Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.
No Artemis/Wally.
Wally POV
"Just tell them okay?" I say to my uncle as I feel myself fade way.
I blink looking around, I'm in the cave? What the hell! I look around some more and see Dick standing by the door. "Dick?" I get up from the couch and walk over to him.
"Nope" he tells me, "Sorry we thought you might be more comfortable if we used a familiar face and place."
Not Dick okay then….. "If you're not Dick then who are you? And, where are we?"
"I think you know Wally" Not-Dick tells me.
"I'm in the Speedforce aren't I?" I can feel it all around and in me, somehow, I'm in the Speedforce.
Not-Dick nods, "Yeah. We thought you'd want to talk so….."
"So, you are the Speedforce and you've gone wormhole aliens from Star Trek DS9 on me, using my memories of people and places to communicate with me" I conclude, "But why? I just died all heroic like, helping to save the world, why am I here and not you know dead?"
"Cause you're not dead" Speedforce tells me, "Your body was destroyed but your soul is so mixed with Speedforce you got pulled here, and now I have something to offer you."
I blink, "Offer me? I'm stuck in the Speedforce for the rest of forever. Unless you can send me home I don't see what you could offer me."
"True I can't send you home, your body was destroyed. But I can offer you a change to find your own way home."
"What does that even mean and what do you want from me?" everything comes at a price.
"We want nothing from you, all we wish is to repay a debt. Your uncle has done much for us, he may not realise it, but he has stopped villains from destroying us many times" Speedforce smiles, "As for you; we cannot send you back to your own reality, not without a body to send you too. But we can send you to another Earth, where the you's soul has recently moved on but the body is alive, from there it would be up to you to find a way to your Earth."
Wow, that sound like the plot of a bad sci-fi movie, then again what is my life but the plot of a comic book, "What about the friends and family of the me that died? How will they feel about all this?"
"We can select a you that has no friends or family" Speedforce offers before getting afar way look for a moment, "Yes there is a version of you that ran away when your fathers abuse got bad instead of confiding in your uncle as you did. This one is not a speedster but was trained as an assassin for a criminal organisation. His soul just left, if you wish to take his place you need to decide now."
Well I wouldn't be breaking a family's heart with this one, but I would have to escape a group of assassins and find a way back to my own earth and no speed… "Would I have my powers?"
The Speedforce nods, "They are weaved into your soul. They will stay with you, in fact you will be faster."
I nod, "Yeah turn me into a assassin Speedy."
Speedforce smiles, "Goodbye Kid Flash."
"Thank you" I tell Speedforce before everything goes dark again.
"Wake up, wake up! We need to move!" a voice hisses waking me up.
Oww that hurts, I wince blinking awake. Though this me did die so of course it would hurt. I look to the man who was speaking and see a sword and a owl mask.
"West! We have to go Batman will be here any second!"
I touch my face, I'm wearing the same kind of mask, what group is this? And why the hell is Batman after us? Are we in Gotham? I was thinking league of shadows, but now I'm not so sure. I get up with a wince, silently thanking my accelerated healing, which I can feel working on my head and broken arm a lot faster than normal.
The guy in the owl mask decides not to wait any longer, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder before running out of the building and to a getaway car.
Once where in the car and the driver starts driving the guy in the owl mask takes it off, he's mid 20s brown hair and eyes and glaring at me, "What was that?"
I don't know what's going on and I do have a head wound…. Maybe I can play this as memory loss, get a little information. I take off my own mask and try to look as confused as possible, "Huh?"
"What do you mean huh! You went down and didn't get back up, you're lucky I didn't leave you for the Bat West."
"Who's West?" I ask using all Dick taught me about acting.
The owl guy looks shocked, "How hard did you hit your head?"
I put my hand on the back of my head then show him the blood that covers it.
"Dammit!" he curses, "Okay my name is Alex you are Wallace. We work together for the Court of Owls, the Court rules Gotham from the shadows and we enforce that rule as their Talons."
Court of Owls? Never heard of it. Maybe we don't have it on my earth.
He throws a knife at me and I catch it without using my powers and without thinking. Since when can I do that?
He nods, "Good even if you don't remember how to fight your body does. I'll send you to the Court doctor then the trainer, you should be back in the field within two weeks."
This body knows how to fight? Cool. (should I be freaked out that a assassin just threw a knife at my head? If I was normal probably, but I'm not.)
"Umm…okay?" I tell him with a compliant but confused look.
"Alex we've got birds on our tail!" the driver calls.
Birds? Oh Dick and Tim, sweet. "Birds?" I ask Alex.
Alex puts his mask back on and motions for me to do the same, "Batman's kids. All vigilantes, they try and stop our work" he turns to the driver, "How many?"
"I can see Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin and Spoiler, but there could be more" the driver calls back, speeding up.
That's a lot of batkids, I guess Bruce picked up a few more on this Earth.
Alex goes to the back door, opens it and starts throwing small explosives and knives.
I get up and move towards Alex, "Sit back down!" he yells at me, "You'll only get in the way like this!"
Well he won't let me slip out of the back and to the Bats, and I can't use y speed yet, I can feel it low only healing, I'll need a good meal before I can run and I'm no bat I can't get past Alex and out the back.
I sit back down and after an hour of crazy driving and throwing explosives Alex declares we've lost them before heading for base.
Once we get there Alex grabs my arm and drags me to the Infirmary, then turns to the doctor and fills her in.
She does the usual tests and I change them to what I need when no one's looking, in the end she diagnosis my so-called memory loss.
Two boss Talons have a argument near me about either just killing me or going through the trouble of re-training me, in the end they decide that I was one of their best before and after six months back in training I could be again, if after six months I'm not then they will cut their losses and kill me.
Other earth me worked for great people. Really.
They send me to a Talon training camp, filled with angry looking teen and kid runaways, and force me to join the class.
They don't let me out of there site, probably thinking I might freak out with all the Ninja training and try to run or get myself killed.
These people have a little something in common with Batman in the paranoia department, the whole place is lined with and anti-Meta human power emitters and is a fortress, meaning I can't use my powers and can't escape.
The training sucks, it's like Black Canary's training times a thousand, but without the good company, jokes and powers and fun.
"Well done West" the teacher nods, "Quick reflexes."
I spin one of the 15 daggers he threw at me between my fingers and look at the wall behind me where the rest are, "Kinda have to be quick around here or you will take my head off" I comment.
He nods in agreement, then turns to the other students "You wanna live you train hard, get fast, get tough and graduate to Talen."
Does he have to say that every day? I've been in this hellhole training pit for four months and I know the speeches on the greatness of the court off by heart, I'm sure the rest of the class do to.
"Now" he continues, "Today we will be starting a new topic: hacking. At times as a Talen you will be asked to retrieve information or delete files. For this you will need training for how to get in and out of a Computer system undetected."
He leads us to a computer lab and stats on hacking stuff Dick taught me when I was 12.
Wait, I'm on one of their computers that means I have access to the courts System.
After making sure no ones looking I break through the firewalls and quickly access the mainframe. (Ha! and Dick didn't think I was paying attention.)
Information on members of the court, planned missions and assassination, locations of bases and access to their bank accounts.
Hiding a smirk I copy then compress the data and send it to a bat server (Dick gave me the codes to a number of bat information drop servers, that they use to drop data before scanning any viruses, before they risk putting it on the bat-computer, turns out they use the same codes and systems on this earth) then I add a note explaining the basics of who I am and how I got this information and send that too, then I wipe all traces of me from the courts system and go back to the training hacking.
The bats will see what I sent and come and get me out of here, they won't trust me, but they'll know that me knowing enough to access the sever means something.
As expected I wake up that night to a hand over my mouth and Dick's masked face.
I blink and look around, he moved me out of the Barracks and into a cupboard before waking me up. "Your message said you knew a different earth me. Prove it" Dick tells me uncovering my mouth.
I grin at him, "Ok Dickie bird. What do you wanna know?" I ask in his first language Romani.
He blinks behind his mask in surprise, "What do for fun?"
"Fly" I reply, "If not that then butcher the English language or math."
He grins "English was butchered a long time ago, I'm just keeping up with the language" then he hands me a com, which I quickly put on, "Come on, let's get you out of here."
I follow him quietly out of the building, "Don't you have some sabotage to do?" I ask as we walk out the back door.
He grins, "Already done. Knockout gas in the ventilation system, by the time they wake up they will all be in cells."
"Nice" I nod before grinning, feeling the lightning in my veins, "Looks like I'm outside the anti-Meta tech" I pick Dick up and zip to his bike and put him next to it.
"Little warning next time FK" Dick groans looking a little sick.
"Sorry dude" I wince, right this Dick hasn't been friends with speedsters for most of his life, hell the justice league only formed a few years ago. "Wanna race to the cave? I do 1000 rounds of the city first, you know make it far."
"Another time" he grins, "Bats wants you to stay by my side til we know for sure you're on our side."
I nod, "B is feeling paranoid like always. Got it."
"You know where the cave is?" Dick asks me, "And our ID's?"
I nod, then run agonisingly slowly next to his bike.
When we get to the cave there are a lot more Bat-people than there are on my earth.
"Found the lost speedster!" Dick tells everyone before hugging a boy, "Hey Dami how was patrol?"
The boy smirks, "I successfully took down Nygma without assistance"
Dick grins and ruffles his hair, "Good work Damian."
I noted Tim, wearing a different suit and the Damain is Robin, "Hey Dick I think this world might have a few differences to mine."
"What do you mean?" a blond chick in purple asks curiously.
"Well on my earth Tim is still Robin and I have no idea who most of you are" I admit before noticing someone else, "J-Jason?"
Jason nods with a smirk, "Let me guess; I'm dead on your earth."
"Yeah for about two years" I agree remembering how upset everyone was when the Joker killed him.
"Jay came back to life" Dick explains, "And Talia al Ghul had put in the pit then, turn him crazy and at us."
Jason nods, "Bitch messed with my head. I almost killed half the family."
"I guess I'll have to check if she has you when I get back" I nod.
"And my counterpart" Damian tells me, "Talia al Ghul is my mother, and Bruce Wayne my father. My counterpart will not be pleased at first, but the sooner you get him away from mother the better off he will be."
Wow, Bruce and Talia have a kid, dam. "Wonderful, great what are the chances my earth doesn't have the Court of Owls or 100 other crazy things I read about in assassin school."
"You have a Batman" Bruce asks, "Then you have a Court."
I look to Dick, "The Court were the ones who ordered his parents death. We only found out they exist like a year ago."
Oh crap. "What about the rest of you?" I ask looking to the other kid heroes in the room.
"Not tell everything" a girl with a black bat on her chest tells me.
"They're should be a few surprises for Batman" Tim nods, "Besides if we tell you too much who know what could happen? Your earth is basically in the past, we wouldn't want to change the timelines."
Good point, "Okay fair. So, any of you know how to get me home?"
Tim nods, "I called Cyborg. He thinks he can set a boom-tube to go between earths."
No idea who Cyborg is but sweet, "Nice thanks Timmy."
"What are you going to do when you get back?" Bruce asks me.
"Well I gave my cousin Kid Flash, but I still wanna be in the game" I admit, retiring was a mistake. I love the life and I love helping people I need to get back to it. "So, I guess pick a new name and hunt the Court down."
"The Court?" Damian raises an eyebrow, "Why?"
"I just spent months as one of them, I know how they work and I know how dangerous they are. They have to be stopped" I tell the boy.
Dick smiles at me, "Want some help on a new costume? It will give you something to do while we wait for Cyborg."
I smile and follow him up to his room.
"So, what are you thinking?" Dick asks taking out some paper and a pen.
"I was with the Court for a while, not that long really. But this body was for years" I start, "I think I wanna stick with birds, I know it's your thing but…"
He nods, "I get it. You where an owl, now you wanna be a different bird" he thinks for a minute, "What about Falcon? It's the fastest bird in the world and you are sorta fast."
I grin, "Perfect."
We work for a while on the suit, thinking about the look. In the end I go with brown and dark red for colours with a dark red lightning bolt on the front and hidden places for weapons (I've grown pretty fond of throwing knifes in last few months) and a brown mask, with black spray on hair dye, cause red hair is no good for blending in with shadows. (god I've spent way too much time with assassins.)
When it's done Dick has it made, ridiculously fast and by the time Cyborg sends me home I have my new suit.
I end up on a Gotham rooftop in my own world.
With a grin I get out of my new suit and go to the zeta, then the Watch Tower where I know J'onn will be.
He looks up when I walk in, "Hey J'onn. Can you confirm I'm me? Figure it will save on the mistrusting time with my friends."
He nods and his eyes glow, "You are Wally. I will call your uncle and friends."
"Great" I smile, "First I need to pick something up."
He nods, having just been in my head knowing what I mean, "I will wait until you get back."
I take the zeta back to earth then change into my suit and run to Nanda Parbat, and to the League of Assassins headquarters, which does not have anti-Meta tech, and grab Damian out of his bed where he's sleeping and Jason from his too, then I run back to the zeta and put them in locked guest room.
"Wally!" as soon as I get back to the main room my uncle hugs me tight.
"Uncle Barry!" I hug him back, I really miss the man I wish was my father.
"Thank god! J'onn told me the speedforce saved you" he questions still hugging me.
"Yeah, apparently you saved them a bunch of times, so saving me was payback" I explain.
The zeta then announces my friends, "WALLY!"
As soon and Barry lets go of me I'm being suffocated by the hugs of my friends.
"Report" Batman asks after a minute.
"The speedforce saved my life" I start putting arm over Dicks shoulder, "It couldn't send me back here cause my body was destroyed. So it sent me into the body of a Wally who just died on another earth, this Wally had no powers, my powers had with me and healed what killed Owl-Wally."
"Owl-Wally?" Gar questions, sitting on my head as a monkey.
I turn to the three bats in the room, "The Court of Owls. They ruled that Gotham from the shadows, it's pretty much a group of old rich Gotham families that plot evil and have an army of assassins. That earth Wally was a Talen, one of their assassins, I had to spend four months with them before I figured out how to call that earth Nightwing to get me."
The three of them tense, "Do you think the Court is on this Earth too?" Tim asks me.
"Yeah" I nod, "They told me a few things that I've already check are real on this earth."
"Like what?" Dick asks curiously.
"…..Jason came back to life and Talia al Ghul messed with his mind to turn him against you. Also Bats and Talia have a son named Damian. I got them both and locked them in guest rooms near B's room."
All three Bats stare at me for a moment before disappearing down that hallway.
"Sounds like you had a interesting adventure" Bart grins.
"Very interesting" I agree, it's good to be home but now is when the real work starts.
ONE-SHOT.
