The Flash, Barry Allen, checked the calendar he'd taken from home and hung on the wall of the bunker underneath the remnants of the Hall of Justice, a look of disappointment on his face that was immediately noticed by his wife, Iris West. "What is it?" She asked, knowing that her husband had been carrying the weight of the world on shoulders since the Justice League's villains had teamed up and managed to get the jump on them.
"It's Dad's birthday." He sighed. Usually for his birthday, Barry would pay a visit to his Father Henry in Iron Heights Penitentiary, where he had been since Barry was a child after the Reverse-Flash killed Barry's Mother and framed Henry for the murder. Barry dedicated his life to becoming a forensic scientist in order to free him, but all of that was now for naught. I the early days of the villainous uprising, Grodd, a telepathic Gorilla, led an assault on Iron Heights and it seemed as if he was specifically looking for Henry, everyone who was killed before him was unfortunate enough to be in the straight line between the hole he'd smashed into the wall and Henry's cell. To the credit of Captain Cold and his Rogues, they arrived on the scene, not to take part in the carnage but to save lives. They were thieves, but they had honor or, rather, Captain Cold had honor and the Rogues worked for him.
The Flash's life wasn't the only one that had been upended, Gotham was the first City to get hit. Whoever arranged this must not have wanted the wild card that is Batman to dismantle the plan. Batman's enemies had somehow gotten his name, less than an hour after word hit the street Black Mask and his goons were kicking down the door to Wayne Manor. Bruce wasn't home, but Alfred was. They laughed, likely because they were expecting the old butler to also abide by Batman's strict "no guns, no killing" rule. They were wrong. However, after Bane entered and stepped over the body of the crime lord and his goons, he was too fast and too strong for Alfred. Bane apologized before killing him, Alfred told him to go to Hell. Nightwing had been on a mission overseas and rushed to return to fight by Batman's side, but Batman deactivated the plane he'd lent his former ward. He'd be safer where he was.
Catwoman, an occasional lover and adversary of the Batman, tried to fight by his side but once the other villains joined forces against her, she didn't last too long. Clayface attempted to help her, not believing in the mission for vengeance the other villains seemed to, but as he attempted to shield her he was frozen solid and shattered by Mr. Freeze, sharp, jagged shards of what was once the villain showering down over Selina Kyle, piercing her body and leaving her to bleed, distracting Batman long enough for Bane to get the upper hand and tear his mask off and break his back, as Bruce Wayne lay paralyzed on the streets of the city he'd devoted his life to protecting, Barry likes to think he thought of his parents, of Alfred, of Grayson. Bane had no interest in killing him, just defeating him. It was Two-Face, Bruce's former friend, who flipped a coin, blew his brains out, then mumbled "Guess that's that then..." before flipping it again and turning the gun on himself.
Superman had flown into the sun after discovering what was coming, super charging every cell in his body with the solar radiation that gave him his powers. Lex Luthor told him that a man in yellow had been the one to try and recruit him and offered him Superman's identity. Lex informed Superman for two reasons: The first of which was that the imbecile tried to tell him that Superman was actually Clark Kent, the reporter for the Daily Planet. Lois Lane's slack-yokel of a husband was Superman? Clearly he wasn't a serious person. The second reason, Lex smiled as if Superman didn't need his heightened senses to see coming from a mile away, if Lex was going to kill Superman it would be through a plan of his own. Superman thanked him. Lex told him that the man in yellow had been setting up the Earth end of multiple Boom Tubes so that the forces of Apokalips could invade Earth.
As chaos ensued for each of the individual heroes, Superman couldn't intervene, he needed every second to soak in every ounce of energy. He could hear every second of their struggles. The waves of brainwashed soldiers Ares was sending Diana's way. The attacks Black Manta and a recently-jailbroken Ocean Master were mounting on Atlantis. But he had to keep storing the energy. The battle with Apokalips was over before anyone but Barry was aware it started, given his unique perception of time. The Boom tubes began to open, but Superman flew directly in front of them and used his Solar Flare ability to destroy each and every one of them. When he used it before he would be without his powers for a short time depending on how much energy he expelled, but in this case, the only thing that returned to the ground was a tattered piece of his cape.
The Flash had done his best to help Wonder Woman fight off the hordes of soldiers driven into a blind rage by sorcery that the God of War kept sending her way, non-lethally incapacitating them. But there was so much more chaos around the world that he could never help for long. Five heroes. That was all that Earth had to back it up outside of Batman's stranded former-sidekick. Six heroes if you count the single Green Lantern that the Guardians on Oa were willing to spare after the heroes were already on the losing end of the battle. Hal Jordan, Barry's best friend and the most fearless person Earth has ever known, came back. His Earth-based villains were easy enough for Flash to take out on his own and the space-based ones were too far out of reach for Thawne, who Barry suspected of being the man in yellow that Lex mentioned, to contact. The two decided to split up, Flash would help Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern would help Aquaman as his ring would allow him to breathe underwater.
This worked for a while, but eventually Flash and Green Lantern had to break away to save someone unprotected elsewhere. The forces of Ares and the arsenal of Black Manta were seeming limitless. On the same day, within hours of each other, Barry returned to find Diana take her last breath as she fell from exhaustion, having fought to the very end, never taking the life of a single one of the mind-controlled soldiers bombarding her. Green Lantern found Atlantis in ruins after what seemed to be some kind of bomb went off, the two villains had left immediately after, as if destruction and Arthur's death were their only goals.
Barry and Hal took the losses differently, Barry began to round up survivors and set them up in safe zones, rounding up supplies. Hal was on the warpath, looking to make every villain suffer as much as they'd made everyone else suffer. Using the ring's energy to tend to sustenance and everyday bodily functions, he stopped sleeping and stopped eating, taking down the villains one by one and transferring them to Oa's Sciencells to stay. Barry found it harder and harder to touch base with him, he was worried about his friend. The day he kissed Iris goodbye, paid a visit to his Father's grave to wish him a Happy Birthday, and went about his daily supply run was the day he noticed something he'd been dreading: Red lightning in the distance. It had been weeks of just The Flash and Green Lantern protecting the world at this point, there was only reason Thawne would be willing to show his face now. He ran to it, the landscape around him flattening and blurring into an indistinguishable pattern flying past him as he was encased in yellow lightning as he skidded to a stop in front of him, Eobard Thawne. The Reverse-Flash. The man who killed Nora Allen. The man who was now holding Green Lantern's lifeless body at his side.
"Hey, Flash. Love what you've done with the place."
"Why, Thawne?"
"Why what? Why do I have-" He shook Hal, some faint hint of life in him after all. "-this?"
"Why all of this, the villains teaming up, destroying the world? You find some way to ruin the past without erasing yourself from existence?"
"Oh the plans I have, Barry. Better get used to that name while you still have it, by the way."
"What are you talking about?'
"See. I need another Flashpoint to enact this little plan I've been toying with, and I need you to give that to me." Barry had created a Flashpoint before in an attempt to save his Mother, he thought he remembered more heroes on his world before he put things right again, but time travel has a weird way of mortaring over the gaps in your memory over time. He vowed to never change the past again.
"That's not something I do, Thawne. What makes you think I'd change that rule for you of all people?"
"Well, everyone needs a best friend and-" The Reverse-Flash vibrated his hand, pushing it from Hal's back where he was holding it up, through his body where his hand emerged from Hal's chest holding onto his heart, now separated from his body "yours just broke." The Flash became a crackling bolt of yellow lightning as he exploded forward, pinning Thawne to the ground and pummeling his face, leaving it bruised and bloody momentarily before it healed, then bruising it all over again. "Let it out. Is this still not enough, Barry? Guess I have to pull out the big guns, well, the big bomb." He chuckled and pressed a button built into the glove of his suit.
Barry looked back, sensing the initial boom of an explosion in the direction of the bunker where Iris and other survivors had been hiding. He gave Thawne a kick to the teeth to propel himself forward toward the bunker. His perception slowed to the point he could see the plumes of flame erupting from the bomb, he'd helped everyone in the surrounding area get to a safe distance before getting to the source of the explosion, Thawne must have vibrated through the wall before he fought Hal, it was in the room Barry and Iris shared, he saw her engulfed in the flames, she was already gone. The only casualty. He got her body clear and took a moment to mourn before returning to the survivors, or former-survivors rather. Thawne had gotten to them first.
"Sooooo... I think this might make us the last two people on Earth, Barry..." He smirked at Barry, waiting for a reaction, splashing his feet in the puddle of blood he'd just made. Barry look at him, angry, defeated. He nodded, turning to run, everything around him becoming a blur as he ran back in time, only to see red lightning shooting out around him, soon joined by black lightning pulling him from the linear path he'd created within the Speed Force, every inch of his body began to scream, the black lightning didn't feel like anything he'd ever felt before and the red lightning felt like it was draining his power from him. He began to lose consciousness, his eyes closed. Then suddenly, he felt awake again, but he opened his eyes and saw -- a window? A familiar window overlooking a familiar skyline, filled with clouds pouring over the city and flickering with lightning. A sight he'd seen many times before, but something seemed different, he felt lower. Shorter than before. Then a lightning strike in the far distance made a reflection appear in the window. This one wasn't familiar, it was a woman. A young woman, with confused, lose blue eyes, soft features, blonde hair and bangs. It wasn't until the second flash that Barry realized he was this woman. He, she, looked down, it was true. She was in this woman's body.
She jumped, her hands grasping at herself just to confirm all of this was real, she was wearing a lab coat. This was her lab at the Central City Police Department. The initial panic began to fade when she realized she was in the Central City Police Department, the lights were on, commotion could be heard in the hallway. The world wasn't over anymore. That took the edge off as she relaxed against a desk. Taking in her surroundings, even if this temporary issue was a result of the time travel, everyone was alive again. That was something. That was everything. She noticed the name lanyard hanging from the pocket of her lab coat and pulled it up to see what was happening, whose body he ended up in, who he would have to explain things to after this was figured out. Her blood ran cold when she saw the name on the badge. "Bernadette Thawne - Intern."
"It is always fun to see someone's mind start to catch up with their new normal. Best kind of people-watching." A voice that Bernadette instantly recognized came from the entrance of the room. It was Eobard Thawne in his Reverse-Flash uniform, changing clothes almost instantaneously to wear a lab coat, slacks, and button-up that Barry had in his time. Bernadette attempted to use her speed to attack him, but nothing happened. She wasn't connected to the Speed Force. "We all done embarrassing ourselves?"
"How?" Was all Bernadette could growl before being taken aback by how much less deep her voice was, bringing a hand to her mouth and listening to Thawne chuckle.
"Look, I wanted a fresh start, I thought that going after you was just not good for my mental health, y'know? So I decided I'd settle down with a family. Try to live a normal life. What better way to do that than with a wife and Daughter?"
"You... Made me your Daughter?" Benadette was in shock, her mind wasn't used to not being able to process information at super speed, making her wit feel a bit sluggish.
"I really had no choice, princess. My best friend's Daughter was left alone after he KILLED her Mother! What else was I do? Because I looked into it, I couldn't make myself your biological Father, you wouldn't be the same person if you had different parents, time travel rules, right? So I had to come up with a better way to embarrass you, for a little bit at least. Choosing your baby's sex is a breeze when I'm from, so it stands to reason that choosing the sex of someone else's is just a matter of stealth. I think you turned out quite well, but of course, a Father always thinks that about his Daughter."
"You're not going to get away with this."
"I think I am though, for as long as it's not boring at least. You're in that grace period before the new memories set in, by the time you wake up you won't remember anything about this and all you'll know is that I'm the man who took you in. Plus, you can't do anything to me, you don't have you powers yet."
"Yet?" Bernadette asked as Thawne playfully pointed behind her.
"I want things to be fair. You'll get your powers, figure out who I really am, discover all of the things I've done to you, taken from you. Your manhood included. Oh! It's about that time... See ya soon, sweetheart." Bernadette saw a bolt of lightning strike, ripple, then shatter the window before throwing her into a shelf of chemicals. He chuckled to himself "oh, the classics." Before switching to his disguise and shouting "Help! Save my little girl!" As Bernadette felt everything burning, then felt nothing, then felt her consciousness fade as she could feel the lightning once again beginning to run through her, but not fast enough to stop her from slipping into the coma that accompanies the acquisition of a human body suddenly having access to the Speed Force. It all went black.
