On the Bad Ship Andromeda... Part 2
The future Trance suddenly tilted her head, red hair falling in front of her eyes. "They know about me. They're trying to kill them before it's too late."
"What is this!?" Trance demanded.
"It's just an illusion," Her future self said softly, circling around her.
"A dream?" Trance asked her.
"No. A dream you can wake up from. A dream has a meaning that you can never grasp. If this is a dream, Trance, then you've been dreaming for the past eight months." She answered. She looked around thoughtfully. "With a few minor flaws, it might have worked perfectly. I give them that credit, at least."
"I don't understand!" Trance shouted.
"I'm hardly surprised," her future self said. "They kept things from you, drugged your mind, imprinted new memories to replace the old. Given time, you would have really believed in a Black Commonwealth. You weren't really a threat-Dylan was the one they were after. This...." She circled around. "Is all a program. A lie."
"Someone is tampering with our minds...?" Trance prompted. "To what end, exactly?"
"To discredit Dylan, probably. The Commonwealth would never be together for long if Dylan really started shooting at planets, now would they? Revenge would also be another reason. Killing the body, easy. But killing the soul....that takes work. But it's worth it, I suppose." She stared at her younger self. "I should know. It happened to me."
Trance tried to get a grip on all the new information. "All right, let me see if I get this straight-the Andromeda, the real Andromeda, is the ship striving for peace."
Her future self nodded.
"But someone captured us, drugged our minds and are trying to make us believe that we're bad and terrible?"
"By reliving your past in a different way. A terrible way. You've been at it for months now. You're almost done," her future self explained.
"And isn't it working? Beka and Harper no longer speak to one another, the most strongest of friendships broken perhaps forever. Tyr's trying to kill Dylan and Dylan's trying to kill everyone. Given a few more weeks, who knows what will happen?"
"Who?" Trance demanded. "Who's doing this to us?"
"They're upset at you," her future self continued. "They could never really figure out our minds. When you started tampering they tried to write it so that someone would kill you, then they could quietly remove you from the program. You're a threat to them now. A real threat."
Trance lowered her eyes. "Harper and Beka-"
"They're punishing you, Trance. By killing them," her future self explained. "Even in their drugged state if their minds truly believe that they're dead they're...well, dead. They have no use for them-"
"We have to help them!" Trance shouted.
"No, Trance," her future self said, gripping her shoulder. "They have to figure this out for themselves! It is perhaps the only way they can find the broken bond between them again. We have other things we must do-"
"No!" Trance said, tearing her grip away. "You have no idea what's been happening here! The hell that we've been through! I still believe it is real, even after everything that you've told me! I'm going to find them!"
"There'll be consequences," the older Trance said quietly. "Our best chance to leave this is now." She glanced behind her, to where she had just entered moments ago. "They're already beginning to stop."
"Don't you care!?" Her younger self snapped.
Once again the odd look was in the future Trance's eyes. "I do. More then you'll ever know." She abruptly shook her red head. "Fine. Let's go." She stared hard at Trance. "Even if it does mean the end of both of us. Forever."
"Even so," Trance agreed, determination in her blue eyes.
"They're going to kill each other, you know," Younger Trance said as they quickly walked down the dark corridors. They were quite a sight-a purple skinned Trance with a purple outfit stained and torn, and a red-haired woman who wore leather and daggers. The same people, yet they could never have been more different.
"I know," her older twin replied, a bit sadly. But only a little bit. "And even if we can stop them, I'm not sure we can save them."
"What do you mean?" Trance demanded. Not understanding anything her future twin told her frustrated Trance to the very core of her being. She completely missed the irony of the situation.
Trance shook her red head. "There's just been so much mistrust built between them.....so much hate not even their own. Even if we did tell them it was an illusion, that it was all fake, I doubt that would even want to listen, for fear of something better." A dark shadow passed through her blue eyes. "Hate is all they have left now."
"It's terrifying," Trance muttered.
"That such powerful bonds can be so easily broken with a gentle push?" Older Trance asked.
"No. It's terrifying that I could ever be someone like you in the future."
The older version of Trance never stopped, only smiled. "You have no idea what you're even talking about."
"But I will, right?" Young Trance snapped.
The older version of Trance nodded.
Trance looked away. "I don't want to be like you." she said honestly.
"I don't think any of us prayed to be here," older Trance retorted gently. "Yet, here we are."
As they approached a corridor they suddenly stopped. It led straight to engineering, but was blocked by rubble. Tons of rubble.
"They're trying to stop us," the older version of Trance said, thoughtfully fingering a thick red braid.
"Who?" Younger Trance exploded. "Who's trying to stop us!?"
Older Trance glanced at her in surprise. "I thought you knew. Those people you spoke with down on the planet. The ones that shot you."
Trance paused. Cold fingers pressed against her spine as she felt a sudden sense of horror. Yet she had no idea why. And right now, it didn't matter. Harper and Beka were the only things that mattered now. She shook her blond head. "Come on," she said. "We need to find another way."
******************************
Smoothly Beka dropped down from the ladder and landed on her feet with a catlike grace. If anything, the Flash was enhancing her strength. "Seamus...." she whispered mockingly. "I know you're here, you little rat...come out and I'll give you your piece of cheese." A suddenly clatter made her eyes shift to the right. Quietly she crouched down, moving stealthily to the noise. Closer.....the darkness was unnerving. Closer..... Suddenly she reached behind her and flipped Harper over her back to the ground as he fired harmlessly into the wall. "Seamus, you idiot, did you really think I would fall for so simple a trick? I could feel you breathing down my neck!" Harper rolled to his feet, his blaster in his hands. In his eyes Beka was never more beautiful. She wore a completely black leather outfit and high-heel boots. Venomous rage was in her eyes, in his own."I'm going to kill you," he whispered, sweat rolling down next to his crazed blue eyes. Beka grinned. "Nah. I've won against more formidable drunks." She kicked upwards. Harper jumped back as her hand batted away the blaster into the darkness. Harper cursed as the two circled around each other. Both held fury in their eyes, hurt from past experiences and distrust built over the months. Both were determined to tear each other apart if they could.
*********************************
With a grunt Tyr flew face-first into the wall as fire burned through his back. He cursed. How could he have been possibly so stupid? He clung to a station, gasping for air. Only his chain mail had partially deflected the blast. Only that had saved him from Dylan Hunt, a human Kludge. Dylan swore as the beast lifted himself by his thick arms. The animal wanted blood? Fine. He would give him the Commonwealth's form of justice. For Sarah. For himself.
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The older version of Trance paused. "It's starting," she suddenly said. "What?" Her younger version demanded, circling to face her. "The end," Her older version said flatly. Trance thought that it might be a good idea to pick up the pace.
********************************
Harper lunged at Beka. Instantly she deflected his punch, grabbed his arm, and twisted. Harper fell flat on the ground, panting. Beka grinned. The man was a hopeless drunk. Killing him would be too easy- Harper suddenly kicked upwards, hitting her flat in the chest. Smoothly he pulled himself to his feet as she stumbled backwards. He lunged again, but this time Beka wasn't prepared. He punched her in the mouth and grabbed her failing arm. Grinning, he pulled her hair and spat in it, causing a blue ripple to spread from the short-circuited nanobots. Beka pushed him away. Slowly, Beka put her hand to her mouth and wiped the blood away from it. "You're dead." She snapped, then attacked. She aimed a punch for the side of his head while bringing her knee up to hit his lungs. Harper dodged, deflected her knee with his own, and abruptly tripped her. She fell, pulling Seamus down with her. Caught unprepared, Harper hit his head on the concrete shook his head, stunned. Both jumped to their feet again, the dim light of the light-blue slipstream core illuminated their fight. "It doesn't have to be like this, Beka!" Harper shouted.
Beka swore, spotted a socketed wrench, and threw it towards his skull. Harper lifted his arm up, deflecting the tool with a stinging pain. "Trance thinks that we belong to something better!" He implored her, but his blue eyes still glistened with white-hot rage. "Ha!" Beka laughed, and rushed at him once more. Caught unaware, Beka might have had him if she hadn't stumbled on the socket wrench. As a result both were propelled forwards into an old lift, cursing. Harper hit a large red button with a strangled cry and both were lifted upwards to the main level. Harper winced. Beka lunged, her long nails slashing into his skin. She pushed him against the wall and punched his side. Harper kicked her in the stomach and she stumbled out of the lift, some twenty feet above the ground and rapidly rising. At the last moment she grabbed one of the loose hanging cables of the lift and held onto it with her gloved hands while the lift jerked upwards.
*****************************************
As they walked the older version of Trance was talking. "The moment you're out of this program your real memories will resurface in time."
"How long?"
"I'm not sure," the older Trance said. "It entirely depends if Dylan and the others are willing to give up their hate. They may not want to return to their former lives. In which case, all hope is lost for them, and our efforts will be for nothing."
"At least we're trying to save them," the younger Trance retorted.
"So they can kill each other later. Mark my words, Trance, we have a lot of things to make right if we have any hopes of restoring the Andromeda crew, and nothing is assured."
The younger version of Trance stopped and turned around. "I really don't think I dreamed you up," she accused. "In fact I don't think you're a part of anyone's dream."
Trance smiled. "No," she said simply. "I'm not."
************************************
Gasping as the old lift lurched upwards, Beka reached forwards for more grip. Her hand almost slipped and she flailed helplessly. Meanwhile any moment Harper would discover his tiny error and permanently push her off the lift. Beka closed her eyes, feeling the old fear come back to her. She was terrified of heights, and Harper of all people had delt a swift reminder. She had never told anyone. Here on this ship weakness got you killed. Her father was weak, her brother was slime, and she was born from literally nothing. Now they were both dead, their ashes forever entombed in the sea. Because they were weak.
The memories brought cold reassurance, and she grabbed the slick black wire again and pulled herself upwards. No. She wouldn't die. She wouldn't allow Harper to kill her. Grimly she pulled herself upwards onto the elevator ramp. She couldn't bare the shame.
*************************************
Panting, his dark clothes and green jacket bathed with sweat, he was more then a little surprised to see Beka Valentine lift herself onto the ramp. His eyes widened with disbelief. Unbelievable! She looked as fatigued as he did, with the same murderous fury.
The anger that was built up over the years finally erupted within Harper. Beka, watching with a cold smile on her face as he pleaded for mercy under Tyr's fist. Beka, the woman he once trusted, who had rescued him from Earth. Little did he know he was due for a worse fate. Beka, who did nothing when Dylan had almost killed him. The fact that she did nothing was reason enough for him to start drinking. And now, Beka, the woman who was selling nova bombs to use against his home. Beka!
With a shriek of fury he launched himself at Beka. Startled, she was knocked down as he bent over onto her and began squeezing the life out of her pale neck.
*****************************************
"We're almost there!" Trance shouted to her older self as they approached engineering.
"It's too late," her older self said softly.
****************************************
Beka drew one of her legs up and kicked him in the chest. Stunned, he tumbled out of the lift, his hip striking the edge of the outer door. He fell to the ground of the main level, but was instantly back on his feet. A large bruise was building on his hip, his cheek, his arms. There was blood on his right shoulder when he had struck it against a jagged edge. But he really felt no pain. If anything, he felt good. The rage would sustain him, he knew. Till the very end. Beka dived at him and they rolled on the cracked marble. They were dangerously close to the edge which opened to the lower levels, and the railing that protected them was laughable at best. They stood once more. Snarling, Beka shoved him into the arms of a robot in a dazzling display of sparks. Harper got a nasty jolt but he ignored it. They both circled around each other, primal hate on their faces. Both were exhausted and had blood and sweat running down their fatigued faces. They were beyond words, beyond friendship now. The last bonds between them were broken. "Till the end, Beka," he said. His back was turned to the chasm beyond them. "Till the end," Beka agreed softly, and rushed him. Both rammed into the railing. It shook but held firm. Beka's discarded force lance rolled over the edge. Snarling, Beka kicked the railing once more, breaking it in two. She never let go of Harper. Too late Harper realized what had happened. Beka was the only thing which kept him from being splattered thirty feet below. He had her. "Beka..." he whispered, his blue eyes starring at her pleadingly.
Snorting, Beka let go of Harper. He plummeted over the side. Screaming, he fell and smacked the cold concrete heavily. He was instantly knocked out cold.
Beka snorted and bent down and grabbed a broken lead pipe rolling on the ground. It was time to end this between them. Forever. But first, she would make him suffer for spitting on her.
*********************************
Beka jumped down from the ladder to where Harper was laying, his still face scratched up in a dozen places. He had landed badly. He probably was suffering from internal injuries, the poor thing. Beka's lips curled into a sneer. Firmly she bent over and grabbed a fistful of his hair. She shook him. "Wake up, sleepyhead."
With a startled cry Harper's eyes jerked open. He stared upwards into her face.
"You don't want to miss your death, do you?" Beka asked, and abruptly slammed her pipe over his leg, throughly breaking it in half. Just in case he thought of escape.
Harper screamed, his face deathly pale. God, she never realized how much she loved that sound.
"You know, I really don't understand myself," Beka said, lifting the pipe over her shoulder. "I brought you aboard the Maru, I helped you when you were sick, I persuaded-no, begged Dylan to keep you on board, and this is how you repay me!?" Her hand went to her blond hair. "God, what was I thinking?"
"Not very clearly," Harper muttered through broken lips.
"Obviously," Beka snapped, and slammed the pipe over his back. He shrieked. The crunch of bones could clearly be heard. "There go your ribs," she said, and giggled.
"Beka..." Harper whispered.
Beka leaned foreward. "Yes, sweetie?" She asked mockingly.
He shook his head weakly, trails of blood dripping from his lips. "Stop...please...stop..."
Beka grinned ruthlessly. "How about it, little man? Feeling like you want a drink? Well, go ahead," she grabbed a half-empty beer can and poured it over his bleeding head. "Drink up, you spineless bastard." She swung the pipe against Harper's midsection. One for forcing her to break up with Bobby.
One against the arm for telling Dylan about her flash addiction.
One against the back for being who he is, which certainly deserved punishment. She could hear more bones crunch against the force of her blow.
Harper was beyond words, beyond mercy. His eyes began to glaze over.
"Oh, no, don't you die on me yet. DON'T YOU DARE!" She shouted. With an impatient grunt she found his blaster and pointed it at his head. "I'm going to kill you, Seamus. The last departing gesture for eighteen months of hell!"
Harper crackled open a swollen eye. Even in his pain, even in his deathly haze, he still noticed when something rolled between his outstretched fingers.
Beka's force lance.
**********************************
The younger version of Trance ran into the dark engineering room. "Where are they?" She demanded.
She suddenly heard Harper scream. "Harper!" Trance shouted, running to the railing. Ignoring her feeling of dread, ignoring her fears, and most of all ignoring her older twin's warning, she jumped over the railing and landed smoothly on the ground in front of Harper, trying not to wince at the hideous pain that ran through her purple boots.
Beka stared at her, astonished. But only for a moment. Snarling, she raised her blaster.
"NO!" Trance shouted. Her tail cracked against Beka's hands like a whip. Beka cried out in pan. The blaster dropped to the ground. Giving a primal shriek she lunged at Trance.
When suddenly the future version of Trance calmly held her. Startled, her younger self glanced at her, then looked up. Where had she come from?
Beka was almost more then a little surprised. She fought the older Trance's grip.
The older Trance had run out of patience. "Enough," she snapped.
Beka's crazed eyes rolled up in her head and she fainted in exhaustion. The older version of Trance gently rested Beka on the dusty ground. "Well, this is going well," she remarked to herself.
The younger Trance looked behind her. "Oh no..." she moaned softly. She rushed to Harper's side. It wasn't the least bit good. His entire body was black and blue, at least most of his bones were broken, and blood was rapidly sweeping into the concrete. Harper was unresponsive and barely breathing.
The older version joined her and put a golden hand to his blood stained neck. "He's dying," she said, shaking her head. "He's beyond help." "Except for ours," the younger Trance snapped. "We can help him. I know we can."
"We can't," her older version protested softly, her blue eyes starring at nothing. "It's not allowed."
"You know what he means to us," younger Trance said.
A ghost of a smile was in the older Trance's eyes. "He'll hate you for the rest of his life." She shook her red hair. "He may learn every little dirty secret about us. Are you really willing to take that chance?"
Trance didn't hesitate. "He's my friend," she said, looking down and stroking his blood- stained blond hair. "He doesn't deserve to die. Not like this. It's not right."
"Nothing ever is," her older twin said, but not without a hint of resignation. "Give me your hand."
Smiling in thankfulness, the younger version did so. Purple hand joined with golden hand. No one could see what happened between them, but if they could have, they would have seen a beautiful golden and purple glow spread between the three of them.
Harper's eyes flickered as his bones mended, and the deadly flow of blood stopped.
"Harper?" The younger version of Trance whispered fearfully.
Harper's eyes flew open. Shoving the started Trance out of the way, he grabbed the force lance and pointed it, unwavering, at Beka's head. He grinned in triumph.
The older version of Trance rolled her blue eyes and gave a 'What did I tell you?' look to her younger self.
Her younger self didn't notice. Seeing Harper so still on the ground had disturbingly tempted her to shoot Beka herself. Now both of their lives depended on what she would do next. Greatly daring, she moved in front of the force lance. "No, Harper." She said, gently putting a purple hand on his sleeve. "All the killing, all the hatred....it ends now. With you." "She took away everything I have!" Harper said, gritting his teeth.
Trance chewed her lips. Now would be a bad time to point out that none of this was real. It would only add to Harper's current insanity. "So don't let her take away the rest. Don't make yourself into something like her. Because if you do...." She hesitated. "Then here are two more lives to add to your collection. Right here."
Harper shook his head. "You can't die," he stated.
Trance smiled slightly. How much she wished it were so. "I'm a prisoner here, Harper, just like you. I can die here just as easily as you can."
Her older twin glanced at her with approval and nodded. "We both can."
"Why do you even care about her!?" Harper shouted, the force lance still aimed at her. "She hurt you most of all!"
Trance swallowed as painful memories resurfaced. "Maybe. But I can forgive her. And when that happens, then I beat her. I beat this game." She squeezed his arm gently. "If you want to, then you can as well."
Harper began to tremble. The force lance shook.
"I know you can, Harper," Trance persisted. "I love you."
Sighing, Harper hurled the force lance against the wall, destroying it forever in a shower of sparks. "I'm going to regret this," he said heavily. Then, his eyes noticed the other Trance sitting quietly in the corner. "Trance?" Harper asked in astonishment. "That is you....right?"
For some reason that remark seemed to amuse Trance. She stared at him with dark glee in her eyes. "Yes, Harper. It's me."
Harper looked at both of them in shock. "This is very screwed up," he said simply.
"So what now?" Her younger self asked. Her blue eyes widened. "Oh no! Dylan and Tyr....they're together, I know they are! We have to help them too!"
"No," Her older self said flatly. "We can't. We've run out of time."
Harper looked down at himself in bemusement. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? Even the bruises had healed.
Trance stared accusingly at her older self.
Her older self shook her head. "I'm sorry, Trance, but we've reached a pivotal moment, and if we don't act now none of us will leave. Ever." Her face was grim. "Dylan and Tyr are on there own."
*******************
After they had tied Beka in a safe location, Harper and the two Trances walked quickly into the hall. All in all, this had been a strange day for him. First he had done the impossible and stood up to all of them, Beka no less! Then Beka had killed him, and now here he was alive. And though he didn't suffer a single scratch from the encounter, he sure as hell remembered the pain, and that was bad enough. The question is-why was he still alive? Harper was going to ask, but seeing the two Trances immediately blew any questions out of his mind. He could see the younger Trance glaring at her older twin when she thought that she wasn't looking, and the older Trance smiling a dark, cynical smile back. Harper shook his head and looked down. It was all too weird. Questions could come later. Thousands of questions. "We haven't much time. We need to activate the Tesseract machine. Now," the older version of Trance said as they made their way back to machine shop 14.
"So that you won't disappear and we won't forget you?" Trance asked sharply. It was a rude thing to say, she knew, but seeing her older harder self was really one of the last people she wanted to talk to now. Dimly she wondered what horrible things happened in the future which made her like her future self. "Yes, and ensuring that you'll be able to get out of this and that Harper and Beka won't kill each other!" Her older self retorted. "But that's beside the point. There are only two ways for all of you to leave. The first way is making everyone believe that this is a dream, and therefore your combined mental disbelief should be enough to destroy the program-" "Excuse me?" Harper said, very confused. "Or by using the Tesseract machine," Her older self continued, ignoring him.
"How will that work?" Trance demanded.
Her older self closed her eyes and sighed impatiently. "Technically, you are already on the planet surface, held prisoner in stasis. If we activate the Tesseract machine, it will theoretically create a portal into the world, like you meant to in the first place. Trouble is, we're already there, so that fact in itself should create an unending paradox and should therefore terminate the program. Believe me, you may have spent months in this hell, but I've spent whole years working out a way to get you out. Understand?"
"Yes," her younger self said. "No. Wait, the portals have already begun already. Wait a minute-why did they stop?"
Harper glanced at both of them, his head spinning. His brain decided that he had enough for one day and admired the cracked floor again.
"It's simple enough, Trance," her older self said. "I used my own Tesseract machine to get here. It created fragments of distorted time, but not one of them open to the world you're on. I was hoping it would, but only your Tesseract machine can make things entirely right again. Meanwhile, my time fragments are dissolving, and if we don't activate your Tesseract Machine soon they will completely disappear, making it impossible for me to be here, and none of this would have happened." She stared at both of them and sighed again. " Look, it involves a lot of math, physicals, and temporal mechanics that I really don't want to get into. The fact that we're still in this program and that the time distortions are stopping is proof enough. Understand?" "Trying to," her younger self said dryly.
"Wait a minute," Harper said, bouncing next to her. "Let me get this straight-we're in some kind of program?"
"Yes," her older self snapped impatiently.
Harper shrugged. "Okay."
Now it was both Trance's turn to be confused. "Okay? Just okay?"
"Trust me, when you've been on the Andromeda for the past two years, any place is better then this, no matter how weird and bizarre."
The older Trance shrugged. "Then let's go."
Turning, all three of them walked out the door and disappeared through a temporal void.
*************************************
In the machine shop Harper looked around in astonishment. Andromeda must have sent some robots to reassemble the Tesseract machine. "The Tesseract machine's finished," he said. The younger Trance joined him. "How long until it can work?"
Harper sighed. "I'll have to make sure that nothing's broken or aged....I might have to replace some of the wiring...not to mention figuring out a way to control the buffer flow of power!" He shrugged. "Say...an hour. Maybe."
"We don't have much time," the younger Trance reminded him.
Harper smiled, the first time in many months without a pained edge. "I know. I'll hurry."
"Trance?" Her older twin beckoned to her quietly.
Puzzled, Trance joined her.
"We have to leave. Now," her older version said.
"Look, Harper's doing the best he can-" Trance said impatiently.
"No, Trance. We have to leave," Her older version corrected. "There are events occurring outside the program which we need to stop. If we don't...well, it can only be bad."
"I thought our only way out was the Tesseract machine," her younger self said, confused.
"For them, yes. But not for us, Trance. We can leave here at any moment. And we have to, to save whatever we have left in this disaster."
Trance turned. "Harper-"
"You have given him more then enough strength he needs now. Out of all the crew, he's the one I have the most hope for. He can show the others the way home without us."
"I don't want to leave him," Trance said frankly, her tail twitching against the ground.
A ghost of a smile flickered on her older twin's lips. "I know. Believe me, I too have a Harper...." She sighed and patted her younger twin's shoulder. "Make your goodbyes quickly. I'll be right outside." She turned and left the machine shop.
Trance swallowed and tried very hard to smile. She joined Harper as he was attaching a circuit. "Harper-"
He glanced up. "You're leaving me," he said flatly.
Harper's perception never ceased to amaze her. "I don't want to. But I have to." She looked down. "Apparently."
"I need you," he said. There was no pleading in his voice, merely fact.
Trance smiled. "Harper, for eight months we've been living in a nightmare. We turned on ourselves, believed in hate instead of hope, and we were worse then dead. We were lost," she swallowed. "But, throughout all that time, we still remained friends. No one can take that away." She hugged him. "And we always will be friends, no matter what. I will never leave you."
Harper hugged her back. "Be careful." He trembled as tears ran down his cheeks. He smiled. "And let's promise never to be lost again."
"I promise," Trance said.
The doors open, and her older version stepped through. "It is time." She said.
Trance nodded, sniffing. She turned to Harper. "Don't leave here. You should be safe."
"Wait!" Harper called after them. He stared pleadingly at the older version of Trance. "Our reality....tell me, does it get any better then this? Any part at all?" The older version of Trance hesitated, then smiled gently at him. "There might be a perfectly wonderful future somewhere but I have not seen it yet." She stared at her younger self. "But, we are trying, aren't we?" "It's what we do," her younger self replied. Her older version nodded. "Take my hand." Trance hesitated. Now that reality was so close she wasn't sure she wanted to go to it. Then, with a backwards glance at Harper, she took her twin's hand. Both disappeared in a flash of soft green light.
***********************************
Trance opened her eyes to the new world.
At first, there wasn't much to see. Only smoked glass. She was encased in it. Small tubes with blue liquid were attached to her purple arms. Closing her eyes, she broken them off from her body and slammed her fists against the glass.
The glass in front of her opened with a gentle push and she collapsed to the floor, feeling incredibly awful. With a wretched cough blue fluid came out of Trance's mouth. Looking around in astonishment, she lifted herself up with a great deal of effort. After a moment she saw why. With horror she saw herself at least three times thinner then she ought to be.
She was in a room of some kind, that was dark and empty save for four other pods. Crawling over to them, she looked inside each one of them. Within them Dylan, Beka, Harper, and Tyr were sleeping quietly. Harper's clothes were now baggy, and his skin was deathly pale. Beka had lost a lot of muscle, as had Dylan. It was a shock to see her Captain so skinny....so frail. She put a purple hand to the glass, as though seeking some badly-needed guidance, now more then ever. She turned. Even Tyr had lost a great deal of muscle, though his genetic enhancements slowed down the rate of malnutrition. They all had lost weight. A deadly amount.
Trance turned to her older self, who was no different then a minute ago and was not in a pod. "We have to get them out," she said.
Her older twin shook her head. "We can't. It'll kill them."
Trance wept, she couldn't help it. "They're dying now. Can't we help them somehow? Please?"
Her older self stared at her coldly, no sympathy in her blue eyes. "We have to leave," she said simply.
Trance nodded, and abruptly fell to the floor. She tried to stand but she was too weak, had lost too much. "I can't move," she said, looking helplessly at her older self.
Her older self smiled, as though seeing Trance suffer pleased her. She walked forwards and helped her stand. She slung Trance arm around her shoulder and helped her walk.
Trance suddenly felt something very weird. "Woah....wait a minute," she said. "Something's not right." Slowly, with growing horror, she looked behind her. Her eyes widened. "Oh, Gods.....where's my tail!?" Her butt was there, but her tail wasn't. Pulling her older self away, she crawled under the stasis pods, as though thinking it had dropped somewhere.
With an impatient sigh her older self grabbed her. "This is how you are in real life. Your tail was shot off a few months ago. The only reason you don't remember is because the program hadn't reached that far. Now come on! We have to leave."
Trance sniffed. "My beautiful, poor tail! It was so pretty....it helped me so much....oh, I hate this reality already!"
"It gets better," her older self said, a dark smile in her eyes. "Now come on, Trance. I need your help." Once again she helped her walk to the exit.
Trance turned back only once, to stare at her sleeping friends. They were always her strength when she needed them the most. Now they were gone, and Trance was on her own in another hell.
She took a firm breath. She wouldn't let them down. Not now, not ever.
Not when they needed her the most.
**********************
"After all that I did for you," Dylan said softly, his force lance held unwavering at Tyr. "I believed in you, Tyr, when everything inside of me said to throw you out of the nearest airlock!"
"You are a human kludge. Weakness is in your nature." Tyr said, approaching cautiously.. His hand reached for the blaster tucked away in his back. "You really didn't think that I would ever serve your wishes like some lost little puppy, did you? Someone has to rule this ship, and I can think of no one better then Tyr Anasazi!" He took out his blaster fired just as Dylan did.
They both fell in a shower of sparks and smoke.
Blood spilled onto the deck.
**********************
Safely forgotten in machine shop 14 Harper examined a part just as Andromeda instantly appeared. "Hurry, Harper. We don't have much time."
"I know....I know..." Harper muttered, attaching a circuit.
***********************
Trance stumbled in her older twin's arms. She felt so weak, so helpless. The thought terrified her. "I don't think I can make it," she said weakly.
"You have to," her older version said grimly. "Courage, Trance. We're almost there."
"Hey, you!" A voice said in an open passageway to their right. "Stop right there!"
The older version of Trance tilted her golden head slightly. Instantly metal shrieked to life from the walls and closed the passageway.
Satisfied, Trance moved on.
"What are we gonna do?" Younger Trance asked weakly.
"Something terrible," her older twin replied grimly.
***********************
The two Trances shuffled into a main office of sorts. Within it was a woman with blue shimmering hair and striking violet eyes. "I know you..." the younger Trance said weakly.
"You should. She's the one that shot you," older Trance said bitterly. "This is Adara."
"And you must be Trance," Adara replied, not surprised in the least. She stared at the golden version of Trance. "It's good to see you again, old friend!"
"Friend?" young Trance said.
"More like arch-nemesis," her older version replied, angrily brushing aside a lock of red hair. "She will cause us a lot of pain in the future."
"Pain is my business," Adara said, grinning. "Like your future version here I too know how to transverse time. It's simple to me, along with a lot of other things."
"What?" young Trance whispered weakly.
"She's one of our own kind, Trance," her older twin said. "Or at least, she will be. She stole powers which did not belong to her."
"Will steal," Adara corrected softly.
Gently Trance set her younger self down on the couch, and straightened. "What did you hope to accomplish by pulling this stunt, Adara!? The Andromeda crew would have survived this in the future!"
Adara grinned. "A mere beacon call for you, old friend. Since I held your younger self in my clutches, you could not dare afford not to come here."
"So, I'm here," Older Trance replied. "What do you want?"
"Oh, to very much kill you," Adara said frankly. "On my own battleground. And I very much wanted to give the Andromeda some pain after all that they've delt me."
"You killed Dylan in the future," the older Trance said bluntly. "I think you owe us some pain."
"We'll see," Adara said, grinning. She raised her arms. The room was instantly flooded with dark blue light.
The younger Trance doubled over as the terrible cold struck at her heart.
Adara laughed in the darkness. "You are strong, old friend, but look at your younger twin tremble! She has no power, and I only have to destroy one of you to put you out of my misery!"
Fearfully the older Trance glanced at her younger twin. She was right. Her younger self was too weak, too frightened to fight this.
They were going to die.
***********************
Groaning, Dylan picked himself up from his own pool of blood. His side hurt like hell, and blood steeped through his uniform. He could be dying.
But not before Tyr did.
Dylan stumbled to where Tyr lay. He was unconscious but alive. Dylan's strength gave out and he collapsed to the floor beside him. Yes, he was most certainly dying.
**********************
In the machine shop Harper put the final rod into place."That's it," he said softly to himself. Then, aiming it at the wall in front of him, he fired the machine.
A golden glow burst out of the machine. Harper immediately split into two realities of himself. In his eyes he saw himself firing the machine now, and in another being fired on by the Tesseract machine. It was a piercing moment of agony as the machine took out Larva that weren't supposed to be there. Harper screamed as the two realities collided with amazing force.
And everything around him shattered like glass.
***********************
"Now, Tyr," Dylan said, wiping sweat from his brow with a bloodied hand. "Now, this ends."
He fired the force lance.
Just as he felt himself being propelled backwards as a thousand images of himself came to life.
***********************
With a sob Harper tumbled out of the stasis coffin. He wasn't the only one. Dylan, Beka, and Tyr all collapsed to the ground, coughing. Harper never felt crappier in his entire life.
He couldn't stand. He tried to, but it proved to be impossible. He felt so incredibly weak, so tired. He could just lay flat on his stomach as he stared at the others.
They were having similar success. Even Tyr's mighty bulk was pinned to the ground, neglected after eighteen months. He could only glare at Dylan in murderous fury. Dylan and Beka returned the look. Both had never looked more awful.
Only Harper's eyes did not reflect that hate. Not anymore. "We're out," he whispered, his voice hoarse.
With a snarl Dylan focused all his attention on Harper. "Explain," he ordered.
So Harper did.
**********************
The older version of Trance joined her younger twin, who was shaking in pain. "Trance,"her older self said softly. She shook her. "Trance! I need you. Please, you can't die! You have the strength to beat her, I know you do. Find that strength!"
The younger Trance gritted her teeth. "I....really don't like this reality. I want to go home," she whimpered, tears falling down her cheeks. "I don't want to do this."
The older Trance shook her head. "Trance, I need you. You have the power inside, you just haven't had the chance to develop it! Reach for it and draw it out!"
Trance nodded, pain in her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep, trembling breath. "What do I have to do?" "We have to combine our strength to defeat Adara," the older Trance said. She put her gloved hand on Trance's shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt her older twin's hand on her shoulder, lending her strength.
Trance focused. Her will could heal those from death, save worlds, bring back the Commonwealth. She could do this. She had to. With a great deal of effort she searched inside her for her source of power, that dark little place which terrified her. Mentally she brought the anger and terrible rage which created her people and joined it to match her older twin's. Her soft blue eyes turned into a cold black. Both together focused their rage, all their secrets, and their power, and threw it upwards, shattering the dark blue field. It fell on them like rain, staining their clothes blue.
Adara was more then a little startled and backed up against the wall. The two Trance's opened their black eyes and stepped forwards. Neither showed a hint of recognition, only death. The true grim reapers of the galaxy.
Out of all her years of thievery, Adara had never seen power like this. "Please," she begged to the two Trances. "Please, don't do this-"
"Die," the future Trance whispered.
"Horribly," the young Trance added.
Adara instantly burned inside out with black fire and only a skeleton remained.
The darkness left the two of them instantly. Trembling, the young Trance sat back down into the couch, horrified beyond words. Even her older self looked a little shaken. "What have we done?" Her young twin asked her.
"What was needed," her older self replied softly. "We promised ourselves that we would
never use that power, not for anything," the young Trance said. "We've done a terrible deed."
"Yes," her older twin said. "But in doing so, we've saved many lives."
*************************
Finding the Andromeda Ascendant, the real one, was easy. It was orbiting the planet on emergency power. The Maru attached itself into the docking bay.
With a small grunt the two Trances dragged Harper inside. "Rommie?" the younger Trance asked.
The hologramatic version of Andromeda instantly appeared. "Trance?" Her eyes focused on her in astonishment. "You're back..."
Trance shook her head. "Andromeda, what's happened?"
"We were...searching for you for the past eighteen months without success. Without constant maintenance my avatar eventually shut down, and I couldn't do anything. We've been so worried about you! What happened?"
"No time," her older self said. "Dylan, Beka, and Tyr are in the Maru. They require immediate medical attention."
Andromeda instantly nodded. "I'll send whatever robots I have left."
"Rommie?" The younger Trance said just as she was about to leave. "Might be best if we put them in separate rooms. With security."
*********************
A few hours later, a still visibly weak Dylan sat silently in his quarters. He held the picture of his wife in his frail hands.
The door chimed. "Come in," Dylan said, but his eyes still lingered on the force lance on the table.
The doors opened, and Andromeda stepped through. "Rommie!" Dylan said in surprise. "I thought you were off-line."
Andromeda nodded. "Harper managed to repair me. It hasn't been easy getting back on my feet again, but I'm managing." She looked down. "Dylan....I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"For what?" Dylan asked gently.
Andromeda looked up. "For not being able to find you. Believe me, all those months I searched......you have no idea what it was like for me. I had never felt so lost and alone."
Dylan said nothing, but looked down. "Yes, I do," he said softly. With a sigh he put away the picture. "Trance was right. Our memories....are real memories are returning. Slowly. Still, it's best if the crew remains apart for quite some time." He smiled a little. "She's alive, Rommie."
Andromeda raised her eyebrow.
"My wife. Sarah," he said. "She was never killed by Nietzscheans. She found someone....and she was happy. Yet I killed thousands in her name. What does that mean?"
"It means that what you've been told is lies. You are Captain Dylan Hunt, and a good person. Nothing will ever change that, and I certainly have the same faith in you I did eighteen months ago."
"It's so easy to kill, Rommie," Dylan said. "How can I be sure that I won't do it again?"
Andromeda smiled. "I'll watch over you," she said gently. She shook her head. "I can't even begin to imagine what you all went through. It must have been awful."
"It was," Dylan said. "Most of all because we believed it."
**********************
Alone, sitting cross-legged in engineering, Harper looked around the eightieth time in wonderment. It had all seemed so real....right around the corner was where Rommie was shot. Below that was where he himself had almost died. Why he was still alive still bothered him. Harper chewed his lip, mulling it over. Finally, he decided that he was kept alive simply because death wasn't in the program. Whoever kept them there probably wanted to keep him alive so that he could suffer some more.
A shadow fell across him. "Hey, Seamus," Beka said casually, looking down at him. "I thought Trance told you to stay in medical. So why do I see the ship's avatar walking around?"
'Why do you care?' Went through Harper's mind. He almost said it. Instead he cleared his throat. "The ship's a mess, Beka, almost how it was in our reality. I can't leave it like this."
Beka nodded, understanding. "Well, whenever you've got free time.....my scanners could use some fine-tunning." She abruptly turned to go.
"What if I won't, exactly?" Harper asked softly. "What if I don't want to? Will you watch Tyr beat me into a bleeding pulp, or would you rather kill me yourself?" He shook his head, anger in his blue eyes. "Bitch."
Beka stopped and smiled slightly. "I deserve that," she admitted. "But what you have to realize, Harper, is that what happened never did. Whoever kept us down there made our lives a hundred times more crappier then they should be."
"And I suppose that makes everything worlds better," Harper said flatly.
Beka paused, and kneeled down next to him. "I care about you, Harper," she said, confusion in her blue eyes. "There are lots of confusing things jumbled together in my mind, but that much I'm sure of. I'm not going to hurt you, ever again. You have my word." She stared anxiously in his pale face, looking for some sign of lost friendship.
She saw no friendship in his eyes, merely acceptance of what she said. Then his eyes hardened. "What do you want, a hug and some Flash? Sorry, I'm fresh out."
Hurt, Beka stormed away. In her anger she hadn't noticed a beer can on the shelf above them.
It was empty.
***********************
Alone, on the bridge, Tyr Anasazi watched the planet rotate above them. It would be so easy to destroy it with one button on his station. Tyr smiled slightly. It would certainly be payback for what those monstrosities had done to him. But the weapons weren't working, and the little drunk was under specific orders not to fix them by Andromeda.
Tyr smile's grew. She would try to stop him, but fail. No, the ex-tailed brat may have removed him from a fake reality, but nothing had changed. He would still command this ship. He would still rule this galaxy. Most of all, he would kill Captain Hunt.
Just see if he didn't.
***********************
The younger Trance entered the observation deck, where her older twin was looking at the stars. "You asked for me?"
Her older twin nodded, sadly. "I'll be leaving soon."
"What a shame," the younger Trance said without much feeling, then hesitated. "I guess all this anger has gotten to me to. I'm sorry. We would have never gotten out of this without your help."
Her older self said nothing, her face grim.
"What?" her younger twin asked.
Her older twin sighed and turned around. "I think it's past time we dropped the charade, don't you?"
"What do you mean?" Her younger self asked.
"We can't ignore our responsabilties. Or who we are," her older self said. "It's not like us to hide in the past."
"I don't understand," her younger self said, looking at her older twin in puzzlement.
Her older self stared at her expectantly.
When suddenly the truth hit Trance. Hard. Why everything didn't quite add up, why the events seemed out of place. And most of all, what she herself knew and had denied to herself forever. She looked down. "No," she whispered to herself. "Please. I don't want to go back." But it was already happening. As she looked down at herself Trance's purple skin dissolved into gold. Her purple outfit disappeared and was replaced by familiar leather and two daggers she had used often, but hadn't remembered. Red locks replaced her blond hair.
In contrast, her future version's golden skin turned into purple, but she still wore leather. "Now we're who we're supposed to be now."
Trance said nothing, looking down at her new golden skin. She felt the terrible knowledge of the future come back with her. And with the knowledge, left hope.
"Three months ago, you came and took my life away by exchanging places in the past and future." Purple-skinned Trance said, cold hardness in her blue eyes. "I changed myself because the program hadn't reached that point yet. But now this is real life. This is who we are."
Trance still said nothing, shaking. "You came, and took everything away from me," Trance continued softly. "My home, my time, and most of all the people I loved." She shook her head. "For that, I can never forgive you. And I never will. But now, at least, we are even."
Saying nothing further, she walked out of the observation room without looking back.
************************
For the first time ever, the crew was assembled to see Trance depart on the bridge. Beka and Dylan, there memories fully returned, stared at their old crewmate with open astonishment. Harper, hanging back in the corner, only looked at the golden Trance with a mixture of distrust and open betrayal. Tyr and Andromeda stood next to him, saying nothing. Beka clasped Trance's purple hands. "Ever since you left I prayed for the day I could see you again. Now you're here....do you have to leave so soon?" She asked pleadingly. "I'm afraid so, Beka," the purple-skinned Trance said, looking around. "But believe me, I have never stopped missing you all terribly." She glanced at the golden-skinned Trance and sighed. "But this is not my time anymore. I am needed where I am. Besides, it looks like you all need to work out a few things between you."
"Yet you came to help us," Dylan remarked.
Trance smiled. "You're my crew," she said softly. She bowed her head, tears in her eyes. "But...every day now I wake to a brighter future. Because of you. Never forget that, and never give up hope for anything."She looked at each of them in turn. "Least of all in each other." She touched her purple neck. "Harper, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, boss," Another Harper replied. From the future.
"Activate the Tesseract machine," Trance ordered softly. She smiled at all of them. "I love you."
And she disappeared in another flash of green light.
Dylan sighed and looked around. Harper and Tyr were already gone. He put a hand on the Trance's golden shoulder. "Are you all right?"
Trance started. "Fine," she said quickly. "Just fine." She glanced at the spot where her other self had disappered. "Everything's....as it should be," she said softly.
"Thank Goodness for that," Beka muttered, but her eyes were starring unhappily at the empty space were Harper had been.
"Yes," Trance said softly, her eyes starring at nothing. "What a relief."
THE END
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