The Scarlet Speedster
Chapter Eleven: Supergirl Lives and The Present
Before people ask on how time fluctuates, since Barry and Kara had the same amount of time roughly between World's Finest and Medusa/Invasion! And yet when Barry returned home after a day or two on her Earth, it had been seconds on his, I'm taking it as it rotates every six months, so for Kara January-June is only the first week of January for Barry, then the next six months on Barry's Earth is only a week for Kara, I know the idea sounds bad, but blame CW for screwing up the time themselves in World's Finest.
As Kara stepped through the breach, she found herself once more in her apartment. However, this wasn't how she'd left her apartment. There were things thrown across the floor, tables overturned, and clothes in a mess. She frowned at the state of it and used her X-Ray vision to look around for intruders, seeing that the apartment was clear, she sped over and cleaned up the mess in a matter of minutes.
'I'll go to the DEO and see if everyone is there.' Kara thought to herself before changing back into her Supergirl outfit and taking to the skies, zipping through the air of National City, from above, everything looked the same, people went about their day, the world hadn't ended, and Kara flew to the DEO offices, landing in the main foyer.
As she entered the DEO, some of the milling around agents looked at her and stared open mouthed at the sight of her, seeing this, Kara frowned as she hurried to find J'onn and Alex, had something happened she was needed for?
As Kara reached J'onn's office she heard a variety of different, familiar voices, she pushed open the door, as they all turned to look at the intruder, before their mouths fell open in shock. Looking around, Kara could see J'onn, Alex, Winn, Mon-El, Eliza and Kal all gathered around a table.
"Hey everyone! I'm back!" Kara smiled, as they continued to stare at her in shock. "What's going on?"
"Kara!" Alex was the first to reach her sister and wrap her in a hug, followed by Eliza and Winn, before J'onn, Mon-El and Kal hugged her as well.
"Where were you Kara?" Kal asked, looking at his cousin in shock.
"You would not believe the weekend I've had." Kara laughed.
"Weekend?" Winn questioned, confused.
"Kara…it's been two months." J'onn gently stated. "What happened to you?"
"Two months?!" Kara asked. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I got to your apartment to find you were gone, we overturned the place and since then we've spent the past two months looking for you, where were you?" Alex demanded, relieved her sister was home but angry she vanished.
"Winn, you remember Barry from last year, right?"
"The Flash from another universe, so cool by the way, what about him?" Winn asked, as Mon-El and Eliza looked shocked that there were other universes.
"Well he appeared in my apartment, all those space-time portals at Thanksgiving were him trying to find this Earth. He needed a favour and I owed him one from Livewire and Banshee, so I went to his Earth to help stop an alien invasion." Kara smiled as the rest looked at her in shock. An alien invasion?!
"Aliens? What type?" J'onn asked, wondering what exactly his agent had been up against.
"The Dominators." Kara stated, Kal and Mon-El's eyes widening in shock.
"You fought the Dominators? What happened?" Mon-El asked.
"Who are the Dominators?" Eliza asked.
"They came to Krypton and Daxom years ago, before any of us were born, they captured a lot of people, did experiments on them, killed a lot more." Kara explained to the shock of those who didn't know the history of them fully. "They're a species who pride themselves on collecting knowledge. They attacked Barry's Earth in 1951 but came back as they thought Metahumans were a threat to the future, so we had to stop them, it's a long story, but future Barry from 2056 sent a message saying Barry had changed the timeline so wasn't trustworthy, so I had to lead the rest of the team to rescue their President, we got whammied and all spent about two hours trying to kill Barry and his friend Oliver, we were careless and were mind controlled for it." Kara admitted as Kal and Mon-El looked shocked still that she had fought the Dominators, everyone else looking worried that she said she had been controlled.
"Are you sure you're ok Kara?" Eliza asked her, worried her daughter wouldn't be up for fighting again so soon.
"Yeah, I mean, we can handle it if not." Winn stated.
"Guys, I'm fine, Barry managed to make me angry and I accidentally destroyed the machine that was controlling us, freeing everyone up, Oliver and some of the others got captured so I had to help Barry and Oliver's protégés steal something from a thief to help track them so we could get them back, then some of them went back in time to go capture a Dominator in 1951 to learn their intentions, then as they arrived back the Dominators said they'd leave if Barry handed himself to them, we all talked him out of it before we had the final battle, defeated the Dominators, stopped their WMD, they fled, and we got honoured by their President before we had a small victory party. Then I came back here with a device that lets me call or go to their universe whenever I want. I guess time flows differently through the universes, you say it was two months, it was less than two days for me." Kara finished as everyone tried to digest what had happened.
"Wait, they have time travel there?!" Alex asked.
"Yeah, they have a time travelling ship and Barry can run fast enough to travel in time as well as breach dimensions." Kara bashfully stated as everyone looked even more surprised at just how powerful Barry was.
"That's quite an adventure you had." Winn stated finally as everyone else was coming to terms with what happened. "Barry changed the timeline you say?"
"Yeah he saved his mother from dying, realised how it impacted the future and went back to fix it." Kara sighed, sad that her friend had to go through the pain of losing Nora Allen all over again.
"Well at least he tried to fix it." J'onn supplied.
"I was going to stay and help Barry with this new threat he's facing, but I knew I had to finish Cadmus and Hank Henshaw, and Barry would call me if he needed me." Kara supplied.
"What's he facing?" Kal asked, not liking the idea of his cousin dimension hopping on a whim.
"A thing named Savitar. Barry is probably slightly faster than we are, Kal, and this Savitar apparently is many times faster than Barry."
"How would you help then?" Alex demanded, not wanting Kara to go fight in other universes either.
"He's apparently made of metal, heat vision should melt him and freeze breath should slow him." She smiled.
"Made of metal? Awesome, I mean, awful." Winn said as Kal glared at him.
"Don't worry Winn, I won't be fighting him unless Barry asks, but as he styles himself the God of Speed, I'd like to prove he isn't a God." Kara said with a laugh.
"Is that all you did?" Eliza asked faintly, sensing Kara was holding something back but not wanting to hear more about any danger she was in.
"Erm….yes?" Kara asked with a blush on her face, a blush that none of them missed.
"What's his name?" Kal threatened, cracking his knuckles together.
"Clark! It's Barry! I'll introduce you one day, ok?" Kara reasoned. "He and I first kissed when he kissed me before he left this Earth, I could tell he liked me still and I like him, so before I left, we went outside alone and I kissed him this time."
Mon-El suddenly seemed annoyed and excused himself as some of the others looked shocked.
"I thought you were with James?" Alex asked her.
"I'm not sure, we've not been close lately, and I've liked Barry for a long time now. We're not together either, it probably won't even happen again, it was just a kiss." Kara began to go off on a rant, showing how embarrassed and confused she was.
"Sure." Winn laughed, sensing that this was going to last for a while.
"Wait, did I miss Christmas?" Kara pouted.
"Afraid so." Eliza laughed. "Alex has your presents, don't worry."
As the others continued to fill Kara in on what she had missed, Mon-El returned, apologising for leaving, shrugging it off despite his bitter tone, Kara found out that whilst she had been gone Hank, or Cyborg Superman, had gone around destroying buildings, causing millions in damage, but always disappearing before J'onn or Kal could get there to stop him.
"Next time he shows up, we'll all go." Kara reasoned, hoping they could get there next time and stop him.
"Hopefully we'll be quick enough to stop him." J'onn said before the alarm suddenly blared around the DEO.
"Cyborg Superman spotted entering LCorp." Winn said as he checked the alert, Kara and Kal rushing off to go stop him.
As Barry raced through Central City, it was a gloriously sunny day, despite it nearly being Christmas. He'd found out Julian was aware of Savitar, yet he claimed to know nothing, Barry knew he had to be lying though, or not telling the whole truth at any rate. (The Barry parts of this chapter will be largely canon to 3x09 since it works well enough, I'll be going full AU before Supergirl Lives comes out though)
Barry knew there was one man who knew more about the Speed Force than anyone else he knew, if anyone knew about Savitar, it'd probably be Jay Garrick. Rushing back to STAR labs he asked Cisco to vibe a breach to Earth 3 so he could call on Jay to get his help, rushing through the portal Cisco created for him, he found Jay in battle with the Trickster, quickly helping to deal with him, he turned to Jay.
"I've something I need to talk to you about, a speedster, calls himself Savitar." Barry said, gulping when he saw the look of shock on Jay's face.
'Guess he knows him then.'
"Let's get back to your Earth then and talk, Flash." Jay said, as the two of them ran together to open the breach to Earth-1. Jumping through the breach, they landed inside STAR labs once again.
"So, Savitar, apparently you've grown powerful enough to challenge him." Jay stated.
"Yeah I know, what I don't know is where he came from, why he sees me as a threat and how I can stop him." Barry frowned, hoping Jay would have the answers he desperately needed.
"I don't know who he is, I've never seen him, you're the first speedster I know who has, all I know is all the stories say the same, Savitar was the first man ever granted speed. Over time, he became the God of Motion, the fastest of us all. Before he comes to an Earth, he sends a lackey to prepare the world for him." Jay said.
"Alchemy." Barry grimly noted as Jay nodded.
"He's preparing for a battle, with you." Jay pointed out.
"Why me?" Barry asked, still not sure as to why Savitar believes him such a threat.
"You're threatening his power, Barry, you're getting faster and faster and it's not something Savitar will tolerate. He'll want to end you before you can get even faster than he is."
"Can I really get that much faster?" Barry asked.
"Theoretically, you could probably one day, with enough motivation and practise, reach speeds nearing light speed." Jay stated to Barry's shock.
"I'll be ready when he comes again for me then." Barry stated, determined to take Savitar down.
"We'll be ready." Jay affirmed, Barry looking over at him with confusion. "I'm not letting you face this alone, I'll help you take Savitar and Alchemy down."
Barry and Jay got to work checking every single text they could for any mention of the name Savitar and hopefully, a way they could take him down.
"This is hopeless, I've checked every book, not a reference to Savitar in any of them." Barry grumbled.
"Patience, Barry, I find that everything reveals itself in time." Jay stated, as he picked up a book to have another look himself, they'd find some way to stop Savitar, he knew they would.
As the day wore on, the two speedsters agreed to take up the challenge the next day and Barry headed home for a well-deserved rest. As he walked through the front door, he saw Iris wrapping presents, smiling he walked past her and sat on the sofa, her soon following.
"I shopped and I shopped and now I'm ready to drop, into your arms." Iris smirked as she dropped down next to Barry and moved towards him, planting her lips on his. After a moment's hesitation where a feeling of unease passed through him, Barry returned the kiss himself. (Well I'm not going to have him chase her off with a pitchfork and declare undying love for Kara, to paraphrase Bane "Now is not the time, that comes later")
As Barry felt himself begin to melt into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Iris, the world just felt right for once. No threats, no enemies, just two people, nearly Christmas, content in one another's embrace. Why then, did he still have a niggling feeling that this wasn't right?
"By the way after you told me about Julian's archaeological dig I did some of my own. Turns out four years ago there was a dig in India, something bad happened to it and the only survivor of the team was Julian." Iris stated.
"So it looks like Julian is a liar then." Barry grimly stated as he sped out of the door towards STAR labs. It seemed like it was time for Jay and him to pay Julian a little visit. He raced through the streets and arrived at the lab to find everyone else already there, Barry explaining how he believed Julian has the philosopher's stone and is connected to Alchemy, before an alert signalled Alchemy was on the move. Flashing over, they found Alchemy and his acolytes trying to restore the powers of the Flashpoint Metahumans.
"It's over Alchemy!" Barry called as the acolytes scattered before Savitar himself appeared, bearing down on Barry. Barry looked up at the monstrosity in horror.
"Please tell me you see him!" He called out to Jay, who wore a matching expression of utmost horror and shock.
"Oh I see him." Jay muttered.
"We have to take him, together."
"No! I'll cover Savitar, you just get that stone!" Jay cried before charging at Savitar, the God of Speed (Yes I'm aware in Hindu mythos he's the God of Motion, as Jay pointed out, but Savitar said himself he was God of Speed, so I'm keeping it as Speed) grabbing him by the neck in one fluid movement before speeding off to deliver to Jay the beating he gave Barry a few weeks previous. Barry raced up the building as Alchemy prepared to attack, charging up an electric bolt which fried Alchemy, sending him sprawling to the ground.
As Alchemy made to rise again, Barry punched him with a lightning fast fist, knocking him out, seeing the philosopher's stone on the ground, Barry picked it up and placed it within the box that Alchemy was carrying, before bending down to unmask Alchemy, pulling off the mask, Barry looked down into the face of Julian Albert.
"Julian…" he trailed off before picking up his former co-worker and racing back to S.T.A.R labs to place him in the pipeline. As he got back he found Jay waiting for him, who told him that Savitar was about to kill him, before he suddenly flashed away.
Barry waited in the pipeline until Julian awoke, and asked him what he was doing as Alchemy, before Julian accused the Flash of setting him up and demanding his phone call, claiming he had no recollection of his time spent as Alchemy, giving him up as a lost cause for now, Barry walked off to check up on Jay, it was his fault if Jay got injured.
Jay it turned out was beaten up but fine, sharing some banter with Barry as he called Barry his sidekick and Barry calling him a senior citizen, Barry told him to rest up as he went to see how the others were doing with the idea of Savitar being trapped within the stone.
'I bet Winn could crack this if he was here, I wonder if he and Kara are fighting alien threats back on Earth-38?' Barry wondered as he walked through the halls of S.T.A.R labs, it had only been a week, but he missed Kara so much. He knew about the time running differently, and wondered how long it would have been for her back home, did she sort everything out with James and go back to being happy with him? Barry found the idea of Kara being happy with someone else as saddening, just as he found the idea of kissing Iris somewhat uneasy.
Barry asked what they knew about Julian's ideas and the box that kept the stone, Cisco stating that Julian truly believed what he was saying, that he had no idea about any of this, and that the box registered as not existing on every test they ran it through, it was as if it wasn't made of matter at all. Barry walked into Joe who spoke about how Wally seemed to be letting his speed take control of his brain, giving Barry an idea as to why Julian believes he isn't Alchemy.
Barry went back to the pipeline to examine Julian and question him further about the box, asking if he experienced any times where he blacked out, before Julian remarked that as a man wearing a mask, he had no right to assume others were hiding anything. Accepting this, Barry revealed himself to Julian.
"I should have known. I should have guessed it. The unexplained absences, your passion for metas, your general thumbing your nose at authority. I bet you had a good laugh behind my back." Julian accused Barry, throwing him glares for locking him up, the hypocritical Metahuman.
"I wish I could have told you before." Barry sighed.
"Why would you? We've never liked each other." Julian sneered.
"Because of Flashpoint. You've been giving powers to those who had them in Flashpoint, which was an alternate reality I accidentally created. When I fixed it you were there, working at CCPD and apparently my rival. Before Flashpoint, I'd never met you before. So when I got to work and found you there, I was shocked, even more shocked to find you disliked me and the feeling was supposedly mutual. I'm sorry Julian." Barry averted his eyes as Julian looked at him in shock.
'Allen thinks we've known each other for such a short time? Mental Meta.' He sneered inside his head.
"Why tell me now that you're the Flash?" Julian queried, wondering why Allen would give up his big secret like this.
"Because I need you to trust me, Julian. You ARE Alchemy. I just don't think you're aware of it, now, have you been blacking out?"
"…Yes." Julian admitted, realising that maybe Allen was onto something, if he was Alchemy, it would certainly explain the lapses in his memory he'd been suffering for a while now.
Julian admitted to Barry that he lost his sister and he found the stone due to a vision of her appearing, telling him where it was and how he could resurrect her using its powers.
Barry felt his heart breaking at the sorrow in Julian's words, what he had done was exactly what Barry tried to do with Flashpoint, he certainly couldn't hold it against Julian for hoping against hope that this stone could fix his problems and bring back his loved ones.
Barry tried to tell Julian that he was Alchemy, and to try and work him through the issue of it, as Julian panicked, believing yet not wanting to believe that he was Alchemy, this monster who was terrorising the people of Central City. Alchemy stood for everything Julian opposed, namely, Metas.
Barry was startled by a sudden noise as he spoke with Julian, trying to find out more about Savitar.
"Guys, what's going on?" He asked into the comms.
"Cisco's workshop! Barry he opened the box!" Caitlin cried as Barry sped off, something had made Cisco release Savitar and now he had to stop him, somehow.
"Cisco?" Barry asked, seeing Savitar stood behind him and Cisco, entranced by the light of the philosopher's stone.
"Bow to your God." Savitar groaned as he charged forward, grabbing Barry and slamming him around S.T.A.R labs. As Savitar threw Barry around the pipeline like a rag doll, suddenly Wally appeared before them.
"Hey, metal mouth!" Wally called, getting Savitar to turn his attention to him as Barry struggled to his feet.
Wally charged forward at Savitar, only to be grabbed himself and thrown at Barry, sending both the Flash and Kid Flash to the ground in a heap. As they struggled to get back up, Savitar began to approach them, grinding his metallic arms against the circular walls, savouring the fear in their eyes as he approached, ready to eliminate two threats to his rule. Suddenly, with a flash, Savitar vanished, seeing this, Barry and Wally both fell backwards, exhausted. For now, the threat was over. Savitar had been contained once more.
Barry and the others gathered as Cisco explained his plan to link the stone to Julian and allow them to communicate with Savitar directly through Julian, as it appeared there was no Alchemy, and that it was always Savitar, possessing Julian and using him as a mouthpiece.
As they hooked Julian up, and he quickly fell asleep, they were startled by a sudden yell from Julian, before Julian awoke and fixed Barry with a look. Barry knew that look. This wasn't Julian.
"Hello Barry. It's been a while." Savitar spoke to him.
(I was going to have Barry for the rest of the chapter, but I'm putting most of Kara's next chapter in here, since it allows me to focus on Savitar as the main threat of this arc)
As Kara and Kal approached LCorp, they saw the unconscious security guards and the smashed up windows.
"Can you see him?" Kara asked, using her X-Ray vision to try and spot him but failing.
"Nothing, he could be cloaked or already gone.' Kal admitted.
"Should we check then?" Kara asked.
"Supergirl!" A voice behind them called.
They turned around to see Lena Luthor approaching them.
"Luthor." Kal spat. Kara frowned at his actions and smiled as she approached.
"Miss Luthor, are you alright?"
"I am now. That guy who attacked you a few months ago was here, and he was trying to find something, he destroyed part of my building when he couldn't find it but he ran before he could really hurt anyone. Am I glad to see you though, where have you been the past few months? National City has really needed you around." Lena frowned, crime rates had shot up when criminals realised Supergirl, wherever she was, wasn't answering the call for justice.
With Lillian Luthor released from prison when the evidence against her was circumstantial at best, Cadmus had soon started its propaganda machine once more, saying how Supergirl had disappeared as she was evil, and Lena knew that her mother wouldn't be seeking her help ever again, if anything, she'd call Lena a traitor to her race and call on Cadmus to remove her.
"I'm sorry I was gone Miss Luthor, a friend needed help and I had to go, I didn't plan to be gone so long." Kara frowned. She hated the idea of failing her city in any way.
"So he's gone." Kal muttered before he flew off, heading back to the DEO.
"I'll see you around Miss Luthor." Kara smiled at Lena before she headed off herself. She and Lena had parted on less than perfect terms, but it had been two months for Lena, Lena had moved on and so could Kara.
Kara and Kal returned to the DEO where J'onn was waiting for them.
"So Hank Henshaw escaped, huh? When we find him, we'll stop him." J'onn stated. Hank had ruined too many people's lives, and what little good was in him had been stripped away when Cadmus got their hands on him. He was nothing but evil now and a threat to those J'onn loved and cared for.
"I have an idea, I can call on a friend who might be able to help." Kal stated.
"Who is it?" Kara asked.
"You'll see, I think you'll like him." Kal admitted with a smile and a quick goodbye before he flew off.
"So, I guess I best head back to work." Kara said before J'onn fixed her with a look.
"If you head back to work now, after months of being missing, at the same time the missing Supergirl appears, you may as well admit on live television who you are. Spend the next few weeks as Supergirl, get people used to seeing you again, and then let Kara Danvers return from a sabbatical, hopefully people will think you can't possibly be Supergirl and let it go." J'onn stated.
Kara accepted this, no matter how much she wanted to, as Oliver had said to her, reclaim some normalcy, and with a sigh she headed off to go and find Alex, to see if her sister needed any help around the DEO whilst she was stuck in her Kryptonian character for now.
On her way out she saw Mon-El, working in the lab with Winn, a frown etched onto his face.
"What's the matter Mon-El?" She called and he looked at her, the frown getting stronger before disappearing instantly.
"Nothing Kara, what brings you down here?" he asked, hoping she didn't pick up on his mood, unfortunately for him, she did.
"I'm stuck as Supergirl for the next few weeks, so I'll be doing a lot of work to try and help the DEO to deal with Cadmus, have you found a new job then yet?" She asked him, smiling and hoping that his mood, no matter why it was like that, would soon improve. She missed her Daxomite friend, and ever since she rescued him from Cadmus, he just wasn't the same.
Barry watched as Savitar possessed Julian and looked around at each of them in turn, assessing them, figuring out their weaknesses, their desires, how best to defeat them.
"Savitar." Barry spat.
"None of you are on your knees. It is normal to bow when you are before a deity." Savitar growled out.
"You're not a God."
"To be a God you just have to make people believe you are." Savitar reasoned with Barry.
"No-one believes in you." Iris stated.
"You should, Iris." Savitar spoke as the others looked shocked that he knew who she was. "I hold the power of life and death over all of you."
"How do you know so much about us?" Caitlin asked, scared of what Savitar could know.
"I know you Caitlin. Cisco, Joe, Wally, the fake Wells." Savitar snarled "I know your fears, I know your weaknesses, I know you better than you know yourselves." Savitar allowed himself a sickening grin. "I know your destinies. One shall betray you. One shall fall. One shall suffer a fate far worse than death. This is the knowledge I have for you, about your everlasting damnation." Savitar stated as the others looked shocked, Barry recovering first.
"Who are you?" Barry asked, if Savitar knew so much about the future, could he be related to Thawne in some way?
"I am the future, Flash." Savitar stated.
"What do you want from us?"
"Everything!" Savitar growled out "Everything you took from me, I want it back! And I'm going to take it back. Then, I will destroy you." Savitar promised as Barry looked at him in disgust.
"Then why haven't you already? If you're all powerful, then why don't you just go ahead and kill us all now, be done with it. Because you can't." Barry reasoned, feeling nothing but revulsion for Savitar. The man was not a God, and he'd proven he wasn't one.
"You did this to me. You trapped me, in this eternity. Your future self, you did this to me, Barry!" Savitar cried out in anger as Barry looked shocked at him.
'My future…..the same one who said I couldn't be trusted?' Barry wondered.
"And now the age of my revenge rises, my freedom is at hand. You will feel my wrath! The wrath of Savitar!" He yelled before Barry pulled the headset from Julian, shutting Savitar back out and waking Julian up once more.
'Oh God, I created Savitar….what did I do?' Barry thought to himself. 'How badly will I keep screwing up in the future?'
As the group regrouped in the main console room and discussed what to do, Jay suggested they throw the box into the Speed Force, Barry using Jay's speed to catapult it into eternity and rid the world of Savitar for good.
"Will it work?"
"Only one way to find out." Barry stated as him and Jay got suited up to go for a run.
Barry and Jay raced through the pipeline before Barry could throw the box into the Speed Force, as he did so, a burst of energy blasted into him and Barry found himself landing on a cold, wet paving slab on the outside world. As he walked around to get his bearings, he heard a voice pleading. His own voice! He snuck over to see himself, pleading with Savitar, who held Iris aloft in his arm.
"You lose, Barry." Savitar gloated as he plunged a blade into Iris, the future Flash too slow to save her. Barry saw this and felt his heart breaking, Iris was going to die? Is that why the article didn't read Iris West-Allen, and not, as Barry may have hoped, because Barry was with someone else?
Suddenly, Barry felt a hand on his shoulder and he was pulled through a breach, back to 2016 Central City by Jay Garrick.
"Jay? What the hell was that, where was I?" Barry demanded to know.
"The future." Jay surmised, as Barry looked in shock. He'd gone to the past several times, but never travelled to the future like that before.
As Barry asked about what he saw in the future and claimed he would change it, Jay got angry and told him about why nobody should know their own future.
"Just as there are infinite Earth's in the multiverse, there are infinite possibilities in the future, it's always bending, always changing, every decision you make creates another alternative!" Jay shouted at him, hoping he could make Barry see sense. Nothing he could do would change that future if he went into it believing it would happen, Barry would inadvertently cause it to happen.
"I won't let Iris die." Barry stated, no matter what his future was to be with Iris, Barry was damned if it wasn't going to be a long, fulfilling and happy life for Iris West, his best friend, and possibly more.
As Jay left to return to Earth-3, the others asked what happened.
"Is the stone gone?"
"I think so, it's hard to tell." Barry stated.
"Not really, either Savitar has gone for a sleep with the fishes or not." Cisco reasoned.
"I was knocked into the future." Barry started, and once he started he found he couldn't stop. "Apparently it was one possible future, and it's always prone to change, but it was five months from now, I saw my future self, pleading. Savitar was there."
"He was?!" The others asked, shocked, they hoped he was gone, what would it take to get rid of the speedster?
"There's more, I was pleading for him to spare her, but I wasn't fast enough, he murdered her and then ran, leaving my future self to cradle her." Barry broke into tears and began to sob uncontrollably as the others gathered around him, comforting him.
"It's ok, it hasn't and won't happen, and you'll save her." Iris reasoned before Barry broke into even more sobs, Julian looking awkward at the emotion Allen was exhibiting.
"Who was it, Barry?" Caitlin asked kindly, hating seeing her friend in this pain.
"Iris. He murdered Iris." Barry emotionlessly stated as the others looked at one another in shock, Iris feeling the world was slipping from under her as Joe and Wally looked at her in fear, tears streaming from everyone's eyes. They couldn't and wouldn't lose Iris. (Since this isn't an Iris romance, they aren't moving in together, and really, how do you get into the Christmas spirit after a bombshell like that?)
Kara looked at her watch, having received a text from Clark, he told her to meet him here at this time, in this old, abandoned warehouse. She knew from stereotypes alone this is where the villains usually met, not the good guys.
'Barry's rubbing off on me.' She thought to herself with a slight blush.
Kara heard a noise and looked up to see Kal descending from a hole in the ceiling above before landing on the floor before her.
Kal grinned as Kara approached him. "I brought a friend."
"Where is he?" she asked, looking around and seeing nobody.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a dark shape moving, as suddenly a person dropped to the ground from out of the dark corner of the building he was hiding in.
"He likes theatrics." Clark explained.
"Hey." The man said, his voice gravelly and rough. "I'm Batman."
Due to university deadlines and the holidays themselves, I will be uploading a lot slower this next month, so expect upto a week/ week and a half between updates until around the time the mid-season break ends. Also Welcome Mr Wayne, I was going to bring him in about chapter 15 but I want the primary focus of this arc to be Savitar, as to be honest he seems a bigger threat than Cadmus will be, so I plan to wrap up the Earth-38 action in the next two or three chapters and dedicate the rest of the arc to Earth-1 only.
