Hello everyone. Sorry we`re late. Turns out my time is severely limited these days. But I managed to find some and was able to finish this chapter. I would like to say sorry first of all for the somewhat extreme mood whiplash of this chapter. I came to a conclusion that dark and gritty is no was to write a SuperFlash story. Without further ado thank you to Maime-san for her editorial contribution and I hope you enjoy the chapter.


Barry had slowly approached the once windowed section of what was once CatCo. It was now broken and filthy but the hole made for a better window than the glass ever could. He noticed the sun was setting over the horizon as the day gave way to dusk. And there he saw her, a silhouette against the red sun, her even redder cape flapping against the stale air.

"Kara," he thought to himself. He took a few steps back and ran into the empty air. The momentum carried him far enough to reach the next building, which he scaled vertically. He continued running the maze of half torn skyscrapers and empty apartment buildings.

When he reached the tower closest to Kara he was barely 10 feet away from her. Only now did she seem to register his presence, slowly turning her gaze towards him.

"It's all gone, Barry."

"Kara, I'm so sorry..." he started unable to finish the sentence. What could he possibly say.

"It's all my fault," she continued as if he wasn't there at all, "I should have been here."

"I don't think we did this," he blurred out. The look on her face scared him. It was equal parts devastated and angry.

"What do you mean we didn't do this? I chose to spend time on your Earth. I chose to leave because of you. This isn't your fault Barry. But it sure as hell is mine."

"That's not what I meant," he said, "I don't think this is your world. Not technically."

His words sparked a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "Go on," she said.

"I think this is a parallel timeline. I think something went wrong with the breach and we were sent here instead."

She took a minute to process what he was saying. "Can you get us back?" she asked.

"I… I don't know," answered Barry. But I will do my best.

"I think I need to be alone for a bit."

"Kara, I don't think phones work here. How will I find you?"

"Just yell loudly," she said as she gave him a somewhat sad half smile.

Barry looked over the last sliver of the sun as it set. He exhaled and realized he had no idea what to do. He would usually count on the support of his team but on his own… he feared he just didn't have the skill set necessary to fix this. If it could be fixed at all. He remembered the vigilante again. He might not need his help to find Kara, but he might be useful in fixing the world. It would certainly beat doing nothing. "Gotham city it is," he thought to himself.

The road there was long and confusing. Barry realized he didn't know this Earth all too well despite technically living in it. And the roads were barely worth being called that. The trip there took him most of the night. He ran past desolate towns and camped communities of refugees along the roads. By the time he reached Gotham dawn was breaking.

The city seemed different than any other city he had seen before. A Gothic design right down to the foundations it radiated an oppressive atmosphere even at daybreak. Oddly enough the city seemed to be intact. The main road to the city was guarded by a sign that read: "Breachers beware," decorated by a sprayed on bat.

As Barry made his way across the city he noticed the streets were empty. He ran the entire city, every road and every street he could find. Until he found himself in a dark alley, which Gotham had a solid surplus of. He didn't have time to react to the wire that suddenly appeared beneath his feet. Or the blades that hit his leg as soon as he was down. The last thing he saw was a figure jumping off a nearby ledge and punching him in the face.

Barry had awoken in a dark room with a familiar humming. He could recognize the power dampening technology his team used to contain meta-humans. It took a moment for him to process what happened. And a few more to understand how. A figure emerged from the shadows. He couldn't see him very well. But he could see his dark silhouette. It was almost...bat-like.

"Rise and shine speedster," the figure said.

His voice sounded familiar even with the obvious modulation device he was using to mask it.

"Who are you?" he asked still sitting down.

"Oh, I think you remember me, breacher. We've met before," he replied.

"Listen, I'm really sorry but I think you have me confused with someone else. My name is..."

"Barry Allen of Earth-1. Also known as the Flash. Did I get that right?"

"How could you possibly know that?" asked Barry more confused than ever before.

The man stepped closer into the light, his face almost touching the glass.

"Her friends and family were less than willing to keep your secret once you killed her, Barry."

The mans voice almost sounded like a growl.

"Who? Who did I kill?" he asked. He feared the answer seeing how only one very specific group of people knew his name here.

"Alright, I will play along. Supergirl," his fist smashed the glass, "You killed Supergirl."

Barry stood there frozen with shock. He knew full well his Kara was still alive. But the idea that any version of him could hurt her made him sick. The man continued.

"You know her cousin and I were close. He once asked me to take care of her, should anything happen to him. And once he left… You killed her on my watch, Flash."

"Why did I do it?" asked Barry almost ignoring everything said up to that point.

"I admit you probably had little choice in the matter. You breachers are a heartless lot."

"It wasn't me."

"I saw you with my own eyes," said the man.

"Listen to me," said Barry half shouting, "It wasn't me. I'm from a different timeline."

"Interesting excuse," said the man, "Plausible enough to be true but just impossible enough to verify. Nicely done. But I'm not buying it."

"It's true. Kara is with me, we can just go ask her..."

"Careful there, Flash. You're pushing it"

He tried to reason with the man further but was getting less and less confident in his chances of success. He noticed something peculiar about his face. Or the parts he could see anyway. The were looking more and more familiar until it clicked.

"Oliver?" he asked. It never occurred to him that people he knew on his Earth could exist here under different names.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man said, "If you must you can call me Batman. You're going to be here a while."

Barry felt like he was out of options. The only option he really had left was one that was obvious from the start.

The Flash took a deep breath and screamed, "Kara!"

"You really are a lunatic aren't you?" said Batman. Barry sat in his cell and waited for what seemed like hours. He rally had no time to compare to and for a speedster everything seemed slow to begin with.

"Serves me right," he said after he eventually lost hope that she would answer his call.

"Computer is there an earthquake?" asked Batman. The "no" heard as a response didn't make sense compared to the fact that the ground beneath him was clearly shaking. The magnitude of the faux earthquake kept rising as it seemed until the rumbling turned into rhythmic smashing of fists. Barry was forced to smile by his relief and leaned back on his cell. The smashing eventually turned into the familiar sound of laser beams.

"Hey sweetie, took you long enough," he said as if the situation was completely different.

She curtsied in midair and said, "Well, of course I did."

"On a more serious note where were you? I called like forever ago," he said.

"Oh, you know, takes a while to get ready… Also sound doesn't really travel all that fast. Honestly you're lucky I heard you at all."

"Lucky? You were the one who wanted to use shouting as a form of communication, what are we cavemen?"

"That's not fair Barry. I was dealing with stuff and to be perfectly honest I assumed you would stick around in Central city."

Barry sighed a breath of relief. "I guess that's fair enough," he said.

Batman stood there watching the exchange with a batarang in hand still confused on whether or not he should use it.

"Excuse me!" he shouted somehow looking at both of them simultaneously.

Barry looked at him and now seemed more annoyed by his imprisonment than concerned. "Batman, this is the woman I… killed," he looked at Kara while he said it in a manner that conveyed both the situation and the fact he didn't understand it at all, "Kara… this is Batman."

Batman said nothing. He simply walked over to the computer and entered the release command.