Platonic relationships for life, yo! This is assuming that Mabel and Dips both survive the Weirdmageddon. I own nothing, just these little ficlets.
The first time that Wally West met Mabel Pines, they were both thirteen years old. He had been the Flash's sidekick for roughly two years and three quarters. He was going to Central Keystone Middle School. And there was a girl in a Day-Glo blue and pink sweater setting up a dye pack in the boy's restroom.
He stopped and stared at her. She blinked back at him with wide brown eyes that shone with mischief. Wally's gaze flickered back and forth from the purple dye pack that she held in her hands to her face, which was looking more and more guilty by the second. She must have been new-nobody else would have been this daring after spending a few months here.
"Can I help?"
A wide grin spread across her face, revealing that she wore silver braces, the color of the brackets alternating in between blue and pink. "Sure. Keep watch on the door, will you?"
He sat with her and her brother, whose name is Dipper (although he won't tell Wally why, and the speedster only finds out when Mabel pins him down and pulls off his battered and beaten blue and white hat to brush back his bangs. Wally laughs for a solid five minutes) for the rest of the year.
It was the summer after that year, and Wally was spending practically every day with his aunt and uncle, cementing his hero status in the cape and mask community, with fellow heroes and villains alike.
But when he wasn't running around in padded yellow and red spandex after his uncle, Wally was generally joined at the hip with the Pines twins.
His parents… Well, they didn't really like either of the two, but at least Dipper got great grades in something other than PE and Art, which were the only two classes that Mabel really excelled in. They also weren't very fond of her personality, or the way that she always had pockets full of candy, glitter, and stickers, or how she was always wearing some sort of brightly colored sweater, or that she once spilled some sort of pink sugary drink full of green plastic dinosaurs all over their kitchen.
Barry and Iris, however, liked them.
Barry liked Dipper more than Mabel-the teenager was a bit of a science nerd, after all, and he was starstruck the minute that Wally's uncle told him that he was a forensic scientist for the CCPD. Mabel bonded with Iris over a shared exasperation with their nerdy family, whether it was a husband and a nephew or a twin brother. Mabel, however, also thought that Barry's job was really cool, and would ask him all sorts of questions about everything from the way that blood splattered on the ground when someone was running away to whether or not he believed in magic.
When that particular question came up, Barry coughed and changed the subject. Wally crossed his arms. He certainly didn't believe in anything that couldn't be explained by science. Even whatever-it-was that Zatara did could be explained without calling it magic, right? Right?
Mabel and Dipper, by the way, both believed in magic.
When all three of them were fourteen, the Pines twins learned about Kid Flash.
It was completely on accident. Well, kind of. Wally had told James that no, he couldn't come over that day, he had school like most non-supervillain people did on Tuesdays when they were minors. Of course, James took that to mean that it was 100% okay to break into his school (while dragging an irritable but resigned Hartley behind him) and take everybody hostage. While the Rouge didn't know what his real name was, he knew that he went to Keystone, and thus just decided to take everybody prisoner. Only until he could find Baby Flash, of course. At least, that's what he assured everyone.
Mabel, being Mabel, immediately struck up a conversation with the blond villain, while Dipper tentatively asked Hartley about how exactly his flute hit the exact tones required to hypnotize someone or knock them out.
Wally watched with growing relief and a hope that maybe this wouldn't blow up in their faces.
That, of course, was when James noticed him. The former circus boy let out a small squeal and yanked on Hartley's arm, causing the other boy to elbow him in the ribs. Lightly, but still. James didn't mind, however-the boy had always been easily excitable, especially when he hadn't taken his pills for a few days. So Wally really should have been expecting James to immediately throw himself at him and then wrap him up in an enormous hug as the rest of his class watched in fear.
"Baby Flash!" James squealed softly into his ear, thankfully quietly enough that none of the others heard. Wait, scratch that, Wally thought with a sinking heart as the Pines twins exchanged looks, two people were close enough to hear.
That was when the Flash showed up, unhooking James's arms from around Wally's neck with a soft murmur of, "James, you're off your meds again, aren't you?"
Hartley rolled his eyes and held out his arms. Wally and Barry both knew that he would just escape again, but even so they had to arrest him anyways.
As soon as the two villains and one hero were gone, Wally glanced over at his friends. Mabel had her arms crossed and was pointedly looking away from him, while Dipper looked… Suspiciously satisfied.
They didn't say another word to each other until school was over, even though the police wanted to keep Wally there for longer. Barry helped to talk them out of it, winking at Wally when they weren't looking.
The three met up after school underneath a large maple tree.
Dipper was muttering in his sister's ear, and as Wally was approaching she spun around, throwing his hand off of her shoulder. "It's not that, Dipper!" She shouted. "You know that I don't like it when people lie to me! Or don't tell the whole truth, or whatever you want to call it."
"If you remember, I did try to tell you that I thought Wally was Kid Flash," Dipper said mildly, making eye contact with the redheaded speedster over his sister's shoulder. "You're the one who said that I was being silly and paranoid again, and that not everything was a big conspiracy."
Mabel took a shaky breath that ended in a slightly hysterical laugh. "Yeah, but that's because you make such a big deal out of everything! I didn't think… We have the worst luck, don't we?"
"I wouldn't say that our luck is bad, just really weird," Dipper laughed. He nodded to Wally, brown eyes moving back and forth between the speedster and his twin sister. Mabel frowned (although Wally couldn't see it) and turned around.
"What do you keep look-" Mabel stopped talking and blinked a few times before lowering her gaze to the ground. "Hey, Wally."
Wally coughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, hi." He paused for a moment before rushing ahead. "I'mreallysorrythatIdidn'ttellyouguysbutIwassuperscaredthatsomeonewouldfindoutandthenhurtyoutwobutIswearthatIwantedtoreallyreallybadly."
"Um, what?"
"I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you guys but I was super scared that someone would find out and then hurt you two but I swear that I wanted to really, really badly," Wally repeated, slower this time.
"Well," Mabel said after a long pause, "as long as we're all sharing secrets today, Dipper and I have something to tell you."
That's the day that Wally learns about monsters and magic.
It's also the last time that he sees the twins for a year.
When they have to find Kent Nelson, Wally pretends not to believe in magic, to hate it. It's pretty easy, because he already hates the thing that made two of his best friends run off into the night after leaving only a note and a hurried text message.
He wants to tell them everything-about saving Queen Perdita, about Red Tornado and his siblings, about how the mole was Red Arrow (they may not know their real names, but the twins know that Robin and Speedy were his other best friends), about Vandal Savage, about fighting and then defeating the Justice League, about the missing sixteen hours. He wants to tell them about kissing Artemis, hear Mabel cheer and throw glitter in the air, see Dipper smile and give him a fist bump and then a high five.
But he can't. Because the Pines twins are gone. And he doesn't know when they're coming back.
Wally walked into his kitchen in search of something to eat after school, tossing his backpack down on one of the dining room chairs, and found himself nose-to-nose with Mabel and Dipper.
They looked a little bit worse for wear, seeing as how Mabel had a new scar next to her eyebrow up on her forehead and Dipper's shirt was completely tattered, but that was okay.
Both of them were on top of him before the speedster could blink. All three of them were laughing loudly, eyes shining with magic and happiness, depending on who it was.
"Happy super late birthday and New Year and Christmas and Halloween!" Mabel chirped. "Sorry we don't have any presents. What did we miss this year?"
Wally gave them both a play-by-play as he pulled random food out of the cabinets, stuffing his face full. When he got to the part about kissing Artemis, Mabel made a shrieking sound at a pitch that only dogs should have been able to hear, waving her arms in the air and accidentally whacking the back of her brother's head with one hand. "Oops, sorry Dip-Wally, you have a girlfriend?! Can I meet her? I need to make sure that you're good enough for her, because she sounds like a total badass, and you're definitely not on her level."
"Hey!" Wally protested weakly. He knew that Artemis was way too good for him, and that she was a badass, and that if she ever teamed up with either of the Pines twins it would be a dark day, but that didn't mean that he liked Mabel teasing him about it.
Dipper huffed out a laugh. "There's no stopping her now. Just be glad that she hasn't brought up love potion yet."
"Ooh, Dippy, you're right. Did you use love potion? I mean, not that I'm accusing you of anything, but it would explain how you got someone like how you've described Artemis to date you." Mabel tilted her head at him, smiling innocently with her straight white teeth, the kind that could only be accomplished through years of the mouth torture that was braces.
"No!" Wally denied. "I didn't use love potion! Zatanna said that that was way too advanced for her to try, and I don't even know any magic! It would probably just blow up in my face, anyways."
"Oh." Mabel paused. "I still wanna meet her, though."
As it turned out, Wally was completely right in thinking that a Dipper-Mabel-Artemis team up would be terrifying.
At first, his girlfriend had been apprehensive about meeting Wally's "Two weirdo best friends that kick ass and hunt monsters, you'd like them, Arty!" And when she saw them for the first time, she thought that she had been right to be nervous.
Then Mabel offered her a stolen baby picture of Wally that she had taken from his house, and everything was fine from then on out. Well, fine for the twins and Artemis. Wally… Not so much.
Dipper looked up from the couch in his house where he was reading a book as the door opened. He frowned as Wally walked in, looking listless and with his green eyes dull. The speedster took a few steps towards his friend before tossing himself down on the couch beside Dipper.
The monster hunter sat up. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Wally ran his hands through his hair. "Remember that kid I told you about? D-Nightwing's little brother?"
"The new Robin?"
Wally nodded. "He's dead."
Dipper stiffened and sat up straighter. "Oh, god. How?"
The ginger hero swallowed thickly. "I wasn't-there were some… Problems. He found out some stuff and then left for a while. Bats was with him, though, and we all knew that 'Wing could have been there in a heartbeat if he thought that his baby brother would get hurt, but… The Joker got his hands on him. And a crowbar."
Dipper clapped his hands over his mouth and squeezed his eyes tightly shut for a moment before opening them again. "Oh, god, that's…"
"I don't know what to do," Wally admitted. "I want to grieve, but I also have to be there for Nightwing. He just lost another member of his family, and I know that Batman is really bad at talking about feelings and shit even when he isn't wearing the cowl, but I know that Artemis was close to him too, and…"
He trailed off, looking tired and frustrated. Dipper sighed.
"Well," he began, unfolding his legs, "don't bottle your feelings up inside. When they all come back out again, it won't be pretty for anyone. But make sure that you aren't neglecting the people around you who are also hurting inside, because then they'll just bottle up their feelings, which is, again, bad for everyone involved. Oh, and crying helps. A lot. Remember that, and remind other people of that if you can. Does that help at all?"
"I-I dunno. I guess it kinda does, but…" Wally shrugged. "Everything is just kind of confusing and sad and shitty right now."
Dipper nodded. "It's going to be like that for a while, just so you know. But it'll be okay again eventually. For everyone."
Mabel was called in the middle of the night by Artemis. The archer didn't actually wake her up, seeing as how the artist's sleep schedule was just as screwed up as her brother's was, but it was still a surprise. Artemis didn't usually call either of them just to talk, unless it was an emergency. Although now that Mabel thought about it, calling in the middle of the night did usually signify and emergency on some level.
"Wassup, Arty?" She asked, stifling a yawn. Damn, it was late.
"Don't call me that, and I needed to talk to you about something." The other girl sounded much more serious than usual.
"Are you pregnant?" Mabel asked.
"What? No! Wally… Wally wants to leave the life. The hero life, I mean. He thinks that it's getting too dangerous for us, and that we could finally be 'normal' again." Artemis paused. "I told him that there was no such thing as normal for us, but I don't think it helped him change his mind."
"Why ask me for advice?" Mabel asked. "I mean, there are the other heroes, right? And your mom, she's probably much better at all of this stuff than I am."
"'Cause you're… Good at this stuff."
"Well, if you're sure…" Mabel sighed. "Do what makes you happy. If wearing the mask, living the hero life, makes you happy, then tell Wally that. He'll understand. But if you want to leave, then tell him that, too. Do what makes you happy. No regrets, no looking back. That's how I make all of my decisions."
"That seems like a good way to get yourself killed," Artemis said wryly. "…Thanks."
"You're welcome. Good night, Artemis."
"Good night, Mabel. Get some sleep-I know that I didn't wake you up."
"Nightwing has a plan, and it might get Artemis killed."
"Don't do it then, you dumb goober."
"But it might save all of our lives in the end. And bring a friend back if he ends up going darkside. And she probably won't even die, although we do have to fake her death to get her to infiltrate everything-"
"Wait, you have to fake her death? That does not sound like a good idea. At all. In any way, shape, or form."
"I know, I don't like it either. I know that she misses the mask, even if she doesn't say it, but… I don't want her to feel that rush that comes with it and then wonder why she ever left."
"She won't. I still think that the part of the plan that you just told me about is stupid and for dum dums, but I know that if she chose you, she won't back down now. She's too good for you, Wally, which is beside the point but I still think that you should have a daily reminder of this, and why are you even asking me? Artemis is the one who might die in this plan, why aren't you asking her about it? Seriously, Wally, this is why you've only ever had one serious girlfriend. Artemis is amazing. I would be dating her if you weren't, I swear. But because you're the one dating her, you have to ask for her input on stuff, got it? Now go out there and ask your girlfriend if she's alright with dying in Nightwing's plan."
"I legitimately have no idea what half of the things that you just said are, but thank you for the advice."
"So you did it?" Mabel asked, sipping grape soda as she leaned against Wally's refrigerator. "You actually 'killed' Artemis?"
"Technically, Kaldur was the one who 'killed' her, not me." Wally sighed at Dipper's stern look. "Yeah, yeah we did. D-Nightwing pulled it off well, and she's wearing some sort of charm from Zatanna to disguise her appearance, but I'm still terrified for her. He-Kaldur-captured La'gaan-Lagoon Boy, I mean. He might be kidnapping metahuman kids for all we know."
"Trust Artemis," Dipper said, grabbing the grape soda out of his twin sister's hand and taking a sip despite her protests. "What, it's not like you were going to drink all of it without bouncing off the walls, and we literally shared a womb for way too long, so…" He shook his head and turned back to Wally. "Look, if there's one thing that I know about your girlfriend, it's that she can completely handle herself."
Mabel nodded in agreement. "She's amazing. Like I said, I would be dating her if you weren't. Now, how can we help, because I know when you come over here to vent and stuff, and that's not what's happening. So what do you need? We'll do what we can."
Wally smiled at them. "Well, it's kind of complicated…"
Dipper complained about G. Gordon Godfrey for several hours on end every day for a week after he started endorsing the Reach while still shooting down the Justice League and their associates.
"Mabel, he's being a selectively xenophobic and racist prick, and did you hear what he said about LGBT people last night-"
"Dipper, I hate him too, but go to sleep. We have a vampire to take care of in the morning, remember? You already set your alarm clock for six am!"
"We wouldn't have to deal with that if it wasn't for G. Gordon Godfrey-"
A pillow hit him in the face, effectively shutting him up. In the other room, Mabel sighed. Maybe now she could get a little peace and quiet so that she could be well rested to kick hopefully hot vampire ass the next morning.
"But do you think that anybody actually believes him, or-"
Mabel groaned and put her pillow on top of her head.
"What is that?" Dipper gasped, staring up at the sky.
"Don't know. Don't really want to, either."
Wally pulled out his phone and pressed a button before holding it up to his ear. "Hi, Nightwing! I just wanted to know what the hell is in the sky right now. Seriously, what the fuck is that?"
His eyes went wide. "Oh. Okay, then," he said in a small voice. "That's-that's bad. Okay. Got it. Bye."
He hung up and looked at the twins with horrified green eyes. "Apparently, it's called the Warworld. It had Apokoliptian weapons, and is run by a warlord named Mongul. We might die, but there's a squad of heroes being organized to fight it."
"Fan-freaking-tastic," Dipper muttered. "This is, what, the third world-ending scenario that we've been a part of?"
Wally got a call at around mid-afternoon from Mabel.
"Why is Blue Beetle on TV?" She demanded. "Why is he with those freaky Reach guys? I thought he was on your team?"
"Nightwing says brainwashing. In a lecture. Call me back later."
"The Reach are leaving, and Wally says that it's for good as soon as they can find Black Beetle and that one scientist ambassador lady," Mabel reported to her brother. "They won at that other place. Artemis is okay, too."
Dipper smiled. "I guess the world is saved, then."
That was when both of their phones started beeping, and the two exchanged nervous glances. Dipper sighed. "I spoke too soon, didn't I?"
Mabel and Dipper were waiting in tense silence, watching the strange colors that flashed and danced across the sky as strange storm clouds swirled in random patterns above their heads. Dipper was clinging to his sister's arm with a death grip, knuckles white. Mabel bounced from foot to foot, heart pounding in her ears. Wally had called them with his com. link to say that there was still one more of whatever it was that was killing the earth left, and that he had to go help his grandpa and his cousin once removed from the future save them all.
That was when the sky cleared, and the two exchanged relieved looks.
"They did it," Mabel whispered, half laughing while blinking tears out of her eyes. "They actually did it!"
Dipper beamed and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad that we're not dead. That would suck, like, a lot. Especially because we saved the world the first time, and it would be terrible if we saved it just for it to get destroyed again a few years later. What kind of irony and bad luck combination would that be? Seriously, I mean-"
He was cut off by Mabel laughing loudly and wetly right into his ear. "Once a nerd, always a nerd, am I right Dip?"
"You're right."
The two clung to each other for a long, long time, play fighting in the street, , laughing with relief that the world hadn't ended. They were alive, they were safe, and who knew if that would change tomorrow, but right now the world was safe and they were happy. Everything was finally okay.
That was when Mabel's phone rang.
Still smiling so widely that her face hurt and loudly shushing her brother without really meaning it, Mabel answered it. "Hey, it's Mabel, the world isn't over and we're still alive!"
There was silence on the other end of the line, and Mabel's smile slowly faded. "Um, hi, Nightwing," she said, glancing at Dipper and shrugging at his startled expression. "It's nice to meet you, I guess. Sort of. I mean, we're talking on the phone, so… Why are you calling me?"
Her eyes suddenly went wide, and her jaw dropped. Mabel made a few small sounds at the back of her throat and looked at Dipper, who got a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he saw her eyes start to glisten with tears.
Mabel hung up without another word and stared blankly at her brother.
Dipper knew what she was going to say moments before her mouth opened.
"Wally's dead, Dipper."
Booted feet crunched in the thick snow as a small group of people walked in a rough circle around a specific area.
"You're sure that this is the place?" Dipper asked, teeth chattering and lips blue.
"Positive," Artemis confirmed in a low voice. "This is it. You're sure that you want to do this?"
"Of course," Mabel said solemnly. "Besides, we've got Zatanna here in case something goes wrong."
The magician girl nodded in agreement, cheeks flushed for more reasons than just the cold. She had been nigh-starstruck the first time that she met the Pines twins, having heard stories about demons and ancient magic and the Cipher Wheel from her father before he had put on the Helmet of Fate for that final time. Zatanna had been terrified to meet them at first, until she realized that they were actually just a pair of dorks who happened to also hunt monsters and wield magic on the side.
"It would be better if we had five people, or even seven or nine, but three will work too," Zatanna assured her friend.
Nightwing nodded to her. "As long as you're sure."
Nightwing… He had been a bit of a surprise. Mabel and Dipper knew a bit about him from the stories that Wally had told them, but seeing as how they had never actually met him, they hadn't been sure of what to expect. But from what they knew, he was usually far brighter than this. Although Mabel supposed that she would be subdued too if her best friend/brother died too.
She had been more subdued than usual since Wally died.
Both of them had.
Zatanna took a deep breath and raised her arms into the air. "Should we start, then? You two know what you're going to do?"
"We had help from the best," Mabel said wryly. "Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"
"Touche," Zatanna muttered before smiling nervously. "Alright, you five watch our backs."
The young man who wore the same symbol that adorned the chest of Superman and the woman whose emerald green skin was marked with darker freckles on her cheeks glanced at each other, and the girl stepped forwards.
"Before we start, I want to establish a telepathic link between us," she said softly. "Would you two like to be a part of it? I can sense that you have mental shields, and I don't want to tear them down without your permission…"
The twins exchanged glances, Mabel asking her brother a silent question with her eyes. Her experiences with telepaths and people (demons) like them was almost on par with his, but she had never been possessed by anything stronger than a ghost. And he had been the one to actively search out spells to protect their minds and bodies from telepathy, possession, and other invasions of mental privacy. Although it also took astral projection off of the table, that was something that they had never been good at in the first place, making it a necessary sacrifice.
"Fine," Dipper said finally, "as long as establishing a mental link is all that you do."
She-Mabel remembered that she had asked the two siblings to call her Megan or M'gann, whichever worked best-nodded, eyes starting to glow with strange power. Dipper felt the familiar tickle of a mental presence against his brain, and he almost jerked away in both the mental and the physical planes. Then a female voice spoke up in his head.
"Link established. Is everyone online?"
There were psychic murmurs of assent from everyone who was there, and the Atlantean, Aqualad, nodded to Artemis. "You're with me."
She followed him while Megan and her friend (boyfriend, Mabel corrected herself absently) went the other way. Nightwing stayed with the trio of magic users, scanning the area around them for any potential approaching threats.
After getting two confirming looks from Dipper and Mabel, Zatanna began to chant.
"Tel eht reirrab neewteb owt sdlrow pir nepo, tel eht egdirb daerps ssorca meht-"
That was when Mabel chimed in with her own spell, and the frigid wind started whip around them, faster and faster. Beside the brunette girl, Zatanna's eyes began to glow as her hair lifted up off of her neck and shoulders, the icy air capturing it in its cold fingers. "Sicut ille deos decrevimus, ut dixi novi rupto aperitur duo regna! Reducam enim conversionem facere quod perierat, quod mutatum est. Rip aperire-"
Then Dipper broke in, his voice joining the others as they began to blend together. As soon as he began, Mabel's brown eyes turned golden, with white blue pinpricks where her pupils should have been. "Creator mundi, custos omnium Dominus order-"
Immediately, his eyes lit with strange fire, and his legs almost went out from beneath him. Triple waves of pain went through the psychic link, one of them flavoured with burning pain, one of them touched with the cold searing of ice, and the third singing with what felt like gravel sinking into flesh. The first for Mabel, the second of Dipper, and the last one coming from where Zatanna was barely managing to stay standing up.
Nightwing moved to support her, but he couldn't touch her skin without it feeling like red-hot iron, and he jerked back quickly. He had similar results with the twins, although with Mabel curls of smoke danced from her skin and when he tried to touch Dipper his hand almost froze to the other man's flesh. They trio all let out pained sounds, and the amount of screaming coming over the link doubled. "M'gann," Nightwing hissed over the link as his face contorted into a grimace, "cut them off of the link!"
In a moment the awful sound went silent, and the five superheroes let out small sounds of relief.
At the center of the loose ring formed by the three magicians, a strange white and black vortex began to open. It moved in a pattern not unlike that of a tornado, whipping faster and faster as it began to him with magic and strange energy. Bright blue sparks started to fly from it as a bolt of yellow lighting arched out and struck Zatanna. Another bolt joined it, fiery red and slamming into the center of Mabel's chest. Just as the third one, which was dark lapis lazuli blue, hit Dipper and travelled through every nerve in his body, something that looked like a star-flecked rip began to tear itself open in space.
Mabel made a strangled sound as she was forced to her knees in the thick snow, trying to form words with her lips that wouldn't work properly. Dipper was pushed down next, electricity humming in his eyes as he screeched incoherently with pain. Zatanna was the one pushed down last, the slightly younger girl's face crumpling as tears of pain were brought to her bright glowing eyes.
Something happened, and then… Gravity wasn't working anymore.
M'gann gasped as her feet were lifted up off of the ground without her consent. She suddenly couldn't fly, and used her telekinesis to bring her boyfriend closer to her. Nightwing cursed under his breath and glanced back over at the three magic wielders, all of whom were still 'safely' on the ground. Artemis and Kaldur tried to stay with both feet in the snow, but ended up drifting through the air aimlessly as they tried to return to the ground.
For a moment, everything was suspended, frozen in time.
Then a comet came screaming out of the void in the cosmos and slamming into the snow, and the world came crashing down.
Everything tumbled back down to the earth, and all of the wind was pushed out of Nightwing's lungs even as he landed neatly on the ground. Artemis landed in a crouch, hand resting on her bow in a near-automatic movement.
A weak laugh began to bubble from where Mabel was lying in the snow, as she slowly rose up to her feet on shaky legs. Half running, half falling, she raced towards the comet that had come from the tear. Dipper and Zatanna followed her, leaning on each other for support.
That was when Artemis registered that the comet was not a comet, that it was a person, and her vision tunneled.
Eight young men and women hurled themselves down beside their fallen friend, shaky hands brushing away the newly fallen snow on his tattered yellow outfit.
"M'gann, call the Bioship," Nightwing said with a smile as he felt the familiar hummingbird pulse of his friend's heart underneath his fingers. "We're bringing Wally home."
"Dipper, I don't think that I can do this."
"Sure you can. You got sent into the Speed Force, dragged back out, and saved the world more times than I can count. You can marry your fiance."
Mabel could hear loud whooping in the background when she picked up the phone, and immediately knew who was calling her. "Hey, Arty! Did you know that there's a sweet spot on the back of Wally's neck, all that you have to do is hit it and he'll be out like a light."
Artemis snorted. "Yeah, I did know that. Actually, this is about something different."
"Are you pregnant?" Mabel asked. It had become something of a running joke to the two young women, one that Wally and Dipper both tried (and failed) to understand.
"Umm…"
Mabel made an inhuman screeching sound and fell off the couch with a loud thump. "Oh my god you are?!"
In the background, the brunette could still hear loud whooping and a faint crash, as well as a muffled "Sorry!"
"Er, yes," Artemis said, sounding embarrassed and disbelieving. "I-I am. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit."
"Ohmygod, I have to tell Dipper. Dip! Dippy! Dippin' Dots! I've got big news!" She paused for dramatic effect as her twin brother stuck his head into the room with a mildly annoyed and resigned expression. "Artemis is pregnant!"
Dipper's chocolate brown eyes were suddenly the size of dinner plates. He couldn't keep the huge smile off of his face. "That's-that's huge! Oh, wow, that's-I mean…"
"You're gonna be great at this, you know," Mabel told Artemis confidently. "I can tell."
"Hey, kiddo," Mabel greeted. "How've you been?"
The tiny girl in front of her beamed with gapped teeth. "Awesome! I learned how to go through walls yesterday, even if it was on accident, and Jai fell in the mud and we had a mud fight!"
"A mud fight?" Mabel gasped. "Those are so much fun! As long as you don't get mud everywhere, because then you'll get in trouble and it's not really worth it."
The girl ducked her head, freckled cheeks blushing bright red. "I know. That's what happened. Mom and Daddy didn't like it, but I don't think that they minded us much as they said, because Daddy scooped up a bunch of mud off of the floor after it fell off me and then threw it at Mom. Then she chased him around the house and it was great!"
Dipper ruffled her hair, peering behind her at a small boy with black hair and grey eyes to match his mother's. "Hey, Jai. How're you doing?"
"Good," Jai said, puffing out his chest and beaming proudly. "I did something cool yesterday. Do you wanna see?"
Dipper nodded and sat down on the couch. "Of course."
Closing his grey eyes, Jai screwed up his face and concentrated. One of his hands started to practically vibrate-it was vibrating, actually-and slowly the boy's face blurred. When he looked back up at his honorary uncle, none of his facial features were remotely distinguishable. "See?" He said, voice distorted as if he were speaking into a metal fan. "Irey can't do this yet."
His twin sister stuck her tongue out at him. "So? You can't go through walls yet, either!"
"Yeah, but that means that I don't get bloody noses, either!" Jai shot back.
Before the two could start to actually fight physically (they did take more after their mother temperament-wise, after all), Mabel grabbed Irey by the back of her neck as if she were an ornery kitten. "No fighting," she said sternly. "We're the babysitters, and we say so."
Dipper picked up Jai and marched him into the kitchen. "Come on, Speedy Jr. Let's blow stuff up with that science kit of yours."
Irey tried to follow, legs kicking on empty air. She peered up at Mabel angrily. "Hey! I wanna blow stuff up, too!"
Mabel shook her head. "Nah, leave the nerds to do that. We're going to do something much more fun." When Irey tilted her head, Mabel pulled out her favorite weapon from inside of her bright green sweater. "Has Nightwing taught you how to use a grappling hook yet?"
The excited look that the tiny speedster gave her said that no, he hadn't, and that meant that it was time for Mabel to shine.
"I just… Can't believe that he's really gone."
"I know." Mabel wrapped an arm around Wally's shoulders. On the other side, Artemis was leaning against him. Dipper was keeping the twins occupied-they didn't really understand the concept of death in human terms yet, and Wally and Artemis didn't really want to have that conversation at the moment.
"He was my role model, my mentor… I just…" Wally ran a hand through his hair. "How does someone like that die?"
"Everyone has to die sometime," Artemis murmured. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about it. Even if she was reassuring her husband, she still needed to mourn herself. They had all been left reeling by the loss.
("Wally, Iris is in trouble."
"What? How do you know?"
"Iris never made it to work today, and Linda said that she saw lightning coming out of the sky on a clear day."
"You don't think…"
"He has my wife, Wally. Your aunt! And I don't know where she is!")
"We're gonna find Zoom, Wally," Mabel said, looking at Artemis. The archer nodded, grey eyes like steel in the dim lighting. "There's nowhere that he can hide now, not even in the future. We'll find him, and we'll make him pay."
Closing her brown eyes briefly, Mabel sent a silent spell into the warm air. Tueri domum istam, benedicito arula. Hic nocte et non malum.
The sky was bright red, and it matched the color that stained their hands. Someone was screaming, and they were vaguely aware that it was one of them. It went on and on and on and on for what seemed like forever, a howl of pain and grief that never stopped before it suddenly cracked in two.
"No, no, no, no," the screamer chanted, hands fumbling over a small broken shape on the ground. "She's my daughter! She-she can't be-"
Finally, one of them rose to their feet, trying weakly to pull their friend away. He fought and clawed, even as his legs went out from underneath them.
"Come on," the puller said softly, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. "Come on, Roy. You can't do anything for her now."
Two of the others, then a third, rushed to assist him.
"You know, I wasn't expecting all of this when I pulled a little prank," Mabel commented. "But I still don't think I'd change it for the world."
"Agreed," Dipper said with a nod. "There's no way."
"Oh, I don't know," Wally teased. "Maybe for an infinite all-you-can-eat buffet or something. I'd probably trade anybody except Artemis for that."
"Even Irey and Jai?" His wife teased him.
"Even them," he confirmed.
"I feel honored," Artemis said dryly. "I'm glad that I'm the only one who means more to you than food."
"You should be!" Wally laughed. "It takes a lot of love for someone to say that they're worth more to you than food."
The four friends laughed and watched as Irey and Jai flying-tackled Bart and Tim. Mabel whooped and punched her fist in the air. "Get 'em, kids! Get 'em!"
Dipper laughed loudly and nudged her. "Careful, or you'll be elected mayor."
Artemis and Wally exchanged confused glances before turning back to the scene at hand.
The sunlight was warm and the earth was solid.
Wally West was thirty years old. He had been the Flash for roughly five years. He worked as a forensic scientist for the Central City police department. And two of his best friends were setting up a dye pack in his bedroom.
Howling ghosts they reappear
In mountains that are stacked with fear,
But you're a king and I'm a Lionheart,
Lionheart.
And as the world comes to an end,
I'll be here to hold your hand,
'Cause you're my king and I'm your Lionheart,
Lionheart…
Lionheart…
Lionheart…
Lionheart…
Howling ghosts they reappear
In mountains that are stacked with fear,
But you're a king and I'm a Lionheart.
And in the sea that's painted black,
Creatures lurk below the deck,
But you're a king and I'm a Lionheart,
Lionheart.
-King and Lionheart, by Of Monsters and Men