EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME TWO
━━ ❛ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑺.𝑻.𝑨.𝑹. 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒔 ❜
chapter no. 055!
GET UP. You need to get up.
Everything was fuzzy, and then it turned black.
Her consciousness was floating through an empty space filled with thick static.
Throughout the inky space, her heartbeats pounded quietly, working their way up to thumping so loudly it felt as if her eardrums were shattering. Sparks of stardust brushed against her fingertips, tickling them ever so lightly, and she felt a gentle wave of heat pass over her.
It felt like a million pounds of sand holding her body down against a bumpy surface, pining her so tightly it hurt to breathe.
You need to get up. You need to find the team.
Her eyes moved around behind her eyelids as she let out a raspy cough, blood still trickling down the side of her cheek.
Rocks. That's what she was laying on. She could feel them edging their way into the open cuts in her back, burning them with black ash. Wincing, her fingers twitched as her head slowly turned to face upward.
Get up.
It was then that she could really feel her heartbeat. Every single pound of it ragged against her chest. The drums of God's mercy sang as she regained feeling throughout her entire body and she sat up.
Piper's chocolate brown eyes flashed open as she inhaled sharply, her hands automatically reaching for something to grasp onto. Looking around frantically, surges of adrenaline raced through her muscles. The mounds of rubble around her clouded her vision, leaving her blind in a room she used to be able to see clearly.
Shakily, she pushed herself off the ground, stumbling as black dots appeared in front of her.
Dust danced across her purple-clad feet, giving them an ashy look as she limped over a broken TV screen. Beads of sweat trickled down her face as she desperately searched for anyone, anyone, left standing.
They made it. They're fine. Everyone's fine.
Deep down, she felt as if they were just lies regardless of how many times she repeated those words in her mind. Yes, she'd won the war, but at what cost? How many of them got hurt? Had anyone managed to get out before the walls crumbled in?
Flames of fire were the only sources of light helping her navigate through the demolished building as she struggled to keep going. Pushing her garnet-red hair behind her ears, she coughed hoarsely.
The smoke was spreading and making its way more into her lungs already.
"Barry?" Piper yelled, stopping in her tracks. All around her were clouds ranging from light gray to a dark navy blue, flickers of red and orange popping up sporadically. What were once walls laid on the ground in piles of rocks and dust; cables and broken pieces of technology hiding beneath the rubble, sparking slightly. "Miles? Damon?"
Everything was destroyed. S.T.A.R. Labs was gone. Reduced to nothing but atoms and molecules of dust.
After receiving silence as her answer, her heart started to beat harder and faster, true panic seeping in as her adrenaline levels rose. "C-Cisco? Caitlin? I-Iris?" she shouted, her voice wobbling. She could feel her body pouring out more beads of sweat and blood as silence answered again.
Every part of her being felt as if it was burning, and maybe that was because she was standing next to a roaring fire, but the heat she felt crawled up and over every crevice, never once stopping or easing up on its harshness. Everything was burning, and it was only getting worse.
Speeding forward, it felt like the air had been knocked out of her as she fell to the ground; the purple lightning trailing behind her was vanishing. Her body was drained. She'd used her powers so much and forcefully to hold up the facility that she barely had enough energy to search for anyone, yet here she was, calling out to what appeared to be ghosts.
"Erin?" she yelled, wobbling from side to side as she stood back up, ripping off her eyepiece and tossing it mindlessly into a pit of flames. "S-Somebody? P-Please..." her voice became a croaky whisper, and tears welled up in her chocolate-brown eyes, blurring more of her vision. The bottom of her lip trembled as no one answered, and a dreadful feeling settled in her heart.
"Piper?"
The woman turned around and spotted the face that belonged to the familiar voice. Relief flooded her veins, and she used whatever speed she had left to push forward, collapsing into the arms of Erin Osborn as her knees buckled. "Oh, thank God," the redhead breathed, holding the latter to her chest tightly. "I thought I lost everyone. Lost you."
Erin frowned deeply, hating that she was the one they had sent to come to get her.
The speedster had been through enough to last a person twenty lifetimes, she didn't deserve what was coming. No one did. Especially after she'd just defeated the drug and Savitar, saving them all from Hell on Earth.
"Babe, the team sent me to get you. Something happened," Erin whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. Why did it have to be her? Why did she have to be the bearer of bad news?
Piper pulled away, her eyes wide and panicked, her thoughts on high alert. "What happened?" She asked, becoming more scared by the second as she watched her best friend blink back tears.
"Follow me."
And so she did. The purple speedster allowed the short-haired girl to help her walk to wherever the hell it was they were going.
Silence filled the void between the two, and the emptiness in the air did nothing but make Piper more anxious and scared about what was heading her way.
Soon, rocks became piles of dark dust, and the two women walked away from the burning remains of S.T.A.R. Labs, leaving behind an ocean of roaring flames and sparking plugs. Continuing forward, they made their way to the middle of the parking lot, where Piper could see a cluster of people huddled together.
Narrowing her eyes, she noticed that everyone was collectively circled around something, talking in hushed voices as they approached.
"Guys," Erin cleared her throat, causing heads to turn.
Dirt, cuts, blood, and bruises galore painted nearly all of them; clear evidence that they'd all been inside the building when it finally met its dying end.
At the sight of Barry, Piper felt herself relax, a major amount of weight and worry lifting off her shoulders.
He was safe.
"Piper, oh, my God," Cisco breathed, limping forward before he wrapped his arms around her, tears running down his cheeks. She wrapped her arms around him hesitantly as her eyes swept over the group, picking up on the fact that two faces were missing.
"W-where are Miles and Damon?" she asked shakily, pulling out of the long-haired boy's arms as a wave of nausea overcame her.
Sweeping her eyes to Harry, she watched as he pressed his lips together, glancing down at the bazooka's demolished remains in his hands. Turning to Caitlin and Iris, the redhead frowned as they avoided her panicked stare. Looking to the scarlet speedster, she gulped as Barry gave her a forced smile, blinking back tears of his own as he couldn't bring himself to say the words.
"Piper..." A voice croaked, and Joe stepped to the side, exasperatedly running his hand over his face.
The moment the detective had moved, Damon Rowland came into view, and Piper breathed a sigh of relief. Her eyes roamed over his beaten-up and broken appearance, and she blinked, finally noticing that he was kneeling on the ground, his body blocking something from her view. Heavy tears were streaming down his cheeks, and his eyes were bloodshot as he hiccuped.
All color drained from her face, and she quickly limped towards him, ignoring the burning pain in her legs and how lightheaded she felt. "Where's Miles?"
Instead of answering, Damon pushed himself up from the gravel, stepping aside so she could see what it was he was shielding from her.
Bringing her hand to her mouth, Piper shook her head defiantly. "No, no, no, no, no."
Director Miles Warren was leaning against Joe's burned and crushed cop car. The left side of his body was burned and wrinkled up; identical to how Savitar had looked after Piper had burned the side of his face off with her lightning. His left eye was glassed over and pale while he struggled to keep his other open. Blood was dribbling down his chin and onto his MHTF jacket, the jacket he'd worn every day of his life ever since he was twenty-three. The jacket that he wore proudly; the jacket represented who he was. Miles Warren was a hero and a soldier.
He was pure and good, which was one thing that hurt the most when Piper looked at him. He had done nothing but protect and care for her ever since she became a speedster. He'd been her mentor and the father figure she didn't have.
Miles Warren was her partner. Her family.
Piper felt her legs give out underneath her, and she crawled toward him. With trembling hands, she cupped his face, turning it softly, so he was looking at her.
Uneven, shallow, and slow breaths barely left Miles's lips as he blinked, unable to speak as he could feel more blood creeping up his throat.
"H-Hey," Piper whispered weakly, forcing a smile as she gazed at him, "Miles, it-it's me. Piper. Your most annoying friend and partner in the world," she chuckled as small tears tumbled down her cheeks. "I did it. I beat Savitar at his own sick, twisted game. He's gone. Earth-Four is safe. You a-and Damon can go home and get married in Tuscany as you've always wanted." The bottom of her lip quivered, and her head lowered. She resisted the urge to scream and curse at the sky above her as she got no response in return.
It was happening again, just like it always did. She always lost someone, and this was the last straw for Piper Lita.
Out of everyone she cared about, Miles, the man who'd been there for her since day one, mentored her, helped her get over her first love and learn how to phase through walls, had to be the one to take the fall.
It wasn't fair.
"I know we haven't been as close as we used to be, and I haven't been the best partner in the field for a long time. I know things have been different since Athena and what happened at Brenner Labs, but I need you to know that I forgive you. I forgave you forever ago, I just never told you, and t-that wasn't right of me," she stuttered, the words getting caught in her throat as it became harder to breathe. "You've been there for me through so much of my bullshit, and I never said thank you. So, thank you. Thank you, Miles Warren. Thank you for being the best father figure and mentor in the w-world."
Using the last thread of strength he had left, Miles reached up with his right hand and placed it over hers. He couldn't speak, but she knew that he understood. He knew.
"P-Please, don't go," Piper sobbed, feeling her walls crumbling to the ground as his grip on her hand loosened. Everyone surrounding the two could hear the aching desperation in her voice as her body visibly trembled. "Please."
Please.
That was the last word she ever uttered to her sister; now, she was uttering it to another loved one, leaving far too early.
Damon shakily walked up behind her, placing his hand on her shoulder as Miles's hand fell limply to the ground. The world around her froze, and she couldn't move.
At that moment, the reality that her life, and the world, would go on without him hit her. The sure knowledge that time would never stop and bring him back undid her completely.
All habit of silent crying was lost as she let out a sob, the frame of her body shaking violently. The emptiness in her heart, the numbness pounding in her brain, the salty tears that flowed freely from her eyes, and the grief that now took hold of her soul threatened to engulf her entirely.
It was more than crying. It was the kind of desolate sobbing that comes from a person drained of all hope. Piper Lita was drained of all hope, and it showed. Her back was hunched over, and her head rested in her hands as she cried helplessly.
Behind her, Damon was silently crying, the weight of his heart heavier than it had ever been before. He'd lost the only person he ever loved, his fiancé— the love of his life— and there was nothing he, or anyone else, could've done.
"B-Barry," Piper managed to choke out, and the brown-haired man appeared at her side in a heartbeat.
Wiping away tears of his own, he reached down and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. The tears they both shed mixed with the dirt and blood dripping down onto their suits. "I'm here. I'm right here." Barry whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.
"H-he's gone," she sobbed, gripping the leather fabric of his suit as she felt herself becoming even more lightheaded. The bottom of her mouth became loose, and her throat felt like it was swelling up.
A small but intense, sharp pain struck a nerve on the top of her head, and her knees buckled. She dropped out of Barry's arms and to the ground and gasped for air. Her breath came out in stuttered rasps, cutting one another off, desperate for the taste of the cold, winter air that was mixing with the smoke from the fire.
"P-Piper?" Barry asked, dropping to the ground and grabbing onto her shoulder. Turning her head, he tried to get her to look at him, but she couldn't. She physically couldn't.
"Barry, what's happening?" Damon asked, rushing to the speedster's side. There was no way in hell that he was losing another person that night.
Barry shook his head. "I don't know."
Piper's eyes dropped slowly, and her body completely collapsed against the ground, her head hitting the gravel harshly. Coughing, the same bubbles of blood from earlier crept up from the back of her throat and spilled over her lips as her head limply fell to the right.
"Someone call 911!"
"We can't! All of our phones got destroyed in the fire, remember?!"
"Well, we can't just stand here!"
"If she doesn't get to a hospital, she will bleed out or go braindead. Her skull's been cracked open, and it looks like she was stabbed in the back multiple times."
"Allen, you need to get her out of here. Now."
"What about her identity? People can't know she's Expedite."
"Joe, what's more important? Her superhero identity or her life?"
"How cute. Dr. Wells the Sequel does have a heart."
"Shut the hell up, Osborn."
"All of you, shut up!"
"She's bleeding even more."
"We gotta do something."
"I'm not about to sit here and watch her die. Barry, run!"
"Run, Barry, run!"
Suddenly, the voices ceased, and an incredible sense of peace washed over Piper's body. Her vision blacked out, and her consciousness faltered, her body dissociating itself from the mind.
The pain faded away, and so did she.
────
THE SOUND OF A HEART BEATING ON THE MONITOR ECHOED AROUND THE ROOM AS BARRY ALLEN'S GAZE REMAINED ON THE BOOK IN FRONT OF HIM. Diligently, his eyes scanned over the ink-prinked words, his lips moving as he spoke softly.
"Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears..." Looking up, his clover-green eyes twinkled as he stared at her endearingly.
Everything remained still and silent as he stared at her, smiling a bit to himself before glancing back down.
"Looms but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate... how charged with punishments the scroll... I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." He finished, running his hand over the manila paper. "This might surprise you, but back in high school, I actually really loved English. My tenth-grade teacher, Mr. Hess, introduced me to William Ernest Henley, and a whole new world was opened up to me. British literature, or more specifically poems, became my favorite thing."
Pausing, he reached down to the bottom of his chair and scooted it a bit closer to the bed, settling into a comfortable position. He reached forward, grabbing her hand and playing with her fingers delicately as he continued.
"What I just read was Invictus by Henley. I don't know why, but it's always been one of my favorite poems. I figured I'd share it with you. Especially since you told me all about Hollands." He sighed, allowing his eyes to drift to the woman's medical chart that hung beside the monitor.
NAME: Piper Maeve Lita
STATUS: Alive/Coma
ADMITTANCE: December 11th, 2016, at 2:27 a.m.
CAUSE OF ADMITTANCE: Fractured skull, multiple stab wounds causing internal and external bleeding, oxygen deprivation.
DIAGNOSIS: In a mild persistent vegetative state with a minor anoxic brain injury; indefinite coma.
DURATION: Indefinite
The woman beside him had been gone for a long time. Longer than any of them had imagined.
Cisco and Erin had betted that she'd wake up after about a week or two but lost.
Then, Harry and Joe had betted about two months but lost as well.
Iris and Caitlin had said five, and Damon said six months since that was how long of a coma she was in after she got struck by dark matter. However, both parties were wrong as well.
Barry, on the other hand, hadn't bet anything. Instead, he spent his time being by her side as much as possible and keeping up with her medical bills and current state of health.
He'd done everything he could to make the woman as comfortable as possible while she was in the hospital. He wanted nothing but the best for her, and he refused to settle for less.
Central City had been surviving with just Vibe watching over them and the Flash occasionally if something went drastically wrong. However, for the time being, until the redhead woke up, Barry had decided to hang up his suit.
The world didn't need The Flash right now.
It needed Barry Allen.
She needed Barry Allen.
"Do you know how long this coma's going to last?" Erin asked Dr. Tanusi, gesturing over to the unconscious woman lying soundlessly on the hospital bed.
The doctor shook her head. "As far as I can tell, her condition is indefinite. There's no telling how long she'll be unconscious."
Cisco glanced at his best friend before looking at Caitlin, who was biting down on her bottom lip. "What did the MRI and neuroimaging test results conclude?"
Pulling out a crisp manila folder from underneath her clipboard, Dr. Tanusi opened it up and handed it to her. "Ms. Lita is currently suffering from two different injuries that are both causing the state of unconsciousness she's in now. An anoxic brain injury and persistent vegetative state. As you can see from the neuroimaging images, Ms. Lita had undergone multiple periods of time where there was a severe lack of oxygen reaching her lungs. Due to this, there have been cell deaths in brain tissues, and her skull's fracturing only worsened her condition.
"As of currently, her body is experiencing a mild state of persistent vegetation. Her conscience and subconscious are unaware of her and her surroundings, and her body is physically incapable of voluntary movement. With a persistent vegetative state, some people may progress to wakefulness but with no higher brain function. Considering how hard she hit her head on the ground twice, by the findings of the brain scans, it is safe to say that her brain will not reach any high functioning activity for a long time." She concluded, tucking the clipboard under her arm.
Looking over Caitlin's shoulder, Iris frowned as the doctor's last words reached her ears. "How long is a long time?"
Dr. Tanusi shrugged, "I can't give you an estimated amount of time because the truth is, I don't know if she'll ever wake up. The trauma done to her brain was extensive. Not even speeding healing can fix this type of neurological damage. Ms. Lita could either wake up in the next week or in five years or never."
Her words echoed around the room, and Barry's head snapped toward the group as he pushed up and out of the chair he'd been sitting in next to Piper's bed.
"Never?" Barry asked, his voice cracking as he weakly glanced over at Joe, tears beginning to brim in his eyes.
This was it. This was the end of his world. If Piper never woke up, Barry wouldn't know what he'd do to himself.
"Possibly, yes. You all should prepare yourselves for anything." Dr. Tanusi said, giving them a tight smile before leaving the room.
Glancing away from the medical chart, the brown-haired man sighed as he blinked back a thin layer of tears.
As of recently, it felt as if every day that passed was another day too long for him. All he wanted was for her to wake up.
He just wanted to be able to tell her a stupid joke or pun and watch as she would laugh. He wanted to be able to talk to her about any and everything late at night while eating ice cream. He wanted to wake up in the morning and turn over to find her lying beside him. He wanted everything that they had and shared back.
He wanted her back.
Running his hand over his face, he looked down at the floor, allowing a single tear to drop.
"Barry?"
It'd been so long since he'd heard her voice that he nearly forgot what it sounded like. So, when he heard it, his heart nearly stopped.
Slowly, he looked up with shaky eyes, preparing himself for the cruel reality that she was still awake and that his mind was just messing with his head. However, when he looked up, his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. She was awake.
Blinking, the garnet-redhead whirled her eyes around the hospital room, her brows furrowing as they landed back on Barry. "I-I'm confused," she stuttered, her voice quiet yet rough. "What happened? Where's everyone else?" Barry was speechless as he watched her stare at him in befuddlement, tilting her head to the side. "Barry?" Piper asked, frowning.
"P-Piper," he stammered, clearing his throat. "You're awake."
"What are you... I-I'm confused. What..." Piper's words were cut off as he intertwined their fingers. Glancing down, she couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"P..." Barry spoke gently, causing her to turn back to him. "You've been in a coma for ten months."