A fanfic challenge from Thowell3. Flash (Barry's) pov concerning the events of CfJ/Rise/Fall sometime during the chase/hunt through Star City to stop Ollie.

Who is Green Arrow?

I used to think I knew. Oliver Queen was my friend. We haven't always gotten along, but Ollie was a guy you could always trust to tell you the truth. At least the truth as he saw it, whether you wanted to hear it or not. I may not have always agreed with his pov, but I respected the honesty of what he had to say.

The person I see now is a liar! To his friends…to his wife…to our faces!

All for what? Revenge?

Believe it or not, I do know how that feels. I've done some things out of fear and grief I wish I could take back. Killing Professor Zoom for one. One moment of anger and abuse of my powers. I would never be the same. Yet, I hoped my friends would learn not to do what I did from my bad example.

I turned myself in to let due process decide my fate. If I hadn't, I would have been as bad as those I fight. And I know which member of the JLA would have been calling me out the loudest as a hypocrite if I hadn't back in the day. Once, he even shared with me, over some of that inedible chili, his own regrets over the one time he had accidentally taken a life and checked into an ashram to get his head back on straight. Straight as an arrow as Ollie ever was that is (ha ha), but I knew where he was coming from back then. How stupid is a boxing glove arrow until you learn it's an alternative so you don't skewer someone in the head. The man was something of a genius that way when it came to inventive gadgets of non-lethality, just like Bruce.

Which makes what we found that much worse! Skewered was exactly how we found Prometheus. Dead, not from a crime of passion which one might expect from our hotheaded archer. That I could understand, even if I couldn't excuse it. But this! Revenge served cold and carefully contemplated. And then to lie about it to everyone, so he had time to kill even more.

When did Green Arrow become a cold-blooded murderer?

Long before this, if what Hal told me is true. The killing spree started in Seattle. Since then, Ollie's been from death to life again, not unlike me. Time's up on second chances this go around. Coming back means you don't get to make the same mistakes twice. (Seems Dinah agrees with me for her own, more personal reasons.)

Ollie even once killed Hal, my own best friend! It's sickening to see Hal try to defend any part of this, saying he was just as bad, even worse, when he was Parallax. Sorry Hal, but I've been under enough villain and alien mind control over my many years with the JLA (Starro anyone?) to know when a person isn't responsible for their own actions. And my best friend is not a killer! I can't say the same of your so-called other BFF. How can he even be friends with that guy anymore?

So now I hate Green Arrow – for what he's become, for what he's made Hal think of himself, for corrupting his new sidekick to share in his crimes, for the scary thought that maybe I've never known the real Oliver Queen at all.

Has the world gone mad in the time I've been gone? It's not the first time I've wondered since my return.

It doesn't matter though. We heroes still have to stand for justice! If we do something wrong, we are beholden to the law just like everyone else. I don't know if the world has gotten more dangerous or not, but it's a lie to say it's gotten more complicated. Ollie unknowingly gave Prometheus exactly what he wanted, to turn us into murderers like him. Worst of all, I don't know if I can ever trust him again.

Heroes don't kill. They don't lie to each other. GA crossed the line! It's my responsibility as a Leaguer and a cop to bring him in. It's that simple. That is justice!

Notes: Couldn't resist the title for this chapter. This one took a while to organize my thoughts. After my last few chapters, the last thing I expected was to get a challenge to defend OOC Barry. But it proved to be a welcome writer's challenge and I liked the chance to try and see thing from the other pov. Hope this is to your liking Thowell3 and things for all your ideas. Guess I'm not as done with Rise/Fall as I thought. I have one or two more to vent over the Arsenal conclusion (including Mia's thoughts). Ugh, horrible ending to the mini series! At least, the new Young Justice cartoon preview shows normal Roy.