11 A Clone?

In a strange endlessly large and vast tunnel shrouded with electricity, the atmosphere ragged, displaying a hostile storm-like environment. The cause of this was the war between two factions in particular.

Their fight was so intense that it bled through the heavens themselves, to the earth, and everything in between.

Although the space of the tunnel was infinite in size and glorious in nature, the environment contained almost no life. It was as if the place had become a desolate warzone, but this part was the only thing that was to be expected. The tunnel itself was a portion of reality that existed before death. It, unlike other conceptual entities, existed at the start of existence.

"*KRKAKAKOOM*"

A gigantic black and white bolt of lightning struck the ground with a deafening boom.

But this was no mere lightning strike. It was the descent

of an entity that represented one of the opposing factions founding discourse.

"What… What is this."

A dark-skinned man in the nude lay on his back with smoke emanating from his body.

"Where…"

The man was confused. The man was lost. The man was slightly fearful of the unknown.

"No… This… I was supposed to stop existing the moment I was reabsorbed back into him… But I'm here?"

The man mentally marked his almost indecipherable new environment with his eyes of foresight trying to connect the dots together while the skies above him were raging with thunder and lightning.

"The Speed Force."

The man whispered.

The Speed Force. Origin of all speed and movement.

The spark that was responsible for igniting existence.

One of the fundamental fuels of creation.

'How did I get here? Why am I here?'

Rai looked down at his hands.

Unlike before when he'd been freshly created by Omen, now, he felt stable. He felt control over his body and lacked restrictions. His strength… foundation, they were concrete now.

His mental clarity was more refined than he could ever remember.

Standing up, Rai began to walk around getting a feel for his environment.

Moving towards one of the translucent walls of the Speed Tunnel, he realized it wasn't just any regular wall.

"Woah…"

As he glimpsed out into the distance, He saw an uncountable amount of galaxies… no… universes in a perpetual state of exploding and imploding, shattering, and coming back together once more.

In the skies, super-sized stars that varied in size and in color were as big as universes while others small as dust particles.

In Rai's words, he thought that the scene he was victim to looked as if reality itself was in the process of updating and uninstalling.

From the disappearance of celestial bodies, anyone could have guessed that something terribly wrong was happening. Of course, Rai was no exception.

"*KRAKAKAKAKOOOOOOOM*"

Roaring thunder startled Rai, causing him to jump in surprise at the booming audio.

Looking towards the direction of the racket, Rai's nerves were on high alert.

"What the…"

Before him, an army of infinite creatures made of orange-yellow electricity and nightmares were spawned out of nowhere, as if generated from the ground.

Similar to the way that the stars, galaxies, and universes varied in size, so did the creatures.

Some of them were the size of skyscrapers while others were at shin height to Rai.

There were different body frames among them that made the crowd loom like it was composed of different species.

Some individual soldiers looked like powerful wolf creatures while some soldiers even took on the appearance akin to dragons of myth.

Some lightning creatures looked like yetis while others looked like nude grotesque humanoids that lacked reproductive organs.

[DEMONIC PARASITE]

All of the creatures spoke at once as if one consciousness ruled them all. Their voices sounded inert and robotic.

"..."

Rai didn't know how to respond.

How was he expected to?

For a moment, he just started on while the crowd before him did the same. They all glared at him and even blinked in unison, which was skin-crawling to Rai considering he had no clothes on.

"*Zap*"

"Hello…"

Rai greeted while manifesting a costume with the reverse color scheme as Omen's using Speed Aura.

[YOU HAVE JEOPARDIZED EXISTENCE AS A WHOLE.]

All of their mouths moved at once similar to the way that all of them blinked at the same time. This installed in Rai's mind that he wasn't dealing with an arm, but instead, a hive.

Being accused by such words, Rai couldn't be any more perturbed.

[YOU HAVE TOYED WITH THINGS THAT ARE OUT OF YOUR GRASP.]

[YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO SINGLE-HANDEDLY BRING DOOM UPON ALL THAT IS.]

In the crowd of monsters, a child that was composed of yellow and orange lightning pushed his way forward and motioned to the same Speed Wal Rai had previously looked.

[YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO CONSUME US. BUT WE WILL NOT LET YOU.]

"What are you talking about? I've done nothing to you." Rai complained, but the army ignored him.

[YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO WARP US. BUT WE WILL FIGHT TO REMAIN.]

It appeared as if the army had already cemented its narrative. Rai could only sigh in disappointment.

[WE WILL ASSIMILATE WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN AND RETURN YOU TO NOTHING FOR YOU ARE A SINGULARITY. ONE BEING THAT SHANT REMAIN FOR THE SAKE OF ALL]

Although Rai was nervous, he had to take in as much information as he could to understand the situation at hand. Because he wasn't immediately being attacked, he silently concluded that he was temporarily safe for the time being. Attempting to ask one last question, Rai proceeded hesitantly.

"What are you?"

[YOU KNOW WELL, SPAWN OF THE PARASITIC. WE ARE WHAT YOU CRAVE TO BECOME.]

'With them appearing so suddenly knowing where my exact location was, I could only assume they're the combined consciousness of the Speed Force.' Rai concluded.

Using his deduction skills and all of the memories he received from Omen, this was what he came up with.

Starting with the environment men, Rai had seen it in video games and had seen it in comics. With the actions that it had chosen to take and the way it spoke, this was definitely the Speed acting on a will of its own.

The Speed Force was Rai's current location, but the Speed Force itself was a concept that had spoken to its avatars from time to time, as he recalled.

Due to Omen, Rai was now one of these avatars.

But the Speed Force had no will in the matter of avatar selection this time around. It being so upset only made sense.

Through Speed Thinking, Rai tried to come up with more theories on what the being was but he deduced it to be the will of the Speed Force the most probable.

"I had no goal to steal anything from you. My intention was simply to borrow a portion of your power. With that being said, how was I supposed to know you'd get so offended. I didn't even know that you were capable of formulating thought to this extent."

[LIES. YOU HAVE STOLEN AND TAKEN THE PLACE OF THE PRIME. YOU KNEW WELL OF THE CONSEQUENCES THAT FOLLOWED YOUR ACTIONS.]

'The prime? Is it talking about Barry? If it is, it's not like I stole the Speed of Barry from Earth Prime…so why is it so upset?'

Earth Prime was the main DC Universe in the comic books Rai recollected in his memories. It was the epicenter of all events throughout the DC world. Everything in existence revolves around it. Was the Speed Force trying to Claim that The CW Flash was the Prime Barry instead of the Comic one? If that was the case, to Rai, this was outright laughable.

But Rai had the sneaking suspicion that that wasn't what the Speed force was implying. Instead, it was most likely referring to Barry Allen as a concept rather than an individual.

[YES. THE ORIGINAL.]

Confirming his suspension, The Speed Force answered without words escaping from Rai's mouth. This made him raise a brow of suspicion.

'So you can read my mind?'

[WITH EASE.]

"Okay… Well…What happens now? Yeah, I stole, but how are we going to move past this? I can't just give you back what essentially is the basis of my life now..."

[YOU CAN AND YOU WILL, THIEF.]

"If you want to get technical, I'm not even the person who took from you. That was Omen. I'm Rai."

In fairness, Rai was telling the truth. Although he shared memories, he and Omen extrapolated through conversation that they couldn't be regarded as the same individuals anymore. They thought separately.

[YOU WERE MADE FROM OUR STOLEN POWER.]

The child leading the Speed Force Army then stood before all the others.

[YOU SHALL BECOME A PART OF US ONCE MORE.]

With those menacing words, Rai frowned.

Just minutes ago, he thought that he was about to be wiped from existence forever once he melded with Omen. Now, with the realization that he could on live through the Speed Force, he was given new hope. A new chance.

But the entity before him wished to snatch away his only opportunity to live. It wanted Rai to become a means to an end. Was he supposed to sit still and allow himself to become docile prey destined for consumption?

He could think. He could hear. He could breathe. He could feel. He could see. For all intensive purposes, he was now a real boy. He couldn't stand by and allow himself to be killed off like a side character.

"No. I won't."

Rai uttered. With those words, the child began to smile creepily enough to send a shiver down his spine.

[WE FIND IT ENTERTAINING THAT YOU THINK THAT YOU HAVE A CHOICE IN THE MATTER.]

With a serious expression, Rai spoke.

"I find it entertaining that you think that you can bait me into believing otherwise."

[ELABORATE.]

The smile disappeared from the child's face.

"Don't you think the weather looks a little bit odd today?"

Rai asked while pointing upwards.

[...]

The sky had raging electrical currents running through it. White, black, and yellow electricity waged war above Rai and the Speed Force.

While the white and black lightning seemed to dance in unison, the yellow electricity seemed to be aggressive, attacking the other two as if seeking blood, which was a strange statement to think considering the fact that lightning didn't usually act sentient.

Rai took it into consideration that two colors of three lightning entities that rumbled through the floors and that sang in the skies matched the exact shade of lightning that flowed behind him with every step he took. Because of the Speed Force taking so long to take action, Rai could safely assume that during the conversation, he was getting sized up.

The environment itself looked to be in shambles, So it was safe to assume that the Speed Force wasn't in the position to make threats.

[YOU INSOLENT FIGMENT. WE SHALL BE YOUR DEMISE.]

Without another word, all of the Speed Force Army began to run forward.

Already sensing the hostile environment, Rai was ready and turned away instantly.

"*KRAKAKAKOOM*"

Rai began to run as fast as he could away from the army which was hot on his trail.

'Okay… Think… Think.'

Focusing his Speed Force energy, he tried to create a strong mental barrier so that the Speed Force could no longer pry inside his head. He had no idea whether or not his attempt of creating the new skill was going to work, but it was his best bet in guarding himself.

He looked to his left and his rights for any opportunity of an escape route, but he could find nothing. All that was presented before him was the ever-changing cosmic beyond on one tunnel wall, and a mysterious blue wall on the opposing side.

'I don't think I can escape by phasing through either of these pathways.'

While beyond one wall showed all of the conceivable multiverses, the other showed anomalous blue tides of light.

Upon inspecting the blue wall closer, while still in motion he realized that images started to manifest themselves like a movie the deeper he stared into it.

These images were something Rai had only seen in fictional venues like comics and cartoons… but now, they were almost tangible.

Within the blue waves, he witnessed depictions and moments from alternative timelines and dimensions.

He saw different eras of humanity... Alternative versions of humankind.

In some scenarios, a human was just a loose description of what the prime creatures of the era had become.

From his glimpse into the infinite, he was able to witness different species that managed to evolve at the forefront of the food chain, stealing the spotlight of humans as the crafters of civilization. There were worlds that were governed by littoral apes. There were worlds that had been conquered by strange fish-people hybrids. So forth and so on.

Rai saw worlds of nightmare and apocalypse. He also peered at worlds of fantasy and myth.

Worlds filled with magic and worlds filled with the undead. Worlds with heroes like Batman and Superman... Worlds galore.

Among them, there were even worlds where humanity was able to advance their technology and science so far that they were indistinguishable in comparison to gods.

Among others, there were worlds where blood, death, and disarray were the common mantras of intelligent species. As such, groups of people, and what Rai perceived to be aliens, fought endlessly and lived by the philosophy of the strong overtaking the weak.

Out of hundreds of thousands of lifetimes that he observed all at once, never did he see himself among any of them.

This brought him great confusion as there was an individual he had known who supposedly studied the same ocean that he had peered into. During his time of discovery, he witnessed countless versions of himself, but Rai couldn't for some reason.

Unfortunately, Rai couldn't ponder on why this was. He was far too busy dodging lightning bolts aimed at his person.

As he was relentlessly dodging and ducking, he came to the culmination, that perhaps, phasing through the wall of time was an optimal decision. But seeing as he had his back against a wall, he continued theorizing.

As he gazed rearward, it looked as if that was exactly what the Speed Armada wanted from him. He could tell even with the lack of facial expression in the figures on his pursuit.

Rai didn't think that an entity of such power would ever show its emotions so openly, but it was almost like he could read the intentions of the Speed Force, and he didn't intend on following its path.

It was then that he ruled out the possibility of jumping through a random point in the time stream completely.

'No… There has to be a way to get away from them… if that wasn't the case, then they would have already caught up to me.'

He was inside of the Speed Force. It wanted to consume his existence. But for whatever reason, it didn't immediately strike him as odd. He knew for a fact that he hadn't been able to reach anything close to lightspeed, yet, he was able to outrun the Speed Force?

This led him to believe that whatever was happening throughout the Speed Tunnel had prevented it from having complete control over its environment, which was essentially its body.

'Maybe it's because I'm a parasite like it said before? No... It's ridiculously weaker than what it's supposed to be. Maybe, just maybe I'm something more akin to cancer that's feeding off of it unconsciously.'

'Either that, or it has its attention split towards something else... even then, it still doesn't make sense how I'm still not dead yet.'

***

Rai had run endlessly and aimlessly. He didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like days. Perhaps weeks. He continued to run for fear of what could be if he ended up in the palms of the Speed Force.

'It won't give up... I mean, I get it, but damn.'

It was relentless. As long as Rai existed, It wouldn't rest until he was dead.

***

{Run}

A month passed. Perhaps multiple. Rai had gotten into a physical altercation with the Speed Force after getting fed up with running. This was a horrid mistake that almost resulted in his own death. He assumed that because the Speed Force was divided so much that it would have individual pieces that were valuable to attack... that very much was not the case.

When he attempted physical combat with just one figment of the armada, Rai realized that each soldier matched his strength, speed, and agility. His frontal assault almost ended in his death. Death would have been the result if it weren't for strange lightning that appeared out of the sky allowing Rai to escape with his life.

He didn't know how it happened or why it happened, but he continued to race.

***

He didn't know how much time had passed, but the Speed Force continued to pursue him. At a certain point I didn't know what to do anymore. He was facing the embodiment of movement. He couldn't beat it no matter how fast he ran or how hard he fought. His running was starting to take a mental toll on him.

***

'How long is this god damn tunnel?'

{Keep running}

'What?' Rai was confused as a voice different than his own echoed in his head. Turning around, There was no one except the Speed Army.

He could have sworn that he heard a voice, but he didn't have the luxury of spending time to analyze it. He just continued to move.

***

{Keep going, kid.}

With unlimited stamina, Rai could run forever in the Speed Force. The problem arrived when it came to his mental condition. He was starting to hear multiple voices in his head on the daily. He would try to converse with them, but there was never a reply.

'They're not real… just run.'

***

{Just a few more days now. All 3 of us are here, waiting.}

Waiting? What was the voice talking about? Why was it waiting? And who were the 3 people?

'Alright… if these really are people, they seem a whole lot friendlier than the monsters behind me. I'll keep going for now... I'd rather risk my chance with them.'

Ray had settled his mind. He had decided to acknowledge the benefactors in his head as guides. What was the use in ignoring them when they seemed to be encouraging him to continue?

***

It had now been 3 days since Rai was last contacted by the mysterious figures. As per usual, he was running for his life on a footpath that had no discernable end. If it weren't for the ever-so-changing constellations he ran past, he would have assumed he wasn't moving at all and instead was running, losing his sanity in an endless hell of running.

[STOP!]

'Well, that's uncharacteristic.' Rai thought as he turned around to see the screaming Speed Force.

'And it's also a good sign.'

Rai smirked.

Nerve before had his advisory sounded panicked.

Today, that changed. After so much time passing, Rai and the Speed Force kept silent and didn't bother speaking with one another. Rai didn't plan on getting eaten, and the Speed Force didn't seem to get less hungry.

"Fuck you."

Rai stated while flipping his middle finger to the Force.

He was getting closer. He didn't know what to do, but he was.

"*wosh-wosh-wosh*"

With every swing of his arms, he felt like he was getting closer to the promised land.

[YOU TRAITORS! GIVE HIM TO US!]

The Speed Force screamed, but to no avail.

"*WARP*"

A yellow portal spawned before Rai which summoned a bit of hesitation, but he pushed those thoughts to the back of his head.

He had no other choice but to trust what was in front of him.

Diving in headfirst, for a brief moment, Rai felt like the gravity around him had increased by a hundred times.

"*WARP*"

As Rai stared behind him, he saw the Speed Force standing still, realizing their pursuit was for naught.

He could feel the anger that permeated off of it as if informing him that this was not the end.

"*KRAKAKAKAKOOOOOOOM*"

With perpetual lightning strikes, the Speed Armada disappeared the same way they came. As they did, the portal that encapsulated Rai closed, teleporting him to a different location.

***

"*Warp*"

Falling to the ground, Rai got to his feet, quickly processing the situation. He was surrounded by 3 people who sat in a lotus position.

'No way...'

His eyes widened in disbelief.

"It's about time you made it, champ."

Remarked a man with a hat similar to the Greek messenger god, Hermies. He wore a red long-sleeved T-Shirt with a large yellow lightning bolt that climbed to the center of his chest. It did nothing to hide his bulging muscles as he looked like he would tear through it at any moment. He wore blue jeans that looked barely broken in.

He looked to be only in his early 20s but judging from the authority and base in his voice, one could only assume that he was far older.

Getting up and shaking the starstruck Rai's hand the man gave an award-winning smile.

'Jay Garrick...'

This wasn't just any version of Jay Garrick, This was the Jay Garrick that Rai knew from comic books he had read as a child. The mentor of comic book Barry Allien. The first man to dawn the hero mantle of the Flash. This time, he was in the flesh.

He even had on the same iconic red boots that Rai remembered so well.

"It took him long enough."

This time, the voice came from none other than the man known as Max Mercury. A hero that Rai didn't know too much about on a personal level, but knew that he was the number intelligence of speed for knowledge. He had trained the likes of Wally West, Barry Allen, and Bart Allen on becoming one with the Speed Force.

His teachings were what inspired Omen to discover Speed Force meditation. It was fair to say that without the teachings of Max Mercury, Omen, and by proxy, Rai wouldn't have had a fraction of the knowledge they were equipped with.

"You're the new young buck, Omen, Right?"

Asked a man dawning the hero name, Johnny Quick. He was also known by the name Jonathan Chambers. A mathematical genius who was responsible for discovering the Speed Force formula on Earth-Two after being inspired by Jay Garrick's Heroics.

With the version of the formula he discovered in the comics, his brain somehow gained the capability of tapping into a higher dimension. That dimension being the 4th, Time itself.

3x2(9yz)4a

To Omen, this was just a worthless mathematical problem that he had used to attempt to call upon the Speed Force but failed to do so.

Omen never discovered the reason he failed to activate the Speed Force through means of the equation. He chalked his failure up to the comics not being completely accurate. Johnny Quick who sat before Rai was evidence of that case scenario being false. To Johnny, this was the gateway to discovering the Speed Force.

Jonny wore a red and yellow leotard that made him appear like a gymnast. His eyes were covered by a black mask that exposed his nose, ears, mouth, and blonde hair while he had a symbol of two bird wings on his chest.

Taking a moment to gather himself, Rai properly introduced himself.

"I'm not necessarily Omen. I just have all of his memories. I'm Rai, something like a Speed Clone. And that's the name he gave me."

At Rai's words, they all looked at him confused.

"What are you talking about, Kid? You're not a clone."

Max challenged.

"Hmm?"

Rai was confused. If they knew of Omen, it only made sense that they knew of Rai. Rai assumed that these Godlike Speedsters had been watching his every action from the Speed Force. Did he presume too early?

"My friend Jonny here misspoke, that's all."

Rai was sure of the intentions Omen had while making him. He was positive that he was a Speed Clone that lacked the integrity needed to remain on earth. He thought that this was the reason he couldn't stay.

Max nodded his head and continued.

"You and Omen may share the same memories, but when he made you, we were all there, watching from here… In this, Speedster heaven of sorts."

"Down to every attosecond. We monitor all of time, making sure the Speed Force stays intact."

Jay added.

"We are its guardians, in a way."

In the comics, Jay, Max, And Johnny were all people who had merged with the Speed Force. The source material they came from didn't depict their accolades while merged, so their referring to themselves as guardians of the Speed Force came as a surprise to Rai.

"What does a guardian do?" Rai asked.

"Well, we watch the observable multiverse, making sure that the integrity of the Speed Force doesn't get compromised by outside forces." Said Max.

"So, you essentially work as the Speed Force's immune system?"

"It's more complex than that... but in essence, yes."

"Then... What does that mean for me... The Speed Force itself called me a parasite. Shouldn't you be working alongside it to wipe me out? I mean, when I ran through that tunnel for I don't know how long, It seemed as if I had some form of impact on it... A detrimental one at that, judging by how aggressive that army was."

Rai had a feeling the three individuals surrounding him didn't have any intentions of attacking him, but he needed confirmation.

Jay shook his head at my words.

"Let's get something clear. That thing out there, it's not the Speed Force. It's a wild irrational animal that's throwing a temper tantrum."

The beings that pursued Rai were something he couldn't imagine beating by himself, or at all even. The number of them was just far too vast.

Max interjected.

"As you've concluded moments ago, we are similar to what is the virtual equivalent to the Speed Force's immune system. What that means is that our obligations are to handle things like time paradoxes and crises on a multi-dimensional scale. Crisis That the beings out there are causing as we speak."

At this point, Rai was distressed. He had no idea where he stood in all of this. Before he asked any more questions, he first had to know more about himself first.

"I have the memories of being created by Omen. From the first few blinks I took, I was under the impression that I was a clone. Especially after knowing that Omen had intentions of making one."

"I understand your thought process but it's misguided...

When Omen was executing the procedure of creating you, he unknowingly stretched his arms all the way to the core of the Speed Force, grabbing its most primal and powerful energy... It's core. This core essentially functioned as the Speed Force's nervous system."

Max voiced while motioning to his heart.

"Once he had a hold, he forcibly and brutally snatched its foundation apart creating a pseudo soul that he imparted his memories upon, birthing you. This brung even more havoc than he intended. A worse havoc than when he became the Prime." Max finished.

"What... What's a Prime?"

Rai felt like his head was about to explode due to the influx of information being thrown at him so suddenly.

"The question should be whom... The answer was previously Barry Allen but now, it's Omen."

"..."

Paying attention astutely, Rai mentally jotted.

"The Prime is a generator. To be exact, He's the being who provides the Speed Force with life… He is the Heartbeat. That's what Barry Allen once was, and it's what Omen is now. That means with every footstep he takes, he generates the Speed Force along with it, powering the nervous system further."

Rai had already known this information but lacked the vocabulary and a few details. He had read the comics which describe something about Barry generating Speed, but they said nothing about a Prime.

"So... I've essentially become the Speed Force itself... or its nervous system which means that I'm its brain. and I'm powered by Omen."

"Not just him, but all Speedsters on a smaller scale. And in return, you power us."

"Can I hear more about Omen being the prime, please?"

"Sure."

Johnny Nodded.

"Omen, as Prime, became the creator of the Speed Force when he intercepted the bolt of lightning that struck Barry Allen. That bolt had set off a chain reaction that affected every Barry Allen throughout time and space, making them secondaries just like us guardians. When this happened, it effectively meant that reality had to go through an updating process that would have transformed every reality's version of Omen into fellow Primaries just like himself. This, in turn, meant the temporary destruction of all so that it was reconstituted around him."

"All of... what, exactly?"

"No, I mean All. As in everything. All things and beings in reality that moved. They all were destroyed."

Rai's jaw slackened. Johnny's words meant that Omen had killed the world quadrillions of times over again.

That left him to think momentarily about his actions.

'The other me is technically worse than every reality's version of Hitler combined... That's kinda fucked up when I think about it... Even more, fucked knowing that I would do it all over again.'

"But as the multiverse was being rebuilt, something that we failed to realize happened. We discovered too late that Omen… is a cosmic singularity."

"A what? What does that even entail?"

"It means that throughout all time and space. He is finite… Only one of him in existence," Jay stated.

"How is that possible?"

"Possibilities are endless. Anything can happen in this strange world... With that being said, rarely do singularities like Omen manifest. They are essentially glitches in creation that pop up out of nowhere for no particular reason at all."

"His kind are few and are usually beings that are confined by their own dimensions or planets. Some of them go on to become gods of concept, while others live the lifespan of their given species and die, being lost in oblivion forever. He, however, is a singularity among singularities. He is one of the only rare cases where someone actually managed to bypass the Source Wall."

Max chimed in.

'The Source Wall?'

In the DC Universe, the Source Wall was the barrier between the DC universe and the Source. From Rai's memory, the Source was never explained in the comics to detail of note, but it was theorized to hold the secrets to all of existence and was located at the edge of the Promethean Galaxy.

It spanned across the entirety of the multiverse and anyone who quested to go beyond by navigating around it or flying under it was doomed to spend an entirety traveling. It was just that astronomically ample.

"I'm guessing you don't know how?"

Rai asked.

"How could we? Singularities don't have a past or a future. They can't be tracked through the time stream. On top of that, we can't observe beyond the source. We're only secondaries."

"Then how did you know Omen came from beyond the Source Wall?"

"Because his vibrational frequency matches that of the beings who are entrapped in the wall."

"How were you able to detect that?"

"By feeling for it." Max nodded.

"Feeling for it? Feeling for what?"

Rai asked.

"Time here flows much differently than it does anywhere. In fact, it doesn't flow at all. The Speed Force is what allows for time to be a concept in the first place so it can't be bound by anything or anyone except for the Prime. With that being said, our days here have outnumbered the days of the universes from which we've originated."

"Because of that, we have long since mastered and grasped an understanding of what the Speed Force was and how to utilize its powers. One of those powers is to differentiate the vibrations between separate entities. If I were to break it down on a human level, It's like being able to see from far away distances or having an enhanced sense of smell."

"... Alright... So Omen is one of these singularities... but how is that a problem?"

This time, Johnny spoke.

"Because there were no alternative versions of Omen within the Multiverse, the Multiverse ended up continuously self-destructing 30 times because of a lack of alter egos. When It couldn't find more Primes, The Speed Force defaulted back to Barry as a Temporary. The problem with this was, the Speed Force being the unique concept it is, it concentrated its excess energy from all the explosions and formed a consciousness."

"This consciousness decided that in order to regulate the dangers of having to depend on a Singularity for its existence, it would act like white blood cells getting rid of foreign bodies within its system. That foreign body being Omen... But because Omen became fixed as the Primary while also being a Singularity, this made him a Paradox. One that the Speed Force was struggling to combat... Because it couldn't determine the best way to get rid of the Paradox, it began to destroy as much of the multiverse as it could so Omen's dominance wouldn't be able to spread."

"The problem with this was that no matter how much it destroyed, it would never be able to return things back to how they once were. This was because Omen had effectively become the Speed Force's Father for a lack of better terminology. This meant that the Speed Force started to disobey its own rules, creating the grandfather paradox." Johnny summarized

"The Speed Force would have been fine. The universes would have been okay. The timeline would have been good... but the Speed Force consciousness was stubborn and decided it was either its way or the highway."

Putting his hand to his chin, Rai pondered.

"So... The Speed conscious is suicided bombing the multiverse on loop... That's what was happening outside, Right?" Rai deduced.

"Exactly... The worst part is that it won't listen to reason. It only responds to reasoning with violence. That violence is the reason all of the reality is losing its durability."

"The white blood cells turned into cancer... The Speed Force is trying to kill itself." Rai mumbled.

"Precisely..." max nodded with a melancholy expression

Jay then took his hat off and looked at Rai sincerely.

"Even though we've been locked inside of this place for so long... even though we can barely be considered human anymore... That does not change the fact that we still have loved ones we care very much for. Watching the Speed Force murder them over and over again on repeat starts to weigh in on you after a while, no matter how much you attempt to detach from emotions."

"I agree... it hurts seeing your daughter being born over and over again just to watch the molecules be ripped from her body because the Speed Force wills it."

At his words, Rai began feeling bad for the Speedsters. They had been living in a constant hell for an incalculable amount of time because of the actions Omen took... The Action he took.

"I'm... Sorry."

Rai had no other words he could say. What was done, was done.

"It's fine. Because we now have you."

"What can I do?"

Rai was still curious as to why they allowed him to live. He was responsible for all of this. It would be much simpler for them to just feed him to the Speed Force, but they choose not to.

"Because you're going to make up for it."

Jay said with a serious look in his eyes as he put his helmet back on.

"How would I do that?"

"By becoming the main and only consciousness to The Speed Force." Max declared with a stern look.

"Though it is true that we are in this predicament because of Omen, with the revelation of the Speed Force acting so rashly, we deemed that the possibility of something happening was only a matter of metaphorical time. Omen's actions just brought light to that."

"With you being a consciousness derivative of the Speed Force, That makes you Special. So special that you are the only one capable of taking over the remainder of the consciousness."

"... You all want me to go to war with the Speed Force?"

With that, all three of them nodded.

"Seeing as you are literally a newborn compared to us, We intend on passing down to you, everything we know."

Johnny stated.

'It doesn't seem like they are giving me a choice in the matter... but that's fine. Even though it probably doesn't mean much, through working with them, I will probably get rid of this miserable craving that I have to get stronger.'

"Okay... where do I start?"

Rai had to be ready if he was going to fight the Speed Force. And that, he was.