Ten minutes later, he was in the passenger seat of Caitlin's Kia, and she was racing down Main Street like she was a getaway driver.

"Caitlin," he said when she plowed through a red light. "I think Barry and Harry will be okay for another twenty-five minutes. You don't have to break every traffic law to get there."

"It was yellow," she said dismissively. It most definitely was not, but her hard jaw and furrowed brow told him to drop it, so he did.

The car ride was uncomfortably silent. He could tell by the way her fingers clenched around the steering wheel that something was bothering her- from what he'd heard of her conversation with Harry and her brief comments that morning, she was less than thrilled that Harry was coming. But he didn't dare broach the topic, because she was so tense that if he said something to startle her she would probably flip the car over.

Cisco was grateful when the car finally jerked to a halt in the STAR Labs parking lot. He raised an eyebrow at her crooked parking job but didn't say a word.

Caitlin marched into the Cortex, her heels clicking defiantly, and Cisco hung slightly behind her, not wanting to be in her warpath. Barry and Iris were sitting next to the computers and Harry was standing by the white board. Everyone looked their way when Caitlin swung the door open.

"You," she said, pointing an accusatory finger at Harry.

He smiled, looking mildly amused. "Good morning, Snow. Ramon." He nodded at Cisco, but neither of them had a chance to say another word because Caitlin was bristling.

"Don't 'good morning' me. I'm angry and you know why." She strode forward, advancing on him like a predator. "I told you I had everything under control. I told you I could handle it and I didn't need your help, but instead you hop on over because apparently I can't be trusted to handle anything important and we always need a Harrison Wells to swoop in and solve our most complicated problems!"

Harry blinked. "I'm… sorry?"

"The hell you are," Caitlin spat, and the room fell silent. Caitlin rarely swore, so when she did, you knew she meant it. "I called you in to help because I respect you as a scientist and as a person, but apparently, that respect is one-sided." Harry opened his mouth indignantly but she cut him off. "Do not try to say you respect me because if you did, you would have trusted me when I said I had it covered!"

Iris raced forward and grabbed Caitlin's arm. Cisco noted with a twinge of guilt that Iris had a plaster cast up to her elbow. "Give him a break," she said, looking Caitlin in the eye. "Let him explain himself."

"Thank you, Miss West." Harry cleared his throat. "I came because I thought maybe you wanted help. Not because I thought you needed it. You're a hell of a scientist, Snow. I never doubted that."

Caitlin's eyes were still blazing, but she dropped her gaze to the floor and folded her arms. Harry's gaze drifted to Cisco and their eyes locked.

"There you are, Ramon."

Cisco felt his insides twisting together unnecessarily. "Hey," he whispered.

An hour later, Cisco was sitting on the end of the MRI machine, his head in his hands as he listened to Caitlin and Harry bicker their heads off.

"-an EEG is definitely necessary-"

"-you don't know that-"

"We need to find out what he's seeing-"

"What if it's the placebo effect?" Caitlin argued. "This is why I didn't tell him to start with, because we risk confirmation bias. By making a big deal out of it, we might make him think it's worse than it is."

"Honestly, it's been pretty bad already, so I don't know how much worse it could be," Cisco said loudly, interrupting their arguments. "And honestly, I'm feeling pretty okay."

"As of 12 hours ago," Caitlin said flatly. "Just because you're feeling better doesn't mean we have nothing to worry about."

"And we have no idea what we're dealing with, which means we need to find out," Harry said forcefully. "Which is where an EEG comes in handy."

"Harry's right," Cisco said. "We need to know. I'm sick of not knowing."

Caitlin looked betrayed. "Cisco-"

"My body, my choice, right? I just want to know, and maybe what we find out will help us put an end to this." Cisco ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know if you're aware, but this is kind of my personal version of hell. So whatever we can do to get it over with, I'm on board."

Caitlin looked all kinds of not happy, but nodded. "Fine. Let's do this."

As it turned out, the EEG was completely unhelpful. "Brain activity is all normal," Caitlin said, flipping through the sheets. "I told you, it wouldn't work because he's not hallucinating."

"So maybe I'm all better," Cisco inserted.

"No," Caitlin said, at the same time Harry said, "Unlikely."

"It just means that whatever was causing your episodes isn't happening now," Harry mused. "So maybe… what if we try to-"

"If the next words out of your mouth are 'induce an episode', you can hop right back to your Earth," Caitlin said flatly. "You didn't see what those did to him. I'm not putting him through those again."

"It's his choice," Harry said, and they both looked at Cisco expectantly.

"Um…" Cisco fiddled with his hands uncomfortably. "Y'know. I'd prefer not to, honestly."

Harry sighed. "So what's our plan, wait until you go full Vader on us?"

"More like hope it doesn't happen again?" Cisco said, knowing how weak it sounded. "I'm sorry, Harry, I don't know what to tell you. I appreciate you coming all this way and you guys doing this for me, but…" He shrugged. "I really don't want to bring this on unless it happens again."

Harry glanced at Caitlin. "Fine. I'll stick around for a little while to see if anything happens, and if not, we pass this off as a fluke?"

"We should look over the various test results," Caitlin said immediately. "There might be something I missed. Maybe you can help me."

There was an awkward pause, and as if on cue, Barry poked his head into the room. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Cisco, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to take me up on my training offer. To help you get more comfortable with your powers and stuff."

"Yeah, I'd love that," Cisco said, and glanced quickly at Caitlin, who nodded.

"I'll come downstairs if we need anything," she said.

"Actually," Barry said, "I was thinking of going a little bit farther."

"Oliver? Really?" Cisco said when they were in Starling. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but isn't he the one who shot you in the back just to illustrate a point?"

Barry winced, and his hand migrated to his back, as if he were feeling the pain again. "That is still a sore point, but Oliver taught me a lot, and it really helped build my skills as a hero. I'm hoping he can do the same for you."

"You two realize I'm right here, right?" Oliver glanced at them from where he was hanging up his jacket. "I promise I'm not going to shoot you, Cisco. You don't heal fast like Barry does. I am going to put you through the wringer, though, so I hope you're ready."

"Trust me." Cisco pulled his hair out of his face and turned to face Oliver. "I was born ready."

Oliver smirked, impressed by his confidence. "Okay then." Cisco barely had time to blink before Oliver raced forward and slammed him to the ground, each of his hands grasping Cisco's biceps.

"You're the super powered one," Oliver growled, his face an inch away from Cisco's. "Why'd you let me get away with that, huh?"

Cisco gasped for breath- the pressure of Oliver's mass was making it difficult to breathe. What do I do? I don't want to hurt him. Oliver's weight was pressing against his ribcage, almost crushing him. But he has so much muscle mass, I might be able to get away with… He released a small vibrational wave, not a full-on blast, but just enough to push Oliver off of him. The other man tumbled away and hit the padded floor with a smack. Oliver leapt to his feet, but Cisco was ready this time. When Oliver lunged for him, Cisco opened a breach behind him, jumped in, and came out on the other side of Oliver. He was ready to blast Oliver down, but Oliver whirled around and slammed Cisco to the ground again.

"Nice trick, but you gotta think faster," Oliver hissed, and stood up, allowing Cisco to gasp for breath. "You have good instincts, Cisco. Trust your instincts. Don't let your insecurities hold you back. Don't hold anything back." He offered Cisco a hand.

Cisco accepted it and staggered to his feet. "I don't want to hurt you."

Oliver chuckled darkly. "Trust me, you won't."

"Maybe, just to be safe, I could take a couple rounds with Cisco," Barry piped up from where he was sitting a few yards away. "You can do all the coaching, Oliver, but since I'm the one with super-healing, maybe it would be better if I did it so that Cisco can use his powers to their full extent."

Oliver shook his head. "Give me a couple more rounds, Bar."

They went at it again, and Cisco got some good moves in. He used his breaches and blasts to great effect, and he pulled a few over on Oliver, but every time, Cisco hesitated and found himself pinned to the mat again. After a couple hours of that pattern, Oliver helped Cisco to his feet again and clapped him on the back.

"Take five," he commanded. "We have a kitchen upstairs, go get some water and electrolytes."

Cisco nodded and headed upstairs, breathing heavily. Although he wasn't exactly winning at this, he hadn't killed Oliver, and he felt more comfortable in his own body than he had for the last few weeks. Oliver was intense, but it was actually really helpful. He forced Cisco to focus on using his powers in a positive way instead of being afraid of what he might do with them, because if he didn't, he got the wind slammed out of his sails over and over again.

He found a bottle of Gatorade in the upstairs kitchen, chugged the whole thing, and then went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. It felt so good against his hot, sweaty skin. He looked up in the mirror, and for the first time that week, he wasn't filled with absolute disgust at the sight of his reflection. He didn't look weak or sick anymore. He looked stronger, older, confident.

He thought he saw his own lips curl into a smirk, but he passed it off as his own confidence coloring his perception of himself.

He went back downstairs to see Oliver waiting for him. "Let's get back to it," he said, and Cisco took his position on the mat. "Think on your feet this time. Don't hold back."

"Ollie, maybe tone it down just a bit," Barry called, but Oliver shook his head.

"We're fine, Barry. Trust me, I know what I'm doing." He nodded at Cisco. "When you're ready."

Cisco took a running start at Oliver and he saw Oliver's arms go up, ready to grab him, but he was ready. He breached behind Oliver and blasted him to the ground. He was racing forward to send another blast when he felt a grasp on his foot. He glanced down to see Oliver's hand around his ankle and tripped and fell flat on his face. He felt Oliver's hands seizing his shoulders, and something in his brain snapped into place. You're not going to get me this time. He felt an unfamiliar energy take over his body and he pushed a monster blast of energy out of his body and sent Oliver flying away. Oliver's body hit the mat on the other side of the room with a dull thud.

"Cisco!" Barry was on his feet. "I think that was a little much. Is he okay?"

Oliver's limp form was stirring, but that was the least of Cisco's concern. His brain was still racing with adrenaline- he was trying to kill me he didn't kill me I'm fine what did I do what am I doing -and his thoughts were slowly descending to reason, realizing that he might have hurt Oliver, when he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye. He saw a mouth of white teeth flash a grin, and it filled his stomach with dread.

"Hey, buddy," Reverb said.

Caitlin stared at the computer in front of her blankly. "I'm telling you, there's nothing here," she told Harry. "I've looked at these over and over and there's nothing useful."

"Maybe you weren't looking for the right thing," Harry muttered.

Caitlin raised her brows indignantly. "Excuse me?"

Harry didn't look up. "All due respect, Snow, but we're different people, different scientists, and I have a little more experience than you do."

"Yes, but I'm telling you, I've looked at all of these test results a million times," Caitlin said, exasperated. "If there was something there I would have seen it, unless…" She broke off.

Harry glanced at her. "Unless what?"

Caitlin stood up abruptly. "Unless I wasn't looking at the right thing. I'm an idiot."

"I highly doubt that," Harry said, but Caitlin was hitting her keyboard furiously, pulling up exactly the document that she wanted.

"What's that?" Harry asked, glancing at the image on the screen in front of her. "Is that our EEG?"

"No." Caitlin stared at the screen in front of her. "This is an EEG I took a year ago when we were experimenting with Cisco's powers. This was right after he did a sparring session with Barry." She raised a finger at the screen. "Look at that."

"Imbalanced norepinephrine," Harry murmured, and glanced at her quickly. "Way imbalanced. When we did our EEG, Cisco was relaxed, and he hadn't fought or used his powers recently. You took this right after he used his powers?" Caitlin nodded. "What does it mean?"

Caitlin felt an unpleasant, red-hot pit in her stomach. "It means we need to warn Oliver right now."

Cisco stared at Reverb, and he could feel his heart rate picking up. "Go away," he hissed. "Not now. I don't need you here."

Reverb shrugged. "Maybe not. But I think you want me here."

"Cisco!" Barry grabbed his shoulder. "What were you thinking? You used way too much force on Oliver."

"It's okay," Oliver groaned, staggering to his feet. "He just got worked up. Which was kind of my intention, so-"

"You feel great, don't you?" Reverb said, and Cisco couldn't disagree with him. "Better than you've felt in a long time. This it how it feels to be in control. This is how. You don't want to go back to holding yourself back so you can fit into your place as the Flash's tech guy, do you?"

He didn't. He wasn't sure what he wanted, but he didn't want to stop feeling this way. He didn't feel scared to see Reverb, he realized, just slightly annoyed. He didn't need egging on. He had this covered.

"Let's just tone this down," Oliver was saying, clutching his right arm. "Do you want to switch out, Barry? I think I need to take a round off."

"Yeah." Barry glanced at Cisco warily. "Dial it back, okay, bud?"

Cisco nodded, ignoring Reverb in the corner of his eye. "Vibe versus Flash. Let's go."

Barry grinned tentatively. "On your count."

Cisco closed his eyes, preparing himself to use a controlled blast. Not too much. Just enough to knock him to his feet, but not enough to hurt him.

But don't you want to hurt him? Don't you want to hurt him the way that he hurt you? Because he did hurt you. He killed Dante. He ruined your life.

He's the reason you're in pain, all of the time. Don't you want to make him feel a fraction of the pain that you've felt?

I do. I do want to make him feel pain.

I want to put Barry Allen through hell.

He released a monster wave of energy from his fingertips, even bigger than the one he just released on Oliver. And this time, it was not an uncontrollable sensation, it was 100% conscious. Barry flew into the air like a ragdoll and smashed against the back wall. There was a loud, unpleasant, crack.

"The hell-" Oliver stood up and raced towards Cisco. "Okay, time-out!"

But this time, it was Oliver who wasn't fast enough. Cisco opened a breach and disappeared.