Wally's eyes flipped open.

Then they very nearly closed again due to the harsh midday sun, pouring in through the open windows.

"Hey there, sleepyhead." said Robin, leaning against the white wall to his left.

"What…"

His eyes darted around the room, taking in the forms of the rest of The Team, sitting or standing around him.

He then looked beyond them, at the room they were all in. Blindingly white walls and ceilings that almost seemed to reflect the sunlight, unopened fluorescent lamps in neat rows, nurses and doctors in medical garb, and the unmistakable sight of an IV drip hanging from his arm.

"I'm… in the hospital? What-"

"Oh my goodness, is the patient awake?" said a voice from one of the approaching staff. It was a girl with purple hair, and horns on her head.

"Please stand back, I need to do an immediate checkup!"

After a few minor tests, which included her shining a light in each of his eyes, and asking him to count the number of fingers she was holding up, she pronounced him all-clear for now.

After she left, Wally held a hand to his head.

"Well, that… was weird…" was all that Wally could say.

"Yeah, but necessary. You were out for three days, after all."

"Three… days? What in the world happened to me… ?" he said, attempting to sit up.

"Relax. There is no need to push yourself, Wally." Kaldur said, pushing him back down the bed again. "You have just undergone a bout of intensive surgery, from my understanding."

"Surgery?"

"Remember that crystal?" asked Robin.

Instinctively, Wally looked to that spot on his shoulder. It was a constant source of pain and annoyance for more than a week. There was nothing there anymore but stitches.

"You should thank the wonderfully generous healers of this place…" said M'gann, approaching his bedside. "They offered to remove that big crystal on your arm entirely free of charge. It turned out to have hit a major nerve, causing you to black out…"

At first, her expression was one of intense relief. However, after a handful of seconds, it shifted into one of deep sorrow.

"Umm, that's not… quite the whole story, though. But we think it's better if we let a doctor explain it to you." she said, not entirely forthright.

"... Oookaaay…"

Wally turned his head about, and his eyes caught someone sitting beside him that was not of The Team.

"Hey, what are you doing here, kiddo?"

Nadja's ears peaked out, when he looked at her in surprise.

"... I he-heard that you were being held here, so I visited as much as possible…"

"You've been waiting all this time for me, kid?"

She nodded bashfully.

"Aww, c'mon, you didn't have to do that…" he said, playfully tousling her hair. She just shook her head in response, and grabbed one of his hands in her own.

"Aww…" cooed M'gann.

"What about your parents? Your friends? Are you still going to school?"

Nadja just shook her head. "All dead now. School went boom. City is lost forever. You're the only one left."

He just hugged her. Because honestly, what could you say to that? M'gann approached from behind, and hugged both of them at once.

Wally looked up, and saw Connor standing by one side of the cuddle pile, trying very hard to not appear relieved at his teammate's recovery. He was failing.

He also wasn't wearing his usual attire. It no longer had Superman's logo on it. Instead, it was a polo shirt that was mostly black, with a cyan collar and cyan lines encircling the sleeves.

"... Ahem, sorry for interrupting your touching reunion and all…" said an approaching voice. It was from a red haired girl with a halo ("Sankta" was the term, Wally reminded himself).

"Ah! You were the one on that Gatling gun!" said Artemis.

"Heyo! Long time no see!" she said, giving a cheerful little wave. "Anyway, I've been asked by the bosses to drag you guys up there the moment he wakes up."

There were three people facing them now, on that cold morning.

Amiya was sitting at the centre, with The Doctor sitting to her right, and a new figure to her left. This new face was a Feline woman with piercing green eyes and peculiar green clothes. She was browsing through a tablet, her eyes only darting to The Team for a fraction of a second before returning to the screen.

This time, the entire Team was there, Wally included. He was out of his costume now, and he wore a black singlet with cyan lines running down it's length, and a cyan pair of shorts. In his arms was his rolled-up costume. He decided not to trust the launderers in this place with his stuff. At least, not yet.

The Doctor cleared his throat.

"Mr. West, how are you feeling?"

"Just peachy. From what I heard, your docs fixed me up, good as new!" he said, flashing his best Flash Smile (TM).

Someone coughed uncomfortably in the background. Amiya smiled sadly.

"Yes, well... we'll get to that later. Meanwhile, now that all of you are here, let us introduce ourselves properly. I am Amiya, the CEO of Rhodes Island." she said, clasping her hands on the table in front of her.

Artemis suddenly had a coughing fit, while she was downing a glass of water.

"Whoa whee, how special are we that the CEO herself came down just to greet us?" Wally said.

"Ehehehehehe, I'm not really that kind of leader…"

"Seriously, she really isn't." said the masked figure sitting next to Amiya. "She works closely with me in vetting and interviewing new batches of recruits for our Combat and Science divisions, always visits the patients' wards as frequently as possible, and takes it upon herself to personally inform patients newly diagnosed with Oripathy. She's not the type of aloof CEO who remains locked up in their office all day, I can assure you."

"Hehe, Doctor, you're giving me too much credit…" said Amiya.

"I'm The Doctor, by the way. Nice to meet you, Wallace."

"You can call me Wally. Everyone does!" he replied, stretching his arms to the air. "Oh, wait, The Doctor? I don't suppose you own a blue box that's bigger on the inside than the outside?"

"Err… no… ?"

After a few moments of confused silence from everyone, Wally just sighed. "... Philistines."

"A-Anyway…" Amiya cleared her little bunny throat. "Wally, we are here to inform you of something very serious."

"Well give it to me, then, I ain't no scaredy cat! Very serious matters are what my Team's all about, am I right?"

The rest of The Team just looked at him, either unamused or exasperated.

"See? They agree."

"This is no time to be joking , you are currently sick, with an illness that we call Oripathy."

"Never heard of it. Is it contagious?" he asked, with a tone that seemed like he was almost (but not quite) joking.

There was a cough somewhere in the corner of the room.

"Only when the patient dies. In that case, Originium crystals nigh-instantaneously take over the body mass, converting it into a flurry of airborne Originium particulates that could very well turn whomever breathed it in into a new Infected." said the green-eyed woman, her voice stone-cold.

"Whoah there, I was just kiddin', Ma'am." said Wally, holding up his hands.

"Well, you should have said so. Oripathy is no laughing matter, Mr. West." said the green-eyed woman. "And my name is Dr. Kal'tsit. I am the head of Medical Research and Diagnosis here on Rhodes Island."

Everyone else just stood still, her glare causing them to tense up without quite knowing why.

"Oripathy is a slow-acting, but eventually fatal disease. What it does is slowly convert the patient's cellular mass into Originium, eventually leading to death via failure of any of the body's vital systems." she said, not withholding anything. "Oripathy is not, and has never been, a disease to joke about. In certain uncivilised parts of the world, being caught with the disease would be the impetus for an instant exile, or even a lynching, as counterproductive as it may be.

Currently, there is no known cure for Oripathy. The only things Rhodes Island can do at this moment is delay a patient's inevitable death using various procedures, and give them a sense of purpose and companionship in their final years of life by offering them employment and lodging. Even with all our technology, you have at most a decade or two before you finally succumb to the illness."

Looking straight at Wally, she clasped her hands on the desk, and narrowed her eyes.

"I suggest you consider what you want to do with the rest of your life."

The tension was rising, with The Team holding their breath as they closely watched the reaction of their best friend...

"OK." he said. "What now, then?"

Everyone there besides Kal'tsit boggled at him.

"... Excuse me for prying, but you seem rather chipper, despite your diagnosis." said The Doctor. "Not that I don't approve of taking a positive view of life, but…"

"What he's asking is: Do you truly have a grasp of what had just happened to you, Mr. West?" asked Dr. Kal'tsit. "I don't know where you or your friends hail from, but I know Oripathy is an incredibly big deal all over Terra."

"Well, we and my buds always get trapped in situations that people claim to be inescapable or unsurvivable or other stuff like that, so excuse me when I don't buy the fact that I'll 100% die from whatever crazy thing's happening' to me right now. I didn't die during all those times fighting crazy supervillains and getting trapped in collapsing evil lairs, so I don't think some crystal flu is gonna end me now."

"It's not a flu." said The Doctor. "This disease isn't caused by a virus."

"Same difference."

"Wally…" said M'gann.

In response, The Doctor folded his hands on the table. "Wally, I don't know anything about your prior life, but we can tell you this: Everybody who has gotten Oripathy eventually died from it, if they weren't killed by something else before that. There hasn't been a recorded case of someone being completely cured of Oripathy."

Amiya carried on from where he left.

"While the ultimate goal of Rhodes Island is a definitive, final cure for Oripathy, it is unwise to plan your entire future around it. There is no guarantee that a cure will be found during your lifetime, or mine.

Please be realistic, Mr. West. Even with the best treatments available, it will at most lengthen your lifespan to a decade or two, instead of mere months. But that's it. While it is not our place for us to dictate what you should do, you have to grasp the fact that you will not have the time you used to have. Please, Mr. West…"

"Give up. Wally's a stubborn ass. He won't admit to the blindingly obvious until someone dies of it. Did you know? He did the same thing with Magic." said Artemis, crossing her arms and glaring at the redhead.

Wally flinched.

"Artemis! That doesn't have anything to do with this!" yelled Kaldur.

"What!? Are you all upset that I'm dredging up the past? Well, he'll be hurting himself even more if he keeps deluding himself like this!" yelled Artemis.

Wally stood up so forcefully, that his chair clattered to one side. He ran out of the room.

"Wally!"

M'gann rose out of her chair, only for Connor's hand to hold her back by the shoulder. As she looked at him, he shook his head.

"Let him be… A guy needs to be alone with his thoughts sometimes..."

"He'll be fine." said Robin. "We all know Wally. He'll be trying to pick up girls by lunchtime."

Rhodes Island was huge. Like, it was absolutely massive. Definitely several times larger than what Wally thought it would be, which was akin to a normal city hospital.

Rhodes Island was so much more than just a hospital, though. In fact, it was more like a semi-self-sufficient small town, with its own park, library, amusement centre, food court, gyms, combat training areas, firing range, swimming pool, hydroponics farm, and various small businesses built into the structure itself. That's not to mention housing, which apparently took up nearly a third of the total space!

At least according to the interactive digital display he was poking around on. It could show directions to any part of Rhodes Island from there.

After a few moments in front of the machine, he eventually got tired of it. Walking to the other side of the sterile hallway, he sat down at one of the benches.

"..."

… Honestly, it didn't feel real to Wally.

He'd been in all sorts of situations where he really should have died, looking back on it. Countless times where villains threatened to kill him, or friends and fellow heroes warned him of various dangers.

But nothing ever came of it. He always saved the day in the end, and always managed to go home safe and sound, to his family. Hell, he didn't even need to fake an excuse for an injury sustained in battle! That was something other Heroes tended to struggle with, from what Uncle Barry told him.

In retrospect, he really was very lucky, wasn't he?

It wasn't just him, though. How many times had doom been foretold about a Hero, only to end up averting it at the last second? How many times had a Hero seemed to die, only for them to turn out completely fine?

Which is why it didn't feel entirely real to Wally. On some level, his mind was convinced that they were just overreacting. Surely, things will work out before they get too bad, right?

It's how a Hero's life works. They get into a pickle, sometimes really big pickles. But then a solution is found, and everything goes back to normal until the next big pickle arrives. That's how it is, and that's how it'll always be.

"..."

Wally's a stubborn ass.

He won't admit to the blindingly obvious until someone dies of it.

And then there was Artemis. He clenched a fist. Those words made his mind flare the hell up.

But… who exactly was he getting angry with?

Was he angry with Artemis? Because she didn't do anything wrong. She just spoke the truth. He denied Magic, even while walking inside a tower that was full of it, fighting villains that used it.

Then Mr. Nelson died, and he didn't dare doubt anymore.

Whether that fateful day could have happened any other way, Wally still wondered to this day.

If he'd manage to delude himself about Magic, even while living in a world where Magic was so loud and obvious, what other things might he be deluding himself with?

That was the moment his stomach decided to remind him that he hasn't eaten a bite of solid food for days. It grumbled. It grumbled badly.

"Uh oh"

Hurriedly navigating the touchscreen's systems, he tried to find directions to the nearest food place. The closest one was the Rhodes Island canteen.

Alas, only full-time Rhodes Island employees got free lunches. Everyone else needed to buy.

"... Geez."

As he slumped back into the bench opposite, he suddenly remembered something.

"Ah, right!"

Unfurling his rolled-up Kid Flash costume, Wally looked to his right, and then to his left.

"..."

After being confident that this hallway was absolutely deserted, his hand went to one of the bright yellow shoulder pauldrons, opened it up like it was the cover of a tupperware container, and pulled out a lukewarm turnover.

"Hot Pockets! Hell yeah!" he cried out.

Yes, Hot Pockets, the very pinnacle of savoury microwavable treats. At least to Wally, it was. He kept one hidden underneath one of the costume's armoured features, just for a food emergency like this.

Opening his mouth, Wally was about to enjoy his savoury treat, only for it to be snatched away at the last second.

"Hey!" Wally cried out.

No use. The Hot Pocket that used to be in the hand of Kid Flash was now held by a new person: A girl with pointed ears, and bushy tail, both of them the colour of her hair, which was a golden brown. On her back was an entire armoury of medieval weaponry.

Wally wasn't 100% used to all the fancy species classifications this world used, so she was just "the food thief" in his mind for now.

"Oooooh, what's this!?" the food thief asked.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

Completely disregarding Wally West's cries of despair, she shamelessly ate the Hot Pocket whole. The food thief's face lit up, as if she did not illegally commandeer that tasty treat through underhanded means.

"It's taaasty, I want another one!" she said.

"Ceobe!" scolded an older voice from down the hall. Running down it was a silver-haired woman. She had a very noticeable prosthetic right leg.

"Cay, what did I tell you about stealing food from other people!?" she scolded, causing the Perro girl to freeze up like toddler who just got caught sneaking snacks out of the fridge without permission

"But Vulcaaan, I'm hungry!" she whined.

Man, and people call me a little boy in a teen's body. thought Wally, as he witnessed the food thief throwing a tantrum firsthand.

"That's what I've been chasing you all around the ship for. Unfortunately, you thought it was a game of hide-and-seek." Vulcan said, pulling out a paper bag.

"Ah, that smell!" said the girl known as Cay.

"Yep Ceobe, it's your favourite." she said, tossing it over to the Perro.

"HONEY BISCUITS!" she yelled, loud enough that Wally feared he might need hearing aids after this.

She reached into the paper bag, and pulled out something that looked like a scone bleeding honey from a grievous injury.

As her honey biscuit moved closer to her cheerful mouth, she bit down, only for her teeth to bite down on thin air.

"Hey!"

She looked at Wally, and saw her precious Honey Biscuit in the hands of the redhead, faster than she could blink.

"Since you took one of mine, I'm just gonna take one of yours!" he said, before eating the Honey Biscuit whole.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

"Mm, it's surprisingly good. Know where you buy this from?" said Wally, completely ignoring Ceobe's yell of indignation.

The woman with the prosthetic leg merely sighed, rubbing a palm over her face.

"Have you not eaten your lunch yet, young man?" she asked.

"Umm, no…" he said, twiddling his thumbs. "... I don't have any money…"

"How about I treat you, then? I was about to take myself and Ceobe out to lunch, actually, before her stomach rumbled and she started wandering off to parts-knows-where on this ship." she said, doing a sideways glare at the Perro, who shrunk away after noticing.

"Sure, yeah, okay!" Wally said. "Thanks!"

So the three of them went together to the canteen of Rhodes Island. Mommy Vulcan led the way, while just behind her, a doggo and a speedster were having one of the most intense staring contests Terra had ever seen.

Vulcan sighed again.