Disclaimer: I don't own, Flash, Wally West, Bart Allen, or any of the other DC stuff in this story.

Legacies

Chapter 9: What Lies Ahead

Wally ran half heartedly through the streets of Metropolis. He had ended up somewhere in Australia, and it had taken him the better part of the day to arrive in Metropolis, which was closer than Central City. Wally had taken longer than usual to traverse the ocean, mostly because his heart wasn't in it. Usually he enjoyed running at such high speeds, as it allowed him to clear his head and see things from a calmer perspective. But this time his mind was a blank. He wasn't thinking about Bart, he wasn't thinking about the League; he wasn't even thinking about Hunter. His mind was quite simply incapable of thought. All that concerned him was the water beneath his feet as he ran across the ocean and eventually ended up in Metropolis.

He turned another corner and found the Justice League Metro Tower looming in front of him. As he reached the entrance on the ground floor he slowed to walking pace, his energy drained from him by the battle and the long journey home. He was about to step through the doors when he heard a voice from above.

"Wally!"

He looked up to see John Stewart slowly floating down towards him, a look of concern and anger on his face.

"Where have you been?"

Normally Wally would have become confrontational with him, coming up with some clever retort or quip, but today was no normal day. He looked up at John with dull eyes.

"Why? What's the problem?"

"What's the problem? You've been gone for a week!"

Wally's eyes widened slightly. "A week…?" he said, talking more to himself than to John.

"What were you doing?"

Wally put his hand on his head, trying to sort through his memories of what was, at least to him, the events of the past few hours. "I raced Hunter… and then he… but it only took me a few hours to get home…"

"Well something must have happened in-between! What-"

"Go easy on him, son. Maybe I can shed some light on the situation."

Wally and John turned to see Jay Garrick coming towards them through the doors of the Metro Tower. He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Maybe we should take this inside? Junior looks ready to collapse."

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After some rest and a few cups of coffee, Wally felt more ready to talk about what he remembered. The door to his room opened, and John entered first, closely followed by Jay. As soon as he saw Ashley, Wally felt heavier. He wasn't looking forward to telling her. Robin and Bart entered, Vic stood over them with his arms crossed like an angry parent. Everyone became happier at the sight of Wally, but he couldn't share in their joy. Bart leapt charged towards Wally with a grin, almost knocking the wind out of him as he wrapped his arms around his stomach.

"You're okay! I thought after you disappeared and that you were dead, but then Jay said you were time travelling or something and then I-"

"Whoa whoa – time travel?" Wally said, managing to wrestle free of Bart's grip and look questioningly in Jay's direction. The older man shrugged.

"Happened to me more than once back in the day. I would run somewhere too fast and end up there a week late. It was only in very extreme cases though. As far as I can tell, I sort of 'skimmed' against the Speed Force momentarily, letting me travel through time as energy, at least for a short time. At least, that's me guess," he added, a wry smile on his face.

John took that moment to intercede. "What happened, Wally?"

Wally took a deep breath and began his story. "Well, I went to fight Zoom, and it was going pretty evenly between us, when these two-" he said, looking at Bart and than at Robin, who was sat in the corner of the room with Vic, "-thought that it'd be a good idea to try and help."

"Sorry about that. Someone was supposed to keep him in that room." Vic shot a glare at Robin, who proceeded to shrink further into his chair.

Wally sighed and continued. "Anyway, after that, I… I just got angry with him. And we raced. We… entered the Speed Force, and Clariss… he was… ripped apart… or something. I can't remember very well… the whole thing happened in a few seconds… I held out my hand to Hunter, but he…" The tears were welling up in his eyes as he remembered the look of utter hatred on his friends' face. "He wouldn't… he was already gone."

He looked up and saw Ashley with her hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. He stood and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her shoulder as she cried. The tears became caught in his mask, and he pulled it back, letting them flow freely down his cheeks. He didn't care about secret identities right now. The only person in the room who didn't know his identity was Robin, and he wasn't very likely to go blabbing.

"I'm so sorry Ashley. I tried, but…"

"He wasn't Hunter anymore," Ashley finished. The other occupants of the room gradually left, leaving the mourning friends to comfort each other as best they could.

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The city looked so peaceful from Titans Tower. For as long as he could remember, that was the way it had always been. There used to be so much crime in that city, but from the huge window, Wally had never been able to tell. He was glad for the familiarity of this place, for how much he felt at home here. As illustrious as the Watchtower and the Metro Tower were, this place felt like home, and the people inside like family. The Justice League had become much more about business, and the family of seven that Wally had grown to care for had been separated by that business. And so, the Titans were the most familiar thing he had left. He sipped at his coffee, grimacing as he realised that it was cold. He turned to go to the kitchen area, putting the cup in the sink. Most of the other Titans had now returned from their various missions, and the Tower was now abuzz with activity.

He looked over the lounge area and smiled at his memories of the place, being sat playing games with Garfield, reading a comic book in silence next to Raven, or simply hanging out with his five teenage friends. He sighed and left the room, heading down to the lab. It had been nearly a week since he had returned to the land of the living, and the others had gone their separate ways.

Jay, having felt like his job was done, had said his goodbyes and left, disappearing into the wind. Wally hoped that he would meet him again someday, or at least become as wise as he was.

John had gone back to business as usual, although he now checked up on Wally once a week. They had already gone to see a ball game and a movie, and Wally was enjoying hanging out with the Green Lantern again.

Ashley had left Central City and had gone up north to live with her parents for a while. She promised to keep in touch and tell him what she was up to now and then.

Vic had taken Bart and Robin back to the Tower, and had called Wally shortly after with the news that he had managed to get at the data on the disc. That was why Wally was here in the first place.

He went down to the lab area of the Tower, and looked around the room, marvelling at the various gizmos and 'whirly doodads' that were spread around the room. It reminded him of the Atom's lab in the Metro Tower, and he instinctively felt a little bit more on edge. He found Vic engrossed in a computer terminal, frantically pushing buttons and tweaking knobs and adjusting dials. He looked over to see Wally and smiled, waving him in.

"C'mon in man. I've just about go this thing working. Just watch the screen," he said, pointing at a monitor on the other end of the room. Wally fixed his eyes on it as it sprang to life. Vic walked over to his side.

"Before you watch this, I gotta warn you that the visual is gone. I doubt we'll be able to get it in this lifetime."

"But we can still hear it, right?"

Vic frowned. "Actually… the sound might be a little bit messed up."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, but this stuff is really advanced. If you want to wait for about a hundred years until you can see and hear it in pristine condition, then by all means…"

Wally huffed and looked forward. "Just play it."

Vic pushed a button on the control panel behind him and the monitor began to speak. It was a woman's voice, though Wally couldn't tell if he had heard it before or not. Static crackled throughout the message, making some of the words inaudible, causing Vic to simply smile apologetically.

"I suppose that you don't-…………………… -but then again, maybe you do, and I'm just not giving you enough credit. You've probably already met Bart. I wanted to ask you to help him. We've been-……………………………………… -it shows no signs of-………………………………-sent him back to a point where you know enough about your powers to help him. Whether you can or not, please send him back to us through the Cosmic Treadmill to-………………………………………………-just please try. We've tried everything else, and you're our last resort. Please-………………………………"

The monitor blinked out, and Vic pushed the button behind him again to turn off the monitor. "You want to hear it again?"

Wally dumbly shook his head. He frowned in thought. "'When I know enough about my powers?' But I don't! I don't know anything about my powers! I just go fast!"

Vic pondered for a moment. "Maybe they messed up. Over shot the mark by a few years. She was talking about the Cosmic Treadmill like you'd already built it."

The full ramifications of that explanation hit Wally. "Then… what can I do for Bart? I mean… I can't… I don't know what I can do!"

"Actually…" Vic said rubbing his chin in thought. "I was thinking about what you said that Jay Garrick guy taught you about vibration, and I think that might be the key."

Wally eyes widened as he faced his robotic friend. "You mean you know what to do?"

"It's just a theory man. I'm not even sure if it would work."

"Good enough for me."

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"So… explain this to me again. I'm gonna do what to Bart?" Wally asked, scratching his head as he tried desperately to understand Vic's plan.

Vic sighed as they turned the corner and entered the observation room for Bart's specially designed med bay. As they entered, a blond girl who appeared to be wearing a version of Wonder Woman's costume turned to look at who was entering. Her eyes widened as she looked at Wally in awe.

"You're the… the…"

Vic guided her out of the room while Wally just grinned. "That's right Cassie, he's the Flash… now I'm gonna take care of things in here, so why don't you just… annoy Robin or something."

She turned to object as Vic pushed her out of the room, but Vic pushed the close button too quickly and cut her off.

"Kids," he said, smiling at Wally. Wally resumed his questioning.

"Okay, so what am I doing here? I mean, do I just stand there or…?"

Vic pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, no, Wally… look, you know how I said that Bart became normal when you were near him?"

Wally nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well, after listening to all that vibration talk, I got to thinking that maybe you speedsters have vibration patterns. Non-speedsters probably have them to, but we don't go fast enough to use them like you do."

"Okay…"

"So, Bart's vibration pattern is what's messing him up. But when you're near him, your vibration pattern forces his to adapt to yours."

"Why?"

Vic paused for a moment. "Because… I don't know why. Maybe it's got something to do with how you got your powers. Anyway, I got to thinking that if you did that whole 'vibrating through solid objects' thing to Bart, it would force his vibration pattern to act like yours permanently."

"Right…" Wally said, nodding very slowly.

"Like I said, it's just a theory. And a pretty flimsy one at that."

"I guess it's worth a try, right?"

Vic nodded. "Right."

Wally ran round and entered Bart's specially contained room, and the boys' face lit up at the sight of the scarlet speedster.

"Hey! Can we go soon, because-" he stopped as he saw the grim look on Wally's face. "What's up?"

Wally took a deep breath. "I'm gonna fix you."

"You are? Great! What're you gonna do?"

Wally paused for a moment, wondering how best to phrase it. "I'm going to… vibrate… through you."

"Through me?"

Wally nodded, and then knelt before Bart, putting his hands on his shoulders. "This could be really dangerous, Bart. If you don't want to, I won't force you."

"Are you kidding? C'mon, let's get this over with."

Wally stood and gave a forced smile, and turned towards Vic on the other side of the glass, giving him a thumbs up. Vic gave one back, giving Wally what he hoped was a supportive smile. He took a long breath through his nose and blew it out noisily through his mouth, and began jumping up and down on the spot, shaking his arms and legs to get the blood flowing. He cricked his neck.

"Okay… now just… stand there" he said, positioning Bart directly in front of him. "Don't move, okay?"

Bart gave Wally a heart-breakingly trusting smile and two thumbs up. Wally closed his eyes beneath his mask for a moment in a silent prayer.

Please God, don't let him die.

Wally began to shake himself, letting the vibration flow through him, just has he had done countless times before. He edged forward towards Bart, his entire body a red and yellow blur. Wally continued to edge forward, going faster and faster until…

His body came into contact with Bart. Bart grunted as Wally shook faster and faster, his molecules bumping up against Bart's. Wally pushed himself as fast as he could, hoping with all his heart that he didn't slow down. And then he was suddenly through him. He stopped vibrating, slowing down to where he could clearly see everything around him. He smiled in happiness at his accomplishment, and then turned to see Bart on the floor, unconscious. In an instant, Wally was by his side, cradling the boys' head.

Vic burst through the door, scanning Bart with the sensors built into his arm. Wally looked at his friend hopefully. Vic looked up at Wally and smiled.

"He's okay man."

Wally grinned in euphoria, wrapping his arms around the unconscious boy in his arms. He looked up at Vic.

"But… what about… is he, uh, fixed?"

"Only one way to find out."

Wally nodded and gently handed the boy over to Vic. He left the room and ran to the observation room. Wally heard the microphone activate and Vic's voice boomed through.

"It worked man! He's okay!"

Wally grinned and ran back around, hugging Vic in joy and laughing inanely. Vic smiled fondly, allowing his friend this moment of goofy happiness. After what he had gone through in the past few days, he had earned it.

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The door to Wally's apartment opened and Bart shot through, landing on the couch. Wally stumbled through the door with the stack of pizza boxes.

"Okay, so… now that you've fixed me, what happens now?"

Wally sighed and closed the door. He put the boxes down on the table, tossing one to Bart. Bart opened it and proceeded to greedily stuff his face. Wally smiled and followed suit. After the gluttony was done, Wally sat down next to Bart, both of them suitably stuffed.

"Okay, first of all, no more Kid Flash stuff, okay?"

Bart jerked his head up to look at Wally. "But… why not?"

"Because it's really dangerous, and you're really young and stupid."

Bart frowned. "How old were you when you were Kid Flash?"

"Uh… that's not the point. The point is, you can't."

"But you'd be able to look after me, right? I mean, you're like, one of the greatest superheroes ever."

Wally smiled and stared up at the ceiling for a little while longer before responding. "I knew there was a reason I liked you. But… seriously, it's just too dangerous."

"But I've got all of your powers! And it's not like I'm stupid enough to go off and fight supervillains by myself."

"What about when you fought Zoom?"

"Robin was with me!"

Wally snorted and stood, scratching the back of his neck in thought. "I don't know... I mean… I can't look after you all the time…" he snapped his fingers. "I've got it! Bart, hand me the box under the sofa."

Bart complied and handed the box over. Wally smiled and pointed at the box. "You open it."

Bart raised a suspicious eyebrow, but opened the box anyway. His eyes widened as he saw the contents. He pulled out a brand new Kid Flash costume, with a Teen Titans communicator resting on the neatly folded clothing. He looked back to Wally, who simply shrugged.

"Every superhero needs a sidekick."

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Bart sat on the rooftop of Titans Tower, and realised that for the first time in a long while, he wasn't staring at his costume in wonderment. Who would have thought it? He, Bart Allen, was Kid Flash, sidekick to the legendary Flash, and a member of the Teen Titans. Well, it was just 'The Titans' now, according to Changeling. Changeling was probably his favourite teacher out of them all. Probably because he reminded Bart of Wally.

Raven was okay, but a little too short with Bart when he didn't catch on quick enough. But then again, he didn't catch on most of the time because he wasn't paying attention, but still.

Starfire was nice (good to look at), but she could put Bart on a guilt trip just by looking at him. He would be screwing around with Tim or Cassie, and she would turn around and look all sad and hurt, which would make Bart behave. He wasn't sure if she was genuinely hurt when he goofed off or if she was just manipulating them. Bart was pretty sure it was the former rather than the latter.

Then there was Cyborg, who spent most of his time arguing with Robin over something or other that didn't really matter. And they both loved every minute of it. Of course, Bart had a lot to thank him for. Wally had told Bart what had been wrong with him after he had 'fixed' him, and Bart would be forever grateful to him. As it was now, Bart was about fourteen.

That was why Changeling was different than the others. He was so laid back and relaxed almost all of the time. It was hard to believe all the stories that the others would tell of a hyperactive and nervous young Beast Boy. Now he was almost a different person.

Occasionally Nightwing visited his old team-mates, although he rarely taught the students. Or talked to them, for that matter. He only talked to Robin now and then. In fact, he was downstairs talking to him right now while Bart waited on the roof for Wally to arrive to 'pick him up'. Bart had protested over Wally's escorting him back to Central City, but Wally had insisted. The arrangement was that Bart would work with and stay with the Titans most of the time, and Wally would come and visit him once a week, and bring him back to Central City now and then to hang out and fight crime.

Bart heard the door behind him open, and Tim stepped through, talking to someone as he did so.

"Here he is! Bar-, uh… Kid Flash! Come here and meet Nightwing!"

Bart jumped to his feet and ran over to meet them, arriving in a split second. "Cool to meet you," he said quickly, extending his hand.

Nightwing smiled and extended his own hand. "Likewise." He looked around the rooftop. "Up here by yourself?"

Bart shook his head. "Nah. I'm waiting for-"

A red blur appeared and shot towards them, stopping in front of them to reveal Wally West, otherwise known as the Flash.

"-him," Bart finished.

Nightwing smiled at the new arrival. "Hey. You didn't mention that you'd got a sidekick."

Wally grinned. "Didn't I?"

"Since when?"

"It's, uh… complicated. We still on for this weekend?"

"Unless you chicken out again."

Wally put his hands on his hips, indignant. "I didn't chicken out! I had to take down the Trickster! Ask Bart, he was there," he said smugly, crossing his arms.

Bart nodded. "Yep, he's right."

Wally smirked. "There! You see?"

Bart looked at the two friends and shook his head in awe. "Wow… I didn't think I'd ever see this…"

Nightwing turned towards him. "See what?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"You two being all buddy buddy. I mean, there's a whole section devoted to you in the Flash Museum."

Nightwing looked up at Wally, thoroughly confused. "'Flash Museum'?"

Wally looked over at him. "He's from the future," he said nonchalantly.

Dick nodded. "Oh. So," he said, turning back towards Bart, "a whole section, huh?"

"Well… not a whole section. You're in the 'Friends of the Flash' section. But you and Green Lantern have like a quarter of the room each."

Wally smiled. "G.L has his own section?"

Nightwing smiled and turned back to his friend. "Well, I've got to get going."

"Where you off to?"

Nightwing's smile became a smirk. "Got a date."

Robin put his finger in his mouth, making a retching noise. "You're just jealous," Nightwing said before he turned and pulled Robin back downstairs by the cape. "Good to meet you, Kid Flash. And I'll see you on the weekend, Flash. Be prepared to lose a lot of money."

"In your dreams, buddy."

Nightwing and Robin left, leaving Bart looking up at Wally in puzzlement. Wally smiled back at him.

"Poker; I'll explain it to you someday." Wally pointed over his shoulder. "You want to get out of here?"

Bart nodded, but then stopped before he ran. "Hey, Wally?"

Wally turned to look at him, getting out of his 'preparing to run' position. "What's up?"

"Are you okay?"

Wally cocked his head slightly. "How'd you mean?"

"I mean the whole Hunter Zolomon thing. Are you okay?"

"What makes you think anything's wrong?"

Bart simply remained silent, raising an eyebrow at him. Wally laughed slightly, a sad look crossing his face.

"You've been spending too much time with Raven," he said quietly, turning to look out to sea, the water glistening from the sunset.

"So?" Bart said, walking over to Wally and standing alongside him. "Are you okay?"

Wally took a deep breath, keeping his eyes on the sunset. "I will be, I guess. It's just that… he was my best friend. And he decided that he would rather die than let me…" Wally trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Bart put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, but… you said yourself that the Hunter that you knew was gone, right? So… that wasn't Hunter who wouldn't let you help him; it was Zoom."

Wally smiled, continuing to stare at the descending sun. "Definitely been spending too much time with Raven…" He turned to look at Bart. "I'll be okay."

"Okay then," Bart said, walking towards the edge of the building. "Shall we go?"

"Let's do it," Wally said. "Bart?"

"Yeah, Wally?"

"Thanks."

"Anything for my great great great great… whatever you are."

Wally grinned fondly and sped away towards Central City, his partner in justice running alongside him easily. As the wind whipped past his face, filling his lungs, he felt his problems being washed from his body as though they never existed. He knew that as soon as he slowed down again, those problems would catch up to him again, but now it was different.

Now he wasn't alone.

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(A/N: Good? Bad? Review!)