"Thawn!" I shouted as I appeared back at S.T.A.R. Labs, having circled the place twice with no luck. I checked and everyone else was missing too, which was concerning to say the least. Normally, at least Cisco and Caitlin were here, but the place was empty, leaving me with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I continued to call upon both speed forces as I began moving in a grid pattern around the area, the world frozen every time I moved as I searched every shop, office, warehouse, and building to find them, praying that Eobard hadn't decided to use them as leverage. Mere moments later, Barry was racing up to me trying to get me to stop and explain what was going on.

"Barry it's the reverse flash, I think he took Caitlin and Cisco, they're not at S.T.A.R. Labs despite having been there when we left."

"Yeah, I know, they're with doctor wells checking on my mother back at Joe's place." I immediately facepalmed and stopped moving at super speed.

"Damn it Barry, I thought we were in the middle of a crisis, instead the reverse flash is gone again, and we've no leads, again."

"Hey, calm down, it's not like he's someone we know." I was seriously debating at this point if I should reveal the truth when he began giving me a weird look as if he could tell I wasn't telling him the whole story.

"No, that can't be right, he's someone we know? Who?"

"Barry I can't tell you yet, you're strong, but you're not fully ready to deal with him, and besides, I think he's burned off a lot of his speed force energy, so he won't be coming back for a while."

"No, not this time, he's the man who killed my mother, and put my father in jail, for years. I have to know who it is, you can't keep this from me." I was desperately searching for a way out, but I knew that Anywhere I went Barry could follow, so I had to come up with another way to handle this.

"Look I know you can keep secrets, but I'm sure you already have your suspicious as to who it is, so you tell me, who do you think it is Barry? I'll give you a hint, it's someone who knows way more about this than they're supposed to, someone native to your earth by the way since it's not me." I could practically see the gears turning as everything clicked in place, Barry suddenly racing off with me following as close as I could.

"Barry, you have to stop! He is a far bigger threat if his cover is blown than otherwise! We need to be smart about this!"

"I can't believe wells is the reverse flash! He ruined my life!"

"Technically he's not Harrison wells, he's just using his face due to future technology." Barry suddenly stopped before looking at me like I was crazy.

"Have I ever been wrong about this stuff? Look shortly after your mother was murdered a man named Eobard Thawn, the reverse flash became trapped in the past, the night of our little battle? He tried to enter the time stream, we went after him, but he fell out a few months after her death and discovered he was stranded there. So he arranged for Harrison Wells to have a car accident instantly killing his wife, then killed the wounded Wells and took his place. He killed your mother on purpose to force you to become the flash, then made the particle accelerator explode to grantee you'd get your powers earlier than originally."

"You knew! That's why you wanted me in my lab, you're just like him!, you forced me to get these powers!"

"Barry, stop! I had very good reasons for pushing you to become the flash. First, it's literally your destiny, Barry Allen becoming the flash is the core of your story. Second, I was changing things just by being there and there was too much at stake, the multiverse was at stake! In five years there will be a crisis that could destroy all of time and space, the entire multiverse. Except it's stopped, and you're key to saving it. God's I sound like the doctor now, going on about fixed events and determined outcomes while flipping the table."

He ran towards Joe's house with me in tow again, I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but I needed to make sure it wouldn't get any more out of hand. As I got there, Barry ignored my presence as Caitlin ran all sorts of medical tests on Nora. Wells was watching off to the side, keeping an eye on the entire room, an over watch position if I'd ever seen one.

"I've seen some crazy things, Barry, but creating a paradox takes the cake, how come the timeline isn't all messed up?" Cisco was of course the first one to ask, ever the curious one it was inevitable he'd bring it up.

"Zalost's doing actually, I'm not sure how he did it but somehow made a doppelgänger or a copy or something and that's who died that night. Then brought my mother to the present."

"A time remnant, actually. Don't worry, this one is the original, the difference is that for a few minutes back in 2000 she crossed over her own time stream, and then it resolved it's self as one died and the other lived leaving the timeline intact." I tried to keep the explanation simple, but I knew with this crowd, there's always someone who has to question things.

"That's still a paradox, the universe isn't going to come unraveled, is it? Ugh, this is giving me a massive headache." and there we go.

"Cisco, When dealing with time travel, it's better to just not think about it. It'll make your life easier." At that moment I noticed wells was missing, Barry too, then I began swearing under my breath.

"Sorry, I need to take care of something, I'll be back in a moment."

"Okay, make sure you tell-" and I was gone trying to track down the energy of Eobard and Barry with the two of them fighting openly across central city.

"God's damn it, Barry!" I swore as I took off after them. This was getting incredibly troublesome and either Thawn was stopped here or Barry might end up killed. I tapped into the two forces again and suddenly shot off, the world feeling frozen again as I made my way towards them now hoping to put an end to this.