Thank you to everyone who has left me such kind reviews. I hope you like this chapter.


Bart wasn't feeling good. Well. Bart wasn't feeling well. Superman did good, Superman could feel good, Bart could only feel well. Well, he didn't feel well. Not at all. Not even a little, not even in the same state or hemisphere or universe as feeling well. His head hurt, really, really, really bad. Also, his stomach, which was weird because he didn't remember doing anything which would hurt his stomach.

Except for throwing up on Jaime's shoes. Yeah. He totally did that. Not crash, not crash at all.

Someone was talking and it was making the pulse of pain in his head swell and ebb in time with the flow of their voice. Might have been cool if it didn't hurt so much. Bart's thoughts were hard to gather. They were always a little run away, fast track, hard to catch, but right now it was worse. They felt slippery, oily, he couldn't get a grip on any of them and it hadn't been that hard to think since the first time Father took the inhibitor collar off so many years ago.

"None of this is your fault, you know that, right?"

Conner. That was definitely Conner. Superboy. What happened to him in the Reach invasion, Moded timeline Bart came from? No one knew. History unclear. He wondered if he and Conner would have been friends in the world Bart came from. Probably not, because no one had friends in that place, but Conner was here now and they were kind of, sort of friends-teammates-people-who-didn't-hate-each-othe r and that was crash, yeah?

"I know that. Batman called Flash, he'll be here soon. In the mean time, I going to make sure nothing else catastrophic happens today." And that was Artemis. Bart liked here a lot. Not in the like-like sort of way, because that would be creepy, she was practically his aunt…or cousin...older sister figure? She was kind of like family and that was what counted. She was kind of like Mother, because they both were brave and smart and most likely the only reason so many people stayed alive for as long as they did.

Not Wally, but his death was Bart's fault and not Artemis' at all.

"You want to talk about it? The monster thing? I would have helped if you'd called."

Bart cracked an eye open. He was laying on his side, curled up in a fetal position because it probably hurt more to try and lay out strait. He wasn't sure, didn't remember trying, but instincts were normally right. Conner's voice was coming from just over his left ear, which meant he must be standing on the other side of the bed, because Artemis was sitting on a chair facing Bart. She wasn't looking down, so she didn't know that he was awake. Her Tigress suit was in tatters, exposed down to the Kevlar and it made Bart feel like he was seeing something he shouldn't so he looked up at her unmasked face instead.

"I'm sorry we didn't call you. If it makes any difference, we didn't tell M'gann what we were really looking for out there either."

"Why? I mean…I mean, don't you trust us? Secrets are bad for this team. Really bad." Conner sounded kind of sullen, and Bart was still pretty sure he liked Conner even thought he couldn't fly, but not so sure why that point was important.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. I was just afraid if we told anyone the truth and it didn't work, it would hurt more."

"You think Wally's still alive somehow, don't you?"

Bart gasped and was upright before he realized he'd wanted to move. His eyes caught Artemis', both wide and surprised and Conner was shuffling around on his side of the bed, but Bart was too caught up in Artemis' face to care. She looked startled, but the world moved slow and before the surprise there was agreement, she was agreeing, Wally might be alive, there might be hope, they could fix this, the past could be crash and everything would be alright and—

A throb of pain shot through Bart's body, deep down on the tissue level, and he whined. Conner's big hand was there to brace his back and keep Bart from falling off the bed, but Bart felt his stomach roll and the he dry heaved onto the blankets.

"Gross," Conner muttered, but he didn't move his hands and didn't shift away from the side of the bed where he was standing. Conner was nice like that.

"Slow down, you're going to make yourself sick," Artemis said. She stood up from her chair and moved over to the cabinets. A long time later—probably a minute—she returned with two wet cloths. One she placed on the back of Bart's neck. It was cold and nice and Bart sighed in relief. The other she used to wipe first Bart's face and then the bed. That Bart didn't like at all. Not crash. Moded. Totally moded.

He snatched the cloth out of Artemis' hands and shook his head. "Don't. My mess, I'll fix it."

Artemis looked past him, to Conner and something passed between them unsaid. It wasn't fare. M'gann probably wasn't there, because Bart didn't see her in the room and she wouldn't stay invisible just to mess with him, so they were sharing meaningful looks and getting the unspoken message all on their own and Bart had never had that with anyone ever.

"Lie down, ok? Someone did a number on your brain and you need to take it easy," Conner said gently. He pressed back on Bart's shoulder and for some strange reason all Bart could think of was how careful Conner must be all the time to not hurt people with his strength. If Bart wanted to he could resist the pressure, because Conner was letting him, and Conner let him almost all the time.

"Someone attacked me?"

Cool fingers brushed the bangs away from his face, a hand holding the damp cloth against his neck. Artemis nodded in response to the question, but seemed way more interested in looking Bart over for dings or breaks or cracks or something then expanding on the whole "you were attacked" thing.

"You don't remember?" she asked once she seemed satisfied with the visual inspection.

"No. I think I threw up on Jaime, though."

"So, I should take it as a sigh of affection then?" Conner asked. He smiled, kind of lopsided and self-conscious, and Bart could totally get behind that, but it was also kind of funny because now Bart'd thrown up on two people in one day and that had to be a record.

"Totally," he said. Conner laughed.

"Barry is on his way, should be here any minute. I think I'm going to call J'onn in to take a look at you now that you're all the way awake. Just to be sure everything is ok. You alright with that?" asked Artemis. She leaned over the bed, smiling down at him, and for one long second Bart felt like he was back home, his mother tucking him into bed after a hard day's labor.

You want to come to me. You want to come now.

Bart blinked. "Did you hear something?"

"No?" Conner said, head tilted to the side.

You need to come to me now, Bart Allen. Right now.

Bart sprang from the bed, so rushed he almost tripped himself with the thin sheet. Artemis steadied him before Bart could hit the ground, which was good, but she didn't let go when he tried to walk to the door, which was bad.

"I have to go. I need to go." Bart pulled against her grip. It would be fine just as soon as she let go of him, everything would be fine. He had to go.

"Bart, calm down. What's wrong." Artemis spun him around and tilted Bart's face up to look at her, but Bart needed to go. Conner moved from behind the bed, positioned himself in front of the door and that wasn't crash, totally not crash at all, Conner wasn't as nice as Bart thought if he was going to try and stop Bart from leaving.

COME NOW.

Bart clapped his hands to his head and screamed. He had to go. He had to and they didn't understand and it was killing him. So Bart ran.

In the space between her inhale and exhale Bart twisted his arm out of Artemis' grip and pushed her backwards with all the strength he possessed. She flew backwards and slammed into the back wall, missing the counter and the sink she'd used to wet the cloths by centimeters. Bart spun and lunged for the door, but Conner managed to snag the back of his shirt. It pulled tight against Bart's throat and he thought he was going to be sick again, and that slowed him down enough for Conner to wrap him up in a bear hug.

"You're not going anywhere. Superman! We need J'onn!" Conner shouted.

COME.

Bart screamed again. It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt!

"Calm down. Bart, Bart please. Let us help you," Artemis said, but she didn't understand. He didn't want help, he had to go and they weren't letting him and they were going to kill Bart on accident and then everything would be over.

For the first time in his life Bart closed his eyes, set his jaw and vibrated himself through the flesh and bones that made up Conner's arms. Conner screamed. Bart's feet hit the floor again and he ran.

He ran down the hall.

He ran past Superman and Martian Manhunter.

He ran to the zata tube and past Grandpa Barry coming out.

He ran down the streets of Keystone city.

He ran through the open door, into the large house and heard, You want to take them down, echoing in his head and how did the voice know he wanted to do that? He'd always wanted to do that, he just hadn't realized it until the voice told him so, because the voice was smart, so smart.

He knew he hit Kaldur hard, Jaime would have broken something if not for the suit, M'gann never saw him coming, and Dick? Dick was nothing. Dick was normal. Dick shouldn't even count as a hero because the voice wasn't counting him as one and the voice knew everything. So Bart grabbed the rectangular thing out of Dick's hand and gave it to the voice. To G. Gordon Godfrey, because the voice was right and how had he lasted this long without knowing that? Something flashed in his vision, bright, searing, hurt his eyes, and then everything was black.

The first thing Bart became aware of was the heat. Each breath in and out hurt, reminded him of the old days, like there was ash in his mouth only this time the ash was still burning. Embers. That's what they'd be if they were still hot; embers. Bart could feel his heart beating hard inside his ribs, but he couldn't make himself moves. He was on his back, limbs splayed haphazardly all around him, and he didn't know how he got there. Wasn't even sure where "there" was because his eyes wouldn't open. Did he want them open? He couldn't remember. It seemed reasonable that he would, but a little voice in the back of his head was telling him to wait, stay still, don't move, don't let them know you're awake yet.

He remembered Artemis and Conner being in his…bedroom? No, that would be weird. The Watchtower, maybe?

A hand curled into the fabric of Bart's shirt and lifted him up. And up. And up.

The bottom of Bart's stomach swooped away and landed somewhere below his knees. The muscles of his neck didn't want to work right, because it was taking so much effort to get Bart's head to lift and even then it only worked because the hand holding him up shook until Bart's scull flopped backwards to rest on his shoulders. It made breathing harder, but now he could see the person holding him.

…Or, not a person.

Red eyes stared down at Bart, and their gaze seemed to burn his skin. The flesh of the humanoid thing holding him was gray and rock like, full of cracks and crevasses that made the face looked carved from old, hard stone. The sort of hidden stone you trip over in the middle of the day and then need stitches because it cut you so deeply.

"You are sure this boy is the one I need?" the creature said in a voice totally at odds with the nails-on-a-chalk-board tone Bart was expecting. It sounded smooth, cultured even. Not rocky at all.

G. Gordon Godfrey came into view beside the thing's shoulder. He nodded, one eye narrowed as he looked at Bart. The small voice in the back of Bart's head wanted him to run, but he couldn't. He couldn't make anything work. His shirt stuck to his body as he sweat and it rubbed painfully when the creature twisted its massive wrist to get a better look at Bart. Its eyes were so close that Bart had to shut his own for fear of burning them.

"Darkseid, boy. Not creature," the rock guy-monster-with-a-name, Darkseid said. His voice made Bart's bones vibrate.

He wanted to go home. Time to tap out of this. Monsters weren't what he signed up for. Maybe after a good sleep, but not now. Now he wanted Grandpa Barry or Grandma Iris or Artemis. Someone other than these guys.

"I feel power in this child. Human, is he not?"

"Yes, my lord. I felt it the moment I met the boy. Bart, tell our master who you are," Godfrey said. His words echoed with a painful shout inside Bart's head, like when M'gann use her mind link only a hundred times more invasive. The voice was in his blood even.

"Now, Bart."

Bart shook his head. It took a lot of effort, but he could do that much. Godfrey's voice was screaming in his mind and it hurt, like a thousand bee stings in his brain, but this was bad and Bart might not know who Darkseid was but he could tell a threat when he saw one.

He took a deep breath and moved.

Each molecule in his body vibrated, hitting speeds that made them intangible, shifted them out of reach and he fell to the ground with a hard plop. Darkseid gave no indication that he'd felt Bart vibrate himself right through his rock hands, but that was fine. All Bart had to do now was run, and he was good at that.

"STOP," Godfrey commanded.

He was half a foot away from Godfrey and Darkseid before Bart's legs seized, his muscles cramped, and no matter how hard he tried he could not get one foot to lift up in front of the other. He couldn't move.

"Come here."

Bart turned, body jerking and shaking uncontrollably as he told his body to stop and Godfrey told it to move. Bart's feet walked him back in front of Darkseid. He didn't even reach the guy's chest. He was small, he knew that, but Darkseid was huge.

"Interesting that he should be able to fight against your control at all, Godfrey," Darkseid said, but it sounded less like it was interesting and more like it was annoying.

Godfrey bowed deep. "I believe the Martians may have something to do with that. The girl managed to shield the minds of her teammates from my influence when they were in my presence and could hear my actually voice. This one, however," and here Godfrey reached out to tilt Bart's face up and stroke his cheek," this one came the moment I called."

"Will the other humans? You've been on that world and in that dimension long enough. Have you gained me the willing subjects Savage promised?" Darkseid asked, looking down at Bart.

Bart was going to be sick again. He was going to throw up and vomiting three times in one day on someone's feet would definitely be a record, mostly because Darkseid didn't look like the type to allow someone to vomit on his feet and live. Bart wasn't going to live through this, that much was clear. He understood the game, had seen enough Big Bads in his day to know when fight or flight had been reduced to flight and he couldn't flee now, so all he could do was fight and that was going to get Bart killed.

"Do they all weep, as this one weeps?" Darksied wiped a finger underneath Bart's eye, a finger almost as thick as Bart's arms and even Blue Beatle from the feature hadn't been this terrifying. He wasn't crying, or, if he was, Bart didn't know when he's started.

Darkseid's touch burnt.

"Yes, unfortunately. They do tend to weep, but the boy will serve perfectly as the portal. He's body is made up of energy that hasn't been made yet, it doesn't exist, so it can be used to limitless potential. And yet, he is not overbalancing the energy of this world either."

"A time traveler," Darkseid said with a nod.

He crouched down, brought himself to eye level with Bart and being so close to him burnt. It was hard to breath, so hard to breath and the ground was starting to sear the bottoms of Bart's feet because he didn't have shoes on.

"You are being given a great honor, little human. You will be the key that opens the lock keeping me here. You will be the bringer of Apokolips. Be comforted knowing you are the one who will die for this honor."