Cisco paused for a moment, looking around the Vortex. Where did he want to go? He considered going to Earth-2, but at this point, what could Harry do for him? He needed answers, and not the kind you could get from running tests and analyzing data. He needed to know for sure if he became Reverb.

Since he couldn't Vibe himself, he needed to be a little bit more creative. What had Reverb said- from this vortex he could travel to anywhere in time or space. Was time travel really that easy for him? It seemed preposterous. The only way Barry could time travel was by running insanely fast, and even that had its limitations. But he had Vibed to the past in his sleep countless times, so there had to be a way for him to Vibe to the future. He closed his eyes, envisioning the fight he'd seen between him and Caitlin. They'd been on a road somewhere... when he'd seen it before, he'd gotten the impression that it was in the future, but not the distant future. He felt the air around him shift and he opened his eyes.

Just a few yards away from him, he could see Caitlin, her hair streaked with white and her skin even paler than usual. There was freezing mist gathering at her hands as she raised them towards... Cisco? Reverb? It was definitely him, wearing his goggles, but whether he was Reverb or not he couldn't tell. He took a few steps closer so he could watch.

"Killer Frost," Future Cisco said in a cool, even voice.

"Cisco," she answered, her voice dangerously level. "You don't have to do this."

"Cisco isn't home." He advanced forward several steps. "I'm Reverb now."

"Cisco, please," Caitlin begged, and the tiniest icicle began to form in her palm. "I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't want to hurt you either." He grinned unpleasantly. "I want you to join me."

That was enough. Cisco closed his eyes quickly and he was back in the Vortex. So that was his future. He became Reverb and fought Caitlin. Okay. But when was it?

He closed his eyes, focusing on where he'd just been- or, rather, when. This time, instead of going to that street, he imagined Central City Picture News, hoping that he would travel back to the same time.

He felt the air change and he opened his eyes. He was standing in front of the newspaper headquarters. What day is it? He wandered over to the newspaper stand to check the date on the paper- May 20th, 2017.

Six months from present day.

In six months, he was full Reverb?

His head spun and he closed his eyes, back in the vortex again. He opened them and he was in front of Central City Picture News again, but he was back in his time. He could feel it just from the air.

What time was it? He stepped forward so that he could see the face of the clocktower: it was 4:30. The last time he'd seen a clock, it had been 11:00- but who knew if he'd slept through most of that time, or accidentally time-traveled, or lost time again.

He was all too aware of the stares he was attracting, and he realized how he must look. He was still in sweats, his face was pale and his eyes shadowed. He needed to get out of here and get back home, so that he could have some space to process what he'd just learned. If someone provoked him enough, he might lose control- but for some reason, he wasn't as concerned about that as he should be. He needed to go home and regroup-

"Cisco?" He looked up and realized Iris was standing right next to him.

"Oh, hey, Iris." He combed his hair behind his ear, trying to look casual.

She smiled. "What are you-" Her gaze trailed down to his arm and her eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, you're bleeding." He looked down and realized his forearm was covered in blood, and there was a spot in the middle that was deeply bruised. It must have been from where he ripped the IV out.

Iris reached for his arm and he stumbled backward. She looked at him quizzically, taking in the rest of his disheveled appearance.

"Are you okay?" She asked doubtfully. "You don't look so good."

"Yeah, I'm good." He flashed her a smile, which probably just looked demented.

She appraised him again. "You're wearing a S.T.A.R. Labs sweatshirt, which means you were in the med bay for some reason," she pointed out. "And you're not wearing shoes." He looked down and realized she was right. She looked at him and narrowed her eyes. "You're not supposed to be down here, are you?"

"I-" he stammered. "What are you doing here?" He retorted lamely.

"I work here," she said gently. She looked at his bleeding arm again and then reached for her phone. "I'm calling Barry."

"No!" He said sharply, and she looked at him, startled. He backtracked. "I mean... that's not necessary. I was just going home."

"What are you gonna do, walk a mile and a half to the subway barefoot?" She challenged. He didn't have an answer to that. She started to dial a number on her phone. "I'm gonna call Barry, and he'll-"

"No!" He grabbed her wrist, not realizing that his hands were vibrating with energy. When he secured his grasp on her, there was a surge of energy and he felt the vibrations leave his hand. There was an audible crack and Iris cried out in pain and recoiled.

Cisco stared at her, dumbfounded. "Did I-" he stammered. She grabbed her wrist and looked up, her face twisted with pain.

"I think you broke my wrist," she gasped.

He stared at her, panic rising in his throat. "I'm so sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't mean to do that."

She smiled, but it was forced. "It's okay, Cisco. I'd drive you home, but-" she gestured with her good hand to the one he'd broken. "I'll call Barry and he'll take you home, okay?"

He opened his mouth to respond and then froze, realizing the implications of what she'd just proposed. When Barry found out that he'd hurt Iris, he would freak out. He remembered how quickly Barry had turned on him earlier when he'd lost control for a brief moment, and now that he'd actually hurt someone- Barry's girlfriend no less -he'd probably lock Cisco in the Cortex.

"I gotta get out of here," he muttered.

"I don't think you should go anywhere like this," Iris said urgently, but Cisco wasn't listening. He held his hand out and opened a breach. Iris' eyes widened.

"Cisco, what are you doing?" She hissed. "In public? In plain si-"

He raced through the breach and it closed up behind him.

When Iris told them what happened, Barry lost it.

"We need to find him right now," he commanded, pacing back and forth in front of Caitlin, Joe, Iris and H.R. "Before he hurts anyone else."

"Barry, listen to yourself," Caitlin chided him. "This is Cisco we're talking about."

"He hurt Iris!" Barry exploded.

"It's not like he tried to kill me," Iris said, a frustrated edge in her voice. "I'm not made of glass. I think I'll survive a broken wrist."

"That's not the point." Barry pushed his hair back with his hand. "The point is that he broke our trust."

"It was obviously an accident," Iris shot back. "He was scared. I think Cisco needs our compassion right now, not our judgement."

"I would agree, but Bar has a point," Joe spoke up. "How do we know he's safe? When Caitlin went all Killer Frost on us, she couldn't control herself." Caitlin looked away. "It was like Caitlin wasn't even in there."

"I think this is different than that," Caitlin said softly. "The last few days he's been slowly losing control of his powers, but as far as I can tell he's still at the wheel."

"That doesn't make it better," Barry protested. "If he's aware of what he's doing, he should be able to stop himself."

"I don't think it works like that," Caitlin said. "It seems like... whenever he gets emotional or scared, he loses control. I just need to go calm him down."

"That's a great thought, Dr. Snow, but we have no idea of knowing where he is," H.R. pointed out.

"Yes we do." Caitlin kicked the ground and the chair she was in swiveled to face the computer. "You know how people from other earths vibrate at different frequencies than ours? So they created cellular deadspots wherever they went. Cisco's vibrational frequency constantly fluctuates when he uses his power, so he creates cellular disruptions. So..." she hit a few keys on the keyboard and waited a few seconds. "He's... at his apartment." She frowned, then shook her head and stood up. "I'm going to him."

"What if he tries to hurt you?" Barry asked.

"He won't," Caitlin said confidently. "And if he tries..." she looked down at the cuffs on her wrists. "I'm more than capable of defending myself," she said grimly.

Barry looked at the others, expecting them to back him up, but they were silent. He sighed. "Okay, fine, but I'm coming with you."

Cisco stared at his hands. They weren't shaking. So why had he lost control?

He held his hand over the glass plate in front of him and it shattered, and the energy instantly switched off. He had perfect control over his powers. So he shouldn't have lost control... had he wanted to hurt Iris?

He had expected the confirmation that he became Reverb to scare him, but somehow, it didn't. He felt exactly the same. It scared him more that it hadn't scared him.

"Cisco?" There was a knock at his door and he heard Caitlin's voice. "I know you're in there."

He stared ahead at the wall, willing her to go away. She didn't.

"Listen, I don't know what you're feeling right now, but... no-one blames you for hurting Iris."

He stood up and placed his hand on the doorknob, but he heard Reverb's voice flash through his head again.

Your ties to humanity distract you from your full potential.

He slumped to the ground and leaned his head against the door. He was too tired to fight back.

There was a long pause, and then Caitlin spoke again. "Whatever is happening to you isn't your fault. We can fix this together, just... you have to stop shutting me out."

"I become Reverb," he blurted out, and there was another heavy silence.

"What do you mean?" She finally asked.

"I... I Vibed to the future and... I'm him." He tore a hand through his hair.

Another pause. The silences were getting awkward now. "Cisco, can you please open the door?" She asked gently. More silence. "Please let me in. I can't help you if you keep me at a distance like this."

He reached up and turned the doorknob, cracking the door open so that he could see her face. He was so damn tired. "I don't want to be Reverb," he croaked.

"You don't have to be." She reached for his hand and he backed away. She looked at him, hurt.

"I'm... not always in control," he explained. "I don't want to hurt you. Like Iris-"

"Iris is fine," Caitlin said reassuringly. "You just lost control for a brief moment, but you're stronger than this."

"I'm not." He shook his head. You seemed pretty weak to me, Reverb said in his head again. "How can I be, if I become-"

"Cisco." She grabbed his hand with both of hers. He tried to pull away, but she tightened her grasp. "Whatever you saw is not set in stone."

"But it's the future," he insisted.

"If we've learned anything, it's that the future is never concrete," Caitlin reminded him. "I believe that we write our own futures. If you believe that you're going to become Reverb, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it doesn't have to be that way." She held her hands out. "Look at me. I thought I was doomed to become... her." She couldn't even bring herself to say the name. "But I didn't."

Because you hid from yourself and suppressed your powers, Cisco thought, but didn't say it out loud.

"You're better than this," she said quietly.

"I'm not sure I am," he mumbled.

"I know you are," she said earnestly, and grabbed his hands again. "You're better than him. You could never be him." She reached forward and brushed a wayward strand of hair behind his ear, looking into his heavily shadowed eyes. "You're exhausted, aren't you?" She murmured.

"Like you wouldn't believe," he mumbled.

"Do you need me to bring you sleep medication again?" She asked. "Or you can come back to the lab-"

"I'm good, Cait," he interrupted. "I think I can fall asleep here." That was a complete lie. Really, he just wanted to be alone. She knew better than to push him.

"Okay," she relented. "But promise that if you need anything you'll call me."

"I will." He started to close the door.

She grabbed his arm. "You promise?"

"I promise." He smiled, but it didn't quite meet his eyes.

She threw her arms around him and pulled his body to hers. "We'll figure this out. I promise."

"Yeah." He leaned his head against her, almost subconsciously, just leaning into her touch. He never wanted to let go of her, and yet he found himself pulling away. "I'm- I'm really tired."

"Okay." She started to leave, and then turned back around. "You promise-"

"I'll call." He pushed the door closed behind her.

He didn't remember falling asleep, but the next thing he knew, he was on his bed. He rolled over to check his alarm clock: 7:14 PM. It had been eight hours, so the quetiapine should be out of his system by now.

He sat up. "Reverb?" He called out. No response.

He stood up and looked around cautiously. He was alone.

Reverb was gone.

"Finally," he murmured, and then grabbed his head when the migraine kicked in.

He sunk to his knees and leaned forward, resting his head on the bed. Before he'd let Reverb in his head, his powers had been seriously messing with his body- the shaking, the migraines -but while he'd surrendered himself to Reverb, all the symptoms had gone away. And now they were back. Was it some kind of trade off? If he wanted to be free from Reverb, he had to deal with his powers ripping him apart?

A few minutes later, he managed to stagger to his feet. He stumbled to his bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet and reached for the aspirin bottle. He shook out the last pill and downed it with a lukewarm glass of water that was on his nightstand. He collapsed back on his bed and turned on his phone while he waited for the medicine to kick in.

A missed call and two texts from Caitlin. How are you feeling? and Get any sleep yet?

He wrote back: Crappy, and yeah, a little bit.

She buzzed back a second later: Hallucinating still?

Nah. I think he's gone.

He turned off his phone and set it down on the nightstand; the glare was just aggravating his headache. When it didn't go away, he got up to double his dose, and then remembered that that was the last aspirin. So he grabbed his jacket and wallet and headed out the door.

Once he was down the stairs and out of his apartment, the noises of the street- cars racing by and honking horns, people's feet hitting the ground, the dull grumble of the subway beneath- got into his head and overwhelmed his senses. He dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out his sound-canceling earbuds and popped them in.

That was better. The throbbing subsided and softened to a dull burn in the back of his head. He connected his earbuds to his phone and hit shuffle. He let the beats of the music sync with his footsteps and his heart rate and his slow, regular breathing. He started counting his footsteps in sets of three, pacing the downbeat of his footsteps with the pulsing of his heart. As he passed by the rest of the world, he couldn't hear its sound, but he could feel the vibrations. The wind vibrating over the surface of his skin, the impact of other people's feet hitting the ground, the way the pavement quaked under his feet when the subway passed through. Blocking out the house and just feeling the vibrations connected him to the world in a new way, and it was oddly comforting.

He felt an arrhythmic set of vibrations racing past him and he looked sharply to the side. A figure in a black hoodie was running up to a woman and knocked her to the ground. He took off across the street with her purse in tow. The woman opened her mouth, presumably crying out for help, but he wasn't concerned with sound.

He raced across the street after the assailant. He felt the cars rumbling across the street screech to a halt just in front of him. By the time he got to the other side of the street, there was a small crush of people exiting a nearby movie theater, and he lost track of his target. He closed his eyes, trying to pick out the feel of the uneven footsteps amongst all of the other vibrations he felt through his feet. He raced through the crowd, pushing past everyone in his path. He spotted the black hoodie a few feet ahead of him and raced forward. He grabbed the guy's arm when his back was turned and shoved him against a nearby wall.

"Hey asshole," he shouted, but he couldn't hear his own voice, just the vibration of his voice in his throat. "Give me that purse."

The guy turned to face him, revealing himself to be a dusty-haired, sallow-skinned teenager. He smirked.

"You and what army, short stuff?" He taunted. Cisco realized that one of his earbuds had fallen out.

He took two steps forward so that he and the kid were face to face. He grabbed his wrist, feeling vibrational energy gather at his fingertips.

"Give me the purse," he said in a low voice, and felt a tiny wave of energy release from his fingers and into the kid's arm. He whimpered with pain, but Cisco tightened his grip.

"You can't make me," the kid spat at him, and tried to twist away. Cisco let go of the kid's wrist and grabbed his hand, and released a burst of energy into the kid's little finger. There was a loud crack and the kid yelped.

"Okay, I'll give you the damn purse!" He shouted, and threw it at Cisco. He darted away and disappeared through the crowd.

Cisco turned around to see a distraught young woman standing behind him. "Is this yours?" He asked, holding it out to her.

Her face lit up. "I thought I would never see that again!" She reached forward and hugged him. "You're my hero."

"No problem," Cisco said awkwardly, and pushed away. He popped his earbud back in, successfully drowning out the sound of the rest of the world. He turned around and started walking back towards his apartment.

What had he done? He had practically tortured somebody. It was a thief, his mind rationalized. But it was just a teenager.

As he walked idly back to his apartment, he realized his body was on fire with adrenaline. Had he enjoyed that?

He didn't realize until he was unlocking his front door that he had forgotten to buy aspirin. Great. Maybe I can ask Caitlin to-

He took out his earbuds and paused, realizing that his headache was completely gone.

Well, that was interesting.