EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME TWO
━━ ❛ 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆 ❜
chapter no. 032!
𝘊𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘓 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠, 𝘔𝘐𝘚𝘚𝘖𝘜𝘙𝘐, 𝘌𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘏-𝘖𝘕𝘌
A WHIRLING BUBBLE OF BLUE ENERGY BEGAN BREAKING THROUGH THE AIR IN THE SPEED LAB. A dark blue oval was in the center, spreading out into a brighter blue that resembled the afternoon sky outside. All was silent until a blur of red appeared, three figures looming behind it. A man with glasses on cocked back his bazooka back, ready to shoot whoever it was coming through.
The breach floated in mid-air for a second, everyone in the room silent and ready to put up a fight.
The room was illuminated by a flash of bright blue lightning, and everyone shielded their eyes. The brightness faded to reveal two men with black hair, dressed in uniforms, and one of them held the purple heroine that everyone recognized immediately.
"Piper!" Barry Allen gasped, stepping forward as everyone lowered their weapons.
Placing his hand out, Miles stopped the scarlet speedster. Then, the team noticed how the two strangers were covered in blood. Looking back at the purple speedster, the brown-haired man felt his heart drop.
The speed lab was still, and Damon sighed heavily, tears clouding his vision. "She told us that if something ever happened to her, to bring her home," he spoke, glancing at Miles, who was eyeing everyone wearily.
"Home?" Barry questioned, his breathing hitching.
Cisco stepped forward, his eyes tearing up as he gaped at her body. "What happened?"
Damon and Miles exchanged despondent glances. "She's dead." The MHTF Director confirmed, lowering his hand and everything seemed to freeze at those words.
"No. No. Piper's the strongest person we know. She's not dead. She can't be dead." Cisco spoke, shaking his head in denial.
Damon gulped, peering down at his friend's pale and still body, feeling an agonizing sob getting caught in his throat.
"A-Are you— how—" Barry stuttered weakly, tears on the edge of falling down his face.
"Do you have somewhere we can lay her down?" Miles asked, clearing his throat. Caitlin stepped forward, nodding weakly as she tried to stop her hands from shaking.
After placing the purple speedster's body down on an operating table, the two strangers turned to face the group of people Piper had talked about every day since she came back to Earth-Four. Especially Barry Allen. The man she fell for while she was here.
"What happened?" Harry asked, keeping his bazooka firmly by his side.
Miles and Damon looked irresolute before glancing back at the tear-stricken faces. "During training this morning, I noticed that something was off with Lita. She was jumpier than usual and kept spacing out. She couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. Damon and I both tried to talk to her, but she blew us off. Snapping and telling us to leave her alone. So, we did." Miles explained.
"Which we shouldn't have done," Damon cut in.
"Why was she upset?" Barry asked hoarsely, his gaze locked on the woman he wanted more than anything to be by his side once again.
Miles shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know, though, is that whatever it was, it was serious because she doesn't get upset easily. At twelve, there was a meta-attack downtown. She went to go stop it, but it was a trap. Whoever orchestrated it hacked into all the TV stations and broadcasted the whole thing for everyone to see. Savitar, a known speedster from our Earth, was destroying buildings and killing the police force. While trying to speed citizens out of the buildings nearby, Piper saw that Savitar was about to kill a little girl who had fallen in the middle of the street. She wasn't fast enough to grab her, so she shielded her with her body to keep the girl safe. Sacrificing herself." Walking over to the speedster, Miles moved her hair, pointing to a long cut that went straight through her body.
"Savitar stabbed her with one of his metal spears extracted from his suit. There wasn't anything anyone could have done. It was too late when Damon and I made our way there with the Meta-human Task Force. Her heart hadn't been beating for three minutes, and there was no sign of the Speed Force in her system. I'm assuming that when he killed her, he also found a way to take her speed as well," the Director theorized, a frown pulling at the corner of his lips.
Stumbling back into Cisco, Barry could feel himself becoming light-headed by the overwhelming news. Cisco noticed and pulled him over to a chair, forcing him to sit down.
Caitlin sniffed, wiping away a tear. "Why did you bring her to us?" she asked, crossing her arms.
Miles looked to Damon, nodding slightly towards the group. The dark-haired man narrowed his eyes and gulped, looking away. "Piper's told us about all of you. We know that your team is extremely intelligent and resourceful The only person we know who could bring Piper back is dead. So, I suggested to Miles that we come here and see if you all can help us bring her back." Damon replied, uncrossing his arms.
Stepping forward, the brown-haired scientist shook his head. "No. We don't know anything about either of you or if this is even really Piper. We can't trust you."
The two men shared enigmatic glances.
"Hollands. It's one of her f—"
"—favorite comic books. Her father used to read it to her when she was a kid. She told me she'd s—"
"—show it to you if she ever made it back to Earth Four." Miles cut Barry off, his eyes somber. The brown-haired boy gulped, meeting his eyes with wide and watery ones. "I was with her when Aureolin had her. We were held in the basement of Brenner Labs. To pass time, I asked her to talk to me about things that made her happy in hopes of it giving her the strength she needed to survive. She only talked about you, Barry Allen. The thought of you is what kept her fighting."
Barry's eyes welled up with more tears, and he looked at the redhead, his eyes tracing the outline of her face. Squeezing his eyes shut, he held his head in his hands.
Sighing, Harry placed his bazooka on a table. The stranger's exchange with Barry and the emotional toll it took on the speedster was enough to convince him that this was actually happening.
That this was real.
"How long has it been since this 'Savitar' stabbed her?" he inquired, walking towards the operating table.
Damon sighed in relief, his shoulders dropping in height. The MHTF Director glanced at his watch. "Forty minutes."
That was when everyone froze. Every inch of the room was bathed in silence as Miles's words set it.
Piper Lita had been dead for close to an hour. What was left for them to do that could bring her back? Could she even be saved?
"Well, if there aren't any traces of the Speed Force in her, I don't know if there is much we can do," Harry spoke finally.
Caitlin quickly came towards the table, gazing down at her friend. "That's not necessarily true," she spoke up, capturing everyone's attention, "if we can hook her up to a cardiac bypass machine, which will warm up, filter, and oxygenate her blood, we can try to restart her blood flow. If we can do that, her heart could start beating again."
The brown-haired man looked up from the floor, eyes wide. "Then let's do that. The longer we stand here and talk, the less time Piper may have left." Barry said, to which Cisco nodded in agreement.
"I'll have to stitch her up before I can hook her to the bypass. While I work on the stitches, Cisco, and Barry, go to the basement and get the bypass machine. Harry, find some clothes for me to change her into." Caitlin ordered immediately, wiping away her final tears, and then turned to the two strangers. "I need you two to tell me what her recent state of health has been like."
────
DARKNESS IS A STRANGE SUBSTANCE. Like ice, it has three states: solid, liquid, and gas, but with a twist. It's a sort of mystical material; it doesn't fall under the laws of science. It's only able to change states by the user.
In solid form, it's almost completely black aside from a very minuscule shade of red at its center, like a haunting flame in the dark. As a liquid, it's thick, sticky, and has a pungent smell of ink; it can act like quicksand or suffocate people. Lastly, as a gas, it's quite unusual. It can pass through solid material easily, then suffocate and eat away like acid.
As stated before, darkness is strange.
Which made this particular situation strange in itself.
Everything was fuzzy. Then, it turned black. Her consciousness was floating through an empty space filled with thick static. Throughout the inky space, her heartbeats pulsated quietly, working their way up to hammering so loudly it felt as if her eardrums were shattering.
Sparks of stardust brushed against her fingertips, tickling them ever so lightly.
The right side room was tensely quiet as Erin Osborn slept soundlessly beside Iris West, leaning against Detective Joe West, also asleep. Harry was at a desk in the Cortex, reading a book. Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco sat to the right of the hospital bed and were all staring at the mute woman in front of them. Miles and Damon were leaning against the wall, staring at the ground as they waited patiently for something to happen.
It'd only been a few hours since Caitlin had hooked the purple speedster to the bypass, and so far, they hadn't gotten a single response.
Piper Lita remained as dead as she was when she first arrived.
Everyone was holding onto hope that their friend would pull through. After everything she'd experienced and endured, she deserved a long and happy life.
Barry reached forward, grabbing onto the pale hand he craved to hold daily. Sparks traveled up his arm, and he furrowed his brows, looking at the unconscious woman, whose heartbeat was still a flat line.
That spark was what ignited the flame, causing it to burn brighter in the darkness that consumed her mind. Noticing the diminishing darkness, she felt something smooth against her back.
"No. No, no, no, no. M-Mom?" the girl asked desperately, shaking her mother's shoulder. "D-Dad?"
Neither responded.
Shaking her head, the redhead looked down at her sister, tears finally making their way down her ivory cheeks. "Please don't leave me." The sound of desperation in her voice was evident, and the latter could hear it. Her tear-filled chocolate-brown eyes watched as her sister squeezed her green ones shut tightly, coughing harshly into the redhead's chest, blood dribbling down her chin.
"Code pink and blue. The patient was struck by lightning an hour ago. She's been repeatedly convulsing and isn't responding." An EMT responded, merely glancing at the nurse as he pushed the gurney quicker. One of the paramedics sat on top of the unconscious woman, pumping air into her lungs. Bursting through another set of double doors, the EMTs and paramedics entered the operating room, beginning to hook the woman up to the machines.
It was bedsheets. That's what she was laying on.
"Pipes, can you take table six's order? Some kid split his drink all over the floor, and Robert's making me clean it up." Erin Osborn huffed.
Piper raised a brow. "Sure, why not? I love taking orders." Her roommate rolled her eyes and shot her a grateful smile before walking away.
"Piper?" Linda breathed out, her dark-brown eyes as big as saucer pans as she stared at the girl before her.
The redhead raised her eyebrows slowly, her palms becoming sweaty. "That's what it says on my name tag, so yes. What can I get for you?" she repeated the question.
"Cisco! Snart hit me with his cold gun." Barry breathed, and Piper snapped her fingers together sharply. Opening her palm, an orb of purple lightning rested in her hand. Glancing up, the redhead shot it across the room, hitting the ice.
"What the—" Barry mumbled, looking down to see purple lightning engulfing the ice, melting it right off him.
"I got the bomb out!" Cisco shouted through the comms, and Piper met Leonard's eyes. "Barry, did you hear me?"
"Lisa's safe," she whispered, and Leonard turned himself to face his father. The speedster watched as he shot his father straight through the chest with the cold gun.
Lewis dropped to the ground. "You're working with—"
"Expedite."
"Can I ask you something?" Erin asked. Piper nodded. "Why don't you ever interact with them? I mean, it's not like you're in a different timeline or something. You can talk to them. So, why don't you?"
Shrugging, she adverted her chocolate-brown eyes. "I don't know."
"You should. Considering how much time you spend watching them and following your future husband—" Piper rolled her eyes, "—I think you should. As of right now, you have no way to get home and are holding yourself back from helping people and making friends. It's time the world and Barry Allen meets Expedite."
Flashes of her life unfolded themselves, replaying in her mind as she felt something pull at her heart.
"I'll see you at S.T.A.R. Labs, Flash."
Sparks flooded her system as she lay perfectly still, eyes shut and a peaceful look clouding her face.
"Please, let her go. Nobody needs to get hurt." In the corner of the restaurant, Piper could see her manager, Robert, calling who she assumed was the police. She glanced at the terrified girl and swept her eyes back to the villainous monster. Heavy tears were soaking her cheeks, her lips trembling as she stared helplessly at Piper.
Piper shook her head again, trying to push past her. "Caitlin, get out of my way."
"I'm sorry," she whispered weakly.
The brown-haired boy frowned, rubbing her back affectionately. "It's okay. You're back and here now. That's all that matters."
A small beep sounded from the heart monitor, and everyone looked up.
Piper quickly jumped up, wrapping her arms around Barry as her breathing began to slow down. "Oh, thank God," he whispered, holding onto her tightly as she tried to calm herself down.
She pulled away and cupped Barry's face, her chocolate brown eyes glistening with tears that she wouldn't dare let fall. "Thank you," Piper whispered, and he nodded, kissing the top of her forehead.
"You knew that I was going to come back for you after I left, right?" Barry asked, and she nodded. "Good, good. I'll always come back for you."
Barry looked at Caitlin with bright eyes, hoping that another beep would sound.
The redhead shrugged, frowning lightly. "This Earth feels more like home than mine ever did. Of course, I have friends and a team, along with citizens that I protect, but there are other superheroes in Caruthers City that are more than capable of taking care of it without me. Here, I'm not consumed with heartache and anger, lost in a pool of unanswered questions. I don't feel as broken as I used to." Barry watched her, a small frown itching to show.
"I feel like that's a really selfish thing to say— to not want to go home because of the tragedy I've lived with for thirteen years," Piper mumbled, a sense of guilt overriding her system.
The MHTF director pushed himself off the wall, approaching the hospital bed.
"You lied," Barry whispered, and her face fell. His reaction was the one she dreaded the most. Piper knew the moment he found out the truth, nothing would be the same with them. "Piper... I believe that you do everything for a good reason. That you make decisions because they are the right ones to make. So, please, tell me if you have an explanation. Please."
Everyone stared at the redhead with hopeful eyes. It was silent for a few more minutes before one more beep sounded. Directing her eyes to the heart monitor, Caitlin watched as the heart line peaked up once before collapsing.
Clearing his throat, the brown-haired man drew her focus back to him. "Are you free this Saturday?" Barry asked, shuffling his feet anxiously.
Blinking, Piper's eyes grew wide as her heart began to race, the thumping of it against her ribcage echoing in her mind. "I uh— yeah. Yeah, I am. Why?" she stuttered, tucking her hair behind her ear as she stared at the boy she'd had a crush on ever since she literally saw him for the first time.
"How do you know about Zoom?" Piper managed to breathe, staring up at him with glassy eyes.
The latter chuckled. "Let's just say he and I are mutual friends."
Joe nudged Iris, waking both her and Erin up as Harry walked into the room.
Pushing himself out of his chair, Barry stood up and looked down at Piper, his eyes watering. He brought his hand to his mouth, covering it as he waited for something to happen.
Clinking on the movie, he put the remote down and grabbed the bowl of popcorn. "Since we can't go on our date tomorrow, do you want to consider this a date? I know it's really boring, but—"
"It's perfect, Barry," Piper interrupted. "It doesn't matter what we do for a date or are just hanging out. If I'm with you, it's perfect." Her words seemed to freeze time, and Barry closed his mouth, impulsively looking down at her lips, his eyes lingering on them longer than they should've. Noticing where his gaze was directed, the redhead gulped, and she could feel the hammering of her heart against her rib cage as she looked down at his lips.
Another beep.
Bringing her hands up, Piper cupped his face and forced him to look at her. "If Barry saw this, he'd be pissed," Cisco mumbled, causing the redhead to roll her eyes.
"You're never going to become Vader, okay?" she started, but he cut her off.
"You don't know that. That is what happened to Reverb. He learned how to use his abilities, just like I'm trying to, and when he felt that power, he succumbed... to the dark side."
Cisco joined Barry's side and pressed his hands together in prayer form, anxiously waiting for the sound of the redhead's heartbeat to begin singing once more.
She stared into the muddy brown eyes with a burning anger as her heart fell silent. "Hey, BFF. That still stands for "best friends forever," right?" Athena asked, raising a mocking brow. Piper was quiet as she stared at her dead best friend. "No "hello"? Nothing? Huh, I thought your reaction would be more dramatic."
"I'm not a killer. I won't kill another human being, Miles," she said, her voice shaky and unstable as her arms fell to her sides.
"It's the only way Earth-Four won't explode. You heard Cisco earlier and how he's been getting vibes of your world being ripped to shreds. That's only happening because Aureolin is here. This is not her world. This is not her timeline. Her presence has finally caught up to her, and it's going to kill a whole planet if you don't kill her." He spoke solemnly, giving her a firm look.
Barry stared impatiently at the heart monitor, his foot tapping on the ground as he wrung his hands together. It felt like those beeps were just taunts of what he wished they really were, and it irked him.
He wanted her to be alive.
He needed her to be alive.
"See you around, Flash."
"See you around, Expedite."
The line on the screen bounced up three times as it beeped.
Damon held his breath as he grabbed Miles's arm, the two sharing hopeful glances.
"You won't do it. You don't have it in y—"
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 the redhead 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."
It was then that she could feel her heartbeat. Every single pound of it against her chest. The drums of God's mercy sang as she regained feeling throughout her entire body.
Piper's chocolate-brown eyes flashed open as she inhaled sharply, her back arching, and she shot up. The sound of her heart beat sped up on the heart monitor as she looked around frantically, surges of adrenaline flowing through her muscles.
Glancing down, she noticed that there were two tubes sticking in her chest near her heart. Following the trail of tubes, she saw that they were connected to a silver machine decorated with different dials, buttons, and a tube of blood connected to the side.
The sound of someone gasping caused her head to turn to the right, her gaze landing on familiar faces. Her eyes widened and then quickly shut. The redhead immediately shook her head, bringing her hands up and rubbing her face.
"No, no, no, no. Get out of my head... Get out of my head!" Piper whispered, pressing her fingers to her temple.
Miles and Damon shared perturbed glances, their brows furrowing. "Lita," Miles stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. Flinching at his touch, she recoiled, continuing to shake her head. "Piper." The Director said sharply, trying to capture her attention.
Damon's eyes widened as the realization of why the redhead was freaking out dawned on him. "Savitar isn't here, P. We're on Earth-One. He can't get in your head. You're safe," he reassured her, watching as his words calmed her down, her heartbeat on the monitor slowing.
"Piper?" Barry whispered, his vision blurred by tears as he held himself back from engulfing her in his arms. The redhead dropped her hands and looked up, her eyes landing on the man she'd fallen in love with during her time on Earth One.
"Barry?" she asked, clarifying if the person in front of her was her Barry Allen. The brown-haired man nodded, a single tear sliding down his cheek. Gulping, she turned her head towards Miles and Damon. "What happened? Why am I here?"
"Piper, what's the last thing you remember?" Miles asked, his eyes widening as worry spiked in his veins.
Furrowing her brows, she frowned. "Leaving therapy to meet you guys at my house," she answered slowly, watching as the two's eyes widened.
"Lita, that was two days ago..." Damon whispered, panic settling between his bones.
Blinking, she sat frozen, gulping as she felt a sense of deja-vu trickle over her shoulders. "I lost time again, didn't I?" she finally asked, looking at the two with unease. Miles nodded, noticing how his boyfriend was tapping his foot.
"Again?" Joe repeated, raising a brow as he walked towards the operating table. Piper moved her eyes to his, nodding hesitantly. Being surrounded by her family for the first time in what felt like forever was overwhelming, and she didn't know how to respond. Part of her wanted to sob and embrace them all in hugs, while the other part of her didn't know whether or not to trust the risk of it not being real.
"I've been experiencing blackouts for the past few weeks. There are certain parts of the day that I can't remember, or days will go by, and I won't remember anything that happened." Piper explained, inhaling deeply as she felt a sharp pain in her chest.
Looking down at the tubes, she furrowed her brows before looking at the two MHTF agents. "What happened?" Miles and Damon stood silently, and that was all the answer she needed. "It was Savitar, wasn't it?"
Damon was the first to confirm her theory, nodding. "We brought you here because of what you made us promise you," the black-haired man started. "You made us promise that the day after—"
"I remember." Piper cut Damon off quickly, trying not to let her mind wander back to that day.
It was silent for a second as everyone stared at the woman, none of them having the first clue as to what to say or do.
Finally, Erin spoke up. "Well, since no one else will say it, I will. We missed you like hell, and I miss waking up to the smell of your burnt pancakes that look like pieces of shit."