Flash & Spider-Man - Book 2 of the Spiderverse

Back in time

The team allows Barry to have a talk with Wells he has been waiting to have for years. "What? No Big Belly Burger?" Wells wonders and he goes on about how in the future, there are no cows. Barry just goes straight to the point and asks the biggest question he has been wondering for over fifteen years.

"Why did you kill my mother?" Barry asks him and waits for the response. "Because I hate you. Not the you from now, the you years from now. In a future. We're enemies, rivals, opposites, reverses of one another. But that doesn't matter anymore. What matters was that neither of us was strong enough to beat the other. Until I learned your secret, your identity. Barry Allen. And finally, I knew how to defeat you once and for all. Travel back in time, kill you as a child. Wipe the flash from the face of the earth, except the future you followed me back, and we fought." Wells goes on and explains how the two speedsters were in fact Barry and Thawne.

Wells also explains how when future Barry saved his younger self, Wells was so mad he killed his mother so he would never become the Flash. But in changing the timeline, he erased his speed from existence stopping him from being able to return to the future. He lost his connection with the Speedforce and that caused him to create the Flash again.

And he needed the Flash to get fast enough so that he could disrupt the time barrier so he could return home. Barry asks why he would allow him to leave and Wells gives him a choice he could never refuse, a chance to go back. A chance to return to that night his mother was murdered and stop it all from happening.

-

He informs the team on what he's offeri and they don't know what to do. "The rare opportunity to go back in time and right a wrong and save your mother's life...quite the paradox Harrison has presented to you, mr. Allen." Stein states to him.

"The chance to save someone you wish you had more time with?" Peter asks since he knows how Barry feels about loosing his parents. "But there are still consequences, aren't there?" He states since he knows every time travel movie to exist since he has no real life and an aunt who loves movies.

"Of course, mr. Parker, this gift has an unparalleled risk." Stein agrees with Peter. "Barry, the night your mother died,the night you saved your younger self from death, that event altered the timeline you were already on and changed the course of history." Stein explains and they never realized that before.

"So it's like Terminator 3. We're living in an alternative world, part of an alternative timeline. A parallel universe." Peter states and wonders what his life would've been like in the previous timeline.

"But Barry changed one day once." Joe remembers when Weather Wizard was supposed to kill Peter, kidnap Joe and everything else.

"Yes, now imagine 15 years of compounded experiences. One different decision, no matter how big or small, impacts everything that follows. In physics, it's referred to as the domino effect. Moments upon moments, choices upon choices. New relationships, nothing would be as it is today, and you'd never know the difference because you'd never remember any of it." Stein explains to them and now it's up to Barry, it's his decision.

"So if I go back and save my mom, my dad doesn't go to prison. I never live with Joe and Iris." Barry lists some of the pros and cons. "You might never meet me. Or Caitlin or Ronnie. Peter might still be living in New York, he might not even become Spider-Man." Cisco lists some of the bad things to come with it.

"There's no real way of knowing what will happen until you do it." Peter explains as he seriously doesn't want to loose his abilities or what he's done to be erased from the world.

Joe and Barry leave to talk in private and the others just give them some space, and Barry decides to let his father in on the decision as well.

Stein and Peter just go into a private conversation about how the physics of time travel actually would work. Peter believes that once Barry changes the timeline, he'll create a new branch of time and once he returns to his time, he'll be part of the new timeline. Stein believes that once changing the past, it'll ripple throughout the timeline, the original timeline, causing everything to change.