Unlocking memories - For Barry

[carrera]

For Dick nothing had changed. He came back to Gotham in time to watch his best friend die. To watch her give her life to save others.

And somehow that is the trigger he needs. The shock of watching her die brings back so many memories. Memories of watching someone else he loves die.

Barry Allen.

It was like a literal floodgate opening, memories of a year coursing through him. Of death and love and happiness. Of having things Dick never thought he might have again, and things he never wanted to go through again and he knew one thing.

He had to find him.

He couldn't find him in his own world. No one that matched his description, none of the things he knew about Barry's life. He thinks he may have found A Flash in his life but not his.

So he started trying to open doorways. Even if just enough to send him memories, to try and do for Barry what happened to him. Praying it had already happened and maybe, just maybe, if he could open a doorway, Barry could run through it.

Comments

[toofast]

It's funny how time seems to work. Not just for him, but in general, really.

One minute he's here in this world he's known all his life and the next, he's in another. A dystopian sex world of some sort where it was just him in terms of his team and anyone from his world seemingly. But it had become more than just some world where he really didn't want to be. It had become a home because of the people there — the people he had come to consider friends, family, and a lover who had been the closest thing to a marital partner he had ever had or ever thought he would have.

And as quick as it had all happened, it had all been taken away in the blink of an eye. In a flash almost and there had been nothing he could do about it because he didn't remember.

Until one day, when moving through the speed force, he did.

That's when he'd become obsessed with trying to find him — trying to find the Dick Grayson he had met and loved in another world. He could travel through time — travel to other worlds all through the speed force. It was just a matter of finding the right one. The right Gotham City with the right Dick Grayson.

He just didn't think it would take months to find.

Familiar crackle of blue lightning darting through the city, he comes to a halt in the dark streets of what appears to be a Gotham City and he takes a second to catch his breath. Not because he needs to. But because he's done this so many times now that it's getting harder some days to keep his hopes up about it. He has no idea just how many worlds or realities there are. For all he knows, there could be thousands upon thousands upon millions and he doesn't even know if he'd be able to make it to all of them for even a few minutes.

A glance behind him and he's accidentally knocked out a whole block or two of power because of his running through one timeline to another. Rubbing his chin as he pivots on his foot, he hums a bit and then frowns.

"Oh, yikes. That was... so not my intention."

[carrera]

Dick spends hours monitoring the cameras they have around Gotham for any sign that all he's working on is giving results. A sign of a door, of a speedster in Gotham, of anything out of the ordinary. Even for Gotham.

The night it happens, he's nearly asleep. Sitting in a chair where he's slept more than one night since Donna's death, pretending like everything is fine, even when he knows it isn't. It won't ever be fine until he finds Barry.

The alarm going off brings him to suddenly, heart racing, and tapping at the keyboard. Most of the city would be focusing on the sudden blackout. One that should have taken out Titan Tower's power but then they run on a different system than the city. Some might notice that too but Dick notices something else. Something bright zapping along the streets. Blue and lightning bright and his heart actually hurts in his chest wit the hope that courses through him.

He doesn't even stop as he flings himself out of the window and onto a neighboring rooftop. Running faster than he always has, dropping down out of the shadows in times to hear those words.

"What?" His voice sounds weird, even to him. What if this isn't HIS Barry? What if it wasn't Barry at all but that Pietro kid, or Bart, or anyone else? "Skipping through timelines and you didn't expect to kill the power?"

He prays that's the case, that they know what he's talking about. Because the profile looks right, but that doesn't mean it's him.