SNOWBARRY: Sometimes Runs, Sometimes Can't

Chapter 18 - Tell Us Who You Really Are

Barry Allen had changed.

The easy smile that used to break through in the quiet moments was now a rare thing. His patrols ran shorter these days; the aftermaths, rougher. He still saved people, always would, but he no longer lingered.

Caitlin was gone, and he hadn't stopped her. Iris was marrying Eddie. The distance between what he felt and what he showed had become a quiet, widening gap. Whatever warmth had once steadied him seemed to fade with each passing night, replaced by something colder.

And the mission, the one thing he could still hold onto, was unraveling fast.

***

Cisco's hands trembled as he spread blueprints across the console, his voice sharp with controlled fury. "These components, we've been logging them as missing for months. Power cells, focusing lenses, superconductive casings, need I go on? And every last one of them points back here. To you."

Joe stood stiff at his side, hand resting near his holster, eyes locked on Wells.

Wells sat in his chair calmly, hands folded on his lap. "I'm disappointed, Cisco. You, of all people. I thought you understood the value of trust."

Cisco swallowed, but pressed on. "Trust? You've been lying since day one. You've been using us. Using Barry. All of this," he gestured to the glowing screens, the lab, the very building, "was never about helping people, was it? Who even are you?"

Wells's eyes glinted. "Finally. You're starting to see."

Joe stepped forward. "Tell. Us. Who. You. Are."

Wells rose slowly from his chair. "You wouldn't believe me if I did. But since you've pushed me this far..."

Cisco and Joe were caught off guard. He was walking. Dr.Wells was standing on his own.

In the blink of an eye his whole form warped, changed...hair, face, even the cut of his shoulders rearranging into someone entirely different. A stranger. His posture predatory.

They'd found the Time Vault and the suit but they'd assumed he was developing it.

"My name is Eobard Thawne," he said, voice edged with centuries of hunger. "And I've been waiting a very long time for this moment.

Cisco's breath hitched. "Oh my God..." he tried to reach his phone. Signal Barry.

Joe drew his gun. "You son of a bitch."

Eobard blurred across the room before Joe could fire. In an instant, his hand was around Cisco's throat, lifting him off the floor.

Cisco's legs kicked desperately, his face turning red. His voice cracked as he gasped, "Why? Why us?"

For the briefest moment, Eobard's expression softened, almost tender.

He shifted back to looking like Wells again. As if using that face was a performance he was waiting to pull all along.

His grip loosened just enough for Cisco to breathe.

"I came to care for you," he whispered. "You're brilliant, Cisco. Like a son I never had. And that... is why this is so hard."

Cisco's eyes widened, tears cutting down his face. "Then don't do it. Please."

But Wells' - Eobard's gaze hardened again. "I have to. Because the only thing that matters now... is going home."

Eobard moved, faster than any man should, though not as fast as he once was.

"You. You're the man in yellow then. All this time .." Cisco let out.

Joe sent the signal they've agreed on to Barry as he commanded, "Let him go!"

Wells's lips curled. "Do you have any idea how tempting it would be to end him right here? He squeezed, Cisco choking, feet kicking desperately.

"Stop!" Barry's voice cut through the lab, sharp and furious. He was already in motion, red lightning streaking as he barrelled toward them, only to slam into an invisible wall that hadn't been there before.

Wells had been preparing for this exact moment. He'd known they were on to him, and he'd let this happen here today. 

Barry staggered back, disoriented. The walls lit up around him, glowing sigils pulsing along the reinforced glass. A forcefield that countered his speed. A cell.

"No," Barry screamed, slamming his fists against it. "Dr. Wells. What is this?"

Wells knocked Cisco unconscious, leaving him tied on the floor as he shifted back into his real appearance. The face of Eobard Thawne. 

Smirking he zoomed toward Barry. "Did you really think I built this team for you? No, Barry. I built it for me. For this exact moment. You're going to give me what I've been craving for years. And when I take it, I'll finally go home."

"And as for the tech and guns that went missing..."

Thawne's gaze flicked from Joe to Cisco's motionless body. "Clever work, detective, but that was a trade I had to make. Every circuit, every weapon I'd traded was to get my hands on the parts to build this..my very own tachyon prototype"..he gestured toward his chest. 

He stepped closer, voice lowering to a silky threat. "To explain why, I'll have to take you a long way back."

A slow, cold smile spread across his face. "Fortunately, it seems we have time."

Barry's breath caught. "Back... where?"

"Not where," Thawne corrected, eyes gleaming. "When."

He straightened, shoulders squared like a man shedding a disguise. "I was born centuries from now. In my era, I was meant to be the Flash's greatest rival, his equal and his undoing."

The smirk sharpened. "But to prove it, I needed more than speed. I needed to find the time he came from and become him."

Joe's hand tightened on his weapon.

"So I finally did," Thawne continued. "I found you in the past. I also, to my surprise, found the brilliant and trusting Dr. Harrison, pity I had to kill him, so I could take his face. His life." He laughed bitterly. "Only to find out that this trip cost me my speed and to get it back, to get back what I'd lost, I had to create the very thing I came to destroy. You. I had to create you. The irony of it." He looked around the lab. "All so I could trap you at the end, Barry Allen, and get your speed."

Barry's chest heaved, fury and pain blazing in his eyes. "You're never getting away with this."

Wells tilted his head, smiling coldly toward the siphon draining Barry's powers. "I already have."

The lights of Barry's new cell flared brighter as the hum of energy grew, the trap locking him in place, and no matter how hard Barry tried to break it, crack or circumvent it. 

He couldn't.