Cisco

Sunday, October 14th

Cisco followed Caitlin back to the speed lab. Barry was recovered and was arguing with Ralph about something that no one was really sure of.

"You guys ready to get back to it?" Iris asked the two re-arrivals.

"Yeah, all rested up," Caitlin said awkwardly. Caitlin was usually a good liar, maybe it was an off day. The rest of the training session went as normal, there were no further deterrents and finally everyone dispersed.

For his part, Cisco went straight back to his lab to look over his notes again. He hoped that with Caitlin's help he could finally make this work. No sooner than he thought that Caitlin appeared over his shoulder. "Have at it," he said, sliding the notes over to her.

"I'll get them back to you in a little while," she told him before flipping through them and walking out.

Now that she was gone, Cisco didn't have much to do and he was already frustrated about his idea not working right so he needed to find something to take his mind off of it. He tried to think of something else to do but after a whole minute of thinking he gave up and decided to attempt opening a breach to a pocket dimension his way. Maybe it would work this time.

At this point the speed lab was empty so he set up shop in there. He tried to picture a pocket dimension in his mind but could only see either real places or Devoe's pocket dimension. It's hard to imagine a place you've never been. Still he hoped it would work and so he created breach after breach after breach. He was finally getting tired by the time Caitlin made a reappearance.

"You know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," she said from the doorway.

"I'm not insane, just determined," Cisco gritted.

"Why is this so important to you?" she asked. Cisco sighed.

"It's not," he responded. Caitlin gave him a look and he relented. "Okay, fine. Maybe I care a little."

"Care to share?" Caitlin asked.

"It's a number of things I guess. For starters, I'm trying to avoid the fact that my relationship with Gypsy is over. Being determined is better than being drunk." Cisco started. "Another part of it is how things with Devoe went down. I feel like I didn't do enough."
"What are you talking about? You did a lot to take him down," Caitlin argued.

"I helped Harry perfect the thinking cap that zapped his intelligence away, I breached us to Devoe's pocket dimension but that ended up being a trap. I didn't even really do much when it came down to the wire," Cisco started. "Barry destroyed the satellite, Cecile and Barry saved Ralph, Marleez defeated Devoe. All I did was move a few pieces of falling debris from a falling satellite but that was just grunt work. I feel like I need to prove myself. Show everyone that I can be helpful, that I can do big important things too."

"Cisco, you did more than you realize, you don't have to do big flashy things to be a big help." Caitlin defended. "Yes, you helped Harry make the thinking cap work but it was working without black matter, that part was him. It was what helped us get our edge. And maybe Marleez defeated Devoe but it was your vortex manipulator that Iris used to find her. Don't forget that you were the one who saved Barry from the speed force in the first place. If you had given up then things would be very different now. And you may think that all you did was move some falling debris but if you hadn't done that people would have lost their lives. You are a hero Cisco, you don't need to prove anything to anyone. As for the Gypsy thing, you can't move past it until you deal with it. Trust me."

Cisco didn't say anything for a minute. "Thanks Cait, you're right," he said finally. Just knowing that Caitlin believed him made a big difference.

"So are you going to stop being so hard on yourself about this?" she asked.

"I might let up a little, but I'm not going to stop trying to figure it out, it's still important," he insisted.

"I never said it wasn't," Caitlin maintained, "but maybe you can let the rest of the team in on your idea to get some fresh perspectives and we can figure it out even faster."

"Not a bad idea," he admitted. "I'll go talk to Iris, maybe we can add it to the roster for the next training. Thanks for being honest and knocking the sense back into me." Caitlin smiled but he could've sworn it looked strained. Or maybe he was just tired from his repeated breaching and he was imagining it. He didn't dwell on it too much because at that moment Iris walked past the entrance to the speed lab. "Iris, wait up!" he called and ran after her. Iris turned around in the hallway, she was carrying a bunch of papers and files. "You haven't left yet?"
"No, I was working on scanning some of the older documents I found a while back, I finally had some time. What's up?" she asked.

"I've been working on something for a while and I didn't tell anyone about it because I thought I could do it on my own and that I had to prove myself but Caitlin made me realize that it wouldn't so bad to get the team's help so I was hoping we could add it to the next training session," he blurted in one breath.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Iris asked but she seemed unsure.

"It's nothing bad I promise," he said. "I've just been trying to figure out how to open my own pocket dimension. You know to use as storage or a safe haven, stuff like that."

"That's actually a really good idea," Iris said.

"Yeah, except I'm having some trouble making it work and Caitlin offered to help me but I figured more people would increase the odds of it working," he responded.

"Yeah, makes sense, actually, I think that most of the team is still in the cortex, Barry and Ralph were arguing about something and I think they were trying to look something up on the computer, we could run it by them," she said. "I don't know where Caitlin is though."

"She was just with me in the speed lab giving me a pep talk. Cait!" he called, popping his head back into the lab. Caitlin walked out into the hallway and gave a questioning look. "You wanna try and open our own pocket dimension?" Caitlin smiled and nodded.

When they walked into the cortex Ralph was sulking in the corner and Barry was talking with Joe who had just shown up. He wanted to check in while Cecile watched baby Jenna.

"Do I want to know what you two were arguing about?" Iris asked.

"Oh, it's nothing, something up?" Barry responded, walking towards Iris.

"Uhm, yeah actually, Cisco had an idea and he wanted our help to figure out how to make it work," Irisi said and gestured for Cisco to take the floor.

So, once again Cisco explain his plan to open a breach to a pocket dimension and how he had tried it so far but that it wasn't working. He even went over the math on the clear board and demonstrated what he had been doing.

"So, what do you think?" he finished.

"I think it's a great idea if we can make it work," Barry said. "But you're right, the math say it should work so there's something missing."

"Where exactly is this pocket dimension?" Joe asked.

"All around us, in the same way that other earths exist around us," Cisco told him.

"But I thought you wanted to create your own pocket dimension?" Ralph said confused. "You shouldn't need one that already exists right? Or am I not understanding?"

"No, Ralph, you have a point," Caitlin said. "You can't breach somewhere that doesn't exist and we can't exactly create a pocket dimension easily."

"No, but what if Cisco already has one?" Barry proposed.

"What do you mean?" Iris asked him.

"Well, think about how his powers work, his breaches, he uses them to connect two planes of existence but he's not exactly pulling them closer together, he has to travel through something," he clarified.

"Wait, that makes sense," Cisco said. "It's like the speed force, you can use it and move through it without actually seeing it all the time. I use a pocket dimension every time I use my powers I just have to figure out how to stop there!"

"And if you can do that you should be able to open a second breach there easier because you will already have the visual to focus on!" Caitlin interjected.

"Okay, how do you do that?" Iris asked. The scientists were at a loss for words.

"Too bad you can't breach into a breach," Ralph joked. Cisco perked up at this.

"Wait, maybe I could," he said.

"What? I was joking!" Ralph said.

"I know but it makes sense, if I open one breach, I can use my other hand to open a second breach right on top of it," Cisco thought out loud.

"It could work," Caitlin said. Barry nodded in agreement.

"Uh, could anything bad happen if you try this?" Iris asked.

"Maybe," CIsco replied. "The main thing is the could unravel and throw me back ,as long as I brace myself. Someone could hold onto me just in case."

"I'll do it," Caitlin offered.

"Great! Let's go!" Cisco said.

"Right now?" Iris asked. "You don't want to plan more?"

"All I've been doing is planning and testing," he responded. "If it doesn't work then fine but I have to try." His eyes pleaded for Iris to say yes.

"Fine," she sighed, "we can do it in the speed lab, at least if something blows up it won't be the console." Cisco did a fist bump and everyone filed back to the speed lab. "Okay, I promise this is the last thing we will try for the day," she said and then paused, "barring any extenuating circumstances."

"Everyone stand back," Cisco said.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Ralph said and ran up to the viewpoint. The others followed more slowly and Caitlin took stage behind Cisco to steady him.

"You sure about this?" She asked him.

"Are you?" He responded. Each gave the other a nod and Cisco took a breath. He blasted one breach and then another. He tried a few times but each time the first breach closed before the second could grow. Cisco was getting frustrated but Caitlin told him to calm down and just breathe.

"Maybe we should try again tomorrow Cisco," Iris said from the viewpoint.

"Just one more time, please!" He exclaimed. Iris paused and then nodded. Cisco took a deep breath and tried to blast both breaches in quick succession so that the first one was still opening when the second one started to form. The next things anyone knew, a bright blue light filled the room and knocked back the team. Cisco toppled backwards onto Caitlin while Iris tumbled into Barry and Ralph stopped Joe from falling over the railing. When everyone could finally see they looked up, a breach stood in the center of the room but it was slowly closing.

"How is it staying open without you?" Iris wondered aloud.

"I don't know but if it's a breach to a pocket dimension I have to find out," Cisco said and tried to get up to jump in.

"Wait!" Caitlin called and grabbed his arm, stopping him. No sooner had she done so did a black form shoot out of the breach before it closed completely. Caitlin gasped. Barry made an unidentifiable sound. Ralph jumped back at least a foot.

"What the hell?" Cisco asked.

"What is that?" Iris asked.

"Nothing good," Caitlin said, her eyes the size of saucers. "I'm guessing," she added after a moment. Her hand flew to her back as she stood up. For a moment no one knew what to do. And then they heard a deep screech and the room filled with smoke.