Chapter 30: The Mask Behind the Smile
The hum of the Cortex had long become background noise—a white static presence behind every mission, every conversation, every wound that never quite healed.
Dante stood near the whiteboard, arms crossed, gaze sweeping over the people in front of him. His eyes held a calm intensity—no bravado, just certainty.
He looked at Joe. At Barry. At Cisco. Then at Ronnie. Finally, his eyes rested on Caitlin.
Then he said quietly, "So… when are we going after Wells?"
A stillness fell over the room like ice cracking beneath their feet.
Everyone froze—except Barry.
Cisco's voice broke the silence first. "What?"
Dante sighed, as if this should have been obvious from the start. "He's the Reverse-Flash, man."
Joe blinked. "Wait. What?"
Dante walked toward the center of the Cortex, casually snatching a marker and drawing a curved lightning bolt on the whiteboard with one hand.
"I thought you guys were the smart people here," he said bluntly. "You've had him under your nose this entire time. Harrison Wells. Friendly, brilliant, charming—and conveniently one step ahead of every threat we've faced. Come on, connect the dots."
Caitlin stepped forward, voice rising defensively. "Dante, that's ridiculous! Dr. Wells has saved lives. He's trained Barry. He's—he's part of this team!"
Dante tilted his head. "Yeah, and I'm sure that's exactly what he wants you to think. But how many times has he kept information from you? How many times has something gone wrong, only for him to mysteriously 'figure it out' seconds later?"
Caitlin's jaw tightened, but she couldn't answer.
Ronnie looked down, troubled.
Cisco, however, didn't speak. He was already pale. Already shaking.
Barry noticed. "Cisco?"
Cisco swallowed hard and stepped forward. "I… I didn't want to say anything because it sounded crazy."
"What?" Joe asked.
Cisco looked at all of them. "It was a dream. Or… I thought it was. But it felt too real. I was in the lab. Alone. And… Wells was there. He looked at me… and then—he killed me."
Caitlin gasped, hand covering her mouth. Barry tensed.
Cisco forced a bitter smile. "He said something before he did it. Something I couldn't forget. 'I wish I could say I was sorry.' Then—nothing."
The room went cold.
Dante didn't flinch.
He stepped forward, looking Cisco dead in the eye. "That wasn't a dream."
Cisco frowned. "What do you mean?"
"It was a memory," Dante said. "From a timeline that doesn't exist anymore. A future that already played out, then unraveled."
Barry's voice was quiet. "You're saying I already changed that timeline."
Dante nodded. "You reset something. Maybe just a second. Maybe a whole day. But time cracked. And Cisco… you got hit by a piece of the shrapnel."
Joe stared at Dante. "And you know this because…?"
"I've felt it too," Dante said. "The echoes of what was. That's what the void does—it touches everything time forgets. Cisco's not the only one who sees ghosts. He just doesn't know what to call them yet."
Caitlin looked between the two of them, shaken. "So Cisco has… powers?"
Dante gave a small, wry smile. "Congratulations, Ramon. You're not just a genius anymore. You're something… more. And good luck figuring out what that means."
Cisco was quiet. For once, he didn't have a quip ready.
Barry stepped closer to Dante. "How sure are you? About Wells."
Dante didn't hesitate. "One hundred percent."
Joe ran a hand over his face, stunned. "We've been working beside the man who killed your mother…"
"And built the particle accelerator that gave us our powers," Barry added.
Caitlin still shook her head, not ready to believe. "There has to be some other explanation…"
"There always is," Dante said gently. "But sometimes the truth is simple: he's not who he says he is. He never was."
Silence held for several seconds.
Then Cisco looked up. "If I do have powers… what does that mean? What am I supposed to do?"
Dante stepped up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You learn to listen to them. They'll speak to you in fragments, in visions. And eventually… in choices. Big ones."
Joe turned toward Barry. "What now?"
Barry looked around at his team—his family. They were shaken, confused, but still standing. Still with him.
"We need proof," he said finally. "Solid proof."
Dante nodded. "Then we get it."
Barry looked at Cisco. "Start going through every recording we have. Every hidden file, every camera in STAR Labs—even the ones Wells told us weren't working. There's a trail somewhere."
Cisco nodded slowly. "I'll find it."
Ronnie looked at Caitlin, who still seemed lost in thought. Her world was breaking. And Ronnie knew that more than anyone.
He took her hand. She didn't pull away.
Barry stepped toward the board and erased the lightning bolt.
"We trusted him," he said quietly.
"And now?" Dante asked.
Barry looked up, fire returning to his eyes. "Now we expose him."
And for the first time, the Cortex didn't feel like a lab. It felt like a war room.
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