I don't own any DC or CW characters or story.

8th May 2036

For five years, I've been alone, no one safe to be around. I write this now to aid my increasingly confused memory. Should another read this, it means I failed.

My memory is confused, time has become less linear to me, maybe I've spent too much time in the Speed Force, I slip into it so easily now and it lets me hide from the world. I've lost months to it, then relived those months the next time, then relive them again, all the pain, the sorrow, the happiness and the death. Yet, I haven't died, it seems like I haven't aged in ten years, something about my bond to the Speed has slowed my aging. The Speed comes so easily to me now, it exists everywhere and in every time. Though I'm locked by my own mind to keep returning to now, to this world we created, this world of fear, this world I failed to prevent.

I write this down now as I find writing helps to focus my mind, it forces the memories to become linear, allowing me to think and process the elements of my past. I wonder if this happens to all speedsters, though I haven't seen another in years. I think I'm the oldest now, the one who has spent more time in the Speed Force than any other both through choice and through force. None of them have gained the experience I have, none of them the connection, but now I think I would sacrifice this knowledge for just another day with any of them.

And sacrifice it I will.

I try to remember the last time we were happy, it seems like yesterday and so long ago or was it tomorrow? No, it was so long ago. Back when we were together, back when I was the Flash, the hero of Central City. Hero, a fine word, but was I really a hero back then? Now look at the world, did I hasten this sad reality? How many of our mistakes were from our own, my own arrogance?

How did we get here? Though it's only me now, in any way that matters.

I remember that last Christmas we were together, almost eleven years ago. The last time, Cisco, Caitlin, Joe, Cecile, Wally, Iris and myself were all together. The memory seems so fleeting, the children of Joe and Cecile running around, the soft laughter from their parents, Cisco's spirits being buoyed by Iris and Wally after the latest absence of Gypsy, Caitlin recounting her latest exploits in the field of cryo-engineering for long term hibernation to me. The scene was so domestic and peaceful, we thought we had done it, we thought our world would be what we wanted. Little did we know, we had only set up the dominos, now they would start. Our own confidence in what should have been blinded us to the possibilities beyond. Why did we fixate on it, why did we assume only one path, one future was there for the taking?

Piece by piece we fragmented, little by little we lost ourselves.

The world outside is not what we thought, things we thought we challenged and ideals torn down. We lost our happiness, but was it happiness of our choosing? Did we fool ourselves into thinking what would be was the only thing that would be and that that was the only way to be happy?

I don't know anymore, but things could have been so much more, so much better for everyone.

No one could really explain the new metahuman waves that appeared over the years, there were no particle accelerators explosions, no Speed Force or dimensional ruptures yet still more and more metahumans appeared. Harry and Caitlin theorised that once the process happened the first time something triggered that meant these individuals would continue to appear, that reality created them as a response to the initial event. I don't know, Caitlin, Harry and countless others tried to work out the metahuman recurrence causes but no one could.

We created this world, we failed this world, we couldn't be everywhere, we couldn't help everyone. Then the military restarted its experiments, metahuman and human experimentation. The horrors that were created, every single time the military tried to create a weapon from it, it failed horribly. The Seattle Incident was the final straw for the government. The people had had enough. Metahumans were to blame, or at least that was the party line.

Metahumans almost overnight became hunted, it doesn't matter how powerful you are, eventually they will get you. Whole cities became no go areas for metahumans, Central City being one of the last areas where metahumans were not actively ostracised.

Then came the testing, every citizen has to submit to the testing for metahuman capability, the government said it was for safety, for the children and the people believed them. People locked up for their genes and no more.

The backlash against the imprisonment was slow in coming, but when it came it was glorious, immediate and deadly.

And now, we live in the shadow of those days, the world went mad for two days and now we count the cost. Now I count the cost.

Now I try to prevent it.

I've lived in the shadows, avoiding the government, helping where I can but it is dangerous. Metahuman dampening technology is standard issue for almost every police officer and they are not shy about abusing it, victimising the innocent and guilty alike. At least I think there were innocents, it is so hard to remember things in the right order now.

The world cannot go on like this, and it cannot take another backlash, I feel it growing, I see the signs. The world would end and I can't stop it now, but can I stop it before?

It's hard to remember, when did things happen?

I need to get this right. I need to choose the right point. I need to choose the right action.

For five years, I've worked out a plan, or has it been more?

Before I go, I need to write this down, to remember one last time, completely and wholly why this world needs to be saved from us.

If I'm right, then no one will ever read the following stories but me.

These stories are about how I must save the world from our arrogance, our stupidity. This is why what was must change and the future set free.

Let me recount what I can before I go.

Feedback welcome. Hopefully this will be the start of a decent story.