*Spoiler Alert for all of you that haven't watched all the episodes in Arrow or haven't started and want to. Read at your own risk...but definitely review! :D.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chapter 2: Roy Harper to Speedy

- Starling City, year 2007-

"Thanks again for the coffee," a young teenage girl with brown curly hair said as she walked along side a beautiful older woman. They chatted on pleasantly as they walked along the sidewalk unaware of the person who was watching them. They seemed like the perfect targets, both seem to be well dressed, which was a good indicator that their wallets would be stuffed with cash and lots of it. The boy waited for the prefect moment before rushing out of his hiding place just as the women were getting into their car. It was too easy all he had to do was bump into one of them, swipe their purse, rush off without hesitation, and they wouldn't know the wiser at least until it was too late to stop him.

Just as he planed he had bumped into the younger woman and was off; the only hitch was that she had figured out a tad bit earlier than he had expected as he heard her screaming frantically from behind him. He started to run faster as the elder woman started running after him. This wasn't good he thought as he dodged an on coming car as he made his get away. He was almost in the clear when he hit a dead end. Just my luck he thought as he turned around to see the two women had cornered him.

"Give us back the purse and we promise we won't press charges," the elder woman demanded, but judging by how better off they both were compared to the people back home the boy knew he couldn't afford to let this one get away. He looked back at the gate and then smiled smugly as he saw an opening for a get away. With one more look back at the ladies he jumped high enough to grab hold of the top of the gate before propelling his body over the fence. Even though his heist hadn't exactly went as smoothly as he had hoped he knew there was no way he could get caught. He never got caught…

Yep no way I could've ever gotten caught, he thought bitterly as he found himself hand cuffed in an integration room. "Mr. Roy William Harper Jr., where's Sir?" Inspector Lance questioned as he slapped down a bunch of papers filled with all Roy's previous mishaps with the law and a few mug shots long the fray of papers scattered across the table.

"Dead. Can I go now?"

"I'm sorry to hear that, but you've been identified as a prep of a purse snatching. Hmm…that's quite the resume you got here; robberies, petty theft, and oh look at that stealing a car. Well it's nice to change things up a little, and more petty theft. Do you have a problem with banks?"

"Its sort of hard to run away with one now isn't it?"

"Well I can assure you that jail will be harder," the inspector countered as he sat in a seat in front of him.

"Do you think that I want to steal, I don't have a choice," Roy began as his face became harder while he tried to contain as much emotion as he could. The inspector merely scoffed at his reasoning causing him to glare up at him. "My mother she has a problem-"

"Yeah she does her son's an idiot."

With another deep breath the boy forced his anger to stay at bay as he continued to look for the words to wiggle his way out of this one. "No, Vertigo. She got hooked on Vertigo last year. The stuff has messed her up. She hasn't been the same since then and her medical bills…" the words got choked up in his throat as he took another deep breath to calm himself before continuing. "Look I'm just trying to help anyway that I can. It hasn't been easy for us and not everyone is so privileged…at least not where I'm from," the ginger teen finished off with a voice filled with anger and regret, hoping at very least he could get away with another warning. Before the inspector could say another word another police officer came in.

"It looks like our little purse thief is clear of all charges and is free to go," the man announced grudgingly as he held the door open for Roy to leave. Guess I hit a heart string, the young teen thought as he got up to leave with a huge smile on his face that the inspector could only shake his head at. He wasn't particularly worried about the young criminal walking away; after all, he knew his type he would be back here soon.

Knocking sounded throughout the small house causing Roy to groan with annoyance as he dragged himself off the couch wondering who in the hell was at the door. He rarely had visitors and door-to-door salesmen were too scared to come this part of town, anyway. The person he found at the door was the last person he ever expected to be standing there, and with the recent events that have happened the last person he wanted to see at this moment.

"Please can we at least talk?" the girl, whose purse he stole, asked as she stopped him from closing the door in her face.

"What do you want? Did you come here to help me out like some charity case that you can tell your rich friends about?"

"What makes you think you know me?"

"Hmph, really you're Thea Queen an heiress to the Queen fortune, you like designer brands, and got a really expensive car for your birthday, which you crashed. Your life is so transparent."

"Oh really because you've seem to have left some stuff out like my dead father, missing step-father, broken brother, and the fact that I almost served jail time for that car crash," Thea retorted leaving the ginger hair boy speechless with the knowledge that her life wasn't all sunshine and butterflies all because she was rich.

"Look it took some guts to come to the glades at night, but let me give you some advice: stay out of the glades and don't believe every sob story a guy like me tells some cop to get out of jail time," Roy replied with a smug smile as he recovered his hold on the situation before handing her purse back and closing the door in her face. After that encounter his life started to slowly change as Thea Queen forcefully wiggled her way into it. She soon made him realize if he ever wanted his life to get better he had to change. He had to rise up and be something more than what he was, but what that thing was at the time he didn't know. All he knew was that he had to make amends to all the wrong things he has done the only way he knew how; through brute strength.

He started to clean up the miserable place he called home by busting up drug deals or any crime operation that was going on. He was so sure that this was his ticket to making something out of his life at least until he found himself shoved into a car during his first attempt to save the day.

"This is Roy Harper, arrests, larceny, robbery, aggravated assaults. Just another lowly gang banger like the ones that killed my wife," a voice spoke from the darkness before Roy felt someone lift the sac from over his head to relieve a blinding light being shone at him. The boy tried to struggle as he made sense of his surroundings, but both were futile. His arms and legs were tied to the ceiling and floor and he couldn't make heads or tail of where ever the mad man holding up a video camera to his face had taken him.

As the man spoke, Roy couldn't help but feel fear swelling up inside him as sweat soaked his face. He struggled with all his might in hopes by some lucky grace he could get himself out of this situation but nothing he did made a difference to situation it only aggravated the cuts and bruises he had gotten from his attempt to break up a crime some real gang bangers were about to commit. What made things worse was that this had to happen just when he finally felt like he was getting his life back on track. When he finally found something that would make his life mean something. But look where he was now, perhaps he was in too deep to dig himself out of the pit he's been digging for years, perhaps he was too stained by the violence and crime of the glades to be saved.

"I'll give you ten minutes to state your case Roy, why should you get to live?" the man known as Savior asked as he pointed a gun at Roy with his finger ready to pull the trigger as soon as his time limit was up.

Roy didn't need to ponder the question he already knew what his answer was and that was that he didn't deserve to live, not as much as anyone else contaminated by the filth that lived in the glades, the filth he was once part of. There wasn't anything he could do to change that fact he thought as he hung his head in total hopelessness knowing nothing could save him. "You're right I don't deserve to live, so just kill me!"

"You really have no will to live?"

All Roy could do was bury his emotions and stare on with absolute resolve. "Just do it, no ones going to miss me. I'm just a waste," he confirmed again as he hung his head down, preparing himself for the last thing he'll ever feel; pain.

"At least we agree on something, you are a waste," the man declared as he begun to pull on the trigger, causing Roy to flinch as he lost his grip on his emotions, but the bullet never fired. The man was too preoccupied with noises that were coming from outside. Then out of nowhere he swooped in throwing an arrow inches away from Roy's hand so that he could break the restraints that were holding him down.

Roy would be lying if he said that seeing the Green Arrow save the day wasn't a defining moment in his life. The experience didn't only give him hope that he could better himself and his home, but it also gave him something to work towards.