"Oh yeah, you loved, loved Dragon Ball Z."

"I don't know what that is."

"…yeah, I couldn't explain that show to you even if I wanted to."

Iris West and Barry Allen, Cause and Effect

Strength and Speed

Deathday was approaching, and he was watching Dragon Ball Z

Strange times made men do strange things. Maybe. Perhaps that was a saying, perhaps not. Perhaps it would be. Perhaps, decades or even centuries from now, "strange times made men do strange things" would be quoted by the world's academia, attributed to "The Flash." Not Barry Allen though. Maybe. Hopefully. Possibly. Right now, the future was something he didn't want to think about. He'd travelled eight years into the future, and hadn't liked what he found. He'd travelled a mere three months into the future, and what he saw still gave him nightmares. Sitting on the couch, watching a YouTube clip, he was still technically travelling into the future. Time marched on. Second, to minute, to hour, to day. Counting down to the point where Iris West died. Where he, Barry Allen, the Flash, the Fastest Man Alive (or not, considering Savitar's speed), failed to save her. A failure that had completely broken his future self, and those around him. That moment was about a week away. And what was he doing?

Watching anime.

Yes, anime, nor cartoon, thanks Jack, you ignoramus. Dragon Ball Z was an anime. An anime that Iris had told his amnesiac self about. He still remembered snippets of that, how she'd listed all the clubs he'd belonged to, and that he'd loved, loved Dragon Ball Z (emphasis on the second love, thanks). Thing was, he hadn't given much thought to the show in years. He'd had fond memories, sure, but first came exams, then college, then more exams, then work at CCPD, then becoming the Flash, then doing all sorts of crazy things as the Flash against crazy people. Granted, Akira Toriyama's world was still far more crazy than his, but still, crazy repelled crazy. Another quote for the ages.

And yet he was watching it again. The moment when Frieza, monster as he was, decided that taking a spirit bomb to the face wasn't a hint that he might want to reconsider his life choices, and that he should have some fun blowing Krillin up. Why Frieza didn't do that with any of his other foes, he couldn't say, but Dragon Ball had never run on logic. He watched in silence as Krillin screamed. Watched in silence as his body was blown up – nothing too graphic, and as a kid, he'd loved the violence (yeah, Krillin was cool, but young boys always put action before character). Watching it now though…he squirmed.

He knew what would come next. Knew that in the context of the series, this would be Frieza's biggest mistake. He knew what Goku would do, what Goku would become. And yet…

He paused the YouTube feed and rubbed his eyes. For a moment, he imagined that Krillin, human monk and noseless person, was real. That in this world, death was permanent. Take away the dragon balls, Earth or Namekian, and suddenly, the stakes became very real, very quickly. He'd seen people like Frieza. Fought people like Frieza. Not as in being alien, but in being devoid of any kind of compassion or remorse. People like the Trickster. People like Zoom. People who could take a life and laugh. If someone asked Barry Allen as a child which DBZ villain was the best (while he'd been watching it), he'd have said Frieza, because he was "cool." As an adult, he would have still said Frieza, because his motives were simple. Simple motives that gave him the excuse to do horrific acts. Acts enough to…He clicked the "play" button again.

"I…won't…let you…get away...with this…" Goku said.

Quality acting and dialogue. But it didn't matter. He could see and hear all the cues. He could see the seas of Namek churning. Lightning and thunder warring. Unlike him, no lightning would strike Goku. Nothing but inner strength and grief would give him the power of a super saiyan. In a minute or so, Frieza would see that his actions had created the nightmare he'd feared. In a few hours (many, many hours, because this wasn't the version from Team Four Star), Frieza would lie bloody and broken on the surface of Namek. Yes, he'd come back, but in the context of that moment, Goku would have avenged his friends, and surpassed himself. Going from a runt of the saiyan race to their avenger. At the time, he'd loved it. Looking at it now…he hated it.

No…not hate. That was too strong a word, and "hating" any work of fiction was wasted emotion in a world where there was so much hate already, and so many actions worthy of invoking the emotion. But still…envy, he wondered? Goku had pushed himself, and got strong enough to take on a would-be god. He, Barry Allen, had pushed himself for three months, had even tried to push Wally, and by the latest math, still wasn't fast enough. Goku had the luxury of getting a hairdo as part of the power boost he needed. According to Savitar, he would have to create time remnants to defeat his foe, while giving birth to the same foe he defeated. And after that, Iris would still be dead. He couldn't wish her back. Couldn't travel in time like Trunks to avoid the future (least if he wanted the timeline to stay intact). He couldn't do any of what the heroes did on screen. And unlike what he was seeing now, Savitar wouldn't look at him in fear.

He'd seen the eyes of his foe – the madness. The hatred. The yearning, even. Fear didn't enter the equation, any more than spirit bombs or kamehameha waves did.

But he could imagine otherwise. Maybe that's why he was wasting the precious minutes remaining to sharing this world with Iris. Where he could see a world where good triumphed over evil. Where people could do amazing things at the drop of a hat, and where everything could work out. Where death had no dominion.

Thanks, Dylan Thomas.

He might be quoted like that man someday.

But he doubted it.

The world rarely remembered failure.