Ch 22: Separation
AN: What's this? An update? It's a Christmas New Years Miracle! But really, I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in ages. This semester was sucky, then I lost the voice and wasn't able to find it since I've been on break. Thank you all so much for your patience and support in the interim, especially to MarkinOrlando, who regularly (though very politely) kept checking that I was working on this.
P.S. My New Years Resolution is to finish this by its anniversary on March 26, so, wish me luck. (Please. I really don't know if I can do this.) Anyways, Happy New Years, y'all.
XxXxX
Previously, on Fixations:
"Batman to the League; Watch Tower is under attack. Operate Defense Routine Sigma, with evacuation plan Priori Theta. Requesting back up from Alpha League members stat."
Batman and Nightwing turn down another hallway and the Tower shakes again. Lambent red tendrils rush down the corridor towards them, and their priorities have to shift to keeping themselves alive.
XxXxX
Wally groans as he hits the mats in the training room. Again.
"C'mon. Get up. Just for a couple more rounds. We have a lot of work to do to get your shoddy hand-to-hand skills back to a reasonable level." Wally sits up to glare at his Kryptonian friend. M'gann and Artemis, who are watching from the side, laugh.
"I can't, Conner. I…I think I'm dying!" Wally calls out dramatically, laying back on the floor. He clutches his chest and leans up just enough to say, "Tell… J.J. Abrams…. To dedicate the next Star Trek to me," before flopping back, eyes closed and tongue hanging out.
"Sorry Wall Man. No can do. Didn't you hear that he's moved on? He's directing the next Star Wars movie instead."
"What?!" Wally leaps to his feet at his girlfriend's news. "That traitor!"
Just as she's about to snark back, the room shudders, leaving the four scrambling for balance.
"What just happened?"
M'gann's eyes glow, and she pulls them into the mindlink, passing along Dick's realization. "The Anomaly's here."
XxXxX
"Batman to the League; Watchtower is under attack. Operate Defense Routine Sigma, with evacuation plan Priori Theta. Requesting back up from Alpha League members stat."
J'onn's heart freezes.
No. No.
The Watchtower is home. Home is supposed to be safe. It can't be under attack.
Like peaceful Mars couldn't be under attack, one corner of his mind whispers.
Another corner is counting. Who am I going to lose? Clark and Diana were called down before him. Mission control was looking for Shayera as he was heading out. The three of them might be safe. The others, though… Bruce is making the call, so he must have finally left the safety of his cave for the 'Tower. John had been having lunch with the Team, last J'onn heard. That means Wally is up there too, as is M'gann. No.
It's not fair.
J'onn never leaves the Watchtower. He should be there, protecting his family. Keeping his loved ones safe. Defending his home, his League, his niece. He's just met her, just remembered how glorious it is to share heart-thoughts with another.
It's not fair.
The comm line goes dead before he can prepare a response. So does his teleportation beacon. He's not going to be able to back them up. No one, is most likely.
It's not fair.
J'onn resists the urge to close his eyes, instead swallowing and working up the strength to crush his negative thoughts. There's nothing he can do for them now. He turns back to his enemies – the reason he's here and not with them. His eyes glow as he fights the rage in his heart.
J'onn's restraint doesn't keep him from enjoying the fear in their eyes.
XxXxX
They make it to Batman and Nightwing just seconds before a crash shudders through the Watchtower, leaving them floating in darkness. The power must have cut out, taking lights and the artificial gravity system with it.
Screams emanate around them even as panicked voices sound in Wally's mind; M'gann can't pull Bats into the link.
I can't feel him! I don't know what- I can't tell where- M'gann has had long years to practice filtering strong emotions from the mindlink. Even so, none of them miss the rushed quiver in her "voice."
M'gann! It's okay! I'm sure he's just… knocked out or shielding you or something. Dick tries to assure her, though his words are hesitant. M'gann's answering silence is thick. Wally imagines that, if there were light right now, he could see M'gann's eyes widen as she tried to set he face in a more neutral mask.
Wally's about to say something to comfort them when an eerie red glow illuminates the bay as fire suddenly bursts from the floor. Part of it forms into tendril and shoots straight toward them. Kaldur wards it off at the last minute by pulling a cocoon of water around them from the now-useless wall pipes. Cozy blue replaces threatening red as Kaldur's tattoos glow from his persistent effort to shield them. The movement pushed Artemis close enough to grab Wally's hand, and her comforting squeeze reminds him that they have bigger problems to worry about than one person, no matter how good a friend Bats is. He's fine. He has to be.
The rush of water around them drowns out the sound well enough that Wally can finally hear the tiny voices echoing through the comm in his ear.
"It killed the power!"
"Then get the back-up generators running!"
"Those were the back-up generators! The primary reactor was taken out in the first attack."
"We'll have to evacuate then. Life support can't run. Teleporters are a no-go, but the Javelins have their own power supply…"
"Uh, yeah. That's not going to work. The Javelin bay seems to be on fire. Malevolent, red, glow-y fire."
A series of curses resound across the comm link.
Wally takes a deep breath and chimes in by asking, "What's wrong with the reactor?"
"The Anomaly knocked it-"
"Specifically."
"Primary reactors got jostled in that last crash. Even with Icon's tech, the plasma's toroidal current was never very stable. The jolt instigated a Major Disruption and damaged the inner shielding. With the back-up generators down and unable to pump air in to reduce the pressure differential from the vacuum, we can't get in to check for debris. Even if we could fix that, the initiator flywheel was dislodged, and we don't have anyway to get it going again. Without that there's no way to-"
"-Overcome the activation energy of the reactor to get the plasma up to temperature. Yeah. I know."
Chatter continues over the line and in his mind, but Wally doesn't notice. For the first time in ages, Wally lets his mind slip back its favorite place: science.
He's the obvious choice to get the flywheel started; all their heaviest hitters are planet-side, so a strong impulse isn't going to work. He might be able to induce a non-zero angular momentum by running counter to it, which would allow the angular momentum to remain zero. It's been a while since Wally's seen the thing – probably back when the Atom thought his miniaturization tech might combine well with the Martian tech in the system and he observed some of the upgrades– but he's fairly confident the set up will allow him to run inside the wheel. That means, once he gets going, centripetal force will hold him to its surface.
The shielding… that will be trickier to fix. He'll probably have to… Wally quickly pulls that train of thought off that track before the others notice. Deliberately avoiding those thoughts, he says, "Hey Kaldur… Remember that time you helped us go surfing on Lake Wynonna? How you pushed us around with your hydrokinesis?"
"…Yes."
"Can you do an encore of that and get me down to the reactor room? I might be able jury-rig something to get it running again."
"M'gann would be faster-"
"M'gann's telekinesis can stabilize a larger number of people and give them a fighting chance against the Anomaly's blasts," Wally counter before Dick can finish.
The six glance among themselves. He can feel their reluctance to split up through the mental link. In that moment of hesitation, a piercing scream echoes down the corridor, and any qualms in their minds are squashed.
Kaldur nods. "Okay."
Wally grins, and calls on the comm, "I'll be right down to see what I can do. Anyone that can, hold perimeter around the reactor bay so it doesn't get damaged any further."
As he speaks, Wally can feel M'gann preparing herself to telekinetically yank the other three out of the way when Kaldur drops the water shield. They don't know what's out there, so they have to be ready to move in three, two, one….
Water swirls and red flickers into Wally's vision, trying to drown out the blue at his side. The vortex of light gives the speedster a bad case of vertigo, but Kaldur seems to have it under control, so he doesn't complain. For the moment, Wally just needs to relax. He lets the water enveloping him push him along, trusting that the heartbeat at his side won't guide him wrong. Luckily, Kaldur's used to fighting in three dimensions; the Atlantean seems to have no problem navigating the dim corridors and their fiery obstacles.
Wally can see through the others' eyes that they're on the offensive again, heading towards the main bay. M'gann's found her center and they're using her telekinesis as a brace for their attacks, to great effect. Wally allows himself a single moment to mentally cheer for Artemis as one of her liquid nitrogen arrows saves Ice from a less-than-chilly demise. Then, they're in the reactor bay, and Wally has to focus.
The reactor, while a hybrid of alien and terrestrial technology, is similar enough to a Tokomak fusion reactor in design that Wally can identify its major components with his rather dusty knowledge from back at Stanford. Vixen has taken on the power of some sort of gecko; she's on all fours, stuck to the containment shielding to guard against attack. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are hovering around the flywheel, doing their best to maneuver it back into alignment in the dim light of Booster's rockets. Wally mentally checks their work; it looks satisfactory enough to last for one run.
"Flash? What are you two doing down here?" Vixen calls from her post.
"I told you I was coming down. I think I can restart the flywheel. Are the magnets damaged?" Booster Gold shakes his head.
"No. We shouldn't have a problem stopping it to 'steal' its energy if you can get this thing up to speed."
"Hey now! Don't doubt the fastest man alive!" Wally throws a cocky grin on for good measure. The others roll their eyes, and Wally bends down to pull of his boots. "Hold these for me?"
Kaldur frowns in puzzlement. "Why did you take off your footwear?"
"These boots're designed to reduce friction when I run, but in this case, friction is exactly what we need."
"That's going to burn your feet pretty bad," Artemis whispers in his mind.
"It'll be fine. You need to focus," he chastises as she only barely dodges another blast.
"Psh. I could do this in my sleep, Baywatch. You just take care of yourself." Wally can't help but smile at his Love's stubbornness.
"Okay…" Kaldur acquiesces.
"How are you going to do this?" Blue Beetle asks. "Do you need out help?"
Wally shakes his head. "Nah. Kaldur'll brace me 'till I get moving fast enough for the centripetal force to hold me down." He looks at his friend. "Pull me off just before they reconnect the reactor and brace me against the containment unit so I can vibrate in. I'll have to check the inner shielding and remove any contaminating debris."
"Um, Flash? When we hit the switch, it's going to charge the plasma in there up to thousands of degrees. In the interest of you not getting fried and Hawkgirl not killing us, why don't you do it in the other order?"
"If I go in now, gravity's till off. There's nothing to push against in there, so there's no way to get back out." Wally shrugs; this is an obvious problem to him. "No, I'm going to have to get out between gravity kicking back in and the plasma's heat radiating to the shield walls."
"But that'll give you only a fraction of a second between gravity kicking on and the heat of the Plasma overwhelming you! If you miss-time it by even a millisecond-"
"Hey! What did I say about doubting the Fastest Man Alive?" Wally jokes as Kaldur's water tendrils position him on the wheel.
Of course. It doesn't go as smoothly as all that.
The flywheel accelerates just fine, and Wally vibrates through the containment walls without issue. Even the damage to the inner shielding is less extensive that Wally could have hoped; he can easily remove the few pieces of debris large enough to mess with the plasma flow. It's only when Wally glances at the central toroid as he prepares to vibrate back out that he realizes the problem.
Somehow, the coiled wire at the center that generates the magnetic field that contains the plasma was knocks out of alignment. It shines cruelly in the light of the headlamp Booster sent in with him, mocking him with its tilted position.
Wally's brain kicks into overdrive, and the world slows down even further. If the reactor is sparked with the toroid out of alignment, the magnetic field will send the plasma spiraling out and destroy the shielding. This will probably also vaporize anything else that gets in its way, specifically, Wally himself.
Even as he processes this, Wally sees a spark as electricity arcs down through the toroid. With little more thought, Wally launches himself off the wall of the reactor. He stretches out his arms as he flies towards the center of the reactor and loops his arm around the center stand. In the same motion, he reaches up to click the toroid's stand back into place even as electricity strikes it, making it glow beneath his fingers.
He has no time to even cry out from the pain of his burned fingers; he throws himself back towards the reactor's walls in the same nanosecond, just as gravity kicks on. Heat pounds at his back, but he's a quarter-halfway-all the way back through! A pair of strong hands catch him as he slumps forward out of the containment shielding. It's too bright in the suddenly-relit bay to look, but he knows its Kaldur.
"Well done, my friend." The Atantean whispers in his ear. Their friends are cheering in the back of his mind; he watches through their eyes as they organize a counter attack now that they can properly move and see.
Wally doesn't move for a long (to a speedster) while after that. The adrenalin of the past few seconds is gone, and he's acutely aware of his new burns. Luckily, Kaldur doesn't seem to mind waiting for his healing to kick in. Still, the second he can stand to run without flinching, Wally takes his boots back from Kaldur.
"Thanks." He swiftly pulls the most important part of his uniform back on. Without warning him, Wally scoops up his friend, and books it back to the main bay, repaying the Atlantean for his earlier transportation help. "I am so ready to go kick some Anomaly butt!"
XxXxX
Artemis knows this isn't working when Dick gets knocked out of a flip right after M'gann gets burned by one of the fiery blasts. There're just too many people up here to get them all out quickly, and too little they can do against the barrage of attacks to hold up much longer. So far, their greatest asset is Wally's ability to pull most people out of the way of the Anomaly's blasts. If he stumbles, though, or the Anomaly thinks to knock the reactor out again...
They're never going to hold the Watchtower long enough for everyone to retreat. Their only chance is to draw off the attack. The only thing that might do that is…
Artemis spins to yell at Mr. Terrific, who is operating the teleportation platforms. "Send Wally next! He needs to get out of here!"
"What? No! We can't leave all these people here! I'm the only one who can-" Her boyfriend protests as he dashes across the Bay to pull Dove to safety. She cuts him off.
"Drawing off the attack is the only way we can save everyone."
Kaldur glances at her, and she sees his gray eyes harden as they meet hers. Kaldur is Tigress's partner, her partner, and knows exactly what she's getting at. He snags Wally on the speedter's next pass near the Team, and shoves him into Artemis' hold.
"She's right." He turns from addressing the Team to speak straight to her. "Take Wally and go. We'll hold it off for now." The others mentally nod in agreement.
"Thank you," she whispers to him as she drags a still-protesting Wally to the teleporter platform. "Let's go, Baywatch. I'd hate for this place to get knocked out of the sky. All of your hard work would go to waste."
XxXxX
Wally's not sure where they materialize, just that it is a dessert in every stereotypical sense of the word: the heat is searing, the sand is grating, and the horizon is empty.
"Well… this is fun." He comments as he kicks at the ground. He tries to inflect some humor into his voice, but Artemis' responsive smile doesn't reach her eyes.
"Well, at least there's not way the Anomaly would ever look for you here."
"Yeah… we just need to hope it gives up on the 'Tower too…" She doesn't say anything to that; she just takes his hand in hers.
Suddenly, Wally realizes how tired he really is. They've been pushing through crisis after crises for four days. A week before that, they were escaping the Legion's headquarters, and for the two weeks before that, he had been held prisoner and tortured. It makes him weary to realize how much has happened, and how little progress they've actually made against their true enemy. No. How little progress they've made and how much they might have just lost to the Anomaly. Wally really doesn't want to think about it, but how can he not? He's just left his friends to die, and even Artemis' presence isn't enough to assuage that guilt.
"Are you okay, Wall Man?"
Yes, He wants to say. It's what he's said every time someone had asked that question since he'd come to this dimension. He can't lie to Artemis, though. He hasn't been able to for years. Instead, he says, "I don't know."
Maybe that's not the full truth either, but it's the best he can give her without saying, "I need your plan to work. I can't lose them."
She understands. He leans down to touch his forehead to hers, hoping he can absorb some of her strength by being closer to her.
It's because they're so focused on each other that they don't notice the wind change at first. It's a subtle change, noticeable only in the way the sand at their feet is suddenly kicked up in a spiral, but still the warning would have given them a much-needed head start. They notice only seconds later, as the wind increases in intensity, but it's too late. Scarlet runes glow at their feet, and lambent red flames burst from the ground to encircle them.
This would normally not be enough to keep Wally contained. He's run through flames before and he has an obligation to get Artemis out of here, no matter the pain it might cause him. Unfortunately, he's already tried this tactic on the Watchtower, so he knows this doesn't behave like normal fire.
Wally's considering how he might use his speed to just launch Artemis out of the flames, so that she, at least, will make it out of this when the walls of their fiery prison grow, arching over them and completely sealing them in. Wally can already feel the heat dragging him down as the oxygen in their dome grows thin. The Anomaly must be done playing games. It isn't even going to have to blast them to kill them; suffocation will do just fine. Wally doesn't let the panic get to him until he hears Artemis' voice.
"We're not going to make it out of this." The statement is flat. There is no worry or despair in Artemis' voice. Of course, there's not hope either. She's stating a fact. Wally can't bear that.
"Please don't give up." He begs, cupping her face as they sink to their knees. Her watering eyes push his brain into overdrive; he won't let her die like this. Suddenly, inspiration comes to him. He wants to kick himself for not thinking of it before. "Use the TD tech! Get out of here!"
She's already pulling the remote out, though. He's relieved; he was afraid he would have to fight her one this. He pulls her in for one last, quick kiss. "I love you. Please be happy without me this time. I'm so sorry."
"No." She hasn't pulled back from their embrace, and he feels something snap onto the back of his suit as she speaks. "I'm sorry. I'm too selfish to watch you die again." He's so stunned that he can't even stop her from pulling away.
With one more murmur, she pulls away from him and brandishes her bow as if she actually has a fighting chance. He's unable to stop her; the world is already fading out around him, pulling him into a different dimension….
The last thing he hears her say is, "Forgive me."
XxXxX
The Leaguers on the Watchtower he's sent to – whatever universe this is, probably wherever Artemis was stationed last – are more than a little shocked at his appearance. He doesn't pay them any mind. Later, he'll vaguely remember that they tried to talk to him. A few reached out to him; he'll remember shaking them off. He does the same when someone – he doesn't pay attention to who – asks if Artemis sent him.
They're not important. Not when Artemis is in danger. He has to get back…
The universe – or perhaps the Anomaly – must be conspiring against him. First the tech won't respond; apparently it has a built in cool-down time to prevent its circuits from getting overloaded. When it finally comes back online, it resists his attempts to return to his own universe. He's no Dick, so it takes him several more minutes to overwrite that particular bit of programming and set it to go back.
It's 13 minutes from his arrival in this universe to when he presses the button that will send him back. By that point, the Leaguers have given up trying to interact with him. This is a fact he only has vague awareness of. He's too focused on his rising panic of not Artemis, please, not her, let me get back in time, let it take me instead, don't let it hurt her…
Such thoughts are still running through his head as he watches the desert re-materialize around him. Externally, everything is calm; the Anomaly seems to have gone.
Artemis is gone with it.
Wally sinks to his knees in despair. He's having trouble breathing; for some reason, his throat feels like it's swollen shut. He tries to focus on what to do next– she's not gone, he just needs to get up and find her – but for some reason, the only thing he can do is wonder why his hands won't stop shaking. Wally hugs himself and bends over and until his arms are crushed between his torso and thighs. The sand he's staring down at is beginning to get wet, and Wally can't figure out why; it's not raining. Wally curls in tighter to himself. This new position dislodges whatever was stuck in his throat and he's finally able to let out a sob that's only half choked.
"Artemis… Where are you?"
XxXxX
AN: I am so, so sorry. Please don't kill me.
In other news, I hope the Reactor section makes sense. I consulted my Nuclear Engineering friend for some pointers, so it should be semi-legitimate, y'know, once you take super powers and alien tech into account, but I'm not sure it's understandable if you didn't have someone that knows this stuff explain it to you… please let me know!
PPS: No, that's not Wally's home dimension. It really is the last dimension Artemis was in, A.K.A the one that's in range of the remote and that the remote is already pre-programmed to go to. Sorry for the confusion.