A/N: Sooo, I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Wally's POV is always fun. Anyway, this is set during Bereft and begins a little bit before the very end of Chapter 5. I always love writing what goes on behind the scenes, so this is how I think Wally and Artemis ended up in the shack in the beginning. Hope you all enjoy! Please review!

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me. If Wally West belonged to me, I would be the only one allowed to play with him ;-) Any dialogue or plot that looks familiar belongs to DC and Greg Weisman and other people who are not me.

Summary: This is the story of Artemis and Wally and their evolution from teammates, to friends, to boyfriend and girlfriend, to husband and wife, to soul mates and everything and anything in between. Please review! XD

Genre: Friendship, Romance, Action/Adventure, Humor

Rating: T (just to be safe, it might go up later if I'm feeling particularly ambitious)

Characters: Artemis Crock, Wally West

The EVOLUTION of SOUL MATES

Evolution: the gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form.

Chapter 6: (Beautiful) Stranger

His stomach was what woke him at first, but being hungry when he first woke up in the morning was nothing new for Wally. A stifling heat surrounded him and he had a splitting headache. Groaning, he opened his eyes only to shut them tight against the blinding light. Instead of a soft pillow beneath his head, his cheek lay against a hard rock. Slowly, he opened his eyes again and used his hand to shield against the light, which he now realized was the sun. His eyes widened with shock as his surroundings came into focus. The only thing around him for miles and miles was sand.

What the hell? He thought to himself, idly brushing sand off of his body. Where am I? Why don't I remember how I got here? He slowly pushed himself off of the ground, surveying the area suspiciously. Wally looked himself over, and became even more confused when he realized the uniform he was wearing wasn't his customary Kid Flash yellow and red, but black. And why am I wearing this?

"Okay, keep cool, Wally," he said to himself. "Just try and remember where you were last."

Try as he might though, he couldn't come up with anything. His brain was unusually fuzzy and the heat and his hunger were not helping. By the look of the sun, it was probably about 10 o'clock. The temperature would just be rising, and Wally would be roasted alive if he didn't find shelter soon. He pulled his goggles down, picked a direction, and started running.

He wasn't going for long when he came upon her. She was in the shadow of a rock formation, but her bright green clothing and long blonde hair stuck out like a sore thumb. Never one to leave a damsel in distress, Wally skidded to a halt by her unconscious form. The first thing he noticed was the potentially threatening bow and slew of arrows that were slung across her back. The second was that she was gorgeous. Maybe there's an upside to this memory loss thing…

He deduced that she was around his age and seemed to be wearing a superhero get up too. Looks like a Green Arrow fan, he thought taking into account her uniform and her equipment. Maybe we came here together.

Without much internal debate he gingerly scooped her up into his arms, gratified when she didn't wake up. "Come on, babe," he said softly. "Let's go find some shelter."

He sped off again, unburdened by her slight weight. He tried to keep track of where he was going but couldn't help his eyes when they wandered to her face. He knew he'd never seen her before; he would have remembered a face like hers, he was sure. She had tan, olive skin with dark pink lips, and he knew that the golden hair that was flying over his shoulder had to reach down to her waist. She was beautiful, and, not to be a total creep, but she had one rockin' bod.

He was running for a few minutes when he came upon a small hut. He slinked closer, cradling the girl in his arms carefully. Peeking in the window, he saw that it was empty and shouldered his way inside through the curtained doorway. He didn't see any furniture in the small one room, so he set the beautiful stranger on the ground. There wasn't much to see inside. No water, no lighting, certainly no five-course meal, just some old crates and boxes. He sighed, wondering again how he had gotten here, wherever here was. Sure, sometimes weird things happened when he was on duty with the Flash, like that time he'd been trapped in Mirror Master's mirror landscape, but this was a little extreme.

He turned to look at the girl on the ground. Maybe she had some idea of how this had happened. He crouched down and gently shook her shoulder.

"Hey. Beautiful. Wake up."

The girls stirred and let out a groan. She opened her eyes and sat up, a hand going to rest on her head. He gave her what he hoped was a non-creepy smile so she wouldn't be freaked out, but no dice. As soon as she saw him, her eyes widened in shock and she let out a terrified gasp, shooting up so fast that she was against the wall of the hut within seconds. Her hands grasped her bow to her body tightly.

"It's okay, it's okay," Wally hurried to reassure her. "I won't hurt you. I'm one of the good guys. You know, Kid Flash."

She remained uncertain, her grey eyes piercing him intensely. "Seen Kid Flash on the news," she said. "He doesn't wear black."

Wally grimaced. "A little unclear about that myself," he admitted. He tried to smile at her charmingly. "What about you? Green Arrow fixation?"

The girl looked down at herself in alarm. "Who put me in this?" she cried.

Awkward. "Wow, I am not touching that with a ten foot, uh—" More awkward, Wallman. "So, you know how to use that bow?" he asked suddenly, helping to get on more comfortable ground.

"Yeah, my dad taught me," she whispered. Suddenly, she seemed to grow angry. "Dad. He must have done this," she fumed, looking down at her bow. "Another one of his stupid tests."

"What kind of test?" he asked curiously.

"He probably wants me to kill you," the girl said, so matter-a-factly that Wally almost didn't comprehend what she was saying. Almost.

Whoa, so not good. What are all the hot ones crazy?

Suddenly there was a noise whistling through the air. The both looked up at the same time, before Wally had the sense to grab her hand and flee the hut. It wasn't a moment too soon as the hut exploded the second they were outside. The force of the explosion caused Wally to lose his grip on her hand as the two were flung a few yards away. They landed on the sand next to each other and looked back to find a hummer and three tanks in the distance, past their decimated shelter.

This keeps getting weirder and weirder, Wally thought, as he and Blondie, as he had taken to calling the strange beauty in his head, made a run for it.

Bullets flew overhead, and missiles exploded nearby as they ran side by side. Wally had to hold off using his powers until he could safely grab her. She totally took him by surprise when she somersaulted and came up with one arrow nocked and aimed right at the hummer behind them. She let go and the arrow exploded right in the sand in front of the car, flipping it over and sending it careening over Wally's head. Wally looked at her in amazement. Dude, she's not just hot, she's a bad ass!

The tanks were now making their displeasure known and were firing on all cylinders. Blondie had taken cover behind some rocks and was returning their fire. Wally could see they were outnumbered though, and no matter how good of an archer the girl was, her arrows wouldn't stand a chance against those tanks. He pulled his goggles down and sped over to her, hooking one arm around her legs and another around her back. She gasped at the suddenness of his movement, but hooked her arms around his neck. He turned in the opposite direction and really kicked into high gear.

A few missiles exploded behind him and he breathed a sigh of relief that he'd gotten her out of there when he did. He could feel her pulling back to look at him, but didn't know if she was upset with him or not.

"Sorry, they've got bigger arrows!" he reasoned, zigzagging to keep the tanks from getting a clear shot of them. He pulled her closer and ran faster still as more explosions occurred around them.

Finally, they seemed to have gotten far enough away. Blondie pulled back from his chest slightly.

"Thanks," she said, their faces close together. Her eyes and her whole demeanor were solemn, and despite the situation they were in, Wally thought he would do anything in the world just to see her smile. He knew it would make her even more beautiful than she already was.

"Hey, I told you: good guy," he reminded her. "Now, uh, not to pry or anything, but, uh, what's your name? And what's this about you killing me?"

He was completely fascinated with her, which is why he hoped her answer to the second question was something along the lines of, 'Oh, I was totally joking about that.'

"I'm Artemis," she told him, averting her eyes and clearly not addressing the second question. Wally decided that, though he was burning with part curiosity and part dread, he wouldn't pry.

"Artemis," Wally echoed. "Greek goddess of the hunt, right? Well, you've definitely got the goddess part right, beautiful."

He watched as her cheeks flushed and a slight smile lit up her face. "You really are something, Kid Flash," she teased.

"Glad we agree on that, babe," he said. "Now, I don't know about you, but I don't remember how I got here, wherever we are. Any ideas?"

She shook her head, but he had a feeling she wasn't being truthful. He knew he should be suspicious of her after what she said, but he just couldn't. Somehow he knew that she wasn't a bad guy. No one that beautiful could ever be a bad guy. If that made him naïve, so be it.

"Those soldiers, though," she piped up. "I recognized them. They were Bialyan Republican Guards."

"Bialya? How the heck did I get to Bialya?" Wally asked.

"I don't know," she replied, resting her head against his shoulder.

He pulled her closer, sensing she needed some comfort. "Don't worry, Artemis," he said. "I promise we'll figure this out, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

He felt a surge of protectiveness for this girl he'd never met before. Sure, now that he'd seen her in action, he knew she was no damsel in distress, but that didn't mean she didn't need him. Everyone needed someone, and seeing as how it was just the two of them out here, it was up to him to make sure that nothing happened to her. He continued running across the hot sand, hoping they would find something, anything that would explain what they were both doing here.

A/N: I'm going to stop there. The next chapter is called Target and will pick up where this chapter ends with Artemis' POV. I'll hopefully get started writing that either tonight or tomorrow so I'm going to say it'll be up by Saturday or Sunday at the lastest.

Also, Artemis may seem a little girly/weak right at the end there, but there's a reason for that which will be explained in the next chapter :-)

Again, just want to say a big thanks to everyone reviewing! You guys are so sweet and all your comments make me laugh! Thanks so much for your continued support and please keep reviewing! I love to hear your thoughts as this progresses and I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying it. Thanks also to everyone who's put this story on alert, favorited it, or put me on author alert!

Anyway, please review! XD

Next chapter: Target