Time Travel

"The timeline is malleable."

- Eobard Thawne

Time Travel, also known as Temporal Navigation, is a concept of movement between certain points in one or more timelines using special devices or traveling through extradimensional planes.

Speed Force and Negative Speed Force
Metahumans with connection to the Speed Force known as Speedsters are able to enter the Speed Force in order to travel across time. Time Traveling in the past can result in the creation of an entirely new timeline or small alterations to it. Speedsters are also able to coexist with their past self(s) and even interact with them. However, this is not always the case as it is also possible to replace their past self(s) as seen when Barry Allen created Flashpoint and became the Allen of that timeline.

Using the Speed Force for Time Travel may result in being killed (later erased) from the timeline by Time Wraiths and being recreated as a Time Remnant which are their counterparts from erased/alternate timelines. Time Remnants are often created to maintain the stability of the timeline in order to avoid further damage to the timeline. As seen when the Speed Force released a Time Remnant of Thawne despite his ancestor committing suicide and erased him from existence. However, the use of Time Remnants is often abused by several individuals including Savitar and Eobard Thawne.

"It's like I'll be thinking of a moment from my past and then it...It vanishes. I can't get it back. Why? Flashpoint. It's a side effect. See, I told you before. You don't know what you're doing. This new reality you've created is starting to overwrite the reality that you and I know. So, your original life... Your friends, your family... Pretty soon, all of that will just fade away."

- Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne

Speedsters that decided to live in a new timeline may result in losing their memories of the original one as seen when Barry started slowly losing his memories and speed as he lives in the new timeline (Flashpoint) longer and longer. Despite this regular effect of Time Travel, Eobard Thawne is able to retain his memories of the original timeline for more than 15 years. It is possible this is due to his fading connection to the Speed Force delaying his memory loss.

Time Travel to the past to fix timeline alterations are often resulting in the creation of a newer timeline. As Jay Garrick explains that the timeline is like a broken cup, no matter how many times you fix it, it will never be the same anymore.

Despite the consequences and side effects of altering the timeline, Savitar has stated that the more a speedster Time Travels, the less the rules apply to them.

Time Spheres
See Time Spheres (Earth-1: Pre-Crisis) and Time Spheres (Earth-Prime).

The first Time Sphere was designed by Rip Hunter at an unknown time for Time Travel. Time Spheres are able to create a wormhole and allow the vehicle to enter. However, some Time Spheres are not equipped with that design as it occasionally needs a boost from Eobard Thawne's speed and the Speed Force Bazooka energy. Despite its futuristic designs, Cisco Ramon is able to create one using 21st century technology.

Continuim
By using Continuim and saying past events, a temporal gateway will open and teleport the user to the time and place they desire.

Temporal Zone
The Temporal Zone is an extra-dimensional realm where the timeline converges. It is proved that the Temporal Zone will delay the timeline alterations and preserve the original timeline self(s) as long as they don't exit the realm. Despite being out of time, the zone allows individuals to age and experience time passing through with Temporal Time. Time Couriers are able to enter the Temporal Zone on a timeship in the zone as long as the courier is calibrated to temporal time. The Temporal Zone is also shown to allow Timeships to travel across the Multiverse and to any part of the universe. At the edge of the timeline (Temporal Zone), the Vanishing Point is located and is immune to any timeline changes which served as the Time Masters' headquarters until it was destroyed by Leonard Snart.

Timeships
See Timeships (Earth-1: Pre-Crisis), Legion Cruisers (Earth-38), Timeships (Earth-74), Timeships (Earth-Prime) and Timeships (Earth-21).

Timeships are vehicles equipped with Time Drives allowing the vehicle to instantly travel into the Temporal Zone and enter different time periods. The Timeships are formerly used by Time Masters and Time Pirates until the former being destroyed and the latter being defeated. The current individuals using Timeships in order to Time Travel are the Legends of Tomorrow. However, there are still several Time Masters on missions still in possession of Timeships, presumably in hiding. Other universes such as Earth-74, Earth-Prime and Earth-21 have their own timeships.

On Earth-38, different types of Time Traveling vehicles are created. Instead of naming them Timeships, they are named as time cruisers. They are only seen used by The Legion and are presumed to be created some time before the 31st century. The time cruisers use breach-like wormholes instead of traveling through the Temporal Zone.

On Earth-Prime, both types of vehicles are used and were created in the distant future for the Time Masters. The concept of Time Travel originated from an obscure scientist from New York City 1925, Dr. Gwyn Davies, who laid the foundations and was recorded in Time Bureau manuals. The first Time Travel testing took place on November 7, 1925, in New York City. In the original timeline of the testing, the experiment failed and Davies was killed, though his death was prevented when the Legends interfered with the event and ensured they could be able to travel across time safely.

On Earth-21, Time Traveling technology is only known to a small number of people, with Laura De Mille's capsule being one of the very few vehicles capable of breaking through the wall of time. The capsule was also considered to be a valuable item for individuals aspiring to travel through time, most notably the Brain of the Brotherhood of Evil.

Time Couriers
See Time Couriers (Earth-1: Pre-Crisis) and Time Couriers (Earth-Prime).

After the Legends broke time, Rip Hunter created the Time Bureau under the supervision of the federal government. Each field agent of the organization was given a Time Courier allowing them to open a portal between space-time and even enter the Temporal Zone. Despite their use of the Time Couriers, they still have training for piloting a timeship.

On Earth-Prime, the Time Couriers of the disbanded Time Bureau were given to the Legends and scattered across facilities of the organization. Among those devices, one of it was given to Mia Queen to return to 2020 from 2040 in order to attend her her father's funeral.

Magic
Magic allows individuals to use objects or spells to travel across time for example, the Time Stone and a failed exorcism of Nora Darhk. Aside the use of magic, some Demons are able to travel across time as seen when Mallus being able to possess different individuals from different time periods using Time Travel.

Using the Thanagarian Meteorites in 1958, 1975 and 2021, Vandal Savages of the three time periods used the blood of Kendra Saunders and Scythian Torvil to perform a ritual in order to return Earth back to the first meteor impact in 1700 B.C.

Still Force
Using the Still Force connection, Deon Owens was able to travel back in time and create a Time Pocket in Central City and nearby towns. He was also able to put the residents of Masonville in a time loop with it resetting every time people realizes their displacement. Following every reset, the people's memories will revert to their respective age in that era with the only exception of Chester P. Runk, who was shielded by the Isotopic Signal Amplifier. When the pocket arrived in Central City, it also caused Time Aberrations all over the city as well as changing the outfits of the residents until he gave up in 1998.

Other

 * The Monitor: In 7980 B.C., Mar Novu entered the Temporal Zone and travelled to the Dawn of Time in the Antimatter Universe. After that, he gained the ability to send himself and others across space-time using Breaches. It is presumed that he was mutated by the radiation emitted by the Temporal Zone.
 * The Flash (Earth-90): After being hit by a missile in 1991, The Flash accidentally arrived in 2001 and witnessed his future.
 * Vandal Savage: Vandal Savage has claimed to be able to go in and out of the time stream to achieve Time Travel after witnessing Rip Hunter's return in 1975 after last seeing him in 1700 B.C.
 * Super Friends: Super Friends are able to find a way to Time Travel using Legion Rings and time disruptions.
 * Dinah Drake (Earth-Prime): After Oliver Queen's funeral, Dinah Drake was mysteriously sent into the future and her history in the past being erased.
 * Timeless Wells: After being resurrected by Multiversal energy to maintain a balance due to the deaths of all Harrison Wells in an instant, the original Harrison Wells was given the ability to Time Travel.

Timeline and Multiverse
When the timeline is changed in a universe, the history of the other universes remains unchanged. However, if the history of two universes crossed paths including people traveling between them, the individuals who took part in previous events will be changed and will be replaced once the individual returns from the parallel universe.

When Barry Allen first travelled to Earth-38, he spent a day there and returned to Earth-1 seconds after his leaving. It is possible that he Time Travelled as well as inter-dimensional travelled, but it is unlikely (or that the universes share different time flows). The Multiverse is also explained to have unique time flows as seen when Earth-1 is in 2019, Earth-16 is in 2046, Earth-99 is in a distant future and Earth-666 is in between 2011 and 2015.

Time Fragmentation
"One of the other interesting notions of Time Travel is the existence of fragmentations. Temporal blind spots, specific places and times the Time Masters can't see."

- Rip Hunter and Mick Rory

In the timeline, few fragmentations are present and are invisible to Time Masters as well as the Oculus. This allows Time Travelers to hide from them for a short time before the Hunters search the fragmentation they are hiding in.

Outside of Space-Time
Several dimensions exist outside of space and time which allow Time Travelers to hide from the Time Masters. In there, they are able to protect themselves from timeline changes, being spotted by the Oculus, based at the Vanishing Point.

Timeline Alterations
"Time is like cement. It takes time to become permanent."

- Rip Hunter

As the timeline is a fluctuating presence, it requires protection to prevent alterations from ever being stable. As stated by multiple Time Travelers that the timeline is easy to change but takes time to get into effect. Seen with the Flashpoint timeline, it was unstable, and it started to turn into "cement" after 3 months with the example of taking away Barry's original timeline memories as well as his speed. The timeline is described as a mirage by Thawne.

Erased from the Timeline
When the timeline alterations are big enough and individuals from an erased future are present, they will be erased and will only be seen again if the new timeline includes them. However, this does not apply to Speedsters as time remnants are preserved in the Speed Force and will be used to support their presence in the timeline to avoid complications in the timeline. Despite the presence being supported, it is not always supposed to appear in the new timeline. Therefore, consequences will occur to those altering the timeline too much.

Replaced
Apart from erased, individuals from an erased timeline might be replaced by their new timeline self. After Flashpoint being "resolved", several individuals and the history of the universe are different from his perspective including Sara Diggle being replaced with John Diggle Jr., the death of Dante Ramon, etc.

Immune to Timeline Changes
"People, places, and things displaced from their native time periods."

- Rip Hunter on Time Anachronisms

See Time Aberrations (Earth-1: Pre-Crisis), Time Aberrations (Earth-38) and Time Aberrations (Earth-Prime).

Protected from timeline alterations, several locations and realms are able to withstand the force of changing timelines.
 * Temporal Zone: Being time itself, the Temporal Zone is immune from timeline changes as long as the individual from the altered timeline stays in the Temporal Zone.
 * Speed Force and Negative Speed Force: Speed Force and Negative Speed Force are energy realms allowing speedsters to survive the timeline changes. If the speedster is being erased, a time remnant will be placed in the timeline to maintain the timeline intact. Chronologically, it would be like the speedster never left the timeline.
 * Vanishing Point: Existing outside of space and time, the Vanishing Point is able to be immune from timeline changes. As it is immune from timeline changes, the Time Masters and the Legion of Doom used the facility as their base of operations.
 * Hell: Hell is immune to timeline changes as damned individuals from different time periods end up arriving in Hell at the same time. However, this was only seen in Hell of Earth-1 and Earth-Prime which makes Hell of other universes being uncertain if timeline alterations affecting it.
 * World Between Worlds: Totem of Zambesi wielders will be living in their totem if they die or being erased from existence. This allows the same individual from two different timelines to communicate with each other.
 * Another Universe in the Multiverse: When timeline changes are done on a universe, the history of other universes remain unchanged. Even when the history of two universe cross paths, only objects and individuals being present in the universe where the timeline changed will have an altered history.

History's Last Line of Defense
At an unknown time, the Time Masters became the guard of the timeline and sworn an oath to protect the timeline at all cost. The Time Masters monitor the timeline through the Oculus and see everything in the timeline, allowing them to know what to fix and what not to. Despite their professions, they chose to allow the immortal tyrant Vandal Savage to stay on Earth even though he acquired future technology in order to protect the planet from being invaded. The Legends later discovered that they were manipulated by the Time Masters during their entire crusade and later destroyed the Oculus, freeing people from being controlled while exposing the organization's aim is just a lie to fellow Time Travelers.

"It's not like there are Time Masters left to stop it. Miss Lance is right. We are history's last line of defense."

- Sara Lance and Martin Stein

After the Time Masters is being destroyed along with the Oculus, the Legends were forced to step up and safeguard the timeline. During their missions, they defeated countless Time Pirates and the Legion of Doom. While defeating the latter, they met their younger self and worked together in order to protect the reality from being altered using Magic. However, they violated the physics of Time Travel and created time displacement across the timeline. Luckily, Rip Hunter, who left the team after their success, went to 2012 in order to create the Federal Time Bureau. "It seems only fitting since I was the one who brought this team together, that I should be the one to disband it. So, on behalf of the Time Bureau, I hereby relieve the Legends from duty."

- Rip Hunter disbanding the Legends

When the Legends return to 2017, they met Rip, who has already experienced 5 years, and he disbanded the Legends as he thinks they are no longer required.

Six months later, Mick Rory met Julius Caesar and contacted his former teammates. The Legends then went to the Star City Time Bureau Field Office. The Bureau then sent agents to bring Caesar back. However, they failed and unknowingly pushed the blame to the Legends. The Legends then felt guilty as they were the cause of the anachronisms and hijacked the Waverider in order to clean up their own mess. After defeating Caesar, they were approved of guarding the timeline under the supervision of the Time Bureau. Unknowingly, they were slowly fighting Mallus and eventually defeated him in Salvation 1874.

After defeating Mallus, they were reached by John Constantine that freeing Mallus while fighting him caused magical creatures to escape from the Realm of Mallus and bring harm to the timeline. A few months later, the Legends solved the final aberration caused by themselves and claimed that the magical creatures do not exist. However, Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe found out that a time aberration occurred in Woodstock in 1969. The Legends went to investigate and witnessed a unicorn brutally stabbing a woman with its horns. The Legends then realized Constantine was right and asked him for assistance. Constantine then helped them and subsequently join the Legends in order to protect himself from Neron, the Demon who possessed his ex-boyfriend, Desmond. Soon as they met another fugitive Charlie in 1977 London, she turned into the appearance of Amaya Jiwe according to Ray Palmer's photo. The Legends are unable to bring her to Hell and brought her on board. Over time, they bonded and realized magical fugitives were not all bad after all. They then chose to bring the fugitives to the containment facility in the Time Bureau HQ in Washington, D.C. In order to defeat Neron, they gathered the fugitives in Heyworld and let them bring joy to people instead of causing fear, where they reside for their future.

During their defeat of Neron, they asked for the help of Astra Logue, and she unleashed Encores of historical figures across the timeline. The Legends once again stepped up due to the Time Bureau being disbanded during the fight against Neron. The Legends stopped the Encores and found out that Logue was not totally evil and the true "big bad" was the Fates who were in search of the Loom of Fate after the scattered pieces in the Original Multiverse gathered together on Earth-Prime due to the Crisis merging universes together. The Legends then worked with Logue to fight the Fates and eventually got trapped in the TV Universe. They were freed by their allies in the Loomworld and proceed to fight the Fates. After defeating the Fates, Sara Lance and the team travelled to 1977 London to bid farewell to Charlie until Lance is abducted by aliens.

Soon after recovering from a full night of celebration, the Legends discovered that Lance was kidnapped by their former ally Gary Green, who was hired by the man who survived the Destruction of Earth. During Lance's attempted escape, she released a series of aliens meant to be sent to Bishop and created dozens of aberrations. The aliens served as clues to Lance's whereabouts while the Legends hunted down the aliens for information. Eventually, they were able to rescue their co-captain from danger and continued their job to rid the timeline of aberrations. Unfortunately, Bishop was revealed to have survived Lance's escape and plotted an invasion on 1925 Odessa, Texas. The Legends then thwarted the invasion, only to sow the seeds of another conflict by recruiting a younger Bishop and erasing his memories.

Shortly after the invasion, the Waverider was blown to pieces by a younger Bishop, who thought the Legends abducted him and swore to seek revenge. However, Bishop discovered his alliance with a replica Gideon was a mistake and escaped from his Waverider, joining the Legends who were on the run with the inventor of Time Travel, Gwyn Davies. The Gideon then created a team of her own, sending them across time to do the real Legends' job with no hesitation and purely on logic. This led to a conflict between the two Time Traveling teams and the real Legends' retirement from protecting the timeline, leaving the human Gideon and A.I. Gideon as the only two defenders of the timeline.

Time Wraiths
"None of it adds up. The interference with the comms. The Speed Equation. The Time Wraith. That's what we call them. Time Wraiths. Scary. aren't they? I thought, "Oh, no, a Time Wraith has found me." But I thought, "No, no, no. You know what you're doing. No, the Time Wraith is after someone who's traveled through time, and doesn't know what they're doing.""

- Eobard Thawne on Time Wraiths

Time Wraiths are demonic creatures from the Speed Force to maintain the timeline stability and to prevent speedsters from altering the timeline too much. However, no Time Wraiths were present when Eobard Thawne changed the original timeline. The reason of it is unknown.

Time Wraiths also hunt Time Remnants who abuse themselves to alter the timeline as seen when the Speed Force sent Black Flash to hunt Thawne's Time Remnant who was working with the Legion of Doom to alter reality in order to protect himself from the consequences of Time Travel.

Additionally, Time Wraiths are indirectly in charge of guarding "Fixed Points" in time, giving individuals such as Eobard Thawne the job to manipulating a certain event such that it happens no matter any form of interference.

Fixed Points
"Sorry, a fixed point? Fixed point. Noun. An occurrence so pivotal to history that no time travel is allowed on or near it."

- Gwyn Davies and Gideon

Certain events in time are supposedly meant to happen, with no Time Travelers capable of altering them. However, even though they were thought to be a natural result of the timeline, they were, in fact, guarded by "fixers", Time Travelers issued with a Time Manipulator. They were then allowed to prevent anyone from changing the event whatever it takes, including killing the traveler.

Rules of Time Travel
"We can't go back and change events in which we participated. Time would fold in on itself, creating a temporal vortex."

- Rip Hunter

The following only contains information on Time Traveling in the Temporal Zone.

The rules of Time Travel are established by the Time Masters and bounty hunters along with assassins are hired to kill rogue Time Travelers.


 * Changing events where their past self(s) participated: Doing that action will cause time to fold on itself and create a Temporal Vortex.
 * Interacting with your past self(s): In doing so, a Time Storm will occur and "breaks time". The consequences of it was seen when the Legends interacted with their past selves to stop the Legion of Doom. However, this is not always the case as the Legends are able to interact with their past selves to bring them to The Refuge.

Side Effects
"Some of you may experience some slight discomfort. In very rare instances, there will be some, uh, bleeding from the eyeballs. I'm sorry, what? The human body is used to time unfolding linearly."

- Rip Hunter and Kendra Saunders

The following only contains information of Time Traveling in the Temporal Zone.

As human bodies are used to time folding linearly, Time Traveling causes the human body to feel sick and takes time to adapt to the Time Traveling side effects. The side effects will slowly fade away over time and does not occur to everybody. If a Time Traveler has done time jumps for a high amount of times, the side effects will not come into action unless they travelled between two distant periods.


 * Nausea
 * Eye disorders
 * Temporary blindness
 * Triple vision
 * Blurriness in one eye
 * Bleeding from eyes (rare)
 * Linguistic disorientation
 * Vertigo
 * Time Drift: Staying in a foreign time period for too long will result in a time drift, causing the person to lose memories and start to adapt to the foreign time period.
 * Personality rewrite: Coming in contact with a Time Drive will scatter the person to a foreign time period and change their personalities.
 * Memories from erased timelines: If a person came in contact with objects their erased versions are deeply connected with, the person will receive flashes and retrieval of memories from that timeline.
 * Amnesia: Memory loss was shown in several time travelers, most notably Laura De Mille and Rita Farr, with their memories returning after interacting with important objects and individuals from their original time period.

Physics of Time Travel
The following only contains information on Time Traveling in the Temporal Zone.

"That was a shockwave generated by a Time Quake. A what? Uh...disturbance in the Temporal Zone caused by an unusually large aberration."
 * Temporal Radiation: Temporal Zone emits radiation that mutates humans and aliens as seen when it gives cosmic powers to Mar Novu. However, too much radiation will cause humans to age at a rapid speed which can only be solved by a single time jump.

- Gideon, Sara Lance and Rip Hunter


 * Time Quakes: Time Quakes are shocks in the timeline that are caused by massive timeline changes. Timeships in the Temporal Zone are able to feel the shockwaves. Gideon is also able to detect shockwaves that are not strong using the time seismograph created by Nate Heywood.
 * Time Storm: Interacting with your past self(s) will cause a Time Storm and "breaks time". The consequences of it was seen when the Legends interacted with their past selves to stop the Legion of Doom. However, this is not always the case as the Legends are able to interact with their past selves to bring them to The Refuge.
 * Temporal Vortex: Changing past events where you previously participated may result in a temporal vortex which is caused by "time folding on itself". Additionally, a Time Storm may lead to a Temporal Vortex being created. This was seen when the Legends defeat the Legion of Doom with their past selves. The resulting Time Storm spun random people, animals and objects throughout the timeline to a different point, resulting in Time Anachronisms.
 * Time Wave: When the timeline changes, the point of change (location) will emit a shockwave to the entire timeline and resets future events. The wave is able to hit a grown man backwards and affect the direction of vehicles.