"So that's how you know about-" Cisco was cut off by the glass of the bar window shattering. He grabbed Claudia by the hand and pulled her under the table, ignoring her confused protests. A shockingly familiar young man walked through the gap, glass cracking under his feet. Cisco felt Claudia take his hand, and they hid there. Waiting.
She noticed recognition on his face. "Who is he?" she mouthed, enunciating carefully so he would be able to read her lips. She didn't dare speak in case they were overheard.
He hadn't wanted her to find out yet, but he'd been attempting to learn sign language. All he'd done so far was the alphabet, but it was enough. H-A-R-T-L-E-Y R-A-T-H-A-W-A-Y, he spelt.
Claudia frowned, "who?". The footsteps passed her line of vision and the young man crouched down. The lighting made his lips hard to read but she managed to catch 'Cisco' 'time' and 'Harrison Wells'. She saw Cisco's lips move then before she knew it she was being dragged out from under the table by her hair. It stung, but that was not her main concern.
"Hurt her and it will be the last thing you do," said Cisco. Claudia, even though she was in no physical pain, was fighting the urge to throw up from fear. She had no clue what was going on and didn't expect to find out any time soon. Cisco said something, and Hartley struck her on the cheek. She fell to the floor, cheek burning, and she tasted blood in her mouth. It was only when salt water entered the cut and stung when she noticed she was crying.
Two other people followed this Hartley guy, one holding some sort of freeze ray and another holding a handheld flame-thrower. They frogmarched Claudia and Cisco into a van, then began speaking outside.
From her vantage point, Claudia could read their lips.
"Harrison will be pleased with these two," said Hartley, and Claudia repeated it to Cisco.
She relayed their short conversation.
"The weapon is ready," said Hartley.
"What are we going to do with them?" asked Heat-guy.
"Mick," warned Cold-guy.
"No, no. We are going to make them pay," said Hartley. He got in and began driving.
"Well that doesn't sound good," sighed Cisco.
"No kidding," said Claudia.
After a bumpy and tense journey, they arrived at some sort of warehouse. They were dragged in, and thrown into two chairs.
"What do you want from us?" asked Claudia as their legs were tied, but arms left free. Clearly they were trusted not to be foolish enough to try and escape.
Hartley laughed, then pushed a handheld device and the room was filled with an ungodly, piercing screeching and Cisco put his hands over his ears, face contorted in pain. Claudia did the same. Still laughing, Hartley left the room.
"Can you hear it?" Cisco mouthed to her.
"No, but he doesn't know that," she mouthed, enunciating very carefully so he would be able to read her lips. She gasped as Hartley walked back in.
Saying something, he hit Cisco over the head, but the engineer was too busy covering his ears to fight back. Claudia tipped the chair her legs were tied to over, then dragged herself towards Hartley. Grabbing the device out of his hand, she threw it against the nearest wall and felt oddly satisfied as it smashed into a thousand pieces.
Cisco slowly removed his hands from his ears, looking at her in admiration. Panting, she smiled at him.
A tall man walked out of the shadows clapping. "Very good," he said, signing at the same time. "Very, very good."
It was Harrison Wells.
"I almost thought we weren't going to meet," he said to Claudia.
"You know sign language?" she asked.
"I don't, but the owner of this body learnt. You see, I am Eobard Thawne. I am from the future and you feature quite prominently in my plan to get home."
"Thank goodness. I was worried I'd have to read your lips in this terrible light while you tell us your evil plan and how to stop it."
"Ha ha. Now why would I do that?"
"That's what evil masterminds always do."
"Well I'm not like other evil masterminds. I am responsible for what I did to myself and," he looked her in the eye, "for what I did to you. I have made many decisions in my life: fighting Barry Allen, killing Harrison Wells, making S.T.A.R. labs, but the decision to switch on the Particle Accelerator is the one I regret the most. I had to, to make the Flash, but I still regret. Not for myself, not for the people who died, not even for Ronnie, Caitlin and Cisco. But for people like you whose ordinary lives were changed in a split second. From pawns to knights, ordinary to extraordinary. But you, Claudia Wells, are different. More powerful than anybody I have ever seen. You are not known in the future which makes me wonder…what is your destiny?"
He walked out, leaving them both reeling from his speech.
Cisco fiddled with the rope on his legs and managed to untie it, then did hers as well.
Claudia dragged herself up, before collapsing to the ground clutching her head. There was something in her mind. Not quite human, but clearly trying to communicate. Who are you? she thought desperately. Grodd, came the reply. She gasped, was that…sound?
What are you?
Claudia…good. Hartley…bad.
Is this what words sound like? What's happening to me?
Claudia Wells... born deaf.
Yes, that's right. What do you want from me?
You need to save Barry.
From who? How do you know me?
As abruptly as the voice had appeared, it vanished. She realised she was curled up in a ball on the floor, and sat up. Looking around, she frowned.
Where am I?