#he's returning from Flashpoint and finding......Cisco? Alive??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kitkatt0430 · 3 years

Text

So I saw a gifset from the episode Power Outage that reminded me that in season one - and presumably season two - Ralph Dibny is actually dead. He died because of the accelerator explosion in December 2013, but presumably due to Flashpoint he's alive by the time season four rolls around. (So he's actually alive in season three.)

In the show, the only two people who might have realized that Ralph being alive is a product of Flashpoint are Barry (because he lived in that pre-Flashpoint timeline) and Cisco (because Vibe powers). But neither of them mention it, so I guess we'll never know for sure that his survival isn't actually down to the Legends meddling with time (like the Scooby-Doo gang, but with a significantly cooler ride - sorry, not sorry, Mystery Machine).

Anyway, all of this has reminded me of a fanfic idea I've had in the back of my head for a while.

So it'd start with Barry's return from the Speed Force at the start of season four. Iris and Eddie are married and various other changes abound as i see fit. Barry comes back still massively out of touch with reality and writing in the speedster glyphs and Wally gets help from Jesse to defeat the Samuroid bot. Also Wally isn't Kid Flash anymore - he has taken on the mantle of the Flash in his own right.

Barry starts recovering slowly, but as he does his understanding of the glyphs he's writing with wanes... even though he keeps doodling them all over the place. He winds up quitting his job at the CCPD because he's just... not in a place where he can hold down a job right now. He's also not 100% sure anything is real and that he's not still stuck in the Speed Force and he's reluctant to seek out therapy because of his experiences with therapists as a child were not good and also he'd need to discuss being the Flash which... not happening.

Which is when the bus metas start showing up (out of show order). Wally gets the indignity of the marble-related pratfall and accidentally meta-cuffing himself. Barry starts to gain more confidence in himself and his reality when he's able to shut down the accelerator before it goes critical, moments before Wally successfully cuffs Hazard. (Presumably the accelerator actually exploding would have been very unlucky for Becky, so something would have to make it shut back down, right?)

Linda returns leading to relationship drama for Wally and Jesse. Wally finds Linda attractive but would never cheat (also Linda's really only aware of him as Iris' younger brother right now), which Jesse knows but she feels jealous anyway and she doesn't like what that says about herself. She also feels like she's stretching herself really thin trying to protect Earth-2, act as Jay's back-up on Earth-3 (because he's starting to slow down and is still looking for an apprentice, but hasn't told anyone on Earth-1 what's happening to him yet), and both date and help Wally on Earth-1. It's too much work and too much stress and too much running between different Earths. She eventually decides that, much as she cares about Wally, their relationship isn't really what she needs right now and they part ways. A hopefully more satisfying break up than what we got on the show with that cube thing. Also the thing with Kilg%re happens.

Barry realizes - using Cisco's translation program - that he keeps writing something about a bus in the speedster glyph doodles. (Cisco's translation program is incomplete.) OG Team Flash connects Becky and Ramsey back to Bus 405, which Barry... er... Flashed the day he returned from the Speed Force. (hehehehehe) They're able to identify Ralph and a few other people who were on the bus because their bus passes were logged on boarding. It's still not clear who was on the bus at the time Barry Flashed it (*snicker* i regret nothing). But Ralph had to be because, well, he boarded the bus the stop right before the Barry accidentally acted like an EMP on the bus' electronic systems.

And Barry's issues with parsing reality are triggered because he remembers two versions of Ralph thanks to time traveling and memory integration - let's just say that Barry has memories of both pre and post Flashpoint timelines and say the story would theoretically handwave it better than I'm prepared to do right now. So Barry remembers this version of Ralph, who faked evidence and was a dick to Barry (almost misspelled that as being a duck to Barry). But he also remembers another version of Ralph, who didn't fake evidence and was Barry's friend and died in a car accident trying to reach the hospital after finding out Barry'd been struck by lightning while Ralph was at home and off duty and should have been safe. (Hello Barry's guilt complex which no one actually missed.)

Barry's memories are a tangled mess (gee, thanks Speed Force), so Caitlin goes with Barry and Joe when they meet Ralph. And Ralph's knee jerk reaction to keep them at arms length - especially as he's concerned they're crooked, which isn't that ironic from his PoV - is to combine obnoxiousness with sarcasm and pepper in some misogynistic comments that piss off Caitlin enough that Frost pops out to play. Joe clearly freaks out and tries to pretend he isn't freaking out. Barry just... goes with it. Whatever, Frost is part of Caitlin and Caitlin is part of Frost and he doesn't have the time, inclination, or the survival instinct to go "enemy sighted, begin defensive measures". He's just kind of like "hey Frost, nice to see you again, I've been hoping to talk w/you, but can it wait until we're done with Ralph? Or is Caitlin not gonna give you enough time for that? 'Cause I guess we're basically done here anyway."

Meanwhile Ralph is quietly freaking out with a blank O_O expression. Because Killer Frost. KILLER FROST. His fight or flight instincts are weighted heavily to freeze in place and hope to spontaneously blend into the environment.

Which is when the mob guys show up and Barry just kind of starts laughing upon learning that this version of Ralph is basically living a crime noir plot because the other Ralph loved that genre so much. Something triggers Ralph's powers while Frost cheerfully freezes the bad guys shoes to the floor and Joe arrests them. Ralph insists he was never blackmailing anyone, and Barry and Frost wind up taking him to STAR Labs while Joe waits for Eddie to show up to help him take in the thugs.

Barry and Frost do end up talking - Cisco side-eying them hard even as he gets Ralph settled in to wait for Caitlin to come back. And Barry apologizes to Frost. For how the team treated her and how Savitar treated her and just... everything. He'd like to hope they'd have handled the situation better if they'd understood Frost was a separate personality entirely, but the truth is they fucked up and pushed Frost into the position of thinking turning to Savitar was her only choice. And he hopes that she'll give them a chance to do better by her this time. Frost says she'll think about it and pretends she's not tearing up as she lets Caitlin take back over.

that's kind of where my ideas dry up and I'm not really ready to tackle writing any of this as an actual fic yet, but... I kind of saw this as a series that would include my headcanon for Ralph being face blind and him eventually bonding with Barry over the similarities between Ralph's struggle with accepting his disability and Barry's struggle in acclimatizing to his own post Speed Force incarceration disability, but with the adding drama of Barry's friendship with the Ralph-who-died and his guilt there complicating things too.

Barry would eventually take up the mantle of the Flash again with Rip showing up shortly after to borrow Wally for the Legends, though I've got no idea how that would play out. And Julian's still in there somewhere since he's still the CCPD's CSI even though Barry's had to quit. I imagine Ralph and Julian would very much not get along. (Julian and Eddie, though... they would definitely get along.)

#the flash #unfinished story idea #alternate season four story idea #as for where harry is in all of this... um... yeah i have no idea #he's there though #the speedster glyphs would wind up being important for helping them defeat DeVoe somehow #like... barry's blocking a lot of his traumatic speed force experience out but it's still in his subconscious #so there'd be him starting to remember and dealing with all of that

6 notes · View notes

astrid-goes-for-a-spin · 4 years

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Flash (TV 2014) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Iris West & Nora West-Allen, Iris West & Wally West, Francine West & Iris West, Barry Allen/Iris West Characters: Iris West, Wally West, Nora West-Allen, Barry Allen, Francine West (discussion of) Additional Tags: Iris's Flashpoint damage, still salty, Timeline changes, discussion of time travel, Flashpoint - Freeform, baby Nora, Wally is a good uncle, Wally is still around, mourning over timeline changes, you cannot convince me they weren't supposed to have the Tornado Twins, tornado twins - Freeform, the timeline is malleable, discussion of Francine, emotional with a tender ending, introspection of how Iris is different post-Flashpoint Series: Part 2 of Iris Week 2020 Summary:

Iris Week 2020 Day 2! Family Relationships.

“Do you ever get the feeling,” Iris says one very dark and very early morning, as she cradles Nora in the crook of her arm, waiting for the microwave, “that things just aren’t…right?”

Iris considers the choices pre-Flashpoint Iris made about Francine. Iris wonders whether she and Barry have been were supposed to have the Tornado Twins.

------------------

For the tumblr readers, here’s the full text!

“Do you ever get the feeling,” Iris says one very dark and very early morning, as she cradles Nora in the crook of her arm, waiting for the microwave, “that things just aren’t…right?”

Her brother has a bottle of formula in his hands, and every so often Iris will see tiny flickers of his yellow lightning come off his fingers. Wally seems to be trying to learn to heat up the baby’s bottle with speed alone, an obstacle that even Barry has not yet conquered.

Iris tries to ignore the crazy men in her life and bounces to keep Nora calm, watching the formula spin through the microwave window.

Barry is out, away on a small project with Kara and Kate involving the relocation of a group of alien refugees. Not sleeping, Iris called Wally up and he sailed in to keep her company during the long night, interrupted only by the wailing of her newborn.

“Like, Cult of Domesticity not right?” Wally asks, raising an eyebrow.

Iris pshaws him. Her life is everything she’d ever dreamed, full to bursting with loved ones and meaningful work. Yeah, it’s stressful, but…but nothing. It’s her life, and she loves it. Somebody has to keep saving the world, and she’s glad it’s them.

But there are just moments, like now, in the wee hours with the two people most genetically similar to her in the world, that it just feels…wrong.

“More like…regret,” Iris says thoughtfully.

Wally nods quietly. She startles at the microwave beep; within a blink, Wally is offering the tested formula to Nora. Iris hands her over, and Nora immediately snuggles into her uncle. Electricity passes between them, and she stops fussing as soon as Wally puts the nipple in her mouth.

Iris tells Wally about when she first started getting to know Nora. The adult Nora. About her feelings of motherly inadequacy. About when Nora rewound the same hour over and over and eventually Iris just sensed that she was bending time.

“Do you think the timeline changed?” Wally asks. “And that’s what you’re feeling?”

It’s crazy. Iris knows it’s crazy. That so many new moms feel just like she’s feeling. Thinking obsessively about her own mom and whether she’s good enough. Maybe she should just tell Caitlin she’s out of it and see whether this is actually post-partum depression.

But she hasn’t. She called Wally, who ran across the world to sit with her in the middle of the night.

“I think something used to be different,” Iris whispers. “Before Flashpoint. Maybe before Thawne killed Barry’s mom. I think we used to be different.”

“You and me?” Wally says, surprised. “Like, before Flashpoint-”

“I think it has something to do with Francine,” Iris says desperately. And this is it; this is why she called her brother when her husband is away; this is something she never wants to speak to her father about. “I don’t – I don’t think it happened the same way before. And it makes me worry-”

“About what else could have changed,” Wally says seriously, nuzzling the baby.

Iris still hasn’t forgiven her father for hiding the fact that her mother was alive for over twenty years. She’s not sure she ever will. Just because they’re close, because she loves him, because he’s a part of her daily life and her family, doesn’t mean she can forget.

Iris met her once.

Iris was not there when she died.

(Wally was, all alone. And Iris thinks that this isn’t right, because just sometimes she gets a glimmer of grief too intense to be real, too accessible to be applicable to her own experience.)

“What if I did something better?” Iris holds out her arms for Nora. Nora makes an offended face at parting from Wally’s warm, speed-force generating body, but coos happily when she recognizes Iris’s arms, the scent of her hair. Iris might not be able to share meta powers with her baby, but she’s definitely Nora’s favorite. (She’d better be, too. Iris is not over how hard it was to carry a speedster baby.)

“What if I was a better daughter before the timeline changed, and now I don’t know about it and I’m not gonna be as good a mom as Nora deserves?” The volume of her voice drops until Iris is barely audible at all.

Wally is quiet for long seconds. “Have you spoken to Barry about this? You saw the future, you’re a great mom.”

Iris shakes her head. “We told him we didn’t want to know. It – it’s not us, not really, he created a whole new timeline and then jumped into it-”

“It’s complicated,” Wally interrupts, cutting her off. “Speedsters travel in time differently than the Legends do, they can’t revisit their own timelines but that’s pretty much all we do, press the reset button, and-”

“And the more time travel you do, the less it makes sense,” Iris sighs.

“And even though you haven’t time traveled, I’m pretty sure you’re getting a sensitivity for it,” Wally says. “If you think that’s what you’re feeling, I believe you.”

“Sometimes I feel like I was there when she died,” Iris says, tears escaping. “But I wasn’t. What if she was, the other Iris? Didn’t this you deserve to have me there?”

“Iris, we don’t know what else could’ve changed in the timeline. You’re always doing your best for your family.” But Wally looks pinched and uncomfortable. “I…definitely did not want to be there alone. But there’s nothing we can do to make that better. Not now.”

Iris nods. She settles by the window to wait, and cuddles close the one thing she can make better.

A crackle of electricity. The timeline is malleable. The heavy, painful weight of her own overfull belly. “We’re gonna need more diapers.” A cry.

Barry returns to find Iris cradling Nora in their bed, tears dripping into the pillowcase.

“Do you remember what happened to Sara Diggle?” Her words are a croak.

Barry stiffens immediately. (Of course he remembers.)

“I think we used to have another baby, Barry,” Iris whispers.

At least you still have one.

“I don’t know if it – was Flashpoint, or the Reverse-Flash, twenty years ago, but – sometimes I just think, this isn’t right. Tell me I’m not – tell me I’m not crazy, Barry,” Iris breathes.

Barry vibrates out of his suit silently and drops the ring on the floor. He hesitates for a moment, then settles on the bed opposite her. Their bodies make a heart shape with Nora, blessedly sleeping, in the middle.

“I can’t go to the future anymore, Iris,” Barry finally says, his voice gravelly. “I don’t know. What we’re supposed to have. What we might’ve had if I made – better choices. If the Reverse-Flash hadn’t…created a new timeline to punish a Flash he’s never going to see again. If we’re living in the ripple effect from someone else’s Flashpoint right now. I don’t know if we were supposed to have another kid.” He’s getting choked up.

“It’s not like Cisco’s ever vibed another timeline while he’s bouncing her,” Iris admits, self-deprecating.

“That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a different family. The speed force is – so big, and so complicated. You might be really, really right.” Barry looks away from her and puts his finger into Nora’s incredibly small hand. Her tiny brown fingers reflexively close into a fist. Not for the first time, Iris’s feelings of chronal – whatever the Legends call it – are swept away by her love for her daughter. She’s just so beautiful.

“We can’t keep waiting for the newspapers to come true,” Iris agrees. “What’s done is done. The timelines will never be the same. We have to…keep living our lives in the now.” And try to live with their mistakes.

Barry, still holding Nora’s hand, looks into Iris’s face for the first time since returning home.

“I’m not ruling out another baby in the future,” he says carefully, watching her expression. “But you, and me, and our Nora here together? I think this now is the best place I’ve ever been.”

#iris week 2020 #iwaw2020 #iris west #wally west #nora west-allen #baby nora #barry allen #francine west #mom iris #daughter iris #sister iris #timeline changes #flashpoint #time travel

23 notes · View notes

backtothestart02 · 4 years

Link

From June 1st through August 31st, I will be focusing on writing one main multi-chap (in addition to commissions and possible one-shots).

Please vote on which one you’d like to see written (and possibly completed) most! You can vote for multiple fics and once every hour, so vote, vote, VOTE!

Voting ends May 31st at 11:30pm CST.

Below are brief synopses of all the fics I’ve started and posted on AO3/FFnet, as well as the Robin Hood AU planned as a sequel to Before the Hood. Please read if the titles draw a blank slate for you. I’d like you to know what you’re voting for!!

Thanks in advance!

...

Struck By Lightning AU - Actor, Barry Allen, is a taken man in a committed relationship. Despite all good intentions however, he’s swept away by his new co-star, Iris West, and just can’t seem to get her out of his system.

Distorted Reflection 6x10 - Canon Divergent - In the mirror realm is more than just Eva. A darker version of Iris lives, along with her counterpart, the darkest Barry, Savitar.

Return to Paradise Barry and Iris' attempt at a second honeymoon.

The Girl in the Black Cadillac AU - He was a blue collar worker in a small town not shown on most maps. She was the daughter of the richest man in Central City. When their paths cross, sparks fly, for better and for worse.

That’s Criminal, Sweetheart AU - The Chemist is notorious for his dangerous toxins and malicious intentions, but expert thief, Ace, may just give him a run for his money.

The Heart of the Matter AU - When one night Barry Allen questions his own life, angel, HR, is shown highlights of Barry's life to see how to save him. {It’s a Wonderful Life AU}

Mixed Drink AU - Two strangers meet in a bar. One spells danger, the other, desperation.

Fallen Star Post 3x05 - Canon Divergent - Iris ignoring the threat of danger in pursuit of her stories drives Barry to his limit. Can the two acknowledge their stubborn streaks and forge a compromise? Or is their relationship not strong enough to resolve the tension rising between them?

If Only She Knew HS!AU - Barry, Joe and Iris go camping the year Barry hits puberty.

Beyond the Picture Window AU - Snagging the hot guy at the coffee shop is only the beginning. [Sequel to ‘Pining at the Coffee Show Window’]

Hazy Post 4x02 - With everything good between him and Iris again, the last thing Barry expects is to wake up in a time when Iris is not his fiancee but instead the wife of a very alive Eddie Thawne.

Haunted AU - Up until his freshman year of college, Barry only kept one secret from Iris. In 2014, he kept three. [vampire!AU]

Wet Dream A series of sex fantasy one-shots from either Barry or Iris for every episode of the series.

Hot to the Touch College!AU - Of all the places Iris expected to meet the love of her life, she never imagined it would be the erotica section at the back of her favorite bookstore.

The Updraft Post 5x22 - Barry and Iris' struggle to grieve Nora in a healthy way escalates when they discover the changed date of Barry's disappearance.

It Started with a Blizzard Sequel to ‘Blizzard in July’

The First Day of Forever Post s2 - Barry & Iris's wedding day from start to finish.

Robin Hood AU Sequel to ‘Before the Hood’

Fateful Kiss 2x18 - Canon Divergent - Iris takes a risk and shows Barry her true feelings when he’s at his most vulnerable. Things escalate from there.

When Time Stands Still 4x23 - Canon Divergent - Barry doesn't find Ralph in Devoe's mindscape, but he still finds good Devoe with a bullet through his chest. With no cards left to play, he returns to Iris and the team, says his apologies and goodbyes and hurls straight ahead into the Enlightenment.

Mind Games AU - When Iris digs too deep into Amunet Black's underground drug dealing, the results are devastating; memory loss being the first.

On a Whim 4x10 - Canon Divergent - In the middle of the courtroom, Barry and Iris share a stolen moment to decide whether to reveal his identity as the Flash to prevent conviction and being sentenced to prison. But Iris has more than one suggestion, and she's very convincing.

Flashpoint Post-s2. When Barry's rash move to save his mother drastically affects the timeline he wakes up to, will he accept the changes or try once more to change the past?

Runnin’ Home to You 3x21 - Canon Divergent - What if Team Flash decided to keep Barry from remembering until after May 23rd?

He’s MY Barry Allen Post 3x08 (and the following crossover eps) - With Cisco and Barry's relationship on the mend when they return from defeating the Dominators, Iris is more than willing to give them some space to make up for lost time. But her tolerance is running low since news of Barry's almost sacrifice chilled her to the bone. If Cisco doesn't learn to share, he's going to have to pay the price. But he won't go down easily either.

The Unconscious Mind Starting mid-1x12: What if Iris was not only having sex dreams about Barry after he confessed his feelings to her, but she was vocalizing them and Eddie was hearing it?

**NEW idea post-finale** (possible) Any multi-chap fic idea I may be inspired by after watching 6x19 (that is related to current canon)

#fic polls #westallen #westallen fanfiction #backtothestart02 fanfiction #vote vote vote!!!

26 notes · View notes

thescribblerqueen · 4 years

Text

Fanfiction Project List Pt. 2

(Because I have no control over my brain)

A continuation of my Flash/Glee/Agents of Shield fic ideas. Click Here for Part 1!

Flash Age Reversal Fic

Status: Not Written

Tags: Gen Fic, Barry Allen & Joe West, Father/Son Relationship, age reversal, not a crack fic, sort of a character study on their relationship, tags tbd

Summary: Joe deals with his feels of resentment towards Henry Allen as Barry’s Biological Father and all the things he missed out on with Barry. Barry comes into contact with a meta that reverses peoples ages and has to wait several months for the effects to wear off.

____________________________

Flash/Agents of Shield Foster Fic

Status: Not Written

Tags: Gen Fic, probably a one-shot?, Joe West & Iris West & Barry Allen & Skye/Daisy Johnson, Foster Family AU, Pre-winter soldier, Coma Barry, Tags TBD

Summary: One of Skye’s last foster families was the West family, Team Coulson looks into events after the particle accelerator explosion and she reconnects.

___________________________

For the Hell of It

Fandom: Glee

Status: Chapter 2

Tags: KurtBastian, Former Klaine, Ugly klaine breakup, it’s not bashing but might not for klaine fans, enemies to friends to lovers speedrun,one-night stand, and they were roommates, Post-Season 5, Fake Marriage AU, Fake Marriage with Benefits, denial which might count it as slowburn, trust fund Sebastian, character illness, mentions of homophobia, Tags TBD

Summary: After breaking up with Blaine and calling off the wedding, Kurt is avoiding going back to his apartment after work because they still live together. While stressing over finding a new apartment with everyone moving out he runs into Sebastian and they catch up and hook up. Sebastian offers for him to be roommates afterwards to solve his problems. Turns out when they aren’t fighting over a guy they’re pretty compatible. Things get more complicated with they decide it would benefit them to get married legally for financial and other benefits.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29502675

__________________________

Flash Westhallen Friends w/Benefits Fic

Status: Not Written

Tags: Westhallen, HalBarry,Westhawne, fake dating au, FWB, of course there’s smut it’s a FWB AU, angst, pining, jealousy, “unrequited love”

Summary: Barry made the stupid mistake of starting a “Friends with Benefits” pact with Iris and Eddie, who wanted to try somethings in the bedroom that Barry has experience with. He needs to get out of it before he gets hurt. His solution, fake date his old friend Hal Jordan who is also trying to avoid unrequited feelings.

___________________________

Glee/Flash KurtBastian Fake Dating AU

Status: Not Written

Tags: KurtBastian, Westhawne, Blaine/?, former Klaine, unrequited feelings, Sebastian is Barry Allen, Bisexual Barry Allen, fake dating au, future fic, tags TBD

Summary: Kurt moved to Central City after Blaine starts dating someone else, and runs into an old face. Unfortunately, Blaine ends up in Central and to avoid ending back up together he asks Barry to fake date him. Barry uses this quell any suspicions that he still has feelings for Iris.

___________________________

Glee/Flash KurtBastian Coffee Shop AU

Status: Not Written

Tags: KurtBastian, starts as Klaine, Sebastian is Barry, technically a coffee shop AU, Post Season 3, canon divergence, mentions of assault/injuries, homophobia, Finn lives

Summary: Barry regrets choosing to work at Jitters during the summer instead of at the grocery store like Iris when Kurt Hummel, attending a theatre program in Central City, walks in and asks “Why does your name tag say Barry?”

____________________________

Glee/Flash Time Travel AU

Status: Not Fully Plotted

Tags: Probably going to FlashVibe, Time Travel, Sebastian is Barry,???

Summary: Barry inexplicably ends up back in the past without his powers and attending Dalton Academy once again.

______________________________

Glee/Flash Young Flash

Status: Not Fully Plotted

Tags: Teen Barry, Everyone else is older, Barry and Wally are the same age, Sebastian is Barry, realistic coma, season 6 of Glee, Eobard burns down Dalton,???

Summary: Before his Senior Year ends, Barry is struck by lightning and is in a coma for nine months. When he returns to Dalton all of his friends have graduated but the New Directions are still around saving their old glee club.

______________________________

Glee/Flash Sebklaine A/B/O Fic

Status: Revived, On Chapter 2, Not Published

Tags: Sebklaine,Klaine, Sebastian is Barry (as usual), a/b/o dynamic, slight freeform, and they were roommates, Alpha Blaine, Omega Kurt, Omega Barry, secret identity, insecurities, smut, heats, & ruts, unplanned pregnancy, summer fling with breakup, drama and angst, Tags TBD

Summary: Barry ends up in Lima for his forensic internship and doesn’t expect to be renting the same house as Kurt and Blaine. And they only know him as Sebastian Smythe, so he has to pretend to be Sebastian again for the summer. It all goes down hill with an unexpected heat.

_____________________________

Glee/Flash Thallen

Status: N/A

Summary: After Eddie’s death and then his dad’s, Barry takes a leave of absence from work and goes to his High School Reunion and spends time reconnecting with old friends. The team promised to call him if they needed him back, but they are completely unaware that at the same time, the time line is being altered in Central and leaving everyone outside of it unaffected.

______________________________

Flash/Agents of Shield Daughter AU

Status: N/A

Tags: FitzSimmons, Multiverse, slight time travel, parents being the same age as their children, Deke is an alternate timeline son of Caitlin, slightly inspired by another fic but also I just think Caitlin and Jemma look alike

Summary: FitzSimmons Daughter is taken from them as an infant and she ends up on Earth-1 as Caitlin Snow. When they finally track where she went Caitlin is already full grown despite that it’s only been a few months for them.

_____________________________

Flash/Agents of Shield Ward AU

Status: N/A

Tags: Multiverse, Redemption Arc, Post Hive, I might make this a Flash/Ward (Just as Warning), the speed force revived and fixed him then spit him out on Earth-1

Summary: After dying as Hive, Ward some how finds himself alive on another Earth rescued by Team Flash. He knows that whatever happened to changed him, because he can honestly feel emotions he’s never felt before including grief, regret, and disgust over his past actions. A brain scan shows him that he no longer has the chemical imbalance that made him a psychopath. Can he work towards redemption for himself?

_______________________________

Flash FlashVibe A/B/O

Status: N/A

Tags: FlashVibe, A/B/O, Flashpoint w/o Savitar, Miscarriage, mpreg, Hurt & Comfort

Summary: After the Flashpoint is set in stone, Barry experiences an unexpected miscarriage from a pregnancy he didn’t know about. Cisco isn’t speaking to him over Dante, so he can’t bear to tell him and makes Caitlin keep it a secret and he moves out of Cisco’s apartment. Eventually he finds out and they have to figure out how to move forward.

_______________________________

All my prompts that aren’t fully worked out enough for summaries:

Five Reasons Barry Allen Needs a Dog

Thallen A/B/O

Allenbert Harry Potter AU

SinghAllen (One-shot?)

Uncle Coulson AU (He’s Barry’s Uncle)

Glee/Flash Twin AU

One-Shots of Pre-Canon Joe West/Cecile Horton Dating/Being Married

Some sort of Nerd Polyamory FitzSimmons & Barry Allen

12 notes · View notes

raywritesthings · 5 years

Text

What Have They Lost? 3/?

My Writing Fandom: Arrow, The Flash Characters: Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke, Ted Grant, Barry Allen, Iris West, Barbara Gordon, Wally West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West Pairings: Barry Allen/Iris West, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel Summary: “I can definitely tell you that there’s a way we’re going to bring [Laurel] back and she’s going to be alive and well. And Flashpoint might have a little bit to do with that.“ -Wendy Mericle AKA: The AU where that wasn’t a blatant lie, and Flashpoint has bigger repercussions for Barry’s friends and allies than he first realized. Notes: Much thanks to @colorofmymindposts for beta-ing as well as to the Lauriver discord server for helping with world-building and character histories. Anyone interested in joining the server should follow this link: https://discord.gg/gp9ANVr *Also can be read on my AO3*

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Damn age getting to him.

As it was, Ted woke on his couch to the sound of a key trying to find the lock and muttered curses. He got to his feet just as Dinah pushed through the door and slammed it behind her, glancing back through the window.

“Alright, we expecting company?”

She looked at him. “Ted, it happened again.”

He sighed. “Okay.”

“I don’t know what it is,” she burst out. “I mean I do, but — I mean, why me, right? Babs is fine, Helena’s fine, and Pam—” she drew up short. “Well, nobody’s really sure what’s wrong with her. But at least it’s consistent.”

“Not getting worse?”

Dinah chewed her lip. “Harley says they’ve had to up her dosage again, or that rash keeps coming back. If that stupid explosion hadn’t knocked her back into that ivy…”

“Or hit you when you were holding the mic?”

“Yeah.” Dinah looked down and sighed. “I just need to, I don’t know, take a breather or something.”

“Stuff’s in your room.”

“Thanks, Ted.” She touched his shoulder distractedly as she made her way down the hall into the spare room she used whenever they stopped here. A few minutes later, he could hear sounds of a familiar melody on the guitar. Ted shook his head.

It wasn’t any wonder she’d gotten worked up and that this whatever-it-was had activated again. Dealing with that washed up excuse for a father, being back here…

He found his phone on the coffee table and went through the recent contacts. His call was picked up after a single ring.

“Hey, Ted.”

“Barbara. You got any time?”

“Yeah. Dad’s got another night shift. He won’t be back for hours.” He could hear fingers clacking away at a computer’s keys rather than a keyboard’s. “What’s up?”

“Dinah’s had another accident. She’s a bit shaken up.”

“Put her on. I’m switching over to video.”

Ted went down the hall and knocked on the door. It wasn’t completely shut, so it swung in a few inches.

“I tried to look for you in the dark water, but I got lost along the way,” Dinah was half-singing, half-saying under her breath. She really wasn’t giving that one up, was she?

“Hey, it’s Barbara.”

Dinah smiled up at him and set the guitar aside. “Thanks, Ted.”

She took the phone and set it up so she and Barbara could each see each other’s faces.

“So what happened?” Barbara never was one to mince words. Probably got it from the old commissioner.

“There were some creeps trying to force a woman into having their sick idea of fun. I didn’t like the look of it, so I said something.”

“And then screamed something, huh?”

“He was running at me. It was, I don’t know, instinct. Something like that.” Dinah dragged a hand back through her hair. “I thought for a second somebody else saw — but nobody was there. I must be getting paranoid.”

“Well, we do need to talk about what to do going forward, Dinah. This clearly isn’t something you can ignore or force to stop happening.”

“I know. But what do you want me to do, announce to the world I’m a metahuman? The Flash would just zip up onto the stage and have me in handcuffs,” Dinah remarked, the humor in her tone only barely masking contempt.

“Who says you have to tell people you’re the metahuman?” Ted asked. Dinah turned towards him and it was clear that Barbara was listening as well. “Nobody knows who the Flash is. That’s why he isn’t in prison.”

Dinah looked back at the phone screen. “What do you think, Babs? You’re the masked crusader expert.”

“Don’t remind me,” Barbara replied with a grimace. “But I do think you need to find a way to separate your identity from the woman who can knock down walls with her voice. If only so the latter can do some good.”

Dinah stood, her arms crossing over her chest. “You sound like dad. He was just reminding me tonight how I used to want to do something for the world with my life.”

“Well, don’t you?”

Ted held his breath, watching and waiting.

“I can barely do enough for myself,” Dinah said. “I’m not some hero, Babs, or even a guy in a bat suit with an ax to grind. I just got dealt a bad hand.”

“And why let that stop you?” Ted asked. “You climbed out of poverty with your music, Dinah. You got yourself out of the foster care system. You’d be free of the abuse if you’d cut the old man off.”

She scoffed.

“I know you feel you haven’t done what you set out to do,” he continued, placing his hands on her shoulders. “But don’t you think you might find out more about yourself if you look to the future instead of the past?”

“I can’t stop looking, Ted,” Dinah said, her eyes wide and pleading.

“And you won’t. But tell me, where did that little girl who snuck into my gym ‘cause she kept getting into scrapes go? Where’d that young lady who kicked guys in the head for harassing women in the crowd go?”

“You know I’d be out there if the answer had come back different,” Barbara offered.

Dinah scowled. “Who cares if Batman said no? You could still do it.”

“Maybe now that I have some money behind me,” Barbara allowed. “But I don’t have the kind of power that accelerator gave you, Dinah.”

“I could hurt someone,” Dinah stated. It was the fear first and foremost in her mind ever since they’d learned what she could do, after all the months of worrying that the accident had stolen her voice. Maybe it had in a way; it was making her hold herself back.

“With the right kind of training, I don’t think so,” Barbara countered. “But that’s gonna take practice, the same as all our other lessons.”

“So where am I supposed to practice? I don’t exactly have my own city lying around somewhere unless you two are surprising me this Christmas.”

“Well, you are home,” Barbara said.

Dinah raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t Star already have a guy?”

Babs shrugged. “Just Green Arrow. Batman never took him that seriously. Thought he liked to make speeches more than get anything done.”

“Forgive me if I don’t hold Batman’s opinion that highly,” Dinah said with a cool tone, “considering he clearly doesn’t know talent when it knocks on his door.”

“Things might have been different,” Barbara said not for the first or probably the last time. “Just my dad being the GCPD liaison with him...it complicates things.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that involved of a discussion with Batman would necessitate you knowing who you were talking to,” Ted remarked.

“Nope, not falling for it, Ted.”

He grinned. “Worth a shot. I really am starting to wonder if I should make the rounds and get these new boys into shape.”

“Yeah right,” Dinah said, some of her old bite back in her voice. “You like us too much to go over to that boys’ club.”

“All the more reason to get you out there, Dinah.”

She sighed, looking down at her guitar. “Just...let me think it over, okay?”

“Sure thing.” He retrieved his phone and headed for the door.

“It’s not that I don’t want to help,” Dinah said before he had quite left. “It just feels like every time I try...someone gets hurt.”

“That’s just the growing pains. But I think you’re ready to fly now, Dinah.”

She nodded once, and Ted shut the door behind him as he left.

“You think I might have pushed too hard?” He asked Barbara, who had stayed on the line.

“She doesn’t think she’s the right person to be a hero,” Barbara said. “But that’s exactly why she is.”

“Right you are, Babs. Think I’ll go air out the old gym here. We might be needing it soon. You feel like joining in?”

“Give me two weeks. I promised my father we’d spend some time together.” Barbara gestured around the empty apartment she currently sat in. “You can see how that’s going.”

“Well, you hang in there. We’re gonna get you your chance, too.”

“Thanks, Ted.”

He hung up and smiled to himself. Much as he liked his role with the band, he was looking forward to being a teacher again.

—-

Combing through the old family papers was easier said than done. Back when he’d first returned from the island, he had found out that they’d all been boxed up and stored in a warehouse. Walter had been meticulous about the organization of it all, but Oliver had just gotten out what was necessary to declare himself alive again and then looked for a new place to live. Even if the old Manor hadn’t been sold, he couldn’t have gone back there. Too many empty rooms.

Now, he was looking for something entirely unrelated to him, something among his mother’s things. He had to stop every now and then, smiling with watery eyes at her handwriting or an old photo. She’d kept every one of his school pictures, notating them on the back: Oliver, 6th grade.

God, why’d she let him have that hair?

Eventually, he came across an old lock box. Walter must not have touched it beyond moving it here, though he clearly hadn’t found the key.

Oliver looked up at the ceiling. “Sorry, mom.” He broke the lock.

Inside were a number of yellowing papers, some looked to be about financial matters while others were of a more personal nature.

There was also a checkbook tied to an account number Oliver didn’t recognize, nor was it from their family bank. It recorded monthly payments to one of the local orphanages, up until the last month before they all got on the Gambit.

Heart thumping in his ears, Oliver reached a birth certificate at the bottom of the stack of papers. Mia Dearden, was the name given to the child, born January 21st, 1995. She was ten years younger than him. He had a kid sister?

There was a photo paper-clipped to the back of a tiny baby sleeping in a nursery. It was irrational, maybe, but he felt a fierce longing for this tiny life he’d never known.

But he should have. How had his parents kept this from him?

The birth certificate was from a hospital whose name he didn’t recognize. A quick search on his phone showed that it was out of state. He tried to remember that year. Had his mother been away on a trip? Had she hidden the pregnancy that way? His father’s name wasn’t on the certificate. Did that mean…?

There was nothing to indicate if his father had known, or what he had thought if he had. But there had to be some reason Mia Dearden hadn’t been raised alongside him in their home. Never mind that his mother must have purposefully brought her back to the city and kept up payments that must have seen the orphanage well outfitted. At least until 2007.

She would have been twelve, or around that age, Oliver realized. What had happened to her after? Would the orphanage know? Had she found another family, someone to provide the love and care his parents had either been unwilling or unable to give?

“Dad?”

Oliver looked up from his desk, spotting Connor in the shadows by the door. It had gotten late, and the single lamp he had on was the only source of light in the room.

“Hey. Sorry. I got, uh, caught up with all this. You eat yet?”

“Did you?”

Fair enough question. Oliver set the birth certificate and the photo of his baby sister aside, standing up. “Okay, what do we want? Chicken? Chicken tacos? Think we still have some wraps.”

“We could order a pizza,” Connor suggested. “You look tired.”

Oliver looked down. His son was probably right; he’d been at this for three days now, only stopping for meals or to go out on patrol.

“Okay. You pick the toppings.”

They settled out in the main room to wait after Oliver called the order in. He looked Connor over during the silence. He had failed to be the father this boy should have had for the first several years of his life, and now he was finding that was an all too common mistake of his when it came to family. Even if he really had been a kid in the case of Mia Dearden.

“So,” Connor began, “what did you find out?”

Oliver grimaced. “Uncle Barry was right. Sort of, anyway.”

Connor’s eyes were wide, in excitement or worry he couldn’t tell. “So there is a Thea Queen?”

“I don’t know about her, but my mother had a daughter she never told me about. Her name’s Mia,” Oliver said, his voice cracking slightly on the name. He cleared his throat. “Mia Dearden. She has mom’s maiden name.”

“How come your mom never told you?”

“Well, if I had to guess...my parents were partners in the business sense. They built the old company together, as equals. But in their relationship, it wasn’t exactly like that.”

Connor nodded sagely. “She had an affair.”

“Seems that way. Not exactly the best example us Queens are setting for you. Don’t get any ideas,” Oliver quipped when Connor made a face. He was definitely glad that his son still seemed uninterested in the dating scene, and prayed it would last at least a little longer.

“What are you gonna do about Mia?”

That was a question he hadn’t let himself contemplate yet. “She’s a young woman now. Probably out on her own. I don’t know how happy she’d be to learn the truth now.”

“But you wanna meet her.”

It was remarkable how well the kid could read him.

“It’s hard not to wonder. How different would things have been, you know? The way Barry was talking...it sounded like he thought she’d be here.”

What would it have been like to return after those five years to family, to someone he knew had missed him and cared about him? Someone who could’ve been the listening ear he’d needed when Connor had first arrived, who could’ve helped him.

“You know, she’s not the only one Uncle Barry thought should be around.” Connor’s voice pulled him out of that wondering, and when he looked up his son was grinning. “How are you supposed to know the lead singer of one of the hottest bands in the country?”

Oliver shook his head. “That’s maybe the one thing hardest to buy.”

He’d been vaguely aware of his parents’ infidelity. The idea that one of them had had a child in that context was not unthinkable. But where would his path have met up with someone like Dinah?

Barry had said something about the team. “Laurel’s still — I mean, Dinah. Dinah’s still…”

Still what? Singing? Way out of Oliver’s league? Barry had been worried about Thea’s — or Mia’s — existence. Had something about Dinah not been right? And who was Laurel?

A knock at the door interrupted them, and Oliver got up to get their food and tip the delivery man. When he came back over to the couch, Connor held up his phone. It was displaying a social media page of some sort. He could never keep the sites straight.

“Think this could be our Mia Dearden?”

The profile picture was of a young woman with short brown hair and delicate features, almost like a pixie if he had to put a word to it. But her eyes...those were his mother’s eyes.

“Says she’s a bartender on 4th and Wells in the Glades,” Connor continued. “We could go check it out?”

A part of Oliver wanted to throw his coat on and take the elevator down to the lobby right now. But he looked down at Connor.

“Are you sure? I still feel like you and I are figuring out how we work together now, and this would be a lot. I don’t want you to feel like you’re being pushed aside in favor of the next surprise relative I have.”

Connor put his phone away. “I came to Starling to get to know my family. All of it. If this lady is your sister, then that makes her my aunt. I’ve never had one of those.”

Oliver felt himself smile. Trust his kid to look on the bright side.

“And anyway, it’s not like you’d just forget about me,” Connor joked half-heartedly. There was only the slightest hint of vulnerability there, but it was enough for Oliver to read.

He dropped a knee onto the couch and wrapped his son in a hug. “No. Never.”

They settled back in to enjoy their pizza, another night as father and son. Maybe in a week or so, they might have more company. Oliver eyed the armchair across from the couch, trying to imagine the small girl in the photo sitting there. Would she be happy to join them?

Barry had been right about his sister. Could he really be right again about Dinah? Oliver sent Connor to bed and went back to his office, shifting his mother’s old things aside to unearth his computer keyboard. He scrolled through articles and photos alike.

No one knew the woman’s full name. It was likely she came from Gotham, as the rest of her bandmates had. And Gotham was hardly his territory.

But the more he stared at her photo, he thought he should know her. Was it the old paranoia, the placebo effect resulting from Barry’s words, or was there something more than wishful thinking to his wondering if those lips had smiled up at him once before?

—-

Barry sat on the information he had about Dinah for a few days, nervously turning it over in his head. The trouble was, he didn’t really know who to go to.

If he alerted the police, they wouldn’t really be prepared for the kind of power that sonic scream held. If he went to Oliver and his team, he wasn’t sure what they would think. He’d already probably said way too much to Oliver in his distress.

Truthfully, Barry wasn’t sure what to make of this new version of his friend. Oliver wasn’t as different as some of the others had been in the Flashpoint timeline, but there seemed to be a subtle sort of change to him hard to pin down. And Barry just didn’t know if he should trust this Oliver to handle something like a Black Siren. If that was even what they were dealing with.

It was up to his team, as Iris kept nudging him into realizing over the week. They knew how to manage a metahuman, even if the weapon they’d used against Siren wouldn’t work against a Laurel of this Earth. But he needed Cisco and Caitlin’s help if he was going to brainstorm a backup.

With some trepidation, Barry entered the lab that afternoon to the now-familiar sounds of Laurel’s voice on the speakers. Since learning Barry had next to no knowledge of Birds of Prey, Cisco had taken it upon himself to play the band’s entire discography, along with anything and everything he could find with Dinah’s vocals attached. This particular song didn’t even sound like rock at all, come to think of it.

“Uh, dude?”

Cisco swiveled around in his chair and seemed to understand Barry’s confused point up towards the ceiling at the music.

“Oh, hey. Yeah, this was released a year or so after the accident, all studio-recorded. She did an album of the Great American songbook sort of stuff, sort of for the slower crowd, you know? People still went nuts over it.” Cisco’s sigh had a dreamy quality to it as he added, “She could sing the phone book.”

“Is everything alright, Barry?” Caitlin asked, watching him carefully. He must not have hidden his nerves as well as he hoped.

Joe came through into the cortex, followed by Wally, and he knew it was now or never. He was going to need his team behind him for this, however willing they were to be.

“Okay. Guys, um, I really hate to bring this up again, but we’ve got to talk about Flashpoint.”

Immediately Cisco’s shoulders hunched, and Caitlin grimaced. Joe shifted a bit on his feet. Wally alone seemed ready to talk.

“Alright, what about it?”

“It’s not really to do with anything here,” Barry was quick to reassure. “Not exactly. It’s...it’s the Arrow Team.”

The others looked at each other. “They’ve been affected? How?” Caitlin asked.

“Well,” Barry hesitated, looking to Iris for support. She gave him an encouraging nod. “It’s about Dinah from Birds of Prey,” he admitted.

“Oh no, what did you do to her?” Cisco immediately said.

“I — nothing! I mean, it’s confusing, but she is different because of the timeline changing, yeah,” Barry admitted. “I tracked her down the other night and saw her knock a guy down with sonic waves. From her mouth.”

There was a long beat of silence as the others digested that bit of news. As before, Cisco was first to react.

“Dinah from Birds of Prey is a meta? Barry, this is the best news you’ve given us in forever!”

“No, not great news. Because we’ve already met a Laurel — I mean Dinah — who was a meta, and she was evil. Does nobody remember Black Siren from Earth-2?” Barry looked around but received mostly quizzical looks from the group. He should’ve expected it; Cisco would’ve said something if the rockstar he idolized had a double he’d met.

“So, you’re worried that this timeline’s Dinah is also evil,” Joe surmised.

“I don’t know,” Barry admitted. “I mean, when I saw her use her powers, it was to help this other woman. But then what’s her goal long-term? I’ve seen her powers in action when Siren used them. They’re powerful.”

“Tell them about Laurel,” Iris spoke up unexpectedly. “The one you knew, Barry.”

“Who’s Laurel?” Caitlin asked. “And why do you keep correcting yourself by calling her Dinah?”

“Because that’s how I knew her before. How we all knew her. As Laurel.” Barry looked around the room, watching their intrigued but otherwise blank faces. Not for the first time, he wished somehow he had the power to show them what they had once lived along with him rather than just tell them. But he couldn’t.

“Dinah Laurel Lance was the ADA of Star City, and at night she was part of the Arrow Team as a vigilante called the Black Canary.”

“That’s her real name? Dinah Lance?” Wally asked.

“Uh, yeah.” Barry blinked, though it occurred to him a moment later that in this timeline he’d had yet to hear anyone else use her full name. Thea — or Mia — had even been surprised to learn who Laurel’s father was. What was Dinah’s story, really? What could’ve had such an effect on her past?

“She- she died last spring. Before Flashpoint. There was a sorcerer they were fighting, and he killed her. But now none of that ever happened.” Barry was aware he was pacing, but he couldn’t really stop himself. “She’s a singer instead of a lawyer, Oliver and the others don’t know her, Oliver’s son showed up a whole year early and is Connor—”

“Whoa, what’s wrong with my man Connor?” Cisco demanded.

“Nothing, just, you know, he’s different! Oliver had a whole different kid named William who apparently doesn’t exist anymore!”

“Oh, Barry,” Caitlin sighed, disapproval inlaid in every syllable.

“I know,” he ground out. “This is not good. I just don’t know how to fix it.”

“Don’t.”

The single word came from Cisco, and Barry blinked in surprise. “Don’t?”

“Yeah. Trying to ‘fix’ things was what caused you to mess everything up in the first place. So just live with it like the rest of us.” His friend stood and walked out of the cortex, likely heading for his workroom.

“Cisco’s right, Barry,” Caitlin added. “Your time travel never seems to put anything back fully the way it was. It’s better for you to just leave it alone.” She, too, turned away. He could tell by the look on Joe’s face that he was thinking something similar, even if he’d probably say it in a gentler way.

Barry looked to Iris. “We still need to be prepared to deal with- with Dinah if she’s more like her Earth-2 counterpart was.”

“Give the others some time, Bear,” was her advice. “You’ve just dumped a lot of information on them. It’s going to take some time to process.”

“We’ll be ready when it counts,” Wally added with a confidence Barry wished he felt. “And hey, maybe she is on our side.”

“Maybe.” Barry sunk down into Cisco’s abandoned chair and felt Iris walk up behind him, her hands massaging at his shoulders.

“We could start with some recon,” Wally was suggesting, using Joe as a sounding board just as much as he was using Barry and Iris. “Most of the band’s from Gotham.” Wally snapped his fingers. “Maybe Batman knows her!”

Barry’s head lifted sharply in bewilderment. “Bat-who?”

At the same time, Joe gave a sharp shake of the head. “Oh, hell no. Not that nut job.”

For someone extremely used to the feeling of deja vu, Barry seemed destined to find himself unaccountably lost.

#lauriver #westallen #laurel lance #oliver queen #barry allen #arrow #the flash #iris west #ted grant #barbara gordon #connor hawke #cisco ramon #wally west #caitlin snow #joe west #laurel x oliver #green arrow #black canary #my writing

12 notes · View notes

barryallenis · 5 years

Text

Faded

While I’ve been writing fanfics for years, this is my first crack into the westallen fandom. This was written before 6x01 aired but I think stays true to Barry and Iris’s character and is my own interpretation of their grieving process after Nora’s loss. Most chapters to come on my fanfic account!

Soft sobs.

The only thing he could hear.

She sat curled against the dark tile, sobs growing in every breathe, quicker and quicker still, until her face was caked in tears.

He stood motionless, despite calls deep within his subconscious. He wanted nothing more than to lunge for the button beside him, to apologize, to hold her for as long as he could before she was...

And just then, the sobbing stopped. The distressed girl began to fade into the rigid wall behind her, breaking into pieces as if she were made of porcelain, filling the glass cage that held her. The brightness of the cage grew as the pieces spread, brighter and brighter. Body stiff, his mind screamed towards the light, begging it to stop, telling it he was sorry.

Suddenly, the brightness switched into darkness, darkness that grew small speckled spots and a faded streak in the shape of window panes.

He had regained mobility and his coarse hands immediately ran to his face, which was coated in a healthy layer of sweat. If it was not for everything else his brain was focused on, he would have commented on how ironic it was to have sweat so heavily laying still in bed when he had run several hundred miles at a time without so much as a bead.

Instead, his mind kept playing through the images he had just seen over and over again at hyper-speed. He did not need to fall back asleep for them to reenter in total clarity. He did not know how long he laid there, the sounds of sobs making his head ache, until his thoughts caught with a gentle touch to his forearm.

He looked down to see his wife's concerned, albeit wretchedly tired, eyes stuck on him. She did not move to speak.

"I'm alright, go back to sleep."

"Sleep". She riffed with jocular illusion.

Her dry sarcasm shook him out of his own heart, he turned towards her, now pleading her to speak.

"I keep expecting..." she bit her lip as it began to quiver "to suddenly forget... and I'm terrified. Because as painful as it is to live with what happened... I don't know what I would do if all we had of her was a - a book."

Suddenly Barry felt mute once again. He knew he didn't forget, his speed and his connection to the timeless void of the speed force kept him from that. It was the only reason he had started to lose his memories of the past in flashpoint. He was becoming human, with no origin story, no bolt of lighting, no dead parents, he had nothing connecting him to the speed force anymore. He remembered what that felt like, how hopeless he felt trying to cling to a reality that was no longer, how desperate he was that he let Thawne free - again.

What if Iris did forget? Would he be the only one to remember her? With her father's eyes and her mother's smile and her unwavering determination to set things right and leave a legacy all her own?

"You won't forget her. Because I wont forget her, and we'll find a way."

She sighed, gently closing her eyes, as if to squash a bad memory. Barry returned to staring at the ceiling, his eyes fixed.

Iris reached over and began to caress his forearm, until reaching down to grab his hand that laid squarely between them above the covers. His grasp was tighter than expected, more alert. She knew what was keeping him up, most likely, the same thing that had been keeping her. But even in the late night, when his thoughts should have at least been groggy, it was getting his full attention.

"Talk to me." She said softly.

He stared outward, unknowingly, before turning to give her a half hearted smile. "I'm okay, really." Her eyes were as soft as her hands, perhaps it was there dewiness from recent arise or most likely, just the look of someone, the only other person alive who could possibly understand any shred of what he was feeling. "I can't stop thinking about her either."

Iris bite her lip. "We have to take solace in the message she left. And know that we can carry out her legacy."

Barry just nodded softly.

"Barry I know these last few weeks particularly have been ... but she was smart and she knew, regardless, how much you loved her. You were her hero Barry, before she knew you were the flash and after everything that happened."

"She sacrificed herself..." he found himself saying this to a void, unsure if it was even out loud, "for me, so that I could have a future. How - how does a child...?"

Iris's eyes were misty now. But she'd never seen this look on Barry's face before. Maybe it was the lethargy or her coated eyes, but the only look she could register was shame.

"Barry -"

There was so much more he wanted to say but it caught in his throat as the word "hero" rang through his head like a church chime in his wife's demure voice. It was not the first time the title made him uneasy, the wormhole for one, all the death he had caused, the pain to the people he loved.

Nothing felt quite like this though. He didn't just feel unheroic, he felt inhuman. He had a strong desire to disassociate himself from his own body and yet, felt more grounded to it than ever. He was not "The Flash" or the "Masked Fighter of Central City" he was a father who had failed his daughter. He hadn't failed humanity, but he failed his most human role within it, supporting and protecting his child.

And as he looked over at his wife, her understanding eyes, he felt more ashamed than ever.

"I think I'm just gonna take a walk." He said as he began to remove himself from bed.

"Bare it's four in the -"

A whoosh. And he was gone.

He did not return that morning, as Iris readied for the day. She kept her phone close to her but she did not make a call. She kept looking at the front door, but she did not make moves towards it until she was on her way to her office. A small part of her wished for a fire in an abandoned building somewhere, big enough to need help but small and isolated enough no one got hurt, just something that sprung everything into action. The mundane activity she had been doing left too much room for her mind to wander. Through the last 6 months, the girl in her jacket, the man no longer under lock, and the one who has been taking a "walk" since daybreak.

Washing her face, making coffee, slipping on shoes, it all felt too normal. She had lost a child. A child who hadn't even been born, conceived, imagined, but her child all the same. She hadn't raised her... and yet, she had. Whatever she had missed in the first 27 years, without Iris and Barry, she would have never existed. It didn't make any sense to feel the way she did about what had been a total stranger all but 6 months ago. But there was a part of her subconscious that knew this separate, or future, life that would lead to those moments. Carrying her, delivering her, teaching her to walk, to talk, to think. Maybe it was the way Nora called her "mom" with such ease, even in their darker days early on her arrival. She didn't feel as though "mom" was a title for her, as if it were all a game, but the way she spoke it she made her believe it.

Upon returning from grabbing a sweater from her bedroom she heard keys rumbling in her padlock laden front door. A moment later her husband appeared, looking more disheveled than when he had rushed out of bed, his five o'clock shadow glowing against the dim foyer light. The couple made eye contact from the door to the stairs, both opening their mouths for delicate words, when a buzzing erupted from both of their pockets.

One look upon Iris's face and she felt a familiar whoosh of air, a jostling motion and she was suddenly back in front of the monitors of Star Labs.

"Glad I came in early today" Cisco said from a surprisingly far distance from her or any computer system. "Who thought wheely chairs were the right move for this room?"

"Barry it looks like there's a grand theft auto out of the dealership on 57th." Iris tapped along her dashboard in a familiar fashion. "CCPD is still several minutes out."

"Psh do people still think a sports car is faster than the flash just because it's 8 in the morning?" Crisco rang in.

Iris could feel Cisco's attempts at normalcy, his tone gentler then usual amidst his albeit, typical, jokes. She knew he meant well and that's the only reason she didn't punch him in the arm.

"Barry he's headed into the tunnel, if you don't stop him before I'm seeing high change of a massive pileup. Cisco can you turn the traffic lights on the way to the tunnel?" Iris asked.

"On it."

But there did not seem to be a need, as shortly after Cisco manned traffic control, the car veered off the road instead, hopping haphazardly into the mildly populated park that had once been beside him. Barry, who had been preparedly creating a vortex to decelerate the vehicle, had been thrown off course as well. His eyes instead became fixed on the child's playground directly in front of the target.

His vortex creation veered course, cutting tares in grass instead of concrete as Barry tried to keep up with the swerving car. Mere seconds later was the horse-powered car pulled to stop and its driver thrown from the vehicle. It was not deceleration that had been the culprit of the throw, but two red gloves.

"What, you think your life is so much above everyone else's you don't even think about the people you could have killed in the process?! Huh? All for a little joy ride?"

Barry was standing over him now, a man now defenseless and disoriented, his figure getting closer and, seemingly, angrier with every step.

"I wasn't gonna hurt anybody -" the man pleaded at the face of the hero.

"You think you choose whether you get you hurt someone or not?" He was screaming now, his hands finding them to the man's collar, yanking him to his level. Onlookers began to watch from a distance. "No, your reckless behavior is what chooses! You wanted a car that was worth endangering the lives of all these people to get. All of these children -"

"Flash!" A voice rang out from across the park. Barry turned to find Ralph, or rather, elastic man, standing among a crowd of park goers, parents and children among them. "You gonna cuff him or...?"

#the flash #westallen #barry allen #iris west #iris westallen #nora west-allen #flash #mywriting #ive missed writing #if you want further look into my work tbh maybe ill link my pretty little liars page one day #when im not ashamed of that show #so maybe never

6 notes · View notes

yutaya · 5 years

Text

Time travel questions for the Flash universe

What happens to the Barry that gets replaced after time travel shenanigans?

The Barry that spent a year getting to know Hartley? The Barry that had been working with Julian, or that had been fighting with Cisco?

Does he also travel to the past and wind up in an alternate timeline? Does he wind up in OUR timeline? Did flashpoint Barry come out in a new timeline where Iris and Joe got along, where Cisco had no reason to be mad, where Julian never came to work at CCPD....never became Alchemy....never...existed?

The Barry that had been friendly with Hartley clearly did time travel seeing as the team was waiting for his return, but he probably wouldn’t have fought Hartley in the past, so did he create another timeline that we don’t know about? They supposedly have only a set number of multiverse alternate Earths, even with all these timeline changes - and we have seen past-future selves vanish after changes were made in both Flash and Legends, Marty McFly style (One of the Barrys at Nora’s death (the one who was about to cause the Singularity I think so...what the heck?), Cisco who wasn’t even a time traveller himself when they locked up time remnant Eobard, Sara and the other surviving Legends from the Doomworld timeline.)

However, Cisco has vibed the overwritten timeline before, when Eobard-Wells killed him, and the time travelers clearly remember the way that it was, so it’s not that the old timeline never existed - or else they couldn’t have changed it in the first place.

On Legends, Dr. Stein’s new timeline memories (of his anachronism daughter) started to merge with his own, but in flashpoint Barry started to get overwritten with the new timeline memories entirely - why haven’t we seen similar memory merge occurrences in other time travelling events? Why didn’t he start to get overwritten by the Barry who had known Hartley, or who had been fighting with Cisco - he certainly lived in those timelines long enough for it to catch up with him, seeing as he never left them.

Did flashpoint Barry time travel at all, considering his fresh-in-mind, non-hypothetical stance on not interfering in the past for personal matters with Dante? Did he just step out for some air and get overwritten?

When Barry went back during the fights with Mardon and Savage, he merged with his past self and just relived the time, doing things differently, However, when he went back to the Pied Piper event and to his mom’s death, he remained in his current body separate from his past self, effected things, and ran back forward in time to find out what ripple effects he’d created. So, when he time travels on purpose he just pops in and pops out and potentially risks enraging the time wraiths, but when he time travels on accident he merges into his past self’s body?

Did Cisco vibe the other timelines like he did the Mardon one? Did he vibe getting extinguished by Savage? Fighting on the steps with Pied Piper? Did he vibe the timeline where Dante was still alive? And how far reaching does that go - could he still vibe the timeline where Dante didn’t die and see what could be happening at current there, long after the flashpoint change? Probably not. But could he vibe the timeline Eobard was from, the one where Barry didn’t live with the Wests and didn’t become the Flash until like ten years later? Could he vibe the timeline Nora is from, the one where they defeated Gridlock in one battle, where Cicada didn’t show up until years down the line?

@flashwriters please answer my questions

#the flash #time travel #my stuff #meerkat face the fastest man alive

2 notes · View notes

abercrombiearcher · 7 years

Text

Post-Flashpoint Bio: Roy Harper

Age: 25 Codename: Arsenal Occupation: Club manager (Verdant), vigilante Sexuality: Heterosexual Species: Human Status: Hero

BIOGRAPHY

Past: Roy first moved to the Glades with his mother at the young age of 3, remembering little-to-nothing of their life before that point. As he grew older, he began to question the absence of his father in his life. He was told that his father had died just before they moved to the Glades, and that was why Roy had little to remember him by. At first he accepted this information, but as he grew older he found it did not explain why his mother never spoke of his father and would refuse to tell him the exact facts of what had happened. Between her refusal to tell him more about his father, and Roy’s slow descent into criminal activities in the Glades, Roy eventually left their home at fifteen and never spoke to her again. For the most part, he stayed with so-called friends who would let him remain in their homes in exchange for running odd jobs, resulting in him being in and out of juvie while still a teenager.

[From this point seasons 1-3 of Arrow are canon for Roy’s character.]

Present: After sacrificing his identity to save Oliver Queen’s life and taking the fall for the murders committed by Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassin’s, Roy was forced to fake his death and go on the run. Though Thea attempted to follow him, he insisted on making sure she returned home to Star City, giving her his Arsenal suit in parting and encouraging her to move on from him.

Roy tried to keep as much of a routine life as he could after, taking up jobs bartending or as a mechanic wherever he could. He would have to move on every now and then when he started to grow concerned someone had recognised him and he would be found out - eventually leading him to Central City. He managed to remain in Central for a great amount of time without being discovered, eventually managing to make contact with some of the old members of Team Arrow and let them know he was alright. Over time, he began to miss the vigilante life, having a new Arsenal suit made thanks to Cisco Ramon and using it to serve as Arsenal in Central.

He became close friends with a few people he had met in the city, including Kara Danvers after she saved his life, and revealed herself to be Supergirl, and Grace Snow - the sister of Caitlin Snow who he often found himself confiding in and entrusted with his life, the truth of his past and why he was forced to leave Star City.

Roy also found himself gaining family, however unexpectedly, while in Central. Due to the breaches between this Earth and Earth 2, a young girl by the name of Lian Harper found herself thrown into the Earth 1 universe. While only a few years younger than Roy himself, the evidence that she was his doppelganger’s daughter couldn’t be denied, and he chose to take her in and help her in any way he could - whether it to be helping her find a way back home to Earth 2, or helping her settle into a life on Earth 1. After discovering this, it didn’t take long for another strange and life-altering truth to hit home - not only was his father alive, his mother having lied to him about why he was absent from Roy’s life, but he had a younger sister, Aurora Jett. They had been separated for 20 years, neither knowing of the other’s existence until the moment the truth came out by complete accident.

Eventually, Thea found her way to Central City intending to start up a new business venture and expand Verdant having regained rights to the club in Star City. While Roy hadn’t contacted her initially, worrying that she would have moved on and not wanting to interfere with a life that she may have started rebuilding, the two found themselves drawn back together. Time had fortunately not been able to dampen either of their feelings, and while they both knew it would be difficult to be together with Roy’s status as a fugitive, they couldn’t deny their feelings. The two quickly began dating, leading to an even quicker elopement after they found out that Thea had become pregnant. Currently, Roy’s life is as close to perfect as it has ever been - he has his friends, his family, and is married to the girl of his dreams with two beautiful children, their twin son and daughter.

Positive Traits: Courageous, kind, selfless Negative Traits: Stubborn, impulsive, hot-headed

Connections Thea Queen - Wife Team Arrow - Friends/Pseudo-family Grace Snow, Kara Danvers - Best Friends Aurora Jett - Sister Lian Harper - Earth 2 Doppelganger’s Daughter/Adoptive Daughter Thomas (Tommy) Robert Harper - Son Joanne Laurel Harper - Daughter

@centralcitysfinest-rp @theaxharper

#roy goes through a loooooooot in arrow so forgive me not writing it but it's taken me long enough on these as is xD #ccfflashpoint #muse: roy harper

6 notes · View notes

geektified · 7 years

Photo

New Post has been published on http://www.geektified.com/2017/05/20/the-geekcap-roundup/

The Geekcap Roundup

Supergirl “Resist”

Rhea unleashes her army against National City, forcing the DEO to regroup in the alien bar without J’onn for guidance. Within the chaos, Lillian Luthor offers her assistance in order to rescue Lena and eliminate the alien threat. They initially refuse, but their decision is interrupted when President Marsdin challenges Rhea on Air Force One, accompanied by a returning Cat Grant. Supergirl rescues Cat and is surprised to discover the president to be an alien from the planet Durlan. She reveals a plan to use the DEO’s positron laser to shoot down the ship, despite Mon-El and Lena still being onboard. With some further advice from Cat, Kara chooses to go with the plan but only after using Lillian’s help to sneak on the ship and rescue the others. Meanwhile, Rhea reveals her own plan to make her conquer of National City more legitimate by forcing Mon-El to marry Lena.

With a distraction from Cat and Winn in the form of an inspirational speech, the city begins to fight back against their alien invaders, and Kara, Lillian, Alex, and Maggie sneak onto the ship with the help of their portal and Superman’s Phantom Zone projector. While Daxamite soldiers attempt to kill Cat, she and Winn are rescued by the Guardian, whom Cat instantly recognizes as James Olsen. The team takes back Mon-El and Lena and successfully leave. Although Lillian plans to leave the others behind, Kara reveals an additional exit for Mon-El to escape the ship, designed by Winn. However, Kara stays on the ship to attempt to peacefully settle with Rhea, but Rhea reveals that she had planned for their weapon and has her own force against them: Superman.

Notes

Superman’s Phantom Zone projector makes an appearance in the episode.

Cat Grant makes her first reappearance since the season two episode “The Last Children of Krypton.”

Photo Credit: DC/CW

The Flash “Infantino Street”

With the threat or Iris’s death coming closer, Barry and Cisco try appealing to Lyla Michaels at ARGUS for their power core to power their weapon. However, she refuses based on Barry’s past actions regarding Flashpoint. Under desperation, the team plans to steal the core themselves but find the security fortified against Barry’s powers. With no other choice, Barry appeals to a past Leonard Snart from the Legends’ Waverider for a thief’s expertise in how to steal thee core. Working together with the help of HR’s face-technology, Barry and Snart sneak through the security but come face-to-face with the main security of the power core in King Shark. Meanwhile, Joe and Wally take Iris to Earth-2 to hide from Savitar, taking refuge with Harry as HR and Tracy continue their work on the weapon to stop Savitar. Unfortunately, Savitar continues his goal to kill Iris after discovering Barry’s plan to create the weapon to stop him.

Using Snart’s cold gun, they successfully distract King Shark with enough time to steal the power core. However, security is immediately alerted, and the door seals off, trapping Snart inside for Barry to escape. Despite having the chance to leave, Barry stays behind to help Snart escape King Shark’s grasp, an act that surprises Lyla and convinces her to trust Barry with the power core. Back at STAR Labs, Barry arrives back questioning where Iris was taken, leading HR to reveal her location on Earth-2. Sadly, this Barry is revealed to be Savitar who travels to Earth-2 to fight off Wally and Harry to take Iris. The real Barry returns to STAR Labs, and he and Cisco travel to the city to face off against Savitar and Killer Frost. Although they attempt to use the Speedforce weapon, they fail to capture the villain, leading Savitar to finally kill Iris.

Notes

Inside ARGUS, there are nametags reading memorable names including Grodd, Cheetah, and Cupid, a villain featured on Arrow.

Infantino Street is a reference to Carmine Infantino, a comic book artist who helped usher in the Silver Age of comics.

Lyla Michaels, John Diggle’s wife on Arrow, makes a reappearance.

Photo Credit: DC/CW

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “World’s End”

Robbie returns to fight off Aida, but she uses her abilities to escape. She then enacts her plan with Ivanov as they use an LMD of Daisy to shoot Talbot and other intelligence officers, framing SHIELD and the Inhumans in the process. Working with Robbie, they interrupt any further deaths but fail to stop the growing distrust of SHIELD after witnessing what appears to be Daisy going rogue. Fortunately, they regain the Darkhold, planning to set a trap for Aida. Meanwhile, Elena is rescued by Radcliffe in the Framework, and the two find their way to Mack, but he is unable to recognize her as the world continues to disappear around them. In the real world, Aida arrives on the base to confront Fitz, threatening Simmons’s life for the Darkhold. Fitz offers Aida a chance at the Darkhold, revealing Coulson to have it, but Aida seemingly kills Simmons anyway and confronts Coulson.

Simmons, however, is revealed to be alive, using an LMD decoy to distract Aida as Coulson reveals to have made a deal with the Ghost Rider to kill Aida. Their trick is successful, leading Robbie regain the Ghost Rider and return to another dimension. While the Framework continues to disappear around them, Elena refuses to leave Mack as he refuses to leave his daughter. However, as his daughter eventually disappears, the two escape the Framework moments before its destruction. Although Fitz steps up to take the fall for creating Aida, Daisy and the others refuse to abandon their friend and plan to turn themselves in as well after going out for a meal. At a diner, they are approached by a shaded man wielding strange technology. In the final scene, Coulson wakes up in a cell overlooking what seems to be outer space.

Notes

Robbie creating a portal resembles the effect used in Doctor Strange.

The final shot has Coulson in outer space. Could this be hinting towards SWORD?

Photo Credit: Marvel/ABC

Arrow “Missing”

In celebration for capturing Chase, Felicity throws Oliver a surprise birthday party with the team. However, the night takes a rough turn when Dinah and Curtis are knocked out and kidnapped by Talia al Ghul, enacting Chase’s latest plan to make Oliver suffer by taking away his team. Because of this, Oliver plans to have Diggle, Felicity, Lance, and Thea move to an ARGUS safe-house to hide, but Lance and Thea are quickly found and taken by Evelyn and Black Siren, the latter whom has a tense standoff with Lance. As Diggle and Felicity begin to leave town, they are also stopped by Talia and the remaining members of the League of Assassins. As Oliver attempts to predict Chase’s next move, he’s approached by Malcolm Merlyn who offers to help Oliver to rescue Thea. Meanwhile, five years ago, Kovar chains Oliver and injects him with a drug known as Red Death which forces him to relive every pain he’s experienced.

After Oliver discovers Chase has also taken William, he and Malcolm fight off ARGUS guards to have him released, only to have Chase escape and warn Oliver that he’ll “see him on the boat.” Using Felicity’s technology, Oliver tracks down Chase’s location and recruits Nyssa to help rescue the team, though he avoids telling her that they are facing her sister. Meanwhile, five years ago, Oliver is tortured by the drug and experiences a vision of Yao Fei urging him to end his life to end his pain. Before he can kill himself, a vision of Laurel encourages him to hold on for his friends and family, giving him the strength to overpower the drug. Both Oliver and Chase’s teams begin arriving on Lian-Yu to plan for a final confrontation as Oliver recruits his final ally: Slade Wilson.

Notes

The name Lord Mesa Bakery refers to DCTV artist Lord Mesa.

Photo Credit: DC/CW

#Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.#Arrow #DC #Marvel #Supergirl #The Flash #The Geekcap #tv

1 note · View note

dracox-serdriel · 7 years

Text

The Flash/Legends Theory

SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for all episodes of The Flash through 03x18 Abra Kadabra and Legends of Tomorrow 02x16 Doomworld.

This post got really long, really fast. So I’ll post the theory points here and then explain things below. Everything is under the cut for length and spoilers. (See above for full spoiler warning!)

The Flash/Legends Theory (in brief) Basically, the Flash and Legends will have cross-over impact on one another this season beyond the direct cross-over episodes.

Barry has certainly learned his lesson about traveling through time to change the past. He won’t make that mistake again.

However, the other speedsters in this story might not be so certain about the lesson... or perhaps they’re willing to risk it. Or perhaps they do it by accident. Whatever the case may be, it’s possible that one or more of the hero!Speeders (Jesse Quick, E-3 Jay Garrick, Kid Flash) will be the ones to return to the point of Nora Allen’s murder and influence the history between that moment and “the present” this season.

Eobard Thawne brought back Eddie Thawne in Doomworld in order to prevent himself from becoming a time remnant that will constantly be hunted down by the SpeedForce.

Should the Legends succeed in their time-travel-to-fix-the-alternate-reality-thing, Eobard Thawne will somehow “bleed” Eddie Thawne back into reality the way that Wally West and the other Flashpoint metas received their powers from Flashpoint’s reality, even though by all technical accounts, Flashpoint didn’t happen.

While this will not be Season 1 Eddie Thawne, he will be very similar to the man, given that the entire point of bringing him back was to ensure he remained the man he would’ve been without Eobard’s shenanigans in history. All we really know is that Eobard somehow steered his own ancestor off course during his time in the past. It could have been as simple as when Barry Allen received his powers (given that he spent 9 months in a coma and that’s when Iris and Eddie started dating--had Barry gotten his powers as he did in the original time line, then perhaps he and Iris would’ve started dating). So Eddie Thawne might still be a police officer in Central City. He might even be at the same precinct. Or maybe he transferred to Keystone (nearby city) where he is fated to meet his wife...

If one of the other speedsters manipulates time outside the Nora-Allen-murder-hotspot, then it will to go back in time and make Barry forget seeing Iris murdered in the future. [Even better if it’s NOT one of the speedsters... what if Cisco figures out a way to Vibe himself into his past self?]

So when Barry returned to the SpeedForce to save Wally West, we learned that the SpeedForce really wasn’t pleased with these time traveling shenanigans. I personally think they’re being a little hard on Barry, what with Eobard Thawne still on the loose.

Everyone keeps saying that Barry created Flashpoint, but Eobard probably had more of a hand in it than “opps! something cosmic and awful happened and conveniently means this time remnant of me is still kicking!” Does the universe throw villains a bone every now and again? Sure. But this one seems a little too good to be true.

Then, in Legends of Tomorrow, the Legion of Doom manage to recreate reality by using the Spear of Destiny. Oddly, all the villains end up in the same time period, along with the (mind-blocked and powered-down) Legends. Eobard Thawne spent over a decade trying to return to the future, to his own time period, yet we find him as the new leader of STAR Labs in the very time and place he wanted to escape so badly.

We know that it’s the same time period because Thea, Tommy, and Rebecca (Malcolm’s wife) are all mentioned as alive, and on top of that, Damien’s hobbies include killing every hero he can find (so he can decorate his creepy Wall of Hero Masks--where we see evidence of the Arrow, Black Canary, and the Flash dying at Damien’s behest).

This begs the question... why is Eobard in this time period? Wouldn’t it have been much easier to either re-write reality and either grant himself the ability to time travel without consequence or to simply write himself as returned to his own time period? Technology would be significantly more advanced, which means he could’ve destroyed the Spear of Destiny on Day 1 of the so-called Doomworld.

I think that, even though Eobard could’ve rewritten reality so that time wraiths didn’t exist or so that he alone could time-travel free of consequence, he instead chose to keep it simple. Rewriting the laws of something like the SpeedForce could incur unintended/unwanted consequences that might not become apparent until years later... that would be fine, except he planned to destroy the Spear of Destiny as soon as possible. The longer he kept it, the more danger of it being stolen and his work being undone. Thus, he decided not to rewrite the laws of the SpeedForce and time-remnants but to remedy his own timeline.

In short, he brought Eddie Thawne back to life, and set his ancestor on the path of marrying the right woman (whoever his great-great-grandmother was). This way, he is no longer an evil time remnant running for his life. The SpeedForce might have other quarrels with him, but it’s likely that the Flash Reaper (aka Black Flash) will be called back to the SpeedForce Waiting Room for his next assignment.

From the events of Season 3 of the Flash, we already know that stuff from other realities can “bleed” into this reality. Somehow Alchemy and Savitar were able to connect people with no meta-powers in this timeline with their powered counterparts from Flashpoint, including Wally West, aka Kid Flash.

So is it so impossible for something (or someone) from Doomworld to bleed into this timeline, too? (This question is based on the assumption that the Legends successfully prevent Doomworld from ever having occurred to begin with by using time travel. Hmmm... isn’t that exactly what happened to Flashpoint?)

Finally, there is something that has bothered me about the moment Barry keeps returning to in his past.

At the end of Season 1, he returned and waited, hidden, until the “battle” was over and the two speedsters left before he comforted his mother. (Hereafter known as S1!Barry.)

At the end of Season 2, he returned and stopped Eobard (Hereafter, known as S2!Barry), and S1!Barry, who had been waiting/not intervening, vanished into thin air.

At the beginning of Season 3, to undo Flashpoint, Barry (Hereafter known as S3!Barry) takes Eobard (hereafter known as S3!Eobard) back to that same moment so events will happen as they did before.

Okay, so here’s the thing. Both S1!Barry and S2!Barry would not have been in the house at all, had it not been for a currently unknown future!Barry battling future!Eobard and preventing him from killing young Barry. We know it’s a future!Barry because of the blood samples Cisco found in Season 1, which matched Barry’s metahuman/Flash-ified blood--not his childhood blood.

S3!Barry and S3!Eobard can’t be the future!Barry and future!Eobard battling it out -- Eobard himself admits that he killed Nora, Barry’s mother, because he was angry that young Barry had escaped his grasp, which means the future!Eobard didn’t know that he was going to fail. Thus, S3!Eobard wasn’t the same as future!Eobard, who had traveled to Barry’s childhood from the far future, specifically to kill the Flash before he acquires his powers.

So far, we have young Barry and Nora (who are supposed to be there, time-wise) at the house. Then we have the yet-unknown future!Barry and future!Eobard show up. Then we have three separate time incarnations of Barry (S1!Barry, S2!Barry and S3!Barry) as well as one additional time incarnation of Eobard (S3!Eobard) turn up to join the fray. That’s 2 Eobards, 4 Barrys (5 if you count the young version), and 1 Nora. We can safely assume that the future!Barry is the one who races his younger self away to safety... a few blocks away.

That seems a little weird, doesn’t it? I mean, epic Speedster battle, and you save your childhood self by moving him a few blocks away... without the evil Speedster following you. Eobard didn’t know his time travel had blown out his powers--he doesn’t find that out until after he has “failed” to kill Barry. So if his quarry was whisked away, why didn’t he follow?

The answer is simple: someone prevented him from following. Since Barry’s Flash-ified blood turned up in the house, we can safely assume that 1 of the 3 Barry’s kept future!Eobard busy while future!Barry raced off with his childhood self. The trouble with this is that we saw S1!Barry see a version of himself (future!Barry?) giving him the “nod, wink, stop here” look. Before S2!Barry and S3!Barry showed up, this would’ve been an ideal time for future!Eobard to go after young Barry. Even without his powers, the man could easily overtake a child and kill him.

This suggests that future!Barry did not come from the future alone.

In Season 1, young Barry recounts the “lightning man” and describes yellow and red lightning. It’s easy enough to assume that this means the Flash and the Reverse Flash were facing off together. But young Barry only describes seeing one man, which would be an easy enough mistake, given that these are Speedsters. They blur.

We also know that (so far) all incarnations of Barry work on a team of some kind. I think it would be highly unlikely for him to go on a mission like this - one that would define not just his fate, but so many others - without a little backup. And even if he would (you know, “to preserve the timeline” or whatever nonsense he comes up with...), is it likely that none of his team mates would defy his wishes (and time-law) to save his life? Probably not.

So what if future!Barry didn’t whisk young Barry away? What if that was Wally West, Earth-3 Jay Garrick, or Earth-2 Jesse Quick? Anyone with red or yellow lightning could’ve pulled this off.

Heck, it could have been Doomworld!Eobard or future!Future!Eobard correcting his error--for all we know, he learns that, without Barry Allen as the Flash, Eobard Thawne never amounts to anything. So he goes back in time to save himself from making the worst possible mistake. It’s not like he’s the only speedster doing that. (Though the yellow lightning left in the wake of whoever-saved-young-Barry suggests that it wasn’t Eobard. It’s just a fun thought.)

Anyway, let’s assume it’s not Eobard, but one of our known speedster heroes. Future!Barry would probably be really pissed, right? Especially if they broke the laws of time to help him. It might’ve been just enough to distract him from his fight with future!Eobard -- just enough to cause his mother’s death before he can chase Eobard out. It would also explain why future!Barry failed to catch up with Eobard minutes later, when his powers failed him and he could so easily be captured. Future!Barry was too busy trying to save his co-hero from a time wraith or something.

Seriously, there has to be a reason (besides a massive plot hole) that future!Barry just left Eobard in the past when he could’ve easily been detained and brought back to the correct time period. His powers had blown out, and he would’ve been easy to find given the yellow suit and the fact that he was one of the few living metahumans on the planet in that time period. Future!Barry should’ve had him hog tied and in a jail cell seconds later. Instead, Future!Barry seems to go back to the future, leaving a very dangerous Eobard in the past, where he proceeds to screw up history, even without his Speedster powers.

So maybe future!Barry only had a narrow window he could remain in the past, or maybe he was trying to keep the timeline as in tact as possible. But it would be much better if future!Barry was forced between seeking and punishing a weakened Eobard Thawne and saving one of his friends. Or if said friend whisked future!Barry away in order to stop him from capturing Eobard (in order to preserve the already way-too-freaking-complicated timeline!)

Okay, so we have Eobard-Doomworld weirdness. Check.

We have unknown future events still yet to unfold that directly affect the Nora-Allen-Murder-hotspot. Check.

We have a reason to suspect that alternate realities undone by time travel can (and do) leave echoes, traces, and other markers that impact this reality. Check.

We have one hero (and probably one villain, too) who knows traveling to the past to change things is NOT a magical undo button. Check.

Let’s put all of that aside for a moment, though, and ask the question everyone has been asking about Season 3.

How can the Flash save Iris West? Barry has a date, time, and a location. He also has friends who can jump into other universes (Cisco, Gypsy), acquaintances who can shapeshift (J’onn from Supergirl), and friends in the multiverse who could help him hide Iris not only in another universe but on other planets, too (Kara from Supergirl springs to mind, but I am sure there are others).

Savitar might try to kill her, but does he possess the means to travel to other planets in the same universe? He can clearly jump universes--but traveling the multiverse on the “same” planet isn’t the same as space travel. So why not hide with Iris on Earth-28′s moon? Or Earth-37′s Mars? Or Earth-2′s Venus? He’d only have to avoid Earth-1′s Central City for a day. Problem solved.

But instead Barry becomes obsessed with changing events between then and now, convinced it’s the only way. The obsession leads to a number of bad decisions a la self-fulfilling prophecy, including Wally West throwing the last bit of the “Key” Savitar required to escape his SpeedForce prison.

It could be argued that, had none of them known that Savitar would kill Iris, that they would’ve made drastically different choices... and Savitar would still be locked up in his SpeedForce cell.

For example, Caitlin might’ve squirreled away that tiny bit of the Philosopher’s Stone (the “Key”) for years and years before mentioning it, since Iris’s life wasn’t on the line (as far as they knew). And that would mean that Wally wouldn’t’ve known where it was, and therefore Savitar couldn’t manipulate him into throwing it into the SpeedForce.

The best way to save Iris’s life is... to forget that she will die. Erase or remove that foreknowledge.

I think that Earth-3 Jay Garrick already knows this. Not because he’s from the future, though. Because he bumps into someone from the future trying to change the past---and he begs whoever it is to give him the chance to make things right without time travel... to convince Barry to have faith and do the right thing (forget about the possible future he witnessed--don’t obsess over it) without being manipulated.

He fails, leaving the time-traveler with no choice but to complete the original mission: either make Barry forget what he saw or prevent him from seeing it to begin with...

The Flash/Legends Theory - Recap

No more traveling to the past to change things for Barry.

Everybody else on the show is exempt from the above statement. It only applies to Barry.

Eobard Thawne has kept things simple, bringing his ancestor back to life (and on track) in Doomworld.

Eobard Thawne can and will keep said ancestor alive, even if Doomworld goes poof and begone thanks to time travel.

Eddie Thawne will not only be very similar to his Season 1 version, someone from Team Flash is bound to run into him not long after Doomworld undone. Confusion will ensue.

The best way to save the day would be for someone (anyone) to go back in time and either prevent Barry from seeing Savitar kill Iris or to wipe his memory of it before he tells anyone and they all become obsessed with “saving Iris.”

Thus, a Flash/Legends cross-over impact.

6 notes · View notes

backtothestart02 · 5 years

Text

The Flash/Westallen - WIPs

As we approach the new year, I’m trying to figure out how best to approach writing multi-chaps going forward. I have many ideas I haven’t started yet, but I still have so many I haven’t finished. Some are designed to be longer and I can’t wrap up quickly, but others are more manageable. This post shows when I started writing each WIP and when it was last updated. Plz reply with which ones you’d most be interested in reading.

...

* = exception fics (ongoing; not priority)

...

2016: (5)

*Drabbles Synopsis: Prompts requested of any Barry & Iris scenario, each one in an attempted 1,000 words or less. Intended Length: Ongoing (as long as prompts are requested) Chapters written so far: Published: 5/10/16 Last Updated:

1) Flashpoint Synopsis: Post-s2. When Barry's rash move to save his mother drastically affects the timeline he wakes up to, will he accept the changes or try once more to change the past? Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 4 Published: 7/20/16 Last updated: 7/31/17

2) The First Day of Forever Synopsis: Post s2 - Barry & Iris's wedding day from start to finish. Intended Length: Short - Medium Chapters written so far: 2 Published: 7/30/16 Last Updated: 9/27/17

3) The Unconscious Mind Synopsis: Starting mid-1x12: What if Iris was not only having sex dreams about Barry after he confessed his feelings to her, but she was vocalizing them and Eddie was hearing it? Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 1 Published: 8/23/16 Last updated: 8/23/16

*Muse Synopsis: Varying lengths of single-chapter stories &/or snippets inspired by spoilers detailed for future episodes. Intended Length: Ongoing (until the show ends) Chapters written so far: 17 Published: 10/3/16 Last updated: 12/22/18

4) Fallen Star Synopsis: Post 3x05 - Canon Divergent - Iris ignoring the threat of danger in pursuit of her stories drives Barry to his limit. Can the two acknowledge their stubborn streaks and forge a compromise? Or is their relationship not strong enough to resolve the tension rising between them? Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 11 Published: 11/6/16 Last updated: 9/7/18

5) He’s MY Barry Allen Synopsis: Post 3x08 - With Cisco and Barry's relationship on the mend when they return from defeating the Dominators, Iris is more than willing to give them some space to make up for lost time. But her tolerance is running low since news of Barry's almost sacrifice chilled her to the bone. If Cisco doesn't learn to share, he's going to have to pay the price. But he won't go down easily either. Intended Length: Short - Medium Chapters written so far: 1 Published: 12/4/16 Last Updated: 12/4/16

2017: (1)

*Sex Bet Synopsis: A series of scenarios where Barry and Iris try to one-up other pairings by making sex bets. Intended Length: Ongoing Chapters written so far: 2 Published: 4/29/17 Last Updated: 5/28/17

1) Runnin’ Home to You Synopsis: 3x21 - Canon Divergent - What if Team Flash decided to keep Barry from remembering until after May 23rd? Intended Length: Medium Chapters written so far: 4 Published: 6/16/17 Last Updated: 7/26/17

*Wet Dream Synopsis: A series of sex fantasy one-shots from either Barry or Iris for every episode of the series. Intended Length: Ongoing (until the show ends) Chapters written so far: 5 Published: 9/4/17 Last Updated: 3/26/18

2018: (6)

1) On a Whim Synopsis: 4x10 - Canon Divergent - In the middle of the courtroom, Barry and Iris share a stolen moment to decide whether to reveal his identity as the Flash to prevent conviction and being sentenced to prison. But Iris has more than one suggestion, and she's very convincing. Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 1 Published: 1/22/18 Last Updated: 1/22/18

2) Mind Games Synopsis: AU - When Iris digs too deep into Amunet Black's underground drug dealing, the results are devastating; memory loss being the first. Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 4 Published: 4/16/18 Last Updated: 6/4/18

3) Hazy Synopsis: Post 4x02 - With everything good between him and Iris again, the last thing Barry expects is to wake up in a time when Iris is not his fiancee but instead the wife of a very alive Eddie Thawne. Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 1 Published: 6/7/18 Last Updated: 6/7/18

4) When Time Stands Still Synopsis: 4x23 - Canon Divergent - Barry doesn't find Ralph in Devoe's mindscape, but he still finds good Devoe with a bullet through his chest. With no cards left to play, he returns to Iris and the team, says his apologies and goodbyes and hurls straight ahead into the Enlightenment. Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 3 Published: 7/13/18 Last Updated: 8/31/18

5) Fateful Kiss Synopsis: 2x18 - Canon Divergent - Iris takes a risk and shows Barry her true feelings when he’s at his most vulnerable. Things escalate from there. Intended Length: Medium - Long Chapters written so far: 3 (2 posted on AO3/FFnet) Published: 12/17/18 Last Updated: 12/22/18 (on AO3/FFnet)

6) Mixed Drink Synopsis: AU - Two strangers meet in a bar. One spells danger, the other, desperation. Intended Length: Long Chapters written so far: 2 Published: 12/24/18 Last Updated: 12/24/18

Total WIPs: 12 (*4)

#westallen #westallen fanfiction #backtothestart02 fanfiction #barry x iris #wips #multi-chaps #my fics #send help #i can't write these all at once #but i gotta make some progress somehow

48 notes · View notes

ao3feed-westallen · 7 years

Text

Back home

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2lGvT3k

by smolbirbplant

Barry returns back from Flashpoint to find the not everything is the way he left it including the fact that Eddie is alive.

Words: 1439, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 12 of Queer Super Legends of Flarrow

Fandoms: The Flash (TV 2014)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Eddie Thawne, Cisco Ramon, Iris West, Barry Allen

Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West, Eddie Thawne/Iris West, Barry Allen/Eddie Thawne/Iris West, Barry Allen/Eddie Thawne

Additional Tags: westhalen, westallen - Freeform, Polyamory, Triad - Freeform, thrupple, new timeline, Oneshot, One Shot, new timeline au

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2lGvT3k

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #WestAllen #westallen

4 notes · View notes

raywritesthings · 5 years

Text

What Have They Lost? 1/?

My Writing Fandom: Arrow, The Flash Characters: Barry Allen, Iris West, Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke, Cisco Ramon, Ted Grant Pairings: Barry Allen/Iris West, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Summary: "I can definitely tell you that there’s a way we’re going to bring [Laurel] back and she’s going to be alive and well. And Flashpoint might have a little bit to do with that." -Wendy Mericle AKA: The AU where that wasn't a blatant lie, and Flashpoint has bigger repercussions for Barry's friends and allies than he first realized. Notes: So, probably not wise to start yet another WIP without finishing the one I have going but...I got really excited about this idea and wanted to see what people thought. If this is continued (which I hope to do so), things may get a little confusing as certain characters will be going by different (more comic book accurate) names, but I'll do my best to make that clear when introducing them. There are characters referenced in this chapter who will have a bigger role going forward, and when that happens I will add their character tags. Similarly, if some characters haven't been mentioned at all yet, that doesn't mean they won't be in the story. Their character tags will be added later, too. Much thanks to @colorofmymindposts for beta-ing this chapter and helping me restructure some things. It's a much better beginning as a result. Title is pulled directly from a line in DC Rebirth by Geoff Johns while song titles and lyrics were pulled from both the Black Canary solo book and Green Arrow Rebirth, and I make no claim of owning any of them. I hope you all enjoy and let me know your initial impressions! *Also can be read on my AO3*

Barry felt that, all things considered, life was treating him fairly well lately.

Of course, he’d had to fix the mistake he’d made going back in time to save his mother, and even now there were consequences from that. The team hadn’t been happy to learn that truth, and he worried his and Cisco’s friendship would never again be quite what it was. There were things that had resulted from his meddling that he would always feel guilt over.

But not this. Not him and Iris. Despite an awkward first attempt at a date and the second getting interrupted as well, they were falling into a better pattern now as a couple.

She found him in his lab one late morning while Julian was out at a crime scene, so they had the space to themselves for a bit. Iris wrapped her arms around his middle from behind and placed her chin on his shoulder, though he doubted it was to see the spectrometer he was working with.

“Any plans for tonight?”

Barry shook his head. “Nothing specific. You know, just,” he waved a hand to indicate general Flash stuff, which Iris understood with no trouble.

“Think you could take a break for one night?”

Barry raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because I got concert tickets and I want you to go with me.”

A concert? That wasn’t usually his scene. “How’d you get them?”

“Daria in Arts and Entertainment gets sent them sometimes and she can’t make tonight work, so she offered them to me.”

Daria in Arts and Entertainment? That probably meant this was some kind of pop thing, didn’t it? Barry’s face scrunched up.

“I don’t know, Iris…”

“Bear, come on.” She squeezed him tight for a moment before letting go and taking a couple steps back. “It’s Birds of Prey!”

“Am I supposed to know them?”

“They’ve only been my favorite band since college, so I would hope so,” she remarked, and Barry turned around with a frown. He could have sworn Iris always said she liked the pop star Cassidy best. “They do some slow stuff, too. I know how you like your jazz,” Iris added with an indulgent roll of the eyes. “So are you in or out?”

He knew Iris still wanted to do some normal couple stuff as well as more extravagant dates. And if she was happy, Barry was sure he could put up with some music that might not be his taste.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m in. It’ll be fun.”

“Great.” Iris leaned in and pecked him on the lips. “Gotta head back to work, but I will see you later for our date. I’ll text you the details.”

“Okay.” Barry watched her go, his smile falling off his face as she disappeared down the stairs. If this was Iris’ favorite band, he was going to have to do some research.

He went to his computer and searched the name Birds of Prey, only finding articles about a band and their lead singer, a woman only known as Dinah.

“Triumphant return to Central City after particle accelerator accident,” he read aloud to himself from the bit of preview text from one article. What did that mean? And why did the name Dinah sound oddly familiar to him?

A knock on his lab door called his attention, and he was busy the rest of the afternoon with casework, even with Julian’s added assistance. Rather than resume his internet search after his shift ended, Barry decided to pursue a different avenue of inquiry.

Cisco was present when he rushed into STAR Labs. His friend barely looked up from the computer monitor he’d been studying.

“Cisco, hey, what do you know about Birds of Prey?”

That question caught the engineer’s attention. “Uh, you mean one of the greatest musical groups of our time?”

“Yeah. Sure.” How did everybody already know this band besides him?

“They’re stopping here on their comeback tour. I think it’s tonight, isn’t it? I missed the online bid for tickets.”

“Iris got two from her coworker, so we’re going tonight,” Barry revealed.

Cisco groaned. “Lucky. I only saw Dinah live once, back when she was doing open mic nights around colleges, you know?” Cisco’s gaze got a faraway look. “I had a poster of her on my wall all through grad school. I’d give anything for a picture with her.”

“Well, I can’t promise that, but I can try and get you a picture of just her.” Barry checked his phone. “I’ve got to meet Iris at the house.”

“Yeah, have a good night.”

“You, too.” It hadn’t been perfect, but Cisco had at least been willing to open up to him about some topic, even if it was one that made little sense to Barry.

He arrived home and changed quickly into clothes better suited for a concert. Iris already had the keys to the car, so she drove them over rather than him running them. They parked on the street near the venue and joined a fast-growing line to get in.

“So, everybody keeps calling this the comeback tour,” Barry began. “What’re they coming back from?”

“You really didn’t hear?” When he shook his head, Iris continued, “They were performing on stage the night of the particle accelerator explosion.”

“And there was an accident,” he said, repeating what he had read before.

“Yeah, the sound equipment and everything, you know? I mean, the band manager got them all off the stage before anyone got too hurt, but there were all kinds of rumors about Dinah’s voice being damaged or the trauma being too much to let her go back on stage.”

“Wow,” was all Barry could come up with.

“Yeah. But, she got back in the game. This is their last stop on the tour, at least for now. People are wondering if they might go international next.”

They had passed through the doors and now were too busy looking for their seats to talk. They weren’t right in the front row, but Arts and Entertainment writers were clearly given a good spot, probably in hopes the review would be better.

The lights dimmed, and a voice came over the systems. “Central City, here tonight is the band that needs no introduction. This is...Birds of Prey!”

The obligatory fog machine obscured things as the musicians all got into place. He counted two redheads and a woman with hair so dark it almost bordered on black. Nothing about them seemed to stand out in his memory.

But he didn’t need the large screens on either side to tell who the woman was that strode confidently downstage to the mic in the center. Even if it should have been impossible.

“Laurel?”

The crowd was too loud around them, and Iris was busy with cheering and didn’t hear him or see his distress.

How could it be possible? He still remembered standing in front of Laurel’s grave, watching as Oliver tried to hold back the anguish that had been in the wet sheen of his eyes and the deep lines of his face. He didn’t think he could ever forget that look. It hadn’t just been Barry’s team who’d loved her.

And yet she was standing above him on a stage, so alive.

“Hello, Central City! It is good to be back.” Laurel paused to let the cheers subside. “I wanted to make sure we stopped here on tour. Had a bit of a fight for it. You can ask Ted.”

Iris leaned over to tell him, “Ted’s the band manager. He’s practically a father to her.”

“He is?” Who was Ted? Where was Captain Lance?

Iris nodded but gave him a second look. “You okay?”

He felt incredibly faint, actually, but there was no time to explain anything to Iris. There were people all around them and Laurel was speaking again.

“But Ted agreed, because we don’t walk away from things. Right, Central City?”

Laurel paused again for cheers. Someone out in the crowd shouted a, “We love you!”

“I love you, too!” She replied with a beautiful smile. “No matter how many times we get knocked down, we get back up. So let’s get up and get things started!”

She motioned back to the band, and the dark brunette hit her drumsticks together four times before the rest of the music started up. People were already on their feet, and Barry stood as well to see better. Now that he was over the shock he started taking more of her appearance in. There was still her blonde hair cascading down her back, but that was about where the similarities ended in how this Laurel styled herself. She had on a blue tank top, ripped up jean shorts, and fishnet leggings on under those. Fishnets!

Was it Siren? Was this all just some trick? And yet even as he thought that it made little sense. Iris’ favorite band since college, Cisco’s poster in grad school...somehow, Laurel Lance had been a member of this band for years.

But she’d been a hero. They all knew that. Or they had.

The song they were performing now seemed to be called Fish Out of Water, judging by the chorus. Barry could relate to that feeling. Then it hit him that Laurel actually had a really good voice. He’d never known that about her, whether it had even been true before...all this.

Because it was dawning on him what this was. Just like the changes that had occurred to his friends’ loved ones because of his meddling, the only explanation for Laurel not only being alive but drastically different than he remembered was the timeline being altered. But how could he have missed this?

If this much was different, what else had changed in Star City? He’d spoken to Felicity briefly since returning to this timeline and realized John now had twins instead of a daughter, but what about Oliver? Were he and the others okay?

“I’m gonna slow things down a bit,” Laurel was saying. “Even if I know you guys like things fast around here.”

Iris nudged him in the side with a big grin. It faded as he looked at her, though. “Seriously, Bear, you okay?”

“It can wait.” Now wasn’t the time or place to get into it. He wasn’t even sure how to explain to Iris that a woman she had never met but admired was now still a woman she had never met but admired just in a different way.

“If ya broke the wings of a blackbird, baby...it’s a joke to think she’ll look backward, baby,” Laurel sang. She looked...sad, somehow. Not in an obvious way. The confidence was still there, but it was like something was missing. And Barry thought he knew what it was.

His mind raced as the band closed out with another louder number to get people cheering right at the end.

“How do you feel about pretending to be from Arts and Entertainment?” He asked at more of a shout in Iris’ ear to be heard.

She raised both eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

Barry ran instead, back to her office at Central City Picture News to grab a camera and a couple of press passes. When he reappeared at her side, she blinked in surprise.

“Barry—”

“It’s kind of important that we talk to her. I’ll explain on the way home.”

Iris looked unsure, but she nodded, trusting him. Barry felt a boost of confidence at that; the rest of his teammates weren’t that willing to trust in his ability these days.

They made their way backstage with the passes and waited as Laurel and the others exited the stage. Barry felt a little stunned to watch her approach this close despite seeing her up on the stage. She was real and alive and a part of him wanted to rush forward and hug her — but that would probably get them kicked out.

There were a few lucky fans with special passes there, too, and he watched as the woman and sometimes-teammate he’d known signed autographs and took selfies with them. He snapped a couple of pictures with the camera he’d borrowed for appearance’s sake.

“Great show tonight, Dinah,” Iris called out to get her attention. She held out her hand when the other woman approached. “I’m Iris West with Central City Picture News. Huge fan, really.”

“Thanks for coming out,” said Laurel, her eyes only briefly passing over Barry, and it was so strange not seeing even a hint of recognition there. Had they never met in this timeline? What did this mean about whether she knew the others?

“So what’s next for the band?” He asked. “International, somewhere else in the states? Star City, maybe? It’s our, uh, sister city,” Barry added when both Laurel and Iris gave him odd looks.

“Funny you should say that. We’ll be taking some time off in Star, yeah. Ted and me, anyway. The other girls are stopping home in Gotham, but Ted’s got a place there.” She nodded back towards an older man with flecks of gray in his hair and a few lines in a deeply tanned face.

“Great,” said Barry.

“Your new song, Blackbird. It’s really good, and the lyrics, uh, what’s the story behind that?” Iris asked. Barry knew he’d put her on the spot and that this style of interview wasn’t exactly her specialty. He thought she was doing a great job, though.

Laurel shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of false starts in life. A lot of things I’ve had to walk away from. You learn to live with it.” She glanced over at Ted again who made some kind of motion. “Listen, there’s a girl scheduled to meet me in the green room, so if we could wrap this up?”

“Yeah, absolutely. I’ll message your people if I think of anything else to ask,” Iris said quickly. “Thanks so much for your time.”

“Yeah, thanks Lau— uh, Dinah,” Barry remembered at the last second. Her eyes jumped to his with a sharp look.

“Yeah. You too.” Laurel said quietly. She turned and walked away, glancing back at them over her shoulder once.

“So what was that actually about?” Iris asked in his ear. Barry gave a start and looked away from the hallway Laurel had disappeared down. They went through a side exit and started the walk back to the car.

“I know her. Or knew her. Um, before I changed the timeline.”

Iris’ eyes widened. “Really? How?”

“She wasn’t a singer. She was the Black Canary. A hero, part of Oliver’s team. She died last spring—” Iris stopped in her tracks, expression one of alarm. Barry reached for her hand to keep her moving down the sidewalk. “—or she did in that timeline. I don’t know how this happened.”

Iris was quiet for a few moments, processing the information. “Well, at least she’s here in this timeline?”

“Yeah, but,” Barry began. He shrugged. “It’s so different. She doesn’t even go by the same name!”

He remembered seeing Dinah on the gravestone, only then realizing they’d all been calling her by her middle name the whole time. What made a person decide to change names? How far back did this divergence from the timeline go?

Iris was frowning, discomfort showing on her features. She had defended his actions in changing things to the rest of the team, but was this a step too far? What did she think of him now? “Well, Bear, I think you’re just going to have to leave this be,” she said eventually. “It’s too late to change things.”

“I know. I just — I need to check on the others in Star, okay? Just so I know what’s been going on if we ever have to team up sometime.”

“Okay.” Iris let him go with a kiss, and then Barry was off running again, first to get his suit and then to Star City.

What was Team Arrow like without a Black Canary? What was Oliver like? He didn’t know too much about the other man’s relationship with Laurel, but they’d obviously been close judging by how affected he’d been at the funeral. What would Barry be like without one of his teammates? He couldn’t even imagine it.

He entered the cave and stopped, calling out to make sure the space wasn’t as empty as it appeared. “Hey, Ollie, you in? Really need to talk to — woah!”

Barry didn’t quite dodge out of the way of two arrows connected by a wire that shot out and pinned him to the wall behind him.

A young man, teenager really, with blonde hair and dark skin emerged from behind a support beam. He carried a bow and quiver of arrows and was grinning as he approached. “Gotta watch your surroundings better, Flash.”

“Connor,” said a familiar voice, the tone only slightly warning.

“I’m only messing, dad,” said the teenager to Oliver as the older man approached. Barry felt his mouth drop open. Since when did Oliver have a second son?

Oliver himself seemed different, somehow, in ways that were hard to define. The stubble he usually had could more accurately be called a goatee, and there were lines in his face that Barry could have sworn hadn’t been there. But he didn’t look as abjectly miserable as the last time Barry had seen him.

“What’s going on, Barry?”

He decided to just cut to the chase. “What do you know about Dinah Laurel Lance?”

Oliver’s face scrunched up. He frowned, though it was more in confusion than anything else. Then the worst possible answer left his lips.

“Who?”

#lauriver #westallen #barry allen #laurel lance #iris west #oliver queen #arrow #the flash #cisco ramon #ted grant #connor hawke #black canary #green arrow #my writing

16 notes · View notes