Robin and Kid Flash knew it. They were going to die. The bombs would hopefully take the mother-ship, but they were definitely going to die. They looked at each other one last time. They took off their masks and looked into the other's eyes.
3.
Robin knew this day would come sooner than most. He just didn't know this would be how.
2.
Wally could only think how sad it was the world was losing Robin.
1.
They smiled at each other.
0.
Everything blew up. It was like fireworks, but deadlier. It lit up the sky, but a cloud of smoke grew as well. And that should have been it. Really, it should have. They should have died and moved on, their physical bodies just ashes. If that. Or they should have woken up, realizing it was a simulation. Depends on how you view it and what reality you knew.
They faded in and out of consciousness. They were just lying there. They were holding hands. They were on gurneys with people shouting over them. They were in surgery. They were on a hospital bed. But whatever it was, they were together.
Their secret identities weren't so secret anymore. They didn't have their masks on, and Dick's face was easily recognizable, despite being battered and beaten. And Wally wasn't going to let his best bud's identity get announced to the world without his as well. So now the world knew. The invasion was over. Their identities were outed. Now they just had to heal. After all, blowing up gives quite the injuries.
It took a year for Kid Flash to recover fully. It took two more for Robin.
People were dead. Lots of people. And they blamed themselves. They trained past their body's capabilities, which caused relapses and setbacks.
Robin realized his feelings first. Like most things. Somewhere between the nightmares and the helping each other heal, he fell in love. He always knew this would be a possibility. While he loved girls, he'd caught himself ogling a few guys in his short lifetime as well.
Kid Flash didn't realize for a year after they were healed and back in action again. He tried to deny it, say that it wasn't romantic but instead a familial thing. They'd grown so close they were like brothers. But when Dick hit the streets again, he couldn't deny it any longer.
He was in love with his best friend. And his best friend loved him back.
A new era of heroes popped up. Ones without a hidden identity. Take that G. Gordon Godfrey. Or, his ghost, since he was lost in the invasion.
Barbara Gordon was one of the first to pop up. Tula and Garth joined as well. Tim Kord, or Blue Beetle, became a superhero. He still honored the tradition of making up different names for their hero persona. People of all varieties wanted to help protect the world in case of another invasion. Even Cadmus' genomorphs helped and began to live outside of the building in DC.
As the years passed, Dick and Wally began a relationship. They fell deeper into love than they'd been before. They got married. Any and all people became legal and accepted everywhere after the Invasion. The world realized they needed to unite as humans. They adopted kids who had nobody else, whether that was from the Invasion or something else.
They never settled down though. They always continued to fight the good fight. They taught their kids when they were asked to let them help defend the world. This was all hands on deck. They couldn't afford to quit the game. But Lord knows they deserved it.
The old villains were gone. They were either killed or lost in the Invasion. But new villains, just like heroes, popped up. The fight was never over. New people joined both sides, and a new sense of normalcy formed.
A particularly nasty Gotham villain had got them. Dick had become the bait to catch Wally. They had been dunked in chemicals. It ate away at their bodies too fast for them to escape.
Dick's last thoughts were," I hope the kids will be alright with out us."
Wally's last thoughts were." And the last heroes from pre-Invasion days fall. May the world continue without us, and may we join our old comrades in whatever afterlife awaits."
Then they woke up, gasping for air.