2Here I am again, this time with a fanfic about the Flash. Be warned that there could be spoilers. If you have not watched specific episodes of the show, a part of it could be spoiled here. These specific episodes are the season seven finale and the Armageddon event, the first five episodes of season eight. If you still continue to read on then don't whine if you get spoiled no matter how small it is
I will admit, aside from the crossover episodes, I stopped watching after season five. The show just sucked after that for me. I only watched season five because Thawne was pulling the strings. However, I did watch the last four episodes of season eight along with the Armageddon event. As such, this story will happen at the end of said event
Since this is centered around the Reverse Flash, time travel will be involved and if there's one thing you should know about time travel, none of it really makes sense. The more I thought about it, it just made my brain hurt but I did try to make sense of it. That's all I'll say in these opening notes. I'll explain my thought process at the end and also, there will be a couple plot holes here and there. I try to patch up what I can but I can't patch up every single one
Lasty, I don't own any of the characters
After messing up the timeline in an attempt to steal his enemy's life, Thawne was being erased from existence. To save him, Barry severed Thawne's connecton to the Negative Speed Force with a large amount of electricity
The moment Barry stopped shooting his lighting, Thawne began getting up but was very weakened and completely powerless. "What exactly do you think you've done?"
"We just saved your life, Thawne." Barry responded. "Don't make us regret it."
"You think you saved my life?" Thawne asked weakly and angrily. "You took my speed. My speed is my life. You took my life…" he trailed off as his body began changing from Harrison Wells' to his original body, much to the surprise to Team Flash. "And left me hell." he continued before falling to his knees in defeat. "Again."
That statement caught Team Flash by surprise. The Reverse Flash had told them earlier that he hates Barry because he stole his spotlight but with the tone of how Thawne said 'again', a small part of them felt sorry. Of course, this part was very small as Thawne was still Thawne
"Again?" Barry asked suspiciously. "What do you mean again? I've left you in hell before?" he said and grew angry. "You just said that you hate me for such a petty reason and now you claim otherwise?" he yelled
"And you believed that? Are you stupid?" Thawne asked in disbelief. "What I said was true. I was angry at you because of that but it only motivated me to be faster than you. However, you took everything and everyoneI cared for just like how I took your mother from you."
Barry and the rest of the team were greatly suspicious of the Reverse Flash's words. None of them wanted to believe that Barry could ever do something like that. One of them, however, wanted to hear Thawne's side of the story
"Start from the beginning." Cecile said, getting the Reverse Flash's attention. "From how you became a speedster all the way to the present day."
Thawne glared at her angrily before turning his glare to his hated enemy. "In the future, the history books are riddled with this era's greatest heroes. Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Supergirl, and of course, the Flash. All of them eventually died due to natural causes or went to retirement, all except the Flash." he said and from the projector on his suit, showed a newspaper that was similar to the original Nora West Allen's. The newspaper said '32 Years Later, Flash Still Missing' with a notable difference to the year, 2056 instead of 2049
"This newspaper shouldn't exist anymore, Thawne. This is from an erased timeline." Barry answered back
"What happened after that?" Caitlin asked
"The Flash never returned, or so everyone thought." Thawne said while making the newspaper vanish back into his suit's projector. "I was a big fan of the Flash. I always wanted to be like him, learn from him and ultimately, be the Flash of my time in the twenty second century. However, something happened. The history records changed and in the Flash Museum, my name was on it. Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, the Flash's greatest enemy." he said while showing another image from the museum of his time. "That was the moment I realized that speedster are capable of time travel and I was determined to change my destiny no matter what so I had to figure out how." he continued and made the image vanish before staring at Barry. "The case you were looking into in the future was something I orchestrated. I created that case and I was to solve it. The case was part of my experiments of figuring out how to travel through time but it worked better than I anticipated. It attracted your attention and you arrived in the future, humiliating me when I was about to present myself."
"But your experiment was a success, why would you hate Barry for that?" Iris pointed out
"Well…" Thawne trailed off
After just saving the crowd from a spike of unknown radiation that threatened the time stream, the Flash looked around and realized that the buildings were much different than what he was used to. He was snapped out of his confusion when the crowed cheered at being saved. Just as he was about to ask where he was, he saw another speedster on top of one of the nearby buildings. The Flash gathered that this speedster was looking at him as when he turned his gaze to this mysterious speedster, he ran away. The Flash quickly chased him a few blocks to the roof of another building
"Who are you? Were you responsible for the unknown radiation?" the Flash asked. He took the opportunity to scrutinize the new speedster. His eyes were glowing red with his upper body vibrating to conceal his identity. What he found odd was that this person was wearing a black suit with blue markings that mirrored the Flash's own suit
"If you want to know that, you're going to have to catch me." the mystery speedster said before speeding away
The Flash observed him run away and was curious as to why he has red lightning. 'Is he Edward Clariss?' he wondered to himself before chasing after him
The two speedsters sped to all the way to deserted place where the mystery speedster still had a lead. Having had enough of the chase, the Flash surprised his assumed foe when out of nowhere, he ran so fast that he tackled him into the ground and gave him a couple strong punches to ensure he stays down. The mystery speedster was surprised at how fast the Flash was and that he was much faster
"I got you." the Flash said as he held his grip on him. "Now, tell my who you are and where am I?"
Surprising the Flash, the mystery speedster said and stopped vibrating but he still had a cowl on to protect his identiy. "This is, from your perspective, the future. Nearly two hundred years to be precise and yes, I was the one responsible for what had happened. It was an experiment of mine."
Flash got slightly angry at this but still released his hold. "Who are you and why did you do that?"
The mystery speedster then removed his cowl, revealing that he wasn't Clariss. "My name is Eobard Thawne and I need your help, Flash."
At nighttime, Eobard led Flash to the museum dedicated to the Scarlet Speedster. The Flash lagged behind as he admired all the stuff that was dedicated to him before catching up with Eobard. They soon reached the hall of villains and reached the record of a specific individual, the Reverse Flash. Eobard then told Flash to read the name, Eobard Thawne
"What is this? There is no Reverse Flash." Flash said
Eobard nodded. "Indeed. There was no Reverse Flash, or so we thought. Some time after I got my speed, this record came into existence but because no one has acknowledged this or criticized me yet, I can only assume that this change has not yet solidified. That's why I need your help, Flash. I need to change my destiny."
"So, what happened after that?" Barry asked after listening to his enemy
"After that, you brought me back with you to your time and taught me how to time travel along the way." Thawne answered. "You were convinced that I was telling the truth because the Reverse Flash did not exist at your time and it was just in your nature to help those in need. Together, we learned as much as we could about the Speed Force. For about a year, you, and the rest of your merry band, kept a close eye on me and at times, allowed me to help when I could. Eventually, you became my closest friend and at that point, I was convinced that I had stopped myself from becoming the Reverse Flash. Then, the crisis came."
"The crisis? As in the Anti Monitor crisis?" Chester asked worriedly
"Yes, but the crisis is different from what you've experienced. The rest of the details are not relevant. What is relevant is the Anti Monitor's machine. Instead of being trapped in one room, it was located in a remote location and the way to stop it was to create another pulse so that it would be out of phase." Thawne said. The oldest Team Flash members then recalled Zoom's machine when he tried to race Barry. "This was the moment in which the Flash vanishes forever and I thought that if I could save you from dying, I would ensure that I would never become the Reverse Flash. I offered to help you create your own pulse but you insisted that I help the others so instead, I gave you a device that I created specifically for this moment. However, it didn't work. When the crisis was over, the Flash still didn't return."
"Does that mean that you still became the Reverse Flash?" Allegra asked curiously
"At that point, I wasn't sure but there were other immediate concerns. The rest of your, as well as the other, merry band were mourning those that died during the crisis." Thawne answered, something that nobody had expected. "Soon after that, an alarm that I built into my suit went off. Something was wrong in the Flash Museum in the future and without waiting for help, I ran back to my time a little over two years from the date that I left. Everything in the future Central City was burning."
"Burning? By whose hand?" Iris asked, unconvinced
"I checked and soon found the one responsible at the very same clearing I first spoke to the Flash. That person was wearing some sort of armor." Thawne replied
"Who are you? Did you destroy the city?" Eobard demanded to know. The armored individual turned around but did not respond. "Answer me, damn it!"
"If you want to know that…" the armored individual said in a distorted voice. "You're going to have to catch me." he finished before speeding away
Eobard was surprised to see that this individual was not only a speedster but also had white lightning. The speedster also gave him a sense of deja vu for reasons he could not put a lid on just yet. Through his studies with the Flash, it is very difficult to gain a white colored lightning as that can only mean that the user had a very potent connection to the Speed Force and was further enhanced by velocity serums and tachyons. He didn't take too long to linger and chased after the armored person all the way to where he once conducted his experiments. Suddenly, Eobard lost sight of his enemy right before he was thrashed around by the armored speedster
After suffering numerous strong punches, Eobard was thrown into a broken statue of the Flash, badly beaten. "Who are you?!"
"Savitar, the God of Speed." the armored speedster said before extending a small blade from his wrist. Savitar then lunged at Eobard and tried to stab him. Unfortunately for him, Eobard managed to phase through the blade before slicing it off. This didn't phase Savitar too much as he simply extended another blade from his other hand. However, before he could kill Eobard, the injured speedster phased right through the ground along with the broken blade. "Run, Eobard Thawne. Run. We shall meet again soon for I am reborn." Savitar said when his enemy was gone before speeding away
"I barely survived with my life and when I recovered enough, I was able to fix some equipment to find what the armor was made of. I'm sure you can guess what I found." Thawne said, looking at Barry
"The device you gave me to survive the crisis." Barry said, turning around. He was slightly horrified at what he heard but he was still suspicious
"Indeed. That was when I dedicated my life to figuring out the Flash's identity. That was also when I realized why the records mentioned me as the Reverse Flash. It was only a matter of time and I eventually learned your real name, Barry Allen. So I finally knew how to defeat you, travel back in time, kill you as a child, wipe you, and Savitar, off the face of existence but Savitar interfered. He tipped off his younger self, the Flash, to my plan and we fought all the way to the night I killed your mother." Thawne finished his story. "Savitar's speed was beyond me. There was nothing I could do to achieve the same speed as he had. I found that it was because of the Philosopher's Stone but for whatever reason, Savitar never came after me. I guess he enjoyed my fall from being the Flash's close friend to becoming the Reverse Flash."
A moment of silence soon took over
"But that timeline doesn't exist anymore. Your city in the future should be restored now. Why did you create a reverse flashpoint?" Chester pointed out
"Because when the multiverse was restored by that idiot, Oliver Queen, he didn't restore my absolutely worthless ancestor, Eddie Thawne." Thawne revealed. "Yes, future Central City is intact but my family is not. The Thawne bloodline that Eddie ended still don't exist, myself included. I am only alive because of my connection to the Negative Speed Force so I dedicated my life to making you suffer just as you made me suffer."
Another silence took over as no one knew what else to say. Thawne's origin story gave a very good reason as to why he hates them all
Barry soon walked right towards Thawne and looked directly in the eye. "I don't believe you. You are still the same murdering psychopath who killed my mother." he said coldly before speeding the now powerless Thawne into a pipeline cell and returning back to the speed lab
"Barry…" Iris said when her husband
"I know. We need to see if Thawne was telling the truth." Barry answered
Much later, Team Flash gathered at the cortex and awaited the ones who could confirm if what Thawne was true. A time portal soon opened and out came Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe and Nate Heywood
"Sara, about what I asked?" Barry asked. Nobody bothered with the greetings
"You're not going to like this." Sara replied as she gave Barry a hard drive
Barry didn't need to ask what it was and gave the drive to Chester, who then hooked it up to their computers. On all the monitors in the cortex, the video on the hard drive played
At the Hall of Justice, Connor Hawke the Green Arrow, Wallace West the Flash and an older Supergirl were gathered, in the middle of some sort of discussion. While the three were talking, Rip Hunter entered the room
"Captain Hunter." Connor greeted. "What brings you here?"
"I got a call from Barry. He said that he made a choice that affected the timeline and it came from 2056, this time." Rip answered
"Barry? No one has seen or heard from Barry since the crisis." Wally said sadly. "He's dead."
"But if you got a message from Barry, that either means he's alive or it's…" Connor trailed off but was cut off
"A trap." someone else finished the statement. The four turned to the newcomer and saw an armored individual. "To think that a message from the Flash would be enough to get you here, Rip Hunter."
"Who are you?" Supergirl demanded to know
"Your end." Savitar replied, not introducing himself, as he moved at speeds that was far beyond that of a Kryptonian and killed Connor before anyone could even react, including Wally
"Connor!" Supergirl yelled as she rushed to her fallen comrade
Savitar took the chance to kidnap Rip and run away. Wally quickly chased after the armored speedster. While they were running, Savitar took the chance to split himself into two. The split ran in a different direction while the first still ran away from Wally. The Flash, who did not know who to follow, chose to go after the first and after turning a corner, the split ambushed him and knocked him unconscious with a single hit to the face
It didn't take too long before Wally regained consciousness as Martian Manhunter and Superman woke him up. He took the chance to clutch his head. "What happened?" Wally asked
"Supergirl told us what happened." Manhunter said right as the Girl of Steel caught up with them
"How's Connor?" Wally asked worriedly
Supergirl simply shook her head slowly instead of answering. The others just kept their silence and mourn their dead comrade. The sound of someone arriving soon got their attention. The two armored speedsters merged back into one and walked towards them as they all prepared for a fight
"Bad time?" Savitar asked mockingly, not fazed that he was outnumbered
"Who are you? Where is Rip?" Superman asked, trying not to recklessly attack
"Savitar and as for Rip, well, he is now true to what the letters in his name mean." Savitar answered. They were confused what he meant before finally realizing that the armored speedster meant rest in peace. Savitar then turned to Wally. "Wearing the Flash suit and yet, too slow. You are not worthy of my legacy, Wallace."
"Your legacy?!" Wally said. He attempted to run towards Savitar only for Superman to stop him. "And just who do you think you are to judge me?" he damanded to know. In response, Savitar then knelt down on one knee. His armor then opened up at the back and revealing that the man in the armor was wearing the suit that Eobard Thawne first wore when they first met him. "Eobard?"
"Don't make me laugh. I'm far too fast for someone like him." Savitar said. His voice was still distorted by vibrating his vocal chords but no longer echoing as when he spoke in his armor. He then took off his cowl and revealed his true identity, Barry Allen, much to everyone's surprise. Unlike the last time they saw him however, the right side of his face looked like it was horribly burned. "Surprised?" he asked with a grin
"How?" was all Wally could mutter, the others stunned to silence
"Simple really. All of you were too slow. During crisis, Thawne was the only one fast enough to keep up with me and he gave me a device that he had been working on. It kept me alive." Barry replied as he walked around his armor and tapped it. "I made this armor out of the very same material, a metal that won't be discovered for a few more decades. Thawne was so obsessed with stopping himself from becoming the Reverse Flash only for him to realize the journey with how he became the Reverse Flash. Ironic, isn't it?"
"So, that was you? You were the one that made Eobard go insane?" Supergirl asked in disbelief. "Why?" she asked and she attempted to speak again only to be cutoff
"Don't bother trying to talk some of that nonsense, Kara." Barry said, knowing that she was about to try and convince him not to do this. "As for the how, when I destroyed the Anti Monitor's antimatter cannon, I became trapped in the Speed Force and forced to relive my supposed death over and over again."
"How did you escape?" Superman asked
"The Philosopher's Stone, an object made out of pure, calcified Speed Force energy. It granted me speed far beyond what I once had and now, I am the fastest man alive." Barry declared before the mocking expression on his face was replaced with anger. "In the Speed Force, I always waited if anyone would ever try and look for me but guess what, you just abandoned me. You just decided to forget about me. You were my friends, all of you and you did absolutely nothing. Now, it's time for some payback."
Upon saying that, the heroes prepared for a fight but Barry was now far too fast and pushed his speed, now moving at speeds that even Wally, a fellow speedster, now only appeared to move like a snail to Barry. With Kryptonite knives, he killed the two Kryptonians while setting fire to Martian Manhunter. He then turned to Wally and broke the Flash's back by severing the spine. None of them were even able to react at all. With his enemies now unable to stop him, Savitar grinned before speeding away, taking his armor with him
Everyone stared at Star Labs with nothing but horror on their face. Even the Legends have not seen this record at all
"Where did you get this footage?" Iris asked curiously
"The Waverider. Gideon had said that this was a top secret file and would only be shown if Barry was the one to ask for it." Sara answered as everyone turned to said person
"Gideon? There's a Gideon on the Waverider?" Chester asked in confusion
"Well, according to Gideon, the interactive artificial consciousness systems are from the future. Thawne brought the schematics to this era and Gideon was created with two copies, one for Rip Hunter and one for Barry Allen." Nate answered, finally solving why there were two Gideons. "Why did you ask for this footage anyway?"
In response, Barry then showed the footage of their interrogation of the Reverse Flash
"I'm gonna be honest here." Joe said before anyone could jump to conclusions. "I don't even understand any of this time travel stuff."
"Me too. How can this record even be here if the timeline its from no longer exists?" Allegra agreed
Nate then decided to explain and turned to Barry. "Do you have anything to write on along with different colored markers? I think I'll need three markers." he said and Barry turned to get it. "Wait, make it five, just to be sure." he called out before Barry finally sped away and returned a few seconds later with one of the boards they use for their equations with five different colored markers. "Alright, now listen to this." Nate said while drawing a horizontal line using a red marker. "This is the timeline, the original one, the one where no time travel has taken place." he continued before drawing a short vertical line over the horizontal one near the left side and drew another one a couple inches to the right of the first. "This one is 2020, where Harrison Wells, the real one, launched the particle accelerator. This is 2024 where the crisis happened." he said, pointing to those two vertical lines from left to right
Much further to the right, Nate drew another vertical line. "This is when Thawne became a speedster and also approximately when he learned about becoming the Reverse Flash." he explained while putting creating a curved line from a little bit to the right of the future line to between the lines of 2020 and 2024. "This line is when they both travelled back to when the Flash was most active." he explained while putting the red marker down and getting a white one. "Now, each of these colored lines would represent a timeline with significant difference than the previous color." he said, turning to everyone to make sure they understood. He then pointed the marker at the 2024 vertical line. "After saving the Flash from dying in crisis…" he trailed off as he created a diagonal line starting from the 2024 point. "Thawne unintentionally created a new timeline. This timeline is when the Flash became Savitar instead of dying." he said and drew another vertical line near the right side end of this new line. "This Is where Thawne first meets Savitar and learns that Savitar and the Flash are one and the same. He then travelled back in time…" he said while creating another curved line, connecting it to a point between 2020 and 2024. "This is when Thawne became the Reverse Flash in an effort to find out the Flash's secret identity. When he succeeded, the two of you then fought…" Nate trailed off while creating another curved line, this time connecting it to a point to the left of the 2020 indicator. "All the way to the night your mother was murdered. When Thawne lost his speed…" he trailed off again as he put down the white marker and got a green one. "He created another timeline where he pretended to be Harrison Wells and created the particle accelerator in 2013." he then put down the green marker and got a yellow one. From the point in 2000, he drew another line. "This is when you stopped the Reverse Flash from killing your mom, Flashpoint." Nate said, looking at Barry, while putting down the yellow marker and picked up the last one, a blue colored marker before doing it again. "And this is the timeline after you undid Flashpoint."
Nobody spoke after that as now, it made sense to them. Even Joe was beginning to understand however slightly. With all the evidence being presented, now they finally understood why Eobard Thawne hates them all so much
"But that doesn't explain one thing. Why would Savitar need to murder Iris? Why was he stuck in the Speed Force? How was he stuck in the Speed Force in the first place?" Caitlin brought up a very good point
Everyone turned to Barry but he just kept his silence. Fortunately for him, Nate had a theory
"If what I'm thinking is right, when Barry saved his mom, this gave him some comfort and threatened Savitar's existence. To make sure that he would go down this path, Savitar wanted to kill Iris." Nate theorized and it made sense
"And when Savitar tried to travel back to this time, something unexpected probably happened and he got stuck in the Speed Force. He claimed that the device that imprisoned him there was made by Tracy Brand. The device that Thawne gave me in that timeline is probably based on that design which would explain why Savitar was imprisoned." Barry thought about it
"Barry, are you alright?" Joe asked worriedly
"No." Barry replied as he put both his hands on the table. "I always thought that Thawne wanted to make me miserable for some petty reason. I never even considered that his grudge againist me was because of something I did and now, he has nothing left after Eddie committed suicide." he said and brought up the camera which looked at Thawne's cell. Barry did nothing but stare at his most hated enemy
Before anything else, I want to mention why I changed Thawne from Tom Cavanagh to Matt Letscher. In the Armageddon event, Thawne was exclusively played by Tom and Matt only returned at the very last episodes of season eight. I don't know the reason for this as it was never explained. However, I just had Matt be the one in this story because when you think about it, there is no reason for Thawne to wear Wells' face instead of his own. While both Tom and Matt did a spectacular job at portraying Thawne, I just think that Matt should have been the one to play the character due to the reason I mentioned earlier
That aside, I got the idea of this story when I was rewatching the first three seasons of the show. Early on in the show, Thawne was absolutely not a petty character. Yes, in the comics he is. He travelled back in time just to throw a kid Barry down the stairs to make him miserable and in the Flashpoint Paradox movie, he was willing to die just to ensure Barry would not escape Flashpoint. The show however, took a very different route. Consider the two examples I just gave. Can you imagine the comic incarnation of Thawne ever helping Barry, let alone have a civil conversation? No, because the chance of that happening is about the same as you getting hit by lightning and becoming a speedster in real life
The reason I am highlighting this significant difference is because of something Thawne said in 3x01. When Barry finally asked Thawne to undo the show's Flashpoint, Barry told him 'I hate you'. Thawne's reply was 'And I hate you. And I sometimes wonder which of us is right'. This pretty much implies that Thawne had a very good and understandable reason for hating Barry. It's also kind of a shame because this whole concept was thrown out the window in Armageddon. When Barry was faster than him at the end of season seven, Thawne decides to create a Reverse Flashpoint. He has finally become as petty as his comic book self and I thought, why not give him a story that isn't petty. Lucky for me, the show gave me the one character that would fit this perfectly, Savitar
So, why Savitar, out of all the villains? Because he was the one that was never given an episode to his origins. I mean, Thawne had 1x17, Zoom had 2x18, Devoe had 4x07 (I think) and Cicada had 5x07. Savitar was the only one whose true intentions were never revealed. All that was said were nothing more than theories from Barry surmising Savitar was a time remnant to Cisco's explanations. When the bad guy is telling you how they came to be instead of the show actually showing it, there's probably a good chance they're lying. With that in mind, I decided to make this as personal as possible. Thawne's actions lead to the birth of Savitar, whose actions then leads to the birth of the Reverse Flash, cause an effect. This was the title of episode twenty one in season three and I just used it because it fits in perfectly with this
I'll also be uploading this to Ao3 under the name 'FalsePromise'