From Mars, With Love

[shankie]

So I had this whole dark thing I played with a long while back; I decided to ressurect it when it came all creeping about again. And it's not that this is particularly long (although the whole actual thing might end up that way) but the story does have this chapter-y feel to it. I'm also getting a lot of weird deja-vu from parts of this, like I've already written it before, but... I don't know where. If I have, someone let me know? XD

From Mars, With Love

DCAU, J'onn/Wally, about a PG for angst.

When an unknown magical assailant hits San Francisco, J'onn pursues their magician... and the consequences leave Wally a little unstable as the League begins the search.

The Rock
Part One: Separation Anxiety


J’onn began eating snack food constantly, and Wally kept thinking about how J’onn was the last of his kind, alone for so long, even when he’d come to live on Earth. Remembering the feeling of those memories bothered him. In a different sort of way than first-hand memories, but, it was something like that.

Wally threw extra Oreos in the cart and got some of the orange filling ones just to see if they were any different. He'd already spent an hour in here, looking at everything, suddenly struck with a desire to just... take his time. Take in the smell of the different coffees, look over exotic fruits to pick out a couple interesting looking things, find out what exactly was in all that organic food section stuff.

For a little while, it was as if J'onn had settled comfortably over his shoulders, looking with him leisurely.

He ended up needing two carts, and most of it had to be stacked on the counter after he filled up all his cabinet space and crowded the top of the refrigerator with varieties of bread.

Wally was on monitor duty when the Golden Gate Bridge turned into a giant orange dragon and began attacking San Francisco.

The city was soon overrun with storybook monsters; J'onn went with Superman, Captain Atom, and Diana, and Wally watched on the screens while they directed civilians away and began wrestling with the things. Superman suspected magic, and was having a hard time with the dragon, having learned the hard way those claws would cut even him.

By the time Wally joined the fight, fanged munchkins were amok in the zoo with machetes. He tried to remember exactly what story that’d be from as he saved a zebra from being swarmed by dirty, snarling midgets from Hell.

Batman began buzzing suspiciously, and spoke up in agreement about that whole magic thing. That meant they had to find the magician. J'onn thought he had an idea, and quickly finished off an ice-breathing Cerberus, then took off following a strange sensation he was picking up.

"I think I've found it," J’onn said over the com-link.

He felt like he was growing quickly distant, and Wally shuddered a little. Panicked just enough to get a gash across his forearm.

"J'onn, what do you see?"

"It may be some sort of portal, but there's nobody here."

And then J’onn simply vanished.

"J'onn? J'onn?" There was no reply, and simultaneously, the monsters had returned back to the inanimate objects they were supposed to be. The city was left quiet, with the heroes in the battle now hovering about trying to see what had happened.

J’onn?!

J'onn was gone, without a trace. The emptiness began to burn through Wally like a piercing cold, and he shivered, so intense and sudden he had to pull himself together before he heard Batman barking questions at him.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, he's just... gone."

"Attacked, injured?"

"No, he's just gone!" He hugged himself against the dark, impenetrable silence around his head.

Batman found the portal on the monitors; or, where it used to be. When they got to the Watchtower he began insisiting he take Wally to the medical bay, but he numbly refused, trying to keep his head together enough to be helpful. He wasn't very successful, clawing at his chest as if it could ease away some of the throbbing sore feeling like his heart was breaking.

“Flash?”

“Hm?”

“Get some rest.” A definite order, that.

So he went to his quarters to try.

Wally had to stare at his bed for a while, not forgetting how to use it so much as not having the energy to recall for a little while. He curled into a ball under the covers once he moved again, pulling them over his head and crying himself to sleep.

He was still alone when he woke up, his eyes all itchy and crusty. It took an eternity to shower, and he kept stopping in the middle of shaving his face to stare at himself as if he was startled he looked that way, especially long after he was done, clutching the towel under his chin and tilting his face around. Examining all the angles of his bones and nose, the little point on his nose, the one freckle on his left eyelid, the other ones on his face almost completely faded from the season. His skin was an almost yellowy colour in the artificial lights over the sink. Very alien, he thought with a little half-smirk that didn't last long.

Then he practiced smiling in the mirror, until he looked convincing.

His performance could have won an Oscar; but not good enough for Batman. Batman pulled him aside after they listened to some magicians droning on about their theories, none of which sounded very specific or helpful. Nobody could get through the portal, or glimpse to see anything at all. They were working on it.

Batman was looking particularly intense, like if he tried hard enough, he could see right into Wally's mind with that stare. There wasn't much use in acting around someone that was impossible to fool, and Wally wrapped his arms around himself, leaning limply against the metal wall of the corridor. Let himself look as sad as he felt.

"What do you want, Bats?"

"If anyone can find their way back, it's J'onn," he said almost conversationally in his way. "I'm not known for being very comforting, but that's something to me."

Wally considered that for a moment, and realized he'd never let himself consider the possibility that J'onn would never come back. "He will. Isn't a doubt in my mind."

"And an interesting place that must be." By the time Wally had given up trying to figure out if he was being sarcastic, the Bat had vanished into thin air. As he did.

The day was crawling by with agonizing slowness. Like every word he heard was so drawn out it came as distended syllables, and occasionally lost track of what people were saying. And it kept getting worse.

Shayera was leading during a meeting, but he'd entirely forgotten what they'd been talking about at all. Her last word had already come and gone. Wally groaned and stood up. The colourful faces around the table all looked at him curiously, and stopped what they were doing.

"Flash?" Superman said, with a note of concern.

"I havetogo."

And he was gone. Thirty more seconds to get in the transporter and back to terra firma, and Wally ran full-tilt with no destination.

An immediate adrenaline rush and he felt better. A little. He wasn't pretending to smile and pay attention anymore, gritting his teeth together and burning through despair by breaking the laws of physics and reshaping them to his every step. Running took most of his concentration, made it hard to think too much about anything but avoiding obstacles and keeping his balance for millions of footfalls.

He was so lonely. Like reliving a piece of J'onn's memories, but he wasn't there. Nothing outside of it. Just driving him to want to be even more alone. Worse than that, J’onn was fading. Turning into a memory, inch by inch, something less than immediate and present.

There were certain pathways around the world where Wally could run a complete circuit of the globe and never see more than the smallest evidence of human civilization. Found by accident over the years, and remembered for it. Mostly running like this was ocean, or along coastlines.

Nobody knows geography like a speedster. He knew how to stay away from people.

He ran until he thought he might just collapse in the Atlantic, but hit the coast of France exhausted, and threw rocks at the sun, wondering if they’d actually hit it if he could get them going fast enough, which he could.

When he was ready to go back to the Watchtower, he found it buzzing with activity; in his absence, Zatanna had found a way to reopen their mysterious portal, and a team had just gone through.

Wally found Batman directing someone through a headset, and stood in front of him, pointedly impatient. When he appeared as if he was going to take his sweet time, Wally put his hand over Batman’s microphone and hissed

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You're not in any state for a mission."

"Not for you to decide."

Batman grabbed his wrist, using some ninja hoodoo to make his hand pop open and pushed it away from him slowly. "Yes, it is. If you weren't so unstable right now, you might realize I'm right."

J'onn always thought Wally's emotional reactions to things were a strength. He didn't it as particularly helpful now. Wanting to scream, and screaming a little. “It not up to you!” he made perfectly clear.

But the rescue, or backup, or whatever mission was already gone. He could be there in a second, but Batman... might have a point.

Batman always had a point, and Wally was... a little confused.

Sitting up in the Watchtower lounge felt like being in a hospital waiting room; the sound of the air circulating through the vents, utilitarian walls, lifeless and barren. Waiting to see how bad it would be. Sometimes he forgot that he wasn’t.

For a while, he could hear GL and Shayera fighting. Screaming about how he was spending too much time acting like she needed his protection in battle; he didn't think he did. They were both passionately furious. Wally just smiled to himself as he listened. It wouldn't be long now before they got back together again.

Wally suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to talk to someone.

He popped up beside them as if they hadn't been screaming, and they were both a little red-faced, but backed off when he showed up. They both shot him identical looks of indignance, and he grinned. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"We're kinda in the middle of something," GL said, giving Shayera a sharp look.

"A discussion," she added.

"Right."

"Okay, well, I'll catch you later." He made a little mock-salute, and went hunting another victim.

Green Arrow was set up underneath the gym; a long, narrow target range that initially Diana used to keep up at her archery, and he'd adopted later on, even after they'd installed the holographic training arena. Wally only knew because it was part of his usual route when he was running, out of the way corridors with low traffic. Except for him; but he'd never stopped to ask.

"So, why is it you come down here instead of the fancy simulator?"

"Why do you run in the hallways instead of on a simulated track?" He pulled the bow up taught, looking down the arrow's shaft, then closing his eyes. "Make some wind, real quick, would ya?" Wally waved his arm around until a gust blew down the long metal shaft, and the arrow followed it down to the target. "I do that when you run by, just to spice things up a bit." He pulled out another one, giving the shot the same meditative treatment. "Sometimes, it's not about your aim, or the difficulty of the shot. It's about taking it. I don't need the Bat's fancy gizmos to shoot a bow."

"That's very deep."

"Archery is very deep," he said with a shrug. "So what brings the runner to stop and visit the scenery? It's not about a girl, is it? I'm so not doing the relationship advice thing ever again."

"Uh, no. Not exactly."

"Not exactly? Now I really don't want to know."

"So what if it was a guy?"

"Oh, I wouldn't care if it was a guy." He set another arrow, and held it at his side, as if about to say something, then changed his mind and took the shot. "I wouldn't mind a bit. I just wouldn't want to talk about anything that might conjur up images..." Wally suddenly stopped paying attention when he felt something, that had him reaching out and calling J'onn's name, but he didn't get any reply. He thought he must be imagining things, and tried to return to listening. Because Ollie was still talking, and Wally hadn’t been listening. "... It was bad enough that I knew the kid, but you see what I mean."

"Yeah," Wally said distractedly.

His com-link beeped, and he answered it hastily, turning away slightly into the hallway. "What?"

"We need your help in the medical bay."

Batman's voice had him up there in a heartbeat; the next one skipped, as it was J'onn. On a medical bed. Laying unconcious.

Wally pushed through the crowd around him, and Batman urged them to give him more space. "What happened? Why didn’t you get me earlier?"

Panic.

"We found him on the other side, but it was deserted,” Superman said.

Then nobody said anything. J’onn was just... laying on the table.

"We can't bring him out of it," Batman whispered in his ear. "If there's anything you can do. We're contacting Dr. Fate, but that can take time."

"I'm not a telepath, Bats, I'm just with one."

"How did you survive the accident?" he countered, like ammunition he'd been holding for the right moment.

Wally gave him a sharp look, then ignored him to sit on the bed next to J'onn's unnaturally still body, holding his big hand in his lap. Glanced around to confirm the absence of doctors or bystanders in the room. They’d all vanished. Just machines and monitors.

"It was... He was having trouble keeping me alive, and I was terrified. Of being trapped, going crazy before we ever made it somewhere safe. Couldn’t see, or hear, or move... So we became... connected," he said softly, then looked up at the darkly urgent face. "But I can't make it, I just learned how to use it."

“Do what you can,” Batman said softly. “I’ve ensured that you won’t be bothered. J’onn was our specialist in this. Without him we’re at working through the magic angle. And you know how that is.”

The Bat was even courteous enough to darken the glass window as he left.

"He really isn't such a bad guy, is he?"

Wally curled his body next to J'onn's, try not to worry at how cool it felt in comparison. Still warm, and he could almost be asleep, except that Wally knew the difference. It was like J’onn was empty, looking the same with... nothing there.

"He thinks I can find you," he said wistfully, "he's usually right. I hope he's right."

It was helping, to play bedside nurse a little. To make out what he could from the monitors, slow and quiet. To tuck a warm blanket over J’onn and dim the lights before he got back beside him, trying to keep J’onn warm. “I didn’t even ask about all the other stuff. It’s weird, how I don’t really care.”

Wally frowned, pulled up onto J’onn’s chest so he could look down from atop crossed arms at the still face. “Truth be told, I think I’m a lot messed up because you’re gone, and that’s... well. That’s not good, is it?”

Shaking, off and on, like he was cold, even though he wasn’t. Like all the empty space J’onn left behind had turned into this endless dark pit of monsters ready to crawl out.

Perhaps it was that feeling that kept him from the simple realization; J’onn wasn’t here. He wasn’t sure how he could possibly know that, but he did. J’onn wasn’t just in a weird coma or something; he was someplace else entirely.

The next second Wally was in front of Batman.

“How do I get there? Do I just walk in, or do I have to knock first?”

“Flash...”

“I’m going and that’s the end of it.”

“Alright. I’m going with you.”

In fact, it seemed that Bats had been waiting around just to take Wally along into the mouth of danger or... wherever J’onn was stuck. Wally explained his feeling, and babbled on about feeling better because he did, and because he didn’t want to come off like he was about to fall apart, which might not have helped his case at all.

Not knowing where J’onn was... was making him panicky again. Like all his puppet-strings got severed and he couldn’t find up for a moment.

“Are you alright?”

He’d been staring at the ceiling. Up.

“I’m just dandy.”


* * *


The situation was certainly not on this side of good. There was a body with the vital signs of a brain-dead corpse that still breathed, his friend, and without any leads, Batman was resorting to less definite means.

A ‘feeling’ that a Flash on the edge of insanity was having. That was all he had to go on. Because so far, they’d found nothing.

Batman listened to a jumbled stream of words that barely formed sentences stuttering like they were being forced from the seat beside him. Wally was shivering, absently rubbing his arms. Sometimes burst into inappropriate laughter only to appear to be fighting off hysteria.

And he was bringing Flash into a magical pocket universe with a yet unknown creator with a like for playing games with people on a grand scale.

“It’s not that I’m against cartoons, I love cartoons, and... yes, it’s just, that’s not who I am. Why am I always the Road Runner? Do I always have to be the one running away?” Flash put his head down and ran his fingers hard along his scalp, through the cowl. “Running towards something, glass half full, that’s better, right?”

“I suppose.”

“I’m losing my mind. Shouldn't I just be... sad?”

“I can only imagine it’s the mental stress. Humans weren’t built for telepathy.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Flash. You’ll get over it. Just try to focus.”

“I’m doing a pretty bad job of that.” Flash pushed his cowl back, scratched through his spiky red hair, then rubbed at his eyes and leaned forward heavily against the console. “Why is this happening?”

“I’m working on it.”

“Good. I hate these things.”

“What things?” Batman kept his tone even, but felt a need to keep Flash talking. As strange as it may be to want that, he needed to know if this wasn’t going to be worth the trip.

“Javelins, airplanes, since the accident, I can’t... if we crashed, there wouldn’t be anywhere to run. Just... die.”

Batman looked over long and hard. Flash was staring out the front window, his uncovered eyes filled with something desolate. Emptiness.

And then it was gone. Flash shook his head and shivered as he sat back in the seat.

“Are we there yet?” he asked impatiently.

Batman looked back at his path. Some things never changed.

Four more minutes, and then they were there, landing in an abandoned gravel pit now overgrown with plants. Perhaps twenty years of disuse, no signs of the usual dumping found in such places.

And in the center of this wide depression of earth was a stone ring, rough-carved white granite, deceptively idle.

Flash and Batman only but walked up to it, and it came to life. Glowing white in it’s center. “It was one-way until the magicians got their hands on it.”

“Where does it go?”

“A magical realm,” Batman replied seriously. Flash laughed, shook his head, and ran through without waiting for Batman to follow.

He did, of course, jumping through and out under the dark violet sky full of dark gray clouds, but without a visible sun. Black, leafless trees curled around a path littered with more granite, stones. Worn round and smooth as if carved by water in a stream that was now dry and even.

Even Batman could admit it was creepy.

Flash lost his desire to run ahead, instead wandering up the path as if they were taking a leisurely walk. Never getting too far ahead at all. He was carrying a pack of supplies, as the last party to venture out had found the land... expansive. But he was carrying it slung over one shoulder, casually as a high school student going to class.

But most curious of all, Flash was looking over the stones. Looked at every individual one as he went. Not pausing at any, but making as if he might at any moment.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for J’onn,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“Right,” Bruce muttered under his breath. He was becoming more concerned by the moment.

He watched this behaviour continue, unbroken, for over an hour. Ever round stone examined, every so often one pushed off of another to get a better look.

Then Flash began whistling off-key in something not quite resembling a tune.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for J’onn,” is all he would say. Dismissively, as if Batman was distracting him from his important task by asking silly questions.

After three hours, their trek halted as Wally dropped the pack, screeched with joy, leapt down to hug one of the stones in his hand.

No different than any of the rocks laying around, perhaps a foot wide. Wally knelt down among the stones and hugged it to his chest, kissed it, and pressed the smooth surface against his cheek lovingly.

Batman was taken a bit aback.

“It’s him,” Wally sighed. “I found him, I did.”

“What makes you believe that is J’onn?”

“I just know.”

“Is it communicating with you?”

“No. I’m sure he can later, though. When he’s put back together, right?” Wally kissed the stone, held it in his arm, and picked the pack back up. “We can go back now,” he said.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, Wally, but I think it would be premature to leave.”

“Why?”

“What caused this?”

“I don’t...”

“Exactly.” Batman dug into his utility belt, through scanners and his own visual inspection.

No life signs, no electromagnetic signature, no unique formation or emissions of any kind. It was, to all his on-hand inspection, to be an ordinary piece of granite. Rather pretty, yes, but nothing extraordinary by any means.

“Wally, are you sure?”

“Of what?”

“The rock.”

“Oh, well.” Wally snatched it back defensively. “You don’t believe me.” He hugged it to his chest and huffed, “I’m not crazy.”

“At the moment, that isn’t particularly true.”

It was a mistake, of course. Flash was gone, with his precious stone, leaving Batman to wonder if he might be right. Despite all evidence to the contrary.

Batman paused, then picked up the pack, and continued up the path.

He didn’t wait long for Wally to begin following him again. Walking behind him without announcing his return.

Whispering to the rock as he trailed along. About being jealous of other Martians. Kept repeating “Py’la” as he began shifting into Martian. A word or a name?

After a while, Wally began whispering in Martian more than English. It was one of the few languages he could recognize for what it was, but not translate beyond a few key symbols and words.

Danger. Warning. Exit. Power. Help. Yes. No. Weapon. Water. Earth.

Barely pronounceable by human voice, but Wally was doing an excellent job, from what he could hear.

Their destination was still ten miles away. He considered sending Flash out to scout, then changed his mind, deciding to see for himself from the ridge they were currently ascending. The landscape didn’t change much, giving a monotony and uniformity that was highly unnatural.

Wally began laughing, all the way up to the top, when he stopped beside Batman, looking down. That same uniformity, all the way down the back side of the ridge, along flat ground to vanish on the horizon where a hulking structure could be seen.

Batman took a closer look through digital binoculars while Flash appeared to be comforting the rock.

“You’re sure? You can feel him?”

“Not really, I can’t, but... I’m sure. I could run back, I could be there...”

“And do what?”

“Well... put him back together.”

Batman knew enough about J’onn’s physiology to know that something more than lifeless and nearly lifeless materials to consider him whole. If his mind wasn’t here, it was somewhere. "I don't think it will be that simple."

He could see Superman in the sky ahead, who noticed them and began flying in their direction. This mission was going from desperate to downright bizarre, and it was reassuring to see a familiar sight. The coms didn't work here, for whatever reason.

Magic. J’onn had dealt with it before. Batman refused to consider that J’onn would be caught without any means of defending himself.

They just had to find it. And find who, exactly, they were dealing with.