All Fall Down (Young Justice FF)

3: Wally

They didn't let Wally see Crystal, at first. Which was fine, he understood. It was going to be fine. They just needed the space to work.

Then, when minutes turned to hours and hours turned into days, he grew restless. They wouldn't tell him anything. Wouldn't let him see her, even after they had left the room. Guilt ate at him, and he ran his mind over his memories over and over. How had he not noticed? He didn't even know how bad it was, just that there was too much blood for it to be anything other than serious.

He'd had to change his suit, after. Normal people might have wondered if it'd come out, but he knew from experience that it wouldn't. He didn't sleep much, only when he couldn't stand to stay awake any longer.

So, that was how Robin found him, waiting outside Crystal's room eerily still from fatigue.

"You look pretty whelmed right now. Maybe even over," Robin commented, sliding into the seat next to him.

"Isn't everybody?"

His mouth didn't quite feel like his own. His mind was miles away, repeatedly going over one thought like some kind of broken record.

His fault, his fault, his fault-

"It's not your fault, KF."

You a mind reader, Rob?

He gave a half-hearted snort, "I should've noticed. Instead, I talked. I should've just picked her up and ran the moment she fell from the ceiling."

"You told me yesterday that she was pretty set on staying in the facility. You didn't know."

Wally hummed, but didn't say anything.

"There's something that doesn't add up about her injury though," Robin said. "It was three days after we found them, if she was injured then she would've bled out long before you tried to get her down."

"Maybe she was injured after," Wally mumbled.

"By who? There was at least a dozen people there at all times until we had everyone transferred, and even after there was always at least one person there. No one ever saw her leave that light fixture."

"Security cameras?"

"Destroyed and the tapes are long gone."

"Could she have been hurt up there?"

"Unlikely. We would have seen someone attack her and, in the event she hurt herself, I didn't see anything up there that could do that."

"Where did she get the projectiles?"

"What projectiles?"

Wally ignored him. "And why was she so stubborn about leaving?"

"I don't know-"

"What if we weren't alone in the facility?"

"Someone would've noticed."

"No one noticed Crystal until the second day. Then, after we noticed her, we didn't even try to get her down until we began the transfer. If we didn't notice a girl sitting up in the ceiling, how can we be absolutely sure she was alone up there?"

Robin's eyes narrowed, assumedly thinking about the prospect. Whatever he thought about the subject, however, no longer remained a concern when a crash sounded from inside Crystal's room.

Wally was inside the room within a millisecond, blood roaring in his ears.

Danger, danger, danger-

Time was already slowed for him, everything moving as if stuck in a bowl of clear Jell-O. But in that moment, the room seemed frozen instead. Crystal lay on the cot that they'd rigged up, forearm blocking a dark shadowy creature by its neck. Wally expected her to look scared -- the standard damsel in distress. He should've figured she'd just look absolutely pissed.

Time sped up, and that shadow began to move, the only clear part of it -- its mouth -- gnashing at her face with long white teeth. It took scarcely any time at all to dash over and attempt to get the creature off. Looked easy, too. But, y'know, Wally didn't exactly know that this monster wasn't entirely tangible. His fingers slipped into where the thing's flesh should've been and then, seconds later, it froze. He spared a second to glance at Crystal, noting that the anger had been replaced by fear.

He may not have known her for long, but the message was clear: Run.

So, he did.

Except, well, the shadow was faster.

Then, someone was screaming. He didn't know it was him, at first. Poison burned like fire in his veins as the sharp needle-like teeth dug into his shoulder.

People were yelling. Others were crying. He didn't care.

"Don't shoot!" someone yelled.

Was someone aiming at him? He couldn't tell, his vision was nothing but pinpricks of light in the darkness like a sky full of stars.

"C'mon. You wanted me dead, right? Get it over with and you can eat whoever you damn well please."

Same voice, he thought. Crystal?

Then, the pressure was gone.

He couldn't tell you what happened after that. All he knew was that thing wanted Crystal dead.

And he was utterly helpless to stop it as the world simply fell from beneath his feet.