The Legends of Forever by Barry Lyga (books to read for beginners .txt) 📕

“Kinda like that,” Mick agreed, and drank again.

64

After Felicity and Oliver returned to Star City, after her father came home, Iris sat with Caitlin and Cisco in her apartment. They held hands and said very little.

Until Superman appeared through a Time Courier with White Canary and Heat Wave. Iris glared at them, then relented and sighed, sinking into Caitlin.

“I’m sorry,” Iris said. “Whatever you need, we can’t help. I’m closing S.T.A.R. Labs while we mourn.”

Superman smiled gently. “We’re not here to ask for help. We’re here to offer it.”

“What do you mean?” Cisco said.

Superman exchanged a look with Mick and Sara, then unconsciously brushed a finger along his hairline. He had told the Legion’s medical robots not to use healing radiation on this cut, so it had healed into a pale scar there as his powers returned and the broken flesh became invulnerable to medical lasers. He wanted it. Wanted it as a reminder of what he’d seen and what he’d lost.

With his hair brushed forward, it wasn’t visible. Only when he swept it back, as Clark.

“There’s still work to be done,” Sara said. “We need to track down the people who’ve been shifted from universe to universe and get them back to their homes.”

“And we need to find our missing crew members,” Mick said.

“I don’t see how this is helping Iris,” Caitlin said somewhat defensively. Her friend had been through enough. She didn’t need to be worrying about jumping through time and the Multiverse right now.

“I’m going with them,” Superman said. “Supergirl’s powers are back and she’s taking care of Earth 38. But I need to finish the job we started. I’ll be joining the Legends, in Barry’s memory. To help.”

Cisco whistled. “You’re gonna be a Legend of Tomorrow?”

Sara shook her head. “Rip Hunter named us the Legends when he first gathered us together. He told us we were hailed throughout history. Turned out to be a lie. So then he told us we had a chance to become legends. But the thing is, we have to do our work in secret. It’s become a sort of self-deprecating in-joke.

“But now . . .” she went on. “Now, well . . . We’ve been to tomorrow. And we’ve been beyond tomorrow.”

“We’re now the Legends of Forever,” Superman said. “And we’re going to heal the damage the Time Trapper did to the Multiverse. And, Iris, I swear on the memory of Krypton: If there is a way to find Barry and bring him back, we will find it.”

Iris sniffled and dabbed at her tears. “Thank you.”

“But there is one more thing.” Superman hesitated and gazed meaningfully at Cisco. “Do you want to tell her, or should I?”

Iris glared at Cisco, who ran his hands through his hair, tugging at the ends. “Oh man. Are you sure? Do you think so?”

“What?” Iris asked. “What else could there possibly be?”

“We have reason to believe that the Time Trapper sent an agent back through history,” Superman said.

“Hypothetical dominium . . .” Cisco shivered at the memory.

“An agent?” Iris asked. “Why?”

“According to what Cisco gleaned, to take revenge if he were to be defeated. We believe this agent will target you first, Iris.”

Iris laughed without mirth. “Of course.”

“But we have an answer. The Legion has established a . . . well, for lack of a better word, a safe era. It’s like a safe house, but a whole time period. Where the Trapper’s agent can’t see or go. We can take you there and keep you safe until we track it down.”

“Like a witness protection program,” Cisco breathed.

“Something like that,” Sara said. “How about it, Iris? You up for living in the future for a little while?”

Iris drew in a deep breath. “It doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice, do I?”

“Do it,” Caitlin urged her. “Stay safe. We’ll be waiting for you when you can come back.”

“Yeah,” said Cisco. “We’ll keep the lights on, coordinate with Team Arrow to keep the mad science going.” He shrugged. “And Wally will keep the speedster flame alive in Central.”

Iris chewed at her lower lip. “Can I have some time to say goodbye to some people?” she asked.

Sara chuckled and gestured to her Time Courier. “We have a time machine. Take as long as you need.”

65

Madame Xanadu strode down the hallway at S.T.A.R. Labs, turned at a certain door, opened it, and stepped through into another dimension.

Whorls of color spun around her. The door to S.T.A.R. Labs and Earth vanished.

A moment later, she heard the impossible sound of measured footsteps where there was no floor. Her associate, he who wore the fedora and the cloak and the medallion, known to humankind only as the Phantom Stranger, approached her and spoke with neither introduction nor preamble.

“It is resolved. Though not in the way we anticipated.”

“No? Barry Allen saved the Multiverses.”

“At what cost? Time has realigned. The future is in tumult.”

Madame Xanadu smiled. “Ah, but at least there is a future, my friend.”

He raised a finger to chide her, but before he could speak a word, she said, “If such as we cannot call each other friend, then who can?”

Miffed but also mollified, he offered a small shrug. “What now? What of Barry Allen? Do you truly believe this reality has no further use for him?”

Madame Xanadu sighed, then smiled. “He has run far and fast. He has earned his rest. And at long last, he now can finally stop running . . . and slow down.”

EPILOGUE

From her balcony, Iris watched the sun rise over the city of Metropolis in the mid-thirtieth century. Even with weather control technology, the night still often left her the slick surprise of dew on the balcony rail each morning.

Something in the dew spoke to her. She thought of Barry when she ran her fingers along it, drawing a lightning bolt or spelling his name. He would have understood the how and the why of dew.

She touched her belly. She wasn’t showing (not yet), but thirtieth-century medical technology had already told her that the babies she was