For those of you who are just finding the story, I started this after Barry had been introduced on Arrow, and well before the pilot for the show had even been finished let alone released. Thus, while I kept up with news about the show, and consider this fic very much related to the new show, I got certain details wrong. Well, plenty of details wrong, but some of them matter more than others. Some changes are cosmetic and might be distracting if you first saw the TV show. For example, I based my Detective West on the casting description before we got his first name, so that is different. Other times character's roles were swapped. The STAR Labs team does not even make an appearance because while I was aware that they were being cast, I had no inspiration for how to use them until after Cisco and Caitlin were introduced in "The Man behind th Mask" on Arrow at which point it would have been forced to include them directly in my story.
However, now that you know that there will be differences from canon, I hope you enjoy my story. It is very much in celebration of the show and the possibilities which existed in the moment after the particle accelerator explosion was shown on Arrow. Neither the directions of my own musings nor those of the show's creators have disappointed.
Quartic Moose beta'd this chapter.
Prologue: Creation
Barry Allen died.
It was as honorable a death as one could have; he had just saved the multi-verse.
It had been six years since he had started patrolling Central City, almost seven years since the accident which gave him super speed, and two whole years since he had discovered "Earth-2". Going to another world, which strangely resembled some old comics from his own world, had been a weird, but otherwise simple experience. Then, he only had two realities to keep track of, and he had thankfully left his nephew and speedster protégé, Wally West, behind on the first trip. Getting one's bearings in a new universe and trying to keep track of a hyperactive speedster at the same time was not fun-a fact Barry had discovered this year.
He, along with other members of the Justice League, had been contacted pleasantly by a being which called itself the Monitor and unpleasantly by one which called itself the Anti-Monitor. Apparently the latter wanted to destroy all realities and the former wanted to stop him. At that point, Barry couldn't have left Wally behind when he visited a new world; he'd needed all the help he could get.
Wally, unfortunately, had not been with him a moment ago, when Barry had discovered the Anti-Monitor in Earth-2 with a cannon powerful enough to destroy the whole reality. As the entity gloated about his device, he had revealed several things. The device drew energy from collisions between matter and anti-matter. Destroying one reality would make the surrounding realities less stable. This would eventually lead to a chain reaction that would kill the whole multi-verse. The necessary emissions traveled outward faster than Barry could return them.
The comparison to his speed was purely out of the Anti-Monitor's mouth.
Barry had grit his teeth and decided to put that to the test, running circles around the machine so fast that even subatomic particles had rebounded to whence they came. Barry had continued gritting his teeth as he'd ran. It had been at the edge of his abilities. Barry had begun to feel the Speed Force, which supplied his abilities, tug on him, more and more. It had wanted him to come back with it to the extra-dimensional pocket universe where it resided, and it wasn't being nice about it. Barry had felt pieces of himself turn into energy. He had appeared to be damaging the cannon, but it had still been running. He had had to continue. Eventually the cannon had been destroyed, but all that was left of Barry was his red uniform made out of compressible microfabrics.
To all who knew him, he died a hero. Other super-powered beings took the Anti-Monitor down, ensuring he would never pose a threat to existence again. The device had done enough damage to Earth-2 that it had to merge with Barry's home world in order to ensure the continued survival of its residents, but they were alive and most were thankful to have a new home. A few residents of Earth-2 were glad that the comics based on their exploits had been canceled over two decades before hand and few people remembered the details of their adventures. They could settle in and continue their semi-retired lives.
People would later argue that Barry hadn't actually died. To some extent this was true. As the matter that composed his body transmuted itself into energy, his soul, or the equivalent of it, slid into the Speed Force. There it would stay for some time, watching the universe from the embodiment of kinetic energy itself. Eventually, his soul would return to the material world, and in that moment, the Speed Force would reform his body, remembering it well enough from all the time the Speed Force had spent connected to it. People would wonder, "If he came back so easily, was he really dead?"
To some extent the claim that Barry Allen hadn't actually died was also a lie. It covered up the years he wasn't there, the grief of those who had had to make do without him, and how much had changed in his absence. His nephew, Wally West, had taken up the red suit and protected Central City along with its new sister-city Keystone in his uncle's absence. The years Wally had spent as Barry's sidekick and partner made him the most qualified person for the position, but the transition had been jarring. He had been used to fighting the villains of Central City before, but without his mentor it was harder. It was also hollow. Not only was each patrol and each battle a reminder that the original Flash was not there, but he ran through each event in a modified version of his mentor's distinctive clothes. Eventually, these feelings would fade. His skills improved, and his heart moved on. But, such is the process of grief.
However, it was a lie on a different level as well because the transition from the material world to the Speed Force can be traumatic on the soul. Barry may not have completely died, but he had come close. On entering the Speed Force, Barry Allen's soul fractured, and a piece that wasn't so securely attached to the rest broke off.
Fortunately, the soul's regenerative capabilities are more comparable to those of the liver than the brain, even if the latter acts as the body-soul interface. When a human loses a portion of their brain, it truly loses something: self-control, the ability to speak, awareness of its surroundings. When a human loses a portion of its liver, it hurts, and the organ cannot do its job as well. The organ however survives, and eventually comes back as powerful as before.
Similarly, though Barry Allen returned whole, he'd had to spend a long time recuperating in the Speed Force. Toward the end of his stay, he'd managed to make some brief excursions to the material world, and the Speed Force was generous enough to spit him out in the correct time and place to help Wally in a time of need or to warn him of an incoming danger. But, it took until the third time in for it to stick, and Barry had the distinct feeling that years had passed for him as well as the rest of the world, though not necessarily in the same number.
Some good came out of the fracturing, though no one ever knew. The small piece of Barry's soul that had broken off flew through the Speed Force. However, time is more flexible in the Speed Force than elsewhere. Eobard Thawne had used this property to his advantage repeatedly in tormenting Barry Allen while making his home in the twenty-fifth century. TheSpeed Force did not even need someone to push at it to mess with time. Often it sucked objects out of one time frame, and occasionally it would return them, always in a different time frame than the first. Maya temples floated in its midst. Modern tanks with decades-old rust lay outside the new gem cities, Central City and Keystone. Because of this temporal flexibility, the broken piece of Barry's soul did not fly outward in any particular direction; it flew backwards in time.
It flew past the opening of the Flash Museum. It flew past every time the Speed Force had helped the Flash apprehend a criminal. In fact, it went so far that it went straight past the creation of the Speed Force itself and popped out the other side. It skidded to a halt in the middle of Central City infused with energy.
The clouds were pouring their water on the city below, occasionally letting out a lightning bolt that hit a skyscraper and shot into the ground. While the storm didn't make the night darker in any noticeable way, and the flare of the lightning bolts and the glare of raindrops around car lights added to the sense of brightness, the storm added to the city's sense of menace typically associated with the dark. Still, people walked the downtown streets, umbrellas in hand. People continued to work late shifts in stores and restaurants. People came into and out of the city on train, Metrolink to get to the suburbs and Amtrak's high speed rail for longer trips, such as to Starling City and Gotham to the East or Metropolis to the West. People drove in their cars through congested city streets or highways.
Well, a congested highway. Most of the highways in and around Central City had some traffic to be sure, but one highway in particular seemed packed to the brim. This particular traffic jam led out of Central City, past the suburbs towards a building clearly labeled "S.T.A.R. Labs", which lay at the center of a giant figure eight that cut through the surrounding farmland and dwarfed the nearby city. Traffic was actually thinning compared to earlier. Anybody who was going to witness the event had already showed up; everybody on the road was still waiting to figure that out. One could see the vans for the large news stations, CNN, FOX, and more, set up and reporting outside the building. Even some smaller stations such as KSTZ, which was channel 8 in Central City, and WEBG, which was channel 7 in Starling City, had managed to get a spot in the racket.
Amid all this, the sliver of Barry Allen's soul was confused. Souls are supposed to come in whole packages, and thus they recognize when a solid chunk is missing. Worse, souls in the material world typically have bodies to support them. The sliver, then, suddenly found itself missing a whole lot. Though it had some sense of what was going on, it couldn't observe the world in the way it could before. It had no eyes, ears, nose, or skin. Instead it felt through the Speed Force, sensing objects through their kinetic energy. It could also feel the rest of Barry Allen's soul, and it longed to be reunited. Unfortunately, it had trouble piecing the two sensory systems together in order to locate the rest of the soul.
The sliver dipped further into confusion. The storm quaked.
The sliver was leaking the Speed Force's energy already. Some of that energy was going into the clouds, encouraging the built-up charge to release in an amazing show of electricity - of moving electrons. Some of that energy started sticking to the fastest object in the vicinity, which just so happened to be some protons approaching relativistic speeds in the figure eight outside of town. Those protons spun faster. A slight blip appeared on a screen in the S.T.A.R. Labs building, and a scientist raised an eyebrow. They spun faster. More blips appeared, and the scientist jumped out of her chair. "I'm getting dangerous readings. The protons are accelerating beyond how we set the magnetic field to propel them."
Another scientist ran down and looked over the first one's shoulder. "Holy shit." An expression of fear and exasperation washed over his face. He muttered under his breath, "We checked the equipment fifteen times." The scientist lifted his head up. "Fermi-Guy! Didn't you say you checked over this stuff as well?"
A man, whose eyebrow visibly twitched at the nickname, opened his mouth to speak, to explain that everything had matched up in the several times he had looked over it. However, he found the question even more annoying because not all the equipment mirrored the facility near Gotham in the first place. Fortunately, the head researcher cut him off. "I believe everything has been checked over and verified, but we will check it over again," the head researcher's voice hardened, "once we turn it off." He turned to the press liaison. "Tell the press our best guess is that the thunder storm is messing with our equipment."
Everybody carried out their roles. Buttons were pressed. The press liaison left and returned. The scientist looked up from her panel. "I've done what I could to reduce the propulsion while maintaining the magnetic cage around the protons, but…" Everyone turned to look at her. "They won't slow down."
The head researcher and the press liaison looked each other in the eye. The head researcher then turned to the rest of the room, "Continue trying to slow it down. I have a press nightmare to take care of." The two people left the room to control the gaggle of half-worried, half-excited reporters.
In fact, the particles were speeding up. As they approached light speed, the laws of physics bent around them. This wasn't easily visible in the hollow tube through which the proton accelerated, but it happened. Gravity made a little less sense. The increased speed meant that the protons didn't stay on their predetermined tracks, so they collided before schedule. The resulting collisions created miniature black holes. These were the size of pinpricks even when compared to the size of an atom, so each black hole quickly dissipated as it shot out energy. At the event horizons, gravity met the other three natural forces, and they merged into a new paradigm, which was similar to string theory but also beyond it.
In short, things got weird.
Sometimes, in times of dire stress, humans can make brilliant decisions, the immediacy of the situation forcing an intuition not seen before in that individual. Most of the time, however, stress makes humans make mistakes, especially when dealing with unknown forces. This is why practice is so important; any mistake that could be made when it counts has already been made and accounted for in a less urgent setting. The S.T.A.R. Labs employees had practiced starting up the accelerator before. Many had spent some time at Fermilab by Gotham or the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to gain experience before coming to the facility. After the media started making hype about the safety of particle accelerators, the scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs shook their heads complaining that while Gotham and Europe had problems, they related to crime and budgeting, respectively, not miniature black holes. But, they had added precautions, double-checked everything, and rehearsed again (and again) anyways.
Unfortunately, none of this practice could prepare the scientists for the Speed Force, the embodiment of kinetic energy that was not even supposed to exist yet. Lowering the magnetic field that had propelled the proton up to speed would have been a good idea under normal circumstances. The scientists in the control room had even been clever enough to manipulate the electro-magnetic field, so it should have slowed the particle down. "Should" described circumstances which did not involve the Speed Force. The action also reduced the magnetic fields that held the protons in the circular paths. The reduction wasn't significant, especially if the protons had been going their intended speed. Alas, they went the speed they went and crashed into the acceleration track's wall. Well, considering the speed and size of the particles, "crash" isn't exactly the technical word. But, for lack of a lecture on sub-atomic structure and quantum mechanics, it is the word to use, especially because of the energies involved. Not enough energy to cause a gigantic explosion, but certainly enough to damage the system that cooled that portion of the tracks. Without the coolant in place, temperatures quickly rose.
Explosions ensued. While a number of S.T.A.R. Lab employees and visitors would be glad they didn't happen too close to the building, the city as a whole would later bemoan that they happened on the section of the track closest to the metropolitan area.
Fortunately, it was still in farmland, and no lives were lost directly in the explosions, which reached up to the sky in a tower of burning dirt and soybeans. The property damage was minimal.
That calculation on the other hand did not take into account the resulting shockwave of Speed-Force-entangled soul that rocked through the city. A million small unexplainable events occurred, as the miniature black holes continued in its wake. As in the particle accelerator, the black holes dissipated quickly, but before leaving they bent and stretched space-time, consumed and spat out energy, broke and reformed supposedly immovable laws of physics. The radiation level spiked then lowered before anyone could detect it. For a millisecond, nothing could be taken for granted. This shockwave didn't directly cause any damage either, but people would later blame it for the superhuman-crime levels that would eventually make it famous.
For most of the city, the preceding events caused panic, then hesitation. Finally, as the citizens realized that the world hadn't ended, relief set in, burying a seed of worry concerning possible aftershocks.
For the sliver of Barry Allen's soul, the preceding events were a godsend because it managed to pass over a larger piece of soul that felt so right. It wasn't perfect; no soul is. It wasn't even completely the same as the sliver. Years had passed. Sometimes trials had been overcome; sometimes trials had overcome it. All left their mark. But, at the heart of things, the sliver recognized this soul as itself, and it wanted to connect again.
Dispersed over the city by the shockwave, the soul took a moment to coalesce over the lab that Barry Allen stood in. The amount of Speed Force attached to the sliver was greatly diminished. The electrons still buzzed in anticipation around the sliver, but it wouldn't be long before most dissipated out into the world, speeding things up a little but ultimately getting lost in entropy. It needed to take action soon on both fronts, otherwise it might drift and disintegrate through city without the familiar energy to guide it. It also dreaded losing a connection to the last seven years. The sliver couldn't imagine living without the Speed Force or the rest of itself.
A memory flickered. "Chemicals." The sliver didn't have the time or even the capacity to do calculations. It was such a small portion of Barry's soul that it could barely remember the chemicals involved. Moreover, without the rest of the soul to ground it, the sliver would only think in hollow circles. It would have to trust itself and the Speed Force. The sliver sent some of the Speed Force towards the still-chaotic particles flying around the cabinet directly opposite its target.
Below, Barry Allen pulled a large chain, opening up a skylight. He then turned to the side, still holding the metal links firmly in his hands. Some chemicals were not behaving according to the law of gravity, because droplets of color-coded chemicals were rising out of beakers. Barry's mind was so confused that it couldn't even formulate a thought about how odd that was.
The sliver saw its chance. The sky glowed. Barry looked up. Lightning struck.
The lightning bolt tossed Barry into the now-floating chemicals. The electricity almost fried Barry's chest. Diluted acids played against Barry's skin, while other chemicals soaked into his bloodstream. Barry's body knocked the metal rack over, and the rack pushed back. Those immediate events knocked the assistant police scientist unconscious.
The sliver had gotten something right though. It was now in Barry Allen's body, and it bonded with the rest of his soul. The connection wasn't perfect, but it would require an event almost as traumatic as death to knock it loose.
Moreover, with the electricity still coursing through Barry Allen's body, the Speed Force found transforming the variety chemicals coating his skin and leaking into his veins into what it needed was not hard. A light ran under Barry's cheek as the Speed Force made its changes. A few small changes in body chemistry and an already strong connection to the Speed Force through the sliver meant that Barry Allen would generate it with every twitch of his muscles for the rest of his life.
Unfortunately, while the Speed Force might be accustomed to Barry Allen's body, Barry Allen's body was not accustomed to the Speed Force. After the electric shock, chemical burns, and collision with a rack full of beakers, the addition of a strange energy was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Barry Allen slipped into a coma.
A/N: So, one of my favorite parts of superhero stories are the origins. Not only do you get some interesting character work with the choice to put one's life on the line for others in a nutty costume, but you also get to see people who will eventually be badass fumbling with their new-found powers. As such, I have decided to revel in the ending of "Three Ghosts" and write my own origin for The Flash, while we are waiting for the pilot to come about. Moreover, "Three Ghosts" left a lot of questions, and I wanted to take as stab at answering some of them. As such, the scene above required me to make a lot of decisions big and small, which I will now explain:
Coma: Ok. This was actually confirmed by the show, but I wrote this before then, so I'll share my reasoning. First, it is not unprecedented, considering the New 52 Barry seemed to be in a coma for a bit after the lightning strike. Second, it would help explain some pieces of timing for the show. The CW only gave the show its own pilot after seeing Gustin's work on the midseason finale, so that lightning strike was already planned. But, it would still have been a decently long time between the midseason finale and episode 20. If the show wanted to show him discovering his abilities, having him wake up the next day would be an odd decision (unless episode 20 was mainly flashbacks).
The time shenanigans: I read on wikipedia that one comic showed Barry Allen turning into the lightning bolt that gave him powers after sacrificing himself for he mutliverse, and I couldn't resist. The show's reference to Eobard Thawne (killer of Barry's mother and resident of the 25th century) also pushed me in this direction. I had to alter it to being a splinter of him because in the comics he ultimately returns from the speed force in the comics. I don't think the show is going to explore this, though, mainly because I don't think it will want to retire the character until quite a few seasons have passed or even hint that they will retire the character.
Moreover, the time shenanigans allowed me to give the speed force the semi-mystical feel I prefer. What the Flashes can do is too far to pretend it falls under conventional physics, and the whole going to the speed force if you die running too quickly just adds to the mysticism. However, I still want the speed force to work with physics (hence only semi-mystical).
The particle accelerator and weird physics: There were several decisions here. I had the speed force cause the explosion rather than the explosion cause the speed force because I honestly don't think particle accelerators are that dangerous. However, the show's producers have hinted that the particle accelerator "cause some problems for Barry", so I figure it will help provide some meta-human adversaries. Hence, I need some weird stuff coming out of that explosion. Miniature black holes are the only dangerous thing I heard about before looking into it, so they had to make an appearance.
Particle accelerator design: Because I don't think there would be so many outcries for a small particle accelerator, I based some details, such as the figure eight design, off Fermilab, which I also referenced. Moreover, if it is going to be a big particle accelerator, it is going to take up space, so it isn't in the center of town.
Geography: This was hard. I ended up using the TV-channel call letters to determine that Starling City is probably east of the Mississippi and Central City is probably to the west. Considering I'm pretty sure Starling has a port and is not in the South, I am going to guess that it is on the east coast. It also has a lot of old-money, so I am going to make it a city with history such as Boston or Philadelphia. Central City on the other hand is most often shown in Missouri or Ohio. Though call letters starting with a k can be found to the east of the Mississippi, I'm going to go with the safer bet of Missouri. However, in either case it would be odd for Barry to casually take the train to Starling from Central. Oh, well. Due to the Dark Knight trilogy, Gotham is and always will be Chicago.