This is a rewrite of Brave New World: Flash. I promise that this will not become a common thing, but I felt like I was moving a bit too quickly in the original version of the story, plus I had a new idea I wanted to use for this story. Warning, there will be at least one major deviation from both the canon and my other stories. I hope you guys like it.
The last thing Barry remembered before he blacked out was being back at the dawn of time, kneeling down next to Sara over the dying form of Oliver Queen. He wasn't sure how long he had wept for the loss of his brother in all but blood, but he guessed that it had been long enough for him to pass out.
However, what really got his attention was the music he heard surrounding and even though his eyes were closed, Barry couldn't resist the urge to roll them.
"Seriously Cisco, isn't there any other song you can play for me to wake up to?" Barry asked as he opened his eyes, only for some reason to feel the same way he had when he'd first woken up from his coma 6 years ago as he shot upwards and gasped heavily, only this time, he felt the speed force crackle in his eyes as he felt it re enter his system, almost as if he'd lost his connection to the speed force and gotten it back.
"What the hell?" Barry asked as he looked around to find himself back in the medbay in Star Labs, which didn't surprise him. What did surprise him was the way it was set up, since he swore it looked exactly like it did when he woke up from his coma.
"Whoa, he's awake. See Cait, I told you it would work." Cisco said as he and Caitlin entered the medbay and Barry sighed in relief at the sight of them, since he figured that they could tell him what was going on.
"Of course it did Cisco, you know Gaga is my wake up song." Barry said.
"How did he know my name?" Cisco asked Caitlin.
"It's possible that he could've still been listening to us and learned our names and voices while he was in the coma." Caitlin said, surprising Barry, since he wasn't sure why Cisco and Caitlin were acting like they didn't know him.
"Still doesn't explain why he was acting like I should know him. I only picked gaga because his facebook page said that it was his favorite." Cisco said and Caitlin shrugged, leaving Barry even more confused. However, he was pulled from his confusion by who he saw joining them in the medbay.
"Well, well, the sleeper awakens." Eobard Thawne, once again disguised as a wheelchair bound Harrison Wells, said as he used his motorized wheelchair to wheel into the lab.
"What did you do?" Barry asked.
"I saved your life Mr. Allen." Thawne said, confusing Barry even more.
"What the hell is going on here?" Barry asked.
"It makes sense that he's disoriented." Caitlin said.
"What day is today?" Barry asked, since he was beginning to think that maybe he'd somehow time traveled again, though he didn't know how.
"October 12 2012." Cisco said.
"The day everything changed." Barry said, though this time under his breath.
"What was that?" Cailin asked.
"Nothing. What happened. The last thing I remember is that it was January 2012." Barry said, deciding to play along until he could figure out what was going on here.
"Mr. Allen, you've been in a coma for the past 9 months." Thawne said.
"How?" Barry asked, even though he already knew the answer to that.
"You got struck by lightning dude." Cisco said.
"Blunt as ever Cisco." Caitlin said.
"What, there's no delicate way to that." Cisco said.
"So I've been in a coma for the past nine months?" Barry asked.
"Yes and after conventional medicine failed to be able to treat you, I convinced your fiance and foster father to allow me to bring you here to Star Labs to take care of, which we did." Thawne said.
"Thank you. But uh, would you mind if I got some air?" Barry asked.
"I should really start running some tests on you since your recovery is very odd." Caitlin said.
"Caitlin, Mr. Allen has spent nearly the past year stuck in either this room or a hospital room. I think we can allow him a night of fresh air before we put him under a microscope. Besides, considering the young woman who spent every free moment she had here at his side, there are people who would likely be very relieved to find out that he's awake. Those tests can wait till tomorrow." Thawne said and Caitlin nodded, though she looked both concerned and disappointed about that.
"I'll be back tomorrow. I promise." Barry said as he headed out, not bothering to wait for anyone to show him the way, since not only did he already know his way out, but he wasn't heading for the exit. At least not yet. There was a stop he needed to make and one other person he needed to talk to first. One who would hopefully have answers for him.
After making sure that no one was following him, Barry made his way to where he knew the Time Vault was hidden and opened the door, but to his surprise, when he walked through it, he did not find himself in the Time Vault, but back in Mar Novu's realm.
"I should've known you'd have something to do with this. What the hell is going on?" Barry asked.
"This is the new world you helped create Barry Allen." Novu said.
"Still. I don't understand, why am I back at the time I woke up from my coma, what is going on?" Barry asked.
"Everyone who was involved in the restoration of the multiverse has awoken on this new world on the day that the age of heroes truly began." Novu said.
"The day Oliver came back from Lian Yu." Barry realized and Novu nodded.
"So Oliver is alive?" Barry asked.
"Yes and it is the Oliver Queen you knew. It would appear that against all the odds, he still found yet another way to cheat death." Novu said and Barry chuckled.
"If anyone could find a way around it, it would be him." Barry agreed.
"Anyways, it appears that one of the changes to this new world is that the particle accelerator went off two years early." Novu said.
"So now my journey begins on the day as Oliver's does." Barry said and Novu nodded.
"You've been given a chance to do things differently than you did before and hopefully save those you lost." Novu said and Barry nodded.
"There's one thing I have to know. My mom?" Barry asked.
"I am sorry Barry Allen, but only so many things can be fixed. It would appear that certain events remained fixed in order to allow you to become the man you are now and unfortunately, your mother's death is one of those events." Novu said.
"I figured it was too much to hope for, but I had to ask." Barry said and Novu nodded.
"To help you avoid any further confusion, I am going to give you the memories of your counterpart from this earth so that you can blend in. Also, before you put any of your plans into motion, wait until you've met J'onn J'onzz, since like you and Oliver, the other paragons, except Lex Luthor, since I was sure to wipe his memory, will remember the old world and J'onn will be able to help you to restore the memories of your friends and teammates." Novu said and Barry nodded as Novu waved his hand as Barry felt the memories of his doppelganger enter his mind, though he still had his own memories, since he could tell the difference, before Novu sent him back to earth, with Barry feeling much happier than he had before hand.
After returning to Earth from the Monitor's realm, Barry decided that if he was truly going operate under Thawne's nose, he'd need to change the game a bit as he entered the time vault for real this time and glared at Thawne's suit before going over to the plinth and activating Gideon.
"Good evening Barry Allen, I was not expecting you so soon." Gideon said.
"Gideon, I need you to alter all of Thawne's surveillance camera footage so that he doesn't know I'm onto him, including masking when I use my speed before I show it to him and record no knowledge of this meeting happening." Barry said.
"Done. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Gideon asked.
"Pull up the newspaper article regarding Crisis." Barry said, since he needed to see for himself.
"Right away." Gideon said as she projected the newspaper article from the plinth and Barry smiled when he saw what it read.
"Flash Lives, saves Central City and the world from Crisis by Iris West-Allen." Barry said with a grin, since it looked like this article had been published in 2019 and it showed that this time around, he survived Crisis.
"Did the article always look like this?" Barry asked.
"Negative. Until you woke up, the article said that you vanished fighting the Reverse Flash in 2024, though records say that event no longer exists." Gideon said.
"Do you still have the original article on hand?" Barry asked.
"Yes, why?" Gideon asked.
"Do not alert Thawne to this change in the timeline and whenever he asks, make sure to show him the original article. I do not want him to know that I'm on to him or that the future has changed in any way." Barry said.
"Understood. I'm assuming that you do not want him to know about this either?" Gideon asked and Barry nodded.
"Also, one more thing." Barry said.
"What is it?" Gideon asked.
"If you detect Thawne showing interest in any of my descendants at any time, alert me immediately." Barry said.
"Of course." Gideon said as she made the adjustments Barry asked her to before erasing all records of this encounter in her logs to make sure that Thawne was left unaware before going offline, at which point, Barry left the Time Vault and made his way out of Star Labs, since before he met up with Iris, there was someone else that he was pretty sure he'd need to visit first, which was why, as soon as he was clear from Star Labs, Barry sped off towards Ivy Town.
It took him a little while, but Barry quickly found Ryan at his office.
"Dr. Choi." Barry said.
"Barry. What the hell is going on here? Why did I wake up with a headache and two different sets of memories of my life?" Ryan asked him.
"The monitor didn't visit you before you woke up?" Barry asked.
"No and honestly, I'm glad he didn't, since I want as little interaction with him as possible." Ryan said.
"A sentiment shared by everyone who's ever met him." Barry said.
"Anyways, what's going on? I get that we restored the universe, but shouldn't we have woken up back in the same time the universe was in when it died?" Ryan asked.
"Based on what Novu told me, it sounds like since Oliver was the one who actually lit the spark that reignited the universe, we all got sent back to the beginning of his journey, which translates to the day he returned home from Lian Yu." Barry said.
"Okay, I'll act like that makes some kind of sense." Ryan said.
"Face it Ryan, the world stopped making sense when the particle accelerator blew up." Barry said.
"True." Ryan said.
"I just stopped by to check in, since I figured that you might be freaking out, since unlike the rest of us, you haven't been involved in this world for very long and I know that it takes a while to get used to the craziness of it." Barry said.
"Thanks. Yeah, I have to admit, I was freaking out big time when I first woke up." Ryan said.
"Yeah, I wonder why Novu gave you the memories of your counterpart from his earth, but didn't actually talk to you, since it probably would've helped you adapt to this new world." Barry said.
"Yeah tell me about it." Ryan said.
"You know, if you want out of this world, we can ask J'onn to erase your memories of the old world." Barry said, since while Ryan was a genius and he knew that he could definitely come in handy, especially if that newspaper article he'd seen in the time vault was any indication, since it meant that another crisis was coming, but he wasn't going to force the man to stay in this world, so he was offering him an out.
"I appreciate that Barry, but I don't want an out. This world may be crazy, but honestly, knowing that I helped to create it, helped to bring back everyone who was lost, it does give me a good sense of pride. Even though no one will ever know about what I did outside of a select group, I can live on knowing that I helped save the world. And who knows, maybe someday I'll help save it again." Ryan said and Barry smiled.
"I'm happy to hear that, since with a mind like yours, you'll definitely come in handy. But hopefully not as the paragon of humanity again." Barry said and Ryan nodded in agreement with that.
"Yeah, let's hope that the anti monitor really is dead, so that way we don't have to deal with another crisis." Ryan said.
"Yeah, that would be nice." Barry said, though he was fairly certain that their fight with Mobius was not yet over, but hopefully, they'd have some time to prepare before he came around. That was why the first chance Barry got, he was going to show Cisco and Caitlin the article in the time vault so that they could begin preparing for the anti monitor's arrival. Until then, he decided it was best not to let on.
"You should probably get back to Central City before anyone gets suspicious." Ryan said and Barry nodded.
"I just wanted to check in with you first. If you find yourself being overwhelmed by anything, feel free to give me a call." Barry said.
"I will, thanks Barry." Ryan said, right as Barry's phone buzzed.
"Speaking of getting back to Central City, that was a text from Iris asking where I am, since apparently she's already discovered that I'm awake. By the way, expect an invite to our wedding." Barry said and Ryan nodded as Barry sped out of the lab.