Flashpoint Paradox: Redux
Prologue
Barry could not take it anymore. Throughout his life, he had tried to be selfless and do the right thing, even at the cost of his own happiness. Last year, he could have agreed to Thawne's terms and gone back to save his mother from getting murdered, but he had not gone through with it, because of his principles. He could have had his perfect life, but he chose not to.
And now, his father was dead too, after spending more than a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Killed by a mad man from another reality, wanting to torture him.
None of this would have happened if he had listened to Thawne last year.
Why should he always have to sacrifice everything?
Why does he always have to be the bigger man?
Why was he destined to keep the sanctity of the timeline when criminals like Zoom and Thawne could go back and forth in the timeline?
Heck, if he thought about it, his mother was killed by a man from the future. In no way, was it natural!
All this timeline, he was living in a timeline messed up by Thawne!
All this pain, all this loss… Maybe he never had to go through all this in the original timeline!
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
His decision was made.
He would make everything right, this time. Done the thing he should have done the last time.
His parents were good people, and they deserved better than being killed by criminals who wanted to get to him through them.
And not just them, all the people whose lives Thawne had ruined with the Particle Accelerator explosion would get a second chance… Eddie, Ronnie and so many others.
He looked back one last time at the West House, where he had been raised.
It was so tempting to not do anything and go back inside, to be with his family… Joe, Iris, Wally, Caitlin, Cisco… But he needed to do this.
Things would change, he knew that, but it would be for the better.
None of them would live scarred with the trauma Thawne, Zoom and the others put them through.
Caitlin would have her husband back and live in bliss, not knowing about the horrors of being detained by Zoom.
Cisco would not wake up to nightmares of Thawne's hand vibrating through his chest.
The Wests would be unaware of all the pain his association with them caused them.
Everything would be right, the way it was always supposed to be.
He ignored the tiny whisper in his mind, telling him to not do it as he remembered the time nearly an year ago, when he had gone back to stop his mom's murder, only to see his future counterpart signal him to not intervene. He did not know what future him was thinking… but that man may not have been him. He had been from the original timeline and maybe he hadn't known what Thawne was about to do…
He refused to believe that any version of him would ever be okay with the fact that not only his mom, but also his dad was murdered by a criminal.
He shook his head.
He needed to fix the world.
Barry started to run, losing himself in a blur of red and gold as he crossed the time barrier.
This time, he would fix everything, like he should have before.
Hope you guys like this story and please review. As much as I loved the show, it's adaptation of the Flashpoint arc was no way near the epic scope of the comics. The DCEU Flash movie got me thinking about Flashpoint again and this fic came out of it.