SNOWBARRY: Sometimes Runs, Sometimes Can't

Chapter 21 - Who Am I?

S.T.A.R. Labs was quiet. 

The unsettling, awful quiet. The kind that doesn't help. The kind that makes everyone realise just how much has been lost.

Oliver, bruised but steady, scanned for any traces of Eobard. Felicity by his side, fingers flying, desperation making her type faster than ever. Every keystroke echoed in the silence. 

Barry and Joe had gotten them up to speed about Eobard Thawne, masking as Wells. His reasons for being here. Him being the one who killed Barry's mother all those years ago.

Everyone had gone silent after. Tried to keep busy. Be useful. 

Except for Frost, who just leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, eyes sharp. She didn't fidget, didn't pace. She waited, her cold presence filling the space where Caitlin once offered so much warmth.

Barry, on the other hand, stalked the length of the hall and back like a caged predator, his fists clenching and unclenching, last droplets of lightning crawling across his knuckles. 

He looked nothing like the man who had once carried them all with hope.

He looked ... lethal.

When his gaze, at last, landed on Frost. The hollow in his chest deepened.

Seeing her standing there, so familiar and yet so alien. Silver white hair, blue eyes, an expression carved from ice.

"What happened to you?" Barry's voice was rough, low.

"You're not... " he didn't dare finish that sentence.

Frost's lips curved into a cold, humourless smirk. "Caitlin? Gods, no! What you see now is what you deserve."

Barry's jaw tightened, his throat working as he scanned her head to toe, looking for a trace of the woman he'd lost. 

All he found was the ice staring back at him. 

His chest hollowed further, the silence between them colder than anything Frost could conjure.

Felicity broke that silence. 

Her voice trembled, but she didn't stop. "Cisco's alive. He has to be. Wells would have killed him on sight if he wanted to, right? He must have taken him for a reason." Her eyes landed on Barry. "Knowing Cisco, he'd try to leave a trace, something we could use."

Oliver's jaw tightened. "He would. That sounds like him."

Frost let out a low laugh.

Barry stopped pacing, his eyes dark as they burned into the console. "Then find it. I don't care what it takes, Felicity. I don't care what laws you break or what systems you fry. Find him."

Frost's voice cut through, flat and merciless. "For argument's sake, what if he's already dead?"

Felicity shot her a cold stare.

Barry spun toward her, fury flashing in his eyes. "Don't." His voice low and dangerous. 

Frost only tilted her head, unbothered. "Hope is a luxury. If he hasn't killed him already, then he'll be dead soon enough"

Felicity's breath hitched. "Caitlin, please.."

"It's Frost," she snapped, the correction sharp as ice."Caitlin is gone. Get up to speed."

Barry's jaw clenched, but Oliver's steady voice cut in, defusing. "Cisco's too smart not to leave a breadcrumb. We find the breadcrumb, we find him."

Barry's eyes narrowed on Felicity. "Find him."

Felicity nodded, thinking.

"Wait. We may have a lead. A theory. The siphon's energy signature. It's unique; Cisco designed the sensors himself so I'll try to dig up his protocols. If Thawne moved him anywhere with that tech still attached, we could try and piggyback and trace that signal."