Author's Note: Here we are with another chapter! Read, review, and enjoy!

Response to Guest Review:

Shiranai Atsune – Haha, Savage has precisely zero qualms right about now. Thanks for the lovely review!

DDDDDD

Dick felt his breath catch in his throat. This was Lian. This was one of Dick's best friend's kid. The girl was practically Dick's niece. And now, there she was, taken captive by one of the worst bad guys of the time. Savage was the one they'd been fighting for years. Dick had been thirteen when he first faced off against Savage. He was twenty now and still hadn't defeated the man. Because of that, because Dick hadn't managed to take Savage down, Lian was unconscious and held hostage by him. This was all Dick's fault.

Swallowing hard, Dick pushed away the guilt and grief and horror. He wasn't Batman, but he'd need to draw on Batman's stoicism for the moment. He needed that ability to shove away all his emotions and fears just long enough to take Savage out and get Lian back. Violet and Tara, who had lived with the Harpers for a while and had come to love them as family, were clearly furious, hands shaking at their sides and eyes locked on Savage. It was too bad neither of them had laser vision because Dick was pretty sure they'd have managed to take Savage out by now.

Dick stepped forward, putting as much authority into his voice as he could, "Savage. Let her go."

"Be quiet," Savage countered, face drawn in an emotion that Dick couldn't immediately identify. Savage continued, "I have no intention of hurting her. She will stay alive as long as you follow my instructions and listen to my commands." Dick didn't nod, but Savage must have taken that as assent because he continued after a moment, "I have information for you. Information and a plan for you to follow. I doubt that you will be able to achieve this goal but there are no other options at this point. The world will end if you do not listen to me."

"Yeah, yeah, they got it," Len drawled. Dick understood that Len had a man who could control weather on his team and regularly fought someone who ran way faster than sound, but seeing someone who was skirting the edge of villainy (not that Dick would ever say that in front of Len or Mick) with no superpowers stand up to someone like Vandal Savage never failed to amaze Dick. It had happened in the past when a supervillain was encroaching on Rogue turf or when Flash needed help with something. Len was just a man, but nothing phased him. He could be looking at the end of the world and he'd just raise an eyebrow, maybe sigh a little bit. Len continued once he was sure he'd gotten Savage's attention, "Maybe you can move onto this plan you've got. Or, maybe, you could actually tell us what the threat is."

Savage growled, but acquiesced, "There is a threat that the whole world is facing. I have managed to fend him off for centuries, but he has come back now. I fear the world will not last much longer without stopping him. His name is Darkseid." Slowly, Savage explained his first meeting with Darkseid on the plains of a different country, in a very different time. He spoke of Desaad's prediction that the key to Darkseid's desired Anti-Life Equation would be found within a metahuman. Dick started to get a bad feeling about what Savage wanted Violet for. Savage explained how he'd worked for years to increase the number of metahumans across the world, going through each and every one of them to ensure that they were not the one that Darkseid spoke of. Savage led them through his realization that Violet was the key to the Anti-Life Equation, that Darkseid would soon know that his chance to complete his masterpiece was finally there.

"You said he's taken apart worlds," Len accused. The other Rogues were pale and clearly scared behind him, no better than the kids behind Dick. Len asked, "How do you expect to defeat him?"

"You have to hide the girl known as Halo," Savage answered, "She cannot be found by Darkseid or any of his associates. G. Gordon Godfrey and Granny Goodness are both trusted followers of Darkseid."

"Does he have a thing for people with G names?" Dick heard Jaime mutter somewhere in the back.

Len leveled an unimpressed glare on Savage, "That didn't answer my question. How do we defeat Darkseid? How do we imprison him?"

Savage laughed. It jostled Lian, who was still slung over his shoulder. Dick's heart clenched at the sight. Savage needed to let Lian go now or Dick wouldn't be held accountable for his actions. Savage sneered at them, "You cannot imprison Darkseid. Capturing him would merely be an inconvenience. No human prison can hold him."

"Then we get a prison from a different planet," Dick argued. He couldn't believe that Savage was sitting there, trying to convince them to kill someone. He had to know that he was talking to the wrong people. Dick raised his eyebrows, "We'll call in the Green Lanterns. They can trap him in a science cell. It works all the time."

"Fool," Savage spat, "Do you believe that no one has escaped from one of those before? The only way to ensure that Darkseid stops his tirade and does not once again set his sights on Earth is to kill him."

"You've basically described him as unkillable," Garfield pointed out, fighting valiantly to ensure that his voice didn't shake.

Savage sighed, "Do you truly think that I would kidnap one of your children and place myself in one of your headquarters without knowing a plan to kill Darkseid?"

Len sighed again, clearly taking on the brunt of Savage's ire. Dick wondered how any of the Rogues could convince themselves that they were real villains. Then he remembered some of their attacks and figured that, based on property damage and copious amounts of glitter alone, they counted as real villains. Len settled his steely gaze on Savage, "Answer the question. How. Do. We. Take. Out. Darkseid."

"Momentum," Savage answered. Dick's breath caught in his throat. Of course. Of course, it was Wally. When was it not?

Vic squinted at Savage but mumbled his question to Jaime, "Does he mean the person Momentum or, like, the physics thing momentum?"

Savage looked like he was seconds away from killing everyone in the room. Dick eyed Lian worriedly, "Why don't you set Lian down at the very least? She can't be comfortable slung over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes."

Savage glared at him for a long, long moment before he finally set Lian down. He kept her close to him and she was still unconscious, but it was one step closer than it had been before. A vice that had formed around Dick's heart loosened. He felt like he could breathe again. And with that came a clarity of mind, too. He narrowed his eyes on Savage, "You know where Momentum was during his missing six months."

"How do you figure that?" Sam threw out, marking the first time one of the other Rogues spoke in Savage's presence.

Dick frowned, "Luthor said that he discovered it, but he's been in prison. But, shortly after Luthor discovered it, Savage starts taking an interest in Momentum, to the point of trying to use Helga to get to him. Luthor must have sent his report to Savage. And something about those missing months must, in Savage's mind, be the key to defeating Darkseid."

"Very good," Savage mocked, "You managed to figure out that much. However, I was told that Momentum would be here today. Where is he?"

"Out," Len answered shortly.

Dick followed up when Savage leaned towards Lian slightly, "He ran. Kid Flash ran after him. I don't know what they're doing."

"Call him. Bring him back," Savage commanded.

Len raised a single eyebrow, "Why should I?"

"Did you miss the hostage I have?" Savage asked incredulously, nudging Lian with his leg. Dick's heart fluttered in his chest at the sight.

Len rolled his eyes, "Not my kid, not my problem." One of the teenagers behind them started coughing, probably startled. Dick was fairly certain that they were bluffing. Well, relatively certain. Kind of. Len was hard to read.

Savage laughed incredulously, "And how will Wally feel when his goddaughter is killed due to your inaction?" A muscle jumped in Len's jaw, but he made no other movement. He kept his unimpressed look and stared down the supervillain. Dick could see Savage getting angrier the longer the stare-off went on.

Eventually, Len pulled out his cell phone. He quickly punched in a number. There was only a pause before it started ringing. The problem was, it was ringing to a phone in that same room. Hesitantly, Hartley walked over to where Wally had been standing earlier. He sighed, eyelids falling shut momentarily, before he plucked out Wally's stupid Flash-themed cell phone (a part of Dick, hysterical and locked away in the back of his mind, reminded him that Wally really needed an updated phone – at this point, that phone was almost four years old).

Savage's voice was flat and distinctly unamused when he asked, "Momentum left his phone here?"

"I'm always telling him to not do that," Mark grumbled, sighing. Jason, clearly having lost his sense of self-preservation at some point, started laughing at the situation. Savage looked like he was seconds away from losing it.

Teeth grinding, Savage demanded, "Tell me you have another way to contact him."

"He didn't give us a chance to grab our comms this morning," Len shrugged nonchalantly. Dick figured that he wanted to stop emulating Batman in these situations and start emulating Len.

Savage took a deep breath in. He let it out, sounding marginally calmer, "Find him."

WWWWWW

"That was great timing," Wally said. He'd breezed into Uncle Barry's house, looking to see if he had any information about Bart's DNA hidden in the usual spots. Instead, he'd found Uncle Barry, the information about Bart's DNA, the information about Barry's DNA, and an Aunt Iris who was especially concerned with ensuring that Wally and Bart ate.

Bart grinned at him from over his enormous helping of leftover pasta, "Right? Totally crash. See anything interesting yet?"

Barry had wanted to stay and look over the information, but he'd been nearing the end of his lunch break anyways and the rest of the family had shooed him away. Bart claimed that he wasn't confident enough in genetics to even have a clue what was going on, so Wally had been left to look over the information while Bart eyed the cookies on the counter contemplatively.

Wally hummed, "I mean, there are definite differences. So far, most of them seem normal. They vibrate at different speeds, but we've always noted a difference in that between different speedsters. There's no decay to indicate normal super strenuous for speedster activities. No signs of physical manipulation of my DNA. The only difference that doesn't feel normal is the difference in tachyon particle levels. I mean, Barry's tachyon levels had always been higher than mine. I honestly had never seen a speedster with higher tachyon levels than Barry. Until now. Somehow, with something I did, my tachyon particle concentration increased. That has to be the clue because nothing else is weird."

"Tachyon particle," Bart muttered, "Where do I know that term from?"

"Tachyon is what the Light called me," Wally offered. He didn't want to think about it, but that was the only thing that was clicking for him at the moment. There was something telling him that there was more information there, but that was the only one his brain was reminding him of.

Bart sighed, "No, no, I'm pretty sure there's something else."

Wally tried to push past the year and a half of Light memories. They weren't important at the moment. They were just making him anxious and distracting him from what he really wanted to focus on. There were some fundamental things that he knew: he was a speedster. He had gotten faster. He had (somehow) more tachyon particles than Barry and Bart. This was important. But how? What was Wally missing? What did Luthor figure out?

Wally's eyes widened as a thought came to him. It had been a long time since he'd had the conversation with Uncle Barry and Grandpa Jay, but they'd talked about it. All of that had been purely theoretical, though. And if it was true, then… how did he end up in Antarctica?

Wally pressed his hand to his forehead as his head started to throb. He gasped out when a spike of pain hit him right between the eyes. With it came a flash of memory:

Wally wasn't sure he even really noticed when the blasts of energy started. It was just a little jolt here and there for long moments. Nothing bad. Then, as they started to beat the thing, the blasts became strong, huge bolts that crashed into Wally, almost knocking him off his feet. He grunted when one hit him, knocking his breath out. It burned through him, feeling like the lightning that struck him that fateful day all those years ago.

"Bart, we need to slow down, try to siphon off some of the energy that's attacking Wally!" Flash yelled. Wally wondered why they even bothered with code names when they never actually used them.

Still, that didn't stop Wally from gasping, "It's no good Barry. Man, Nightwing is so going to kill me for this. And don't even get me started on the Rogues." He could feel himself fading. His skin tingled and his back twitched and he could literally see through his hand. This was it. This was how he died. As a hero. That was certainly not the way he'd been planning.

"Kid!" Flash cried out, expression crumpling.

He couldn't stop it, though. None of them could. With the last of his energy, with the last vestiges of whatever part of him remained there, Wally gasped out, "Just tell them, okay?"

And then he was gone.

Wally slammed a hand down on the table to steady himself when he came back to. Bart had darted over to his side of the table by that point, a hand on Wally's back and another to his forehead. He asked worriedly, "You okay? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Shaking his head, Wally squeezed his eyes shut, "No, I'm fine. I just…" He trailed off as another burst of pain shattered through his mind, sending him reeling into another memory:

The memory didn't form correctly. Wally couldn't quite see where he was, but he could feel it. He liked where he was. It might have been the most peaceful he'd ever felt in his life. He didn't have to worry about anything there. None of the others would judge him. They knew that he had sinned just like he knew that they had sinned. But they were given a chance at something good here, something pure. Wally just had to keep going on, to keep existing in this place. Maybe this was the atonement he searched for sometimes, when it was late at night and he'd spent the day surrounded by heroes, constantly reminded that there were people who dedicated their lives to stopping people like him.

Memories kept rushing in:

- Wally could hear people whispering all the time. They spoke of nice things, of peace, of the desire to stay where they were. The whispers never stopped and Wally thought that he would be quite lonely if they ever did. Why, the silence might even drive him mad. Sometimes the whispers spoke in languages that he was sure he didn't know – alien languages and dead tongues – but the words always seemed to make perfect sense to him regardless. How was that possible? The whispers continued and whispered only answers and assurances. –

- Wally could feel himself getting faster and stronger with each passing moment. The energy raced and crashed and crackled through his veins, lighting up his skin, merging with him in a way he'd never considered before. How had he never thought of his speed this way before? How had he never realized its true strength and power? Wally wasn't a speedster. He was speed in a way that he wasn't sure the other speedsters knew how to be. Maybe Uncle Barry. Uncle Barry always seemed to know stuff about his speed that the others didn't. The Flash may be a villain, but Wally would always see him as the paradigm of what he wanted to become, of what a speedster should be. –

- Wally missed Dick. He missed everyone, of course, but there was an ache in his bones from how much he missed Dick. Did Dick miss him, too? Was he out there, mourning Wally's loss? Or had he moved on? How long had Wally spent in this place? Had time even passed? Wally was confused and fading. He felt like he was losing himself. Was he speed or was he human? That question became harder and harder to answer the longer he spent there, the stronger he got. He felt, at the moment, that he could answer that he was human, still. It might take a lot of thinking and he might have to throw his memories back, back, back to a time when the question would have been easy to answer, but he was sure that he was still human. And the human part of him missed Dick. He missed the way Dick would cackle. He missed coming home and seeing his boyfriend smile up at him from the couch. He missed going to a lake and splashing around in the water with Brucely joyously joining in. Wally decided. He was going to find Dick. He was going to go back and find Dick and tell him that he was still alive. And… if Dick had moved on, Wally could always come back. It wouldn't be too hard. He'd managed it once, when he was weaker. He could manage it now. But for the moment? All that mattered was finding the love of his life. –

Wally jerked back into awareness at the sound of the home phone ringing. His hands were shaking, and his feet felt numb. Bart glanced between Wally and the phone for a few long moments before he finally moved over to answer it. Wally continued to shake in his seat. He couldn't even hear the conversation being had. What was that? Were… were those really Wally's memories? Had that really happened?

Breath rattling through his body, Wally buried his head in his hands, pushing away the half-eaten plate of food. The only thing that pulled him out of his spiral was Bart shaking his shoulder and saying insistently, "Wally, we gotta go. Savage kidnapped Lian and is demanding that you go to the Hub and speak to him?"

"Seriously?" Wally breathed out, trying to control his thundering heart, trying to stop the tremors in his hands. Could Savage have any worse timing? The rest of Bart's words caught up to him and Wally stood fast enough to leave his head spinning. He staggered against the chair even as he grit out, "Savage took Lian? He took my goddaughter?"

"Wally," Bart said seriously. There was no fear in his voice, no recrimination, just firm belief, "You need to calm down. If you go in like this, you're going to scare everyone again."

Wally took in several deep breaths, feeling them rattle down his lungs, feeling his chest move up and down. Things suddenly felt weightless and disconnected. Was he floating? Wally shook his head, trying to get it screwed on straight. He needed to be less distracted. Lian was on this line this time. He just – he just had to ignore everything he'd just realized, all the memories that were pounding at the inside of his skull.

Bart swallowed slightly, looking young and scared, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Wally said. He pasted on a pale smile, "Remembered some things. I don't really know if I wanted them back or not."

Bart grimaced, "I know that feeling. Ready?"

"Ready," Wally confirmed. The two of them shot off. After a moment, Wally turned to Bart, "Why did we get that call at the Allen home phone?"

"Uh," Bart began sheepishly, "Turns out we both forgot our phones at the Hub?"

Wally groaned, "I can already hear Len yelling at me. Never go on a run without a secure method of communication. How do I know you haven't been kidnapped or hurt or ran out of food or money if I can't talk to you? You know what – you should have at least two modes of communication on you at all times."

Bart grimaced again, "Would you believe that I have heard that exact same speech from Barry before?"

"Don't know if that's disturbing or cute, but I'm leaning towards disturbing," Wally said. Bart snorted.

They arrived at the Hub.

Both of them blew straight through security, merely phasing through each of the boundaries (Wally was going to have to mention that to the Outsiders – their base was ridiculously easy to get into. Maybe he could get the other Rogues and they could steal from the Outsiders one day to show them how bad their security was). It didn't take them long at all to get to where the others were waiting, Lian, unconscious, leaning against Savage's leg.

Wally didn't let that go on for even one second longer. He blew past Savage, using the speed he'd built up from the long run, and grabbed Lian. He skidded to a stop when he was on the other side of the room, cradling the girl in his arms. He was glad that she was still unconscious for all of this. The less trauma she had when all was said and done, the better.

Wally glared at Savage as he handed Lian off to Bart. He still felt off-kilter and his head ached fiercely and the last thing he wanted to do was face off against one of his childhood nightmares, but Savage hadn't given him a choice. Wally growled, "What? I'm here, so what do you want?" He made sure to tone it down, though. This wasn't the light show that he'd given Helga. He'd make sure to avoid that at all costs from now on. He never wanted his family, his friends to look at him like that again.

Savage sneered, "So, you're finally here. It took you long enough. I need you for a plan to save the world!"

"Not interested," Wally cut off immediately. One of the kids behind him snorted and tried to disguise it as a cough.

Savage growled, "This world – and many others – will die if you continue to act childish and selfish!"

Wally rolled his eyes, "Someone want to catch me up?"

"There's a big bad named Darkseid who can't be captured by anyone and can only be killed by you. He's super powerful and obnoxious and likes taking over planets. He wants to take away all free will in the universe using Halo over there. Savage has been working out a way to stop him for, like, centuries and only apparently just now figured it out," Hartley summarized. Savage was fuming in the front of the room.

"Rogues don't kill," Wally answered immediately, turning back to face Savage.

Savage rolled his eyes, "Then don't think of it like killing. Momentum, you are the only one who can destroy him. I would take a different speedster – any different speedster, but the only ones I have access to haven't been where you've been."

Dick's eyes widened and he glanced between Savage and Wally, "Where he's been? Are you talking about his missing months?"

"I am," Savage answered evenly, apparently having gotten back some of his control.

Wally clenched his jaw. The memories were swirling faster through him. His heart ached. His head ached. His soul ached. He grit his teeth and said, "I won't do it."

"What's going on?" Dick asked, echoed by several of the others. Wally could see his family and Tara peering at him worriedly. Even Brion was giving him a look of concern.

Wally shook his head, "I won't do it. I know what you want me to do and I won't do it."

Savage shook his own head, "Then you condemn all of us to death."

This couldn't be real. This couldn't be the only option. Wally refused to believe it. He just – it just – it wasn't fair. Len's voice cut through the panic welling in Wally's chest, "Wally. Tell us what's going on. We'll help."

"You can't," Wally blurted. Once he started, the words wouldn't stop coming, "You can't help. I just – I just remembered where I was. Bart and I were comparing our, our biology and the only real difference I could see was that my tachyon particle concentrations were much higher than his and Barry's but I couldn't think of why that would be but then I – then I thought of it and the memories came back and I can't." Dick reached over and gripped Wally's hand, tightening his hold and slowly but surely pulling Wally back from the brink. Wally pressed his eyelids shut and said, "I was inside the Speed Force for all six of those months. I don't really understand how I got out. It's… addictive in there. I've never felt such peace in my life. I just remember loving Dick so much. I remember wanting to see him, wanting to see all of you. I remember knowing that if I fully allowed myself to succumb to the Speed Force, I would never be able to see you again and I couldn't let that happen. But… Savage wants me to trap Darkseid in the Speed Force. He thinks I'll be able to get it open fast enough to pull Darkseid in without being defeated first. I… this must have been what Ra's al Ghul meant. This was why he took me and trained me. He needed me to be ready for this. What a piece of trash."

Garfield spoke hesitantly, staring warily at the expressions around him, ranging from confused to gob-smacked, "Why can't you, then? That sounds relatively easy, right? Am I misunderstanding something here?"

Wally glanced up, expression flat, "I won't be able to resist the pull if I do that. I'll drag Darkseid in, yeah, but I'll drag myself, too. And I can't escape from that another time. I just can't. I'm not strong enough to fight that pull." He paused and stared at his family, at his fiancé, "The moment I find myself in the Speed Force again will be the moment I disappear from this world permanently."

Author's Note: Hm, not quite how I wanted to end the chapter – sounds a little awkward. But I also have yet to figure out how I'm getting from here to the end, so I'm going to let this chapter end right there and give myself another week to figure that out, haha. Thanks for reading!