Reverse Flashpoint, Chapter 3
Title: Reverse Flashpoint, Chapter 3
Fandom: The Flash
Characters: Barry, Nora, Iris, Eobard, Caitlin, Cisco, Ralph, Sherloque. Mention of Earth-1 versions of Ben and George Lockwood
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for all the current season of The Flash although slightly diverges from current canon as this was begun before the most recent episode. Also references Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow
Summary: As Eobard seizes power after manipulating Nora to give Barry the cure in 2019, in 2049 Barry explains to Nora that her actions led to the creation of the Anti-Metahuman Act as per Zari's backstory.
Immediately after Nora gives Barry the cure:
My name is Barry Allen, and I used to be the fastest man alive. I was a metahuman, secretly working with my friends at Star Labs to save this city from other metahumans. But when my daughter came back from the future, she changed the timeline. My former best friend, Cisco, managed to find a cure for metahumans, and Nora chose to use it on me, in order to prevent me disappearing in 2024. Now I have to get used to being regular old Barry Allen again, and try not to think about the time when I was the person who saved Central City. I was The Flash.
Barry knows he shouldn’t blame Nora. He understands her reasoning; hadn’t he, after all, once tried to change time so his mother would still be alive? Can he really condemn Nora, who had grown up without a father because in her timeline Barry had disappeared never to return, for trying to change things so that Barry would never leave her?
Yet even as Barry understands why Nora did what she did, is happy that this way he’ll get the chance to watch her grow up, there will always be a part of him that thinks that choice should never have been taken away from him. They’d agreed it back when Cisco first came up with the idea of a cure; no one would be forced to take it against their will, with the exception of Cicada, and now Nora has forced the decision on him. Maybe if she’d just put the idea to him, given him the chance to make his own mind up instead of rushing in and making the decision without giving him the chance to think things through, let them discuss it as a family, maybe Barry could have even considered the idea; have a bit more time as The Flash, but then take the cure some time before his impending disappearance, to prevent it from happening. But it should have been his own decision, to make when he was ready, which he wasn’t yet.
Cisco blames himself, for having come up with the cure in the first place, and for having allowed Nora the opportunity. Sherloque wishes he had spoken out about his suspicions of Nora sooner, when there was still a chance of stopping her from using the cure. Barry doesn’t blame him; he doesn’t think he would have taken Sherloque seriously if he had tried speaking to Barry about Nora. There was no way he would have thought of Nora working with Eobard Thawne.
As for Nora herself, she’d run off almost as soon as she’d injected Barry with the serum. He can only assume that she’s returned to the 2049 of this timeline, where she had grown up with both her parents. Part of him thinks it’s not a bad thing, because Cisco and Caitlin had become pretty angry with her in the moment and been all set to confront her about using the metahuman cure on someone who hadn’t requested it. The other part of him wished he could have had the chance to properly discuss it with Nora, to understand why she did it.
A week after Barry was given the cure:
It was going to take Barry time to get used to being regular old Barry Allen again, to have to do everything at regular speed, and to know that it wasn’t like that time when his speed ended up transferring to Iris temporarily, but he knew he’d eventually get it back.
But when the news broke of the mass breakout from the metahuman wing at Iron Heights, it was the first time Barry allowed himself to feel any real anger at Nora, at the fact that she had allowed for a situation where all these metahumans were running around Central City, and with Barry minus his powers, Wally still in Tibet and Nora herself back in 2049, they had all these metahumans running around the city and no speedster to take them on.
Caitlin was spending more time as her Killer Frost persona, and Ralph was going out there as much as he could as Elongated Man, while Sherloque was spending ages trying to work out calculations to determine where they would hit next. But when Mark Mardon was creating one of his storms in one part of town, one of Zoom’s friends was causing explosions in another and Geomancer causing earthquakes in a third, it was more than they could handle alone.
“How the hell did so many of them get out at once anyway?” Caitlin asked after struggling in to Star Labs, after a failed attempt to take down Top. “And it feels like something’s different somehow, like their powers have all been enhanced or something.”
“Bravo, Ms. Snow,” came a new voice, accompanied by a slow handclap. Barry, Iris, Sherloque, Cisco and Caitlin turned around to see Eobard Thawne standing before them. “That’s exactly what I have done.” He held up a bottle. “This was Mr. Ramon’s serum. Since your daughter had told me what he was working on, I was able to tweak it, so instead of suppressing the abilities of metahumans, it now enhances them. And now you have been given the cure, there’s nothing you can do to prevent the rise of the metahumans. I always said that I would be the one to prove my superiority as a speedster, and the best part of it is, it was your daughter who helped me achieve that.”
2049:
“Mom? Dad?” Nora tentatively stuck her head around the door. “What’s happened? What have I done?”
“Did you honestly just ask me that?” Iris began, but Barry looked Nora up and down. “She’s just come from 2019, Iris. She’s come back from when she gave me the cure.”
“I thought I was saving you,” Nora began. “I thought I was giving us a chance to be a family again.” She glanced at the television, where a breaking news broadcast was blaring. “200 Presumed Dead In Central City University Explosion: Lisa Snart’s Golden Gliders Claim Responsibility.” Lisa Snart, Leonard’s sister? What was this?
“But I saw the Wanted poster outside. What’s happened to Jenna?” Nora began. “And what are all these posters saying Metas Out?”
“Let me explain,” Barry began, seeing Iris was too upset to speak. “Since 2021, it’s been illegal to be a metahuman. President Ben Lockwood passed the Anti-Metahuman Act after Eobard Thawne’s return. Now he’s in charge of ARGUS, and they’re in charge of policing metahumans. Any they find are being held in ARGUS containment cells. They’ve taken over STAR Labs as one of them.”
Ben Lockwood…Nora had heard that name before, hadn’t that friend of her parents, Kara, mentioned it when she was visiting Earth-1 back when that Deegan guy was trying to rewrite reality? “His son, George, is our President now and he’s expanded the act to include all sympathisers to metahumans.”
“I don’t understand,” Nora sobbed. “Why has he done that?”
“Eobard Thawne returned to Central City not long after you left,” Barry explained. “It was all part of his plan. He’d been determined to take my place as the Flash before he found out he was destined to be the Reverse Flash, and when he knew there was going to be a metahuman cure his plan all along was for you to give it to me, so he could take over and I wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop him.”
“He played me the whole time,” Nora muttered; Iris snorted, but neither Barry nor Nora responded to that.
“Not long before he came out of hiding, there was a mass breakout from Iron Heights,” Barry went on. “Specifically, the metahuman wing. Thawne had been experimenting with the cure, and he’d managed to come up with another serum that enhanced the abilities of metas instead of removing them. With some of the more dangerous metahumans loose, like Weather Wizard, Rag Doll, Tar Pit, and some escapees joining them, it led to what became known as the Meta Wars. After two years of war, President Lockwood seized power on an anti-meta campaign. His legislation forced lots of metahumans into hiding. Some formed their own rebel groups.”
“Is that what Lisa Snart’s Golden Gliders are doing?”
“That’s one of them,” Barry explained. “There are other groups too. Jenna is part of a hidden underground movement, which Ralph is also part of.”
“Where can I find her?” Nora demanded. “I have to see her.”
Barry scribbled down an address on a bit of paper, handed it to Nora while ignoring Iris’s glares. “Before you go there, there are a few more things you need to know…” he began.
But Nora was gone.
Fandom: The Flash
Characters: Barry, Nora, Iris, Eobard, Caitlin, Cisco, Ralph, Sherloque. Mention of Earth-1 versions of Ben and George Lockwood
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for all the current season of The Flash although slightly diverges from current canon as this was begun before the most recent episode. Also references Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow
Summary: As Eobard seizes power after manipulating Nora to give Barry the cure in 2019, in 2049 Barry explains to Nora that her actions led to the creation of the Anti-Metahuman Act as per Zari's backstory.
Immediately after Nora gives Barry the cure:
My name is Barry Allen, and I used to be the fastest man alive. I was a metahuman, secretly working with my friends at Star Labs to save this city from other metahumans. But when my daughter came back from the future, she changed the timeline. My former best friend, Cisco, managed to find a cure for metahumans, and Nora chose to use it on me, in order to prevent me disappearing in 2024. Now I have to get used to being regular old Barry Allen again, and try not to think about the time when I was the person who saved Central City. I was The Flash.
Barry knows he shouldn’t blame Nora. He understands her reasoning; hadn’t he, after all, once tried to change time so his mother would still be alive? Can he really condemn Nora, who had grown up without a father because in her timeline Barry had disappeared never to return, for trying to change things so that Barry would never leave her?
Yet even as Barry understands why Nora did what she did, is happy that this way he’ll get the chance to watch her grow up, there will always be a part of him that thinks that choice should never have been taken away from him. They’d agreed it back when Cisco first came up with the idea of a cure; no one would be forced to take it against their will, with the exception of Cicada, and now Nora has forced the decision on him. Maybe if she’d just put the idea to him, given him the chance to make his own mind up instead of rushing in and making the decision without giving him the chance to think things through, let them discuss it as a family, maybe Barry could have even considered the idea; have a bit more time as The Flash, but then take the cure some time before his impending disappearance, to prevent it from happening. But it should have been his own decision, to make when he was ready, which he wasn’t yet.
Cisco blames himself, for having come up with the cure in the first place, and for having allowed Nora the opportunity. Sherloque wishes he had spoken out about his suspicions of Nora sooner, when there was still a chance of stopping her from using the cure. Barry doesn’t blame him; he doesn’t think he would have taken Sherloque seriously if he had tried speaking to Barry about Nora. There was no way he would have thought of Nora working with Eobard Thawne.
As for Nora herself, she’d run off almost as soon as she’d injected Barry with the serum. He can only assume that she’s returned to the 2049 of this timeline, where she had grown up with both her parents. Part of him thinks it’s not a bad thing, because Cisco and Caitlin had become pretty angry with her in the moment and been all set to confront her about using the metahuman cure on someone who hadn’t requested it. The other part of him wished he could have had the chance to properly discuss it with Nora, to understand why she did it.
A week after Barry was given the cure:
It was going to take Barry time to get used to being regular old Barry Allen again, to have to do everything at regular speed, and to know that it wasn’t like that time when his speed ended up transferring to Iris temporarily, but he knew he’d eventually get it back.
But when the news broke of the mass breakout from the metahuman wing at Iron Heights, it was the first time Barry allowed himself to feel any real anger at Nora, at the fact that she had allowed for a situation where all these metahumans were running around Central City, and with Barry minus his powers, Wally still in Tibet and Nora herself back in 2049, they had all these metahumans running around the city and no speedster to take them on.
Caitlin was spending more time as her Killer Frost persona, and Ralph was going out there as much as he could as Elongated Man, while Sherloque was spending ages trying to work out calculations to determine where they would hit next. But when Mark Mardon was creating one of his storms in one part of town, one of Zoom’s friends was causing explosions in another and Geomancer causing earthquakes in a third, it was more than they could handle alone.
“How the hell did so many of them get out at once anyway?” Caitlin asked after struggling in to Star Labs, after a failed attempt to take down Top. “And it feels like something’s different somehow, like their powers have all been enhanced or something.”
“Bravo, Ms. Snow,” came a new voice, accompanied by a slow handclap. Barry, Iris, Sherloque, Cisco and Caitlin turned around to see Eobard Thawne standing before them. “That’s exactly what I have done.” He held up a bottle. “This was Mr. Ramon’s serum. Since your daughter had told me what he was working on, I was able to tweak it, so instead of suppressing the abilities of metahumans, it now enhances them. And now you have been given the cure, there’s nothing you can do to prevent the rise of the metahumans. I always said that I would be the one to prove my superiority as a speedster, and the best part of it is, it was your daughter who helped me achieve that.”
2049:
“Mom? Dad?” Nora tentatively stuck her head around the door. “What’s happened? What have I done?”
“Did you honestly just ask me that?” Iris began, but Barry looked Nora up and down. “She’s just come from 2019, Iris. She’s come back from when she gave me the cure.”
“I thought I was saving you,” Nora began. “I thought I was giving us a chance to be a family again.” She glanced at the television, where a breaking news broadcast was blaring. “200 Presumed Dead In Central City University Explosion: Lisa Snart’s Golden Gliders Claim Responsibility.” Lisa Snart, Leonard’s sister? What was this?
“But I saw the Wanted poster outside. What’s happened to Jenna?” Nora began. “And what are all these posters saying Metas Out?”
“Let me explain,” Barry began, seeing Iris was too upset to speak. “Since 2021, it’s been illegal to be a metahuman. President Ben Lockwood passed the Anti-Metahuman Act after Eobard Thawne’s return. Now he’s in charge of ARGUS, and they’re in charge of policing metahumans. Any they find are being held in ARGUS containment cells. They’ve taken over STAR Labs as one of them.”
Ben Lockwood…Nora had heard that name before, hadn’t that friend of her parents, Kara, mentioned it when she was visiting Earth-1 back when that Deegan guy was trying to rewrite reality? “His son, George, is our President now and he’s expanded the act to include all sympathisers to metahumans.”
“I don’t understand,” Nora sobbed. “Why has he done that?”
“Eobard Thawne returned to Central City not long after you left,” Barry explained. “It was all part of his plan. He’d been determined to take my place as the Flash before he found out he was destined to be the Reverse Flash, and when he knew there was going to be a metahuman cure his plan all along was for you to give it to me, so he could take over and I wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop him.”
“He played me the whole time,” Nora muttered; Iris snorted, but neither Barry nor Nora responded to that.
“Not long before he came out of hiding, there was a mass breakout from Iron Heights,” Barry went on. “Specifically, the metahuman wing. Thawne had been experimenting with the cure, and he’d managed to come up with another serum that enhanced the abilities of metas instead of removing them. With some of the more dangerous metahumans loose, like Weather Wizard, Rag Doll, Tar Pit, and some escapees joining them, it led to what became known as the Meta Wars. After two years of war, President Lockwood seized power on an anti-meta campaign. His legislation forced lots of metahumans into hiding. Some formed their own rebel groups.”
“Is that what Lisa Snart’s Golden Gliders are doing?”
“That’s one of them,” Barry explained. “There are other groups too. Jenna is part of a hidden underground movement, which Ralph is also part of.”
“Where can I find her?” Nora demanded. “I have to see her.”
Barry scribbled down an address on a bit of paper, handed it to Nora while ignoring Iris’s glares. “Before you go there, there are a few more things you need to know…” he began.
But Nora was gone.