-Athena's POV-

"I know how to save and retrieve Wally West."

Everyone in the room rolled their eyes. Artemis glared at me. I, of course, didn't feel threatened by any of them.

"We've already tried everything," M'gann said in a soft, sad voice. Everyone solemnly nodded. I smiled a little and dared to disagree.

"Not quite." Artemis shot up, her face in a permanent angry expression.

"Is this some sick joke, Nightingale? I'm going to tear off your head for even mentioning him," she barked, charging forward. I knew that most of the people were warmed up to me, but I also knew there were still haters. Artemis hated me since the moment I walked in. I didn't know if she actually recognized me from the League of Assassins or if she just had some weird feeling that I actually trained with her sister.

Before she could even lay a hand on me, I had grabbed her wrist and flipped her onto the table right on her back. She wheezed since I just had blown the wind out of her. A few other hero's stood up to check on her. They stared back at me with a 'you better be telling the truth or you're dead' look.

"Here me out. I swear, it's true. Kid Flash can be saved, and yes, he is alive," I said, opening my arms in a hopeful gesture. The others sat down again. Even Artemis climbed down and took a seat. Her expression still read hate, but she at least was listening. The way I actually figured that bit of information out involved trades and discussions with people that most of the Team wouldn't approve of.

*************

I sat in the Bio-Ship, thinking about what I could do to earn the trust of my fellow comrades. Wally West was a fallen member that seemed to personally effect the majority of the group. The way to them, was through him.

After short talk with Lex Luthor and the members about how the kid died, I tried figuring out how to get him back. I obviously didn't have enough information on what happened to even attempt to reverse his death. I could use a Lazarus Pit if I had a body, so where could it be? The Team were too busy telling stories to hear my mumbling. I looked over at Nightwing. He was joyfully laughing along as if West never really died at all. I guess that was how they got over their grief. I barely noticed him at all.

I waited until Batman and Robin left for patrol to leave. Nightwing left to Blüdhaven to patrol there about twenty minutes before Bruce and Tim left. I explained to Alfred that I was going to go shopping in the city with an old friend of mine who was visiting Gotham. He let me go with no trouble. Idiot.

Lex Luthor had been released at the end of the day after Superman showed he had no strong proof against him. No doubt he had returned to his office. I approached the building and grappled to the top. Smashing the window, I landed feet first in front of his desk before he could turn around. Lex crossed his arms and smirked. "Good to see you again. What does Big Blue want now?" He said.

"I'm not here on League business," I sounded pretty serious, "I need your help."

"You came here to ask for my help when twelve hours ago you kidnapped me? And the League didn't set you up?"

"That's right. I'm here to talk to you myself. I need to know about last year. What happened exactly?" I asked, stepping closer. He smiled small again in satisfaction.

"The odd one out in the bunch, huh? You actually want to talk to me, a villain, which the League would never allow you to do. Well, if you want to know, you can take a look at the newscasts." He turned around. I grabbed the back of his chair and spun him.

"I have. But, the reporters don't know what those beams were made of or what they could've done to a young hero. You do," I let him go, "we can crack a deal if you want, but I need to know." Lex shook his head.

"I'll tell you for free. I love encouraging young villains who don't end up annoying me," he said, pulling out a blueprint. "You see, at this time, a bad force called The Reach was attacking Earth. They had planted Magnetic Field Disruptors all over the Earth that threatened to, well, disrupt Earth's magnetic field."

"Yeah, I remember my mentor telling me what was happening during the time," I sat down at his desk, ready to listen.

"Well, before they could stop, the machines went chrysalis. Obviously, not good. I ordered Flash and the younger flash -- now Kid Flash -- to circle the chrysalis in the opposite direction to stop it. They had to create enough kinetic energy to siphon off the energy. The two weren't running fast enough, so Kid Flash arrived," Luthor pointed to a point on the blueprint of the Magnetic Field Disruptor to show what exactly caused it to go chrysalis.

"How did he die if he was helping?"

"I'm getting there," Luthor snapped, "the kid was running the slowest of the three. He was becoming an easy exit valve for the dangerous energy and began to absorb it. This painful process caused the downfall of Kid Flash. He couldn't run quick enough. The chrysalis stopped, but he sacrificed himself to save everyone else. I don't like you young hero's much, but I'll admit that that was very brave of the kid. Something I would never do." Lex rolled up the blueprint and handed it to me. "If anything, here's a gift. A tribute to the fallen hero."

"Thanks, but I never knew him," I said, looking up at the bald man. His green eyes almost flickered with a trace of sadness, but it quickly hid.

"Yeah, but I know someone out there did. Now, leave." Lex waved me away. I tucked the blueprint under my arm and stopped at one of Batman's armories in town to look at it. Luthor did me the favor of writing down what the energy that killed Wally was capable of. I recalled something Ra's taught me about string galaxies and what could cause you to go into one.

"One would need so much energy racing through them that they would tear through this realm and into another," he said. I loved taking science at the League of Assassins and at the training boarding school I attended. There, the teachers nailed it into my head that energy could neither be destroyed or created. By the logic that all the powerful energy Wally had absorbed had transported him into a parallel universe, that would mean he was alive.

Next, I called the next smartest guy I knew near Gotham. I didn't want to call him, but I had to ask him about the string theory and how to move between different universes.

"It's nice to see you again, my darling dear Athena!" He called out as I walked into his little hide out. The warehouse was surrounded with guards and well hidden. He yellow smile always made me want to throw up. Joker wrapped his thin arms around me, but I quickly shoved him off.

"No touching me. I called you here because I want to know if you are actually as smart as you make everyone believe you are. What do you know about parallel universes?"

"Oh dear, we got a science geek over here! I would tell you, but I don't feel that I trust you enough. Tell me a secret to get a secret," he said, smiling. His pink lips curled up in a sinister smile.

"How about you tell me what I want to know and I won't tell Batman that you're here." He frowned.

"Oh, you're no fun! Fine, let's keep this short and sweet. Parallel universes are exactly what you think they are. Parallel. Like a mirror!" He clapped his hands together and drew two lines on the ground with red lipstick. "Let's say this top line is us. We just go on living without any interruptions. This bottom line is our parallel. It just follows our path, but it never crosses us. Someone from a different parallel universe couldn't interact with us because they could never travel from their path to ours through an intersection." I sighed and looked down. I was kind of disappointed. "Unless you had a paradox. A small rip in reality and time could act like a bridge if it was small enough to not become a black hole."

"So, this parallel universe, would it be exactly like us? To where everything that happened here would happened there too?" I asked. If this theory was correct, then no matter what parallel universe Wally was in, he could end up being killed no matter what.

"It's like a mirror."

"Oh."

"A carnival mirror. You know those gags, right? They are distorted mirrors that can make you small, tall, fat, thin, wiggly. But, they are still mirrors regardless. They still are a reflection of you, just slightly changed and altered. A parallel would be like that. The same as our universe, but with little changes," Joker explained, "what's the deal with the fascination?"

"None of your business. I just needed someone so-called-smart who would know about this. How could someone enter or escape a parallel?" I stared at the lines. Joker wiped off a bit of his makeup and put a uneven smear connecting the two red parallel lines.

"Like I said before, you need a paradox. Paradoxes are tears in reality and time that are usually tiny. If they get too big, they could turn into a black hole. A paradox is a separate universe in itself that was created after a change in a timeline. They are usually fed by energy fields which could be used to cut across from one parallel to the other. These paradox and energy fields could be a way in or out. Just don't accidentally go into a paradox. There's no way out of that. The only energy field that I personally know is the Speed Force. But only Flash and his friends can use it. Sorry," Joker shrugged and stood up. "Oh, wait. Maybe you're not wanting to go in there, but rather get someone out. Didn't that Kid Flash kid disappear a year ago?" His eyebrows raised as he smiled. I kept my poker face as the urge to slap the grin off that damn clown grew.

"Who knows about the Speed Force other than the good Flashes?" I glared as he smugly crossed his arms and kept smiling like an idiot.

"Professor Zoom I guess. He's hiding out in Flash territory though, so good luck getting to him quick enough. He moves around a lot. Unless somehow I could contact him, requesting his help," Joker held out a black phone with a contact button on it.

"I doubt he likes you."

"Think again. I gave him some Joker Gas to use against Flash a couple years ago. He owes me. I want from you to get on with the mission quicker. I told you to create a relationship with the older Bird Boy not to create a friendship. I don't have all century, so hurry it up with the hanky panky." A horrendous laugh erupted from Joker as he cackled. I put my hands on my two red and white pistols. He pressed call and asked Professor Zoom to come. After some talk, a yellow streak flew past me before a man stood beside Joker.

"What is it?" The man asked, not even noticing me. His voice sounded about the same age as Barry Allen's. He was also taller and more muscular.

"This is my friend here, Nightingale-"

"We're not friends," I spat. Professor Zoom smiled and patted me on the back.

"Sassy, I like. What do you want?"

"To know about the Speed Force." He smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know about that?"

"Joker told me. We can talk somewhere more private if you'd like. I don't trust the green-haired maniac either," I said. Zoom nodded and thought about it for a minute.

"I would love to run far away, but I know you can't keep up," he said, looking down at me. I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arm around his neck.

"Then carry me. You'll look like your saving me, so I guess it's a good thing you move faster than people see." He put his other arm under my legs and darted off. I felt a little burn on my skin, which usually never happened since I had been conditioned against burning pain. I looked down to see that my clothes were slowly getting burned away. Luckily, Zoom stopped running before the speed and friction burned off more than just the bottom of my pants. I looked around to see we were in some lab.

"Welcome," Zoom let me down. I looked around. Everything seemed futuristic. There were machines and gadgets that looked far from being invented anywhere near my lifetime. It was amazing. "Oh, those machines. They're from the twenty fifth century, as am I."

"Cool. Now tell me about the Speed Force. And be quick about it."

"Well, let's start off with the fact that you can't go into it. It's where all speedsters get their power," he said, matter-of-a-factly.

"No duh." Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms and waited for him to say something important.

"It is also kind of a traveling thing into the past or present."

"What about parallel universes?"

"That too." He lifted a map. I studied it closely. It was a drawing of the Speed Force and how to navigate it. It looked like a red tunnel with yellow shock waves running through it. There were passage ways that led you to different galaxies and what speed you need to go at to go to a specific year.

"What does it do to someone who's in there too long?"

"It might do more bad than good. If someone was in the Speed Force for too long, the positive energy could attack them until they just burst and return back to being energy. Or, the negative energy could age them backwards until they don't exist. It's not hard to get into if you can already tap into it," Zoom held up his hand, "what have you always wanted from the past as a kid that you couldn't have?"

"Um...I don't know." Probably my dead parents, but it seems highly unlikely. I thought.

"Come on, something. I'll get it to prove to you how it works."

"An original signed copy of The Iliad." I quickly thought back to the day I first met Dick Grayson, after I hadn't seen him for years. I crashed my ice cream into him and he got his sticky fingers all over my favorite book. The Iliad was a close second to the Odyssey.

"Weird childhood. Be right back," Zoom called before blurring off again. In about thirty seconds, he was back. The book he held was a collection of tiny journals. Each one held Homer's signature. I grabbed it and smiled.

"Okay, I believe you. Could someone die from having two people in there at once?"

"Of course not. Just be careful when you travel through time or through universes. It gets tricky to avoid getting killed by the dangerous energy," Zoom looked down at his wrist as if there was a watch, "well, looks like I gotta go and you gotta go." He wrapped a blanket around me made from the same material as his suit, picked me up, and ran. I didn't burn that time, but he was gone before I even noticed he had dropped me.

"Did you get what you asked for?" Joker immediately asked after I had returned. I nodded and headed back to the Manor to compose a plan using the blueprints I was given, a copy of Joker's diagram, and the map I stole from Zoom. The three villains information all came together.

*****************

"We need Flash and Kid Flash, mostly. But, we also need three other volunteers," I stated, standing before my acquaintances. "Using this blueprint of what killed Wally, you can see that when the disruptor goes chrysalis, it emits energy that doesn't kill, but rather moves. That's what it did. It moved Wally from one place to another. If he had enough energy absorbed into him, he would be able to involuntarily move through universes. He moved to a parallel."

"But-"

"Please hold questions to the end," I said to Beast Boy. "Anyway, looking at this drawing, you can see how parallel universes work. The universes will never reach each other unless you had a bridge or some sort. A paradox. An energy field that feeds energy to specific people that could allow us to get across."

"The Speed Force," Bart muttered.

"Yes! The Speed Force. Here is a map of the place from which all Flash members draw their energy and travel through time and universes. If you take these passages you will be lead to many different parallels. Depending on your speed -- which needs to be 945 mph by the way due to the fact that that is how many light years away the parallel Wally is stuck in is -- you will end up in the universe. Now, this specific parallel is just a guess, but the amount of energy Wally had would've sent him about that far away.

"Just to tell you, the parallels are like ours, except their are slight changes. Those changes might've made Wally think that he never left our Earth. But, be careful when near him. He is basically like a atom bomb times one hundred since he still has that energy. Questions?" A wave of hands shot up. I called on Beast Boy.

"Obviously the Flashes are going to go into the Speed Force to get Wally, but what are those extra three for?" He asked.

"Well, the three are responsible for risking their lives. They are going to carry Wally into a chamber that will slowly drain the energy out of him. This is dangerous because his vision might be so impaired by the other Earth that he will think we are trying to hurt him. So, the three will try to convince him of the truth before he freaks out and kills us," I looked at Artemis as if to tell her she was definitely going to be one of the three.

"Isn't it a bit dangerous to carry a bomb that long? Even for us, carrying Wally through the Speed Force might take some time," Bart looked nervously around the room.

"This whole job is dangerous. But, it's the only way. You two Flashes must make sure you are buzzing on Speed Force energy before entering the new universe or you will die," I answered.

"Will this work?" Artemis peeped. She looked up at me with sad, brown eyes. I didn't feel happy to see her sad in spite of all the hate she harbored for me.

"Yes. Or it might end up killing five of you. It's a risk."

"A worthy one," Artemis said with confidence. The other members looked a bit skeptical. "Come on guys! This is Wally! We have to do this!"

"But, it is a high risk. If we fail, we will lose five members for the life of one," Aqualad said.

"You want to sit here and pretend like he's still dead when we know he's not! We have to do this." She shouted.

"I agree," Bart stood up, "Wally was the best of us, and he would do the same for anyone in this room."

"Let's vote," Aqualad addressed the table.

"Aye," Artemis, Bart, M'gann, Nightwing, and all the other original members immediately agreed. Aqualad, Donna, Superboy, and the newest members hesitated. I, of course, agreed quickly. Eventually, the rest agreed. Instead of smiles, we all silently felt nervous. It wasn't quite regret, but rather just solemness at the idea of us all risking something with such terrible odds.

"Who's gonna convince the Justice League to get on board?" Beast Boy pointed out, chuckling a bit. He stopped with an anxious finish. We all looked at each other with big eyes.

"Not it!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Looooooooooooooong chapter but I felt like there was a lot to say. A lot of this stuff I made up. So, don't take it too seriously of the science of it all but it seems to make some sense and that's all it needs! If you're wondering why the rest of the Team never put the puzzle pieces together, it's because Athena went to specific villains, something boy scouts would never do XD also because she was 100% sure Wally wasn't dead, the rest were convinced. Two more chapters to go before winter break is over! Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow if you aren't already!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~