A/N: Next chapter.

Earth 14

April 2016

"So that's how you came to our world?" Charles asked. "You attempted to time travel with this…'tachyon device' and ended up in our world a whole year earlier?"

Barry nodded. "Yeah."

"And the device? The one that brought you here? What happened to it?"

"Destroyed. Broken to pieces. If it wasn't, I would've left the moment it was fixed."

Charles sighed as he nodded. "So, what happened next?"

May 10th, 2015

Barry sat on the ground of the roof as he disappointedly looked down at the destroyed pieces of the tachyon device. He had been stuck on the roof for over five hours. It was evening and the sun was setting, resting on the horizon, the light slowly leaving the sky as the atmosphere darkened. Barry looked at the pieces, tears streaming down his face, realizing how he had lost his only chance of returning home. He sniffed before breathing in deeply as he sighed. Barry rose to his feet, leaving the pieces behind. There was no chance of fixing the device. Not anymore. It was fried, destroyed, and shattered to bits. One would've had better luck attempting to carve out the polar ice caps with a spoon. Barry stood on the edge of the roof of the building he was on, wind blowing against him as he looked down to the ground. The runners still surrounded the building. Barry had to find a way to get off the roof without being detected by the runners. He looked around as he scanned his surroundings. About a block down south, there was an empty and clear alleyway. Barry did the calculations in his mind, if he could gain enough momentum, his speed would allow him to leap far away whilst going undetected by the runners. Barry began shaking his hands as they briefly formed static electricity. He began running in circles as fast as he could, building up his momentum more and more. Then, Barry let himself run straight, going lose, as if he were being flicked from a slingshot. He leaped off the edge of the roof as he flew in the air, orange lightning trailing him from behind. Barry flew for almost seven blocks as his altitude began dropping and dropping, he couldn't control himself as he lost his momentum and fell into an alley. Barry landed onto the edge of another roof as he fell over before hitting a window, breaking it and ricocheting from it. He fell for about two more stories before falling right onto a rail and slipping off. Barry dropped onto the top of a garbage can before sliding off and falling face flat onto the concrete ground. For a few moments, Barry seemed to just lay on the ground, barely moving, his breathing slowed.

Barry groaned in pain. "Okay…something's definitely broken."

Slowly, he stumbled onto his feet as he limped on one foot, his dominant arm over his stomach. Barry had seemingly managed to make it off the roof without being detected by any of the runners. He limped towards a wall as he leaned against it, letting his head lean on it as he let out a sigh of relief, closing his eyes. Now was when the real work began. For now, it seemed as though Barry was on his own. For a while, he didn't have his friends, his family, or his team to help him. He knew it was going to be hard. While he may have managed six months of being the Flash without the team, this particular situation was far, far worse. At the moment, Barry had no clue as to what he would do. That too having been on his own. Suddenly, Barry heard the sounds of a jet's engines roaring through the sky as he looked up to see a black Quinjet lowering near the roof he was just on. Barry looked at it in confusion. Who were the people inside? Were they looking for Barry? If they were, what did they want with him? Could he trust him? Barry pursed his lips briefly as he looked to the end of the alleyway before looking back up at the Quinjet. He didn't know those people, he couldn't trust them. He probably couldn't trust anyone. Thawne. Zoom. He trusted them and it didn't end well for him in both scenarios. There was no telling that these people would be different. It was a risk, one that Barry wasn't willing to take. He limped and limped a few steps as orange lightning coursed through his body. Pushing through his pain as much as he could as he ran off with his speed, leaving the city as he headed off elsewhere on the Earth he was in.

Inside the Quinjet, Steve and Wanda sat by the pilot and copilot passenger seats as Vision and Tony flew from above, next to them. Tony and Vision deployed several frequency grenades all over the city. The army of runners roared and growled as they disappeared in flashes of red lightning, running off at super speed. Steve landed the Quinjet onto the roof as he and Wanda came out, Vision and Tony landed beside them. Steve tightened the grip on his shield as Wanda's hands glowed a scarlet-red color. Tony held up one his hands, preparing to blast any incoming threat with his repulsor. He looked around as he activated the x-ray scanning tool in his suit, searching the building.

"Nothing here, Cap," Tony said. "From the look of it, he's gone."

"How'd he get out of here without tripping off the runners?" Steve asked as he looked around, hoping to see some clue that led to their mystery man's escape.

Tony tilted his head as he approached some shattered remains of a device. Steve, Wanda, and Vision circled around the device.

"What is it?" Wanda asked, eyeing the device.

"I don't really know…" Tony said as he scanned it. "But whatever it is…I'm willing to bet our mystery man came with it."

"I'm detecting trace amounts of positive tachyons within the device." Vision informed.

"Tachyons?" Steve frowned in clear confusion, Wanda having the same look.

"Hypothetical particles that can move faster than the speed of light," Vision informed. "Commonly used as a form of interdimensional time travel by theories."

"So you're saying our mystery came here because of this thing?" Steve asked.

Vision nodded. "Most likely."

"Can we fix it?" Wanda asked. "Send him back? To his home. To his world."

Tony sighed. "Doubt it. This thing doesn't have any components, it's just straight up busted. Shredded to metal pieces…we'd have better luck lifting a continent with one hand."

"Bring it with us," Steve ordered. "If we can fix it, it'll help our case with this guy a lot easier to deal with."

Steve looked around the city as he saw the sun set, the evening descending into the night. He looked across the city as he sighed, letting out some final words.

"I don't know who this guy is," Steve said. "But I'm hoping he isn't stuck here. For his sake, at least."

Earth 14

April 2016

Barry remained hunched over, his elbows on his knees as he looked at Charles, telling him his story. Barry's long hair extended to the top of his neck with its mix of dark brown and black color. It remained behind his ears. His beard was almost a half-inch big. Charles rested his jaw on the hand of his arm, which he kept on the armrest of his wheelchair. He sighed.

"So that was how you came to our world…" Charles asked. "How did you meet the rest of your friends?"

"That wasn't until three months later…" Barry explained.

"Three months?" Charles seemed briefly surprised. "You were alone and by yourself for three months?"

"No…" Barry replied. "There was…there was one guy, who I found."

Earth 14

August 14th, 2015

Barry's eyes quickly opened as he sharply inhaled, he laid on the concrete ground by the corner, his right arm, which he had used as an alternative for a pillow, on the ground. His left arm was covering the sunlight shining on him as he lifted his head up. Barry could see a figure of a man leaning against the doorway. The man had brown hair, a brown beard. He wore a dark blue, long-sleeve t-shirt. A black, leather jacket, black jeans, and black boots. The man retracted his metal three metal claws from his right hand as the claws sunk into the spaces between his knuckles.

"You okay, kid?" Logan asked as he offered a hand to Barry.

Barry took his hand as Logan pulled him onto his feet. "I've been better…is it still morning?"

"Afternoon if you wanted to be specific," Logan said as he smoked a cigar. "Not like I know what time it is."

Barry leaned against the wall of the room as he let out a humorless chuckle. Logan extended his cigar, offering Barry a smoke. He shook his head, declining the offer. Even if his metabolism could take it, Barry didn't want to make a habit of smoking. As it was, he was still uncomfortable with the idea of killing runners. Zombie-like creatures who used to be people…maybe there was still a part of the people they used to be within them. Barry still believed it, even if he had to kill runners as he came across them. Logan, on the other hand…well, Barry wasn't sure what that man believed in, assuming there was anything that he did believe in. Barry ran a hand through his hair, which had grown a bit in the last three months, as he pulled it back. He briefly scratched his growing beard as he looked at Logan.

"How short are we on supplies?" Barry asked.

"Not doing too good," Logan said grimly, blowing some smoke away. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Barry nods. "I'll get my stuff together, we'll expand the perimeter another quarter mile, clear out any runners. Set up some traps. See if we can find something."

Logan took another inhale of his cigar. "I'll wait for you."

Barry nodded in response as he went to another room in the abandoned, wasted apartment building he and Logan were in. He walked to a bed as he saw his backpack and jacket resting on it. Barry wore a light blue t-shirt, dark-colored army pants, a belt which held a knife and a hatchet and some sneakers. He took his beige-colored, multi-pocketed army jacket and put it on before unzipping his backpack looking through it. Suddenly, Barry came across his old Flash suit as he saw his emblem, the maroon-colored suit. He looked at it with a heavy amount of emotional pain as he slowly lowered his head downward before letting it completely hang, as if he were in utter defeat. From in front of him, on the other side of the bed, Barry heard a voice call out to him.

"Been a while since you wore that," Henry Allen said. "Isn't that right, slugger?"

Barry kept letting his head hang, not bothered or disturbed upon seeing and hearing his father, who appeared to be well and alive in his eyes…in his hallucination. Henry leaned against the wall as he crossed his arms, Barry zipped his back up as he lifted his head up before turning away, breaking any form of eye contact with the imagery of his father.

"So it's just you on your own now, huh, slugger?" Henry asked, a hint of his old, casual smile that Barry used to see him wear.

"I'm not on my own," Barry responded, tilting his head towards Henry's direction.

"Right, your friend Logan, always there to occasionally chat with. Finding supplies together, that's good…only it isn't good enough, is it? You're alone, Barry. You've always felt alone. Not in the world, in yourself. In your own heart, you've never felt yourself. Not since that night…"

Barry scoffed as he looked away from Henry, staring straight at a wall. "Which one? The one where my mother was murdered in front of me? Or the one where my father was…Zoom was right, it is poetic. Seeing both my parents die in my childhood home. Now…I'm here, on my own, moving past them."

"You haven't moved past us, Barry," Henry said as Barry walked around the room, picking up some weapons and tools before placing them in his backpack as he shuffled through it. "You still haven't made your peace with your mother's death. Or mine. You haven't forgiven yourself for what happened."

"And why would I need to forgive myself?" Barry asked half-incredulously, the other half of him dreading when his unpredicted hallucination sequence would end.

"For not being able to save us. Deny it all you want, son. You still blame yourself for what happened both those nights. You still weigh yourself down for what happened to us and you need to stop."

"Don't. Don't call me 'son', you're not my father. You're just in my head."

"That is what I'm saying, Barry," Henry moved from the other side of the bed as he approached Barry. "I am not real. You need to push yourself past this and stop…clinging and holding on to all your pain. Let it go, Barry. Let it all go. A good amount of grief is love persevering. Too much grief is just guilt and pain."

"It should've been me that night." Barry muttered.

"There was a reason that it wasn't." Henry responded. "And it wasn't just because Zoom wanted to make you suffer or…force you into his plan with the magnetar. It is because you were, and still are, meant for so much more. You're meant for great things, things that will impact countless people's lives. And if I'm standing here, telling you all this, it means you believe it too." Henry points at Barry. "Barry, your mother, me, Eddie, Ronnie, the people you've lost, the dead, your team, everyone else you've known? That's all in the past. You need to start living for the future and in the present. Move on, son. Move on."

Barry shakes his head as he looks down. "You say move on…but the truth is I don't know how, Dad."

He looks back up only to see Henry to have disappeared, his hallucination fading away as the emotional burning fire in his mind calmed. But it did nothing for the emotional wildfire in his heart and soul. He sighed as he turned to a wall before stopping himself in horror upon seeing a certain man wearing a dark gray suit, blue lightning flickering all over his body.

"Going somewhere?" Zoom growled, his distorted voice sending horrific memories through Barry's head.

"Zolomon…" Barry shuddered.

Zoom took off his mask, his blue lightning ceased as Barry made eye contact with the face of Hunter Zolomon. Zolomon chuckled. "What's wrong Barry? You look like you've seen a ghost?"

Barry's face contorted into rage as he scoffed. "You're just in my head, Zolomon. You're gone, remember?"

"Am I?" Zolomon chuckled menacingly. "Have you ever wondered? Did I really die that night? When those Time Wraiths came and made me into that…Black Racer? Does it ever…haunt you? Knowing I could still be out there? Causing more and more to some poor, innocent, helpless souls?"

"But you're not," Barry growled as he stepped closer to Zolomon, staring him down. "You. Are. Dead, Zolomon. Everything you are, everything you ever were, it is dead right with you."

"Everything I am?" Zolomon chuckled. "So you do admit it? You still think I'm alive?"

Barry blinked. "That's not what I-"

"-what you meant? Oh, Barry. Very poor choice of words," Zolomon's voice became distorted and modulated as he growled. "Remember the last ones your father said to you?"

Barry clenched his fist as orange lightning coursed under his skin and in his bloodstream when he growled. "Shut up."

"Poor Barry Allen," Zolomon taunted. "Stood there like a coward as a child, watching your mother die."

"Shut up." Barry growled.

"And you did the exact same thing when I shoved my hand through your father's heart." Zolomon continued.

Barry growled. "I said. Shut. Up."

Zolomon chuckled. "Just know…watching you see your own father die, seeing you helpless knowing your hope had been ripped away from you again. Seeing you have so much hope only for me to torment you and rip it from you, it gave me more relief than a thousand v-nine's."

Barry's fist clenched tighter. "I said…SHUT UP!"

He swung his fist as Zolomon as it went right through him before hitting the wall. The walls of the entire room cracked as Barry punched a hole into the wall. He retracted his fist, which was seemingly unharmed save for some white scratch marks that appeared on it. Zolomon disappeared from Barry's vision as the young speedster saw Logan standing by the door from his corner vision.

"The hell you doing?" Logan asked in a mix of confusion and disbelief.

Barry looked at Logan with a look of confusion, sweat covering his face. "I…I was just…" He looked back to the wall that he had punched, a hole was in it, the entire room had cracks all over the wall. Barry didn't know what disturbed him, his hallucination of Thawne or his brute strength from a single punch, which he hadn't even generated much speed into. "I don't…"

Logan interrupted through Barry's silence. "We better get going. Chances are that punch already has runners on our trail, best we get out of here before they pin down the source of all that racket."

"Yeah," Barry said, looking away from Logan as he bobbed his head repeatedly. "Yeah, we better get going."

Barry took his backpack as he headed for the door when Logan stood in front of him, blocking his path. The pair made eye contact, as they stared each other down with their own looks of determination.

"What're you doing, Logan?" Barry asked.

"Look, kid, we've stuck together for a while now…" Logan began. "I might not know much about you, but it doesn't take much to tell that you are going through some seriously deep shit."

Barry let out a scoff as he briefly looked down before looking back up at Logan. "Well, Logan…the day I need your therapeutic skills, I'll be sure to let you know."

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Listen, bub, if you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine. But don't lie to me about it. Tell me…for real this time."

Barry nodded his head lightly and repeatedly as he flashed a look elsewhere before facing Logan once more. "I don't want to talk about it."

Logan nodded. "Alright then."

Logan stepped aside as he followed Barry out of the apartment building, the two of them heading out as they continued their search for supplies.

Elsewhere

"And you're sure that's where he is?" Steve asked as he spoke to Tony, Bruce, and Daisy.

"We're positive, Cap," Daisy confirmed with a nod.

"Ran the satellite scan almost fifteen times," Tony backed up. "That area is where our mystery man is. Maybe where he's been for the last…what's it been? Three months? Four? Around three."

"This could be our chance, Steve," Banner said. "I'm not much of a fight-smart guy but…if we don't move in now, we might not get another chance."

Steve sighed as he nodded. "Tony, how's the progress with that device we found coming along?"

"The tachyon device from our mystery guy?" Tony asked as Steve confirmed with a look, Tony sighed as he exhaled. "Honestly, we're making progress backwards at this rate. It's literally pieces of scrap metal with traces of tachyons. Nothing we can do."

Daisy sighed hopelessly as she leaned back in her chair. "Well…there goes our bargaining chip."

"Let's take a small team and move out," Steve ordered. "Approach this guy, carefully and slowly. See if we can trust him, maybe work with him. Daisy, Tony, you two are with me and Vision. Everyone else stays back, wanna keep this to a minimum in case runners break through the base."

Meanwhile

Inside the destroyed remains of a warehouse, within a small room, several tables and electrical generators were spread out as a sort of operation and security system was running. On one of the tables, a computer screen played live footage of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Daisy Johnson speaking with one another. Several other computer screens displayed live footage of all the rooms and areas within the same underground base the four of them, and their allies were in. After a couple moments, a yellow, blurred, figure of a man with glowing red eyes zoomed closer to the computer screens as red lightning flickered in a trail behind him before disappearing as he came to a halt.

The man chuckled upon seeing the footage, his voice distorted. "It's slowly coming together."

Behind him, Bucky Barnes screamed in pain as an electromagnetic powered chair restrained him, several syringes of energy and lightning being plunged into him all at once. He screamed and screamed, feeling speed force energy and lightning coursing through his body and under his skin. As Bucky groaned in pain, the man slowly turned around before he stopped vibrating his body. He approached Bucky, taking off his mask, his eyes stopped glowing as the face of Harrison Wells was half-visible to Bucky by some light.

"And when it's time…" Eobard Thawne said with a sadistic smile. "You will play your part…"

A/N: I know this is pretty much a filler chapter but it got too long by the time I wanted to get to the good stuff (i.e, Steve and the Avengers meeting Barry and Logan, them coming to the underground base that them and some of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are at). I wasn't planning the Thawne cameo until later but I felt like including it as the chapter felt too bland.