"This is it Shigaraki!" said All-Might, "Your schemes end here!"
Kamui Woods stood firm, his branches wrapped tightly around every single villain in the bar with the exception of Thawne, who was pinned to the ground by Jay.
"Heh," chuckled Shigaraki, "you actually think that this is it?"
"I do." said All-Might, "There's nowhere to run."
"Really?" said Shigaraki, motioning his head towards Kurogiri, "Kurogiri, get us out of here."
Kurogiri shifted his smoky shadowy head, then suddenly went limp.
"What?!" said Spinner, "Is Kurogiri dead?"
"No," said Edgeshot, one of his stretched out limbs, "I simply fiddled with his insides, he'll be out for the night."
Jay pressed Thawne's arm harder, causing Thawne to wince.
"I-I don't understand," said Thawne, "I've studied every speedster that's ever existed in this time, you're not in the history books!"
"Maybe it's because you bungled time up." said Jay, "But as expected, you never gave any thought to your meddling with history."
Thawne struggled against Jay's grip, anguish in his face. Suddenly, he stopped struggling, his mouth contorting into a smile as he turned his head, getting a look at Jay's face.
"Huh, never expected a comic book character to come to life." said Thawne, "You're Jay Garrick aren't you."
"Your mind games won't work on me." said Jay, "Nor the rest of them."
Thawne sighed, "I don't know how or why you're here now, but allow me to let you in on a little secret."
"I already told you, you can't manipulate me!" said Jay.
"Not trying to, just giving you some useful info." said Eobard, his voice lowered to a whisper, "I tried to put this in the villain's favor, but they were too boneheaded to listen and got captured. But you wanna know something funny?"
Jay raised his eyebrow.
"Right now, the timeline isn't all that different." said Thawne.
Thawne's words, combined with his smug look, caused Jay's eyes to widen. Raising his head and looking back towards his fellow heroes, Jay shouted, "Everyone! Stay on Alert, it's not over yet!"
Suddenly, Jay's grip on Thawne loosened, as if Thawne was turning into sludge. Looking back at Thawne, a strange grey sludge had formed around the villain, practically disintegrating him.
"W-What?!" said Jay, looking around to see that the rest of the villains were also being affected.
"This is it!" said Thawne as the sludge completely surrounded him, "This is when you all lose!"
The sludge goes limp, running in between Jay's hands as he looked on in horror, "No! We can't let them escape!"
"Young Bakugo!" shouted All-Might.
Turning around, Jay spotted Bakugou being taken by the sludge.
"Ugh!" said Bakugou, "The hell is this stuff?"
Jay burst forward with All-Might as the two attempted to grab Bakugou. Unfortunately, just as they were within reach, the sludge disappeared, leaving nothing behind.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" shouted All-Might.
Jay looked around frantically, "Where could they have gone? Think Jay Think!"
"Shit!"
Hearing a policeman scream, Jay looked outside, spotting a mass invasion of Nomu in the streets.
"We lost contact with the warehouse team!" shouted Endeavor, currently setting the Nomu on fire with a highly destructive heat blast.
"Then we must hope that the villains are there!" said All-Might, leaping into the sky.
Gran Torino followed suit, blasting into the air. Jay tightened his fists as he leaped over the Nomu, landing in the street and sprinting after the two heroes. As he ran forward, he could feel a seed of silent anxiety in his stomach but pushed it way down. He was going to survive this, everyone was going to survive this.
He knew it in his heart.
All for One stood silently, holding Barry by the front of his shirt. Pieces of the debris littered the now destroyed city square as All for One placed another hand on Barry's chest.
"Come, use your power!" said All for One, "Allow me to gaze upon your glory!"
All for One squeezed Barry's torso, causing Barry to scream as the villain effortlessly broke 3 ribs.
"Do not resist!" said All for One, "Show me!"
Barry gasped for air as the villain's grip became tighter and tighter.
I have to get out of this now!
Vibrating his molecules, Barry phased out of All for One's grip, landing in the dust with a grunt. Turning around, Barry attempted to run, planning to pick up whatever heroes he could and jet, but his legs seemed to lock up. Barry struggled, stuck in place as All for One approached.
"Oh?" said All for One, "A speed quirk? I already have one of those, though yours seems to be very...unique."
"H-How are you doing this?" said Barry, "I can't move."
"Hmm," said All for One, "I picked this quirk up from a fellow villain named the Turtle, he wasn't willing to give it away willingly so I stole it."
Barry's heart sank.
This guy can steal quirks?
All for One raised his hand, watching as the tips of his fingers began to glow a sinister red. Moving forward, All for One placed them on Barry's temple. Barry gritted his teeth, feeling a sharp pain in his forehead.
"RRGH" groaned Barry.
All for One tilted his head, "Hmm? I cannot find your power."
Rescinding his hand, All for One stood firm as Barry felt the pain lessen.
"It...It's not a quirk." said Barry, "That's why you can't steal it."
"Ah, that explains it." said All for One, "But that means that if I can't have it, no one can."
All for One made a fist, raising it high above Barry's head. Realizing that All for One was about to kill him, Barry desperately tried to vibrate his molecules to escape, only to realize that whatever quirk All for One was using was preventing him from doing so. Closing his eyes, Barry made solace with the fact that if he was going to die, at least it wasn't Thawne delivering the final blow.
"NO!"
Barry felt All for One's power over him falter as he opened his eyes, spotting his friends making a desperate charge towards All for One. Iida, Midoriya, and Kirishima led a physical attack while Yaoyorozu prepared to fire a cannon. Todoroki stood right next to her, readying an ice attack.
No, what are you doing he'll kill you!
Barry raised his hand towards his friends, "Don't-"
With the flick of his wrist, All for One laid a path of destruction before him, creating an explosion of dust with a wave of pure physical force. Barry watched on as the wave of death tore through what was left of the warehouse, passing over his friends. In the span of a second, their bodies simply...ceased to be.
As the dust cloud settled, Barry looked on at the crater in which his friends had previously been charging.
"N-No." said Barry, "This can't be happening."
It was then that the grim realization of why his friends died began to crash down on Barry. They were trying to save him. Had he not been so eager to claim the cosmic treadmill, he wouldn't have been caught. He wouldn't have gotten his friends killed.
Falling to his knees, Barry completely shut down, feeling an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
"Ha ha ha!" laughed All for One, "I do so enjoy the taste of despair."
Grey sludge began to appear in the air as the league of villains began popping out, falling to the ground around Barry.
"And it seems that my compatriots are here as well," said All for One.
"Ugh," said Bakugou, "What the hell just ha-"
Thawne clocked Bakugou in the side of the head, knocking him out.
"Sorry kid, can't have you getting away." said Thawne.
Slowly but surely, each of the villains recovered, standing up as Thawne sped about, checking behind all the collapsed walls.
"That's funny." said Thawne, speeding to a stop with the villains, "Some of the runts are supposed to be around here."
"I disposed of them." said All for One.
Thawne shot All for One a funny look, "What? How did you know abou-"
Thawne spotted Barry, on his knees and in complete despair, and instantly smiled.
"HAH!" laughed Thawne, "What a turn of events!"
Thawne sped right up in front of Barry, kneeling down so that the two were at eye level, "What do we have here? I wonder what turn of events brought you to this point...wait! Don't tell me, I wanna guess."
"Hey!" said Heatwave, "Rogues have dibs on the Flash!"
"Yeah, so back off!" said Trickster.
"Unless you want to lose your heads, BOTH OF YOU BACK OFF!" screamed Thawne.
Trickster and Heatwave went silent, shying away from Thawne. Barry remained still, eyes completely sunken.
"So, back to the subject, here's my guess." said Thawne, "You came with your friends to save Bakugou, who you knew wouldn't turn to our side, so you come up to this warehouse here and what do you see? The Cosmic treadmill I used to get here, helped by your future self as you already know."
Thawne's grin curled even more, intensifying the glee he felt while tormenting Barry, "So you jump at the chance to go back, undo whatever misstep or action you so choose. But uh oh, you screwed up and now your ticket to redemption is gone!"
Thawne abruptly grabbed Barry's hair, pulling at it as Barry winced in pain, "And now that you were out in the open, you were caught, and your friends, loyal and stupid as they've always been, tried to save you. But now they're dead, all because of a decision you made!"
Tears began to well up in Barry's eyes as Thawne laughed once again, "Amazing! You've experienced even more pain now than ever before, and the worst thing about it is that you brought it all onto yourself!"
As the tears streaked down his cheeks, Barry simply gave up.
"Just finish me off." said Barry, all the energy in his body completely gone, "I can't fight anymore."
Thawne's eyes widened with glee as he leaned into Barry's ear, "You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words."
Leaning back, Thawne raised his hand, vibrating it at high speeds, "I'll give you one more nugget of info Barry. You've been asking me if I killed your mother, and even though I've dropped every conceivable hint, you seem to willfully ignore it."
Thawne raised his hand, "So in the interest of beating you over the head with the truth, Yes Barry, I killed your mother."
Deep down, Barry knew the truth, maybe realizing it as early as the first time he met Thawne in the mall. But since then, he found himself denying the fact. Maybe it was because of the CSI training he had beforehand, never taking anything for truth until it could be spelled out for him. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't bear someone as sweet as his mother falling victim to this monster before him. Either way, now that the truth was undeniable, it deepened Barry's desperation.
"Say goodbye Barry." said Thawne, pulling his hand back as Barry closed his eyes.
I guess this is it, the end of the race.
*BONK*
Barry's eyes shot open as a familiar tin helmet came in spinning, cracking Thawne in the back of the head and causing him to let go of Barry. Now free, Barry fell on his front as Jay slid to a stop in front of him.
"BARRY!" shouted Jay, gently grabbing Barry's head and checking for wounds, "BARRY ARE YOU OK?!"
"My fault." said Barry, "It's all my fault."
*SHOOM!*
All Might and Gran Torino landed on the scene, with All-Might crashing into All for One to engage him while Gran Torino hopped between the villains, keeping them preoccupied.
"Barry, we have to go!" shouted Jay, "I don't know what you're doing here but you have to leave!"
"T-They're gone," said Barry, "They're all gone."
"Barry what are you talking about?" said Jay.
Barry pointed towards the now barren crater that once occupied his friends, "Look."
Jay followed Barry's finger, spotting the crater and putting two and two together. A horrified expression reached Jay's face as Barry's arms fell to his side, "Oh Lord." he gasped.
"W-We came to rescue Bakugou," said Barry, sniffling, "but I got careless, I saw the cosmic treadmill, I tried to selfishly take it so I could go back in time. But then that All for One guy showed up, he killed them when they tried to save me! If I didn't screw up so bad, they would still be alive!"
"Barry-"
"Forget me, Jay, save Bakugou." said Barry, "I don't deserve to be saved."
Jay, while clearly shaken by what happened, stood firm, "Barry, I know what just happened was more horrific than anything you've ever seen, but you can't give up."
"What's the point?" said Barry, "Thawne's already won."
"He only wins when you've fully given up," said Jay, "and I won't let you do that."
Jay put his hands on Barry's shoulders, "You're the Flash, and The Flash can fix anything Barry. You can pick yourself up and-"
Jay stopped mid-sentence, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.
"Jay?!" said Barry.
And it was only then that Barry noticed Thawne's hand driven straight through Jay's back and poking out of his chest. As Jay's body went limp, Thawne violently pulled his arm out as Barry stared at Jay's lifeless corpse.
"DAMN YOU OLD MAN!" shouted Thawne, "YOU RUINED THE MOMENT!"
Barry was silent, having trouble processing the loss of his mentor. While he expected the loss to further add to his despair, his anguish, it didn't. Instead, Jay's death felt like a spark.
A spark of rage.
"Now then," said Thawne, "back to buisne-"
Barry roared, grabbing a small piece of rebar amongst the rubble and jamming it into Thawne's eye, watching as blood squirted from the wound. Caught up in his gloating, Thawne was unable to fully prepare for the attack.
"AARGH!" screamed Thawne, backhanding Barry and sending him flying before holding both hands over the wound, "RRRGH, You'll pay for that Allen!"
Turning his one good eye towards Barry, he noticed that he was already on his feet. Looking him up and down, Thawne noticed Barry's intensity, his anger. From the clenched fists to the focused eyes dead set on seeing him dead, Thawne realized that something was different from before.
Barry was out for blood, and for the first time in his life, Thawne was uncertain if he would be victorious.
"T-This isn't over Allen!" shouted Thawne, turning around and tapping into the negative speed force before racing away, leaving a massive gust of wind behind.
"THE HELL IT ISN'T!" shouted Barry, getting into a runner's stance and feeling the lightning within himself as he took off after Thawne.
Racing through the back alleys of Kamino, Thawne took every turn he could, trying to lose Barry in the mess of familiar-looking seedy backstreets, but Barry refused to fall behind, keeping pace and following Thawne around every bend. Realizing that this wasn't working, Thawne took a different route.
Breaking out onto the main street, Thawne pushed his way through the crowds of citizens, knocking anyone and everyone in his path out of the way. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect that he was hoping. While he planned for the crowds to slow Barry down, the fact that he had to knock people out of the way combined with the fact that Barry was completely unhindered due to staying close behind Thawne and following in his wake meant that Barry was gaining on him. Eyes darting around, Thawne spotted a train station. Hoping that in a straight race of speed he could outrace Barry, he rapidly ascended the metal steps and jumped onto the track, racing down one end.
Barry followed suit, jumping onto the tracks and keeping pace with Thawne. As he quickened his pace, he could feel a fiery pain crawling up his back, particularly his spine. Flashing back to the doctor's words, he realized that if he kept this up, he might lose the feeling in his legs.
It doesn't matter if I become a paraplegic now, all that matters is making sure Thawne never hurts anyone again!
Feeling the energy in his body, Barry surged forward, now only a few meters from Thawne as the train tracks began to stretch over a massive bridge over a steep drop.
*HOOOOOOOONK*
Barry's eyes widened as a train came barreling towards him and Thawne, threatening to make them both into a red paste. The speedsters switched tracks at the exact same time, jumping out of harm's way. As he moved by the train's many windows, something caught his eyes.
A mess of blonde hair on one of the passengers.
Time seemed to slow down as Barry slowly passed the window. As the person came into Barry's gaze, his eyes widened.
That's….me!
*CRACK!*
Distracted by the sight of himself, Barry tripped on the tracks. Flying to the side due to the momentum built up by his speed, Barry smashed into the side rails of the track, feeling his spine snap once again as he barreled over the edge. Now falling to his death, Barry looked to the horizon, spotting a beautiful sunrise.
"No, it can't end like this." said Barry, "It can't!"
As he continued to fall, Barry could feel the speed force still coursing through his veins as lightning continued to radiate off his body.
"I won't let it end this way." said Barry, "There has to be something!"
The lightning intensified as Barry fell closer and closer to death.
"I won't give up!" said Barry, "Even now! BECAUSE I'M THE FLASH!"
*KRAKAKOOM!*
A bolt of lightning falls from the sky, crashing down on Barry just as he's about to hit the ground. After a flash of light, the bolt disappears, and Barry with it.
Back up on the train tracks, Thawne glanced behind him, checking to see if Barry was still on his tail. Realizing that Barry was gone, Thawne smirked before beginning to laugh triumphantly!
"HAHAHAHAHAH!" shouted Thawne, "SO MUCH FOR THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE!"
*HOOOOOOOOONK!*
Turning around, Thane found himself face to face with an oncoming train. In his moment of self-congratulation, Thawne had drifted back onto the other side of the tracks and was now directly on the path of the train. Thawne realized he was too close to the train to turn away or pivot.
No way around it, he was dead as a doorknob.
"Aw shit." gasped Thawne.
Thawne collided with the train, hitting it with enough force for his limbs to pop out of their sockets. His body exploded into a bloody mess with arms and legs flying away from the impact area while his face became nothing but a mangled mess.
Thawne's torso slid under the train and was promptly shredded to pieces by the wheels, leaving nothing but a pathetic red stain on the front.
What is this?
Barry fell through a completely empty space, devoid of anything but a bright white light that seemed to come from...everywhere. While he could tell he was falling, it didn't feel dangerous or life-threatening, as if he was floating down instead if he was a feather. As he continued to drift downward, Barry could feel a presence above him, making its way closer and closer. Looking up, Barry laid eyes upon something he hadn't seen in a long time.
It was a corpse of a man descending from above, rotting skin wrapped in a black hero costume with a lightning bolt emblazoned across the front.
The Black Flash.
Floating down to Barry's level, the Black Flash silently placed his hands underneath Barry. As the cold dead hands touched Barry's back, he felt a strange sense of warmth, as if he was being bathed in light. As the Black Flash continued to hold onto Barry, he felt his spine slowly and painlessly move back into place, fusing back together as if it had never been broken in the first place.
"That costume," said Barry, "I've seen it somewhere befo-"
The Black Flash put a finger over Barry's mouth, shushing him.
"Make the right choice this time Barry." said Black Flash, "I believe in you."
Letting go, Barry felt his world begin to spin as he stopped floating and began to fall. He plummeted, falling faster and faster as he began to flip through the air, unable to tell what was up and what was down.
"WOOOOOOAAAAAAH!" shouted Barry.
Slowly but surely, the world began to come into focus. Still reeling from the massive trip of spinning he had just endured, Barry wobbled to and fro, trying to get his balance.
W-Where am I?
As his vision came into focus, a bright light drew his attention upward. Looking up, he realized it was a lamp contrasting against the night sky. Looking forward, Barry spotted a large concrete building.
Is this...the hospital?
"Bump my fist if you're ready to go."
Turning around, Barry's heart stopped when he saw all his friends, alive and well. Not only that, but they were all making a circle, bumping fists in the middle for some kind of pact.
"Barry," said Midoriya, "Are you in?"
Barry took a step back, not believing his eyes.
WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!
This has been easily one of my favorite chapters to write in some time, from the horrible events to the payoff to Thawne's sweet Karma to the delicious cliffhanger, it makes me appreciate that I have people like you guys along for the journey and experiencing everything I write.
I know It seems like I thank you guys every other chapter, but again, THANK YOU FOR READING!
Reviews:
DCDGojira: Both Savitar from the comics and the Future Flash are planned for this story! You got to see Black Flash this chapter and yes he would probably scare Reverse-Flash and Zoom! I promise at some point I'll read the fic you're suggesting!
Thanks for the feedback as always! :)
Aztec 13: Thanks for the feedback as always! :)
Jose Ramiro: Thanks for the feedback as always! :)
Deadcool14: Cobalt Blue is technically already in the story (Malcolm).
Thanks for the feedback as always! :)
Red: I'm so glad you caught up with the story! Can't wait to write more!
Thanks for the feedback as always! :)
Reign00evil: Scrivere questo con google translate poiché sono un madrelingua inglese che non conosce l'italiano, ma grazie mille per aver letto! È sempre bello vedere persone di diversa estrazione leggere le mie cose! In termini di Cicada e Abra Kadabra, in realtà avevo alcuni spazi in cui avevo bisogno di alcuni cattivi per riempirlo. Mentre non avranno il ruolo più importante, saranno nella storia!
Grazie per il feedback come sempre! :)
Red Hood: Don't know if you'll see this, but you're onto something! *Wink* *Wink*.
Thanks for the feedback as always!
Next Chapter: Switching Sides
