The mood shifted instantly.
One moment, Elias was joking, the thrill of the fight coursing through him like electric jazz. The next, the music stopped.
Professor Zoom—Hunter Zolomon—had realized he was losing. Flash was too fast, and his backup had just been deleted by a hedgehog. Zolomon was a tactician, but he was also a fanatic. He believed tragedy made heroes better.
"You treat this like a game," Zolomon's voice droned, distorted by the time shift. "You laugh. You mock. You have not suffered enough."
Zolomon broke away from Flash. He didn't attack Barry.
He turned toward the bus stop across the street. A mother and her young son were cowering behind a bench, paralyzed by the battle.
"Let's see if you can laugh through this," Zolomon whispered.
He moved. To the normal eye, he was gone. To Flash and Elias, he was a yellow streak of malice heading straight for the civilians.
"NO!" Barry screamed, pushing himself to intercept. But Thawne tackled him, pinning Flash to the ground.
"Watch, Barry!" Thawne cackled. "Watch him learn!"
Elias saw it.
He saw the fear in the child's eyes. He saw Zolomon's hand raising, vibrating to stop a heart.
The Chaos Factor—the fun, the whimsy, the "Toon Force"—shattered.
It wasn't funny anymore.
System Alert: Emotional Threshold Breached.
Chaos Energy Valence: Negative.
Override: Archie Protocol - Deep Dark.
Elias didn't run. He didn't use a gag.
He snapped.
The blue fur turned pitch black instantly.
The green eyes vanished, replaced by the white void.
The playful aura became a jagged, violent violet flame.
Dark Elias.
But this wasn't the Game version. This was the Archie version. The version that didn't just get angry; the version that became a force of nature.
Zolomon reached for the child.
He grabbed nothing.
The child and the mother were gone.
Zolomon blinked. "What?"
He looked up.
Floating above the street, shrouded in shadow, was Elias. He was holding the civilians gently, setting them down on a rooftop three blocks away in a fraction of a nanosecond.
Then, he was back.
He stood directly behind Zolomon.
"You wanted tragedy?" Elias's voice was a low, resonant growl that sounded like tectonic plates grinding together.
Zolomon spun around. "I control time! You cannot—"
Elias grabbed Zolomon by the face.
He didn't squeeze. He didn't punch. He pushed.
He pushed Zolomon through time.
The world around them blurred. The colors inverted. The sound died.
They were in the Negative Zone between seconds.
"You think you're fast?" Dark Elias whispered, his white eyes boring into Zolomon's soul. "You're just skipping frames. I exist in the ink."
Zolomon tried to vibrate, to phase out of the grip. But the Dark Chaos energy dampened his powers. He was held fast by pure, unadulterated rage.
"Let go!" Zolomon screamed.
"You hurt people to make a point," Elias hissed. The violet aura flared, cracking the pavement beneath them. "That's not a lesson. That's cowardice."
Elias raised his other hand. A ball of dark energy formed—dense, heavy, screaming with gravity.
"Here's your lesson."
He slammed the energy sphere into Zolomon's chest.
DARK IMPACT.
It wasn't a lethal blow—Elias's subconscious morality still held the leash—but it was devastating. It shattered Zolomon's connection to the timeline. It broke his temporal armor.
Zolomon was launched backward. He flew out of the Negative Zone, reappearing in the real world. He crashed through the brick wall of Big Belly Burger, through the kitchen, and out the back alley, finally coming to rest in a dumpster.
He didn't get up. He was out cold.
Silence fell over the street.
Thawne, who was still holding Flash, looked up. He saw the black hedgehog floating there. He felt the pressure. It was heavier than the Speed Force. It felt like death.
"What... are you?" Thawne whispered, his bravado faltering.
Dark Elias slowly turned his head toward Thawne.
The white eyes narrowed.
"I'm the ending," Dark Elias said.
He raised a finger.
Thawne realized he was the only one left. Savitar deleted. Godspeed fled. Zolomon broken.
And now, a shadow monster was looking at him.
Thawne made a calculation. He was a genius, after all.
"This isn't over, Flash!" Thawne yelled.
He vibrated. He opened a portal to the Negative Speed Force and ran. He ran faster than he had ever run in his life, fleeing the dark gaze of the hedgehog.
The portal closed.
The parking lot was quiet.
Flash stood up, dusting himself off. He looked at Elias.
"Elias?" Barry asked cautiously. "You okay?"
Dark Elias hovered for a moment longer. The rage was still there, bubbling, wanting to chase Thawne, wanting to break the world.
But then, he heard a sound.
From the rooftop three blocks away, the little boy waved.
The anger broke.
The violet flame sputtered and died. The black fur faded to blue. The white eyes filled with green.
Elias dropped to the ground, landing on his knees. He panted heavily, clutching his chest.
"That..." Elias wheezed. "That happens faster now. The Archie power... it doesn't have safeguards."
Barry walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "You saved them. You didn't cross the line. That's what matters."
Elias looked up, a tired smile forming.
"Yeah. But I think I lost my appetite for that burger."
He looked at the ruined restaurant.
"And I think we're gonna need a mop."