The Speed to Rob a Queen's Heart - Olivarry

It's a Long Story

Zip-lining across Central City from Adrian's terrace to another building far from it in the Arrow suit, the man under the hood lands upon the destined roof. And breathing heavily, he unmasks himself - mask in hands, hood hanging off neck - to appreciate the city that once was. His city.

2203-Barry shuffles his vision all around downtown. He remembers every property mapping the area, and mentally recalls each property that's replaced it. Two hundred years earlier... when the city was still sunshine and rainbows, he thinks as his eyes set on the constellations filling Central's night.

Looking at the stars only reminds him of where he needs to be, where he needs to go, before he's erased entirely from existence. His favor to and for his old friend was his final bargain with the Speedforce, in order to buy him more time prior to permanent erasure.

Running to his next location, he knows his speed is dwindling. He feels the subtraction going as far back to the speed he once had; the maximum speed he'd obtained before the Crisis.

2203-Barry, in a flash, undresses out of and returns Oliver's Arrow suit and gear back to where he'd retrieved it from, as before it was hanging inside a closet at S.T.A.R Labs. Immediately fitting back into his Flash suit that'd been extracted from his Flash ring after, memories of his younger self acting as the Arrow in Starling City during Oliver's coma (being treated in this damned laboratory while) flash to the forefront of his mind - despite the Monitor editing that fact of destiny to turn him into The Flash, as, for a brief time, Oliver almost was.

It's a shame, really. The only time he ever got to see Oliver model his tight, red outfit - really, only the half (defined pants) that cupped his legs... his calves... his ass... - was in the bedroom; never in public. He got to be the Arrow, even the Green Arrow, but Oliver never The Flash.

Why? Oliver refused. At least that's what he remembers. It isn't necessarily a memory he's revisited frequently during his time locked in the Speedforce. Maybe once or twice, sure, but he spent more time clinging onto the good ones. Oliver denying the chance to be The Flash, even as slim as wearing the whole super-suit, because he felt as though he isn't good enough for it? Not necessarily a 'good' one. At all.

Though, when Oliver made his own version of a Flash Ring - a united carving in which resources remnants of broken arrows and fine diamonds he bought himself; simultaneously being a vigilante and a billionaire - and gifted it to him on Christmas Day of 2024? It redeems it. One of his favorite memories, actually, which is why he'll never forgive himself for losing such a valuable, and, well, beautiful piece of jewelry gifted by his twenty-first-century soulmate in Crisis.

And honestly... there's a lot of things he'll never forgive himself for.

He reviews the spectrum of things as he strokes the mask - the one piece of Arrow equipment he hasn't stored away yet - he designed for the once older-now younger man. Like... how he's moved to Central City, leaving Oliver behind. How slow he took to be with Oliver for a fast man. And... how he's lived far longer than Oliver has. That's even proven by, well, what he's made with Oliver before Crisis.

In 2024, when it was still looming, the Speedforce warned him several times. First by filtering his speed, then it was, without consent, traveling him to that day. Showing him snippets of red skies, feeding him recordings of city cries. Day or night, awake or asleep, in reality or his dreams, he'd see tints of red laced with darkness all around in everything he knows and hurting everyone he loves, including Oliver. He didn't know it then, but the Speedforce had; the end of the Multiverse was near, and the only form of protection the realm could offer was capturing the speedsters within, locking them away once the Crisis came.