Chapter Text
---
The air in Central City seemed to hum with anticipation.
It was only a few days until Iris and Eddie’s wedding. The streets were lined with banners, the news had already begun reporting on it as a “celebration of love,” and the city was buzzing with energy. The heroes, from Team Flash to Team Arrow, were all gathered for the event, and yes—even John Constantine was going to make an appearance. But why? Well, God only knew that John had a knack for showing up just when things were about to go sideways.
And the Speed Force? Well, it knew what was coming. It always did.
The Speed Force had a strange way of weaving destiny, and today, it allowed Barry to go out again.
---
Jitters, 10:45 a.m.
Barry walked in.
He was dressed in a manner that would have made anyone who knew him blink twice: a black three-piece suit, so elegant it almost looked like a funeral attire, as if he were a goth widow who lost her fourth husband to the dancing plague. His black silk gloves, adorned with delicate lace patterns, peeked out from under the cuffs. His neck was draped with four rows of pearls, like a tragic and timeless figure.
He had a wide-brimmed hat pulled low, casting shadows over his bleach blonde hair, which he’d used to blend in, to hide. It was a careful choice, like the rest of his appearance—a carefully constructed mask for someone who wasn’t sure if he was a ghost or a man who could be remembered.
The Speed Force, taking on the form of Nora Allen, was beside him. Her outfit was identical in every way—black dress, wide-brimmed hat, pearls—she even wore the same gloves and black heels. It was as if the two of them were reflections of a life that could have been, a life that could have been possible if the universe wasn’t constantly shifting beneath their feet.
They didn’t speak.
The hum of the world moved around them as if they were little more than shadows of what they were meant to be.
---
Jitters, 10:55 a.m.
Inside, things were chaotic in a familiar way.
Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart, Julian Albert, and Cisco Ramon were all at the counter, arguing over coffee—again. Their voices mixed in with the soft hum of the coffee machine, and the smell of fresh brews filled the air.
“Julian, I swear you never know how to get coffee right!” Cisco grinned, pushing a cup across the counter.
“Maybe because I don’t drink it like a maniac,” Julian quipped, leaning back in his seat with a scowl.
“I swear you two,” Lisa muttered, “If you didn’t fight like you were married, we might actually get some peace around here.”
Leonard rolled his eyes. “Yeah, if you guys didn’t have such an amazing track record of making a scene.”
Barry entered without a sound, and the instant his foot crossed the threshold, every conversation stopped.
The four of them glanced up at the same time. Eyes widened, mouths went slack.
It was... him.
But it wasn’t him.
The air seemed to freeze as they took in the form of the man who shouldn’t exist—who couldn’t exist.
Barry’s blue eyes flicked from one face to the next, his expression unreadable beneath the veil of his transformation. He walked past them, moving as though he were on a tightrope between worlds.
Lisa’s breath hitched. “Is that…”
Leonard’s jaw clenched. “Impossible.”
Cisco blinked, rubbed his eyes, and then blinked again. “What the hell just happened?”
Julian, ever the scientist, tilted his head, scrutinizing Barry. “This doesn’t make sense.”
Barry grabbed his coffee. He didn’t look at them. He didn’t say anything.
He knew. He always knew when it was time to go. The Speed Force felt it, too. Like a wave pulling him away.
Without a word, Barry stepped outside again, and once more, the Speed Force’s presence moved like a shadow beside him, its familiar weight always just behind. Neither of them needed to say anything.
It was time to go.
---
Outside Jitters, 11:15 a.m.
As they exited, the city seemed to grow quieter. The weight of the past few days, the constant questions, the nagging sense that something wasn’t right, hung thick in the air. People who walked by didn’t look twice, too busy with their own lives to notice the man with the bleached hair who once carried a city on his shoulders.
John Constantine had a gift—he knew when the pieces of the puzzle weren’t just scattered but actively shifting. He’d always known. He saw things that others didn’t, and he wasn’t just good at pulling on threads, he was an expert at unraveling worlds.
Maybe that was why he was here. Not for the wedding, not for the celebrations, but because it was only a matter of time before everything unraveled, and there was no telling what would happen once it did.
---
Meanwhile, Inside S.T.A.R. Labs
Cisco leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. He couldn’t shake the image of Barry from earlier. It was like something was out of alignment. He could feel it in his bones.
“I’ve never seen him like that,” Cisco murmured, almost to himself. “He wasn’t... he wasn’t Barry.”
“I know,” Julian replied, his voice thick with something unsaid. “But it was him. It had to be.”
HR, ever the optimistic one, chimed in. “Maybe it’s just some weird time glitch. You know, multiverse stuff, right? We’ve been dealing with weird things lately. It’ll sort itself out.”
But even HR’s joke couldn’t break the tension.
Something was off. And none of them could shake the feeling that it had everything to do with the person they had once known.
---