EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME TWO
━━ ❛ 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 ❜

chapter no. 042!

     "TAKE ONE MORE STEP, AND I WON'T HESITATE TO SHOOT YOUR EYES OUT." Piper snapped as she drew the bow, a red arrow resting between the two.

     Flickering his eyes down to the feeble source of protection, Barry chuckled, shaking his head. "You act as if I'm going to hurt you, darling."

     Narrowing her eyes, the redhead scoffed. "Act? I know you will. All you've ever done is hurt me, Savitar."

     At the mention of his infamous alias, a sadistic smirk slithered across his cheeks. "God, it feels so good to hear you call me that," Barry sighed, his shoulders dropping in height.

     "You're sick," Piper hissed, the venom laced within her words dripping off the edge of her tongue.

     "Sick? No, no. If anything, I've never felt better in my life. However, there's this gaping hole in my chest," the brown-haired boy paused, stepping forward.

     Without hesitation, she fired the arrow and watched as he dodged it, her glare only intensifying.

     "Are you talking about the space where your heart should be? I'm pretty sure that area's been vacant for decades. Also, I told you I would shoot if you took one more step. What? Did you not think I would deliver?" she questioned, raising a brow.

     "Oh, no. I knew you would deliver. You've always delivered on your promises." Barry winked, and Piper rolled her eyes. "The hole I'm referring to is the one left by you a month ago. The hole you created when you burned half of my face off."

     The redhead scowled. "You deserve to have your whole face burned off. Better yet, you deserve to be burned alive and turned into the nasty, disgusting pile of ashes that you are."

     A small frown teetered on the speedster's lips for a moment as her words sunk in. "You don't mean that," he whispered, watching as those four simple words caused her to lower the bow.

     Feeling her breath getting caught in her throat as she held eye contact with him, Piper's eyes teared up.

     She hated it.

     She hated how his words affected her; how he had this gravitational pull over her that only made her want to be closer to him; how he was still able to have the butterfly effect on her that her Barry Allen had.

     She knew that the love she had for him was misplaced, but that fact didn't make the reality of how easy it was to be with him any better. Being with Savitar, this version of Barry, was easier than being with the Barry Allen.

     "I can see it in your eyes," the speedster murmured softly, walking towards her. "Love. I can see it."

     "What you're seeing is called 'tears,'" she retorted, taking a step back as he moved closer.

     "You don't need to be afraid of me. I'm done hurting you." Barry promised, reaching forward to touch her arm, but she quickly drew her bow, pressing the tip of an arrow to his chest. Glancing down at the object separating them, the speedster sighed.

     "Pipes—"

     "Don't call me that."

     "P—"

     "Why are you here?"

     It was silent as the two held eye contact. Eventually, the brown-haired man glanced away from her killing, cold glare. "The deal. I need your answer," he stated bluntly, looking back at her with an emotionless expression; all evidence of love, concern, and care gone.

     "I don't negotiate with psychotic murderers, sorry," she shrugged, pressing the tip further into the speedster's chest. He didn't even wince as he felt it slightly tear through his shirt and skin.

     "I'm not leaving until you give me an answer, and if that answer is no, I won't hesitate to kill everyone upstairs." Barry hissed, his patience wearing thin as he was done playing the nice guy. The amount of time he had to get her to say yes was short and passed by quickly. If he wanted to further his progress, he needed her to answer today.

     "Touch any of them, and I will kill you." Piper threatened, rage running through her veins like a deathly poison.

     "Maybe I'll start with Iris West first," he pondered, stroking his chin. "Seeing the love of your life die before your eyes can really destroy you, don't you think? How do you think Erin would cope with the loss of her girlfriend knowing you could've prevented it?"

     She clenched her jaw.

     "Wait, what about Caitlin Snow? The woman who cared for you and mended you back together multiple times, despite knowing that you lied to her for months about the real identity of Jay Garrick?" Barry jeered. "Or how about Harrison Wells? The narcissistic, emotionless, and overly-suspicious scientist whose trust in you always wavered despite your numerous attempts at saving him and the others and helping the team at all costs? Wait, scratch that. What about Cisco Ramon? The man who has loved you endlessly since day one, supported you, shared his food with you, created inside jokes with you, and would do anything for you? I wonder how his death would affect you..."

     Piper's vision blurred with hot, angry tears as her hands began to shake.

     "Hold on, I have it! I'll start with none other than Barry Allen. The man you love more than anything and anyone, despite your efforts to ignore that fact and your attempts to not let anyone know how strongly you feel about him. The man you would do anything for. The man who always believes in you. Who trusts you with anything and loves you more than Heaven and Earth. The man who defended you when you came clean about Zoom and forgave you for lying to him for months simply because his feelings for you always cloud his judgment and his ability to see things for how they are. The man that I am: Barry Allen. Knowing that you could have prevented it, I wonder how much it would kill you to have him die right before you." His words echoed in the vacant basement as his dark green eyes glowed maliciously.

     He knew that his taunting was pushing her to the edge, her breaking point, to the point he needed her to be. He needed her at her weakest for this to work.

     "I need an answer," Barry finally whispered threateningly, stepping forward and running his hand down her cheek. A single tear tumbled down and onto his fingers, weaving in-between the crevices. "It's time to pay the piper, Piper."

────

     IT WAS UNCHARACTERISTICALLY SILENT IN CENTRAL CITY AND S.T.A.R. LABS THAT AFTERNOON. There were no robberies in progress, no assaults, no meta-human attacks—nothing. It was quiet and still. A combination of two things that were rarely paired together, especially on a Thursday, the second to last day of the workweek.

     The whole team, minus Joe, was gathered at S.T.A.R. Labs for lunch. No one was talking. Instead, they were sitting in comfortable silence. Harry had ditched them, however, when Erin had brought food from Big Belly Burger, leaving to hide away in Cisco's workshop.

     Iris and Erin sat with Caitlin in one of the side rooms, the three of them eating and talking silently. Barry sat on Cisco's right, neither of them speaking as they ate.

     No one had seen Piper that day except for Cisco and Harry, and neither of them had told the team yet that she was down in the basement auditioning to be the Arrow's new sidekick.

     Cisco had tried to talk to Harry after they returned to his workshop about what they saw, but the scientist wasn't interested in the topic of Efficacy or Piper. Instead, he simply waved the boy off, which is what ultimately led him to wander down to the Cortex.

     Now, he had finished his lunch and was stuck on the image of Piper shooting a red and black arrow straight into a mannequin's chest without even flinching or blinking. It was unnerving.

     Sighing, Cisco slid down further in his chair, a lollipop dangling from his lips as he stared aimlessly at the blank monitor before him. The confusion engulfed him in overbearing waves, dragging him down under before allowing him to catch a breath of air.

     Why was she using the bow and arrows in the first place?

     "What was Efficacy like?" Cisco randomly voiced, his eyes never once swaying from the monitor in front of him.

     Looking up from eating his burger, Barry furrowed his brows. "Efficacy?" he questioned, his mind going blank as to who the long-haired boy was referring to.

     Cisco nodded. "Piper's doppelgänger on Earth-Two. What was she like?"

     Barry tilted his head to the right and frowned, still confused about why his best friend was asking. "Well, she was very different than the Piper we know. There was this... I don't know. There was this wickedness around her, kind of. Everything about her demeanor and presence was the exact opposite of what we know and are used to. I mean, sure, she looked the exact same, minus the black streaks in her hair, but her voice, attitude, and eyes were completely different. The sound of her voice was deeper, and she seemed to be filled with a darkness that clouded her eyes."

     "A darkness that clouded her eyes?" Erin spoke up, leaving the side room and making her way toward the two men. Barry nodded. "What do you mean by that?"

     "I mean that the color of her eyes didn't match our Pipers'. Piper has these warm, chocolate-brown eyes that you can melt into, and Efficacy had these dark, hollow brown eyes that just held nothing but emptiness. Our Piper's eyes hold happiness and hope, and compassion. Efficacy is just the complete opposite of that, except for when it comes to her husband, who is my doppelgänger." Barry explained, noticing that Iris and Caitlin had now joined the group of three.

     Erin furrowed her brows and looked away from the group.

     What Barry had said about Efficacy's eyes reminded her of how dark, and hollow Piper's had been the past few weeks. She'd noticed it every now and then if she was paying attention, but she never put much thought into it. She always assumed they looked that way based on the lighting or angle in which she was looking at her best friend, but maybe there was more to it than that.

     Maybe the redhead was hiding something or changing. No one really knew anything about the past few months and what they'd been like, despite their efforts to try and find out. Maybe over those few months, something happened to Piper. Maybe that was why her eyes were now, what she was assuming to be, mirror reflections of Efficacy's.

     The short-haired woman wasn't the only one having those thoughts in the room. Cisco was too.

     Maybe he was so unnerved by the image of Piper shooting that bow and arrow because she was reminding him of Efficacy. He'd only been in the room with the scarlet archer back on Earth-Two for a few minutes, but he remembered her and what she looked like.

     How could he not? She was the replica of his best friend.

     "Cisco," the brown-haired man called, snapping him out of his thoughts. Cisco adverted his eyes from the monitor, his brows raising. "Why'd you ask about Efficacy?"

     The long-haired boy bit down on his bottom lip as he looked away from the speedster, briefly glancing at Caitlin before looking to the ground. "I uh, I had made a new bow and set of arrows for Arsenal, for when he worked with the Arrow, a while back, and left them in the basement. Harry and I went down there a while ago to get some tools and found Piper. She had found the bow and arrows and was shooting them at a mannequin," he explained, not meeting the eyes of his friends.

     "Piper's here?" Iris questioned, glancing at her girlfriend, who looked just as confused. "Why didn't she tell us she was here?"

     Cisco shrugged, bringing his eyes to meet Barry's. "She was acting... odd. Seeing her with the bow and arrows reminded me of Efficacy. I don't know how to describe it. I feel uneasy," he explained, noticing how Barry wore a deep frown upon his lips.

     First, she wouldn't look at him at the Hamilton building last night. Then, she didn't meet him back at S.T.A.R. Labs and went to bed without talking to him. And now, she had been at S.T.A.R. Labs the entire day without anyone knowing.

     Piper was disassociating herself from the team, which was evident to Barry. Something wasn't adding up.

     "Barry, did something happen between the two of you? Is that why she didn't show up last night and didn't tell any of us she was here?" Caitlin asked, raising a curious brow.

     The brown-haired man shook his head, bringing his gaze to meet hers. "No, we're fine, but we all know that ever since the night we were attacked by Dr. Alchemy and the Rival, she's been more on the edge and snappy. Whenever a door slams, she now punches whoever slammed that door out of fear. Erin and I have got bruises to prove that. At home, her sleepless nights have become nights filled with terror. She wakes up screaming and crying. She's not in a good place, and I've been helping her. I thought things were getting better, that she was getting better, but I don't know now. It just feels like every time she takes three steps forward, she takes five steps back." Barry breathed, rubbing his forehead as worry lines cracked across his skin.

     Caitlin frowned, not completely disagreeing with the speedster. Every time Piper took a few steps forward, she always managed to take five more back without wanting to.

     "I really want her to be and get better. She doesn't deserve any of what she's been through," Iris whispered, her words causing heads to turn in her direction. "Piper deserves the entire universe, not the world. She deserves everything good in life."