Caitlin turned around slowly, feeling terror swelling in her chest. Cisco stood in the doorway, but he was barely recognizable as Cisco. He was still dressed in his own clothes- a vintage Jurassic Park t-shirt, blue jeans and that one black jacket he always wore -and his goggles and gauntlets were the same as they'd always been, but he was markedly different. His posture was strong, powerful, and his lips curled into a smirk, exuding superiority. She didn't know whether to be terrified of his power or heartbroken that he had fallen so far. She just felt sick to her stomach and her throat was too dry to speak.

Barry spoke instead. "Cisco, you don't have to do this," he said in a low, careful voice.

Cisco tilted his head. "You didn't have to save your mom, but none of us are perfect." Barry swallowed and his eyes dampened. "You had to think this would catch up to you eventually, Barry. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. You wrecked my life, and now I'm wrecking yours." He stepped forward, and gosh, he even walked differently. Caitlin backed up and felt Barry and Harry moving beside them, but she knew that he was backing them into a corner.

"This isn't you, Ramon," Harry said calmly. "Your brain chemistry is being affected by your powers. You're not yourself."
Cisco smirked. "And thank goodness for that. I always hated that guy. You know, all this time, I've been wondering why I couldn't master my powers. And I finally figured it out- it was you." He advanced on them like a predator. Caitlin backed up and bumped into Harry. They were running out of space, and out of time. "It was all of you. I depended too much on you, but you're all inferior. I'm the most powerful meta in the universe. I can manipulate the very strings on which our world sits. I can peel away the fabric of dimensions in time. If I want to harness my power, there's no place for human emotion and connection. That's always been my weakness."

Barry laughed weakly. It sounded like he was in pain, like someone had kicked him in the diaphragm. "Do you hear yourself? You're doing the cliche evil villain monologue. Come on, Cisco, you're better than this." He stepped forward, shielding Caitlin with his body. She about shoved him out of the way until she noticed his hands behind his back, one hand curled around the other wrist. The cuffs. Caitlin glanced at the cuffs on her wrists and her throat tightened with panic. If she took them off, she might lose control, and then they wouldn't be any better off.

"See, I realized that, too," Cisco said. "I am better than this. I'm better than being your scapegoat."

Caitlin glanced at Harry, who had noticed Barry's subtle gesture. He locked eyes with her and widened his eyes as if to say Go on. She glanced back at him and shook her head. There had to be another way. Harry glanced at Cisco and then back at Caitlin. Please, he mouthed. She shook her head. She could help, but not like that.

"Cisco, listen to me," she said suddenly, and shoved Barry out of the way.

"Cait," Barry hissed, and shook his head, but she ignored him.

"I know you're hurting. I know you're in pain, but this won't make anything better." Cisco tilted his head in her direction and she could tell he was listening, so she rushed on. How had she gotten through to him before? Fictional analogy. Think of something nerdy, come on Caitlin, anything... "You're Anakin Skywalker, remember? The force is strong. You don't want to become Vader, I know you don't. This isn't who you are."

"Maybe not." Cisco said softly, and for one breath-baited moment, Caitlin thought she had gotten through to him. "But do you remember how Anakin became Vader, Caitlin? He was broken. So broken beyond recognition that there was no going back. He could never be Anakin Skywalker again, even if he..." His voice faltered. "Even if he wanted to." Caitlin's heart wrenched in her chest. "And that's all thanks to you, Barry. You broke me. You shattered my heart when you killed my brother." His voice was hard and harsh, but his lower lip trembled ever so slightly. "The least I can do is return the favor."

"There's nothing I can say that will make Dante come back," Barry said softly. "I'm so sor-"

"You're sorry?" Cisco laughed harshly. "You keep saying that. Sorry's not enough. Nothing is."

What followed happened so fast that Caitlin barely had time to register it. Cisco blasted Barry to the ground and Harry shouted, "Snow, the cuffs!" and Caitlin scrambled to take them off.

Cisco released another wave and Harry crumpled to the floor and Barry bounced back up and raced towards Cisco but then a breach opened behind them and Cisco and Barry fell into the breach and vanished.

Caitlin rushed to Harry's side and pressed her fingers against the side of his neck. His pulse was faint, but it was there. She pressed the panic button on her phone and prayed that Wally would know what to do. Then she raced down the hall towards the cortex.

Cisco's heart was racing in his chest, too fast, too heavy. Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum. He felt like he was watching himself from outside his body, like he was floating, like he wasn't really there. The power surging through his body made him feel alive, but in the worst way possible. He felt like a live wire, surging and seizing and sparking. He felt like a grenade in the split second after the pin was pulled but before the explosion.

He stood on the roof of STAR Labs, and although it wasn't the tallest building in the city, it felt like he was standing above the stratosphere. His heart hurt, physically hurt, like there was a shard of glass stuck in it. His brother was dead and he would never see him again. He had lost so much because of this agonizing life he lived, because of Barry, who he desperately wanted to hate but couldn't, and that somehow made him hate Barry more.

Barry's eyes were wide, his mouth opening and closing in an ardent plea for mercy, but it was lost under the blood rushing in Cisco's ears. Barry had caused so much pain, and not just to him, but to everyone around him. Everything Barry Allen touched burned, and Cisco wanted him to pay for it, so badly. But the tears in Barry's eyes pricked at a deeper part of his soul, a part of him that was hidden deep under the layers of pain and anger. Star Labs forever. The universe wants us to be bros. The memories only made him hurt more. That Barry was gone. The Barry that returned from Flashpoint was not the same Barry who sat hunched over on Joe's porch after his father's funeral. That was the Barry that Cisco knew, the one that he loved, but he was lost to the ripples of the multiverse. This was the arrogant man who treated time as his toy and their lives as a game. Barry Allen deserved no mercy.

Still, he hesitated. He didn't have to kill Barry. He didn't even know if he had it in him. He looked at Barry, cowering on the ground, tears streaming down his face. He didn't move because he knew that Cisco could shatter his organs with a flick of his wrist. Maybe, Cisco thought, he had already suffered enough. Maybe leaving Barry to deal with the consequences of his actions was penance enough.

But this wasn't about penance, it was about revenge. It was about the gaping hole in Cisco's chest that couldn't be mended. It was about the world of power that he felt at his fingertips. He knew if he gave himself over to it, the pain would stop. Reverb- the real one, not the one in his head -was so empty. He never felt anything, he never regretted anything, he just reveled in his own power. He never had to feel pain, because he never felt anything. Cisco wanted that so badly, because right now the pain burned so badly that he couldn't bear it. He had to give himself over to his power entirely, to let it consume him, and this was how. Your human connections hold you back from your full potential. If he killed Barry Allen, he could never be Cisco Ramon again, because Cisco Ramon would never be able to live with himself, no matter how angry and heartbroken he was. He had to hand himself over to Vibe. He had to become Vader.

He stared at Barry's red eyes, and Barry's mouth stopped moving. The corners of his mouth turned up hopefully, like he thought his meaningless chatter had somehow broken through the catastrophic cacophony consuming Cisco's brain. You are so small, he thought, almost pityingly. I can escape this pain because I am the universe. You can never escape it.

Maybe I'm doing you a favor.

He closed his eyes and carefully searched through the vibrations until he felt Barry's unnaturally fast heartbeat. Just one controlled vibration would be enough. He didn't have to make him suffer.

But he could. Maybe he needed to. There was no doing this halfway.

"Cisco!" His own heart broke into a thud. Don't look at her. Don't think about her, don't listen to her. He could justify killing Barry Allen, but he could never, ever hurt Caitlin Snow. He loved her, although he wasn't sure how.

This was why he hadn't killed Barry yet. Not because of Barry, but because of Caitlin. Caitlin was love and warmth and hope, encapsulating the only good things about his life. He had pinned all of his hope on her for so long, but there was no room for hope among power and apathy. He had to give her up.

He stared down at the ground, at his once-no-more best friend, begging for his life. He stared ahead at the woman he loved, shaking her head, calling out to him, begging him to stop.

Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum. His heart raced and he looked at Caitlin again, and back at Barry.

I'm so sorry, he thought, and as he looked at Caitlin, the one warm part of his heart broke for her.

He turned back to Barry and closed his eyes.

Caitlin felt numb all over. Barry was curled into a ball on the ground, grasping at his chest over his heart and trembling. Cisco stood over Barry, his hand raised as if he were crushing Barry's heart under it. He was right, he was broken beyond recognition. How could she get through to him if he wasn't even Cisco anymore?

"Cisco, stop," she yelled, her voice hoarse and raw. He turned his head and froze.

"Please," she begged. "Please don't do this. Not for Barry, not for me, for you. The universe screwed you, and maybe Barry did, too, but you don't have to let that define you." Cisco's hand lowered. "You are so much better than you are right now. If you kill Barry, you're killing Cisco Ramon, too."

He stared at her, but with those goggles on she had no idea what he was thinking. "I know," he said in a strange, faraway voice. "Why do you think I want to do it?"

Her heart broke and she felt her eyes stinging. "Take those goggles off," she shouted. He stared at her. "I'm serious. If you're going to kill Barry, look me in the eye first. Look him in the eye." He looked back down at Barry. "Take them off, Cisco!"

Slowly, slowly, he raised his hands, and removed the goggles from his head. He turned to face her and their eyes locked. After removing his goggles, he somehow looked even more unrecognizable than before. This man was a stranger to her.

"You don't want to do this," she said. "I know you don't."

"That's where you're wrong," he said coldly.

"You're a terrible liar," Caitlin said. "Whenever we find spiders in the lab, and I want to kill them, you scoop them up on a piece of paper and put them outside." His face twitched and his hand lowered. "You don't want to do this."

He stared at her, and she saw the mask begin to crack. His lower lip, trembling slightly. "This is what has to happen."

She shook her head. "No. This is over the line. This is horrific, and you know that."

"I have to do this," he said, and his eyes welled up. "I have to do this. This is the only way."

"No, it's not." She stepped forward, cautiously, and when he didn't move, she stepped forward again. "There's always another way. End all of this and we'll figure it out together. Please."

Cisco glanced at Barry again, and then looked at Caitlin. A tear tracked down his cheek and the mask crumbled. She had seen Cisco sad and angry and heartbroken and depressed, but this was something else. His face was glowing like the heat from an atomic shockwave. He was sparking and flaring like a supernova, and it broke everything in her to see him that way.

"Come on," she murmured. "You are stronger than this."

"No, I'm not." He shook his head.

"Yes, you are," she breathed. "If you can't believe that right now, I will believe it for you."

He shook his head, blinking away tears. "That's not who I am anymore."

"That's okay. It's okay to change. Sometimes we have to." She extended her arm, holding her hand out. "Come on. Let's end this, Cisco."

He shook his head again, just a slight side-to-side movement. "I don't- I can't-"

"Shh," she murmured. "You don't have to fight so hard." She reached forward and touched his shoulder. He flinched under her touch and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Please don't," he whispered.

"No." She stepped closer and touched her hand under his chin, cradling her face. He tilted his head against it, as if he were trying to memorize her touch. He opened his eyes, and she could see something sparking in them. He pulled away and looked at her regretfully.

"That is why," he murmured, "I have to do this."

She stared at him. "Cisco-"

He raised his hand and closed his eyes.

Caitlin's brain switched gears instantly and started racing through strategy, operating in the fraction of a second that it had. There was always another way, just like she told Cisco. But when one way doesn't work, sometimes you need to do what has to be done. And it broke her heart to pieces, but she was more than willing to do what she had to do. She couldn't let Cisco do this- not just to Barry, but to himself.

Snow's strong, Harry's voice said in her head. If that ever was going to be true, it had to be now. Sometimes being strong meant doing what needed to be done, even if it was the opposite of what you wanted.

She ripped the cuffs off her wrists and tossed them to the ground. She held out her hand and ice spiraled from her fingertips.