Chapter 3

The second cameras show Dr. Wells car exiting the STAR Labs parking garage, Cisco drags Hartley down to the speed trap room.

"Okay, so what is this thing?" Hartley asked, poking it on one side and giving Cisco a confused look.

"It's supposed to be a speedster trap. Speedster runs in to the center of the forcefields all easily, like they aren't even there, only to get stuck due to the anti-speedster frequency being contained within the field. It should have negated the Reverse Flash's speed when he ran into it," Cisco explained, circling around to the controls. "Instead, when we baited him into it, he could run in and out as he pleased and dragged Dr. Wells in too. We had to deactivate the trap so that we could get to him while the Reverse Flash ran off to fight Barry."

"So it didn't work." Hartley frowned. "What went wrong?"

"We couldn't figure it out. The math checked out, the design looked right..." Cisco hesitated, "that, uh, personal project of mine that I've been having you check the equations for when we're not working on the Patro-No... those were for this thing. It just... bugs me that it failed for no discernible reason. But what you said at lunch... I think I know what went wrong now."

"Dr. Wells sabotaged it?" Hartley guessed.

"I think he did more than just sabotage it." Cisco turned on the forcefields. Then he activated the frequency they'd contained within them, meant to keep a speedster trapped within the field's boundaries. "Everything is in working order. Which means there's something else. Something I missed..." He turned the forcefields back off. Stepped around into the center part, and looked over the forcefield emitters carefully. There was something there, but Cisco just... wasn't sure what he was missing. But Hartley might be just the fresh pair of eyes Cisco needed.

"Hartley, come take a look at this."

Obligingly, Hartley joined Cisco and they peered at the emitters together. "Okay, so if these are the forcefield emitters... then what are these for?" Hartley finally asked, gesturing to... a second, smaller set of emitters.

Cisco recognized them after a moment. After all, he'd built something that used the very same light emitters.

"Holographic," Cisco replied quietly. "They're holographic emitters. Come on, I'm going to try something else." They both moved off the platform again and Cisco returned to the controls. He disabled the forcefield emitters and then started up the automated sequence used in December, so that no one would have to actually stand at the controls while they lured the Reverse Flash in with the tachyon prototype.

A blur of light flashed across the room after a few moments. And it seemed to stabilize into the appearance of the Reverse Flash.

"Holy shit!" Hartley yelped, stumbling back a step.

"Dr. Wells, we meet at last," said the staring figure after a long moment of silence.

"Hartley, where is the voice coming from?" Cisco asked quietly.

"I-it's," Hartley let out a shaky breath, looking between the hologram and Cisco. "What the hell?"

"My goals are beyond your understanding," it said next. The same things the Reverse Flash had said to Dr. Wells that night. A pre-scripted conversation.

"It's a hologram. There have to be speakers, somewhere, right?" Cisco looked over at Hartley. "It was a setup. The field works. Any speedster who goes in there would suffer cellular damage preventing them from exiting until it was deactivated. The tachyon prototype set as bait at the center."

"The tachyon... that's why you were so weird about what Harrison brought out for us to use to create the quantum splicer for Ronnie and Dr. Stein," Hartley breathed out.

"Oh, I'm not like The Flash at all. Some would say I'm the reverse." This time when the hologram spoke, Hartley gestured to the bottom of the platform.

"The sound is coming from down there somewhere." Hartley hesitated a moment before adding, "I guess this proves Harrison really is working with the Reverse Flash."

"No, it proves something worse. Because there is no Dr. Wells and the Reverse Flash." Cisco's voice shook. "There's just one person. Pretending he can't walk, much less run. Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash."

"I'm not a bad brother," Dante muttered petulantly as Hartley finished up his review of the control code for the Cold Gun.

Thankfully Snart had agreed that having Hartley review the progress Cisco had made before collapsing was a smart decision. And it turned out there really were a few issues in the code, meaning that Hartley's little addition didn't stand out. Admittedly, the other 'fixes' Hartley made were more optimization than bug fix problems, but he wasn't going to explain the differences to his captors. They were all intelligent, for all that they masked different aspects of their intelligence for varying affect, but none of them knew enough about software engineering to recognize what Hartley had done.

For tech not originally intended to create something on par with a Cold Gun, Cisco had done an impressive job of retrofitting it all to work. If this was what he did under the gun and in less than three hours...

Cisco was a better engineer and a more brilliant scientist than Hartley could ever hope to be. He could admit that now. He'd been a jealous brat over Harrison hiring Cisco and now, at least, he could admit why. Cisco was more talented than Hartley. And kinder too. Despite having a family that was as abusive to him in their own way as Hartley's had been... Cisco had never gone bitter, never given up on people. He was everything Hartley wished he could be.

"Really?" Hartley gave the other man an unimpressed glance. "You constantly belittle him and insult his achievements like they're nothing. I do get it. I mean, when I first met him? I hated him for being smarter and more talented than me too. Thank god I finally got over myself, though, because he's... he's the best friend I've ever had. Cisco is an amazing person and you keep choosing to miss out on him." He really was the best friend Hartley'd ever had.

And Hartley might be falling for Cisco too. Like he was the living embodiment of his favorite gay cliché.

His hand stuttered and fumbled with the tech in his hands as that thought crossed his mind. He shoved it away and got a better grip on the Cold Gun. He couldn't afford to be distracted right now.

A glance at Snart told Hartley he was expecting something. Some attempt to sabotage the guns. If Hartley didn't give him one, would he be suspicious or not?

Hartley incorrectly installed the firing pin and then closed up the casing.

"There she is," Leonard Snart crooned, taking the gun from Hartley and popping the casing back open. A quick once over and then an adjustment to the firing pin... "nice try kid, but I know what the final product is supposed to look like." He closed it up and test fired on a coat rack. "I have missed this. But, Rathaway? Don't do that with the Heat Gun."

"Right." Hartley's hands shook. Time to draft out another gun from memory and hope that someone found them before he'd made all three.

The Heat Gun was, in some ways, easier than the Cold Gun. It was basically a super charged flamethrower and, of the two already designed guns, it was the one Hartley'd probably have the most fun playing around with. The bonfire potential...

But Mick Rory wouldn't be using this to start bonfires and Hartley couldn't get that out of his head.

Hartley didn't really know much about these three and most of what he did know was about Leonard Snart by virtue of having studied the recordings of Captain Cold's debut fight against the Flash at the theater, ending in the death of an usher, and looking into first hand testimonies of the people who'd survived the train derailment he'd caused. Hartley'd enjoyed hearing about Snart and Rory's theft of the Fire and Ice painting; imagining how much that must have upset his parents after his most recent attempt to get in touch with them was rebuffed had been cathartic. But he had no illusions that the thieves were in any way sympathetic to the disowned son of one their victims.

Assuming Lisa had really dropped Cisco off at a hospital, though, Hartley could at least assume that complying with their demands would get both himself and Dante out alive regardless of whether the Flash found them in time.

"So why are you such a dick to Cisco anyway?" Hartley asked, deciding maybe he needed a distraction after all.

Dante glowered at Hartley. And then he started talking about high school.

Hartley resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It boiled down to Cisco being smarter and funnier and more gregarious than Dante was. Dante might've been part of the cool crowd, but Cisco was the kid who'd skipped grades and everyone wanted as a tutor and asked why Dante wasn't as genius as him. All while Mr. and Mrs. Ramon encouraged Dante's bullying behavior because Cisco's ego needed balancing or some such shit.

Parental favoritism to the point where it likely became abuse.

People thought that kind of abusive favoritism had to look like something out of Harry Potter to be classed as such, but the subtler versions were no less insidious for being harder to pin point or not including bruises. And the funny thing was, it could be seriously harmful to the favored child too. And Dante was probably an example of exactly that. His parents acted like playing the piano was Dante's whole life... but had they ever given him a choice? Or had he clung to it because he'd seen how Cisco was treated for rejecting the pre-determined path their parents had put before them?

"Oh shit." Hartley's voice shook and Cisco looked up to see Hartley staring not at the vision of the Reverse Flash in front of them, but the elevators behind them. "You need to hide."

"What?" Cisco frowned and, despite himself, he took a step back from the elevators.

"Cisco..." Hartley turned back to face him. "Cisco, listen to me! You need to hide, right now."

When Cisco didn't move fast enough, Hartley crossed the distance between them and shoved Cisco down, behind the bulk of the speed trap's controls. Automatically, Cisco curled up, trying to make himself smaller as it occurred to him just how little the control panel actually blocked from view.

Hartley stepped away from the controls right as the soft 'ding' of the elevator sounded. The shushing noise of the doors opening seemed suddenly loud in Cisco's ears.

"Harrison." Hartley's voice was steady. "Careful, you wouldn't want someone seeing you without your wheelchair."

"You did see me that night," Dr. Wells said quietly. "I had wondered. Where is Cisco?"

"He went to his brother's birthday party." The lie rolls easily off of Hartley's tongue and all Cisco can do is hope that the thundering of his heartbeat doesn't give the lie away. It sounds so loudly in Cisco's ears that he knows Hartley can hear how frightened he is. And while Dr. Wells doesn't have enhanced hearing himself, the terror that he might hear even the smallest of sounds from Cisco...

Cisco presses both his hands over his mouth preemptively.

"Cisco's been having me check his math for this thing, still obsessively trying to find out what went wrong, I suppose. I got Caitlin to tell me about what happened and when the opportunity to go poking around with everyone else gone arose, well... I couldn't resist taking a look." Hartley made a tsk, tsk, tsk sound. "What will the others think when they learn you can walk, Harrison? Or that you're in league with the banana flavored Flash?"

Choking down on the hysterical laugh that wanted to bubble out of his throat, all Cisco could think was that Hartley was going to get himself killed. His sight went a little blurry as tears filled his eyes.

Dr. Wells snorted in amusement. "I prefer to be called the Reverse Flash. I'm not in league with anyone, Hartley. I'm just... out for myself. A state of being I'm sure you're familiar with."

The Barry from the future had said that Cisco and Hartley were close in the future.

"I can't let you tell anyone else my secret."

At the time, Cisco had assumed that meant they'd be friends. Which had sounded impossible.

"I could help you," Hartley offered. His voice shook.

They'd hated each other for so long, that friendship was just... out there. As crazy sounding as aliens and the Stargate program that Wormhole X-Treme was supposedly a cover for.

"I'm so sorry, Hartley. But there's nothing you could offer me that would actually be of use. And I know you too well." Dr. Wells sighed, sounding almost regretful.

But the funny thing was, Cisco and Hartley were friends now. And there was something... the potential of something else between them.

"I did consider us friends, Hartley. It's important to me that you know it wasn't a lie. If you hadn't discovered the flaws in the accelerator..." Dr. Wells sighed sadly. "I wanted you there that night, sharing in my triumph even if I couldn't tell you that's what it was. But it wasn't meant to be. You were dear to me, my friend. But from my point of view, you've been dead for centuries..."

Hartley let out a strangled gasp and it took all of Cisco's willpower not to look as...

There was a dull thump. Like a body hitting the floor.

"Oh Hartley. You might not mean to me what Barry does... but you'll always be my guy."

Cisco thought he might be sick. But he had to stay silent and small and unseen or else...

Or else what Hartley had just done to protect Cisco would be for nothing.

"Now to shut this thing off," Dr. Wells muttered, striding towards the speed trap... and Cisco's hiding spot. But then he stopped. And he must have picked up his phone, because he said, "Barry?" There were footsteps leading back to the elevator. "I'm headed to the cortex now. But... a tidal wave. You'd need to..."

The elevator doors cut off whatever he was going to say next.

Cisco sat there for a few moments longer before crawling out from behind the speed trap. He should text Barry. Let him know who Dr. Wells really was.

But Hartley... he was lying on the floor, body positioned so awkwardly that it had to be uncomfortable.

Cisco crawled over to him, unable to wrap his brain around what he knew had to be going on here. But it wasn't... nothing made sense. Hartley's eyes were open, glassy and unseeing. He wasn't... there wasn't any...

"No," Cisco whispered softly, tears running down his cheeks as he reached out to touch Hartley, only to jerk his hand back because he couldn't bear to touch... it would only make it real.

But it was already all too real. Because Hartley wasn't breathing anymore.

It seemed the Barry from the future had lied. They weren't going to be close when Barry finally traveled back in time after all.

Cisco woke with a gasp and Caitlin startled upright from her near-doze in the uncomfortable chair at his bedside.

"Hartley?!" Cisco sat up and looked around, wildly.

"Cisco," Caitlin reached out carefully, not wanting to frighten him further. "Cisco, do you know where you are?"

"I... I was just at STAR Labs..." he frowned, looking around in confusion. "I-I..."

"You're in the hospital," Caitlin said, trying to keep her voice level. "Someone abducted you and Hartley from your apartment last night. Do you remember that?"

"I..." Cisco stared around the room, gaze unfocused. "Where's Hartley?"

"You suffered from what is suspected to be a transient ischemic attack last night. It's, uh, it's more commonly called a mini-stroke. Your abductors let you go, probably because you collapsed, but they still have Hartley," Caitlin told him, rubbing his shoulder lightly. "Do you remember what happened last night? Do you remember who took you?"

Cisco closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead with the heel of his hand. "I... I'm a little confused. I don't... a mini-stroke?" But then he shook his head. "No, no, that's not... that's not important right now. They've still got Hartley. And Dante..."

"Dante? What does Dante have to do with this?" Caitlin flushed as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She should just let Cisco get all his words out first.

"They didn't know about Hartley staying with me. They took Dante to keep me in line so I'd do what they wanted..." Cisco reached up and grabbed Caitlin's hand. Eyes clearing as he stared over at her. "Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart, and Mick Rory have Hartley and my brother. And now they're probably making Hartley do what they'd wanted me to. Make them new weapons."

Caitlin pulled out her phone and started texting Barry immediately. "Do you know where they were keeping you?"

"It was a warehouse, but they're not going to be there anymore. Snart will have moved them so it wouldn't matter if I told..." Cisco shivered.

"It's going to be okay, Cisco," Caitlin promised, sending one final text to Barry before setting her phone aside. She moved from her chair to the edge of the bed so that she could wrap her friend up in a hug. "It's going to be okay."

"It really doesn't feel that way," Cisco muttered, burying his face against her shoulder.

Stroking his hair, Caitlin asked, "how are you feeling? Headache? Any pain?"

"I feel... fuzzy. But the headache's gone." Cisco hesitated and then asked, "what do you think is wrong with me?"

"Well, usually a TIA is caused by a temporary blockage of blood flow to part of the brain," Caitlin didn't want to scare him, but TIAs were referred to as mini-strokes for a reason. It could be an early indicator of a true stroke down the road. "I'd like to take you back to STAR Labs once you've been cleared to check out of the hospital. Give you a check up with my equipment. What we've got access to can give me far more detailed readings than the hospital can do and maybe it'll give us all some peace of mind about this."

If nothing else, Caitlin would feel better. A little more in control. As much as she could when everything felt like it was spiraling out of control a little more every day.

Cisco insisted on checking out of the hospital. It winds up being AMA and even then Cisco's not entirely sure that the only reason he gets away with it is because Caitlin stood with him now after she spent part of the night discussing potential causes, treatment options, and scans to determine if Cisco's at risk for another TIA episode or, worse, a real stroke. So they know it's not like he'll be going home alone where new symptoms presenting themselves might turn deadly for him.

And, yeah, that's a terrifying thing to consider. Cisco would like not to suffer a stroke at twenty-five. Or ever, for that matter. At some point Barry had dropped of Cisco's wallet, cell phone, and keys from his apartment, as well as fresh clothes. He's not sure what happened to what he was wearing the day before, but at the moment he really doesn't care.

Caitlin guides him to her car after check out, hovering over him protectively.

He wants to go home. But that's also the last place he wants to be at the same time. He'd been kidnapped from his apartment at gunpoint. Hartley was still missing. Cisco couldn't relax, never mind feel safe, so long as Hartley wasn't safe.

So he doesn't complain as Caitlin drives them to STAR Labs, detouring for breakfast first. Caitlin makes Cisco stick to decaff tea and, given his brain had suffered a mini-stroke, Cisco reluctantly refrains from arguing the point. Something like his usual coffee order was probably a little too caffeinated to stress his body with at the moment.

Dr. Wells is there. It's all Cisco can do not to flinch away from the man, given his awful mini-stroke induced nightmares. Dr. Wells walking around, being the Reverse Flash... murdering Hartley... it had all seemed so vividly real. When he'd woken up in the hospital... for an awful few minutes, Cisco had been unable to tell the difference between his nightmares and reality.

He'd thought Hartley was dead.

Cisco wasn't sure he'd be able to fully shake off the pall of those nightmares until Hartley was back, safe and sound. Until Cisco could wrap the other man up in a hug and just... threaten to never, ever let go.

Caitlin puts Cisco through every scanner they've got, getting MRI and CAT scans and even using some of the tech they use to check Barry over when he comes back with a bad head injury that, no doubt, started off even worse than what they see by the time he's gotten back to STAR Labs. And then while she pours over the results, Cisco slips off to his lab... what has become his shared lab with Hartley.

He sits down at his lab table and takes out his phone, staring at it blankly. He should call his parents. Tell them what happened. Surely they noticed Dante didn't come back from clubbing with his friends last night. But... they probably thought he'd crashed on someone else's couch. Probably avoiding considering that he'd gone home with some woman for a hook up.

The last thing Cisco wanted to do was scare his parents... or shoulder the blame because, well, Cisco wouldn't be mixed up in this superhero and villain nonsense if he'd taken the career path they'd wanted for him. Sighing, Cisco set his phone aside and wandered over to Hartley's lab table. Picked up the Patro-No they'd been working on together. Hartley would do what he could to protect Dante, but who would be protecting Hartley?

And then... Cisco inhaled sharply because...

Because blue was streaking across his flickering vision. And then Cisco wasn't seeing his lab anymore.

He was seeing a house. A nice house, if not for the sight of Dante tied up near a lab table and Hartley sitting there piecing together the last bits of what looked like a Heat Gun.

"What the..." Cisco turned around and stumbled back a step from Leonard and Lisa Snart but... neither of them seemed to see him. Another glance around put Mick Rory lounging in a corner by a table, watching with interest as Hartley moved through the last few steps of construction.

There was something on the table and, carefully, Cisco headed over there. An envelope peaked out from underneath a birthday card. The sender's address was clearly visible, but the envelope had clearly been sliced open, meaning what Cisco wanted was the delivery address... which was hidden from view. Cisco reached out to move the card out of the way, but his hand slid through the card and envelope and the table beneath, like he was a ghost or something.

What if this was another TIA episode? What if Cisco was... hallucinating or something from another mini-stroke?

No... no, this had to be real. It needed to be real.

(If this was real, then what did that mean about his nightmare about Dr. Wells?)

"Gun's ready for testing," Hartley called out.

Rory stood up, bracing his hand on the table as he did so. The movement jostled the table's contents and the card slid off the envelope entirely, giving Cisco a clear view of the address...

The blue flickered away, taking the vision with it. Cisco was standing in his lab, still holding the Patro-No.

He set it down, carefully, and then returned to his phone and picked it up. Unlocked it and opened his contacts. Called Barry.

"Hey, Barry," Cisco said when the call connected. "Yeah, I'm, uh... I'm feeling a lot better. Caitlin took me back to STAR Labs to run more tests, but... I... remembered something. An address that, uh... I heard Heatwave mention. Think you could check it out? It might be a long shot but if Hartley and Dante are there..."

And then, before Cisco could second guess himself, he rattled off the address he'd seen in his vision.

Notes: Did I just casually throw in Stargate being real in this series? Yup. Am I gonna do anything with the cross-over potential? Probably not. Sorry. I just thought it'd be a fun little thing to slip into an otherwise very tense scene.