A Broken Heart, A Crying Soul
Genre: Angst
Rating: T
Pairings: Spitfire
Guest Stars: Robin, Artemis
NOTE: None
It started out as a normal day, then again everyday started out normal, the sun came up and alarms clocks rang. People went to work or school, everyday people, doing everyday things.
Nothing bad was supposed to happen today, but something bad did happened, a life was lost and that's how Wally found himself watching as a casket was lowered into a six feet deep hole never to come up again.
He wished he could go back in time and change it, could go back in time and save the friend he had just lost, but never knew he had.
The friend in question had only been 17.
Earlier that Day
Wally sat up against the couch; well actually he sat upside down on the couch, his feet hanging in the air and his head on the ground.
He smirked at Artemis walked by, "Hey Arty anything new going on up there?" He asked laughing at his own joke and Artemis, to his surprise, smiled a little before saying.
"Actually ya and I could really use your help with it," She told him, nonchalantly stealing popcorn from his bowl.
Ears perking up Wally righted himself and looked at her, "sure what's up?"
"Next month is the Winter Dance at my school, Ethan already asked me, but I'm not the best at um…figuring out what goes with what. However, Robin told me that you're good with colors and such could you uh…maybe help show me what works and what doesn't? Plus I may need help modifying whatever dress and strangely enough he told me you could sew…." She trailed off at the last part uncertain.
Wally's usually smile faltered for a moment and for a split second he thought about telling her no, telling her that Robin was just messing with her, but then again that wasn't really fair. Sighing he smiled up at her, "of course."
Artemis blinked, "You really sew?"
Wally groaned dramatically, "Sadly my lovely lady, yes." He flashed her a brilliant smile as he went on, "My mom and aunt taught me after they got tired of sewing up my costume, but I suppose I can put off getting my revenge on Robin until after I help you."
Artemis's laughed and her smile, to his surprise and her own, grew, "thanks, but I'm warning you if you make it awful on purpose I'm going to make you pay."
"I'd put money on that," Laughing once again at his own joke, before he gave her a confused look as a thought occurred to him. "Don't you have an older sister or mom for this kind of thing and if not why come to me? Why not Zatanna or M'gann?"
Artemis's face hardened for a moment and her grey eyes became storm clouds as she said, "I'd rather not talk about my family." And just as soon as the storm had come it passed as she continued, "as for M'gann and Zatanna they would dress me up like a Barbie doll, I want something simple."
Wally nodded, "alright then, if simple is what you want, simple is what you get."
Suddenly Robin darted into the room his face was pale and he spoke quickly. "There's a fire down in Gotham, Batman's off world we need to get there, now."
Artemis's heart fluttered, "where?" She asked quickly, as she watched Wally disappear and reappear in costume, lucky for her she was already in costume.
Robin hesitated and Artemis's eyes hardened, the Boy Wonder was nervous, he was never nervous.
"Robin where's the fire?" She growled.
Robin gulped and gave an address and Artemis's face grew pale as she hurried towards the Zeta Tubes with Wally and Robin.
"Artemis!" Wally yelled as he caught up with her. "Artemis what's wrong?!"
Artemis only said one sentence, but it made Wally's blood run cold, "That's Ethan's building." And with that she disappeared in a flash of light, with Wally and Robin racing after her.
LINE BREAK
Artemis yelped in surprise as someone scooped her up into their arms and darted off. She looked up to see Wally holding her tightly, Robin on his back.
"What are you doing?!" She screamed. "You're going to run yourself dry!"
"S'okay," he mumbled, obviously trying to conserve energy. "I'll be fine, besides we have to go save your boyfriend." He smirked, "I mean Edward's not gonna save himself."
Artemis growled, "Ethan and why are you even worried? You don't even know him!"
Wally's eyes were suddenly serious and hard a new look appeared on his face as he replied, "he's important to you right?"
Artemis gave him a confused look, "right."
"Then he's important to me."
Before Artemis could reply they were there and she watched in horror as the building in front of her burned wildly.
People were stumbling out, children and elderly, parents and teenagers, but none of them were Ethan.
The fire firefighters were working desperately and Artemis would've stood there for hours if Robin hadn't started to bark orders.
"Kid get inside carry out as many people as you can!" Robin turned to Artemis eyes studying her for a moment before he told her. "KF and I have this go find him."
Artemis nodded and raced into the building ignoring the fact that both Robin and Kid Flash now knew that she lived in Gotham.
"Ethan!" She screamed as she raced through the burning building, every now and then she would see a yellow blur rush by carrying people and she silently thanked Wally for helping these people.
However that didn't mean she wasn't. She stopped numerous times on the way to Ethan's apartment to help kids and adults alike. Sending grappling hook arrows down to the streets below, before hooking the people in and sending them down, but none of those people were Ethan.
Finally she found him stumbling blindly through smoke and rubble.
"Ethan!" She screamed, catching him as he fell, before her exhausted body collapsed under his weight. "Come on wake up." She begged him, shaking him violently finally he coughed and woke up pushing her away weakly.
"I have a girl…girlfriend," he mumbled slowly. "S..sorry…."
Artemis laughed, "I know." She sobbed. "I know. Please can you walk?"
She watched as he nodded slowly, black hair floating into his brown eyes as he stood shakily against her.
She smiled, he was safe and she reached for a grappling hook arrow on her back, only to gasp as her hand meant air. She was out. Eyes narrowing she helped her boyfriend along, muttering to him and herself.
"It's only a couple floors, we can make it, we can make it. Come on, get traught or get dead, get traught or get dead."
Suddenly the house lurched causing both of them to stumble forward and into an empty room. Ethan screamed as his leg bent in a way it shouldn't.
"Ethan!" Artemis screamed. "I did not come all this way, find you alive, drag you down three flights of stairs, only to have you die on me! Do you understand?!"
Ethan's eyes were filled with pain as he looked up at her, somehow managing to smile, "you're her aren't you?"
Artemis blinked caught off guard by the question, "What do you mean?"
"You're Arty, my girlfriend, I've known for a while surprised no one else has noticed." He coughed as she started to pull him towards a window, they were only a few floors up with a little luck Kid Flash would see them and help. "I mean Artemis the student, Artemis the hero, both with blond hair and gray eyes. People are idiots."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied effortlessly.
"Yes you do," coughing again as he smiled at her.
Artemis looked at him for moment before nodding, "Ya you're right, but why tell me now? Why haven't you mentioned it before?"
"I figured you would tell me when you were ready."
"So why tell me now?"
"Because we both know that only one of us is going to get out and it's going to be you," Ethan told her seriously.
"What no! You're coming with me! We're both getting out!"
The building creaked and moaned.
Ethan smiled softly as he leaned against an ash covered wall, and reached towards her pulling her tightly into a hug.
"I love you, you know that right?"
Artemis felt tears coming to her eyes, "stop it! Stop it were both getting out! Kid Flash will show up he'll save us! He'll save you!"
Ethan's brown eyes saddened and he looked at her, "you know that's not true, he's helping the others." He studied her for a moment before asking, "you like him don't you?"
Artemis eyes widened, "What no…him…Kid Mouth? No way!"
Ethan smiled, "yes you do. I've known it since you became so protective of him back when Cold attacked. Knew you were Archer Girl then too, that confirmed it. But I want you to know that I didn't care I still love you."
Artemis wasn't stopping the tears now as the house moaned and shook, "stop! We're getting out! Stop!"
She felt Ethan's lips slowly kiss her forehead as he clutched her tightly, "I love you Blondie," those were the last words Ethan said to her before he covered her body with his and the building collapsed onto them.
LINE BREAK
Wally watched in horror as the building collapsed, "Artemis!" He screamed rushing to the rubble and digging through it rapidly, she couldn't be gone, she wouldn't leave him again, she'd promised she wouldn't. What felt like hours later he found her, but he almost wished he hadn't.
She was sobbing loudly, performing CPR on an unconscious body, "Don't you dare do this to me!" She screamed and Wally watched in silence as she attacked the dead body in front of her. "Don't you dare! I swear if you do I'll kill you!"
Red blood was spilling out of the body, forming around the sharp metal pipe that was lodged halfway through his body. He'd saved her, if he hadn't been protecting her that silver pipe would've dug into the blond's chest instead.
It didn't take a genius to know just who the boy on the ground was and Wally felt his heart fall, he'd failed her, he'd failed to make her happy. It was all his fault, if only he had been faster, if only he had been Flash.
She was pounding on his chest wildly screaming his name, screaming for him to come back, before sobbing into the dead boy's chest.
Wally ran up to her and knelt down placing a hand on her shoulder, "Artemis I'm so—"
Before he could finish she had turned around sharply and flung her arms around him, sobbing loudly into his chest.
"He saved my life," she sobbed. "He could've saved himself, he saved my life instead. He knew who I was Wally! He knew and and…." Her words were lost to her sobs as she cried loudly. "Why did he have to die?! Why? It's not fair?! We had plans! We were going to the dance! We were going to ditch it after a couple of minutes with some other scholarship kids because we didn't want to be with the rich snobs! Why?! Why couldn't it have been me?! I'm the hero! I'm supposed to die protecting people not him!"
Gulping Wally slowly wrapped his arms around the crying girl and hugged her tightly, "I'm so sorry." He told her softly. "I'm so so sorry."
A crowd slowly gathered around the grieving heroes and everyone hung their heads, people would argue over many things that day.
Whether the girl in green deserved to be a hero after she let the poor boy die? Whether or not Kid Flash or Robin should've been able to help? And so forth, but there was one thing everyone would agree on.
Everyone in that crowd agreed that the lifeless body lying in the rubble was a hero, and he would always be one.
Line Break
The day started out normal, the sun came up and alarm clocks rang with it, but it ended in horror, with sorrow, with grief.
Wally watched the blond girl who was crying loudly, her black dress blowing in the wind, those weren't the colors Wally had wanted her to wear, but they were the colors that fate had chosen.
He stared helplessly as he read the new grave stone that now stood.
Ethan Kevin Brooks
(January 18, 1994—-2013)
Brother, Son, Friend, Hero
He will be missed
Wally bowed his head, he should've been faster, he should've been able to speed into the building grab him and get out, but he wasn't.
His green eyes once again roamed to the crying blond and he wondered if he'd ever be able to heal her heart.
"Are you sure you believe that? Does Ethan really deserve to die?"
-One of my Review Replies
I began hinting about Ethan's death every since the chapter Aster (13 chapters ago) and now it's finally happened
I actually went through a lot of drafts trying to decide how exactly I wanted the Ethan and Artemis relationship to end. Sometimes he broke her heart, sometimes Wally admitted his love and Arty left Ethan, other times Artemis just ended it for whatever reason (at one point she ended it when she caught him cheating with another girl when he saved him and his date during hero patrol) but I ended up with this idea
I decided that I was tired of Ethan being the villain, I wanted him to be the hero and so he was, to the end
Now I beat all you people who wanted him dead feel guilty am I right?
(I apologize if this chapter doesn't line up very well with past chapters it was written very early on)
Review Replies
I Want To Remain Anonymous: Ya…probably and yes I shall run (just like Wally did before he disappeared…*more pitchforks* What too soon?) XD Can't believe I just made that joke….now I kinda feel bad
SpitfireChick: So tell me are you gonna hunt me down with pitchforks? I mean after all Artemis and Ethan aren't together anymore
KyaTessa: So it was you! *glares* It's all your fault XD Just kidding anyways ya I agree I don't think they would've kept Wally dead, in fact originally they were going to kill off Barry, but chose Wally cuz it would have a bigger impact on the fans
READINGhearts17: :D Thanks
Vandalia Sakura: Very true :D
Kamil the Awesome: It's okay to each his/her own, sometimes you like it sometimes you don't
Mimo123d: Thanks
Irenerb: Thank you :D
RockyLover: Dang it! Why did I think of that?
Randomkitty101: Thank you :D
ShadowlightStarlight: Even the bad ones XD
Cary99: Thanks
XxNeonShadowsxX: Lex Luthor wasn't there….but yes that would indeed be funny XD Anyways I know I wish that there'd been more Dick and Wally brother stuff, but I guess Jaime and Bart sorta took over as the new best friend duo in season 2
REVIEW PLEASE
Also I have a new story up called He's Gone that's about Wally's death told from Mary West (his mom's) point of view/when Artemis tells them
And a second chapter for that story to come, please go check it out….Please I want to know if other people like it as much as I do