Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Barry stared at the speedster choking him with wide eyes. He knew that face, even under the mask, he knew it.
"August," he choked out, struggling to get air into his lungs as the former doctor crushed his windpipe.
August grinned at him. "I'm not August anymore."
"Wait, that's August? How?" Caitlin asked, horrified.
Joe and Julian both aimed guns at August, only to make the speedster laugh.
"It took me a long time, but I finally figured out how to extract speed from the Flash's DNA," August said, "and put it into myself."
"Why?" Cisco asked. "Why would you want to?"
"Why would I want to? You're kidding me, right?" he snarled. "Look at the world we are living in. I was too afraid to leave my bunker for fear of getting killed by a deranged meta, so I realized, I had to become one. And who should take me up on my offer for supplies in exchange for blood but the Flash himself. I thought I'd found the end of a rainbow. The moment he showed up, desperate for drugs, I knew I had him under my thumb and there was no way he would ever get out."
"August," Barry choked, seeing black dots as the other speedster strangled him.
"Don't call me that! That's not my name anymore!"
"What is your name then?" Barry managed to get out.
"You know, I thought about that for a long time," the other speedster said with a grin. "I thought about calling myself the new and improved Flash, because you clearly weren't cutting it. You're just an addict who couldn't even save this city from Savitar. But then I realized that now that I have these powers, I get to be judge, jury, and executioner of every meta and every human who breaks my new law. So, I call myself Godspeed."
"Well, Godspeed," Barry said in a strangled voice, "let's see how fast you actually are."
With that, Barry phased his way out of August's grasp. The two speedsters became a blur of blue and yellow, tangled up in a fight the others couldn't see. Even Wally had trouble perceiving all their fast movements.
Suddenly, Godspeed was flung across the room where he smashed into a wall. To their surprise, August started laughing.
"Well, Flash, it looks like you are faster than me," he chuckled. "But I wonder, will you be faster than all of us?"
"Who's all of us?" H. R. asked. "Do I want to know who 'all of us' is?"
August grinned and suddenly he started running, vanishing into a blue portal through time. He reemerged a few seconds later with company. Three speedsters, one clad in yellow, one clad in black, and one clad in black and red.
The Reverse Flash, Zoom, and the Rival.
"Oh, God," Cisco said. "I can't tell if this is going to be really epic or really bad."
"Meet us in the street, Flash," Godspeed said. "If you're brave enough."
The four speedsters zipped out of STAR Labs.
"Bar, don't do this," Joe said.
"I have to," he said, pulling up his cowl.
Wally zipped into his suit, making to go with him.
"No, Wally, stay here," Barry said. "The less speedsters running at the same time the better. Five of us all at once is already too big of a risk. There can't be six of us."
"Barry, you could die," fear clouded Iris's voice, desperation in her eyes.
Barry shook his head. "I'll be fine, Iris. I'll be more than fine. I'm going to enjoy this."
He leaned down and kissed her once before speeding out of the room.
"We're not just going to stand here, are we?" H.R. asked.
"No way," Cisco said, opening a breach they all ran through.
When they reached the street, the battle had already started. Streaks of yellow, red, and blue zoomed all throughout the dark street.
Blue clashed with red, it clashed with yellow, it clashed with more blue. Lightning was thrown and Godspeed was blasted backward, tumbling over and over again across the hard pavement.
Zoom and Reverse Flash lunged at the Flash. Flash dodged Reverse Flash's hit and struck Zoom… kicking him right in the spine.
Zoom was down.
The Rival sped forward, striking the Future Flash from behind as he fought the Reverse Flash. Barry crashed to the ground, skidding across it like Godspeed had, only to spring up and zoom back toward the fight like he hadn't even felt that. And perhaps, considering the amount of pain he was in, he hadn't.
Godspeed was back up. He ran toward Barry at the same time as Thawne and Rival.
Barry's lips twitched upward in anticipation. The three speedsters came at him all at once. He dodged Reverse Flash's hit and it hit Godspeed instead. Then he lunged at Rival, punching him repeatedly in the stomach before knocking the speedster back a good eight feet with a super-speed hit.
The Rival was out cold.
Godspeed got up and attacked the Flash with a shrill battle cry. Barry didn't even bother moving before the slower speedster's fist was an inch away from him. Then, he darted out of the way and August tumbled to the ground, crashing face first into the pavement.
Godspeed didn't get up again.
The Flash and the Reverse Flash started at each other, daring the other to make the first move.
Reverse Flash turned around and ran away from the Flash, but he wasn't fleeing. No, he was running toward Iris.
The Flash chased him, reaching him just as the Reverse Flash was a foot away from Iris, his vibrating hand ready to plunge into her chest.
It never reached its destination. Barry grabbed Thawne around the neck, jerking him back with a sickening snap. He fell to the ground when Barry released him.
The Reverse Flash was dead.
Barry gripped Iris's shoulders immediately. "Iris, are you okay?"
She nodded rapidly.
"Dude, you… killed him," Cisco said as they all stared down at the Reverse Flash in shock.
"He was going to kill Iris," Barry said venomously. "No one even tries to do that and gets away with it."
They came out of their numb stupor after staring at the Reverse Flash for another moment. They knew it was probably unintentional when Barry broke Thawne's neck, and the man already technically didn't exist, but they were still shocked to see Barry kill someone, even if this was a version of Barry that had obviously had to do things he didn't want to. They couldn't blame him, though. If it was the Reverse Flash or Iris, they would let Barry kill Thawne in a heartbeat.
Before anyone could say anything else, Barry suddenly doubled over with a harsh gasp.
"Barry?!" Iris shrieked in worried shock.
Joe held the speedster up before he could fall.
"He needs morphine," he said worriedly.
"No," Barry said, and then he coughed, a strangled, wet sound and blood came out of his mouth. Pain flared in his eyes at an alarming rate.
"Barry, what's going on? Did one of them hurt you?" Caitlin immediately started looking him over, checking for signs of internal bleeding.
"No… the speed force," Barry said. "We moved too fast."
"Barry…"
"It shattered," he whispered, collapsing into Joe's arms, blood still leaking out of his mouth, his eyes, and his nose.
They felt the temperature of the Earth begin to cool.
AN: I know, I know, I'm really mean to leave it there. But I couldn't resist, plus, I've been super nice considering how many times I have updated this weekend. And I plan to update again really soon, maybe even again some time today, though like always, no promises. I hope my fight scene was alright. I actually hate writing fight scenes; I never feel like I get them right. It was really satisfying making Barry break Zoom's back and kill Thawne. If I remember correctly, Barry actually does kill Thawne in comics by breaking his neck after he went after Iris, which I don't blame Barry for. That man already killed his mother and got his father thrown in jail, so if he were to ever go after Iris, I can see Barry killing him, even if it is on accident, because Barry didn't mean to kill Thawne, but he certainly doesn't regret doing it. I also would like to say that I don't know a lot about heat death and what it would be like, but I looked it up and apparently it causes the universe to cool down, which makes sense considering it's supposed to happen when everything stops moving. There would be no thermodynamic free energy after that. Heat death is also apparently supposed to happen slowly if the theory is correct, but here it is happening much quicker, because the speed force just shattered.
Please review and let me know what you think :)
-DragonsintheMoonlight