Before the Epilogue

by OXBastetXO

Winning isn't always all that it is cracked up to be. Even heroes have to deal with the aftermath. Set on the ride back to Gotham in the Flying Fox. Just how much damage had Barry taken from that Parademon? Set Snyder Cut.

Title: Before the Epilogue

Author: OXBastetXO

Rating: K+

Archive: Please ask first

Status: Complete

Category: Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship

Summery: Winning isn't always all that it is cracked up to be. Even heroes have to deal with the aftermath. Set on the ride back to Gotham in the Flying Fox. Just how much damage had Barry taken from that Parademon? Set Snyder Cut.

Spoilers: Lots for the Snyder Cut

Author's Notes: Man, I am rusty. I haven't written fiction in ages and ages. I've been putting my words to nonfiction and journalism. Please be kind as I stretch out my creative muscle's again. I haven't had a bunny stuck in my head this hard in a long time and there are still a few more wanting to get out.

Thanks to Jenn, who kept me motivated to finish this!

I don't own the Snyderverse, but I'm sure having fun playing around here!

Before the Epilogue

By

OXBastetXO

They won.

They actually won.

The thoughts exploded through Barry's mind as Victor's knuckles brushed against his in a fist bump. A grin on Barry's face threatened to split his face in two.

They actually did it.

He glanced over at Batman, Bruce, and seriously, was he smiling? Well, as much as he actually smiled. He saw Superman, Clark, was he allowed to call him Clark? Like if he ran into him, or was it just all Superman or Mr. Kent? Wonder Woman, Diana was smiling too. All regal and like...well, a goddess. 'Cause she was like, really a goddess. Aquaman, Arthur was. Well. Arthur. He didn't look so pissed off and kind of pleased now.

Barry started to relax and he could feel the final crackling pulses of speed force were starting to ebb and along with it, the adrenaline high he had been riding not knowing he was going to die or he was going to let them all die Oh, yeah. He was going to sleep the whole way home.

He felt a little wobbly as he hopped on to the ramp of the transport. His left leg was acting a little weird and he glanced at the gaping hole in his suit along his flank. He pushed his cowl off so he could get a better look. Sweat soaked hair hung in his eyes little, but it felt good to get the cowl off. He checked what he could of his suit and he could see bits of things mangle and fused in the silica based , yeah, this was going to suck. He looked up to see Diana steady Bruce as he landed a bit hard and grimaced. Worry bunched between his eyes and Bruce seemed to notice the scrutiny, but then his expression darkened. He said something to Diana and then headed over to Barry.

"Just got the wind knocked out of you?" he growled tiredly.

Barry floundered a moment. "Yeah, well. I did?" That came out more like a question than he had wanted. "I did. Get the wind knocked out of me." He paused and then added, "when I got hit by the plasma cannon and ate like a half mile of pavement." That sounded terrible. Not that it actually hadn't been terrible. It had been. Really, really terrible. He hadn't just felt his suit and his flesh burn and fuse into a superheated mass of agony, the landing had tore things up inside. He was sure he had added at least a dozen new broken bones to his list, but other things. Hitting like that, at that speed, sort of like getting hit by a bus or a train or-

He was losing focus, even for him. He realized Bruce was staring at him.

"I'm good. I heal, like super fast. Fast metabolism and all that. It's one of the perks." He realized he was leaning, sort of listing. Kind of like a boat or was it a ship that did that. Arthur would know-and focus. He straightened up and bit back a strangled noise in the back of his throat as fused fabric, armor, and wire dug deep into places they weren't supposed to go. Oh, yeah. This was going to really suck. Fortunately for him, the noise was drowned out by the latching of the ramp and the craft shifted to power up.

Bruce looked ready like he wanted to say something more, but Alfred in his ear piece drew him away. Barry could tell from the look on Bruce's face, that he wasn't going to let this just drop.

Barry watched him go and then turned to watch Victor, Superman, and Diana securing the Mother Boxes. Arthur walked up, bottle of whiskey in hand and offered it to Barry. Barry shook his head, but smiled.

Arthur just shrugged. "You did good kid," he said, clapping an arm around Barry. He took a swig of the bottle.

Barry just nodded. He normally would have been ecstatic to hear any of them say that to him, but he almost had screwed it all up.

"I was late," he said, tiredly.

"But you got there, when we needed you," Arthur stated.

Barry nodded. Suddenly feeling kind of nauseous. The smell of the whiskey on Arthur's breath wasn't helping. "Excuse-" he started to say, but he began to gag. He heard a startled curse and something shoved into his hands. Okay, this was embarrassing. He was kind of surprised Arthur didn't just leave. Those thoughts disappeared for a few moments as anything he had remotely thought of eating in the last few hours tried to come back, but there really wasn't anything to come back, speedster metabolism and all. Bile and the acrid metallic taste of copper were all that came up.

As it left up, he realized Arthur was talking to him.

"Just take it easy. Slowly deep breaths. Diana's getting some water."

Okay, that just added to the humiliation.

Diana appeared a moment later, a warm concerned look on her face. Crap. Maybe he should have just let the world end.

He wiped his mouth on the back of his gloves hand and took the water.

Diana's look turned more serious. "Barry-" she started.

He waved her off. "I'm good. Nerves. Adrenaline hangover. I just need to eat and I'll be fine," he said in a rush.

"This is not fine," Arthur said darky, looking in the housing of something Arthur had torn off to be Barry's very own barf bag.

Barry's face grew warm despite the chill that had been creeping through him now that his cowl was off and the sweat in his hair was starting to dry. "Look, I'm sorry-" he started and then stopped seeing what Arthur meant.

Vomit was, well, the usual seriously gross stuff vomit was, but this. Yeah, way worse. A combination of what looked like old coffee grounds and lots of, well, blood. Yeah, that would have been the feeling like a knife in his guts earlier, when he got hit with the plasma cannon.

"It's not as bad as it looks. I heal really, really fast. Whole super fast metabolism thing and all. That's from earlier and I'm better-" He moved the wrong way and his suit bit into his side again and he couldn't quite hide the grimace. "Mostly better," he amended.

He really wished they would just leave him alone to deal with this. He really needed to peel his suit off. The longer he waited the more complicated it would get. He was already healed around the suit and his body would start rejecting it as a foreign object soon and that was a whole other bunch of problems.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "This the reason you were late?" he asked.

Barry nodded tiredly. "One of the Parademons was a little better at aiming than the rest," he said. He really was tired and his head was starting to throb behind his eyes. He loosened the fastenings on the neckline of his suit. He really needed to get this off, but he kind of wanted some privacy. He had a bad feeling they weren't just going to let this drop and talk about it later. "Like I said, it looks worse than it actually is."

"Like the fact that your suit is actually fused to your body at the moment and you have some serious internal injuries that are in various stages of healing and 16-no-17 bone fractures," Victor said, walking over. That creepy red eye of his was practically boring through Barry.

"You can see all that?" he blurted out, before catching himself and giving as close to a cocky smirk as he could, considering. "New record? My max on multiple fractures at once has been about 10, and those were mostly in one arm," he stated. He guessed a bunch of those were ribs, as bad as it hurt to breathe earlier and still wasn't so great now. Dang, his suit held up better than he thought it would or he would have been a bit more of a paste as fast as he had been going when he hit the ground in that totally uncontrolled faceplant.

He saw the horrified look on his friends, he kind of guessed they were his friends now. At least he hoped. He quickly backtracked. "It's really not that bad," he said in a rush. "It all heals and like I said, super fast." He shifted to move out of all their scrutiny, but the plating under his feet shifted as the transport changed direction and his equilibrium abruptly gave out. He stumbled and Diana grabbed his arm, guiding him to a seat.

"Wow, you're strong," he blurted out before he could stop himself and she smiled that wonderful warm smile of hers. He really hoped he hadn't just said that part out loud.

She nudged him to sit, but the feeling of things tearing in his suit quickly stopped that and he struggled not to cry out. "Yeah. No," he said tightly.

Suddenly, Victor was beside him undoing the rest of the catches to his suit. "The suit has to come off. The tearing into parts his body has healed around it, when he moves."

Before he could properly protest, Victor had right side freed and had stopped to figure out how to get the other side off. Barry finally got a better look at the damage inside of the suit. Livid bruising in all the colors of the rainbow covered his torso from what he could see. The bruising was much darker on the left side. The silica based fabric had fused into glass and the wires that held the armored panels together had snapped in several different directions. Some of them had fused into his flesh and others disappeared deeper. Yeah, this was really going to suck.

Diana broke in, drawing Barry back to just how many of them were watching this. Arthur was looking a little sick. "We need to try to numb the area before we try to untangle it."

"Won't work," Barry stated flatly. "You're just going to have to rip it off-like a band aid. The longer you take the worse it will hurt and just heal back in crazier ways."

"What do you mean won't work?" Arthur said, eyes narrowed, the bottle of whiskey had disappeared at some point Barry hadn't noticed.

"Sucky side of the fast metabolism. I burn up anything before it even has a chance to work. Morphine gives maybe a 10 second buzz and then-" he shrugged and instantly regretted it. He was seriously starting to feel like crap. Freezing and sweating like crazy and half light headed along with a burning starting to really settle into his side and various aches, pains in pretty much all his body. The nausea was back too.

He looked at Victor. "Just jerk it loose. I'm not sure I can keep it together much longer," he admitted, swallowing hard against the bile rising in his throat. The throbbing in his head was progressively getting worse and fine tremors were starting to course through the rest of him.

Abruptly, Arthur was in his line of vision with a towel in his hands. For a second, he had a wild thought the Atlantean was going to strangle him, but then he held it out. "Bite on it. It will help," he stated, fitting it to Barry's mouth.

It turned out to be a wonderful idea. The second he had bit into the terry cloth, his world exploded into agony and his knees buckled under the force of it. Strong warm hands gripped him and kept him upright until the suit had been jerked completely free and a warm liquid sensation was streaming down his side and leg. Oh, how glad he was the towel had been in his mouth to stifle the scream that had clawed up out of his throat. He had a split second of panic wondering if he had worn underwear or not. He felt consciousness slip away in the relief that he had.

Bruce headed back towards the rear of the transport. Alfred was taking care of the flying for now. He needed to give that man a raise, again. Not that Alfred didn't have need for anything he wanted. Bruce knew he would be lost without the older man, who was more like a father than his own father had been. Not that Thomas hadn't tried, it was just that he had been taken too soon.

He felt the ship shift course under his feet as Alfred changed course toward the coordinates Curry had given him. The Atlantean had requested to be dropped off over the Atlantic.

He slipped into the small med bay gathering supplies he had requested Alfred put on the ship in case anything had happened, which he knew most likely would. He had a tendency to plan for the worse and more likely than not to end up facing it. He grabbed a large first aid kit and suture kit and what Alfred had called Hyperglycemic Gatorade. A high dextrose and electrolyte intravenous solution that hopefully would help the kid.

He should have been a couple minutes faster taking out that Parademon. He was sure the kid was dead, when he saw him go flying out of that lightning, what did he call it, the speed force. He been just a blur one second and then he was tumbling head over heels like he had been ejected out of cannon. Bruce couldn't really believe it when the kid picked himself up and answered his frantic calls. The kid, Barry, had sounded scared and hurt like-Jason. He pushed those thoughts away as he grabbed the last few things he wanted.

"Bruce!" Clark hurried towards him. "It's Barry. They need help. He's hurt." The Kryptonian look worried and lost at what to do to help. As much good he could do with his immense power and abilities. He was a reporter in his day job and not a doctor. Bruce wasn't either, but Batman knew more about these things than he wanted to admit.

Bruce nodded. "He got hit by one of those Parademon plasma cannons. He kept going on about speed healing, but he's not as-" He wanted to say god like, but it didn't seem appropriate. "He's just human," he said finally.

Clark nodded, taking whatever Bruce handed him, but trying to hurry Bruce along.

Bruce limped along the corridor and onto the flight deck, just as Cyborg, Victor, tore Barry's suit free from him. Bruce's insides twisted as an agonized scream tore out of the kid. The suit was made of a silica based fabric that was too strong to tear coming loose. Instead it took chunks of the kid's flesh with it. Victor finished peeling it away as Barry slumped into Diana's arms. Arthur caught the kid's feet.

Bruce hurried to clear a spot on a raised surface. "Here." he directed them. Blood gushed from the gaping wound as he finally got a good look at it. He tore open several packs of gauze pads to stem the flow of the blood. The center, where he had actually been hit, was incredibly intact, but the area around where the suit had been compromised was torn down to the muscle and even bits of that had mangled. Wires and bits of silica glass littered the wound and if they weren't extracted immediately, they'd become trapped just like the suit had.

Diana stepped into help him, hands already gloved and holding out a pair for him, moving to take his place holding pressure on the wound. He nodded. He knew she had seen far more battlefield injuries than all of them combined. He pulled the gloves on and glanced towards Victor. The cyborg, no, the kid. He was just as much a kid as Barry was. He looked stunned and horrified at the blood on his hands and the gore on Barry's suit.

"You okay?" he asked and Victor looked at him, finally meeting his eyes.

"I'm good. He going to be okay?" he asked.

Bruce glanced at Barry. His skin was a sickly shade of ashen gray and he was sweating profusely. "We'll make sure he will be. You going to help?" he asked. This would go a lot more quickly if Victor would scan and monitor things for them.

Victor dropped the suit and nodded. "What do you need me to do?" he asked.

"Can you tell us what kind of damage we're dealing with?" Bruce asked, quickly setting up the IV. He did know the kid needed fluids and glucose to give his body a fighting chance to heal itself.

Having something to do seemed to settle and focus Victor. HIs red eye shifted to Barry and swept across his body. He swore softly. "He's got a couple dozen mostly healed fractures on top of the new ones still trying to keep themselves set," he stated. "Bruised spleen. Lacerated liver. Lots of other internal lacerations that have already started to heal. There is some bone charring on the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth ribs," he said, his voice trailing off. His human eye widened. "That's why he was late," he said flatly.

Bruce nodded. "He took a hit from one of the Parademon cannons." He opened the IV line all the way.

He nodded to Diana to ease the pressure on the bandage. She lifted it slowly off the wound area. The blood had gone from a gush to a sluggish trickle. The kid wasn't kidding about healing fast.

Arthur and Clark had retreated to a spot away from them. They didn't have anything they could help with and didn't want to be in the way.

Bruce worked to pick the bits of fabric and glass from the wound, working as quickly as he could. Diana fell into work with him, flushing the wound without a word. He found a bit of wire and tugged. The wire gave some resistance, but came. He was going to have to talk to the kid about working on a better system to affix the armor on his suit. Some kind of heat resistant adhesive. He finally worked out a three inch bit of wire loose. Blood oozed out of the hole, but stopped quickly enough. Bruce paused and he could see the edges of the wound were already starting to knit.

"He really does heal fast," he said, glancing at Diana. She just shook her head in amazement.

"He'd be dead otherwise," she said quietly.

He nodded, focusing on what they needed to do before it got too messy. Bruce wasn't a surgeon and he doubted the kid would let anyone do anything if it got too complicated and he was awake to argue about it. The kid was proud. He managed this far on his own. He wouldn't want to be dependent on anyone else.

Bruce picked the last of the debris from the wound and finally snagged on the last bit of exposed wire sticking out of muscle. He pulled on it, but it wasn't coming. He pulled harder and elicited a groan from Barry, even as out of it as he was.

"Victor, can you see what's got this?" he said, worry creeping into his voice.

Red light panned across the area and then paused. "Oh, snap," Victor said quietly. "You're just going to have to yank that. It's not going to be pretty, but it needs out. It's through bone. It's stuck through one of the healing ribs."

Bruce muttered a curse, gripping it hard with forceps and gave it a yank, but it slipped loose. Barry twitched in response. He gritted his teeth and started to try again. Diana's hand covered his. He looked at her. "Let me," she said with a sad smile. He met her eyes and she understood. She understood too well.

He handed the instrument over to her and she gripped the bit of metal, with a sickening crunch it came loose, the bone the wire had fused with snapping and deforming a moment. Diana's strong hands eased it back into place.

Barry reacted instantly, his eyes snapping open and a yelp of disoriented pain ripping from him. Bruce grabbed his shoulders to hold him down. Barry's dark eyes were wild with fear and his breath coming in ragged gulps.

"Easy, Barry," Bruce said, pushing harder to hold the younger man in place. "We got you. We got you," he kept saying, trying to calm him. Clark was there in a moment, holding Barry's legs, which had started to kick wildly. What Bruce wouldn't have given to knock the kid out again with some morphine. He could feel a static charge starting to build around them.

Not good.

"Barry, you are with friends and you're going to be okay." Clark's voice broke through the sudden chaos. "Barry. You are safe." His voice had such warmth and genuine care that Bruce could feel a visceral response in Barry to it. He stopped thrashing and he started to relax. Tremors still coursed through him, but he sagged back against Bruce. Somehow the kid had ended up in his arms, his back resting against Bruce's chest.

"Well, this is humiliating," Barry whispered raggedly, his eyes sagging shut. He was back out again, but more from exhaustion than shock this time.

Bruce sighed deeply and then looked at Clark. "You're good," he said, shifting to help Diana finish cleaning the kid up.

The rest of the mess was easy enough to clean up and bandage. Bruce changed out the IV bag for another as Diana washed up. He glanced at Victor. "You okay?"

The younger man looked a bit shell shocked, but nodded. "His stabilized and sleeping," he stated, his eyes sweeping over Barry's still form. That was so weird. The kid was constantly fidgeting. It was unnatural for him to be so-still.

Bruce focused back on Victor. "I know. I was asking about you. Are you okay?"

He just nodded. "It's just a lot to-process," he said finally. "He was late because he was hurt." Cyborg's jaw worked in thought. "He wasn't just late. He was too late. He did something." His eyes narrowed in thought. He sighed. "He really is fast." He looked directly at Bruce. "I need to-think," he said abruptly walking away.

Bruce watched him go. He wasn't following just yet, but he had a feeling Victor would tell him when he figured out what he was talking about. Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to push the fatigue burning his eyes back. He needed to get to the bridge and make sure they were on course for Arthur's drop off spot.

"Are you okay, Bruce?" Clark was suddenly behind him.

He nodded. "Yeah. You?"

Clark nodded. "I am," he stated. "Thank you," he said, his face thoughtful and quiet. He broke the moment and stepped back. "If you don't need me. I should go. Lois," he said as if it explained it all. It did.

Bruce nodded. "Do you need dropped somewhere?"

Clark smiled and shook his head, heading towards the ramp.

Bruce keyed the ramp and it opened just enough to suck Clark out. He closed it, catching a flash of silver and black as he flew off. He shook his head. The man did know how to make an exit.

He glanced back at Allan's sleeping form. He knew the kid was skinny, but seeing him like this. He was just bone and muscle. Not an ounce of fat on him. No reserves. They would have to do something about that.

Diana stepped close. "I'll keep an eye on him," she offered. She had tucked a blanket over Barry to keep him warm.

He nodded and then a smile tugged on the corner of his mouth. "The team did good," he stated.

She smiled warmly in return. "The team did good."

Barry shifted and his side gave a sharp twinge of pain.

Crap, what did he run into this time?

His muddled brain tried to remember. He lay there a moment longer.

Okay, ribs, he finally placed, noting that it was breathing that was actually hurting.

Okay. Could be worse. Those took a while, but usually took care of themselves. Fingers were way more complicated. Those tended to heal in the wrong angles and that was just-it sucked.

He took a slow deep breath and tried not to flinch when the affected ribs really let him know which ones they were. Maybe this time the walk-in clinic would actually believe "urban exploration" and not start asking too many questions that made it sound like he was really in some kind of underground fight club, though that did sound kind of cool. The pretty nurse with the pink hair actually looked kind of impressed the last time he tangled with a much larger metahuman and ended up through a brick wall and had a really hard time trying to keep them to use butterfly bandages and not stitches. It took longer for him to try to pick the stitches out than it took for his skin to actually heal the cuts and tears.

He opened his eyes and that just added to his confusion. Sleek metal struts crossed above him and smooth metal walls and-he was laying on a table. Panic welled up a moment before the memories of the last few hours washed back over him.

Oh, Bruce's ship. Oh crap! He must have passed out. Embarrassment quickly swept his initial panic into full blow humiliation.

"Barry?"

Diana's voice broke through his thoughts and he jumped, shifting to sit up. Pain blossomed in his ribs, but he kept moving. Shirt! Where was his-oh yeah, his suit. Oh-

"Hey. Take it easy. You need to rest." She was suddenly in his field of vision all concern and like-his mom. The familiar longing ache filled his heart at that thought and he stopped fighting what he suddenly realized were her hands, trying to help him sit up.

"Sorry," he said, looking away from her abruptly. He just kept repeating it, not knowing what else to say.

"Barry. Stop." Her voice held such a tone of authority, that he instantly shut up. She didn't move until he finally looked at her. She wasn't angry with him or even looked irritated. She looked-concerned.

Now that she had his attention, she asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," he said automatically. "Look, sorry. I guess I-probably just my blood sugar. I ran-a lot," he said, trying to figure out how to downplay all this.

One look on her face and he could tell she didn't buy that all at. "You were hurt a lot worse than you realized," she informed him. "We had to rebreak at least one rib to remove that parts of your suit that had fused to you. They are all still very weak. They were charred when you were hit."

"Oh," he said slowly. That would explain why the aching his arms was more of a dull thump and his ribs still felt raw.

"You get hurt frequently, don't you?" she said, moving back to sit chair with a blanket on it, that she had apparently been sitting on before he had woken.

He started to shrug and thought better of putting the stress on his ribs. "I'm a speedster," he stated. "I build a huge kinetic charge around me. It takes a lot of the abuse, but not so much with the quick stops. Those can get kind of hairy. The armor in the suit takes a lot, but the rest of me is just-human. Healing fast is the compensation." He noticed a pinch in the arm and realized he was hooked up to an IV.

"Dextrose and electrolytes," she told him, anticipating his question.

Man, his brain was working slow, but at least it was working. He nodded. "I'm going to guess that was Bruce. Really smart. At least I'm awake." Hypoglycemic shock was not fun and one of the first real downsides he had learned about his metabolism.

"Hungry?" she asked, with a small smile.

He nodded. "Starving." Almost painfully so.

"Then this should help," Victor said, walking up. His metal feet clicked on the floor grating. He handed Barry two boxes of protein bars.

Barry tore into them, ripping the packaging open, without thought of where the cardboard was going. "Bless you!" He almost couldn't cram them into his mouth fast enough, the gnawing hunger inside him demanding attention immediately.

"You know if you got a little weight on you, you'd have a little reserve to burn," Victor said, leaning against a bulkhead.

"That takes more money than is left after tuition even with three jobs,' he said between bites and then realized he had actually said that out loud. He felt his face warm, even as cold as he felt huddled under the blanket. He just shoved another protein bar in his mouth to shut himself up.

"Three jobs, school, and this?" Diana asked. He was shocked she wasn't giving that usual pitying look. She actually looked-impressed.

Victor was watching him in a way that made him feel a little like a bug under a slide.

"What?"

"Do you know how fast you were running?"

Barry swallowed what was in his mouth. Okay-he should have figured Victor would be the one to figure this out. "Fast," he said, tucking the torn wrappers back into one of the boxes. He took his time, hoping Victor would let this go.

"How fast?"

He sighed, and wrapped his arm around his sore side. "Okay-the Einstein-Rosen bridge?"

Victor nodded for him to go on.

"Sort of ran across it," he stated, his fingers doing a little walking motion.

Victor stared at him, his jaw dropping.

Diana watched them. "What does that mean?"

"It means he went faster than light and time and changed what happened," Victor said.

Barry nodded. "I was too late. It's the rule I don't break, but breaking it seemed better than letting everyone on Earth die," he said softly, looking at Victor. "Letting you guys die."

"There will be consequences," Victor stated.

Barry nodded. "It seemed better than what was happening right then. Unity happened. It just-liquified and incinerated and destroyed everything. It was-nothingness. Everyone was dead and I screwed up and let you all die," he stated, staring at a spot on the floor. "I could change it. Maybe. I could try. It worked and we won and everyone is still alive and not goo or incinerated." He glanced at Victor, for a moment, his mind's eye filling in his friend's ashed remains coming back together bit by bit until he was whole.

"You didn't screw up," Victor said. "Barry, you didn't screw up," he stated in a firmer tone, drawing Barry's eyes back to him. "Yeah, I called for you, but dude, you were hurt. Things happen, but you pulled it out and fixed it."

Barry nodded.

Victor looked sharply at him. "This wasn't the first time," he stated.

Barry's eyes widened a bit.

"You tweaked time on the Kryptonian ship. When you were building the charge to charge the Mother box."

Barry started to fidget. "Maybe. A little. I didn't hear you say go and the Mother Box had started to drop into the Genesis Chamber before I got there. So, I sort of hurried up." His eyes narrowed. "How did you know that?"

Victor shifted uncomfortably. "I had a-vision. Like a look into the future. Everything going totally sideways. Wonder Woman-" he glanced at her. "You were dead and on a pyre. Darkside killing Arthur. Superman-going to Darkside's side. Changes to the timeline. I think they were echoes of a possible future to what we were doing." His voice trailed off in thought.

"Echos of what is now or what was before I altered time again?" Barry asked.

Victor frowned in thought. "I don't know, but you changed time again, which changes that screwed up scenario. You stopped the Unity from happening."

Diana had a worried look on her face. "Barry, how far have traveled back into time before?"

Barry shifted, his arm still tight on his side, but the ache was starting to ease up now. He couldn't seem to keep his knee from vibrating. "Not much more than this," he stated. "I'm not really one hundred percent sure. When I was just starting to figure any of this out, I was really just sort of pushing to see how fast I could go and things went-weird and suddenly, I was in a different part of town and when I got back to work, which should have been for time for my next shift, I apparently had just left at the end of my last one. It was kind of cool I got an actual afternoon off, but really weird because I knew I was messing with something I had no idea what I was doing with it. Sort of like my own personal time turner, but way more crazy implications." He saw them both look at him and he added quickly. "That's when I made my number one rule of never doing that again." He pulled a face. "Well, until now and-yeah, sort of broke it and tossed it out and then ran over it a couple times." He was babbling. He tore open the last protein bar and shoved it in his mouth to shut himself up.

Victor had found a crate to sit on. "Why do I feel like I'm suddenly in an episode of Rick and Morty?"

"You like Rick and Morty?" Barry perked up in surprise. He hadn't noticed Diana quietly excusing herself as he and Victor started recounting their favorite moments of the crazy show.

Diana slipped quietly into the cockpit of the Flying Fox. Bruce was sitting in the pilot's seat, but he had his eyes closed and his head back, Alfred still obviously flying the ship as the yoke moved on its own and various lights flicked on and off on the control board.

She moved to slip back out.

"Barry all right?" Bruce asked, eyes opening.

"Yes. He and Victor are in a deep discussion of quantum physics and the ramifications of time travel." She paused and then added. "Which Barry apparently did."

Bruce turned to look at her. "What?"

"Unity happened. Barry hadn't recovered enough to build the charge Victor needed. So, he ran very fast and turned time back to a point before Unity to deliver the charge to Victor." She wasn't going to pretend she understood this. Bruce might. "Apparently, he can run faster than the speed of light?"

He blew out a breath. "Wow." She wasn't sure she had ever seen Bruce look so stunned. "And he did that hurt? How fast is he?"

She shook her head. "I doubt he even knows. He's afraid to push it and risk damaging time," she stated. "Bruce, the vision you told me of seeing Barry in the Batcave. The vision with the warning. What if that was a future Barry Allen? One that has learned how fast he is and how to use that power to come back to do something very specific?"

He sat there a moment in thought. "It would make sense." She could see he was picking through those memories. "His suit was different, I think. I'm going to say you are probably correct."

She looked at him. "We're going to have to help him. Both he and Cyborg."

Bruce nodded. "I know. We don't have the luxury of letting them figure out just who they are and what they can do on their own. We need to know what they can do now."

She nodded.

He sat up in the seat a bit more with a groan. "We should be back in Gotham in about an hour."

"Are you alright?" she asked, resting her head against the bulkhead.

He chuckled. "Just getting a little old for this, but I'm okay. Nothing a good night's sleep won't put a dent in," he told her.

She nodded and headed back to check on the boys.

Bruce brought the Flying Fox in for a landing on pad on Lake Orion. Once he had finished powering it down, he headed into the common area. He noticed Barry was up and mobile, working on trying to clean his suit, wearing a pair of Victor's sweats, his lean frame swimming in the fleece. Victor was off brooding waiting for the ramp to open. Diana was tidying up from the flight.

Alfred met him at the foot of the ramp. "I have quarters ready for our guests, Master Bruce," he said, moving to take Bruce's cowl. "Food should arrive momentarily and I finally found enough tea cups."

Bruce smiled. "Thank you, Alfred. I trust you made allowances for certain needs?"

A smirk lifted the corner of the older man's mouth. "I believe it is a good thing you do not go over your credit card statements."

Bruce heard the others coming down the ramp. "Go ahead and make yourself at home. Alfred will show you where you can get cleaned up. I'm going to change," he told the others as he went to get out of his suit and get a shower.

Cleaned, bandaged, and more comfortable, Bruce joined the others. Barry had showered and back in his own clothes. Cyborg looked a bit more relaxed. Diana looked freshly scrubbed and lovely as ever in a comfortable top and yoga pants. Somehow, she could make even the most casual clothes look elegant.

She noticed him looking at her and smiled. He felt a warmth he didn't quite want to acknowledge yet fill him.

The elevator dinged and Alfred appeared with what looked like enough chinese to feed a middle school. As anticipated, Barry was drawn like a moth to the flame at the smell of food. He also noticed Barry's arm was still wrapped tightly to his side. Oh, yeah, they were going to have a talk. He jumped to quickly offer to help Alfred carry things. Bruce moved to help as well.

Cyborg moved to clear a worktable and the food covered the surface. Barry's eyes were nearly bulging out of his head at the sight of all the food.

Alfred passed out plates with a "tuck in," command.

Bruce snagged a container of his favorite and left the rest to the others. Cyborg actually took a plate and started to fill it. Bruce hadn't been sure if he actually had a need for organic nourishment, but he still did have organic parts. Diana snagged the pot stickers. Barry was politely taking small portions of everything.

Bruce caught his eye. "I really don't want to make Alfred pack up leftovers," he stated. He saw the hesitancy in the young man, but also the almost painful look of hunger he was doing his best to hide.

"You sure?" Barry asked. Almost begging for permission.

"Please, Master Barry," Alfred stated. "Master Bruce refuses to eat leftovers and that leaves me to have to finish it off."

Barry smiled and then dug in like a starving man, which technically, given the day he had. He was.

The meal was eaten in relatively comfortable banter. Barry and Victor good naturedly teasing each other and simultaneously discussing some ludicrous cartoon series and upgrades to Barry's suit. Diana caught his eye and smiled. He just shook his head.

"Seriously, but if you think about it. Using that logic, I could, theoretically, simultaneously travel through time and dimension. Just, I do not want to find a Pickle Barry out there somewhere. That would be just too weird."

Victor snorted and almost spit out the bite he had just put into his mouth. "That is not right, man."

"I know, right?" Barry laughed, finishing off the last of the Fun Chow and reaching for what was left of the Mongolian Beef. "I do need to upgrade the suit for that kind of damage though."

"You do," Bruce agreed. "You need something better than the high tensile wire to lock the armor into place."

Barry nodded. "I've been working on that, but I haven't been able to find an industrial adhesive that can take the heat and electrical stresses without fatiguing in the first couple hours."

"I have some resources that may know of some cutting edge applications from the military and aerospace industry."

Barry poked at vegetables in the box he had been eating from with his chopsticks. His expression sobered and his dark eyes looked directly into Bruce's. "I appreciate that, but my budget is a lot smaller than yours, but any research you can shoot my way, I would really appreciate."

"I know," he stated. "But I need the team working at peak efficiency for the next thing that gets thrown at us." He could already anticipate Barry's next objection. "And it's not charity. I will expect your help in return. There are things headed this way now they know we are here and I need all of us to be ready. Things that if we aren't prepared and trained to deal with, we are not going to stop and part of that being prepared is making sure we have the right tools to use when the time comes."

Barry took a bite of the beef and chewed thoughtfully. He swallowed and then answered. "I've been doing this all on my own since the accident," he stated. He looked away a moment and then back. "I was serious when I said I needed friends."

Bruce nodded. "You have friends. Now." He glanced at Victor and Diana and they nodded.

"And part of that friendship is reaching out to us when you get in too deep," Diana stated. "And when you are hurt. You are no good to any of us hurt or worse, dead. We need you alive," she said gently. "I know you think you heal quickly, and it makes it alright, but it doesn't. You need to let us know and let us help you."

Bruce nodded. Somehow, Allen was key to all of this, but he wasn't sure just how yet. He glanced at Victor. "That goes for you too. We need both of you and both of you working efficiently" He used those words specifically to appeal to the mechanical nature of the younger man.

Barry looked very uncomfortably under the scrutiny, but he finally said," Okay."

Bruce looked at Victor, waiting for his response.

Victor nodded, his jaw working in thought. He picked up the beer from in front of him and held it up. "The team," he stated.

Bruce picked up his drink, as Diana and Barry did. "The team."

-Fin-