IV.- Episode I, Part IV: The Birth of Zoom

A wormhole opened.

Suddenly a flash of red and yellow blurred from it. A streak. And the streak stopped, revealing a man in a tallow suit with a black emblem of a red lightning. The man looked at the device in his hand and the face of a woman appeared. "Are we here, Gideon?"

"Yes, Professor Thawne," said Gideon as she looked at her master. "We have arrived to the time period you desired…"

The Reverse-Flash nodded and then he felt a pang of pain on his leg. He screamed at the unknown attack. He looked down and found an arrow stuck on his leg. He opened his eyes in surprise and turned around to see Green Arrow with his bow high, and his sister, Mia, the new Speedy.

There was something in the arrow. Eobard Thawne slowly felt himself losing his harness of the Speed Force. "Arrow! What is this?!"

Green Arrow smirked. "Nanintes, courtesy of Atom. Producing a high frequency pulse that it's disabling your speed!"

Speedy nodded and aimed another arrow filled with nanites towards the Reverse-Flash. "You're not going to be running around for quite a while…"

Reverse-Flash dropped his computer as he stopped blurring. "No!"

Suddenly, he was knocked out by a punch that came at super speed. He looked up and saw Bart Allen, AKA Kid Flash. "Allen…"

"It's over Thawne…" said Barry as he stepped out of the shadows, wearing civvies. "This war between us."

"You knew I would be here," said Reverse-Flash in shock. "How?"

"I have a friend name Vibe, he can see things happening across the universe," said Barry. "He told me you'd time jump to here… and it was the perfect opportunity for an ambush…"

"Not your style," said Thawne as he stood up, losing his speed.

Barry nodded. "Right, but then again, I'm having children. Twins. And I can't let you get close to them. So I'm ending this war between us, today…"

"Let's face it, Thawne," said Kid Flash with a smirk. "You are feeling the mode…"

"You can't stop me, Flash!" said Thawne in desperation as Speedy put in him an inhibitor collar that would be strong enough to disable his speed permanently.

"I stopped you," said Barry with resolution. "My nephew died seven months ago. You killed my mother and sent my father to prison. This things between us… it's over…"

Green Arrow approached and punched Thawne in the jaw.

"Let's take him to S.T.A.R Labs and lock him up," said Barry with a frown. "Permanently…"

"You'll never stop me, Flash," said Thawne with a smirk. "You never could… you never will…"

"Those nanintes are permanent Thawne," said Barry. "We made sure they would disable your speed forever…"

Thawne closed his eyes and started to vibrate his molecules. He barely escaped the inhibitor collar and started running away, with his speed slowly decreasing as he went.

"He's getting away," said Kid Flash in alarm.

"Let him go, Bart," said Barry as he watched his greatest enemy lose his harness of the Speed Force. "He will lose his speed soon enough. Forever…"

What they didn't know is that Thawne knew history, and he knew that there would be a day Eobard Thawne and Barry Allen would face off for a last time. Maybe this was the last time, but Thawne knew the legacy of the Reverse-Flash had to live on.

So he did he research and speeded towards the home of the only person in the world who hated the Allen-West family as much as him: Hunter Zolomon.

Year: 1975

A wormhole opened, revealing the Waveraider as it appeared above the outskirts of Central City.

Slowly, the ship took its place and landed, camouflaging itself with the environment so it would be rendered invisible.

Rip looked at them,

"Okay, we need to locate Professor Boardman," said Rip as he looked at his Team. "According to Gideon's time stream records, he is the leading expert on Vandal Savage. If we can find him here, we can stop him before he creates The Light…"

"I have a question," said Dick as he looked at Rip Hunter with mistrust. "If we stop Savage from creating the Light… then… Cadmus will never come to be. Superboy will ever exist. The Team will never exist…"

Rip stood there, frozen.

"We're not idiots," said Artemis with a frown. "You are willing to sacrifice our Team to destroy Savage?"

Rip Hunter looked at his Team with a frown on his face. "In the Year 2166, the world will perish to Vandal Savage. I chose you because you know that every mission requires a sacrifice. The Team is a sacrifice..."

"I will never become Beast Boy," said Garfield with a frown. "I might never even meet M'Gann…"

"The lives of the sidekicks will be altered, yes," said Rip Hunter with a dark scowl. "But billions of life will be saved. Isn't that a worthy cost?"

Hawkwoman stepped forward. "Guys, it is a worthy sacrifice. We have seen how Savage destroy the League… if we don't stop him. There will be little humanity left…"

"No," said Wally with a frown. "I won't sacrifice Superboy, I won't sacrifice my friends!"

Dick looked down, turning grim. "Wally, we have to do this. For the future…"

"Dick, this is not the right time to be a dick," said Wally with a frown. "I know you suffered a lot with my death. Now how would you feel when you have your friends erased from existence or never even met you…"

"It's for the greater good," said Dick and placed his hands over Wally's shoulders. "You need to understand that, Walls…"

Wally's eyes darkened. "I thought after the Reach you would have changed… but you didn't…"

Dick looked down, feeling terrible.

Rachel stepped forward, looking at them. "I've seen demons from past and present destroy the world. I won't let one from the future erase humanity. I'll go…"

"Me too," said Jason as he looked at Rip Hunter. "I don't care for the Team, but I do want to put some holes on Savage's head…"

Hartley nodded.

Jaime frowned. "No way, hermano…"

Rip looked at them. "Listen, if you didn't think about this before, fine. There is a jumpship here that can take you back to 2016. But if you truly believe we can stop Savage, then, come with me. Professor Boardman has just a few hours left. He's going to die in his sleep tonight, so we have our minutes counted…"

Without saying anything else, Rip left the Waveraider. Along with Dick Grayson, Rachel Roth, Jason Todd and Hartley Rathway.

Wally West, Artemis Crock, Jaime Reyes and Garfield Logan were left behind, thinking about how their friends could become so grim and eager to destroy relationships. Even lives.

Wally looked at Artemis. "I thought Dick would change…"

Artemis sighed. "People really don't change Wally…"

Year 2016:

The hospital room was quiet.

Hunter Zolomon was going to die.

Cancer was really going to get its way and finish him off. And the only thing he cared about was ruining the Flash's life. After all, they ruined his life. He was especially angry at Kid Flash. He was going to die alone, and it was because Kid Flash wasn't fast enough. He blamed him.

If Kid Flash had been fast enough to save his mother, then he wouldn't be dying alone.

The building had fallen, his mother was on the way of the debris. Flash saved him, but Kid Flash failed to save his mother. Because he was slow. He wasn't fast enough.

Then, a red and yellow blur flashed forward.

Hunter looked up and found a man in a yellow suit, with red eyes which were slowly flickering.

"Hunter Zolomon…" said the voice of the Reverse-Flash.

"You're…" said Hunter Zolomon with a shocked looked. "You're Reverse-Flash…"

"And I'm here to give you what you crave the most," said Reverse-Flash as he got out a small syringe. Using that small syringe, he extracted his speed. It was life a lightning bolt inside it. "Revenge…"

With that, he injected Hunter Zolomon with his Speed Force and Hunter Zolomoen screamed as lightning enveloped him.

"Kid Flash is Wallace Rudolph West…" said Eobard Thawne. "And now you can kill him."

And so, Hunter Zolomon became… Zoom.

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