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“Just tell them, okay…”
The only way Wally could describe it, really, was that it felt like sherbet dissolving on the tongue. The same sort of cooling, fizzing, tingling, just all over his body. It didn’t even hurt, he just felt nauseated.
His whole mind and body lurched – okay, that hurt – it was as if he’d been punched in the gut, or collided with something at full speed.
Except he was still running, and could see nothing but a stream of blue light all around him.
Shouldn’t he be dead?
He looked at his hand. He still felt tingly, and looked transparent, but he appeared to be regaining form.
The light around him, too, dulled. The forms of objects, people, life fading into existence.
The tingling dissipated and the numbness spreading through his legs that kept him running dissipated, muscle ache hitting him full force. He skidded to a halt. His back was screaming in pain now, although he’s not at all surprised.
He wasn’t in the Arctic anymore, that’s for sure, but he wasn’t at home either.
“Aw, man,” he whispered to himself, looking up at the mountain, still intact and looming above him. “Artemis is gonna kill me.”
“Artemis, he wanted me to tell you-“
“No…no…”
“He loved you.”
Two years. Artemis clutched her head. Her life continued. Her life didn’t end when Wally’s did, and he wouldn’t have wanted it to. So she lived, honouring Wally and herself, and living for both them.
But the holidays were always so painful. She spent the last New Year on a mission, allowing her mind to leave memories of that first New Year’s on the Watchtower and every day after that.
This year there was no mission, she had declined several dinner invitations, from Barry and Bart, from her mother, Bart again, Zatanna, M’gann, Dick, everyone… She couldn’t celebrate New Year’s, not yet, it just felt like a reminder that she’ll be spending another year in a lonely house, without Wally. It didn’t feel like a holiday, right now.
She spent Christmas with the Team, she always does, they always had a Christmas party. M’gann would cook, sometimes with help from Zatanna, Kaldur and Conner would always stress too much about getting presents, Dick would hide someone’s (usually Wally’s), and Wally would always grab her hand, steal her cocoa, and then insist she dance with him to a cheesy Christmas song.
After that, the party only grew as the Team gained members, team members that had graduated would return, and Leaguers that helped set up the team would drop by for a short time (Black Canary always brought too much chocolate).
It felt warm.
Wally ran. He needed to find out what had happened. He should be dead, but instead he was…where? An alternate Earth? Back in time? Or was this some sort of hallucination?
He slowed down when approaching Mount Justice. It appeared to be abandoned. Any indication of the Team ever being there was gone. Which was doubly annoying due to the lack of food in the kitchen. He sped away from Mount Justice, snatching a newspaper on the way. After all, that’s what they always did in movies, right?
“At least I’m still on my Earth,” he thought as his eyes darted across the pages, he remembered these headlines but…
“Today’s the day…” he murmured. “I’m right back where it all began.” Dragging a hand across his face, he ran. If he could get to the League, he could get help. Hopefully.
His body lurched again. “Oh man,” Wally felt his head spin, he was getting exhausted with this whole business very quickly. The blue light surrounded him again and with a second lurch, it dissipated, leaving Wally to stumble to the ground.
He brushed the sand off of his suit, muttering to himself that it would take ages to get it all out of his gloves.
He glanced around to get his bearings, it was dark and by the time he had climbed over the constantly shifting sand dunes, it was too dark to make out any landmarks, y’know, if there were any. Squinting over the expanse of sand stretching out for miles, Wally searched for anything that he could find that would show his location. All he could hear was the distant rumble of machinery. Deciding that it could provide some clarity, he ran in that direction.
As he neared the source, small beeping noises could also be heard over the mechanic rumbles and whines. Wally could’ve sworn it sounded exactly like Sphere. Cries of pain jolted him out of his thoughts and suddenly it all slotted together in Wally’s mind.
He was in Bialya. He cursed the sand, slowing him down, as he scrambled over dunes with haste, finally reaching an area of flatter land where he could finally run to his full potential. The Team were scattered by the time he got there. He told himself he shouldn’t meddle, mess with the time stream and it will mess with you back, but Wally knew he couldn’t just ignore them. He noticed Artemis stumbling in her daze, of into the distance, away from his younger self. That set alarm bells ringing in his head. He and Artemis had woken up in the same place. It was a crazy thought, but maybe...what he was about to do he had already done, had always been destined to do. As Artemis collapsed, her body falling limp and unconscious, Wally scooped her up in his arms. A smile crept to his face as he realised that she was smaller than his Artemis. He ran in the direction he saw himself stumble. He laid Artemis down next to the form of his younger self, before running off into the opposite direction. Kaldur was already laying on the ground when Wally reached him and lifted him, running him to an area behind a large sand dune. It should provide some shelter from the burning sun rising above the horizon. He was just sad he didn’t have any water to leave him.
Light was creeping into the sky, so Wally pushed his legs to go further, faster. He had no idea where the others would be by now, but he couldn’t just leave them. His legs went numb, and the sand in his eyes burned.
“Wait…no…no, not yet!” The light around him suddenly became ten times brighter and much bluer than a sunrise should be. His body tingled and was tugged again. “I’m sorry, guys.” Wally couldn’t hear his words.
She remembers the first time the Team’s Christmas party shrunk instead of grew. It had been a jolt to everyone, and Dick had changed in a way she couldn’t have understood then.
Every loss stole something she couldn’t name, like some sort of energy or force that ebbed and flowed within the Team, holding the unit together. Jason, Tula, Wally… Artemis wonders how many more it will take until there’s none of it left, and the Team can no longer survive. It’s pessimistic, she’s knows, and she hates thinking like that, but it’s still there in the back of head sometimes.
Wally’s absence was strongly felt. Wally was warmth and joy and love and everything Christmas is and is meant to be. There was an emptiness without him, one that she could see on everyone’s faces.
It was late, now, and Artemis couldn’t stay up any longer. She’d cleaned everything and shopped for food and read a book. There were no longer any distractions to make the day seem like any other. She went upstairs.
Wally could make out images in the light surrounding him this time. He stared at each of them, all of them moments in his life, most with the Team. His eyes widen as he turned his head forward and collided with one of them, the light fading. He skid to a halt, as least he was getting better at stopping as he left.
He remembered this place, this day. He was crouched in the grounds surrounding Dick’s school. The Team (his younger self included) were inside, struggling to put up a fight against Amazo.
An arrow whizzed over his head and he spun around to find her, perched in a tree, crossbow aimed at one of the robot monkeys.
Even if he didn’t remember this day so clearly, the ponytail was a dead giveaway. Artemis. Her fighting was a little rougher and unpolished, but she was just as beautiful as she always was.
She’s suddenly overcome, swarmed by the robots. One wraps around her neck, covering her face, and Wally takes his chance. Rushing forwards, he took out most of the remaining robots while she struggled. After all, she’s about to (already did?) save his younger self’s skin, he should return the favour.
He knows the dangers of altering the time stream so he’s careful to ensure she never sees him, and he’s hunched down in the bushes below her before she stabs an arrow through the robot’s head, regaining her eyesight.
She fires an arrow through the open window. “Souvenir,” Wally whispers to himself, smiling. He watches her leap down, heading home. He follows her from a distance. There’s no reason to it, he knows the way to her house like it’s a homing beacon and could get there in seconds. What would he even do when he got there? No, it was just that he needed to watch her back, enjoy the distant closeness of the woman he loves. Out of time, he still felt safe, as if welcomed back at home somehow.
As she slips in through her open window, she stares at her crinkled Alice in Wonderland poster, and an idea forms in Wally’s mind.
Artemis’ fingers trailed across the poster on her wall. When she moved in with Wally, she left in in a box. She no longer needed the escapism Alice provided. She had nurtured her own Wonderland, a life with the Team and with Wally. But it was back on the wall now her life had changed again. Her Wonderland was different now, and she no longer had Chesire Cat smiles waiting for her. Like Alice waking up from a dream, a part of her held tightly to reminders of those days.
She pulled out an old paperback. The pages were torn, wrinkled and yellow, and the cover was worn and faded. But despite the sad appearance, the memories it held were happy, or most of them, at least.
The pages were pulled apart in the middle, where a group of envelopes resided, tucked in and held safe by march hares and mad hatters and pretty girls in cornflower blue dresses. She had started the habit when her dad left, and Jade after him. The letters would be written to one of them (or occasionally, while she was still young, to one of the characters from the book), then sealed, and would sit there without replies as she had no place to deliver them. Her father’s were long gone, she had let him go and cut him out years ago, when she made her own family. A few of Jade’s were still there though, along with the new additions, the ones she wrote for Wally. She kept them light, he wouldn’t want to hear about her being sad because of him. He’d want her to live. So she wrote about the adventure, all the beautiful things she’d seen, all the incredible places she’d been. And she wrote infrequently, he wouldn’t want her to spend her life writing to the dead, rather than communicating with the living.
She removed the letters, and for the first time, laid them out to read them.
She wasn’t expecting the reply.
It didn’t take Wally long to run to a shop that was still open and buy a pack of pens, an envelope and a small notepad, along with some snacks of course, he’d run out ages ago. Sitting on the roof of Artemis’ building, the pen in Wally’s hand rapidly scratched across the paper. He was making a very dangerous move, but surely, if he could contact his time in any way, he should let the people who love him know that he was okay.
Upon finishing the letter, he folded it, slipped it inside the envelope, licked it and sealed it shut. At daybreak, after he had seen her leave, he climbed through her window and placed the envelope in the copy of Alice in Wonderland right in between the last couple of pages. He hoped he was making the right call, that she would find it when she needed to, and not before.
He sped off into the distance, he was ready. He was going to get home.
Artemis stared at the envelope in her shaking hands. It had fallen out of the back of the book, onto her feet, Wally’s handwriting staring back at her. Artemis. Her name always did look beautiful when he wrote it, even though with the state of his handwriting, it really shouldn’t.
Wally must’ve written this at some point, and hidden it here. Her throat tightening as she mentally cursed at herself for not finding it before…while he was still…
She turned it over, hesitated, touched the seal, hesitated again, and tore it open with her fingernail. She shook slightly as she unfolded it, laying it out on her lap.
‘Artemis,’ she read. ‘First things first: I’m alive.’ Artemis’ heart sped up, and she blinked over and over, the words were there, really. Her finger traced the words. ‘I’m okay, I promise. Well, okay as I can be. I’m sorry I can’t be here with you but I’m stuck in the past. Unbelievable, I know, but it’s true. I keep jumping through time, but I think that I can make it back to you. I hope you find this after, y’know, because I can’t really control when I get pulled away from a time period, it just happens when I’m running. Can you show this to Barry, as soon as you can? I’ll need him to be ready for when I arrive, to make sure I don’t get pulled away again. That’d be real annoying.’
‘I love you, stay safe.’
Artemis glanced over the back, where a description of the time jumping process was written out for Barry, before folding up the letter, and running out the door.
“I’m getting the hang of this!” Wally grinned like a madman. He had run backwards and forwards in time, reliving the last five years in unordered snapshots. He could now tell when he was going to lurch to another moment, a little longer before it happened. He’d also realised that he could decrease the strain it had on his body if he just accepted it and didn’t push against it. And the most important thing: he could control where he went.
He was going to reach her, he just needed to find where he left off, or not long afterwards. He was going home.
Wally took several deep breaths, trying to hold his grin and shivers of excitement back. There was no guarantee he would get back this time, but something in his gut just told him he would. Admittedly, that could just be hunger.
He ran in straight line, accelerating as fast as he could. If he didn’t get surrounded by light soon, he was going to crash into a building at high speed. He didn’t want to take a guess at how many bones that would break.
Then he felt it. A tell-tale tingle in his fingers and toes. In moments his sight was flooded by glowing blue, his life flashing around him. He focused on Artemis. He ran, looking for a moment he had not yet lived.
The snapshots were getting denser and far harder to avoid, he was worried he wouldn’t be able to make it. And then he saw one. Artemis clutching something, sat cross-legged. Bart’s head resting on her shoulder. They looked tired. Waiting. Dick was shaking. Hopeful. Surrounded by the original members of the Team. M’gann had a hand on his arm. She seemed to be reassuring them. Away from them, Batman and the Flash were tinkering with a machine. This had to be it. He could feel that this had been a long time after his death, that he would have been gone for much longer than he would’ve wanted, but what choice did he have? He may never get a better chance.
He ran straight for it, straight towards her.
“Wally!” There were tears in her eyes and she was in his arms and someone was crying and it was probably him and everything was right. He was back where he belonged.
His friends swarmed to him and suddenly he was being hugged from every direction and he was crying and laughing and it was ridiculous how much he missed them all even though he’d seen them all the time, in a way.
Eventually, they were shooed away by Barry. “Let’s get you stabilised, Wally.”
Wally closed his eyes, sitting in the machine.
He was staying here, right where he was meant to be. And, so what if he was a little late? He was alive.
He was home.