Reverse Flashpoint, Chapter 2
Title: Reverse Flashpoint, chapter 2
Fandom: The Flash
Characters: Iris, Nora.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for all aired episodes of The Flash
Summary: Iris is unable to stop Nora from giving Barry the meta cure; Nora returns to 2049 to find she must face the consequences of her actions.
Iris had guessed Nora would try to do this, understood as soon as Nora confronted her about having dampened her powers that Nora would try and use them to go back in time, to try and spend time with her parents, maybe to see if she could change time and stop Barry from disappearing in 2024.
She hadn’t tried to stop her, mostly because she knew that Nora wouldn’t take any notice of her if she tried, but also because there was a part of Iris that would always wonder what a future would be like if she and Barry were still together, if she and Nora had a closer relationship during Nora’s childhood and Nora still wanted Iris as a part of her life. If Nora can actually do something to bring that about, is it really such a bad thing?
You obviously thought so once, Iris told herself, because you chose to take the choice away from her back then instead of leaving her the freedom to make her mind up for herself. And she had questioned the decision ever since she made it, wondered if she should have allowed Nora the choice instead of depriving her of that right. Then she’d imagine a future where Nora, trying to find out what had happened to Barry, ended up disappearing too, and she would feel sure all over again that she had done the right thing. And not too long after that, she would inevitably think about the possibility that Nora could actually change something, that a timeline where Iris, Barry and Nora lived happily together as a family could still exist, and she would wonder all over again whether she made a mistake.
But Iris now understood that she should have been more honest with Nora throughout her childhood, should have told her as much as she could about Barry instead of shutting her out. Even just corrected her on some of those damn inaccuracies in the Flash Museum. And even in the midst of her own loss of Barry, Iris should have taken more into account of the fact that Nora too had lost her father. One time when Nora had been staying with Iris’s dad, Cecile and Jenna, Iris had gone to collect her and accidentally overheard her telling Jenna that she always felt like a part of her was missing, but she could never quite explain it. Jenna had suggested that that was something to do with the fact that Nora had no real memories of Barry, and Nora had doubtfully accepted it, or at least she had to Jenna’s face. Iris had made herself known at that point, and has often wondered since what else she might have heard Nora say if she hadn’t. But she’d noticed something else as well that day, how much more at ease Nora had seemed with Jenna and Cecile than she ever did at home. Over time, Nora had started asking to spend more and more time with them, and Iris had agreed to it, wanting Nora to be happy, and if spending time with her relatives was what made her happy, then Iris would do that for her. It was only afterwards, after the time in Nora’s high school when some teacher had assumed that Cecile was Nora’s mother, or the time when Nora had talked about Joe and Cecile attending her high school graduation but assumed Iris would be at work, that Iris had understood how much she had been pushing Nora away.
Iris didn’t know what she had expected from the next time she saw Nora again after Nora’s attempt to go back in time and spend some time with Barry. She’d even wondered if she would see Nora again at all, whether she would choose to return to 2049 but to maintain her silence with Iris, or whether she would even choose not to return. But she certainly wasn’t expecting Nora running up to her, throwing her arms around Iris’s neck, and apologising for the way she had treated her.
“I think I understand it now,” Nora began, “why you made the decision to dampen my powers, why you were worried about something happening to me. But it’s going to be okay now, Mom, because I know what I have to do.”
Iris looked at Nora, tears running down her face, and a part of her knew instinctively she wasn’t going to like the answer to what she was about to ask. “What do you mean?”
“Eobard Thawne showed me the way. And you did, a bit, because if my dad doesn’t have his powers, then he isn’t going to disappear in 2024. We can have that future together, you, me, Dad. He’ll get to watch me grow up, you’ll get to spend your life together, and you and I can have a close relationship growing up. It’ll all be how it should be.”
But Iris hadn’t heard a word after Nora mentioned that name. “Did you just say Eobard Thawne? You’ve been working with him?”
“And he’s helped me see what I have to do. I’m going back to fix things, there’s a metahuman cure now and I’m going to give it to him.”
“Nora, come back here, anything that man said can never be the way…Nora?” Iris called after her.
But Nora was gone.
Nora ran, unable to contain her excitement at the thought of the future she was running back to, one where she had had the childhood she could only have dreamed of before, one where her family were together and happy. She ran down the familiar streets, making her way to her childhood home. It was only as she approached her home that she finally allowed herself to slow down, to notice that the street was not as she had last seen it. Multiple properties bore boarded up windows, at least one was cordoned off altogether, an advertising hoard now had the words “Metas OUT!” sprayed across it in black paint. Posters adorned the walls, demanding the turning over of all known or suspected metahumans or sympathisers to ARGUS. To Nora’s horror, there was one demanding information on the whereabouts of her aunt, Jenna West.
“What is this?” Nora whispered as she tentatively pushed open the door of her childhood home, which at least was still standing. “Mom? Dad?”
Her father was there, looking older even than he should have been, her mother by his side, brief flash of something Nora couldn’t identify even as she turned towards her.
“Oh my God,” Nora whispered. “What have I done?”
Fandom: The Flash
Characters: Iris, Nora.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for all aired episodes of The Flash
Summary: Iris is unable to stop Nora from giving Barry the meta cure; Nora returns to 2049 to find she must face the consequences of her actions.
Iris had guessed Nora would try to do this, understood as soon as Nora confronted her about having dampened her powers that Nora would try and use them to go back in time, to try and spend time with her parents, maybe to see if she could change time and stop Barry from disappearing in 2024.
She hadn’t tried to stop her, mostly because she knew that Nora wouldn’t take any notice of her if she tried, but also because there was a part of Iris that would always wonder what a future would be like if she and Barry were still together, if she and Nora had a closer relationship during Nora’s childhood and Nora still wanted Iris as a part of her life. If Nora can actually do something to bring that about, is it really such a bad thing?
You obviously thought so once, Iris told herself, because you chose to take the choice away from her back then instead of leaving her the freedom to make her mind up for herself. And she had questioned the decision ever since she made it, wondered if she should have allowed Nora the choice instead of depriving her of that right. Then she’d imagine a future where Nora, trying to find out what had happened to Barry, ended up disappearing too, and she would feel sure all over again that she had done the right thing. And not too long after that, she would inevitably think about the possibility that Nora could actually change something, that a timeline where Iris, Barry and Nora lived happily together as a family could still exist, and she would wonder all over again whether she made a mistake.
But Iris now understood that she should have been more honest with Nora throughout her childhood, should have told her as much as she could about Barry instead of shutting her out. Even just corrected her on some of those damn inaccuracies in the Flash Museum. And even in the midst of her own loss of Barry, Iris should have taken more into account of the fact that Nora too had lost her father. One time when Nora had been staying with Iris’s dad, Cecile and Jenna, Iris had gone to collect her and accidentally overheard her telling Jenna that she always felt like a part of her was missing, but she could never quite explain it. Jenna had suggested that that was something to do with the fact that Nora had no real memories of Barry, and Nora had doubtfully accepted it, or at least she had to Jenna’s face. Iris had made herself known at that point, and has often wondered since what else she might have heard Nora say if she hadn’t. But she’d noticed something else as well that day, how much more at ease Nora had seemed with Jenna and Cecile than she ever did at home. Over time, Nora had started asking to spend more and more time with them, and Iris had agreed to it, wanting Nora to be happy, and if spending time with her relatives was what made her happy, then Iris would do that for her. It was only afterwards, after the time in Nora’s high school when some teacher had assumed that Cecile was Nora’s mother, or the time when Nora had talked about Joe and Cecile attending her high school graduation but assumed Iris would be at work, that Iris had understood how much she had been pushing Nora away.
Iris didn’t know what she had expected from the next time she saw Nora again after Nora’s attempt to go back in time and spend some time with Barry. She’d even wondered if she would see Nora again at all, whether she would choose to return to 2049 but to maintain her silence with Iris, or whether she would even choose not to return. But she certainly wasn’t expecting Nora running up to her, throwing her arms around Iris’s neck, and apologising for the way she had treated her.
“I think I understand it now,” Nora began, “why you made the decision to dampen my powers, why you were worried about something happening to me. But it’s going to be okay now, Mom, because I know what I have to do.”
Iris looked at Nora, tears running down her face, and a part of her knew instinctively she wasn’t going to like the answer to what she was about to ask. “What do you mean?”
“Eobard Thawne showed me the way. And you did, a bit, because if my dad doesn’t have his powers, then he isn’t going to disappear in 2024. We can have that future together, you, me, Dad. He’ll get to watch me grow up, you’ll get to spend your life together, and you and I can have a close relationship growing up. It’ll all be how it should be.”
But Iris hadn’t heard a word after Nora mentioned that name. “Did you just say Eobard Thawne? You’ve been working with him?”
“And he’s helped me see what I have to do. I’m going back to fix things, there’s a metahuman cure now and I’m going to give it to him.”
“Nora, come back here, anything that man said can never be the way…Nora?” Iris called after her.
But Nora was gone.
Nora ran, unable to contain her excitement at the thought of the future she was running back to, one where she had had the childhood she could only have dreamed of before, one where her family were together and happy. She ran down the familiar streets, making her way to her childhood home. It was only as she approached her home that she finally allowed herself to slow down, to notice that the street was not as she had last seen it. Multiple properties bore boarded up windows, at least one was cordoned off altogether, an advertising hoard now had the words “Metas OUT!” sprayed across it in black paint. Posters adorned the walls, demanding the turning over of all known or suspected metahumans or sympathisers to ARGUS. To Nora’s horror, there was one demanding information on the whereabouts of her aunt, Jenna West.
“What is this?” Nora whispered as she tentatively pushed open the door of her childhood home, which at least was still standing. “Mom? Dad?”
Her father was there, looking older even than he should have been, her mother by his side, brief flash of something Nora couldn’t identify even as she turned towards her.
“Oh my God,” Nora whispered. “What have I done?”