Stepping out of the hotel, Barry Allen was greeted by the biting chill of the night wind. He hadn't yet recovered from what he'd witnessed. His mind felt like it had been tossed into a blender—disoriented, chaotic, and spinning without pause.
He kept walking aimlessly, mumbling to himself as the same thoughts echoed in his head.
"Clark's cousin... Superman from another universe... Iron Man from Marvel…"
"Wonder Woman's still on the island, Cyborg's just a football player, Aquaman isn't even born yet, Batman's an old man, and Superman is dead."
"What have I done…?"
Barry's voice trembled under the pale streetlights. His lost and broken expression mirrored Bruce Wayne's on that long-ago night in Gotham—the night his parents were taken from him.
The older Bruce Wayne watched Barry silently from a short distance away, his hands in his coat pockets. For a brief moment, he saw himself reflected in the young man's pain.
After a moment, Bruce finally asked, "In your timeline… am I still Batman?"
Barry froze mid-step, then nodded. He'd answered that question many times before inside Wayne Manor, but tonight Bruce seemed to need to hear it again.
"Still Batman…" Bruce muttered under his breath. "Maybe that's just my fate." His journey as Batman had started as a boy's desperate attempt to avenge his parents' deaths. But the real enemy had never been a single man—it was the darkness that consumed Gotham itself. Perhaps, in every world, Bruce Wayne was destined to walk that same path. And perhaps, his parents were always destined to die that night.
"Barry," Bruce said, breaking the silence, "you changed the timeline to save your mother, didn't you? So… your parents are alive now?"
Barry hesitated, unsure why Batman would ask, but nodded anyway.
"That day, Mom sent Dad to buy ketchup. Someone broke into the house and killed her before he got back. The police thought he did it. So I wanted to—"
"I didn't ask why you changed the past." Bruce cut him off, his tone firm.
"Right… yeah. They're alive," Barry admitted quietly.
Bruce nodded slightly. "Good. You've already caused enough ripples in this world. No matter how bad things get, go find your parents first. Don't waste what you've already paid for."
He turned, opened the door to his Lamborghini, and slid inside. Before closing it, he added, "Cherish your family, Barry. You don't get many chances like this."
The engine roared to life, but before Bruce could drive away, Barry rushed forward and jumped into the passenger seat.
"Actually…" Barry said, looking down, "I don't have anywhere else to go."
"In this timeline… I'm dead. When I went home, they thought I was some Atlantean impostor pretending to be human."
Bruce let out a quiet sigh, the faintest hint of sympathy crossing his weathered face. This kid couldn't catch a break.
"Then tell them the truth," Bruce said. "Tell them who you are. Tell them what you sacrificed."
"But—"
"No buts," Bruce interrupted again. "Atlantis has already signed the ceasefire. Go home. Explain everything. Tomorrow, you'll sit at that same dinner table again. Now get out."
Barry opened his mouth to protest, but Bruce had already pushed him out of the car. The last thing Barry heard was the sound of the car speeding away, and Bruce's voice fading into the night.
"Don't come looking for me unless it's important."
And then, he was gone. The one person Barry knew in this fractured world had vanished into the darkness once again. Everyone had a home to return to. Even Bruce—though his home was haunted by ghosts.
Barry clenched his fists under the dim streetlight, his thoughts spinning. He couldn't hide forever.
"Batman's right," he whispered. "I've already caused enough pain. Even if I can't fix everything… I can at least find them."
He took a deep breath, then vanished into a streak of golden lightning, racing out of Gotham and into the night.
---
A Few Days Later
On the top floor of the hotel, Malrick, Tony Stark, and Kara stood by the window, watching Bruce and Barry disappear from sight.
Tony sighed. "You know, it's a good thing our universe doesn't have that 'Speed Force' nonsense. Way too dangerous."
He rubbed his chin. "The fastest person we've got is Quicksilver. And even if that kid ran till his legs fell off, he'd never break the speed of light. So at least we don't have to worry about someone resetting the universe."
Malrick chuckled quietly.
"True," he said. "But we do have the Infinity Stones… and Wanda's Chaos Magic can reshape reality itself. That's not much safer."
Tony smirked. "Guess both worlds are ticking time bombs."
"Exactly," Malrick said, turning back to the room. "Anyway, Barry can handle his own mess. For now, let's focus on what we can control. The extraction equipment's ready."
---
The Experiment
A few days later, the Life Codex Extraction Device was complete.
Kara lay on the sleek, padded table as Malrick and Tony, both in white protective suits, began preparations with JARVIS assisting. Next to the table stood a tall cabinet filled with precise machinery. Several articulated arms extended outward, their ends glowing with soft scanning lights.
The arms moved smoothly over Kara's body, beams of light sweeping across her form as JARVIS processed the data.
"Calibration complete," Tony announced. "Extraction force is balanced across all cells. We're good to go."
Malrick nodded and stepped closer.
"Kara," he said gently, "Tony and I have tested this process multiple times using your blood samples. You'll be fine. Just relax."
Kara smiled faintly. She trusted him completely.
The scanning lights dimmed, replaced by invisible waves pulsing gently through the air. Those waves entered Kara's body, separating the Kryptonian Life Codex from her DNA strands—an almost surgical process without any pain.
The original Kryptonian extraction tech required invasive procedures, but this device—upgraded by Malrick and Tony—was far more refined.
As the energy built up, Kara's cells began to shimmer with tiny particles of golden light. The particles floated upward like bubbles rising through water, forming a soft golden aura around her body.
Malrick carefully guided the luminous energy, drawing it together into a sphere above her chest. When the final particle detached and joined the glowing orb, the light abruptly faded—replaced by the image of a black, skeletal structure suspended in midair.
Kara's eyes widened. "Is… that the Life Codex?"
Even she had never seen it with her own eyes before.
---