AN: Just to remind you, this is a KARIVARRY (Kara/Barry/Oliver) story, and their relationship is already established. This is not Kara/Barry, Kara/Oliver, Oliver/Barry, but all three of them together. THANK YOU.


Barry stood there in the middle of the cortex, wide-eyed but determined.

"I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna run to the future, find out who Savitar is and stop him before he can get to you." He was eyeing Iris, his sister and best friend in the world, and everyone knew there was no arguing with him just by the way he looked and talked. "I'll need your help, Wally."

Wally nodded stiffly. "Let's go."


Cisco's words — Future Cisco's words — kept echoing in his head: "You shut everything down. You didn't want us around, so you pushed us away."

He shuddered at them, the words. He could only imagine the pain he'd be in if Iris were to be gone (she was his best friend and the love of his life, and he was pretty sure Iris was his soul mate, even though that love was a lot more familial than romantic; maybe in another life, she was destined to be his and it wasn't all that hard to imagine) but to have pushed away his other friends?

Barry couldn't wrap his head around the idea of not only pushing the people he'd long thought of as members of his family away but the fact that his older self had cut all ties with them...

Did that mean he was no longer with Kara and Oliver?

The mere thought of losing them almost made his knees buckle.


After having left Cisco back in the elevator, he carefully surveyed the cortex; the state in which S.T.A.R. Labs was in was completely atrocious. Granted, S.T.A.R. Labs wasn't in ruins, it was just not at all maintained. He couldn't really believe that this was S.T.A.R. Labs; from day one, the place was utterly pristine and in every way immaculate. Seeing his base of operations for Flash was slowly making him realize that he wouldn't just lose Iris and his friends that day but also all motivation of being the hero he was now.

He stopped right in front of the board where him and his team in his present wrote all of the headlines of a news report in hopes of changing the future, in hopes of saving Iris.

"Why are you here?"

He whipped his head around and found himself.

But this older version of himself was different, and not at all in a good way.

His hair was longer, unkempt in every way. He had a ghostly pallor and bags underneath his eyes that indicated his obvious lack of sleep. He held himself with the stance of a man who'd already given up on his life. What scared him the most about his older self's appearance were his eyes. They were dull and haunted, like there wasn't a moment he wasn't crying.

Stunned, he answered, "I need your help."

His older self studied him for a second. "You're from before they die, aren't you?"

They? Savitar was going to kill more besides Iris? Who? Joe? Wally?

His older self stepped forward, and he was even more shocked at the pure anguish written across his face. He looked at his older self, puzzled and little bit horrified. He didn't want this future; he didn't want to become this... broken version of himself.

His older self didn't bother to wait for his response. He simply turned around and announced, "You can't save them," with conviction.

"Yes, I can," was his immediate rebuttal, even though he was at a loss asking and screaming internally who else Savitar was going to kill. "And I'm going to."

"No you can't. Go home."

He was getting angry now at him...self. Ugh time travel, man. "Just tell me who's in the suit. That's all I need. I'll track him down, learn his weakness... I'll stop him before—"

"I can't."

He'd almost had enough, and never did he think he'd want to punch himself. "Why not?"

"Because I don't know who he is."

And just like that, it felt like someone had pulled the rug from under his feet; just when he thought he'd have the upper hand...

His hands balled into fists at his sides because there was just no way he was going to lose Iris. "Tell me who else died then. At least give me that."

His older self turned back around and, for the first time since they started talking, he could see the glimmer of a single tear that oozed from this corner of his eye. "Oliver."

He stopped breathing; it felt like his older self had punched him instead, right in the stomach and again after that. He couldn't say anything; was he supposed to? His father had just died a couple months ago and now he learned not only was he going to lost his best friend but Ollie too?

"Want some advice? Go home. Spend as much time with both of them and Kara because pretty soon, you'll lose them forever."

He almost didn't want to ask but he just had to. "Where's Kara?"

His older self didn't miss a beat. "Gone."

And for once, he didn't want to find out what gonemeant.


Oliver...

Oliver was going to die.

Savitar was going to kill Oliver alongside Iris.

He kicked at the board with all the headlines and watched it sorrowfully as it crashed into the ground, shattering just like his heart.

No wonder his older self was much more of a mess than he'd anticipated...

He thought he was pretty much torn up about Iris' death, but he just couldn't fathom the pain of having to lose Oliver and Kara. That was a place he didn't want to go to.

He didn't want this future.


Eight years from his present, Cisco would lose his hands, Caitlin would lose herself, Wally would lose his sanity, Joe would lose all of his kids, Iris would be gone, Oliver would be gone, Kara would be gone—

He didn't want this future!

He put his his cowl back on with reinforced willpower, and it was way more than he did when he'd learned Iris was going to die.

He wasn't going to imprison Savitar, no, not like his older self did.

That wasn't enough.


When he came back from the future, everyone couldn't not notice how manic Barry was being, completely consumed by the idea of stopping Savitar. They tried asking what it was he saw in the future, but whenever the question was raised, it pushed Barry to train harder and plan more in an effort to stop their nemesis, so they stopped asking, fearing they were going to lose Barry further into his newfound obsession.

Oliver and Kara had come to Central City when Barry had pretty much stopped talking to them for a whole week, sparking a deep sense of worry and concern for him. They first met up with the rest of the team to gauge what exactly was going on with Barry. They couldn't really answer and just said he'd been obsessed with taking down Savitar ever since he came back from the future.

When they visited Barry in the speed lab — which was so heavily decorated with a disarray of diagrams and notes — he went ballistic, going through all his plans to defeat Savitar before yelling at them to go away so he wouldn't be distracted. Oliver and Kara were both a little too astonished at Barry's newly developed personality — despite having been warned already — to stop him from zooming away.

"Did he just tell us he was going to kill Savitar?" Kara whispered, still staring at the spot where Barry had been.

"In precise detail."


Savitar was right there, in front of him. Just like how he planned, Savitar entered the Speed Force, right where he was going to kill him.

Before he could follow Savitar, his wrist was held back by a hand as strong as a vice grip that didn't intend on letting him go any time soon. He looked back and of course it was Kara and of course she broke free from where he had restrained her.

"Barry, please don't do this," she pleaded, still not letting go. "This isn't you."

Oliver, from the sidewalk where Barry had tied him up right next to where Kara was, yelled at him. "Don't you dare go in there, Barry, or I'll kill you myself."

"I have to stop this. Stop him."

"I'm sorry but I can't let you do this."

His lips pressed into a hard line. He'd never intend on telling either one of them what he saw in the future, but now, it seemed like he needed to.

"Kara, if I don't go, Savitar is going to—"

"To kill Iris, I know—"

"—kill Oliver."

Kara immediately stopped. "What?"

"Savitar will kill Iris and Oliver, but not if I stop him. This is the only chance I have at stopping him."

"Barry..."

"Do you really wanna lose Oliver? Are you sure you wanna go through that?"

"No, but—"

"Then let me stop him. Let me take Savitar down once and for all."

"Barry, I can't..."

He could see it; her resolve was dwindling.

"Please don't go," she said, but he knew he had won.

"I'll be back. I might be a little bit late for dinner. Potstickers and pizza, right? Save some for me."

Kara's eyes started to water. "I love you."

"I love you too."

And she let go.


Thank you for reading. Feel free to leave comment.