Yo! My people. Back for another chapter. Great to see you all. I'm so glad that you're here.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash.

The trio of people from another world, another multiverse, were walking down the halls, laughing as they were trading stories. "So that's basically my entire life story," Deon says.

"So you really have no idea where your powers came from?" Bashir asks. It was strange for him to think of a world where powers weren't the norm.

Deon just shrugs. "Like, do you guys have any room to talk?"

"Touche," Alexa nodded, thinking about her own circumstances. Powers might be the norm now where she comes from, but the mystery of where they came from was still unknown.

"I was born with my powers," Bashir counters.

"You can make the same argument for me. I was just a late bloomer in the first generation." Deon says.

"Can you be late for something you weren't expecting to do?" Alexa pointed out.

Their conversation was interrupted when they all felt the change in the air. Both Alexa and Bashir knew what this meant. They experienced this every time they came in closer proximity to The Speed Force.

"You're ready for this?" Bashir asked.

Deon nodded and there was no preamble as all three of them stepped through the door that would lead to the prison containing The Speed Force. But what they saw was a strange sight.

Usually what they would see is lightning constantly flashing, like a thunderstorm contained within the force field. This time, everything was still. Barry's body was standing in the middle, flickering here and there, tiny movements that none of them could pick up. What was even creepier was that he seemed to be staring directly at them.

It was made even worse when his lips were tugged upward in a mockery of a smile. "Look at us. All four in the same place. And we're not trying to kill each other."

"It's one of you, and three of us. We're not going to let our Forces control us." Alexa said defiantly.

"There will come a time. A moment of weakness that my brethren will reveal themselves to you once again. And you will be in no position to refuse. It's why you were all chosen." The Speed Force stepped forward and placed a hand against the barrier.

"They're bluffing," Deon said. "Nothing but a rat in a cage."

In outrage, The Speed Force let out a sharp shriek and pounded against the energy field. All three foreigners on the other side reacted instinctively, but managed to calm themselves down. They didn't want to give any opportunity to invite their Forces within themselves.

Owens let out a small cough as his eyes dimmed. The Speed Force let out another garbled mess of sounds that Alexa and Bashir couldn't even assume was talking.

Owens smirked at the sight of The Speed Force looking so helpless. "Let's get out of here. There's nothing here of significance."

Owens turned his back on the prison and walked out the door with his cousins following suit. The Speed Force growled at the sight of them acting so casual and sped off, again trying to find a weak spot they might have missed in the past few months.

"So that was one of the Forces trying to take over our bodies?" Deon couldn't help but ask. "Didn't seem like much,"

"You haven't seen them when they're able to let their powers free. I had a hard time keeping them in place long enough to bring them to the prison." Bashir said, thinking about how he managed to trap The Speed Force in his psychic hold. "Any longer and I might have lost my grip."

"They were right about one thing," Alexa said. "Us being here means something. I mean, all four of the hosts for the Forces are together in the same place at once. It feels very significant."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Deon assured her. "We all just decided to hide out here because it was convenient. It's a coincidence, nothing more."

Alexa seemed to accept the explanation, but Bashir didn't seem so sure. "I don't know, I think you were onto something when you said us being here is important in some way."

"I wouldn't worry about it. Nothing we can really do about it," Deon shrugged it off.

"You're very chill, considering the fact that there is a powerful entity out there that is trying to take control of your body and subject you to war," Alexa raised an eyebrow at him.

"I grew up with a voice in my head teaching me about my powers, thinking it was my fairy godmother. Nothing is too strange for me." Deon retorted.

"You're not fooling me, you know? I know it's you. I see you were lucky enough to have a more agreeable host." The Speed Force spoke.

"You always were my favorite sibling. The others have no way to communicate as we do. As for my host, I've been part of his life for so long, he has no idea how to begin to refuse me." The body of Deon Owens spoke, but it wasn't really him. "I see you managed to achieve your results in a roundabout way. You always preferred the more fickle ones."

"I prefer the term; willful."

"It doesn't matter what you think. You're in there, with no way out. Because if you did, you would have already escaped. You never did like being contained. You were always against the divide because it restricted you."

"I don't have to be. If we combine our powers, we can disrupt the barrier for me to escape." The Speed Force was clawing at the force field, trying to rip it to shreds with their hands.

"And why would I do that? With you out of the running, the path is so much clearer." The Still Force raised an eyebrow.

"Because I know you too, Temporal." The Speed Force spoke their true name. "You like to play the game, and what fun is it if not all the players are on the board?"

"This is a war, Motion." The Still Force, Temporal, spoke back. "There is no place for such silly notions such as playing games."

The Speed Force, Motion, didn't believe them for a moment. They knew their sibling couldn't resist. "Combining our powers won't only allow me to escape, it will send a pulse of our clashing energies. One strong enough that-"

"That it will call our two remaining siblings to manifest themselves more prominently in the other two," Deon spared a glance at the ones beside them. They licked their lips at the thought that the other Forces might be able to surge forth from their hosts at the strong presence of their opposite Force signatures. "I free you…"

"And the war, the game, will truly begin." Motion smirked, knowing they had found their way out of this blasted prison. "Soon."

Temporal smirked at them and they both let time resume back to a normal pace.

Alexa and Bashir were plagued with a splitting headache the entire way back to the Cortex. It started off as just some mild dizziness that turned into pain. They didn't think much of it because this happened frequently after they paid a visit to The Speed Force. But this one seemed more painful than the others and would just not go away, even after gaining some distance from the source of their plight.

The two were clutching their heads and wincing in pain by the time they got to the Cortex where the rest of the group was.

"Are you two okay?" Cisco couldn't help but ask. Their suffering was on full display for everyone to witness.

"We'll be fine," Bashir tries to dismiss it, but he squeezes his eyes together with both his hands on his forehead the next second.

"It feels like my brain is trying to jump out of my skull." Alexa exclaims, gritting her teeth.

Caitlin took a moment to lead the two to a set of beds where they could try to relax before noticing something. "Where's Deon? Wasn't he with you guys?"

Alexa and Bashir were only faintly aware of what she said before they were both grunting in agony, their bodies stiffening from the sharp pain in their heads that wouldn't go away.

"Can you find him, Cisco?" Julian asked in concern. He was looking over the duo being tormented as well. "Hopefully he hasn't been reduced to a state like this and is lost somewhere in the building."

"Yeah, I'll make sure to get on that," Cisco tried to input some commands into the computer, but at that moment, all of the power went out. The only source of light was the subtle glow of blue and purple coming from Alexa and Bashir respectively as they continued to convulse in their beds.

"What is happening?" Caitlin cried out.

The building seemed to shake, and in the distance they could all hear a rumble. A disturbingly familiar rumble. It was followed by another. This one was similar to the previous, but distinct in its own ways.

As if in response to the weird sounds, Alexa and Bashir both let out their own roars, starting soft before gradually increasing in volume. Their eyes were akin to stars, burning bright before extinguishing. Their voices return to humans.

"Oh no," Cisco muttered to himself. He rushed out of there as quickly as he could, ignoring the indignant shrieks behind him from his comrades, demanding an explanation as to what was happening. Cisco ran all the way to the basement where The Speed Force should be trapped. Even before he entered the room, he knew something was amiss. The area was bathed in yellow and green light, blinking on and off. The inhuman roars were getting louder and louder.

Taking a glance inside, Cisco tried to assess the situation. The Speed Force was still in the force field, blasting the barrier with all its power. On the outside, the body of Deon Owens was doing the same with their own green lightning. They were both roaring cries of thunder as they continued their assault to break down the barrier.

"No! No, stop!" Cisco shouted, trying to distract them somehow. He fired a vibe from his hand at The Still Force, but if it affected the being, it didn't notice. Instead, a pulse of energy surged from the green coated being, sending Cisco out of the room.

The air was thick and it seemed to weigh down on Cisco, keeping him in place, helpless on the floor, forced to watch as the two beings broke through the prison he had concocted.

Upstairs, Alexa and Bashir were both shouting in pain, sounds of what lies just beneath the skin making an appearance. Give in Give in Give in was constantly repeated through their heads. Their mental barriers were wearing down. The misery they were being subjected to, both from the power of the Force within and without pressing upon them to submit to the pain.

They were acutely aware of the presence of the two Forces in their full capacity. While they intellectually knew The Speed Force was with them, it was like the moon. Constant and hard to miss, but dim. Something that only came to mind if they put much thought into it. Now, it was like staring into the core of the sun. Blinding, especially with two of them. The presence of the two Forces placed even more stress on them to let their instincts run wild. That they were in danger and they needed to do whatever possible to ensure their own safety.

The different coloured lightning bolts struck against the barrier, and slowly but surely, holes were forming, crumbling the force field on both sides. And they were expanding by the minute.

With a final roar, The Speed Force let out a thunderous shout, receiving three similar, but different, shouts in reply. One of the cracks was at last big enough for The Speed Force to slip out of and the next moment, they were gone along with The Still Force.

Both of them reappeared in the Cortex. The Speed Force picked up the convulsing forms of Alexa and Bashir from their beds and slammed them against a wall.

"Barry! Stop. You need to stop!" Caitlin shouted in vain. She tried to step closer, but she couldn't. The sheer amount of heat two Force entities, potentially four, were exuding was enough to keep them all back. Even Caitlin, whose powers were literally meant to be absorbing heat.

Julian drew his gun and pointed at the body of Deon Owens, but when he fired, the bullets hung suspended in the air. Owens casually plucked the pieces of lead and displayed them between their fingers with a smirk on their face. If they weren't all terrified, they would be amazed, thinking this was probably how Barry saw the world with his enhanced speed.

The body containing The Still Force was pacing back and forth, stalking them with their eyes trained in all directions somehow, keeping them at bay. It wasn't going to let anybody interrupt what was about to happen.

Barry's hands were against the two's throats, choking them and pumping them full of voltage.

A battle was occurring in their minds and they honestly didn't even notice how they were being deprived of oxygen. It was the energy from The Speed Force that was causing them to hurt the most.

The foreign energy was shooting through their veins. Just being in this multiverse made their skin crawl all the time. Having the energy actually touching them made them feel like their insides had become their outsides. All the while a voice was constantly in the back of their heads. Shouting at them 'Choose. Live or die. Let us in, let us help you.'

It was difficult to concentrate. The Speed Force was snarling at them, a glare fixed on their face, applying more pressure on their throats.

Their instincts were shouting at them, that they were being confronted with an enemy, and they needed to do anything to survive, even surrender control of their body to another being. The thought just came to them, and it was so tempting to sink into darkness and let someone else take the reins.

What part of their mind they retained, stubbornly refused to give in. They were beings with free will, and they would rather die than become puppet slaves. But that thought was slowly shrinking with each passing second.

They tried to focus on something to drive the thought away, Alexa on needing to discover the mystery of her father's disappearance, all of Bashir's friends waiting for him to return home. But all they did was remind them of all the things they needed to live for. All the reasons why they needed to let themselves surrender to their best chance of survival. All the reasons they needed to accept the power to get THIS ANNOYING PEST OFF THEM!

Honestly, in spite of what they said to Temporal, this was a gamble. The Speed Force didn't know whether or not this would be the push needed to get these simpletons to accept the power of their respective Forces. One of them was a hero, meaning they had a severe lack of self-preservation instincts, but they were desperate at the time and needed their sibling's help to escape. They would have said anything to get them to agree. It was fortunate that even after trillions of lifetimes, they were still just as naive as they were before.

Still though, doing this, threatening the vessels' lives like this, they actually might end up killing them before they had the chance to let their brethren in.

At least they weren't like Temporal. As a whole, all the Forces accepted that Temporal was the strongest among them. That was just a fact, as reluctant as they were to accept it. As such, as the strongest they were constantly looking for a challenge, looking for something to entertain themselves with. That's why they were so easy to manipulate. Offer a challenge, just the prospect of something to push themselves, and they would accept, consequences be damned. Even though they were the strongest, they were the most childlike.

This whole war between them was just playtime for them. Getting all four of them together was just too tempting an offer for Temporal to resist. Not even thinking for a moment that Motion might not have the same idea.

Focusing on the two insignificant pebbles Motion was choking out, they couldn't help but think what was so special about them. But they weren't really one to judge. They had made a few questionable decisions on which little specks to take in as well.

Motion prodded their minds, just to see where this was going. They might not have the mental prowess that Psyche has, but after all this time, they picked up a few things. They could feel their siblings trying to invade their minds, but the mental barriers the little people had were holding up. Getting weaker, but it might just be enough to last until they die.

That wasn't an issue for them. Temporal might have a problem with it, but they could deal with that at a later time. Right now, they had the chance to wipe two of them off the board before the war even really started. How could they refuse?

Increasing the pressure on their throats and pumping them full of more energy that would fry them from the inside out, the screams they emitted was music to their ears. They could almost imagine this was their sibling they were slowly killing. This was very cathartic.

Alexa and Bashir were in so much pain, but not wanting to give in to the Forces calling from their veins that they had resigned themselves to falling into an eternal abyss. Death would be a kindness under the assault both of them were enduring. It made them sad, it filled them with guilt over thinking such a thing, as though it were a betrayal to themselves and everybody who ever knew them, that after everything in life, all the terrible things they had gone through, this was what was making them give up. But it was a better alternative.

The Still Force called out again, both of them understanding perfectly. "Aren't you supposed to be fast? You said this would work! I want them here, now!"

"They're stubborn. I'd like to see you torture these creatures into submission." The Speed Force replied.

"Maybe I will," The Still Force shot out their own lightning bolt directly at the three of them. The green energy was entirely different. It left a different, but no less terrifying sensation. Where The Speed Force made them feel like they'd been gutted, The Still Force left them feeling absolutely nothing. There were so many things you didn't realize you were aware of until it was gone. The thoughts running through your head, the blood pumping through your veins, the air moving in the lungs, the beating of the heart. For a terrifying moment, that was all gone. What could only have been a few seconds seemed like an eternity being trapped in a limbo.

Alexa and Bashir weren't aware of how much they were relying on the bare minimum of the power they were granted from their respective Forces to stay sane until they felt them recede, as though The Forces also knew they had given up, and they were being left out to dry.

'No!' they both thought at the same time.

The Strength and Sage Force reared their heads once again, pounding on the doors to their minds with renewed vigor, capitalizing on their sudden weakness. And they were no longer in a position to refuse.

Their bodies were being filled with a new, more comfortable energy, one that offered relief from the pain. And they both sank into it. Blue and purple lightning sparked against their bodies, driving away the harmful energies.

There was shouting from the normal people in the room, and Bashir briefly felt them leave in a small part of his brain, but it didn't matter. Alexa and Bashir's bodies relaxed, embracing the comfort of their Forces.

"Yes," they both choked out, barely a whisper. But it was enough.

Their minds were pushed aside to make way for something greater.

A moment later, the lightning struck.

The team was stuck watching their friend slowly kill the people under their protection. They had promised them that they were safe here from the dangers of the war. They had promised that The Speed Force wouldn't harm them. And now here was The Speed Force possessing Barry, pinning them against a wall. And they were helpless, not able to get close. Even if they managed to get past the all-seeing Still Force, their fragile bodies would probably be burned to a crisp if they got any closer.

Caitlin wanted to call out, but her screams never made it out of her throat. It was heartbreaking to see what Barry was reduced to. The sheer amount of hate on his face as he tried to kill Alexa and Bashir. Caitlin knew it wasn't actually Barry doing it, that he was probably completely unaware that any of this was happening, stuck inside his own head. But that was still Barry right there with venom in his gaze directed at the foreigners.

The Still Force turned to face the three beings and let out an impatient roar. Despite some of them not knowing the exact translation, the tone of it was clear to everyone. 'Hurry up' was being yelled out. Barry let out his own response, screaming in Alexa and Bashir's faces. The glow shining in their eyes got brighter and the two reluctant people opened their mouths, but their cries were more strangled, like they were trying to hold it back but couldn't fully stop it.

That was when The Still Force decided to join in, and shot their own blast of lightning at the three. Barry's body recoiled and gave a surprised thunder at the sensation, but the other two seemed to get it the worst. Their eyes were now mini suns. The lightning wrapped around their bodies changed colors. Where before, the lightning was solely yellow, now there was blue and purple in the mix.

Someone clasped Caitlin's hand and dragged her away. Looking at the body connected to the arm that was grabbing her, she saw it was Julian. "Let go of me! I can't leave!"

"You'll only get yourself killed," Julian said, sorrowly. "It's no use. Barry's gone,"

Caitlin was digging her heels in the ground, but Julian was being assisted by Joe now, and the both of them were strong enough to get them out. They both knew the change in lightning was not good news. They found Cisco along the way, and they had to literally carry him out of the building. He was mumbling under his breath, saying that he was sorry.

They all managed to get out of the building just as it exploded, leaving them sprawling on the ground. The entire building was gone. Struck by lightning, inside and outside. The clouds above were crackling with a combination of color. And out of the hole that was once STAR Labs were four colorful streaks of lightning that seemed to disperse into the air.

They all stared in silence at the wreckage. The burns and scratches on their bodies weren't felt by any of them. None of them felt anything aside from the chill that ran up their spines.

The war had truly begun.

After all of them had been set free into the mortal realm, they all took a moment to bask in their success. There was a silence between them that would only be broken when they all departed in order to prepare. Up until this point, they were all just trading punches with each other; biding their time and wiping out as many pawns on the board before going after the important pieces.

The moment passed and they all glared at each, their silent gazes promising pain and destruction when they met on the battlefield next time.

None would be spared.

In their own separate pocket dimensions, The Forces all looked at the large crowds of children they had amassed over the years. And they stood above them as their leaders, ready to join them in the fray. The armies all varied in size and species. But each of them had determination in their eyes, ready to serve and bring worth to their existence before the beings that gave them a purpose.

Gazing out, taking in their army, filled with confidence, The Forces let out a battle cry, ready to do whatever was needed to win the war.

Sorry for a relatively shorter chapter, but I felt this was a good place to stop. The Forces have now been unleashed. Deon was a plant the entire time, having already accepted The Still Force, who had then been manipulated into freeing The Speed Force from their prison. And then the combined presence of the two caused Alexa and Bashir to accept their own gods. Everybody's here now. I'm so happy.

Leave a review, favourite and follow, and I will see you in the next one. So long everyone.