Frozen Flashpoint

Chapter 14: A Message from the Future

Summary: The future speedster reveals dark days to come.

Cisco blinked at the USB drive in his hand and asked slowly, "So, this is a message from the future to us?"

Lyra nodded. There was a moment of silence before Cisco exploded, "And we get it on a USB drive?! What happened to holograms, biochips—hell, did you all destroy wireless data?!"

Lyra managed to keep a straight face for a few moments before she broke down in laughter. Cisco glared at her the entire time until she managed to calm herself and say, "Sorry, Uncle Cisco. It was your idea. You said it would be funny, and you were right."

Cisco let out a heavy sigh and mumbled, "Can't even trust myself these days."

Lyra shrugged with a small giggle and said softly, "If it helps, it was Mom who said it'd be better not to give you any future tech to play with too much."

Cisco sent Caitlin a betrayed look, but the brunette doctor just gave him an innocent smile that declared she had no regrets.

Barry shook his head in amusement before reality set back in, and he spoke calmly, "We might want to see what's on that."

Cisco nodded before walking over to the computer, plugging the drive in, and making sure to display the video on the large screen in the cortex.

After checking that everyone was ready and watching, Cisco pressed play.

Immediately, a group of people appeared on the screen. In the middle of the group, right in front of the camera, sat Caitlin Snow. She looked older. There were more lines on her face and darker bags under her eyes than Barry thought two decades should warrant.

On her right sat Cisco, but if anything, he looked worse. His hair was longer than usual, and he hadn't shaved. What concerned Barry the most was how subdued the usually energetic man was. Cisco wasn't one to wear gloves, so why was he in the video?

On Caitlin's other side sat Harry, and the man looked even colder than he was now—if that was possible. It probably had a lot to do with the scar running across his face, from the top of his forehead, through his left eye, down to his chin, and continuing down the side of his neck, disappearing under his clothes.

Next to Harry sat Joe. He didn't look much better than Harry, although he didn't have a scar on his face. His right eye, however, was covered by an eyepatch. Barry didn't want to think about what that meant.

Next to Cisco sat Wally. No longer did he look young and cheerful. He looked much like he did when Barry first met him—distant, angry, and vengeful.

All of them wore grim expressions as they looked at the camera.

Caitlin was the first to speak, her voice sounding a little hoarse. "Hi, everyone..." Then her voice turned wistful and pained at the same time. "Hi, Barry. If you're seeing this, then Lyra managed to make her way back in time. First of all, Barry, because I know you well enough to realize you're going to suspect any speedster coming into your life and claiming to be family as an imposter..." Her eyes took on a familiar loving glint as she said, "Lyra is our daughter. She's basically you, through and through, Barr."

Cisco let out a gruff chuckle that was unlike him. He spoke in a tired voice, "Oh, she's definitely yours, buddy. But you're lucky she inherited most of Caitlin's common sense."

"Not enough to offset her father's foolishness and heroic tendencies," Caitlin grumbled mostly to herself.

Lyra's eyes widened and she whined, "Moooom!"

Caitlin giggled next to Barry, and even he couldn't fight the smile stretching across his face.

But the people in the video weren't in the mood for jokes. Harry turned to glare at the two people joking and hissed, "We're recording this for a purpose. Snow-Allen, will you, or must I do the speaking?"