Thank you everyone for all the wonderful reviews! Here is the last part!
Zatanna lead the way to the zeta tube, her arm wrapped snuggly around Artemis's own as her other held her phone to her ear.
"I don't care if you're busy. You're letting us in and we're going to talk. I know that you've been hiding something and now I think I know what" She spoke confidently.
Artemis listened with only half an ear, choosing instead to let her mind wonder about the possibilities that were opening up.
Wally might be alive.
Her mind was torn. On one side, she wanted desperately for it to be true, to have Wally back. On the other, giving in to such hope could wreck her if they were wrong. She would take it though; she would take any pain if it brought her speedster back.
"Wally," She whispered quietly, turning her head away from Zatanna. The streetlamp that they were passing flickered a few times and the blonde smiled.
"Yeah, we. Artemis is with me," Zatanna continued.
Artemis relaxed as the lights that they passed continued to flicker pleasantly, basking in the knowledge that her boyfriend was with her even while they couldn't be together.
"We'll be there in five minutes," Was her final statement before hanging up her phone and turning her head to her friend, "Ready to head to the Birdcave?" She smirked.
"You know he hates that name," Artemis retorted as they reached the Zeta tube.
"Only because the warehouse doesn't look cool enough to have it," Zatanna told her with a smile before using her manicured finger to punch in the number for Nightwing's home base.
Artemis looked back to the street before the zeta beam took her away, the one streetlamp in view flickering slowly as if waving goodbye.
When Artemis and Zatanna walked into the warehouse Nightwing turned around from his seat in front of the computer system, preparing to stand up and meet them.
"Don't get up," Zatanna started, waving him off as they came over to him.
"Hello to you too," Dick answered, one of his eyebrows rising. Artemis could hear the way his voice was teetering between tones, a cheery cover over a hidden nervousness.
"I knew that you were sneaking around more often for a reason. I thought you were collecting evidence on Luthor, or maybe Godfrey, but this? Why would you hide this from us?" Zatanna's voice grew angry, "How could you hide this from Artemis?" She spoke, her voice raw as she gestured to the blonde who was standing a bit away.
"Whoa!" Dick gasped, standing up abruptly with his hands spread out to create a barrier, "Can we back up please? What is this about?"
"Wally," Artemis answered, "Wally isn't dead. He got changed or something," She frowned, wringing her hands together as she thought further about.
Where was he?
Was he in pain?
Would he last long enough for them to get him back?
What if they couldn't save him?
What if he was stuck this way forever?
"-temis," Zatanna's voice caught her ear and Artemis's head snapped up to her friends before her.
"Sorry," She mumbled, crossing her arms in embarrassment and internally scoffing at how unstable she had become. The two gave her pitying looks and she grimaced, successfully halting them.
"You know something," Zatanna turned back to Dick, "Now, spill,"
Dick sighed, shoulders slumping under the magician's stern glare, and gestured for the girls to take seats up next to him at the computer. Zatanna did so with a graceful flourish, her stern look still in place. Artemis sat down much less so, curling into the armrests as though they would hold her as tightly as Wally used to.
"It started with the usual denial that comes with someone's death," Dick started up, "But then I decided to start thinking like Wally, like a scientist," He smiled slightly, "And I realized that, alien tech or not, the laws of physics still had to apply. Wally vanished. Matter can't do that,"
"The law of conservation," Artemis cut in, "Wally was always talking about it, comparing it to our love," She smiled and looked to the floor as she spoke, more-so recalling a memory to herself than informing the other heroes, "It can change and shift, but never destroyed,"
There was a pause before Dick picked up where she left of, the blonde still withering in and out of revere and sadness. He cleared his throat before he spoke, "That's exactly the problem. He just disappeared, it's scientifically impossible,"
"So what do you think happened?" Zatanna asked, her voice on baited breath.
"When the speedsters run, they stop becoming human forms. They have mass, but their speed is so fast that they essentially become a form of concentrated energy. And energy can do one of two things, it can change location and it can change form," He held up his hand, counting of the two possibilities on his fingers.
"He changed his form?" Artemis breathed; it was a rhetorical question however. The moment she heard it, she'd known.
"I think so," Dick agreed with a nod, "While running, Wally became moving friction. Essentially, a form of energy. And the charge coming from the bomb was using him as an exit. That much energy running through him shifted his molecules, transforming him into a different form of energy,"
"A form that couldn't slow down and become a solid human again," Artemis added.
"So...then the question becomes; how do we change him back?" Zatanna asked, rather lost at the concept of applied technical science.
"A conversion," Artemis stepped in, "Wally was changed by the friction and charge of that bomb. We just need to reverse it," She shrugged.
"Barry and Bart can recreate the friction, but what do you plan to use for the charge? We can't use another bomb, and frankly even if we did I don't think we'd get a different reaction," Dick frowned, trying to follow Artemis's train of thought. Zatanna sat quietly, not sure how to contribute any longer.
"Black Lightning and Static," Artemis answered confidently, "And then put me in the middle of the circle,"
"What!?" Zatanna shrieked, "There won't be any air in the middle of a speedster tornado, you know that!"
"I don't understand," Dick pressed on calmly, his elbows resting on his knees, "How are you going to act as the charge?" Zatanna sent the man a death glare for not taking her side.
"Wally is connected to me, put me in the middle and you'll be putting him in the middle. The friction created in the opposite direction by Barry and Bart will draw him back, and the energy needed for the conversion can be added by Lightning and Static," Artemis told them, her features more lively than either of them had seen in an entire month.
Zatanna looked to Dick for a response, not knowing if Artemis was right. Dick was slouched over with his hands clasped, his brow furrowed in thought.
"Well?" Artemis asked, "Don't you agree?"
"No, he doesn't," Zatanna cut in, "We aren't putting you in the middle of a tornado," She responded astutely.
"No Zee, I think it just might work," Dick breathed in heavily, a smile hinting at his lips, "Let me make some calls. Get your coats," He finally grinned, "We're going back to the arctic,"
It was no less than two hours since Artemis and Dick had worked out the plans for their experiment, and the blonde was itching to get started. She had an oxygen tank strapped to her back thanks to Zatanna and the cold of the fiberglass was biting into a slip of skin that was exposed at her hip. She was focusing on the harsh bite as the other heroes talked around, uncertainty heavy in the freezing air.
Dick had only called who was necessary, not wanting to raise everyone's hopes for an experiment that might only be a failure. Barry and Bart had arrived on foot, both optimistic at the prospect of getting Wally back. Bart already convinced that the project was going to work, while Barry agreed with Artemis's theoretical conversion science.
M'gann had brought Black Lightning and Static on the bioship, however Dick was surprised when Conner and Kaldur stepped of the ship with them. Artemis wasn't, she knew the moment M'gann had gotten involved that she would bring the rest of the original team. They met her with assuring smiles and she felt warmed at the undying faith they had in her.
Dick took over the group to explain who was to do what since he was good at it. Artemis didn't mind one bit, choosing instead to turn and watch the white tundra. She felt her nerves steel as Dick gave his speech on realistic expectations and experimentation. Artemis knew that what she was doing was absurd. She was, after all, going to be placing herself in the middle of an electrical maelstrom. But if it brought Wally back, she would risk anything.
"Wally is going to kill me," Artemis muttered under her breath, scratching uncomfortably at the straps of the oxygen tank.
"Alright, everyone to their places," Dick announced, gesturing to the large crater nearby. The original site of the Reach's bomb.
M'gann gave her a hug before she started off toward the middle, also allowing time for Zatanna to drop a light kiss on her cheek. For strength and good luck, they had explained.
Artemis knew better, but she also didn't care.
She took her place in the middle, Barry and Bart ready to start running almost fifty feet from where she was standing. Black Lightning and Static were stationed on opposite sides of the circle from each other even further out, ready to add the electricity Wally would need for the conversion. The blonde strapped the oxygen mask to her face and turned the valve to start it, sending a thumbs up once the gas was flowing to her lips.
And just like that, the wind started. A red and yellow blur surrounded her and the wind whipped her hair around her face. Artemis held the oxygen mask tight against her face as the two picked up speed even further.
She was surprised at what it felt like. To be in the middle of a tornado. She expected it to be cold, freezing actually. But there was an absence of temperature.
Artemis felt neither hot nor cold. But without oxygen, there was nothing to feel.
Nothing to feel.
She smiled behind her mask, finding irony in the thought. While her skin was comfortable, her mind and body were at war. Nervousness clawing at her stomach and fear smoldering in her head.
Then she became weightless.
Her feet slowly left the ground, body rising as the maelstrom pulled her up; as though she wasn't over a hundred pounds. She tried to see the others, to see Barry or Bart, or M'gann and Zatanna, but the wind was tearing at her eyes. When she could manage a glance, everything was cloudy, one large mass of air moving as one around her.
She wondered if she was spinning.
The lightning started and for a moment Artemis thought that perhaps she had died. The electricity was so bright and its energy warmed the air. The air crackled around her and collected in the hairs on her arms, making them stand up.
Was this what it was like to run as fast as sound? She certainly couldn't hear anything.
Artemis figured that she probably should have felt nervous as the cracks of lightning passed around her, caressing her skin and whipping around her fingertips. But she had disposed of all metal on her body and the electricity seemed to be fond of her, rather than the wickedness it often seemed to portray.
"-mis!"
Oh god.
The blonde wrenched her eyes open as best she could, finding herself surrounded by a familiar yellow spark. It was wild. Bouncing off of the wind and snatching up the synthetic lightning created by her fellow heroes. She could feel him, his presence, his warmth.
"Wally!?" Artemis called out against the wind, unable to hear even her own voice against the crackle of electricity. She had to keep her eyes closed so she pictured him instead.
His vibrant green eyes, always so alight with curiosity and excitement. How they softened when he was tired, half lidded emeralds that searched her out even when he was half asleep. How they grew deep and dark as they made love, pupils blown wide.
She remembered his hair. His gorgeous, wild hair. The same color as the evening sun. She remembered how he loved it when she ran her fingers through it, pressing back that cowlick behind his left ear and tugging on the soft tufts at the back of his neck .How scruffy it became when he waited too long for a haircut and how he would purposefully leave it soaking wet after a shower, pinning her on the bed and raining her as she laughed.
His freckles, she pictured those too. The adorable spots that dotted his cheeks when he was younger, when they had first been a couple. Stumbling around each other's limbs in the dark of a living room as the credits of a movie played. She'd discovered that he had them across more than just his cheeks. The beautiful spray painted all across his shoulders and pectorals. Oh, how she'd blushed.
Artemis still had his voice in saved messages on her phone. A playful, light sound that had grown less raspy and more deep as they'd grown up together. She'd heard that voices were the first memory to leave, so she had spent each night in bed with her phone beside her, playing his silly voicemails of classical literature excerpts on speaker as she fell to sleep. The crinkle from the speaker disrupted it, but it was the best she had so she made due.
She missed his warmth the most, if she had to choose. The way a room felt so alive when he was there. His skin was always buzzing with heat, an underlying energy that exhilarated her and inspired her to press closer. It was as if he was just so full of life that it was bursting at the seams, spilling out and spreading to anyone nearby. He radiated warmth, passion, life. And without him Artemis just felt empty.
But the heat around her was growing.
The sparks of the electricity had continued flashing around behind her eyelids, and the sense that she was no longer alone filled her soul.
"Wally!?" She called out again, feeling as though her heart might burst from her chest. She just needed him back so badly. And he felt so close.
"Ar-mis!" His voice was disjointed, as though from behind a faulty speaker. But it was enough to keep her going.
"Wally!" Artemis screamed, her throat growing raw from the force of her voice. She opened her eyes once more, squinting against the wind.
Wally was there.
Flickering in and out of sight just in front of her, just as he looked before he'd first disappeared. His face was a mixture of fear and joy when it was there, his eyes weary and his hand outstretched toward her.
He kept flashing. There, not there. Artemis found it entirely annoying. She wanted her boyfriend back. She was not going to lose him again.
Artemis reached her arms out, fighting the force of the wind that wished to keep her where it liked, "Wally! Take my hands!" She yelled, not caring at the desperate tone her voice had taken.
He reached back for her, but her hands passed right through is. She nearly began sobbing on the spot, rage building at the frustration charging her soul. Wally looked devastated, and she couldn't hear it but she saw his mouth open in a cry of anguish.
"I am not losing you!" Artemis cried out, gritting her teeth against the sparks of yellow electricity that zapped her skin as she reached further, clawing to grab him, any part of him that she could reach. First his arms again, then his biceps, his shoulders.
And when she grasped for his face, she connected, her lithe fingers wrapping around the curve of his jaw and outlining the edges of his Kid Flash mask. Her eyes locked onto his and they smiled together. It was too loud for words to reach each other, but it wasn't necessary.
Artemis refused to let go, watching in awe as flashing turned into a dull flickering, his body becoming more solid and his features clearer. Wally placed his hand atop of hers as it rested on his face, following the lines of her arms to reach her shoulders, her hips, and pulling her closer, a wide grin of utter happiness on his face as their foreheads knocked together without any breaks in his appearance. Artemis felt her eyes grow wet even as the wind pulled her tears away.
He was back.
"Wally," She choked out, rubbing a thumb across his cheekbone affectionately.
"Artemis," Wally breathed, closing his eyes and leaning in, using one hand to pull the oxygen mask down to rest at her neck before angling himself for a kiss. The blonde met him halfway, her lips were raw from the wind but he didn't seem to mind.
The white noise of the maelstrom dwindled down and Wally gripped Artemis's waist tightly as the pull of their weight drew them back to the ground. They both dropped to their knees when they hit the ground, careless of the hard packed snow beneath them. Artemis collapsed into his grasp, her fingers digging into his costume and her tears soaking into his shoulder as he curled himself around her.
It was only seconds before the two were surrounded, everyone talking at Wally, cheering, and some crying. Wally pressed a few chaste kisses to the top of Artemis's head before looking up at everyone around him.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late,"
Artemis was exhausted.
She and Wally had been spending the last few days jumping from Palo Alto, Central City, Gotham, and the Watchtower in a never ending cycle to assure everyone that Wally was actually alive and well. Wally had laughed when she'd complained and mentioned that in fact she was not required to go with him to all of the celebrations and teary visits. Her response was a light punch to his arm, which got another laugh out of him.
God, how she'd missed him.
It was the fourth day after Wally's return when the two finally got a decent amount of time to themselves without sporadic visits and calls from friends and relatives. A large part of it became devoted to intimately reacquainting themselves with each other; the rest of the time they cuddled and talked.
Nelson padded around the apartment happily, finally satisfied that both of his parents were back home. The two lovers had decided to take the whole week off from school, work, and heroing in order to settle back into their home together. Mending the fear that had settled into their hearts and made it difficult to be apart.
Artemis still felt the panic sometimes, a wound still festering in the pit of her mind that came to the surface when Wally grew too quiet. Most of the time it came to her at night. She had spent the last month sleeping alone in fits of nightmares and dreams that she woke up to with tears already falling from her eyes. Her pillow perpetually soaked.
It had occurred again the fourth night. Artemis had dreamed of the night Wally disappeared, of the cold in the arctic wind and the way her tears had frozen under her chin. She dreamed that he'd cried out as he disappeared, an anguishing noise that ripped through her ears and sunk deep into her heart. And she dreamed that he had been running towards her, red gloved hands outstretched as she grabbed for him as well. But neither could reach and he was lost, lost into the white and the wind and Artemis was left with not even a body to cradle.
She awoke not with a start but with a fall, her chest sinking in and her limbs curling in on herself for protection. Artemis held a hand over her mouth as her mind caught up with her dream, not yet remembering that Wally had been saved.
The redhead himself had been grabbing a snack in the kitchen, finding that after turning into electric energy he had not only become much faster, but also much more hungry. He and Barry hadn't tested it yet, but Wally could tell his own speed and he knew for sure that something incredible had occurred. He decided not to think about it as he munched on a rather unconventional sandwich, he didn't see a problem with throwing ham and jelly together on some bread but Artemis always rolled her eyes at it.
Wally was halfway through his concoction when he heard her, first only a whimper that he couldn't place, and then a smothered cry. The sandwich fell onto the kitchen table with a splat as he zipped back into the bedroom, his knees sliding across the sheets as he curled around the blonde who had huddled into her pillow. His heart clenched as he tried to wake her, tearing into two at the fact that his was not the first time she'd had a nightmare.
"Babe," He spoke softly, running one of his hands through her hair as he other searched out and held the closest hand he could find, "Babe, please, wake up," Wally pleaded, dropping his forehead into her shoulder. He hated watching this, watching the muscles twitch under her skin and knowing it was caused by a horrible dream. Her eyelids were scrunched tight and she mumbled his name with a half-sob.
"No, Wally," Artemis cried. Nelson scrambled into the room abruptly, having woken up to the cries of his mother. The dog hiked his paws up on the edge of the bed, whimpering and attempting to stick his nose into the tangle of limbs that had become of Wally's attempts to soothe his girlfriend.
"Artemis," Wally tried again, tugging her face free from the pillow and kissing her cheek repeatedly, "Artemis you need to wake up, Beautiful,"
His touch finally seemed to be working and he smiled tiredly as Artemis's unfocused grey eyes fluttered open, her lashes dark from tears. She turned into his hold as Nelson jumped onto the bed, snuggling next to her legs while she clutched onto Wally like a lifeline.
"It's alright Babe, everything's alright," He whispered, petting down her hair and laying back, pulling her across his chest.
"No," Artemis whispers back hoarsely, taking her head off of his chest to look him in the eyes, "No it's not. What if you disappear again?" She asked, her fingernails digging lightly into his biceps as his arms curled around her middle.
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise," Wally answered back, remembering the other times the blonde had panicked from her fear. Two days before he had gone to the store while she had been napping, he'd returned an hour later and Artemis had been a mess, convinced that he'd changed again and entirely missing the handwritten note he'd left on the table.
Artemis didn't respond, instead curling around the redhead tighter and dipping her head into the crook of his neck. Nelson was still snuggling against her calves.
"Hey, Babe," Wally started, rubbing her back gently and coaxing her out of the cocoon she'd created around him, "C'mon Babe, look at me," He laughed lightly. Artemis relented with a weary sigh, her emotions having been worn raw over the past month.
"Hm?" She asked, drawing her fingers along his cheek, memorizing his face in case it had even minutely changed since the last time she had done so (that morning).
"You still got that ring?" He questioned, a smirk falling to place on his lips. Artemis gasped, unintentionally blinking her eyes a few times before nodding.
The two lovers clambered carefully out of the bed, being sure not to knock Nelson around as they did so. Artemis led Wally to her half of the dresser, reaching for her small jewelry box that held only a few delicate pieces of ornaments that had been given to her as gifts. Wally wrapped his arms around her as she pulled the ring out, holding it delicately as she moved to turn around in his grasp.
"I should have seen this coming," Artemis whispered, her and Wally's noses almost brushing as he leaned into her.
"Well I should have done it a long time ago," He told her, taking the ring out of her hand and pulling back. The light from the kitchen was trickling into the bedroom through the door and Artemis tried to take it all in as he drew down to one knee, his hair was standing up from sleep and his only clothes (boxers) were rumpled and hanging low on his hips. She thought Wally had never looked more handsome "Artemis Lian Crock," Wally started, taking the woman's hand when she held it out if only to keep in contact, "I love you so much. You keep me grounded and you never let me get away with anything. I'd be the luckiest man in the world if you be my wife, so Artemis...Will you marry me?"
"Wallace Rudolph West," Artemis responded, dropping to her knees as well and wrapping her arms around the redhead's shoulders, "You really should have done this sooner," She smiled, pulling herself close and locking her lips against his. Wally responded instantly, tightening his grip as he responded into the kiss with a smile that she felt on her cheeks as the edges of his lips turned up. He pulled back in order to let loose a full-on grin and Artemis couldn't help but match it, letting out a small laugh of joy as he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her hand for good measure.
"I'm going to marry you," Wally stated, his eyes crinkling from the force of his smile, "We're going to get married,"
Artemis nodded, dropping her head down on his shoulder momentarily as she let out another laugh, her grin wide enough to hurt her cheeks, "We're going to get married," She reiterated.
"I'll never leave you again, I never wanted to leave in the first place," Wally spoke quickly in his rush to get the words out, his eyes flashing with the emotion of his tone.
"I know," Artemis said quietly, pressing a light kiss to his cheek in response, "I know. I'll never leave you either,"
And for the first time in a month, Artemis felt at ease. They would still have battles in the future to fight, after all , the world always needed saved. But they would do it together, taking on each challenge as one and never leaving the other behind.
After all, they were the two even death couldn't keep apart.
Please leave a review to let me know if this has made you all feel better, as that was the purpose of this. (Well, that and to soothe my own soul).
I love you all, please don't give up on the idea that Wally will return.
Love, Veg
