Cisco slammed the door to his workshop and collapsed into his chair. The way he had treated Caitlin freaked him out, because it was him- he had been angry at her, he had wanted to push her away, but he knew it was wrong. But it had completely come from him.

Reverb was getting to him. Right now, he was standing on the other side of Cisco's workbench, leering at him. There's got to be some way I can block him out.

He grabbed his headphones off of his workbench and plugged it into his phone and chose the first song he saw- Master of Puppets by Metallica -and turned it up to top volume. He put his headphones on and leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

End of passion play, crumbling away…

"Cisco." It was Reverb's voice. Even over the earsplitting electric guitars, Reverb's voice was still as clear as day. Cisco tried to ignore him.

…I'm your source of self-destruction…

"You can ignore me all you want, but you can't avoid what you're going to become."

…leading on your death's construction…

"The sooner you come to terms with who you really are, the happier we'll both be."

…obey your master, your life burns faster…

"I gotta hand it to you, your capacity for denial is impressive. I didn't think you'd last this long. You seemed pretty weak to me."

"Just shut up, okay?" Cisco shouted, keeping his eyes closed. "You're not real."

Listening to Metallica at a deafening volume wasn't cutting it. He needed to focus on something else. He reached for the first thing he saw on his workbench- a blueprint he'd drawn for an inter-dimensional extrapolator. Okay, where had he gotten stuck with this last?

He found his prototype, buried under a mess of papers on his bench, dusted it off and got to work. He managed to distract himself briefly- for a few minutes, he was so immersed in his work that he completely forgot about Reverb. Then he made the mistake of looking up-

"Thought you could forget about me, eh?"

"Just-" He covered his face with his hands. He had to find a way to get Reverb out of his head. He had already learned how to better control his powers- the shaking had stopped hours ago -and Barry and Caitlin could help him figure out the rest. Having Reverb in his head wasn't doing him any favors. It was just making him hostile and unpredictable, and he didn't need that. He stood up and walked quickly to the door.

"You're making a mistake." Reverb reappeared on the other side of the door. "You need me. You won't be able to control yourself without me."

"This is me taking control." Cisco turned away and started walking quickly towards Caitlin's lab. "You're a delusion. You're not real."

"Do you really believe that?" Reverb's voice was hard and serious.

"Yes." He paused and turned to face Reverb. One last time. "You said it yourself. You're an extension of my thoughts. You're just my mind personifying my insecurity about turning into you- into Reverb." He turned back around, his hand on the doorknob.

"Or maybe I'm your mind trying to tell you something," Reverb called after him. "Trying to shut off your mind's signals is a huge mistake."

"Listening to you was the mistake." Cisco opened the door and slammed it behind him.

"Cisco?" Caitlin was sitting behind her desk, but stood up quickly when she saw him. "What do you want?" Her voice was cool and reserved.

"I-" He got distracted when Reverb reappeared behind Caitlin. It's just a delusion. He forced himself to look Caitlin in the eye. "I need an anti-psychotic."

Her expression immediately switched from steely anger to concern. She rushed forward to him. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

"He's in my head." Reverb was standing right next to Caitlin now.

"Who is?" Caitlin grabbed his shoulder and looked into his eyes.

"Don't tell her," Reverb said aloud. "This is the biggest mistake you could make."

"Stop talking!" Cisco stumbled backwards and turned to face Reverb. "Just- just stop!"

"Cisco?" Caitlin was at his side, and looked in the direction that he was looking, obviously trying to understand what he was seeing. "Who's in your head? Are they talking to you?"

"Don't listen to her," Reverb warned. "She won't help you."

"Whoever they are, don't listen to them," Caitlin said quietly. "It's not real. I'm the only one in here, I promise."

"When has Caitlin ever had your best interest in mind?" Reverb reminded him. "She always has an agenda. She and Barry are just trying to drag you down to their level. But you could be so much more."

He forced himself to look back at Caitlin, who was visibly tense. "Anti-psychotic, Cait. Now."

"Yeah." She stood up and ran over to the door that connected the lab with the speed lab. "Barry!" she called. "I need you."

Cisco slumped against the wall and sunk his head into his hands. He realized his headphones were still hanging around his neck, blaring Metallica so loudly that he could hear it even without the headphones on.

Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings…

"Cisco, listen to me." It was Reverb. "I know this isn't what you want to be, but by trying to force it off, you're just going to hurt yourself."

…blinded by me, you can't see a thing…

"Caitlin and Barry don't understand you. You don't need them. You're capable of so much. Maybe you just need to prove it to them- or to yourself."

"What do you mean?" he asked quietly so that Caitlin couldn't hear.

"Use your powers. Kill the Flash."

"Caitlin!" he shouted, and brought his head to his knees.

"Think about it. Barry is the one who's kept you from using your powers in the field. Barry is the one who is always locking up other metahumans. And he's the one with the good guy complex. Without him, imagine what you and Caitlin could be. You could help her reach her full potential."

"Hey, Cisco." Barry's voice was right in his ear and he felt a hand on his back. "Hey, hey, talk to me."

"Don't let him in," Reverb warned. "Caitlin is one thing, she's your friend, but Barry? He's selfish. He doesn't care about you. If he knew what you could become, how powerful you could be- he'd lock you up in a heartbeat. Come on, just give him a little seismic blast. You don't have to kill him, just break his ribs or something. He heals quickly. Just show him who's the boss."

"No!" Cisco snapped his head up and before he could stop himself, he felt energy burst from his hands and towards where Reverb was. Of course, he missed, and instead an office chair erupted into pieces.

"Cisco!" Barry stared at him, shocked, but Cisco hardly noticed. He was dead focused on Reverb.

"You need to stop," he said, hating how his voice shook.

"What are you talking about?" he heard Barry say.

"I told you, you just need to accept who you are." Reverb shrugged.

"This isn't who I am!" Cisco raised his hands and sent another seismic blast towards Reverb, this time shattering a shelf of test tubes. Reverb smirked.

"You said it yourself. I'm not here."

Cisco raised his hands again, but then there was a sharp burst of red lightning and he was on the ground. It took him a second to realize that there was something on his wrists- he looked down and realized he was wearing his own power-dampening cuffs. He looked up to see Barry looking down at him, a grim expression on his face.

He'd lock you up in a heartbeat.

"Barry, what are you doing?" he demanded. Before Barry could answer, Caitlin rushed over with a glass of water and two small orange pills in her palm.

"These are for you," she murmured, kneeling down next to Cisco. "They should help with the hallucinations."

He pushed her away. "I'm not taking those until he explains why he just cuffed me with my own tech." He jabbed a finger at Barry, and then stood up. He eyed the pills in Caitlin's hand suspiciously. Maybe that was a sedative and not an anti-psychotic. Maybe they were trying to trap him.

Caitlin looked at Barry expectantly. He shrugged and sighed. "I'm sorry, Cisco, I panicked. I thought maybe you weren't… in control." To Cisco's surprise, he reached forward and removed the cuffs.

"To be fair, I'm not sure I am, either," Cisco admitted. He took the pills from Caitlin and then the glass of water. The water felt so good on his dry lips- Caitlin was right, he was dehydrated. Had he been forgetting to drink? Probably. The last few days had been such a blur, especially for the last 12 or so hours when he'd had Reverb in his head.

The three of them were silent for a moment, and then Caitlin spoke. "Who were you talking to?"

Cisco opened his mouth to say "Dante" and then realized that lying to them wouldn't do him any good. "Reverb. He's been appearing on and off for- for a couple of days now."

"You told me you were seeing Dante!" Caitlin exclaimed, and folded her arms reproachfully. "You lied to me."

"I'm sorry, I was scared." Cisco looked at the ground. "I thought you would think I was crazy."

Barry and Caitlin exchanged looks. "What was he saying to you?" Barry ventured.

"I dunno." Cisco ran a hand through his hair anxiously. "I think- I think I might be turning into him."

"You're not turning into Reverb," Caitlin assured him. "Just like I didn't turn into Killer Frost. Turning evil is a choice, and you can choose not to."

"Maybe." The anti-psychotic hadn't fully taken effect yet, but Reverb was starting to fade. Barry offered Cisco a hand and he accepted it, staggering to his feet.

"We can talk about this while you lie down." Caitlin put her arm around him and they walked him to the Cortex. Barry leaned against the wall and Caitlin stood beside him.

"Alright, Cisco, I'm going to ask you some questions and I need you to be honest." Caitlin raised an eyebrow at him. "Like, really this time."

He nodded. He was too tired to object.

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "When did you start… hearing Reverb?"

"Like two days ago. The first time I passed out at work." He scratched his head awkwardly, hating that he'd been such a mess lately.

"Have you been dreaming about Dante still?" she asked.

He shook his head. "They weren't dreams, they were Vibes. And… now that I think about it, I haven't Vibed about him since… since I started hallucinating Reverb."

"So maybe you weren't hallucinating," Barry suggested, and they both looked at him. He shrugged. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Maybe it was a Vibe somehow."

"Maybe," Cisco said doubtfully, but he didn't want to tell them the truth, how Reverb was an extension of his subconscious thoughts. That would just make him sound crazier.

"Have you used your powers at all the last few days?" Caitlin asked him. "Besides just now, I mean."

"Yeah, a few times. Just to travel between locations and… I kinda went to Earth-2." He played with his hands nervously. "Pretty standard stuff."

"Just the other day, you were shaking uncontrollably." Caitlin picked up one of his hands, observing it. "That seems to have gotten better, at least."

"Yeah," Cisco agreed. "I think… it seems like it got better when I used my powers."

"That makes sense," Caitlin agreed. "Because if it was pent-up energy, it makes sense that using your powers would release it."

"So if what's been happening to Cisco is because he doesn't use his powers, that's not a big deal," Barry reasoned. "You can start training with me. It would be cool to have you fighting with me."

"I don't know," Caitlin murmured. "Not about that, I mean, I think there's more to this than lack of use. It's been causing tachycardia, psychosis-"

"The tachycardia can be explained by the crap ton of vibrational energy," Cisco pointed out. "And Reverb is gone. So I think that got better too."

Caitlin shook her head. "That would be the quetiapine kicking in. I want to run some more tests."

"Caitlin, running tests only gets you so far," Barry pointed out. "You can run all the tests you want, but it doesn't change the fact that we have no idea what we're dealing with. Maybe we just need to do something. Let me train with him."

Caitlin pursed her lips. "Maybe." She looked back at Cisco. "I want you to try to get some sleep first."

He laughed mirthlessly. "I can't fall asleep in my bed at night, Cait. I doubt I'll be able to sleep at work in the middle of the morning."

"Then I'll give you something to make you sleep," she said firmly. "You need sleep, Cisco. I'm not comfortable with you messing around with your powers until you can walk in a straight line. You need to catch up on sleep and you need IV fluids; you're still dehydrated."

He looked at Barry and shrugged. "Fine. But I can't sleep all morning. It's still crazy early. Is it even seven yet?"

Barry looked at Caitlin quickly, and then back at Cisco. "Dude, it's almost eleven."

"What?" Cisco felt an unpleasant pit in his chest. "What do you mean? I got here at 6:30 and you two… you got here a few minutes later."

Caitlin shook her head. "Barry had to go to the police station and I slept in. We didn't get here until 10:15."

"It can't be eleven." Cisco shook his head and looked around for a clock. It was 10:50.

"And you'll have some empirical evidence in a second when H.R. gets here," Barry added. "You know he would never be here before seven."

Just as Barry was speaking, they heard footsteps out in the lab. "Where is everyone?" the familiar voice of Harrison Wells called out.

"We're in here," Caitlin called, and H.R. appeared in the doorway, wearing his signature dumb fedora.

"What are you all doing in here?" he asked, and then spotted Cisco. "You look terrible," he commented casually, and sipped a coffee in his hand.

"Can he leave?" Cisco muttered to Caitlin, and Barry ran to the door and escorted H.R. away. Caitlin closed the door and turned back to Cisco.

"You could try being nicer to him," she chided.

"I can't." Cisco leaned back against the wall. "He walks around with Harry's face on, but he isn't a tenth of the person Harry is."

"It's not his fault who he looks like." Caitlin was sorting through bottles of pills and produced a small white pill. "Here. This should help you sleep."

"Thanks." He swallowed the pill with water and leaned forward, his head in his hands and his elbows resting on his knees. "Seriously, why do we even keep that guy around? He's not even a scientist. He never does anything-"

"Cisco." She shoved his shoulder gently. "You're never gonna fall asleep sitting upright and complaining about your coworker. Lie down." She stood up and went back to the counter, where she was preparing an IV.

He obliged and rolled over onto his side so that he was still facing her. "I really thought It was seven."

Caitlin turned her head so that she was facing the wall completely. "I know," she said quietly.

"That happened the other day, too. Me losing time, I mean."

"I remember." She turned back to face him. "Don't worry. There's got to be an explanation for all of this. Who knows, maybe it's not even to do with your powers. Maybe it's a neurological condition and it's just making them act up." She rolled the IV rig over to the bed and sat down beside him.

"Maybe." They sat in silence for a minute, then he pushed himself up into a sitting position with one arm. "Cait?"

She had gotten distracted fiddling with the IV needle. "Yeah?"

"Can you bring me my cuffs? The power-dampening ones?"

She looked surprised. "Why do you want them?"

"I dunno, it's just-" he hesitated. "When Reverb's in my head… I'm not always in control. I don't want to hurt you."

Her expression softened. "Of course. I'll go get them." She stood up and went back to the lab and left the door open behind her. A couple seconds later, H.R. poked his head around the door frame.

"Wow, Francisco, you're being possessed by your evil doppelganger? Now that is some Stephen King stuff right there. I gotta write that down for my book."

"H.R.!" Barry appeared next to him, looking apologetic. "Cisco is really tired, so we should probably-"

"Possessed?" Cisco sat up straight, indignant. "What exactly did you tell him, Barry?"

"Well, he didn't say possessed," H.R. admitted. "But it's creepier that way, don't you think?"

"This is more than creepy enough for me," Cisco said firmly, and then remembered something. "What were you doing in my lab the other day? You don't even know anything about science. Why is it that every version of Harrison Wells in the multiverse likes to invade my space?"

Caitlin reappeared at the doorway, cuffs in her hands. "What are you two doing in here?" She asked pointedly, and glared at Barry.

"We were just leaving," Barry said quickly, and shoved H.R. through the door.

"Why are you bringing him the metahuman cuffs?" H.R. questioned. "Ooh, is this a power struggle? That's definitely gotta go in my-"

Caitlin pushed the door shut. "Do you see why I don't like him?" Cisco asked dryly.

She ignored that. "You shouldn't be sitting up." She walked over to the cot and slid the cuffs onto his wrists. "There you go." She turned her attention back to the IV. "Give me your arm." He obliged, and she held the needle just above the surface of his skin. "Take a deep breath." She slid it into his arm and he winced slightly. She noticed his discomfort with a mixture of amusement and indignance. "Hey, if you don't like it, maybe be an adult and drink water next time." She secured the needle with a white piece of medical tape.

"Thanks." He leaned forward. "Sorry about the last few days. I promise not to have another mental breakdown for a while."

"It happens." Her mouth formed a thin, worried smile. She gently pushed him again. "Lie down. I want you to get some sleep. H.R. is right, you do look terrible."

"He's right about something for once," Cisco snorted, and Caitlin shoved him again, but harder. "Hey," he protested, but slid down onto his back. She walked over to the door and flipped off the light.

"I'll stay here until you fall asleep, in case Reverb decides to show up." She sat down on the stool next to his cot. Her face was mostly in shadow, but there was a line of light from the crack in the door that split her face down the middle. "You're going to be okay, Cisco."

"Thanks, Caitlin," he murmured, and felt his eyelids growing heavy.

I'm on the side of the highway again.

August 9th, 2016, 8:30 PM.

Again.

"Feels real this time, doesn't it?" A familiar voice says in my ear, and I know I am not alone.

"Go away, Reverb." I try to focus on Dante's car and the blue Jeep going too fast behind him. Somehow reliving this tragedy I've watched a dozen times is more comforting than listening to the unnerving voice next to me.

"If you insist." I can practically hear the smirk in his voice. "Is this better?"

I turn to face him to see what he means- and I stagger backwards a few steps.

He's not Reverb anymore. The man bun is gone, the pretentious guyliner is gone, and so is the sweet-ass black leather jacket.

His hair is down, he's not wearing makeup and he's wearing an open button down over a t-shirt.

He's me.

"What are you doing?" I gasp, but he just smiles smugly and steps forward into the road. He waves frantically at Dante's car, and Dante slows down.

He opens the passenger side door and I can hear him frantically shouting at Dante, but I can't make out the words. The blue Jeep is fast on their trail. In a crazy maneuver, he pushes the driver's side door open and he and Dante both tumble out of the other side. The Jeep smashes into the car, but Dante is safe.

"Cisco, you saved my life," I hear him say, and Reverb reappears beside me.

"You can save Dante," he says in a dramatic whisper. "It'd be as easy as going to Earth-2. Save Dante."

"No," I murmur, and cover my eyes, trying to block him out. "I can't. It would rupture the timeline. Ruin everything."

"Barry ruined everything to save his mother. No-one stopped him. Including you."

I try to protest, but suddenly I'm not talking to Reverb- I'm in the passenger seat of Dante's car.

"Thanks for looking out for me, hermano," he says, and his dark brown eyes bore straight into mine. I try to look away, but they're entrancing. I haven't seen him in so long…

"Yeah, no problem." My voice sounds hoarse and weak. "You'd do the same for me."

"Of course I would." He claps my shoulder, and I can actually feel his hand on me. This is way too real. "We're brothers. That's what we do."

"No, just stop it! It isn't real!" I shout, and in an instant, Dante is gone, and with him, the car and the highway. I'm back in a dark room, staring straight into Reverb's eyes, but he's still dressed like me.

"I'm trying to show you what you could do. You know you want to do it." He shrugs. "But I suppose if I can't persuade you by showing you what could be, I should show you what will be."

"What are you talking about?" I can feel all the blood rushing away from my face.

"Come on." He snaps his fingers and we're out in the middle of a street, but not the highway. A few yards away from us, I see Caitlin- but she doesn't look like Caitlin, she's wearing a tight-fitting jacket and there are streaks of white-blonde in her hair -and I'm there, too. Wearing my Vibe goggles.

She's hurling icicles at me and I'm shattering them with seismic waves. I think at first that this is the past, when Caitlin was losing control and I was defending myself. I quickly realize I am gravely mistaken.

"You don't have to do this," she calls out, and her voice is thick with tears. "Please come back to me. You don't have to become this, Cisco."

Future me looks up at her with a cold grin. "The name is Reverb." He sends another huge wave at her, and this time, she is caught off-guard and crumples to the ground.

"Caitlin!" I shout, and rush to her side. The scene fades away and I am facing Reverb once again.

"You see?" he says quietly. "That's what you become. There's no avoiding it."

"Cisco!"

He sat upright, feeling as if his heart would pound out of his chest. He felt Caitlin's hand on his shoulder, but her touch felt like acid to him.

"Listen to me, just breathe," she said, but her voice sounded far away. "Whatever you saw… it's gone now. Just breathe."

He dropped his head into his hands, trying to force himself to calm down. It was just a dream. Just his mind messing with him. None of that was real. It can't be.

"Breathe." Caitlin was sitting next to him, rubbing soothing circles into his back with her fingers. "Breathe in for four seconds…. hold it for seven… breathe it out for eight."

He tried to follow her instructions, but his mind kept racing over what he'd just seen. Was it really the future? He remembered the Vibe he'd had from Caitlin a few weeks ago. He thought it had been fulfilled when he fought her the night she kidnapped Julian, but now he remembered that there was an important difference between the Vibe and what happened that night. In the Vibe, she'd been full Killer Frost, or looked it, anyway- her hair was blonde and she was wearing that sweet jacket. When they'd fought, she'd still more or less looked herself, except for the creepy glowing eyes.

In the scene Reverb had just shown him, she had looked exactly as she had in that Vibe.

When he Vibed that, he had assumed that she was the evil one and he was defending himself.

But what if… what if it was the other way around?

"I have to go," he muttered, and stumbled to his feet. He ripped the cuffs off of his wrists and threw them to the ground.

"What are you doing?" Caitlin grabbed his arm urgently. "Cisco, whatever you're about to do… please, think about it first…"

"I'm sorry." He ripped the IV needle out of his arm and let it drop to the ground. He held out his hand and this time, the breach opened instantly.

Barry appeared at the doorway. "Cisco-" he began, and raced forward, but he was too late. Cisco stepped forward into the breach and it closed up behind him.