'Endgame' SPOILERS!DON'T READ UNLESS YOU HAVE WATCHED THE EPISODE! THIS IS THE LAST WARNING YOU'RE GOING TO GET!
Alright so after I finished crying over the episode, which took me all day Saturday, I've been trying to convince myself that Paris was the last scene of the episode, but I couldn't seem to do it so I did the next best thing. WROTE ABOUT WALLY'S RETURN! WOOH!
No, but seriously if we were getting a season 3 for this god amazing show or ever just a movie, I would be fine with either one, there would be a 75% chance Wally would come back because Greg has said that he wasn't going to kill any of the original six, which is also a reason to say Wally isn't dead. He keep saying there is no known Speed-Force on Earth-16 so that ruled out my theory of our redhead being stuck in the Speed-Force so I had to go with my scientific explanation on what happened to him and how he would come back.
Okay, I'm done ranting now.
I don't own Young Justice or any of the characters used.
This story is also up on my tumblr, wallmans-spitfire, so no one try to say I stole this because I certainly did not.
It has been exactly five weeks and two days since Wally had disappeared at the Arctic Circle without a single trace. Artemis has been counting the days, waiting to see how long it would take her to go completely insane with grief and frustration.
She was frustrated because she didn't stop him. She didn't get to tell him goodbye. she didn't get to tell him she loved him one last time. She had always imagined that she would have been the first of the two to go. She imagined that if he was the first that she would be with him, holding him close, until his final breath. She had thought her chance of losing him or him losing her had gone far down after they had retired, but that wasn't the case. She felt like that just raised the chance even higher.
She still had his old sweatshirts, oversized jerseys, and his spare suit, which was now in a case in her bedroom. When she was going through his things, which was the last thing she thought she'd ever have to do, she found a ring. He had hidden it in one of his out of date, hollowed out science books. She even found the receipt for it, which told her he bought it while she was undercover. She couldn't help but wonder when he had planned to pop the question.
'Well now I'll never get to say yes,' she had thought sadly. She now wears the ring on a chain around her neck, which she never takes off for anything. She didn't tell anybody about the ring, she felt if she did she might break down like she did when she found it.
It was the middle of the night and Artemis was sitting curled up on her bed reading with Brucely sleeping beside her. Wally had never let the pit bull sleep on the bed with them because he claimed that the dog 'hogged' her. Now she didn't have the heart to kick the dog off the bed. Besides, the bed was too big for only one person to sleep in at a time.
The day before had been uneventful, as was most days since that day. She kept up with the team and somehow managed to get a hold of Dick on a weekly basis. She hasn't seen him since he left the team, but he called her to make sure she was still okay and to prove that he was as well. He would never tell her what he was going, no matter how many times she asked. He just told her that he was looking for something and he wasn't coming back until he found it.
The blonde was startled out of her reading when her cell phone started ringing on her bedside table. She put down her book and looked at the caller id in confusion. He never called her this late.
"Dick, what's up with the late night phone call," she answered. "I could have been sleeping."
"Obviously you're not," he pointed out. "Now, can you let me in? We need to talk." Artemis threw off her bed sheets.
"Alright Just give me a second." With that she hung up her phone and hurried to the front door. She wanted an explanation as to what was so important that he had to suddenly show up at her home in the middle of the night. She threw up the door and the acrobat slipped inside silently. As much as she wanted to hug the younger boy after being off the radar for five weeks she had questions that needed answers. Before she could asked one of her questions he cut her off.
"I think I've found Wally," he said bluntly. She blinked, completely taken back. She gave him a moment to start laughing and act like it was just a big joke, but he looked dead serious. "For the last five weeks I've been-"
"Wait," she cut him off. "You think you found Wally? He's gone Dick! He disappeared into nothing, you heard what Barry and Bart said!"
"I know. I know, but as Wally would say 'Matter can not be destroyed, it just takes a new form'," he said. "He could not have just disappeared from the universe without leaving something behind. For the first two weeks I was gone I was analyzing the air around where Wally disappeared. Artemis, he's still there! He just can't connect with the physical realm. So for the last three weeks I've been working on a way to get him back, but I need your help."
"Dick, do you have any idea what you are saying," she asked sternly. She would be lying if she said she didn't hope he was right and that they could get her doofus redhead of a ninja boyfriend back, but her rational mind was telling her it wasn't possible. Wally was dead. She's come to accept that. Why wasn't he? "Wally is dead! He has been for the past five weeks and two days! He's not like one of the deaths you had faked so you could easily bring the person back when you needed them too! Wally is gone! Why can't you accept that for what it is?"
"Because he doesn't have to be dead," the boy snapped back. "We can still bring him back! We just have to give him the energy and the reason to come back! You can not tell me for one moment you don't want him back here so you could tease and banter back and farther like you used to!"
"Wally is dead, Dick! You can't change that!"
"If this was you he would jump at the chance to save you! Why aren't you?!" Artemis opened her mouth to reply, but ended up closing it again. She looked down at the floor. She could feel tears pricking her eyes.
"Because I've come to accept the reality in front of me and I know there is nothing we can do to change it," she finally said when she looked back up at him. "Now why can't you?"
"I've lost too many people in my life already, Artemis. I don't want to lose another one. Now. Are you going to help me are do I have to go ask M'gann or Barbara? I'm sure either of them would jump at the chance to save our dopey friend." Artemis turned away from him and walked toward the kitchen. She looked at the refrigerator, thinking about how full of food it still was, how much food she still had to throw out because it had gone bad. She thought about all those times when she would be cooking a meal for the two of them Wally would wrap his arms around her or try to get a taste of the still cooking food. She smiled to herself when one particular memory came to mind.
Artemis was in the kitchen cooking one of Wally's favorite dishes that she had perfected to a 't', just for him. She hadn't heard him come it the front door. She also didn't hear him let out a long groan, which he quickly replaced with a heavy sigh when he noticed what she was cooking. She didn't notice him until he was hugging her from behind and kissing her neck.
"You're home late," she commented, turning to look at him.
"Mark came in late. Again. I can't wait until he finally gets fired and replaced with someone who actually comes in on time," he explained, resting his chin on her shoulder. "I'm enjoying the extra money, but not the extra work."
"Well, good thing I'm making your favorite dinner," she said with a small smile.
"You rock, babe," he whispered in her ear. He kissed her cheek and let her go. She noticed a moment too late that he had snatched a piece of cut up tomato from the cutting board beside her. She turned in time to catch him toss it into his mouth with a wide grin on his face. She grabbed the nearest dish towel and whipped his retreating ass. "Hey," he whined, using his hands to cover his butt before she could get him again.
"I thought you would have learned by now not to steal food until the meal was actually done," she said, laughing at his pouting face.
"That's harsh, babe," he frowned thought she could see the amusement in his eyes.
"No that's justice," she retorted. Next thing she knew they were running around the apartment after each other, the food completely forgotten for the moment.
Artemis turned back to Dick, who was standing in the middle of the living room watching her. She took a moment to look him over. He was in his civies, which was rare for him now. He had bags under his dull blue eyes and his skin was paler than usual. She couldn't help, but think about what Barbara would do to him right now if she saw him like this.
"You're getting a decent meal and a long nap before we're going anywhere," she told him, putting her hand on her hips. His eyes widened in shock before he grinned widely. Artemis was surprised when he didn't jump forward and hug her like she thought he would, not that he actually did that often anyways.
"I'll be back here at-" he started before she raised a hand to cut him off.
"You can stay here. I'm not going to get any sleep tonight so you can have the bed as long as you don't mind Brucely sleeping with you," she told him. She walked over to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "No alarms. You just get up when you wake up. I can go by your place to grab you a change of cloths so you can shower when you get up." He nodded in understanding, obviously knowing better than to argue with her. "Now go to bed. You can wear a pair of Wally's sweatpants if you want."
"Of course you still have his stuff," he snickered as he walked down the hall.
"Oh, shut up, you troll," she yelled after him, shaking her head. He cackled his famous cackle that is rare to hear anymore. The blonde curled up on the couch with the television on at low volume. She wasn't really paying attention to what was on, she was thinking about Wally.
'What if we don't get him back? What if he doesn't remember her? What if he wasn't the same nerdy redhead she loved so much?' All the what ifs ran through her head until she forced them all to the back of her mind. She shouldn't be thinking about all that, she should be thinking about getting her loving boyfriend back home and into her arms before it was too late. 'If it isn't already.'
She didn't know what time she dozed off, but she woke up to Brucely whining at her. She checked the clock and let out a groaned, stretching out her bunched up limbs. She quietly snuck into her room to grab a sweater and sweat pants so she could take Brucely on a walk before he woke up the sleeping acrobat.
After taking the pitbull on a walk she dropped him off at the house and taking off to Dick's place to grab his clothes. Surprisingly Dick wasn't up yet when she got home the second time so she started making breakfast, eggs, bacon, and pancakes.
A few minutes after she finished a full plate of eggs and bacon she heard feet shuffling down the hall. She looked up to see Dick yawning and he walked into the room, his black hair sticking up in random places.
"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," she teased as he sat down at the table, well it was more like he fell into the chair. "I'm just going to assume you slept well considering that's almost noon."
"And you're making breakfast food," he yawned, looking at her skeptically. She shrugged.
"I had a lot of errands to run this morning. I had to take Brucely on a walk and then I had to go all the way over to Bludhaven to get you a clean change of cloths. You should really do something about your apartment, by the way, it's a mess." She set a clean empty plate in front of him and poured him a glass of orange juice. She got out all the syrup, butter, and bread before setting down the plates of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
"Hungry," he asked as he started filling his plate.
"It's a force of habit, besides you're probably starving anyways," she shrugged. She filled her plate and they ate in silence until Brucely showed up, begging for some bacon.
"I don't imagine he gets table scraps a lot when Wally was around," Dick commented between bites as he watched Artemis toss a piece of bacon to the pitbull.
"Actually he did," she replied. "Wally loved- loves Brucely. He's a real man's best friend."
"'Probably kept Wally sane while you were gone," he muttered so quietly that she wasn't sure she was supposed to even hear it. She decided not to comment on it and ignored it entirely.
"Where are we going first," she asked him.
"We're going to Zeta to Toronto, where I have a jet plane for use to use to fly the rest of the way there," he replied. "It should only take us a few hours as long as we don't run into any bad storms." Artemis nodded. She could already feel the adrenaline fill her veins from the anticipation.
"Your cloths are in the bathroom, by the way," she told him as she got up. He handed her his plate before disappearing down the hall.
She listened for the bathroom door to close and for the water to start running as she set the dirty dishes into the sink before crouching on the floor. Brucely immediately ran over to her with his tail lagging happily. She scratched him behind the ears and grabbed a piece of bacon off the table to give to him.
"Guess what boy. Daddy might be coming home today," she told the dog. Like he understood what she said, the little pitbull barked and he seemed to smile. "He's going to come home and we can go to the park and play fetch and throw frisbee like we used to. Won't that be great?"
She hadn't even noticed that she had started crying until a tear fell on Brucely's nose. The dog licked her cheek and she hugged him close, crying into his neck.
"Artemis," someone whispered. She looked up and saw Dick standing in front of her. He was dressed in fresh clothes and his hair was still slightly dripping. She quickly let go of Brucely and wiped away her tears. "Are you okay," he asked cautiously as she stood up.
"I will be when Wally is back home where he belongs," she replied. She went to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm.
"Artemis, we will bring him back, I promise," he told her.
"That's a big promise there, Grayson," she said in a warning voice. "If this doesn't work, you are going to be the one paying for my therapy." She walked away to grab her own clothes and to take a shower. When she came back out an hour later she found Dick sitting on the couch watching a weather forecast with Brucely curled up beside him sleeping.
"If we want to leave Toronto before the storm reaches there we need to leave here soon," he said, not looking over at her.
"Just let me fill up Brucely's food and water bowls," she said. She headed into the kitchen, but stopped when a thought occurred to her. "Do we need to take any weapons," she asked.
"Only if you think a random Polar Bear is going to jump out of a snow drift at us or Wally's going to come out rabid," Dick replied with a smirk. "And I think we both know you don't need any weapons to take down either possibility." She rolled her eyes at him and proceeded into the kitchen.
Five minutes later the two of them were headed to the Palo Alto Zeta Tube. Once they were in Toronto they dressed in heavy snow gear and caught a taxi to the airport where Dick's jet plane was prepped and ready from them. It took them around four hours to get to their intended destination and then another half an hour for Dick to manage to land the plane on the snow.
"You would think I would have this all figured out by now," he comment as they climbed out of the jet. Artemis looked around at the snow around them.
This was the place where Wally disappeared. This was the place where Artemis lost the one person that knew her for who she really was, inside and out. She lost the love of her life and her childhood hero here. If they didn't get him back she was going to beat Dick to a pulp for bring her back here.
Set up a few feet away was what looked like a computer console without the screen. There was a generator sitting beside it and she could practically see the heat waves rising off of it. Dick walked over to the computer consul and brought up a holoscreen.
"Let's see how Wally's doing," he said and he typed on the keyboard.
"What do you mean 'see how he's doing'," she asked in confusion, walking over to him.
"His molecules are slowly pulled water and energy out of the air in order to put themselves back together, but the problem is that there is hardly any energy left in the air here for them to use. So far they have only been able to create magnetic pull to stop all the molecules from get separated," he explained. On the screen an assortment of random red dots that seemed to form a cloud. "Each red dot is a cluster of Wally's broken up molecules in the air that we can't see." He pointed to each red dot.
"How exactly are we supposed to get his molecules to rebuild into our Wally," Artemis asked. "Are we just going to ask them to move back together faster?"
"Something like that," he nodded. "I'm going to use this generator to more energy into the air for the molecules to use."
"How are you going to do that?"
"Give it a work out," he replied with a smirk. "I'm going to multitask by searching several different things on the internet at the same time so it has to work harder."
"What am I going to do then? Stand here and look pretty," she asked him with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips.
"Well, how do you get him to do something for you that he doesn't want to do," he asked, turning to her. She raised both eyebrows at that.
"I don't think you want to know what I do to get him to do something for me," she pointed out. He raised an eyebrow before shaking his head.
"I didn't need that image in my head," he said in a disgusted tone. She laughed and shook her head. "Maybe you should just talk to him. Tell him a story or talk about chemistry," he suggested as he made more holoscreens. Artemis nodded and turned to the empty space where Wally's molecules were, supposedly.
"Do I just-"
"You can move closer, it won't mess anything up. Besides you might have to catch him when he materializes, I don't know how he's going to come out," Dick told her gently. She nodded and took a few steps forward in the empty space. "Are you ready," he asked from behind her.
"You better not comment on anything I say or I'll tell Barbara about that one time when you and-"
"No trolling you, got it," he cut her off. "Time to get our Wall-man back." A moment later she could hear the hum of the generator grow louder as Dick tapped away at the keyboard. Her mouth was dry.
What was she supposed to talk about? What if this didn't work after all? What if his molecules come together, but then fall apart again and they truly lose him forever?
"Artemis!" She was jarred out of her thoughts by Dick yelling at her. "Talk about something!" She nodded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Hey, Wally... So Bart took up the Kid Flash mantle in your honor. He said he felt like a fraud wearing the suit, but I told him that he should feel honored and would make you proud. I wanted to tell him he was lucky you gave him permission to take up the mantle at all.
"I know how much you loved being a hero. I know how you hoped one day to jump back into the game, but not like the way we did. I'm sorry about everything, Wally. I should have never went on that undercover mission. I should have stayed at home with you and Brucely.
"Brucely misses you, babe. He won't stop crying at the door every night around the same time you usually come home from work. He won't play fetch or frisbee with me when I take him to the park unless I run with him like you do. He sleeps more than he usually does and he won't play with any of his toys." She took a pause from her ran to look back at Dick, who was still typing away at the keyboard. She noticed that there was fewer red dots on the one screen and the dots were much bigger.
"Artemis, keep going. It's working," Dick prompted, looking at her through the many holoscreens. She nodded and turned back around. She noticed that there was something floating in the air in front of her. She couldn't tell what it was exactly, but it gave her hope.
"I have dinner with your parents, Barry, Iris, Bart, and the Garricks every week," she said. "Ever since your disappearance Iris and Mary won't go two days without calling me to make sure I haven't done something stupid. Barry talks to me whenever he sees me at the Watchtower. Whenever Bart and I are put on a mission together he sticks close, he's almost as irritating as you were when we started dating." She drew in a deep breath. She stared at the blob in the air in front of her. It was starting to look like something now, but the process seemed to be slowing down. "Dick, can you work that generator a little bit more," she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.
"If I work it anymore it might shut me down," he replied. "You're going to have to talk about something more emotional."
"What could be more emotional than Brucely or his family?"
"Artemis, don't make me spell it out," Dick said in a stern tone. "Remember what Barry told you." Artemis looked back at the blob that was supposed to be Wally. She swallowed and tears started to well up in her eyes.
"W-Wally... I miss you. I miss you s-so much," she started, her voice shaking. "Y-you have no idea what I've gone through since you left. I can barely sleep without you being right there to keep me warm at night. The fridge is still full of food from the last time you went shopping. I always cook an overly large amount of food because I keep hoping you'll coming walking in the front door like you never ceased in the first place. I've been reduced to spending my time on missions twenty-four seven and when I'm not I'm either working or reading one of those dopey romantic novels from the library.
"Wally, I can't go on without you! Please come home!" The blonde wasn't paying attention to what was going in around anymore because she had her hands buried in her hands as tears coated her cold cheeks. She didn't notice that Dick had stopped typing on his computer and the generator was now producing a soft hum instead of a loud roar.
"Artemis," a painfully familiar voice whispered. Her whole body froze and her eyes widened.
'Is that- It can't be-' her mind reeled. She slowly looked up with a hiccup and a soft sniffle. Standing before her was none other than Wallace Rudolph West.
He looked just like he did when she last saw him, still clad in his Kid Flash costume and his red hair wind blown like her had just been running. Her eyes danced across his face catching the smallest pink scar on his jaw from when he had gotten into a one on one fight with her father. She cautiously reached up and pulled back his mask to reveal all of his face. There was a new white scar on his forehead, just below his hairline. She didn't know if it was just the way his molecules formed back together or if it was from Paris, but either way she would make sure that she kissed it when they got home.
She could hear the crunching of snow behind her, but she didn't care about that. All she cared about was that Wally was back. Her big goofy ninja boyfriend was back. Their eyes met, green to grey, and that wide toothy smile that Artemis had missed so much spread across his lips.
Suddenly anger filled her veins. This was the guys that left her. That guy that had told her that he loved her countless times and that he would never leave her. They promised each other forever when they got out of college and had steady jobs. This was her boyfriend of five plus years. 'Like hell I'm letting him get away with not getting in trouble for leaving me!'
Her face changed from loving to anger as she surged forward and started swinging her fists at him. She had taken him by surprise and landed a punch in his gut before he could manage to get his footing. She saw him shoot a warning look behind, 'probably telling Dick to stay back.'
Once he had gained his footing he took a few more of her punches. He starting moving with super speed after that. He grabbed her wrists when she threw another punch and held onto her with a stronge grip. He pulled her into his chest and moved his arms to wrap them around her securely.
She struggled against him for a moment before the feels building inside her took over and her facade crumbled yet again. She buried her face into his chest and sobbed. He whispered in her ear about how much he loved her and that he was sorry for leaving her. He promised to never do it again and that if he did she had permission to kill him where he stood.
The two of them stayed there like that for a while, Wally petting her hair and Artemis hugging him tightly. She felt him lift his head off her's so she looked up as well. She followed his gaze and saw the Bioship in the distance.
"Dick, did you radio the team," she asked, looking over her shoulder at him. He was standing a few feet away giving her a confused look until she pointed at the Bioship. He realized what she was talking about a moment too late when the Bioship touched down. Almost immediately after the hatch opened M'gann flew out.
"Wally," she cried. She landed beside them with a huge smile on her face and tears in her eyes. Artemis let go of her speedster so the Martain could envelope him in a tight hug. The archer watch as Connor and Kaldur ran off the Bioship and over to them.
"But how," Kaldur asked in completely confusion.
"You died," Connor added.
"You didn't really think you could get rid of me that easily did you," Wally joked. M'gann was still hugging him and his cheeks were starting to turn red.
"He didn't die, his molecules got pulled apart at the electric bonds. They just had to be put back together," Dick explained. Artemis interupted him before he could start going in depth with his explanation.
"You can tell them the story later," she told him. He pouted for a moment and she felt Wally wrap an arm around her shoulders.
"Since the gang is all here, I call for a group hug," he said, holding his arm out toward the closest person. M'gann jumped forward at the idea and wrapped an arm around Artemis. The three boys exchanged looks before coming forward to join the hug.
"No one say anything about Wally to anybody," Artemis said after a few moments. "I want it to be a surprise when I bring him with me to the watchtower tomorrow." Everyone nodded and pulled back from the hug.
The next thing she knew they were all on the Bioship on the way to Palo Alto. Artemis was sitting on Wally's lap with her hands over his, which were resting on her stomach. Normally the two of them didn't do PDA because of the way M'gann and Connor were after New Years 2011, but she wasn't about to draw the line when she hasn't been in his arms for five weeks and three days.
"When we get home we are going to take Brucely to the park and then we are cuddling in bed for the rest of the night," she told Wally, turning her head so she could see him as he had his chin rested on her shoulder. He turned to look at her with a soft smile on his face.
"Sounds good, babe," he agreed. Artemis put a hand on his cheek and their eyes looked. She thought back to Paris, the last kiss they shared, the promise that she thought would never be filled.
"You owe me Paris," she remarked with a smile. He chuckled and her insides melted, oh how she has missed him. She closed the gap between them. It wasn't long until someone wolf whistled behind them. 'Dick.' She resisted the urge to flip him off, but she guessed Wally did because then everyone was laughing. He pulled back with a big grin on his face.
"I love you, Artemis," he told her. She smiled back at him and pecked him on the lips.
"I love you too and yes," she said with a mischievous smirk.
"What," he asked in confusion. The blonde pulled her necklace out from under her shirt and held the ring up between them.
"I found the ring, babe," she said with a wide smile. "Along with the receipt."
"What," Wally squeaked. His face was almost as red as his hair and his eyes were wide as he stared at the engagement ring. She laughed at his expression and started to take the ring off the necklace. He took it from her before she could put it on herself. "If we're going to do this than we're waiting until we get to Paris," he told her hold the ring in a fist out of her reach, so the other's wouldn't see it, as he held her securely in his lap.
"You're a dick," she grumbled, crossing her arms.
"Did someone say my name," the acrobat asked from the other side of the bioship. The two erupted in laughter.
'God it's good to be home,' she thought as she snuggled into Wally's hold. She felt his warm breath on her neck and somehow she knew that they were going to be okay.
If enough people like this I'll write an epilogue about Paris and revealing Wally to the league/team and his family.