Shift

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Alex had this deep feeling in her gut that she was supposed to remember something. There was something that she was supposed to do that week and nothing she did could make her remember. Which was odd, Alex had excellent memory – especially ever since she had received her powers it became impeccable.

That feeling didn't shake off throughout the day as she headed to STAR Labs.

"Brain freeze, Caitlin. Please just call it a brain freeze," Alex strode into the cortex and snatched the red slushie from Cisco's hand and took a sip for herself. He cried out in protest and she rolled her eyes before sliding the drink across the desk. A picture of their newest meta was popped up on the screen. "Who's that? He's cut-,"

"Mark Mardon," Barry cut her off. He looked on edge, particularly even more since she walked in. Dr. Wells glanced between her and Barry, before asking to have a word with him. He nodded and followed Wells out of the cortex. Alex raised an eyebrow at the two left in the room.

"What do you think their talking about?" Cisco set his cup down and rubbed his head from his brain freeze. Alex was curious, she knew that he was acting strange that morning but couldn't figure out why. As far as she knew, no one on the team had done anything to upset him but he could be wrong. "Can't you do you're cool power thing and read his mind?"

"Of all people, you should know that it doesn't work that way. Besides, I feel like he hates me doing it," Alex sat on one of the office chairs and kicked her feet up on the desk. She tried to refrain herself from feeding off of his memories and emotions when she shifted into him.

"When has that ever stopped you before?"

"Good point," Alex shrugged. She peaked around the corner to make sure neither of them were watching and changed into Barry. As always, information coursed through her. Her eyes were sealed shut as she processed all of his memories but shot open when she realized what was going on. "Holy shit."

"What? What's going on?" Caitlin whispered. The last thing they needed was for them to hear what they were doing. Alex opened her mouth to speak but slammed it shut when she heard Wells' wheel chair coming closer to them. She quickly became herself again and acted as if nothing had happened.

"I've got to go into the station and work on that case," Barry announced. He was bad at hiding his emotions, it was obvious that he was lying. With Alex knowing the truth, she knew exactly what he was planning to go do instead. There was no way that she could let him fuck everything up even more.

"I'll, uh, come with you," Alex bit her bottom lip. She needed to talk to him about what he knew, and more importantly what he was going to do. Time was a big deal and screwing it up could cause an immense domino effect of catastrophes. She knew Barry always wanted to do the right thing, but sometimes his judgement to save everyone overlooked that.

"O-oh okay," He stuttered. Alex walked behind him without speaking a word, she didn't want the others to know what she knew. Barry awkwardly scratched the back of his neck as he turned to face her. It wasn't until the elevator doors were sealed shut did she finally start talking.

"You better explain to me what the fuck is going on. Time travel?"

"Wh- how did you... powers. You used your powers so you could know what was going on? You knowing could mess up everything even more!" Barry exclaimed. He didn't want her finding out that he changed the timeline - more importantly he didn't want her finding out what had happened in the other one.

"I know you're already planning to stop Mardon, so don't even try that on me. Bringing him into the pipeline before he's supposed to could cause a ripple of effects and you know it. I'm here to stop you from making a mistake, not to make this even worse. Mark Mardon is dangero- what the fuck is going on?"