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Wally had to admit the Bunker was impressive. It had everything the Cave had and then some.
From what he'd gathered, the fourth level was the base of some of their operations. It housed the Zeta Tubes and labs, according to Artemis they still did the majority of their operations out of the Watchtower but it was helpful to have this set aside to be more hands on with the smaller operations.
The third level was for training. Designed to handle a bunch of metas, atlanians, and various aliens working out strengthening their skill set.
The second was for recreational use. It had the dining hall and where it was where most of the kids studied and/or actually attended school.
The uppermost level is where a portion of the Team lived. They lived nicer than he did. According to Artemis most of the Team lived here full time, but everyone had a room here. Wally wished he'd had that option when he'd been on the Team, it would've been nice after particularly long and stressful missions to just crash and not have to travel home.
It was hard to really focus on anything unfortunately.
He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd seen at the Batcave almost a week ago. Jason had promised to get in touch when Dick got better. He wasn't sure what qualified as better, he was hoping it would mean he'd get in touch soon. But something in him said to not rely on Jason, that keeping Wally up to speed was pretty low on his agenda.
He also knew Artemis wanted in on what was going on with Dick. Wally couldn't blame her, but he couldn't let her in on anything because he hadn't been let in on anything either. It had been a week and nothing.
"Could you at least pretend to listen?" Artemis asked him.
"Sorry."
"Okay, you don't have mind powers, so devoting all of your attention to the subject is not going to make anything go faster so, what did your uncle want to talk to you about?"
The idea his uncle had was not something he'd seriously considered. It was something he'd joked about once or twice.
Barry had a family and wanted to focus on them. He'd asked Wally to consider taking his place as the Flash. He wasn't sure where Barry had gotten the idea. Well that wasn't true. The whole point of having protege was so you could train them to one day take your place. As Wally had gotten older, the idea of taking his mentor's place had been pushed further to the back of his mind.
He also wondered how Bart would react to something like that. Bart was Kid Flash, and Wally didn't plan of changing that anytime soon. It wasn't fair, Bart loved what he was doing as Kid Flash with his grandfather. Wally was not Barry. His uncle was calmer and far more experienced. That's when Wally began to understand why Dick was always so hesitant to take any role resembling Batman, he wasn't Batman.
He hadn't talked to Artemis about it yet, because he wasn't sure it was something he wanted to do. The more he thought about it, he questioned why he hadn't yet.
"He wants me to consider taking his place as the Flash." He told her
"Seriously?"
Wally nodded
"And?"
"I don't know. When I was younger that was something I dreamed of, but now… So much has changed. I don't think I could fill those shoes."
She nodded. "Are you wanting my thoughts or...?"
"Maybe."
"You know I don't want to go back into retirement. And it doesn't look like you're wanting to force Bart out of being Kid Flash. I think you would make an awesome Flash, it would suit you. But I don't want you doing something your not comfortable with."
"Okay, well that's one for the yes column."
"You're looking for votes?"
"Yeah, kind of."
She shook her head smiling. "Please, whatever you do, don't change too much. C'mon I'll show you the rec room. Get you reintroduced to some of the team."
He followed her up the elevator to the second level.
It was what you would expect from a rec room. A large TV on the far wall with enough seating for the whole team to enjoy a movie. There were different games scattered across the room like table tennis and random bored games.
The room wasn't empty.
He saw Bart having a very animated conversation with Jaime who seemed rather bored with the conversation and Gar was reading a book that was quickly abandoned when they entered the room.
"Wally! I heard Flash's plan worked. How's it going?" He asked.
"Pretty good. Being a speedster is helpful when you've lost about three years and have a lot catching up to do."
Garfield laughed. He'd grown a good six inches.
Wally smile lessened at the sight. It was more proof of the time he'd lost.
"I assume things have been a little odd ese." Jaime told him. "You've been gone for a long time. No I'm not asking him that."
Wally raised an eyebrow. He'd forgotten that Jaime did that sometimes, he'd been told there was a reason why he did this.
"Ask me what?"
"Some extra stupid complicated question about the Speed Force."
"Well I don't remember much. It was a lot, the human mind can't quiet process everything that is the Speed Force."
"You know I think it's crash you've gone in the Speed Force." Bart tells him excitedly. "You've been soaking up all of that energy. You can probably keep up with me now."
Wally gave him an annoyed look. "I bet I'm faster now."
"Mmhmm, yeah, sure, I'll let you think that."
"That sounds like a challenge."
"Do you want to make it one?
"I'd be up for it."
"You're not seriously gonna race each other?" Artemis asked.
"They are, and it will be awesome to watch." Gar decided.
"They could race around the perimeter of the grounds." Jaime suggested
"Alright." Wally agreed
"Crash. You're going down." Bart told him before taking off.
Wally smiled. This was a good idea, something to get his mind off of everything going on.
They walked at a much slower pace up to the grounds.
"Oh my god, all of you are so slow." Bart complained. "Come on hurry. How do you expect to beat me when you can't even beat me here?"
Wally turned around to get a good look at the building. It looked inconspicuous. A low, old, one story building, made with red bricks, and a concrete roof. It reminded him of a storage unit. If one was made to live in.
"I feel like you had a slight advantage for that one." Wally told him. "So how are we going to measure this?"
Jaime shrugged. "I don't know. What seems reasonable?"
"First one to get around four times wins." Gar offered.
"Sounds good. But I don't exactly know where the perimeter is."
"There's a fence." Artemis tells him. "It's private property, so a fence was installed."
"Cool stuff."
"So both of you will head straight than to your left." She explains. "After four times around, head back here."
"Hope your hungry tonight." Bart continues his ridiculous trash talk as he crouched down getting in the starting position.
"'Cause you're gonna eat my dust."
Wally smartly stays silent. He crouched down ready to go.
"Ready. Set. Go!"
Something was fired and they were both off.
Wally knew he'd gotten faster, he just hadn't realized how much faster he actually was. He wasn't even trying and he was on his third lap when Bart finished his second.
Not even ten seconds had passed when he was back with the others. Bart was two seconds behind him.
"I guess Wally is faster." Garfield tells them.
"Guess he is." Bart took his lose with grace. Wally could see, he'd actually tried. Maybe not at first but when he realized how much further ahead Wally was. "That could be useful."
"Yes, yes it could." Said a new voice, one Wally recognized.
He turned to see Roy.
It wasn't like nobody knew that Wally had been given some insight on what was going on with Dick, it was more that they weren't being told anything and it was bothering them.
In all honesty Wally felt they should know. They were all like a second family. They'd fought, bled, and mourned together, There was nothing but complete trust. But he understood why they were being kept in the dark. There was a lot of unanswerable questions, and a lot still being left to chance. Still Roy was obviously not okay with this arrangement.
"Could we talk?"
Wally nodded. "See you guys later?"
"Oh you know it." Bart tells him. "I'm gonna beat you next time."
"I don't doubt it kid."
Wally followed Roy inside, before he stopped and turned around.
"You too."
"Me?" Artemis asked.
"It involves you too." Roy explains.
They go down to the lowest level into a room not to far from where Wally left the Speed Force. Roy opened the door to small group of people.
They all looked at them. Kaldur stood against the far wall arms crossed, M'gann sat at the table a smile forming on her face, Conner had opted to stand on the other side of the table.
"What's going on?" Wally asked.
"We're tired of sitting around waiting for Nightwing to be found." Conner tells him bluntly.
"We know you can't go into too much detail but… We want to help." M'gann explains. "He's our friend. We just want him safe."
"Red talked to you about it. You could be useful for information." Roy finishes.
"Batman's orders were clear." Kaldur protests.
"Yeah, well he's not here. So we have a small window to work with."
"And it's not that different from our history." Conner helps. "Two months is long enough for no information. He obviously need help, he's just too stubborn to ask."
Wally didn't say anything. They really had no idea of what was going on about anything. But something did catch his ear.
"What'd you mean Batman's gone. Where is he?" He asked.
"Probably looking for Nightwing." M'gann explains. "At least that's the assumption. Like Conner said we've been told nothing."
That sounded weird, but he knew that they wouldn't be able to answer those questions so he wasn't going to press.
"Let us start from the beginning. What did Red Robin tell you?" Kaldur asked him.
Wally hesitated. He wasn't sure what he could talk about. It's not like they had said he couldn't talk about it, but it's not like they said he could.
It was another loophole. He wondered if he should ignore it or step through it.
"Anything could be useful." Kaldur tried.
"They have a few people on the case. Not just Batman, Red, and Robin."
"Who else?" Roy asked leaning against the table.
He stayed silent. One thing he was positive about. They didn't know Jason was alive, and there was a reason. That did need to stay quiet.
"Seriously?"
Wally nodded.
"Did he tell you anything?" He asked Artemis.
"Enough." She answers. "And it's enough to know that we really should stay out of it."
"Like who took him?" M'gann asked.
She looked away.
"You know who took him, don't you?" Roy sounded like he was closing in on his prey.
Artemis looked at Wally. She wanted to say something, but wasn't going too. If anyone was going to talk, it was going to have to be him.
He pulled a chair out and sat in it, putting his head in his hands.
"Don't you think that maybe the reason that they're keeping to themselves is because they can't answer all of these questions?" He asked them. "Yeah, Red filled me in on a lot. I have a lot of questions. They have almost no answers. I get it, it's frustrating for me too. He's my best friend and there is nothing I can do to help him."
They looked at each other. Lost for words. Wally realized if they read between the lines he'd given them a little bit. But he couldn't help it. He was tired of having to constantly play catch up and keep moving like nothing has happened.
The problem was everything had happened. The team had grown up, there was a new Robin, things had happened to the world that had changed it, his best friend had been tortured and brainwashed into thinking he would never escape. The world doesn't stop for people who get stuck, and he knew that. But he wished he could just pause everything to just figure out what he'd missed.
"What do you mean there's nothing you can do to help him." M'gann asked.
He looked at his knees. He knew if he made eye contact it would be over. He would tell them everything. Maybe that's what Tim wanted. He couldn't say anything but Wally could. Batman hadn't told him anything.
But he also knew, what they might do. Which also needed to be avoided. The last thing Tim and Jason needed was a bunch of people banging on the door of the Batcave demanding answers for why they'd been left in the dark for so much. They had their hand full with keeping Gotham safe and keeping Dick safe.
"Just that." He answered. "Maybe he's just gone."
Vague. Not lying to them but certainly not answering their question directly.
"Why would you think like that?" Kaldur asked him.
"It's possible. That there's too much damage. Or that he's been hidden too well. The people who took him know what they're doing. The goal was to make him vanish. They did just that, impossible to find."
"What are you getting at?" Roy asked him. "That we should just give up, because it's just too difficult, that he might be dead, that he might be worse for wear?"
Wally shook his head.
Artemis lowered herself to be eye level with him. She knew that this pill was hard to swallow, that Wally was having trouble wrapping his head around the idea that he couldn't help the way he wanted too, or that Dick wasn't getting better as quickly as he wanted.
"Are you seriously thinking that there's no saving him? That were never gonna get him back." She whispered
Wally didn't want to admit that the answer was yes. It had been in the back of his mind since he found it all out. That there was too much, that there was too much to recover from and essentially get over.
"You didn't see what I saw." He said, his voice just as quiet.
"This is Dick for christ sake. If he's still breathing, he's still got a fighting shot."
The others were confused. Looking amongst each other, their faces screamed 'what are they talking about?'.
"Wait," Roy began. "Did they find him? Or did Red show you a plan for how they're going to get him back?"
Wally leaned back. Roy was catching on. He thought back to something Tim had told him, 'don't think I don't know about the loophole, it's the only reason I'm being straight with you'. Maybe he'd thought a little further ahead than Wally realized.
Tim was under orders to stay silent. You didn't just disobey Batman, not without good reason. Dick liked to toe that line constantly, only a handful of times had he acted in complete defiance for the sake of a mission. Almost always had it done good, but he'd still get into major trouble for it. Tim clearly wasn't much different. Though he seemed to look for less obvious way to toe the line between listening and disobeying.
Maybe this was his way of conveying information to others, making Wally his mouth piece. He didn't seem to hold back on the information, and couldn't just say, 'hey tell the others that we found him and he's a wreck.' he could imply that Wally should.
Wally sighed. "The Court of Owls took him, and before you ask. I have no clue why. I didn't ask, I think they have a few theories."
"I do not know much of that group." Kaldur tells him.
"From what I gathered," Artemis interjected. "They're like the illuminati, but real."
Wally blinked at her.
"My dad was in the League of Shadows, as was my sister, my mother was a criminal, and I'm from Gotham. I've heard of the Court, and everything screams stay away. Continue."
"Well, um. They did find him. What's left anyway."
"What does that mean?" Conner asks
"They broke the unbreakable. He…" Wally stopped. "Let's just say that no one is going to be seeing Nightwing for quite a while, if ever."
"And the man under the mask?" M'gann looked at him.
He shrugged. "I don't know what that looks like for him."
"Why'd they let us think he was still missing?" Roy asked, his voice filling with anger.
"Seriously, I saw him. And it's something I wish I could unsee. He so far gone. There so much to fix. That's only if it can be fixed."
M'gann stared at him. He knew what she wanted, but she wanted permission.
He nodded. Instantly he felt her picking through his memories, looking for one in particular, the one of Dick in the cell. She found it, instantly retreating. Wally saw tears fill her eyes.
"What'd they do to him?" she asked her voice deadly quiet, as if afraid to ask.
"I don't know. No one does. Only him, and he can't talk about it.
She looked away. M'gann had always taken everything to heart, seeing one of her closest friends in such a state it was like ripping her heart out.
"Is it really that bad?" Conner asked.
She nodded.
"Can I show them?" She asked.
"Just leave me out of it, I see enough of it in my nightmares."
He knew she did, because the already depressing looks on all of their faces intensified. This was one of those things you had to see to believe. Anyone who knew Dick, knew that it would've taken a lot to get him to that point.
"How long has he been there?" Kaldur asked him, clearly shaken by what he saw.
"At that point like three days. I have no idea what's happened since then. I know he wasn't eating anything, or drinking anything, he wouldn't sleep, he wouldn't talk to anyone but like one person, he still though he was with the Court and that's probably why he was acting like that."
"What are they going to do now?" Conner asked him.
He shrugged. "I have no idea what they're planning on doing with the Court, and how they plan on helping Nightwing, I think they've decided that they'll just have to wait and see what time does for them."
Conner made a face, turning his head ever so slightly. He was listening for something.
"What?" Roy asked him.
"Red." Conner answered. "He's in the next room."
"Are you going to interrogate him now?" Wally asked as he got up in front of the door.
"No, it just sounded odd. He doesn't sound okay, it caught my attention. And now that we have an idea what's going on at home for him."
"We could relieve him of some of his stresses." Kaldur finishes.
Wally knew that was something he probably needed. That was a lot to put on someone's plate, especially someone as young as Tim. He knew Batman wouldn't go for that, but Tim wasn't Batman. And if he'd heard correctly Batman wasn't even there, so Tim was in charge of most of the vigilante activity in Gotham. Yeah that's a lot for a seventeen year old to handle.
"So how would you help?" Wally asked.
Kaldur shrugged. "By asking, and doing whatever was asked."
Truth be told, Wally had wanted an update, so this could be a good opportunity to get just that. Jason hadn't told him anything. He was done with being kept in the dark. But he didn't want to blindside the kid, Wally could only hope the information would be given willingly.
"Isn't overkill for all of you to ask if he needs help?"
"Yeah. You're right it is." Roy agreed. "So only a few will."
"Who?" Artemis asked.
"Perhaps Conner and Wally would do just fine." Kaldur suggests. "He has already told Wally what is going on, and he and Conner have functioned as an efficient Team multiple times."
Conner shrugged. "The kid's pretty cool."
"You should come too then." Wally tells him. "You're the leader. It would look better."
He nodded in agreement, walking around the table to follow them out.
Conner was right, he was in the next room, working away at some unknown object. Clearly getting more frustrated by the second.
"Hey." Conner tried. "What's going on?"
"Frustration." Tim answered not even bothering to look up. "What do you need and can you ask someone else?"
"We were going to ask if you needed help with anything."
He looked up. "You told 'em didn't you?"
Wally nodded, knowing full well that was directed at him.
"I guess it was only a matter of time. But nothing, I don't need help with anything. Thanks for the offer."
He was trying to shut the conversation down quickly.
"May I ask why?" Kaldur stepped forward.
"B came back. We have a plan now. I need to finish this." He gestured to the black object in his hand. "There really isn't anything any of you can do to help."
Wally knew that wasn't true. But Tim wasn't about to involve a bunch of people in an unknown game. That wasn't his style.
"So what's going to happen then? If Batman is back."
Asking what appeared to be innocent question to coax out information, that could easily be shut down if Tim is feeling tight lipped.
Tim shrugged. "He's got a plan for how we're gonna take down the Court. But he's pretty sure the things they did to Nightwing are going to wear off with time. Part of it him just shutting down to handle everything, the other part is a cocktail of all sorts of stuff they've been filling him up with."
"Like what?" Conner asks.
"The only compound I recognized were some fear toxins, the rest of I've never seen before. I'm kind of getting an idea of what purpose was though."
They silently urged him to continue.
"The fear toxins played a few different roles one being to keep him compliant while they did other things, like they were heightening his senses. Getting him ready physically for something, and along with some other choice poisons to eat away at his psyche and make him a puppet"
"The goal was not to kill him." Kaldur realized.
Tim shook his head. "No the goal was something much worse. I'm curious to know how long they'd been planning this out. It was all so well calculated and executed."
"What do you mean?" Wally asked.
"The thing is, I'm positive this wasn't the first plan they'd come up with. The reason I think that, actually needs some context. You know a human can live with half a brain right?"
Wally knew there were people out there who lived like this. But it couldn't be done on just anybody.
"They can only perform that kind of surgery on children, because they're still developing. They can adapt to the loss. Well in order for them to be successful, they need to rewire the human brain to think a very specific way. It's much easier to do this to children, and store them away to maturity. Adults are already hardwired to think a certain way. I think a few things happened that prevented them from doing this over a decade ago."
Wally knew instantly what Tim was talking about.
He knew after Dick's family had been killed, he'd been stuck in the system for a little while. It would've been easy to take him then. Just another child slipping between the cracks. It was Gotham after all.
But he'd been too curious in Batman, sneaking onto the crime scene to help investigate. After that, Bruce Wayne had taken him in and Batman had a Robin joining him in the night. Batman had prevented the Court in getting him all those years ago. And that was probably the case for other attempts. Only it would've been much harder to play it off. He got pulled more into the public eye, and deeper into the vigilante nightlife, so the plans would've had to change. And his absence would not go unnoticed.
This must've been their first opportunity, they were not going to waste it. So they didn't.
Wally began to wonder what their the ultimate goal was.
He knew Dick was the most experienced of any of them. He was the first sidekick. It showed. He was intelligent, that experience sharpened his instinct, it made him trustworthy, his head was filled with some of the League's deepest most sensitive secrets. That made him an asset, but something told Wally there was so much more to it.
"And their final goal?" Wally asked.
Tim made a face. "It's complicated."
He had a theory, and wasn't going to voice it.
Something buzzed catching Tim's attention. A cell phone, he quickly shot a message back, and waited for the response.
Suddenly he stood from his seat and began to pack up whatever he was working on.
"I have to go." He said quickly as he pushed past them running to the Zeta Tubes.
"What was that?" Conner asked.
"Clearly something that required his attention." Kaldur replies.
"He's not telling us everything." Wally notes.
"He might be waiting for more information."
Wally pondered the thought, he knew this went way deeper than any of them were even close to knowing.
Okay, I feel like I need to explain what just happened.
That whole scene with Wally and the Team I rewrote like three times, and it's still not my favorite but I feel like it was necessary. The Team wasn't being told what was going on, causing frustration. I also wanted to show Wally trying to get reacclimated to how the team has changed and being out of the Speed Force. So yeah, I'm well aware this chapter feels bleh. But it does it's job so...
Also, I really just can't help myself. I have a whole schedule planned out for writing and posting, and every time I've sat down to keep going, I just can't stop. It's flowing out far to easily. So I really don't have a posting schedule like I thought. I'll just post as they come to me.
Keep up with the all of your comments and everything, Till then...
