Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, the comic or the show, or any of the characters associated with it. I make no profit from this work of fiction; it is purely for entertainment purposes.

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Wally woke slowly, consciousness coming down on him like a blanket of cotton. Everything seemed muted for the first few seconds. Sound, sight, color. If he didn't have the feel and taste of a guard in his mouth he might have forgotten he had one.

Trying to move his jaw was like trying to pry open a steel vice. Blinking away what he assumed was a prolonged case of the morning fuzzies from his eyes, he did his best to sit up, only to find that he couldn't. "Hwhartff?"

Quick movement at his side, a mass of red that jolted so hard he gasped, caught his attention. "Wally! You're awake!"

Uncle Barry. Or Flash. No, definitely Uncle Barry, he recognized that overly tight hug anywhere.

"Uuhnkl Bawwy, wewauwee- sshhrr," Wally struggled around the bulky mouth guard, trying hard not to drool on Barry's uniform. When the man pulled back he finally got to see his worried face, all of it; he'd swooped in for a hug so fast Wally hadn't gotten the chance to see if his cowl was down or not.

Instead of smiling or laughing at his ridiculous attempt at speech like he thought he would, Barry frowned. A quick step away revealed the tense cape covered shoulders of Batman who was busy jotting down notes on a clip board. The man was hunched over a set of monitors, the soft beeping he'd been unconsciously listening to as he lay in- Wally took a second to look around, slight panic building up inside of him when all he was able to move were his eyes- what looked like a hospital bed. "Bwaman?"

"How are you feeling, Wally?" The man in question turned, his usual air of authority offset by the firm lines at the sides of his mouth that made Wally think of Barry's frowns when he came out of a close scrape.

"Uh... mmuhky? Efenk... weh cn't eh mv? Nn weh dh eh hv eh moffgrd?" Wally grimaced as he felt spittle drip out of the side of his mouth, even more disgusted when the line traced down his cheek to tickle the bottom of his ear. "Euwwwww..."

After a moment of staring Batman shifted his gaze pointedly to Barry, who deciphered Wally's muffled speech with relative ease, wiping his nephew's face with a wad of tissue. "He says he's okay, and he wants to know why he can't move and why he has a mouth guard." The blond's brows furrowed and Wally noticed that he was having trouble keeping eye contact with him. When Batman came to a silent conclusion and turned his back on the pair again, Barry sighed. "You don't remember anything, do you Wally?"

"Hwuh?"

When Barry sat down for a talk it was never a good thing. Wally was only able to follow him with his eyes as he sank into the chair at his bedside, letting his face be cradled by his hands. When he finally pulled them away the man's face was as neutral as he could get it. Meaning Wally could see every ounce of pain and fear in him when he spoke. "Batman said something like this might have happened, but I didn't want to believe it. Your... short term memory has been tampered with. I need you to think for me, Kid. What is the last thing you remember?"

Batman was facing them again though he was still by the monitors. Wally could tell he was waiting for him to speak, hand poised above the clipboard, pen in hand. It made him nervous. Hell, the fact that he couldn't move and the fact that his uncle was treating him like he was on his death bed made him terrified. It came as no surprise to either of the older heroes when the beeping of the monitor sped up at a higher pitch.

"It's alright, Wally, everything is fine. Just try and tell us as much as you can, okay?"

Wally both hated and loved that tone, safe in the gentleness of it and spooked by it all at once. Why did his uncle feel the need to calm him as though he were a trauma victim? So far his only problem was drooling too much and not being able to get out of that stupid bed.

"Eh...," his brows furrowed as he attempted to do as told, drawing up a blank for several seconds before he seemed to light up in realization, "Bwaman wsh tlln ush abow ur nw misshn nd... uh... th' Bwioshp... uh..."

Barry relayed his words as he said them, Batman wordlessly setting to the task of recording. It didn't help his urge to fidget and excuse himself one bit. "He remembers you telling him about a new mission, and he remembers being in the Bioship."

Over the course of a half hour the elder Speedster translated for the younger, bits and pieces of memories he could recall jotted down for later observation. There were mentions of the team, fragments that came together in a perforated mess of jokes and half sure observations about what he thought the team was on their way to do. In the end there wasn't very much to show for it other than the bare minimum; that the team had a mission and Wally couldn't remember an ounce of it past boarding the ship.

He relaxed, or at least he felt like he did, he still couldn't really move, when Batman set the clip board aside. By the way the cowl tilted back in the direction of the monitors he could tell he was thinking.

"According to the team's reports, Wally, you were captured during the mission."

Batman seemed to be unsure of whether or not he should continue, Barry letting his head hang, elbows on his knees as he let the other man take up the duty of filling Wally in.

"The team was sent to the country of Bagare to investigate a jump in missing persons reports around the First Main district over the last month. An hour following touchdown, after splitting into groups to efficiently scout the surrounding area, you were engaged by a group of armed civilians claiming to be the "Salvadors de Alto Delta". Your pair partner, Aqualad, reports having received similar relays over your comm. links from your teammates, but you were unable to find an opening to escape in order to regroup."

Wally felt a sinking, sickening feeling in his stomach like heavy, slime covered rocks. He couldn't help but ask, feeling like he was being told a joke with a horribly distasteful punchline at the end. "Whrrsh evrwn elsh?"

"All but Aqualad are in the waiting room, awaiting clearance to come visit you," Batman murmured, lips pursed tight, "Aqualad is in the ICU down the hall."

Had he been able to move, Wally would have been off like a shot. As it was, he could only make a strangled noise and look frantically at the two men for assistance.

"He suffered multiple bullet wounds to the legs and chest, as well as a fractured wrist, but he's stable. Atlanteans are made of tough stuff."

He could feel the warmth of Barry's hand engulfing his, pulling it up a fraction, but he couldn't move his own fingers to grip it tight. He could also feel the lukewarm bite of what could only be a leather restraint on his forearm. Eyes falling to the man that was like a second father to him he whimpered, panic rising again in a frantic question that he desperately needed to be answered.

"It's okay Wally," Barry shushed him, letting a thumb rub soothing circles on the back of his hand as he spoke, "They're for your own safety." The look in his eyes read 'Trust me'. It wasn't quite enough to calm his elevated heart rate, and Batman was soon there slipping a needle into his arm.

The boy's uncle looked as though he were carrying a thousand weights on his shoulders as he watched his nephew's panicked eyes slowly close, the sedative enough to grant him a stress free sleep for as long as his body would allow.

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A/N: Oh boy, oh boy, I'm excited to write this one. Oh boy oh boy oh boy.