As A/N: So earlier this week when it was released, I saw the series finale of The Flash: Season 9 Episode 13 "A New World Part Four". I'm not gonna lie: I was very, very disappointed with it. It was horrible, the villains were done dirty, it was a straight up mess. My honest rating of it is 3/10. Once again, the episode (much like 80% of the show) just had to make it about the worthless, one-dimensional, pathetic side characters instead of Barry.

Honestly, the moment I saw that all the villains were crammed into one forty-five minute episode, I knew it was gonna be rushed and bad. It should've been the entirety of season nine. To be real, this show just hasn't been as good as it was as early as season 2. The first two seasons were great. Season 3 was alright (Barry fell off as a character and I wasn't a fan of the saving Iris plot and I never have or will be). Season 4 was also alright ("we are the Flash" and Iris in general ruined it for me, along with other things). Seasons 5-9 were a disaster and a hot pile of garbage. Honestly, this show shouldn't have pushed on after season 4. That is the furthest it could've gone without damage and blowing up everything good about it.

Fact of the matter is, ever since Eric Wallace took over, the show's went from alright to boring, horrible, and disgusting as f*ck. All because a dumbf*ck like Eric Wallace, who cannot write or direct for crap, had to be the one to write it. To Eric Wallace, thanks for ruining my (and countless others') childhood show. Hope you're happy, you worthless, moronic faggot.

STEVE

New York City, 1935

"Steve, look out, man!"

17-year-old Steve Rogers saw a truck hurtling towards him as he partially froze. Before he could react or move, he felt a hand grab him by his collar and drag him off the street, pulling him to the sidewalk. The truck passed with a loud honk as Steve looked up to the man who had just saved his life.

"Don't tell me I've got to start saving your ass now too," Bucky Barnes said seriously.

"Some days, I feel like kicking yours," Steve shot back.

A brief silence ensued between the two before Steve's lips curved into a smile as Bucky snickered. It wasn't long before the pair of them were laughing hysterically, struggling to keep their balance. Neither cared for the looks that people passing by flashed at them, they simply enjoyed the humor and laughter of the moment. Steve, having struggled with his laughter, even resorted to holding onto Bucky's collar to help himself stand. Bucky, on the other hand, leaning against a tree nearby. After two good moments, the two teenage boys finally breathed deeply, calming themselves as they glanced at each other with a smile. That was before Bucky grabbed Steve into a bear hug as they pair embraced each other.

"Let's get something to eat, yeah?" Bucky offered. "I've got a whole damn story for ya."

Steve smirked. "Yeah? Well, you're buying."

Thirty minutes later, the two were inside a restaurant. Steve had ordered a burger and some fries, which he left untouched for the most part. Bucky explained his story of a girl he met in between snacking on his "fish 'n chips" meal, fries, and drink. Steve was somewhat surprised he could understand anything between Bucky's excessive eating and drinking, clearly the man had been hungry and thirsty. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been eating and acting like a monkey. A thought that Steve wisely kept to himself. At the end of it all, Bucky was leaning back as he sighed, his hands running down his face.

"I messed it up, man," Bucky sighed. "I'm telling you she was into me and I just…" Bucky clapped his hands together before letting them fall to the table. "I ruined it."

Steve shrugged. "Hey, who knows? Maybe she'll come around. Or maybe she's got a friend."

Bucky chuckled. "Steve, my friend and brother, you are good at many things but women? Sorry, man, you've expired your skillset there."

Steve let out a chuckle. "Ouch."

"No offense."

"Some taken."

Another chuckle came between the pair.

"No, but, really…" Bucky leaned back on the couch, his right arm resting on the window sill next to him, his left arm by his side. "have you…found someone?"

That was when Bucky realized he rather hit a nerve as Steve briefly looked down before shaking his head.

Bucky sighed. "Sorry, man."

Steve clicked his tongue. "I mean, girls aren't exactly lining up to dance with someone they might step on."

"Hey," Bucky said quickly. "Come on man, don't say that. Look, things might not be looking great now but that doesn't matter. Happy endings aren't something you get when you're barely at the middle of your life. Steve, life…it's a journey, okay? There's still so much of your life you got left to live and it doesn't matter if you don't have someone. That…that's something you reach at the end. And I'm gonna be with you until after that."

Steve briefly smiled before letting out a scoff. "Since when were you a poet?"

"Shut up," Bucky retorted as Steve smirked, the pair laughing briefly. "But I meant it…I'm with you 'til the end of the line."

Steve held out his hand as the pair shook hands. "And I'm with you, Buck."

Steve slowly opened his eyes as the ninety-seven year old super soldier found himself lying on a bed with a rather massive head injury. He slowly got up as he sat on the edge, bruises all over his body, his shirt torn to near shreds. On a side-table beside the medical bed, he saw a fresh t-shirt sitting on the surface as he changed out his top. Just as he slipped on his new t-shirt, Clint walked in, several bruises and cuts on the archer.

"You look like shit, Cap," Clint joked. "Then again, you look a lot better than I do."

Steve let out a brief scoff for a laugh before he returned to his typically alert behavior. "How's Laura? The kids?"

Clint nodded. "Shaken up, but…the important thing is they're not infected or hurt. Laura's staying with the kids, she thinks they can use a nap."

"That's good," Steve said as the two walked through the damages of the base. "How bad's the situation?"

Clint sighed. "Well, there's good news, bad news, and even more bad news. I think you're gonna want the bad news first."

"We couldn't evacuate everyone to the lower levels, could we?" Steve sighed.

Clint looked down with guilt. "Two hundred."

"People left behind?" Steve asked, not liking the direction the conversation was taking.

"Steve…that's how many living people are left in this place. Including all of us. It's all just S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. And obviously, as you know, it gets worse."

"The dead are infected," Steve said. "How long until the new runners get their speed?"

"Based on the tests we've run in the past? Between four days to a week. They won't have their speed for a while but there's no way of knowing what they're capable of until then. We've sealed off the places of the infected but the problem is that it involved sealing off every possible exit in the entire base. We're in the very center of this place with runners at every turn."

Steve sighed. "Let me guess, it gets worse."

Steve could practically sense the reluctance in Clint's nod when he spoke. "Bucky, whatever kind of..speedster control he's on, he took Wanda, Vision, and Banner. We can't find 'em."

Steve's eyes grew large in a mix of shock, disbelief, and horror. "What?"

"Coulson said he saw Bucky neutralize Vision with his speed and knock out Wanda," Clint elaborated. "Said he saw him take them both. Mack said the same about Banner and as it is, we can't find the three of them at all. So they're either at Bucky's hands like we think or they're among the runners that're surrounding this base as we speak."

Steve felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of the three becoming infected and turning into runners. He had lost more than enough friends, he didn't need to lose three more. "Only one of those options works for us and even then, it's a tricky situation."

"That's where the good news comes in," Clint added. "Eobard Thawne? Barry's worst enemy and the mastermind behind all this. Barry brought him in just as we sealed off everything. We've got him in a cell and Barry's questioning him as we speak."

The pair arrived in the mission room as they noticed everyone in the team spread all over the room. Just then, Barry walked in from the hall that led to the prison cells as he crossed his arms and leaned back on a wall. His muscular physique was blatantly clear as it was a noticeable difference from his skinnier self that everyone had met over a month ago. The young speedster had been taking his training rather seriously, something that Steve was proud of.

"Anything?" Daisy asked as everyone glanced at Barry, hoping for information.

Barry grimly shook his head and sighed. "He's not talking. And even then, there's no way I would've caught him this easily. It doesn't…it doesn't make sense."

Logan furrowed his eyebrow incredulously. "You're saying Thawne let you take him?"

Barry nodded. "He had to. Thawne isn't like any of us, he's smarter. Way smarter. He knows what he's doing, he always has a plan and every bit of it counts. Even this."

"Maybe…" Steve admitted. "But right now, the priority is finding out where Wanda, Vision, Banner, and Bucky are."

"If asking nicely doesn't work, I can step in," Matt proposed.

"Thawne won't give in to a beating," Barry argued. "If he did, he wouldn't have let himself get captured. It doesn't make sense."

"And that's just one of the problems we've got," Natasha declared. "There's still the runners."

"And the fact that we're completely surrounded with no way out," Sam added.

"Not helping," Daisy sighed in a dry, sing-song voice.

"Neither would denying the facts the way they are," Rhodey pointed out.

"Okay," Steve said loudly, in a tone that silenced everyone as they directed their attention at Steve. "Yes, the runners have surrounded and badly outnumbered. We still have some advantages. The entire building's been sealed off from the outside world and the areas of the building with runners are also sealed. Every runner outside this room but inside this building has their speed dampened thanks to the power dampeners."

"We need to figure a way out of here," Matt proclaimed.

"And fast," Bobbi added. "God knows what Thawne has Barnes doing with Wanda, Vision, and Banner. It can't be anything good."

Hunter shrugged. "Plus, it's not like those seals are gonna hold themselves forever."

"So there's no choice," Mack said with a sigh of defeat. "One way or another, we're gonna have to open those seals and get through."

"That's a separate problem," Frank said as he stood tall and looked at the security footage of Thawne in his cell. "The question is what we're gonna do with this scumbag."

"Interrogate him," May answered. "Get the answers we need and get our friends back."

Frank scoffed. "You're not gonna get anything out of him…" Frank swung his hand in the air as a way of pointing at Barry before letting it dangle. "Allen said it himself. And he knows this guy better than any of us do."

"Maybe he could still be useful," Fitz sheepishly suggested.

Frank scoffed again. "What? Get him to fight for us? Fight with us? With him?" Frank pointed at Barry who looked at him with half-attention and a half glare. "That's the same man whose mother he slaughtered in front of him when he was a kid. That's the same man whose life he's been trying to ruin. Ain't that what you said, Allen?"

Daisy stood up from one of the couches. "Frank, enough. You've made your point."

"Except you don't understand," Frank said as he stood in the middle of the room, everyone glancing and paying attention to him. "None of you do! We're sitting here like lambs to the slaughter and that-" Frank pointed at the security footage of Thawne walking aimlessly in his cell. "That right there is our butcher and we're standing around here just doing what? Nothing!"

"What would you have us do, Frank?" Coulson inquired.

Matt was the one to answer as his voice was low but clear. "You'd have us kill him…wouldn't you?"

Barry shook his head. "No."

Steve sighed, feeling somewhat fearful of the direction this conversation was taking as Frank turned around. An incredulous look was on the ex-marine's face. Frank walked closer as he and Barry stood a couple feet away from one another.

"What?" Frank demanded, his voice a low growl.

"Look, I get what you're thinking," Barry said, keeping his voice normal, hoping to not instigate a fight. "But this…we can't kill Thawne. We can't just execute him. That-"

"Why you, kid?" Frank interrupted as he whirled his finger, his hand by the side of his head. "What's going on in that head of yours? Thawne? That is the man who ruined your life, whirled you around like a pawn on some chess board for fifteen years. The same man who slaughtered your own mother, the woman who birthed and raised you. He just slaughtered her and threw onto some dirty floor in your childhood home…right in front of you. That doesn't bother you?"

Barry growled as he got off the wall, glaring Frank down. "Bother me? It shatters me every time my mother's even mentioned. Ever since that night, I've thought about her and what happened. Every hour. Every second. And every time, every time I see Thawne's face, all I can see is him murdering my damn mother in front of me." Barry then angrily shoved Frank, pushing him away as he walked towards him. "So don't lecture me on what he's done."

Daisy immediately rushed as she stopped Barry, her hand on his shoulder. "Barry, don't."

Frank continued his end of the conversation. "So then why? Why let him live? Why let him go around and keep killing? Life after life? One life, Allen! One life for countless others he's taken, your mother's, your friends', innocents, and you won't even do that."

Barry was about to speak when Sam came to the young speedster's defense. "We can't just murder him in cold blood."

Frank whirled around as he faced everyone else. "The hell we can't!" He then raised his arm as he began randomly pointing at and between everyone in the room. "Sam, it ain't like it was before! You don't get it. None of you do! If you wanna survive, if you wanna make it to that "new world" you wanna build, you gotta fight for it! You gotta do whatever it takes, even if it's as dirty as this."

"If we do this, we're killers," Fitz argued. "Murderers. We're no better than people like Thawne if we become the very thing they are. I-if - if we do this, the world that we know and want is dead. The old one and the new one. We do this and…we're no better than the runners we're so afraid of for heaven's sake."

"He's right," Matt agreed. "This. What we do, the way we do things. It's what separates us from people like Thawne. We lose that and…we lose everything. This fight, this war, this…chance to build the new world. It'd be gone…and all the people who died, they would've died for nothing."

Frank sighed in a mix of annoyance, irritation, and some level of defeat. He looked over at Barry as he scoffed at the speedster. "And obviously, we all know where you stand. Hell, you were the first guy in here to make one. See, this…this is your problem. I don't think you really care about saving lives, cause you don't have what it takes. No, all you care about is being the good guy, isn't it? Putting on that mask and that suit and having people call you a hero." Barry had no response as he and Frank glared at each other while Frank moved closer. "It ain't the way it was in your world, Allen. You wanna live? You wanna make the new world, you gotta fight. You gotta do everything you need to. Whether it's the right thing or something this ugly." Frank scoffed as he pointed to Matt and then to Barry. "See that - that's the difference between me and the two of you. Every time we're up against our enemies. You two hit 'em, they just get back up and keep coming. I hit 'em and they stay down."

The entire room was silent as everyone eyed Barry and Frank, waiting and listening for who would have the last word. For whatever potential response was next. After a few moments, Barry finally spoke as he looked up from the ground and directly into Frank's eyes.

"We're not doing this," Barry said, his tone indicating he wasn't willing to discuss the matter any further.

Steve eyed Barry as he briefly glanced at Frank before tilting his head and turning back to look at Barry. Barry let out a sigh as he turned and left, his footsteps echoing from the halls as Daisy eventually followed him. Steve glanced around the room and could see looks of doubt on everyone's faces except Matt and Frank's. Clearly, the recent conversation had done nothing but create potential means for a rift between the entire team, one that would certainly spread and go on to be an issue. However, something else caught Steve's eye as he noticed someone missing out from the room: Tony. And Steve knew just where he was. It wasn't more than five minutes until Steve had entered the medical room as he stood by the door. Tony was sitting beside a medical bed where an ill and weakened Pepper Potts was resting. Pepper's infection of the runner disease had been slowed by counter serums Tony and Fitz made, but there was no cure. Nor was their hope for one. All they had done was slow down and slightly change the effects of Pepper's infection. Rather than becoming a runner, once Pepper's infection had completely taken over, it would've claimed her life, leaving her body dead and motionless. Pepper's last moments were drawing nearer and nearer to the end, Tony could see it, no matter how much he had denied it. In a small crib beside the bed, a three-month-old infant was sleeping as Tony and Pepper looked at their little daughter.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Pepper said weakly.

Steve could see Tony's watery eyes as he struggled for a response.

"Y-yeah," Tony's voice was low and in a bare whisper, on the verge of breaking down.

Pepper gently ran her fingers around the three month old baby's cheek. "Morgan…she's going to be so…amazing. She deserves it, Tony. The new world. She needs to grow up in it. Build it for me, okay? Build the new world. Let Morgan grow up in it with her father, let her have a chance. Promise me, Tony. Promise me."

Tony could barely even speak, the tears were already pouring from his eyes. "Pep…"

"Promise me."

"…I promise."

Just as the words left his mouth, Pepper closed her eyes as the heart monitor stopped its repetitive beeping noise. Now, one singular beep echoed from it as the green line on the screen remained flat. Tony held Pepper's right hand with both of his as baby Morgan slightly fussed and whined in her crib. Tony bent his head as he rested it on Pepper's arm, hiding his tears and sobs. Steve looked down solemnly as he simply placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. Pepper was gone and in her last moments, Tony had made a promise to her. One that Steve knew he would keep. One that he and the entire team would help him keep: the promise of the new world.

A/N: I know this wasn't much action-wise but don't worry, I'll be sure to get to it.