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It happened during one of their practice runs, where they charted out a path to a goal destination and see who ran it better.
Wally had gotten turned around in order to stop a bank robbery, which in their little game wasn't a time loss. When he got back on track, the world was different somehow. Tilted.
He stumbled–he never stumbled on these runs, not since he was a kid– and his surroundings changed.
Uncle Barry and Bart materialized beside him, also halfway collapsed. Barry frowned.
They were in an eerie clock tower. Numerous clocks lined the walls. They were on the inside of them, the numbers switched and the white of the clock interiors created light patches. Gears turned around them. Barry helped up Bart and quickly turned to Wally.
All of them were lost for words, so Barry just grabbed Wally's hand and squeezed.
One breath, then two.
Wally narrowed his eyes at a particular clock that was definitely moving too fast.
"We're inside a clock tower." Wally said.
"We're inside a shit load of clocks. The interior of a clock tower doesn't look like this." Barry corrected.
Bart snorted.
"Let me guess, you've investigated murders inside of clock towers before?"
"Excuse you, this was when I was a crime scene cleaner, get it right." Barry poked Bart as they all scanned the area.
Wally stepped back. One step, two.
The walls echoed with the sound of drums.
No, a heartbeat, followed by the tick-toks of all of the clocks.
Barry and Bart went quiet.
"We need to get out of here." Wally voiced desperately. "We have to get back."
Barry frowned deeper. He glanced around for an exit in the way only a leaguer could.
"We don't even know how we got in."
"I can help with that."
They all twisted and there was a being right there. Floating and caped and haunting. They held a staff with a small pocket watch clock on it, the hands moved too slow for minutes and too quickly for hours. They had a clock within a window in their chest.
Their deep voice echoed in the surroundings.
Wally clenched his fists.
"How will you help us?" He pressed, recklessly, stupidly. As if he had no one waiting on him.
Barry rested a hand on Wally's shoulder and slowly tugged him back to be behind him with Bart, as if he was still a child in need of protection instead of twenty-three.
"You... Flashes, are quite the thorn in my side." The being mused, a sharp smile only cut by the lines of a motherboard. "Especially in regards to the timeline."
The air seemed to grow stiff and still as the being reached out past Barry to cup Wally's face. Their hands didn't feel old or young or his age, they just were. Nails dug threateningly into his skin and he couldn't move a singular inch.
Bart and Barry tried to move him away, tried to pry him out of the being's grasp, but they couldn't.
"The- The timeline?" He asked, fingers twitching with this energy that hadn't overwhelmed him since he was small.
They were the cold of the Watchtower, the ice of Captain Cold, the warmth of the desert, the flame of the core of the earth. Past, Present, and Future burst to life behind his eyelids and every time he so much as blinked, he could see another tragedy. It wasn't natural in the slightest.
Bart screamed beside him. Barry's breaths came too quickly. Wally thrashed.
He couldn't even begin to describe what he was seeing. He couldn't describe the emotions that were attached.
"You caused this. All of these things are direct consequences of you three running loops through time." The being hissed. "You were chosen by the Speed Force against my will. I cannot take it away from you. I can take you away from it."
Barry made the mistake of making a protest and he choked on his words. An ugly, hurtful sound.
The being seemed to get a perverse pleasure from it, laughing. Laughing.
It cut off with a garbled noise.
His civilian boyfriend–who was supposed to be at their apartment on his day off–peeked over the being's shoulder, a beyond pissed off look on his face. The star shaped electrical burns on his eyes glowed an eerie teal.
"Clockwork, just what do you think you're doing?" Danny scowled. "Cause it looks like to me, you're fucking with my partner, his baby cousin, and my boss."
"You know how important the timeline is, Daniel." Clockwork said scathingly, losing the majority of the otherworldly quality that their voice once held. "You have seen how this turns out."
Danny only got angrier.
"Don't Daniel me. Release him." His voice was as cold as the ice that started making its way over his cheeks, creating steam from how much heat was concentrating on his face.
Danny never let out his powers on accident. He had near impossible control on them for as long as Wally had known him.
Clockwork huffed, as if they were having to go out of their way just to unclasp their fingers.
Wally stumbled upon being let go and Barry steadied him.
Danny rushed over to him, checking over him with a frantic gaze, starbursts flicking this way and that. Clockwork glared at them a final time before going, disappearing with a displeased grumble.
"What was that? Who was that?" Wally let Danny thumb over his cheeks, his eyelids, his face. Oh, how he longed to kiss him but it would be such bad timing. Barry and Bart hovered around them, concerned.
Danny shook his head. His eyes dimmed, going back to their normal cloudy blue.
"Not enough time for that. I need to get you three out of here." His voice wavered. "It's not safe for you here."
He took his hands away from Wally's face to tear a hole into reality, his fingernails growing sharper in the moment to accommodate.
Wally and Danny's apartment was on the other side. It still had Danny's lunch on the kitchen counter.
The dish was still steaming.
He checked the time on his phone.
No time had passed.
No time at all.
Barry and Bart took their leave after thanking Danny, clearly just wanting to go on their respective runs to come to terms with what had happened.
He paused at the threshold between hallway and living room. Wally grabbed onto Danny's hand, thumbing over his knuckles.
"Promise to tell me the context when you're ready and no sooner?"
Danny smiled in relief, intertwining their pinkies.
"I swear I'll tell you when I'm ready. This is from my teen years. You know how I am about those." He sighed.
Wally pecked him on the head.
"I know, you came to Central for a new start. I get it. Let's go eat, yeah? I'll whip up something for myself real quick so I can join you."
Danny kissed him, pulling back just to squint and fix Wally's hair.
"I'm half blind and yet I care more about your appearance than you do." He snorted.
Wally swung their joined hands with a grin.
"You just don't like feeling hair on your lips." He teased.
Danny shoved at his shoulder lightly.
"Shut up! I have tastes and you indulge me."
Wally couldn't help but laugh.
"Damn right."