The massive underground facility roared to life. Central City's power grid fed enormous amounts of electricity into the particle accelerator. Reverse-Flash's calculations were precise—the initial and intermediate phases proceeded without incident, easing the concerns of the anxious lab personnel.
But when the energy reached critical mass and the particle accelerator entered its forty-fifth minute of operation, the equipment hit its breaking point. Urgent red alarms blared across multiple monitoring stations, plunging the lab team into despair.
It was too late to stop it now. Reverse-Flash put on a convincing display of shock and paralysis while several young volunteers rushed down to manually shut down the systems.
Thea recognized the three brave souls: Ronnie Raymond, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow. But the accelerator's massive energy output distorted her vision, making their figures appear blurry and indistinct.
Their near-suicidal heroism couldn't change what was already set in motion. Though they managed to cut the accelerator's power supply, the overloaded machine had already begun its rapid contraction. Within three seconds, it completed the full cycle from compression to total energy release.
Orange energy erupted skyward, scattering the thick cloud cover. Countless objects were swept into the air as the shockwave rippled outward in all directions. People outside the S.T.A.R. Labs perimeter scattered like panicked ants, not understanding what was happening—only that they desperately needed to run.
Thea was about to shift her gaze toward the Central City Police Department to check on Barry Allen, who was about to be struck by lightning, when her vision suddenly went dark. Something was interfering with her sight.
When she refocused on the police station, she found Barry Allen already unconscious in a pile of debris, tiny arcs of electricity dancing beneath his skin.
Just as she prepared to examine the famous Speed Force more closely, her phone's urgent ringtone interrupted her observation.
Was some unseen force actively blocking her? She checked the caller ID—Felicity.
She answered lazily. Before she could speak, she heard what sounded like a warzone on the other end: bowstrings twanging, gunfire, and various objects shattering.
Realizing Green Arrow's team was in trouble, she hung up immediately and teleported to Star City.
Arriving at the Arrow shooting club, Thea was startled by what she found. Felicity crouching under a desk didn't surprise her, nor did Oliver and Tommy leaping around and returning fire. What surprised her was their opponent.
Dark eye sockets, white hair, firing ice spikes continuously—a young woman unleashing ice arrows and freezing beams from both hands.
Wasn't that Caitlin Snow? Or rather, Killer Frost from three years in the future. What was she doing at Green Arrow's base? She couldn't have time-traveled—Caitlin was wearing the exact same clothes Thea had seen on her just three minutes ago. But her eyes were vacant, as if trapped in some illusion. Her attacks seemed more like an unconscious self-defense mechanism.
"I'll handle her," Thea called out to Oliver. Killer Frost could absorb ambient heat, and Oliver's habit of working out shirtless left him particularly vulnerable—he was practically freezing to death.
After fighting Hera's magic, dealing with metahumans felt almost like bullying.
Normally, she'd use a mental shock against Killer Frost, but the woman was already unconscious—further psychic attacks would be useless. Fire and water magic would also prove ineffective against her.
Since she was a friend, Thea couldn't use lethal force. She cast three consecutive binding spells to immobilize Caitlin's movement, then knocked her out with a simple chop to the neck.
"This is Caitlin, right? How did she get here?" Thea asked Felicity as she crawled out from under the desk. Killer Frost versus Green Arrow? It was like watching a max-level raid boss show up in the starter zone—how did these two completely unrelated people end up fighting?
Felicity didn't know the details. She'd been absorbed in coding when Oliver suddenly yelled at her to run. She bolted, but the floor had been coated with ice, sending her crashing down hard. After that, she'd called Thea for backup while hiding under the desk.
"I think she teleported here. It looked similar to your teleport gem," Oliver said, wrapping himself in a coat as he recalled the details.
"My teleport gem? How would Caitlin have one of those?" Thea didn't remember being generous enough to make one for everyone she knew.
"I think I gave her one..." Felicity admitted sheepishly, scratching her head.
Thea closed her eyes and examined the residual teleportation energy in the air.
Piecing together the situation, she formed a hypothesis. This timeline differed slightly from the original—Caitlin and Ronnie had both entered the underground facility together, leaving Cisco outside to keep watch. Unfortunately, the explosion still occurred. In that life-or-death moment, the young couple likely played out a dramatic final scene together. Afterward, Ronnie must have given Caitlin the teleport gem, sending her to Star City.
The terror of facing death, combined with her somewhat timid personality, left Caitlin lost and confused. The particle accelerator explosion had shattered dimensional barriers, allowing various forms of dark matter to fuse with her cells. A powerful new metahuman personality had begun to awaken—Killer Frost.
Originally, she would have remained dormant for a long time, like Barry Allen sleeping for nine months while his cells underwent transformation. But being teleported away left her new personality fragile and sensitive. Exposed to the killing intent radiating from the various arrows at the Arrow base, she'd immediately gone berserk.
Thea felt her theory was pretty much on target. Treating Caitlin properly now would result in a completely different Killer Frost in the future.
After warning Felicity not to randomly give away her gifts, she took Caitlin back to her lab.
Massive amounts of nutrient solution flowed into Caitlin's body. There wasn't a perfect treatment for this new personality.
Emotional energy could promote the fusion of the two personalities. She wasn't skilled with other emotions like hope, compassion, or courage, but Thea was an expert with fear. No need to go the roundabout way—she simply infused large amounts of fear energy directly.
The new personality's strength was only relative. This persona's grasp of the world remained hazy. Facing an abyss of terror, it managed only brief resistance before crumbling completely. With no other choice, it awakened the dormant original personality, and the two silently began to merge.
Thea was satisfied. Since they shared the same origin, their mutual influence would soon make them one again.
She stopped monitoring Caitlin and turned her attention to her own condition.
She'd thought staying away from the scene and keeping her distance would keep her safe. But during the particle accelerator explosion, various interdimensional substances had emerged. In that process, some unknown material had merged with her vision, triggering strange and inexplicable changes.