Paradox [The Flash]

Chapter One

They had just defeated Zoom. Iris went outside to check on Barry, a blanket wrapped around her. She found him sitting on the front porch steps and sat down next to him.

"We just won. We just beat Zoom. Why does it feel like I just lost?" Barry asked Iris.

"Because you've lost a lot in your life, Barry, more than most," she answered truthfully.

"But.."

"Maybe you and me seeing where this thing goes, maybe that can give you something for a change."

"That's all I've ever wanted to hear you say," he said. There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes, if only for a second. "And I wish that I was in a place where I could try that with you, but I feel so hollowed out inside right now. I feel more broken than I've ever felt in my life. If I'm ever gonna be worth anything to you, I need to fix what's wrong with me. I need to find some, some peace."

Iris grabbed his hand. "Barry, listen to me. You waited for me for years. You let me get to a place where this was possible, so I am telling you I am gonna do the same thing for you. Wherever you need to go, whatever you need to do, do it. And when you get back, I'll be here."

"Okay."

"I love you, Barry."

"I love you, too. And I always will."

Iris gets up and closes the door behind her as she goes back inside.

"That's why I'm so sorry, but I have to do this."

Barry speeds off then, back to the past, back to that fateful night of March 18 of the year 2000. This memory has played in his head over a thousand times. He arrives and immediately recognized the tornado of red and yellow, made by his future self and Eobard Thawne.

"Barry!" he heard his mom yell to his 11 year old self.

"No!" Barry yells. He starts sobbing now. "No. You're not gonna kill her this time. You're not gonna kill her ever again!" He runs into the battle, heading straight for Thawne. He punches him hard enough to send him flying in the other direction. Thawne, knowing that he now stands no chance with two Flashes, retreats,

Nora Allen lies crying on the floor. "No," she manages to choke out through violent sobbing as she sees Barry coming closer to her.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Barry says, softly. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Okay? I'm not gonna hurt you. You're safe. You're safe now."

"My name is Barry Allen, and I was the fastest man alive. After defeating the man who terrorized two worlds, I did what I thought I should have done a long time ago. I saved my mother from the man who killed her so many years ago, but in doing so I have altered the timeline that I recognized as my own. Now it's up to me to get things back to normal. I need to regain my powers as The Flash!"

When Barry woke up in what should have been Joe's house on the morning after he defeated Zoom, he found himself in his old room except all the toys were gone. It looked a lot like how his room looked before, when he was living with Joe, but it was different enough for Barry to realize that something was off. He didn't remember anything that happened the night before. He doesn't remember that he saved Nora.

Still drowsy from a hectic night, Barry gets out of bed ignoring the obvious difference in his room and stumbles out into the hall, occasionally walking into walls unaware that he was now back in his childhood home. He made his way down to the kitchen for breakfast.

As Barry noticed that his mom was standing in front of the stove making pancakes and that his dad was sitting at the kitchen table reading the morning paper, his eyes started to water. The last thing he remembered was watching Zoom kill his father right in front of him in this very kitchen. He took in his surroundings, noticing for the first time that this was not the house he had been living in for the past sixteen years.