Truth and Consequences

by Lost In A Dark Wood

Roy screwed up; now he's in jail and likely to remain so. Wally doesn't want to believe it, but the evidence is incontrovertible. The question is, what happens to their friendship now? For the anon meme. Mentions of drug use.

Title: Truth and Consequences
Author: Lost in a Dark Wood
Genre: Angst
Rating: T

Summary: Roy messed up bad, now he's in jail and likely to stay there for a long, long time. Wally doesn't want to believe Roy could have done it, but the evidence is incontrovertible and the consequences are dire. For the anon meme. Friendship fic.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Warnings: Mentions of drug use.

And now for our feature presentation

When Wally's desk mate, David, asked Wally if he'd heard the news, Wally asked him, "What news?"

"About Green Arrow's sidekick."

That was interesting. Wally wondered what kind of trouble Roy had gotten himself into. Or maybe, he'd just done something heroic, like when he and Kaldur saved the peace talks in Taiwan (and Lex Luthor, but Roy didn't like to talk about that part).

"You mean Red Arrow?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"He's not Green Arrow's sidekick anymore," Wally informed him helpfully. He'd tell Roy later that he'd spread the word to yet another one of the uninitiated masses who still thought he was a side—er—junior partner.

"Well, yeah, that's the news."

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently Red Arrow killed a guy like thirty minutes ago."

Wally dropped his books. Then, a bit too fast, he punched him. His fist caught him squarely in the nose and landed with two much force. Wally was used to fighting people who knew how to fight back. The nose crunched and dark red blood began to flow freely down David's face.

That was how Wally ended up in the principal's office, waiting for his mom to pick him up. Worse, the principal had confiscated his smartphone, so he couldn't check the internet for news. Time always passed slowly for Wally, but now, it was unbearable. Worse, his nervous ticks were moving at super speed, and he had to keep catching himself. He did his best to sit still for 34 eternally long minutes until his mother finally showed up, when all he wanted to do was get up, run to Star City, confirm that Roy was fine, and then run back and break David's nose again for lying.

His mother was livid. She talked to the principal for ten minutes, and then, she dragged him out of the school by the ear.

Once they were in the car, she turned to him and frowned even deeper, if that was possible. "Wally, I can't believe you. What possessed you to attack David? You have super-powers. You have martial arts training. You can't attack civilians."

"I know… I… it's just, he made me so mad."

"What did he say?" she asked.

"He said Red Arrow killed a guy."

"Wasn't it Green Arrow?" his mom asked. For a woman with a superhero for a son, she didn't really keep track of the superheroes.

"Nah. Red Arrow is what Speedy decided to call himself after he decided he didn't want to be Green Arrow's sidekick anymore."

Wally's mom sighed. "Wally, you can't keep getting into fights every time someone spreads a baseless rumor about one of your friends. Last time it was… what was it?"

"That Batman was having sex with Robin," he said with a shudder.

"Right. People are going to talk and say stupid things. You have to learn to control yourself."

"Yeah. I know. I'm sorry."

"It's not me you have to apologize to. As soon as school lets out, you're calling David to apologize. And, you're grounded for a week. And that means no heroing unless the world is ending."

Wally sank into the car seat. He didn't really like it, but he knew his mother was being fair.

"Can I get my phone back?" he asked.

"Nope. You're grounded. No internet, no phone."

He groaned.

"Can I turn on the radio?" he asked.

His mom didn't answer, she just turned on the radio and switched it to NPR. Wally wanted to listen to music, not to people ask for money.

"So, Cat, can you clear up what's going on?" a man's voice asked. It didn't sound like they were asking for money.

"Yeah. Well, as you know, reports and rumors started about an hour ago, but the Star City Police Department have just confirmed that they do in fact have Roy Harper, also known as Speedy, or more recently, Red Arrow, in custody."

Wally felt his heart drop into his stomach… or maybe lower. His mother was apparently listening. She stopped the car and handed him his phone. Immediately, Wally called Roy. He didn't answer. His stomach sank. Then he tried calling Uncle Barry, but after a few rings, it went straight to voice mail.

"They're not answering," Wally said.

"Try Robin," his mom said.

So he did, and finally, Dick did pick up.

"I take it you've heard the news, right?" Robin asked right off the bat, and Wally wondered why the hell Dick hadn't called him as soon as he had heard.

"About Roy? What's going on?"

"That's what Batman's been trying to figure out. He's so not traught right now. This is like the exact opposite of an aster."

"They know who he is," Wally said, "they said his name on the radio."

"Yeah. They arrested him. They couldn't book him as Red Arrow. His prints were in the system. That's how they found him. It won't take long before someone puts two and two together and figures out Ollie is Green Arrow."

"But Roy's innocent, right?" Wally asked. Dick didn't answer. "I mean, come on Rob… we know Roy. We know he's a bit of a jerk, but he wouldn't ihurt/i anyone." Dick was still quiet. "Dick… he didn't kill anyone right, he's not a murder."

"No. We don't think he's killed anyone, though we do know one of his arrows did critically injure a civilian; the guy's in the ER right now."

"But it wasn't his fault," Wally pleaded. "I mean, come on, in high stakes things, sometimes civilians get hurt. It wasn't his fault."

"Maybe not," Dick said. "Look, I don't know. Batman's working on trying to figure out what's going on and on doing damage control. I've got to go help him hack into the traffic camera footage of the event. I'll call you when we know more, ok?"

"Can I help?" he asked.

"I'll let you know if there's anything you can do to help," Dick said.

"You promise?"

"Yeah."

Wally felt like crying the whole rest of the way home. His mother didn't say anything, but she didn't take the phone back, and she didn't make him go to his room. She didn't even make him call David. But she did hug him and sit next to him.

"You know, if David had been wrong, you'd have made me apologize to him."

She just hugged him and gave him ice cream. But for once, he wasn't hungry. One thing his mother didn't let him do was turn on the television. "The League will be the best source of information," she told him. "No point in getting upset over misinformation."

Robin didn't call, but his uncle showed up around seven. He showed up with three gallons of ice cream, which Wally took to mean bad news.

"How bad is it?" he asked Uncle Barry.

"Not gonna lie kid, it's pretty dire."

"Roy, he really hurt the guy?"

"Yes. He did. Real bad. They've had the guy in surgery for hours. They're not sure he's going to live."

"But… it wasn't Roy's fault, right?" Wally asked.

"We… we're not sure. Robin hacked all the video feeds of the event."

"And?"

"And… it's pretty clear there was something wrong with Roy. We're not exactly sure what. But the way he was moving… it… it's not like Roy. And we're pretty sure he grabbed the wrong arrow. He used a highly explosive one in a crowded street. And… he missed."

"Roy never misses," Wally said.

"No. But he did this time. Which is a good thing, actually, because if he'd hit the guy he was aiming for, he would have killed him for sure."

"What did Green Arrow say about this?"

"Green Arrow and Black Canary were working a case in Rio for the League in Rio when this all went down. They just got back to Star City an hour ago. We're waiting on their report."

"Can I watch the video?" Wally asked. He didn't really want to watch it, but he wanted to know.

His uncle nodded and took out a small memory card from his utility belt. Wally ran upstairs for his computer, and then put the card in. His uncle was right. There was something wrong with the way Roy was moving. And the arrow… he picked it out of his quiver without looking at it, and shot it without even pausing for a split second. He missed, there was an explosion, and then the video cut out."

"Mind control," Wally said. It was one of very few possible explanations.

"It's a possibility Batman's looking into," his Uncle said.

"Or maybe he was drugged. Or maybe…" Wally almost said magic. He didn't believe in magic, but he also didn't believe his friend would be so careless, and if magic was the only explanation, for once, magic would be good enough for him."

"It's going to be ok, though, right Uncle Barry?" Wally asked.

"We're going to get through this, kiddo."

But Wally couldn't help but notice that his uncle hadn't really answered his question.

Wally woke up the next day around noon. His mother hadn't woken him up for school.

For once, Wally didn't rush downstairs. He tiptoed instead. His mother and father were arguing with his uncle. It was Aunt Iris who saw him.

"Wally," she said, and everyone else stopped arguing.

His parents and Uncle Barry sat down. Wally walked up to the table, pulled out a chair and sat down. No one said anything, until, tired of not knowing anything, Wally blurted out, "Why isn't anyone saying anything?"

"Wally, honey…" his mother said. It wasn't particularly comforting.

"What's wrong?"

"Kid…" his uncle started, then he sighed.

Aunt Iris held her hand out and gave his arm a little squeeze. "The League figured out what was wrong with Roy."

"Oh, so they showed it wasn't his fault, and he's going to be let go?" he asked hopefully.

"Not exactly," his uncle said.

"But you said… you said you knew what was wrong with him."

Uncle Barry sighed. Then he nodded, slowly. Slowly for a regular person, so super slowly for Uncle Barry. "Yes. He was high."

"So he was drugged!" Wally said happily. "See, it wasn't his fault."

Barry shook his head. "No Wally. He wasn't drugged. At least… not the way you're thinking. He was high. On heroin. Because he injected himself."

"That doesn't make sense. Roy doesn't do drugs. Roy wouldn't do drugs. If he was high on heroin, it was because a bad guy shot him up, or mind controlled him." Or magicked the heroin into his blood stream. But Wally didn't say the last one. "Besides, how do you know he was high on heroin? You know, if you eat a poppy seed bagel, it'll show up on your blood work like you're on heroin. But it's just poppy seeds. Roy doesn't cook. I bet you he has lots of bagels for breakfast."

"Wally, the reason we know Roy was high was because Roy admitted to being high. And the reason we know he shot up himself, was because he told Green Arrow. What's worse, he told him in front of a bunch of cops. And Green Arrow found heroin and drug paraphernalia in his apartm—

Uncle Barry was still talking. But Wally wasn't listening, because the words coming out of Uncle Barry's mouth didn't make any sense whatsoever. It was like he was talking about the square root of an isosceles triangle, or about how two plus two made five, or about how magic was real. It didn't make any sense. So he did what he knew he should have done from the very beginning. He ran upstairs, put the Kid Flash suit on, and ran all the way to Star City, and then he ran from precinct to precinct until he found the one where they were holding Roy.

He demanded that they let him in. He explained that he was Kid Flash. That he was Red Arrow's friend. That he'd run all the way over from Keystone. And then, when they wouldn't let him in, he told them that he wasn't going to leave until he'd talked to Roy, and when they tried to imake/i him leave, he ran circles around them, until, finally, they gave up and told him he could see Roy, but that Roy was busy talking to someone else, so he'd have to wait.

So Wally sat in one of the waiting room chairs, and waited. For an hour. The whole time, he was worried that his Uncle would burst in and make him leave. But Uncle Barry didn't Uncle Barry apparently hadn't followed him.

Finally, a blonde woman in a grey skirt suit walked out. She looked vaguely familiar. Wally wondered where he'd seen her. She walked up to him.

"Kid Flash?" she asked. She got the name right. It was unusual for people outside of Keystone and Central to get it right.

He nodded.

"Roy… he really needs a friend right now." And then she was gone.

A cop came up to him and told him he could see Roy.

Roy looked like crap.

No. That was an insult to crap. Roy looked like a zombie. He had deep dark circles under his eyes and his skin was impossibly pale. He'd almost look like the Joker, except his lips were blanched along with the rest of him. His hair was drenched and his skin glistened with sweat.

"Fuck," was the first thing out of Roy's mouth. "I told them I didn't want to talk to you or anyone from the Junior Justice League."

Wally was hurt.

"How are you holding up?"

Roy barked out a half-mad laugh. "Just peachy. How the fuck do you think I'm holding up?"

"I saw the video. You messed up pretty bad."

"Messed up? When are your balls going to drop? I ifucked/i up. I icocked/i up. I grabbed the wrong arrow, I missed, and now Jonathan Deere is fighting for his life in the Star General ICU."

Wally licked his lips.

"Flash says it was 'cuz you were high—ButIdon'tbeliveitbecauseyou'renotthatdumb. Please tell me it wasn't because you were high. If you tell me it wasn't because you were high, I'll believe you. Even if you tell me, you had a spell on you, I'll believe you."

"Grow up Kid Flash."

"You weren't high," Wally said. Begged, really.

"I was high as a kite."

"But that was because someone drugged you."

"Yeah. Of course."

Wally sighed a sigh or relief.

"I did."

"Because you were mind controlled?"

Roy leaned over. "Because heroin feels amazing."

And for the first time, Wally really had no choice but to believe it. And he realized why Roy looked so bad. He was detoxing. He was detoxing in jail.

He wanted to punch Roy. Instead, he banged his fists on the table with so much speed the momentum was enough to ding it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Roy snorted. "Funny. Ollie asked me the same question."

"I mean… iheroin/i?" Wally wanted to cry. Roy visibly tensed at the word. "Don't you know what that shit does to people? I mean, someone must have told you about drugs—

"Oh yeah, because Ollie's never lied to me before."

"Even then," Wally was at a loss for words. "I mean, even… even if you… I don't know. Why… why would you go out on patrol with a quiver full of arrows while you were high?"

Roy shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Did I mention I was high?"

And that was it. Wally couldn't stand it any more. Hot tears began to stream down his face.

"Aw, geeze, Kid, no—don't cry," Roy begged, like Wally was the one who was doing something wrong. Roy leaned over and brushed the tears off of Wally's cheeks, but new ones fell right back down. "No, Kid, Wal, come on, Kid, don't cry. Please?"

"How long?" Wally asked, his voice trembling. "How long have you been shooting up."

"You don't want to know," Roy said.

"I do!" Wally shouted. "Fuck Roy. Tell me. I want to know. How long have you been getting high?"

Roy looked down. "Since… since Independence Day."

The color drained from Wally's face. He let out a sob. "Since you quit being Green Arrow's partner?"

"I was pissed. I was drunk. I wanted to show him. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I… I just hadn't expected how… how great it would feel. The highs at least. Coming off of it… that's another story."

"So… heroin is so good, it's worth poking at yourself with needles, worth killing yourself slowly, worth putting your life at risk, worth risking other people's lives? If it's that good, maybe I should try it."

Roy's eyes widened. "No!"

"Why not? It's good enough for you. Why wouldn't it be good enough for me."

"You're angry. You're angry and you're just saying angry stupid things. Promise me you're not going to try heroin. Or any other kind of drug."

"Why?"

"Because it's a fucking terrible thing."

"I thought you said it was amazing," Wally accused.

"It's terrible. I can't go an hour free of the stuff. It owns me. I… I tried to quit… it's impossible. Being on it feels so good, and not being on it feels like hell. You can't Kid. You have to promise me you won't."

"I don't know why I should make any promises to you."

"Fair. Make a promise to yourself. And to Flash and your parents and your Aunt, and to Robin."

"So… what's going to happen to you now?" Wally asked.

"The prosecutor is going to charge me with aggravated assault. Because I was high, she says being high while engaging in vigilantism is so reckless it indicates deprived indifference to human life. I don't really understand it."

"And… if they convict you?"

"Three to fifteen."

"Fuck."

"Yep. That's pretty much how I feel."

"Well, three's not that bad," Wally said, desperately looking for the silver lining.

"No. Three years in Belle Reve when my friends and I put all the other cons there, that's not bad at all."

"That's pretty bad. But, I mean… Ollie has to get you a good lawyer, right? And… good lawyers can get you off anything, right? That's why Lex Luthor's not in jail, right?"

Roy laughed. "Oh. Didn't I tell you? Ollie's not talking to me. He's so fucking pissed at me—you see, thanks to me, now everyone knows Oliver Queen is Green Arrow—he's so fucking pissed at me that he's cutting me off. He's not paying for a lawyer or paying my bail."

"How much is bail? I… I can see if Robin can lend me the money."

"Ten million dollars. Because I'm a flight risk, apparently. Or maybe it's because Ollie's rich and ten million doesn't mean that much to him. It's less than what's in my trust fund, but Ollie froze that. And not even Batman can move that kind of money without, well, raising suspicions."

"So, what are you going to do, if you can't make bail?"

"Chillax in prison until my trial, I guess."

"When will the trial be?"

Roy shrugged. "They couldn't say. My court-appointed lawyer wants me to take the plea bargain and plead guilty. The DA says she'll ask for a lenient sentence if I plead guilty, not that it'll make much of a difference, three years or fifteen, with the friend I have on the inside, if you know what I mean. I think the real thing my lawyer is worried about is what happens if Jonathan Deere kicks the bucket."

"What happens then?"

"Oh, then it's not aggravated assault. It's murder two, and it's not three to fifteen; it's twenty to life."

"How could you be so stupid?"

"Probably 'cuz my mom dropped me on my head when I was a baby."

"Don't joke!" Wally shouted. "Don't you dare fucking joke. Were you high during the thing with the League of Shadows?"

Roy didn't answer.

"You iwere/i high!"

"Not the whole time."

"And in Taipei?"

"Only a little. Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Nothing you couldn't handle! I bet that's what you thought when you shot up and then decided to go out on patrol. iOh, just a little bit of heroin, and just a little bit of high explosives in my arrows. Nothing I can't handle./i All this time, you've been poisoning yourself! But worse! You've been putting people in danger! And not just civilians! You've put the team in danger! You put me, and Robin, and Kaldur, and Artemis—oh! Fuck! Artemis. I've given her so much crap because here I thought she was replacing you, the great hero Speedy, but apparently, you're not a great hero! You're just a pathetic junkie, like the trash Robin has to clean up in Crime Alley. I cannot believe you."

"You don't have to believe me. Or believe in me."

"Good. Because frankly, I don't see how anyone could possibly believe in you. I hope they throw the book at you."

Roy didn't say anything. There wasn't much to say. Wally still wanted to punch him, but instead, he just got up and left. And then he walked out. And then he started running. And he ran and ran and ran and ran, until he ran around the world, once, twice, three times, until his stomach rumbled in hunger and his muscles ached. And then, he ran some more until he got to Wayne Manor. And then Alfred let him in and Wally broke down in front of Dick.

Later Batman explained that there was nothing the League could do for Roy. Wally wasn't sure if there really wasn't anything that the League could do, or if there was nothing the League could do without exposing the fact that Batman just happened to have ten million dollars lying around, but he didn't say anything.

Then, at night, he finally called his uncle, and five minutes later, his uncle was in Gotham with him, and five minutes later they were eating ice cream in the kitchen in his home in Keystone.

"You ok, Kid?"

"No. Not really."

"That's ok. You're not really supposed to be ok."

"I… I can't believe Roy."

"I know."

"I, you know, I didn't want to believe it. I was so desperate not to believe it, that I was even telling myself that maybe it was all magic. If Artemis knew, she'd laugh at me."

"No. Artemis wouldn't laugh. Not about this. She's upset about this too."

"So, Roy said he'd been getting high since he quick being Green Arrow's sidekick. I can't believe him. I mean… all that time, and he was still going out with explosive arrows. It's a miracle no one got hurt sooner."

"I know. And I thank God for that."

"It could have been me. Or Kal. Or Robin. Or you know, anyone."

"But thankfully it wasn't."

"But it was this other guy. And, and he has a family too. People who love him, and now they don't know if he's going to make it, and if he doesn't, then Roy will have killed him."

"I know Kid. But I care more about you than I care about Mr. Deere. I'm selfish that way."

"Is it terrible that I kind of think Roy deserves to go to jail?"

"No. He made his bed, and now he has to sleep in it."

"I mean, on the one hand, it's Roy… on the other hand… when people who aren't Roy do things like this, we go after them, and then we put them in prison, and we get upset when they don't stay there. The fact that it's Roy… it shouldn't make a difference, right?"

"Not in the eyes of the law. But it's ok if it does make a difference to you, Kid. Roy's your friend, even if he did mess up."

"But that's the thing, Uncle Barry. I'm not sure I can still be friends with him. Not after this. I mean… he didn't just hurt himself. He hurt Jon Deere, and he hurt Ollie, and now Ollie's been outted. What if they figure out Black Canary's ID too? And all because he was so stupid."

"I… that's your choice to make Wally."

"Yeah. I know. On the other hand… he's been getting high for months. How come none of us realized it? What kind of friend am I that I didn't even notice?"

"Wally, this isn't your fault."

"I know. But it doesn't make me feel any better."

An unknown number from Star City called the next day. He figured it was probably Roy. He let it go to voice mail, and then he didn't check it. When the phone rang again, he still didn't answer it. And when the phone rang a third time, he just turned it off.

He went back to school the next day. Finally, Robin called to let him know Jon Deere had woken up. It was like a huge weight had lifted from his shoulders. He cut class and ran all the way to Star City again to celebrate with Roy.

But Roy wasn't at the station.

"He was released into Lex Luthor's custody after he posted bail," the lady at the counter told him.

Author's Notes: I intended this as a stand alone piece. That bit with Lex at the end is intended to be the climax and resolution. I put in some foreshadowing, so hopefully, it won't come across as diabolos ex machina. I might be persuaded to write a companion chapter from Roy's point of view, at least of the conversation with Luther.

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