Chapter 5: Cisco

Cisco walked into his workstation at S.T.A.R. Labs with a smile on his face. Barry had returned his text, letting him know that the mini extrapolator he'd made for Kara had worked. At least it had opened a portal. They had no idea if she had actually made it back to her Earth. He had to assume she had, if not he'd probably have gotten an interdimensional alert from her and he would have had to try and vibe to where she was to get her back to her Earth. He smiled as he walked over to one of his tables of tools and picked up a half-completed device. Too bad they couldn't mass produce the interdimensional extrapolator, they could make a fortune; but he had a feeling that mass production of something that could allow just anyone to cross dimensions would have dangerous repercussions.

He briefly considered sending out a signal to see if she responded, but he would have to make his way to the Cortex to do that. He wanted to get his work room put together somewhat first. As he fiddled with the device in his hand, he couldn't help but think about how much had changed in the last few days. He'd experienced a true whirlwind of cool and exciting things, as well as having a few eye-opening revelations. Finding out that Barry had jumped to another Earth earlier that year, and never bothered to tell him or anyone, had initially added one more item on the list of things that Cisco was mad at his friend for.

Getting to breach her Earth and then actually meeting the super cool Kryptonian, even if it had taken three tries to actually make it there, had been quite awesome. It might have been cooler if they weren't trying to recruit Kara to help with world dominating aliens so that he could have had a chance to explore her world some. Maybe another time when Earth 1 wasn't in dire peril.

Truth be told, Cisco was in geek heaven. Aside from meeting Kara, and going to her Earth and creating a mini portal device, getting to go on the Waverider and travel back in time had been epic. Epic that is, until the point where he had almost been responsible for the deaths of every metahuman and countless non-metas. It was definitely one of the coolest but eye-opening experiences of the last two days. He had finally come to realize exactly how Barry had been feeling since his return to this timeline. Cisco realized that Dante's death had hit him so hard because he'd never have a chance to finally work on that closer relationship with his brother they had both wanted. He'd needed someone to blame and Barry seemed like the right target for all his hurt and anger.

However, Cisco didn't think he could have lived with himself if Barry had turned himself over to the Dominators. Especially if the speedster had still been under the impression that he was Vibe's public enemy number one. He'd almost lost a best friend, someone he had considered more of a brother than his brother by blood.

Now that things were back on track for him and Barry, Cisco was a little bummed that the speedster had decided to stay at S.T.A.R. Labs tonight rather than crashing with him; he had been kind of looking forward to a home-cooked breakfast. But, he understood. While he was glad that he and Barry had cleared the air, his friend probably needed some alone time to decompress from the events of the last few days. Plus, as team leader, Barry had wanted to see everyone off as they made their way back to their own homes, or ships, or Earths as the case may be.

As he put the device into a drawer, he thought back to the discussion he'd had with Barry during the celebration party, after he'd given Kara the completed extrapolator to get her home.

They'd shared a laugh at Mick's strange flirtation with Supergirl. Kara's expression had been priceless. While Oliver, Barry and Cisco all knew the blonde could more than take care of herself, each one of them had stepped up and offered, in a brotherly capacity, to set the hot-head straight.

Kara had laughed, and thanked them all but said it was okay. That if he tried anything, she'd just use her freeze breath on him. She then went over to talk to Felicity, and Oliver had joined her, leaving Cisco and Barry alone.

Barry had been first to break the sudden awkward silence by asking if they were now okay.

Cisco had replied that yeah, they were good. And he had apologized for his less than friendly manner ever since Caitlyn had coldly spilled the beans about Dante not being dead in the other version of this timeline.

Barry had stated that he understood, that what he'd done was selfish but he hadn't meant it to be. He'd just felt so broken between his dad and the real Jay Garrick being his dad's doppelganger, he just hadn't been thinking straight. He'd acted on pain and impulse and now had to pay the price for that mistake.

Cisco had put a hand on his friend's shoulder and told him that he now empathized with what Barry had gone through. He'd explained that while it still hurt that Dante was gone, he couldn't hold it against the speedster anymore. While it had stung quite a bit to know, after all of Barry's arguments about not going back to save Dante, he had turned around and done the very thing he'd been adamant about doing just to save his own parents. But he could now comprehend exactly what Barry had meant about the consequences of changing even one event in the past. Having had a chance to travel in time himself, he now had firsthand experience of how altering the past could change the present. That, at the time, it had seemed like a good idea to free the Dominator the Legends had helped capture, they had ended up being partially to blame for what could have caused the deaths of millions, and he had almost lost one of his best friends.

Cisco had watched the smile slowly spread over Barry's face at his declaration that the speedster was still his best friend, and reciprocated in kind. Deciding it was time to change the subject, he'd asked his best friend if he was worried at all about the fact that the Government, or at least a faction of it, knew his true identity.

Barry had just shrugged and stated that they needed to deal with one crisis at a time. Now that the threat of the Dominators was over, they needed to get back to worrying about Alchemy and Savitar. He had then put his arm around Cisco's shoulders and guided him over to the rest of the team of superheroes so that they both could enjoy the rest of the evening's celebrations.

Cisco put the excess items he had used for the mini extrapolator into a side drawer in his workstation. He didn't want someone like H.R. to come across them. Not that he felt the man would know what to do with them if he did find them, but he wasn't taking any chances. H.R. was too much of a wild card.

Wanting to send that message to Kara and check the Cortex computers for any alerts that might have come in while they had been celebrating, he began heading out of his lab. As he turned, his eyes quickly caught sight of the white envelope leaning against his keyboard. Changing direction, he walked over to the computer and noticed his name written in Barry's handwriting. He wondered when Barry had put that there, because, while the man was fast, he hadn't seen the speedster leave the party before him. Ever curious, he picked up the letter and opened it.

Cisco,

I am sorry that I have failed you as a best friend. I haven't been there for you the way I should have been. It's my fault Dante is gone in this timeline and you have every right not to forgive me. Getting over any loss is hard, whether it be a mother, father or brother. But the loss of your brother, at a time when the two of you were finally working on your relationship, has to hurt the most, especially when you learned that it was a direct result of something a friend did. And that the friend in question was someone who could have fixed it if he'd wanted to, but instead was the one who caused the death in the first place.

I take full responsibility for everything and understand completely why you feel so angry and betrayed.

I had hoped we would eventually rebuild the friendship we had before everything that happened with Zoom, or even to when I first returned from Flashpoint. You may have been hurt at first, but you'd forgiven my choice, until you discovered that Dante was still alive in the pre-Flashpoint timeline.

However, it appears Fate has other plans for me. There are always consequences to our actions. I am learning that my decision to save my mom, and then try to restore this timeline has resulted in more than just a few alterations to our lives than I could have ever imagined.

I did try and go back and fix this timeline once I learned what my changing the past twice did to everyone's lives in the present, but Jay stopped me. He pointed out that every time I do that, I put another crack in the timeline that used to be. If I could be sure that stopping the car accident that took Dante's life wouldn't cause any additional ripples in the timeline, I would go back and do it, Cisco, I would, in a heartbeat. But I can't. I can't risk anything else getting screwed up.

But while I can't fix my mistakes, I can atone for what I did. I can do the right thing. I can't let the world suffer for my mistakes. I know that you may never forgive me for the loss of Dante, but I hope one day you realize that I came back to this timeline, even if things weren't exactly as I left them. I chose this version of my life, the one with Joe, Iris, Wally, Caitlyn and you, my family.

Don't let Caitlyn fall to the Dark Side. She's got too much light in her, too much goodness. You need to keep reminding her of that. I have a feeling, while she may want to get rid of her powers, she can find a way to turn them into something good. You need to help her see it, too.

I will now go from a Star Wars reference to a Star Trek one and leave you with the immortal words of Spock: I have been and always shall be, your friend.

Barry

Cisco wiped a stray tear from his eye. He was glad they had made their peace earlier. If not, then he would have definitely felt like a huge heel now. He was definitely going to be a better friend to Barry moving forward, and the first step was going to be convincing the speedster to come back and take up residence on his couch once again. No one should be forced to sleep on those uncomfortable cots they had around the lab, unless your last name was Wells.

He made his way towards Barry's temporary living quarters, and paused just before entering at the sound of a voice that was distinctly not his best friend's. He could clearly hear Iris giving the speedster a dressing down. Apparently, she'd found out that the young hero had almost left them all behind to be a martyr and she wasn't happy about it. He wondered if someone had told her, or if, like himself, she'd received a goodbye letter from Barry. Not wanting to get in the middle of the two lovebirds, he turned around and headed back towards the Cortex to check for alerts and send the message to Kara.

He'd text Barry later and offer up his couch again, but Cisco had a feeling his friend wouldn't be spending the night in the lab after all.