April, 2016

That's strange, Cisco thought to himself, picking up the tachyon device from his workbench. I thought I left this in Barry's suit.

Yet here the device was, lying innocuously in his shop, out in the open. A quick check confirmed that it held data from Barry's run onto Supergirl's Earth, but how it had mysteriously jumped out from under the Flash suit's chest piece was unclear.

Cisco shook his head. He didn't have time for this right now. Zoom had taken Barry's speed, everyone was powerless to stop him, and Caitlin was still missing. He locked the tachyon device safely in a drawer and left the shop.

November, 2016

"They're calling themselves the 'Legends,'" Oliver explained.

"Egotistical, but catchy," Thea quipped, tilting her head.

"Do you know where they are?" Barry asked.

Oliver paused for a beat, eyes evasive as he sought a way to explain his knowledge of the timeship from the future. "I know where they were."

"Perfect," Felicity brightened. "That's all I need."

October, 2016

"…you know, whenever you alter the past, those changes affect the present and get compounded…"

Allen, what have you done?

Rip sat at the back of the Waverider bridge, among the artifacts of centuries past and future, his hand over his eyes as he listened to the strange message he had received from the future Barry Allen. He was beyond exasperated that the speedster had managed to make his life even more difficult, and he was just grateful he had intercepted the recording during the night shift, when the rest of his crew was asleep.

"…you return, you will be in the new timeline I created, where everyone's past and everyone's future has been affected, including yours."

Haven't you done enough to my life?

"When you come back, don't trust anything or anyone. Not even me."

The message seemingly at an end, Rip immediately considered deleting it and forgetting about its existence. He already was forced to attribute a great deal of how his life had progressed up to that point to the Scarlet Speedster, and he was not inclined to add more connections to the meddlesome Flash. How did he even know this message was genuine and not some fabrication? He was just about to issue the command to Gideon for deletion when the message suddenly continued after a pause.

"Rip," the message began again, and the captain started, hearing an even more wearied and regretful tone than the speedster had yet presented in his message. "I know you blame me for not saving your family. I know you hate me for giving you the Legends' names and misleading you into thinking that forming the team could change the fate of your wife and son. I know saying how sorry I am doesn't begin to address what you've sacrificed."

Rip heard a sigh. "But I also know that the Legends have become as much of a new family for you as you ever thought possible, and if you don't believe in my intentions to save Earth, at least believe in my intentions to protect your team. They're my friends too, and they're not the only ones in danger."

Rip narrowed his eyes. What a surprise, he thought sarcastically, though without any real venom to the words. In fact, he was actually resigning himself to the possibility the message was, in fact, genuine. "I don't know if the day will ever come when you'll forgive me, but please Rip, help me save them. I trust you." With that, the message cut out for real.

Rip wasn't sure how long he sat in silence, contemplating what he had just heard, but Barry had clearly known what he was doing, appealing to Rip's growing protectiveness of the Legends. There was still so much they didn't know or understand about the nuances of time travel, and there were still so many aspects of it that could threaten their lives. If he wanted to be a good Captain, and a good friend, he would have to start preparing them for the unexpected, and perhaps, for the times when he wouldn't be there to guide them.

Almost as if on cue, an alert sounded in the bridge indicating the emergence of a new time aberration. Still debating how best to utilize this new information from the future Flash, Rip brought up a holographic copy of the message. "Gideon," he began, highlighting the second part of the message, the part that Barry devoted to asking Rip to trust him. "Delete this part of Mr. Allen's message." There were too many personal details in there that his team didn't need to know, including the real reason he had chosen them in the first place. Someday, in his own time, he would tell them that himself. "Save the rest to the secret armory."

"Yes, Captain," Gideon responded.

I'll bring them up to speed later. Rip went to the front of the bridge to check on the aberration. Apparently, his team was needed in France, in the year 1637, to protect King Louie XIII. Brilliant, he thought wearily. What could go wrong?

Present, 2056 (Alternate)

Barry blinked.

The Superior had disappeared.

He glanced down at his suit. There was a hole in the material where the alien's claw had penetrated, along with a tiny bit of blood from a skin-deep puncture wound, but he was otherwise unharmed.

The white energy column was also gone. The power source to the Dominator ships hanging in orbit had been cut off, and the chrono-spatial field was no more. Glancing at the Console strapped to his wrist, Barry saw its screen blink as it used the last of its power to execute Felicity's final command and transmit the message he had recorded back through time.

Most telling, Barry got the vague sense he could see through the walls of the dome to the outside. He looked at his hands and noticed that they were slightly transparent, and they were growing more insubstantial by the second. Soon, history would reset.

Sighing, Barry laid his head back down on the ground, believing for the first time he had finally done his part to honor the sacrifices of his allies and loved ones. Whether it was Rip bringing his entire crew to Earth's defense, or Wally time-traveling for the first time, or Oliver infiltrating Dominator labor camps, they had all played crucial roles in this story. Barry's job had simply been to add the final touch.

As the minutes passed and history erased him bit by bit, his thoughts, his feelings, and his consciousness grew more and more jumbled in the rewriting process, and he found himself with new memories of new events that had unfolded.

Dominator screeches of panic filled the air as the desiccated aliens turned tail and ran, yellow energy beams sucking them back up into their ship.

Nate reverted from his steel form into his human form. "They're retreating," he said, incredulity and relief coloring his voice.

"It's not just them," Felicity breathed over their comms. "It's all around the world."

High above them, the curved Dominator ship banked sideways and accelerated upwards into the atmosphere, away from Earth, as the Waverider and Firestorm hovered protectively nearby, fresh off their success in neutralizing the Dominator metabomb.

"He did it," Oliver said, as the team on the ground watched the Dominator ship leave.

"No, Oliver," Kara corrected.

Barry contentedly shut his eyes as he faded, finally reaching the end of his race.

"We all did it."

/end

Author's notes: Direct references and dialogue were used from The Flash 3x08, "Invasion!", and DC's Legends of Tomorrow 2x07, "Invasion!"

The flashback with Rip is meant to be a direct lead-in to DC's Legends of Tomorrow 2x01, "Out of Time."

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