As Persie's wicked-looking sword was transformed back into a pen, Wally couldn't help but stare at his girlfriend who refused to meet his eyes.

"Oceania." he rasped, coughing to clear both his dry throat and shock as he bent over, bracing his hands on his knees as he tried to get his breath back.

"Blaze." Persie returned evenly, running a hand through her hair and brushing some of the hellhound-dust off her clothes. She sighed as she looked at him, her ever-changing eyes emanating a tired sort of pain. "Wally, I-I can explain everything."

Wally shook his head. "You're not the only one, sweetheart."

She smiled at the name and hesitantly held her hand out. It was shaking when Wally wrapped his own fingers around hers. "Come back to mine and I'll tell you everything. I promise."

"Only if you want to." he replied, looking at her seriously. "You don't have to."

"I want to." she assured him. "I was going to tell you anyway, I just wasn't sure when."

Wally tugged her gently out of the alley and they began to walk slowly, hands still entwined. "This is why I didn't take you to meet my family." Wally blurted in a soft voice, to avoid being overheard. "Bart, he means well but he's not very good at keeping his mouth shut and also the twins are beginning to develop their powers."

"I'd like to meet your family." she murmured, looking hopeful but also a little lost as though she expected nothing good of the near future. Wally pondered this on the walk back to Persie's apartment. Would she really think that he would throw her away just like that? In their business, any relationship was almost treasured because they knew all too well that life was short and bloody. It was also why some heroes removed relationships from their lives altogether. Before he had taken in Dick Grayson those words could have described the Batman perfectly and there were other similar heroes who never got involved with anyone, for fear of their being hurt.

Nico came into view after the couple stepped across the threshold and he eyed Wally suspiciously as he removed his coat and boots, sliding them into place beside Persie's. "Persie." he said in his soft yet powerful voice. "May I speak with you?"

Persie looked up at her cousin through the hair that had fallen into her face and they stared at each other for several seconds before she frowned. "Wally knows, Nic."

"What!" Nico hissed. "Can he see through the Mist?"

Persie shrugged. "Dunno. He's Blaze, Nico. He's got his own secrets." Nico scowled at her in a silent question and Persie returned the expression. "He's Blaze."

Nico let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, now that it ironic." he sighed. "We gonna give him the 'speech'?"

"May as well." Persie replied as she led Wally over to sit on the couch. Then she froze, thinking over her time at Mount Justice and turning to Wally who had the good grace to look guilty. "You already know don't you?"

"Um...about the gods?"

"Did Nightwing tell you?"

Wally nodded. "Yeah. He and Kaldur told us."

"What did they tell you?" Nico asked, leaning forward and fixing Wally with an intense stare, looking much, much older than his seventeen years.

"Not much." Wally admitted. "Just the basics about Demigods, monsters and the war."

Persie and Nico exchanged looks. "Any...details about the war, like our role in it or...what happened after?" Persie asked apprehensively. Wally shook his head as he looked between the cousins.

There was a strained silence in the room broken by the sound of keys in the door and then the slight creak as it opened. Paul lay his bag on the small table, looking at the small group in the lounge room. "Ah." he said, breaking the silence which had become awkward . "You must be Wally?"

Wally shot to his feet and accepted the hand Paul held out and Nico and Persie smirked at his vaguely worried expression. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Really?" Wally asked, his voice rising an octave.

Paul looked amused. "Yeah. Persie's quite fond of you."

Wally turned around too fast for a normal human, comfortable with the knowledge that Nico and Persie now knew his identity so he didn't have to hide but he had forgotten about Paul who gasped and Wally pulled up short halfway across the room in under two seconds. "Oops."

"Well done, Walls." Persie murmured with a soft fond smile. "You may have given him a heart attack."

"Did I?" Wally said turning around and appearing at Paul's side almost instantly. "Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have run, sorrysorrysorry."

"Are you a demigod too?" Paul asked as he recovered from his shock, allowing Wally to lead him to sit on the couch beside Nico.

"Um, no." Wally said. "I'm Blaze. I was Kid Flash but my cousin's got that one now. I-uh recreated my Uncle's experiment and almost blew myself up, but I got powers!"

"So I guess you met..." he gestured at Persie. "Oceania?"

"Yeah." Wally replied glancing over at his girlfriend before zooming over to the other side of the room to sit beside his girlfriend who took his hand with a shy smile. "We met a couple of months ago as Persie and Wally and then a few days later as Blaze and Oceania. We...didn't really realise who we were until about an hour ago."

"Right." Paul said looking slightly bewildered. "So what are you gonna tell him?" he asked Persie who shrugged.

"Everything?"

Nico groaned. "This'll take while."

"Yeah." Persie agreed and pulled Wally back down to sit beside her. "I swear none of this is a lie." she began and sprung headfirst into the story of her life, telling the full thing to her tiny family for the first time ever. There had always been tiny details left out or truths altered, not even Nico and Paul knew the whole thing but now, now they would know everything. And Wally would know just what he was getting into.