Chapter Seventeen
Any other time it would be almost comical to see four superheroes in full costume crammed into a Dodge minivan, but Artemis wasn't in any mood to laugh. The husband and wife they'd waved down outside of the northeast Zeta Station, after getting over the initial shock of seeing the Dark Knight standing in the middle of the road in broad daylight, had been more the generous, They were mid westerners after all, and oh how they loved their superheroes. It was definitely going to be a story the expectant parents would tell their baby girl for years to come.
"How much longer?" Dick demanded, his anxiety breaking through his well-crafted calm exterior.
"Roughly fifteen minutes," Batman answered, turning to his goateed co-pilot. "Arrow?"
Ollie looked one last time at the holo-projector on his wrist tied directly into the computer banks onboard the Watchtower. "The GPS on his phone hasn't moved in an hour, he's there or at least his phone is."
"Any contact?"
"The satellite support staff has been calling nonstop to the labs for the last thirty minutes, but all calls are going straight to voice mail, including the facilities director. They either won't respond…."
"Or they can't," Artemis added with troubled tightness in her husky voice.
"Any police reports, anything out of the ordinary?" Dick asked
Ollie looked back to his wrist, changing the readout. "Nothing."
With that news, the quartet remained silent for the rest of the trip, there wasn't really anything left to say.
xxx
Wally lay on the make shift gurney, his arms heavily duct taped to the rails. This wasn't a medical facility; it wasn't designed for human testing. It was a physics lab pure and simple, and he and Tina had had to scramble to get the pieces they needed to fit, including using a first-aid wagon as a medical bed, and sticky polyurethane mesh as restraints.
On either side of the bed sat two sets of Tesla coils and multi-megavolt electrodes, connected by forty foot strands of pre-rigged fire wire stretched in between. Creating the lightning, scientifically speaking, was a fairly easy process. A high energy electrical pulse is created. It evaporates the wire and an electrical arc follows the path. Longer lasting lightning bolts are arranged by running a series of wires, and firing them simultaneously in quick succession.
The plan, if you could call it that, would be to create the surge, while at the same time releasing the compounds in the form of a fine fist, dousing the subject with the electrified chemicals before directing one final powerful bolt to strike the test subject. On paper extremely feasible, the subject actually surviving the process, not as much, but Wally had beaten the odds one before.
The time for modesty long past, Tina stood by the speedster, removing his shirt and pants, as well as his watch and jewelry. Wally visibly jerked when she slid of his wedding ring, suddenly feeling extremely vulnerable without it.
"I'll keep them safe I promise," she said, gently stroking the speedster's cheek, trying to comfort him.
"I know you will."
"Wally," she sighed, "There's still time to back out. There's has to be another way. You have the entire Justice League on your side, surely they can stop him."
"I wish I could believe that," he replied, swallowing hard," but every time I close my eyes, I see Thawne standing over my kids while I'm sitting there helpless. I can't do that."
Tina could hear his voice tremble; she could see the tears forming in his eyes. He was terrified, but she knew it wasn't a fear of dying; it was abandoning his kids, leaving them unprotected and alone. They were his whole life; nothing mattered more.
It was a sickening game he played in his head, trying to justify and compartmentalize a decision that was so fundamentally flawed on so many levels. Aunt Iris would take the twins without hesitation. She'd be an amazing surrogate mother. His parents would step in and help everyway they could; Iris and Jai were their treasures. Bart would watch out for them and be the big brother they always wanted.
Then there was the Justice League. If this didn't work, if he didn't survive it, they'd find a way somehow to keep his children safe. He had to believe that, it was all he had left.
Finally there was nothing left but the fall. She placed the plastic mouth guard in between his teeth, squeezing his hand one final time and left for the safety of the control behind the glass. It was time.
The first thing he heard was the gentle hiss of air clearing the nozzles as the compound began to release, leaving a moist sheen across his bare skin. It burned more than he remembered. The chemicals alone would take at least an hour before causing his skin to blister, but the worst part was yet to come.
Dr. McGee stood over the control board, seeing all readings as nominal. She peered through the glass at the subject strapped to the table, the generators humming, the Tesla coils beginning to spark. At that moment it dawned on her that she'd suddenly become Dr. Frankenstein. She morosely hoped Wally would live long enough to become the monster.
The speedster prayed he would blackout like he did all those years ago, being electrocuted alive was not a memory he'd like to keep. As the generators around him began to spark, the vision of Linda Park entered his mind. If he was wrong, if he died on this table, would he see his wife again? Would she be angry that he'd done such a stupid and foolish thing leaving her babies unprotected? This opened the doors to so many thoughts and fears, but as the first jolt of pain shot through his body, they quickly faded. The pain would keep him clear.
"We'll start at 10,000 volts and go from there," he heard Tina's voice amplified over the intercom. All he could muster was a shaky thumbs up in response.
Streaks of lightning began to arc over his head, the spray of chemical growing stronger, soaking and absorbing into his pores. Mild convulsions rocked his body, it was expected. He bit down hard on the mouth guard and powered through the pain. It was only going to get worse from here.
He closed his eyes as the bolts grew stronger, his convulsions more violent. Wally held his breath trying to muffle his screams. Tina had promised to ignore them and continue on with the experiment, he prayed she had the resolve to live up to that promise. There was no turning back from here.
Two bolts came together simultaneously inches from his skin, leaving a glowing burn trailing across his chest. His rigid body began to seize more violently, straining forcefully against the restraints.
The electrical hum around him was growing louder, each streak of light dancing across the room more blinding. Through his haze Wally could sense something wasn't right. Something had changed.
He no longer could hear the hiss of the nozzles, feel the burning compound that it was supposed to be releasing. All he could feel was the agonizing bursts of lightning growing stronger with each strike. The smell of burning flesh filled the room, his flesh. The stench was nauseating.
He began to panic, spitting out his mouth guard and screaming over the electrical storm. "The compound!" he rasped over the humming and popping of the coils. "Tina check the compound! I can't feel it anymore!"
He cried out as his skin began to ignite, begging for the coma he'd fallen into all those years ago. He was in sheer agony now, with no end in sight. Why hadn't she sent that final bolt to supercharge the particles rushing through his bloodstream? What was she waiting for?
Blinding light burned into his retina and he couldn't think clearly anymore. His flesh was tender and pink, blistering and bubbling away. With his last clear thought he knew they'd failed, it was over.
Foam and bile bubbled up from his throat as he struggled to breathe. Swirls of gold and red lighting intermingled, creating a hypnotic final effect. His neurons were dying, it wouldn't be long now.
Red lightning
Oh god
The storm suddenly ende, the chamber powering down and cooling. His body oozed as he turned towards the control panel, chunks of charred flesh falling of his bones onto the floor with every muscle constriction. Through broken blood vessels, he watched Tina McGee's body slump to the floor and Zoom's sinister sneer standing beside her. Nanoseconds later he was straddling the dying hero.
"Wallace you've looked better," he chuckled dryly, hiding his own urge to wretch at the sights and scents of his helpless enemy."
"Why….?" Wally rasped, coughing up thick clumps of black blood.
"It's nothing you did dear Wallace, it's what you will do. Already I can feel my future changing, because none of you are in it."
Thawne pulled the mask from his face, so he could look unobstructed into Wally's broken eyes. "It's ironic. Of all of us, you and I were the most alike, men of science. In another life we might even have even been friends, allies. Unfortunately you would still have your code, your morals, whereas I don't suffer such restrictions."
"What I'm trying to accomplish I know you'll understand more than anyone else. I have to know what's on the other side of the event horizon. I have to understand its mysteries. I want to be one with the Speed Force. I want to be unique, the last of my kind. Christlike," he laughed, "if I believed in such things. And I couldn't accomplish this as long as you lived."
"I've been as patient as I could be, but I'm tired of this ridiculous charade; subjecting myself to your petty laws, sitting in a cell that had no chance of holding me to begin with, hiding my true nature from the world. I waited, waited till you all had become fat and complacent. Till you'd become sheep. None of you wanted to take that last step, too content with your pathetic little lives. I thought taking Barry would prompt you all to search for the answer, to investigate the mystery like I was, but instead you let yourself become…" he gestured to Wally's blackened and bloody body… "this"
"I have no desire to rule, I don't want riches or power. I want answers, answers to the great mystery. In my future, my past future really, you all would thwart me time and again, but those days are past. I've removed you all from the equation."
He looked down at the dying man, not with satisfaction as much as pity. "I'm rambling, forgive me."
Zoom then pulled the mask back on, his rare moment of humanity now hidden behind glowing eyes and modulated voice.
"I wanted you to be last, I tried, I really did, I knew you, more than any of the others, would understand, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity. Rest assured Bartholomew will be joining you shortly. I will make this promise to you. He won't suffer. You have my word."
Wally eyes fluttered, choking on tar like blood, struggling to stay alive. Sadly Thawne realized the speedster beneath him, in his condition, may not have been able to understand a word he said, but he'd made his act of contrition, he bared his soul and was now ready to move on.
"Noooooo!" a scream erupted from the control room, as Artemis and the others rushed in. Batman shattered the glass just as Zoom's blurred hands sunk into Wally's charred and bloodied chest. Seconds later Wally's body began to glow. Burning brightly like a star. Zoom's concentration never wavered, and there was no chance any of them would remotely reach him in time, no way to stop him.
Wally's hairless scorched face turned towards the sound, his eyes meeting with hers once last time, and then… he was gone.
Time stopped as Artemis found herself back in that refinery a decade ago. It was now her turn to be on the other side of the blast door, her turn to stand helpless. There'd be no words of comfort shared, no promises that everything would be all right. She would never have to imagine the visions of her demise that Wally must have created in his mind.
She'd never be able to count his faded freckles again, to feel the touch of his tender lips, the warmth of his body. And she'd never be able to tell him she was in love with him all over again. Those words would never be spoken.
In slow motion she barely noticed Dick and Bruce crashing through the control room window into the lab, never saw Oliver giving the thumbs up to them when he found the pulse of the fallen doctor. It never fazed her when Dick fell to his knees by the chalky outline of where the speedster's body once lay. She was past all that now.
Artemis didn't cry, she didn't hurt, that part of her was dead once again. The woman left in her place only craved one thing; bloody, excruciating, merciless revenge. To do this she'd have to go to that place once more, she'd have to become a Shadow again, and even if it meant her life, Zoom would die.
xxx
The Batplane landed stealthily on the outskirts of Gotham as its passengers quietly disembarked. It had been a silent flight from Central City. Batman had left the remaining investigation to Green Arrow and the League CSI team in order to provide transportation back to New York to regroup. There was nothing else they could do there now.
Words of comfort were not the Dark Knight's strong suit, but there was very little left to say at this point. All of them, including himself, had lost someone special, and they'd have barely enough time to grieve before being forced to suit up again and continue on with the mission. The hunt for Zoom would now be the League's number one priority. Bart Allen would still need protection, and someone…someone would have to inform the Wests. Bruce decided he'd rather face a team of Joker's as compared to that task. He wasn't the man for the job, and right now he had no idea who was.
Standing off in the distance awaiting the jets arrival sat two parked cars. Barbara Gordon and Roy Harper leaned against Dick's black Mercedes Benz while Jade Nguyen sat alone in Harper's 1970's red Galaxie Convertible.
Dick walked silently to the vehicles head downtrodden as he approached the archer and detective. Roy grasped him tightly as Dick returned the steel embrace before turning and taking his fiancé into his arms, cradling her head as she sobbed silently, streaks of mascara streaking down her cheeks.
Roy turned to find Jade now standing outside the convertible as Artemis approached. They stood silently for a moment looking at each other until Jade reached out to embrace her sister. Before her arms could touch the blonde, Artemis knocked her sister's hands away and got into the back of the car.
"Let's go."
Roy nodded respectfully to Dick as he closed the driver's side door and pulled away. Through his embrace Barbara watched the trio drive off, hurt that her friend couldn't find the decency to at least let her extend some kind of comfort. Barbara knew how much Wally had meant to Artemis, she understood he was the real reason she'd come back.
The archer and the speedster together again. They'd shared a small sliver of happiness, a hope and desire of something more, but now that hope was gone, brutally torn away in front of her eyes. Barbara worried that she might never see archer again, at least not the one that had returned from the dead.