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The first time Barry Allen shows up at his lab, indignant and ready to be a hero, Eobard holds himself back from laughing. Barry is just so... Self-righteous.
It's funny. It's infuriating. It's exactly who he wanted the Flash to be when he first traveled back to meet him and, for that, it's also painfully nostalgic. In this moment, Barry Allen looks like the kind of person people could, will, make statues of. Dedicate a museum to.
Quietly, inwardly, it makes Eobard seethe.
The Flash, lecturing him about taking responsibility for his actions?
He lashes out. He digs into Barry's vulnerable, and metaphorical, throat. He lies.
"You're not special." He says with so many words, reflecting that self-righteousness right back at him using the face of a man long dead, a man Eobard killed and left as a husk. A face Barry looks up to. "You're not good enough," He whispers.
Barry runs. Eobard's anger deflates as soon as he doesn't have to see the Flash's smug face. He leaves as well, ostensibly to stew on his own guilt. Caitlin sends him a concerned look on his way out and he rewards her with a wane smile.
He doesn't think for a second that denying Barry his heroics will stick. He knows the Flash better than that, even without the fourteen years of stalking and cameras and covert microphones in his therapy appointments. Even if he couldn't see the earnest fervor of justice shining in Barry's eyes.
The Flash, the Flash he knows, has an ego far too developed to allow criminals to run in his streets. And that's all there is to it.
Later, Barry will look back on this moment and say, "Dr. Wells can't be manipulating me - he didn't even want me to be a hero in the first place!" Not the man who took care of Barry Allen for nine long months, not the man who worried for his safety to such a degree.
Seeing Barry's face like that, taken aback and wounded, like the disparaging words from his hero had physically struck him. Well. That was a delightful bonus.
Cisco and Caitlin's quiet conversation in the Cortex washes over him through the speakers. They want to help Barry. He smiles bitterly. Defying their beloved Dr. Wells already. They'd grown incredibly attached to Barry while he was in his coma, and even more so now that he's woken from it. That's fortunate; work is always easier when there are people available to delegate some to. And getting Barry faster is going to take a lot of work.
The cameras in the city lost sight of Barry long before Eobard made it to the Time Vault, but he's mapped out a general trajectory; Barry is running to Starling City. Right into Oliver Queen's loving, and encouraging, arms.
He monitors the situation - a role he's familiar with. He adjusts a satellite Caitlin re-tasked. He goes over Cisco's specifications on the suit. He waits.
All he can do now is wait.