I joke about death because it's funny (when you're frightened)

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My name is Wally West and this is possibly the scariest experience of my life. And I'm not kidding.

Right now I'm in a pocket dimension. It's featureless. The area is pure white, and it doesn't even have shadows to let you see where the floor ends and the roof begins. The only things I can see in this white space are myself and the person I'm trapped with. That person is the reason I'm scared.

I won't waste a lot of time explaining how I got in this situation. To summarize, Star Labs was holding a demonstration to show off a new invention that could create micro-pocket dimensions. Uncle Barry took me to see it. We were enjoying ourselves at first. But then Barry noticed someone else in the crowd - that person smirked back at him - and Barry's expression changed.

"Wally, you need to get out of here - right now."

"Wha-"

Someone screamed. More people screamed. That person had changed into a costume.

Uncle Barry and I changed into our own costumes. He focused on fighting, while I focused on getting people out. It was a fast battle - and that's fast by my standards - fast even by the Flash's standards. I could barely keep track of what was going on. I know I got hit a few times. I know that person attached his own machine to the Star Labs' invention. I think he was about to use it on the Flash, but I impulsively shoved him while he was firing. The next thing I knew I was stuck here... with the Reverse-Flash.

Kid Flash was trapped in the white space with a man. They stood quietly facing each other. Kid Flash in his yellow-and-red suit, and him in his all-yellow suit.

Professor Zoom.

Eobard Thawne.

The Reverse-Flash.

And the man who killed Barry Allen's mother.

He was both the Flash's newest and oldest enemy. A man who defied time and space.

Kid Flash's blood ran cold. That's a cliché line, but it's honestly how he felt. A chill ran through him from his toes to his scalp.

"Don't be frightened," he calmly told Kid Flash. "I won't touch you."

The boy speedster fought down his dread. Scared or not, there wasn't much point in giving him the silent treatment. "You hit me a few times already."

"We were in a fight and you were in my way," he replied nonchalant. He gestured to the whiteness around them. "There's not much point in fighting anymore."

Kid Flash glanced around. "Where are we...?"

"This is a pocket dimension."

"I thought the guy said Star Labs couldn't make one stable enough to hold people."

"Normally they couldn't, so I brought some equipment to modify the generator. It was supposed to hold the Flash, but then you got involved... Don't bother running to find an exit. This white space is a tiny universe all of its own. No holes... No cracks... No way out."

"So... W-We're trapped here?" Kid Flash asked nervously. "Forever?"

"Not forever. It'll dissolve eventually. We'll be ejected back to regular space soon enough." He continued with annoyance, "The problem is, my equipment was left behind in the real world. I can't do anything to speed up the process from here. And Flash doesn't know how to dissolve the bubble either. There's nothing we can do but sit here and wait it out."

The man looked around the whiteness, as if bored. The boy looked at him suspiciously.

"You're really not gonna attack me?"

"You complaining?" he replied with a raised eyebrow.

Kid Flash said nothing.

"We'll be enemies as long as you're the Flash's partner, but I have nothing against you personally. My only vendetta is against the true Flash, Barry Allen. That's the same reason I've never gone after his predecessor, Jay Garrick. Bluntly put," he smiled, "you don't even register on my radar."

Kid Flash frowned.

"I just don't see any point in fighting when Flash isn't here," he finished.

There wasn't any point in killing Barry's mom either, Kid Flash thought. He only did it to spite Barry. And Wally was Barry's nephew... But the fact he wasn't attacking Wally already seemed to prove he wasn't going to.

It was still hard to relax. Kid Flash understood how dangerous this man was. It wasn't just his speed that made him dangerous. It was his personality. He would do anything to get what he wanted. He wasn't afraid of killing people. He wasn't even afraid of making people hate him, a fear which Wally found crippling.

"Is time the fourth dimension?" Eobard Thawne asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Is time the fourth dimension?" he repeated.

Since all they could do was wait around anyway, it seemed he was willing to chat about whatever came to mind.

Eobard Thawne was a time traveler from the 25th century. Anyone from Wally's time must seem primitive to him. Add to that Wally was still in middle school. He didn't want to seem stupid in front of this man, but all he could say was, "I'm not sure what you're asking me."

"You know about 2D and 3D, right? 2D has length and height, so it's a flat plane - a drawing. 3D has length, height, and depth, so it's three-dimensional space - the world we live in. And while we're on the subject, 1D only has length, so it's just a line. The first three dimensions are length, height, and depth. But what's the fourth dimension? An ancient mathematician named Minkowski something-or-other theorized that it's time. Do you agree?"

"Not really..."

"Why's that?"

"Well..." Wally took a moment to try and put his thoughts into words. "Height, depth, and so on... Those are physical things. They're used to measure the size or location of something. So the dimensions are all about space. But time doesn't measure space - time measures time. They're two different things."

"That's exactly how I feel. Think of it this way: If people were two-dimensional creatures, living in a flat two-dimensional world, they might wonder what the third dimension was. They, like Minkowski, might assume it's time. But we know that's wrong. They'd only pick time because 2D creatures would have trouble even imagining a concept like depth, even though it's common sense to us 3D humans... So what do you, as a 3D being, think 4D might be like? What is the fourth dimension?"

Wally could imagine it as a math problem. In a two-dimension problem, you found coordinates on a graph for X and Y. In three dimensions, you found coordinates for X, Y and Z. You could easily turn it into a four-dimension problem by adding a fourth variable like W. It worked on paper, but Wally had trouble imagining it visually.

"Maybe... Maybe 4D is a multiplication of 3D?"

Eobard looked at Wally like a teacher evaluating a young student. "Go on."

"Uh... Well... You said 1D is a line, right? A line only goes left and right. There's no height. But you can give it height by stacking a bunch of lines on top of each other - make it into a sheet. And then you can stack a bunch a sheets on top of each other to make a cube."

"But stacking cubes on top of each other would only make a larger cube," Eobard replied. "Even if the shape were different, it would still be 3D. How would you make it 4D?"

"Maybe..."

Wally thought for a few moments.

"...Cubes stacked inside of each other?"

He was mostly guessing, but Eobard smiled as if to say it wasn't a bad answer.

"You're more clever than I gave you credit for," he said.

"Gee, thanks," he replied dryly.

"Your explanation is rudimentary at best, but it's not too far off the mark... Though I'd like to point out something about your analogy. You compared 2D to a sheet. But no matter how thin you make a sheet of paper, it will still have depth. After all, if you make a hole with a tack, the tack has to go through the paper. Paper is part of our 3D reality. As long as the sheet has substance, it's impossible to make it truly without depth."

People think paper is flat, but it's still a physical 3D object. Even the pencil lead written on the paper has depth, even if it can't be measured by normal means.

"We can't understand 4D... but we don't really understand 2D either," Wally said.

"No, that's not what I'm saying," he said with a shake of his head. "We understand the lower and higher dimensions, we just don't live in them. Being unable to touch a tesseract doesn't stop people from studying it."

"A tess-a-what?"

"Tesseract. It's the fourth-dimensional equivalent to a cube."

"So 4D is real after all? You're not just guessing?" Wally asked.

Eobard chuckled. "Youth... Even in this time period, mathematicians and philosophers have been studying Euclidean 4D for a while. Don't they teach these things in schools here?"

Wally frowned and tried not to blush. He hated looking stupid. Even if he couldn't compete with a 25th century adult, he at least wanted to appear smart. "Geometry was never really my thing. I'm more into chemistry."

"Actually, it isn't my thing either," he admitted. "I majored in temporal mechanics."

Wally West stared at Eobard Thawne.

When'd I stop being scared of this guy?

"Hey," a new thought occurred to him. "If space and time are separate, and space has different dimensions, does that mean time has different dimensions?" Wally asked.

"You are clever," he replied. "That's how time travel works, you know. Humans normally live in what you might call 1D-time. We only move forward and at a fixed rate. You can't jump into the future unless you access higher dimensions of time. And you can't travel backwards into the past unless you access even more dimensions.

"Before we continue, let's talk about the word 'dimension' for a moment. I hate how overused that word is. For instance, this white space we're in now is called a 'pocket dimension.' And people call the parallel universes 'alternate dimensions.' But those terms aren't really accurate. This is pocket space. Those are alternate worlds. The word dimension, as I've been using it, really just means a way of measuring something. It's the number of properties and perspectives you can use to interpret something."

"I... think I understand," Wally said. "When you go through a portal to another universe, just because it's called an 'alternate dimension' doesn't mean it's in 4D or whatever."

"We might just be arguing semantics, but I think it's an important point to remember."

"Are there things besides space and time that have 3D and 4D and stuff?"

"Anything can have multiple dimensions, as long as they're mathematically calculable. Energy is a good example."

"So higher dimensions of energy means more ways of measuring the power?"

"That's right. Of course, just like with 4D matter and tesseracts, higher dimensions of energy are harder for ordinary humans to perceive. We only see the lower dimensions are theorize the higher ones. But just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. As the limit of the dimensions approaches infinity, energy takes the form of a 'Force' like..."

Eobard stopped suddenly. His grin widened. "Well, maybe that's a little over your head. We'll save that for another day."

Wally wondered if he was being made fun of.

"You know what's funny about this century?" Eobard switched the topic to something completely different. "People here don't realize how ignorant they are about time travel. They come up with theories about 'paradoxes' and 'alternate timelines', and they use those ideas in a few movies, and the public takes it for granted. 'Do so-and-so in the present and the future will change.' 'Kill whoever in the past and his descendants will disappear.' People assume that must be how it works. But they don't know. How could they know? They never tried it."

"You saying that's not how it works?"

"I'm saying people shouldn't assume things based on what they saw in fiction."

"Okay," Wally said. "But we don't have real time travel yet so fiction is all people have to go on. You can't expect them to ignore it."

Eobard considered this for a moment, then he nodded. "That's true."

"But I do get what you're saying about how people can't understand something until they try it themselves."

"You can't assume something is true just because it 'makes sense.' The only way to understand reality is to experience reality for yourself. I used to think that history was linear and the timeline changed only when an outside force - like a time traveler - changed it. But after only a few trips to the past, I realized that the reality was completely different. Even without outside forces, history is changing all the time without anybody noticing."

"What do you mean?" Wally was starting to get bored. He rocked back and forth on his heels.

"For example, let's say the history books in my time say that Mr. A met Mrs. B on September Fourth, Twenty-Three-Seventy-Nine. It's a historical fact from over a hundred years ago. But on the day it actually happens - not because of knowledge of the future, and not because someone interfered - Mr. A might decide not to go to that place and he never meets Mrs. B. History changes, the history books change with it, and people in the twenty-fifth century only remember the newer version."

"The timeline changed by itself?"

"It changed all on its own."

"For no reason at all?"

"Completely random."

"That doesn't even make sense," Wally blurted out. "I mean, yeah, free will can change the future. But if you're already in the future and they're in the past, when exactly is history changing?"

"I could explain the metaphysics behind it, but..." Eobard trailed off.

Wally hesitated, then he shook his head. "No, I wouldn't understand," he admitted.

"The point is: The timestream isn't how I thought it was. It's not a line. It's more like a grid. It's like the sea of imaginary numbers. There's no telling what'll happen in the past until it actually happens. Things I learn in the future could become outdated as soon as I get here... And of course I'm not the only time traveler in eternity. There are other people jumping into the past trying to change their present. I'm from the twenty-fifth century. But am I from the twenty-fifth century of the old future he came from, or the new future he's trying to create? It's all relative."

"Sounds complicated," Wally said. "Do you understand all of that?"

"I studied the Flash's life and career over and over. And yet even with all that foresight, I still don't know, for a fact, what's going to happen to him. Because I haven't seen it myself yet. And obviously my own presence increases the uncertainty... That being said, there are definite patterns. I know all about what's extremely likely to happen, what's only slightly likely, and what's so unlikely I can ignore it. I memorized all the different paths he can take. It's just a question of seeing which path he goes down."

Eobard Thawne knew the Flash's future, so long as it didn't change again. As soon as Wally thought that a new idea came to him.

"Pro... Professor Zoom..." He spoke up cautiously. "You know the Flash's secret identity, right?"

"Yes," he answered simply.

"Then you also know mine, don't you?"

"I do. You're Wallace West, his wife's nephew. You prefer to be called Wally. In this year you're... let's see... fourteen. Or is it thirteen?"

"Then... You know about my... I mean, I have a... How much do you...?" He struggled nervously.

Eobard chuckled suddenly. "I was wondering when you'd get around to that... You're trying ever so subtly to determine whether or not I know about your weakness: Your epilepsy."

So he did know. Wally didn't need to worry about hiding anything.

"And now that you've confirmed it, you're going to ask me to reveal your future. You want to know if you're one of the lucky few who will naturally outgrow your epilepsy someday, or at the least, find a medication that can eliminate your seizures entirely."

Wally stared at him. "Judging from your tone I'm guessing you're not gonna tell me."

"I've never been the type to ruin surprises... Besides, as I've been saying, we're not a hundred percent sure I'd be right anyway."

Wally frowned and lowered his eyes. He wasn't expecting much, but it was still disappointing. There were so many things about his body no one understood. Once again, his future was a blank slate nobody knew how to fill in.

Eobard looked at him, not without sympathy. "It must be hard being unable to trust your body."

Wally's shoulders slumped down further.

Eobard put it mildly. Wally hated his epilepsy. He had a nervous system that could not work the way it was supposed to. He felt like his body was breaking down around him, struggling to keep up with powers it wasn't designed for. Wally hated that it took an entire team of doctors and specialists just to keep his body going. And he hated that it was his fault for screwing up the experiment in the first place.

But he felt like he wasn't allowed to admit any of that. Like there were some Political Correctness Police that would get angry at him for feeling that way. Wally couldn't insult himself without insulting the other epileptics in the world. There were tons of people who had some kind of disorder, disability, injury or handicap. They lived with pride and without whining. Shouldn't Wally too?

He straightened up and lifted his head. "I get by."

He nodded. "That you do... You really do impress me, Wally. You were only thirteen years old when you recreated the Flash's experiment, all on your own. And it worked."

"It only half-worked," Wally admitted.

"That's true. Fate's tricky like that, isn't it? Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and you. Three people affected by the same bolt of energy, and yet your results were so different. Fate... is heartless."

"You believe in fate?" Wally asked. It seemed strange to hear from such an intelligent, scientific-minded person.

Eobard turned and started pacing. "I do. Like a tesseract, like higher dimensions of energy, fate is one of many things you can't see but exists in theory. Fate toys with us, picking and choosing who to bless and who to spite... An endless number of times..."

For just an instant, he had the appearance of a blond man with features similar to Barry Allen.

"In an endless number of worlds..."

For just an instant, he had the appearance of a dark-haired man with glasses and a wheelchair.

"You can defy fate, but that doesn't mean it's not there to begin with." Eobard stopped and turned back to Wally.

"Then... I'll defy fate too," Wally said.

Once he was nothing more than an ordinary boy. Wasn't he defying his fate when he gave himself super speed?

Wally remembered meeting Speedy and Robin. They taught him to be optimistic. They taught him to reach for what you wanted and let nothing stop you.

"Do you really think you can beat fate?"

"I want to be a hero, just like the Flash. If the future says I'll never become one, then I'll change the future as many times as I need to. Even if I don't get rid of my epilepsy, I'll find a way to work around it... I'm definitely going to beat it!"

Eobard smiled. "That's a good attitude to have."

After a few moments, he stopped smiling.

"And... What will you do AFTER you beat it?" Eobard asked.

Wally didn't answer.

"Right now you're the Flash's sidekick. At best, that makes you his little add-on. At worst, you're just a weaker version of him. You're a fanboy who got promoted to backup support. Because of your handicap, that's the best you could have hoped for, so you accepted it eagerly... But what happens if you really do overcome your handicap? Do you want to be a mere sidekick forever?

"Your relationship with Barry Allen is different from his relationship with Jay Garrick. Jay's retired, and Barry is significantly faster. He was never in his predecessor's shadow... It's the same for me. I'm not the Flash's copy. I'm his reverse. My goals are completely different than his, and I always have my own identity to fall back on... But you're different. You never tried to establish your own identity. You're just some kid who is 'like the Flash.' Who needs a pale imitation of the original when the original's still there?

"Epilepsy and seizures aren't your real problem. They're simply an attention-grabbing form it takes. The quintessential issue is that you're not as good as Barry Allen."

Wally said nothing. Eobard hadn't told him anything he hadn't already thought of, deep down.

Barry Allen was an unparalleled figure. That man has faced darkness, tragedy, and even the end of the world and yet always came out on top. It was Wally's dream to be more like him. He thought that would improve himself. But the more he learned about the Flash and Barry Allen - the more similar they became - the more the discrepancies stood out. Closing the distance only helped Wally see how much distance there really was between them.

He was no match at all. The person he wanted to be like was better at every turn. Wally was slower. Weaker. Pettier. Immature and insecure. Selfish and spoiled. He burned through more fuel. And he had an unreliable nervous system on top of all of that. Comparing himself to his uncle was like being beaten until he was black and blue. Wally lost and lost until he couldn't stand thinking about it anymore.

That was the real reason Wally hated his epilepsy. It made him nothing more than a flawed imitation of the Flash.

Eobard continued. "How can you compete with someone like that? How can you escape the shadow of that perfect ideal? You'd have a chance of becoming his equal if you get faster. But is there any guarantee that you'll ever become faster than you are now? Faster than him?

"And of course, even if you do get cured and get faster, it's not as if Barry will do nothing in the meantime. The Flash will continue to gain more speed, more experience, and more recognition. He believes in his own righteousness, and so does the rest of the world. Nobody's going to favor you over him. Nobody will hold Flash back until Kid Flash catches up.

"It's a zero-dimensional problem: A single dot, with only one possible solution. If you want to escape his shadow and become your own man... If you want to become the person you've always wanted to be... what you have to do is..."

Eobard smiled at Wally. "...kill the Flash."

Wally scowled.

He was angry at himself for not seeing this coming. All that fancy talk was just to get Wally's guard down so Eobard could spring this trap. Wally failed to nip it in the bud.

"You can do what I haven't been able to so far. In fact, you're probably the only one who can do it. You're closer to him than anyone... It doesn't have to be a literal death, of course. Taking away his speed should be enough. 'Barry Allen' can live, but you need to get rid of 'the Flash'. With him out of the way, there'd be nobody occupying the position you want. You could become the Flash, just like you've always dreamed of."

"I am never... ever... going to turn against Flash," Wally said firmly. "And I am never going to join you."

He stared calmly for a moment. "No, I figured you wouldn't. Kids hate things that aren't fun. But everything I said still stands. You're going to be trapped by the glass ceiling as long as Barry is around. The best solution for you would be if something else kills him. If he died in a way that had nothing to do with you, in a way you couldn't stop, your conscience would be clear. You won't admit it out loud, but deep down in your subconscious you'll sit back and start wishing for that day to come, if you haven't already."

"Barry's my family," Wally stressed. "No matter what the circumstances were, I wouldn't be happy if he was gone."

"Mark my words. You won't be a sad as you should be."

"I wanted to be like the Flash, but I never wanted to replace him!"

"That contradiction is gonna tear you up later on."

"Will you ever shut up?!" Wally yelled. "You don't know anything! It's not like you're me!"

Eobard was basically claiming that he knew Wally's feelings better than Wally did, which was like saying Wally's own opinion didn't matter.

Eobard nodded and didn't smile. "I'm not you, Wally. I believe in all my theories, but you're the only one who can speak for you. You'll never stop being you. And that's why you should be honest about your feelings... And that's also why you should stop leeching off other people. You'll never develop yourself by riding on someone else's success. If you're going to follow in someone's footsteps, kill them!"

They glared at each other. The air around them started to shimmer, and faint images of the real world started appearing through the whiteness.

"Ah, perfect timing," Eobard said. "The pocket dimension is about to dissolve. The amount of time I can stay in this time period is almost up too. I'll be jumping back to the future as soon as we get back... You rejected my offer, but I'm still glad I talked to you, Wally. It's not everyday I have an intelligent conversation with someone. I enjoyed this."

He considered it for a moment, then he nodded. "Yeah. You talked about some interesting stuff. I enjoyed it too," Wally said casually. "Never come back."

.

They returned to Star Labs.

An instant later, in a burst of light, Professor Zoom was gone.

Flash ran to Kid Flash and grabbed his shoulders. "Are you okay?!" His eyes were full of panic.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Kid Flash stuttered.

Flash spoke at a frantic speed Kid Flash only barely understood. "I tried to get you free sooner, I really did. The whole time I was - but the machine - I didn't know how it - I'm sorry! If you're hurt we can-"

"Flash, I'm fine," he tried to reassure him. "I'm not hurt."

He stopped. He looked his nephew over. "Really?"

"We just talked the whole time. He didn't try to fight me or anything... We just talked."

He was confused. "About what?"

Kid Flash hesitated. There was probably no need to tell him about Professor Zoom's suggestion. Kid Flash intended to forget about it after today. And it would just get the Flash worried over something that was never going to happen anyway... But dividing them with secrets was probably what Professor Zoom wanted.

"We talked about science and stuff at first. He wanted me to relax, I guess. Then he asked me to help him kill you. He kept saying things like I could be the Flash if you weren't around," Kid Flash said. "I said no, of course."

"That didn't make him angry?"

"No. When I said no, he just backed off."

Flash stared at him for a moment. Then he let out a shaky sigh of relief. He wrapped his nephew into a tight hug.

"Thank goodness... I was so scared he was hurting you in there... I thought..." His voice cracked and trailed off.

I'm not a baby, Kid Flash thought.

You don't have to worry about me all the time.

.

Author's notes: (11/29/2015) It's been a year and then some since I started this story. I still have several more ideas in my head, but I'm not sure what order in which to write them or post them. (In case it wasn't clear, this chapter takes place before Wally joins the Team.) Expect updates to be slower than they were last year.

I can't get a good feel for the Reverse-Flash's character. It became easier when I decided to model him after Ovan from the dot-hack/G.U. novels (which is a little strange because I don't really like Ovan either). This chapter was heavily inspired by the fourth novel, and the line "If you're going to steal someone's footsteps, kill them!" was taken directly from that book.

This was a complicated and confusing chapter to write and I hope it was a little easier for you to read. I covered some weird topics here and I'd like to hear what you thought of it.