"Dad?" Inquired XS again to her father who was looking at her like a deer caught in headlights, uncertain where to start.

Considering how close she was and how she wasn't using her speed, there was no doubt that Nora was seeing the superhero's ghost and that she heard him. She probably had been witnessing the phenomena for a few seconds now. So, why was she asking the question?

"He's right there!" Exclaimed Barry as an answer, swiftly turning his whole body once more to point energetically at the spot where Cisco was standing. His action was made just in time to see Vibe finishing to disappear entirely in the air like a mirage.

"There! You saw that?" He inquired feverishly. He was finally going to have a witness to testify his seeing. He now had a proof he wasn't going crazy and that Cisco was alive.

Except, when he faced Nora again, it was to see the young woman frowning deeply in apparent confusion, "dad, there's no one there."

Upon hearing these words, Barry's whole expression fell instantly, just like a kick suddenly landed in his guts. His daughter's answer left him with this numbing sensation spreading in his entire being and with a bitter taste in his mouth. It was like being hit by lightning all over again; Nora was behind him as he spoke his last words to his deceased friends; there was no way for her to miss it, right?

"He... h... was... r'gh there," he stuttered awkwardly, blinking. "Cisco was there."

Sadness and anguish slowly took over the young woman's face who gently, as she was approaching her father the same way she would approach a scared child, went to grab Barry's arm.

"Come on; let's go see if Caitlin is awake."

"He's still alive, I think he might still be," he tried to explain to his daughter, whose features were filled with sadness and pity, as she was trying to drag him away.

"I know, I know. Come on," softly answered Nora.

Sighing deeply and giving in, Barry allowed himself to be slowly taken away and toward the medical bay where he knew more exams would await him.

What else was he supposed to do, other than allowed it? So, that's what he did.

"There, I'm all done," confirmed Caitlin, almost a full hour later, while looking down at the tablet in her hands one last time for confirmation, "I have all the data I need."

Nodding slowly, Barry proceeded to uncross his arms that were resting on his chest and sitting up in the medical bed before disconnecting the sensors on both sides of his head.

"You're okay?" Gently asked Iris to her husband.

The woman was sitting right next to the bed, at the same place she had been during the whole examination, to support the hero during the series of tests to try and investigate the cause of his visions.

"I am," assured Barry, turning his head in her direction to face her and forcing a smile on his lips.

After depositing her electronic device on her desk and taking off her gloves, Caitlin turned on herself and made her way back to the back to collect the sensors that Barry was handing to her. Doing so, she walked right next to Nora who was standing still near the door to stay out of the way while still being there for her family.

"So, what's wrong?" XS worriedly asked with her arms crossed on her chest. "What's causing the visions?"

Without looking at her interlocutor, since the doctor was busy taking back all her equipment, including the pulse oximeter at the tip of Barry's finger, she carefully answered. "I'm not sure just yet; his vitals are good, and the preliminary data don't seem to indicate anything out of the ordinary."

"I told you, I'm fine," reinterred Barry for the hundredth time since being brought back to the medical bay for examination.

Honestly, he was feeling as far away as possible from the definition of fine, mentally speaking at least. But he hated all the looks being thrown at him. What just unfolded was a shock and a setback, but like Joe once told him, his greatest power wasn't his speed, it was his ability to keep his head up and stay optimistic. After everything they've faced in the last couple of years, including aliens and his daughter from the future, a logical explanation wasn't out of the question just yet. They just needed to find it. And it wasn't him going crazy.

Looking around, the hero started visually searching for his shirt he took off and handed to his wife when he arrived in the room, quickly finding it on the back of Iris' chair and gesturing at it.

"Hallucinations usually happened when our brain is unable to distinguish the difference between what's truly there and what's being generated by our mind. It's usually triggered when something goes wrong in the relationship between the brain's frontal lobe and the sensory cortex," explained Caitlin after deposing everything back and finally positioning herself in a way where she could face the whole West-Allen clan.

"So, is that what's happening?" Inquired Iris while giving back her husband's shirt who started putting it on again.

"I can't seem to find any issues in my scans; there weren't any indications of an overactive auditory cortex or overactive visual cortex, nor did I find any signs of brain damages. So that's the good news," Caitlin continued while Iris instinctively reached out and grabbed her husband's left hand, "it might just be a temporary side effect of everything Barry's going through; lack of sleep and grief are the most common triggers leading to sporadic hallucinations."

Barry tensed up after hearing Caitlin's last sentence. What he's been through? It happened to all of them, hasn't it? What happened to all of them also grieving their friend? But it's true that guilt was hitting him the strongest, by far. And that this same sentiment had exponentially increased his grief.

"Now that we've concluded that I'm not going schizophrenic, can we contemplate the possibility that it might be real?" Asked Barry prudently, weighing in every word.

"Look, Barry," started to answer Caitlin after a quick shared glance with the hero's wife. "When Ronnie died the first time, or at least I thought he did, I could still feel his presence. I could've sworn a few times he was still there, and I almost heard his voice more than once. These things happen when you lose someone you care about, it will pass. Just give it time."

Unconsciously, Barry closed his fists and squeezed his wife's hand before loudly protesting. "I'm telling you, it's not like that. It was real; he was standing right in front of me just like you are right now."

"Dad, I don't think Caitlin's saying you didn't see it," intervened Nora, walking closer to the group gathered around the bed. "all we're saying is that your mind is playing tricks on you."

Frustrated, the hero shook his head and freed his hand out of Iris' grasp to gesticulate uncontrollably in the air, unable to find the right way to convince everyone.

"He was asking me for help, he was asking me to find him," explained Barry, looking straight into the doctor's eyes before putting his thought into words, "I think he might still be alive, but trapped somewhere. He needs our help; he's been needing it for over a week now!"

"Barr-"

"Don't Barry me; I know what I heard and I know what I saw," as he was speaking, Barry turned around to lock his glance on his wife, searching for any support. "Do you remember when Harry tried to make another particle explosion to give me back my powers? Do you remember how I disappeared out of nowhere?"

Hit by the painful memories that rushed back, Iris gulped. How could she forget that instant when she thought Barry had been evaporated into nothing right in front of her eyes? Unable to speak for a second, she merely nodded, allowing her husband to continue;

"That's what must've happened to Cisco; he just got transported somewhere else, and he's waiting for us to rescue him," presented Barry to his very sceptical audience. "He was there, I'm telling you. He was also there when the shadow attacked us," He insisted strongly.

"Except, why were you the only one who could see him? I didn't," pointed out his daughter.

"I didn't see Cisco during the attack," reminded Caitlin, "and he wasn't on the cameras either."

Barry paused for just a second with his mind working at overtime to search for an answer that could explain all the holes in his theory. As soon as an idea hit his mind, he continued talking. "We've seen this before, with Savitar, remember? He wasn't showing up on any cameras, and only speedsters could see him."

Without even considering the possibility for a second, Nora instantly negatively shook her head and reminded. "But, I didn't see or hear anything and I'm a speedster."

"There's also no reason for Cisco to be in the Speed-force," added Caitlin.

"Alright then, maybe the shadow took him somewhere, and Cisco's trying to vibe me. Maybe he only managed to make a connection with me. It could be possible, right? Maybe that shadow took him into a pocket dimension, like the ones Devoe was using."

Shrugs, hesitation, and silence were the only answers Barry received for a moment before Caitlin found new words to contradict him.

"I... I don't think so, I'm sorry," answered the doctor for the rest of them. "Look, Barry, we believe you when you say that you've seen him. We're not saying you're crazy. You've just been overworking, not eating well and not sleeping a lot since it happened. It's just your mind struggling to find his right balance again, Cisco's gone and the sooner you'll realize that, the easier it will be to move on."

Her short speech caused the West-Allen women to nod their approval, a little gesture that didn't help to calm the speedster down, quite the opposite.

"What's wrong with all of you?" He shouted accusingly. "Why can't you at least consider the possibility he might still be alive?"

"Barry, lis-"

"No! I'm done listening," snapped the hero, interrupting his wife. "You, listen. It's Cisco we're talking about; we can't give up on him like that! It's like you want him to be dead! He was your friend!"

When the hero failed to get the desired reactions, except for a few half-guilty eyes, Barry growled in frustration and moved his body to move his legs over the edge of the bed. After that was done, he pushed against the mattress with the palms of his hands with the clear intention of getting up. His actions caused Nora to walk the few feet remaining between herself and her dad and reached out for him, without daring to make physical contact.

"Where are you going? You should be resting."

"If no one is willing to search for Cisco, then I will," he stated, finishing to get out of bed and orienting himself toward the door.

"Wait," intervened Caitlin, walking in his path with a conflicted and hard to decrypt expression around her eyes as she pushed back her hair behind her shoulders. "You're right. We owed him that much; we owe him to look."

The relief that should've washed over the speeder at this instant never came. It was what Barry wanted to hear a moment earlier, so why wasn't he happy about it? Something wasn't right, but he couldn't put his finger on what that was. His eyebrows furrowed instead for an instant, and his expression lasted long enough for the doctor to continue.

"What's your plan?"

Barry shrugged. Honestly? He didn't have much time to think about one; he just had one vague idea and was hoping to see where it would go from there.

"Um… I thought about going on Earth 19 first and find Gypsy," he suggested. This time, it was Iris' turn to frown in confusion.

"Why Gypsy, I don't-"

"She's a breacher, and she's vibing on the same frequencies than Cisco. If there's anyone in the entire multiverse who can tell us if Cisco is still alive, anywhere, or where he could be, it's her."

Iris nodded her understanding and approval, even if her position behind her husband made it impossible for him to see the action.

"That's as good as a start as any, except for the part you're still having trouble doing pretty much anything with your powers at the moment," she reminded.

"Let me go, I'll find her," said Nora, deciding to intervene in the conversation. "I could leave in a few minutes if you want. Just tell me what she looks like and where I'm supposed to find her and I'll go."

Oh right, his powers were still malfunctioning, to say the least. Barry had genuinely forgotten about that for a second. Looks like he didn't have a choice here.

"We got this, go rest. You look exhausted," added Caitlin, a comment to which Barry could only agree. He was feeling like laying down again.

"Alright, just keep me updated," he requested before dragging his heavy feet outside the lab. If he didn't know any better, he would say that it was almost like the team didn't want to have Cisco back. Like they wanted him to stay dead.

That's unless he was one in complete denial and the only one unable to accept the cold truth. What was up and what was down? Barry couldn't tell anymore, and it was scaring him more than he was willing to admit. There was nobody to get grabbed by Cicada or the shadow, or anyone else, the only things that remained was Vibe's shredded suit. The odds are that Cisco wasn't coming back, ever. What if Gypsy was a dead end? What then? For how long could he send the team on a wild goose chase?

"Just don't think about it right now," he told himself out loud as he turned the corner of the hallway and caught a glimpse of the elevator.

Unconsciously, Barry rose his left hand and brought it to his forehead. Who turned on the heat? There wasn't a single drop of sweat to be wipe despite the walking-in-a-sauna sensation. As vertigo hit, hard, out of nowhere, the speedster stumbled and barely caught himself on the wall, leaning against it with all his mass to stay upright. Was that another attack?

"Arrgg," suddenly gasped the hero at the surprise emergence of a familiar pain in his back, answering his question.

"Barry-" growled the unnaturally deep and distorted voice a second before the ominous shadow flew right through the elevator's door and appeared in front of his enemy.

"Wh… 'ou… w-" tried to ask Barry, obliged to stop halfway in his sentence to reroute all his energy into his shaking legs and to dig his nails into the wall he was leaning on, desperately trying to stay on his feet.

"Wh're 's Cisco?" he asked to the creature that was closing the distance between them. It was only 15 feet away. 10 feet now.

The floating arm extended itself in the direction of the speedster who couldn't move an inch without risking losing his precious and delicate balance.

"Barry," growled the creature again, reaching out for the man's shoulder.

The instant it made contact, a blinding pain shook Barry's insides and spread all over in the blink of an eye. His whole body was overheating, and acid was burning in every vein of his body. The CSI's mouth opened widely intending to shout out in pain, but gasps were the only things to come out.

His knees buckled underneath him, but no additional pain registered from hitting the ground as Barry's whole body was already completely numb and overwhelmed by the waves of agony controlled by the unknown creature. At this very moment, the one thing Barry wished for the most, with all his heart, was just to pass out and leave all this agony behind. Why couldn't he pass out? The pain was too much to hold on and fight.

Just as he started to feel the blissful relief of darkness, a voice nudged him back into reality, only the slightest.

"Barry?" Called out Iris.

No. Iris couldn't be there. She might've saved him last time, but from the sound of her calm tone, she wasn't anywhere near ready to fight, and he was helpless to assist.

"Ir'... do't... com' he-" he struggled to say before closing his eyes once more and swallowing with difficulty, just before a shiver appeared in his body and swiftly moved through all his body, the cold sensation heavily contrasting with the lava taking him over and overheating him.

"Ir… ris," he whispered before he lost all contact to his limbs and body and darkness enveloped him completely, taking him away.

The last sound he heard before going under was his wife urgently calling out for him, and the final thought that crossed his mind was that he was going to wake up and lose her the same way he lost Cisco.

A/N: Are you guys still so sure Cisco's alive and Barry isn't going crazy? ;) Your comments are always deeply appreciated, as always