His Last Hope of Coming Home

Chapter 5: Simulations and a Good Friend

A lot of people say that all you need in life is a good friend.

Nightwing agreed and disagreed with that statement on many levels.

But his good friend at the moment was Artemis, who was watching him closely in the Batcave with concern.

Bruce had asked her to keep a close eye on Dick. He was sneaking out of the manor lately. She was surprised, to say the least. Dick hadn't done things like that since he was Robin.

Artemis decided that she was sick of looking at the back of Dick's head while he tapped away on the Batcomputer and walked up next to the seat.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her soft voice echoing throughout the cave.

"Trying to see if an idea would work." Dick answered simply.

This got Artemis's attention.

"What idea?" She questioned

"You would call me crazy and tell me to move on." He deadpaned, not taking his eyes off the screen and clicked a few times with the mouse.

"I won't." She assured, her gaze still on her best friend.

There was a moment of silence, and Artemis wondered if the former Robin was going to reply.

"There is a possibility that..." His voice seemed to fail him, and he looked down at his hands that rested on the keyboard, tears starting to brim his eyes.

Artemis waited for him to recover.

"You know how we found Conner was alive?" He asked out of nowhere.

She nodded. "In the phantom zone."

He nodded as well. "What if the same thing happened to Wally?"

Artemis stood straight, coming off of the side of the chair she was leaning against.

"You think he's alive?" She asked breathlessly.

The bird simply nodded once more.

"I- Dick, I can't wrap my head around this, first Jason, now Wally? Where are you getting these ideas from? Do you have information that proves it?" She asked. She didn't want to crush her friend's hope, but they needed to think logically.

"I knew you would say this." He said.

Now Artemis felt a pang of guilt stab her.

"Hey, I'm not trying to shoot you down, but I just don't want you to get your hopes up, then crushed when you find out that they're both just...gone." She said gently.

There was silence for a long time after that.

"I have proof." Dick said suddenly

Artemis looked down at him once again, expecting the explanation of proof.

Dick tapped on the Batcomputer once more, bringing up a picture. The place was a blinding white color with snow. It stretched as far as the picture would allow it. It took a second for Artemis to recognize the area, but when she did, she almost gasped.

She looked at Dick to see if she was seeing things right. When he nodded, she looked back at it.

It was the place where Wally died.

More specifically,

Where he saved the world.

Dick tapped a few more times on the computer when it zoomed in at microscopic levels. He then turned the chair to face Artemis.

"See anything?" He asked simply

Artemis turned her attention back to the computer screen and scanned, looking for anything out of the ordinary. She found nothing.

She shook her head, looking back at Dick.

"Exactly." He said. Artemis was confused. "It doesn't look like anything is weird or unormal at first glance." He said, turning back to the keyboard and tapping a few more times until several hundred little dots were outlined in blue.

"What-?" Artemis mumbled.

Dick them zoomed in again to one of the highlighted spots.

It was yellow.

"When Wally was trying to stop the machine, Barry said that he had kind of evaporated into thin air." The bird said, turning to look at the archer. "When a liquid evaporates, it doesn't just disappear. That's not how the world works." He stated, but Artemis cut him off.

"But a machine that was creating I giant tornado to destroy the world isn't exactly how the world is supposed to work, either." The archer stated bluntly.

Dick gave her a hard look before continuing.

"When liquid evaporates, it turns into gas, basic logic. What if something similar happened to Wally? His body is disinterested or in the air, and his soul is trapped in the phantom zone?" He said.

The green archer could see hope in the others' eyes. Artemis sighed but said nothing.

Dick turned and pointed to the small dot that zoomed in on.

"And that exact shade of yellow?" He questioned.

Artemis saw he was right, Wally's uniform was that exact shade of bright yellow. There was no mistaking it.

"Do you have a plan or just evidence that this could have a slim possibility of this being Wally?" Artemis asked gently.

Dick nodded.

"I haven't always had the best of luck with these things, but I've been running several different simulations. I'm getting a few possible answers, but none of them are rock solid." He said sadly

Artemis hated seeing her friend like this.

"Why don't we run a few more?" She asked.

"Sure, but I have to meet up with someone later." He said.

Artemis cocked an eyebrow.

"Bruce said you're not allowed to leave until he said so." She said.

This, quite clearly, annoyed Dick.

"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!" Nearly shouted, pounding his fist against the desk.

"I'm sorry, Batman's rules." The archer defended. "Who are you meeting with anyway?"

She received silence in response.

"If you come with me, will you let me leave?" Dick asked after a moment.

Artemis thought for a moment before speaking.

"Depends on where we're going, how far it is, and who we're meeting."

Dick thought for a moment.

"A friend of mine, he's not hostile, and he's been off radar for a while. We're going to the edge of Gotham." He replied, resting his face in his palm.

Artemis considered the options but gave in.

"Fine." She said, turning to the computer screen.

"Let's see where we can get with this thing." She mumbled.

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*Pokes head out of the ground*

Hiya folks, I know it's been a while, and this is absolute shit but I have no motivation, and running a YouTube channel as well is hard to juggle, but I did it!

HEY PUT THE PITCHFORK DOWN!!

Oh shit-

*Runs for dear life*