Hey brothers and sisters. I'm back for another chapter. It warms my heart to know that so many people are reading this story. Thanks.

Disclaimer: The Flash is not my own creation.

Bashir Malik was being assaulted on both sides.

In a ruined street, Bashir's entire face was being punched by Alexa and behind him, Barry was rushing at him with multiple speed mirages masking his true location, each poised to land several blows against him.

Yep. That's me.

The image freezes on the view of Bashir being attacked with a fist to his cheek.

You're probably wondering how I got into this situation. Well to do that, I need to go back to the beginning.

My name is Bashir Malik. I am the most powerful psychic alive.

My story starts differently to that of my other cousins. I was born in a world where powers were already the norm for the past several centuries. But I have been the first to show actual psychic powers in decades.

I was left in a basket on the steps of an orphanage in Medial Village as soon as I was born. My parents couldn't even be bothered to stay for my birth. Luckily I was adopted very quickly by a loving family who couldn't produce a child of their own.

My childhood was normal. I had two parents who loved me, friends in my neighborhood. I got into a good college. But then it all came crashing down. Quite literally.

My parents died in a plane crash my final year of college. And they donated all their money to charity. Good for them. Not so much for me. Suddenly I was forced into the position of being truly alone in the world without any support. I had my friends, but they were drowning in debt as well. They weren't as much help as I hoped.

So there I was. Orphaned again, alone, deep in debt and facing homelessness. So of course I did what anybody does in such a situation.

I got rich.

I became a lawyer. Specifically a family lawyer. You have no idea how much business that gets these days. It's slightly depressing, but as long as I get paid, the ache fades a little.

Still, the death of my parents imprinted something within me. Something that couldn't be satisfied with breaking these couples up and sometimes ruining a child's life, being treated as an object rather than a person.

I wanted to help people. So I do some pro bono cases for the legal team of law enforcement. Whenever they're shorthanded and I'm available. That always keeps me busy. Though most of my income still comes from my being a family lawyer.

And okay, maybe I do sometimes use my powers to help with the job. Reading minds makes being a lawyer so much easier. People are very rarely willing to divulge secrets, even if it would be more beneficial. It's much easier to just take them.

I do sometimes need to come up with an excuse as to how I know such things, but I've never been caught yet. And I always get results, so I don't know why they're complaining. It's for the greater good, really.

But my secret use of mind reading to get the information I require did earn me a reputation. The Occult. Because apparently the way I get my information is by dabbling in 'dark arts'. Since I didn't want to be exposed to having read my clients' minds, I let them believe what they want. It's not like what I'm doing is illegal. It's just morally ambiguous. And as a lawyer, I'm all about being morally ambiguous.

Overall, I've lived a pretty normal, if slightly soul crushing, life. I was in a place in my life where I felt happy.

So why the hell did I wake up from some kind of fugue state in the middle of a ruined street with two augmented wailing on my ass?

As soon as Bashir was rendered unconscious, the blue glow was fading from Alexa's eyes. The adrenaline pumping through her veins was fading, and with it, the presence of The Strength Force was pushed back into the recesses of her mind.

The same could not be said about Barry.

Barry's body picked up Bashir's unconscious form and raised it above his head. Barry was glaring at him, but Alexa came up to pull him back. "Hey, stop it. It's over."

Barry slowly turned to bring her into his field of vision and literally discarded Bashir's limp body aside. There was a growling being emitted from the back of Barry's throat and electricity was collected into Barry's palm.

Alexa was quick to shield herself. She wasn't nearly as durable when she wasn't in her giant form, but fortunately, lightning based attacks never had much effect when it was in her veins as well. "What's going on with you? Fight it!"

A headache was forming and gradually getting stronger, especially when Alexa was being electrocuted. She could feel a feral growl threatening to be released from her mouth. No, she needed to get that under control. It happened again when the two of them confronted Bashir, she wouldn't let it control her again.

"Stop! You need to stop!" none of her shouting seemed to be reaching him though through the lightning assault. The longer Alexa bore down to defend herself, the greater the stinging in the back of her head was making her lose focus.

"Flash! Freeze!" a feminine voice spoke, but not Alexa's own.

Both Barry and Alexa paused and turned to see a woman with stark white hair emerge from a breach and sent a mist that encased where Barry was. When the mist had fallen down, it revealed a large ice cube with a red figure stuck in the middle. "That should hold him for a little." Caitlin said.

Suddenly the ice cube was shaking and cracks were forming. "You weren't kidding about that," Alexa remarked.

The ice exploded and there was Barry with his face blurry and glowing golden eyes. He snarled and rushed towards Caitlin, but Alexa managed to smack him away in time.

Barry didn't let that stop him as he skidded to a halt. Shaking his head to get rid of any discomfort, he shot a poisonous glare their way and shot back like a bullet. Alexa raised her arms, preparing to attack, her eyes glowing blue as she prepared to use her powers.

None of that was needed though as Barry paused midstride. Literally, he was stopped in a position that should not be possible without him falling over.

A hand was outstretched between Caitlin and Alexa. Following it, they saw the hand was connected to Bashir Malik, who must have awoken in the middle of the fight. "I can't hold him for long. He's powerful. Do you have any way to contain him?"

As they spoke, Barry's figure was struggling against the psychic hold. Little tremblings here and there. Lightning streaked across his form. It wouldn't be long before he would break free.

"We might have a way," Caitlin commented.

Everybody was watching Barry running in circles within the force field Cisco had crafted in order to contain him back when they were trying to imprison The Reverse Flash for the first time. He was nothing but a lightning bolt within, looking for freedom.

"How long do you think he's going to keep that up?" Julian asked.

"I have no idea. He's been doing that for the past three hours." Cisco shook his head.

The swift movements of The Flash continued for some time before finally relenting, realizing there would be no easy escape. The glowing figure paused in the middle of the platform, glaring at them behind those golden eyes. He released a roar that reverberated through their bodies.

The loud sound seemed to disorient both Alexa and Bashir because they clutched their heads. For a moment, little sparks of their corresponding color, blue and purple, appeared but died down. "Did you get any of that?" Caitlin asked.

"About what you'd expect. Threats of escaping and destruction for daring to imprison a Force of nature." Alexa translated.

Barry tilted his head and looked as though he were considering them with a single gaze. He opened his mouth but no sound came out, as though he was trying to remember how to speak.

Eliciting a few sounds from their mouth, he finally managed to string a few words together in English. "Hello. You two don't belong here," Barry directed towards Alexa and Bashir. "You need to die,"

"You're not Barry. Who are you?" Caitlin asked, narrowing her eyes at the thing possessing her husband.

"Isn't it obvious? We've been here the entire time. We are the reason we're all here after all. The reason you have been brought together." There was a slight accent in his voice. And they were talking as though they were idiots for needing to ask such things.

"You're The Speed Force." Cisco declared definitively. He still hadn't told the others about the vision he received about the other Forces. He was regretting it, but there wasn't much point to it now.

Barry tilted his head. "You should be honored. Not you two though." He directed his gaze to the foreigners again. "We are going to kill you."

"In case you didn't notice; we're out here and you're in there. You're not killing anybody," Bashir said.

"This won't hold forever. We'll break out of here. You'll make a mistake. It might not be today or tomorrow, but there will come a day when this vessel will be free."

It was daunting to Cisco that he might need to keep his best friend locked away for an eternity. A task that he wouldn't be able to accomplish no matter how hard he'd try. Because they were right, something would happen that would eventually lead to their release. They were banking on the idea that Barry would be returned to his senses eventually.

"It'll hold you long enough. Just let Barry go." Caitlin said with conviction and a bit of false confidence.

"Barry's hiding at the moment. Trapped in a prison of his own making," The Speed Force tapped their temple. "Besides, why do that? We've been waiting for him for so long. What are you offering in return?"

"Find someone else. I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult," Cisco spat at them.

The Speed Force seemed to scoff. "Less than you'd think. Our children are all willful, not exactly eager to be losing what they deem as their freedom. We wouldn't want such runts as our children. We chose him. Our light shined upon him. It was lucky to come across Barry when he was so lacking in any mental capacity. That's what you get with a one in billion chance. In the end, someone always wins."

"What did you do to him?" Caitlin asked.

"It's not what we did. This was just taking advantage of the situation. It's what he did," they gestured towards Bashir.

"No? Then it might have been Psyche, that would make more sense. It is just the thing they would do." They contemplated out loud to themselves.

"What? What happened?" Bashir asked with a little fear in his voice.

"Sent little Barry on a journey through his memories. Obviously meant to incapacitate for the time being, but it did leave him as an empty shell. Very receptive to outside influence."

"He did the same to me, why didn't this happen to me?" Alexa asked.

"You ask a question you already know the answer to. It's the same reason why you're here in the first place. Our sibling's power isn't as great in this domain. They couldn't control you for long so far from their realm. Especially once you awoke. It also helps that Barry has yet to escape. Amnesia. Easy to get lost in what you don't know," They smirked. "Though to be fair, none of us are supposed to be here. The rule was no direct interference."

"So you're cheating? You talk about all this crap about how Barry was chosen by you. To become your vessel, and you're breaking all your rules." Cisco hissed at them. "All of this, and you're not even supposed to be here."

"A little bending of the rules. We choose our representatives. And then we take them. We cheated because we knew the others would. And to avoid an unappealing situation with them having the upper hand, we cheated in advance."

"You realize that means the only reason the others are cheating is because you cheated first?" Caitlin pointed out.

"If not us, then the others would. It's all a matter of perspective. This was always going to be the end result. It wasn't a matter of chance. It was fate." The Speed Force gazed upon them.

They all looked at The Speed Force in trepidation. They weren't sure what this meant for Barry's situation. Reviewing everything they said, if Barry was stuck in his memories, who knew what condition they would find him when they would free him.

"You don't have the means to force us to do anything we don't want. Whilst a piece may be in here, we will also be out there. We are connected to every child blessed with our power, the connection only stronger now that we have entered the physical realm. Barry isn't strong enough to push us out anymore. He is too weak. Only once the war has been won will he be released."

"That's never going to happen." Cisco murmured to himself. It couldn't be heard exactly what he said, but it brought The Speed Force's attention to him.

"Francisco Ramon." The Speed Force reached out to lay a hand against the barrier. "Don't think your actions for creating this box will be forgiven. When we escape, you will be subjected to a punishment that will have you begging for your end. That's a promise to keep."

It was hurtful to hear such poisonous words coming from Barry's mouth, but what struck fear in Cisco's heart was the promise and the reminder of what The Speed Force had said to him in his vision. That they had a promise to keep.

As Barry was currently… detained, everybody was on edge that something might happen. Without The Flash to keep the peace, Central City was vulnerable to an attack. Alexa had offered to pick up the slack, but they didn't feel comfortable with giving her the run of the city. Caitlin and Cisco were capable metas in their own right and after many years of dealing with such problems, the police were equipped to be able to deal with any rogue metas causing problems without too much of a hassle.

It wasn't that they didn't trust Alexa, or Bashir, it was that they didn't trust them to be able to control themselves if they were caught in a fight. Letting themselves access this part of themselves could be an invitation for disaster. The two foreigners were going stir crazy, so they spent most of the time trying to talk with The Speed Force. Maybe try to glean some information about their own Forces or catch any mumblings the rest of them couldn't hope to decipher. Most of their time was spent watching The Speed Force run in a circle, trying to break out. The thing didn't know when to stop, or if it had any need to stop. Barry's body hadn't received any sustenance since he'd been put in there. That had been three weeks ago. His body should have shut down by now but he was still going strong.

So both of them were spurred into excitement at the sound that a new Force presence was being detected. One that was distinctly different from the other three. They were finally going to meet a Still Force cousin. The quartet would be complete, if only Barry would be freed from The Speed Force.

"We're going to check it out. See how it all goes." Caitlin said, having taken up the leadership position since Barry couldn't. "I don't want you guys interacting with each other until we know more. The proximity between all of you might cause you all to go berserk."

Alexa sighed. "You can't keep us apart for long. This involves all of us."

"The sooner this Omniverse business is resolved, the better. I have to get back to my life. It's lonely, but it's mine and I want it back." Bashir said.

"One step at a time. We don't even know what this person is doing here. Once we figure that out, we'll get to work on stopping this war." Cisco said, putting on his goggles and single glove, opening a breach for himself and Caitlin at the location where the energy was recorded.

"Okay, tell me what you're seeing," Julian said through the comms once the two's signal showed on the screen, indicating that they had arrived.

"It's nothing so far. This is one of the more run-down areas in Central," Caitlin said, noticing the various houses and buildings in disarray. Some looked like they hadn't been lived in for years.

"Well the energy spike is getting bigger. There's something there right on top of you." Julian said, looking at the readings he was receiving.

"Okay, be prepared for anything. We don't know what's coming for us. We don't want to be caught off guard. We have to be ready," Caitlin said. Cisco nodded in reply.

They cautiously took in their surroundings, trying to see if there were any discrepancies or anything out of place. Suddenly there was a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment where there was a bright green light that disappeared in an instant and all of a sudden there was a man in its place.

He was young, probably in his early 20s. He had a long face with a buzzcut. He sported a green sports jacket with white sleeves and black gloves and sweatpants. He looked like a typical college jock.

"Yeah! Take that you little *BLEEP*! You son of a *BLEEP*ing *BLEEP* *BLEEP* *BLEEP*. And then *BLEEP* and *BLEEP*. You're not *BLEEP*ing *BLEEP* my body! I'm gonna *BLEEP* *BLEEP* *BLEEP* all over your *BLEEP* so then you'll have to *BLEEP* sideways!" The young man shouted his profanities toward the spot where the light had disappeared. "*BLEEP*!" he shouted one last time. He then finally noticed the two behind him and addressed them as though he wasn't just spouting every curse in existence. "Hey, I'm Deon Owens."

Caitlin and Cisco were too shocked at his choice words to do anything until he had finished. They hadn't been ready for this.

My name is Deon Owens. I'm 22 years old. And I am esoteric on my Earth. Meaning I'm the only one in existence that has been confirmed to have powers. Jury's still out on all those ancient stories. It's starting to look like there might be a possibility they were historically accurate.

My life was completely normal. I grew up with 2 parents, three little sisters; Amelia, Gina, and Sheila. Friends and dates here and there. I went to school, got a football scholarship to Axis University and that's what I've been doing with my whole life. It's been pretty normal.

To be honest, I don't even know where my powers came from. It started with small things. Time would seem to drag on while others seemed to fly by. And according to other people, that's completely normal.

Then I would get a sense of deja vu, like somebody would say something and then go around and say the same thing again. That was different from what other people say. They don't usually go around saying the same thing twice and not notice that.

I would have blanks in my memory, like I had skipped an entire hour of my life. My parents thought I had memory problems or maybe I was ADD. The medication didn't help. It didn't seem to do anything other than make me sleepy.

So you're probably wondering how I made the connection that these seemingly random events that were proof of me just having a few learning disabilities were in actuality myself having powers. The answer is simple.

I have a fairy godmother.

They taught me the truth. All those moments where time seemed to slow to a halt, or pass by in the blink of an eye wasn't just perspective. It was actually happening, and I was causing that.

Those moments where everything seemed to repeat itself, I had actually reversed time, I'd traveled back by seconds and experienced them for a second time without anyone knowing.

Those times where I would seemingly black out and it would be hours later, I had actually skipped into the future. And that was just the noticeable times. Imagine all the little seconds I skipped past and didn't even know it.

Every peculiar thing that ever happened to me was laid out in black and white. Explained very carefully and thoroughly, the kind where there is no room for debate. Impressive considering it was just a voice in my head.

I've never actually seen them, they're just a disembodied voice that speaks to me in my head that nobody else can hear. I've been hearing it on and off over the years and they were always taking care of me, telling me the truth of my powers, that what I suffered from wasn't a weakness, it's a strength. Training me in how to hone my powers efficiently until it got to a point where I didn't need my fairy godmother to help, I was teaching myself new tricks that were thought impossible once upon a time. I kept pushing my limits to see how far I could go, all in secret. Nobody knows the truth that I'm esoteric.

It had been a few years since I'd last heard from my fairy godmother. Not since I'd graduated from high school. But now they have come back in full force. Whispering little tidbits of information that I'd never known before.

The world I lived in wasn't the only one. There were dimensions out there that were virtual copies of my own world, filled with people living completely different lives than what I would be used to. Not only that, but there were others that shared in my propensity for being impossible. Others with powers. It was incredible, the idea that I wasn't the only one out there.

I knew I had to go explore. I needed to learn about these other places and people.

My fairy godmother offered to take me away to discover these worlds, to bring peace with my powers because the worlds were in discord. Fighting against each other. In exchange, I needed to give up control of my body.

I had to get out of there. I learned how to open a portal between worlds and jumped through it, not even thinking about where I might end up.

And that's how I ended up in The Speed Force multiverse being confronted by my Strength and Sage Force cousins that were also visiting.

Joy.

After formally introducing himself, Deon Owens was brought to his Force cousins and given a tour of STAR Labs. When giving his account of what happened to him that led to him escaping to another multiverse, the rest of them gave their stories.

"Wait, so you're telling me you actually have one of these guys trapped in your basement?" Deon asked after hearing about how The Speed Force was currently in possession of a host, but was stuck in a force field that had yet to break. "Who's the poor schmuck that got themselves possessed?"

Caitlin looked at him with a deadpan look. "My husband."

"Well, it sucks to be him," Deon shrugged. He completely missed the look of rage on Caitlin's face that would have left him cowering in a corner.

"You want to go see him?" Alexa quickly steered him to the basement before Caitlin could stain the floor red. They would be safe there because ever since that first day, Caitlin never went back. It was too painful for her to face The Speed Force wearing her husband's face. She just couldn't do it.

The three foreigners left for another session of trying to interrogate The Speed Force, leaving Caitlin and Cisco to try to find a way to save him before the force field broke down.

"What do you think we should call him?" Cisco suddenly asked when the trio were out of earshot.

"What?" Caitlin asked, utterly confused.

"His alter ego," Cisco said, as though it clarified everything. "For Barry, we got The Flash. Alexa told us she's called The Brawn in her world. Even Bashir said he gained the nickname The Occult from his coworkers. Deon needs his own name."

"That's what you're thinking about?" Caitlin asked, thinking this was a little bit too random of a thought.

"We've got to keep the theme going. Something starting with 'The'. What do you think?" Cisco asked.

"I don't know." Caitlin exclaimed. "What does it matter?"

"What do you think about 'The Chronomaly'?" Cisco raised an eyebrow.

"Cisco…" Caitlin sighed in frustration.

"No, too Yu-Gi-Oh! I'll work on it," Cisco commented to himself.

"Let's just keep working on finding a way to free Barry while those three are making family introductions." Caitlin spun back around to work on the computer, trying to find something she could have missed that would forcefully separate The Speed Force from Barry without harming him.

Cisco turned to face her. "You're going to have to see him again sometime. You can't keep putting it off,"

"I've just been busy. I haven't been avoiding him or anything," Caitlin said, but she wouldn't look at him, so Cisco knew she was lying through her teeth.

"That's kind of what you do. You avoid the problem so much, hoping it just goes away on its own, until you're left facing it with no choice in the matter," Cisco says carefully. "You can't avoid it this time, Caitlin. This is Barry we're talking about. We promised, all three of us, that we would be there for each other no matter what."

"That isn't Barry down there. That isn't my husband. That thing is just wearing him like a suit," Caitlin shook her head.

"He's in there deep down. We can't give up on him. We'll bring him back. We'll make The Speed Force let go of him." Cisco assured her.

"And how do we do that against a god?" Caitlin sighed hopelessly.

"We've been in tougher situations before and we've come out of them better than ever. Why are you doubting us?" Cisco asked.

"Because back then, we had Barry. We had The Speed Force on our side. Without that-"

"That was never us," Cisco was quick to cut her off. "We're not slouches ourselves. We are all part of this team. We support each other. That is our real strength."

Caitlin finally looked at him and began to slowly nod. "We can do this."

"We can do this," Cisco agreed.

"We're going to do this. I made a promise to Barry that I would be with him through thick and thin. And I am not going to break that promise." Caitlin said with a steely resolve in her voice.

All the players are now on the board. Say hello to Bashir and Deon. What do we think of them? Their origins are different, where they're not superheroes, but just normal people. Originally they were also going to be vigilantes, but then I realized I didn't need them to be. So Bashir comes from a world where powers are the norm, similar to MHA. Deon's is similar to our own, but he just randomly got powers. The only one to have powers in his world.

And Barry has been sent on a journey through his mind. This is where he'll regain his lost memories and once he comes out of it, he'll be the Barry we all knew for the last 6 seasons. Now it's just a matter of when.

If anybody has any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a review or PM. I'll be seeing you all next week.