Chapter 17: Unmoved
For once, there was no screaming.
No explosions. No sudden alarms. No meta-humans crashing through the glass walls of STAR Labs.
Just the low hum of computers, the flicker of monitors, and the occasional soft tapping of Caitlin's fingers on her keyboard.
Central City was—if only briefly—calm.
Well, as calm as it ever got.
Barry and Oliver were out in the field. Fighting someone new. Some psycho with a trench coat and an ego the size of Gotham.
Captain Boomerang.
Cisco had named him, of course. Said it with a kind of excitement that was almost proud. Like having themed criminals meant something important.
Dante didn't even bother looking up when the alert came in.
He sat in the corner of the Cortex, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded, a cigarette slowly burning between his fingers.
Caitlin stood at the monitor, watching the field feed of Barry and Oliver moving through the city, chasing down their new opponent.
She glanced back at Dante. "Aren't you even curious?"
"No."
"You don't want to help them?"
"I'd kill him," Dante said simply.
Caitlin blinked. "You're joking, right?"
"No."
She gave a half-sigh, half-laugh. "You're so dramatic."
He turned to her slightly, smoke curling lazily around his face. "You know I'm right."
Caitlin hesitated.
She did know. There was something different about Dante. Something sharp and raw and waiting to cut loose. He wasn't like Barry—he didn't believe in justice, or patience, or giving people a second chance. He believed in ending threats.
Permanently.
"They've got it handled," he added.
Caitlin turned back to the monitor. On the screen, Barry zipped through a warehouse, dodging spinning blades. Oliver followed in close pursuit, arrows flying.
"I guess they do," she said.
---
The fight lasted another hour. Long enough for Caitlin to brew coffee and for Dante to finish three cigarettes.
He never moved. Not once.
"You just going to sit there until they come back?" she asked as she brought him a cup.
"Probably."
She sat down beside him on the edge of the console bench, sipping her drink. "You don't seem very interested in the whole 'team effort' thing."
"I'm not."
"Then why stay?"
He didn't answer right away.
Instead, he stared ahead, eyes low, expression unreadable.
"I think I hate cities," he said finally.
Caitlin raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"They're always loud. Always broken. Always pretending to be alive when they're just slowly dying."
"That's poetic."
"It's honest."
She leaned her head back. "Still doesn't answer the question."
Dante glanced sideways at her, the corners of his mouth twitching in what might've been a smile. "Maybe I don't hate everyone in this city."
Caitlin froze for a second, then looked at him again. "That was almost charming."
"Almost?"
"Yeah. You'll get there."
---
An hour passed. Then two.
The quiet continued, broken only by the occasional update from Barry through comms. The situation was under control. Boomerang had been captured—tied to a metal beam in the CCPD basement.
Oliver had made sure he wouldn't be breaking out.
No lives lost. No real damage.
Caitlin relaxed visibly as the feed confirmed everything was done.
She turned to Dante again. "You were right. They didn't need you."
"I usually am."
"But… would it have killed you to pretend to care?"
Dante looked at her, long and hard.
"No," he said. "But pretending isn't something I'm good at."
She nodded quietly. Then she surprised him.
"I don't think you're as cold as you act."
He didn't speak.
"You stay here every day," she said. "You drink coffee with me. You talk to Cisco—even if it's just to insult his ideas. You don't leave. You watch everything. You don't help—but you stay. That means something."
"Does it?"
"Yes."
Dante flicked ash into a metal tray. "You always analyze people like this?"
"Only the ones I don't understand."
He gave a small laugh. "Well, good luck. I'm not a puzzle. I'm a wall."
"Even walls crack," she said softly.
Their eyes met.
Something passed between them. Silent. Charged. Real.
Then the Cortex doors slid open, and Barry rushed in, winded and half-laughing, his suit singed at the sides.
"Well," he said. "That was exhausting."
Oliver followed behind, calm and annoyed, brushing soot from his shoulder.
"Captain Boomerang?" Caitlin asked.
Barry nodded. "Boomeranged. Hard."
Oliver smirked faintly. "He'll live. Unfortunately."
"See?" Dante muttered. "That's why I stayed out of it."
Barry gave him a look. "You're not even going to pretend you were worried?"
"Nope."
"Not even for Caitlin's sake?"
Dante leaned back and looked at her. "She knew I wasn't going."
Caitlin didn't deny it.
Barry rolled his eyes and walked past them. "You're impossible."
Dante smiled faintly. "Told you."
---
Later that night, after Barry and Oliver left to debrief with Joe, the Cortex fell quiet again.
Caitlin stayed behind. So did Dante.
They sat in silence, the air between them not awkward—but heavy. Full of unsaid things.
"You didn't have to stay," she said eventually.
"I wanted to."
Caitlin turned to him. "Even though there's no one to fight?"
He smiled, barely. "There's more to this place than fights."
She smiled back. "Yeah. There is."
---
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