There Will Be War


Another round of bullets shot by his ear, and his eyes strategically mapped out the wreckage of the terrain as he watched Diana throw her wrists in front of her face as she continued to step forward, her face cringing as the gun lowered to her waist.

She threw her wrists once more, in front of the bullets, just in time, before Superman stepped in front, covering Diana like a hulking mass.

He made his way to the gunslinger, grabbing the infernal weapon and throwing it out of even running distance, before whipping him around to face him, and was about to spot out one of his infamous witty remarks, but what he had not anticipated was the fact that he had one other gun.

The cold steel was being pushed into his stomach before he even had time to think.

He reacted fairly quickly, pushing away as soon as alias was being screamed out, though his reaction could have been better.

The bullet ripped through his abdomen, his eyes widening. The intensity of the agony was intense, and worst of all, his legs were telling his brain to run. To just run.

He knew that with most it worked the other way around. The brain told the limbs what to do, but he felt as though this couldn't possibly apply to himself.

Because if they, wouldn't have his brain told him to slow down, to lie down and try to not spill anymore blood?

He backed up, putting his hand to his stomach.

'Too much blood..'

There was too much for him to live, he knew this for certain. He breathed in rasps and just as the corners of his vision begun to dim, he watched as Batman, in a furious rage, grasped the criminal by the neck, slamming him down into the concrete with enough force to crack the cement.

Though, considering they were in Gotham, the cement probably had been pretty weak to start with.

His alias was being screamed out to him, hands were touching him with feather light touches, but all he could feel was the cold. The freezing cold as his heat escaped him.

He shook violently as death slowly grabbed at him.

His eyes widened as he released one last breath and finally, his heart begun to slow down. For the first time in ten years, his heart rate slowed.

It wasn't gone, but everything was becoming..slow, or maybe, it was normal. Everything was as it was before the accident.

"It's slow..everythings slow.." Flash tried to whisper, but he could only manage to say every other sound in each word and came out as nonsense.

"Flash, it's gonna be okay.." John tried to comfort, but Flash could see it in his eyes.

He could see the despair and hopelessness.

"How bad?" He whispered.

No one answered.

He closed his eyes for a moment before re-opening them. Too many things were happening, and suddenly he wasn't on the street anymore but on a gurney, being rushed through the middle of the watch tower.

Eyes.

Eyes watched him.

And in one last attempt to lighten the mood, just one last time, he mustered his strength, and raised his arm to wave.

"Hi.." He murmured before his arm fell flat, and so did his pulse.


Flash blinked, his eyes opening gradually into the blinding light. A cool breeze tousled his hair and the latex-like road beneath him felt like a comforting blanket of hope.

His fears diminished within seconds and upon inspection of his location, he quickly found a smile to stretch across his face.

The Speed Force.

Again.

He blinked wildly, a soft laugh coming out from his mouth as he spun in a small circle, arms outstretched. He looked the light orange sunset.

"This is..this is great." He murmured, "I'm dead and automatically, I'm sent to the speed force? Cool."

A figure within the sunset became apparent, and as though someone had pressed a fass-forward button, the body was suddenly glowering above him. "Wally."

Flash's eyes widened, "Uncle Bear?"

Barry folded his arms, a displeased expression across his face, "Wally, you died heroically, sure, but being sent to the speed force isn't 'cool.' You're dead."

Wally shrugged with a small laugh, "Look, Unc, my friends are gonna get us both outta here soon enough! We don't have to stay here if J'onn just opens one of those portal thingies. Watch." Wally replied, folding his arms before sitting down quietly onto the rubber pavement.

Barry's eyes softened and as a minute went by, he put a hand tenderly onto his nephew's shoulder, "Wally, that was a one time thing.."

Wally looked up in confusion, and opened to say something, though Barry continued.

"Wally, you're dead. You stay here.."

Wally looked on quietly, his eyes seeming to now sparkle in the light of the orange blaze across the sky. Brimming with tears, Barry swallowed and bent down slowly, taking a seat down beside him.

"I've been watching you for a while now. I'm proud, but I've needed to say something to you for a while now.."

Wally looked away into the setting sun , pealing the red mask off his face as the flow of tears poured down his cheeks, the reflection of the sky within them like liquid gold.

"..Wally, you remember when you were young, don't you? Moving in with me and your Aunt."

Flash's head swam with questions in that very moment, but he bit his tongue and nodded slowly, separating his legs and laying them straight out before him, his hands lying limp on each of his legs.

"..I never told you why you had to leave your parents."

"I never had to ask." Wally whispered, his eyes darting back to meet his Uncle's gaze.

The uncle that had been so much more to him, was here once again. After so many years of wanting to see his face again, here he was.

And now he was crying.

Barry nodded, "I always thought you were too young to remember.."

"Thirteen isn't that young, Uncle Bear."

Barry laughed lightly and put an arm around his nephew, pulling him in closer, "You forgot who you were..I was always just waiting for you to think about them and visit the house you grew up in...visit the family they'd been in a feud with, maybe?"

Wally shook his head, "My parent's were killed by them, Unc. I'm not sure they'd be happy to see me anytime soon."

Uncle Barry shook his head with half a smile, "That's where you're wrong, Wallace. Sometimes, people have a funny way of turning themselves around. Seeing what a was right and wrong. Putting away the hate and starting new. You get me?"

Wally shrugged, but quickly put an arm across his shoulders too. He could hardly believe that here he was, once again, being given valuable advice from his Uncle.

"Uncle Bear, sometimes I think that..if you had lived longer, I wouldn't have grown up to be such a screw-up."

The elder man tensed beneath his touch at the words and turned his head to stare deeply within his nephew's eyes. "Wallace R. West, if you say that ever again, so help me God, I'll back hand you. You think you're a screw up? I'll tell you whose a screw-up, and that was your own father. Starting a war over nothing...and the thought of bringing his own son into it."

Wally shrugged once more and suddenly, a fluttering occurred in his heart, electricity sparking at his boots and slowly ate away at his legs.

He gasped and tried to push away to avoid being eaten by this electric monster, but found it useless.

"Oh my God..I can't believe this." Barry whispered with a large smile stretching across his face, "For the love of God, Wally, God must really love you, boy. You're alive. You're coming back to life!"

Wally cringed at the immense pain blooming in his stomach and suddenly, everything begun to speed up again, his heart, his head, the world around him was too slow.

He vibrated violently.

And suddenly, everything was gone.

Barry's voice, the latex pavement, the solid gold skies, the slow swaying trees, the cool fall breezes. Gone. Pain was replaced with the immortality, and all at once, everything came back to him.

His eyes opened wide and his body lurched forward, a gasp filling his lungs.

Eyes scanned his body, random words floating through his head as he attempted to piece the sentences together.

"...heart rate...stabilizing..."

"Oh my...can't believe..."

"Doctor! He's...you're a miracle worker!"

Slowly, words started to make sense, sentences made out, and everything became perfectly clear.

"He's back...We did it, Doctor.."

"Flash? Wally? How do you feel? Are you alright? You can stop gripping the sheets son, everything's going to be alright.."

'Am I...Was I gripping the sheets?'

His vision, slightly doubled and bubbly, examined the room before him, the light just a little too bright. He pushed an arm in front of his eyes and blinked for a moment or two before someone pushed his arm down, dimming the lights quickly.

He turned his head to see his left hand still gripping the sheets with as much might as possible. He released it quickly, his brain suddenly finding function once more.

It was a steady process, but he quickly grasped his main functions one step at a time. it was almost as though he was..rebooting.

Had he..died?

"I died.." Flash whispered, seemingly out of breath. He swallowed, his eyes widening slightly, "I died." He repeated this time, with slight more anxiety lacing his words. "I died."

The doctor swallowed, his eyebrows pushed down in concentration, "Technically, Mr. West, you were dead for ninety seconds. We were able to revive you."

Wally swallowed and felt his heart quicken as the doctor leaned forward, looking fearfully out his eyes, "Tell me..tell me what you saw."

Wally sucked in a breath, the minty breath of the doctor in his bubble of personal space. He tried to pull away as much as possible on a hospital bed but found it futile to even attempt the feat.

"Tell me you saw God." He whispered once more, putting a hand carefully onto his bare chest covered with bandages.

Wally shook slightly, "I..I.."

What would he tell him? That he went to a heaven for speedsters only? That they might have a heaven for doctors only?

The shock of being brought back to life itself had left him shellshocked. He shook his head quickly, "S-Stop."

"You saw something, you said something when you woke up. You said something!"

The sudden 'swoosh' of the door opening was enough to make the doctor lurch back and clear his throat, pulling off his best placid expression. He gave a small smile at the sight of Batman.

"Get out, now." Batman murmured, pushing past the smiling doctor.

He swallowed and nodded once, adjusting his glasses.

"And by the way..you're fired." This voice came from a very irate Superman who briskly was followed by the rest of the Original Seven, who carried both glares for the doctor and smiles for the young speedster who lied quietly in the bed, his eyes still adjusting to the dimmed light. His head was pounding and he sunk back into his pillow.

"Flash, I.." Hawkgirl whispered as she made her way to right of the hospital bed, her eyes were lined with tears but she forcibly blinked them away and gave a smile, "..I think you're an idiot."

Flash gave a small smile, closing his eyes slightly, "I know, Feathers, baby. Tell me something I don't know." Flash joked quietly, though the voice lacked it's usual enthusiasm and it almost caused her physical pain to hear the actual weakness within his voice.

"Do you still hurt? Did they give you pain killers?" Batman questioned quickly, observing his body with quizzical and cold eyes.

"Uh...repeat that again, Bats? Sorry..just woke up.." Flash murmured, eyes opening slowly, blinking a few times as though he were testing out new eyes.

"Scale of one to ten, pain."

Flash cleared his throat, "Seven."

"Did they give you pain medication?"

"Dunno.."

Batman flew out of the room in brisk floral, the doors clanging shut again earning Flash a round of pain in his head.

"Flash, what you did, was obviously heroic, but stupid. You've got to pay attention more, hot shot." John smiled, folding his arms as Superman stepped in.

"You've been out for four days, a few hours ago..well..we won't discuss what happened until your better but-"

"I died."

Superman's eyes widened, he stopped, mouth open for a moment before closing it.

"You knew?" Diana murmured, setting herself on the bed.

Flash cringed slightly from the pain exploding his burning chest but he tried to ignore it, "I..yeah..yeah, I do."

Shayera folded her arms, shaking her head, "Did you..do you remember anything from when you.."

A nurse bustled into the hospital room, looking quite disgusted at the dark knight who moved in steadily behind her. She quickly set up the drip of morphine and Flash let out a soft sigh, eyes still shut.

'Tired...so tired..'

"...When I died...there was the speed force.."

It was silent in the room, and even the nurse paused momentarily after string up the drip to look at him with climaxed interest.

"Get some sleep, Flash." John murmured before slowly heading out of the room, his eyes darting back and forth across the room and as he left, everyone shared their goodbyes to the now sleeping hero.

'...Speed Force..'