A/N: Had this idea in that creative state halfway between being asleep and awake. This will be a three-shot, which includes names and elements from my other YJ Futureverse stories, but you don't really need to have read those in order to enjoy this piece.

-Trscribe

Chapter 1

"Okay, boys," Don sighed, sinking into a crouch in front of where his sons sat on the sofa. "Your mom and I need to explain something to you, about the first Bart Allen."

Both little Bart and Thad, ages nine and seven, exchanged a confused glance. "He died just before I was born, right?" The brunette asked nervously.

"Sort of, sweetheart." Their mom Meloni said as she came over to stand beside her husband. "But for this story, we need to go back a lot further in time... To another timeline entirely, in fact."

"You see, your Uncle Bart wasn't really your uncle at all. He was a time traveller, one from a future where a nasty group of aliens called the Reach took over Earth."

"Why didn't the League stop 'em?" Thad piped up.

"They tried, kiddo, but the Reach were sneaky. They pretended to be Earth's friends, did a lot of things that seemed good at first, but turned out to be their method of getting inside and enslaving humanity." Don held up his hands to forestall the alarmed questions on the boys' faces. "It all turned out okay in the end, but you need to let me get there first, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy."

"Right... So, in the original timeline, the Reach won. They used their technology to brainwash metahumans into serving them, and turned the rest of the world into slaves and science experiments. The heroes had been the first to fall, the villains not long after them, but there were still a handful of people who resisted. Among them was the first Bart. He was the last speedster, since the rest of his family had all been killed or put 'on mode', turned into monsters."

The pair of brothers each gulped, scooting over on the sofa so that they were sitting as close together as they could.

"When he was thirteen, a few of those other rebels came up with a plan to change everything - they built a time machine, and used it to send Bart back to a point where he could stop the Reach invasion before it began."

"A real time machine, Daddy?" Thad gasped.

"Yep, as real as the Watchtower. And it worked, too. Bart made it back to the year twenty fifteen, and while he pretended to just be a tourist at first, he started doing a lot of backstage stuff to save lives and sabotage the Reach. There were a few setbacks here and there, and eventually he had to tell other heroes with the Team and League why he'd really come back in time, but in the end they won. The Reach were kicked out, the Earth was saved, and Bart got to see people he'd known in the future grow up happy instead of enslaved."

"What happened then?"

"Well... Time went on. Bart got older along with his friends and teammates, and was the best babysitter and teacher your Aunt Dawn and I could have ever had." Don smiled at memories of running over oceans and playing in the Watchtower, always with his 'Uncle' Bart hovering in the background even when his dad and cousin Wally were busy. "He was even the one to introduce me to your mom. But as the two of us fell in love and got married, Bart started getting slower and having health problems. While your mom was pregnant with you, Bart, your namesake spent more and more time in the Watchtower medical ward - he was literally fading away. Then came the day you were born..."

Realizing where this was going, the nine year old's eyes grew wide.

"Your mom has never made me so happy to be her husband when she insisted on having you in the next room over, so that as soon as you came out, I could take you over to where Bart was... He got to hold you, just for a minute, before he disappeared right in front of me."

"He was me," the boy whispered. "That's why..."

"The scary dreams you've been having lately." Don said solemnly. "We don't think they're dreams - they're memories of Bart's early years in a Reach-controlled world."

-3LBA-

"We should go hang out with Jenni this weekend." Bart said, hanging upside down off the side of his brother's bed while the younger boy worked on his science project on the floor.

Thad snorted. "We hang out with Jenni all the time. Or if not her, then Raegan and Tommy, or Darren and Melissa. Why don't we ever do stuff with our other friends?"

"We do do stuff with the others-"

"Missions don't count, Bart!" Frowning, the brunette flipped over to glare at the back of his brother's blonde head.

"What's the matter with you? Every time I make a suggestion lately, you're shooting it down!"

"Oh, not enjoying when someone doesn't automatically agree with you, oh great Bart Allen?" The ten year old snorted.

"Ex-cuse me?"

"Well, I apologize for not falling at your feet, great savior of humanity." Thad snapped, grabbing up his project supplies and storming out of the room. "But maybe I prefer to hang out with people who actually give a flip over what I'm thinking!"

Stunned, Bart couldn't bring himself to move for a while, wondering what the hell had gotten into his little brother.

-3LBA-

The mission was going poorly. Not only were there twice the number of soldiers expected, but most of them had Speed-nullifying weaponry of a type that could knock a speedster on his rear and keep him there.

"Inertia, Impulse, get out of the way!" Arrowette yelled at the brothers, never stopping her barrage of shots into the enemy ranks. Their cousin Darren McGinnis, Kid Flash, had already been taken down by the purple energy blasts and was forced to return to their ship. The last thing anyone wanted was for the other speedsters to be rendered powerless and caught by the soldiers.

"Okay, so if we can't take these guys head on, what can we do behind the scenes?" Bart panted as he and Thad dove behind a line of metal crates.

"I'm shocked, the great Impulse doesn't already have an idea in that lightning-fast mind of his-"

"Not the time, bro!" For some reason Bart had yet to fathom, his little brother had gotten progressively snarkier towards him in the last couple years, to the point that not even Team missions were free of the bitter commentary.

Rolling his eyes, Thad pointed up to where catwalks criss-crossed the area over the battle. "We can run around to the different supports and plant the R-charges on 'em. Once that mess of beams and platforms starts to come down, they'll flatten the goons and buy Robin and XS the rest of the time they need to hack the mainframe."

"Good, that's a great idea. Let's do-" With a whoosh of air, Inertia took off, leaving his brother to sigh. "-it."

While Arrowette, Supergirl and Stagehand distracted to veritable army pitched against them, the Allen brothers stealthily moved around the edges of the fight, planting small, Bat-made explosives on the different catwalk pillars. Just as Inertia was planting the last of the charges, though, a soldier at the rear of the group spotted him and fired his nullifier before the speedster could react.

A dark red and grey figure shot forward, catching the blast before it could reach the smaller teen. "Impulse!"

Unable to control his speed, Bart stumbled and rolled forward, slamming into the wall before Thad could catch him. The goon fired again, repeatedly, but in trying to hit the brothers accidentally shot the explosive package. A chain reaction was triggered, with Thad's plan working perfectly - the metal walkways came down in a mess of carnage, frightening the soldiers into fleeing their battle or else trapping them.

Unfortunately, they trapped the Allens as well.

Panicking, Thad held his unconscious brother close, pressing the both of them as close into the corner as he could while the wreckage fell all around them. When the last of the twisted metal settled, Inertia cautiously raised his head to take stock of their position. Which, wasn't looking so good.

Scorched plates and mangled beams formed a solid wall, cutting the two of them off in either direction. The pungent scent of burned flesh reached Thad's nose, but his ears couldn't detect any calls from their teammates. And, of course, this was the first mission in a month that they didn't have a Martian or other telepath along.

Logically, Thad knew he could just vibrate himself through the wreckage to find the others, but he was reluctant to leave Bart alone when he was out cold. Even as he had the thought, though, the older teen moaned and blinked his eyes open.

"Bart! Are you okay? Say something, bro!"

"...Ow."

"Good enough," Thad let loose a slightly unhinged chuckle. "Well, the plan worked, just a little too well..."

"So I see." Bart mumbled, carefully levering himself into a sitting position. "And I repeat, ow." The two of them just stayed silent for a few moments, surveying the damage they'd wrought.

"Why'd you take that shot?" The blonde suddenly asked. "We both know it wouldn't have killed me. Heck, it probably would've hurt less too, since I was standing still and you weren't."

Bart gave a small shrug. "You're my brother. I saw that guy aiming at you, and I moved."

Huffing out a sigh, the younger Allen thumped his head back against the wall. "You're a dork, y'know that?"

"Considering you say it to me at least once a day, yes, I do think I know that." His big brother snickered, before returning to seriousness. "Thad... I know this isn't really the best time or place to be asking, but what's been up with you acting so nasty to me these last couple years?"

"You're right, this really isn't the best time..." The blonde muttered. "But... I guess we don't have anything better to do at the moment. It's just- you've already gone and saved the world, and everyone admires you for it while they ignore me!"

Gaping, Bart stared at his brother in shock. "You think-"

"I know, I know, it's stupid, but you just take it all for granted, and it drives me up the wall! So, I get snippy. It's how I cope, and now I really wish you'd stop looking at me like that."

Forcing himself to stop gaping, the brunette slowly shook his head, trying to figure out how to handle the new information. "...You remember what got Dad to tell us about my original self in the first place?"

Thad blinked at the change of subject. "Yeah, you were having really bad nightmares."

"I still do, Thad." Bart said softly. "Every night. Except, like he said when we were kids, they aren't dreams, but memories."

The younger teen stiffened at the words, and watched with growing unease at the haunted look entering his big brother's eyes. "I remember losing Dad to the Reach, and Aunt Dawn, and Mom and Grandma dying in a labor camp, and this scary-serious version of Lian busting me out, taking me to the resistance. I can still feel the constant hunger because they didn't have enough supplies to keep a speedster well-fed. I remember the sounds of people screaming and dying whenever the Reach found our camps, the blood pouring over my hands when I tried to keep Evan's other self from bleeding out-" Shuddering, Bart wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. "I remember helping Nathaniel make the time machine. I remember Damian and Milagro and Anissa teaching me everything they knew about Earth before the Reach, so that I could fool the old Team and League. I remember meeting people we've grown up knowing for the first time, seeing them work so hard to stop the invasion before it happened and almost failing-"

"Whoa, Bart, easy, breathe!" Thad reached over to rub a hand up and down his brother's shaking back.

"Every night, I get another day from my other self." The brunette laughed hysterically. "And you think I'm happy to have everyone compare me to him? Expect me to be who I already was? You're the lucky one, Thad. No one's got preconceived notions of what you're supposed to be like."

"I guess... I never thought of it that way..."

"And you want to know why I only ever want to hang out with certain people when we aren't at the Watchtower or on a mission? Because they're the ones who didn't exist in the other timeline." Bart hissed. "With the Queens, or the Logans, or even the Duncans, I can be having a random conversation, and then one of them will say or do something that triggers another memory. Another nightmare in my head."

Thoroughly horrified by this point, Thad scooted over on the concrete ground to pull his brother into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Bart. I didn't realize... Does anyone else know about this?"

"...I talked to Aunt M'gann about it once. But all she could tell me was that the double memories would fade once I got past the age my other self was when he faded from reality."

"That's, not what I'd call helpful advice."

"I said the same thing. She said it was the best she could do." Bart sighed and tilted his head over to rest against his brother's. "Wonder what's taking the others so long."

"I can go check, if you don't mind being by yourself for a few minutes." Thad offered.

"The nullifiers didn't get you?"

"Nah, I'm as vibrate-y as ever!" The two of them chuckled at the old joke. "Seriously, though, I'm only gonna go if you're sure you'll be okay."

"I'm fine, Thad. Better than I have been for a while now, actually."

"And that," the blonde pointed a finger at his brother's nose. "Sounds like the head injury talking."

Snorting, Bart gave the other teen a slight shove, prompting him to hurry up and go find the rest of their squad members. He then leaned his head back against the wall, and considered the timeline. His nightly memory sessions had finally gotten to a point that Bart knew was almost the end of the Reach's attempted invasion. There would be a few more nightmare quality moments, but after that, he'd hopefully be moving on to the good years his older self had enjoyed before fading away...