A/N: Thanks to Invader Abigail, leathman, and Dextra2 for reviewing.
Now we get to some heavy backstory.
Chapter Eight: Truthful Tale
Barry pulled open the door and found his nephew standing outside, looking battered and rather the worse for the wear. He glanced at him in concern.
"Wally, are you all right?"
"Not really." Wally slowly shuffled inside, wincing as the movement jarred his injured ribs. As he entered the living room, Iris looked up from the book she was reading.
"Wally!" she exclaimed, springing up to help him. "What happened? Are you all right?"
"I'll be fine," Wally assured her. He lowered himself carefully into an armchair and looked up at Barry, face serious. "We need to talk."
Barry sighed and sat down across from his nephew, exchanging a significant glance with Iris before turning back to face Wally. "I know." Much as he was loath to, he had to tell Wally the truth about Zoom. The stakes were life and death now and Wally was the one in danger.
"Zoom's real name is Eobard Thawne," Barry began. "He was originally a scientist from the future – sometime in the 25th century, I think – but he was an avid fan of the Flash – almost obsessed. He apparently found an old suit of mine in a time capsule somewhere and put it on – and the residual Speed Force energy left in the suit gave him my powers."
"Can that happen?" Wally inquired.
Barry shrugged. "Who knows? You haven't let anyone else put on your suit, have you? And while we're on the subject, I strongly advise against it – there's still a lot we don't know about the Speed Force and you might accidentally introduce its energies into someone who isn't suited for it.
"Professor Zoom first appeared in Central in 1972," he continued, "wearing a suit identical to mine. Everyone mistook him for me – it was extremely confusing. I'd already been the Flash five years, and at first I thought, like you did, that he might be a fellow hero. And at first, he did seem to be – he showed up at every supervillain crime scene, offering his help…he was there at every disaster site, rescuing civilians and working tirelessly. However, it didn't take me long to realize that these disasters were occurring with more frequency than was natural; and I found out that Zoom had actually been instigating them so he could be a hero. As you might imagine, my respect for him fell very swiftly after that. I confronted him about it, and he got defensive. He asked why I could be the only speedster around, and accused me of being jealous.
"The next time I saw him, he had inverted the colors of his suit and dropped the 'Professor' from his name, now an open villain. We clashed many times over the years – he became my greatest, most dangerous enemy. He landed me in the JSA's medical facility more times than I care to count."
"I can relate," Wally agreed, thinking of the beating he'd taken earlier. Barry nodded sympathetically.
"After the JSA disbanded, I continued working on my own in Central and Keystone. Zoom kept on plaguing me, getting more and more dangerously radical…he almost killed Iris in '84."
Iris shuddered the memory. Being one inch away from having Zoom's hand vibrate into her brain was not something she cared to repeat – or remember.
"I think I achieved my fastest speed then," Barry confessed. "I was so angry, I ran faster than I ever had before…and since Zoom activated his time-traveling device while I was running neck to neck with him, we both ended up in Zoom's time, the 25th century. After I defeated him, he was arrested by the police from his timeline. I found my way back to 1984, thinking I'd seen the last of him."
"And then he showed up here again two weeks ago," Wally surmised. "Only, he thinks I'm you and he's out for revenge."
"Not quite." Barry sighed, knowing he had come to the painful part of the story. He met Iris' eyes. "He is out for revenge, but that wasn't the last time I encountered him before recent events." He took a breath. "Zoom came back in February 1990."
He waited for Wally to make the connection, but the redhead was frowning in puzzlement and indicated for him to go on.
"Wally," Iris interjected softly, "don't you remember what happened in February 1990?"
Wally shrugged. "My parents died. What does that have to do with…" His eyes widened in shock. "You can't mean –"
Barry nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so, Wally. When I fought Zoom in Keystone City that day, we endangered hundreds of civilians. I tried to lead him away from the city, but he kept circling back around…" He closed his eyes and exhaled. "We didn't know it until later, but one of the cars Zoom overturned as he rushed by was your parents' car."
Wally stared at him, shaken. His face had gone pale under his red hair and his words of shock stuck in his throat. For a long, painful moment nobody spoke.
"But…but that's…impossible," Wally said finally, shaking his head. "I was in the car with them too – why don't I remember any of this?"
"Wally, you were nine years old," Iris responded gently. "No one is supposed to see such horrible things at that age. Is it any wonder you blocked it out?"
"You idolized the Flash," Barry concurred. "Seeing him having a role in your parents' death would have been too much to comprehend. The shock and the grief of the whole thing clouded your brain and repressed your memory of the incident. That's why you don't remember."
Wally shot to his feet, suddenly angry, not even noticing the sharp stab of pain from his ribs. "Why didn't you ever tell me this?" he demanded. "You knew Zoom was back, you knew what he did – but you didn't say a word! Didn't it ever occur to you to mention it, even once?"
"I was hoping Zoom's escape wasn't permanent," Barry explained. "The day your parents died I threw him into the Speed Force; he should have been trapped there forever. When I heard he'd gotten out I didn't want to believe it – I thought the Speed Force energy would eventually pull him back in." Here he lowered his gaze, ashamed. "If I didn't have to, I didn't want to burden you with the knowledge of what Zoom had done to you – what I had done."
Wally's anger cooled and he exhaled, wearily dropping back into the chair. "You didn't do anything, Uncle Barry."
"Not directly, perhaps, but I'm not blameless. I was speeding above safe limits that day as well. In my hurry to defeat Zoom, I didn't pay as much attention to my surroundings as I should have.
"There was a reason I quit being the Flash, Wally," he told him. "After that day, when I'd recovered and found out how many people had died…I knew I was indirectly responsible for all their deaths, and it was a heavy burden to carry. That's when I made the decision to retire from the hero business. I was getting older, I couldn't keep up as well as I did before – it was time to step down." He looked Wally in the eye. "I'm sorry Zoom's vendetta against me cost you your parents."
"Stop." Wally sighed. "Just stop. My parents' death wasn't your fault, and I don't blame you for it. I just want to know…" He bit his lip, hesitant.
"Know what?" Barry questioned.
Wally found it difficult to meet his uncle's gaze and instead stared at the floor. "If you knew what happened to my parents…why did you wait five years to take me in?"
"Wally…" Iris went to sit beside him. "Your father was my brother, but we were never close, and our relationship became even more estranged after he moved out of our parents' house. I hadn't seen or heard from him in years – I didn't even know he was married, let alone had a kid. As his closest living relative, the state department contacted me after they identified him – that was the first time I learned of you."
"But there was a mix-up at the records department," Barry added. "The authorities couldn't tell us what had happened to you. We knew you survived the accident, but we had no idea where you were or how to find you."
"But we looked," Iris said emphatically. "Wally, I promise you, we did look. We searched for months, followed every lead we could think of. When we couldn't find you, we thought we'd always have to wonder what happened to you."
"Yet all the while you were in Keystone," said Barry. "It was really only a stroke of luck that we finally did find you. Do you remember Ruth Lacey?"
Wally frowned, recalling another painful childhood memory. "Yes. She was that girl from the orphanage who was murdered in '95." Wally remembered the case well – Ruth had been a close friend of his.
"The Keystone City Crime Lab was undergoing a major overhaul at that time, and they had an enormous backlog of cases – so the case was transferred to the Central City Lab," Barry explained. "Imagine my amazement when I came to the orphanage to talk to the kids and was introduced to Wally West."
Wally managed a small grin. "Yeah, I remember that. I thought you were pulling my leg when you told me you were my uncle."
Barry chuckled slightly. Iris smiled.
"You got me out of there pretty quick," Wally added.
"How could we not?" Iris responded. "Once we found you, we couldn't sign the adoption papers fast enough."
"Thank you." The earnest gratitude was obvious in Wally's soft tone.
"It was our pleasure, Wally," Barry told him.
There was a slight pause, broken only when Wally puffed out his breath.
"So…" He looked at his uncle and aunt. "What do I do about Zoom?"
"Get the League in on it," Barry advised. "You can't stop Zoom on your own, Wally. You need to find out what he's planning for his revenge – knowing him, it'll be something science-based – and figure out how to stop it. Then you need to come up with a way to neutralize him."
"Easier said than done. I can't even keep up with the guy."
"You'll find a way. Zoom needs to be stopped, by any means possible."
"I hear you," Wally agreed. He rose slowly. "I should be getting back."
"Be careful, Wally," Iris cautioned.
"Watch your back," Barry warned, his voice serious. "Zoom's out for blood, and he won't stop until he gets it." His expression turned even graver. "And unfortunately, even though you've never met him before, he thinks you're his greatest enemy."
A/N: In case you haven't yet noticed, this story is almost as much about Barry as it is about Wally. XD
