EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME TWO
━━ ❛ 𝒎𝒂𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 ❜
chapter no. 031!
𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘜𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘚 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠, 𝘔𝘐𝘚𝘚𝘖𝘜𝘙𝘐, 𝘌𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘏-𝘍𝘖𝘜𝘙
𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀 𝙈𝙊𝙉𝙏𝙃𝙎 𝘼𝙂𝙊. . .
SAVING THE WORLD WAS MORE OF A CONCEPT CREATED BY HUMANKIND RATHER THAN AN ACTUALITY. The changes and sacrifices needed to save a world are more than expected. It was a slow process. Filled with the evolution of people and meta-humans.
Every move made was an implication of the virtuous cycle theory. Sudden changes weren't an option because that meant that they could easily be unraveled. Steady and sedated changes had to be made. Those changes were permanent, and that was what Earth-Four needed.
Permanent changes.
And that was what they received.
The way things turned out was bizarre and unforeseen. No one would have guessed that their beloved speedster that mysteriously disappeared over a year ago would reappear and kill the threat that had been looming over their shoulders for years.
Expedite had never been a killer.
She always believed that even the bad guys didn't deserve to have their lives taken away. Nobody deserved to be killed, regardless of whatever choices they'd made. However, those morals didn't apply on May twenty-sixth. Expedite had to do what was required to save the world. A permanent change. The change the world needed.
The moment the impact of boots on gravel hit, the purple speedster knew that they'd made it. A bundle of yellow and red tumbled from her arms and to the ground, rolling over before coming to a complete stop. Stashing the extrapulator into her pocket, she slid her mask on quickly before anyone saw her.
Her chocolate brown eyes scanned the surrounding land, coming to the conclusion that they'd landed at Caruthers City Boat Dock. The area was abandoned, and not a soul was in sight.
Cracks ran across the ground in every direction, splintering the world in distressed rumbles. The skies rolled in black and dark blue waves as the wind blew violently, sweeping up any and everything it could grasp.
Looking down at the face that belonged to someone she loved and called family, she pushed back her tears.
You promised. You have to do this.
Locks of garnet-red hair blew behind her as she crouched down, hovering over the unconscious woman. Biting down on her bottom lip, Piper Lita raised her arm, vibrating it rapidly as lightning trailed up her bicep. She brought her hand down, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do.
At the last second, she hesitated, her hand mere inches away from cutting through the latter's chest. It was then that the cobalt-yellow speedster's eyes snapped open. Reaching up, Aureolin easily caught her wrist and shoved her away.
Piper stumbled as she stood up, but Athena grabbed her ankle, yanking at it harshly.
Falling to the ground, the heroine groaned as her head hit the gravel harshly. Athena jumped up and delivered a blow to the redhead's side. Breathing in deeply, Piper used her speed to stand up quickly, bringing her knee up and kicking the blonde in the chest.
She watched as Athena's eyes faded to a glowing, bright red. Their mere sight caused a spike of anger to hit her in the chest so hard it felt like thousands of push pins were sticking into her heart. Pushing deeper in, her screams from when she was thirteen echoed in her mind. Flashes of her dead parents and sister appeared before her eyes; without realizing it, her eyes faded to a bright purple.
Piper grabbed the latter's hand, yanking it and lifting her over her body, sending her tumbling back to the ground. Turning around, she walked forward as Athena began to stand up. Stopping in her tracks, Piper grabbed onto the yellow speedster's right arm, bending it back until she heard it snap.
That was for Ginger.
Breathing in through her nose sharply, Piper squeezed her hand into a tight fist. Her fingers glowed purple, and she punched her ex-best friend across the face. She followed with an uppercut. Pulling her arm back, she sent a blow to the chest, sending Athena flying across the boat dock, landing next to a pile of fishing nets. A fist-shaped hole was burning in the yellow suit, the edges fading to a burnt red.
Ignoring the searing pain, Athena forced herself to stand up, spitting out a mouthful of blood as she did so. She narrowed her eyes and raced towards the purple speedster, wrapping her arms around her waist securely before teleporting them to the place where she'd gotten rid of the woman over a year ago.
The sound of yelps and screams of surprise rumbled to the surface as the two rolled across the ground. Parents scrambled to grab their children, dragging them away as Athena pulled Piper up and threw her across Caruthers City Square.
"Oh, my gosh!"
"It's her! It's Expedite! She's back!"
A mountain of voices and gasps of amazement echoed around the Square as Aureolin marched towards Expedite. Her eyes were glowing brightly as she approached the woman who was getting to her feet.
In the distance, Piper could see buildings turning to dust as they crumbled down to the ground that was beginning to split in two.
Athena struck a blow to the redhead's torso, deriving her attention back to the fight at hand. Next, she threw a cross-punch. Piper stumbled backward as a metallic liquid filled up her mouth. Spitting out the blood, she narrowed her eyes. Breathing in through her nose sharply, she projected streaks of purple lightning from her fingertips, using them to grab hold of Athena and slam her into a bench.
"Everyone needs to leave! Right now!" she ordered loudly, using the lightning to hold the woman in place as people ran in every direction, ducking as lamp-posts fell.
Earth-Four was crumbling to bits and pieces all around the two. Piper needed to end this now.
Raising her hands, she thrust them to the right, slamming the latter into a tree trunk. Aureolin fell to the ground limply, groaning in pain as she stared at the leaves above her. Blinking, she then found herself staring into the eyes of the person she hated more than anyone or anything. She could feel the world quaking under her, and it was satisfying to know that she was powerful enough to destroy a whole planet.
Piper narrowed her eyes, cracking her knuckles.
"To make everything balanced again, Athena must be taken back to Earth Four, her home, and killed."
The words of the purple speedster's haunting promise burned her lungs, leaving them clouded with ash and flames. As she stared down at the shell of what was once her best friend, the anger from when she was thirteen swam to the surface, striking her in the chest. She reached down and grabbed onto Aureolin, dragging her back up to her feet.
The blonde teetered side-to-side, and Piper stepped back, lightning slowly crawling up her legs as she held back her boiling rage.
"What're you waiting for? Me to give you permission to kill me?" the yellow speedster asked, her blood-coated lips curling into a sneer as she leaned against the tree, trying to keep herself balanced. "You won't do it. You're too pure for that. Expedite is a saint. An angel. Not the Devil. At least to everyone else, you aren't, but to me, you're Satan himself."
Silence answered her.
"Doesn't it get exhausting?" Athena breathed, spitting out more blood. "Pretending to be happy, pure, and good? I know that for me, it would, and I bet you're burned out," she paused, pouting mockingly. Piper narrowed her eyes. "There's a darkness in you, Pipa Colada. Darkness you keep hidden because you're afraid. Afraid of how people will see you once you embrace all that pain and suffering. Afraid that no one will love you. Afraid that it'll drive them away and leave you alone again. That's why you're always the victim; always the one sacrificing; always the target."
The purple speedster squeezed her eyes shut, her hands lowering as she held her breath. Her legs wobbled slightly as she felt the grass underneath her feet begin to sink.
"Nobody can see you for who you truly are when you play the role of poor, sweet little Piper Maeve Lita." Aureolin spat, pushing herself off the tree and making her way toward the redhead.
"Shut the hell up," Piper growled, her eyes flashing open.
The woman began to laugh, the corners of her blood-tainted lips lifting to reveal a bone-chilling smile that drew from ear to ear. She wore the smile of a mad woman. "Piper Lita is a joke, and you know it. Expedite is a joke. All of this is a joke!"
Sparks of lightning outlined Piper's body, and her chocolate brown eyes switched like a light switch to a glowing purple. "I said shut up!" she screamed, spinning and kicking the blonde in the chest at full force, sending her flying into the tree and snapping her spine in half at the splintering contact. Piper's chest heaved up and down laboriously as she stared down at the broken and shattered villain.
Aureolin coughed hoarsely, blood bubbling from her mouth as she turned her head with great difficulty. Leaning over, Piper crouched down and gave her a cold, calculated stare that could slit someone's throat.
"You are never," she hissed, sinking closer, "ever hurting anyone again. It's over, Athena. We both know it is. Do you feel the world trembling beneath us? That's because of you and the timeline you created. You played God. There are consequences to that." Yanking off the cobalt yellow cowl, she scowled as Athena's entire face was revealed.
Blood was smeared across her forehead and cheeks, slowly drying underneath her chin. The iconic yellow suit was now a red, black, and orange sunset. The yellow was long gone.
Piper ran her hand over the speedster's chest, the tips of her fingers tracing the black lightning bolt emblem. Curling her fingers around it, she pulled it off. Taking in a deep breath, she flowed her power to it. The emblem burst into a thousand pieces, flying away in the breeze that was swaying the city back and forth.
Directing her gaze back to Athena, her eyes faded back to purple as she allowed all the years of torment, tears, humiliation, stress, anxiety, panic, grief, betrayal, lies, loneliness, heartache, unanswered questions, and anger filled her all the way to the top.
"You won't do it. You don't have it in you—"
Before Piper knew what she had done, her right hand had phased straight through Athena's chest. The blonde's eyes were wider than the moon as she stared at the woman in disbelief.
"That's for everyone you ever wronged or murdered," Piper whispered. Twisting her hand to the right, she watched as the latter gasped. "That's for ripping away my innocence."
Athena cried as Piper weaved her hand up to her heart, digging deep. "That's for making me hate a world that I hadn't even had a chance to explore." She wrapped her hand around her heart. "This is for destroying my home and breaking my heart." Athena let out a scream as Piper squeezed her heart.
"This is for creating a part of me that's so dark it'll never see the light of day." She breathed in sharply before yanking her arm out of the woman's chest. Collapsing to the ground in exhaustion, Piper watched as blood dribbled from the corner of Aureolin's pale lips. Her eyes glossed over with a thin, white mask as her chest stopped rising up and down. "And that's for the world."
The shaking beneath the masses of feet approaching Caruthers City Square ceased, and the minacious winds stopped. Everything and everyone was silent and still. It was a kind of stillness where, if a feather was to fall, it would without drifting one way or the other.
It was still.
Completely and utterly still.
────
𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘜𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘚 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠, 𝖯𝖱𝖤𝖲𝖤𝖭𝖳
𝖣𝖠𝖸: 𝖮𝖢𝖳𝖮𝖡𝖤𝖱 𝟦, 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟲
THERE WAS PANIC IN THE STREETS AS THE MASSES CALLED FOR HELP. People shook her shoulders, willing her to wake up as the skies rolled in waves of black and grey. Iridescent shadows engulfed the city, leaving many in the dark, paralyzed with fear as they watched the news.
Screams were stifled in the throats of bystanders, unable to react to the tragedy lying on the ground in a blend of purple and red. A lightning strike flashed from the sky, thundering wildly as unshed tears trembled in the balance. The ground beneath the ocean of feet was splintered and severed, pieces of rock turning to ash and dust.
Caruthers City fell silent as the people slowly gave up, their bloodied hands cascading to the ground.
Families grew asunder, not daring to take a glimpse at the other as their eyes remained pasted to the live broadcast. The world around them was plunging to the ground in a heap of wintry sorrow, leaving their hearts hollow and their minds barren.
Damon Rowland could physically feel all the hope he held vanish in a matter of mere seconds as he crouched down next to her body, looking at Miles Warren in consternation.
No one saw this coming.
The end of the safety net she'd cast upon the city had not inhabited anyone's mind that morning. Not until hours after the city had awoken, at least.
Another strike of lightning came down, and the sound of it piercing the sky snapped the two MHTF agent's attention back to the sea of red. Eyes of all colors watched in despair as their heroine lay still on the ground, her garnet-colored hair blowing in the frosty air, casting a peaceful blanket over her body. Shadows from the looming heavens above rolled closer, blocking the euphoric gaze of the sun.
"We need to move her body," Damon muttered, his eyes glancing over to his partner.
"Where? The whole city is watching. There is nowhere for us to take her where they won't follow." Miles hissed, shifting balance.
Damon's eyes swept the block. The man was right. Anywhere they went, the shadows would follow.
"Earth-One. If we take her there, no one will follow. She'll be safe, and we can figure out a way to bring her back." He finally spoke, not meeting the director's eyes as he pulled his sleeves up.
"What?" the latter whispered. "We can't—"
"Miles, she's dead. I'm not going to bury her here when there's a chance they can save her." Damon snapped, keeping his voice low. Sliding his blood-stained hands underneath her lifeless body, he pulled her into his arms. Pushing himself off the ground, he turned on his heel.
Citizens quietly parted ways, creating a respectful path for them to leave. Not knowing what else to do, people kept their eyes to the ground, not a soul wanting to gaze up and confirm the horrible truth that they'd just witnessed.
The director kept his mouth shut, knowing that the other man was right. They couldn't leave her. Not there. Not on this Earth.
It was time to take Expedite home.