Swallowing was very difficult when his mouth was this dry.
His brain raced through the possibilities. Either he was hallucinating, or this was somehow Reverb from the past, or Reverb existed in another world…
Or this was a Vibe.
"What do you want?" he demanded, his eyes fixed on his alter ego.
"Francisco." Reverb's lips formed an unsettling smile. "I thought I'd never get through to you."
"Don't get too excited." Cisco stared him down, on guard.
Reverb laughed. It was chilling.
"Look. You don't really have a choice about what you're going to become. You might as well accept it. Trust me, that's the easy way out."
Cisco tried to look away, but no matter how he tried to avert his gaze, Reverb was still directly in front of him. His eyes were so dark and empty. "I'm not going to become you," he said loudly. "Just because you let your power corrupt you doesn't mean I have to. I'm going to use them to help people, like Barry-"
"Like Barry?" Reverb shook his head. "Listen to yourself, niñito. You know you don't want to be Barry Allen- the bleeding-heart hero who sees good in everyone. You don't need that." Reverb smiled again, unpleasantly. "You've seen what I can do. Aren't you curious to see what you're capable of?" Cisco was silent. He couldn't deny that the scientist part of his brain was dying to know exactly what he could do.
Reverb smirked. "That's what I thought. But you've tried, haven't you? You've- experimented?" More silence. More smirking. "Y'know, there's a reason why you've never gotten far. Why every time you think you're getting somewhere, you hit a dead end."
"Stop… talking." Cisco shook his head, as if it would somehow get Reverb out of his mind. Reverb knew exactly what to say to get under his skin.
"The thing is, you can't be Barry Allen. It's impossible. The Flash's powers are impressive, sure. Flashy." Reverb grinned at his own pun. "But they're incredibly limited. He has some cool party tricks, and he may have saved the world on a few occasions, but the range of how much he can do is affected by the limitations of his- albeit strong -human body. All you have to do is exploit the natural vibrations of the world. You could be a god."
"I don't want that either." He tore his hands through his hair, anxiously. "I don't need that. Every single day I go to work and I help keep the universe safe. That's enough power for me."
"Really?" Reverb's voice sounded flat, bored. "You have a whole world of possibilities open to you, and you choose nine-to-fives with the white hats. You do realize-" he paused, a single hand raised in a dramatic gesture. "-you could save Dante."
His breath caught in his chest for a moment and his mind began to race. "Don't you dare say his name. I'm not going to let you manipulate me."
Reverb laughed again. "Oh, I don't have to."
"What does that mean?" Cisco demanded, and he felt his hands start to shake. Oh, dammit, not now.
"You feel that?" Reverb's voice felt like acid on his shattered nerves. "That's what I'm talking about. It's not a matter of if you start using your powers, it's when. See, your body can't handle all that pent-up energy. As soon as you put that energy to use, it'll go away." Cisco stared at his trembling hands, trying to force himself to stop moving. "And just imagine- if this is how your powers make you feel, imagine what you'd be capable of if you used it instead of letting it use you."
"Just get out of my head!" Cisco's head snapped up, and all at once, he felt a surge of energy race through his body and out of his fingertips. A wave of energy burst from his hands and shattered the mirror and Reverb with it.
Before his mind could even begin to process what had happened, he realized that something was wrong. I just blew up a mirror two feet away from my face. The shards went everywhere.
But I'm not bleeding.
He was on the bathroom floor again. His mind felt numb.
Get up. See if you were right.
He reached up and grabbed the doorknob to pull himself up- and he was staring into the eyes of his own reflection. The mirror was completely intact.
Did I Vibe that whole thing? Reverb, and-
No, it wasn't a Vibe. That never happened in any universe, and it couldn't happen in the future, because Reverb is dead. Which means-
It was a delusion. Which means that Reverb wasn't saying those things to me.
I was.
He felt himself trembling again, involuntarily. He was shaking and tired and numb all at once and he was scared of himself. What time was it anyway? Maybe he could go to work. He checked his phone: 5:15 AM. Dammit. He couldn't be alone with his thoughts right now but it was way too early to go to work.
He should call Caitlin. She wouldn't mind him waking her up, especially with what had happened yesterday. But if he did, she would want to know why he was awake and why he was so scared- and he hated lying to her but he couldn't tell her the truth. He sure as hell wasn't going to call Barry. Even if he wanted to tell Barry what was happening, Barry would overreact to the whole thing. He'd probably lock me up in the pipeline.
He needed someone who he could trust, but also someone who had the very specific range of knowledge to help him- and someone who wouldn't react emotionally and unpredictably.
He needed Harry.
Finally something you can do with your powers. He knew how to open breaches, he'd done it before. Never mind that he had only done it a couple of times, and that the last time he'd attempted to travel through dimensions with his powers he'd almost died. This was just a simple breach from one world to another. Just a temporal breach.
He closed his eyes and held his hand out in front of him, trying to focus. He tried to remember everything from when he'd visited Earth-2. He visualized S.T.A.R. Labs- not incredibly different from theirs on Earth-1, but generally shinier and more advanced. As he visualized his memories, he could feel the energy vibrating at his fingertips, and he could see the tiniest tear in the atmosphere in front of him. Good. It's working. He pictured Harry and Jesse and the last time he'd said goodbye to them. Jesse had just begun to harness her speed powers and she was racing all over the place like an excited teenage kitten.
The breach was getting bigger now- where his familiar apartment once was, he could see the purplish-blue light of space and time bleeding through. He closed his eyes, concentrating. The last time he'd said goodbye to Harry, Harry was typically stoic, but their last goodbye felt genuine. Harry had left just when it felt like they were really becoming friends. Was that the real reason he was going to see Harry instead of just calling Caitli-
Suddenly he felt as if his whole body was being jerked upwards, and he was somewhere dark. He suddenly gasped for breath, feeling as though his lungs had been ripped from his chest. What followed felt like the worst anxiety attack he'd ever had combined with 100 needles full of Vertigo. He felt his body being jerked around, but he couldn't do anything to control it. He was somewhere dark and colorful at the same time, and he wasn't moving but at the same time he felt terrifyingly untethered. He watched colors race past his eyes, but they were never directly in front of him. It was like what you saw in the back of your head when you closed your eyes, except it was all around him and racing past at a dizzying rate. Everything was spinning around him, but he also couldn't feel his own body moving. He could hear voices, but he couldn't make any of them out. It sounded like Harry's voice, but then it was Jesse, and then Barry, and then Dante, and then it was Caitlin-
Focus. Focus, dammit. Focus on her.
"Caitlin?" he didn't know how he'd managed to speak in this hellish out-of-body state, but he heard his own voice echoing somewhere. Maybe it was just a part of the cacophony of noise he was hearing- but he clung to it.
"Caitlin?" He heard her voice again- he still couldn't make it out, but it was just strong enough to rise above the rest of the pandemonium. "Cait? Where are you?"
"I'm here, Cisco." He could understand the words she was saying, but she still sounded so far away.
"Where?" He tried to look around, but he still felt weirdly disconnected from his own body. "I can't find you."
"I'm right here." Her voice was a little bit closer. "I'm right here, just- just follow my voice."
"I don't know how. I don't even know where I am." He felt a throbbing pressure where his heart should be- but he didn't even know where his body was anymore. Or if he had one. Was this like when Barry had been absorbed by the Speedforce? Had he somehow ripped his own being apart with his powers?
"I'm right here," she said again. "Just listen to the sound of my voice. Stay with me, Cisco."
"Cait," he said again, his voice hoarse. He could feel his voice vibrating in his throat. That was progress. Focus on the vibrations. You can control them. He tried to remember what his heartbeat felt like- suddenly it was hard to remember. He focused on that throbbing pressure and tried to imagine a heart pumping blood. He tried to remember the usual rhythms of his pulse- when he was excited, when he was working out, when he was trying to fall asleep. Then he tried to picture his lungs- expanding as they filled with air, and then depressing as he breathed out an exhale. He felt the crushing pressure soften into a numb throbbing, and the burning lack of oxygen turned into a dull breathlessness. Control the vibrations. He started counting the beats of his heart. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8- it was going too damn fast. Slow down. Breathe. He inhaled and could feel air filling his chest. He could feel the comfortingly normal vibrations of his body slowing returning.
"His vitals are all over the place." It was Caitlin, but she was talking to someone else. That must mean he was getting closer. Get it together. The vibrations of his body felt more synchronized now, so he tried something different. He visualized all the vibrations- of his heartbeat, of his lungs, of his pulse -and directed them towards his hands. He tried to envision a field of energy at his fingertips, how he'd sent out pulses of energy before. Come on. You can do this.
Suddenly, the blur of color in front of him came into focus and became more monochromatic. It was blue now- purplish blue.
"Come on, Cisco. Stay with us." Caitlin's voice was so close- right through the patch of purplish-blue. The breach. He focused on the energy in his hands and in an instant, he was ripped from his surroundings again.