Chapter Text
“WALLY!!!”
…
Darkness. Little by little, the smoke cleared, and the dust settled. One by one, the heroes got to their feet and knees and looked around. The plain was cracked and desolate, barren for as far as the eye could see. The night sky above had no moon, and the stars shone faintly. No sign of anyone, other than them.
Diana got up first and immediately ran to her friends. She found Bruce first and helped him up; built like a brick, he got up easily and shrugged off his injuries. Kal staggered to his feet a few metres away, a few minor scratches on him, but nothing else. Coughing, John sat up; he probably would’ve been blown up if not for the strange alien presence within him, the one Diana could feel as much as she could see him. Farther away from the others was Jo, waves of her alien light radiating throughout the desert as she stood.
“Is everyone okay?” Kal called.
“Fine,” Bruce said.
“I’ve been worse,” John stated bluntly.
WE HAVE, said the Martian.
“Could be better,” said Jo. She looked around. They all did. It was just them.
“Wait, where’s…” Diana asked.
“WALLY!!!”
CHOOM!!!
Jo pushed off the ground and raced through the air, flying at a speed only shooting stars achieve. Once the dust from her takeoff cleared, the rest of the group looked at each other before doing their best to follow.
Jo sped through the air like a comet, her green eyes scanning the wasteland frantically. It was one of those landscapes she couldn’t believe belonged to Earth. It was so vast, so alien, so desolate. And what Wally did left long, angry scars in the dirt, racing in dark zig-zags that stretched on forever.
“Come on… come on…”
Then came that familiar feeling in her again. A pull, like a compass. Drawing her towards something red, something ingrained with this universe’s energy. But it also pulled her towards something more than that: someone more. She veered right and froze in the air at what she saw.
Wally lay in the centre of a dark, massive crater, the only splash of colour in the area. His suit was torn in so many places he looked like a badly-peeled fruit. His skin was riddled with cuts, and one eye was swollen and bruised. His body still crackled with red lightning, the Omega energy that powered him, that overtook him.
Jo landed at the crater’s edge and ran to him. All her cop training pushed itself to the front of her mind. She quickly assessed Wally before gently taking him in her arms. She could feel his heartbeat as though it were a pounding drum in her ears. He opened his eyes: they were dazed, unfocused, and glassy, but looking up at her.
“Breathe,” she whispered to him. “Just breathe.” He’s just a kid…
And so Wally did. In Jo’s green light, his breaths relaxed, and his wounds closed. They faded away like shadows before the green light of Sur.
Within seconds, Kal zoomed over to their side, carrying Bruce and setting him down. Diana landed next to them. John manifested out of some non-Euclidean Martian path. All of them got into the crater without hesitation.
Diana muttered some healing spells. The Martian wrapped a spectral hand around Wally, something only John could see and Jo could only register, but it was working.
SAVE-HEAL-RESTORE, it said. John heard the words as if they came from his own mouth.
Soon enough, Wally’s body and suit were returned to their proper conditions. The teen let out a few light coughs before opening his eyes. They were back to normal, but filled with fatigue.
“I don’t think I can ever do that again,” Wally mumbled.
“You’re not,” Diana said as Jo tightened her hug. “We’re not letting you.”
She kneeled and put her arms around the two. Kal joined in, his sunstone cape wrapping around them like a blanket. The Martian gave John a nudge; John got in there, with the Martian taking all of them in its arms.
Bruce hesitated for just a moment, but then stepped forward, knelt down, and awkwardly joined in right between Kal and Diana.
It was just them, in the middle of nowhere, holding onto each other with relief and solace. It felt warm and safe and exactly what each of them needed. It felt good.
The six (technically seven) of them remained like that for a while, kneeling in the dirt and tired beyond all endurance, but together.
Wally opened his bleary eyes. “How did you find me?”
“We’re a family,” Diana affirmed. “And family always finds each other."
Wally looked up at the myriad of stars in the sky, twinkling and sparkling. Like a collection of worlds without end. Family always finds each other.
“#!*& it!!!” Veronica Cale’s gloved fist hit the wall of the Justice League’s office in anger. “Ugh!”
Her fury was far more restrained than Hector Hammond, who was busy beating the life out of a keyboard by smacking it repeatedly against the table. A vein in his head throbbed. “Agh-agh-agh!!!!!”
At the table, Elenore Thawne and Jack Grimm maintained their composure but were still unable to hide their disappointment. They watched the live footage on the screen.
“We told you that wouldn’t work,” Thawne said, not even bothering to look Cale in the eye.
“I told you that wouldn’t work,” the Joker said calmly, his voice barely above a whisper. Elenore looked away from him.
Hammond marched up to the screen and looked at the heroes embracing. He stuck his tongue out. “Eugh! Gag, am I right?”