Bruce kept moving, his body was bruised, but he knew he had to find him. He and some of the resistance had found the Joker's hideout, and of course they'd found the Joker Clan waiting for them as well. A fierce fight and ensued, most of the fools were either injured or dead, and there was one of his team who was dead as well. Huntress, he tried not to think about that, but it had to happen and so he kept going. His body was bruised and he desperately wanted to sleep, but he knew that he couldn't. Any moment, Superman could arrive, and then they would all be destroyed.
"Where is he?" Bruce murmured over the comms.
"Take a left, and then walk down the steps." Alfred said.
Bruce did as he was instructed. "Now what?" He asked.
"Keep going, Sir." Alfred responded.
Bruce did as he was asked, moving through the wreckage. It was just like The Joker to find a place that was a damn death trap to force them all into thinking on their feet. His body groaned as he kept moving. He knew that he didn't have enough time to get it sorted now. He kept going. "Do you think I made the right choice?" He asked aloud.
"You made a choice with the information you had." Alfred responded. Bruce wondered how the old man did it. How he managed to remain so sanguine, so at peace with himself despite everything that had emerged throughout the years and especially the past four years. He wanted to ask, but he didn't instead, he did as he was told and kept moving. The fight had been brutal; they'd found out all sorts of things beforehand. The President was working with or for the Joker, she planned on getting the clan to remove superheroes through god alone knew what means. And so, they'd acted. Or rather Bruce had decided that they were going to act. He would not let her ruin this, there was peace in the world yes, and though he was opposing Clark, he knew there was one way to get his friend to see sense. "Take the fourth exist, Master Wayne." Alfred said.
Bruce did as he was told, turning and then turning again. The walls were lined with lead. That was clever of the Joker. Not for the first time he wondered who the man was, the being who had been his greatest foe for nearly twenty years. It had all started so long ago, with the death of an innocent girl, and had continued throughout that time. Maybe he should have simply killed the man there and then when he'd had him cornered, instead he'd dropped him off at Gotham PD and allowed the commissioner to do what he did. The man had gotten out three years later, escaped or gotten out he didn't know. He couldn't remember. Bruce remembered meeting Harley some five years after that. He regretted not taking her away with him, like she begged him to. He'd thought she might be able to cure the Joker of his madness, but instead she'd fallen victim to it. Only her daughter had cured her of her obsession to him.
Bruce had a lot of regrets about that. He had known that Harley was fragile, that she was not perhaps best equipped to handling the depths to which the Joker would go. But he'd ignored his ill feeling and disguised it under certainty. He would never have let Harley have been alone in a room with the Joker if he'd known just how manipulative and sick the man was. That had been a decade ago, after that he had fought through it all. Jason had died, Bruce had buried him, and he'd tried to wall off his heart. Dick had left after that, disappointed and angry, but they'd healed and made up when Tim had come into the picture. The family had healed, slightly, then the Joker had crippled Barbara, and everything and sunk down to some shitty level again. "How are things looking up top?" He asked.
"The Joker Clan has been pacified, their bodies disposed of as well. The team is taking Huntress' body back for burial." Barbara answered.
"Good, tell her family I'm sorry." Bruce replied.
"Bruce." Barbara said.
"Yes?" He replied.
"It's not your fault. Helena knew what she was getting into when she signed up." Barbara said.
"I know." Bruce said, that didn't make it any easier. He cut the communication and kept going. As had happened some times since this whole thing had started, he thought back to something Ra's had said long ago.
"You have potential to change the world. To make it so that no more boys will have to become orphans for the greed of young men and the powerful. Yet you do not have the strength to make it a reality. Your humanity will be your downfall. You shall see those you love, cast down again and again until you take action."
Perhaps the mad man had been right about something. Bruce wondered where the man was now. He'd not sent Talia to bring Damian back to his residence, and the woman herself had not spoken to him in nearly five years, since Damian had come to him. Man, his life really had been a mess since that day, or maybe years before. It was hard to keep track of what sort of things were going wrong nowadays. He was getting too old for this. He stopped his musings at the sound of rabid laughter and a scream. He hurried down the path following the sound and stopped horrified by what he saw.
"Go on Harley, do it. you know that's what you've been waiting for. I threatened your daughter. Go on girl, do it." The Joker replied.
"Harley no!" Bruce yelled.
Harley looked at him. "I'm sorry Batsy." She slit the mad man's throat, and he continued laughing before gurgling and keeling down.
Bruce moved toward her as she dropped the knife. He held her as she cried and cried. He looked down at the man who had been his enemy for half his life and thought to himself. "Who were you?"
John kept himself above the ground. His powers were stronger now than they had been when the guardians and Oa had been around. The batteries and the source that Bruce had gotten from somewhere were strong, and that was something that John and the other members of the corps were grateful for. They wouldn't have been able to keep fighting this war, if they'd not had those power sources. Of course, there was little that John really wanted other than to return to his wife and daughter and to make sure they were okay. If they were even alive. He'd not seen or heard from them since the war with the corps and the regime.
His deputy, Jessica Cruz spoke then. "Boss, up ahead. Yellow Lanterns." John looked and sure enough there they were, the Lanterns of fear, led by their leader Sinestro. John was ashamed to see Hal and other lanterns of hope there with them. "What do we do?"
"We stick to the plan. Get into formation." John said. His deputy nodded and the orders were given, the lanterns formed up into the shape of a spear. It would hold for the time being. He stopped before the enemy. "Hal." He greeted his old friend.
"John." Hal said.
"You know we don't have to do this. We can just talk and reach an understanding." John said. He hoped Hal would listen. This war would destabilise everything, with Brainiac coming, Hal had to know that. "You know there is a greater threat than whatever Superman or Batman want."
Before Hal could respond, Sinestro spoke. "You are breaking the very orders of the man you invoked. He has declared that anyone who works with Batman is breaking the law of the planet and is disrupting the peace. Surrender and come with us, and you might be spared."
John ignored Sinestro and instead looked at Hal. "When did you decide that working with someone like this alien was worth it? You know what we stand for, you know who we are Hal. You still wear a green ring, that means you still bring hope." He pointed at Sinestro. "That thing brings fear, his entire corps bring fear to the universe. Why side with him? Superman might be lost, but that doesn't mean you have to be."
Again, before Hal could speak, Sinestro answered. "Stop this nonsense, you are nothing more than a slave to money and the powerful. You know well enough that your master is working with someone who takes money from The Joker and from someone who has been dealing with all kinds of deplorable who wish to break the peace."
John said nothing to that, he couldn't really say anything to that. After all, when Bruce had told them what he'd found in the cave, where Harley had killed the Joker, they'd all been horrified. Money, accounts, all sorts of things that linked to the President of the United States. Bruce had given the information to Iris West who'd published it in her paper, and it had spread. Now the President was facing charges of criminal activity. Bruce had distanced them from the President, but the ammunition was there. They weren't as trusted as they had once been amongst certain circles. It was hypocritical really, considering what their former supporters had stood for.
"Your silence speaks volumes. You are not committed to ensuring that the world is fair and just. You want nothing more than to do your master's bidding. You are nothing more than a dog. A negro dog, given enough rope to hang yourself." Sinestro snarled.
John took offence to that and his ring conjured up a hammer. Before he could use it though, Hal finally spoke. "What terms would you be willing to offer?"
John went to speak, but before he could he got hit in the face. As he looked up, Sinestro was there coming at him. "Green Lanterns, attack." He roared, the formation moved as one, just as they had practised. They came, Sinestro came for him, John blocked his blows, and gave some of his own. The sky went from peaceful blue, to horrid yellow and green. There was something in the air that made him think that perhaps this would be a deciding factor in the future of the regime and the resistance.
He managed to knock Sinestro away and turned to face some other yellow lanterns, he took out two of them, watching as their bodies convulsed as their rings were broken. "Go for their rings" he roared. His allies did as they were instructed, bringing everything into sharp focus. He smashed through constructs with his own, and brought yellow lanterns tumbling down. Hal and his green lanterns were struggling he could tell. They were going to decide this fight one way or another. he barked out. "Hal, Sinestro isn't doing anything for Superman, he's betrayed you." John took a hit in the face. "Hal, he's trying to bring Nekron back/!"
Hal looked at him stunned. But before he could reply, he was knocked out. Soon enough it was just yellow against green as it had been so many times before. "You won't win Sinestro. You will be found out and you will die."
"So, what? My master will come and he will destroy all of you. Brainiac is a mere distraction from that. He won't ever make it to Earth." Sinestro replied, destroying another one of John's pupils. They fought, throwing bricks, bullets, trains and all other sorts of things against one another. He couldn't quite move, he couldn't quite breathe either, John knew that his time was running short, but he had to keep going. He looked around him, the lanterns were still killing one another. Sinestro laughed. "You have lost John Stewart." John moved too late, he got caught in the grips of something he couldn't break out of. Sinestro cut off his hand, his ring broke and then Sinestro laughed. "Your wife and daughter are dead." The pain was excruciating and Nekron was there to end it.
The world had returned to some form of normalcy over the past two years, Superman's regime had ensured that there was peace. And whilst some might complain about the lack of elections to some general assembly, and policy being decided by gods, it seemed a fair exchange to Barry. They got to keep their freedom of speech, assembly and other things, but there were no elections and any leader who infringed on their rights was dealt with by Superman and his advisors, of which Barry was one. Despite this new-found power, he could not find enough evidence to clear his father. and that had frustrated him to no end. He knew the evidence was there, but he couldn't seem to find it.
With Wells, having gone missing some time after Christmas of last year, and with a speedster having appeared at some other point during that time, Barry was beginning to get suspicious. He had just travelled to Star Labs and found nothing. The scientists continued working but none of them had seen Wells. He'd gotten an alert from Victor saying that there was someone who matched the Yellow Speedster's build near Iron Heights. Barry had raced there and well, here he was chasing after the speedster. They zig zagged around corners, around countries, around people around animals. They kept going, and still Barry couldn't catch him. It was getting to the point where he was considering doing something he'd said he'd never do. He kept going though, determined to not have to use that method unless things became truly desperate.
The yellow speedster kept going, Barry caught up with him and they fought. One blow here, another there, the speedster sped off. Barry roared in frustration and moved again. This time they fought with their powers. Lightning bolts and vibrating hands and gusts of winds. Still the speedster kept standing and going. As if he were goading Barry. Barry wanted to scream, but he didn't. Instead he chased after the speedster, remembering the night his mother had been killed, and feeling his pulse race with anger. He threw a bolt at the speedster, and the man, for Barry was convinced it was a man laughed. "Keep up Flash." The speedster drawled then sped off again.
They raced through China, India, Afghanistan, Russia, and countless other countries and all the while Barry felt as though he was starting to recognise the speedster. There was something in the way the man held himself, the way he had drawled those words. There was an arrogance there that he recognised, but from where he didn't quite know. As they got back toward Central City, Barry threw a lightning bolt, then sped up and tackled the speedster, they both got shocked, but Barry recovered. He smacked the speedster on the face and knocked him out. He pulled off the mask and gasped. "Wells?" He dragged the speedster back to the Hall of Justice and threw him into a cell. He spoke to no one, but called Iris all the same. When the man he'd known as Harrison Wells, his hero woke up, Barry, Iris, Clark, Hal and Victor were all looking at him.
"Well isn't this quite the welcoming party." Wells quipped. "I admit this reveal went quite differently to how I hoped it would."
"You're the monster who killed my mother?" Barry demanded, his hand in Iris's.
"Ah, getting right to the point. Very well, Barry let's answer it that way shall we?" Wells responded. "Yes, I did kill your mother, but that was an accident. She was never meant to die. Indeed, that night you were the only one I was supposed to kill."
"Why?" Barry asked. "What did I ever do to you?"
Wells laughed. "Well, you see, I come from a time where your legend is enshrined as gospel. You are the be all and end all of speedsters. When I was a child I wanted to be like you, I come from a time where superheroes bring hope just as they do now, but that hope was different. We are dying where I come from, and so superheroes were a sign of what we could be, what we should be. Then it all changed. I grew to hate you. And I reasoned that I could only be me if you were dead. But then it went wrong. Your future self, found out about what I was going to do, and we fought." Barry thought back to the yellow and red blurs that he'd seen as a child, his grip on Iris's hand tightened. "I went to kill you, the child you, and your future self, got you out of the way. In anger, I killed your mother."
"How did you end up stuck here?" Clark asked.
"My powers for some reason got weakened. Something happened in the speed force. I couldn't get home. So, I decided that I would create The Flash. For that I needed to make Star Labs. In my world, Harrison Wells didn't create the particle accelerator until 2020, I couldn't wait that long. I killed him a week after I'd killed Barry's mother and took his form. And so I created Star Labs and the Flash. During the decade, we have worked together Barry, I've come to see you not as my enemy, but almost as a surrogate son. To see you make the world a better place, to see you make it whole again, well I admit, I found myself admiring you again. As I did when I was a child." Wells answered.
Barry wanted to kill Wells, but he didn't, he didn't move, he simply stood there and stared. It was Iris who asked the question that almost everyone wanted to know. "If you aren't the real Harrison Wells, who are you?"
Now, Wells, or not Wells laughed. "My name is Eobard Thawne, you met my ancestor Eddie some years ago, I believe."
Barry just stared at the man, then he looked at Clark, Clark nodded. "Your father is innocent Barry; he'll be released from prison today." Clark then looked at Thawne. "As for you, your time here is done." With that Clark moved in on the speedster and snapped his neck in half. Barry said nothing, he turned and walked away, Iris walked with him. when they were away from everyone he broke down and cried.