From Justice League episode 'A Better World.'
Batman/Flash
A different dimension.
The implications where mind bending and a little painful to think about.
The fact that this Batman was not the Batman was even harder to understand.
It was Bruce.
But this man was so…pained.
Oh no, not that he would ever show it. Not in this dimension or any other. But God was there pain.
If there was one thing Wally could understand, it was pain.
And if there was one thing Wally wanted- needed to do. It was try to end pain.
Wally had heard Justice Lord Batman lock real Batman onto an X shaped prison cell. Wally's head was still spinning from his own entrapment. He could feel the aching pull where his arms where secured above his head. His legs forced apart in his binding. Restraining something vital to Wally.
His ability to run.
His whole life he had been running.
Running away
Running From
Running because it was the only thing he could do.
Running to save lives and protect.
To end pain
Wally was not a happy camper.
The Batman's where talking. Wally, able to pick out which one was the real Batman and which was Lord Batman, listened as Lord Batman said flatly that Batman would not escape. It was startling to hear the voice of his comrade and know that in a way it was his comrade.
And mostly that it wasn't
Wally couldn't help but let his mind churn. His mind that was always churning, firing synopsis so much faster than mere humans.
What kind of adventures had Lord Batman had? The same as real Batman? Did Lord Batman secretly like watching 'it's a wonderful life' for Christmas, like real Batman did? Or harbor a childhood hero crush on the character The Grey Ghost? How had Lord Batman become Lord Batman?
To be honest the idea that Lord Batman had not so long ago been the same as Batman was painful. Because Batman was Wally's comrade, his hero and leader. Lord Batman was proving himself to be otherwise. Wally couldn't even bare to think about what shape Hawk Girl was in.
Wally strained against the cuffs. Good lord he wanted his legs to be free, he al already tried to ease through the prison. Vibrating his molecules so fast it should have worked his cells through the solid ones of the cuffs. The cuffs however had issued a static charge.
Disrupting his vibration.
Lord Batman had thought of everything
Just like Batman.
Wally strained more.
God. He needed to be free.
A shadow in the glass window that was the front of his prison made him look up. Lord Batman stared at him quietly. His thoughts unreadable.
"What are you looking at!" Flash demanded pointlessly.
"Calm down, you'll appreciate this someday." Avoidance.
But Wally saw something he wasn't supposed to. The downwards twitch of Lord Batman's lips. The tightening of his shoulders.
Lord Batman really wanted Wally to believe him.
That made Wally pause, his eyes boring into Lord Batman's figure. Reading every scrap of info the unmovable form could give him.
That seemed to unnerve Lord Batman.
Like he knew something was very wrong.
"Yeah? I don't think Hawk Girl is going to appreciate it too much! "At least Wally's time figuring how to push Batman's buttons was paying off.
"That was an ascendant! She's in our best hospital now." The defense, regret and anger in those words told a whole world of a story.
Wally couldn't quite understand that story however.
"I don't want to hear it." Wally spat, his brain rapidly processing what he knew of Lord Batman with what he heard unsaid in those words.
Batman's fingers twitched. He wanted to say something.
A small understanding bloomed in Wally.
He wasn't sure he knew what to do about it.
"Believe me! The last thing we want to do is to lose another-" No Batman choked off this words but this was as damn close as they got.
Anther fragment of Wally situation to fit into the puzzle.
"Another what?" Wally's frustration and fear was bubbling over.
Lord Batman looked Wally over one last time, as if trying to understand everything about the man before him.
Trying to burn the vision before him into his eyes. Then Lord Batman turned firmly. His light silver cape billowing in a way that was so familiar.
Then he was gone.
Wally could only wonder.
"I think he likes you." Batman's voice was calm and collected.
As always.
"Must be my magnetic personality." Wally was sulking. The cold metal of the cuffs seemed to leach into his hands and feet. Making his muscles twitch.
"More likely it has to do with what happened to this worlds Flash." Batman parried back realistically. Batman's voice making it sound like a solid truth to be held by all.
"You mean he's-" Another puzzle fragment. Like putting a mirror back together.
"All this had to be set off by something." Strange that Batman thought someone like Wally could have such an effect.
Wally voiced that thought.
"But to go this far. Even over me."
Especially over Wally.
"It isn't that far from what we do. If you think about it."
Batman's world views where tragic.
"I'd rather not." Wally murmured. The idea that someone who was just like him was now six feet under.
Rotting
Non-existent.
"You figured a way outta here?" Wally was tugging absently on his cuffs again. Knowing it was in vein but unable to prevent himself from trying anyway.
Being a prisoner always made him antsy.
Memories of small spaced and large fists, roaring to his conscious mind.
Being a prisoner in a different dimension with the evil Justice Lords in their world, knowing that Hawk girl was somewhere.
Away from where she was suppost to be.
From where they could help her.
That was a whole new kinda panic.
Damn
"No." Batman's deep vibrating tones seemed to smooth through Wally spine.
"No as is in not yet?" He asked hopefully. Batman always took care of things. Even when he should have been doing something else or minding his own business.
"No as in not going to." At least he would always be straight forward. Flash had to wonder what was going on in Batman's brain.
Even for his endlessly processing noggin, this had to knock him unsteady.
Of course even he couldn't process all the many possibilities the way Flash's super charged mind could.
Racing fast, Wally's mind would work though dozens of probabilities for whatever was happening.
Like everything that would happen if the bad guy won.
What could happen if the bad guys won
What could happen if one of their teammates died.
What could happen if he didn't get his sugar intake
What could happen if the Justice League disbands.
And then after taking in all sorts of dark probabilities his teammates, who only saw what was right in front of them, would tell him to calm down and think through this rationally.
Pfft
Amateurs
They didn't understand!
Wally knew that both he and Batman knew what would happen if the Justice Lord succeeded in changing their world.
Nobody back home would ever trust a hero again.
Not when their heroes could so easily become their greatest enemy.
This sucked.
Batman clearly wasn't in the game. Well Wally was creative.
Could just anyone figure out that the residue of the gloves used by the killer would be burnt into the rubber of the electrical switch used to torture and kill victims in the Manston Killings last month?
Nope, just Wally and his genius forensic science brain.
Wally took a deep breath, slowing his rapid heart beat. Less energy used panicking, more sugar to stimulate brain capacity.
Then he kicked his noggin into overdrive. He knew that if he tried to think too fast his synopsis would miss-fire and his thinking would get stuck in a rut but this situation totally called for brain power.
Ok so Flash wasn't in Lord Batman's world.
Lord Batman had turned his back everything he believed in.
God how heartless.
Wally's brain stumbled through useless conclusions. He glanced around the room with speed before glancing down.
Heartless.
Wally's eye focused on the data cups that where fashioned to his chest. The ones monitoring his heart rate.
Is it possible?
The idea Wally had grasped took hold.
Was it there even a chance.
Could he really get his heart to beat that fast?
Worth a try.
More than that would Lord Batman really react the way Wally needed him too? React the way real Batman would?
Only one way to find out
Time to find out if Lord Batman was truly heartless.
But how to stimulate his heart? He used muscle control and years of practice to control his speed. Learning to move slowly and carefully as Wally and to change gears and force his muscles to move far more proficiently than any creature in the world could even dream of. He had some control of his heart rate but only enough to master lie detection tests.
Adrenalin.
He needed adrenalin, he would increase the reaction.
Fear, he needed fear.
Within moments his impossibly fast brain had supplied him with the fear he needed.
Memories.
His heart rate rocketed and he started to buck in his bonds. It was mostly for show but his heart spazzing out and his body immobile was painful.
'Come one Lord Batman' Wally chanted in his head. 'Let there be enough Batman in there to do what I think you'll do.'
Wally let his head slump forward, it was almost a relief from the slight pain in his heart as it sped impossibly fast. Rocketing blood through his body.
The joy Wally had to suppress at seeing Lord Batman jet into the room and hurl himself off the stairs to get to Wally was a surprise.
"Flash? Flash!" Hearing Lord Batman yell at him desperately was even more heart stopping.
Ha Ha
Lord Batman launched himself at Wally's prison. His fingers jamming the keys so fast Wally was surprised he got the code right.
The fact that in his rush, Lord Batman did not even hesitate as he whipped out his key and practically pried the hand cuff open, told Wally a lot.
It was touching in a way.
The fact that Lord Batman dodged Wally's punch was not nearly as warm and fuzzy.
Lord Batman had caught the fury of the blow that Wally had planned to strike him with. Lord Batman had secured his hand around Wally's wrist and lifted it up against the cuff.
As strongly as any chain.
Wally knew that by vibrating his wrists density he could get free. But it would break Lord Batman's hand and maybe his arm in the process.
Wally hesitated, looking at Lord Batman.
Who was looking back.
"Flash!"Real Batman was just as concerned.
Words dried up in Wally's throat as he could feel the deep stare of the ice blue eyes that he knew where just under the eyes pieces of Lord Batman's cowl.
Wally smothered the guilt at his escape attempt.
The guilt that was blooming in his chest because of Lord Batman's stare.
Batman's face got closer, like he was trying to laser vision Wally.
The moment it occurred to Wally that if anyone could simply decide just to have laser vision it would be a Batman.
Their lips touched.
Startled possibilities buzzed though Wally's brain before all processors shut down leaving a short circuited Wally.
Again another few pieces of the puzzle snapped into place.
Losing his worlds Flash had done more to Lord Batman then he would ever let on.
Lord Batman stepped forward, into Wally's body. Seeking the warmth of a person long since lost to him. Wally wondered what he would want to say to real Batman if Wally was ever gone.
One more moment
And Wally leaned into the kiss, gently giving Lord Batman a shadow of the Wally he was longing for.
"Flash!" back in his cell Batman was left to wonder and panic.
If there was one thing any Batman would never be able to handle.
It was losing someone important.
But Lord Batman had turned his soul away from everything he ever fought for. Away from the Gotham he loved.
Wally leaned into Lord Batman. Resting his chin on Lord Batman's shoulder. He said the words that Lord Batman had been trying to pretend he didn't know.
"Even in my last moments I never would have wanted this. By doing this, I died for nothing." Wally spoke the words of the phantom that had haunted Lord Batman for two years.
Of a Flash six feet under.
Lord Batman's hand loosened.
Wally had him in the cuffs before Lord Batman could even think of a plan of action.
It was Wally s turn to give Lord Batman a stare.
Wally gave him a look that said everything Lord Batman knew.
There wasn't a Flash alive that didn't love America.
That didn't want everyone to get their happy ending.
That wouldn't have dies to protect that ideal.
The ideal the Justice Lords had tossed out the window in favor of something easier.
The pieces of the puzzle falling into place.
The puzzle that was the pieces of the cracked Lord Batman.
Death of his parents driving him to become Batman.
Death of a friend driving him to allow himself to become Lord Batman and the urging of his friends.
But he knew better.
"You know better. You'll appreciate this someday."
Wally left.
And headed straight to Batman.
He stared at the coded lock for a moment before spazzing out and rapidly hitting buttons.
"What are you doing?" Batman asked seriously.
"Trying every possible combination." Wally said cheekily. Batman frowned thoughtfully before rambling off a five digit number. Wally raised a covered eyebrow and typed in the number.
"Wow how'd you know?" Wally was impressed.
"They're the same numbers I use."
Ah yes. A solid reminder of the situation they where in.
Alternet dimension.
Alternet Justice League.
Dead Lord Flash
Missing Hawk Girl.
"How did you get out?" Batman's question was asking a lot.
"I sped up my heart rate so it looked like I flat lined."
They both knew that wasn't quite what Batman was asking.
"I didn't know you could do that."
The matter was swept under the rug for another day.
Batman's stare was boring into Wally. Even more uncomfortable because this was real Batman.
"Neither did I," Wally admitted, Matter of fact.
"But I had to come up with something if you weren't going to" Wally pried Batman's cuffs open, standing on his tip toes.
Their chests brushed.
Batman logo to Flash logo.
It was reminiscent of a very similar warmth that was still tingling Wally's lips.
"I couldn't" Batman's Matter of Fact tone. "Not with him anticipating everything I could every think of.
But who could anticipate you?"
A complement to Wally in the best way Batman knew how.
Unspoken thanks.
They left.
Got the other members of the League, got Hawk girl. Stopped the Justice Lords.
Lord Batman saving them, their world.
That was unexpected. To everyone but a quiet Flash.
Wally never did ask what Batman and Lord Batman had discussed while they where alone.
And Wally wondered if he would ever know how things turned out for Lord Batman.
Whatever happened, there was one thing Wally was sure of.
No Batman would ever turn to the darkness.
Not completely.
Whatever Lord Batman was doing. It was the right thing.
And both Wally's where cheering him on. Either by his side or from the grave.
Actually Wally now felt he had two Batman's to stand by.
Which was weird.
But when was anything in his life not weird?
Wally loved it.
If you want a sequell about Flash and Batman let me know.
Authors Note.- Written from the Justice League episode 'A Better World.' The concept of a closer look into Lord Batman's loss was something I had been working on.
After all if Batman, the most steadfast hero ever, could have been swayed by Wally's death it must have really taken a lot out of him. So I had to wonder what seeing Wally 'rise from the dead' would really mean.
Yeah there was Yaoi.
Take it as you please.