I'm honestly getting tired of this whole arc. Seriously. Like, after writing last week's chapter of GIAF I realized just how much I like writing original content. This is just...kinda boring. It's too late to stop now, obviously, but I don't even know why I decided to do this whole play-by-interesting-play episode thingy.

AFTER THIS, THOUGH, I'm planning a few more story arcs. I have the ending planned out, I just have no idea how to get there. That's kinda the beauty of this series, though. I rarely ever know what I'm going to write, it just spontaneously happens. But, I really should start planning things out so it's not just filler.

Okay okay okay enough of my rambling lets go. Also #rehirehartleysawyer

"What did you see?" Jim Corrigan, the former spectre, asks Oliver, the soon-to-be Spectre.

"Everything," he answers. "I see everything now."

"Why is my voice so weird?" Oliver asks, cocking his head to the side.

"I don't know," Christian frowns, scratching the back of his neck.

"I thought you were supposed to know all the ins and outs of our lives," Oliver says dryly.

"Yeah, up to a certain point," Christian answers with a huff.

"Okay, so-"

"Ollie, just shush," Sara cuts in, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, you're going to end up being as bad as Barry."

"Hey!"

"Cut it out! Whatever's going to happen is not going to include us turning on each other!" Kara shouts, confronting Barry. "Maybe you're right, maybe the Speed Force is our last best hope-"

"It is."

Shocked at the new voice, the Paragons turn to see Oliver, now the Spectre, standing behind them. "The Speed Force is the key to saving you. It's the key to saving everyone," he continues.

"Oliver?" Sara asks pensively.

"Yes and no," he answers with a small smile. "It's complicated."

"Nice outfit," Ryan says, chuckling. Kate looks at him in slight annoyance. "Very...sith."

"Oliver?" Barry, repeating Sara, walks forward slowly.

"I am Oliver Queen. But I'm also something more."

"More what?"

"Some might call me a ghost. A Spectre that's in tune with the entire multiverse."

"Wait, I get powers?" Present-day Oliver asks, intrigued.

"Yeah," Sara sighs. "Only for a little while," she says softly, only loud enough for herself and Christian to hear. Oliver, meanwhile, nods his approval and leans back into his seat.

Oliver reaches out and touches Barry's forehead with his finger. Barry looks at him, confused and feeling slightly awkward. "I've unlocked your potential, Barry," Oliver says.

"By...touching my head?"

"Use this power with caution." Oliver smiles at his friend. "Do you trust me?"

"Are you Oliver Queen?" Barry asks softly.

"Yes."

"Then I trust you with every cell in my body."

"Good. Now run, Barry. Run."

"Oh, come on, seriously?" Barry groans.

"What?" Kara asks, sitting up alertly.

"Run, Barry, run?" Barry complains, looking at Oliver who looks back in confusion. "That's the best you can come up with?"

"What?" Oliver asks incredulously as Christian starts laughing.

"Almost every person in his life has said that to him," Christian says, chuckling. "Good or bad."

"Well, that's ironic," Sara smirks.

"What is?" Barry asks her.

A clouded look passes over her face for a shadow of a second. "You'll see," she answers, her smirk returning, if a bit smaller.

"Umm...hello?"

Barry turns around in surprise to see...himself. But, slightly different.

"What the hell is this?"

"I'm asking myself the same question. Literally."

"Wait, I'm sorry, hold on," Barry interrupts, standing up in confusion. Christian simply stares at the screen, his mouth agape in shock. "Who is that?" Barry asks. Sara shrugs, but Christian jumps up and literally screeches.

"THEY FRICKIN GOT EZRA MILLER WHAT THE FRICK CW YES HELL YES WOOOOOO!"

Barry, as well as the other three, blink in surprise at Christian's outburst. "Uh, sorry," Christian chuckles. "That's an alternative version of you."

"Well, yeah, I can see that, but how?"

"I don't know," Christian says sarcastically. "Look, up until this very moment, I thought that Flash wasn't real. But, now that he appeared in your canon timeline, that means he is. Which means that the whole entire frickin DCEU is somehow canon. SO, if it can't be explained away by a different earth, then maybe its a whole ass dimension like this earth."

"Wait, that Flash is from the same universe as the version of my cousin we saw?" Kara asks, confused.

"Yeah."

"Does that mean that Clark is...real?" Kara asks again.

"I have no idea, but apparently it's possible," Christian says. "I just can't believe that actually friggin happened. I mean, no one expected the DCEU to crossover with the Arrowverse, but damn."

Barry just nods like he actually understands what Christian is rambling about and sits back down. "I can't believe there's another version of Barry Allen," he says distantly.

"Hmm?" Kara asks him.

"No, I mean, I've seen myself, I've seen Savitar, I've seen a Barry that looks just like my dad, and now there's another face. Another Barry, but different. I just wonder, how many more are there? Like him? Or like my dad? Or like me?"

"Dude, doppelgangers are weird," Christian mutters.

"They are, though," Barry agrees, nodding in remembrance."

"Like those doppelgangers of Kara and Oliver that were married, or the-"

"Wait, wHAT?"

"Oh...I said too much, didn't I?" Christian grimaces as Kara, Barry, and Oliver look at him in shock. Sara just sighs and shakes her head.

"Wait, Oliver and me? Married? But, like, on a different earth?" Kara asks. "Ew," she whispers. Oliver looks at her, raising an eyebrow. "No offense," she grins apologetically.

"We can table this for later," Christian says quickly, trying desperately to change the subject.

"No, but-"

"GUYS," Sara shouts. "Can we just get through this?"

"All of you, listen to me," Oliver says, hands folded in front of him as the Paragons turn to face him. "This is why you were selected. You're Paragons."

"Yeah, I'm still a little unclear on what all that means," Ryan says.

"It means you're powerful enough to hold the line. To buy us the time we need."

"To do what?" Kate asks.

"Rebirth the universe."

"Rebirth the universe?" Barry asks. "Is that possible?"

"Look at me and ask that again," Sara deadpans. Barry, at a loss for words, simply turns back to the screen.

"Focus. A single, laser-like focus. On humanity, truth, love, destiny, honor, courage, and hope."

With that, Kara and the rest of the Paragons stare at the Spectre fighting the Anti-Monitor, focusing on what makes them Paragons.

"So you're telling me you all saved the universe by staring," Christian asks, turning to Sara.

"No, we were focusing on what made us Paragons," Sara says, furrowing her brow.

"But you were literally just standing there. Staring."

"Shh."

"Oliver."

Oliver coughs and groans. "I need both of you to watch over my family," he says between coughs.

"Hey, Ollie, they're gonna be fine, alright? You're gonna be fine," Sara says, trying to convince herself just as much as Oliver.

Oliver simply looks up, gasping for breath. "You did it. You all did- you all did it."

"Did what? What did we do?" Sara asks.

"Just look."

Oliver, Sara, and Barry look up, seeing the birth of the new universe. A swirl of light, a ball of energy unfolding, taking shape right before their eyes. "Ollie, we saw, but what is it?" Sara asks.

"It's the new universe," Oliver replies as Barry looks on in awe.

"It's kinda small for a universe," Barry says quietly.

"Wait for it, Barry," Oliver says. "It's almost time. Almost time." The ball explodes, matter flooding the anti-matter universe. "There. You did it."

"No, Ollie, you did it, okay, and that's why you gotta come back with us, so we need you to hang on, okay?"

"Sara, this is just what the Monitor said would happen," Oliver coughs.

"What?" Barry whispers in shock.

"There was an end, and there's a beginning," Oliver says, a distant smile coming to his face. He turns to look at Barry, tearing up beside him. "You remember what I told you?"

"Dying is the easy part," Barry answers softly.

Oliver smiles. "I'm at peace. The real heroes…"

"...they're the ones who have to keep going," Barry finishes.

"So keep. Going." Oliver says with finality. Barry nods. "Don't ever stop. This world, this new world, it needs both of you." Oliver looks back at the birth of the universe, a tear rolling down his cheek as he closes his eyes for the last time. Barry looks down, trying and failing to hold back tears of his own. Sara, broken by her loss, looks up, desperately trying to deny Oliver's death.

"Barry," she says, nudging him. He looks up with her, his eyes widening as he sees the new universe expanding.

"An end," he says, quoting Oliver.

"And a beginning," Sara finishes. The two look down at Ollie once more, Sara now failing to hold back her tears.

"Thank you, Oliver," Barry whispers. Sara cries and leans on Barry, who joins her as the universe is birthed, as the light engulfs them, as the world is created once more.

As the scene ends, the screen turns to black. Everyone is rendered speechless. Oliver stares ahead, lost in thought, lost in what pain awaited him. Kara looks down at the floor, a tear rolling down her face. Barry stares at the black screen, traces of light dancing across its blackened face, running across his red-eyed reflection. Christian sits with wide-eyes, speechless and unmoving. Sara, on seeing Oliver's death once more, fights a failing battle to keep her tears in, but runs off with a loud sob, seeking solace in Emma's empty room. The four remaining sit in complete silence, the low hum of the TV creating the only ambient noise.

Soon, Oliver stands and slowly walks to Emma's room, finding Sara crying quietly into the bed. "Hey," he says softly, kneeling next to her and putting his arm around her shoulders. Sara just cries into his chest. A part of her feels ashamed, being this vulnerable. But even the mightiest of assassins need to grieve. She was broken, wounded beyond healing. And she cried.