As soon as they were out of the apartment building, Cisco turned to Reverb. "Start talking."
"Or you'll do what?" Reverb smiled a thin, disconcerting smile. "I'm in your head, bro. You couldn't get rid of me if you tried." Cisco rolled his eyes and started walking down the sidewalk.
Reverb reappeared in front of him and he winced, startled. "Is that really necessary?" he asked weakly.
"Yes." Reverb grinned. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Subway," Cisco answered. "Don't have my car." He took a step forward again.
Reverb shook his head. "You have so much to learn, hijito. You got here through a breach, so you can get back through one."
"Except I can't," Cisco reminded him. "I tried going to Earth-2 and I got sucked into some Interstellar junk. Really don't want a repeat of that."
"You've opened breaches before," Reverb reminded him. "You can do it again. Think logically. What went wrong?"
"I- I got distracted," Cisco ventured. "I was thinking about Caitlin. That's why I ended up in her apartment instead."
"It's not just because you thought about something else. Our powers aren't that temperamental. Well, maybe yours are." Reverb smirked. "Instead of focusing on your destination, you were focusing on the people. You got sentimental. That's gotta go."
Cisco scoffed. "That can't possibly make a difference."
"I'm serious." Reverb's tone grew serious. "You got distracted because you were focusing on people. Your ties to humanity distract you from your full potential."
"Is this the part where you tell me that I have to shut myself off from my friends and become all callous and evil-villainy like you? Cause that's not happening." Cisco turned away.
"Letting go of your human emotions will make everything easier," Reverb's voice called out from behind him. Cisco turned back around. "Why do you think most metas turn evil? It's hard to reach your full potential with your conscience holding you back."
Cisco tore a hand through his hair. He already felt uneasy, and Reverb wasn't helping his conscience. But he couldn't go on like this- he needed to learn how to harness his powers. Not only that, he was desperately curious to discover his full potential- something he'd never managed on his own. And Barry had been begging him to come fight with him for months. Maybe his mind manifesting itself as his evil doppelganger didn't mean that he was going to become him. Maybe he could use his powers for good. He held out a hand to open the breach, and then hesitated. Or maybe that's just what he wants me to think.
"Open the breach," Reverb urged him. "Focus on the vibrations and nothing else."
Cisco closed his eyes, letting himself feel the wind pass by him, the way it vibrated over every hair on his body, the faint trembling of the ground from the subway passing underneath. Once again, he felt the shaking in his body subside as the energy flowed to his fingertips. He felt a surge of energy, and then felt it release from his hands. He opened his eyes to see a large, purplish-blue mass in front of him.
"Beautiful," Reverb murmured approvingly. "Now enter. Stay focused."
Cisco took a step forward. Think about where you're going. He felt the energy of the dimension envelop him as he stepped through. The breach closed itself behind him, and then he realized- he was in the vortex again. Except this time, there was no vertigo or no eerie distorted voices. He was standing upright and fully in control.
"I see you've discovered one of our many powers." Reverb reappeared in front of him.
"Where am I?" Cisco looked around, overwhelmed.
"You're inside the breach. Instead of going directly from one location to another, you're in between. From here, the possibilities- both spatial and temporal -are endless."
"How have I never discovered this before?" Cisco asked, awed.
"You've never had a reason to open an inter-spatial breach before," Reverb reminded him. "You've always gone between worlds, not within your own. This gives you a different perspective."
"Wait." Cisco held out a hand, trying to process this. "What did you say about temporal and spatial possibilities?"
"You can go anywhere or to any point in time."
"Could I have done that on accident?" He asked, remembering the two and a half hours he'd lost a few days ago.
Reverb shrugged. "You're like an uncoordinated puppy when it comes to your powers, so yeah."
"Thanks for that." Cisco looked around, observing his environment. It was eerily still and quiet. "So I can really go anywhere?"
"Anywhere." Reverb smiled. "The choice is yours."
He could go anywhere. He could go to Earth-2, for real this time- but you don't need Harry, his voice told him. You have Reverb. You can figure this out yourself.
He closed his eyes, visualizing S.T.A.R. Labs- his S.T.A.R. Labs, not Harry's. He tried to feel the vibration of the air in the lab, of the fluorescent lights, of the computers. He saw the blue and purple fabric of the vortex dissipate, creating a small window through which he could see his workshop. He stepped through and into the lab.
"See?" Reverb smiled smugly. "It's easier when you separate yourself from your emotions."
"That's not why." Cisco shook his head. "It's because I was concentrating. My mind was all over the place before. I wasn't focusing."
"You can believe that if you like." Reverb shrugged. "You'll figure it out soon enough."
"Okay, are you actually going to help me or not?" Cisco snapped. "You helped me open a breach, big whoop, I've done that before. All you've done so far is be creepy and cryptic as hell."
Reverb smirked. "This isn't an instant thing, you know. Harnessing your full potential will take time."
Cisco was about to shoot back a retort when he remembered that he wasn't talking to Reverb. This was his mind personifying his subconscious thoughts in a way that made sense to his brain.
There was nothing wrong with this. This was all his brain. He was in control.
"Okay." He walked over to Caitlin's desk, where he found the stack of files she'd been studying the other day- all of the data they'd collected on his powers. The files were marked up with bright orange highlighter and riddled with post-it notes. He felt a twinge of guilt- she must have spent her whole night trying to figure out how to help him. And then he'd woken her up by falling out of a breach into her living room at four in the morning.
He glanced at the wall clock to check the time: 6:30. He had an hour and a half until the others showed up. He looked back at Reverb, who was watching him expectantly.
"I know how to travel between dimensions," he began slowly. "But I'm not very good at it. I can open breaches no problem, but if I go between dimensions myself, things get a little nosebleed-migraine-seizure-y. Can you help me fix that?"
Reverb grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."
"Okay, but-" He glanced at the door. He didn't want to risk someone coming in early and catching him. "Let's go to the basement."
Once they were in the basement, Cisco remembered something. "Wait, I need my Vibe glasses." He started back towards the stairs, but Reverb held a hand out.
"Nuh-uh. Those are a crutch. You don't need them."
"You used glasses," Cisco protested, and then remembered he was talking to himself. "Reverb did, I mean. This is weird."
"Well, they do look cool," Reverb admitted. "But you don't need them. Now remember, traveling to other dimensions isn't your problem. It's only when you stay there too long that the deadly nosebleeds happen. That happens because your body is constantly experiencing different vibrational frequencies, and it causes even more stress when you go through your own breach to another dimension, because you're splitting your energy between two actions. And it's exacerbated by staying there longer, because since each Earth has its own vibrational frequency, your body can't recalibrate to the vibration that it's used to. So you'll have to teach your body how to recalibrate its vibrational frequency by giving it a little practice." Reverb crossed in front of him. "Instead of opening a breach to another dimension, you're going to Vibe into it. When you get Vibes, even though you're physically here, part of you is in a different location- wherever the Vibe is. So think about where you want to go, but instead of opening a breach, just Vibe."
Just Vibe. That was easier said than done, but somehow, he already know how to do it. He closed his eyes, imagining how it felt to be on Earth-2. The air was ever-so-slightly different there- which was because each Earth had a different vibrational frequency -and he could feel it every time he went there. It was like his heart rate was out of sync with the rest of the world. He felt his body oscillating- like when he couldn't stop shaking, except this time, he was controlling it- and then it stopped.
Cisco kept his eyes closed for a moment, basking in the stillness. He felt the familiar foreign sensation of not-quite-right wind creeping over his skin. He opened his eyes to confirm- I did it. I'm on Earth-2.
Except he wasn't quite there. As Reverb had instructed, he hadn't really gone there- he Vibed himself there. Which was probably the only reason his nose wasn't gushing blood at the moment.
"So?" He asked aloud, expecting Reverb to comment on his performance- but he was greeted with silence. He glanced around in confusion. Reverb was nowhere to be seen.
Where exactly am I? He looked around, attempting to place his surroundings. He was in a vast, empty warehouse- he didn't recognize it from any Earth, although there wasn't much about it to recognize. There was a smattering of gigantic wooden crates, some abandoned shelves, and it smelled vaguely sweet. He stepped forward to explore his surroundings-
At once he felt as if he'd been smacked in the head with a metal chair, and he was back in S.T.A.R. Labs.
"What the hell was that?" he shouted. "I thought you said that wouldn't happen if I just went in a Vibe!"
"You'll notice you're still conscious," Reverb drawled. "So I'd say you're doing better than usual. And I never said that you'd be fine regardless- I said there would be no repercussions from the simple action of getting there. That pleasant little headache was user error. You went too far, literally. Vibes aren't meant to be long-distance transportation- you're limited to a few square feet from where you arrive. Any further than that, you get booted. That's why you need to work on your travelling through breaches- but for now, it's better than nothing. It'll help your body adjust."
"Let's do that again," Cisco demanded. "I need to learn- I need to know how to be in control."
"Your wish is my command. Or is my command your wish?" Reverb paused, musing. Cisco ignored him and closed his eyes, trying to focus again on Earth-2. This time it was easier, because he had just felt the unfamiliar vibrations of Earth-2 across his skin. He tried to imagine his lungs filling with the foreign air, his heartbeat syncing with-
"Cisco?" He was ripped from his trance by Caitlin's voice calling from behind him. His eyes flew open and he spun around, his heart pounding.
Caitlin looked as exhausted as had felt all week. She had clearly just been sleeping- her hair was a teased mess and her eyes looked heavy, but they were wide open with worry. She rushed to his side and grabbed his shoulders.
"Hey," she murmured. "Are you okay?"
"Wh- yeah, I'm fine," he answered, confused, and then remembered what a mess he'd been the last time she'd seen him. "Better than before, anyway."
"Good. That means I won't feel bad about this." She pulled her hand back and slapped him across the face. He recoiled, stung in every meaning of the word. When he lifted his head back up, her face alight with anger.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Cisco? You stumble into my apartment in the middle of the night obviously not stable in any meaning of the word and I stay up with you all night and then you just take off?"
"I'm sorry," he mumbled lamely, but she wasn't done.
"Look, I know you're not in the best place right now, and I know you hate feeling helpless, I know you like to take matters into your own hands, but you need to give me more credit than this! Can't you just trust me to help you for once?"
"I trust you," he tried to say. She shook her head.
"Clearly, you don't, or you'd have woken me up instead of taking off! When I realized you were gone, I was terrified, because goodness knows what you might do with your powers going haywire and in this mental state. For all I knew you could've been-"
"Could've been what, Cait?" He interrupted her, surprised by how cold and biting his words sounded. "Misusing my powers, committing some heinous crime? Like Reverb?"
"I-" She stopped and frowned. "Who said anything about Reverb?"
"I dunno, you implied it." He bit his lip. "Y'know, I already feel like I'm losing control. I don't need you to help me doubt my sanity. I've got that covered."
"I didn't mean-" She softened. "I'm sorry. You just scared me." She put a hand on his arm and he twisted away.
"Scared you why?" he demanded. "What do you think I would do that scares you so much, huh? It's just me, Caitlin." His voice broke and he ducked his head so that she wouldn't see the pain on his face. "You keep asking me to trust you, but do you even trust me?"
"I'm sorry," she said softly, and he felt her hand on his arm. Her cold touch against his burning skin was jolting, but it felt good. Her hands are so cold…
He looked up to meet her eyes. She looked guilty and heartbroken. These last few days must have been hard on her. He opened his mouth to apologize, but something behind Caitlin caught his eye-
Reverb. He shook his head, his mouth open in the shape of a foreboding no.
Your ties to humanity distract you from your full potential.
He looked back down at Caitlin. Her eyes were sad, but the corners of her mouth were lifted in a hopeful, tentative smile.
"You just think that I'm going to turn into Reverb because you're afraid of turning into Killer Frost," he said coolly, and Caitlin's face fell.
"What?" she asked, and quickly pulled back her hand that had been holding his back to her chest. "Why would you say that?"
He shrugged. "We don't know what's going on with my powers, but you're assuming that it's something that needs to be fixed. You're assuming that just because you don't want your powers that I don't want mine either."
"I never said anything like that," she protested. "Cisco, listen to me, you're not-"
"What? Thinking straight?"
"Yes." This time she didn't reach out to comfort him. She folded her arms, establishing distance between them. "I never said your powers were a bad thing, but obviously whatever it is that's been going on for the last few days can't be good."
Cisco paused for a moment, realizing how hurt Caitlin looked and sounded. He contemplated apologizing, but his eyes met Reverb's again. Again, Reverb slowly shook his head.
"Maybe you're wrong," he said flatly, and Caitlin stiffened. She opened her mouth to shoot back a response, but they were interrupted by a reddish streak of lightning bursting into the room, and Barry was instantly in front of them.
"Hey," he said, breathlessly. "Sorry, Caitlin, I just got your texts." He looked from Cisco's stony expression to Caitlin's distraught one and his face fell. "Are you guys- okay?"
"I'm fine," Cisco spat, turning away from them, and then realized that for the first time in days, that statement was true. He didn't feel weak or shaky anymore. He felt awake and present, and stronger. He turned for the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Caitlin's voice could have frozen lava.
"I'm going upstairs," he replied without turning around, keeping his voice dangerously level. "I don't know about you two, but I have work to do." He retreated quickly up the stairs before Barry could say anything.
He came up the last flight of stairs and heard the sound of two hands slowly applauding him. Reverb was sitting in his chair behind the computer desk, a sinister smile on his face.
"Well done," he said approvingly. "Who knew you had it in you?"
"You made me do that," Cisco said suddenly. His voice shook. "That wasn't me."
"Oh, but it was," Reverb said coolly. "That was you, just getting a little bit closer to your full potential. I told you I'd help you, didn't I?"