DEF: Yeah so I was asked if Bruce and Barry knew each other, that's answered in this chapter, also be prepared for some Barry/Wally bonding.
Vita: So her epiphany is revealed here, well half of it at least. We own not a thing except the hitting the wall explanation, steal and we kill.
The cemetery was located on the far side of Central, all the tombstones seemed to leer at them as they touched down on the damp grass. There was no way of telling time in that place memory, they could only assume, the sun had set a while back and the memory hadn't changed yet.
'Look for Mary West, she should be in the newer section,' Bruce ordered scanning those nearest, he hated cemeteries with a passion for obvious reasons. They were sad and so very hopeless, he preferred to bury his past in a shadowed grave and be done with it, there was absolutely no point in dwelling on it. Or at least that's what he told himself.
The truth was he couldn't let go of the past no matter how hard he tried, Batman was a result of his past, the past that forever haunted him, that would forever haunt him. Loss, that was something he'd gotten used to over the years, it was the main reason he worked alone, Robin had been a fluke, a once in a lifetime thing. He knew how Dick had felt, he couldn't just stand by and let what happened to him, happen to someone else but he hadn't done a great job at it.
Fuck! Who the hell was he trying to fool? He'd done the worst job possible, he screwed up the kid so bad that now he was out in Blüdhaven fighting freaks and risking his life every fucking night!
'Bruce, what is this?' Shayera questioned, he turned to find the Thanagarian standing in front of two graves, the tombstones were done in black and white marble respectively.
'What's wrong Shayera?' Diana asked picking her way through the mud to stand next her newly reinstated friend. The grave bearing the black marker had the name 'Bartholomew(Barry) Henry Allen' inscribed upon it, underneath it read 'The best of what man has to offer, beloved husband, missed uncle'. No, the strange thing was the one next to it, the one done in white marble, this one had the name of 'Iris West-Allen', 'A gentle, caring soul, the world is a darker place without her. A treasured wife and missed aunt.'
'This must be the aunt and uncle he was talking about back at the orphanage,' John decided, they all turned as one to the Bat, now Bruce knew how Flash must have felt when they cornered him last week. These people were supposed to be his comrades, maybe even friends, yet they were all so eager to jump at each other's throats. Those backstabbing bastards.
'They were but this makes no sense, Barry and Iris died when Wally was nineteen, not fourteen. Why would their graves be here? If I remember correctly, Wally gave up being Kid Flash a year later, he came out of retirement to help Barry but then Barry died, Wally took up the Flash mantel after that,' he recalled, more for himself than the rest.
'Wait, you knew Barry? I only met him a few times and we never really talked then,' Clark admitted, truthfully, he thought he man had been a douche. But Bruce was the last person he expected to have known the annoying speedster on a friendly basis. Hell he hadn't even known when the man had died, he only heard about it a few weeks after the actual funeral.
'Yes I knew Barry, Wally always used to hang around with Dick and he nearly always fell asleep at the mansion. Barry always had to come get him before his Aunt had a panic attack. He was a good man, he treated Wally like his own son. I went to the funeral Central City had for the Flash and the more private double funeral held for Barry and Iris, one of the three anyway,' he muttered. The only other people there had been Wally and Mary, Rudolph had been in jail by that time. Secretly, he felt Wally had been glad that his father hadn't been there, Rudolph had never liked Barry, claiming 'that bastard Allen stole my son away from me!'
'Perhaps this is one of the few stable places Wally had in his life for the past few years,' Diana suggested, Shayera nodded in agreement, it would make sense. If this was where his uncle, aunt and mother had been lain to rest, then of course this was a place Wally visited regularly. Now if they could just find Mary's grave then maybe they could figure out a way to get to that part of Wally's mind.
'I don't understand, how do we get anywhere in this labyrinth,' Clark grumbled, he really wasn't sure why he was here in the first place, it wasn't like he was Wally's closest friend but he had to put things right somehow.
'We can try touching the graves-Clark don't!' Bruce yelled but it was too late, Clark had already stooped down to brush some dirt off the face of Barry's grave.
"Uncle Barry, w-what are you doing here?" a fifteen year old Kid Flash asked backing away from the man dressed in a familiar but slightly altered scarlet suit.
"Wally, Robin told me about your seizures, why did you hide them from me?" The then Flash demanded but it wasn't angry, it was more anguished, as though he'd been deeply hurt by Wally's keeping secrets.
"I-I couldn't, I didn't want for you to hate me. I know you want me to be Kid Flash, it makes you so happy and I didn't want to take that away from you," the panicked red head explained.
"Wally, I-you, you can't be Kid Flash anymore, it's hurting you. Do think that's what I want?" Barry yelled, the sound echoing throughout the empty warehouse, it was the same as it was a year ago.
"I-I, if I'm not Kid Flash, you won't like me anymore. You only like me because I'm Kid Flash, if I was just Wally West then you wouldn't want anything to do with me, wouldn't want me as your nephew or anything. Y-you'd hate me," Wally whispered finally hitting the wall[1].
"What! Wally I could never hate you, nothing you could do could ever make me hate you! Why would you even think something like that?" Barry yelled angrily but that anger wasn't directed at Wally. Instead he sounded as though he already knew the answer to his question but needed to hear it out loud.
"Not allowed to tell, can't tell anyone," Wally muttered worrying his lip insistently while looking anywhere but his uncle's eyes for fear of the disgust he would see there. A tense silence passed between the two speedsters, a silent battle of wills as Wally stood there defiantly, refusing to acknowledge his uncle's question. Barry standing directly opposite, a dark frown playing on his face, as he decided the best course of action to deal with his nephew.
"Wally, if you don't tell me what's going on, I'll have to ask Batman to step in and you'll have to explain to him why Robin kept this vital piece of information from him," Barry threatened. Clearly this was quite possibly the worst thing Wally could ever come think up as his face paled to a sickly fish belly white.
"I'm sorry but I c-" the weak protest was cut off by a strangled yelp as the red head doubled over in pain, his body was vibrating so fast that he had already started to phase through the wall. In less time than it took to blink, Barry was at his nephew's side pulling him back in to the building.
"Wally. Wally! Listen to me, remember when you first tried to vibrate through the wall and you got a bloody nose? Concentrate, you can slow down," but Barry might as well have been talking to the support beam for all the reaction he got. The older speedster realized there really wasn't anything he could do to help and did the one thing he could. The red hood/cowl pooled around his shoulders as he gathered the red head into his arms and rocked them both back and forth.
The spasms lasted a staggering fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes of Wally whimpering pitifully, fifteen minutes of Barry worrying out of his mind, trying his best to stop his nephew from phasing through the floor. Even after the spasms had passed, the two remained in the same position only Wally was purposefully hanging his head in shame, averting his face which was bare now from his uncle's.
Shayera grit her teeth, her jaw ached with the pressure but there was nothing else she could do, this was the past and she wasn't really there but damn if she had been. Her heart was slowly being torn to shreds as Wally's childhood played out before her, his jackass of a father was to blame for all of this, him and no one else.
It was because of him that Wally had all these insecurities about himself, he couldn't even confide in his uncle who he clearly loved and trusted with his life. The poor boy preferred to endure the pain than let anyone in lest they be hurt as well, Wally had always had a big heart but this was too much. As soon as they were done here, she was going to find Rudolph West and give him a piece of her mind no matter what Wally said.
"Wally you can't keep on being Kid Flash, it isn't worth it. You could have vibrated off into the Speed Force and no one could have gotten you back, not even me," Barry admitted. There was a hardness to those turquoise blue orbs that clearly said he knew just how bad that would be.
"But why?" Wally rasped, it hurt the Thanagarian's throat to hear it, she couldn't imagine what it was like to actually talk with a throat that sore.
"I dunno kid, Robin told me everything he figured out but it's not much. The best he's got is that you're muscles are still growing, you were ten when you got your powers and only those muscles were affected. It kinda makes sense that since your muscle mass has increased over the years the muscle that was originally affected is put under strain," Barry reasoned.
"Okay, but why does it hurt so much?" the gangly red head demanded staring intently at his uncle before a fit of coughing left him gasping for breath and clutching at his thin chest. Barry rubbed soothing circles on the boy's back waiting for his breathing to return to normal before speaking.
"Lactic acid build up maybe? Your muscles are straining to keep up with your speed, maybe the lactic acid doesn't have enough time to dissipate. You continually use those muscles throughout the day which leaves only the night for the muscles to calm down enough for the lactic acid to dissipate. The spasms could be because your muscles are trying to get oxygen too fast and cause massive cramping, that or you pissed off some God somewhere and this is your punishment," Barry suggested but it was a weak attempt.
"Uncle Barry, will you still like me even after I can't be Kid Flash anymore?" Wally questioned seriously, a hand clenched around Shayera's heart the sincerity in Wally's voice. Did he really believe himself to be unlovable?
"No Wally I won't like you," Barry sighed and she couldn't help the outraged cry that sprang from her lips but the scarlet clad man was still speaking, "I can't just like you anymore kid, you're family now and yuh gotta love family. Even if you cover the kitchen floor in wax again and wait for me to fall my ass down, I'll still love you."
"Thank you uncle Barry," The boy whispered resting his head against the blond man's shoulder, falling asleep within picoseconds.
"You're welcome kid, so long as I'm around there'll be someone there to love yuh, I promise," Barry muttered replacing his and Wally's masks as he ran back to Central City with the yellow clad teen held close to his chest.
[1] Reference to the name of Wally's condition, it was known as 'hitting the wall'. I think it was because whenever he tried to do something too advanced like vibrating through walls, he would hurt himself.
Personally I think it's a funny name, Wally, Wall, come on it's right there!
DEF: Mhmm, so this was quite possibly the fluffiest thing I've ever written in my life and ever will write, the things I do for you people .-_-.
Vita: Rite cause they make you stay up at three in the morning writing this crap. Well, since you can read, you clearly ain't retarded so use the friggin' review button and review!
