"So what exactly do you want me to do?" Bette asked.

 

Nathan leaned back and thought for some time. When he had left to look for her, it was mostly on impulse, and all he had thought about was how to approach her, not how to ask for her help. He could, in theory, tell her the truth and lay out his assumptions that Dr. Wells was planning something big with the meta-humans. But he didn't think that she would take well to it.

 

Bette was a soldier. Being suspicious of him was her profession, and Nathan's little demonstration wouldn't be enough to make her trust him. He couldn't lie, because foundations built on lies never last longer, and he believed that they would come back to bite him in the arse later on.

 

He could tell her half-truths. He didn't necessarily need to lie; just enough to make her believe. He looked at the ceiling and frowned, then leaned forward. "What I am about to tell you, I want to keep it between us," he said.

 

She nodded, and he took a deep breath. "The creation of meta-humans was an accident, but their existence is an opportunity," he began. "I think you should know that better than anyone."

 

Bette frowned but kept silent.

 

"People like General Eiling don't see the humans, but the power they wield." Nathan pointed to her. "You, me, and others like us; we are not humans but tools."

 

"So you think S.T.A.R. Labs is similar to General Eiling?" She asked.

 

He shook his head. "No, I think they are trying to help."

 

Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward. "Well, you are not being helpful right now. On one hand, you say we can't trust them, and on the other, you state that they are trying to help us. Well, which is it?"

 

"Uhh..." Nathan fell silent for a moment and seemed to be thinking about something. "It's complicated."

 

"Anyway, what I am trying to say is that when we need help, people like us can only lean on each other." He said.

 

"Alright, I get it." She nodded. "But what I don't get is, what exactly do you want to do? Create a safe haven for meta-humans. Become their hero?"

 

"No, that's the other guy." She gave him a sharp look, and he waved his hands. "Nevermind."

 

"I am not that selfless, Bette." Nathan said. "Heroes only exist in movies. In the real world, no matter how good you try to be, you will always end up a villain in someone else's life. That's just reality." He sighed. "What I want is to survive and thrive because the world has become a jungle and we are the new game, ready to be hunted down."

 

He looked at her. "I do think that S.T.A.R. Labs has our best interest; I respect their profession and their dedication. What I don't trust is human greed. Sooner or later, someone will give in, or they might already have. We can't trust such people, Bette. That's why I need you. Together, we can survive."

 

"And you want me to do what?" She asked.

 

Nathan smiled. "There are others like you and me. People who hate having become freaks. They want salvation, and I can be their beacon of light. You have seen it firsthand."

 

"That trick you pulled just now by taking away my powers?" She asked.

 

"Sort of." Nathan blinked. "I can, in a way, siphon dark matter and use the abilities to a certain extent. This results in a decrease in quantity, which in turn will make it so that meta-humans can't use their abilities very well."

 

"I get all of that." She nodded. "But..." Her gaze bore into his eyes. "Why me?"

 

"Sorry?"

 

"You said the city is choke-full of meta-humans springing from everywhere, and among those, you came specifically for me. Why? What exactly do you have in store for me?"

 

Nathan kept silent for a while. The dim lighting cast a shadow on the table, and silence drowned the room in suffocation. He opened his mouth and explained. "When I meet you today, I had already looked into a bit of your history. You are a good human; the others aren't. And believe it or not, I prefer working with people who are honest and don't plan for world dominance."

 

Bette smiled a little and relaxed a little. Nathan found an imperceptible smile tracing his lips. "The city is changing. We need a stronger foothold to not get swept away by the undercurrents. You need help to deal with Eiling, while I want to keep us safe from whatever is out there looking to harm us. Join me, Bette, and push for a better world."

 

Bette looked at his hands, thinking. Nathan didn't have an idea exactly what was going on in her mind, but he could guess. She was a meta-human, but she didn't have any active contact with those like her. She was a strong woman, but she was also alone and needed more assurance and safety. At this time, she was probably feeling lost, and him extending his hand would at least give them neutral grounds to build something upon.

 

She shook his hand, and he smiled.

 

After the two settled into a more comfortable position, Nathan told her some more details about the whole meta-human business. He kept the part about Harrison Wells and Barry secret, as he didn't want them to get a whiff of this.

 

He asked Bette to help him in the darker part of the city. Since he already had dealings with Amunet, it would be easy to find more of those like her. The truly desperate would be the easy targets, but what Nathan wanted more than the powers was the knowledge.

 

The man in yellow was a concerning issue, and something about the guy bugged him incessantly. He needed to get more data on the guy, and he knew exactly where to look.

 

He finished his talk with Bette, and after politely asking for her to stay low for a few days, he left her apartment and went back to his place. He flicked through the data that his program was constantly collecting, organizing, and optimizing.

 

Nathan decided to go to sleep around midnight.

.

.

.

He woke up to the first ray of sunshine. He rubbed his eyes and suppressed a yawn. He took his breakfast, cleaned, and changed into a new set of clothes. The weather was exceptionally pleasant that day, and the cool morning breeze left him feeling refreshed.

 

He left his apartment at 7, and in less than fifteen minutes, he was standing outside the CCPD. He climbed the stairs and found the man he was searching for.

 

"Hey, Joe." He waved his hand and smiled at the man who was sifting through the files while drinking his coffee. Joe put the cup down and smiled at him.

 

"What's up, kid?" He blinked. "So early in the morning, what's the occasion?"

 

"Just dropping by." Nathan smiled and sat opposite him. He looked around the office, finding significantly fewer occupants than he had last time. "Actually, I had something I wanted to talk to you about."

 

"Oh yeah, about what?" Joe asked.

 

"Uh..." Nathan looked around him, hesitating. "Can we go somewhere else?"

 

Joe blinked, his face turning serious. "Is this about the meta-humans?" He almost whispered.

 

"Something like that." Nathan nodded.

 

"Well, I was getting hungry anyway." Joe stood up, donning his blazer, and walked around the table. "There's a dinner near here; let's get some donuts."

 

Nathan followed the man out and into the dinner. They picked a table near the corner; there were hardly any guests in the entire structure. Only a few people were busy writing on their notebooks or their devices. Much less likely to listen in on the duo.

 

The two ordered a cup of coffee and some donuts. Joe sat silent for a while and then asked, "So, what's going on? Is everything okay?"

 

"Yeah, nothing wrong with me." Nathan smiled. "Actually, I want to talk to you about Dr. Wells."

 

Joe stiffened, the earlier signs of relaxation gone. Replacing it was a seriousness that Nathan had only seen when he realized Barry was in danger and about the man in the yellow. "What do you want to talk about?" His voice came out a little on edge.

 

Nathan paused for a moment, then spoke, "You warned me before about trusting others; can you ask you why?"

 

Joe frowned. "Call it a detective's intuition. Just a gut feeling."

 

"I think there's more to that feeling, Joe." Nathan smiled. "You suspect he's related to Nora Allen's murder. I will ask you again, Why?"

 

"Then let me also ask you a question first: What's the point of asking all these questions? What exactly do you want to hear?" Joe leaned forward with a frown marring his face.

 

Nathan kept silent. The waitress arrived and placed a cup of coffee before him and a plate of donuts. He took a sip and breathed out. "To be honest, I also find Dr. Wells suspicious. I just want to know why you think the guy who saved your son's life could be related to Barry's mother's murder."

 

Joe lifted his cup and leaned back. "I have my suspicions. I tried digging into the guy's past, and the weird thing is that he appeared in the central city not long after Nora Allen's death. His particle accelerator made Barry into something that we thought was impossible, and yet Barry had already been there. Too coincidental. And besides, I always found it suspicious as to why he only ever came to help Barry that night. I mean, the kid had special circumstances, but many other cases could have used his knowledge."

 

"Fair enough." Nathan nodded. "I also believe that Dr. Wells is not as simple as he looks. I mean, even if he is not explicitly related to Nora Allen's murder, he must know something, right?"

 

"Sigh." Joe heaved a sigh and put his coffee down. "Alright, what exactly are you getting at?"

 

"Listen, Joe, you want Barry to be safe, and I don't want to jump to conclusions, so all I am asking is that we do a bit of digging around Dr. Wells and see what the mystery man has up his sleeve." Nathan calmly explained.

 

"How old are you, kid?" Joe asked.

 

"No idea." Nathan mimed at his head. "Memory loss, remember."

 

The detective nodded, and the two sat in silence. Then Joe spoke, "Why does any of this really matter to you? Unless you have some suspicions of your own?"

 

Nathan bit on his donut and smiled. "Dr. Wells has always been an object of curiosity to me. The world is currently on a path of high-speed evolution, all because of a wheelchair-bound man. Who says he wants what's best for humanity? Let's just say that I might have watched too many mad scientist movies."

 

Joe stared at him, unblinking. Nathan didn't avert his gaze and looked firm. He could understand why the detective was giving him such a look. If someone came to him with their crazy theories, then he would more than just stare. But Joe was different; he was a detective at heart, and he wouldn't dismiss any piece of evidence that only enforced his belief.

 

"How about this? I have some work to do today." Joe looked at his watch. "We will talk later."

 

Nathan nodded and waved him off. He wasn't worried that the man would tattle on him. If anything, he was confident that with his push, the detective would try even harder to look for any clue. He had arrested an innocent man that day, and now he couldn't even prove the truth, even if he knew it.

 

Nathan smiled as he thought about Harrison Wells. He may not be that yellow guy's match, but he would surely put up a fight.

.

.

.

Today, he had an earlier shift at work, so he quickly arrived at his workplace. Rachel wasn't present, so he kept to himself and cleaned the floors. The door opened, and a man and woman entered. He had receding hairline and had scholarly looks. From his clothing to his mannerisms, Nathan could somewhat deduce that he was a teacher or a professor at a university.

 

The two ordered a light breakfast, and Nathan served. The man watched him with a smile, and the woman was more focused on the atmosphere itself. It did seem quite romantic.

 

Nathan shook his head and focused on the task. Later that afternoon, he was finally able to leave and go straight to S.T.A.R. Labs.

 

"Ok, why is Barry beating a metal mannequin? Actually, why do we even have one in the first place?" Cisco snickered but kept his eyes on the moving robot all the while fingering the controls.

 

"Apparently, Barry met his arch-enemy today, and now to progress further, he must prevail over his foe." Caitlin explained, smiling.

 

"You know that doesn't make any sense." Nathan countered. He walked beside Cisco, prodded him, and got answers in return. Seriously though, childhood nemesis. He sighed and looked away.

 

"Is he going to break his hand again?" He asked Caitlin, who shrugged but still kept that smile. He wondered if something about Barry's predicament amused her. "I will be on the console then; if anything comes up, I will inform you."

 

Nathan walked off while the trio kept their activities going on for a while. He turned to another page on the blog. The Flash was a prominent title, and his gaze wandered to the end of the webpage, where the author's name was Iris West.

 

His gaze wandered to the bed where Barry sat while Caitlin examined his arm. The dynamics of Barry's life were always a source of mild amusement to him. The fact that Barry's sort of stepsister was the only blogger who posted about The Streak.

 

He was about to pull up another blog when Barry's cell rang, and he glanced over. The speedster talked to his colleague and then stood up to leave. Duty calls.

 

Nathan exchanged a quick glance with the doctor before focusing on the reports before him. The information aligned with what he overheard from the other meta-humans at Amunet's club. A fireman, not the water-hose-carrying type, but a real fire-breathing human. Another potential partner.

 

He combed through the reports and found that most of the sightings were on highways and tramps. The guy seemed homeless; otherwise, why would he hang around the trash dumps?

 

Nathan piled up the information and compared it to the readings from the satellite. He then sent it to his remote database, where it would be analyzed by his artificial intelligence. It was still growing, but he couldn't leave any complex task up to it. At least not yet.

 

Two hours later, Barry came back with samples he had collected from the tire. Cisco took the samples to get them analyzed, but Nathan focused on Barry. The guy hadn't been the same since he found out about the man in yellow. He was obsessed with finding and capturing him, but something told Nathan that it wasn't going to be easy.

 

Cisco came back with the results shortly after, and Nathan heard a ping from his tab. A notification, a new blog message. From Iris to Flash.

 

Nathan raised a brow in surprise. This was more serious than he thought; Barry was pretending to be a masked hero in front of his childhood sweetheart.

 

Caitlin was surfing the internet when she stumbled upon the post. It wasn't secret in the S.T.A.R. labs that Iris was actively focusing on the Flash. It was a mild source of amusement for the group, considering they also knew about Barry's feelings towards Iris.

 

Nathan shook his head and turned to get whatever information he could from the data that Cisco had sent him. 76% hematite. Now, where could this exact concentration of elements be found in the Central City? As it turned out, there were some mineshafts in Keystone Ironwood that had this exact concentration.

 

A meta-human who could render a Speedster useless. Nathan was tempted to pull him to his side, as that guy would surely be of monumental help against the man in yellow. But he shook his head, forgoing the thought. Even if he could recruit the man, he was volatile, unlike Bette. And the team had already locked onto him; it would rouse suspicion if he were to disappear.

 

Nathan set his sights on the article, claiming to have seen a burning man. He would first check this out.