Author's note: I own nothing relevant.

He is standing with his back to his captive, who is sitting on the floor, cuffed to the railing. Leonard Snart, captured from the Waverider.

Snart, who hasn't stopped discreetly glancing around to take in every detail of his surroundings since he was brought here. How he must wonder. But Snart's voice, when he speaks, does not indicate that he's anything but mildly irritated.

"So … what's so special about me? I mean, aside from my sparkling personality. Back on the Waverider, you could have taken your boy Rip, but you took me instead. Why?"

A pause.

"Hey, if you're gonna kill me, you could at least tell me what's going on."

He remembers now; Snart never enjoyed not knowing. He considers leaving him in the dark for a while longer, just for the discomfort, but decides against it. The reveal is long overdue. He slowly turns around.

"You should have figured it out by now."

He removes his helmet and turns to meet Snart's eyes for the first time in an eternity. The look on Snart's face is everything he's wanted and wished for, all this time. There's shock, disbelief, confusion … and even a hint of fear. At that, he takes a few steps forward, helmet in hand.

"After all …"

He kneels so that he's level with Snart; he remembers how to read this man, and he's waited for this moment for too long for him to miss even the slightest twitch of an eye.

"… I am supposed to be the dumb one."

Snart is speechless for a glorious moment. If he was still the man he'd been, he would have been proud, because he remembers Snart as a man who always had a quip or a comeback. Now, though, Snart seems to be struggling to even get one word out:

"How?"

It's been lifetimes since he saw this face, and he revels in the insecurity he sees there. He remembers that uncertainty was never Snart's favorite emotion, and predictably, in the next breath, Snart falls back on anger:

"I think I deserve to know what the hell is going on here!" He hides his fear under a mask of fury, rattles his cuffs, and oh how helpless he must feel if Captain Cold is driven to such an outburst.

His captive's violent reaction soothes something in him. There is a warm feeling in his chest, like a flame. His voice though, when he replies, is cold:

"You deserve nothing."

Snart's reply is instantaneous:

"Says the man who sold us out to the pirates! When I dropped you off in that forest –"

The forest. The forest where he was abandoned, where he was betrayed and left to die. Where he was found and taken. Where he lost his partner, his life, his very self. The forest. How dare he bring up the forest?

"- I meant to kill you, that was the plan."

Snart is snarling at him, like he should be grateful for what happened. The flame within him is flaring up, and as a result his voice becomes even colder.

"You should have stuck with the plan and done me a favor."

Apparently he's not the only one who remembers how to read the other. Snart hears something he's not saying, and his face morphs into something unsure for a fraction of a second. There is a pleading look in his eyes, now, peeking out behind the mask of fury.

"I may not have trusted you on the ship with the team, but I always, always, was coming back for you!"

He's yelling now, out of frustration or desperation or fear; willing him to believe him. It does not work.

"Seems like one of us lost track of time."

Snart's face crumples and his voice softens –

"Wh–, how long did you –"

– and he visibly flinches (beautiful) when he is interrupted:

"By the time they found me, I'd nearly lost my mind!"

His voice is loud, and Snart bites down but doesn't say a word, doesn't move his eyes away from his; like a child, scolded by an angry parent. Or, maybe, like a child, not daring to speak for fear of the other lashing out. Helpless, waiting for judgement. The thought cools him down, and he continues in a calmer voice:

"I was so weak, I was strangling rats to survive."

There is a suspicious glint in Snart's eyes now, and he's leaning back. Cautious. Wary. Like he knows, but doesn't want to know. He asks, anyway:

"When who found you?"

"The Time Masters."

He looks down. Remembers. Stands up and turns his back as he continues:

"They took me to a place called the Vanishing Point. Time doesn't exist there, the way it does on Earth. I've spent lifetimes being restored by them. Training by them. Fighting by them. Being reborn."

He doesn't recall all of it. He knows of the pain, but he doesn't remember it. What he does remember is the relief when the pain stopped. How broken he was, and how they put him together again, made him whole. Gave him a purpose. He remembers the man he was before, but it was a disaster of a man. He is better now. Stronger.

He also remembers fragments of people he used to know. Flashes of memories that he can't make sense of. But it doesn't matter now. The memories of the people on the Waverider are clearer, as they relate to his mission. The memories of Leonard Snart are sharp as ice shards. He can't recall the feeling of the partnership they once shared, but he knows it was there – and he knows he was betrayed. He knows that everything that's happened to him, everything that he is now, is because of the man in front of him. Leonard Snart.

A drawl from behind makes him focus:

"And when exactly did your new friends give you the … lobotomy?"

He looks at his captive, who is finally at his mercy. Snart is trying to collect himself, tries to go back to his Captain Cold persona, but he doesn't manage it completely; there is a waver in his voice, a stiffness to his shoulders.

"You think I was hunting you and your friends because the Time Masters made me?"

A couple of steps, and he's in front of his prisoner again. This time, he stays standing; towering over Snart, because he wants him to understand. Everything that's happened, and will happen, is and will be because of him.

"They barely had to ask."

Snart seems to be trying to get a grip of himself and the whole situation, his eyes narrowing when he asks:

"Then why did you just take me? Rip was right there – if you're going after all of us, why did you just take me?"

The old him would have smiled at this question; grinned, even. He doesn't, of course. He delivers his answer in a low voice:

"It will be easier to capture them if they are together. Let them find each other first, then I'll find them. And I will find them. After all, I have all the time in the world."

He takes one step forward, and enjoys that Snart has to lean back a little to look at him.

"As for you … The Time Masters can be generous. I would have gone after the Waverider no matter what, but they gave me some extra motivation."

He pauses, gives Snart a chance to realize the truth.

"They promised me you."

He lets that sink in for a moment, before he walks back towards the controls. Snart is silent for a moment – probably trying to collect himself. Then:

"Look, if you're gonna kill me, just do it already."

He does not turn around as he speaks:

"I'm not gonna kill you."

The yet is silent.

"I'm gonna take a trip back to Central City and visit your baby sister."

A swipe of his finger, and a picture of Lisa Snart is projected onto the screens, so that Snart can't help but see it. He can imagine Snart stiffening, suddenly alert behind him, and he continues:

"The beautiful thing about time travel is I get to kill her more than once."

He turns around. Snart is crumbling in front of him, and the flame inside him grows into a wildfire, and is sputtering hate and rage, because this is the man who betrayed him and he wants him to hurt, and he knows that there is no better way to hurt him than to hurt her.

"I can kill Lisa in front of you, go back in time, kill her in front of you again –"

A warning.

"– and again –"

A threat.

"– and again."

A promise.

Snart rattles his cuffs and his face is a mask of absolute fury, but before he's able to get a word out, he is interrupted, and in that moment, the fury gives way to desperation for a fraction of a second, before his mask slips back in place.

"Sir, several anomalies in the timeline suggests that the Waverider has touched down in the Nanda Parbat."

"They are already finding their way back to each other. Good. Let's leave them to it. It gives us the time we need."

He glances at Snart, who hasn't yet realized the implications of that statement.

"Chart a course to Central City, 2016!"

At that, Snart's head snaps up with worry.

"I used to think that the most beautiful thing on earth was fire. Now I know it's vengeance."

Because vengeance is fire, fire is vengeance, and they're both beautiful burning infernos to lose oneself in.