Beyond normal space-time continuum, the Vanishing Point, a dimension that existed in Hypertime, no longer had light.
The time masters and the linear men, beings who monitored the timeline and corrected or neutralized deviations that could ripple through time, were dead.
Their bodies floated around the vanishing point, although they existed in the last possible moment of the universe, they had already met their end.
At the centre of the vanishing point, there was a man dressed in yellow surrounded by red crackling lightning and in front of him, there were four people running in the time sphere.
"Yo Barry, you remember the time I turned into a woman, dated you for six months, seduced you, convinced you to marry me.
Emotionally abused you into a nervous breakdown… ah, never mind, they erased that timeline."
Thawne laughed, unbothered, as he casually ate a burger.
Barry, Wally, Wallace and Jay Garrick were running inside the time sphere keeping the universe from ripping apart.
Since Thawne had killed the Time Masters and the Linear Men, more beings would inevitably try to alter the timeline, creating paradoxes and tearing the universe apart.
To prevent the universe from fracturing, Barry, Wally, Wallace, and Jay Garrick were channeling the Speed Force from the end of time all the way to its beginning, holding the timeline together and stopping new parallel realities from forming.
And what brought Thawne the greatest joy? They were doing it willingly.
"Why did you do this Thawne, are you that mentally deranged?"
Thawne took off his cowl and chuckled as he looked at Wallace, he then sighed as he said:
"You're lucky you weren't born in the 1700s, oh what the heck, I wouldn't have bought you anyways"
"..."
"You can't say that, it's racist"
"Barry that's insulting, I have black friends"
His face contorted in disgust, Thawne knew he was many things, vain, manipulative, obsessed but not racist.
That thought alone made him recoil, as if the accusation itself were a stain he could not bear.
"You worked with Nazis remember?"
"Yes, but I don't have any real ideological alignment with Nazis; I used them as tools to achieve my objectives.
You kill billions everytime you screw up the timeline and I don't judge you for it...look at us bonding and sharing ideas, it's nice"
Barry felt nothing but rage; he wanted to rip Thawne apart, but he couldn't leave the time sphere since the fate of the universe rested on their shoulders.
The weight of the future pressed down on them: their children, their families, their worlds.
Every life, every timeline depended on their endurance.
"I like how you came here in a nanosecond without questioning me, you know I mean business.
You can't get tired or hungry inside the time sphere, you can run for eternity... an eternal torment, I have outdone myself"
Thawne began to smile as tears streamed down his face, for the first time in a long time he felt joy.
They had to stay inside, channeling the Speed Force, keeping the universe intact, no matter how much it tore at their minds.
"Thawne, is your hatred for me that deep, are you willing to destroy the universe just to see me suffer?"
"Barry, if you have a million haters, I'm one of them.
If you have one hater, it's me.
If you have zero haters, then I'm dead.
If the world's against you, I'm with the world. And if the world's with you… then I'm against the world."
He took another bite of his burger, eyes glowing red as he smirked.
"That's just who I am."
Thawne closed the time sphere as he felt the shift in the atmosphere, a giant boom tube manifested and Brainiac emerged.
"Ohh, it's you, how did it go?"
Brainiac loomed over Thawne, holding a spear dripping with golden blood.
With a wave of his palm, the heads of the Guardians of the Universe dropped to the ground.
"Ranx has fully evolved thanks to the Omega energy from Darkseid.
The yellow lanterns have become his heralds and soon Superman will be no more.
Have you done your part yet?"
"Yep, keeping Barry and his friends occupied while harnessing the speed force, one of the seven harmonious energies for Darkseid, I think I did my part"
Thawne's alliance with Darkseid was not born of loyalty but of shared ambition.
While the flashes ran endlessly to hold the universe together, Thawne was aiding Darkseid in harvesting the fundamental forces of reality, remnants of creation itself.
These were not mere energies, but the primal harmonics that bound existence: the Speed Force, the Emotional Spectrum, and others unknown to many.
Darkseid sought to use them to forge a gateway to the Source, the origin and end of all that is.
In return, Thawne will be granted access to one of the most powerful artifacts in existence, the Miracle machine, an artifact that would make his dreams come true.
With Brainiac serving as the collector of knowledge from collapsing timelines, their alliance was one of perfect symmetry,destruction, reconstruction, and control.
"Where is Zoom? We have to regroup with the Lords of chaos and exterminate the Greek pantheon"
"Oh that junkie"Thawne questioned as he licked his fingers and drank his soda, he then continued speaking as he added:
"I killed him, I completed his tasks as a form of courtesy though... He was gonna die anyway so I made his death quicker?"
Brainiac felt his grip tighten around the spear as he looked at Thawne.
"You're going rogue... again, I wonder, what's stopping me from killing you?"
"Oh please don't insult my intelligence, even at your fastest, you're moving at slow motion to me"
"Since you killed Zoom, you're going to take his place"
Brainiac opened another boom tube and told Thawne to enter but the man simply refused.
"The aspect of death itself is after me, and its juiced up by the speed force...and you're telling me to leave the only place that keeps me safe.
Are you smart or are you pretending to be? even Luthor would understand the consequences of me leaving this place."
...
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