Here he is, on his knees again, caught out in front of the bulk of his destiny. Almost everything went to plan, but not enough, not the one thing he needed. His day is done. The defeat is different, earlier, but no lesser one, unless he can change it still, twist it into what the new situation demands.
He looks at the gleaming metal worn by another version of himself; it's not the same as it happened in 2021, another intent meant, but it's an echo that reaches inside, drags out the fear he's hidden so well for so long. In instinct he's been here before, but that fate falls apart, slides from the grasp of this future. Then he'd been waiting for the strike that never came, spared he'd thought, but it wasn't that at all. He wills it now.
Will it be the end of him, or is it just the beginning of another Barry driven to the edge? He won't live to see but it will be worth the sacrifice if what should be comes to pass anyway, another way. The circle of suffering will complete so he isn't the only one, the lone forsaken one. Every hour, every minute he wants Barry Allen to strain against the darkness, like he has. Let him be the reminder instead, the death weighing on his shoulders, the stain on his soul his conscience will never let him forget.
"You kill me, you become me."
Except Barry won't, won't give him that last desire. Anger flares as the fear recedes, fueled by the knowledge it's all been for nothing if it's over now. He's unable to let Barry walk away from him; he tries one last time to do something, anything tangible whilst he can. He reaches deeper inside to the last of his energy even as he feels it ebb and fade, something in him cut off. Then there is a shot ringing out and he's stumbling, slipping away.
But he dies knowing the darkness he is capable of, he dies knowing the inevitable - what is inside them both merely awaits a trigger. Every time the maw of fury stretches in the recesses of Barry's mind, when it opens, yearning for that sin, he will have to resist, again and again. And one day, Barry won't be tethered and sure footed like he is now in the presence of those he loves. One day Barry will fall to the ground and give in, just like him.