Barry Allen had no idea what to do.
"So, uh, Cisco," he said, breathless, "what do I uh - what do I do now?"
The skylight had shown an overcast sky this morning, but now those grey clouds were being taken over by the approaching nightfall. The moon was beginning to emerge, a thin crescent against the darkness replacing the sunset. Barry looked to his friend, whose mechanical fingers seemed to curl around his chin rather than scratching it.
"I…" the bags under his eyes seemed to sag even more as he shook his head, "... don't know. We could find you another Earth, I suppose."
Barry nodded, internally wincing, "Yeah. I guess so."
"You could still be a hero there," Cisco said, looking down at the Cortex's console, "you'd just need to make some adjustments."
"Yeah."
"I know Barry hasn't been very sociable," Cisco said, briefly meeting his eyes, "but he is thankful. He's just… tired."
"I can tell."
"He's been through a lot," Cisco said, blinking hard, "you should uh - you should remember that. He's lost a lot."
"He isn't the only one who lost Iris."
"I know," Cisco sighed heavily, "we all did. It was especially hard for Barry, is all."
"I'm Barry."
"Erm," Cisco said, "right, sorry. It's still kinda weird. I haven't dealt with a lot of time remnants."
Barry hummed, looking back up at the skylight, all too aware of the sickly cool sensation of the medication he'd had to apply after the battle with Savitar. He wondered, vaguely, what he would look like after it wasn't needed anymore.
"We'll also get you a facial transmogrifier," Cisco said, causing Barry to look up, "when we find you a suitable Earth, I mean. So no one has to… y'know."
"Thanks."
After a dozen Earths, Savitar was surprised that he wasn't bored yet.
He'd been working his way down the list of Earths from Earth 38 - Earth 39, 40, 41 etcetera - and it was surprising to him how interesting it was to watch them run; each Earth had its own set of heroes, and the combinations he'd seen were fascinating: on Earth 40, Thea Queen was the Green Arrow, for instance, and Oliver had died during the Undertaking; meanwhile on Earth 41, there was something called the Justice League, with a woman who was an amazon of all things; on Earth 39, Zoom was around, but this time, Zoloman was genuinely a hero. Each world forced had confronted him with new versions of his old friends, new heroes, and new challenges, all of which he overcame with time. He found the experience of bringing an earth to heel immensely satisfying.
(He also had the amazon from that earth to thank for inspiring his new name, so there was that too, he supposed.)
This time, he decided to jump the world number up - all the way to Earth 300. This earth had surprised him, because it was markedly similar to Earth Prime: Barry Allen was born in 1989 (he'd been born in the '70s on Earth's 45, 47, 48, and 50), Nora Allen had been killed by Eobard Thawne in 2000, and Joe West adopted the boy in 2001. The Particle Accelerator exploded in 2014, and Barry Allen became the Flash nine months later.
There was one major difference, however: this earth's Cisco lost his hands that same year.
From what Savitar could tell, the confrontation with Snart hadn't gone so well on this earth. Barry Allen managed to save Cisco, but not until Snart got in a solid blast of ice over the mechanic's hands. Cisco built himself new hands with the help of Caitlin, Barry, and Thawne, of course, but it surprised Savitar nonetheless, because he had yet to see Team Flash take something like that so early. Not that he was particularly concerted over Cisco's pain or trauma, but it was a slight surprise.
Perhaps that was why he was humoring this Cisco, Savitar thought, as the mechanic stared at him, eyes wide, mouth taped shut, and bound to a rickety wooden chair. Earth 300's Team Flash had been working as vigilantes since 2014, but they had never encountered a threat of Savitar's magnitude. The thought made the speedster smile viciously.
He'd been using the same suit he had when he originally fought himself, recoloured black and electric blue because red simply would not do. But that suit… it was getting old, and he was getting fast enough that even its anti-friction, heat-resistant materials were starting to fail.
And seeing as how he had a Cisco right here...
"I need something from you, Cisco," Savitar said, looking down at him, "do you think you could help me?"
Savitar ripped the duct tape off of Cisco's mouth, and the mechanic groaned, before starting to glare at him.
"I'm not helping you with anything," he said, raising his chin, "you killed Julian."
"I need a new suit," Savitar said, "from what I know about this earth, you're pretty good at making those."
"You killed Julian," Cisco repeated.
"I've killed eight Julians," Savitar shrugged, "honestly, this one was more sad than anything else."
Cisco spat in his face.
Savitar wiped the spit off his cowl, his jaw tightening. He said, "Y'know, Caitlin is still here."
Cisco's glare faltered for a moment, before it returned with a vengeance, "You wouldn't-"
"I would," Savitar cut him off, "and I will, if you don't help me with my suit problem."
Cisco glared for a few more moments, before the anger drained from his face, replaced with beleaguered distaste.
"Fine."
"Atta boy, Francesco," Savitar said, freeing Cisco from the chair and bringing the blueprints he'd drawn up into the mechanic's hands, "now, I'm gonna need that suit in at least two days, so I recommend you start working."
Cisco scowled at him, then began to study the blueprints. Savitar turned away from him, walking over to the box he had sequestered in the very back of his workshop. He brought it out and opened it, retrieving the Philosopher's Stone. He turned it over in his hand, watching its light fall through his fingers onto the concrete floor. Killer Frost raised an eyebrow at him from across the room. Savitar ignored her.
He approached Cisco and set the stone down on the workbench next to him. Cisco's scowl deepened.
"What the hell is that?"
"Nothing of consequence," Savitar told him, "a power source that the suit will need."
Cisco laid the blueprints out across the workbench, displacing several nuts and bolts. As they clattered to the floor, he said, "I've never seen a design like this."
"It's proprietary," Savitar said, "I've got all the tools and materials you'll need, Francesco."
"We've found scraps of your suit around," Cisco said slowly, "is that why you need a new one? You're burning through your current one?"
"You two done bickering yet?" Frost asked loudly, approaching the workbench, "I'm getting tired of sitting still."
Savitar glanced at her, frowning, "This isn't your conversation, Frost."
"You told me I would get to kill Team Flash," Frost said, her eyes pulsing, "So far, all I've done is capture him," she pointed a deathly pale finger at Cisco, "and kill some scientist at CCU. She wasn't part of Team Flash."
"You want killing, huh?" Savitar studied her, then rolled his eyes, "There'll be plenty more when this is over. Now go."
After holding his gaze for a moment that was probably tense for her but most definitely was not tense for him, she turned on her heel and stalked away.
"Relationship issues?" Cisco asked.
Savitar eyed him severely, before grabbing his hair and turning his head until he was looking at Killer Frost, as her back disappeared behind the corner. Savitar vibrated his free hand and gestured toward where she left, before jerking Cisco's head back toward the blueprints.
"Get working, Francesco."
Cisco glanced at him briefly, then refocused on the task at hand.
As Cisco from Earth 300 crumpled to his knees, his heart sheared in two by Savitar's hand, the suit he built towered behind him, its metal reflecting in the fluorescent light overhead. Killer Frost watched as Savitar kicked the mechanic's body aside and approached the frame suspending the suit a few inches above the ground. He lowered it until the boots touched the floor with a small thump, before activating the mechanism that made it open; the turning of gears and metal were the only sounds in the workshop, and bounced off of the walls and the floor, echoing somewhat.
Savitar entered the suit with a smirk, and after the suit closed itself, he extended the blade on his right hand. It sprang forward promptly, sharpened to the point that it glinted. The eyes and ribcage lit up in a harsh white, that quickly shifted into a pulsing cyan. Savitar extended his right to the right experimentally, finding the movement just as smooth as it would have been in his old suit.
One thing Savitar would give Cisco Ramon, no matter the earth: he was clever.
He frowned at Killer Frost behind his helmet, asking "What?"
Frost glanced down at Cisco's body, then back up to him, "You said you were going to have me kill him."
"There was a change of plan," Savitar said, "you'll get your chance to kill the remaining members of Team Flash."
Frost held his gaze for a short space, before saying, "I heard you, by the way."
"You heard what?" Savitar growled.
Mist began to fall off of Frost's fingers, and her eyes glowed brighter, "That if Cisco wouldn't make you that suit, you would kill him."
Savitar stared her down, cocking his head to the side, "And what are you going to do about that?"
Frost didn't respond, electing to raise her hands instead. Savitar watched lazily she did so; then, before she could get any ice off, he ran forward, driving the blade on his right hand into her stomach.
He looked down at her as he pulled the blade out, holding her shoulder as she stared at him. She said nothing as she looked down at her wound; even as her hair and eyes turned back to their typical brown, and her legs gave out, she said nothing. When Savitar let her go, she promptly fell to the floor; her eyes settled on Cisco's body.
Savitar sped away, leaving them both behind and heading straight for Earth 300's STAR labs.
He felt like stretching his legs.
