Reverse-Flash's voice drove viciously into Barry's mind.
Go back fifteen years.
Save your mother.
Barry began trembling violently, not from the agony of his wounds, but from the terrifying temptation those words held, enough to overturn his entire world.
He stared at the man who had ruined his life, the monster who had left his father wrongfully imprisoned for fifteen years. Yet now, like a generous god, he promised Barry the salvation he had always dreamed of.
Absurd, and deadly.
"You're insane..." Barry forced the words through clenched teeth, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the shattered concrete.
"No, I've never been more clearheaded. I'll guide you in using the Particle Accelerator to open a stable spacetime wormhole, allowing you to travel back to the night your mother was murdered, save her, and rewrite your life."
"In exchange, Barry, you'll need to use your speed to keep the wormhole stable so I can return to my home in the twenty-second century."
"That condition shouldn't be difficult to meet, should it?"
The high-frequency vibration returned to Reverse-Flash's voice. He seemed to have noticed something, his scarlet gaze sweeping toward the nearby load-bearing pillar.
Iris hid behind the pillar, clamping one hand over her mouth while the other tightly gripped the pen that was still recording.
Reverse-Flash's gaze seemed to pierce the concrete, lingering on her for an instant as a trace of icy killing intent flashed through it. But he did not attack. Instead, his grin widened.
Perfect leverage.
"You see, Barry, it isn't just you. Everyone wants Nora Allen to live again." Reverse-Flash's voice grew seductive once more. "Think about it. A childhood without tragedy. A family made whole. All you have to do... is nod."
Barry panted heavily, the searing pain in his back mingling with