A Simple Plan
Bart's plan had been simple.
Travel back in time. Stop Neutron. Stop Blue Beetle.
That was all he needed to do. How easy it would be to reset the timeline and make things right; to ensure the future he knew would never come to be. (Had he given it more thought, he probably would have seen that it wouldn't be that easy, but he didn't have time to think. He had to act.)
Preventing Neutron from killing his grandpa had been a walk in the park. An admittedly nerve-wracking walk in the park, but still not terribly difficult. Plus, the chance to see and talk to and work alongside Barry was totally crash.
Next to that, stopping Blue Beetle would be no trouble. After all, he harbored no love for the monster which would one day help enslave and torture all of mankind. Blue Beetle wasn't like Neutron; he wasn't some poor kid who'd been forced into a situation beyond his control. He wasn't human. He was a monster who needed to be stopped.
That was how Bart felt right up until the moment he met Jaime Reyes, a kid thrust into a situation beyond his control, with no one around to give him the guidance he needed. He was a boy - a teenager not much different from himself.
Jaime Reyes was no monster.
Strange, how quickly he began to enjoy the company of someone he had once despised.
Strange, how quickly he found himself calling his most hated enemy his best friend.
Strange, how quickly his plan changed from "stopping Blue Beetle" to "saving Jaime Reyes".
Bart's plan may not have been so simple in the end. In fact, it had become a plan born from a jumbled mess of confusing emotions, but he found he didn't mind so much.
Because not only did he prevent the future he knew from coming to pass, he also saved Jaime. And somehow that was the most important of all.
End
