Within Seconds: Flashpoint Edition

Ch-Ch-Changes

It happened so often, Barry was almost used to it. He was almost unaffected when the world was against him. Cisco had found the hard drive including the message from future-Barry, and he snapped at him, so loud it had brought the entire team into the conversation.

Diggle was heartbroken Barry erased a daughter from his life.

The Legends felt helpless, considering all the aberrations they had been going back in time and fixing were useless now, because Barry thought it was okay to change anything he wanted, so long as it pertained to him. 

Sara's words hurt him the most. She knew exactly how he felt, the struggle he went through about wanting to bring his family back hit her at home. She desperately wanted to save Laurel, but she never did. Sara knew better. She thought Barry did, too.

Towards the end of her speech, her eyes fell on the baby in Barry's arms. 

He shook his head, pulling his child closer to his chest.

"Flashpoint gave you her, didn't it?" asked Sara. "She is an aberration, Barry, she's not real--" 

"Leave her out of this!" he yelled. 

"Guys!" squealed Felicity, unaware of what was previously happening. "The President's been kidnapped and she needs us right now!"

In the end, it was decided that Barry and Oliver were going to stay behind. Kara was going with the rest of the team, to be the 'big gun' in case it was necessary. She knew the team was weak without the two main leaders. Hell, they all did. It was emotions that were getting in the way of the bigger picture. 

"Barry," said Oliver softly. 

"I left Mel's food at S.T.AR. Labs. I'm gonna go get it," lied Barry. 

"We all might as well go back. It's getting late," said Cisco. He held his hands out for the baby. "We'll take Mel back."

xxxx

When Oliver found Barry, it was in a vault in the wall. He was staring at a projected hologram on the wall, where the headline read: 'The Flash Missing, Vanishes In Crisis.' He was staring at a certain part of the article, the byline, which said the article was written by Judy Greer. It said Iris West no longer. 

"She told me, you know," said Barry quietly. "She used to tell me, over and over, that going back was going to alter the future. I don't know how she knew. Just figured she was worried, you know? But, I did it anyway. I didn't think about the future. I changed so much. God, what did I do?"

Oliver listened, simply because he was frustrated with Barry. He was Barry.  Maybe that was the toll of being a hero, he thought. Blaming yourself for death, putting the weight of the world on your shoulders, feeling the dread of anything and everything bad that happens because you could have done something about it. The difference was, Oliver knew how to channel it and exert it in a helpful way that wasn't wallowing, which Barry excelled at. 

He explained Barry that maybe the future changing was his fault, or maybe it wasn't. He said that choices are made every day, choices that affect the future, that don't have to be Barry's fault. Tragedy happens because of choices that are made, directly by him or not. He told him his own story, about his mother and father dying, and he asked him, "Do you honestly know anybody that, in your shoes, wouldn't do the same exact thing?"

"Parker."

"Maybe. But she was human. She made mistakes."

Barry scoffed. "Her only mistake was getting a job here. She could have avoided all of this, all of me. It's my fault she's dead. Always has been."