What Brings Us Together (A Ralph Dibny/ The Flash Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Thirty-Six: Barry Allen Wears A Mask

Barry had been arrested for the murder of Clifford DeVoe. Somehow, someway, Devoe's body had ended up in Barry and Iris' apartment, with a stab wound from a set of knives that had been gifted to them as a wedding present. Due to Barry's previous altercation with DeVoe, his fingerprints and DNA were all DeVoe, and vice versa his was all over Barry. It didn't look good.

"This is exactly what DeVoe wanted," Barry told us, "I mean, we all played right into his plan, especially me."

"Why would DeVoe want to orchistate all of this?" Iris questioned.

"I don't know. But we know that this started when I was still in the Speed Force."

"But why target Dominic?" Oh. That's right. DeVoe had taken over Dominic's body somehow. He was literally in the room with us while Barry was being arrested for his murder.

"Dominic's power must have allowed DeVoe to inhabit his body. We should've been on top of this earlier." 

"What about the other Metas on the bus, why create them?"

"Part of a larger plan, which given who we're dealing with, doesn't surprise me in the slightest." I stated. Barry awkwardly scratched at his ankle monitor with his fo.

"How are you even here right now, Allen?" Ralph asked. "Aren't you on house arrest?"

"Yeah, well-"

"He's at Joe's actually. Either that or the courthouse." Cisco replied.

"I managed to hack into the ankle monitor GPS."

"They probably should've accounted for that." I muttered.

"That's not the only thing Cisco hacked. WHen you came out of the Speed force, you were talking gibberish at CCPD. You said something about not wanting to kill anyone."

"I digitally scrubbed a video. Last thing we want is someone hearing something we don't want them to hear." Cisco pulled it up on the screen.

"Your honor, I'm innocent. I didn't do it. I didn't kill anyone. "

"Yeah, I mean, I don't remember saying any of that." Barry stated.

"You don't?"

"No."

"We probably should go through the rest of the footage, see if he said anything else that might be able to help us." I pointed out.

"That's a good idea."

"Ok guys, but remember, I mean considering all the evidence they have against me, this trial's not even gonna last very long."

"Ok, but with Cecile taking a leave of absence to represent you, you got the best lawyer in town." Caitlin pointed out. 

"Yeah."

"I mean, even if they did find you guilty, it's not like any prison can hold you." Cisco pointed out.

"Well, I'm not gonna run. I won't be a fugitive. If I'm convicted, I have to go to prison."

"We can't let that happen." Joe said.

"Right. Let's get to work." Ralph grabbed my hand, intertwining our fingers and we walked out into the hallway.

"Ralph, hold up." Joe said, catching up with us.

"Listen, I'm not gonna let Barry go to prison. I failed his dad, I'm not gonna fail him. I need your help."

"My help, huh? As in the stretchy kind?"

"As in the underhanded private investigator kind."

"Oh, ha, no offence taken." 

"Come on." He grabbed both of our arms, separating our hands and dragging us away.

~~~

Ralph and Joe were going to do some investigating on DeVoe, and I had to attend Barry's trial. At some point, both the prosecution and the defense want to call me as a witness.

"Your honor, ladies and gentleman of the jury. For you to understand what it is I'm about to tell you today, you need to do something. I need you to believe in the impossible." Why does that sound so familiar? "As children, we are taught that the police are there to protect us, to serve. We're told that our tax dollars go toward training them to be the champions of the city. But for some of us, it still seems impossible that a police investigator, one of Central City's finest, could betray that trust. And even worse, one of the guise of upholding the law to commit the most heinous act that one person can carry out against another. But that is exactly what Barry Allen did. Now, the prosecution will prove beyond any doubt that he stood among us a wolf in sheep's clothing. But here's the thing. Barry Allen wears a mask."

Team Flash were all sitting together, save Ralph, and every single one of us sat up a little straighter. Does he know? How? And if he does, how does that help his case?

"-Used his connection to the law, his experience as a police investigator, especially as a crime scene technician, to stalk a beloved professor and husband and murder Clifford DeVoe in cold blood."

Oh boy. 

~~~

After opening statements, Cecile and I went to Jitters to talk about my testimony for tomorrow.

"You're sure you're up for this?" She asked, "Barry said to remind you that you don't have to do this." I nodded.

"Barry's my best friend, of course I want to do this." I assured her.

"Ok, so typically how this works is the prosecutor is going to cross-examine you first, and then it's my turn. He's probably going to treat you as a hostile witness due to your personal and work relationship with Barry, so be prepared for that. So, basically, his main goal is to try to discredit you and make people not believe your testimony, so is there anything in your past that might make you not credible?" I thought about it. One thing did come to mind, but surely they wouldn't ask about that. That has nothing to do with this, and it was my brother's actions not mine, so I don't see how that could effect me.

"I don't think so. Nothing comes to mind." She nodded.

"Alright, so what I'm thinking is I'm going to play the 'knows him better than anyone' angle, as well as ask you if an experienced CSI would make the forensic mistakes that Barry supposedly made." I nodded.

"Sounds good to me." I said, taking a sip of my Killer Frost.

"Are you nervous?" She asked.

"I just...I don't want to say the wrong thing. I don't want to be the one responsible for making things worse than they already are."

"Don't worry. That won't happen." I nodded.

I sure hope not.