EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME ONE
━━ ❛ 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓, 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓, 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓 ❜

chapter no. 026!

𝘊𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘓 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠, 𝘌𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘏-𝘛𝘞𝘖

     PIPER LITA KNEW MANY MONSTERS. She'd taken down many of them, sometimes even locking them away. There was one monster, however, that she'd never taken down. A monster that haunted her day and night. A seemingly unstoppable monstrosity. The man in yellow or, as she was about to learn, the woman in yellow.

     "Who are you?" Piper hissed, glaring at the man whose crystal-clear blue eyes were burning into her chocolate ones.

     "Your creator. Without me, you'd never exist. So I'd watch your tone if I were you," he snapped, stepping forward, but the yellow speedster laid a hand on his shoulder.

     "Cool it, Jeremiah. She's just a curious little girl, aren't you?" he asked, turning his glowing red eyes to her. Piper glowered at him. Turning his head, she followed his line of sight to see Hunter and Caitlin on the opposite end of the room.

     "Caitlin!" she yelled, breathing a sigh of relief. "Are you okay?" The brunette made eye contact with the purple speedster, nodding weakly.

     "Zoom," the man in yellow called, "Gather all the rogue meta-humans in Central City and take them to Earth-One. Then, find all the rogue ones there. Build your army. In a week, we'll come. Take the brunette with you. We can't have lingering eyes wandering around."

     Hunter nodded, grabbing Caitlin and speeding out of the abandoned train station.

     "No, Caitlin!" Piper screamed, thrashing in her chains, desperately trying to break free. The team watched, amused.

     After a few seconds, she gave up, sighing as the muscles in her back were growing sore. She could feel the rim of the handcuffs slicing into her wrists, and she grimaced. Walking up, Zakai, the other person she recognized, pushed her hair away and wrapped his hands around the back of her neck. Running his fingertips along the chain of her necklace, he pulled it out from underneath the suit.

     Shivers were sent down her spine, distracting her from the burning pain that she was experiencing due to being only held up by her arms. She watched nervously as he pressed down on the silver heart charm. Her suit and eyepiece retracted back into it, leaving her in leggings, converse, and a sweatshirt.

     Zakai lowered his hands, grabbing onto the end of the sweatshirt and breathing out, watching as it crumbled to sand.

     Are you kidding me? That's Erin's sweatshirt, dude.

     Piper felt goosebumps trail up her arms as a soft breeze blew in, the bottom of her baggy white t-shirt lifting.

     "Boys, Expedite, and I need to talk. Go check on Warren. See if he's cracked yet." The man in yellow ordered, not once looking at them. Nodding, Zakai pulled out a small silver disc and pressed down on it, a breach emerging out. Stepping into it, he and Jeremiah disappeared. Piper directed her gaze to the latter, narrowing her eyes to slits. "The end is reaching near, Pipa Colada. I hope you're as excited as I am to end this once and for all."

     Piper's eyes widened as her breath hitched in her throat. Her mouth became a desert as her body froze, completely shutting down. "W-What'd you j-just call me?" she stuttered, tripping over her own words.

     No. It's not possible. She's dead.

     Never before had Piper realized how time is so much like water; that it can pass by slowly, one drop at a time. In this slow time-bubble, the sound of her heart beating was louder than ever and the light breeze fluttering in stuck pins and needles into her. All the while, her insides felt like nothing there. It was just a hollow, bottomless pit.

     What were once bright glowing red orbs of hatred were now a muddy brown filled with emotions. Once the glow had faded, she recognized the pair of eyes that she had grown up with. Reaching up, the yellow mask that was attached to the suit fell, and a bundle of dirty blonde hair cascaded down.

     Words left her brain.

     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 Caples retorted, raising a brow. Piper was silent as she stared at her dead best friend. "No "hello"? Nothing? Huh, I thought your reaction would be much more dramatic."

     Gulping, the redhead remained silent as her brain tried to catch up to the events' timeline. It felt like every part of her body was beginning to fail and steer off course.

     "Anyway, as I said, the end is reaching near, meaning playtime's over. This is when the real fun begins, Pipa Colada." Athena smirked gleefully, bopping Piper on the nose.

     The single touch of her skin on hers' was what did it; what woke her up. Blinking, she finally felt the words she knew crawling back to her. "It was you—you're the speedster that was in my house that night. You killed my parents. And Ginger! Y-You—but—but how?" Piper gasped; the girl she once knew standing before her was becoming a complete and utter stranger.

     Athena giggled. "It wasn't easy, believe me, but it was so worth it."

     Her comment was so out of character, so far from what she knew of her. Piper could only stare at her with a gaping mouth. "You took everything from me," she whispered, hot, angry tears boiling in her eyes. "You killed everyone that I ever loved. Why? What did I ever do to you that was so horrible that you had to become a murderer? For years, you tortured me and tortured others. Innocent people! God, Athena, I trusted you! I loved you! You were my best friend! I've put my life in your hands more times than I can count! When you died, I prayed to whatever Gods that existed that you were safe and okay, that you weren't in pain. While this whole time, you were fine. You were alive. Alive and spinning the dice on who you would kill next in my life."

     Athena's face grew dark and sullen, her eyes glowing red. "You deserved it! All of it!" she yelled, walking closer.

      "What did I ever do to you?" Piper screamed.

     "You took everything from me! If it weren't for you, my parents would still be alive!" the woman shouted, her eyes burning with anger.

     "What the hell are you talking about?! Your parents are alive!" Piper shrieked, her brows furrowing.

     Backing away, Athena shook her head violently. "No. They're not. You didn't save them when you easily could have. You just let them die," she growled, her voice becoming deeper and shakier.

     "Athena, I don't know what you're talking about. I would never let your parents die, they basically became like my own after mine died." Piper replied, perplexed as ever as she stared at the blonde. She'd seen Athena's parents a week before disappearing and landing on Earth-One. They were alive and healthy.

     "I'm talking about the original timeline!"

     It was silent as the redhead's eyes widened, panic seeping in. "Athena, what did you do?" she whispered, terrified of her answer.

     Looking up, Athena had a crazed look in her eyes. The best part of the story was about to unfold, and she was more than excited to tell her everything. The more she knew, the more it would destroy her.

     "You were killed by Static Seraphim. She took away what was supposed to be my moment. She took away the whole reason why I became Aureolin in the first place. So, to inflict the pain I wanted, I had to go back to the beginning and create a new timeline. I wanted you to suffer— to know what it was like to lose someone you loved. I wanted you to lose everyone that was important to you. To do that, I knew that I would have to make you a speedster before two-thousand-and-twenty— the original year you and I got struck by dark matter and became speedsters. So, I returned to the night you died and got Jeremiah Hogan to extract your speed. He was the one who set off the Experitron Lumination Modificator Engine explosion.

     "Knowing I couldn't do this all on my own, I brought him and his step-brother, Zakai Struthers, whom you already know, with me. After that, I started simple. I traveled back to the night you and I had finished our Animal Cell Project for science class and killed your parents, making sure you walked in to see me with them. Seven years later, I became impatient and got Jeremiah to set off the explosion earlier than I had intended. Since it happened early, we weren't sure if the dark matter would affect your body the same as it did before. So, while you were in your coma, he went to the hospital and transferred your speed from the other version of you to your body.

     "Cut to a year later, after you'd become Expedite, I decided it was time to take away another person. It was obvious who my first pick would be: Ginger. She was the only family you had left, after all. What better way to start your downward spiral than by blackmailing you, getting you to betray me, killing your sister, and then killing myself all in one go? Seeing how badly their deaths screwed you over, I wanted to keep killing— keep taking. And I did just that. Leaving you with only Miles Warren and Damon Rowland. Speaking of them, I bet they're dying to see you." Athena beamed.

     The abandoned train station was as quiet as a graveyard, the sun lowering outside, causing the light bulb hanging to be the only real light source.

     Piper's brain was failing to start, kicking over and over again in an attempt to wake up. She struggled to speak; words were no longer a familiar concept to her. She was simply speechless. There was no other word to describe her current state of mind.

     She looked to the floor, ignoring the digging pain in her wrists. There was no in-depth description or explanation for how she felt. There was only one word that her brain could conjure up: empty.

     And can anybody really be or feel anything when they're empty?