~ Six Years Later ~

It was the strangest autumn thus far. The trees remained clothed in green until the middle of October and then all of a sudden were a riot of colour. It was as if the season jumped into the existence instead of fading in as it usually would, and was all the more magnificent for doing so. Upon the newly softened mud were acorns, from green to pale brown, and the air was cooler with a tincture of earthiness to it.

It seemed like everyone in Central City was enjoying the change of weather. All except one man who was currently zooming through the area, living within the spaces between each second. He was draped in red but no one could see the vibrancy of this colour. They couldn't see him at all, actually. The only evidence that he was even there was the sudden gusts of wind that occasionally swept beside them.

Wally had been running from Superboy Prime, luring him into a trap in which Superman could deal with him. It was part of his job, after all, as a member of the Justice League. Yes, you heard right. He was finally an official member, but primarily because he no longer went by the name 'Kid Flash'. Now, he was simply 'The Flash'. It wasn't a name he enjoyed having. He felt as if he was stealing it from Barry...but he didn't want the people of Central City to know about the death of their hero, so he had taken his suit and the mantle he left behind.

At the moment he was no longer being chased by Superboy Prime, at least not that he could see, but he wasn't willing to take any chances. He continued forward, testing the limit of his speed. Just when he thought he could go no faster, his legs would regain a little more strength and push him further. He had to focus on not slipping into time travel but it became harder and harder the longer he ran for. That wasn't because he lacked the willpower...it was because something was wrong with this expanse of the Speed Force. It felt like there was a tear in it.

Energy flowed unrestricted through the tear, zapping dangerously around him. He felt a pull, as if the Speed Force itself wanted to pull him in, then something jolted past him - so quickly that even he had trouble seeing it. Wally skidded to a halt, eyes immediately drawn to the large crater denting the middle of the abandoned field. Somehow, the object that had created this hadn't created a shock wave of any kind. Wally knew this because he would have been thrown back by the impact if it had.

Wally cautiously slipped closer to the crater, dropping to his knees and peeking his head over the edge of the massive hole. For a few brief moments the smoke and dust blinded his view of the object, but when it cleared away any air in his lungs was expelled in one sharp exhale. It was a person. A man, to be exact. He was leaning down, hair hanging in front of his face and back facing Wally's widening eyes. Nothing provided a barrier between the world and his body. His clothes had either burnt off, or he wasn't wearing anything to begin with.

"Uhh...Hey, are you alright?" Wally started awkwardly, conflicted on whether to look the man over for injuries or avert his eyes entirely. "Do you need any help?"

The anonymous man stood, swaying deliriously in the non-existent wind. He placed a hand on his forehead, trying to force away the pounding headache he was experiencing. It took a few seconds for Wally's words to reach him, but when they did he turned to face him with a panicked expression. "Wh-Where am I? Where's the Anti-Monitor?...Did we win?"

Wally's face dropped. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, then blinked again. This wasn't real, it couldn't be. He was hallucinating, right? There was no other explanation. His heart thumped loudly in his chest and his mind clogged up. He could only think of one thing, only concentrate on one person - Barry Allen. He was standing there, just as alive as Wally was, and he hadn't aged a single day.

Wally stumbled into the crater, inching closer and closer to Barry. He was afraid that this was a dream - that as soon as he reached out he would disappear. His fingers flinched before they were placed on Barry's shoulder. He gasped. He was real... Wally lunged forward and wrapped Barry into a tight hug. Tears stung in his eyes then trickled down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Barry asked, body freezing the moment Wally had brought him into the crushing hug.

"H-Huh?" Wally's voice trembled and he somehow managed to pull himself away from Barry. Realisation dawned on him not long after and he tugged off The Flash mask that he had altered. His red hair sprang to life, unmistakably belonging to the young boy Barry had once known. "Don't tell me you don't recognise me..."

Barry's clouded eyes narrowed. "W-Wally? Is that you?"

A watery smile stretched onto the boys face. Wally looked like he was seconds away from breaking down into a sobbing mess. "Yes, of course it is! God, Barry I've missed you so much... It was so hard without you around."

"Without me around?" Barry's voice strained with confusion. "But I didn't go anywhere. I was trying to stop Ant-Monitor, that's the last thing I remember."

"That was over six years ago, Barry... We all thought you were dead."

Words left him. Barry stared into Wally's bright green eyes burning with a mixture of grief and joy, and his heart fell silent. "Barry?" Wally said in concern. But he couldn't will his lips to move. As if stuck underwater, everything was slow and warbled. Six years just didn't seem possible. "I'm so sorry, I wish I had better news. I know how painful this must be for you." Wally spoke again quietly. But Barry's mind was blank and his eyes wide as he stared at him in horror.

His eyes desperately searched Wally's... waiting for him to admit to this entire thing being a prank. He never did though. Not even Wally could mastermind something this detailed. His reaction was simply too sincere, and he had definitely aged as well. Barry had barely recognised him even without the mask. Barry searched his mind for something reasonable to say, but there was nothing. How was he suppose to react to missing six years of his own life?

Barry attempted to clear his memory. It felt like this body and mind were brand new, and it was taking time to re-establish his own history. Very slowly, he started to remember his life and some of the people that had been in it. His lungs suddenly tightened and rejected any oxygen that attempted to enter it. "What happened to my dad?"

Wally gave him a small smile. Henry had been distraught at the loss of his son. His entire family was now gone, and his beloved son had died without any explanation. Wally wasn't going to say this though. He didn't want to make Barry feel any worse. "He's fine. He moved to Amnesty Bay a few months after your...disappearance. I visit him sometimes."

Barry was evidently feeling extremely guilty but nodded nonetheless. At least his father was alive and out of jail, that was more than he could have ever asked. Barry tried to think of something else to ask, or other people that had been in his life. Wally could just imagine the sparks in his brain, desperately trying to connect the dots and instead just causing a short circuit.

"We should get you home." Wally finally spoke, a little more rational now that he'd allowed his initial shock and joy to overflow. "I mean you don't want to stay out here like that, do you?"

Barry didn't look like he knew what he was talking about. That's until he realised just how cold he was becoming. The man finally looked down, mortification flashing across his face at the sight. He tried to cover himself with his arms, hunching over to hide as much of his body as possible. "You couldn't have told me about this earlier?!"

"Dude, I was more focused on seeing a ghost of my past reappear in front of me." Wally sighed, pressing the ring on his finger (which had once belonged to Barry) and a second Flash outfit shot from it. "Put that on, I'll inform the Justice League and get them to meet us at my place."

"You...have a place?" Barry questioned before swiftly putting on the costume.

"Yeah. I am twenty-three, after all." Wally replied. "I moved out of my parents' house as soon as I turned nineteen."

"Oh, right...sorry. I'm just not use to seeing you like this." Barry sighed. "I mean, you're so old now."

"I'm still not as old as you." Wally teased though he couldn't quite hide his shaking tone. It was so hard to believe that Barry was actually there.

Wally's house had seen better days. Years ago that blue paint was a smooth unbroken layer and the window frames were a brilliant white on top of new wood. Twenty cycles of the seasons with no thought to maintenance had reduced it to the kind of place that realtors hate to list. Without opening the door it was easy to tell that it would be damp and dirty with fixtures so out of date they would reduce the selling price. That assumption was correct. The inside was even worse, if that was at all possible - covered with wrappers and take-out bags that scattered the floor in mountains so high that it was a challenge to walk through to the kitchen.

That's where a large table sat. This would act as the basis of a large reunion that happened only minutes later. Clark Kent, Diana, Arthur, J'onn J'ones, Kara El, Bruce Wayne, and Hal Jordon all arrived at the house out of costume. By this time Wally had already zoomed around the room and cleaned up the mess he had left. He didn't want another lecture about his living conditions.

He found that this was a waste of time though. He could've lived in the gutter and his friends wouldn't have noticed today. All their attention was on Barry. Clark, Diana, and Kara all had reactions similar to Wally's. They went from disbelief, to joy, then to bombarding him with hugs. J'onn and Arthur were a little more reserved in their happiness, but expressed it regardless. Bruce was completely static, as usual. All he did was stare with his hands in his pockets. He had never been the most welcoming of people, but Barry knew him well enough that he could tell that he was happy to see him.

The most dramatic reaction came from Hal, who upon seeing Barry, had almost tackled him into a hug. He didn't let go for a solid two minutes as if he didn't want Barry to see his face. He didn't want Barry to see him struggling against tears. Even after all these years he had never truly come to terms with Barry's death - he had never given up hope that he was alive.

After they had been reunited, Bruce had insisted that they all discuss the recent events. He was always the one forcing them away from emotional situations and towards business. He had started the conversation, being the less stunned by Barry's return. "Where were you?"

"I don't remember." Barry said truthfully. "All I remember is that I had to stop Anti-Monitor... I don't even remember the details of the fight."

"The Anti-Monitor?" Diana repeated. She, unlike the rest of the league, hadn't aged at all. "That was a long time ago, Barry. He returned two years after your death."

Barry jumped from his seat, eyes wide and expression panicked. "What happened?! Was anyone hurt?"

Clark smiled gratefully at the question. "The worlds that you saved, Barry, they all came to help. There were more heroes working together than I ever imagined possible."

"There were about four different versions of Superman, and of everyone else for that matter. It was pretty incredible." Kara added.

Barry frowned. "I should've been there..."

"You were, buddy." Hal replied without thinking. "Well, different versions of you were anyway. You were the whole reason they had the opportunity to help, and we couldn't have done it without them."

"He was really that strong?" Barry's fist clenched.

"I've never met anyone with the the sheer power he possessed."

"None of this matters anymore." Bruce interrupted grumpily. "We need to figure out where Barry was all these years, and if he's really Barry at all."

"How can you say that?" Kara hissed in annoyance.

Bruce ignored her anger, straightening out the wrinkles in his suit and turning his attention back towards Barry. "Think. Where could you possibly have gone? Your body was completely disintegrated, we found traces of it on your old suit. That rules out time travel; it would've gone with you."

Were Barry's thoughts visible they would have been an inverse explosion, crazy chaotic turns and twists of light all coming together to just one thing, to just one possibility. He gulped then looked over at Wally who already seemed to know what he was thinking. He nodded his agreement and Barry sighed. "We've been thinking about this in space and time only."

Everyone stared at him in bewilderment. The Speed Force was a difficult thing to understand, especially for people not connected to it. Wally searched his brain for a way to explain this. "Maybe...there's a limit to where we can travel in this reality through space and time. Like when Barry achieved infinite mass and threw himself at the cannon six years ago, maybe he...left this dimension."

"I'm not sure I understand..." Kara raised an eyebrow at the men. "What does that mean exactly?"

"Obviously, it shouldn't be possible but it is because of the Speed Force. This is all just hypothetical...but I think Barry ran so fast our dimension couldn't host him anymore. Because that kind of velocity can't exist here, nature must've bumped him through our physical reality, and into a place where something that fast could exist. Our physical laws only count here, in this dimension and in this universe."

"But his body-"

Barry finally seemed to be regaining his old science knowledge, as he chimed in "What if in that dimension, matter doesn't exist? A place where everything was just...energy. That would explain why I don't remember anything; humans are engineered to experience things through physical experiences. Matter and energy are both just atoms and particles; what if I was...transformed into pure energy when I passed over?"

"Your molecules would've still been imprinted with your natural physical data; all of the bits of information regarding what elements your body was made of would still exist at the atomic level. So if this energy being version of you ever came back, you would be forced to adhere to our 'normal' laws again. That's what happened. I was starting to break the rules of physics and because of that, I opened a door and you came back through." Wally continued.

"So...it took six years because you were still getting faster."

Everyone blinked at him, apparently completely lost. Kara more than anyone else. The only person that seemed to understand was J'onn, who nodded as if this was the best explanation they could have ever given. He wasn't bound by magic like Wonder Woman, or logic like Batman. He could accept them both simultaneously, or completely dismiss them.

"I don't buy it." Bruce scowled.

"You never do." Clark rolled his eyes. "Can't you just be happy that he's back? We don't need to understand why."

Bruce looked like he was about to snap back at him. They were always disagreeing with one another but it had gotten worse of late. He didn't get the chance though. Before he could, Barry had remembered something very important...or someone. His eyes darted around the room then he jumped from his seat. "Where's Mineko?"

They all exchanged glum looks that sent daggers through Barry's chest. Hal was the first to answer, primarily due to his guilt over the situation. "She's...been gone a while now."

Barry's heart stopped. He felt as if this time he actually might die. "What do you mean?"

"She went back home, Barry." Diana interjected. "To her own era."

"N-No...Why would she do that?"

"She felt as if your death was her fault. Apparently Doctor Fate had warned her against staying in the future. He came just after your disappearance as if he already knew it was going to happen." Clark sounded annoyed at the very memory. Barry could tell that he had disapproved of her leaving.

"It wasn't her fault though. I made a choice, she shouldn't be blamed for that."

"I agree." Clark shifted his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose. "But there was nothing I could do... I'm sorry. I wanted to respect her choice."

Barry fell back into his chair with a sorrowful expression. He stared at the wooden surface of the table in silence, guilt and heartache racking his entire being. He shouldn't have left her like that. It wasn't fair. Now he had returned to a world he didn't belong to anymore. It felt empty and cold and bereft of its soul. Mineko had been forced to live her life without him, and now he had to experience the same torture. Knowing that the world would continue spinning without her seemed almost cruel. How could it without someone like her keeping it going?

Though he was grateful to see his friends again, Mineko was the only one he wanted to speak to. The knowledge that he couldn't sent him into a dark void of grief. He couldn't engage in the conversation anymore. He just sat there, heart threatening to implode. Maybe it would have been better if it did, then he wouldn't have to experience this pain ever again...

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