Notes: Co-written by @ladyawesome45321!!!!!!

Enjoy!

...

Barry remembered watching his mother die. The last words they had exchanged. The pain behind them.

He remembered Eddie's face as he died. The last words Iris whispered to him, the last words he whispered back.

He remembered Ronnie. He hadn't been fast enough, and he was dead because of it. He remembered delivering the news to Caitlin, how no words had been exchanged.

He remembered his dad. That smile, that chuckle... Slugger. He remembered watching Jay rip his heart out, too.

He was sick of it. He was always the good guy, but he always lost everyone he cared about in the process.

So why be good? Why lose everything when you can have even more?

That was why Barry was at a bank, though he wasn't here to save it.

He was here to rob it.

He glanced around with a wry smirk on his face. Even if he failed miserably, he had super speed. No one would catch him.

He walked over to where he knew the vault was and stared at it for a moment.

If he did this, then there wasn't any going back. He wouldn't forget this, and neither would the security cameras.

He shrugged.

Why should he give a fuck?

He phased the door off its hinges and strolled inside the safe. There were different doors, but Barry knew the second he saw the one he wanted.

Oliver Queen's.

Barry wasn't going to risk it in Central, obviously.

He knew Oliver was loaded, and revenge for those arrows wouldn't be terrible.

He smirked as he stuffed all the cash he could into the bag before taking off.

The security camera wasn't looking at the Flash suit, though.

He was looking at Betrayal's.

Barry speed through the streets of Central City with the bag of money slung over his shoulder. He zipped through the streets, not even remotely caring about whether or not people saw him. How could they anyway? He was running at the speed of light. Besides, who cared what anyone thought? You were just bound to be disappointed and betrayed by everyone anyway. What did it matter? What did anything matter?

Nothing did. Not anymore. Anything that had was gone now, and it wasn't coming back. There wasn't anything he could do about it.

...

When Oliver heard that his bank had been robbed, he wasn't very surprised. What he was annoyed about, however, was that he hadn't been alerted. He should have known about it, been able to stop it!

Then he realized who had robbed it.

Apparently, it was another speedster (dude, how many freaking speedsters were there!?!?), and if the blood on the wall was any indication, he was calling himself Betrayal.

Huh. Interesting.

Question is, why was a speedster robbing a bank and murdering innocents?

"-Apparently, it was only Oliver Queen's vault that was empty-"

Wait, what?

So, Oliver had been specifically targeted. Interesting.

Oliver stared at the screen in shock. Why was a speedster robbing him? Sure, he had plenty of money, but was that the only reason? No one should know his identity except Barry...

But it couldn't be Barry, could it?

Oliver was ashamed to even think that, but it made sense. Betrayal could refer to either Thawne or Zolomon, and after so many losses, any man would go crazy.

He would have to talk to him.

...

The Green Arrow took to the streets, looking for this new speedster baddie. He wanted to have a word with him. Anyone who robbed Oliver Queen was cruising for a bruising! He wasn't ready to eliminate Barry as a suspect yet, but he wanted to, and if he found this guy, then he could.

But, so far, nothing.

Then Oliver remembered another key thing about speedsters. They could run halfway across the world in less than an hour.

Well, that certainly made Barry looked even guiltier. Yikes.

Oliver sighed. He couldn't deny talking to Barry anymore.

Oliver prayed he was wrong and Barry was innocent, but a voice in his head claimed that he was right. That Barry really was Betrayal.

Well, hopefully, Barry wasn't, and he'd prove it when he asked him.

...

Oliver wasted no time getting to business. As soon as Barry had answered the knock on the door, Oliver blurted, "Barry, tell me the truth. Are you Betrayal?"

Barry turned around, shock on his face and... something else. Something Oliver didn't want to name.

Oliver looked at him, his face demanding an answer, but deep down he wasn't sure he really wanted to know. He didn't know if he could handle it if it were true.

"What?" Barry replied. He had faced enough interrogations with Joe to learn how to lie smoothly.

Oliver examined his face closely, looking for any signs that he wasn't telling the truth. "You heard me," he said after a moment.

Barry's face took on a tense expression before schooling it.

"Who the hell is Betrayal?" he asked. Oliver couldn't fault him for that.

"Nobody," Oliver said. "Just another evil speedster. I think he's trying to frame you. He robbed my bank last night."

Honestly, Barry couldn't believe Oliver believed him. He didn't think he was that good.

So, he let his guard down a little.

Oliver kept talking. "There was blood on the wall. The word Betrayal. Clearly, this guy has it out for us. I would watch your back, Barry. Just in case he comes after you more directly." He looked at Barry, eyeing him, taking in his reaction to his statements. He had to be sure...

"Yikes. Does that mean I should come on patrol with you?"

He sounded so genuine... it almost hurt to know he was probably lying.

Oliver nodded. "It's the only way to be sure. We're stronger together than we are as individuals, and it will be harder to catch us off guard if we're watching each other's backs."

Uh oh. That wasn't good.

"You know..." Oliver trailed off. He stared at Barry, a smirk on his lips.

"I almost believed you."

Oliver pulled the arrow from his belt and flung it at Barry before he could react. As soon as it landed, it slowed him down. He wouldn't be able to knock out a speedster, and it wasn't like he was gonna kill him.

"Sorry, Barry," he said as he walked over to him and carried him, bridal style.

Barry just stared at him in shocked silence.

...

Oliver took him to Star Labs and placed him inside one of the anti-meta-human cells down in the pipeline. No one was there to disturb his interrogation, because the rest of the team had all taken a mental health holiday for the rest of the month, but it was really easy to break into the facility since they had little to no security measures.

Oliver stood in front of Barry's cell, arms folded over his chest. "Why did you do it, Barry? You're one of the most heroic people I know, the best person I know. What could possibly make you, of all people, stoop this low?"

Barry forced out a hollow laugh.

"Really, Ollie?" Oliver fought not to flinch at the use of his nickname. Barry held his hand out.

"Well, I caused Ronnie and Eddie to die." Barry held out his other hand at Oliver's immediate reaction to say that he hadn't killed them. "Henry was because I wasn't fast enough, and this one I witnessed. Ooh! Same with Nora!"

Oliver wanted to be sick at the twisted look on Barry's face.

"So... oh, yeah! Iris! I forgot about her."

When had that happened?

"I guess I finally broke open, like a pinata," Barry said, looking thoughtful. "Sick of being the hero who always gets hurt. So why not be the powerful villain who doesn't?"

"We all have failures, Barry," Oliver tried to reason. "We all have regrets, people we couldn't save! But think about all the good you have done. All the people you have saved. Don't they count for anything?" He looked at his friend, hoping, praying to whatever god might be listening, that he would listen. He hoped with all his might that he might be able to get the old Barry back. That he might be able to save him from these dark thoughts and bring him back into the light...But Oliver had never been good with touchy-feely subjects...

Barry rolled his eyes. "You're one to talk, Hood," he snarled. "You've killed before. Said it was for the good of your city. That you didn't discriminate, right? Well, then kill me." Barry smirked at him, knowing Oliver couldn't do it, even if the glass door wasn't between them.

"Barry, please," Oliver begged, though he knew. He knew that Barry was likely too far gone. No one had recognized the signs, and now they were paying for it.

"No thanks. I like me now. I don't care about you, or Caitlin, or Cisco, and so I can't be hurt."

Oliver knew something was happening. He knew he could prove it, but...

"Fine. You wanna prove you don't care, Barry? Then you can watch me pull the trigger of this gun."

This could backfire, or it could work. But Oliver knew he'd do whatever it would take to make sure Central had its light back.

He grabbed the gun, which was already loaded (he showed Barry as proof) before shoving it against his skull. He closed his eyes, said some silent prayers, and clinked the safety off.

He wasn't looking, but if he had been, he would have seen the genuine concern in Barry's eyes. And fear.

Oliver sighed. He wished he didn't have to go out like this (or at all), but Central couldn't survive without The Flash.

He pulled the trigger.

...

There were a lot of times in Oliver's life these past few years in which he was quite certain he was going to die, in which he had prepared for and excepted death....But then he proceeded to continue living. This was one of those times.

Oliver pulled the trigger of the gun, fully expecting death to follow. After all, that was a pretty permanent and effective way of suicide. However, the bullet didn't go through his skull. It never even left the gun's barrel. It was blank.

That Oliver didn't even mean. Either way, it had worked. Barry stared at him in shock, tears in his eyes.

"You-you-you-" seemed to be all he could say.

"I had to prove you still cared," Oliver told him. "I had to prove to you that you are still the Flash, Barry Allen."

"You... you almost killed yourself to prove that," Barry gasped. The tears just wouldn't leave.

"It was the only way," Oliver insisted.

Barry wanted nothing in more at that moment to hug him, but there was the matter of the glass in place.

Oliver sighed. He figured Barry wasn't about to kill him, so he opened the door.

And immediately regretted it.

As soon as the glass was gone, Barry flashed out, a smirk replacing the tears.

"Betrayal strings, doesn't it?" Barry questioned, his lips remaining in their smirk.

He ran out before Oliver could react.

"I won't give up, Barry."