Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it; you know the drill.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

Run and Repeat

By the time Barry returned to the bunker, he knew that he didn't have long left.

He wasn't sure how it was possible to 'measure' how much of a person's memory was being lost, but something in him seemed to know that he didn't have much time left; he was already having to constantly remind himself of where he was going whenever he ran more than a block or two, as though he'd lose track of what he was doing if he didn't keep telling himself what he should do next. He knew that Oliver had already found the Markov device and would be moving on to his next task, and he knew that Diggle was keeping an eye on Moira Queen's plane down at the airport to make sure the woman didn't try to leave, but everything else… it was just so hard to focus right now…

"Whoa!" Thea said, staggering slightly as Barry released his hold on her once they arrived in the bunker, looking around herself with a broad grin before she turned back to him. "That was- are you OK?"

"Just… memories…" Barry shook his head, trying to maintain his train of thought.

"Memories?"

"Speed fading… memories going…"

"What the- you're losing your memory?" Thea yelled, grabbing him by the shoulders to look at him as intently as a teenage girl could look at someone. "How the- does Oliver know-?"

"He knows," Barry said, suddenly grateful that Thea Queen was still basically a 'kid' at this point; the one back home (did he know her or had he just heard Oliver talk a lot about her?) had a lot of issues, but this Thea was essentially a scared child looking for someone to tell her things were going to be OK, which let Barry focus on doing that for her. "It's a side-effect… of how I got here… only so much speed… and when it goes… my future memory goes…"

"Oh God," Thea looked anxiously at him before she started looking around the base. "Is there something I could- I have to do- what do I-?"

"Nothing," Barry said, trying to look reassuringly at Thea as it became increasingly hard for him to concentrate; it felt as though it was so much effort for him just to stay alert right now. "You're here… you're safe… the Undertaking's been stopped… everything will be better… just be there for Roy…"

He wasn't even sure where that last comment came from before he felt the darkness overwhelm his mind and he fell to the floor, overwhelmed by a sense of fatigue he couldn't remember ever feeling before…

When her brother's remarkable new friend fell forwards, Thea only just managed to catch him before Barry hit the ground face-first. Grateful that he wasn't particularly heavy, Thea managed to lift Barry up and get him onto a nearby chair, but if she'd understood enough of what he'd just told her it wouldn't be a good idea to leave him there for long. Her knowledge of time travel was limited to occasionally looking up that Doctor Who show to understand the hype behind it (she just didn't get the point of the time machine looking like a blue phone box), but she'd picked up enough to know that giving someone knowledge of their future could be a tricky business at best, and she definitely didn't trust herself not to make a mistake.

Lost for a better solution, Thea quickly studied the cave before she identified a kind of speaker system beside the computers, putting on an earpiece and praying that what she was about to do wasn't going to make things worse…

"Barry?"

"O-Ollie?" Thea said, both relieved that her guess had paid off and cursing herself for ever thinking that her brother being the vigilante was 'just' cool if he had to deal with stress like this. "B-Barry… he collapsed… his memory-"

"His memory?" Oliver said urgently. "He's lost his memory?"

"W-well, he said something about h-how he was losing his memory… I don't know what he meant…"

"He explained that to us earlier," Oliver explained; he sounded slightly breathless, as though he was on the move as he spoke, but at least he was able to keep up the conversation. "Basically, because Barry came back in time by essentially possessing his past self, he only had a certain amount of the energy that gives him his speed because the… event that gave him his powers hasn't happened to him yet. Once that energy's run out, his memory would be wiped with it; he already confirmed to me and Digg that he was having trouble remembering some of the finer details of what he knew about his original future."

"So… memory issues aside, he'll be OK?" Thea asked, looking over at the sleeping young man. "Because if I'm going to be left alone with some guy in a coma-"

"You need to get Barry into the car."

"I need to- Ollie, in case you're forgetting, I crashed the last time I was driving-!"

"You were high on Vertigo and speeding; you won't be doing either here," Oliver cut her off, his tone shifting from firm to reassuring as he spoke. "I checked in with Digg and the police will be arriving at the airport soon, so he can leave the plane and deal with the situation properly. You just need to get Barry into the car outside the lair and get it to a safe point so Diggle can take him somewhere it's safe for him to be publically discovered; if he's reached this point, it's probably best to get him somewhere that won't draw attention to us when he wakes up."

"And… what about you?"

"I've disabled the earthquake machine and I'll dispose of it later, but Barry and I found the location where Malcolm's been keeping Walter; I have to go for it right now in case Malcolm left instructions to do anything to Walter if he didn't get in touch with them within a certain time frame. I'm sorry I can't be with you now, Speedy, but I'll be back as soon as I've retrieved Walter."

"S… sure," Thea said, fighting down the urge to yell at her brother for not being there for her; he couldn't exactly prioritise consoling his scared sister when a man's life might be on the line if he didn't move quickly.

Looking at the unconscious body lying beside her, Thea had to concede that at least her task was relatively easy in terms of the amount of physical effort she had to put in, even if she was going to try and not think about the time-travel angle of this mess any more than she had to…

How did Ollie deal with this crap and not just go crazy?

When he heard the news that morning, Tommy Merlyn wasn't sure he'd understood everything at first. Even when he read through the article denouncing his father and Moira Queen as part of a plan to level the Glades, he'd initially assumed it was just some very weird, very elaborate joke Laurel or one of the Queens were playing on him, but when he'd turned on the radio and heard more people talking about it…

It's not possible, he thought to himself, sitting in stunned silence in the kitchen as he turned it over in his mind. Dad would never… Dad can't… it's all a lie…

He didn't know how it could have happened, but Malcolm Merlyn, for all his faults, wasn't a killer. He might have been a harsh father and a ruthless businessman, but there was still a significant gap between that and being willing to kill a bunch of people… even if they'd never done anything to help anyone…

Suddenly overwhelmed by rage, Tommy stood up, grabbed an empty bottle from near the sink, and threw it against the wall before turning around to slam his fists against another wall. He wasn't even keeping track of what he was saying as he let out various random yells of rage, kicking over chairs and hitting cupboards until he finally collapsed to the floor, feeling as though he had burnt through his rage at last.

What had his father done to deserve being targeted like that? OK, he'd closed down the clinic, but it wasn't as though that place had actually been helping anyone worthwhile, and the company as a whole was providing work for so many people… prioritising the crooks of the Glades over actual hard-working citizens…

As though passing through some kind of storm, Tommy's mind soon turned from wild rage at the world to a more focused target.

He didn't know why the Hood had chosen to target his father, but there was nobody else who could have done this… which meant that Tommy at least had a clearer goal in his life now than he'd had in the past.

He'd obviously need to get in some physical training to be sure he could actually do it, but his father had hired enough bodyguards and private security over the years that he was sure he could find a personal trainer or two who could teach him what he needed to know. After that, he just had to find somewhere where he was sure the Hood was going to show up, and from there…

Tommy wasn't going to kid himself that it was going to be easy to get to that point, but he just became the sole heir of a major company and would have nothing but time on his hands once he appointed a suitable CEO from among the current board members; he'd have the money to pull it off.

After Tommy had been given the opportunity to identify the burned remains that had been all anyone could find of his father in the sewers, his resolve for revenge just became greater; no way was the guy who could burn his father's body like that going to get away with it…

Sitting in the empty living room of the Queen mansion, the house feeling emptier than it had in all the months since he'd returned, Oliver almost couldn't believe that the last few days had happened. He consciously recognised that he'd only known Barry Allen for a week at most, but in that week Barry had caused so much change in his life that it felt as though he'd always been there on some level, and now he had to adjust to the fact that Barry wasn't even going to remember any of this the next time they met.

Granted, he wasn't sure what Barry's mental state would be once he woke up after that collapse in the lair, but from what he'd been told about Barry's unconventional circumstances, he felt that he'd made the right decision telling Thea to get Barry out. Diggle had confirmed that he had managed to get Barry on a train going directly to Central, so hopefully someone would wake him up or get him off the train at the end if he hadn't woken up on his own already. Either Barry would wake up without his future memories or he would wake up with enough of them left to realise why Oliver had done this; whatever happened, it would be safest for him to back in Central City from this point onwards.

As far as things went for Oliver's team and family, he felt that he had things as reasonably under control as anyone could expect in the circumstances. Once he had the address, rescuing Walter had been simple enough; clearly Malcolm had been relying on secrecy more than anything more definite. For the moment, Walter was being checked over in hospital while Moira Queen was in custody until she could be taken to an official prison, where she would stand trial for her role in Malcolm's plan. Once Oliver and Diggle had dealt with their own missions they had rendezvoused in the sewers to destroy the Markov device, but there was enough of it left intact that Oliver and Diggle each hoped should be enough for any scientists to piece together what it was intended to do to confirm what Malcolm had been up to.

Tommy hadn't been seen since the news announced his father's crimes, and while everyone had placed emphasis on the fact that Tommy hadn't known anything about what Malcolm had been up to, Oliver could only imagine how well he was taking it. The fact that his own parents had been involved in all this was shocking enough on its own, and Oliver at least had the luxury of knowing that his father had wanted out of the whole plan. Laurel had taken Thea to her apartment so that she would kept away from the worst of the paparazzi after that mess, and Oliver was making arrangements to try and be a more public visitor to his mother in prison so that hopefully the press would more focus on him than Thea.

Standing up, Oliver walked up to his bedroom, reading for a good night's sleep after the stress of the last few weeks, but was surprised to see a small box lying on his bed, accompanied by a note written in an unfamiliar hand. Oliver briefly wondered if he should be cautious, but dismissed the idea that anyone associated with Malcolm would attempt a subtle attack like this after everything he'd done to them if they knew the Arrow's identity. With that in mind, Oliver opened the letter and read its contents, new understanding coming to him as he perused each line.

Oliver,

In our original meeting in my past, I suggested a mask as an identity concealer rather than grease paint, and you informed me that you needed something that conformed perfectly to your face and wouldn't affect your ability to aim. I was able to get a compressible micro-fabric for that purpose while I was helping you with an investigation the first time around, and when I found myself with a little time to spare during this particular course of events… well, it's easy to do this kind of thing when you're a speedster.

I know that my presence here had more of an impact on events in your life than even I was expecting, and I'm sorry if anything happens from this point onwards that you might regret. Please believe me that I did the best I could to help you and the team, and I hope that the future knowledge I was able to give you would be helpful enough to make up for my mistakes.

If I don't get the chance to talk with you before this all ends, just remember; when you see my present self, I won't remember any of this, and the Christmas after my debut, keep an ear out for anything to do with Mark Mardon's reappearance. It should still be possible for me to stop his tidal wave attack, but I'd rather not get stuck in some kind of time loop, particularly if what I understood means that this me technically doesn't exist any more to do it.

Don't regret what I had to give up for this; if it meant saving hundreds of lives… well, what makes us heroes is our willingness to do that, right?

Keep being the hero I know you can be, Oliver.

See you for the first time,

Barry Allen

Opening the box, Oliver put on the green mask inside it and turned to look at his reflection in a nearby mirror, smiling in approval at the sight.

It was odd to think about the idea that someone else thought he could be a hero, but if Barry could form that view of him even after seeing him during their confrontation with Malcolm in the Merlyn mansion…

From what Barry had told him, he would have the better part of a year before the two of them met as they had originally, assuming that nothing that had happened because of Barry's interference changed whatever plans Slade was going to make. So long as Oliver kept acting as though he knew nothing that Barry had told him about the future, it sounded as though he should be able to maintain the timeline that led to Barry getting his abilities in the first place, and after that… well, he'd see how things play out.

Even if Oliver still couldn't entirely believe that time travel was a thing now, he had been given a few key warnings that it would do serious harm to prepare for in advance. He still wasn't entirely convinced about Barry's warning that Slade Wilson was still alive, but hopefully Barry's memory was right when he'd warned Oliver about 'Isabel' (whoever she was), and once she showed up Oliver could take appropriate action.

After what Barry Allen had done to stop the Undertaking, Oliver wasn't going to doubt the advice of the man who would become the Flash in the future, which meant that it was all on him to make a better future than the one that his new friend had come from.