"CAITLIN!"

He hurled himself after them, even though Zoom was going so fast he was probably back in his dungeon. With Caitlin.

The shades, he needed the shades. Without them, he couldn't peel open a breach, and that was what he needed to do.

He was going to tear a hole in the fabric of reality and go get her. He was going to crawl up into that whack-ass Monte Cristo prison, he was going to tremor all the rock and the iron bars into dust, and he was going to rip Jay/Hunter/Zoom's withered, desiccated heart out of his fucking chest.

For using Caitlin, for taking her. For stealing Barry's speed, for taking Wally and putting that look on Joe and Iris's faces, hell, even for making Harry so scared to go back to his own damn reality.

Cisco could see how he'd do it.

He could see the frequency he needed to pass through leather, skin, muscle, bone.

He knew how it would hurt.

He knew -

He jolted back, bile swelling in his throat.

What was he thinking? He wasn't like that. He didn't want to be like that. The last thing he wanted was to be like that.

But he could almost feel that heart twisting in his hand.

His hand clenched on the door frame and Reverb's voice drawled, This is how it gets you, Vibe.

Just exactly this.

He made himself let go of the door, sink back down onto his heels. No. Not this. Even for Caitlin, he wasn't going darkside. If Anakin Skywalker had taught him anything, it was that you didn't go darkside just a little.

No, it was a slope, and you didn't know you were slithering down it until gravity had taken you over and there you were, at the bottom, staring up, wondering what happened and why it suddenly seemed okay to murder the shit out of everyone and everything.

But he knew how he would do it, just the same.

As the horrified babble rose behind him, Cisco closed his eyes and tried to shut out the gibber of the darkness.

FINIS