Hi, my name is Lucy Walker but some call me Zephyr.
Ripples through the timestream are occurring at an alarming rate and judging by the pain I'm feeling, it also affects me. Someone changed the timeline again and the wave of entropy is cascading through it like a tsunami, destroying everything in it's path only for a new timeline to take it's place. As a Time Cop, I'm well aware of the implications of this more than anyone else. The good news is, it won't effect the lives of the vast majority of people who have ever lived but rather only a few individuals like myself and a certain love interest of my nephew. Thanks to the changes that are happening, Linda Queen is in danger. For the sake of the future, she must survive but due to the reckless actions of someone else, entropy is threatening to consume her.
To make matters even worse, the changes in the timeline mean I won't ever come out of the Speed Force. Remaining trapped in 'heaven' isn't appealing to me since all of it is just an illusion of pure bliss. Even now I feel entropy approaching me like a shark smelling blood in the open ocean. It circles me as it senses weakness and any second it will pounce.
There is only one sensible thing left to do. Run. And thanks to my connection to the Speed Force I know how long I have before it's all over for me. It's 60 seconds until Zero Hour and I have that much time to save Linda. But how does one save her without causing a contradiction in the timestream? Go back in time and save her at every moment someone else saved her life? Then if I've always been trapped in the Speed Force, this would cause what scientists call the grandfather paradox.
There is one thing I have that works in my favor. Thanks to Alex, I'm a woman without a fate. An 'anomaly' in the timestream as it were. This is why being a Time Cop works for me since it's an advantage most don't possess. It's also the key to saving Linda. I can't go back in time and save her life every time it's put in danger but there is one thing that can be done that just might work. It's a million to one chance, but it must be taken.
As I run just a smidge past the speed of light, the timestream opens up to me like an open book. It's now possible to go to any chosen destination. But there is one event that changed Linda's life forever and that's when her mother took two bullets meant for her daughter.
55 seconds to Zero Hour...
At this speed, time itself seems to stand still and I cannot afford to slow down. Linda is found easily enough and work begins to save her from being erased from existence. If this fails, then Linda will die in the new timeline that asserts itself and she'll die an early death without ever fully realizing her true potential or meeting the love of her life, Alex.
I reach my hand out, touching her and sharing my energy with her. My goal is to transform her into a time anomaly like me in the hopes she'll remain unaffected by the changes in the timeline that is even now occurring. My miscalculation nearly costs me my life because at that moment a wave of entropy sweeps over Key City faster than light, consuming Linda and nearly myself before I can run just ahead of the roiling wave of chaos.
It should have worked! Why didn't it? Watching Linda's body being torn apart like that is something that's going to haunt me in the short time I have left.
That is when a realization comes over me and this entire approach to the problem has been wrong from the start. The symptom of this conundrum cannot be solved. It must be at the source.
52 Seconds Until Zero Hour...
Accelerating just beyond the speed of light, I enter the Speed Force and the one place that has been avoided ever since my escape from it. But there is no choice now.
This mysterious energy that my brother and I create with every step we take exists outside of normal time and space. That means there exists the possibility of meeting oneself in here from the past. It's fraught with danger, however, since this runs the risk of becoming trapped in here like before.
Sure enough, my own personal heaven forms around me in the shape of the perfect life and everything that couldn't be obtained in reality. All wishes are fulfilled, every dream realized. Happiness and contentment fill my every cell, causing me to become lost in glorious bliss and unaware this is costing me valuable time.
10 Seconds Until Zero Hour...
Something seems wrong and I try to brush it aside like a broom. It's a feeling that cannot be shaken until it takes a firm enough hold that this perfect life is seen for the illusion that it is. No goodbyes need to be said to the people here who don't exist so once more my mission takes me all over this strange dimension until I find that which will save Linda. It's a shadow of myself, constantly running and never stopping. Chasing her is no easy feat because she is capable of everything I can do. But she lacks the one thing that will make this life-saving mission a success. Determination.
3 Seconds Until Zero Hour...
Dragging my shadowy form, it's thrown to forcefully merge with my past self that had been trapped here before Alex saved me. Then, reaching with my hands, I touch her face and tell her everything she needs to do. She needs to save Linda. But she's also told that she also must do what I just did in order to erase any possible time paradox. Take that plot hole!
Zero Hour Has Arrived...
The woman that represents me from the past understands and the moment she escapes from the Speed Force to accomplish her mission, I know she will succeed. Linda Queen will now become a Time Anomaly, a woman without a fate who exists outside of time and space. It's the only way to save her. As my form begins merging with the energy surrounding me, a smile spreads over my lips. But then as my consciousness fades away one last thought comes to my mind: If I exist outside of time and space, how am I threatened by entropy consuming me? I HATE plot ho--
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A New Beginning...
As the last of the timeline changes to become a fixed state, Linda Queen becomes someone different. She's alive and well in this new timeline, but she has been transformed into something new. But at least her life has been saved by Zephyr, otherwise, the scream queen would be six feet under in a grave somewhere.
Many things remain the same just as they did before. But now Linda is older, being in her 20s now instead of a teenager. She's also a true blonde instead of the black hair she was once known by. Her face is also completely different and more importantly, she's a time anomaly much like Zephyr is. But unlike the speedster, Linda remains unaware of this fact. No longer a teen reporter, she's now an embittered vigilante, dealing out harsh punishments upon those cowardly and superstitious criminals she fights on the streets. Key City is no longer her home, having moved away from there at the age of ten. She's a different person now and some would say she's the better for it but others might say she's worse.
Never The End...
This is just the Beginning...
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