This started out as playing with some silliness I had regarding Evil!Caitlin and Ronnie, and the moment with Cisco taking a few steps back as they stalked him in the trailer. Then it developed into a whole Cisco character study and honestly. My brain sometimes.
He had to take a step back, then two.
It was Ronnie. Ronnie, all in black, here, not dead, not torn apart, not a living nuclear meltdown. But that sneer. On his face.
And that? That was Caitlin. He knew her. Sometimes he knew her better than anyone, he thought, but -
Her hair.
And her eyes.
And, well, let's just say his Caitlin wouldn't have laced herself into that corset even on Halloween.
He'd been on the sharp end of her icy stares before (there was a certain incident involving her centrifuge being repurposed for making cotton candy) (honestly it wasn't like it had even been her good centrifuge) (and he'd cleaned it out anyway) but this was something different.
This was a look like a cat playing with a mouse.
Cisco could practically feel his whiskers quiver.
She prowled forward, Ronnie smirking behind her, and Cisco had taken another couple steps back when he realized that darkness was closing in around him. He risked a look around and realized he was being herded into a blind alley, thick with shadows. His heart leapt up in his throat, pounding like a rabbit's. He tried to scoot sideways, she lunged forward, and he fetched up against the wall of the alley with a yelp.
She planted her hand by his head so the mist rolling off her skin swirled around him like a graveyard fog. He wanted to shut his eyes so badly. But she was whispering something to him now, and like an idiot he said, "What?"
"I said, you can't extract us, sir."
He blinked at her.
"I don't know what's going on, but we're close. I know it. And this might be our best chance to get them into Iron Heights for good. Please, please, please, sir, give us one more week."
He said faintly, "What."
She still leered at him, one hand on her hip, cold spilling off her like an open freezer. She honestly looked like she was getting revved up to cryo his windpipe.
But the words didn't fit.
Ronnie stepped forward, arms crossed over the scary-ass black leather (the little part of Cisco's brain that existed to design suits took note). He loomed like Andre the Giant, all but cracking his knuckles, and said in the same undertone, "Is it Zoom? Is he back?"
"Even if he is," Caitlin said very fast, "we can step up operations. I mean, it won't be as thorough but they'll be on the inside and -"
"Sure," Cisco squeaked, and cleared his throat. "Sure. That sounds good. Okay. No problem. I'm gonna." He sidled along the wall a few steps. "Gotta get outta here. You guys, um, keep doing what you're doing. See ya."
"Wait," Caitlin said.
Aw, hell.
Ronnie's eyes narrowed. "Sir," he said softly.
"Mmhmm?" he managed, trying to battle his way past the complete weirdness of being called sir by a dude who was a) probably dead in his universe and b) one of his best friends and c) honestly the one out of the two of them who Cisco would have figured on being called sir, because, seriously, look at that chiseled jaw. Just look at it.
"Cait," Ronnie said. "That's not Cisco."
"Oh god," Caitlin said, and grabbed his arm.
"Ow," he said faintly.
She peered into his face. "Oh, my god. How did we miss that?"
"It's a good copy. What do you think, Everyman?"
"Has to be. Bates," she spat. "What are you up to and why did you slither out of your hole? And how did you know to put on this skin of all skins, hmm?"
The hand around his arm went cold, chilling his flesh right through his jacket. "I'm not Hannibal Bates!" he yelped.
Fire flared in Ronnie's eyes, and Cisco could swear he smelled smoke. "Oh? Then how do you explain how you knew his first name?"
"I - I - I - "
"Guys. Stand down."
The voice came from the mouth of the alley. The owner of the voice stepped forward, two steps, three, strolling like he was ambling through a 7-11.
Eyes still afire, Ronnie looked back at him. "Sir, Bates is - "
"That's not Bates. If you murder him, you'll fuck up the multiverse and I'll have the migraine from hell for a week and a half. Now stand down. "
Caitlin let go of him, and stepped aside enough so that Cisco could see -
Himself.
Not. Himself.
His doppelganger, his other like these people in front of him were the others of Caitlin and Ronnie.
Other Cisco gave him a crooked smile. "Sorry about all this."
Cisco tried to say, "S'all good" but managed, "Sauhghlbl."
Neither Ronnie nor Caitlin looked at him. They were both focused on their - boss? "How do we know you're you, sir?" Caitlin asked.
He raised his brows. "Feeling paranoid?"
"It's a fair point," Ronnie said. "This is a little weird right now."
"You want proof? The last batch of receipts you submitted included ten dollars and thirty-five cents for a jumbo bag of lollipops. Way overpriced, FYI."
Ronnie snickered. "Told you that you should've gone with cigarettes, babe."
Caitlin huffed. "Okay, for one thing, a burning cigarette would completely disrupt the entire tone of Killer Frost. And for another, do you know how bad smoking is for you?"
Cisco almost slid right down to the asphalt at that. Because Killer Frost Caitlin, and calling-him-sir Caitlin, and even suspicious and possibly murderous Caitlin, those were all as alien as the moon. But this, Caitlin grousing and persnickety and a little superior, was close enough to the Caitlin he knew that every muscle in his body relaxed into it.
Of course, she still had that white hair and those ice blue eyes, so it wasn't his Caitlin, but it was a welcome and comforting change.
"So if he's not Bates, then who is he?"
The other Cisco glanced at him. "Well?" he asked. "How about you clue us in?"
Cisco blinked, and cleared his throat, which was desert-dry. "Y-you seem to know."
"They don't. G'wan. It's fine."
"I'm - " He had to clear his throat again. "I'm from another … universe."
They both fired questions at him like bullets.
"You came through the breach?"
"Are you working with Zoom?"
"Totally the opposite," Cisco said. "We're trying to save someone from him. And, uh, defeat him."
"Need any help?" Ronnie asked.
"Best if you don't," Other Cisco said. "Trust me on this. Bottom line, you can leave him alone. And if I was going to extract you guys, this wouldn't be the way I'd do it, turning up on your mean streets like I had BAIT tattooed on my forehead."
"… hey," Cisco said.
"I did think it was strange," Caitlin said. She looked from Cisco to his counterpart. "He looks so much like you."
"I always told you doppelgangers were a thing. We can talk about it later, though. Right now - " Other Cisco jerked his head. "Go be bad guys. Finish your mission."
Ronnie nodded and started for the head of the alley. With another penetrating look (amazing how those eyes, a completely different color than he was used to, were so quintessentially Caitlin's), she followed.
"Stay safe," Other Cisco said as she passed.
Her step hitched a little at the words, and she continued on out of the alley.
Cisco found that he'd slumped halfway down the wall and couldn't seem to get up. He let gravity take over and slid down until his butt hit the ground.
Other Cisco crouched next to him. "Hey," he said softly. "I'm sorry it went that far. I came as fast as I could, once I realized I was vibing about you and not myself. You're from the 'verse where Eobard Thawne came through and screwed it all up, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"And killed you."
"You saw that?"
"Yeah. This bringing that back? I'm sorry. Really I am. I promise, the Killer part of her name is all show. She's never killed anyone."
"She's fucking terrifying."
"Well, yeah, but - " Other Cisco put his hand on the back of Cisco's neck. "But it's not her, is it? It's bringing stuff back. Having your life threatened again - "
Cisco nodded.
"I can say she wouldn't all I want, but I know how scary she can be. It's okay to be freaked. You just let it settle. Breathe. In through the nose, hold … aaaannd out. Okay, good. Again."
Cisco followed instructions from his other self (like his life wasn't a Twilight Zone ep before) and felt the rabbit leap of his pulse slow, felt his heart slide back in place in his chest.
"Better?"
"Getting there."
Other Cisco held him by the shoulder. "Don't get up until you aren't lying about that. I'll stay with you."
"You don't - " Other Cisco was important. He had undercover agents to worry about. He knew shit about Zoom. He was probably too busy to wait around until Cisco stopped wheezing. "You've probably got better things to do than sit here with me."
"No big. I've got Candy Crush on my phone."
"They have Candy Crush here?"
Other Cisco looked him in the eye. "They have Candy Crush in every universe."
It pulled a laugh out of him, and his counterpart smiled.
With the smile, Cisco felt comfortable enough to ask, "Why'd they call you sir?"
He shifted, shrugging. "I'm sorta? Their boss."
"Me? I mean, you. Boss?"
"Right?" He tapped his fingers on the brick of the alley wall. "It's very hush hush. The whole group is sort of, erm, demi-legal and shadowy to begin with. Lots of masks and secret identities. Half of them don't even know I'm the one pulling all the strings. I'm just the guy hanging out on the computer. But we are the good guys. We bring the bad guys in."
"Does Joe know?"
"Joe?"
"West. Detective Joe West."
"I don't know a Joe West. I know a Detective Iris West-Allen, and officially she's in the dark, if you get me."
"I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a demi-legal vigilante metahuman group operating in Central City?"
"You got it."
"Does she know you, though? That you're the boss?"
"She thinks I'm just the gadget guy. Which is a good thing, considering the pissy messages she tells me to pass along to my 'boss.'"
"Okay, you must be way different than me - " Although looking at him, Cisco wasn't so sure of that. "Because my jam is, I make suits and toys and names and - look, bosses're like, big picture dudes."
"Yeah," Other Cisco said. "And with my vibes, I'm the ginormous picture dude." His mouth quirked up pleasantly. "Trust me, I didn't expect this gig either, but here I am."
"How did you even?" Cisco asked. "I mean, how does a community-college drop-out - " He thought suddenly, maybe it hadn't happened that way, here.
"- become the super-secret head of a secret society of superheroes?" Other Cisco finished, then paused and wrinkled his nose. "Ugh. No. Bad. Gotta think of better."
"Too much alliteration," Cisco agreed. He wasn't a fan of alliteration. A little too snappy and often punny, although sometimes it could work.
Other Cisco returned to the question, shrugging. "I started having visions almost right after the accelerator blew. I thought I was going nuts until they started coming true, and then I was frustrated about out of my mind because I saw things happening but I couldn't do anything. Until I started getting visions of people who could."
"So you, what, recruited them?"
"That sounds so organized," he snorted. "Nope, I dudded up in a hoodie and sunglasses and appeared in dark alleys and parking garages to say stuff like, 'I know what you can do. Be at First and Wabash tomorrow at 11:43 am and I'll answer the rest of your questions.' All very Cancer Man. But it worked."
"What about the Flash? Was he one of the people you contacted?"
"Him? He didn't need me. He made that much clear. The Flash doesn't need anybody. But after awhile, everything started getting more organized. We started meeting at a place, and we started having codenames, and then - " He shrugged. "Everybody in that inner circle, the ones I first contacted, was looking at me like, 'hey boss, what do?' So I, uh, started being the boss. Because somebody had to."
"At least you get to work with your two best friends," Cisco said wistfully. Seeing Ronnie, alive and well, had brought back missing him with a twist like a knife in his chest.
And Caitlin … well, their lives back on their Earth were busy and crazy and he saw her every day, so it made no sense to miss her.
"Best friends? Well. I guess. I mean, they've been part of the group the longest. Mostly background, like me, working to support the metas' powers. But they've always been, you know, kind of insular and self-sufficient." A flicker of wistfulness crossed his face. "I never worked at Star Labs, you know."
"Sorry, man."
"It's okay. I just wish she - they would drop the 'sir' thing. At least when it's just us."
Cisco watched his own face for a few minutes, reading things in it that he knew he never would have let slip out. He let them lie.
They talked for awhile about Zoom, comparing notes. His counterpart didn't know much more than Cisco did - apparently Zoom really kept up this whole mysterious bad guy thing - but he was able to drop a few clues, and he was glad to get the scraps of information that Cisco could pass on.
"Woulda been nice to get this from the Flash awhile ago," Other Cisco said with surprising bitterness. Or maybe not so surprising, considering.
"Jay's not so bad," Cisco said. "Once you get to know him."
"Oh, sure, he rescues puppies and damsels, but there are metahumans out there that he couldn't give two shits for." His counterpart shook his head. "Never mind. When I think about him, I grind my teeth and my dentist is pissed enough at me."
Cisco couldn't argue it. He might not be the boss-man of a metahuman vigilante crew, but he'd definitely lucked out, Flash-wise and friend-wise.
"So, you better now? Not so shaky on your pins?"
"Yup."
"Okay." Other Cisco rummaged in his pocket. "Here's my number," he said, scrawling on a scrap of paper out of a battered notebook. "Gimme a call if you need any cavalry over the next twenty-four hours. I'll keep my vibes tuned your way."
Cisco accepted it. His phone didn't work here, of course, but if he had the number he could sweet-talk any coffee shop or library into letting him use theirs. "Thanks."
"Hey, it's what we do. You'd better find your friend." He squinted into the near distance. "He's at the southwest police station. Probably with Detective West-Allen."
"How'd you do that?" Cisco demanded. He really, really had to get his vibes trained if this was what was possible.
"Not a vibe," his other self said. "I just checked for the only other frequency in this whole city that matched yours. If you take the red line north and jump off at the Jefferson street station, it's half a block down. There's a monorail station two blocks that way. Ronnie'll escort you, if you're okay with that."
"I - I guess."
He pulled out his phone and sent a text. "He'll hang back. It won't be obvious. They can actually be subtle when they're not being all Look How Evil I Can Be. I'll wait so nobody sees the two of us together." He helped Cisco up.
"Thanks. For everything."
"Like I said. It's what I do."
Cisco started to walk away, then stopped and turned around. "Hey, man."
His other looked up. The pale glare of his phone screen lit him garishly from below, throwing his eyes into deepest shadow. "Yeah?"
"Who was it who started calling you sir? Ronnie or Caitlin?"
"Caitlin," he said after a pause.
"You wanna know why?"
"Uh. Yeah. Sure, I guess."
"Because she knows you don't like it, and she's holding you at arm's length."
"Why?"
"Because she doesn't wanna hold you at arm's length. But she's married to a man she loves, so - " Cisco shrugged. "She thinks she should."
Other Cisco blinked a few times and then said cautiously, "That's an … an interesting theory."
"I know Caitlin," he said. "I know her real well and I saw the way she looked at you. Look, you take that information however you want. Forget it, even. But you seem like you're lonely, and if I can help fix that, I will."
"Thanks," his other self said. "Stay safe, all right?"
"You too."
FINIS