Siren’s Song
“You know what I want,” Black Siren said, staring down Zoom as only a courageous few had ever dared. The rest were dead, but he still needed her. “Give me your word.”
Zoom narrowed his eyes at her boldness, but didn’t remark upon it. “Fine,” he said simply, “if you find him first, you can have him. As for the others, their orders remain the same.”
It was as good as she was likely to get, so she nodded her acquiescence.
“Understood.”
Of all the people anyone had expected Laurel’s evil doppelganger to seek out, Cisco was at the very bottom of the list.
While Barry was fighting two of her metahuman henchmen, the woman who called herself Black Siren had cornered Cisco in an alley. Behind her two more metas guarded the mouth of the alley as she advanced on Cisco, taking slow, deliberate steps toward him.
“You really do look like him,” she remarked, looking him up and down critically.
Cisco closed his eyes and fervently regretted his decision not to cut his hair to discourage that very comparison. “Please tell me you’re not after me because of him.”
Her black lips twitched into a smile. “In a manner of speaking.”
“I didn’t kill him!” Cisco insisted, holding up his hands and taking a step back. “Whatever Zoom told you-”
“Zoom told me nothing,” Siren cut him off, “and I know you didn’t kill him. You don’t have that kind of power.”
“Hey,” Cisco said indignantly, “I’ve got skills you don’t even know about, okay? Reverb ain’t got nothing on me.”
Siren’s lip curled. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?” she suggested.
She opened her mouth, and the most horrible, screeching scream spilled forth. Cisco and the two henchmen all clapped their hands over their ears, but while the two behind her were out of the line of fire Cisco was taking the full brunt of it. He yelled in pain, the noise drowned out by the god awful sound of Siren’s cry, and Cisco knew he wouldn’t last long like this. If there was ever a time to unlock the rest of Reverb’s powers, this was it.
Cisco removed one hand from his ear and, praying to god and the speed force that this would work, stretched it out towards Black Siren.
I just want her to stop, he thought desperately. Whatever it takes, just make her stop!
He curled his fingers inward, willing whatever power was inside him the quell the sound being directed at him, and suddenly Siren’s scream began to get softer. After a moment the two henchmen took their hands off their ears and stared at her, and Siren touched her neck gingerly as her voice quite literally died in her throat.
Once she had been silenced, Cisco looked at his own hand in amazement. It looked the same as it always had. He looked up, to find that Black Siren was staring at him with wide eyes.
“So,” she said quietly, “you do have the same power as him.”
Then she turned her attention to something over Cisco’s left shoulder. “Take him!” she ordered.
Before Cisco could even turn around, everything went black.
Cisco woke up lying on the bed of what appeared to be a really nice hotel room. He was above the blankets but they were soft, high thread count, and everything else in the large room was lavishly decorated with gold accents. It would have been almost nice, if it weren’t for the fact that sitting at the foot of the bed was the supervillainess who’d just tried to kill him.
Cisco scrambled back against the pillows, then winced as a sore spot on the back of his head banged against the headboard. “Ow,” he said, sucking in air through his teeth.
“So,” said Black Siren, “you really are Reverb’s counterpart, in every possible way. You have the same power that he had.”
“You sound like you were a fan,” Cisco said waspishly. “You’re not here to kill me, so why do you want me?”
Siren smiled wickedly. “Reverb was my lover,” she said, eyeing Cisco with a predatory look.
Cisco’s eyes went wide. “No way,” he snapped, “I’m no one’s replacement goldfish. I’ll die before you get me the wear my hair like that. Besides, Zoom sent Rupture to kill me, you think he’s not gonna make you do it if he knows you’ve got me?”
“Zoom said I could have you if I found you first,” Siren informed him.
“And you believe him?” Cisco raised an eyebrow.
“Not in the slightest,” Siren said dryly, making Cisco stare at her in confusion. “He killed Reverb; there’s no way he’s going to let you live.”
Cisco frowned. “Then, what are we doing here?”
“You,” Siren smiled a sly, satisfied smile, “are going to help me get my revenge.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Cisco asked in disbelief.
“Reverb and I used to help each other experiment with our powers,” she explained. “One of the things we found that his powers could do was cut that speed freak off from whatever power it is-”
“The speed force,” Cisco supplied.
“Whatever,” Siren said dismissively, “the point is Reverb could stop him, which means so can you.”
Cisco shook his head in denial. “That was the first time I’ve ever used my powers like that,” he protested. “I don’t even know how I did it!”
“Then I’ll teach you,” she insisted, shifting closer to him. “Like I said, I trained with him. I know how your powers work.”
“We don’t have time for that!” Cisco argued. “It could take weeks, months, for me to master a power like that! Too many things could go wrong: we could be found out, I could-”
At that point his tirade was cut off when Black Siren leaned in and kissed him.
At first Cisco was too stunned to do anything besides let his mouth fall open in surprise. Then she started kissing him with more intent, and for a minute there he lost his senses. When he finally found the presence of mind to turn away, Siren herself was already pulling back.
“Hm,” she hummed, “looks like that works on you too.”
“Um,” said Cisco intelligently, “I-”
Siren took hold of his face with one hand, her black nails digging painfully into his cheek.
“You’re going to let me teach you how to stop Zoom,” she said, in a low, dangerous voice. “And then, you’re going to stop him so that I can kill him. Understood?”
Cisco swallowed, then nodded. “Understood.”