The moment he was transported to the unknown location, The Speedster knew he had been set up.
“What is this?” Hutch frowned. “This isn’t where we were supposed to go…”
“Get out of here…” Revive warned.
“What?” Hutch clutched his Power Rod, trying to teleport himself and Revive to the storm in South America but his Rod just fizzled. “We can’t leave…”
“I can’t leave!” Revive growled, placing a hand on the Power Rod and ordering. “Take him out of here!”
A buzz of lightning…
Hutch was gone.
Five people stepped out of the darkness and The Speedster could only smile bitterly, playing with his signet ring using his free fingers.
It was no longer a choice of if he could survive or not, but if he could manage to escape or not.
And if Orionth was here…
Revive stared at the stars in the skies, trying to discern what constellations were brightest.
And it was as he suspected – the worst-case scenario.
“Andromeda – The Chained Maiden,” Revive whispered, turning to one of the five supervillains approaching him. “Orionth… you don’t strike me as a villainous type in any universe.”
“So, you do know me?” Orionth chuckled. “I was appealed and the job lines up… there was nothing else I could do, kid.”
“Bestest… do you know we’re lovers sometimes,” Revive was nonchalant. “Most of the time, I get you back to Ring World.”
“I already destroyed it…” Bestest stated without blinking. “I guess that’s why they sent me – I have nothing left to lose.”
“And do you have anything to lose, The Necromancer?” The Speedster was clutching at straws, trying to sow dissension. “Do you still want to become a Hell Lord? You can’t without an introduction and I can make that introduction to Beelzebub, himself.”
The skull of The Necromancer rattled – it didn’t budge.
“I don’t know who the fuck you two are…” The Speedster admitted, turning his direction toward the twin supervillains.
“They’re sacrifices…” Bestest stated.
“Sacrifices?” Revive questioned.
“Yeah…” Bestest waved a hand and the throats of the twins spurted blood everywhere.
The blood traveled along lines beveled into the ground.
Revive’s signet ring vibrated with the natural hum of vibranium and his Klyntar was released, clothing his body in a purple Speedster suit.
The lightning bolt across his chest was blood red and abyss black.
The Ritual Bestest was fueling with the twin’s lives activated…
Orionth clapped his hands, crippling the space and locking Revive in place.
The Necromancer tapped his staff against the ground and a portal to the undeath realm opened, shooting zombies and ghosts into the material universe.
Revive unloaded all the weaponry in the dimensional storage of his signet ring.
Grenades…
Mortars…
Termites…
Gun powder…
Futuristic weaponry…
Everything was dumped, hoping to grasp the smallest chance of survival.
Everything exploded, and Revive simultaneously sent a concealed signal to Chloe’s bracers.
He didn’t want to die and he had been in worse places, but this time, he didn’t have The Speed Force to get him out of trouble.
…
Ten minutes later
Revive was leaning against the wall, clutching his stomach, trying to stem the bleeding and keep the rest of his gut inside his body.
His face was bloodied…
His back was almost entirely purple…
One look at The Speedster and anyone could tell that he wouldn’t survive.
Actually, he would have been dead already if not for the remnants of powerful curses in his body, keeping Bestest’s curses at bay.
‘Fight poison with poison…’
The three supervillains – equally battered and bruised with minor lacerations but all their organs remained inside their bodies.
Except for the Necromancer who had no organs to begin with.
The Necromancer was unsteady on his bony feet – having paid the price for trying to kill a Speedster with his very essence of death.
The Orionth was much thinner and breathing raggedly – he didn’t know how but Revive had turned his strongest constellations into his weakest… permanently.
Bestest could no longer speak so her magical capability had halved.
‘I’m sorry, Chloe…’ Revive thought.
The bleeding couldn’t be stopped…
Internal organs were damaged… and every cough brought more of his liver and lungs up.
“Hey, Bestest… your daughter… Estonia, right?”
Bestest finally flinched, locking everything in place with her magic.
“What…”
A creaky old voice questioned – it was Bestest’s voice… her true voice.
“What do you know of my daughter?” The Old Witch questioned.
Revive was about to spout another story, complimenting the bravery of Estonia even though she was a homicidal manic in almost all universes.
He doubts this one would be different.
But fate intervened… his suit glowed a faint purple – a clear message that his signal had been received.
“I always kill your daughter and I am gonna try and do it again as soon as she worms her way out of Nether by sucking daemon dicks,” Revive spat.
AARRRGGGHHH
A shrill of anger exited Bestest mouth.
Luckily, a boom echoed across the Amazon Basin.
A loud rumble of thunder and the ground shook as Chloe made her entrance.
Revive stuffed his guts deeper into his stomach and used both hands to cover the wound, trying to hide it from Chloe as much as possible.
He didn’t want to seem pathetic in front of her.
“Fuck, it’s Utopia’s kid!” Orionth yelled.
Bestest was the first to try and run, channeling her magic into a faint shimmer in the air.
Chloe blurred and her fist sent Bestest through five trees before The Old Witch shimmered and disappeared… leaving a couple of her remaining teeth behind.
Orionth channeled the dragon constellation, forgetting that Revive had permanently reversed the effect of his powers.
Instead of the strength of a dragon, The Constellation Hero became weaker and greener.
Revive forced himself to stand, grabbed a sharp stone from the ground, and jabbed it in Orionth’s neck.
It did little to nothing except turn the gaze of The Hero onto himself… and that was enough.
A fist shattered Revive’s arms when he tried to block, but as soon as the blow was dealt, Orionth’s head was stuffed so far into the ground that his feet were barely visible anymore.
Then, Chloe blurred and embraced Revive in midair, floating them gracefully to the ground.
The Amazonian turned to The Necromancer and ordered. “Leave!”
Her voice echoed with Divine Power.
The Necromancer couldn’t tell what the energy was but he could tell that it had the chaos necessary to snuff him out of existence.
It disappeared into a portal of undeath.
“Hey, hey, hey… it’s fine… I’m fine,” Revive comforted.
Chloe’s eyes were rapidly reddening – she knew.
“Chloe, listen to me,” Revive gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand once more. “Your family needs you right now!”
“What?” Chloe was confused.
“They wouldn’t come for me without taking everyone off the board,” Revive explained, gritting his teeth. “Your family is in danger and you need to get out there, right now!”
“And leave you behind?” Chloe argued, wiping her tears as she tried and failed to steel her resolve. “My family can handle themselves… my dad is there!”
“CHLOE!” Revive yelled. “YOU NEED TO BE THERE. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS WHEN YOU JUST HAVE TO DO IT. TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE!”
The air warped and a flash of lightning later, Hutch appeared.
“Damn, you’re still alive…” He marveled. “I came back a little earlier and saw you fighting fucking Orionth… the fucking Orionth. How are you alive?”
“Chloe, no…” Revive held Chloe’s hand to stop her from instinctively attacking Hutch.
“And you left him here?” Chloe growled.
Hutch finally recognized Chloe and he frowned. “Utopia’s daughter? What are you doing he— oh,” He realized. “You guys are trending, I totally forgot.”
“What else is happening right now?” Revive questioned, coughing up a piece of his lung.
It was a flat, pinkish-red piece of mush.
“I think you should save your voice…” Hutch suggested and quickly quipped. “And organs, apparently…”
“It was a serious question,” Revive urged, leaning on Chloe for support.
“The Union is fighting Blackstar… that’s major news right now,” Hutch replied.
“Blackstar is in prison,” Chloe argued.
“Clearly, not anymore.”
“Blackstar has an anti-matter heart, right?” Revive’s eyes lit up.
He clutched the sides of Chloe’s face and narrowed his eyes with the utmost solemnity. “You need to listen to me… I’m dying and I will die unless we get Blackstar to go nuclear.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Hutch voiced.
“Chloe… trust me,” Revive urged. “Right now, your friends are dying. Your parents will die if they don’t kill. What are the chances that they will be willing to kill Blackstar?”
Chloe’s expression froze. “This has happened before?” She questioned in a low voice.
“All the time. You’ll see,” Revive turned to Hutch. “Take us to the battle. Then, get the chair. I need to breach the dimensional barrier now if I am going to survive these wounds.”
“I am surprised you aren’t already dead,” Hutch voiced, saw the urgency on Revive’s and Chloe’s faces, and quickly commanded The Power Rod. “To The Union battle against Blackstar…”
Lightning encompassed the trio, then with a flicker, they were gone.
Ω
Chloe, Revive, and Hutch appeared in a burst of blue lightning.
“I have to get the chair,” Hutch voiced.
“Forget the chair,” Revive urged, slumping to the ground powerlessly. “Just get the wires and the chemical vials.”
Hutch nodded and just as he was about to leave, they witnessed the battle happening nearly a mile away.
The heroes were having a field day on Blackstar.
“See, they’re fine,” Chloe chuckled, suddenly amused by her earlier panicking.
“You have to get over there,” Revive urged, struggling to stand. “Things are about to take a turn for the worse.”
“Always protect your brother first…”
Hutch flickered with lightning and disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later with a chair that had straps.
“Remember, Chloe—” Revive stared into his wife’s eyes as she lifted him from the ground. “You are an Amazonian Princess so act like one…”
“Your braces are your most powerful weapon.”
Chloe’s clothing morphed into a copy of Wonder Woman’s and her entire aura changed from that of an unstable teen into a Warrior Princess.
The Amazonian wanted to say a few more words but that was when it happened.
Out of the corner of her eye, Chloe saw the moment Blackstar grabbed Vera.
…
The world moved slower but not slow enough.
The mile distance was covered in three seconds but by the time Chloe arrived on the battlefield, Blackstar’s antimatter reactor had finished charging.
The energy tore through Vera in an instant.
Chloe didn’t stop moving – she was the fastest thing on the battlefield due to a combination of reasons, though it was mostly due to Revive’s training on how to keep her feet planted.
Her body automatically recalled all the training.
The beam tore through Barry’s suit, about to bore a hole through his stomach but Chloe managed to get to him in time.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Or, so she hoped.
It was a close call.
Chloe saw Barry’s chest disintegrating and quickly pushed him out of the way, placing herself in the path of the beam.
Had it been before, this would have been suicide.
While Chloe inherited the durability of Utopia, she did not inherit his toughness to the same extent as Brandon – a pinch for Brandon would leave deep bruises on Chloe.
Luckily, Chloe now had an Otherworldly Divine Weapon capable of blocking almost any energy attack.
She crossed her bracers, carefully not to allow them to touch each other.
The beam impacted her bracers.
The Amazonian’s feet sunk into the ground, carving a five-meter-long trench before the beam completely dissipated.
The speed of the world resumed.
“Barry!” Brandon cried aloud.
His figure blurred to Ruby Red, then Ectoplex… finally, he appeared at Tectonic’s side after confirming the girls had merely passed out from being brushed by the unstable energy emitted by Blackstar.
Chloe’s eyes flickered to the others, taking some time to push them down the hill and out of the way of any immediate danger.
Then, The Amazonian turned her gaze to Tectonic – he was down, not breathing… his heart was visible and it had stopped beating.
She was too late.
Paragon blurred through the air, throwing a wild fist at the smug Blackstar but all it did was get him smashed into the ground.
A crater formed.
Chloe’s feet caused the ground to crack with each step she took and in no time, she was face to face with Blackstar, but unlike Brandon, her punch actually rammed the Super Villain into the ground.
A loud boom echoed.
Even Utopia – a veteran of a thousand battles – paused with the display of might.
Chloe blurred and delivered two more devastating punches, causing an even deeper crater to form.
Then, Blackstar used his launchers to push himself out of the ground, hammering Chloe in the stomach when she least expected it.
The Amazonian curled.
Blackstar grabbed the hero by her hair, but Lady Liberty – a certified Mother Bear – did not allow Blackstar’s action to go any further.
The next second, the large armored supervillain was raised into the air, crashing into the ground with a mega-suplex that formed a crater within the crater.
Still, it wasn’t enough to keep Blackstar down.
Lady Liberty's neck was clutched in a mighty hand and it took all her willpower just to keep breathing.
Her face was hammered twice.
Luckily, by the third attempt, she had managed to spin out of Blackstar’s grasp, restraining one of his hands in the process.
Utopia barely managed to recover enough to tell Blackstar apart from anyone else and a split-second later, he was next to the large supervillain.
Sheldon grabbed onto the supervillain’s right arm, wrenching it backward with a strength that could solve all problems if he only had the will to kill Blackstar.
But he didn’t…
And it allowed Blackstar to struggle harder, fiercer, and more desperately than ever before.
“Walt shut him down!” Utopia yelled.
“I’m trying!” Walter yelled back, but before he could try in earnest, Lady Liberty soared across the skies and into his body.
The collision was loud and brutal.
Brainwave and Lady Liberty smashed into the ground with enough force to flatten a human but they were only shaken.
Severely shaken…
They would not be rising anytime soon.
It was then Chloe made her return.
The Amazonian recalled her lesson on aerial combat – she soared into the air, flipped with her leg extended, and delivered a heel into the back of Blackstar’s head.
The Super Villain’s vision swam as his head lurched forward and directly into Utopia’s knee.
But Blackstar was barely shaken.
It was almost as if he had a bird’s eye view – his actions were being controlled by someone else.
The supervillain wildly flung his hand backward, knocking Chloe to the ground with a loud boom.
And then…
Utopia took an armored elbow to the face and several ruthless punches to the chest when he was down.
It was a brutal affair.
Then suddenly, the violence ceased and Blackstar stood stationary.
It was Walt – Brainwave had trapped Blackstar in a psychic painting, separating the Supervillain’s mind from his body.
The Flare II awakened…
Lady Liberty awakened…
Utopia stood…
And Brandon blurred to Blackstar…
They all went to town on his face – blow after blow rained down on the armored Supervillain.
Fists of radiant Starfire and superhero-might fought to subdue Blackstar.
None of it worked.
That was until Chloe joined the fray.
“His reactor!” Utopia yelled.
Sheldon restrained an arm…
Grace restrained the other arm…
Flare II locked her arms around Blackstar’s head, using all of her might to choke him into unconsciousness…
Chloe and Brandon worked together, digging their fingers through the metal of Blackstar’s armor in hopes of getting to the antimatter reactor in his chest.
It was a strategy they had used before…
“We can’t hold him much longer!” Chloe yelled, though she was speaking mostly to her brother. “We need Blackstar to go nuclear!” She said.
“What are you saying?” Utopia yelled and urged. “Stick to the plan!”
“Brandon, listen to me,” Chloe spoke to her brother with the utmost solemnity, even as she tried to dig the antimatter reactor out of Blackstar. “Revive has a way to bring them back but he needs a sizeable power source.”
“Stop this nonsense right now!” Utopia yelled in a frenzy. “Do the job or more people will die!”
“Sorry, sis…” Brandon refocused on his job. “Almost there, Dad!”
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Antimatter charged in Blackstar’s chest and the moment Brainwave fell to his knees, a burst of energy akin to a ton of TNT swept over the battlefield.
Everyone was launched away.
Chloe twirled through the air and just before landing, she employed an array of different techniques to secure herself to the ground.
She sunk knee-high into the ground and her legs felt numb but at the very least, she was better off than everyone else.
Lady Liberty, Flare II, and Paragon smacked into the ground with such force that even they were unable to immediately get up.
Utopia’s head was clutched by Blackstar.
The Super Villain, like most others, was obsessed with besting Utopia, and from the subsequent pummeling and brutality, Blackstar seemed inches away from achieving such a goal.
Blood leaked from Utopia’s mouth.
Had it been a decade prior, he would have handled Blackstar easily but he was getting older.
It wasn’t a matter of weakness but a matter of doubt.
Blackstar leaped into the air and came down with a boot directly to Utopia’s chest, causing a rush of blood to spurt ten feet into the air.
Brandon’s heart trembled…
Chloe’s heart trembled…
The Super Villain started to go nuclear, building antimatter in one of the many chambers of his heart.
“He’s going nuclear!” Utopia yelled, trying and failing to force Blackstar off his chest.
Chloe stood – she could feel a pivotal moment approaching.
If she just let the matter be, Revive would be able to restore his power… or at least, she hoped he would.
He sounded very certain.
But was that certainty worth the gamble of Brandon’s, her mother’s, and her father’s life?
As much as she hated to admit it, Chloe knew she had been raised on principles that had burrowed deep into her subconscious even if she didn’t want it there.
And every one of those instincts was demanding that she save everyone – no matter the cost.
The Amazonian faced Blackstar and slowly brought her wrists together, ready to smash them and activate the bracers – something Revive told her only to ever do in a life-and-death situation.
This was one such situation.
The world slowed…
Blackstar’s power built and built and Chloe’s bracers got closer and closer to touching…
But at the moment before her bracers could touch, Chloe’s mind drifted to her time with Revive…
How they melded…
How they looked at each other…
How sex didn’t define the relationship…
And how he was dying somewhere in the forest and could only recover if he got back his powers.
Of course, he could have been lying but for once in her life, Chloe was willing to trust someone again.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Antimatter swept through the fifty-mile radius.
Utopia’s flesh was stripped from his bones and then his bones became dust…
The same process followed where the antimatter wave traveled… Lady Liberty, Chloe, Flare II, Paragon, Ruby, Ectoplex…
One by one, they became dust.
…
A couple of seconds before…
Hutch strapped the near-death Revive into the chair, inserted the needles into his arm, wrapped him in the crystal bond superconductor, and took a step back.
“You should go…” Revive warned, hearing the rumble of the battle in the distance. “If things don’t go as planned, a new age of heroes will need to rise.”
“And you expect me to lead them?” Hutch scoffed.
“You’re a greater man than you realize. Your father had the right idea but went about it the wrong way,” Revive voiced. “I know you won’t be the same.”
Hutch sunk into his thoughts for a couple of seconds and gestured to the Power Rod. “Don’t you need this?” He questioned.
“I need it but not you,” Revive was honest. “There isn’t any reason you should risk your life here when you can tell it to teleport back to you in a couple of seconds.”
Hutch hesitated.
He wanted to leave and say fuck it to all the heroes who would risk their lives to stop Blackstar.
But he couldn’t… not when his father was one of those heroes.
In his eyes, his father was still a hero.
“What should I do?” Hutch asked, determination in his eyes.
BOOOOOOOOOM
“THE SPEED FORCE BARRIER!” Revive yelled.
“PIERCE THROUGH TO THE SPEED FORCE!” Hutch yelled, a moment before the antimatter blast covered both himself and Revive.
The Power Rod flickered, piercing a thin barrier that stretched infinitely.
It was at that exact moment…
The barrier that locked on Dimensional energies, peeled back by the antimatter explosion, pierced through to The Speed Force.
The Speed Force echoed a reply.
A bolt of lightning brighter than the antimatter explosion struck down.
Revive was mere bones due to the antimatter explosion but The Speed Force knew him… it healed him… and it connected to him deeper than it ever had before.
The Speed Force struck The Power Rod, channeling a portion of its power into melting The Rod, staining the metal across Hutch’s dissolving skeleton.
Then, the world stopped.
…
Revive’s bone twitched as time reversed according to his final will before death.
Everything touched by the lightning was reversed.
Nerves regrew…
Muscles…
Organs…
Then flesh…
When Revive’s eyes opened to the frozen world, all he saw was the bright white of annihilation.
Then, his suit reformed and everything was complete.
The Speedster turned to his right, noticing Hutch was also reforming though at a much more subdued pace.
“I guess The Speed Force needs an anchor that actually belongs to this Universe…”
Revive felt each cell repairing itself.
The damage was being reversed – his hair was returning to its former length and shine.
Brilliant purple lightning flickered in Revive’s eyes and he felt the return of something that had been lost – a deep and vast part of himself.
The connection was deeper.
But he – the container – was much smaller.
He needed time to grow and truly command The Speed Force to the degree he once did but there was no time.
Chloe, Utopia, and the others had died.
Revive needed to break through the limits of The Speed Force to bring them back… he had to run through the domain of death, even if only minimally.
And death always had a price… luckily, the price would have to match up with The Speed Force’s… this time.
“Let’s go!” The Speedster cheered.
Revive felt The Speed Force saturating his body and he used The Force which kept all things in motion to push time in the opposite direction.
The purple lightning intensified, mixing with orange and blue.
The Speedster felt time slipping through his fingers, and when he got into a running stance and took his first step, the antimatter explosion shrunk by an inch.
Then another step.
The nearby town that had been obliterated reversed the destruction in an instant.
Kids that had turned to ash reformed.
An obliterated hotdog slid back into a child’s bun.
Revive took three steps.
The antimatter explosion had now reversed to just a couple of feet behind The Speedster.
As a Speedster, Revive was the only person who could appreciate the sight.
Or, he was…
Unknown to him, Hutch was also watching everything though he did not have the skill to yet remove himself from the grip of space.
So The Son of Skyfox remained in place.
Step…
Another step…
Where Revive stepped, the ground reformed, and the air that had been wiped away curled back into existence, reforming from black smoke to colorless oxygen.
UGH
Blood leaked from the corner of The Speedster’s lips.
With each step, The Speed Force in his body, freshly born and chaotic as it was, rebelled against him.
The price of running back time was to bear the brunt of the new reality.
Revive was facing unbearable pressure on his very existence in the Multiverse… and since he was the only Revive there is in any universe, he had to deal with all of it, all at once.
Two more steps and The Speedster had entered the clearing of the battle.
His multicolored lightning aura raged and struck everywhere.
Particulates gathered.
Ectoplex grew from motes of dust to a skeleton.
Revive continued the run.
More motes of dust formed skeletons.
By the time he passed by Ectoplex and Ruby, the superheroes had already been reformed though they were unconscious and hence unable to perceive anything.
The Speedster wanted them to see what he was doing.
Brainwave was the next person to reform and this time, Walter’s eyes followed Revive as he ran… though, reform was not the accurate word for what happened to Walter.
In fact, Brainwave had teleported away moments before the explosion so space rippled in reverse, pulling him back from several kilometers away.
After all, time was not limited by distance.
Brainwave saw it – each step Revive took reformed the ground beneath their feet and the grass regrew.
Brandon reformed next and similar to Walter, his eyes followed Revive as he ran.
Then, Flare II…
And Lady Liberty…
Though none of them could move, all their bodies shook in place when they saw Tectonic reform a part of his chest, and time reversed to him standing a moment before the beam hit.
Tectonic had been brought back to life, though his consciousness didn’t return until Revive passed by him – solidifying the time that had been reversed.
A dimensional barrier scraped across The Speedster’s body – he had just broken through a death dimension to bring Barry back.
And though it looked like he was running toward Blackstar, the truth was that Revive was running in multiple dimensions at the same time.
And he wouldn’t be able to exit the death dimension until Vera had also returned.
Chloe reformed much faster than the others – possibly due to Revive’s subconscious paying more attention to her.
The Speedster noticed her bracers were inches apart and felt incredibly proud.
Chloe was ready to do what needed to be done.
Of course, her eyes followed her husband’s movement, noticing the strain on his body as he bore the weight of solidifying reality.
Now, the antimatter explosion was in line with Revive’s strides.
Another two steps and Utopia reformed.
The Speedster pushed the superhero out of the way and continued his run, extending his hand to grasp the antimatter explosion.
He had to run the explosion back to its source and contain it, lest he stop running and the annihilation occur all over again.
Finally, Vera reformed…
That was all the pressure Revive could bear.
Barry had started to reform when The Speedster opted out of the Death Dimension and only started to run in the material universe.
Revive pushed Vera out of the way.
Then, he turned to Barry’s partially reformed corpse and shook his head with disappointment – Barry had been dead for too long, even before he and Chloe arrived on the battlefield.
Refocusing on his task, Revive pressed the antimatter explosion back into the reformed chest of Blackstar.
All the antimatter explosions had been returned to their source.
Then, The Speedster leaped out of the way.
HE YELLED AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS. “CHLOE!”
Time had resumed and now the action that was once late had come a bit earlier.
Chloe’s bracers touched.
The divine energy and properties of the vibranium braces mixed to perfection, causing the sound of true resonance to echo far and wide.
A muffled rang in the air as if the atmosphere of Earth wanted to scream but was denied its very voice.
A golden pulse of unknown energy swept in all directions but the bulk of the impact waves were concentrated in front of Chloe.
The earth rends.
The air parted.
Trees miles away were uprooted.
Everything trembled.
Everyone saw it play-by-play – Blackstar’s cheeks flapped as if he was bombarded by intense winds, then his very flesh started to depart his body.
Then, the rest of the Super Villain rose from the ground, scattering in all directions into such pieces that would make Humpty Dumpy feel lucky.
The distant sound of an echo was all that could be heard for a couple of seconds.
UGH
Then Revive collapsed to his knees – he was healed but cementing a new reality had taken its strain on him.
His ears and eyes bled weakly.
“REVIVE!” Chloe blurred to his side, hugging Revive for the first time.
This hug was different from the ones she had had with males before… it was a hug that signaled she was prepared to accept The Speedster.
Even if it didn’t work, she was prepared to open herself up once more.
Walter…
Ruby…
Flare II, Ectoplex, Brandon, and Lady Liberty stood…
Utopia…
Everyone was shell-shocked in one way or another.
Tectonic and Phaseout were the most shocked, touching their bodies in several places to check if they were real.
“Barry?” Brandon dashed forward and embraced his friend.
He was embraced in turn.
Ruby and Flare II did the same with Vera.
“You killed him…” Utopia murmured in a daze, turning to Chloe. “You killed him… daughter, you killed him.” His attention was not on the miracle of Vera’s and Barry’s revival, but rather on the fact that Blackstar was now large meat chunks.
Chloe froze and stopped embracing Revive – she was slowly coming to terms with what she had done… the weight of life was settling on her fists.
“I didn’t know… I didn’t know…” She looked down at the braces and quickly tried to take them off, even at the risk of tearing into her skin.
Revive stopped her.
“It was the only way,” He staggered to his feet.
“This – this!” Utopia blurred and reappeared with his hand on Revive’s collar, raising the Speedster into the air. “This is your fault – you made my daughter take a life!”
This was the first time Chloe felt as if her dad cared about her.
WOAH
WOAH
Lady Liberty: “Honey!”
Brainwave: “Brother!”
Paragon: “Dad!”
Brandon, Walter, and Grace rushed to intervene.
Barry and Vera, suddenly surprised to be alive, also rushed forward, not willing to be away from the group at such a critical time.
There were lingering fears in their hearts.
All they wanted to do was go home but if they were being honest, they were scared.
Scared that whatever had been done could be undone.
“It’s your fault…”
“It was the only way,” Revive vibrated out of Utopia’s hands, phasing only for a moment and falling to his feet and into Chloe’s arms. “Do you understand what Chloe did?”
“She killed someone!” Sheldon argued, on the verge of tears.
“No!” Revive argued and pointed to Vera and Barry. “She saved their life. Everything comes at a cost. Vera and Barry were supposed to die today and when I ran back in time, all I did was splash a few drops of water back down the river of time. In the end, everything goes with the current…”
“You’re… you’re saying they’re going to die still?” Brandon staggered on his feet, caught by his mother.
Barry and Vera paled.
“They would have but Chloe saved them,” Revive continued explaining since Sheldon was calming down.
Everyone directed their attention at him.
“We splashed the drops but they would rejoin the current so we needed a way to cement the new reality… basically, turn the drops of water into rocks. Chloe did that by substituting their deaths in time… and she substituted it by giving time something equally valuable…”
“The daughter of Utopia breaking the code,” The Flare II, Petra, murmured and confirmed her guess when she saw the look on Revive’s face. “That’s it right?”
“It is…” Revive responded.
“But it was still a choice,” Sheldon was disappointed.
“When time requests something of you, it tends to happen one way or another,” The Speedster stated, a bitter tone in his voice.
He knew all too well there was no outrunning time, and that came from someone who could literally outrun time.
“Where’s Briggs?” Ruby suddenly questioned.
They all turned and saw Briggs’s body on the ground – he wasn’t alive and his body had almost entirely been burned to a crisp.
“You didn’t save Briggs?” Brandon knelt next to his friend, hugged his corpse, and questioned with tears in his eyes.
“I couldn’t…” Revive sighed. “I could only run back time to the extent of the explosion and I used all the extra energy I had to run back time far enough to save Vera. I couldn’t go further and save Briggs – not without dying myself.”
“Our daughter took a life,” Utopia turned to Lady Liberty and complained with a tremor in his voice. “Our sweet little girl took a life,” He burst into tears.
Chloe also burst into tears after hearing the pain in her father’s voice, and Revive rushed to embrace the girl before she could tell her father something she would later regret.
“It’s okay…” He whispered into her ears over and over again.
“Guys, we have a problem…” Brainwave suddenly inserted himself into the conversation, careful to stay opposite Revive at all times. “I just contacted The Supermax – they say Blackstar is in his cell. I asked them to check as I looked through their eyes and confirmed he was there.”
“God…” Brandon murmured. “Things just got more complicated.”
“Okay,” Sheldon’s voice carried undeniable authority. “Everyone back to The Union. Chloe, that means you too. And Revive. We need to talk about what comes next.”
Without a word, Chloe scooped Revive into her arms and rose into the air, disappearing in a loud sonic boom.
She already knew there was no need to fly slow anymore – not when her husband could outrun time itself.
Ruby, Barry, Sierra, Vera, Brandon, and Grace floated into the air not long after – with them was Brigg’s corpse.
Utopia departed the area last, taking the bits and pieces of Blackstar’s corpse with him… the pieces he could find at least.
…
After everyone had departed, Hutch appeared in a flicker of orange lightning.
Though he no longer needed his Power Rod – he had become The Power Rod and the source of his power was The Speed Force itself.
“I need to find time to meet Revive,” He murmured.
Then, he flickered and reappeared with Blackstar’s antimatter heart in his hands.
It was buried hundreds of meters away, deep in the ground.
“Quite the haul,” Hutch smiled.
Then, he flickered with orange lightning and disappeared.