Author's Note: I'm back! Survived finals! Well, mostly. I've never been so exhausted in my life, but it's over and I didn't do half bad, so we're good. Hopefully there are still some people holding interest in this story! Read, review, and enjoy!

Responses to Guest Reviews:

Wallyfan – Haha, I've been trying to get the Black Canary/Green Arrow romance into the story for a while now, but I could never really find a good place to put it in. I loved Crimes of Grindelwald so, so much! Anyways, thanks for the review!

HI – It's no big deal! The fact that you're reading it is enough for me :) Thanks for the review!

Guest – Kaldur with literally any other person just already makes for a beautiful friendship because Kaldur is magic, so I figured I'd get some Kaldur and Wally bromance in there. Thank you so much for the really sweet review!

Guest – Will do! Thanks for the review and the well-wishes!

Guest – Ooh, I'll definitely think about it! You'll find out who the spy is eventually :P Thanks for the review and the well-wishes!

Repetitive Redundancy – I feel the same way! Wally is, obviously, my favourite character and I would die for more fics to be centred around him because he's beautiful and deserves all the love. Haha, I'm going to be really honest and say that I have zero clue how I'm going to end this story. We'll see if he ends up in the speed force or not. I will say, though, that I do end most of my stories with Wally disappearing as he did at the end of S2. Ooh, that's a good idea with Jinx. She's got… a complicated role in this whole thing. Thank you so much for the wonderful review!

BBBBBB

Barry groaned and rubbed at his forehead, "I don't even know why I'm so exhausted. Iris and Julian have been doing all the work with all those new meta kids, but I'm still tired. I felt like it was never going to end."

Cisco snorted, "That's because they were kids. Kids are terrifying."

"I always pictured you as one of those people who think children are adorable. Never thought you'd be in the 'kids are evil' group," Ronnie mused, head leaned back against the wall, beer dangled lightly between his fingers.

Shaking his head, Cisco responded, "I think I was like that at first, but then I actually interacted with them and that's when I realized that kids really are evil." Ronnie snorted.

Barry was still lost in his thoughts. He mused quietly, "They were all so scared."

Ronnie frowned, bringing his beer to his lips for a moment before setting it down next to him, "I mean… we have a little bit of knowledge of what goes on in the camps. And if that knowledge is worth anything, then it's pretty understandable that they'd be so scared. Add what we know of the camps to the scars on some of those kids, to the way even Wally was so defensive about humans, and…" He trailed off, expression fading into something unreadable.

Leaning back in his chair and wishing desperately that he could get drunk, Barry muttered back, "I just can't imagine what Wally went through. He was… he was in those camps for a long time, longer than anyone else I've ever heard of. I can't imagine what that would do to a person, let alone an adult. I don't know. I guess… I don't know. It makes the fact that he was able to escape even more impressive, though."

"Not to mention this escape thing he just did," Cisco reminded them, "I mean, before this, the largest escape from the camps was led by him. And now he's led what will probably be the single largest escape from the camps ever? That's impressive. I can't imagine what kind of strength it would take to go back to those places and get those kids out." He took a deep swig of his beer.

Ronnie shook his head, "A good thing happened. I know that the world splitting was pretty bad overall, but there are a lot of kids that are free now. Let's focus on the positive. Like, Barry, what was Wally like before the camps? Before this whole metahuman mess?"

Barry's lips curled up at the question, "He was pretty cute. Kinda quiet, but not too bad. I think his parents were a little strict with him and that made him a little over cautious, but nothing awful or anything like that. He obviously adored his parents and I think they loved him too even if they don't show it all that well. Jeez, we've got to make contact with them at some point. They probably have no clue that their kid is free from the camps. I wonder if they even know that he was put in the camps in the first place?"

The three of them fell silent for a moment, Barry lost in his thoughts and the other two trying to find a way to bring the conversation back on track. Eventually, Cisco asked, "You said he was – is – interested in science. How'd that come to be?"

"I don't even know, honestly. He'd been interested in science for as long as I knew him. And he's so smart, too. I mean, full-on genius level. I think, for a while, he was interested in maybe becoming a forensic scientist like I was. Obviously, it was too early to really know for sure what a kid wants, but you know. He seemed to think the stuff I did was awesome. We'd talk about it all the time and we'd do experiments out in the backyard. He was a cool kid," Barry answered, small smile growing as he remembered the little red head that had enthusiastically followed him around and played with chemicals with him. He remembered how shy Wally had been when he'd first admitted how fascinating he found his science class, how nervous.

"We're going to help him, help all of them. We might not know the rest of the Circus members and we might not know Wally all that well, but we'll help them. You know that," Cisco said softly, resting a hand on Barry's back cautiously.

Sighing, Barry nodded, "I know. It's just… I know that I didn't do anything wrong, that I did the best I could do, but I feel like I failed him, like I let him be taken. I could have taken him away with us. I mean, he was intelligent enough, he could have made it. And we knew that anyone could become a metahuman, anyone. Even if he didn't, he didn't need to be brought up in a world that hated metahumans. But I didn't want to pull him from his life like that. I didn't want to take him away from his family, from everything he's even known. No one wants to put a kid on the run. But I should have. He would have been better off."

"How many people wouldn't be, though?" Ronnie asked, "How many people would still be suffering because Wally hadn't gone to the camps and broken out and created the Circus. The Circus is an incredible group and it's done a lot of good work. The people who he rescued, the ones who he said were auxiliary members of the Circus? They would still be in bad situations. The rest of the Circus members would still be in the camps. I know that he went through a bad thing, something you wish you could have prevented, but the truth is that you couldn't have. He was going to end up in that camp. You did what you had to do, and you did nothing wrong. You can't change what happened and, in the end, it all worked out. You know where he is, now. He's out. The others are out. Good things have come from it."

"You should have been a therapist, not an engineer," Cisco teased. Ronnie rolled his eyes and pushed at Cisco's shoulder.

Barry laughed softly, "Thank guys, I needed this."

Cisco grinned, "We all need some beer." His expression turned sly, "Well, we need some beer. You probably do too, but you can't have it."

"Thanks, Cisco," Barry drawled, "You're so kind." Ronnie laughed.

A new voice interrupted them, "I see. You're all having fun without me." Patrick leaned against the door frame, rolling his eyes.

Cisco grinned, "Well, it's not like we can have fun with you."

"Hey!" Patrick exclaimed, shaking his fist threateningly at Cisco while Cisco rolled his eyes and allowed a bit of his Vibe powers shimmer to life. Patrick snorted, but put down his fist, "I actually did come here for a reason. Some of us are still working and we've got information for you."

Barry stood up, "What've you got?"

"Really weird activity in Bialya," Patrick frowned, leading the way out of the room and towards the main control room. The rest of them followed him as he kept talking, "Queen Bee's always had some sort of activity in Qurac since they're neighbours and all that, but it's gotten insane. President Rumaan Harjavti has made an unofficial statement to his exec board saying that he's going to cede control of Qurac to Queen Bee. She's started moving forces into Qurac, all going towards the capital. She has already taken control of all of the metahuman centres in Qurac and has started moving the metas into her own meta army training programme. As far as I can tell, she's completely taken over the country. President Harjavti just hasn't made the official announcement yet."

"Why didn't we notice this before now?" Barry asked, hurrying towards the command centre.

Patrick shrugged, "My men can only move so high in government organizations. President Harjavti has been keeping everything really close to the chest on this whole thing. The only reason we know now is because he made the announcement to the exec board. Otherwise, we'd still have no clue."

"What's the point of taking Qurac? What does it have that Queen Bee wants?" Ronnie asked, moving over to his station as soon as they entered the room.

Cisco frowned, "Better question: what does it have that the Light wants? We know Queen Bee is a top member of the Light. We have to assume that her movements are according to the Light's wishes and not just her own."

"This can't have been a last minute plan. Queen Bee started moving her troops into Qurac instantly. This has been in the works for a while. This might have just coincidentally come to a head at the same time that the Light started making waves. It might nothing to actually do with the Light," Patrick suggested. Caitlyn and Iris rushed into the room as he spoke, each moving to their respective centres of command.

Barry shook his head, "See, the problem there is that we don't know how long the Light has actually been active. We don't even know what all they've done since their organization is so big and the people we've got undercover are so new. With the number of heavy hitters at the top of the organization, this thing could have been going on for years and we would have never known. We know too little about the Light to know whether this is Queen Bee's plan or theirs."

"What are we going to do about it?" Iris asked, eyes sharp and determined. It was one of Barry's favourite looks on her.

Patrick shrugged helplessly, "I mean, what can we do? The things we're able to dismantle and take down are long-lasting organizations. Or, at least, ones that develop more slowly. Normally, we have time to get people in or get real information or plant doubt before it really forms. Queen Bee is moving way too fast for what we can do. We've never seen a government takeover happen this quickly and this smoothly. It's insane."

"You're kidding," Iris said, voice flat and a touch desperate, "There's nothing we can do?"

"Well," Barry said.

Julian interrupted him as he stalked into the room, scowl firmly in place, "No, no way. We are not doing that."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!" Barry protested.

Julian rolled his eyes, "Yes, I do. You were going to suggest that we get the Circus to do something about it. There are multiple reasons why that's a stupid idea."

Patrick and Cisco snorted, but Barry just leaned back against the console, arms crossed over his chest, "Yeah? And why's that?"

Lips pulling down into an even deeper frown, Julian answered, "The only reason we've been able to remain so completely anonymous despite the massive size of the Alliance is that we only work with ourselves. We do not include other groups. It's dangerous to ourselves, to our operatives, to the people we are trying to save. Introducing the Circus as a more permanent group is counter-productive. Additionally, the Circus is an attack team. We are a non-violent group. We bring organizations down through words and ideas, not violence. The Circus kills people, Barry. I know you don't want to think about that because your nephew is the leader, but the Circus is not like our group. It is significantly more violent and bloody and dangerous. That is not the message we want to show to our followers. We have preached the idea that all things can be solved through non-violent means and here you are, about to set a group of feral teenagers on Qurac because you cannot find an easy solution to the problem. Finally, if you wish to consider the feelings of the Circus, they are incredibly private. Despite that, they are now working with a new group. They have refused to give us more information on this new group they are working with. They won't tell us who the group is, how many there are, what they're like. Do you really think you're going to give them this problem in Qurac and they're going to deal with it on their own? No, they are going to work with the team they have allied themselves to. Since we have so many high-ranking spies in the Qurac government, there is a very good chance that we will find out who the Circus has teamed up with. I cannot imagine they would take to that idea very well."

Barry frowned, muscle in his jaw cracking, "I can't see them saying no to saving people just because it could let us see something they don't want us to see. There are people in danger! They won't prioritize themselves over saving people!"

"With all due respect," Caitlyn began hesitantly, "You don't really know all that much about the Circus. Like Julian said, they are dangerous. I mean, they would do a lot to keep their secrets. Besides, the problem in Qurac? That doesn't have anything to do with saving metahumans. They're not really interested in anything but saving metahumans."

Iris cut in, eyes blazing, "What about the Light, then? The Circus is interested in the Light! They want to stop them! So, they'll help us in Qurac in order to make a move against the Light."

Ronnie stepped a little closer to Caitlyn, "She's not saying this to disparage the Circus. They're a good group and they've done good things. She's not saying that they won't do this for us. She's just saying that they probably won't be too pleased with it and I think it's a little too early to start burning bridges with a group that has led two of the largest camp breakouts in the history of the camps. That's all she's saying."

"So, what?" Cisco sighed, "We just let Bialya take over Qurac? When we can do something about it?"

"No," Barry decided, "We're going to tell the Circus about the problem and we're going to let them stop this. I won't sacrifice Qurac over this disagreement."

"You cannot be serious," Julian started, fists clenched at his sides, "This is preposterous! Nothing good can come from this! We were doing good work before the Circus came into this! Now we're running around cleaning up after the Circus's messes! I mean, do you comprehend how many resources we had to use to place all of those kids? We're going on wartime rationing for weeks and we have to pause several important projects just to keep up funding for that because we had no warning before Wally was suddenly dropping kids off at our front door and telling us to deal with that! The amount of grassroots campaigns and subtle manoeuvring we've done that is now obsolete because Wally stole children is unbelievable! And, no, before you say anything, I do not believe that those children should be left in the camps. I simply believe that he could have done that much better, more smoothly. As much good work as the Circus has done, it is a fledgling organization that has no real understanding of the financials and organization of a truly helpful group. It is, at the moment, violent and crude and, pardon me saying so, prejudiced."

"Prejudiced?" Ronnie asked incredulously.

Julian rolled his eyes, "Don't act so surprised. Wally all but admitted it when he first came in here. They only rescue metahumans. They only care about metahumans. They are not working to integrate humans and metahumans like we are. It's a bad message to be having. They're advocating coexistence, not integration."

Barry was shaking because… because Julian wasn't wrong. As much as he wanted to defend his newly found nephew, he knew that Julian was right about a lot of what he was saying. The Circus wasn't a purely heroic group. They saved their own and left the rest to the dust. If it had been him and Iris stuck in some bad group somewhere, Wally would have theoretically left Iris behind just because she was human. The Circus had been created just over a year ago and they had been founded by a group that was mainly teenagers. Damaged, broken down, scared teenagers to boot. It wasn't the recipe for the most stable, legitimate organization. And Barry knew that they were doing their best. He knew that they were trying to do the right thing and they succeeded most of the time.

Closing his eyes and shaking his head, Barry answered in a much more level and controlled voice than he'd been using for the rest of the argument, "Then isn't it our duty to show them that it doesn't have to be that way? As one of the most well-known metahuman groups out there, the Circus has the potential to change everything. You're right; we aren't a violent group. We stick to pacifist movements and words to make change. Can we not use our organization, our words to change the Circus? To show them that integration is possible? They're scared, Julian. That's the only reason they don't save humans. They're so scared. Did we not agree when we started the Alliance that we would not only show humans that they don't have to be afraid of metahumans, but also show metahumans that they don't have to be afraid of humans? The Circus is fresh out of the camps, which is something we can never really understand the scope of. We can help them. And we will. The first step is making sure that they can stop the Light, that they can work with us, that humans can be trusted. We can help them. And we can help the people of Qurac while we're at it."

Julian's shoulders pulled up and his lips pulled down, but he didn't fight it, "Alright. Okay, fine." He paused for a moment before admitting quietly, "You know that I'm just trying to help, right?"

Barry smiled softly, clapping a hand on the man's shoulder, "I know. Alright guys, let's get this information to the Circus!"

WWWWWW

They'd barely started their in-depth discussion of books when two different communicators went off. Wally huffed out a sigh, putting a finger to his ear, watching Kaldur do the same from next to him. Cameron spoke into the comms, "Hey, the Alliance has got some information. They said that there's a problem in Qurac that we should take a look at and I agree. Queen Bee is literally taking over Qurac. The president seems completely on board."

"Awesome," Wally sighed, "How does that even happen?"

"Who knows, man? Want me to gather the team? What about Lorraine and Jinx? Are they still benched or no? Oh, yeah, I can grab some of the heroes too if you think we'll need them, too," Cameron threw back, an obvious smirk in his voice.

Wally wrinkled his nose, "Keep Firehawk and Jinx benched. Especially for an international trip. I haven't gotten a chance to really talk to them yet. Tell them that I want them to keep splitting the investor project and sorting through the Light's files. I don't know about gathering the heroes. It looks like Aqualad's got himself a mission too. Meet me in the main briefing room, though. We'll see what their mission is and we'll split the team however we need."

"Got it, oh fearless leader," Cameron threw back, turning off the comms before Wally could stay anything back. He knew Wally hated it when he was called that (he also knew that Wally secretly loved being called that and would be sad if his team stopped calling him that, but Wally would never admit to that).

Kaldur finished his call almost as soon as Wally did. Wally tilted his head to the side, "Trouble?"

Kaldur nodded shortly, "Batman has assigned us a mission. He wishes that the Circus aid us on this mission. Will you be able to?"

Wally shrugged lightly, "We'll see. I'm not sure of the full scope of my own mission. We'll see what yours is and we'll split up accordingly?"

"That sounds adequate to me," Kaldur said, sending Wally a tight smile.

The two walked as quickly as they could to the main control room. A few of the team members were wandering around the room. Batman was skulking near the front of the room, black suit somehow blending into the pale grey wall. Wally looked at the display pulled up on screen, "Dude, Icicle, how did you get a presentation put together already? You literally just got the information."

Cameron glanced up from where he was typing something into a laptop, his brow furrowed, "How did I… what? Since when have I made presentations? That's your job if we even do it."

Wally's own brows furrowed, "Then why is there a presentation about Qurac and Queen Bee on the projector?" Cameron whipped around, blinking up at the screen.

There seemed to be a hint of amusement in Batman's growl when he inserted himself into the conversation, "This is my presentation. I have a mission for the Team involving Queen Bee's takeover of Qurac."

One icy eyebrow raised over Cameron's blue eyes, "Well, that's the same mission that the Alliance just sent us. Convenient. Is everyone here?"

There were various noises of assent in the room. Wally nodded, "Alright, Batman. You start us off, then."

Batman paused for a moment, staring at Wally before moving into his speech, "There was a time, long ago, that Bialya and Qurac were one country. Since then, they have been engaged in bitter war. Recently, the elected President, Rumaan Harjavti, has been making a lot of effort to stop the war in the two countries. This was not particularly surprising since President Harjavti is known to be an influential figure in the humanitarian field. He has even made significant improvements to the treatment of metahumans in Qurac's metahuman camps. What is surprising is the announcement he made ten minutes ago. He announced that he has allied himself with Queen Bee from Bialya and will be reuniting the two countries into one with Queen Bee as the ruler. To ease the transition, he has given control of all of the metahuman camps to Queen Bee and has allowed Bialyan troops to enact martial law in Dhabar, the capital of Qurac. More troops are moving into other city centres as we speak."

Wally's jaw clenched at the knowledge that more metahumans are being taken into Queen Bee's meta army, but he doesn't comment on it. Instead, he asks, "I'm assuming that Harjavti is being blackmailed in some way, but still… I'm not sure blackmail would be enough for me to give up my country. Well, if I had one."

"You kind of do," Cameron reminded him with a small smirk.

Superboy cut in, "Queen Bee has mental control. She must be mentally controlling him."

Harold rolled his eyes, "You can't just assume it's a meta using their abilities right away. Yeah, Queen Bee's an evil mind controller, but the Alliance also has evidence that she's in Al-Qawiya, the capital of Bialya. As strong as Queen Bee probably is, that's significantly too far away for her to be controlling the President of Qurac. On a different note, there is a certain telepath who is definitely in range. He is not a metahuman, though. He's got a weird backstory that we won't go into. Let me give you, Psimon." He pulled up an image of Qurac's president, an ominous, pale figure in the background, staring creepily at the president. Psimon always made Wally shudder, despite never having met him. Honestly, the only reason he knew about Psimon was because Raven had told them some of the people her father, Trigon, had created when trying to stop the underground group called the Teen Titans. It was kind of a mess, honestly.

A few of the Team members paled dramatically, though. Superboy growled, "Psimon!"

"Have you had an interaction with him before?" Dinah asked, eyebrows raised.

Robin sighed, "Yeah, we have. Didn't end well. He's a nasty piece of work."

"Well," Wally clapped his hands together, "Let's go get him."

Kaldur sent him a sharp nod, face set in what Wally was coming to recognize as his game-face, "Everyone, get in your uniforms and go to the Bioship. Supersonic and I will devise a plan in the meantime." Everyone moved out at his words, running to their respective rooms. Hal shifted as if to go after Harold, but his ring flashed a brighter green for a moment before a bright green comms device curled around his ear.

He frowned at the air, listening to something. After a second, he sighed, "Sorry kiddos, I can't help out. I've gotta jet and go deal with something a solar system over. Zakkaria's got a problem that only a Green Lantern can deal with apparently."

"Go," Kaldur stated, nodding to the Green Lantern, "We will handle this." Hal nodded back to them and then zipped off, leaving a faint trail of green energy in his wake.

Wally sighed, squinting at the information in front of him, "So, theoretically, if we find the president, we should be able to find Psimon. He's the one we should go after. I'm guessing low-level Light member? Possibly directly under Queen Bee. Do you think that they know we're coming?"

Kaldur frowned, studying the material just as intensely as Wally, "I believe we should assume that they know we are coming. For all that I hope there is no spy, we should operate under the assumption that there is a spy and we do not know how or when or how often they are transmitting information."

"Additionally, they could know that we're coming because this might be a trap. I mean, why would Queen Bee want Qurac? She'd pretty much agreed to the temporary truce that Harjavti had suggested. The timing can't be coincidental. I say she's going after him right now to get something from us. Maybe they're trying to ferret out spies? Maybe they're testing out reaction times? Maybe it's something else completely," Wally shrugged, "I really don't think we should rule out 'trap.'"

Kaldur nodded, "That is true. Now, as for a battle plan. I know this is not an ideal situation, but I believe it would be most beneficial if we were all to go to President Harjavti and then you and the Circus members would stay with him while the rest of us faced against Psimon. Am I correct in assuming that no Circus member has previously engaged with Psimon?" Wally nodded and Kaldur continued, "Then it would be better if we were to go against him since we have already fought him."

"And you think Harjavti will be good with metas looking after him?" Wally asked incredulously.

"You do not have to say you are metahumans," Kaldur said. Wally tilted his head in confusion and Kaldur clarified, "The world does not have common knowledge of the Circus. We did not even know what powers all of you held before this alliance. There is little to no chance that President Harjavti will recognize you for Circus members. He will most likely believe that there are new members of the Team that have not made a debut before now. We will ask him to stay quiet about your presence and, hopefully, there will be no concern about prejudice during the proceedings."

Wally stared at him for a moment, silently. Was it worth the risk? Harjavti was president of Qurac. From what Wally understood of rulers of countries, there was a good chance that Harjavti could protect himself and likely had material on his person to deal with metahumans. It was practically standard practice to have some meta inhibiting devices on you if you were rich, famous, or politically important. Could he send his people into Qurac knowing that they were protecting a man who could easily harm them?

Looking at Kaldur, thinking about Batman's investigation into the camps, remembering the Alliance's easy acceptance of both metas and humans, Wally decided it was worth the risk. He nodded to Kaldur, "Alright, let's do it. Now, how stealth is the stealth mode of your bioship? I was thinking of landing here."

The two deliberated for a little bit before they received an alert from Robin, telling them that the team had assembled in the bioship and were only waiting on their leaders. In the space of a second, Wally reviewed everything that had happened since the beginning of this alliance. He thought over the rough bumps and the fights and the arguments and the secrets that had come to light. He thought about the way Kaldur had been a steady, easy presence through the whole thing, determined to make sure that this alliance worked through to the Light's defeat. He thought of the moment they had been sharing just a moment before, of the trust Kaldur had shown him.

And so Wally gave Kaldur one of his rare grins, and a clap on the shoulder, "C'mon, Kaldur, let's go get them!"

Author's Note: Thank you my wonderful readers for being so patient with me and sticking with this story! I actually quite like this chapter, if I'm being honest. I wanted it to be a hint longer, but I felt like this was a good place to stop, so here we are! I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading!