"Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have our hands on the meta-human cure." Cisco introduced, stood in the middle of the cortex, looking at all of us.

I kept my arms crossed, staring at him. I was dressed in a white t shirt, black ripped jeans, a turquoise leather jacket on, my hair wavy, my feet wearing black heeled ankle boots.

"Cool, cool." Cisco takes note of our silence, "It's not like I spent weeks in the frozen tundra or anything."

"No, no, no." Sherloque spoke from next to me, "I think that just people are waiting for the inevitable "but" that follows such a big statement."

"Mmm, no, it's done, and thanks to Caitlin, we even have a way to deliver our silver bullet, so no," Cisco walks over to Caitlin, placing the cure into the device, "No buts."

"I believe there is a big "but" coming." Sherloque spoke again.

"But- we need to test the cure on a meta-human." Caitlin told us.

Sherloque points, "There it is."

"What we need is to save the metas that Cicada is targeting because he's not gonna stop killing innocent people." Barry stood up straight.

"Is the cure dangerous?" Nora questions.

"Well, it's an untested serum that alters biology on a cellular level, so until we try it out on someone, we have no way of knowing." Caitlin explained.

"When we started working on the cure, we decided that it would always be a choice, not a weapon, so all we need is a volunteer." Cisco nods.

"Well, there's quite a conundrum, right? A meta human volunteer when the meta-humans in this city have been chased away by us or killed by Cicada or incarcerated at Iron Heights Prison, so Nobody from either group is gonna volunteer." Sherloque said, "No, these criminals are not going to relinquish their powers, although-"

"There's gotta be somebody somewhere that wants to be cured." I cross my arms.

"Yes, on another Earth." Sherloque points.

"Oh, I'll call Harry, see if there's anybody from Earth Two- who wants to volunteer." Caitlin nods.

"Not really what I was suggesting." Sherloque crosses his arms.

"Hold on, you don't have to call Harry." Barry stops them.

I look at him, "Wait, why not?"

"Because there's already a meta here from Earth-2, one who might not want his powers-" Barry implies, "Although it might be pretty difficult to talk to him."

-

"King Shark-" Lyla Michaels asks as she lead Cisco, Caitlin, Barry, Nora and I through the ARGUS facility, "You really think you can cure him?"

"That's the idea." Nora nods, her hands in her coat.

"Oh, Lyla, this is-" Barry trails off when we come to a stop at the end of the hall, "Zee and I- this is our daughter, Nora."

"Your daughter?" Lyla repeats, looking between Barry and I.

I clear my throat, my hands slipping into my back pockets, my lips pursing, "Yeah."

"I'm from-" Nora began.

Lyla cuts her off, "The future, I'm guessing."

"Weird, right?" Nora nervously chuckles.

"No weirder than waking up one day to find out that your son used to be your daughter." Lyla turns, walking further, "So, why King Shark?"

Barry clears his throat, looking down, that comment referring to when he had went back in time.

I place a hand on his back, rubbing it lightly, slowly following behind everyone else, "It's okay, honey."

Barry gave me a weak smile, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, walking over to everyone else.

Caitlin starts, "Dark matter levels vary from meta-human to meta-human, but Shay Lamden's case is the most extreme we've seen, so we think if we could reverse the effects of a high level- mutation like his-"

"You can help all metahumans." Lyla had pieced it together.

"Look, we know King Shark has limited speech, but we're wondering, could we try and talk to him?" Cisco questioned.

I nod, "If we're gonna do this, we're gonna need his permission. It's all to the consent."

"Well, you're in luck." Lyla looks between Cisco and I, "Lately, he's been quite talkative."

Lyla leads up out to the docks, "Normally, we don't bring in outside help but we got wind that the top ichthyologist in the country was doing research on cases just like King Shark's. Actually, I think you may know her."

Cisco recognizes the woman, "Dr. Lamden? You're working for ARGUS now?"

"Couldn't say no." She smiles, "And please, call me Tanya."

"What about Nautilus Laboratories?" Caitlin questions.

"Director Michaels offered me the opportunity to work with another Shay Lamden, one afflicted with the same dark matter anomaly as my late husband, only this Shay system was causing his neural pathways to regress." Tanya explains, "I'm teaching him how to communicate effectively."

"Are you saying his mind is becoming more shark-like?" Barry asks her from next to me, as I was stood between him and Cisco.

"It was, but not anymore." Tanya answers, "I stopped the regression of King Shark's mind using a cerebral interface that stimulates his neural outputs. I call it a telepathic crown."

"Kinda like the Mad 2.0 we built." Cisco mentions, "That's brilliant."

"My husband, the Shay Lamden of Earth-1, was a wonderful man." Tanya looks at us, "Now, I have the chance to help another Earth's Shay Lamden, by giving him back his human mind."

"And since Shay's current state requires him to be in the water more," She went on, grabbing a case, "-these earbuds allow me to hear him under water and vice versa."

"The telepathic crown allows Tanya to get through to King Shark and curb his violent behavior." Lyla adds in.

Nora spoke up in question, "Can we use the crown to talk to him?"

Tanya nods, "Yes, but why?"

"We think we can make him human again." Barry answers.

"It's taken a lot of work, but we think we figured out a way to transform dark matter-infused cells back to their non-meta state." Caitlin explains.

"Now, all we need to do is test it." Cisco shrugs lightly, slipping his hands into his pockets.

I kept my hands on my back pockets, nodding, "So- we came looking for a volunteer."

"That could really work?" Tanya looks between us all.

Barry spoke, "So, can we ask him?"

Tanya nods, pressing a button on her stand, the laser nets disappearing from above the waters, putting the earbuds in, "Shay, a team from Star Labs is here. They have something you may want A meta-cure for your condition."

She goes silent for a few seconds before speaking again, "Trust me, their preliminary analysis on reversing meta-gene transfigurations proves there is a strong chance it could work, especially in ichthyological prospects."

"No, I'm not just showing off. It's their research." She laughs, looking back at us for a moment, "Shay has a wonderful sense of humor."

"So, are we supposed to call him King Shark or-" Cisco trails off in a whisper, "Shay?"

"Yes, I'm still here." Tanya says, her ear against the earbud, "I agree- okay."

We all back away from the water, the sight of something in the water coming closer to us by the second, King Shark springing out of the water and landing on the docks.

We had all jumped back at the sudden surprise, my eyes wide as I stared up at the towering King Shark.

Barry swallows hard, his hand grabbing mine, intertwining our fingers, our eyes glued to King Shark.

King Shark looks down at us, "You believe this cure could help?"

"Yeah." Barry exhales, nodding.

Tanya looks back at us, "Where do we begin?"

Abruptly, King Shark roars loudly, my hand ripped away from Barry's to cover my ears quickly, Barry's hand touching the side of my head instantly, over my hand covering my ear in hopes it would help silence the sound more for me, his other hand going to his ear.

We were all crouching and covering our ears, King Shark ripped the device off his head and running past us, knocking Barry away from me and to the side, jumping into the water, escaping before the net could go back up.

Lyla held her gun up, speaking into a comm, "This is Agent Michaels. I need every available soldier at the aquarium now!-"

"Dad?" Nora runs to Barry, as I followed closely behind her.

"I'm fine." He got up quickly, us gathering with everyone, "W-What was all that feedback? I thought he was under control."

"I don't know." Tanya picked up the crown, "Nothing like that has ever happened before. Maybe his neuroregression finally reached the point where the crown could no longer affect him. Shay could be lost forever-"

"No, no, no. We don't know that." Cisco stops her, "Why don't you come to Star Labs with us. We can use the Mad 2.0 to boost the crown's efficiency."

"We need to find King Shark before he hurts anyone." I nod towards them, starting to walk along side them, but then coming to a stop when I see Barry staring at the water, Nora staring at him in confusion, "Barry?"

Nora looks at me, then back at her father, "What's on your mind?"

He keeps his gaze glued to the water, "Just wondering if we need to rethink how we're going to catch him."

-

"We heard geek screaming." Nora walked into Cisco's workshop, followed by Barry and I, "How are things going in here?"

"I just need to synch the helmet to my earbuds, and we're good to go." Tanya smiles at us.

"Left that in the cortex, in the main console, by the monitor to the left. You know what?" Sherloque sips the last of his tea, "Come with me. I'll show you."

"Great work, Cisco." Barry smiles, patting his back once Tanya and Sherloque leave the workshop.

"Oh, well, takes a village." Cisco spoke, "But every village needs a genius and that's me, so thank you."

"Now we just have to find King Shark and talk him down." Nora smiles proudly.

"Why don't we get the cure injector to Caitlin and make sure it's ready to go." Barry grabs it, looking up at us.

"Hey-" I pat his arm, "Remember, we gotta talk to him first."

"Right." Barry trails off.

The alarm starts to blip loudly, Caitlin's voice coming in through the intercom, "We got a hit on King Shark. He's at the wharf."

Barry and Nora run off, as I jog up over to Caitlin and Tanya, stood behind the console.

"Guys, are you sure he's here?" Barry questions, Cisco stood with him at the wharf.

"Oh, he's there." I stare at the signal, "He's heading straight right for you."

"Nora, you're up." Barry instructs.

Seconds later, Nora confirms, "Done."

"Okay, systems are synched." Caitlin looks at Tanya from next to me.

Tanya presses on the earbud, "Shay? It's me, Tanya. These people are only here to help you. Please listen to them. It's okay."

"I think it's working." Nora quietly says.

"I think you're right." Cisco replies, "Let's ask him-"

His words are followed by a grunt, causing Tanya to blurt out in panic, "Shay, stop! Please-"

Tanya looks at Caitlin and I, "I don't know what's wrong with him."

The comms are filled with King Shark's roars and a scream from Cisco, Barry and Nora completely silent.

"Barry?" I call out, only to receive silence from him.

A fading roar sounds the comms, followed by a loud splash, suspicion falling on both Caitlin and I.

"Guys, what's happening?" Caitlin questions, "Where's Shay?"

A gasp and grunt fills the comms, along with splashes of water and a thud, Tanya speaking up, "What is it?"

I finally spoke, "What's going on? Is Shay okay?"

"Yeah-" Barry exhales, "He's human again-"

My eyes widen, "What?"

-

Shay jolts up from his laying position on the medical bed in the Med Lab, Sherloque, Barry and Cisco holding him back instantly, "Where am I? Who are you?"

"It's okay." Tanya stepped up, "They're friends."

Shay pulls himself away, grunting, "Tanya."

"Yeah, it's- it's me." Tanya nods.

"I'm me? How?" Shay questioned.

"We call it the cure." Barry spoke up, "It's a serum that suppresses dark matter in meta-humans. You're the first person to take it."

"Well, except-" I mutter, "-you didn't take it."

"We, um, we gave it to you." Cisco sat down, not to happy about the idea either.

"My- my head is still swirling around." Shay looks at us, "Are you saying I'm human again? Forever?"

"Almost." Caitlin answers, "We developed a cure to work on the human part of a meta-human. The animal part of your brain fought back a little bit. There's still some dark matter in your pituitary gland, but with this new data, we should be able to address the cure and the next dose should be permanent."

"Monsieur Lamden, I should introduce myself. Sherloque Wells." Sherloque introduced himself, "You've probably heard of me. I have a question. I've been debating in my brain. What drives the King Shark? Is it the shark, or is it the man?"

"If you're asking should I be held accountable for my actions, my answer is simple." Shay said, "Yes, I should. I don't remember how many people I hurt, or who, but that's no excuse."

Nora questions, "What do you remember?"

"Fragments. Glimpses." He spoke, "One day, I was a scientist. The next, I was trapped in that body and everything felt heightened, like my emotions were on steroids. And the rage- there was so much rage."

"That makes sense." Caitlin nods, "A shark's amygdala triggers a huge emotional response when it feels attacked."

"Perhaps that's why you escaped today." Sherloque mentions, "You were frightened."

"I don't know." Shag honestly said, "Today felt different. I don't remember much before I started using Tanya's crown, but since then, my mind and memory have been much clearer."

Shay looks at Tanya, "And I especially remember the kindness that you showed me."

Tanya reaches for Shay's hand, his hand starting to form back into King Shark's hand, only to be brought back to normal seconds later, Tanya jumping away.

"What happened?" Tanya panicked, staring at Shay.

"The dark matter in his system is replicating." Caitlin crosses her arms, sighing.

"Tanya, I'm sorry." Shay apologizes, Tanya barley nodding, leaving the room.

Barry looks at Shay, "Shay, I'm sorry, but until this is over, we can't let you leave Star Labs."

Shay nods in agreement, sighing deeply.

Barry turns towards Caitlin, whispering, "Call me as soon as the cure is ready to inject him a second time. We have to know if this works."

Barry leaves the room, walking into the cortex, my jaw clenching at his words, as I followed right after him, "Barry."

Caitlin and Cisco followed right after me, Barry's palms pressing together, not even turning, "Yeah?"

"We need to talk." I point out, stopping by the console, Caitlin and Cisco right behind me.

Barry stops and turns, "What?"

"When you said you wanted me to call you it was so that we could ask Shay if he wants to take the cure, right?" Caitlin questions.

"Caitlin-" Barry sighs.

Cisco cuts him off, "'Cause you know, out in the field, you didn't really give him much of a choice."

"But that was kinda hard to do when King Shark had you dead to rights." Barry reasons.

"We had a way of communicating with him, and you barely gave that a shot." Cisco shot right back, "And we could have tried again."

"I saved you, man." Barry stared at him as if he had gone insane, "What did you want me to do? Risk your life?"

"I get where you're coming from but that's not the point-" I start.

Barry cuts me off, his voice raising, causing me to slightly flinch, "It should be. We're a team. We're supposed to have each other's backs."

"And we agreed, as a team, to wait for his permission, but you didn't even do that." Cisco fought back.

"And look what happened." Barry gestured, "You're alive, and Shay seems to like being human, so that's a win-win."

"Is that what you think a hero does?" Cisco stared, "Forces other people to do what you want them to do?"

"He was gonna eat you, Cisco." Barry stepped closer, "What was I supposed to do?"

"We agreed that the cure would never be used as a weapon." Caitlin reasons.

"Tell me something." I clear my throat, catching Barry's attention, crossing my arms, "Did you change your mind in the moment, or was this always part of the plan?"

Barry stays silent, just staring at me.

"Unbelievable." I scoff, shaking my head, turning to walk away.

"Zee- wait, please-" Barry catches my wrist.

I pull my wrist from him, walking away, Cisco and Caitlin walking away right after me.

-

"We gotta talk." Caitlin walks into Cisco's workshop where I was seated on the desk, Cisco in the seat by me, messing with me, as I simply watched him.

"Don't you know you shouldn't interrupt others while they're brooding?" Cisco questions, looking at me, "Trying to get my Oliver Queen on here."

"Yeah- watching him get his Oliver Queen on is actually pretty calming." I admit, looking up at Caitlin.

"I ran some more tests on Shay." She ignores our comments, "The reason he doesn't remember anything that happened this morning is because he experienced a severe brain wave disruption in his frontal lobe. That's the feedback that we all heard."

"So, that's why he snapped on us like it was "Jaws: The Revenge"?" Cisco questioned, getting up.

"A frontal lobe that compromised would of course result in lack of control over emotions and judgment." Caitlin explained.

I swung my feet, "So you think maybe the crown might have done this?"

"No, that's the thing." Caitlin continued, "The crown is not the problem. The way the neurotransmitters work in this device never would have caused that."

"So what you're saying is the telepathic crown was working the whole time?" Cisco walks over to her, as I got up, walking over, holding the crown in my hands.

She nods, "Yes."

"Okay- now that begs the question, what caused King Shark to go berserk?" I brought up, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Unexpectedly, my expression fell. What flashed in my mind only inflicted anger, negative memories filling my thoughts, leaving me disoriented and fully capable of being Gorilla Grodd's puppet.

His memories were overwhelming me, leaving his telepathy to easily take control of me.

"Guys, hey." Barry walks in, "Um- I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I was definitely too harsh."

I stare at the crown in my hands, Cisco punching Barry in the face, using his vibe blast to send Barry flying back into the desk.

Barry stares with wide eyes, "No way-"

Caitlin turns into Killer Frost, ice blasting him back, Barry quickly grabbing them both and locking them in the pipeline.

I walked into the Lounge, handing Grodd the crown.

Barry runs in, "Zee!"

I turn, staring at him, completely in Grodd's control, "Hello, Flash."

Grodd jumps out, staying close, keeping control of me.

My legs swings up, ready to ram right into Barry's jaw, Barry catching it quickly, his eyes wide.

I grunt, pulling my leg away, ramming my heel right into his chest, sending him falling back.

"Zee- you have to snap out of it." Barry gets up despite the pain, blocking every move I brought out, not wanting to hurt me.

I take no notice of his words, my powers enhancing further, my flames now turning crystal white, my eyes now fully crystal white; just like Firestorm's.

Barry steps back, "Crap-"