Timelines

The Man:

Putting my head through the portal, I look left and right and see him fighting against Nightwing. Jumping back as Nightwing swings his batons, he lands on his invisible feet and swipes Nightwing's legs. He knocks Nightwing down but only for a second.

Spinning on the floor, Nightwing jumps back onto his feet. He backs away, not realizing he's backing toward me. Waiting until the right moment, until Nightwing is side by side with the portal, I shoot out my fist, hitting Nightwing and knocking him into a wall and down onto the floor.

"Hey," I shout, waving my fingers. "We're done here! We need to leave! Now!"

He shakes his head and points at Nightwing. He takes a step toward Nightwing but I pull out a kunai and throw it at his feet, stopping him.

"I know you two have unfinished business," I say, looking between him and Nightwing, "But now is not the time. We have to go."

He looks at me and then at Nightwing, before turning back to me. His shoulders drop as he sighs and runs over to me. Following me through the portal, he jumps into the base's meeting room. The second he's through, I close the portal. Dropping to my knee, I pick up the teleporter.

"I can't believe you lost your teleporter," I say, pocketing my teleporter. "Idiot."

The Doc sighs as his head falls onto the palms of his hands.

"I can't believe it either," the Doc says. He then slaps himself in the head over and over again. "How could I lose it?"

I shrug my shoulders and look around the base.

"You," I start, counting in my head. "Ares. Ivy. Cold. Flash. Slade. Red. Constantine. Stein. Rusch. Reyes. Dinah. Harleen. Kara. Yeah. I think that's everyone."

I look at Doc and Iris as they help Slade and Red with their injuries.

"I still can't believe you're a doctor," Red says while Doc wraps his arm in some bandage. "Ouch! Hey, watch it! I need that arm."

"Then stop moving," Doc answers. "Those darn One Earth soldiers. They sure did a number on you and Mr. Slade."

"Oh please," Slade says, stretching his fingers after Iris is finished wrapping his hands. "I've taken worst hits from Batman. What those guards did. It was nothing."

I think back to when Slade screamed and begged during his interrogation.

"Sure," I say. "Whatever you want to believe."

Slade looks at me but once again, I shrug my shoulders. I turn around and open one of the infirmary's cabinets. Grabbing some medical supplies, I join Doc and Iris in tending to the others.

"Stay still," I say, placing an ice bag on Harleen's shoulder. She flinches as soon as I place it but I keep her still. "Easy. You don't need to be a doctor to know a purple shoulder is a bad thing."

Harleen moans a little but keeps the ice bag against her shoulder. Afterward, I go over to Cold and Ivy. Strangely, Cold doesn't seem to anger. Especially considering the last time we were face-to-face and he pointed his cold gun at me.

"Nothing to say," I ask, handing Cold a water bottle.

"Nothing to say," Cold answers, staring at the floor.

"Leave him alone," Ivy says, taking the water bottle out of my hand.

"Sure. I will but only after I examine you two."

"We're fine," Ivy says. She tries to push me away but I stay where I am.

"Just a quick examination. That's all."

I expected Cold to put up a fight but he raised his head and looked at me.

"Yeah. Fine. Whatever. Let's go this over with."

I nod before holding a small flashlight against Cold's eyes.

"Follow the light."

Cold nods and follows the light. Seeing him follow the light, and how his pupils are reacting to it, I switch the light for a rubber hammer.

"Now for your reflexes."

Gently tapping Cold's knee, his knee jumps a little. I give Cold a nod and switch to Ivy. I check her pupils and her reflexes. Seeing that they're fine as well, I finally leave Ivy and Cold alone.

"I still don't get it," Dinah says, her hand on her shaking head. "How did all of you not get affected by the 'time change'? And how did Slade and Jason even get in here? They weren't with us before. Right?"

"Right," Oliver says. Using his bow as a walking stick, Oliver walks over to Dinah and hands her a water bottle. He then sits down next to her. As Oliver sits down, he moans slightly.

"I told you it's still too early for you to be moving," I say. I shake my head as I walk over to Oliver to look him over.

"I feel fine," Oliver lies. I shake my head again and poke Oliver in the arm. Despite my light poke, Oliver jumps into the air.

"Ouch! Hey!"

"You don't know what fine means, do you?"

I drop to my knee in front of Oliver and reach into one of my jacket pockets. Pulling out a small glass bottle with a blue potion, I give it to Oliver. While Oliver drinks the potion, I turn to Dinah.

 "To answer your questions," I start, "The reason everyone wasn't affected by the time change is because when it happened, Ivy, Beetle, Flash, and everyone was inside the base. They were shielded from it."

"This base isn't affected by the Lords of Order magic?"

"No, it's not."

"But wait," Kara says from across the room. "I can't be completely sure, but if I remember this right, weren't you outside the base when the time change hit us? Why weren't you affected by it?" 

"It's because I don't exist in time and space."

"What," everyone all asks. "What does that even mean? You don't exist in time and space? How is that even possible?"

I checked Dinah before putting my light and hammer back into my medical kit. Standing up, I clap my hands together before spreading them out. Making a timeline, I show it to everyone.

"Think of this as time and space," I start. I then tap a few spots on the timeline. "These right here are events in all of your lives. Let's say this is when Professor Stein and Jason Rusch first fused and became Firestorm. This right here is when Jaime got his scarab. This dot, it's when Oliver got stranded on that island."

I move to a certain dot closer to the end of the timeline.

"This, as much as we want to forget about it, is when the first Metropolis was nuked. It's also the start of when Superman started to take over."

I see some people frown when I say this. The Doc especially. He looks away.

"Anyway, this is how all of you see time, right? Well, this is how time and space work for me."

I flick the timeline, turning it on its side. I then grab the timeline and pull it apart, making another separate timeline. On this timeline, I tap a single dot.

"This is my timeline. I exist only on this timeline. I don't exist on the other timeline with all of you. That's why the time change didn't affect me."

It seems everyone isn't frowning anymore. Instead, all their eyes are stuck on the two timelines.

"You're not joking," Reverse Flash says, walking up to the timelines. "Are you?"

"You really do exist outside of time and space," Professor Stein says, joining Reverse Flash. He adjusts his glasses to see the two timelines better. "This whole base too. It exists outside of time and space. Incredible."

I smile as I tap the dot on my timeline. Moving up, I draw a line up to the other timeline, linking the two.

"I have no past or future here. I only exist in the present. Only in this one second. Right here. If you were to travel back in time, back to the beginning of this conversation, you would see everyone staring at an empty spot."

I decide to shut up and give everyone a minute or two to understand what I am saying.

"Oh, and as for Slade, Jason, Constantine, and Ares. Constantine and Ares used their own magic to shield themselves. Shortly afterward, I found them. I then found Slade and Jason. They weren't as affected by the time change as the rest of you. It seems the Lords were only interested in changing your timelines, not theirs. Okay, I have someone else I need to check on. Doc. Iris. I'm sure you two can handle the rest. See you soon."

With that being said, I leave the medical kit with Doc and leave the infirmary. I walk down the hallway and into a second infirmary. There, in the second infirmary, is Zatanna lying in one of the incubators.

Walking over to the incubator with Zatanna, I check her heart rate. It shows 90 beats a minute. Despite the slow heartbeat, I know Zatanna is still very active. Her mind is moving non-stop.

"Reprehendo Mens," I chant, checking her mind. I check Zatanna's mind and I am right. Even in a near-comma state, she is still using her magic to fight the Lords. At the moment, she's using both telepathy and astral projection magic to shield us, keep us in hiding.

I hold one set of fingers in front of me and the other set of fingers in front of Zatanna.

"Calm down Zatanna," I say through telepathic. "This place is shielded. The Lords of Order cannot, and will not, find us here. We are safe. Rest now."

As I open my eyes and pull back my hands, I turn around.

"What do you want?"

"There's a second infirmary," Reverse-Flash asks, walking in.

"In total, there are 56 infirmaries in here. All fully stocked and well equipped. I do planned to build more however."

"Of course you will," Reverse-Flash says. "Listen, I'm not going to lie. When you first told me you could get me back to 2151, I thought you were just bullshi--"

Raising my hand, Reverse-Flash steps back.

"Mocking," Reverse-Flash corrects. "I thought you were just mocking me but you weren't. You can cheat time."

"I wouldn't call it cheating time. I just know a few tips and tricks."

"Call it what you want, but you really can get me back. Despite being a paradox, despite my ancestor dying, I can really go back to my time. Can't I?"

"I don't lie, Speedy. There's really no point in doing so. Keep your end of the deal and I'll keep mine. You help us bring down Superman and his One Earth government and I'll help get you back to 2151."

"Deal."