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ShanouNash: Yes, Benjamin is Barry and Caitlin's son. You're the only one so far who picked up on that tiny detail from the previous story. Kudos to you.

Guest: We will be learning a little more about him throughout the whole story. We'll start in this chapter.

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Well, you guys asked via reviews/favorites and follows so here's the next chapter so dive on in.

The Flash: Survival of the Fastest

Chapter 2: Herald from the Future

S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex

Barry stared at the monitors displaying Benjamin in his cell. Almost immediately after hearing this man claim to be his son, Barry grabbed him and shoved him into the Pipeline practically throwing away the key as he did. And since then he couldn't break the scowl on his face nor tear his gaze from the video feed.

Was "Benjamin" really expecting Barry to fall for a faux identity a third time? What was that old saying? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Whatever did it say about being fooled three times?

"You OK?" Barry looked over his shoulder to see Iris approaching him. Like Barry she was concerned about this Benjamin character, the reveal of Jay Garrick being a serial killer named Hunter Zolomon AKA Zoom weighed heavily on all of them not too long ago so of course they were skeptical.

"I'm fine Iris." Iris could tell Barry was not fine. "It's just weird you know? A stranger just waltzes in here and says 'Hey I'm your son from the future!' It just doesn't work that way." Barry sighed. "And I would never name my kid Benjamin, maybe Henry or Joe, but not Benjamin, but I think I get why we would give him Joseph as his middle name. I mean… I know my future self and his Caitlin thought about Ben as a name for their kid but I kind of want to distance myself from him…"

Iris felt a small smile cross her lips. The prospect of her and Barry together had been dancing around them, the Space Time Continuum and Alternate Realities even after she agreed to marry Eddie. She would be lying if she said she didn't feel something for Barry and hearing him talk about a future where he's a father made Iris happy. Casting aside her thoughts and any romantic feelings for Barry she just knew instinctively he would be a great dad; after all he had two of the best dads in any universe.

"Look Barry, Wells and Zoom played all of us for fools." Iris placed a hand on Barry's shoulder. "They set it up so that they fell into the roles we all needed, a mentor, a friend, a scientist, a lover…" She trailed off when she said the last one. "But Ben…he's different, I don't know but I feel like we can trust him."

"'Jay' was the same way Iris and that almost ended extremely badly for us, Caitlin especially."

"I'm not saying we should take every word he says as completely true but maybe we should give him some benefit of the doubt. You wouldn't be Barry if you didn't actively look for the good in people. And for what it's worth, I believe he's telling the truth. Call it Auntie Iris' Intuition."

Barry looked down at his feet. Iris was right. It was in his nature to look for the good in everyone, that's how he believed in his dad's innocence for fourteen years. "I'll think about it Iris, but for now he stays in the pipeline." Barry returned his gaze to the monitor to see Benjamin waving up at the camera.

S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin's Lab

"Pretty weird, isn't it?" Caitlin looked up from her desk to see Cisco in her doorway.

"Hmm?"

"Your and Barry's son from the future I mean."

"Oh… right… that…" Caitlin said turning back to her work. "I guess it is a little weird considering…"

"What? You and Barry have been dating for only four months. Don't tell me you haven't hit a home run yet."

Caitlin's face went as red as Barry's suit. "We… we haven't done any of that Cisco!" She was really flustered. "I mean… yes we've kissed and slept together… not 'slept' slept together… just cuddling and… you know kissing…"

Cisco raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He figured Barry and Caitlin would be all over each other at this point. "You mean to tell me you and Barry have been together for four months and you haven't moved past First Base yet?" Cisco asked not really believing it.

"That, is an extremely personal bit of information Cisco, one I don't think you need to know!"

"Why not?" Cisco whined. "Two of my best friends are dating each other. I need to know that you're both OK because if this doesn't work I am going to be the one to pick up the pieces."

"Cisco…"

"Hey guys." Cisco and Caitlin turned to see Barry standing in the door way. "We're going to let Ben out. I could use you guys down there."

STAR Labs, The Pipeline

Ben looked up as the door to his cell opened up showcasing Team Flash in its entirety.

"So, I take it you're willing to listen to me now?" Ben jumped to his feet and was just about to step out of the cell when Barry held up a hand gesturing him to stop.

"We're going to set a few ground rules." Barry said

"Sure, I'll do whatever you guys want me to if it gets me out of here."

"Cisco" The engineer walked forward and pulled out a device from behind his back. It was small, black and had a glowing blue square in the center.

"This is a power suppression anklet." Cisco explained as he presented it to Ben who took it.

"You will wear that at all times of the day." Barry stepped in. "With a radius of Three miles of S.T.A.R. Labs." Ben nodded in agreement. "So long as you wear it you will have no access to your powers and we will know where you are at all times.

"OK, so this is like White Collar." Ben said to himself. "Guess that makes me Neal Caffrey and you Peter Burke doesn't it Dad. Does that mean Mom's Elizabeth?" He asked giving Caitlin a smile.

"Don't call me that!" Caitlin snapped a little too menacingly. She noted Ben's hurt expression and backed off slightly. "Please…"

Barry noticed how uncomfortable Caitlin had become after being called mom. Seeing that hurt hurt him as well so he instinctively moved to her side. If this between them worked out maybe one day they'd be OK with being called Mom and Dad, but for now it was for the best that they remain Barry and Caitlin. "In fact, you should just call us by our actual names."

"I'm sorry…" Ben apologized allowing Barry to continue to give Ben the rundown of rules.

"Only two of us have the keys to that anklet." Barry continued. "And you will be supervised by either Joe or myself at all times of the day in addition to that anklet." Ben seemed to be OK with spending all day everyday with his dad and his grandpa.

"If for any reason you break that anklet, I will haul your ass back into this cell faster than you can blink."

"…Doubt you can actually catch me…" Ben grumbled under his breath so no one could hear.

"And if you do anything, and I mean ANYTHING to hurt any of my friends I will personally have Vibe annihilate your body from the inside out." Barry said each word firmly as he slowly walked forward so that he was inches away from Ben's face. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear Da – I mean, Barry." Ben quickly corrected himself. "I'm going to shut up and put this on know." Ben awkwardly pointed at the anklet before putting it on his ankle.

A moment later he had the anklet on and Caitlin stepped forward. "Barry, would you and Benjamin follow me to my lab? I would like to run a few tests."

Barry simply nodded. "Lead the way Mo – I mean, Dr. Snow." Ben responded.

S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex

While Barry, Caitlin and Ben went to the bio engineer's lab the rest of team flash gathered in the Cortex.

"So… I hate to address the elephant in the room but… by a show of hands who trust Barry and Caitlin's son from the future?" Cisco asked Joe, Wally, Iris and Eddie. None of the team raised their hands. "Oh good. So, I'm not the only one." Cisco seemed satisfied they were all in some form of agreement.

"It's not that we don't trust him Cisco, it's because we just don't know him." Joe answered. "We have been fooled before."

"Yeah but Dr. Wells and Jay manipulated all of us for their own personal motives. Ben just feels different. Like he isn't hiding anything." Iris said

"He could still be lying." Eddie said. "It's happened a little too often for comfort.

"I think Barry and Caitlin could handle him if he turns out to be a bad guy." Wally said. "But I have to agree with my big sister. I don't think he's a bad kid."

"Think you could send a message to Harry and Jesse?" Joe asked Cisco. "If things go bad having them here to help would certainly be a blessing. Having four speedsters on our side is better than three."

"Or, Cisco could vibe him." Wally voiced. "Find out everything he's hiding before it comes to bite us in the ass."

"I could, though I've never really vibed someone from the future before."

"Didn't you do it to the Future Barry three years ago?" Iris asked recalling those events.

"Yeah but that was not intentional. My powers were just starting to flourish when that happened. I honestly thought I was on a wacky drug trip for a while. It has been much easier to vibe people from other Earths than from the future." Cisco remembered his first vibe. It was not very fun since he ended up having a seizure and probably would have died had Future-Barry not found him convulsing on the floor

"Well, maybe you should at least try." Joe offered.

"Maybe later… for now who says we listen in?" Cisco asked. This time everyone else agreed as Cisco turned on the two-way speakers so they could hear.

S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin's Lab

Ben sat on the gurney while Caitlin took samples of his blood to run her tests. Ben was extremely compliant with every test Caitlin wanted to run, even the full body scan, which required him to remove his shirt and Caitlin could not deny that he looked like a model male specimen one would find on the cover of an Abercrombie & Fitch. One thing she noted was the tribal band tattoo on his right arm. It was a simple black but it looked like lightning bolts racing around in an endless circle. She would have to ask him about it later, since she was curious as to why her son would ever get a tattoo.

Caitlin sat at her desk analyzing the samples and running all her tests when Barry walked over towards her, his gaze never left Benjamin as he made his way over to the doctor.

"Find anything?" Barry asked his girlfriend.

"Nothing out of the ordinary" Caitlin replied. "Tests are showing that he has a connection to the Speed Force but there's something off about it."

"How so?"

"It's like that time Harry stole 2% of your speed and gave it to Zoom." Caitlin explained "Its registering as a 90% connection to the Speed Force."

"So he's somehow only got a connection to 90% of the Speed Force? Did he say how that happened?" Caitlin shook her head.

"No, I only just got the results."

"What about a DNA test?" Barry didn't really care if this guy had he Speed Force or not, what bugged him was his claim of being his son. "Is he… our son?" He knew that was the question on both their minds. The one that needed to be addressed that neither wanted to think about.

"Barry we both know there are people who can pass off as other people. Remember Everyman and Eobard Thawne?"

"Yeah, it's just what he said bugs me." Barry leaned against her desk and looked into her eyes, the eyes he found so easy to get lost in. "I want to believe it, but at the same time doubt is plaguing me.

"His DNA is a 78% match to yours and 22% match to mine but if we ignore the possibility that he isn't who he said he is then…" Caitlin grabbed the results of the DNA test and handed them to Barry. "According to the tests he is our son."

Barry took the news with a huge grain of salt before sighing heavily. "It doesn't mean we have to believe it."

"Barry..." Caitlin wanted to say something but she just couldn't bring herself to say anything. Ben being here was definitely weird. She and Barry had only just started dating not even five months ago and suddenly a thirty-year-old young man shows up and tells them. 'Surprise! You're going to have a kid one day.' In a way, it reminded her of how much the universe seemed to still want Iris and Barry together, but this time it was telling them that she and Barry were going to stay together. It was nice, but she felt like this set her future in stone.

"Cait, I just don't want anything to happen to you. My future-self screwed around with everyone… Zoom kidnapped you because of me and I just don't want you to go through that again. Heck… I've even made a mistake that cost you your mother." Caitlin dropped her head slightly when she was reminded of those dreadful experiences.

"You two find anything interesting from your tests?" Ben asked as he walked over to them pulling a STAR Labs sweater over his body. "Look Barry, I-"

"I don't care what the lab results say." Barry cut off the young speedster. "Caitlin's results may indicate that you're our son but I refuse to believe it."

"Look, I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I'll do whatever I have to so you believe me fully."

"Good, because Caitlin is going to be asking you some questions." Barry said.

"I am?" The bio-engineer asked to which Barry nodded. "Right, of course I am." Caitlin flashed over to her desk and grabbed her tablet. Earning a slightly surprised look from Ben.

"You're a speedster!?" He sounded shocked and surprised which certainly got Barry and Caitlin's complete undivided attention. You'd think their own kid would know if both of his parents had super speed.

"Yes… how do you not know that?" Caitlin asked.

Well…because… because…" Ben was seemingly stumped. "I guess… by the time I'm born… Mo- Caitlin's powers are gone."

"Gone?" Barry asked "What do you mean by gone?"

Ben lowered his head. "I mean they might have been stolen… most likely by a speedster clad all in white. I've crossed paths with him before. He called himself Godspeed."

"Godspeed…" Caitlin quietly repeated the name of the man who would steal her powers. Steal one of the best parts of her life. "Who's that?"

"He's a speedster like us… in a way he's a lot like Zoom or even Savitar but… different. He wants to be the fastest but he doesn't want to be the only speedster. Though if he thinks you're wasting your gifts he takes away your powers. And unlike Zoom he can really do it."

"OK… well on that note… what do you say to answering a few of our questions?" Barry could tell talking about this Godspeed was hard for Ben. He must have done something more than just take away Caitlin's powers. They'd have to ask more about that later.

"Ben nodded. "Yeah… that's cool… I mean… let's just start… before I babble too much…"

Caitlin smiled. Ben really was a lot like her and Barry. "First question. What is your full name." Barry gave Caitlin a 'for real' look. "What? If you want me to run a polygraph test I need some form of a baseline."

The Flash sighed before motioning for Ben to answer the question.

Ben breathed in and began to speak. "My full name, like I said, is Benjamin Joseph Allen. Or Ben for short. You named me Ben because you didn't want me growing up thinking I had to live up to Joe, or Henry Allen. I think you chose it because you liked how easily it rolled off your tongues. You chose Joseph as my middle name because of grandpa Joe."

The two speedsters nodded in acceptance so Caitlin moved on to the next question. "When's your birthday?"

Ben bit his lip, much in the same way Caitlin would when something bothered her. "This is where it gets tricky. I am twenty-five years old, and I was born on June 16 2018."

That got Caitlin and Barry's attention. If that was Ben's birthday, then Caitlin should already be a month pregnant with him. The problem was, Barry and Caitlin were taking it slow. They haven't exactly done the dance in the sheets yet.

"Wait a minute!" Barry interrupted. You're born in June of next year?"

"Yup."

"That's impossible! I'm not pregnant!" Caitlin fired in defense.

"Yes, you are not pregnant. And so long as you aren't I can stick around with no adverse strain on myself or the timeline. But like I said, my age is where it gets tricky, like really tricky. Biologically and mentally I am twenty-five years old, chronologically and maybe emotionally I am only twelve."

"How is that possible?" Barry asked.

"Well, you see. I was born with my connection to the Speed Force. The only problem was my connection wasn't what you'd call perfect so everything's a little out of whack, hence the 90% connection you undoubtedly noticed Mom, specifically, my aging is what's really messed up. I age about twenty-five months in a year. Basically, you guys age a day while I age two. So yeah your pregnancy with me lasted a little shorter than you probably wanted. For what it's worth, the problem is now fixed. I age at a normal rate now."

"How'd you manage school?" Caitlin asked being the academic. She couldn't possibly imagine how Ben went through school if he was aging rapidly and possibly skipping grades every year.

"Well, I was home-schooled…" Ben rubbed the back of his neck. "It kind of sucked but it was for the best. I might have been physically the right age but you always told me that I just wasn't emotionally ready for something like public school considering I was mentally seven when I should have been entering high school."

"Ok, what's with the tattoo on your upper right bicep?" Caitlin asked immediately noticing a slight change in Ben's body.

"It's… a reminder… of a time when I wasn't fast enough." Ben said as he clenched the location of his tattoo tightly.

"Do you mind telling us what happened?" Barry asked "You said you'd tell us anything we want to know." Caitlin gave Barry a slight glare. "I mean you don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to."

"Uh… yes… I do mind actually… I lost something really precious to me that day… so you'd understand why I don't want to talk about it… maybe some other time."

"Look Ben… You mother and I…" Barry shared a look with Caitlin, he wanted to see if it was OK with her to address her as Ben's mother. For him it honestly felt strange, but in a good way, to call Caitlin Ben's Mother. "We've been through the ringer ourselves. We've lost things we've cared about to… and I know you're probably feeling angry but you need to let people in. If you don't, it will just consume you and you won't heal."

"Yeah… I'd love to do that Da… Barry… but I don't think I'm ready for that just…"

"So… uh… why come here, to this time?" Barry asked this time.

Ben immediately flinched at the question before hanging his head. "I came back because you need my help."

"Help with what?" Caitlin asked noticing the truth in his words.

"We've gotten along just fine so far." Barry commented folding his arms across his chest.

"It's not just you that needs my help… It's also me that needs your help. You see in my timeline I have a problem…"

"What sort of problem?"

"The speedster I mentioned before, Godspeed, well, he sort of created dozens if not hundreds of other speedsters and unleashed them all over the world, turning it into his own personal playground. No one can stop him. I was even there when he killed the entire Justice League by himself."

"The what League?" Barry asked a little confused.

Immediately Ben slapped a hand over his mouth muttering a slew of profanities directed towards himself. "Sorry… that was a spoiler…"

"So you need our help to beat this Godspeed and his what Speed Legion?" Barry asked getting Ben back on topic.

"That… that is actually a pretty awesome name Barry." Ben complimented. "Speed Legion… I like it, if only it weren't for a bunch of high speed psychopaths. But either way it isn't just Godspeed and his Speed Legion. There's one other Speedster and he's out to kill me."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I know nothing about him aside from his name. Speed Demon."

"Speed Demon…" Barry pondered the name.

"And he's fast… He is the fastest speedster ever. I don't know how much faster he is but he can make The Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar and even Godspeed all look like they are standing still. I was actually running away from him just before I arrived here."

S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex

A few questions later. Barry, Caitlin and Ben made their way to the cortex to join the rest of their team. The two Flashes were about to urge Ben to recant his tale but Cisco said the rest of them had already heard it. So here the were; Barry and Ben were standing in the middle of the Cortex while Cisco, Caitlin Iris, Eddie Wally and Joe stood behind the main terminal.

"So, how do we take down Ricochet?" Cisco asked the future speedster not wanting to use the man's real name.

"Recoil," Ben emphasized the Meta-Human's name as if daring Cisco into a naming war. "has the highest Acceleration Rate of any Speedster, well except for one other Speedster, but he's dead so we don't have to be worried about him." Ben pulled out a device from his pocket and after hitting a few keys Recoil's file came up on the main monitor.

"Whoa! That's cool!" Cisco eyed Ben's tech like a kid in a candy store. Future Tech always made him excited. "I gotta know how you did that."

"Easy there, Cisco, you're the one that will create this bad boy after all."

"Wait, so am I going to make it now that you've told me I'm going to make it? Or was I always going to make it?"

"Uh, I think it's the second one. I find that so long as what supposed to happen generally happens and I'm not super involved with it things just work themselves out. Causality loop you know."

"Guys focus!" Barry lightly snapped the nerds out of there moment so they could continue.

"Right, well in my time, Recoil's Acceleration is insane. He could go from Zero to Mach 10 in one second." Ben explained. "That's all thanks to The Speed Force granting him the ability to use his muscles like hundreds of springs allowing him to exert tremendous force and take enormous amounts of shock."

"That's why bullets bounced off of him?" Joe asked. "And why he could fire them back like a shotgun?"

"Right." Ben pulled up a diagram showing the bullet's hitting Recoil. Zooming in the diagram showed all of Recoil's muscles compressing under the bullets not allowing them to break the skin before snapping back into place with an equal amount of force to negate the bullets. "Basically blunt force does not work that well on him."

"Great…" Joe said so sarcastically.

"There has to be some way to be able to take him down." Caitlin wondered aloud. "No one is completely immune to blunt force."

"Precisely Dr. Snow, while things like bullets and punches might not work so well on him we can still get him with sharp objects like a needle." Ben gave Caitlin a smile which earned him a scowl from the rest of Team Flash and specifically Barry.

"So how do we catch him?" Barry cut in feeling protective of Caitlin. She may be a big girl, with super speed and minor electrokinesis, capable of looking out for herself but after Zoom's deceit Barry just didn't want his girlfriend to suffer through any more heartache.

"We work on your acceleration so you're fast enough to get up to high speeds quickly." Ben turned back to his father with a smile. "And I know just the place to do it. Only thing is it's a little out of my radius." Ben directed everyone's attention to his anklet.

Somewhere in Central City

On the other side of Central City in an abandoned warehouse Recoil was jumping around trying to increase his acceleration. Sure, he'd been able to outpace both of the Flashes but then that third one had to show up and ruin everything. Next time he was going to move fast enough to win their speed in a race. With the speed of three Flashes he'd surely be able to out race the white speedster.

There was a flash of white lightning and recoil felt himself being grabbed by his neck before being violently thrown against the ground. "You won't be getting back to your original acceleration that way Recoil." Recoil looked up to see the one who brought him to this time period standing before him.

"You brought me 'ere to kill the Flash! Ya failed to mention there'd be another one!" The mysterious speedster moved inches from Recoil's face in a flash of white light.

"Other one? What are you talking about?"

"Well, ya left out the girl! And the other guy! I could have easily killed one flash let alone three so how 'bout ya give me my-Argh!" The Speedster shoved his vibrating right hand through Recoil's chest, but instead of killing the meta-human he was still alive in extreme agony.

"All I have to do is stop moving my hand for less than one millisecond and it will rupture your heart killing you instantly." He was not joking. He fully intended to kill Recoil. "I told you to fight the Flash. I never said anything about killing him."

"Ya should 'ave been more specific…" Recoil groaned. "I wouldn't have beaten 'im that close to de- AAAAAAAAAGH!" He screamed in pain as white lightning discharged off of the other speedster's body shocking recoil both on the inside and out.

"I warned you that I have a low tolerance for Failure. Now you'll see what happens to those who fail me." The White speedster withdrew his hand giving Recoil a brief second to catch his breath before he began to run circles around him.

Recoil could see what was happening and in that moment, he crouched intent on using his propulsion to jettison himself away from the psycho speedster. But before he could jump the white speedster flew past him several times passing a vibrating hand through his knees and ankles severing his tendons and nerves.

He continued to run circles forming a cyclone of pure white lightning giving it a massive charge. Yellow lightning crackled all over Recoil as it came to the surface slowly being yanked out and merging with the white lightning. It only lasted for an instant of real time but for recoil it was hours of agony as the little Speed Force that was still within him was torn from his body.

The white speedster came back around one more time collecting all of Recoil's Speed Force on his right arm and in one fluid motion he cast it into the air firing a golden-white lightning bolt into the sky.

Central City Park

Axel Areight was out for his evening jog. He had a long day, just coming off a twenty-four-hour shift at the hospital, and these evening escapades were his only time for solace especially with his job on the line. He overheard, from the Dean of Medicine, that he was too much of a liability for the hospital and it would be much costlier to keep him instead of just firing him outright. So here he was, running and thinking about his future. What was he going to do with his life if he really was fired? Unfortunately, this would be his last few moments of peace, ever.

Thunder rumbled throughout the sky causing Axel to stop running and look up wondering where the thunder clouds were. His eyes caught the cause of the thunder far too late as a bolt of golden-white lightning came crashing down on him. Electricity surged through his body as he was flung off the path and into the pond to his left. The lightning surged from there and fried all the aquatic life and giving Axel another shock.

As he slowly began to sink beneath the watery surface the last thing Axel remembered seeing was a man clad in white standing before her before he drifted off into oblivion.

This is the end of the chapter

Please tell me what you liked, didn't like, look forward to/think will happen, or your general thoughts and comments, this will help me make the story better; I'm a big boy so I can take criticism. And if you Review you get a Shout Out and questions answered either privately or in the next chapter.

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