I would like to attempt some semblance of reason in the team's discussion on how to stop Deegan in the final act of Elseworlds. I get the whole "running around the Earth to slow time" bit is meant as an homage to the film history of Superman, but…really?

…

[Alternate scene, S.T.A.R. Labs, during the conversation between Kara, Clark, Barry, and Oliver on how to stop Deegan (Supergirl 4x09, "Elseworlds, Part 3")]

"If Supergirl and I travel around the globe in opposite directions at just over Mach 7, we should be able to create enough centrifugal force to slow the Earth's rotation…and everything else."

Admittedly, Kara knew she was a visitor to this particular Earth, but she was reasonably sure physics didn't work that way. She cared too much about Barry to say aloud what she was thinking, but Oliver took care of it for her.

"Barry, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, and in our line of work, that's saying a lot."

Undeterred, Barry pressed on. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I've been doing a lot of digging into the Speed Force since I was trapped there." Kara gave Barry a quizzical look, having been unaware of this, but Barry shook his head, making it clear he couldn't clarify right now. Continuing, he explained to the group, "When it comes to speedsters, time just works differently. If we run fast enough around the globe, we can produce enough Speed Force energy to slow down time."

"That's a huge leap of faith, Barry. Are you sure you can do this?" Oliver asked, showing concern. This was not the first time Barry had meddled with time, to unpredictable results. "This sounds like a theoretical exercise you've just tossed around in your head."

Barry nodded grudgingly. "It is, but I know this'll work. Thawne. Professor Stein. Jay Garrick. Rip Hunter. Harry Wells. I've either studied their research or talked to them directly about the Speed Force and time travel. We can do this, I know it!"

Kara raised her hand. "Um, Barry? We're not speedsters," she said, glancing at Clark.

"Yeah, I don't know what this 'Speed Force' even is," Clark added.

For a brief, comical moment, Barry stared blankly at her. Apparently he didn't realize he'd left out that crucial detail, his brain racing in front of his words. Smacking his forehead, he turned away and started walking towards Caitlin's workspace in S.T.A.R. Labs. "Right, sorry. Um…" he said, preoccupied as he started rifling through the cabinets and drawers. "Deegan rewrote reality, but this is still S.T.A.R. Labs, so maybe…" he muttered, before holding up a vial he found triumphantly. "Got it!"

"Got what?" Clark asked.

"This," Barry replied, walking back to the group and showing a small tube of red liquid. "This is a serum called Velocity 9. It can temporarily turn Kara into a speedster."

Kara's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Is that safe?" Clark asked warily.

"For her, it will be," Barry assured him.

"What does that mean, 'for her'?" Oliver asked. "Has that been tested before?"

Barry shifted into uncomfortable silence. Kara raised an eyebrow. "Barry?"

"Yes," he answered reluctantly. "It's been used by speedsters before, and it can be highly addictive if not used carefully. It's also been used by a human, with no special powers." A pause. "The serum did give her speed, but it also ended up killing her."

"Then there's no way Kara's taking that," Clark declared.

"Clark, I'm right here," Kara interjected in annoyance. Turning to Barry, she asked, "Barry, I trust you wouldn't send me on a suicide mission, so why do you think I can use the serum?"

"V-9 was designed for someone with advanced regenerative capabilities," Barry explained. "No ordinary human would be able to handle it for long, but a Kryptonian's biology would be much better able to deal with its effects."

Kara reached out and took the vial of red liquid, weighing it carefully in her hand. "If I take this, I'll be able to generate this Speed Force energy you're talking about?"

Barry nodded vigorously. "That's all you'd need to do. As long as you're emitting that energy, I'll be able to focus it along with my own to slow down time."

"Kara, it's too risky," Clark began, clearly against the plan.

She knew her cousin was looking out for her, but there simply wasn't time to argue the specifics. Not when Deegan was collapsing reality around them. "How are we going to do this?" she asked Barry, sweeping her hands over her own body. "You know, impenetrable skin and all?"

In response, Barry turned his head deliberately towards Oliver, who nodded despite getting a death glare from Clark. "I still have kryptonite arrows."

"I'll do this as fast as I can," Barry assured her.

"Wait," Clark insisted, his body growing more and more agitated.

"This is the only way, Clark," Kara began.

"I'm not talking about the kryptonite or this crazy serum!" Clark finally burst out. Looking around at everyone's surprised faces, he continued soberly, "I saw you die, Kara. You too, Barry. The book…it showed me things, and you both disintegrate following exactly this plan."

Oliver's attitude shifted upon hearing this. "Are you sure?" he asked Clark.

"Positive."

The archer was silent a moment. His face was inscrutable to Kara as they waited for his response. Finally, Oliver said soberly, "We can't risk losing the two of you."

"Oliver, we have to do something!" Barry insisted.

Kara walked up to Clark and gently took his hand, closing her other fist around the vial and holding it to her chest. "If we don't save this Earth, ours could be next, Clark," Kara told him gently. "Even if Barry and I die, we'll still give you a chance to save everyone. Let us do our part."

For several, interminably long seconds, Clark wouldn't answer her. Kara knew Superman, the hero, was warring with Kal-El, her cousin, so she continued squeezing his hand, trying to convey how important this moment was. Finally, he gave the tiniest of nods. He hated it, she knew, but he wouldn't stand in her way. She glanced back at Barry, who nodded as well, and at Oliver, who had watched Clark's response and seemed to resign himself to their decision. Two lives was a small price to pay for all of the multiverse.

…

Clark watched helplessly as Kara sat down, handing the vial to Barry as she did so. Oliver withdrew an arrow from his quiver, the tip covered in a lead casing. Barry inserted the vial into a dispenser to inject the serum, and Kara pulled up the sleeve of her left arm, exposing skin past the elbow. Left with no other way to help, Clark knelt at his cousin's side and took her right hand, which she tried to refuse. "You should back off, Clark. We don't both need to feel this."

He gripped her hand anyway. "Let me do this instead, Kara. You don't have to risk yourself." Don't die for me.

She laughed grimly. "Clark, I would rather disintegrate in the atmosphere than go back to our Earth and explain to Lois why you're not coming home." The words cutting him to the core, Clark bowed his head, seeing the impossible choice in front of them all and awed once again by his cousin's strength. She knew he and Lois wanted to start a family together, live their whole lives with each other, and Kara was determined to do this so he wouldn't have to.

Barry positioned himself over Kara's arm. "Once the kryptonite is out, I'll inject the serum into your veins. Oliver will cover it back up as soon as I'm done."

He looked over at Oliver, who nodded back. Kara gave Clark another small glance, telling him to move away before it was too late, but he responded by gripping her hand more firmly as he knelt on the ground. Leaning forward, hovering the arrow tip above her arm, and placing his other hand over the lead tip casing, Oliver asked quietly, "Ready?"

"Just do it," Kara muttered.

In one swift motion, Oliver uncapped the arrow, revealing the deadly green glow underneath. Immediately, both Kara and Clark groaned in pain, gritting their teeth against the agony. Every vein, artery, and nerve in Clark's body turned to ice as his insides churned and his skin felt like it was being punctured with needles from every direction, but he refused to let go of Kara's hand. The veins in Kara's left arm, the body part closest to the arrow tip, began to glow an evil green, and Barry zeroed in on the biggest one and quickly stuck in the needle of his dispenser. Through narrowed eyes, Clark watched an eternity pass as the serum slowly pumped into Kara's arm.

Finally, the vial emptied and Barry withdrew the needle, and immediately Oliver secured the cap back over the arrow tip. Clark's body relaxed, as did his grip on Kara's hand. The tiny puncture wound in the crook of Kara's elbow sealed itself immediately. "Kara?" he asked hesitantly. "How do you feel?"

Kara's eyes had closed against the pain, and though the kryptonite was covered again, they hadn't reopened, and she was breathing slowly but somewhat shallowly with her head bowed. Clark withdrew his hand and stood up as tendrils of electricity began to curl around her hands. Her breathing grew more rapid and strands of her hair began curling and levitating on their own, as though static charge were running over her head.

"Barry? What's happening?!" Clark demanded.

Before Barry could answer, Kara's fists clenched, her head snapped up, and her eyes flew open. A deep inhale filled her chest, remained for several seconds, and then withdrew, returning her breathing to normal. Clark couldn't help but notice that her eyes looked somewhat different, her blue irises streaked with…lightning?

"Whoa," was all Kara had to say on the matter.

"You alright?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah," Kara replied, standing up slowly. She held up the index finger of each of her hands, seemingly to point at everyone in the room to keep her accountable. "I'm just going on record as saying that I see why this serum can be addictive. I feel like I can fly to the sun and back!"

"Good," Barry nodded. "Use that energy." He pulled on his mask before turning to Oliver and Clark. "When Kara and I slow down time, that'll be your chance. Everyone will slow down physically, but your minds will still think at normal speed. You two will be the only ones not confused by what's happening."

Kara nodded in agreement. "Take down Deegan while he's disoriented by the time shift."

"Kara…" Clark tried one more time.

In a blink, Kara used her newfound speed and tackled Clark in a standing hug. Suddenly, for a moment, she was again the young girl he'd found crashed in a pod on an alien planet. He wrapped his arms around her, wishing never to let go.

"I love you, Kal," she whispered.

"I love you too, Kara," he whispered back.

Far too soon, she slipped away from him and gave him one last, small smile. Then, in a flash of lightning, she and Barry were gone.

For a moment, Clark didn't know what to do with himself and was only roused when Oliver got right in front of him. "Snap out of it, Clark."

He knew Oliver was trying to push him into action, but at the moment he wasn't in the mood for the archer's brusque manner. "My cousin's about to sacrifice herself—"

"—And my friend is about to attempt the same," Oliver interrupted. "If we're going to save them, we need to move."

"S-Save them?" Clark asked, confused. "It was in the book. How can we change what's going to happen?"

"I'm going to try something," Oliver said curtly. "You engage Deegan. You're the only one strong enough who can. Go for the book. If nothing else, limit the damage he's doing to reality."

"How is any of this going to help Barry? Help Kara?"

"We can only do what we can. We'll have to leave the rest up to destiny."

…

[Alternate scene, Central City, as Oliver is coming up from behind to shoot Deegan (Supergirl 4x09, "Elseworlds, Part 3")]

"How would you propose I keep the balance?"

The Monitor's words rang in Oliver's ears as he drew back his modified kryptonite arrow and lined up his shot at Deegan's back, right between the shoulder blades where he'd be unable to reach. He willed his limbs, unnaturally slowed by the strange temporal shift Barry and Kara were exerting over the Earth, to move faster, but Deegan's attention was focused on Clark in front of him, rage crawling over his face as he realized how time itself was keeping him from erasing the true Superman from reality.

Oliver's fingers released the arrow, and as his normal perceptions witnessed the projectile's slow progress through the air, he hoped to whatever higher power that listened that he'd be successful. The Monitor had accepted his proposal, but he'd also warned Oliver that he was unable to save Barry and Kara on his own, so vast and misunderstood as the universe was. It would take a feat of strength and resolve from Oliver to fully change their destiny.

Slowly, finally, the kryptonite tip embedded itself in Deegan's Superman form, and as he slowly arched his back in pain, the electronic emitter he had added to this arrow shifted, after an interminable number of seconds, from red to green.

A few seconds later, someone turned the volume up.

Time slammed back into normal speed. Deegan dropped the book and futilely swung his arms behind him, trying to yank out the kryptonite arrow. Clark sped forward and caught Lois before she could hit the ground. Oliver fired a grapping arrow and swung down to meet Deegan face to face.

Deegan stumbled backward as Oliver advanced, briefly losing his footing as he stepped on something. Looking down, he saw that the stem of Oliver's arrow had ejected itself, leaving the kryptonite tip completely inaccessible and poisoning his form. He looked back up at Oliver in fury.

"Do you think this changes anything?!" he screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. "I knew all along your friends would slow time to try and stop me! And look!" he taunted, swinging his arms out while grimacing involuntarily from the arrow tip in his back. "Normal time has returned, and I'm still here. Which means your friends are dead!"

Still advancing on Deegan in his black Superman uniform, Oliver gravely shook his head, pointing at the ground. "Look again, Deegan! That arrow had a transmitter on it. As soon as I shot you and you dropped the book, it sent a signal telling them to stop. They're safe, and you've lost!" he finished. As if on cue, Barry and Kara zoomed into view at the edge of the plaza, although both promptly fell on their hands and knees, too exhausted to do anything more.

Deegan worked his jaw, grinding his teeth for a moment, but then he laughed through the pain. "No matter! I'll simply take the book and erase you all from reality!"

"You mean this book?" Whirling around, Deegan saw Clark holding the book open in his hands, Lois with her hammer and the Martian standing guard in front of him. With a smirk, Clark said in a sarcastic, conversational tone, "Let's fix this mess, shall we?" Light began to shine from the pages once more as reality shifted and phased back to normal.

Uttering a guttural roar, Deegan made to charge Clark, but Oliver grabbed him by the shoulder and slashed an arrow across his face, scoring a brutal cut across his cheek as Deegan dodged desperately. Deegan's eyes went wide as he felt his face, stared incredulously at the ordinary metal arrow tip in Oliver's grasp. The kryptonite in his back continued to weaken him, rendering him vulnerable.

Breathing hard, he glared at Oliver. "You can't do this! I am a god!"

Oliver tossed the arrow aside. "Then why are you bleeding?"

Enraged, Deegan attacked Oliver, but stripped of all the superficial qualities that characterized Superman, he was no match. Oliver scored hit after hit, the fake Superman exhibiting no invulnerability, no superstrength, and no superspeed with a piece of kryptonite embedded between his shoulders. He surprised Oliver once with a heat vision strike directly to the chest, but to Oliver it felt no worse than a solid punch. In the end, the confidence of a stolen visage was no match for the experience of five years in hell.

With one final strike, Oliver put a bruised and exhausted Deegan on his back. "Time to end this!" he yelled, not at Deegan, but at Clark. Clark closed his eyes, taking a deep breath for one final burst of mental focus, and the last vestiges of Deegan's perverted reality faded away, leaving only the normal facades of Earth-1 Central City.

Deegan was not so lucky. He grabbed his face as waves of light from the book washed over him, and his skin wrinkled and degraded into a hideous grey, with unsightly pits all over. He writhed on the ground as Clark and Oliver stood over him, Clark closing the book with finality.

In a wave of pain, or perhaps in a trance, Oliver couldn't tell, Deegan's eyes roved around until they fixed unnaturally on Oliver's. "Balance…must be maintained. One change…requires another," he muttered.

\end

…

Author's notes: The end of this scene is meant to finish as it does on television, with Clark and Oliver talking, Barry and Kara rejoining the group, and Brainy dropping Amazo from the sky.

I realize there's still some hand-waving going on, but I feel this at least tries to establish a logical train of thought for the heroes' actions.

Yes, Oliver's bleeding quip is a nod to BvS. The original episode already took some shots at the DC movie universe, and it felt appropriate.

Some direct quotes are taken from Supergirl 4x09, "Elseworlds, Part 3."

I'm going to have to cut this collection short, as life's gotten a little busy and I don't like to leave my posts hanging. These two scenes were really the ones I had to get out of my head anyway. Thanks for reading!