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We were all clueless about what Thawne really had planned.

We were all ready to blast that dagger into nothingness, and end this.

To end Cicada's reign on this city.

But, it seemed that Ralph has solved what even Sherloque and I couldn't.

Because he had caught us all off guard when he shouted for us to not shoot that dagger that night.

But it had been too late, as the blast got closer and closer to the dagger in the air.

And what Ralph did was complete in impulse.

He jumped right between the blast and the dagger, the dagger bouncing off him and back to the ground, the blast coming in contact with his body, as he fell onto the ground with a thud, turning into something I couldn't even describe.

We all rush towards him, confused and shock present in all of our expressions.

"Cicada-" Ralph muttered out even through his condition, "Thawne, dagger-"

Cicada got up, calling upon the dagger, then escaped.

-

"How's Ralph?" Barry asks when we were all changed out of our suits and in the cortex.

"I've never seen anything like it." Caitlin admits, walking over to us, "I can't quite figure it out."

"His cells are kinetically inverted." Caitlin pulled up the results she got from her tests, "It's like they're the reverse of themselves."

"Should've spent more time trying to figure out how this thing works." Cisco sighs, setting down the Mirror Gun.

"I just don't understand why he would jump in front of that blast." Nora admits, "I mean, why would he do that?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" Sherloque mutters, leaving the cortex, "That's the question."

Cisco sighs, "In other news, Cicada deuce is still MIA."

"All right, we should get to CCPD, see if we can find anything that could help us track her." Barry nods towards Nora and I, then walks away, Nora and I quickly following him.

-

Cecile walked through CCPD with Captain Singh and Joe, "All the metas that we couldn't cure, we got safely evacuated and they're waiting at a protected holding facility."

"Nice work, both of you." Captain Singh nods, walking towards his office.

"Well the work's not done yet." Joe said, "I mean, the metas are safe for now, but Cicada's still out there, so the people are still in danger."

"Fill me in on the details." Barry calls out from where we stood when Joe, Cecile and Singh head into the office, as he pulled on the glove on his hand, "I'm ready for this nightmare to end."

Nora puts on her gloves, "It should've been over already."

I sigh, "Nora, look, I'm sure Ralph had a good reason."

"Until we figure out what it is, we just gotta concentrate on this, all right?" Barry agreed, then grabbed his tweezers and crouched over the glass, "Wait a second."

Nora crouched also, "What is that?"

"Looks like wood." Barry held up for me to see, as I crouched down also to get a better look at it.

"From what?" I thought out loud, "I mean the floor is marble, furniture's untouched, and the skylight's made of glass and metal."

"Well if it didn't come from Cicada's point of entry-" Barry trailed off, looking between us.

Nora finished his sentence, "She must've brought it from somewhere else."

-

"Definitely some kind of wood fragment." Cisco said, observing the tiny piece of wood.

I cross my arms, "And you think those will lead us to where Cicada's hiding?"

"We can find out." Cisco places it in a small container, "We can cross-reference this, see what kind of wood it is, then see where we end up."

"Is there any progress on Ralph?" Barry questions, as we walked into the cortex.

Caitlin shook her head, "No, he's still unconscious, and I can't figure out a way to reverse his cells."

Nora looked between us, "So I guess that means we still don't know why he jumped in front of that Mirror Gun, do we?"

"We do." Sherloque walked in, holding a few papers in his hands, "We do because Dibny solved the greatest mystery of all."

We all gave him a questionable look, as he continued, hitting the papers with his hand, "The Flash legacy, how to stop Cicada, repentance for his past sins all the reasons Eobard Thawne was helping you."

Nora nods, "And stopping Dad from disappearing in the future."

"Disappearing in the future is part of it, hm?" Sherloque hums, "But- this has nothing to do with your father."

I wrapped Barry's jacket tighter around myself, "Well- what's the real reason he helped?"

By now, Cisco had joined our conversation as Sherloque revealed to us what we had all been completely clueless to, "The real reason that Thawne wishes to defeat Cicada and destroy Cicada's dagger is because this dagger is the only thing keeping the Reverse-Flash in prison."

"That son of a b-" I began to let out a string of profanities, as Barry's around almost instantaneously wrapped around my shoulders, his arm covering my mouth.

Cisco stepped closer, "Destroying Cicada's dagger in the past will save Thawne from dying in the future?"

"That's right." Sherloque confirmed what he figured out, "Cicada's dagger has been dampening Thawne's powers all this time."

Caitlin starts, lSo if we get rid of the dagger now, it disappears in the future?l

"And Thawne gets out of Iron Heights." Barry shook his head, continuing.

Cisco points, thinking out loud, "A reverse time hack."

"Everything you said about Thawne is true." Nora was tearing up, "The only person he ever helps is himself."

I pulled Barry's arm away from my mouth, "Nora, this is not your fault-"

"Yes, it is." Nora shot back, then quickly left the cortex.

I sigh, as Sherloque begs the question, "Now the question we have to ask do we stop Cicada or do we stop Thawne?"

"Thawne isn't even an option right now." I argue, "How are we going to let thousands of innocent meta-humans die because we don't want Thawne to escape?"

"Zee's right- we're not gonna let thousands of meta-humans die, now or in the future." Barry sides with me, "We find Cicada- we destroy the dagger once and for all."

-

"You know you really are a lot like your father." I quietly told Nora, my arm wrapped around her as she held onto me for comfort, as we sat in the Speed Lab, "I see so much of him in you."

Nora's voice was quiet, "How so?"

"Trusting." I said, "And you always blame yourself when things go wrong- he always does that, even when it wasn't his fault."