For Fallenarchangel, who requested a Flash fic.
Killer
Flash hears voices when he fights, voices that tell him to where to strike, where the bodies of his opponents are most vulnerable. Flash hears voices that tell him to kill.
People don't realize it, but it would be so easy for him. Before an enemy can blink he could have a fist through his throat, or a knee in his stomach. Wally can take out his opponents before they even know he's attacking, before he even knows he is attacking.
So he tries his best not to touch his opponents, preferring instead to dismantle their weapons, to trip them and conveniently knock them out, or, if he must—to trip himself and expose himself to the bullets, or rays, or bombs.
When the Justice League grows, however, suddenly he can't do that anymore. Suddenly he's not the weakest link, and there are younger, weaker heroes who need his help, and he can't take the time to dismantle machinery. Suddenly, he is the one leading the team of three and Kara is unconscious, Vigilante's arm is scarlet with blood, and Wally knows that if he wants to keep them alive, he has to move.
So he fights. Wally rushes at Bullet, whose machine-gun of an arm just filled Vigilante's shoulder with bullets, and struggles to focus.
One millisecond: Take out the head, Flash. There are fifteen ways to end his life right now. Snap his nose into his brain, or crack his skull, or break his neck—
Two milliseconds: The chest, Flash. Vibrate your fist through his stomach, use his own gun to carve a sphere in his side—
Three milliseconds: His limbs, Flash. Maim him for life—there are four places where you can disconnect his arms and legs permanently—
And then the man-made monster is there, and Wally's fist is in the air. Do it! the voice screams, and Wally brings it down on Bullet's back, knocking the genetically enhanced man onto his stomach. Finish him!
He ties the man up instead, even though he knows that this just means Bullet will be alive to threaten the people again. He does not snap the man's neck, or paralyze him from the neck down—because he will not become a murderer. He will not compromise.
You're a fool.
"Shut up," he mutters, more out of habit than anything, because the voice is already fading and he knows it will not return until the next time he's speeding towards a target and again faced with the chance to take him or her out permanently. But Wally can't kill, because if he does the world will end.
He's not stupid. He knows that Batman's killed, John's slaughtered hundreds in the Marines, and Shayera has probably had a fair share of deaths on her hands. He can guess that J'onn took out a couple of the organization who captured him to perform tests on him. He never thought Superman would kill, and then they met the Justice Lords and he saw the look in the other man's hard eyes. Diana—Wally doesn't want to think about a world where the Amazon would kill, but she is a warrior born and he knows that they were taught to fight to the death from birth.
So that leaves him, Wally West, the Flash—and the only one keeping the Justice League from turning into the Justice Lords. "I'm your conscience," he remembers himself telling Superman confidently, but now he looks at himself in the mirror and wonders.
If the conscience of the Justice League hears voices telling him to kill—maybe we're more of a menace than a good.