Fear the Unknown
By Dante
Chapter 18: Trapped
Barry stared at the flame-haired man standing before them, his gleaming, metallic body plating glimmering in the dim light of the sitting room. They had been sent to find this man, to rescue him, but watching him there before the assembled warriors, he found himself… awed. This man, whoever he was, seemed somehow… elevated, gifted with a sense of purpose that had been denied these other men and women. Barry could only guess at what that aura was, but if he'd had to, his guess would have been "heroism". While Barry looked at him, he found the other man looking back and their eyes locked for a moment.
"This is all so… different. You are all so different, but somehow the same. You are harder, but more muted in a way."
Barry walked over to him, standing just off before addressing the man.
"Then you remember the way that things were?" He asked.
The flame-haired man looked down at the floor. Barry could feel his withdrawal, his pulling away from him. He could sense that there was something that the man was holding back, not telling him.
"Sometimes. My separation from the time stream makes me somewhat immune to being affected by changes to history, but that same connection affects me in different ways. My powers are somewhat lessened, but I can still do what I must to repair what this 'Bliss' has done to the timeline."
"And what has he done?"
"He has made you the villains of this world, where once you were heroes. Once, I stood against a tyrant who had made it his life's goal to destroy you all, to impose the sort of order that Bliss has created here. IT was you, and people like you, who helped me stand against him, who defeated him. If I can make a difference now… well that is all I've ever wanted."
Allen Scott put a hand on the shoulder of the metal-clad hero, his fatherly bearing somehow incongruous in this surreal situation.
"That's an admirable goal, friend. For the most part, that's all the rest of us have ever wanted, save a chance to live our lives in peace."
"I can't promise that, Mr. Scott. From what I remember of the lives you lived before Bliss' interference, peace was not the word that I would most commonly associate with men of your sort. You are destined to bring it, not to live it."
Scott squared his shoulders and turned his face to the other man, speaking firmly.
"Be that as it may, there is something wrong, and I believe it is our duty, whatever history may become, to set it right. Now, can you help us?"
"I believe I can.
Bruce blinked his eyes as he awoke from his drugged stupor, his nose automatically wrinkling at the heavy smell of disinfectant tinged by something else... something burned. As he looked around, he tried to assess the room he was in, check it for escape routes, guards, anything that might indicate for what purpose he'd been brought there. Ultimately, his efforts proved to be in waste, as what seemed to be a sheer wall slid open and revealed the gray-coated figure of Dr. Thomas Wayne.
"I should have known it would come to this." He said as he glided aross the room. The doctor had his hands clasped behind his back and his piercing eyes looked out from behind horn-rimmed spectacles at the figure of his imprisoned son. "You could never accept things as they were. Could never understand that some sacrifices must be made for a greater good."
"I guess I just don't have the cold blooded detachment necessary for murder, father."
"Murder is such a harsh term, Bruce. Can't you see? These... things that we strive to rid the world of, are not natural. They are abominations, crimes against God himself."
"And the Themyscrians, what of them?"
"They held themselves in isolation on their 'sacred' island worshipping their pagan gods and did nothing for the rest of the world. Of all we have cleansed, they are my proudest achievement."
"So then you don't mind having spent your life as Bliss' croney, doing his dirty work while he sits back and laughs at the world he's corrupted?"
"He hasn't corrupted anything, Bruce. He has brought justice to the world."
"My ass." A hand flew across his face, whipping his head sideways. When his vision cleared, he saw Thomas straightening his glasses on his face.
"You always did have a little too much of your mother in you. Too emotional, too caring. Such a pity."
"How about we dispense with the family reunion facade and get on with this. What is it you want, doctor?"
"What I want is very simple. I want to know what your friends are planning. I want to know how you found them all. I want to know who helped them. And, most importantly, you're going to tell me how to kill them."
The time traveler, he'd told them to call him Matt, had a very simple plan. He would take them back in time to the points in history where Bliss had altered history and they would set them right. They would have to start at the most recent, or it was possible that he would remember their attempts from previous time periods and be able to somehow pre-empt them. Barry sat on the roof of Charles McNider's town home and played one of his favorite games. He tossed a coin into the air and snatched it back with the same hand. It was, of course, occurring faster than the human eye could follow, but it somehow soothed him. It was almost normal.
He mulled it over in his head. Matt hadn't said anything, but when he'd looked at him, he could see it in his eyes. He was not supposed to be there. Those visions he'd had were true. In the timeline that had existed before Bliss had changed everything, he was dead. There was really no way to say how he'd died, but he was most definitely dead. Knowing that, how was he going to go through with this? If they changed the timeline, didn't it stand to reason that everything would go back to the way it was? He would be dead again and who knew what else would change? Could he really do it?