I FINALLY DID IT. AFTER ALMOST A YEAR, HERE IS YOUR NEXT CHAPTER OF NIGHTMARES.

Wally

I wake up and every cell in my body is on fire.

I can barely think through the pain. "So this is what Sportsmaster meant by 'more pain coming,'" I manage to think to myself.

It's mind-numbingly painful. It's like every nerve in my body has been drowned in gasoline and was then lit on fire. I can't stand it.

I manage to look around, trying to ignore the pain I have to go through to get through it.

I'm in some sort of room or cell. There's a door, and a window, and I could walk out easily if I could manage to get up.

What could this pain possibly be coming from that my captor is confident enough in it that he's willing to leave one of the fastest people alive unguarded?

Whatever it is, it's working. I can't stand up.

And then somebody walks in. And everything makes a lot more sense.

"Hello, Wally," I hear Lex Luthor say. "Do you like your containment device? A little piece of equipment I picked up from Darkseid. It's a direct neural stimulator of your pain receptors. Every cell in your body probably feels like it's on fire right now. That's sort of the point."

"Why…" I can barely get the word out, and my voice sounds as raspy and weak as I feel.

"LexCorp has partnered with some people very interested in seeing how much pain different types of metagenes can withstand. We also brought the non-powered members of your team as a… control group. I cannot say they've fared as well."

"Show… me… my… friends…"

I can barely get the words out.

Lex smiles. "As you wish."

I feel the immense pain suddenly stop, but I still don't have the strength to move.

Two men come in and pick up my defenseless body and carry me into a much larger room than the one I had been in.

And I gasp in horror.

The first person I see is Conner. His wrist is being cut with the blade of a knife that's glowing green, held by one of Luthor's cronies. I know the reason it's glowing green isn't because it's radioactive. That's Kryptonite if I've ever seen it.

He's bleeding all over the place. Both wrists are cut, and his right arm has turned entirely red because of the blood that it's soaked in. His left leg is at an awful, unnatural angle. It's broken. His right leg isn't in much better shape. His left arm looks okay compared to the rest of his body, and his left wrist is slit. That's a pretty accurate representation of what he looks like.

I can barely bring myself to look at his face, but I do. I wish I hadn't.

Bruises. Blood. Tears.

The Boy of Steel is crying from pain, something he has never felt before.

This is a hell of a way for him to be welcomed to pain.

"I got every pain cell in my body directly stimulated, and I got off easy," I think to myself. "Damn."

The men who are holding me suddenly drop me, and I collapse. It takes me a moment to struggle to my knees, but I manage to get up.

We keep walking. As horrible as this is to see, I have to know where everybody is located for when we attempt to escape later. I'm hoping that at least I will be in an okay condition. If this is what Conner looks like, I can't imagine what's happening to the others.

And the members of the Team that don't have powers…

Luthor walks into the room that I'm standing in. "Mr. West, I feel the need to let you know that it is only the original five members of your Team and yourself that are still alive. The rest of them have been killed. LexCorp's partner is only interested in a few specifics - Kryptonian, Martian, Atlantean, and yourself, the speedster. The rest were unnecessary and were disposed of. As for Nightwing, who we now know is Mr. Grayson, and Ms. Crock… we kept them around for sentimentality, even though it is most likely that only one was needed."

I hope the others were at least allowed to die quickly. It is not a fate those of us alive will be granted.

"Luthor, I'm going to fucking kill you. I hope you know that."

"I do enjoy your sense of humor, Mr. West."

"I'm not joking."

"I'm sure you believe that."

I don't have the energy to keep fighting him, so I struggle along while he and the two men who were carrying me walk with me.

"Oh, Mr. West, I should also inform you that I am purposely showing you the location of each of your teammates for when you attempt to escape. I do not enjoy regular television, but watching this on a screen from the comfort of my home will surely bring me pleasure."

"Fuck you."

He chuckles, and I struggle on.

Then I see M'gann.

"Fuck." She's surrounded in a ring of fire, which since she's a Martian isn't exactly a surprise, but the effect is very, very real and I know it.

It gets worse, of course. Much, much, much worse.

There's blood. Too much blood. Way too much blood. It takes my pain-scorched mind a second to realize that her skin is green and not red and that this is what Lex Luthor has done to every single one of my teammates.

It slowly occurs to me that I've been hearing a painful screech this whole time, and that it's not the noise of some whirring machine. A scream like nothing I've ever heard is coming from the dying Martian in front of me.

Then I see the worst part.

I had been more focused on the men causing M'gann's bleeding. I hadn't seen the hooded man behind her.

Psimon stands over M'gann, hood on.

He's fighting a dying woman in mental combat, and she doesn't have anybody there to pull into her mind and help her.

I'm carried away, sickened by the high-pitched screams I keep hearing.

I throw up for the first time when I see Kaldur.

Similar to M'gann, he's trapped in a ring of fire, and also similar to M'gann, he's bleeding all over his body.

But it only gets worse from there.

Kaldur's gills have been cut and covered so that not only is the blood clogging his ability to breathe, he's being suffocated by whatever substance Luthor's men have applied to his gills.

But worst of all is the water sitting next to him.

I remember a Greek myth I once heard in history - a man who was trapped in Greek hell and given a starving hunger and unquenchable thirst, and he had water and food right next to him, but as soon as he got close to it, it disappeared.

I'm watching Kaldur relive that myth. His broken body reaches for the water, but he can't quite get to it, no matter how hard he tries.

My heart is breaking. My teammates are… destroyed.

But I haven't seen Dick or Artemis.

The two without powers.

The two who couldn't possibly handle abuse like this.

I crawl into the next room and scream.

Dick is dead.

The man who I thought would outlast us all, the protege of Batman, my best friend… he's dead.

Blood everywhere.

Limbs bent at unnatural angles.

Gray, clammy skin.

And the Joker himself standing over him with a crowbar, taking swing after swing after swing.

I want to get up and help, to do something, to do anything, but I can't even walk, much less run.

Besides, I can't help a dead man.

I continue crawling, praying to every god that I've ever heard of that Artemis is alive.

My wish is granted. I wish it wasn't.

There is more blood on her than there is on anyone else, even the man whose skin is being cut with Kryptonite.

Both of her arms and legs are broken. Her wrists are slit. Her Achilles tendons have been sliced.

Her face is swollen and bloody, her body beaten and bruised.

This is a fate I would only wish upon the man who has done this to her.

"A… Artemis…"

Her eyes, nearly swollen shut, slightly open. "W… Wally?"

"I'm… gonna… save… you…"

"It's… too… late…"

Lex enters the room and laughs.

"Well, Mr. West, you have seen the love of your life. I'm sure you'd like to do this to me about now, wouldn't you?"

"I'm… going… to… enjoy… watching… you… die…"

"Oh, I'm sure. Almost as much as I'll enjoy this." Luthor sounds as cold and calculating as ever.

He takes out a gun and shoots Artemis in the head.

I scream, and everything goes black.

I don't deserve review after how long I've made you all wait, but reviews are still cool.

Are you cool?

- JT