The next chapter of our adventures begins. Here's the big confrontation between Barry and the team and Barry confessing about Flashpoint and the consequences of his actions. My co-authors are Brightburn1985 and ThomasMarieAmell2.0. Go check them out.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash

Once Barry returned to 2016, he called for a meeting with Team Flash in order to come clean about what he'd done, because he just couldn't have this weight on his chest if this was the world he was going to be living in now.

"So you called us here. What's this about?" Caitlin asked once everyone had arrived.

"I need to be honest with you all. I've kept a secret from you that I need to confess because what I've done affects all of you." Barry said.

"What could you have possibly done?" Joe asked.

"I changed the timeline," Barry admitted.

"That'll do it," Joe said, shocked as he took a seat so he could process what he'd been told.

"You changed the timeline? Like, you went back in time?" Wally asked.

"Yeah, after the night we defeated Zoom, I wasn't in the best frame of mind," Barry started to explain, "so in a fit of depression and rage, I went back in time and saved my mother from being murdered that night."

"So is she alive right now?" Wally asked, looking around as if Nora Allen was just about to pop out at any second.

"That's not how time travel works. If she survived, we wouldn't even know she was supposed to be dead," Caitlin corrected him.

"She was for a few months. I lived in this alternate timeline where both my parents were alive. It's called Flashpoint apparently. But everything went wrong. Both of them died again because of a mistake I made. So I went back in time again to stop myself. And I created a new timeline. It's the one we're living in right now. It's not that different, but for some of us in this room, it's changed in a lot of meaningful ways. Ways that I never intended to happen,"

Everything was silent as they all took in Barry's words that this timeline they were living in was a product of Barry messing with the timeline. "Are you serious?" Cisco shouted.

"Cisco!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"Do you know how many times I begged you to save my brother? To save Dante? But every time you said, 'No Cisco,' 'I can't Cisco,' 'The timeline shouldn't be changed Cisco,' but when it concerns your family, to hell with the rules right?"

"I never said those things." Barry said.

"What do you mean? Of course you said those things."

"I never said anything like that. You may remember me saying that, but that wasn't me. When I heard your brother died, I wanted to save him. I was going to save him, but Jay Garrick from Earth-3 stopped me and explained why I couldn't go messing with the timeline again,"

"You heard he died? You were at his funeral! You lived with me for weeks because you didn't want me to be alone after he died. What are you saying?"

"I'm saying… Dante was alive in the original timeline. Dante was alive before I went back to save my mother and when I came back, he'd been dead for a few months." Barry told him.

"He was alive?" Cisco said in a whispered tone. "He was alive?!" Cisco shouted. "You killed my brother?!"

"No, no I didn't kill your brother. I didn't…" Barry denied.

"But you did something." Cisco accused him. "You changed the timeline. And my brother is dead as a result of that. You killed him!"

"I didn't mean for Dante to die! You think I wanted this? For my best friend's brother to die because of something I did?"

"Don't call me that," Cisco shook his head. "You don't deserve to call me that after what you did. My brother is dead because of you."

"Can we take this somewhere else?" Barry asked as he looked at the rest of the team staring at their heated argument.

"No!" Cisco shouted. "We are going to do this right here so they all know what you did. You changed the timeline to suit your wants. You got the perfect life, but something went wrong and whiny Barry Allen had to go back to change everything and my brother died as a result,"

"That's not fair. I didn't want Dante to die. And if I could change it, I would, but I can't, not anymore. It's too dangerous if I go back again,"

"I don't care! My brother is dead because of you, and there is nothing that I wouldn't do to have him back. To hell with the timeline. I just want him back," Cisco cried out.

"I know, Cisco. Believe me, I know. But if I go back and save Dante, maybe Caitlin, Joe, Iris or even someone else may die in his place. I'm sorry that my mistake cost you your brother but I can't go back in time to save him. It's too risky." Barry explained, a few tears threatening to escape his eyes before he wiped them off.

"A mistake? You killed my brother by mistake? You call ruining my life a mistake? Everything that's happened is your fault! You destroy everything you touch!"

"Fine! Fine! It's my fault. Everything is my fault. I made a mistake and it got your brother killed. I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? I can't bring back your brother Cisco. I just can't," Barry said.

"Why can't you? You brought back your mother. Or is my family just not as important as your own?"

"Yes! Okay? My family means everything to me. I'm sorry this happened, but for once I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to be selfish for once. I deserve that! I deserve a chance to be happy,"

"And what about me? I don't deserve to be happy? Why do you get a chance to be happy?" Cisco asked angrily.

"It's not worth it Cisco. Trust me, whatever happens, it's not going to be worth having your brother back. What I did, I never should have done and you have to pay the price. For that, I'm sorry, but it is what it is. I can't do what you're asking," Barry dejectedly shook his head.

"No, you won't do it. There's a difference. I need to get out of here," Cisco declared.

"Wait, I need to know if we're going to be okay. Because you're still my best friend Cisco, and I want us to get past this someday." Barry asked.

"To be blunt, I don't know. Truth is I want us to be okay. I want to be able to trust you again. But I just don't know if that's going to be possible right now, because the only thing I see when I look at you is the fact that you are the reason my family is broken beyond repair. So I don't want to see you, not for a long time." Cisco said before he walked out of the room to contemplate where he would be going from here. Nobody was sure when they would see him again, if they ever would.

Barry looked back at the rest of the team. "I'm sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen,"

"Are there any other secrets you have? Because if you do, this is the time to tell them," Wally asked. Wally was angry as well, but it didn't seem that any of the consequences affected him much, so he didn't really have much reason to be angry. He just knew Barry had made a grave mistake.

"No, this is it," Barry admitted. He decided not to mention anything about Iris. She seemed to have gotten a good ending at least. No need to say that things had been worse for her in the original timeline.

Wally nodded before he left the Cortex as well, followed by Joe.

"Guess you were right," Barry called out as Caitlin was about to leave as well. "I really am just a selfish bastard."

"No, you were right. You deserve the chance for a little happiness. Cisco is just angry, but he'll calm down and understand where you're coming from. But just for the record, you were an idiot Fleet Feet."

"I know Ms. Frosty. It was a mistake that I never intended for the rest of you to pay. And I'm scared of what else is going to bite me in the ass for this."

The consequences were being known very soon afterward.

A brand new speedster going by the name of The Rival. The self-proclaimed arch nemesis of The Flash.

It was honestly embarrassing how green this speedster was. He must have just developed his powers going by how easily it was for Barry to apprehend him.

They faced off in an abandoned steel mill just within the borders of Central City. Just upriver from where the latest husk had been found. The guy didn't know anything about the skills a speedster could develop. His only strength was within his speed, which Barry easily surpassed him.

His identity was Edward Clariss. A DNA test confirmed he was the husk they had found earlier, but Clariss didn't reveal how that had happened.

The only irregularity was how his powers had developed. He was in Central City the night of the explosion, but previous records showed no mutations in his genes afterward. It was possible it only lay dormant until recently, but something must have triggered them to appear. Clariss had told them of a tale that a man in a mask with a glowing stone had gifted him these powers.

Officials were looking into it because they couldn't rule anything out when in concern to metas, but there wasn't anything backing his story. But Clariss did give a name and his story remained consistent no matter how many times he told it. Dr. Alchemy.

There was nothing to the name. And Caitlin had been in touch with her underground contacts to keep a lookout for a new meta gifting powers to others. There were whispers of a man in a cloak that might match the description Clariss had given, but nothing definitive.

That was all they managed to get out of Clariss and all they would be able to get out of him because Clariss was dead the very next day. Killed in the cell they placed him in. Some unseen force had thrown him around the cell before he finally died from the blood loss. Clariss' screams were the last thing they heard. Pleas for his life. To be given another chance. The final thing he said was the name Alchemy.

They had no idea how this was possible. The cell and the area surrounding it had active meta dampeners that should have disabled all meta powers from working. They had no idea how this invisible force had managed to breach the security. It was going to be difficult to find out since they had no evidence to process besides Clariss' corpse. But it was highly probable there were going to be more.

Going by pure speculation, since Clariss was one of the five husks they found, there were still four unknown metas roaming around Central City. Usually this wouldn't be a bad thing. There were probably thousands of metas they had no idea about, but these particular metas were crafted by another who they had no idea what their intentions were.

Until they had more information, they just had to leave well enough alone. So far, Alchemy hadn't done anything wrong. He'd given Clariss powers, but that didn't constitute to be hunted down. Clariss seemed to have asked for these powers and then used them to his own advantage, trying to terrorize Barry. Just because Clariss didn't turn out good, didn't mean Alchemy was as well. They had to give Alchemy, whoever he was, the benefit of the doubt.

It wasn't until they were introduced to another case where things started to seem suspicious. A lamppost had been bent directly into the window of an apartment. The husband was in the hospital. The wife had been in the kitchen during the time so she hadn't seen anything. The only witness, their foster daughter Frances 'Frankie' Kane had claimed to have blacked out when it happened.

Barry tried to get as much off the crime scene as he could before Albert would inevitably take over. The amount of force needed to bend that lamppost even just an inch surpassed what humans were usually capable of. Most likely answer, a meta with super strength. There were no prints on the lamp but the meta could have used gloves.

An interesting thing though was that Julian's examinations revealed the lamppost had pressure applied to the entire structure simultaneously. A telekinetic perhaps then.

When they brought Frankie to CCPD for questioning, Julian had his suspicions about her, Julian tested Frankie's DNA for some indicator.

"You think that girl, Frankie, has powers that she used to attack her foster father?" Barry asked as Julian was examining her saliva under a microscope.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think that." Julian responded. He took a moment to look at another file on his desk before comparing it to the one under the microscope. "And it's a good thing I did. Her cells match those of one of the husks we found,"

Julian sprung into action as he raced down the stairs to intercept Frankie before she left. "Hey! You! Girl! You did it, didn't you? With your powers. You put your foster father in the hospital," Julian accused her in front of the entire police force.

"What? No, I don't know what you're talking about." Frankie frantically denied. Feelings of fear started to burst through her and she clenched her hands against her head, trying to calm herself before she had another one of her episodes.

"You did it. You're a meta. Your foster father is in the hospital because of you. Isn't that right?" Julian continued to accuse her.

Frankie was shaking, but then everything seemed to calm. "Oh, I wanted to do much more than just hurt him. And now, I'm going to do the same thing I did to him to you," Frankie snarled, her palms facing upward. Frankie was tense in concentration as the entire CCPD building shook.

The CCPD relief was torn down from the wall and its trajectory was headed straight toward Julian.

Of course, Barry couldn't allow Julian to get hurt, or worse die, so he flashed into his suit and pulled Julian away from danger.

Barry headed outside where Frankie was casually walking away from the department. "Frankie Kane!" Barry shouted.

"Frankie isn't in the house anymore. My name is Magenta," Magenta declared.

"Look, I don't know what you're going through right now, but I can help you. You just need to let me," Barry offered his hand. Barry took a good look into her glowing eyes to see if there was any part of the scared girl he had previously interviewed.

"I don't need any help," Magenta denied.

A police cruiser was approaching them, but Magenta quickly made use of the situation. Using her powers to lift the car into the air. She relinquished her control and let it drop with the driver still inside.

Barry rushed up the walls and leaped into the car, getting the police officer to safety on the ground before the car came crashing to the ground.

Barry took a look around, but Frankie, or Magenta, must have gotten away when he was distracted.

"So what exactly is the plan?" Caitlin asked.

"We track down Frankie just like we would with any other metahuman. That's how this works. She assaulted her foster father and nearly destroyed CCPD. We need to bring her in," Barry replied.

"But she's just a child. A scared, confused, and mentally abused child who is probably struggling with this new power she's been given." Caitlin pointed out.

"We don't know that. She seemed to have a pretty good handle on them at CCPD. She even made her own name. Magenta." Barry told them.

"Julian confirmed she was one of the husks you found. You cannot deny that she was given her powers from Alchemy."

"What I'm saying is that I don't think that was Frankie who tried to attack me. When I talked to her, there wasn't a hint of the girl I saw before. She even referred to herself in the third person. I think she suffers from dissociative identity disorder." Barry admitted.

"She has a split personality?" Caitlin asked.

"Exactly," Barry agreed.

"It's not that uncommon with foster children. They already suffer from the trauma of losing their parents. Still, it's a pretty big step from just having blackouts that Frankie admits to having," Caitlin said.

"I'm telling you, I saw what happened. Whoever Magenta is, she's the one behind the wheel. Not Frankie. She needs help," Barry said.

"I'll have to look into it, but Barry if this is true, then you need to be careful. We don't know what Magenta is capable of. Who knows what she's planning on doing." Caitlin warned him.

"We still need to find her first. Cisco?" Barry asked.

"Already on it. We'll find her soon. Don't worry." Cisco responded, setting up their satellite to try to pinpoint on where Frankie had run off to. Cisco had been keeping quiet for the longest time, which was very unusual for the usually boisterous man. But they understood why. Even Wally and Joe had been keeping their distance from Barry, keeping their interactions strictly professional. Joe talking with him about work, and Wally only speaking to him if he had any questions with his college workload. And with Cisco, frankly they were all just glad he hadn't left the team. He'd only just returned after a month and needed to be informed about what happened with the new speedster.

For a few weeks, it had really only been Barry and Caitlin working in STAR Labs since Caitlin was the only one who'd decided to keep working with Barry. Caitlin slightly blamed herself for this. If she'd just gotten the courage to confess her feelings for him that night, maybe Barry wouldn't have felt he needed to take such drastic actions such as reviving his dead parents. Things were slightly awkward the first few days, but they soon smoothed things over once it was clear Barry genuinely regretted everything he'd done after the battle with Zoom. That his anger was misplaced, but understandable. Nobody approved of what Barry did, but it was understandable.

"Should one of us talk to the foster father at the hospital? He may know something we don't," Barry suggested.

"I'll run over there. With Kane on the run, we need to interview the family anyway. Don't know if he's in any shape for some questioning though…" Joe offered.

"Just go check to see if he is. It would be a big help." Barry thanked him.

Joe left to head down to the hospital to interview the father, leaving the rest of them behind.

"When we do meet Frankie, what are we going to do? How do we stop her?" Cisco asked. He was trying to keep away any negative emotions he may be feeling towards Barry at the moment. This was pure business with a little girl missing and a potential threat. He could be angry at Barry some other time.

"First, we need to identify what her abilities are, and how we would neutralize them." Caitlin said.

"From what I've seen, she's able to bend things with her mind." Barry informed them. "But I couldn't feel it myself. I mean, I saw metal bars bend before my eyes. She picked up a car with barely a thought. But I didn't so much as feel a nudge from her powers,"

"So you have a car, metal bars, plus the lamppost she crashed into her apartment, what would you get?" Caitlin asked.

"They're all metal objects. Frankie isn't telekinetic, she's magnetic," Cisco realized. "She's a giant magnet."

"Perfect, how do we stop a magnet?" Caitlin grumbled.

"You can't. But you can cancel out one. If we somehow generate a positive magnetic field as strong as Magenta's, we can counteract her attacks." Barry said.

Harry and Jesse from Earth-2 had come to visit them with surprising news. Jesse had developed powers of her own. Extreme speed.

Apparently, a drunk driver was speeding and almost crashed into Jesse, but the sudden adrenaline seemed to have activated her dormant powers to allow her time to get out of the way.

Since the only experience they had with speedsters on their Earth was Zoom, they decided to seek advice from Team Flash.

"Well if you need some help, we can always use the Speed Lab," Cisco mentioned.

"What Speed Lab?" Harry and Barry asked at the same time.

Cisco then brought them to another section of STAR Labs that had previously been used for storage. "What is this place?" Barry asked.

"The Speed Lab? The one we built in order to test your speed in a controlled environment without any chance of intruders?" Cisco asked.

"You've never been here before?" Harry directed the question to Barry.

"No," Barry shook his head.

"Well then that has to mean… you changed the timeline didn't you?" Harry realized.

"How did you know that?" Joe asked.

"Because Detective, we've never been here before," Harry gestured to him and his daughter.

"Right, different Earth, different timeline," Joe realized how Harry and Jesse wouldn't be affected by changes to the timeline because they belonged to a different timeline.

"Haven't we talked about how you shouldn't do that? What did you do?" Harry asked.

"Look, I realized my mistake. I changed everything back. But things were different once I got back," Barry explained.

"Of course they were. But I'm sure, whatever it was, it was worth it. Not!" Harry yelled.

"It was to me," Barry mumbled to himself.

"Earth-2 is doing 'Not' now?" Cisco asked.

"Nope, that's all him," Jesse shook her head.

"Just get on the track. We've got a lot of tests to run," Harry demanded.

Jesse complied to her father's wishes and took off her sweater to get a bit more comfortable before she sprinted on the track. Running in circles at a leisurely pace so the others would be able to get a feeling for where she is at the moment.

"Damn, that girl's got some speed," Cisco commented when he saw the numbers coming to the screen.

"Well just keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. I want to be absolutely sure nothing is wrong with her or her powers," Harry said.

"We'll take good care of Jesse, just like we do with Barry," Caitlin assured him.

"That just leaves me brimming with confidence. Not!" Harry shouted.

"Okay, let's calm down, Harry. Now let us do our jobs and I promise you, she will turn out fine like Barry." Caitlin said before she narrowly avoided the paper weight that Harry threw across the room.

"God, I hope not. We don't need anyone messing up the timeline in Earth-2."

After her run in the Speed Lab, Jesse came to a stop out of breath awaiting the results of her performance. "So, how did I do?"

"Everything looks great. I say you're good to go," Caitlin reported.

"Now, hold on. There are still a few tests I want to run through before we can be certain of anything." Harry pulled in the reins.

"So do you need me here or can I go take a break?" Jesse asked.

"Fine. Go have some fun. We'll call you back when we need you," Harry reluctantly let his daughter go.

"Awesome. You want to get out of here?" Jesse asked Wally.

"Okay," Wally nodded his head. Jesse sped the both of them out of the room to who knows where.

"Not that kind of fun!" Harry desperately called out to his long gone child.

"Relax, Jesse can handle herself. And Wally is a responsible adult. I'm sure they're going to be okay," Cisco assured him.

"That does not make me feel better. That is my daughter, and now she's got super speed to top it all off," Harry grinds his teeth.

"What's the problem?" Cisco asked.

"What's the problem? The problem is that she spent months watching Barry Allen capture meta after meta, and now all of a sudden, she has powers. And now she's going to want to use them herself." Harry said.

"And the problem?" Caitlin asked.

"I don't want her to use her powers. It is dangerous. Just because Zoom is gone, doesn't mean it isn't safe for metas on Earth-2. She is going to get herself killed." Harry declared.

"Well that's not your concern. That's Jesse's concern," Caitlin said.

"That's the same thing. Jesse is my daughter. Her concerns are my concerns."

"No, it's not. Maybe when she was a little kid, but not anymore. Jesse is an adult. She has a right to decide how she's going to use her powers. Whether she wants to use them for heroics, for terrorism, or she's going to hide them. That's her decision." Caitlin declared.

"Well, it's still my right as her parent to tell her how I feel about this." Harry said.

"Exactly. Talk to her about it. Tell her how you feel, but ultimately you need to realize it is Jesse's choice on how she wants to use her powers."

"Can you do that? You're a meta Snow, you know the struggles that come with it,"

"I am not getting in the middle of one of your family squabbles just because you don't want to have an honest conversation with your daughter," Caitlin said.

"Ramon?" Harry asked.

"Count me out. I have never seen Jesse angry, but if she is anything like you, I know I don't want to see that," Cisco refused.

"This is why I'm getting premature grey hairs," Harry muttered.

"What the hell were you thinking? Jumping into the road like that? What if Jesse hadn't been there? You would've been killed," Barry was chewing out Wally for thinking so irrationally. Walking into the road, in front of a moving truck so that he may get powers because that was what happened with Jesse.

"What? Only enough room for one speedster in the family Barry?" Wally shouted.

"That has nothing to do with this. You shouldn't go looking to get yourself hurt for the small chance you'll get powers as a result. I mean, you got to use your head," Barry retorted.

"You don't get to tell me what to do. You don't even know me," Wally said.

"Anything you want to add?" Barry directed the question to Joe, who may have some more words for his son.

"No, I think you got everything," Joe shook his head.

"Screw off, I don't need to listen to this," Wally walked off.

"Wally!" Barry shouted.

"What am I going to do about that boy?" Joe asked himself.

"I don't know, but you need to make sure he doesn't do something like this again. He got lucky Jesse was there, but there won't be anyone with him if he tries this again,"

"I know. Believe me, I know. I was so scared and angry at him when I heard what happened. Now I'm just glad he's okay."

"Still, he can't go trying this again. Make sure he knows that Joe. He's not going to listen to me, so you need to get it into his head that what he just tried was idiotic."

"Alright, leave that to me. You should focus on how you're planning on taking down Magenta," Joe said.

"We need to find her first. Did you find anything with the foster dad?" Barry asked.

"Just that he's a grade A asshole. That man's got a temper on him. I've seen the signs before. Aggressive, loud. Wouldn't be surprised if he beat his wife behind closed doors," Joe revealed.

"Is that right?" Barry asked, a look of deep concentration taking over his facial features.

"What are you thinking?" Joe asked.

"Well Frankie's been in the foster system since she was a child. Bouncing from foster home to foster home. Not all of them must have been good since she's developed an alternate personality in her head."

"Yeah?"

"The way Magenta was acting. You could almost call it protective. Frankie was freaking out when Julian was accusing her of attempted murder. Magenta took over and tried to neutralize the perceived threat to Frankie. What if that's what happened that night?" Barry suggested.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked to clarify.

"What if John, the foster dad, was yelling at Frankie or hitting something like you said? Frankie would have been scared. She would have panicked. Magenta would take over and use her powers to bend a lamppost to stop John. Magenta was protecting Frankie when Frankie felt threatened." Barry told him.

Joe thought about it for a second before responding. "It sounds possible. But we've got no evidence that indicates that,"

"Yeah, but alternate personalities are usually made to help the person cope with traumatic events they otherwise wouldn't be able to handle. They shield the host from terrible memories so they don't have to live with them." Barry said. "If what I said is true, and Magenta is in control right now, she's going to go after whatever makes Frankie feel vulnerable."

"The foster father," Joe realized, "I'll go right now and call for backup. You better be prepared in case Magenta decides to finish the job with John."

"We're working on it," Barry replied.

So how was that? Was it any good? I wanted to have Cisco be away from the team for awhile, but it didn't work with what I had planned, so I skimmed over that part, saying Cisco was gone for a month and that Barry and Caitlin took down Clariss by themselves, which wasn't too unbelievable in my eyes.

Next we go to Frankie, who I actually really liked despite only being in the one episode. Because she is so young is really going to help drive Barry into finding Alchemy. I have big plans for Savitar because it was so beautifully built up, but terribly executed.

One more thing, what do you think I should do about the musical? Just skim over it or I could make my own version? Your opinion would really help me make my decision because I don't want to just copy it word for word.

Anyway, that's all. I'll see you next week.