It was going to work, he knew it. Running into the Speedforce and using that energy to stop the nuclear bomb, it was a brilliant idea and the only one he had left. As he pulled himself away from Iris's soft touch her body froze back into place, with a tear at the very corner or her eye stopped from falling. Barry didn't have time to look back at his wife as he ran, seeing as he only had so much strength left in his body before he too succumbed to the exhaustion that was overtaking his whole existence and Central City would explode into mere fragments because the Flash couldn't save them. So Barry willed himself to move quicker than ever before to the very limit his body could go and finally a circling vortex that was a portal opened up and Barry ran straight through. Multicolored lighting struck at the various points of the edges of the Speedforce, Barry tasted electricity in the air, he felt it in his very bones as the his own orange lighting sparked around his body as he ran and he felt as if nothing at this moment could possibly keep up with him. From a distance he saw what appeared to be a small glowing ball like a hot coal on a fire, to which Barry knew was the corksphere, the thing that was currently taking his eternal place in the Speedforce. Barry ran faster, he reached out to grab it but suddenly in front of him another portal opened up right in front of the very prize Barry wanted, the voretx sucking all the air around him in. No, he had to keep going, he had to save his family, friends. But Barry couldn't stop running, he couldn't change his direction either and this mysterious new portal was drawing him in. This one felt different than the one he arrived in, and somehow Barry knew it wouldn't take him back to where he needed to be.
He expected to end up in complete darkness, as if the Speedforce knew that the real Flash was back and they wanted him locked once more in the prison to which he sacrificed himself. Instead the moment he ran into the threatening portal he reappeared in a very familiar looking place, Star Labs. Except he new immediately it wasn't the right time.
Just like the place he had left before, everyone was frozen and as Barry took in the scene in front of him he felt as if he'd be sick. A man who appeared to be Harrison Wells sat inside a very impressive looking machine dressed in a darkened yellow suit, with an lighting emblem on the front. But Barry knew this man was anything but Harrison Wells and was indeed Eobard Thawne the man who killed his mother. In front him stood Cisco and Joe both with very unhappy looks on their faces. And as Barry saw, they were all in the pipeline.
"No" Barry whispered, as he knew exactly when in time the Speedforce had sent him back to. The day two of his good friends were killed, Eddie and Ronnie. And the day Thawne won once again. But Barry wasn't going to let that happen.
A sudden rush of anger overcame him and using his super speed he ran forward. It was as if someone had pressed play on a remote control as everything began moving again. Barry hit the time machine with such force, he broke the glass and pushed Thawne out of his seat and onto the floor. Barry pinned him down, remembering how this exact situation how ended three years ago and how he had been too afraid to do what was necessary.
"What are you doing!" Thawne yelled from under Barry's grasp. "Youre ruining everything!" And for a second Barry snapped to his senses. He knew the consequences of messing with the timeline, and how catastrophic the effects could be. But what was worse then a nuclear bomb killing everyone? His plan to use the Speedforce lightning had been a last stitch effort which might not have worked, dooming him and everyone else. Maybe that was why the Speedforce sent him here, they knew he'd fail. But maybe...maybe they were giving him another chance. To fix his mistakes, before anyone he cared about died, before Flashpoint even happens.
Barry stared down at Thawne,the man he had thought to be dead but had turned up in Earth-X only to be very much alive. No matter how many people Barry lost, the Reverse Flash remained alive. But not this time.
He vaguely heard the shouts of Joe and Cisco in the background, and of the ones of Caitlin through an earpiece that he found himself to be wearing. But he didn't listen. Barry shoved Eobard Thawne against the concrete wall of the pipeline, he held one hand in the air above the man's chest as he made it vibrate.
Thawne laughed. "You're going to kill me Barry?" Completely doubting the scarlet speedster in front of him. But that one bit of taunting was all Barry needed as he shoved the hand into Thawne's chest, right where his heart would be. The body dropped limp to the ground next to Barry's feet. He then turned around to face the shocked faces of Joe and Cisco while a numb feeling over took his body.
"It's over" Barry told them, and one part of him thinks of how from now on was where the timeline would be different, hopefully better while the other part starts to think of what the hell he had just done and how he can never go back to the timeline from where he had come, although as he remembered, with the the bomb there wouldn't have been anything to go back to.
Barry then walked over and hugged Joe who squeezed him tightly and Barry thought back to the touching goodbyes he had with all his friends and family on the day he was meant to run back in time and save his mother. He then hugged Cisco who Barry couldn't help but notice how much younger he looked then three years in the future, and who also knew none of the powers of which he had.
Just then Barry heard running footsteps behind him and then cries. Iris comes and hugs him. She looks so different, and just like Cisco less weighed down by what had originally happened with Eddies death being the beginning of it. But when Barry sees Eddie coming up to him and giving him a hug as well, he realizes that if Eddie lives he'll probably never marry Iris. And sure enough when Barry looked at his right hand there was no silver wedding band. But before Barry could dwell on that fact the sound of an explosion comes from outside and that's when Barry remembers...oh yeah, the singularity.
