Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm feeling much better – thank you all for your support and well wishes. We're thinking it was just a really, really rough case of allergies, but I'm back on my allergy meds and the issue is gone, so there we go. We are, in this story, approaching the end times. I'd say maybe 4 chapters left? That's not a guarantee, but that's what I'm thinking at the moment. ALSO! Just so you know, I have some, like, headcanon-ish ideas about the Speed Force since the internet isn't giving me very concrete things, so some of those might pop up in this chapter. Alright, read, review, and enjoy!

Responses to Guest Reviews:

Shiranai Atsune – I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, we're definitely closing in on the end. Thanks for the lovely review and the support!

DDDDDD

Dick felt his heart pound in his throat. Disappear from the world completely? What on Earth was Wally talking about? In the front of the room, Savage was giving a lecture on his grand plan to lure Darkseid into a trap that would end with Wally pulling him into the Speed Force. That would end with Wally essentially dying again.

The Speed Force. Wally had been in the Speed Force the whole time? Admittedly, Dick understood very little of the Speed Force. He was a mathlete, yes, but energy fields and cosmic forces? That was beyond his level of understanding. Wally had tried to explain it to him one time. He'd sat Dick down and told him that there was a source to a speedster's powers. He'd told Dick that speedsters didn't run fast. They were fast. They were given the ability to disregard the laws of physics by the Speed Force, which was a location/energy source/sentient being made of cosmic energy and based around velocity and movement. Dick had been, understandably, confused. Speedsters weren't speedsters? But they were. Their ability to disregard normal physics was focused on the ideas of velocity and movement which meant that they used their speed to disregard physics. From what Dick understood.

That certainly made some sense. Speedsters did things that didn't necessarily adhere to natural laws. For example, Dick had seen Barry run on clouds. His explanation? He was running so fast that it froze the water molecules and allowed him to run on the ice he made under his feet. This was despite the fact that, in every other case ever, a speedster's enhanced speed went hand in hand with enhanced heat which would indicate that the cloud would evaporate under his feet. But apparently not. Wally had said that was part of their ability as vessels for the Speed Force. That was where Dick really started to lose track of the conversation. He could get behind the idea of the Speed Force as an energy source. It made some kind of sense. But the Speed Force as a place? As a – a thing capable of choosing speedsters? What did that mean?

Wally hadn't been able to completely explain it. At a certain point, he'd given up, shrugged, and said that it was hard to explain to a non-speedster. Dick had accepted the answer with the thought of going back to research the idea again later. Except, Wally had died, and the idea had drifted away.

Except, Wally didn't die. He was stuck in that forsaken Speed Force. Wally hadn't explained more than that. He'd simply went silent after his declaration and allowed Savage to go on and on about his master plan.

It was making Dick furious. Was that all Wally had to say? Was he really just going to leave it at that? Was he considering going along with Savage's insanity? Wally had to know that they would find another way. They always found another way. That was just how things worked. If they didn't find another way, then what was the point of all this? What was the point of Dick trying so hard to find Wally if Wally was just going to up and die again?

Dick's heart squeezed painfully at the thought. He didn't mean that. He would never mean that. He was just emotional and stressed. Lian had been freed from her bounds at that point, but she was still unconscious and being watched over by Jaime and Bart. Vandal Savage himself was stood at the front of the room, scowling at them and, in his own twisted way, trying to help.

Which was – overwhelming in its own way. Vandal Savage? Helping people? Was he really trying to convince the rest of them that everything he'd done from the moment Darkseid first landed on Earth to this point was to stop Darkseid? Was he trying to convince them that the people he killed, the lives he ruined, the hurt he left behind was in the name of saving the world? That was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. It was like Savage honestly believed that this absolved him of everything he'd done. Was watching Wally be manipulated and experimented on a part of the plan? Could Savage honestly say that Wally's horrible childhood was some part of his grand idea, his great manipulation?

If he even tried to insinuate that, to weasel his way out of his guilt, then Dick was going to take him down.

Before Dick even realized it, Wally was standing next to him, holding his hand and rubbing soothing circles into the bit of skin just behind his thumb. Subconsciously, Dick felt himself relax. Wally always knew how to make him feel better, just like Dick always knew how to make Wally feel better. That's why they were a team. That's why they were the best team, even if they were on opposite sides, technically.

Well, they used to be a team. Dick tugged his hand out of Wally's hold, ignoring the pain in his chest when he caught the hurt, scared look Wally gave him. Wally was – was considering this ridiculous proposal. He was considering leaving Dick again and Dick couldn't forgive that. He just couldn't. If Wally died again, then Dick was going to go with him. There was nothing else for it. Dick just wouldn't survive something like that again. And until they had that conversation and Wally admitted that he wasn't considering this stupid idea, then Dick was mad at him and didn't want his comfort.

In the front of the room, Savage wound down from his speech, "There will, of course, be a power vacuum in the universe once Darkseid in gone. He has amassed quite the collection of planets over his years. That, I'm afraid, will have to be dealt with separately. I've established to the universe that Earth is not to be trifled with, especially with the War Planet patrolling around it, but there will be necessary clean-up in other parts of the universe."

Len stepped forward, voice ice cold, "Your plan needs work. We'll go through it with the heroes, rework it, and then enact it. What are you going to be doing during this? You know the heroes aren't going to just let you go." He was talking like Dick and the others weren't even in the room.

Savage stared at him evenly, "I am willing to turn myself in. But, consider what I just said. The Earth is safe because the War Planet that I control and that only I can enter at the moment is ready to attack. Additionally, the likelihood of you luring Darkseid to Earth without me is negligible. You need me. You need me to be free if you want this to have a chance of working, rework or not."

Dick stepped forward to take over, being the oldest hero currently in the room. It wouldn't do to have this deal and conversation happening through a supervillain. He glared at Savage, "You cannot go without answering for your crimes."

"I am aware," Savage smirked, "But I also cannot start 'answering for my crimes' before Darkseid in dealt with. We both know that."

"Will you turn yourself in after Darkseid is defeated?" Dick returned.

Savage chuckled, "You and I both know the answer to that, little hero." Dick grit his teeth; he did know. Savage sighed, "Once Darkseid is defeated, I will have less of a reason to hide so firmly in the shadows. We will return to a cat and mouse game, but it will be a different one. Maybe you will find it easier. Maybe you will even catch me at some point." He smirked again, showing them that he highly, highly doubted that.

Dick felt a muscle pop in his jaw, but he finally growled, "Leave." They watched as Savage walked out of the room. Seven years fighting the same villain and Dick just watched him walk out. It made him furious. Once Savage was gone, Dick turned to the rest of the group, "I know that a lot has happened today. Right now, what we all need to do is rest. You can work on the information about Luthor for a little bit longer if you'd like, but you should sleep at some point. I'll take care of talking to the Justice League, the Team, Batman Inc., and Infinity Inc. about everything that's happened today. Jason, can you take Lian back to Will and Jade? Thanks."

He nodded and the group dispersed, whispering to each other furiously as they wrapped up thoughts and ideas in the Luthor case. Garfield and Jefferson dragged a hysterical Helga to the secure cells in the Hub. Jason gently grabbed Lian and walked purposefully towards the zeta beam with her (Dick did not envy his brother that job – Jade was going to be a force to be reckoned with once she realizes that Savage took her kid under her nose).

That left Wally and the Rogues standing together near one of the side tables. Wally was stood slightly apart from them, eyes downcast. The Rogues looked like they didn't know what to say, eyes flitting between each other, clearly hoping someone else would speak first.

Dick sighed and stepped forward, resolutely not looking at Wally, "Thank you for everything you guys have done and are doing. We appreciate your help through all this. I can call you when we meet tomorrow to go over the plan, okay?"

"Okay," Len said evenly. He was watching Dick from under hooded eyes. It made Dick's hair stand on end. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd failed some sort of test that Len had given him.

Wally interrupted the tense silence that fell after Len's statement, "Dick, can we go to our place and talk? Just for a little bit? I'm – I'm going to have to go back to the Rogues tonight and explain everything to them, but we need to talk."

"Why don't you just go ahead and go home with them?" Dick asked, still not looking at his fiancé, "It doesn't really matter anyways."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Digger shouted. He shoved Sam towards them. Sam stumbled for a second, but quickly righted himself and grabbed the two of them by their jackets. Dick didn't even get a chance to protest before he was dragged into the Mirror Dimension.

He gasped for air and resisted the urge to heave when he finally made it out. A spike of instinctual panic lashed through him when he realized that they had been deposited outside the large mirror in the hallway of their Bludhaven apartment block. Dick sighed; apparently the Rogues were playing at fixing relationships.

Jaw clenched, Dick started stalking for his – their – his apartment, "You might as well come in, then." Wally followed meekly behind him and Dick felt his irritation spike again.

The irritation faded away, however, when he caught sight of Wally's face once they'd both sat down in the worn loveseat. Dick swallowed around the lump in his throat as Wally melted into the couch cushion, wonder stealing across his expression. For a moment, Wally didn't say anything or even look at Dick. He just ran his fingers across the material of the couch, the ghost of a smile touching his lips even as tears welled in his eyes. Wally quietly admitted, "I saw the apartment when I came here to get the ring back, but… it's different like this. Feeling it, really experiencing it. I've missed this so much."

Dick opened his mouth to answer (he had no idea what he could have said to something as heart wrenching as that) when the furious sound of nails clicking and clacking and sliding against the floor echoed across the apartment. Seconds later, Brucely threw himself into the room, slamming into Wally's knees and scrabbling up and over, onto the couch. Wally laughed delightedly, gathering Brucely to him and just burying his face in Brucely's fur.

Abruptly, Dick felt himself soften the rest of the way. What was he doing? Wally had been back for how long? They'd been engaged for how long? And Dick was already ready to start a fight? No, that wasn't entirely fair. It wasn't just Dick who was ready to fight over something. He knew Wally enough to know that, in this specific instance, he wouldn't have even tried to de-escalate that conversation.

So, Dick gave himself a little bit of time to calm down. He watched Wally pet through Brucely's fur and touch the couch with wonder in his eyes and gaze around the room with a longing that broke Dick's heart. Once he felt like he could have the conversation without screaming, Dick said, "I love you, Wally."

Wally glanced at up at him, tentative walls built up in his eyes, "I love you too, Dick. You know that."

Dick gave him a smile, "I know, Walls. Of course, I know that. You basically told us that you escaped from the Speed Force simply through your love for me. Could you, um, give more detail on that?"

Wally frowned slightly, "I can try. I got headaches and flashbacks when I was thinking about it earlier. I would like to avoid more of that. But it's not like there's a lot to tell. I was running. I wasn't even running fast. You know me, I was always the slowest. Since I was the slowest, though, the MFD attacked me. It kept shooting me with its weird lightning. I would bet that the attacks supercharged me and heightened the kinetic energy in my body to a state high enough that I was able to connect to the Speed Force and open it. And of course it let me in. That's my point."

"I don't understand," Dick said cautiously. The way Wally was talking about the Speed Force was making him nervous. There was a longing to his tone that Dick didn't want to think about.

Wally frowned again in concentration, "I can't prove this, of course. The Speed Force is, largely, just another speedster mystery and we leave it at that. After spending time in it, though, I could feel more from it. The Speed Force… is a, uh, a living thing. Kind of. It's not living in the way that humans look at it, but it's living in the way that the universe looks at living things. It can think and perform actions and it needs sustenance. All of that. I think. That's the feeling I got from being inside of it."

"Are you saying that you were food?" Dick asked incredulously.

"No!" Wally yelped, "Not really!"

"Not really?" Dick repeated slowly.

Wally sighed, "Look, this is hard to explain, okay? So, the Speed Force is a conglomeration of kinetic energy, of speed. Every once in a while, it finds a suitable candidate and it gives speedster abilities to that candidate. That person then spends their life getting strong and faster and accumulating more speed and kinetic energy. Then, when the person dies, they become one with the speedster, returning the gift they had been given and then giving the Speed Force all that extra energy in return. Sometimes, though, people enter the Speed Force in a different way. Sometimes, they run fast enough or gather enough kinetic energy that the Speed Force considers them ready to come home. Then -,"

Dick cut Wally off, "No. Not home. The Speed Force isn't your home, Wally. This is your home. Central is your home. This freaky Speed Force thing isn't your home."

Wally reached out as if to give Dick some physical comfort, but then he flinched back and drew into himself again. Dick winced when he remembered tugging his hand out of Wally's grip. He didn't move, though. He needed Wally to admit that the Speed Force wasn't his home. He needed to know that Wally believed that.

Sighing again, Wally wrapped his arms around Brucely and looked Dick in the eye, "Babe, wherever you go is home. You know that. It's just – I can't describe what it feels like to be in the Speed Force. You've heard me and Barry and some of the others talk about how lonely being a speedster can be, right? You remember that? Exactly. Being in the Speed Force is like being in a place that was specifically designed to perfectly match your taste without ever being boring where you're surrounded by people who support, love, and understand you. Everyone's like you. But in a way that's not obnoxious. I don't know how else to explain it. But obviously, I prefer it here with you. I would have never gotten out otherwise. I'm still not really sure how I got out. I just know that it was because I was thinking of you and missing you so much."

Dick felt his eyes fill with tears that he refused to let fall. Hesitantly, slowly, Wally leaned forward and rested his palm against Dick's cheek, swiping the tears away with his thumb. Dick took in a hitched breath. Wally pulled his head in so they were leaning their foreheads against each other, "I'm with you, Dick. Forever. It might have taken me a while to get to that point, to escape and then make my way through the next several issues, but I came back to you. I always will."

That was all it took for Dick to lean forward fully and cry into Wally's shoulder. A part of him hated that he was doing this, that he was crying into Wally's shoulder when, by all rights, it should be Wally who was upset. But Wally would never begrudge Dick this. Never.

When Dick was finally done crying, he pulled back and looked up at Wally with red-rimmed eyes, "What are you going to do?"

Wally sighed, "What else can I do, Dick?"

"I can't lose you again," Dick warned. He wondered about what Wally said. Dick was never really quite sure what he believed in when it came to what happened after death. Wally apparently already had that one figured out for himself. He was going back to the Speed Force once he died. Dick wondered if the Speed Force would take him too, just so he could still be with Wally.

Wally's fingers tightened in Dick's jacket, "I'll talk to the Rogues. And Barry and Bart and Jay and Johnny and Max and Jesse and any other speedster I can find. We'll figure out a way to get out of this, okay? I promise, at the end of all of this, I'll still be with you."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Dick warned.

Wally didn't answer. He just tucked Dick's head under his chin and held him.

Author's Note: I am so, so, so sorry for such a short chapter! I had an entire other super huge conversation planned – I've actually written the first 800 words of it – but my parents decided that I needed to do a trash ton of unnecessary yard work today, so, alas, I won't have any time to finish the chapter like I want to. Plus side, I've got the first 800 words of the next chapter written. But I feel bad giving you guys this after making you wait for over two weeks. Next week will be better! Thank you so much for reading!