A/N: Takes place during Divided We Fall. Flash and the Speed Force. I know I haven't written in a while, but I was suddenly struck by inspiration!

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Speed. Not as it had been before, that pale imitation which he could now see had only been fast compared to his surroundings, but pure, absolute speed. It wasn't just that it was the only thing that mattered, rather that it was the only thing there was. There was only speed, and it was never-ending, there was always more, he could always go faster, unfettered now by the constraints of physics and matter. He could barely even remember the time before; he'd moved on, fast as light, no, faster even than that. He was speed and speed was him and that was all.

"Flash!" This was not fast. It curled around him, painfully slow, and he could see that something was still tethering him to the other side, keeping him from that perfection of speed. The only way to attain it was to shuffle off that mortal coil that bound him, but he remembered.

"Shayera?" The word weighed him down – mere sound couldn't hope to keep up with him – but he continued regardless. "It's so beautiful here…" Truer words had never been spoken. "There's a force, a Speed Force…It's calling me home…" Distorted as his words were, the aching longing in them was plainly evident. "I have to go now…"

"No, Wally! Take my hand!"

Then something else was dragging him down, keeping him from the one ting that mattered, but he couldn't bring himself to break away.

"We're here too, Wally!" another voice pulled at him.

"You've got to come back to us!"

Couldn't they understand that this was where he belonged? He couldn't go back, he didn't want to have to let everyone catch up anymore. The very idea of crossing back over was unbearable, and yet, he couldn't go on.

For one agonizing moment, or perhaps a thousand agonizing moments rolled into one, he was still, pulled in either direction by opposing desires. Then it was gone.

He breathed. It took a long time.

"I can never go that fast again," he said frankly, painfully aware of how he was already settling back into the torturous pace of reality. He was utterly convinced that what he said next was true, despite the fact that he remembered everything he fought so dearly for in this life, despite the fact that he didn't want to lose himself to that bliss now that it was no longer imminent.

He tried not to think of the unadulterated joy, the sense of belonging he had felt in those eternal moments on the other side as he said, "If I do, I don't think I'm coming back.