EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME TWO
━━ ❛ 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒗𝒔. 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍 ❜

chapter no. 045!

     SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN GOOD AND NATURALLY FIGHT OFF THE BAD. Some people are born evil and naturally fight off the good or blossom into goodness through great effort. Others are born in the light yet stumble blindly into the pit of the unknown, murky blackness. And others are born into darkness and can never find the light.

     People could deny it all they want, but everyone falls into one of those categories.

     Were you an angel or a demon? Are you good or bad? Light or dark?

     The response to those questions is difficult to muster, mainly because no one wants to admit the truth because if they do, that makes the answer real. Concrete.

     Maybe that was why it took everything in her to suppress the answer. She didn't want to accept that she was no longer good. That she had turned bad. Evil.

     Every inch of her knew it. She didn't doubt that the good, humble, kind Piper Lita was gone for good. All she felt was anger and hatred. Before, it was toward the man in silver and blue, but now, the redhead found it contaminating everything else in her life.

     Everything made her angry. Even the slightest brush of the wind or the tiniest of inconveniences. Everything angered her, and the fact that everything did only added more fuel to the fire. She was no longer in control of anything. It felt like she was living in a never-ending nightmare that chilled her to the bone. There was no exit or plan of attack that she could execute that would allow her to escape the madness that swallowed up her lungs. There was no end and no beginning. She was trapped, standing there in the dark of the night, swimming in the emptiness of yesterday.

     Things were never supposed to go this wrong.

     All she had wanted was to learn how to move on from what she'd done and be with Barry. That was it. It was simple, or at least it was supposed to be.

      Now, everything was discombobulated.

     Now, she was everything she never wanted to be, and the worst part of it all—she was enjoying it. Being evil, plotting against Central City. Working with the person who wore the face of the man she was in love with— doing things she'd never dared to dream about doing. Like right now, she was breaking into Stagg Industries and stealing a piece of newly constructed tech that Savitar needed to build their weapon. Something she never thought she would ever do.

     "Efficacy. What's the status?"

     Peeping her head around the corner, the woman in the tight black suit smirked at the sight of the three armed guards. Looking down at her gauntlet, she brought it up and held it toward the door they were standing in front of. "Five bodies. No furniture. Safe in the wall. No hidden compartments," she murmured, adverting her eyes upward.

     "Five? Didn't think they'd make it this easy," Hydro Hunter quipped through the comms.

     "I wouldn't call getting past eight guards armed with a set of M249 Squad Automatic weapons easy." Freeze Frame grunted.

     The hooded woman watched steadily as the three guards stood facing forward, eyes trained ahead. Reaching behind her, she held her form as she fired three pitch-black arrows in a row, watching as they struck each guard in the chest, injecting each of them with the serum Hydro Hunter had created. She lowered the bow and tucked it into the sack that held her arrows. Making her way over to the collapsed bodies, she swiftly retrieved the arrows and tucked them back into the bag.

     "Three down. Five left. We're in," she grumbled, tossing the cam card she'd snatched to the floor. At the sound of the steel door opening, the five guards in the pitch-black, hidden room spun around, raising their guns high.

     "Copy," Kyler responded.

     Coming to a stop, she eyed the guns pointed at her before she chuckled. "Hey, there, fellas," she greeted in a sing-song tone, giving them a little wave. The tallest guard with ginger hair to her right furrowed his brows, and before anyone could make a move, she raised her leg and kicked him in the gut. Stumbling backward, the grip on his gun loosened, and she immediately grabbed it, slamming the butt of it into the bottom of his chin, sending his head flying upward. Smacking him across the face with the gun, she watched as he fell to the ground, unconscious.

     Two guards seized her from behind while the remaining two attempted to throw punches, only to get one good one within the three seconds they had her.

     She quickly jumped up in the two men's arms, propelling her legs backward and kicking the two. They groaned, loosening their grip on her upper forearms. She smirked and swung her legs forward, flipping herself over and bringing the two down to the floor. Unraveling her body from their grasp, she kicked them both in the head.

     A blast of cold air flew by her, the rush of it sending her hood flying back. The remaining two guards were sent to the floor, unconscious.

     "Was that necessary?" Freeze Frame grunted, stepping into the room, joining Hydro Hunter and Piper. Behind him, Kyler was making his way toward the group.

     "No, but I enjoyed it," Hydro Hunter smirked, tossing the ice gun between his hands.

     Rolling her eyes, Piper stepped over the bodies and towards the safe buried in the wall. She raised her gauntlet, and it scanned over the keypad, picking up on the fingerprints and beeping as it figured out the combination.

      "Hey, Efficacy," Kyler called out as the redhead typed in the eight-digit combination. "This is the last stop for tonight, right?"

     "Yes, it is," she replied, swinging open the safe door and grabbing the glowing blue disc.

     "Good because Big Beller Burger sounds great right now," the blonde huffed, adjusting his comms.

     Hydro Hunter's green eyebrows furrowed together as he caught a glimpse of what exactly they were taking. "What the hell is that?" He asked, pointing to the disc in Piper's hands. The woman shrugged and stepped over the guards again, leaving behind the men as she walked towards the emergency exit.

     Tonight wasn't the night for small chit-chat. Not for Piper Lita. The only thing on her mind was the events that took place yesterday and how the man-in-charge went completely off-script from what they originally planned.

     The sole purpose behind Savitar meeting Team Flash was so they could begin building a timeline, leaving traces behind of him being on Earth-One and starting the endgame. They weren't supposed to go off-script. Savitar and Efficacy had made that crystal clear to the acolytes and each other. If they were going to do this successfully without anyone catching on until it was too late, they had to stick to the plan.

     So, why the hell did Savitar go off the rails?

     Piper didn't know. All she knew was that she was pissed and had bits of dried blood still stuck in her hair.

     "Efficacy, Hydro asked you a question," Kyler called out; he and the others following loosely behind.

     "And I shrugged in response. You'll find out what it is when Savitar wants you to," she responded, stepping outside into a back alley and making her way toward their getaway ride.

     Glancing to the green and blue-haired man to his left, Kyler shrugged at the curious gaze he received.

     It was eerily quiet as the group hopped into the back of the delivery truck that Illusion, a meta-human from Earth-Four, was driving.

     Joining the woman in the front, Piper slid into the passenger seat. "We're going to Big Belly Burger," Kyler called from the back, shoving Freeze Frame away from him, their bodies clashing as Illusion took a sharp turn out of the alley.

     "We're dropping Efficacy off before that." Illusion stated, running her hand through her dirty blonde hair that held a pink hue. A collective bundle of grumbles echoed from the back of the vehicle, and the two women rolled their eyes.

     The next few minutes were silent as they continued to drive down the nearly empty highway, the dark of the night slowly eclipsing Piper's thoughts. It felt like the ride to the mansion was taking forever. All she wanted to do was get out of the stuffy truck and yell at Savitar for his mistake yesterday. That was the only thing on her mind.

     "If you swerve one more time on this fucking road, I will suffocate you, Safa Murphy." Hydro Hunter snapped loudly, the sound of his harsh voice snapping the redhead out of the bubble she'd entered. Blinking, she felt her stomach flip as Illusion served once again. Piper's nails dug deeply into the armrest of her seat as the blonde chuckled, swerving into the other lane again. Flashing her eyes over to her, Piper gave her a cold stare, watching as the woman blanched, steering the car out of the other lane.

     Minutes passed slowly as the truck drove up the hill, the derelict mansion looming in the midnight darkness.

     Once the vehicle had stopped, Piper jumped out, taking her bag and the disc with her. Slamming the door to the truck close, she gave a short nod to Illusion before the woman drove away.

     Against the dark and star-filled sky, Piper Lita could still see the disheveled threshold of the building from where she was standing near the forest, and her hair flew behind her in the late-night breeze.

     The number of times she'd been to this exact mansion in the past week was unnerving yet comforting. It was the only place she felt like she was allowed to be her angry, hate-filled self without judgment. Everyone who followed her and Savitar's command saw the world the same way they did, for everyone had lost something or someone. It was reassuring knowing they accepted her for the person she'd become.

     When the team eventually found out, she knew they wouldn't love her for the monster she'd become. They would want to fix her, and that was the last thing she wanted.

     Who she was now was someone she could live with. The positive, quirky, and wise woman she used to be was someone she could hardly identify with. Not one part of her was happy, hopeful, insightful, or quirky. And she liked it that way.

     It's like what Athena had said months ago, "Doesn't it get exhausting? Pretending to be happy, pure, and good? I know that for me, it would, and I bet you're burned out. Piper Lita is a joke, and you know it. Expedite is a joke."

     It was exhausting pretending to be happy, pure, and good, and she was burned out. So burned out.

     Piper Lita was a joke.

     Expedite is a joke.

     What was she even thinking? Becoming a hero? How did anyone ever allow her to be? After everything she'd been through, who in their right mind thought an emotionally unstable girl would be a good superhero? Who?

     There was no place for her in the saving people business; there never should've been.

     A ball of bright blue light flashed behind her, and she spun around, arms crossed across her chest. The moment her eyes landed on him, the anger from yesterday came tumbling back to the surface. "What the hell was that?!" Piper breathed harshly, stalking toward the speedster.

     Barry shrugged, a slight smirk spreading across his cheeks. "What?" 

     "You know damn well what," she hissed, shoving his shoulder.

     "You mean yesterday?" Barry raised a brow.

     "Yes. I thought we were in this together. Why did you have to go and prove your male egotistical dominance?! Can't go five minutes without demonstrating how powerful you think you are?" Piper snapped, raising a brow.

     Barry narrowed his eyes at her words and stepped forward, his face gleaming under the moonlight. "Team Flash needs to be shown how powerful I am! I could kill each one of them without moving a muscle!"

     Piper rolled her eyes. "You can show them how powerful you are without hurting me! You said you were done hurting me."

     It took less than a second for the brown-haired man to counter back with a lace of annoyance in his voice as well. "Hurting you hurts them more than anything else. Seeing their reactions when they saw your dead body weeks ago was priceless. You're their weakness, Efficacy. We need to keep it that way. You must be willing to allow yourself to be hurt if you want them to fall apart. The weaker and more vulnerable they are, the higher our chance of pulling this off. If there were another way, we would be doing it."

     Piper breathed in shakily, the boiling anger she felt towards the speedster, and the world was slowly stirring. "Fine," she choked out, biting her tongue to keep from saying anything else. She directed her eyes to the frost-covered ground.

     "The moment they figure out the truth, which shouldn't be long now, I'll stop."

     "Fine."

     Barry narrowed his eyes, noticing her immediate change in demeanor. "Do you have what I asked for?" He asked roughly, ultimately deciding not to press further on a bruise that would soon be gone within hours. Piper pulled the glowing blue disc out of her bag without looking at him and tossed it over. "Good. How'd it go?"

     Breathing slowly, the redhead looked at him. "Fine. No one saw us."

     "Except for the security cameras."

     "Yes, but you hid the footage. The team won't know it was us, even when Cisco gets access to the feed. It'll work out the way we want it to. All they'll know is that a team of unknown men and a woman dressed in all black took the radiator." Piper snapped, the lack of sleep and anger rustling in the pit of her stomach.

     The brown-haired man pressed his lips together, letting her snippy behavior go. It wasn't long until he had her entirely in his grasp and her heart back in his hands.

     Tomorrow was the day, and he couldn't wait. "I'll run you back into the city. You're going to need sleep for tomorrow's performance," he smirked, slipping the glowing disc into his inner coat pocket.

────

     "RAMON, I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO OVER THE CALCULATIONS WITHOUT CONSULTING ME." Harry snapped, throwing his notebook across the Cortex and aggressively running his hands through his hair.

     All morning it'd been quiet and peaceful, minus the occasional yelps that could be heard from Cisco's workshop. However, that peace had been tossed aside when Harry became frustrated.

     "Okay, I did consult you, and you're the one who gave me the calculations in the first place!" Cisco countered back, his index finger pointed directly toward the scientist.

     Glancing up from her desk, Caitlin furrowed her brows at the two, exchanging glowering stares. What on Earth could they be arguing about now?

     "Yeah, and I told you not to use them without consulting me. I said, Ramon, don't use the calculations without consulting me!"

     "Yeah, yeah, I heard you. I didn't see the need for that!"

     "Which is exactly why there's a hole in your workshop and why you should be cursed at."

     At Harry's words, Piper glanced up from the laptop in front of her and turned her head, brows raised as she stared at the two.

     "What does that even mean?!"

     A small smirk tugged at the redhead's lips in amusement at the expression etched across Cisco's face, trying her best to stifle the laugh threatening to break loose.

     "What does it mean? It means that you're fu—"

     "Okay, you know what? This is exactly why I didn't consult with you because the last thing I need right now is more of your salty-ass attitude!" Cisco yelled, snatching the pen from Harry's hands and using it as a makeshift microphone. Piper's eyebrows raised considerably high, and she looked over to Caitlin, watching as she rubbed her temples in exasperation.

     It was only ten in the morning, and the brunette already had a progressing migraine floating her way.

     "If you don't need my salty attitude, you may carry on without me. I'll let myself out." Harry snapped, stalking towards the entrance to the room grumpily.

     "Oh, are you going back to your Earth? I'll breach you there right now," Cisco offered, pointing to the doorway.

     Placing her head in her hands, Caitlin sighed heavily, growing more vexed by the second. It was much too early for this.

     "I'll breach you there right now!" the brown-haired scientist shot back in a voice four octaves too high, and both women winced.

     "That's... not what I sound like..." Cisco grumbled unhappily, tossing the black pen onto the half-circle of computers.

     The room grew silent, and Piper redirected her attention to the laptop in front of her. Using the mousepad, she scrolled down on a digital map of Mercury Labs that Freeze Frame had emailed her hours ago.

     In two days, she was leading another extrapolation to steal another piece of technology for the weapon Savitar was building. After that, there were only three more things that they needed.

     Looking over the blueprints, she felt a wave of darkness float over her like the shade from a cloud. Piper shivered, rotating her neck as a minor pain crept up her chest. Choosing to ignore the discomfort, she kept her focus trained on the screen, memorizing every inch of the lab's layout.

     The building was filled with a solemn silence for the next thirty minutes that comforted everyone. However, it didn't last long.

     "Cisco!" A distant voice shouted, and the long-haired boy jumped, dropping the comic book in his hands as he turned around. Both Piper and Caitlin stopped in their movement and directed their attention to the entrance of the Cortex. "Cisco, we need you to hack into Stagg Industries' security cameras!"

     Rolling her eyes, the redhead directed her focus back to the laptop in front of her. There wasn't any way that the CCPD could track back the break-in last night to her. There was no need to stress.

     "You need me to do what now?" Cisco choked out, hunks of popcorn in his mouth. It was then that Detective Joe West and Barry Allen entered the room, expressions of deep worry painted across their faces. Instead of looking at the long-haired boy, Barry glanced at Piper, noticing that her attention was directed at the laptop in front of her and not anyone else. Furrowing his brows, a slight frown briefly danced across his lips. Her words from three days ago were stuck on repeat in his head.

     The two hadn't talked privately since that day, and Barry didn't know when the next time they would. Their fight had only created more distance between the two, bringing nothing but more stress to the brown-haired man's heart.

     "We need you to hack into Stagg Industries' security cameras. There was a break-in last night. Eight guards were attacked, and three of them were killed." Joe stated solemnly, crossing his arms as Cisco spun around, immediately sitting down and typing rapidly. Blinking, Barry looked back at his friend.

      At the mention that three of the eight guards were now dead, Piper's eyes flashed up. Goosebumps trailed down her spine as a sense of satisfaction pulled at the corner of her lips. There was no twinge of panic, sadness, anger, pain, remorse, guilt, or shame in her heart. Instead, the fact that they were dead nearly brought a devilish grin to her face, but she held herself back, knowing that she would give herself away if she reacted.

     "Damn, she took out five guards within a minute. Girl's got some serious skill," Joe commented, his words snapping Piper out of her daze.

     Blinking, she noticed everyone standing behind Cisco, including Harry and Caitlin, peering down at the computer monitor before them. The long-haired boy's eyes were wide as he watched the security footage, glancing at Caitlin after they watched a blast of cold ice fly by the camera lens.

     "Captain Cold?" Joe proposed, his brows scrunched together, and the brunette shook her head.

     "No. He's with the Legends right now. It's not him." Barry replied, running his hand over his face.

     "Then who the hell is that?" The detective asked, pointing to the screen. Barry shrugged.

     "You see those arrows that were shot?" Cisco asked, rewinding the footage and pausing when the woman in black had finished firing the last arrow. "They look similar to Oliver's. We should reach out and see if he knows anything about this."

     Standing up from the chair she was perched in, the redhead made her way over to the team, sliding her hands across the rails and leaning forward, her eyes scanning the frozen footage.

     "That's a good idea," Joe murmured, making brief eye contact with the long-haired boy.

     "No. Oliver's got too much on his plate right now. Between juggling being mayor and trying to stop Prometheus, he doesn't have time for this. We can figure this out without him." Barry interjected, shaking his head.

     Piper looked up, raising her brows at the tone in the brown-haired man's voice. "This could be the work of Savitar," Harry spoke up, uncrossing his arms and cutting Joe off from saying something to Barry.

     "What makes you say that?" Piper asked, straightening out her posture.

     "Think about it. He shows up here three days before the break-in, gives us a prophecy about our everlasting damnation, announces that he wants the meta-humans, Central City, and you, then speeds off. It was blatantly clear that he had something planned, but he didn't have everything he needed yet. This could be him preparing for his endgame." Harry explained, tilting his head as he held eye contact with the redhead.

     Moving his gaze, Cisco eyed his best friend, watching as she took in a deep breath. Something was up... he could feel it.

     "Piper, does this sound like something Savitar would do?" Joe asked, sweeping his focus to the silent woman.

      She looked over to meet the detective's curious expression. "I mean... yeah, yeah, I guess, but he always does something for a reason. Why would he want to steal a piece of tech when his suit is made of nothing but metal and high-fashioned tech from Earth-Four? It doesn't make sense." Piper pointed out, her brows furrowing in mock thought as she uncrossed her arms.

     The long-haired boy frowned, wrinkles cracking along his forehead as he leaned back in his chair. How did she know that a piece of tech was stolen? Nobody had said a word about what was stolen or if anything was.

     Moving his eyes around the group, he couldn't help but notice that he was the only one who caught her slipping up.

     "Maybe something happened to him? Maybe he needs it for something?" Caitlin suggested, her shoulders rising slightly as she shrugged. Joe nodded in agreement, lightly gesturing to the brunette.

     "This isn't just some random piece of tech, guys. This was the first and only extra-dimensional energy radiator in the world. Stagg Industries has been working on it for years. It's an impressive model." Barry chimed in, leaning against the railing surrounding the computers, his shoulder briefly brushing Piper's.

     "Extra-dimensional radiator?" Harry repeated, sliding his glasses off.

     "Yeah. Why? Does that mean something to you?" Joe asked, raising a questioning brow.

     Piper held her breath and waited for the man's answer, but the scientist remained still. "Dr. Wells?" Caitlin said gently, moving her head over to get a better look at him from where she sat next to Cisco.

     Harry shrugged. "For a minute, it sounded familiar, but I was mistaken."

     Narrowing her eyes the tiniest bit, Piper studied the scientist, noticing how he was biting the inside of his cheek.

     He's lying. He knows what the extra-dimensional radiator is.

     Feeling someone else's eyes on her, she glanced over to meet Cisco's lingering gaze. The moment their eyes locked, the long-haired boy looked away. Piper breathed in deeply as she felt a wave of tension randomly enter the room.

     Both Harry and Cisco knew something was up. That much was clear to her. What wasn't was what they thought they knew or were thinking.

     She wasn't surprised that the two had already caught onto fractions of the truth. It was like Savitar said, soon enough, the team would figure it out, and when they did, that was when the real endgame began.