Now

Wally and his friend Roy Harper were in a meeting room for Addicts Anonymous. They were in a circle, sitting next to other rehabilitating former drug addicts, and their sponsors. "Hey everyone," began Roy, "my name is Roy Harper and I'm a former drug addict." The former drug addicts then all said in nonchalant unison, "hello Roy."

"When I was 16 going on 17, I got hooked on heroin," said Roy, "I tried my hardest to hide my addictions from my friends and family. If I wasn't so sloppy, I probably would have gotten away with it... For the first year, most of them were none the wiser. But eventually I started arousing suspicion when I started lying, cheating, and stealing to get money to buy more drugs... My friends like Wally and Dick, they tried to do interventions for me but I never listened. Ditto Ollie, Dinah, and Hal. I was a jackass. To this day, I wonder why my friend Wally who is also my sponsor here today never turned his back on me even though I gave him every justified reason to do so. When I was 18, I almost died of an overdose. When I resuscitated, that near death experience was a wake-up call for me. Oliver, Dick, Wally, and Dinah were the first people I confided in when I admitted that I needed help. My friend Wally here volunteered to be my sponsor. He didn't have to, but I'm glad he did. Especially during the withdrawal symptoms." Wally nodded and agreed, "I know. Those were not pretty. But we got through it together."

Roy gave a proud smile and said, "I'm also proud to say that as of right now, I am 5 years sober." The attendants clapped, happy for Roy. "I'm really glad to have my life back on track," said Roy, "and I'm really glad to know that I've made amends with Oliver and Dinah. My addictions almost destroyed our relationship. I'm happy to have earned their trust back." After an hour of talking, the Addicts Anonymous meeting ended. Wally and Roy left the community center and Roy said, "y'know... M'gann is interested in going out with you." Wally smirked and said, "nice as that is, I'm still trying to focus on college. I got my finals to worry about." Roy smirked back and said, "okay Casanova. But try to live a little. There's more to life than just studying you know. But I'll tell her you said maybe." He and Wally shared a laugh.

As the two friends made it to Wally's car, suddenly Wally's cell phone rang. It was Iris, Wally's aunt. Wally picked up the phone and said, "hey Aunt Iris." But instead of saying hi back, Wally could hear his aunt hysterically sob, "oh my God, he's dead, Wally!! He's dead, he's dead, he's dead!!" Wally was confused and he asked, "Aunt Iris? What's wrong?" Iris was sobbing uncontrollably, but she managed to take deep breaths. She shakily said, "it's your Uncle Barry, Wally! Hal and Oliver told me he's dead!!!" Iris went back to sobbing. Wally was shocked. "No..." he said in denial, breathing fast. Barry couldn't be dead! He had dinner with Barry and Iris on Sunday when last visiting. Roy looked at his phone and saw a news notification. He was speechless. He showed the phone to Wally, and they looked at the breaking news. Metropolis was in irreparable ruins as a headline said, "METROPOLIS DESTROYED THANKS TO A NUCLEAR BOMB! MILLIONS DEAD!" Wally looked in horror at the devastation. "Aunt Iris, Roy and I are going to head over to your house," said Wally, "we'll be there as soon as we can..." He hung up the phone and slumped at the passenger door of his car. "My Uncle Barry's dead, Roy..." Wally said, his voice barely audible. "Oh my god, Wally... I'm so sorry..." Roy said sympathetically. " Let's get to Aunt Iris...." Wally said quietly, "she needs us..."

"There's a likelihood Dinah might know what happened too," said Roy as he and Wally got in the car, "hopefully she's comforting your aunt." An hour later, Roy and Wally made it to Barry Allen's house in Central City that he lived in with his wife Iris. As predicted, Dinah Lance, AKA Black Canary, was there. She was comforting Iris, her eyes red from crying, and she was still sobbing. Also present was Hal Jordan, AKA Green Lantern. "Hal, Dinah, where's Ollie?" Wally asked. "Oliver had some affairs to deal with in Starling City," explained Dinah. Wally sat next to Iris and asked, "what happened?" Hal sighed and explained, "apparently Joker and Harley Quinn duped Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane into a trap. Joker killed Jimmy and abducted Lois. He also stole some green Kryptonite from S.T.A.R. Labs and Scarecrow's hallucinogenic gas, and put us all on a wild goose chase looking for them. Barry ran into a trap underground and found Crane's corpse. Joker must have combined Scarecrow's fear gas with a paralysis chemical. Because Barry couldn't move, then he got killed by a buzzsaw... But that's not the worst of it..."

"Joker and Harley put a detonator inside Lois's heart," continued Hal, "when Clark flew in to rescue Lois, Joker drugged Clark with Scarecrow's fear gas. Clark hallucinated that he was fighting Doomsday. But it was actually Lois, and he hurled her into space, killing her and their unborn baby. The moment Lois's heart stopped beating, it triggered a nuclear bomb that destroyed Metropolis." Hal looked down, the memory fresh in his mind from a few hours ago. "Were there any survivors?" Roy asked. "Diana and I are going to look into that," said Hal, "but after the death of Lois, their unborn baby, and the destruction of Metropolis, something inside Clark snapped. I tried to stop him, but Superman took my ring and left me out in the middle of nowhere. Took me a few hours before I could get back... From what Bruce told me, Superman broke into Arkham Asylum, and killed Joker."

Iris covered her mouth in horror, more tears welling in her eyes. Wally was processing everything that happened. He couldn't believe that Joker caused all this, and that Superman would break his one important rule... "I understand how difficult this all is to process," said Dinah, "I know we can't offer much, but we will be here for all of you. We're really sorry..." Wally hugged Iris and cried, mourning the loss of his Uncle Barry.