at her mother for a long moment before asking, "So why..."

Before she could finish, the older woman answered in her usual clinical voice, "Frost, that's why."

Caitlin's mind froze again, and this time she could hear a wounded sound in the back of her head. Caitlin began to shake her head as quickly as she could while shouting, "No! But Frost was the reason the ALS gene is gone!"

The older woman nodded. "Yes. The problem was that the cost was she gained control over her body while your own consciousness laid in a coma."

Her mother let out a heavy sigh. "Do not get me wrong, Frost was lovely in the year she was with us, and we loved her just as our own daughter, but she wasn't you, and I wanted my clever little girl back. So, I developed this drug to enhance one string of a gene while weakening the other."

Caitlin had tears flowing down her eyes, and she could feel a pair of strong arms pulling her closer to a source of heat. Even so, she kept looking at her mother and asked, "So..."

Her mother looked suddenly much older as she answered the question Caitlin couldn't bring herself to ask. "It wasn't my intention to repress Frost completely, but after administering the drug to your system, there was nothing I could find to allow you and Frost joint control, so I left things as they were."

Harry frowned and grumbled, "So I guess this drug is just laying around your servers for anyone who wants to find it."

Her mother, ever the prideful woman when it came to her work, sent Harry a sharp look that caused him to take a step back as she replied, "Once metas began to show and I began studying their genes, I recognized some of the patterns from Caitlin's and Frost's case, so I tested the drug with a blood sample from a meta, and indeed it worked. Though for a reason I have yet to understand, the drug only ever applies to one strand of the gene and not both of them as in Caitlin's case. It will either enhance the meta gene and increase its abilities, or it will weaken the body's resistance to its ability. Once I understood the consequences of such a drug hitting the market, I erased all the research from the company's servers and locked a physical copy in my private safe."

Her eyes then narrowed at Cisco and she asked wryly, "Which raises the question of how you got this information." She pointed at the screen displaying the structure of the drug.

Cisco shifted awkwardly, a little uncomfortable with the woman's stare as he answered, "Well... You see... I kind of found it on sale... on the dark web."

If anyone expected her mother to explode in rage, it was because they didn't know her. Carla Tannhauser was always a woman of silent anger. If you angered her, you wouldn't know it until it was far too late and she was already taking action.

The older woman hummed after a moment and said with a cold voice, "It seems I need to reexamine my staff."

Even Caitlin could feel the shiver go down her spine at her mother's otherwise casual words.

Barry finally chose to intervene, and it wasn't until he spoke that she realized he was still holding her close to him. "Wait... as in you bought this information?"

Cisco rubbed the back of his head and tried to answer with a joke, "I kept the receipt."

Barry sighed deeply before responding with a dry tone, "No, Cisco, what I meant is can anyone else buy it as well?"

Cisco now looked serious and gave a single nod before answering, "I already thought about it, and I found out somebody else before me already bought this info, but I couldn't trace back who it was."

Barry was now scowling, worry clear on his face. "So now we can expect that DeVoe got his hands on it as well and will soon have a way to increase his intelligence or heal his body, in addition to his metas gaining a power-up themselves."

There was an apprehensive air to the silence in the room. Caitlin could understand—the thought of someone like Bran gaining some upgrade to his powers frightened her.

But before all of them could spiral down, her mother's calm voice filled the cortex. "Whoever this DeVoe is, even if he is in possession of the formula like yourselves, he won't be able to produce it."

That gained the attention of all of the people in the room as they turned to look at her. Cisco looked at her with wide hopeful eyes and asked, "And why not?"

Mother pointed to a specific part of the formula and explained, "The binding agent of this construct can only be created from a rare mineral. So rare that the US government allowed me and my company sole possession of it to conduct meta research."

"And where exactly is this mineral?" Harry asked with a little apprehension in his voice.

Her mother eyed Harry for a long moment before choosing to reply, "Most of it is in a disclosed location that is off the books. The only known sample should be in a secret vault at my main labs building."

Barry looked in deep thought as he said out loud, "So in other words, if he wants this drug, he will need to break into Tannhauser Labs and steal the mineral."

Her mother nodded and said, "While I would have denied the possibility of anyone knowing the location of the vault and how to enter, I was already proved today that my staff is not as tight-lipped as I could hope them to be."

Barry nodded and turned toward Caitlin. With a small smile and speaking so just she could hear, he whispered, "I need to speak with Harry and Cisco to see if we can use this information, but for right now I want Lyra out of it. Can you amuse her for a while?"

Caitlin smiled back at him and said so Lyra could hear, "Oh, don't worry, Barr. I was promised a continuation of her check-up."

Lyra groaned but knew better than to argue. She just grumbled to herself as she turned and headed back toward the medical bay.

Caitlin turned toward her mother and added with a sheepish smile, "I hope you will join us, Mother. I would like to talk with you."

Her mother actually smiled and replied in a tone much warmer than anytime in the past couple of decades, "I would love nothing more, Caitlin."

With that, the both of them followed the future teen into the medical bay.