Prologue

Barry Allen, the Fastest Man Alive, looked at the ruins of his world and wept.

Zoom had come and Zoom had been destroyed. But at such a cost. Their battle would have been sung over fires, told around the hearth, told at bedtime. It was an epic battle of Titans. Back and forth, they fought. The story would have been told had there been anyone to hear it. Millions died in the quakes. More died in the fires. All those he loved, all those he knew. All dead.

And Barry Allen wept.

Joe. Iris. Caitlin. Oliver. Felicity. Ray. Dig. Thea. Laurel. Sara. Jax. Stein. His father.

All dead.

Barry stood at the grave of his mother and wept. Falling to his knees, he sobbed his lament. Covered in soot, blood, and dirt, he kneeled at the grave of his mother, keening his pain. Earlier that day, he'd finally killed his foe.

"Dude."

Shocked, Barry spun about. The only person that he knew that was alive in all of Central City – alive in all of North America - drove toward him in his electric wheelchair. Cisco Ramon, his legs gone below the knees and his left arm mangled, beckoned with his good hand. "This thing is a pain, dude. You come over here. I can't do this on grass."

Nodding, Barry wiped his face, hiccupping as he made the way down the hill to his dying friend. Oh, Cisco had never come out and said it, but Barry knew. That bastard Zoom had nearly vivisected Cisco before Barry had caught up to the dark speedster. Barry's subsequent Standing Supersonic Punch had nearly killed Zoom. Nearly. Caitlin had patched their friend together. Just as she finished the last suture, Zoom came back and killed her by ripping her head off.

Resettling in his chair, Cisco told his friend, "I love you man, so when I tell you this it's because I love you. You're the best person I know, Barry."

The Scarlet Speedster scoffed and looked away before Cisco hit him in the leg with his ever-present cane/poker/pointer. "I'm serious, Barry. I'm almost gone, you know that. On top of it, the planet's core is unstable after some of the shit that bastard did. I want you to do something for me."

"Anything." Barry had a sick feeling in his gut what Cisco was going to ask but didn't have the courage or the strength to ask.

"Leave. Go to a parallel Earth where you can be happy. We both know that you're nearly immortal now. The Speed Force heals you faster than your cellular degeneration; you won't die of old age. You're faster than you've ever been. Go. Be somewhere that you can be happy." The one-time happiest person that Barry ever knew looked across the burning skyline of what remained of their city. "This world is toast, dude. Go. Be happy."

In a whisper, Barry replied, "I was afraid you'd say that." Looking away, he told his friend – brother really, "I don't deserve it, Cisco."

Tears starting to run down his face, Cisco countered, "There is no one who deserves it more."

Barry began to cry again, this time for his friend. For all his friends, but mostly for Cisco. Gently clapping his hand on the young genius engineer's shoulder, he nodded his acceptance. "I love you, Cisco. You're the best friend, the best man I've ever known."

Both men were crying freely as Cisco handed him a back pack that had been strapped to the back of his wheelchair. "Some clothes and a few surprises."

Barry nodded. Leaning over, he placed a kiss on his friend's forehead. A sign of affection from one soldier to another. From a brother to another. As Barry slung the bag over his shoulder, Cisco whispered the refrain that had haunted Bartholomew Allen most of his life.

"Run, Barry. Run."

Tugging the mask over his face one last time, he looked at Cisco for a long time before giving him a nod of goodbye. He just couldn't make himself say the words.

"Go, bro."

In a flash of white lightning, Barry Allen disappeared. A micromoment later, Cisco heard the breach open that swallowed his friend for the last time.

Another earthquake rocked the continent. This time, a fissure opened up in the middle of downtown causing block after block to fall into the boiling lake of lava coming up from the Earth's crust. Cisco watched it all dispassionately. In a strange sense, it was terrifyingly beautiful. Murmuring his own litany of names of the lost, he reached into another bag, withdrawing a pistol.

There was no one to hear the gunshot.

.oOo.

A/N

1. I own nothing. This idea has been bugging the SHIT out of me for a long time and it finally reached critical mass. Recommendation for this fic is Call Me Kara by SpeedForce 1229

2. I hated writing the first section.

3. For Happily Ever After? my vision of Supergirl et al was informed by the comics. This version of Flash & Supergirl is all Arrowverse.