Barry's trembling question made the air in the entire room freeze.
The worry on Joe's face instantly turned to disbelief, and his grip on Barry's shoulders tightened involuntarily.
"Barry, what are you talking about? What do you mean, a chance to change your fate?"
Barry raised his head, his lips pale and cracked. He looked at Joe, then glanced at Yang Ming, who leaned against the instrument cart with no change in his expression.
He drew a deep breath and told them everything that had just happened outside the Central City Daily building.
From how he had used the tactics Yang Ming taught him to wound Reverse-Flash with a length of rebar, to the insane deal Reverse-Flash had offered at the end.
-Go back fifteen years and save Nora Allen.
"Reverse-Flash... he said that if I helped him open a way home, he would help me stop the tragedy that night." After saying those last words, Barry seemed to lose all his strength, staring blankly at the floor.
The dissection room fell deathly silent.
Two seconds later.
"No!"
Joe's roar nearly blew the ceiling off. He hauled Barry up from the floor and glared at him, his eyes bloodshot.
"Have you lost your mind, Barry?! He's a monster! A murderer! He killed your mother fifteen years ago, and fifteen years later, he almost killed me! At the Chemical Plant, if it hadn't been for Yang Ming, all of us would have died!"
Joe lost control of his emotions completely, spraying spittle onto Barry's face.
"Now he's dangling your mother's life as bait, and you're actually considering it? Have you forgotten how he threatened Iris? Have you forgotten how he beat you this badly?!"
Joe pointed at the wound on Barry's back, which was still seeping blood, his voice shaking violently