Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice. Otherwise, 'Endgame's ending probably wouldn't have happened.
Fix Fic Number One
Summary:
He went back in time to fix things once. Who says he can't do it again? After all, everyone says that the third time's the charm...
He thinks it was the mourning.
Yeah, it was definitely the mourning.
That's why it took him so long (so incredibly long why didn't I think of this sooner I should have thought of this sooner) to figure out what he had to do. It took him much longer than he should have to figure it out. I mean come on it took him a childhood spent enslaved in an apocalyptic wasteland living on hope from the memories of his family and stories told of the old heroes by his parents for him to realise 'Wait a second, I should travel back in time and stop all this from happening!' the first time around so why. On. Earth. Did it take him fourteen years (fourteen! That's a whole year more than it took him the first time around!) to figure out that he just had to travel back in time again to fix this whole mess?
The whole mess in question, of course, being his cousin's death.
He blames himself. Well, at the beginning they all blamed themselves. Dick blamed himself, Artemis blamed herself, Grandpa Barry blamed himself.
It seems almost a cruel kind of irony really. When he was thirteen he travelled back in time for the first time, and he promised himself that he would be fast enough to save his granddad, to save the world(mainly by stopping Blue Beetle from going on mode), and save his cousin (miss you Wally miss you so much should've saved you this time).
In the end, he was fast enough to do two out of three of those things. Now, for most people, two out of three wouldn't be too bad but in this case anything less than three out of three is just unacceptable.
With a sigh, he runs his hand over the base of Wally's memorial. He is leant up against it; knees bent and pulled up to his chest. Fourteen years later and he's sitting against it in the same position he found himself sitting for weeks - months - after Wally's death.
"I miss you," he says, and his voice echoes around the memorial room of the Watchtower eerily. He's sad to say it, but the room has filled up slightly more in the fourteen years since they brought Wally's hologram here.
"But...but I'm gonna fix it this time, alright? This time, I'll go back and you'll be alive this time. You're gonna live this time Wally, I'll make sure that you do,"
He stands up and looks at the hologram; years later it's so weird to look at the hologram and realise that technically he's older than Wally now, because the hologram perpetually shows him as twenty-one and Bart is twenty-seven(the ache in his chest has dulled but it hasn't gone away it never went away not after the first time he lost Wally No wake up don't go wake up wake up wake up) and not after the second (gotta slow down gotta slow down gotta take some of that energy and SAVE HIM)).
Bart looks to his red gloved hand, then down to the rest of his body, half expecting to be in his Kid Flash suit (not his not his it was Wally's always Wally's) or maybe even his Impulse suit. But he's not, he's in his Flash suit.
Bart was infinitely thankful that Grandpa Barry wasn't one of the heroes in the Memorial Room. He'd retired from the hero gig about seven years prior and handed the mantle over to him (so crash so crash so CRASH!). He'd said he felt that Bart was ready, and Bart had almost squealed and he'd hugged Grandpa Barry so tightly (he didn't care if he was twenty he was still allowed to be himself and sometimes Bart had reasons to act like the child he'd never been and this counted as one of them OKAY?). Grandpa Barry'd also wanted to spend more time with his children, and Bart respected that. Don and Dawn were growing up, and it almost seemed too fast. He spent as much time around Grandpa Barry and Granny Iris and Aunt Dawn and Dad Don as he could because they were his family and he hadn't spent enough time with Wally so he'd spend Wally's share with the rest of them. He spent time with his friends too of course, but that wasn't the point.
Then the day had come when they were twelve, and both of them had simultaneously decided, in that way that only twins could, that they were going to be heroes like their dad and son/nephew (they hadn't tried hiding the truth about Bart from them, they heard stories about the invasion all the time and once the two were old enough they learned truth and man that had been CRASH the way they smiled at each other and then Dad Don had hugged him and said he was proud of him and it had just been so CRASH!).
Nobody bothered trying to dissuade them, they all knew that there was no point, so four months of training later, the Flash once again had Kid Flash and Impulse fighting by his side (Dad Don looked so much like Wally in that Kid Flash suit).
Although, all of them agreed that it was deeply weird for Bart to be training his dad as a hero (training Aunt Dawn had been weird too, but it was a different kind of weird) especially considering he was teaching his dad techniques that his dad himself had taught him in his original timeline. Some of the leaguers (other leaguers oh man still not sued to being one) had given them these weird looks and asked them how they handled it, because it was giving everyone else a headache. All of them just looked at each other, them shrugged and replied as simply as them could; "Timetravel,".
One last look around the room, committing it to memory just as he already has with the rest of the Watchtower, and then he turns and begins to walk out to head for the Zeta tubes (still hasn't broken the habit of going normal speed. He can go fast, really fast, be he slows down naturally because he's still used to it (why didn't he slow down enough to save Wally?)). He stops before the hologram is barely even six steps behind him, smirks, rolls his eyes and then calls out:
"You can come out now, I know you're both there!"
There is two annoyed squeaks and then two blurs, one yellow and red the other white and red, speed in front of him. Dawn and Don - acting in perfect sync – put their hands on their hips defiantly and announce loudly and clearly:
"We know what you're doing,"
"How?" he should know by now though, if they thought something was up then they wouldn't stop searching until they knew what (pretty sure that they're part bat but that's not important right now how did they find out he must have slipped up somewhere (he was a good actor he'd fooled the entire Team once (then he'd fooled himself and let himself be who he was acting to be for a bit)) when did he slip up?)
"We followed you and we saw the machine, and we found the note you left for Dad," they say in unison, as though reading his mind.
He gives and irritated sigh.
"Look," he starts "whatever you're thinking, you can't stop me. I'm going through with this, and nobody is making me do otherwise,"
He makes to push past his dad and auntie protégées, but they just speed back into his path. Arms moving from defiantly on their hips to crossed determinedly in front of their chests.
"We're coming with you,"
He stops. For once, his rapidly moving mind has slowed entirely to a halt.
"What?"
"We said, we're coming with you," Dawn repeats, smirking at him with a look he just knows she learned from Artemis; it's that 'I-know-I-caught-you-off-guard-and-that-pleases-me' look.
"And don't you dare say that we aren't Bart," Don cuts in, and then a grin breaks out over his face and he pretends to point a finger threateningly at his future son mentor "Or else you're grounded!"
Don's been using the 'you're grounded' trick since he found out the whole complicated, confusing mess that is Bart's origin story. Once he found out that at some point in future he'd be Bart's father, he took full advantage immediately; "Bart, train me to use my speed or you're grounded!", "Bart, tell Dawn to stop beating me at video games or you're grounded!", "Baart, take us out for ice cream or you're grounded!". Nobody ever took it seriously, Don himself especially. It had gone from a one-time joke to a sort of running inside gag.
"Fine, but just so that we're clear, you two will only be going and getting him out, okay? I'll take care of making up for the loss of kinetic energy," his voice is stern but there's a small smile on his face. The three of them speed off to where Bart has hidden the second time machine (he stops for a second to speed back to Grandpa Barry's house and add a few lines to the note, then shake his granddad awake shove it in his hand and speed back to the machine) and then he realises something.
"There isn't going to be enough space,"
Dawn shakes her head.
"There will be," she insists "Don and I checked, he did the calculations and everything. There's enough space, even if it's a little cramped,"
Bart looks to Don for conformation, and he nods. He wonders why he made this time machine bigger than the first, but somehow he knows that it's because deep down he always knew that the twins would come after him and make him take them with him; probably why he'd given in so easily. The two had grown up on stories of their cousin, of how great he was, how strong he was, of how he gave his life for the world he loved (absently he realises that it was kinda mean of him not to tell Artemis of what he's planning to do, but really, it'd be even crueller if it failed and to have given her hope, right?).
"Okay then, no turning back now," he turns to both of them, the three of them all so incredibly visible in the arctic because of the red and yellow and white of the costumes (except of wait, the white's going to make Dawn blend in). Both of them are looking around the area with wide eyes, and he realises that they both must have just realised the significance of the place that Bart had built the time machine.
All three of them look at the machine, and Bart pulls open the door.
"Remember, you two run in and grab him. I'll take care of the rest,"
They climb in, and he shuts the door behind himself and the world changes.
The scene is chaos. Snow and ice being whipped up into the air by the energy bursts, winds screaming by, all of the effects only amplified by the electric blue tornado in the centre of it all.
The moment the time machine made contact with the ground – before it made contact with the ground in fact – the three speedsters were out of it and zoomed across the arctic, kicking up a snow trail behind them. No thoughts about what they were doing. No thoughts about what the Team members would see as they ran to do what they had to do. No thoughts about what they had just left behind.
No thoughts.
Just action.
The energy arcs and strikes him again, but he ignores it. He just has to keep running and make sure the world was safe. That is all that matters right now. Just keep running Wall-man, just keep running.
He is slowing down, he realises, slowing down and not speeding up again.
That was not good.
He was starting to feel a bit tired, and fuzzy headed.
Oh man, not good. Artemis is going to kill him.
And then, out of nowhere, someone arrives on either side of him, supporting him and holding him up.
"It's okay Wally," the one on his left says.
"We've got you," the one on the left says.
He tries to look and see who it is, but the world goes sideways as they yank him out of the way of the tornado and the energy and all three of them go sprawling against the ground.
Flash looks back to check on Wally, and only gets a glance at his nephew as two kids he's never seen before drag him out of the loop. He opens his mouth to yell for his nephew, he prepares to stop running and go after him, but he doesn't, partly because he's remembered that he needs to keep running to save the earth and produce enough kinetic energy to stop the chrysalis and partly because all of a sudden there's another speedster running alongside him, in a Flash uniform and giving him a smile. The other speedster runs parallel and reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder.
"Relax Barry," the other says, and the Scarlet Speedster could swear that he saw relief on the other's face "the kids are good, they'll take care of Wally, just keep running and make sure that this thing doesn't destroy the Earth,"
Then the other speedster has pulled some distance between them, but the three still run and run and run.
And eventually, it's enough.
The Team members immediately went to Wally when the two unidentified kids pulled him out. They were prepared to have to fight, but the two – now clearly a boy and a girl, dressed in a Kid Flash and Impulse suit – just moved aside and let them crowd around the fallen speedster.
The tornado dissipates and the three speedsters who had been running take a moment to catch their breath, before they too rush over.
Barry and Impulse are by Wally in a split second. Wally is coughing.
"Oh man, that did not feel good," he manages eventually, and before he can stop himself Bart, the one from the future, has let out a dry, cynical snort.
Then Dawn and Don rush up to him and hug him and superspeed him questions about whether the energy had affected him at all and he just laughs and hugs them both back and assures them that he's fine and then looks up to the Team and he realises that they're giving them slightly suspicions looks. He clears his throat slightly and then spins to point at Blue Beetle.
"The scarab told you what would have happened if we hadn't shown up when we did. Tell the rest of them before they start thinking we were trying to end the world or something," he says, and Jaime blinks but he relays the message the scarab gave and then the suspicion melts away and mostly they just look grateful.
Then he speeds forwards and hugs Wally as tightly as he can despite the fact that he slightly taller than his cousin now (wow that is so weird).
"Don't you dare ever die on us again," he mumbles as he hugs, and then he lets go and speeds back to Dawn and Don.
"So, who are you?" is the first thing out of Bart's – younger Bart's – (wow this is going to get really confusing) mouth and Older Bart just chuckles.
"Well..." he starts, and he just gestures to his two protégées. They step up with grins.
"I'm Kid Flash, the third technically. Also known as..." Don pulls back his mask with a flourish "Don Allen," he gives a little pretend bow, with the hand gesture and everything. Dawn shoves her twin in the shoulder and he stumbles slightly.
"Impulse, the second," she introduces, before pushing her goggles up onto her head "But I go by Dawn around my friends and family,"
Younger Bart looks a bit spooked at seeing his dad and auntie so young (Ha! Got you beat there younger me, try being there when they were born and being named the godfather!(Seriously do you know how weird it is to be your father's godfather?)) but everyone else seems to have adapted to the situation pretty quickly.
"So, you're the future me?" Barry guesses, looking to Older Bart and he just chuckles and shakes his head.
"Nah, good guess Gramps, but not exactly, still, getting handed the mantle was pretty crash," he replies (and yes he poured as many hints into that sentence as he could just because he could) and then he pulls down the cowl to reveal that really, it isn't a Future Barry it's a Future Bart and everyone looks kinda shocked and then Wally voices the words statement that Bart himself had thought just moment before.
"Well, this is going to get confusing,"
Before I start, I'm just going to say that I honestly did cry when Wally died but I feel a little better now because I just know that we're going to get a season 3 and that he will come back from the dead eventually. After all "The only person who stays dead in comic books is Uncle Ben," right? And Young Justice is based on comic books...
And, that is fix fic number one - Third Time's the Charm - finished.
Basically, I couldn't decide on just one of my multiple fix fic ideas (which range from serious ideas to silly little ones) and eventually I decided 'Why not just do them all? We need as much fix fic as we can get!'
They probably won't all be this long though. Just as a heads up. And they won't all be uploaded in one go. It could take a while.
So, does this satisfy the 'Wally's not dead' feels?