Work Text:
“I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you how many times we’ve ended up here,” Eobard said.
“I think I lost count a long time ago,” Barry said.
Eobard turned to face him, nodding as Barry kept the gun Eobard had left for him raised, his finger on the trigger, and didn’t shoot.
“You remember,” Eobard said.
“Not at the start,” Barry said. “Never at the start. I’ve been having these dreams. This deja vu, and at the centre of it is you.”
“I left them alive this time,” Eobard said.
“You did and I’m grateful for it. And yet here we are.”
“Here we are,” Eobard said. “At the end.”
He moved at sat on a bench, looking down at Central City sprawling out from Granite Peak, out across the river trailing lazily through, across to Keystone at to the red horizon.
Barry hesitated, then sat next to him.
“What did you do?” Barry asked.
“Would you believe me if I said I don’t remember?” Eobard asked.
“No,” Barry said.
“That it wasn’t my fault?”
“I don’t remember properly,” Barry said. “Just hazy dreams.”
“Well, you don’t have your powers yet,” Eobard said. “They try and warn you early, but they can’t reach you yet.”
“I know it’s your fault,” Barry said. “And that you never tell me what started this.”
Eobard smirked.
“I had a dream that you kept me from them almost my whole life,” Barry said.
“I did.”
“And one where I was a child and you- You tried to- To-”
Barry clenched his hair, so desperately trying to remember.
“To connect you to the Negative Speed Force first,” Eobard said. “That was so many lifetimes ago, I haven’t thought about that for centuries.”
“Why do you remember first?”
He looked so lost and Eobard took pity on him this time.
“I don’t,” Eobard said. “I get my memories in the same way as you; I just travel back to when you’re young. I give them more time to set.”
“How do we end this?” Barry asked.
“Why would you want that?”
“How many times have we done this?”
“More than I can count,” Eobard nodded.
“And every time it ends...”
Barry trailed off; guilt written across his face.
“With you killing me,” Eobard said. He fingered the gun in Barry’s lap. “You came prepared this time. I admit, I think my favourites are the ones you do it with your bare hands, but I understand you aren’t ready for that this time around.”
“But don’t you wish it could be different?”
“Barry,” Eobard said, resting a hand against his cheek.
His eyes were wide, and red, and lost.
“You’re still thinking of this like a lifetime,” Eobard said. “This isn’t our end, Barry.”
“I had- I had a wife,” Barry stuttered. “I had- I remember her but I don’t know her face, I don’t- In my dream I had children, I- Grandchildren, I had- I don’t know their names, but I hear them, I had- Don’t you hate it? Over and over you die-”
“And over and over I get a life with you,” Eobard said. “I am your one constant, Barry. Every single lifetime we spend together. You don’t need them, you have me.”
“No,” Barry said. “No, I won’t. I can’t.”
“Why would I ever want this to end?” Eobard asked. “We get to spend eternity together.”
“No,” Barry said. “I won’t kill you this time.”
“Oh, you’ve said that before,” Eobard said.
He leaned forward and stole a kiss, wrapping Barry’s fingers back around the gun in his moment of shock.
He pulled back with a smirk and Barry stubbornly threw the gun aside.
Eobard chuckled.
“Oh, Barry,” he said. “Don’t you worry.”
Eobard kissed his forehead.
“I know how to push you far enough you’ll change your mind.”