16101/Titans 3023: Wally and Cait Interlude on the Time Ship

Titans 3023: Wally and Cait Interlude on the Time Ship
Date of Scene:	18 October 2023
Location:	Troia's Time Ship
Synopsis:	Wally 2714 approaches Caitlin 3023 in the Time Sphere to try and understand her mixed reaction to his presence. He gets a lot of disappointment, and even worse: no answers.
Cast of Characters:	Wally West, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Wally West has posed:
The Time Sphere continues on it's traverse through time and space. Some hours remain yet in the distance between now and...well, where they must go next, either to recruit a Titan or to reconvene with the others Troia and Caitlin Fairchild had gathered. The so-called Forever Hero, Wally West, the Flash stands there in his white and gold suit, hands running through his shoulder-length hair. "Just...go talk to her, Wally. What's the worst that happens? You've literally travelled through time by running. You can do a conversation."

His pep-talks. Some things never change.

After his long and gruelling discussion with this new version of Donna Troy that's /still/ throwing him through a loop, he decides to track down Caitlin Fairchild. He remembers that moment, that moment where she pleaded with him to return to his time at the exact same moment he left it. She made it seem more important than anything else in the world that he do /exactly/ that when the time came.

There's...got to be a reason. SHe seems worried - tense - to be around him. Questions need answers and even though she had gone to her own devices, she'll have an old pursuit from Wally, even if he's not trying to be pushy. He reaches her door, rolling his shoulders as he sighs, and he looks for signs of red.

"Cait? You around?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks over at the door when the alert chimes at her. Then back at the bottle in her hands. Her head droops and she sighs heavily with a profoundly weary note. With a little shifting of her weight she gets her feet under her and walks over to the door. Her cloak hangs from a nearby hook, and up against the wall are her raiments of battle. The ship even generated a little armor stand for her, which supports the cuirass and accessories she was wearing when Troia first picked her up.

The door latch is touched and it slides open. Caitlin looks down at Wally with that same peculiar mix of expressions she'd had before; flickering happiness and a flash of irritation and anger. Both of which dissolve away into a stiffly neutral poker face that gives very little away.

"What do you want, Wally?" she asks with a blunt, exhausted note in her voice.

Wally West has posed:
The door slides open with a hiss and Wally is face to face with the taller redhead. Green eyes meet hers and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of playful joking with Wally like he normally would. No flirtatious quips, no 'Hey foxy mama, we gotta grab dinner before the end of the world'. None of that wanna-be womanizer personality seems to be remaining anymore. Wally's matured, for better or for worse and with Cait?

Might've been for worse.

"We need to talk."

Not a whole lot of people can meet Caitlin in the eyes and demand anything. But he clearly caught the exhaustive note in her tone. "..and clearly, this is a great time." Some kinds of jokes remain, but he crosses his arms over the 'flash' emblem on his chest. "I know things are weird, Cait...but I wanted to say..I wish they were different." Wally says, his eyes flickering with extreme happiness at seeing her and part in just as much restraint. "Seeing you was the best thing that happened to me in years. But...I know wehn I've messed up."

He stays where he is. "What happened back there, when you wanted me to return to the same timeline I left from. It seemed beyond important to you."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"...No. /You/ want to talk. /We/ don't have much to talk about." Caitlin stares at him with that heavy-lidded expression, then sighs wearily and steps away from the door. It's not an invitation, but she's not locking the door in his face, either. Her fingers are curled through the loop of a Themysciran amphora and from it she takes a few healthy gulps of the potent wine.

Caitlin settles on her bunk and crosses her legs, carefully tucking her tunic hem under her thighs. The amphora rests on her lap and she rests her shoulders against the bunkhead behind her. It's an imposing and withdrawn position, and from her posture, she clearly doesn't want Wally to join her.

"Going back in time, /on/ time, is, I think, the ..." her lips purse. "The third most significant thing you will do for me in the rest of your life," Caitlin says. A subtle reminder there: Wally's been skipping centuries, but Caitlin has lived through all of them. The woman giving him that unreadable expression is a literal thousand years older than he is.

It is a chilling thought: for this older version of Caitlin, Wally is a ghost she has to revisit once a century.

Wally West has posed:
"No, /we/."

Wally stands up for himself, a far-cry from the normal sheepishness in the result of direct confrontation with someone he deeply cares about. Caitlin has had to take the long way, and yes, Wally's been cheating the system by skipping a century every year, but taht doesn't mean the distance hasn't been any more real. While Caitlin moves to sit on the edge of the bunkhead behind her, imposing, withdrawn.

She's trying to look strong.

And she's angry at him.

"Have plenty to talk about. That, for instance." He looks at Cait. "Either you've been to a time I'm not around anymore with this fancy contraption, or you've seen what happens if I /don't/ return to my time. Though...I'm curious now what the second and first significant things are." He leans against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest.

"And I don't remember you ever drinking, even the Themysciran stuff." He points at the bottle she enjoys. "Is it even possible for you to get drunk?" With that durability of hers, it's difficult to imagine.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin eyes the bottle speculatively, then looks at Wally. "I saw Hercules go so blind, /stinking/ drunk off Themysciran wine that he spent half the night crying on my shoulder about how he did my sisters wrong four-thousand years ago," she explains with a lofted eyebrow. "Yes. I can get drunk on this, and once you leave, I fully intend to do so."

She takes another, pointed swig from the bottle, and sets it back on her lap.

"If you don't go to your origin timepoint, it is going to screw things up in ways you cannot even comprehend right now," she says, bluntly. "And if I don't know -for sure- that you're going to return to that time, then I run an extremely high chance of corrupting your -and mine- timeline," she stresses.

When it seems she's not making her point, Caitlin's lips thin. "It's been ... what, a century since the last time you saw me?" she hazards. "And for me it's been about as long since I saw you. You got to go back. You keep forgetting that you've got decades of life ahead of you in the 21st century. I've got centuries more."

A beat passes and she leans forward a little, staring hard at Wally. "Do you want to know exactly how many years it is?" she presses him, a warning note in her voice. A not-so subtle reminder that Caitlin-- this far-flung future Caitlin-- knows the entire story of Wally's life, from cradle to grave.

And yet, despite it all, Wally would be hard-pressed to shake the feeling that Caitlin is somehow trying to *protect* him.

Wally West has posed:
"One of his big Labors, right? I don't think Queen Hippolyta was happy about that one. Always thought about trying to find Hercules, but I feel like he'd be too busy drinking and managing to get my friends on the same path to really consider it." A slight stab, but Wally never understood why people drank in the first place. He's never been able to get drunk. His metabolism annihilates alcoholic toxins too quickly for it to start taking effect. "Well, damn shame." Regarding her intention to get blasted by olden-day magic wine.

Yet, he hears the tragedy of what /may/ occur if he doesn't going back to his own origin timepoint - it'll screw everything up beyond all recognition for both his timeline, altered or unaltered, and hers. He doesn't ask what that trouble looks like, instead he seems to close his eyes and he starts thinking.

"Yeah, about. Last time I saw you, you were trying to stop a tidal wave from wiping out the east coast." Wally suggests to her, and they both know if she failed or succeeded in the ndeavor. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not immortal. Which is ironic, because I'm surrounded by them. You'd think I'd get the hint and earn a few thousand years, but I guess I don't have the good genetics. I just got struck by lightning."

He sighs. "Look, I know you're trying to protect me. But if I don't know what truly scares you, I can't help."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Yeah, well-- maybe I don't /want/ your help," Caitlin snaps. A little push off the ground and she's on her feet. Not fast, not Flash-fast, but quicker than someone her size and weight should be able to manage. And despite the amphora in her hand, she's not swaying or off-balance. The Amazon takes a step towards Wally, her height making a foreboding presence.

"I know exactly how many 'jumps' forward you have left in your timeline," she reminds him. "And the last time you left, I finally felt some peace knowing I'm never going to see you again. But here you are again," she says with supreme consternation in her voice. Not just frustration, but a pain that's almost palpable.

"So yeah. I'm getting drunk, Wally, because seeing you hurts me in ways that--" she reaches out at him, fingers tensed, then ends up just cupping his chin in her hand. Tears well in her eyes and she thins her lips, pushing away from him and turning away.

"Just leave me alone, Wally," she says with her back turned. "Please."

Wally West has posed:
The snap was unexpected. Wally's eyes would be indiscernible to anyone else. But Cait /knows/ him better than anyone else in the entire world - maybe ever. She can see the slight lift in his eyelids. The slight tension hat touches his shoulders. He leans away from the frame, his hands falling to his sides as he stands up straight to prepare for her hardened approach.

Despite her physical superiority - where strength was concerned - Wally has never been afraid of her. Yet, even as she approaches with strength in mind...Wally can see her pain. And somehow, he feels as though he's directly responsible for it. He stands there as she holds that drink in her hand, preparing to weather every bite and sting she sends his way. She knows how his story ends. Abd she felt peace knowing she'd never have to see him again.

A piece of him shatters. The words he could describe this woman with...they'd be enough to write sagas. He can't deny the pain she delivers in reaction to her own, and to know that even seeing him causes her more pain than he realizes.

He feels her warm hand cupping his chin, never a doubt in his mind that she wouldn't hurt him and for a moment, instinct or otherwise, he leans to press his head into her touch. He meets her eyes and his own begin to reddin and swell with tears. He opens his mouth to say something, but instead she pushes away from him, forcing him to take a step back as she turns her back to him.

He reaches then, trying to touch her shoulder with a soft palm. She asks him to leave.

He's silent for a moment. "I did so many times, trying to respect your heart. I don't want to leave you alone ever again.." Wally mutters softly to himself. "My every thought in these years away from my original time has been you." He tells her as he starts to turn. "I'm sorry..." He tries to stop himself from crying, but he manages to hold out.

"I-" He quiets himself.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
There is a long and painful silence, one which Caitlin does nothing to rescue Wally from. She just upturns the amphora and drains it, even the bitter dregs, and tosses the empty container aside once it's depleted. It clatters across the ground. A curved clay handle breaks off the jug. Her heavy shoulders slump.

"I told you 'You need to grow up'," she says, finally. "I remember it clear as yesterday. Do you?" She lifts her head, staring at some point a thousand meters behind the bulkhead. "You must. It was only a few years ago for you, subjectively. I told you to grow up, and you said 'I'll be right back'. And you left and five minutes later, you came back from--" a vague gesture, encompassing the entirety of Wally's travels forward through time.

She turns, slowly, and the look in her damp eyes is something impossible to interpret. Love? Hate?

"You have two years left in your trip. I have a thousand years of memories of what happens once you go back. And the worst part is that I can't tell you /anything/ about any of it," she complains bitterly. "All I can do is remind myself you aren't yet the man who returned to 2030. Because of that, there is nothing I--" she takes a slow breath, looking skywards. "I've got nothing for you, Wally. You won't understand until you go home."

Wally West has posed:
"Cait-"

Wally can do many things. He's gifted with power people only dream of. But he can't stop people from themselves. He can't stop Cait from draining the entirety of her drink and dropping the entire thing on the ground like a discarded husk of what once was. She slumps, as if in disappointment.

'Grow up'.

"Yeah. You did. Abd I did grow up. The difference between us right now? I kept some small part of me giddy as a child."

Yet, she tells him new information. Years for Wally was only minutes, moments for her. Super Speed is incredible but...this would be a massive flaw depending on perspective. Those eyes turn to look at him, damp and...he can't tell what she's feeling. In many more ways than one, this version of Cait is like he has no idea who she is. "Guess it gets bad when I go back." Understatement of the century, perhaps. He hears, practically feels, the emotion in her voice as she tells him with so much certainty that she has nothing for him and that he will never have a hope of understanding until he returns home.

Silence rewarded with silence. Yet whether it was such beautiful love or purest hate in the green of her eyes, a hand lifts to try and so much as touch her cheek with his fingers, as if in effort to bring her eyes to his own. "I'm not anything yet. All I know for certain - naive and foolish as you might think me to be...I never forgot. Abd yeah, this situation looks really bad and...I know we..." He sighs. "You could have nothing for me and I'd still find a way. I know that the game of decades to centuries doesn't end well. Everything gets claimed by time eventually. But you've always been in my heart. Always on my mind."

He chuckles a little. "Everything's changed so much. Troia...you...even me. But the one hung that hasn't? I'm not giving up on any of you. You're stuck with me until the end of the line."

Then, he tells her something she's heard nearly exclusively from him in all their years knowing each other.

"You work too hard, Cait. Thankfully, ol' Walkman's here to help you out."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks at Wally and for a moment, that miserable visage cracks when he touches her face. Just for a moment. There's a little old familiar warmth to her eyes, and even the suggestion of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Her hand lifts and touches his knuckles.

And then the expression flickers and hardens again. Anger. Something old and burned into her soul, some hurt that's never been forgiven. Caitlin's visage becomes distant again and she curls her fingers around his knuckles and eases his hand back towards his chest. Not crushing his fingers, not squeezing them, but breaking that physical contact between them and using her grip to gently but irrevocably maneuver Wally back outside of her room.

"Go rest, Wally. We have a long day ahead of us." Hard to tell if it's a suggestion, order, or friendly advice. A half a heartbeat passes, and before either of them says anything, Caitlin touches the door control and closes it on Wally's face.

Wally West has posed:
There she is. The Cait Wally knows and adores peeking from behind that well-constructed wall of misery. Is that her defense mechanism? Or has Wally truly done something terrible to her? He has no idea. But he sees the smile threatening to break into her face. Hands touch.

Then it sours. Like a bitter poison reminding them both of its hold. There's a pain so deep in there that she never forgave him for and Wally's warm expression shifts to concern. "Cait?" and his hand is removed from her and pushed into his chest and gently removed from her room.

"Cait, we can-"

The door hisses shut in front of his face. Wally looks as though in disbelief. "What did I...what /do/ I do?" His old fears briefly manifest as his forehead presses against the cold steel of the door, fully aware Cait has moved onto her own devices. His hand lifts to rest against it, a brief spark of electricity leaving his fingertip when it meets that metal.

He wordlessly turns away then to find a place to sleep. The past is the past and the future is never truly set. He's not afraid of it anymore...all he can hope to do is try and mend what's broken. It just won't be happening tonight.