Cisco hovered, directionless inside the breach. He needed to focus on a specific moment, a time, a place- something, in order to allow himself to get there. He knew he was looking for Reverb... even though he'd died on Earth 2. But there had to be more versions of him. Or at least a way to go back to the day Cisco and the team had arrived on Earth 2.

He wasn't sure which idea it was that was leading him, but he was being transported. And when he felt his feet hit solid ground, that low monotone spoke from behind him,

"Back so soon, Vibe?"

Cisco took a deep breath and forced himself to turn toward him. This was his last shot.

"What did you mean, when you said you could teach me how to use my powers?"

"Exactly what I said. Now," Reverb stalked forward, his presence seeming huge, even though Cisco knew they were the same size, "What do you need to know?"

Cisco ran a nervous hand through his hair. He wanted to Vibe back. Return to his Earth. His timeline. But back there was just Barry, and not Dante. And he wasn't sure if he could ever reconcile that fact.

"Can you... can we change the timelines we can see?"

"To do what?"

"Bring back my brother." Cisco could feel his voice starting to shake, but he was determined to keep steady.

"You can't change the pasts that you can see... but you could take some life, and give it to Dante."

A life for a life.

Fuck it.

"How do I do it?"

Reverb smiled. It was terrifying, but Cisco was desperate.

"Funny, Francisco... I never thought you'd actually take this route. It's your life, by the way. That's the only one you can take from."

"How do you know that? You're alive, you can't have tried this."

"You don't die, Cisco. Only your soul does."

This put Reverb into a whole new light. It explained everything he couldn't understand about him. It explained why he had all the same powers, but he was better at using them. It explained why he was so empty. So cruel.

"Okay... How do I do it?"

"You give up."


Cisco burst out of the breach and staggered forward into his own timeline. Blood dripped from his nostril, but it wasn't gushing. How the hell was he not anemic at this point- not important. He fell to the ground... it was pavement. Looking around he saw he was in the parking lot at STAR labs.

"Give up..." he said out loud, trying to decipher what the fuck it meant.

Did he just have to become... Reverb? Or like him, at least? That seemed like what he was saying. So, okay... okay, okay, okay... gotta stop caring. Give up his ties to life, to humanity. Just embrace the world through its vibrations, and dismiss the emotional reality of it all.

Dismiss the years of believing his parents thought Dante was better than him. Dismiss the romantic rivalries with Dante through school. Dismiss the jealousy when he found that Barry had amazingly useful powers and his own were too abstract. Dismiss the longing to be with the someone love him like Caitlin loved Ronnie. To be with someone like Caitlin. To be with-


Barry stood in Cisco's workshop, taking in the horror he should've noticed earlier.

Notes upon notes on the natural vibrations of a beating, human heart. Of the inflation and deflation of lungs. Of the flow of blood. Cisco had been determining the vibrational patterns of human life.

The thought was a scary one, but what made it worse was the picture of Dante he had framed on his desk. It hadn't been there before. And now it was here, undisturbed amongst the otherwise messy workspace.

'Obsessing' was too harsh a word to use to describe how Cisco had been working. His brother had died, and he'd gone to work trying to figure out how to bring him back using his own powers. It was insane but not... not any different than what Barry had done after his father had been killed.

And what Barry had done... may have gotten Dante killed. So if Cisco was working toward the same type of goal Barry had worked toward... shit.

Barry burst through the lab, loose papers flying off tabletops as he passed. He was out the doors, planning on heading to Cisco's apartment when he slowed in the parking lot, finding Cisco was actually there.

There and bleeding again. Shit, shit, shit.

"Cisco?"

He was on his feet, at least. That was a good thing, right?

Cisco turned around slowly, intentionally. His eyes looked dead. In a cold, low monotone he said,

"Flash."