Star Labs
Barry stood, holding the unconscious form of Wally West, his costume smeared with dirt and the faint, acrid smell of ozone. He laid Wally gently on the medbay bed, the movement careful, almost reverent.
The room erupted in a flurry of motion and sound.
"Wally!" Joe and Iris rushed forward, their faces pale with fear and relief.
"His vitals are stabilizing," Caitlin said, already at the monitors, her fingers flying across the screen. "He's in shock, but he's stable. What happened down there, Barry?"
Barry didn't answer. He couldn't. The image of the collapsing cultists, the feel of their lives extinguishing under his touch, was a cold weight in his stomach. But heavier still was the look in Alchemy's—Savitar's—unseen eyes. The promise of a future he knew was written.
He took a step back from the bed, from their questions, from their concerned faces. His eyes met Patty's for a split second. She saw something in them she'd never seen before: a deep, terrifying horror. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Then he was gone.
Not the usual blur with a playful crackle of lightning. This was a raw, violent tear in the air, a thunderclap that shook the medbay windows. He wasn't running to another room. He was running away.
He hit the streets of Central City, but the city wasn't his destination. He pushed faster, his legs pumping, his mind a screaming void. He was running through time itself, the world around him melting into a tunnel of streaking light and color. He didn't know where he was going. He just knew he had to see. He had to know if the nightmare in his head was real.
The fabric of reality groaned in protest. A swirling, violent vortex of energy, orange and gold mixed in a chaotic storm, ripped open in front of him. Without a second thought, he plunged into it.
He stumbled out into a different kind of silence.
The air was cold and carried the scent of rain on pavement. He was in an alley. He looked down. A soggy newspaper was stuck to a dumpster. The headline was blurred, but the date was clear as day.
May 23, 2017.
His heart hammered against his ribs. This was it. The date from the show. The night everything ended.
He walked out of the alley, his steps slow, heavy, like a man marching to his own execution. The city was quiet, too quiet. And then he saw them. Figures in the distance, under the glow of a broken streetlamp.
He moved closer, each step an agony. The scene unfolded before him like a play staged in hell.
There was Savitar. Not a phantom in a stone mask, but the real thing. A towering suit of jagged, living silver armor, wreathed in cold, blue lightning. And at his feet…
Patty.
She was on her knees, not begging, but staring up at the monster with a defiance that made Barry's heart shatter. But that wasn't all. His eyes, dragged by a terrible gravity, scanned the scene further.
His mother, Nora, lay still near a fire hydrant, her eyes closed as if in sleep. His father, Henry, was slumped against a car, a hand outstretched towards her. And Billy… oh god, Billy. Just a kid, his red cape torn, lying in a heap like a discarded toy. Savitar hadn't just gone for his heart. He had obliterated his entire world, past and present.
He was too far away. He was always too far away. He watched, paralyzed, as Savitar's bladed arm rose. He saw Patty's eyes widen, not with fear, but with a final, heartbreaking look of love, aimed at a point just past the monster.
Barry followed her gaze.
There, on the other side, was him. His future self. The Flash. Beaten, suit torn, on his knees, utterly broken. He was screaming something, a raw, silent "NO!" that was torn away by the wind.
Savitar's arm plunged down.
Barry watched as the life left Patty's eyes. He watched her fall.
He watched his other self crawl to her, gathering her lifeless body in his arms, his whole form shaking with sobs that were the only sound in the world. This was the breaking point. This was the moment that created the time remnant. This was the pain that forged a god.
Savitar had won. He hadn't just killed them; he had murdered Barry Allen's soul.
A strong hand clamped onto his shoulder from behind.
"Barry! No! You cannot be here!"
The voice was familiar, firm, cutting through his catatonic state. He was wrenched backward. The future scene—the sobbing Flash, the silver monster, the bodies of everyone he loved—stretched and distorted, then snapped away like a rubber band.
He fell to his knees on the cool grass of a park back in his own time, vomiting onto the ground. Great, heaving sobs wracked his body. He couldn't breathe.
Jay Garrick, the Flash from Earth-3, stood over him, his face etched with deep concern. "Barry... what did you see?" he asked softly, kneeling beside him.
Barry just shook, tears and sweat mixing on his face. He couldn't form the words. The images were burned onto the back of his eyelids. His mother. His father. Billy. Patty.
"I saw... I saw it all, Jay," he choked out. "He... he killed them. All of them. Just to break me. And he did. He broke me. I saw myself... I saw what I become."
Jay put a steadying hand on his back. "Look at me, son. That is a possible future. Nothing more. We can stop it. We can change it."
"You don't understand!" Barry cried, his voice cracking with desperation. "You didn't see it! It's not just a possibility... it's... it's what he remembers! It's what already happened to him! How do I fight that? How do I stop something that's already real? I can't. I can't stop that. I was trying to be brave when I faced him... but I'm not. I'm so afraid."
Jay's grip on his shoulder tightened. "Being afraid is what makes you human. It's what separates you from that thing in the armor. Now, get up. Your team is sick with worry. They called me because they couldn't find you. Let's go home."
He helped Barry to his feet. The run back to STAR Labs was a blur, a numb, shameful trek. Jay didn't let him run alone, matching his pace, a silent, steady presence.
They phased through the walls of the Cortex. The scene was just as he'd left it, but frozen. Joe and Iris were by Wally's bedside, Caitlin was checking charts. Cisco was at the console, his head in his hands. Billy was sitting on a stool, looking lost and worried. Patty was pacing, her arms wrapped around herself.
She was the first to see him. Her eyes went from worry to alarm in a heartbeat.
"Barry!" She rushed to him, stopping short when she saw his face. His eyes were red-raw, his skin pale, his whole body trembling. "Barry, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
The entire room turned to look at him. The silence was heavy, expectant.
He looked at their faces. Joe, the father he never had. Iris, his best friend. Cisco, his brother in arms. Caitlin, the steady hand. Billy, the kid he promised to protect. And Patty... Patty, who he'd just watched die in his arms in a future that felt more real than this present.
His gaze finally settled back on her. The words felt like shards of glass in his throat.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice breaking. A fresh tear traced a path through the grime on his cheek. "I'm so sorry, Patty."
She reached for him, confused. "Sorry for what? Barry, you're scaring me."
He took a shuddering breath, the weight of the future crushing him. He looked at his entire team, his family, and delivered the verdict he had just witnessed.
"I'm sorry... that I'm going to fail you."
A/N
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