Batman's voice cut through the tension like gravel over steel. "What's going on?" His tone was sharp, but beneath it was something rarely heard from him... urgency. In this warped timeline, the Flash was the one hope he had of saving his son, and the older Dark Knight was clinging to that hope with both fists.
Before Batman could ask again, Shin returned to the ground in a flicker of light and dust. "Well? What did you say? What happened? Where's the Flash?" His eyes scanned the area, but the scarlet streak was nowhere in sight.
Batman took in a long breath, as if trying to slow the clock that was already running too fast. "Just now, a golden light attacked the Flash. They both disappeared from here almost instantly." He narrowed his eyes. "His ability… it looked like the Speed Force."
Shin didn't need to hear more. "That means it's another speedster. Reverse-Flash, no doubt about it. Besides Barry, he's probably the only one still running in this world." His tone carried the kind of certainty that came from experience, not guessing.
He thought for a moment, his brow furrowing. "Normally, Reverse-Flash can't kill Barry without causing a temporal paradox. He's from the future, and he only got his powers by studying the Speed Force residue on Barry's suit. If Barry dies too early, that chain of events never happens. No Barry, no Reverse-Flash. But here…" Shin gestured vaguely to the broken sky and fractured ground. "…the Flashpoint timeline is already in chaos. Reverse-Flash is basically a glitch now. The normal rules don't apply. Here, he can fight Barry without worrying about erasing himself."
[T/N: I'm not well-versed with DC lore, so I'm not sure if this is true.]
It made sense. In his own twisted way, Reverse-Flash had been waiting for a chance like this, an opportunity to kill Barry Allen openly, without fear of unraveling his own existence. And the moment he realized Superman was gone from the battlefield, he pounced.
Even with Shin's extraordinary vision, he couldn't make out the exact details of the battle. Reverse-Flash was exploiting the sheer speed of the fight to stay out of sight. It was rare for Shin to admit it, but here was a foe he couldn't just swat from a distance.
Before he could move to intercept, Scarlet Witch's voice cut through his thoughts. "Shin, leave this one to me."
He hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then he nodded.
Wanda's smile was faint, almost unreadable, as her eyes bled into the swirling shapes of the Mangekyō Sharingan. She raised one hand, and a soft, strange mist curled from her palm, its colors shifting in impossible ways.
Across the battlefield, or perhaps in another layer of reality entirely, Reverse-Flash was gaining the upper hand against Barry. His laughter was the kind that made sane men step back, sharp and bitter. But mid-stride, the world twisted under him. A heartbeat later, he wasn't on the battlefield at all, he was standing directly in front of Scarlet Witch.
Before he could react, the mist wrapped around him. The change was instant and absurd: one moment, a speedster in yellow lightning; the next, a small, floppy stuffed toy lying in the dirt.
Scarlet Witch exhaled shakily, her hand dropping to her side. Away from the source of Chaos Magic, using her reality-altering abilities was like pushing a boulder uphill in a storm. She could still manipulate the world's fabric, but every tug came at a price. Moving an ordinary person's position was one thing, moving a speedster like Reverse-Flash, mid-sprint, was something else entirely. Her vision swam, but she steadied herself. The Hashirama cells in her body were already knitting away the strain, repairing her sight little by little.
Shin watched with a mix of curiosity and calculation. If she had Chaos Magic right now, even I wouldn't want to be caught off guard by her, he thought. Her powers, in their prime, could kill instantly without the need for brute force, turning her into the kind of fighter who could bypass even the strongest defenses.
The stuffed toy that had once been Reverse-Flash twitched. He tried to run, but his tiny legs flopped uselessly against the ground. The Speed Force wasn't gone, but without the momentum to ignite it, it was just a caged storm inside a very small, very soft prison.
"What… what is this? What did you do to me?!" His little soft head bobbled as he shouted, but it only made him look more ridiculous.
Shin didn't even bother replying. This was Barry's opponent to deal with. Ten minutes as a plush toy wouldn't kill him, but it would humiliate him.
A streak of lightning carved across the sky, and Barry came skidding to a halt. His eyes darted across the field. "Uh… where's Reverse-Flash? We were fighting, and then he just… vanished. Did he come over here?" His tone was wary. The fight had ended too abruptly for comfort.
Shin simply pointed to the ground beside him. The plush toy glared up at Barry and, in a surprisingly loud voice for its size, yelled, "Flash! Is this your doing?!"
Barry blinked. "Reverse-Flash?! How did you—what even—"
"Wanda," Shin said flatly. "She pulled him here and turned him into… well, that."
Barry crouched, examining the small figure as if it were some alien lifeform. "Reality manipulation?" he muttered. "That's… terrifying." His understanding of Wanda was limited to comic-book knowledge, so he could only frame what he saw in those terms.
Shin didn't correct him. Instead, he asked, "How's your memory holding up?"
Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "Better than before, actually. Maybe it's because I went to your world. The memories I made there are vivid. I can use them as anchors. Even if I forget for a while, I can usually pull pieces back."
Shin nodded. "Good. Then we wait. Once these people finish interrogating the criminals and the world settles into some kind of peace, we leave."
Barry's shoulders slumped a little. "Yeah… that's probably the only option."
"It'll take two or three days," Shin continued. "If there's something you need to do, do it now."
Barry gave a small nod, and in the next instant, he was gone, leaving nothing but a faint gust of wind in his place. Shin didn't need to guess where he'd gone. His super-vision and hearing made it obvious that Barry was heading straight for his mother.
Two or three days. That was all the time he had left in this fractured world. He intended to spend them well.
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