The cortex was full at 9:14 AM.
I'd had four hours of sleep on Caitlin's couch and a shower at her sink and a cup of black coffee from the bitter pot Cisco had restored to operation overnight. My ribs were taped. The cut on my forehead had a butterfly closure the size of a pencil eraser. My left hand was wrapped from knuckles to wrist in a thin gauze that did not show through my long sleeve.
Joe was in the room.
Eddie was in the room.
Iris was in the room.
Barry was at the head of the conference table in a wheelchair he didn't need and Caitlin had insisted on. Cisco was at his usual station with the door propped open behind him. Caitlin was at the medical bench but turned around to face the room, arms folded, professional shoes planted.
Jay was not in the room.
That was the first decision we'd made — at five AM, around Caitlin's coffee table, with Barry conscious enough to nod at proposals — that this conversation happened without him. That the next conversation was about him. That we did one of them at a time so we did not blow either one of them up by trying to do both.
I stood at the front of the cortex.
I'd written a list of beats on a card in my pocket. I'd left the card in my pocket.
"I want to start with the apology," I said. "Not because it's the most useful part. Because it goes first."
Joe's arms were already crossed. He didn't uncross them.
"I have been showing this team a fraction of what I can do, since the first week I walked in this building. Last night you saw three of those abilities on top of the three you already knew about, and you saw them because the situation didn't let me hide them. You are owed the rest. You were owed the rest a long time ago. I am sorry I did not give it to you."
"Define the rest," Joe said.
"There are more."
"How many."
"Including what you saw last night, there are nine I currently use. Plus one I keep in storage and don't use because it would damage me to use it. Total inventory ten. Three of them are advanced fusions of weaker ones — I can combine abilities. The rest are individual abilities. Collectively, they cover phasing, hardened durability, telekinesis at range, plasma generation, fire projection, an audible disruption pulse, vision in low-light, reflection manipulation, brief illusory duplication, and the unstable speed I won't touch."
The room held still.
I let it hold.
"Show me," Joe said.
So I showed them.
Phasing first — I stuck my hand through the conference table to the wrist and back. Strength enhancement — I lifted the entire side of the heavy worktable Cisco had built, tilted it ten degrees, set it down. Force Mastery — I lifted the meta-dampener cuffs off the desk in the center of the room and brought them across the air to my open palm without touching them. Plasma Core — a small pulse on my thumb, the size of a match, lit and out in a second, with the smell of ozone after.
The other powers I described.
I demonstrated phasing again with a duplicate from Ghost Mirage, which broke the seal more than I'd intended — the duplicate of me appeared in the corner of the room and Cisco let out an actual what — and I let the duplicate dissolve after eight seconds. Terror Scream I described and didn't perform. Reflection Manipulation I described and let Cisco see in his peripheral vision as I bent the polished surface of a metal panel for a second. Night Vision was internal; I described it. Velocity Rush I described and listed the cellular cost.
I did not tell them about the System.
I did not tell them about the transmigration.
I did not tell them about what I was, before all this.
I had said I would give them the rest. I had given them the rest of the powers. The other things were not powers.
When I was done the room sat with it for a full minute.
Joe spoke first.
"And how did you get them."
The cortex got very quiet again.
"Cisco knows the answer to that. Caitlin knows. Barry, if you want it, you can have it tonight in private. Iris, Eddie, Joe — I'd rather have that conversation with you one at a time, when each of you is ready. It's a longer one. It involves trust I haven't earned with you yet. I'd like the chance to earn it before I make the ask of you."
Joe's jaw worked.
"That's a non-answer."
"It's a real answer about a real boundary. You can dislike the boundary. It's still real."
Eddie raised his hand a half-inch off the table.
"Joe."
"What."
"He saved my life," Eddie said. "Twice. And ten of yours, last night. I'm going to ask the rest of us — the team — to give him what he's asking for. Time."
Joe looked at his almost-son-in-law for a long beat.
He looked back at me.
"One more secret."
"Joe."
"One. Just one more. Anything else you've been holding from me — from this team — it comes out in the next thirty days, or you're done. Not asked to leave. Done. Understand?"
"I understand."
"That's not a promise."
"No. It's a commitment to a process. A promise would be a lie. I'm not going to lie to you."
He held my look.
He nodded once. Tight.
"Fine."
He stood up. Walked out.
The door clicked.
Iris let out a long breath through her teeth.
"That went better than I thought it would."
Cisco, at his station, snorted.
Eddie almost smiled.
Caitlin pushed off the medical bench. Came around the conference table. She did not touch me. She stopped two feet from me and looked at my face the way she'd looked at my forearm in the medical bay the night Frost had thrown a javelin at it.
"I'm going to be very angry with you for a while."
"Okay."
"I'm going to keep training."
"Okay."
"I'm going to be friendly to you in front of the team while I'm angry, because I'm an adult and so are you."
"Okay."
"Don't make this conversation a third time."
"I won't."
She nodded.
She walked out.
That left Cisco, Barry, Eddie, Iris.
Eddie said, "Coffee?"
Cisco said, "Yes."
Iris said, "Christ. Yes."
Barry pushed his wheelchair up to the table.
"I'll join you in five. I want to talk to Harry alone."
The other three filed out.
Door closed.
Barry didn't speak for a moment.
Then: "He saw your face."
"He saw mine. I saw his."
"You're sure it was him."
"I'm sure."
"Tonight."
"Tonight."
"Where."
"My apartment. Eight. You. Cisco. Caitlin. We finish what we started last night. We move on Jay this week."
He looked at the cortex door where Joe had walked out.
"And Joe."
"After. When we have a plan. I can't hand him the information without a plan. He'd act."
"Yeah."
"Tonight."
"Tonight."
He held my look.
"Thanks for coming for me, Harry."
I let out a breath.
"Thanks for landing the punch."
He half-smiled. Wheeled himself toward the door.
I stayed in the cortex a minute. The duplicate of me from Ghost Mirage had dissolved cleanly. The smell of plasma was already fading. The chair where Joe had sat held the shape of him in the cushion, just barely.
I went home and slept four more hours.
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