Chapter 2
Earth-1, France in 1916
"Give me the Spear and I'll spare your team," Thawne demanded.
"You can go to hell," Professor Stein replied harshly, taking a few steps forward as he and the rest of the Legends glared daggers at the yellow-clad speedster.
"No, but I'll make a hell for you," Thawne threatened, unfazed by Stein's reply. "Do you really want to lose another one? Last chance."
"Use the Spear," Amaya whispered to Present Sara.
Suddenly, Thawne's time remnants sped forward and attacked the Legends, knocking Stein, Jax, Mick, Future Sara, and Rip to the ground.
Standing the Spear against the ground as she held it in her hand, Sara closed her eyes and started chanting the incantation required to activate the artifact. After a moment, the metallic tip of the Spear lit up brightly.
Ray fired energy blasts from his exo-suit at the time remnants, while Nate steeled up and punched a few remnants. Superboy clapped his hands together, creating a shockwave that sent several time remnants flying back. He then raced around the vicinity, punching out more time remnants. Luckily, it seemed that the remnants were not as powerful as the original Thawne.
Opening her eyes as the Spear failed to activate, Sara held it out to Amaya and said, "It can't be me. Use it. Fix the world."
At that moment, Amaya was knocked to the ground by a Thawne remnant.
"Just do it, Sara!" Rip urged her.
"Look, I can't, there's too much darkness inside of me," Sara said. "I can't control it."
"I believe in you," Rip said. "You're stronger than you know."
He was then knocked to the ground by a remnant. Just as Sara was about to activate the Spear, she too was knocked to the ground by a remnant, causing the Spear to fly out of her hand and land on the ground near where Superboy was standing.
Noticing the Spear, Superboy picked it up and Sara looked up at him.
"You can do it, Conner," Sara said. "Use the Spear and fix all of this. If anyone can control its power, it's you." As Superboy looked reluctant, Sara added, "I believe in you. You're the best of us."
Superboy glanced around, watching as the time remnants knocked both The Atom and Nate to the ground. Nodding to Sara, he stood the Spear on the ground holding it firmly in his hand. He closed his eyes and a bright flash of light appeared.
Conner opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a couch in a very familiar setting. He looked around, noticing a large bowl of popcorn on the nearby table and "The Wizard of Oz" playing on TV as Dorothy said her famous quote, "There's no place like home". It was in that moment that Conner realized he was in the house on the Kent farm.
"I've whipped up your favorite treat for the both of us," a female voice that Conner instantly recognized announced. "Root beer floats."
Conner turned to the person who had spoken and his heart skipped a beat at who he saw – his girlfriend, Courtney Whitmore, alive and well and beautiful as ever. She was holding a glass of root beer float in each hand.
"Court?" Conner muttered, not believing his eyes.
"Here you go, Conner," Courtney said, handing him one of the floats. "One for you, and one for me."
She sat down next to Conner, who put his root beer float down on the table and stared at Courtney affectionately. As much as he wanted to believe he had been reunited with his girlfriend, he knew the truth. What he was seeing was nothing more than a fantasy. It was a hallucination caused by him activating the Spear.
"What's the matter? You look like you're seeing a ghost or something," Courtney said, before taking a sip of her ice cream treat through her straw.
"This isn't happening," Conner said. "The Spear must be doing this. None of this is real." He stroked Courtney's face, the realization of the truth being more painful than if his body was consumed by kryptonite-laced flames. "You're... you're not real."
"You're right, I'm not," Courtney said. "But I can be. You can remake reality however you see fit."
Conner looked down at the Spear in his hands, considering his girlfriend's words for a moment. "Your death at the hands of Rose Wilson three years ago, I can take it back and make sure it doesn't happen again. You and I could have that happy ending we planned. We could get married, be our own power couple, maybe even start a family someday. With a single thought, I can have everything I've dreamed of."
"But you won't go through with it," Courtney said.
"Because it's selfish," Conner said, as he thought about how both Clark and Barry had learned the hard way that there were consequences to bringing deceased loved ones back to life. "I'd basically be playing God. How is that any different than what Thawne, Lex, and their team intended to do?"
"Because unlike Thawne or Lex, your heart is good," Courtney answered, with a smile. "Along with Clark, you're the most caring, heroic, and kind-hearted person I've known, which is why I fell in love with you in the first place."
"I couldn't even save you that night," Conner said, as a few tears started rolling down his cheeks. "I should've gotten to you faster. I should've been there to help you stop Rose. But I failed and it came at a high price."
"You did what you could, Conner," Courtney assured him, placing her hand on Conner's face and wiping away a tear with her thumb. "No matter how powerful you are, no one can be everywhere at once. You can't always save everyone."
"Right now is my chance to save you after all," Conner said, a part of him highly tempted to undo what had happened to Courtney.
"My life isn't worth it," Courtney said. "It may have been pretty short, but I've lived a fairly content life and now I'm at peace. Using the Spear to do what you know you have to do more important than bringing me back. Your team is counting on you to do the right thing."
"Even if doing the right thing means not having you back?" Conner asked, as more tears fell down his face.
"I'm never too far away," Courtney assured him. "I'm always with you." She then placed her hand on Conner's chest. "Right here."
Smiling despite his tears, Conner leaned towards Courtney and the two shared a deep passionate kiss, the last he would ever have with her.
After thirty seconds, the two pulled away from each other. "I love you, Court," Conner muttered, stroking her blonde hair. Even though this moment wasn't real, he wanted more than anything to live in it forever. He didn't ever want to leave Courtney's side. However, he had major responsibilities in the real world. The rest of the Legends were counting on him to save them.
"I love you too," Courtney said back.
Superboy abruptly came out of his hallucination as he found himself back in the real world. "Courtney," he muttered, his mind distracted to the point that he was too late to prevent Thawne from swiping the Spear out of his hand.
"Too slow, Superboy," Thawne said, as all his time remnants gathered behind him. "Far too slow, especially for someone like you. Then again, it's no secret that a speedster like me is typically faster than a Kryptonian – well, half-Kryptonian– like you. To think, you had actual Godhood literally in your grasp. Well, I'm not going to make the mistake I made the first time. I'm going to erase you all from existence. You won't even be dead."
Closing his eyes, Thawne stood the Spear on the ground and started chanting the required incantation. However, nothing happened as he stared at the Spear in confusion.
"I might've made a couple of changes to reality," Superboy said, with a smirk.
"You de-powered the Spear," Thawne said in realization.
"You lost, Thawne," Superboy said. "Your team is beaten, the Spear no longer works, you won't be causing any more trouble."
"Really?" Thawne scoffed. "We'll see about that."
Suddenly hearing a loud ferocious growl, he stopped dead in his tracks, his smug expression instantly replaced by one of horror.
"Yeah, we'll see all right," Superboy said, smirking again.
The Black Flash suddenly appeared a hundred feet away, roaring right at Thawne, who was utterly terrified.
"No," Thawne muttered.
He made a move to try and run away, but the Black Flash caught Thawne, grabbing the yellow-clad speedster's neck with one hand and phasing through Thawne's chest with his other hand. Letting out another roar, the Black Flash retracted his hand and raced off.
Thawne watched in absolute horror was his body, as well as the Spear, started disintegrating. When there was nothing but his head left, he let out a loud "NOOOOOOOO!" before disintegrating completely.
A moment later, all of Thawne's time remnants disappeared as well.
The Black Flash sped in front of Superboy, roaring in the half-Kryptonian's face before speeding off in a streak of red lightning.
The rest of the Legends got back to their feet. "Nice job, Conner, you did it," Future Sara and Present Sara said to him at the same time.
"Something tells me you would've done the same thing," Conner replied.
Just then, Future Sara started becoming transparent. Making eye contact with her present self and teammates one last time, she smiled as she said, "Remember, Legends never die."
And with that, she disappeared completely as if she was never there in the first place.
Earth-21, Present Day
(Clark and Lois' apartment)
"With Thawne erased from existence, we left 1916 and returned the rest of the Legion members to their proper places in time," Conner said to Clark and Lois.
"Interesting story, Superboy," Lois said, grabbing a third slice of pizza from the box and taking a bite of it. "Good thing Lex didn't get a chance to do his reboot of all the Earths in existence. I don't even wanna think about how horrifying and disastrous a Multiverse created in the image of the bald villain we all know and hate would've been. And it's safe to say that this Thawne character, who sounds just as bad as Lex, got exactly what he deserved."
"No kidding," Conner agreed. "I'd say Thawne is actually even worse than Lex."
"I'm proud of the decision you made while you used the Spear," Clark said. "You literally had all the opportunity in the world to both bring Courtney back to life and save your team from Thawne, but the fact you didn't go through with the former showed a lot of maturity and willpower."
"A comment like that means a lot coming from the epitome of maturity and willpower himself," Lois said, throwing a smile at her husband. "The fact that you became a Green Lantern a few years back, even though it was very short-lived and completely against your will, only confirmed the 'willpower' part, not that I didn't already know that was one of your amazing qualities."
"Trust me, I was highly tempted to undo what happened to Court," Conner said to Clark. "But I thought about what happened to your dad when you went back in time and saved Lana all those years ago and realized it's not my right to just bring someone back from the dead like that."
"You're right," Clark agreed. "Whether it's via time travel or an incredibly powerful reality-warping artifact, it's not up to us to decide who lives or who dies."
"Well, how would you react if I suddenly died?" Lois asked curiously, almost immediately regretting the question. "Would you still refuse to use that Legion ring of yours to save even me?"
"It would be the most difficult decision of my life, but the answer is yes," Clark answered, causing Lois to shudder though she understood his answer. "It would be hypocritical of me to hold others to a standard that I myself refuse to live by. And even if something like that were to happen and I did decide to go back in time to save you, I'd be saving a new timeline's version of you from dying, not the exact you that I lost."
"When you put it like that, I feel slightly better about your answer," Lois said.
"Don't worry, Lois, you're not dying on my watch," Clark assured her. "As long as I'm around, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to keep you safe."
"Like you always do," Lois said, smiling.
Turning to Conner, Clark asked, "So the Lex from 2025, is he back where he belongs?"
"He is," Conner nodded. "But since Lex was from this Earth unlike the rest of his team, we had to go to S.T.A.R. Labs to get Cisco's help. Cisco traveled to 2025 with us in the Waverider, and while the rest of the Legends waited on the other Earth, he opened a breach to this one and helped me get Lex back to Stryker's right where Thawne had recruited him. And like we did with our other enemies, we erased Lex's memories of his time-traveling adventures to ensure that the timeline remains intact."
"So sometime by 2025, Lex will eventually be making a permanent residence at Stryker's," Lois said, smiling at the knowledge that Lex would eventually get what was coming to him. "Good to know."
"The next day, we planned to celebrate our victory in Aruba, but we were suddenly caught up in a time storm," Conner went on.
"A time storm?" Clark questioned.
"It turned out that visiting 1916 twice and encountering ourselves had bigger consequences than we thought," Conner explained. "The time storm knocked us out of the temporal zone, causing us to crash the Waverider right in the middle of Los Angeles, where we found dinosaurs roaming around in the present and buildings that shouldn't even be around."
"Dinosaurs roaming around in the present? Like a real-life version of Jurassic Park?" Lois asked, incredulously.
"Kind of like that," Conner said. "Basically, our actions screwed things up to the point that some objects from different time periods were randomly displaced."
"Like the dinosaurs you mentioned." Clark said.
"They're not in the present anymore though," Conner said. "This guy named Rip Hunter took care of the problem and sent the dinosaurs back to the past where they belong."
"Who is Rip Hunter?" Clark asked.
"He's the founder and original leader of our team before Sara took over," Conner answered. "After we broke time, Rip showed up explaining that he formed some organization called the Time Bureau. Because of that, he relieved us of our time travel duties and confiscated the Waverider, claiming we were no longer needed because his Time Bureau could clean up the mess we made better than we could. And from there, we separated and had no choice but to live regular non-time-traveling lives."
"So you're saying you were basically fired from being a time-traveler," Lois said.
"Yeah, pretty much," Conner answered. "But we did break time, so it's not like we didn't deserve it. I mean, there were times when we have to correct even our own mess to the timeline."
"It wasn't yours and your team's fault, Conner," Clark said. "Not directly anyway. You were only doing whatever you could to prevent the other Earth's Legion of Doom from changing reality in their own image, which would've been much worse without a doubt."
"If anyone's to blame for all the horrible time travel mess you went through, it's Lex, that Thawne guy, and whoever else those two had in their little supervillain club," Lois added.
"If you're no longer going on time travel adventures with your team, what have you been up to since you guys disbanded?" Clark asked Conner.
"I've been helping out in Central City for the last five months while Barry has been trapped inside the Speed Force," Conner answered.
"Wait, Barry is in the Speed Force?" Clark asked, concerned for the Earth-1 scarlet speedster.
"Who is Barry?" Lois asked.
Clark and Conner exchanged glances, the latter realizing the former hadn't revealed the civilian identity of Earth-1's Flash to Lois.
"Barry is the name of the other Earth's Flash," Conner said to Lois, figuring there was no harm in sharing that information with her. "Barry Allen."
"Allen? Just like Bart," Lois noted. "Makes sense."
"How did Barry end up in the Speed Force?" Clark asked.
"It happened after Barry and his team defeated a speedster enemy called Savitar," Conner answered, relaying what Cisco and Wally had told him. "There's a prison inside the Speed Force that must be occupied by a speedster. If the prison becomes empty, the Speed Force goes unstable, unleashing a powerful lightning storm on the world."
"I take it that's exactly what happened on the other Earth," Lois said, and Conner nodded.
"And Barry voluntarily went into the Speed Force to keep the world safe," Clark added, knowing he'd do the exact same thing in such a situation.
"I've been helping Cisco and Wally handle things in his absence," Conner said. "Cisco's been working on trying to free Barry in a way it doesn't cause another storm. Hopefully, he's made a bit more progress by now."
"So that's what you're gonna continue to do," Clark said. "Protect Central City on the other Earth."
"Yeah," Conner said. "I mean, I'll always visit you every once and a while, but when you think about it, this Earth doesn't really need Superboy when it already has Superman. They call you the world's greatest hero for a reason."
"You're a great hero yourself, Conner," Lois said. "You came a long way from that small redhead boy that Tess found in Cadmus Labs all those years ago."
"As long as you're content with what you're doing these days, that's all that matters," Clark said to Conner. "Of course you're welcome to come back here anytime, but the other Earth could use a Kryptonian hero to protect it."
"Especially with no guarantees that Barry will eventually make it out of the Speed Force," Conner said.
Just then, Clark's phone started vibrating. He picked it up and looked at the screen. "Police chase," he announced, as he immediately got up from the couch. "I'll be right back."
"I'll come with you," Conner offered. "It's been a while since we've worked together."
"Sure," Clark agreed.
With that, Clark and Conner sped out of the apartment with two consecutive whooshes, causing Lois' dark brown hair to fly upwards
"Go get 'em, Smallville Sr. and Smallville Jr.," Lois muttered with a smile, before grabbing a fourth slice of pizza from the box and taking a bite of it.
A minute later, two consecutive whooshes sounded as Clark and Conner suddenly reappeared on the couch, causing Lois' hair to blow upwards again. The three of them continued their dinner.
After dinner, Conner flew to Washington, D.C. and visited Martha Kent, a woman whom he was glad to call his mother. Happy to see the young man she was glad to consider her second son, she allowed him to stay the night at her house as Conner gave her a summary of his adventures on Earth-1 over the past year.
(Two days later, Kent Farm)
Clark and Conner, clad in their Superman and Superboy uniforms respectively as they had spent most of the early morning making saves around the world before heading to the farm, were in the barn chopping wooden logs effortlessly with their bare hands. The last couple of days had gone smoothly and mostly uneventful as, thankfully, no supervillain, new or escaped, had shown up to cause trouble.
"So let me get this straight," Conner said, his mind processing what Clark had just told him. "Seven years ago, you traveled to the future by accident and today is the day you arrived?"
"You're the only person I've told about this," Clark replied.
"Really?" Conner said. "Not even Lois knows?"
"I especially couldn't say anything to Lois," Clark said, remembering how Lois had failed to pick up on the fact that he was, in fact, a Clark from seven years in the past and assumed he was the present version she knew as her husband, albeit 'acting strangely'. "To ensure that my past self goes through the experiences necessary for him to embrace his destiny and become me, it's best to make sure events will play out exactly as I remember them from the first time around."
"Right," Conner nodded in understanding.
"But I do plan on clearing up the confusion on Lois' part after it's over by revealing everything to her over dinner this evening," Clark said.
"Good luck today," Conner said. "I guess it's sort of a good thing I'm about to leave then. You won't have to worry about my presence here possibly changing anything."
"Or you leaving was always meant to happen in the first place," Clark pointed out.
"The complications of time travel," Conner remarked.
After the two were done chopping all the logs in half, Conner hugged Clark goodbye and the former said, "I'll see you around, Clark."
"You too, Conner," the older Kryptonian replied, before they released each other.
Conner picked up his two duffle bags of clothes and belongings and placed them around each shoulder. He then pulled out his extrapolator and opened a breach with it. He leapt through the breach, disappearing to the other side as it closed a moment later.
Earth-1
(Central City, Ferris Air Testing Facility)
A large S.T.A.R. Labs truck and a van with the same logo were parked on the airstrip as Cisco had set up some equipment needed to try and free Barry from the Speed Force. Wally and his father Joe arrived at the scene and walked up to Cisco.
"Mr. West, Mr. West," Cisco greeted them.
"So we're really gonna do this," Wally said.
"Wally told me you figured out a way to bring Barry back without the Speed Force prison causing another storm," Joe added.
"That's right," Cisco answered. "And seeing as we've had good luck here before, this place seemed an appropriate venue. Wait, where is Iris? I thought if anyone would want to be here for this, it's her."
"Iris didn't wanna come," Wally said. "She thinks what you're about to do is a bad idea and said she didn't wanna get her hopes up for what could be for nothing."
"Not that Iris didn't have a point considering why Barry went into the Speed Force in the first place," Joe added.
"Well, let's prove to her this won't be for nothing and get our boy back," Cisco said, confidently. There was no way in hell he was turning back now. Not when he was so close to successfully getting Barry out of that hellish place. "The four of us? We can do this."
"What do you mean 'the four of us'?" Joe asked, confused.
"Wait, is Conner back?" Wally added.
"Hi, Joe."
Joe and Wally turned around at the familiar female voice and saw Caitlin Snow standing in front of them, causing the two men to look alarmed.
"It's okay," Cisco assured Joe and Wally. "She's Caitlin again. Our Caitlin. She's here to help us. So? What do you say?"
"You better be right," Joe said, still a little wary of Caitlin.
"I am," Cisco said, with a smile.
"Joe, I know that I can never make up for the things that I did to you, to Cecile," Caitlin said remorsefully, as she walked up to Joe. "I just hope... I just hope that one day you can forgive me."
"Come here," Joe said, as he and Caitlin hugged each other. "Let's bring everybody home today, okay?"
"You got it," Caitlin agreed.
Just then, there was a whooshing sound and Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, and Joe looked up to see Superboy hovering about twenty feet in the air.
"Hey, everyone," Conner greeted.
"Conner," Wally called out.
"You're here just in time," Cisco added. "We're about to bring Barry back."
"Whatever you need my help with, let me know," Conner offered, as he lowered himself to the ground. He then noticed Caitlin. "Wait, you're back on the team now?"
"I'm just here to help bring Barry back," Caitlin replied.
"Okay," Conner said. He had heard all about Caitlin in her Killer Frost persona betraying the team and aligning with Savitar, but understood it wasn't really her fault since Caitlin hadn't been in control of her actions, which was something Conner related to due to having been exposed to red kryptonite.
"So how are we gonna bring Barry back without blowing a hole in the world?" Wally asked.
"Ha! In the spirit of bringing back old friends, may I present the Speed Force bazooka," Cisco announced, removing a sheet to reveal the object in question underneath it.
"Ah," Joe said, impressed.
"I've made a few slight modifications, as Captain Solo would say," Cisco said. "Caitlin and I spent all of last night working out some kinks, fine-tuning the Quark Sphere."
"Quark Sphere?" Conner questioned.
"This," Caitlin answered, pulling out a red ball and handed it to Conner. "Filled with Barry's unique genetic marker and programmed to track his specific DNA using the electrical current of the Speed Force."
"Once we track Barry and we pull him out, the Quark Sphere will trick the Speed Force into thinking he's still there," Cisco added, doing some work on the Speed Force bazooka.
"Hey, Superboy, can you put that on the center pylon?" Caitlin instructed. She was standing at a table in front of a computer.
Conner sped forward in a blur, placing the Quark Sphere where he was instructed to do so, and came back over within a half second.
Caitlin looked at the computer screen and watched as the red dot in the center started glowing while the green progress bar on the side started rising. After a few moments, she said, "Ready."
"Let's bring our boy home," Cisco said.
"Quark Matter scanning electrical current," Caitlin announced.
The Quark Sphere on the center pylon glowed with electrical energy and floated several feet in the air.
"Triangulating Quark Matter on his location," Caitlin said, as she typed in several keys. "I've got a lock on something."
"It's him," Cisco said in excitement. "It's him!"
"Now, Cisco!" Caitlin instructed.
Cisco activated the Speed Force bazooka. A bright beam shot out of the bazooka and struck the Quark Sphere, forming a bluish-white portal. After a few seconds, the portal suddenly vanished as the words 'System Failure' appeared on the computer screen in front of Caitlin.
Cisco looked down dejectedly, having failed in his mission to bring his best friend back home. Conner, Caitlin, Wally, and Joe had similar expressions on their faces.
(Downtown Central City)
It was an ordinary morning with people walking along the sidewalks and cars driving on the road when coffee suddenly rose out of a cup a woman was holding. A moment later, a huge portal containing multi-colored lightning opened in the middle of the road at the same time a public bus appeared, causing the bus to come to a halt.
A streak of yellow lightning came shooting out of the portal at immense speed, racing hundreds of miles away before slowing to an abrupt halt in front of a swerving pickup truck, from which a large number of tomatoes spilled all over the road. The lightning disappeared from the mysterious steak, revealing it to be a naked Barry Allen, who had a mustache and beard. The occupants of the truck – two men and a woman – stared at Barry with shocked expressions as he then fell to the ground unconscious.
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
"I don't understand, this should've worked," Cisco said, as he, Caitlin, Conner, Joe, and Wally entered his workshop.
"I think we were pretty close," Caitlin said.
"At least you guys tried," Conner added.
"Now that Conner's back, maybe we can find this samurai guy and kick his ass," Wally suggested.
"Wait, a samurai?" Conner questioned.
"A Kurosawa-wannabe who showed up last night, blew me and Wally away like rag dolls performing his reverse Excalibur, and is gonna destroy the city tonight unless we give him The Flash to fight," Cisco explained.
"You guys could've just called me," Conner pointed out. "I could've taken him single-handedly."
"Not that it didn't occur to me, but I figured you deserved a break for all your help these last five months," Cisco said. "But since you're back, it's time to give this samurai jackass a fight he won't win."
Just then, Joe's phone started vibrating and he answered it. "Cecile, hey." He listened to the response as a surprised look appeared on his face. "What?" He listened again to Cecile's response. "I'll be on my way."
Joe hung up the phone and turned to others. "That was Cecile. Barry is at CCPD."
Cisco, Caitlin, Conner, and Wally raised their eyebrows in disbelief.
(Central City Police Department)
"State police picked him up on the 112 outside of Ivy City," Cecile Horton explained, as she, Joe, Iris, Wally, Conner, Cisco, and Caitlin walked through the station.
"That's three hundred miles away," Joe said.
"Yeah, one of the cops was a Keystone vet, recognized him," Cecile said.
"I knew it would work, I knew it," Cisco said.
They soon arrived where Barry was sitting waiting for them.
"Barry," Iris gushed, smiling radiantly for the first time in months. "You came back to me."
"Always," Barry replied with an equally radiant smile. He walked up to Iris and the two engaged in a kiss for a few moments before pulling away and staring into each other's eyes.
Cisco, Caitlin, Conner, Wally, Joe, and Cecile smiled at the two. In that moment, it almost felt like Barry had never left.
Barry turned to Joe and the two hugged each other warmly. "It's good to see you again, Joe."
"It's good to see you too, Barr," Joe replied, before they let each other go. "How you feeling?"
"I feel great," Barry answered, with a smile. "Yeah, I feel incredible. I don't know. It feels like... I've been reborn."
"Well, okay, speedy Jesus," Cisco said.
"Let's get you back to S.T.A.R. Labs and checked out," Caitlin said to Barry. "Considering how long you were in the Speed Force, I want to make sure you're okay."
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
"Pupils are equally reactive to light, and your vitals are amazing," Caitlin said to Barry, who was now clean shaven, as she shined a small light in his eyes. "You're in perfect health even for you. I'd like a urine sample just to confirm, but everything looks great."
"Man, you love urine," Cisco teased, causing Caitlin to look at him as Barry, Wally, and Conner looked amused. Correcting himself, Cisco added, "You love the testing of urine. The testing of the urine, you know what I mean."
"Why do you have to ruin science?" Caitlin said.
"It's good to have you back," Barry said to her.
"Right back at you," Caitlin said.
"How was everything while I was gone?" Barry asked.
"Oh, yeah, it was really cool," Wally said. "Conner helped us keep everything under control."
Barry turned to Conner and asked, "Wait, you're not with the Legends anymore?"
"Not anymore," Conner answered. "But when I found out you were in the Speed Force, I figured this city and the rest of the world could use my help."
"Thanks for helping my team keep the city safe in my absence," Barry said.
"No problem," Conner said.
"Now that I'm back, are you gonna be sticking around or..."
"Just because you're back doesn't mean I'm leaving," Conner said.
"So you're staying?" Barry asked.
"I don't see why not," Conner said. "There's no harm in giving the villains in this city double heroes to worry about, right?"
"If only that will make them think twice about committing crimes in the first place," Barry said.
Suddenly, one of the computers in the cortex started beeping.
"Speaking of which, it sounds like our samurai friend is back," Cisco said, as he and everyone else rushed over to the beeping computer.
"A samurai?" Barry questioned.
"Who's threatening to level the city unless he fights The Flash," Cisco explained.
"Time to give him the fight he wants," Barry said, determination in his eyes.
"He's gonna fight me too," Conner added, before he and Barry sped out of the cortex.
"The Flash is back!" Cisco exclaimed, enthusiastically.
(Alleyway)
The samurai was walking around when The Flash and Superboy appeared behind him.
"I heard you wanted The Flash," Barry announced, as the samurai turned to face him. "Well, here I am."
"You also get me," Conner added.
"What do you want?" Barry demanded.
"For you to return, Flash," the samurai answered, before lunging at Barry and Conner.
Barry ducked under the samurai's two swords while Conner speed behind the samurai. The samurai pointed one of his swords at Conner and fired a blue blast of energy from it. Much to Conner's surprise, the blast was powerful enough to knock him back into a nearby trash dumpster, heavily damaging it. Barry delivered several speed-punches to the samurai's torso, and the samurai swung his swords several times at Barry, only for Barry to easily dodge the attacks. With a vibrating hand, Barry sliced off the blade of one of the samurai's swords before doing the same to the sword in the samurai's other hand. Conner flew back over and punched the samurai in the face. Much to Conner and Barry's shock, the samurai's head came flying clean off his body and crashed to the ground.
"Oh, my God," Conner gasped in horror, realizing what he had just done as he watched the samurai's headless body fall to the ground. "I swear, I didn't even punch him that hard."
Just as he was about to ponder over the fact that he had just taken a life, Conner noticed something strange. Sticking out of the samurai's neck stump were torn wires.
"What the..." Conner muttered.
"It's a robot," Barry said in realization, also noticing the wires.
Conner used his x-ray vision to look through the samurai's body and, instead of human organs, saw nothing but wires and electronic components inside.
"Yeah, it is," Conner confirmed, letting out a sigh of relief that he hadn't killed anyone after all.
Barry headed over to where the robotic samurai's head was lying on the ground. Ripping off the mask, he found electronic parts, which were crackling with sparks and smoke due to heavy damage, in place of a face.
"Flash... welcome home," the robotic samurai said, before shutting down due to loss of power.
A/N: Since nothing plot-worthy really came out of Barry's dementia-like state in canon, I decided to ignore that and simply have Barry return with his mind fully intact.
Lois bringing up Clark once being a Green Lantern is a reference to the Smallville Season 11 comics, some of which is canon in this story, with the two biggest differences being Bart Allen still being alive (in here, it was Jay Garrick who sacrificed himself stop the Black Flash, not to be confused with the Arrowverse's Black Flash who appeared in this chapter) and the "Smallville" Crisis never happening.
In case anyone is wondering, I'm going to make one thing clear right now. Iris is not Barry's ultimate love interest in this. The only reason I'm keeping them together at all is so that their wedding will serve as the catalyst for bringing everyone together for this story's version of Crisis on Earth-X just like it did in canon. Beyond that, Iris is not who Barry will remain paired with, nor will it be Caitlin, but I do have someone in mind he will end up with later in this story.