Hey guys. :) I know it's been quite some time since the last update, i'm sorry about that. As mentioned in the last chapter i was really busy plus there were some added interruptions along the way, i'll explain a bit more about that at the end of the chapter, including what comes next.
Speaking of, this will be the "final" chapter of this story, well... one of them at least. This is the one where Barry goes back to his time. Now without further ado, i'll leave you to the chapter. :D
Barry shook his head. "Dr. Wells is the reverse flash."
Everyone in the room but Caitlin was staring at him in disbelief.
"Guys, I know this is hard to understand but i couldn't risk messing everything up." Barry tried to explain.
"So you're saying, you've been working with the man who killed your mother?" Joe said.
"Joe, I'm sorry. Where i'm from, I've accepted her death, I don't hate him anymore. I don't like him, but i'm not letting him control my life like before." Barry replied.
"So what? Are we just going to let him go?" Eddie cut in.
"I've tried stopping him in the past before, it only made things worse."
There was a little silence as nobody knew what to say until Cisco decided to ask a very important question.
"How did you even get here?" Cisco asked, he was a bit angry for not being told this before. Barry was his best friend after all.
Barry sighed and looked down. "Four years from now I will be fighting someone really really bad. That's when he hits me with his dagger and makes my speed go haywire."
Barry pulled up his sleeve to show them his wound. As he did so, nothing was there to be seen.
"It's healed." Caitlin said, surprised.
"This means I can finally go home." Barry said happily. Caitlin however didn't seem to share his excitement but returned a faint fake smile.
He was getting some more weird faces from everyone else.
"The cut was effecting my ability to enter the speed force, I had to wait until it was healed before I could go back." Barry explained once more.
"And what about Dr. Wells?" Joe asked.
"I'll be sending him back to his time too." Barry said calmly.
"What?" Joe pretty much yelled. "Why?"
"I agreed to take him back to his time once I was able to go back myself." Barry said.
"You're working with him?" This time was yelled by Cisco.
Barry nodded. "He found out who I was a few weeks ago."
"Barry, this is..." Joe started with an angry tone.
"Joe, I know what you're about to say. It won't change my mind however, we're sending him home." Barry interrupted.
Joe was a little surprised but nodded. "Alright. If you think it's for the best then that's what we'll do."
Barry still happy to finally be able to go home didn't think any further. "Alright, I'm going to the lab and ask Eobard how we're going to do this."
"Eobard?" Cisco asked confused.
"Eobard Thawne, that's his real name." Caitlin said to which Eddie looked like he was about to pass out.
Barry ran to the lab to find him in the time vault. "How did it go?" Eobard asked.
"I don't know, they seemed pretty upset." Barry answered to which Eobard nodded understandingly. "I've got good news however."
Eobard gave him curious look.
"It's time to go home." Barry said hinting at his shoulder.
Eobard immediately smiled. "I'll get to work then."
"What do you mean?" Barry asked.
"We need to make a couple of time spheres, otherwise we can't pinpoint exactly where we will end up." Eobard explained.
"Okay, in the meantime I'll try and get everyone here, we probably need their help" Barry said before leaving Thawne.
A few hours later Barry came back with Cisco and Joe.
And that's when they saw Thawne using his speed to put the final touches on the time spheres.
Joe immediately pulled his gun out.
"Joe, it's alright." Barry reassured him. Joe hesitated but ended up lowering the gun.
"Okay, we're good to go." Eobard yelled from inside the accelerator ring.
Barry took Cisco and Joe to the cortex. "Okay Cisco, I'm gonna need you to keep an eye out for any anomalies. If anything seems off just hit this button and everything will shut down."
Cisco nodded and quietly hummed.
"Listen man, I'm sorry for not telling you. I should have said something but I was so afraid to mess up the timeline again that I thought it was best to keep everyone in the dark." Barry said sincerely.
Cisco looked at him and kept quite for a second. He then smiled and hugged his friend. "Apology accepted. You know, what ever version of Barry you are, i'll never be mad at you for long."
"Yeah... about that..." Barry thought back the time after he created flashpoint.
After a little comfortable silence, it was time to go but there was one thing he missed. "Where is Caitlin? She said she would meet us here." Barry asked.
"She seemed a little upset after you left earlier, she left soon after without saying anything." Joe said, still looking out for anything bad to happen.
Barry knew immediately what had happened and sped off. He went to her apartment in a second and found her sitting on the bed, crying.
"Cait? What's wrong." He asked as he sat down next to her.
"Nothing, i'm fine." She replied while wiping away the tears.
"Cait." He said giving her an unconvinced look.
She sighed. "It's just... i am going to miss you. I didn't think you'd be leaving so early."
"I'm sorry, Cait. I didn't mean to..." Barry started but was interrupted by her.
"No it's okay, i get it, you have to go." She said with a smile.
"I can stay a little longer if you want?" Barry asked to Caitlin's surprise.
She was thinking about it for a moment but shook her head. "No, you have to get back to your Caitlin, where you belong."
Barry felt bad for just leaving her here, no knowing what would happen after he left. He pulled her closer for the tightest hug he had probably ever given her.
As she pulled away she reached for the necklace he had given her at Christmas. "Here, you should probably give this to her in the future."
He gave her a sincere smile. "No, i want you to keep it. Please"
She put it back on and hugged him once more.
The pair returned to star labs to find Eobard and Cisco talking and laughing. "Huh, didn't see that coming." They thought. Joe however was still nervous and ready to grab hold of his gun if needed.
"Alright, it's time to go." Barry said interrupting the laughing.
Cisco went over to Caitlin and Joe while Barry went to talk to Eobard on how this was going to work.
Eobard showed him the settings on the time sphere. "This should take you right back to your original timeline."
They went over a few more things while Joe and Cisco went up to the cortex to get read. Well, Joe just wanted to be as far away as possible from Eobard.
Barry nodded Eobard's way and was about to run off to open the portal when he was stopped.
"Barry, you might want to use this on everyone that knows about you." Eobard handed him a little gun shaped device.
"What's this?" Barry asked.
"This will erase any memory of you and me ever being here." He explained.
Barry didn't want to erase his friends' memories but agreed it was probably for the best if he did. After all, he had just royally messed everything up by telling everyone.
Barry nodded and flashed off, first to Eddie's house, then all the way over to starling city for Felicity and then back to the Cortex where Joe and Cisco were held up. He hoped that nothing would go wrong as without Cisco remembering what needed to happen to shut down the portal if necessary, things could go wrong very badly.
He got back to the pipeline, where Caitlin was saying her goodbyes to Eobard. Despite everything, Caitlin enjoyed working with him.
Barry pulled out his flash ring and got in his future suit. He looked Thawne's way and nodded before flashing off to open the portal.
Eobard got into his time sphere and went through first. Now it was Barry's turn.
He got went up to Caitlin to erase her memory but hesitated. "What's wrong?" She asked.
He decided against it and instead of wiping her memory he kissed her one last time. "Goodbye Caitlin."
With that he flashed into his own time sphere and it went through the portal.
"Goodbye Barry." Caitlin said as she started to tear up looking at the now closing portal.
Barry ended up in the pipeline again on the other side. He discreetly made his way to the cortex. He noticed it was two in the morning.
As he entered he noticed Caitlin sitting at the desk. "Cait?" He asked cautiously.
She turned around and couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Oh my god, Barry, you're back." And before Barry could say anything else she was in his arms.
"How long have i been gone?" He asked.
"Six days. Why?"
Barry chuckled slightly. "Uh, yeah...more like six months."
"What?" She asked confused before yawning.
"Long story. You seem tired is everything okay?"
"I've just not really slept much since you left." She said while yawning again. "I've been trying to find a way to get you back."
"Come on, let's get you home. I'll tell you about my trip tomorrow." He picked her up and was about to run off when he noticed her necklace, it was the same one he made for her in the other timeline. The thing is, he never made it for her here. "What?" She asked as she noticed he was staring.
Barry smiled. "Nothing." And with that he sped them home to resume their lives.
So this was the first ending, i hope you liked it, i am not certain it lives up to the goal i set myself in the beginning but i hope it turned out alright.
Now first and foremost i want to thank everyone that read, favorited, followed and reviewed. This was my longest and best received fic to this date and i am completely blown away by all of the nice comments along the way. It put a smile on my face every single day.
What comes now, you can skip over if you wish, it's just going to be me explaining why it took so long to update. (Funny story actually) :)
Basically after i uploaded the last chapter, i just had so much work to do, i couldn't make enough time to write anything. After that i was just not motivated enough to write anything decent and just took some time off. So then one day, my sister asked me to watch Frozen with her. I had never seen it before and it turns out i quite enjoyed it, (Yes, that's perfectly normal for a 19 year old. Don't judge me. XD) after that my brain decided it would be a good idea to come up with literally dozens of ideas for fanfics for that and my brain would always resort back to that when i tried to write this... soooo i may or may not have spend a whole week writing down anything that came to my mind. I probably won't release any of them and just stick to SnowBarry for now though. Maybe one day i'll get some to the point where i'd be comfortable publishing them or if people asked for it. idk, realizing only after some research that the movie was already six years old, i doubt anyone would actually care. XD
NOW, this brings me to what i'll be doing next, during the time i was writing this fic and the Frozen ones, my brain did occasionally give me an idea for some SnowBarry fics, i have about 15 prompts which i can make stories about, mainly one shots but some might become more, who knows. Keep in mind some might still get scrapped or combined with others so don't get too exited. Sorry. ;) And then there's also some that might get added later on. I'll try and get them out frequently but i'll take things slow for now, i want it to be as good as possible.
So IF you are still here and reading this mess... well first of all congratulation and thank you, secondly, the alternate ending where Barry stays in the current timeline should be the next chapter unless i mess everything up and end up making a complete fool of myself, enjoy that one as well.
Since this is technically the last chapter and i probably won't add a note to the alternate ending, again thank you for reading and sticking with me all this time. I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time. :D