Author's Note: This here is my love-letter to a truly awesome DC story. And the sacrifice of one of my favorite characters in DC.
This is how it ends
It was going to end.
Win or lose, this…this crisis was going to end here and now. The Anti-Monitor's cannon was going to be destroyed, and Barry Allen was going to go down with it.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been running, but deep down he knew it was longer then he had ever run before in his life. Faster too. He'd never run anywhere close to this speed, and he knew that it was costing him. In fact, it was a miracle he'd lasted this long.
He was going to die.
But somehow, that fact didn't bother him as much as it would others. He'd thought of all the great things he'd done up to this point…all the lives he'd saved, his friends in the Justice League, his happy marriage to his wife Iris. And the fact that that thrill he had running faster then anyone, even Superman, never got old. He'd lived a good life, and now it was time to go. No one lived forever after all. Except maybe those little blue guys Hal took orders from…
He thought about his wife Iris, and how he would be seeing her again real soon. He imagined a happier world where things hadn't gone the way they had. Where they had stayed married, raised a family…But then he remembered, if such an alternate world existed, it was long gone now. He thought about Wally, and how he would have to take his place as the resident Scarlet Speedster. But he knew he could do it. He was a great kid, and he had the makings of a Justice Leaguer already.
Make your uncle proud Wally.
He remebered his own miserable life before he the miraculous accident that had given him his powers. Stuck in a Forensics lab with no true ambitions in life, just a boring existence that he took because he saw no better route. Then the lightning struck him and the Flash had been born. He'd found his life's purpose. And now that life was about to end.
It's been fun while it lasted...
Another three passes. They went by so quickly. He must have gone through dozens by now. And he still kept going. He was tiring. He could feel his matter leaving him, slowly, at first, but then gradually, more and more of him began to waste away. He was running himself to death.
Facing him was the Anti-Monitor, the worst evil he had ever seen. A 100-foot tall being of death and destruction on a universal scale. Several universes in fact. The Anti-Monitor's actions ensured that only five worlds in the Multiverse remained, including Barry's own Earth 1. And there was no way was he going to let that Earth die. Not a chance.
Barry thought about those that had already died. Countless realities had been effectively erased from existence, and the body count only continued. Dove had been incinerated, Mirror Master, the first foe he had ever faced, had been killed along with Icicle and Maaldor trying to break into Krona's lab. Supergirl had died fighting the Anti-Monitor himself. And there where so many others besides. And then some like the Robin, Huntress, and Green Arrow of Earth 2, had survived only to find that no one remembered them anymore. They had been effectively erased from history. Well no one else was going to die. Barry was going to end it now.
Another dozen passes or so. He was tiring. He felt old and withered. Soon he would be just a skeleton, and then after that, nothing but an empty costume. It was degeneration and it was happening at an alarming rate. He didn't have much time. He could feel the machine rend and break apart each time he ran into it. It was almost over. Just a few more passes…
As Barry prepared for the end, he thought back to his last words:
There's hope…there's always hope…
Barry managed a weak smile as he made his last run.
Time to save the world.