Chapter 2
Earth-1, France in 1916
"Give me the Spear and I'll spare your team," Thawne demanded.
"You can go to hell," Professor Stein said defiantly, taking a few steps forward as he and the rest of the Legends glared daggers at the yellow-clad speedster.
"No, but I'll make a hell for you," Thawne threatened, unfazed by Stein's reply. "Do you really want to lose another one? Last chance."
"Use the Spear," Amaya whispered to Present Sara.
Suddenly, Thawne's time remnants sped forward and attacked the Legends, knocking Stein, Jax, Mick, Future Sara, and Rip to the ground.
Standing the Spear on the ground as she held it firmly in her hand, Sara closed her eyes and started chanting the incantation required to activate the artifact. After a moment, the metallic tip of the Spear lit up brightly.
The Atom fired energy blasts from his exo-suit at the time remnants, while Nate steeled up and punched a few remnants. Superboy performed a thunderclap, creating a shockwave that sent several time remnants flying back. He then raced around the vicinity, punching out more time remnants. Luckily, the remnants didn't seem as powerful as the original Thawne.
Opening her eyes as the Spear failed to activate, Sara held it out to Amaya and said, "It can't be me. Use it. Fix the world."
Suddenly, Amaya was knocked to the ground by a Thawne remnant.
"Just do it, Sara!" Rip urged her.
"Look, I can't, there's too much darkness inside of me," Sara said. "I can't control it."
"I believe in you," Rip said. "You're stronger than you know."
He was then knocked down by a remnant.
Just as Sara was about to activate the Spear, she too was knocked down by a remnant, causing the Spear to fly out of her hand and land on the ground near where Superboy was standing.
Noticing the Spear, Superboy picked it up and Sara looked up at him.
"You can do it, Conner," Sara said. "Use the Spear and fix all of this. If anyone can control its power, it's you." As Superboy looked reluctant, Sara added, "I believe in you. You're the best of us."
Superboy glanced around, watching as the time remnants knocked both The Atom and Nate down as well. Nodding to Sara, he stood the Spear on the ground holding it firmly in his hand. He closed his eyes and a bright flash of light appeared.
Conner opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a couch in a very familiar setting. He looked around, noticing a large bowl of popcorn on the nearby table and "The Wizard of Oz" playing on TV as Dorothy Gale said her famous quote, "There's no place like home". It was in that moment that Conner realized he was in the house on the Kent farm.
"I've whipped up your favorite treat for the two of us," a female voice that Conner instantly recognized announced. "Root beer floats."
Conner turned to the person who had spoken and his heart skipped a beat at who he saw – his girlfriend, Courtney Whitmore, alive and well and beautiful as ever. She was holding two glasses of root beer float, one in each hand.
"Court?" Conner muttered, not believing his eyes.
"Here you go, Kon," Courtney said, handing him one of the floats. "One for you, and one for me."
She sat down next to Conner, who put his root beer float down on the table and stared at Courtney affectionately. As much as he wanted to believe he had been reunited with his girlfriend, he knew the truth. What he was seeing was nothing more than a fantasy. It was a hallucination caused by him activating the Spear.
"What's the matter? You look like you're seeing a ghost or something," Courtney said, before taking a sip of her ice cream treat through her straw.
"This isn't happening," Conner said. "The Spear must be doing this. None of this is real." He stroked Courtney's face, the realization of the truth being more painful than if his body was consumed by kryptonite-laced flames. "You're... you're not real."
"You're right, I'm not," Courtney said. "But I can be. You can remake reality however you see fit."
Conner looked down at the Spear in his hands, considering his girlfriend's words for a moment. "Your death at the hands of Rose Wilson three years ago, I can take it back and make sure it doesn't happen again. You and I could have that happy ending we planned. We could get married, be our own power couple, maybe even start a family someday. With a single thought, I can have everything I've dreamed of."
"But you won't go through with it," Courtney noted.
"Because it's selfish," Conner pointed out, as he thought about how both Clark and Barry had learned the hard way that there were consequences to bringing deceased loved ones back to life. "I'd basically be playing God. How is that any different than what Thawne, Lex, and their team intended to do?"
"Because unlike Thawne or Lex, your heart is good," Courtney answered, with a smile. "Along with Clark, you're the most caring, heroic, and kind-hearted person I've known, which is why I fell in love with you in the first place."
"I couldn't even save you that night," Conner said, a few tears rolling down his cheeks. "I should've gotten to you faster. I should've been there to help you stop Rose. But I failed and it came at a high price."
"You did what you could, Kon," Courtney assured him, placing her hand on Conner's face and wiping away a tear with her thumb. "No matter how powerful you are, no one expects you to be everywhere at once. You can't always save everyone."
"Right now is my chance to save you," Conner said, a part of him highly tempted to undo what had happened to Courtney.
"My life isn't worth it," Courtney said. "It may have been pretty short, but I've lived a fairly content life and now I'm at peace. Using the Spear to do what you know you have to do more important than bringing me back. Your team is counting on you to do the right thing."
"Even if doing the right thing means not having you back?" Conner asked, as more tears fell down his face.
"I'm never too far away," Courtney assured him. "I'm always with you." She then placed her hand on Conner's chest. "Right here."
Smiling despite his tears, Conner leaned towards Courtney and the two wrapped their arms around each other as they shared a deep passionate kiss, the last he would ever have with her.
After a good fifteen seconds, the two pulled away from each other. "I love you, Court," Conner muttered, stroking her blonde hair. Even though this moment wasn't real, he wanted more than anything to live in it forever. He didn't ever want to leave Courtney's side. However, he had major responsibilities in the real world. The rest of the Legends were counting on him to save them.
"I love you too," Courtney said back.
Superboy abruptly came out of his hallucination as he found himself back in the real world. "Courtney," he muttered, his mind distracted to the point that he was too late to prevent Thawne from swiping the Spear out of his hand.
"Too slow, Superboy," Thawne sneered, as all of his time remnants gathered behind him. "Far too slow, especially for someone like you. To think, you had actual Godhood literally in your grasp. Well, I'm not going to make the mistake I made the first time. I'm going to erase you all from existence. You won't even be dead."
Closing his eyes, Thawne stood the Spear on the ground and started chanting the required incantation. However, nothing happened as he stared at the Spear in confusion.
"I might've made a couple of changes to reality," Superboy said, with a smirk.
"You de-powered the Spear," Thawne said in realization.
"You lost, Thawne," Superboy said. "Your team is beaten, the Spear no longer works, you won't be causing any more trouble."
"Really?" Thawne scoffed. "We'll see about that."
Suddenly hearing a loud ferocious growl, he stopped dead in his tracks, his smug expression instantly replaced by one of horror.
"Yeah, we'll see all right," Superboy said, smirking again.
The Black Flash suddenly appeared a hundred feet away, roaring right at Thawne, who was utterly terrified.
"No," Thawne muttered.
He made a move to try and run away, but the Black Flash caught Thawne, grabbing the yellow-clad speedster's neck with one hand and phasing his other hand into Thawne's chest. Letting out another roar, the Black Flash retracted his hand and raced off.
Thawne watched in absolute horror was his body, as well as the Spear, started disintegrating. When nothing but his head was left, he let out a loud "NOOOOOOOO!" before disintegrating completely.
A moment later, all of Thawne's time remnants disappeared as well.
The Black Flash sped in front of Superboy, roaring in the half-Kryptonian's face before speeding off in a streak of red lightning.
The rest of the Legends got back to their feet. "Nice job, Conner, you did it," Future Sara and Present Sara said to him at the same time.
"Something tells me you would've done the same thing," Conner replied.
Just then, Future Sara started becoming transparent. Making eye contact with her present self and teammates one last time, she smiled as she said, "Remember, Legends never die."
And with that, she disappeared completely as if she was never there in the first place.
Earth-21, Present Day
(Watchtower)
"But this wasn't the same Black Flash that Jay gave his life to stop and save Bart from a few years ago," Conner said, as Clark, Lois, and Tess listened. "This one only goes after speedsters who cause serious damage to the timeline, though in Thawne's case, the Black Flash was after him because Thawne was not even supposed to exist."
"Because Thawne is from the future and hasn't been born yet in the present," Tess said.
Conner shook his head. "No, not that. I mean, he literally wasn't supposed to exist anymore, not even in the future."
"Okay, you lost me there, Superman Jr.," Lois said.
"A few years ago, Thawne's present-day ancestor killed himself in an effort to get rid of Thawne once and for all," Conner explained, as Clark, Lois, and Tess looked stunned. "Since Thawne was still alive despite the fact that he'd been erased from existence, the Black Flash hunted him down and erased him again when it finally caught up to him. That's why he needed the Spear. Not only to alter reality, but to restore his existence to get the Black Flash off his back."
"So Lex and the others were nothing more than his pawns," Clark said.
"Pretty much," Conner answered. "But of course Lex being Lex had his own plans to double-cross Thawne and use the Spear to rewrite every Earth in the Multiverse."
"Let's be glad you and your team prevented that from happening," Lois said. "Knowing Lex, I don't even wanna think about how horrifying and disastrous a Multiverse rebooted in his image would've been."
"Tell me about it," Tess agreed.
"I'm proud of the decision you made while using the Spear," Clark said to Conner. "You had all the opportunity in the world to both bring Courtney back and save your team from Thawne, but the fact you didn't go through with the former showed a lot of maturity and willpower."
"A comment like that means a lot coming from the epitome of maturity and willpower himself," Lois said, throwing a smile at her husband. "The fact that you became a Green Lantern a few years back, even though it was very short-lived and completely against your will, only confirmed the 'willpower' part, not that I didn't already know that was one of your amazing qualities."
"Trust me, I was very tempted to undo what happened to Court," Conner said to Clark. "But I thought about what happened to your dad when you went back in time and saved Lana all those years ago and realized it's not my right to just bring someone back from the dead like that."
"That's right," Clark agreed. "Whether it's via time travel or a powerful reality-warping artifact, it's not up to us to decide who lives or who dies."
"How would you react if I suddenly died, Smallville?" Lois asked curiously, almost immediately regretting the question. "Would you still refuse to use that Legion ring of yours to save even me?"
"It would be the most difficult decision of my life, Lois, but the answer is yes," Clark answered with a heavy sigh, causing Lois to flinch a little although she understood his answer. "It would be hypocritical of me to hold others to a standard that I myself refuse to live by. And even if something like that were to happen and I did decide to go back in time to save you, I'd be saving a new timeline's version of you from dying, not the exact you that I lost."
"When you put it like that, Smallville, I feel slightly better about your answer," Lois said.
"Don't worry, Lois, you're not dying on my watch," Clark assured her. "As long as I'm around, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to keep you safe."
"Like you always do," Lois said, smiling affectionately.
Turning to Conner, Clark asked, "So the Lex from 2025, is he back where he belongs?"
"He is," Conner nodded. "But since Lex was from this Earth unlike the rest of his team, we had to go to S.T.A.R. Labs to get Cisco's help. Cisco traveled to 2025 with us in the Waverider, and while the rest of the Legends waited on the other Earth, he opened a breach to this one and helped me return Lex to Stryker's right where Thawne had recruited him. And like we did with the others, we erased Lex's memories of his time-traveling adventures to ensure the timeline remains intact."
"So sometime by 2025, Lex will be making a permanent residence at Stryker's," Lois said. "That's one way the future's looking pretty bright."
"The next day, we planned to celebrate our victory in Aruba, but we got caught up in a time storm," Conner went on with his story.
"A time storm?" Clark asked.
"It turned out that visiting 1916 twice and encountering ourselves had bigger repercussions than we thought," Conner explained. "The time storm knocked us out of the temporal zone, causing us to crash the Waverider right in the middle of Los Angeles, where we found dinosaurs roaming around in the present and buildings that shouldn't even be around."
"Dinosaurs roaming around in the present? Like a real-life version of Jurassic Park?" Lois asked, incredulously.
"Kind of," Conner said. "Basically, our actions screwed things up to the point that some objects from different time periods were randomly displaced."
"Like the dinosaurs you mentioned." Tess said.
"They're not in the present anymore," Conner said. "This guy called Rip Hunter, the founder of the Legends, took care of the problem and sent the dinosaurs back to their time. After that, he explained that he had formed an organization called the Time Bureau and relieved us of our time travel duties, confiscating the Waverider. As far as he was concerned, we were no longer needed because his Time Bureau would be capable of cleaning up the mess we made better than we could. And from there, we separated and went on to live regular non-time-traveling lives."
"So you and your team were pretty much fired from being time-travelers," Lois said.
"You could say that," Conner nodded, sheepishly. "But we did break time, so it's not like we didn't deserve it. I mean, there were times when we had to correct even our own mess to the timeline."
"It wasn't yours and your team's fault, Conner," Clark said, reassuringly. "You were only doing whatever you could to prevent the other Earth's Legion of Doom from changing reality in their image, which would've been much worse without a doubt."
"If anyone is to blame for all the time travel mess you went through, it's Lex, Thawne, and whoever else they had on their team," Tess added.
"If you're no longer going on time travel missions, what have you been up to since you and your team disbanded?" Clark asked Conner.
"I've been helping out in Central City for the last five months while Barry's been trapped in the Speed Force," Conner answered.
"Who is Barry?" Lois asked.
"Barry is the name of the other Earth's Flash," Conner answered, figuring there was no harm in sharing that information with Lois. "Barry Allen."
"Allen? Just like Bart? Got it," Lois said.
"How did Barry wound up in the Speed Force?" Clark asked.
"It happened after Barry and his team defeated an enemy speedster of theirs called Savitar," Conner explained, relaying what Cisco and Wally had told him, while leaving out the fact that Savitar was a deranged time remnant of Barry. "There's this prison inside the Speed Force that must be occupied by a speedster. Otherwise, if the prison is empty, the Speed Force goes unstable, unleashing a powerful lightning storm on the world."
"I take it that's what almost happened on the other Earth," Tess said, and Conner nodded.
"And Barry voluntarily went into the Speed Force to keep the world safe," Clark added, knowing he'd do the exact same thing in such a situation.
"I've been helping Cisco and Wally handle things in his absence," Conner said. "Cisco's been working on trying to free Barry in a way it doesn't cause another storm. Hopefully, everything pans out."
"Is that what you're gonna continue to do?" Clark asked. "Protect Central City on the other Earth?"
"Yeah," Conner said. "I mean, this Earth will always be my home of course, but when you think about it, it doesn't really need Superboy when it already has Superman, the world's greatest hero."
"You're a great hero yourself, Conner," Lois said. "You came a long way from the way you were before Smallville's half of your DNA kicked in."
"As long as you're content with what you're doing, that's all that matters," Clark said to Conner. "The truth is, the other Earth could use a Kryptonian hero to protect it."
"Especially with no guarantees that Barry will ever make it out of the Speed Force," Conner added.
Suddenly, Clark's phone started vibrating. He picked it up and looked at the screen. "Police chase," he announced, as he immediately got up from the couch. "I'll be right back."
"I'll come with you," Conner offered. "It's been a while since we've worked together."
"Sure," Clark nodded in agreement.
With that, Clark and Conner sped out of Watchtower with two consecutive whooshes, causing Lois' dark brown hair and Tess' red hair to fly upwards.
"Go get 'em, boys of steel," Lois said.
(Next morning, Kent Farm)
Clark and Conner, clad in their Superman and Superboy uniforms respectively as they had spent much of the morning making saves around the world before heading to the farm, were in the barn chopping wooden logs effortlessly with their bare hands. After leaving the Watchtower yesterday evening, Conner had flown to Washington D.C. and visited his and Clark's adoptive mother Martha Kent, who had been really happy to see him again. Having stayed at her house for an hour, Conner told her about some of the adventures on Earth-1, the conversation ending with Martha telling Conner she couldn't be more proud of the young man he'd become.
"So let me get this straight," Conner said, his mind processing what Clark had just told him. "Seven years ago, you traveled to the future by accident and today is the day you'll arrive?"
"You're the only person I've told about this," Clark replied.
"Really?" Conner said. "Not even Lois knows?"
"I especially couldn't say anything to Lois," Clark said, remembering how Lois had failed to pick up on the fact that he was, in fact, a Clark from seven years in the past and assumed he was the present version she knew as her husband, albeit 'acting strangely'. "To ensure that my younger self goes through the necessary experiences for him to embrace his destiny and become me, it's best to make sure events will play out exactly as I remember them."
"Right," Conner nodded in understanding.
"But I do plan on clearing up the confusion on Lois' part after it's over by revealing everything to her over dinner tonight," Clark said.
"Good luck with that," Conner said.
After the two were done chopping all the logs in half, Conner hugged Clark goodbye and the former said, "I'll see you around, Clark."
"Be safe, Conner," the older Kryptonian replied, before they released each other.
"Always," Conner said, as he picked up his two duffle bags of clothes and belongings and placed one around each shoulder.
He then pulled out his extrapolator and opened a breach with it. He leapt through the breach, disappearing to the other side as it closed a moment later.
Earth-1
(Central City, Ferris Air Testing Facility)
A large S.T.A.R. Labs truck and a van with the same logo were parked on the airstrip as Cisco had set up some equipment needed to try and free Barry from the Speed Force. Wally and his father Joe West arrived at the scene and walked up to Cisco.
"Mr. West, Mr. West," Cisco greeted them.
"So we're really gonna do this," Wally said.
"Wally told me you figured out a way to bring Barry back without the Speed Force prison causing another storm," Joe added.
"That's right," Cisco answered. "And seeing as we've had good luck here before, this place seemed an appropriate venue. The four of us? We can do this."
"What do you mean 'the four of us'?" Joe asked, confused.
"Is Conner back from his Earth?" Wally added.
"Hi, Joe."
Joe and Wally turned around at the familiar female voice and saw Caitlin Snow standing in front of them, causing the two men to look alarmed.
"It's okay," Cisco assured Joe and Wally. "She's Caitlin again. Our Caitlin. She's here to help us. So? What do you say?"
"You better be right," Joe said, still a little wary of Caitlin.
"I am," Cisco said, with a smile.
"Joe, I know that I can never make up for the things that I did to you, to Cecile," Caitlin said remorsefully, as she walked up to Joe. "I just hope... I just hope that one day you can forgive me."
"Come here," Joe said, as he and Caitlin hugged each other. "Let's bring everybody home today, okay?"
"You got it," Caitlin agreed.
Just then, there was a whooshing sound and Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, and Joe looked up to see Superboy hovering about twenty feet in the air.
"Hey, everyone," Conner greeted.
"Conner," Wally called out.
"You're here just in time," Cisco added. "We're about to bring Barry back."
"Whatever you need my help with, let me know," Conner offered, as he lowered himself to the ground. He then noticed Caitlin. "Wait, you're back on the team now?"
"I'm just here to help bring Barry back," Caitlin replied.
"Okay," Conner said. He had heard all about Caitlin in her Killer Frost persona betraying the team and aligning with Savitar, but understood it wasn't really her fault since Caitlin hadn't been in control of her actions, which was something Conner related to due to having been exposed to red kryptonite.
"So how are we gonna bring Barry back without blowing a hole in the world?" Wally asked.
"Ha! In the spirit of bringing back old friends, may I present the Speed Force bazooka," Cisco announced, removing a sheet to reveal the object in question underneath it.
"Ah," Joe said, impressed.
"I've made a few slight modifications, as Captain Solo would say," Cisco said. "Caitlin and I spent all of last night working out some kinks, fine-tuning the Quark Sphere."
"Quark Sphere?" Conner asked.
"This," Caitlin answered, pulling out a red ball and handed it to Conner. "Filled with Barry's unique genetic marker and programmed to track his specific DNA using the electrical current of the Speed Force."
"Once we track Barry and we pull him out, the Quark Sphere will trick the Speed Force into thinking he's still there," Cisco explained, doing some work on the Speed Force bazooka.
"Hey, Superboy, can you put that on the center pylon?" Caitlin instructed.
Conner sped forward in a blur, placing the Quark Sphere where he was instructed to do so, and came back over within a half second.
Caitlin looked at the computer screen in front of her and watched as the red dot in the center started glowing while the green progress bar on the side started rising. After a few moments, she announced, "Ready."
"Let's bring our boy home," Cisco said.
"Quark Matter scanning electrical current," Caitlin announced.
The Quark Sphere on the center pylon glowed with electrical energy and floated several feet in the air.
"Triangulating Quark Matter on his location," Caitlin said, as she typed in several keys. "I've got a lock on something."
"It's him," Cisco said in excitement. "It's him!"
"Now, Cisco!" Caitlin instructed.
Cisco activated the Speed Force bazooka. A bright beam shot out of the bazooka and struck the Quark Sphere, forming a bluish-white portal. After a few seconds, the portal suddenly vanished as the words 'System Failure' appeared on the computer screen in front of Caitlin.
Cisco looked down dejectedly, having failed in his mission to bring his best friend back home.
Conner, Caitlin, Wally, and Joe had similar expressions on their faces.
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
Cisco, Caitlin, Conner, Wally, and Joe entered Cisco's workshop.
"I don't understand, this should've worked," Cisco muttered with a sigh, as he went to the computer and started working on it.
"I think we were pretty close," Caitlin said.
"At least we tried," Conner said.
"I know you guys don't wanna hear this, but we might have to face the possibility that there's no way to bring Barry back," Wally said.
"I'm not ready to do that just yet," Cisco protested. "I'm not ready to give up on my friend and, honestly, I don't think I ever will be. We have to give it another shot."
"I'm with you, Cisco," Caitlin said, as she joined Cisco at the computer. "Let's get to work and figure out what went wrong."
Earth-38
Kara Danvers aka Supergirl was flying over National City when her hearing picked up a loud crackling sound. It sounded similar to one of those breaches used to travel between universes, but with more intensity.
"Supergirl, we're detecting some kind of portal five blocks from..."
"Already on it, J'onn," Kara replied before the Martian could finish.
She wasted no time flying towards the location of the sound at full speed. Her fists were clenched, ready to confront whoever it was arriving.
A few moments later, she spotted a large portal containing multi-colored lightning and was about to descend towards it when a familiar streak of yellow-orange lightning came shooting out of the portal at immense speed. Was that who she thought it was or was it someone else? There was only one way to find out.
As the portal closed, Kara turned around and flew after the streak of lightning.
The figure in the yellow-orange streak of lightning ran several hundred miles away from National City before slowing to an abrupt halt in front of a swerving pickup truck, from which a large number of tomatoes spilled all over the road. The lightning surrounding the figure disappeared, revealing a naked young man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties. The occupants of the truck – two men and a woman – stared at the young man with stunned expressions as he fell to the ground unconscious.
Then, a whooshing noise sounded in the air as Supergirl arrived and descended near the naked young man. She stared down at him and looked at his face, her eyes going wide as she instantly recognized him. Granted, he had a beard and mustache which she had never seen him with before, but it was definitely him.
"Barry," the Girl of Steel muttered, her voice filled with concern.
"What is it, Supergirl? Are you all right?" She heard J'onn's voice ask on the comms.
"I'm fine, it's just... I'll be right there shortly," Kara reported, as she once more glanced down at the young man who was none other than her friend Barry Allen.
Lois bringing up Clark once being a Green Lantern is a reference to the Smallville Season 11 comics, some of which is canon in this story, with the two biggest differences being Bart Allen is still alive (in here, it was Jay Garrick who sacrificed himself to stop the Black Flash) and the "Smallville" Crisis never happening.
And I will confirm that the pairing for Barry in this story will be Kara, as I believe they would make a cute power couple under the right circumstances. I have a pairing for Conner as well, but I'm not ready to reveal who it is just yet.