Everything was dark.

Dark and- painful, his mind supplied unhelpfully.

Pain.

Why was he in pain? He tried to remember how he got here- where here was- and came upon a startling realization.

He didn't know where he was. He didn't know how he got here.

He didn't know who he was.

There was only one memory in his mind.

"Wally….I'm sorry. I love you."

Wally West. He needed to find Wally West.

Oo0oO

One year, five months, and 26 days.

That's how long it had been since Wally had seen his best friend.

That's how long it had been since Wally's best friend had sacrificed himself. Wally could not forgive himself for that.

Because Dick never should have felt he needed to do that. Especially not since at the time he did it, Wally wasn't even speaking to him.

"Wally….I'm sorry. I love you."

Now it made sense. Now everything made sense. He'd gone to Kaldur, after, and had asked about it. Kaldur had- reluctantly- explained that Dick had been in love with him forever. That after the incident with Artemis, all Dick wanted to do was find some way he could help ease the pain.

And since Wally- at least, in his mind- hated him, sacrificing himself for Wally seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The problem was Wally hadn't hated him.

The problem was Wally could never hate him.

The problem was that now Wally was pretty sure he loved Dick.

Oo0oO

First things first. He needed to figure out where he was. (The fact that he didn't know who he was wasn't a topic he was comfortable broaching yet.)

Everything was dark. So dark. He couldn't see anything.

He couldn't feel anything, either. Just pain.

And when he opened his mouth to scream, nothing happened.

Nothing.

And then suddenly there was a green light. Which may have been cliché- because even he remembered clichés- but it was true. A green light. And suddenly he could feel again.

So he screamed. And the green light came closer.

It illuminated a person. A person wearing all green, with a mask across his eyes.

"Hey, hey, what're you doing here? This is..are you a human?" The green person ended up being an alien. Clearly an alien. He looked like….there wasn't any way to describe it.

And his brain wasn't really in any place to come up with a description, given the pain.

"Oh god. I forgot..atmosphere changes. Okay, dude, just, um…wait here. I'll be right back." The alien dude left him.

Jesus. It felt like his body was going to explode. Or implode. Or both. Could it do both?

Oh. Alien guy was back. "Okay, dude, here." He put some thing over his mouth, and suddenly the pain was gone.

"Where…where am I?" He asked.

Oo0oO

One year, 5 months, and 28 days.

And counting.

Wally had an internal clock that told him exactly how long it had been since he'd last seen Dick. And he knew that even the last time he'd seen him, he hadn't exactly been nice to Dick.

And now Dick was dead, and Wally was left with this giant hole in his heart where his best friend- his other half- should have been.

It didn't help that he still was missing Artemis.

Artemis. Artemis and Dick. He missed both of them so much.

Kaldur helped. Or he tried to. But Wally could feel the slight resentment, just under the surface. The resentment for everything he put Dick through. And Wally believed he deserved all that and more.

Oo0oO

The alien dude took him to this "sanctuary". It was like, a place with all these different refugee aliens. Apparently this planet was a war torn one- most everyone was being evacuated.

There were no humans. Apparently the humans of this universe were all but extinct. He wondered how he'd gotten here. And who he was.

They- the aliens in charge of the sanctuary, the Green Lanterns- started calling him Bird. They said he reminded them of the birds that used to live here. Bird. It felt almost-right, but not quite. Still. It was better than not having a name at all. It still bothered him, that he couldn't remember his name. Or anything at all other than the name Wally West.

He'd asked the aliens- the Green Lanterns- if they knew someone named Wally West. They said they'd check with the other Lanterns, find out where this dude was for him, but none of them knew anyone by that name.

Wally West.

Oo0oO

One year, 6 months, and 2 days.

He'd helped stop three bad guys and foil a plot to assassinate a government official, but he still felt hollow.

Empty.

Like he was missing a piece. Which he was. Because, despite everything, he needed Dick. Dick was his other half- a necessary part of his life.

Robin- the one that Dick had helped train (was his name Tim?)- still hated Wally. And it wasn't like he voiced his hate. No, Wally could just feel it, this bubbling rage right under the surface of Robin's skin. And Wally knew he deserved that. After all, Dick had sacrificed himself for him.

Because he'd loved him.

Wally knew that if it had been anyone else Dick had died for, he'd hate them too. And he wondered what that said about him. He wondered a lot of things now.

Oo0oO

It took several days before they had any results at all, and even then they were discouraging.

Firstly, Bird was already depressed because the sanctuary- where he was staying- was depressing. And then they told him the news. There was no Wally West in this universe.

However, they said that there might be one in the next world, and given the trace amounts of warp that they found on his skin, they figured he was from a neighboring universe. So they did a bit more research, contacted neighboring Green Lanterns, and discovered where he was from.

Now it was just a matter of getting him there. Apparently trans-universe travel was hard. Which, of course, led Bird to wonder how he even got here. Maybe it had something to do with Wally West. That was, after all, his only memory. Wally West. Wally. West. He was a ginger. That much Bird remembered.

Actually, Bird could picture Wally perfectly. He was attractive, in a dorky, cute sort of way.

Oo0oO

One year, 6 months, and 13 days.

Kaldur had said it was unhealthy for him to be this obsessed with how long it had been three days ago. Wally had said okay, but he hadn't stopped counting. He'd just stopped telling Kaldur. He didn't talk much anyways- he didn't have anything to say, nor did he have anyone he wanted to talk to.

Actually, that was a lie. He wanted to talk to Tim about Dick, but Tim wouldn't talk to him and Bruce wouldn't let him in their house. The Batman apparently held grudges. Basically the only person he had to talk to who he felt wasn't judging him- which may just have been him being paranoid, but still- was M'gann.

M'gann was understanding. After all, she had lost her best friend- ArtemisArtemisdon'tthinkabouther- too. She knew how he felt. Well, not really. She hadn't known Artemis nearly as long as he'd known Dick. But still. It was closer than anyone else, except maybe Jade, who hung around Roy nowadays. Jade and Roy. He wasn't sure if that was weird or random or sweet. He tried not to think about it.

But anyways. He didn't even know what to do with himself anymore.

Oo0oO

Eventually they did it. Got Bird back to his own universe, into the hands of the Justice League. Whatever that was. And then he saw him. Wally West.

Oo0oO

They'd called Wally up to the Watchtower. Said it was important. And now he was staring at Dick. His best friend.

Oo0oO

A/N: Right. So originally, this was the final story in the series, and Dick was gonna visit Wally as a ghost and be like "I forgive you"…..

But I just don't do sad. So obviously, I need to write a happy ending-type thing.

There's gonna be at least one more, though probably more than that.