Captain Dylan Hunt stood on the bridge of the Andromeda Ascendant, his muscled hands on his hips as he surveyed the planetoid on the screen. It was quite beautiful, a little light blue planet with golden rings that glistened in the sun. But Captain Hunt never saw beauty. To him, the rings were a mocking beacon of the twelve months wasted in finding this place, the back- stabbing and lies. But now they had it. The Wayist home world, a people who believed in ever-lasting peace. Dylan's lip curled in a sneer. Killing them would be a favor for the whole galaxy.

Turning, he studied his crew. Beka Valentine stood on the second station, smiling lustfully at the planet. She was just as eager to be rid of the nuisance as well. Dylan liked seeing that look in her blue eyes. It made him forget, at least temporarily, that she was easily expendable. He could find better in bed.

On the third station Seamus Harper and Tyr Anasazi worked quietly. Both Harper and Beka wore opal high guard uniforms, though for slightly different reasons-Beka wore her uniform out of pride and Harper out of fear. The kid amused Dylan, and had finally learned how to shut his mouth. The bruises under his right eye were already gone, and the slashes on his arms had now faded into white scars. Harper's blue eyes were bloodshot and blurred, and he constantly looked around as though expecting to be hurt at anytime. Dylan liked that attitude, and tried to emphasize it on other species again and again.

Only one person on the bridge didn't wear a uniform, Dylan noted with some disdain as his eyes rested lightly on Tyr Anasazi. He wore his usual chain mail shirt, occasionally playing with it to remind everyone of his defiance. One day Dylan would have to permanently end his employment, but unfortunately, not anytime soon. Tyr was the only reason that all Neitzschean Prides had joined his Commonwealth, and Dylan needed the traitorous bastards, much as he hated to admit it. Tyr returned his knowing glance. It was a battle both looked forward to.

His ship. His crew. His Commonwealth.

Absolute power.

"There's no ships approaching from the outer surface, no defense array, no nothing," Beka remarked, scowling in disappointment.

"Supposedly there's a Magog living down there," Harper said nervously. "He leads them."

"A Magog? A blood-sucking monster all for peace, love, and sentiments like that?" Beka snapped. "Interesting."

"Very interesting, but time is money here, people." Dylan interrupted coldly. "Tyr, status of nova bombs?"

"All nova bombs accounted for, *sir*," Tyr answered with a slight sneer.

Beka's blue eyes widened and she held her breath. Without stopping to work Harper casually stepped away from Tyr, to prevent his uniform from being stained by soon-to-be-Tyr's brain splatter.

Tyr folded his massive arms. "Do not address me as though I were one of your Commonwealth lackeys, Captain Hunt. The next time you speak to or of me it will be with respect."

There was a long pause as everyone held their breaths. Even Tyr, though he would never dare admit it. Dylan, however, did not make a move for his force lance. Instead he smiled ever so slightly as he stared at the planet. "My apologies, Tyr," he said softly. "I promise to be more considerate in the future."

Everyone relaxed. "Should I open a comm channel?" Andromeda asked in open admiration. She, like the rest of the crew, had not seen the brief spark of fury in Dylan's blue eyes.

Dylan thought for a moment, then shrugged. "By all means. Let's hear them pray for their so-called divine."

Andromeda complied. The face of a Magog appeared on the screen, his face calm. "We have no quarrel with you, Andromeda. Please leave us in peace,"he asked.

"'Please leave us in peace,'" Dylan mocked, sneering. "Fine, we'll just go meekly back to our employers and tell them we left you alone because you asked us so nicely." He snorted. "Well, we do have a quarrel or two with you, Magog. You encourage high guard officers to defect to your cause. You encourage peace and happiness for everyone, and that's simply not what the Commonwealth stands for. You're filth. A disease. Pray for my mercy."

"My fate belongs to the Divine, not to you," the Magog said. "If anything, I pray for your souls. The peace you shun is already there, in your hearts! Find an end to your inner turmoil-"

Dylan jerked his thumb, and Rommie cut off the channel.

"Nova bombs on stand-by, Dylan," Beka said quietly.

Dylan said nothing for a moment, thinking. "No," he said abruptly. "A quick death is far too good for them. Harper, are the pain inhibitors working on the force lances?"

"You bet, boss!" Harper answered, a shade too quickly. Dylan frowned. Harper cleared his throat and looked away. Fear shadowed his eyes.

Dylan smiled again. "Then by all means, all of you go down and show them how far their prayers will protect them." Dylan gripped Beka's arm, his eyes blazing with inner fire. "And show them that I am the only God in this galaxy!"

Beka nodded silently. Just as she was about to leave, the bridge doors parted, and Trance Gemini ran through. She wore her dark purple velvet outfit, and her short blond hair was unkept and messy. She looked frantically around the bridge, her purple tail twitching nervously on the floor. Her blue eyes were wide with terror. It was a Trance they had never seen before.

"You up for some hunting, Trance?" Beka asked, giving her a strained smile. Trance usually knew better then to come up to the bridge. Dylan had only hit her once in his life, but sometimes once was never enough. Trance barely gave her a passing glance, something of which made Beka very angry. Oh, yes. Another lesson in discipline was certainly due.

"This is wrong," Trance declared.

"What!?" Tyr demanded, impatient to kill some Wayists. He twirled his daggers.

"This," she whispered, looking around. "All this." She trembled and looked as though she was about to burst into tears.

"How?" Harper asked, honestly puzzled.

"I don't know!" She exploded, surprising all of them. "I don't know what this is!! I only know what this isn't!"

"Which is what, exactly?" Rommie asked coldly. She had never really liked Trance, or the rest of the crew in fact. Only Dylan mattered to her.

"This isn't right," Trance persisted.

Beka put her hands on Trance's shaking shoulders. Dylan was getting impatient, she knew, and frankly so was she. Why did Trance have to be so weird? "It's okay, Trance," Beka said, her nails digging painfully into Trance's purple skin. "It's okay. You're just tired-"

"No!" Trance snapped, pulling away. "I don't know you! I don't know any of you! I used to know, but..." The rest of her words trailed away helplessly.

For a long moment no one said anything.

"Captain Valentine, I thought I made it clear to you that your crew would stay only if they caused no problems," Dylan said coldly. "Is there a problem?"

"No, no problems!" Harper said, greatly daring. He laughed nervously and patted Trance. "Come on, Trance. Let's not scare our good Captain. Especially when our lives depends on it," he emphasized. "We'll deal with the Wayists and then we'll have a long talk in hydroponics-"

"Waists?" she muttered. Her eyes widened. "I remember who they are! What are you-" She looked slowly at their faces. Tyr was smiling. Harper looked away. "No," she whispered. "No! Not Rev Bem! You can't hurt him! You can't, he's our friend!" She lunged at Dylan.

"Trance!" Beka warned sharply. Tyr's grin grew even wider. Harper looked down at his station and stifled a sob. He knew without a doubt that he would never see his best and only friend alive for much longer.

Dylan's face was impassive as he expertly grabbed her wrists. "Mr. Anasazi, escort this thing to the prison deck. Familiarize her with some of the devices there."

Beka closed her eyes, but only briefly. Gulping, Harper glanced down at his scarred arms and tried not to think about the fact that he himself had updated those very devices recently.

"With pleasure," Tyr growled. With one hand he grabbed her purple tail and started to drag her along backwards out of the bridge.

"OW! My tail! You...you big bully! Beka, Harper, do something! This...OW! This isn't right! Do you hear me? This isn't right-" Her voice trailed off down the corridor.

Dylan snorted and rolled his eyes. Looking down, Harper and Beka quietly resumed their work. --------------------

*For the longest time Dylan didn't say anything, watching the moving stars. "What am I supposed to do with you?" Trance hesitated. Trance saw betrayal in his eyes, but most of all grief for a friend perhaps gone forever. "I don't know. Keep me around, I hope." Dylan stared at her for a long minute. "I'm trying to find a reason to persuade me to do that, but I'm having trouble."

"Because you don't trust me," Trance said gently.

"Trust has to be earned," Dylan retorted sharply.

"So give me a chance," Trance answered. 'Please, you have to let me stay,' they seemed to say. 'You don't know what's to come. You don't know- '

-------------

"-the future," Trance muttered sleepily. "Oh please, Dylan, I care about you all so much please let me stay!!" Gasping, she awoke curled up in a corner of her cell. She had blacked out, but not from the physical pain. Tyr had been sloppy-he had been eager to leave for the Wayist home world. He had delivered a few quick punches to her side and cuts to see if she really bled red, and had scrambled off to the Maru. How long ago, she wasn't sure. Her wounds would mend, in time. Her tail was what suffered the most when Tyr dragged it down the corridors. She rubbed her swollen behind and tried to think.

What bothered her worlds more were the dreams and flashes. Trance sat up in her empty cell, trying to hold the shattered fragments of her latest dreams together. They had started in hydroponics, that much she knew. That was what prompted her to run to the bridge despite the extreme risks. But what were they, exactly? A happy crew, for one. Once, she had seen Harper and Beka actually laughing together. They barely spoke to one another now. And Dylan! Dylan was happy too. As far as she knew Dylan had never smiled before in his life. Trance shook her head in confusion. They were too real to be true. Too vivid. They were memories, shattered pieces of a life she never had...had she? It was all so strange....so terrifying. Ordinarily, she had some good insights into the future or at least some general clue as to what was going to happen. Now things were distorted, jumbled. This had never happened to her before in her life. Never had she felt so....helpless.

The latest dream frightened her. She had been starring at herself....and yet, not herself! She had golden skin and long red hair, and she wore leather of all things! Leather made her purple skin itch. And, oh Divine, she didn't have a tail, did she? Trance's eyes widened in terror and she clutched her tail as though she was about to lose it at any moment.

But what bothered Trance most was the eyes. No longer did they contain the youthful optimism or playful innocence. In its place was knowledge, and sorrow. There was no happiness in them at all, no joy. That meant that the impending future could not be good.

Under no circumstances did Trance want to be that woman.

Footsteps approached, breaking her out of her daze. Gasping, she stood, feeling the old fear come back to her. She clutched the torn threads of her velvet outfit. "Leave me alone," she whispered as a shadow drew closer. Who was it? Dylan? Tyr? "Please, I'm sorry....just don't hurt me again." she meant to sound brave but somewhere along the way those words ended in a whimper.

Harper's puzzled face peered out from the corner. "Hurt you? My purple sparky babe? Are you really going nuts?" Shaking his head, he opened a sparky cola and poured the contents over an open circuit port. With a sizzle the containment shield dissolved. "Now why would I want to do that to my best friend?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

Trance hugged him. "Harper, am I glad to see you!!!"

"Don't thank me yet. I...ah, didn't really know what to get, so I brought a bit of everything," Harper said, taking out a small folded cloth. He opened it, revealing assorted medical gear.

Trance looked through them, and found one that could repair cuts. She applied it to her wrist. Smiling, she gave Harper an affectionate peck on the cheek.

Harper's smile quickly disappeared. He clear his throat. "Look, Trance, Dylan's mad now, but he won't be for long. You're the only one that keeps us alive. You just have to avoid him for the next few days...it'll all be good again..."

There was something in his voice that made Trance very concerned. She noticed that his clothes were grubby and stained with dirt and blood. There was a yellowish bruise on his cheek, above his stubby chin. "Harper, what happened?" She asked, touching his shoulder.

Harper flinched and moved away. "Nothing," he muttered. But Trance could tell it was more then that. "Harper, what is-" she stopped and sniffed the air. She could almost taste the alcohol. "Seamus Harper, have you been drinking!?" she shouted, astonished.

Harper shrugged, looked down and sighed. "Look, it just keeps the nightmares away, okay? I promised you that I would stop, and I will. It's just....it won't end, Trance. He won't stop."

"Dylan?" Trance asked, but Harper was already talking.

"We killed them, Trance! We killed every single one of them," he shivered. "The Magog....he suffered the most, I think. He was starring right at me as Tyr and Beka slowly gutted him, right until the life drained out of his eyes." He took a deep trembling breath. "So what was all that deal on the bridge?" he asked quickly.

Trance stood. "I don't know," she admitted, leaning against the wall. "It's just...lately everything's so weird and well....icky. I've been having these visions...of us doing things, and being places where we've never been before."

Harper stared at her, concerned. "So...you don't remember anything? How we hooked up with the Andromeda after we got scammed? How we fought the Neizschens, the Magog World ship just lately?"

"No," Trance said, frowning. "Wait, yes...and no. I remember doing those things, Harper, I just don't think we did it the way you're thinking!"

"What other way would there be?" Harper asked, getting rapidly puzzled.

"Things....things are the same...and yet different. Basic people are the same, basic personalties are the same, and basic events are the same....but they're just...just...wrong!"

"Trance, I really want to help you, really I do! But you're not making any sense at all. How exactly are we wrong?" Harper asked gently.

"I don't know!" Trance almost screamed. She leaned her head back. "It seems that whatever's affecting you is affecting me as well. But...I know I'm not crazy, Harper! I know that I'm on to something." She closed her purple eyes and tried to think. "Sometimes I get these flashes...you know that, right?"

Harper nodded. "Of the future."

"Right, but when I get those flashes....I'm looking at us, and yet not us! Only Dylan had a high guard uniform! And...me especially. I'm wrong! I have long red hair...and eyes filled with sorrow." She shook her head and sighed. "I carried daggers, Harper! I never once used a dagger in my life!"

"What else?" Harper asked.

Trance stared at him for a moment thoughtfully. "You were happy. We all were. And none of us butchered innocent lives. In fact I'm pretty sure we defended them against people like us."

Harper burst out laughing. And he didn't stop.

"Harper?" Trance asked, concerned.

"Dylan Hunt, the black tyrant, giving a damn about the universe!?" He managed to sputter. He kept on laughing until his face was turning a dangerous shade of purple.

"Harper, stop!" Trance shouted, slapping him on the back. She punched him in the back. "Dammit, breathe Harper!"

Finally, Harper did stop and took a long deep breath. He coughed. "Sorry," he said. "I just didn't know I could do that anymore." He giggled, a high-pitch nervous giggle of one who was slowly going insane. "They should give little warnings-laughter can be hazardous to y-your h-h- heath..." The last words were spoken in a sob.

Trance said nothing for a moment. "We're a real mess, aren't we?" she asked him gently. The whole galaxy was a mess, and they were supposed to fix it. At least, that's the impression that Trance was getting from her visions. She didn't tell Harper that for fear that she might set him off again.

Harper laughed. "Ever since Earth I thought my life couldn't get any worse." He leaned his head back. "Now I know. The whole universe is suffering because of me."

"That's not true," Trance protested.

"Isn't it?" Harper retorted. "I made the nova bombs, Trance! The pain inhibitors, the shields, the avatar of Andromeda, everything!" He cursed bitterly. "Sometimes I wished you hadn't gotten those Magog larva out of me."

Trance frowned. Something didn't feel right. "Wait."

"What?" Harper demanded.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Well, something, I just can't put my finger on it yet."

Harper sighed. "If I had any courage I would destroy this ship. Blow it from the inside out. Or maybe a virus. A terrible, lingering virus. But-"

"-you love Andromeda," Trance finished.

"And I'm a coward," he sighed again. "A beaten, run-down, still-incredibly-good- looking-somehow devil's little coward." Tears ran silently down his face.

Softly, Trance caressed his face. She knew for a fact that there was a time, or a place when Harper had a fighting spirit, stronger then Dylan's or even Tyr's. But that spirit was almost gone, diminished in a haze of liquor and, most of all, pain. Soon there won't be nothing left to fight for, nothing left to believe in. Another wrong casualty in a billion.

Trance was determined to change that. That, if nothing else. "No," she said out loud. "This is not going to happen."

Harper blinked. "Wha-?"

"Harper, if there's one thing I'm sure of, things are wrong. How they're wrong, and why they're wrong, I don't know. But I know that anything has to be better then this."

Harper was already shaking his head.

"It has to," Trance repeated firmly. "And we are going to find out what went wrong. Why this is happening."

"We?" Harper asked skeptically. He shook his head. "Oh, no! What part of 'devil's little monkey coward' did you not understand?"

"Harper-" Trance began.

"I'm terrified of them, Trance!" Harper exploded. "Tyr and Beka and Rommie, but most of all Dylan! He'll probably kill me if he found out I was doing this!" He stood and angrily looked away.

Trance waited a moment. "Harper," she said patiently. "Why are you doing this now?"

Harper blinked, and sighed heavily. "Because you're my purple sparky babe."

"And?" Trance prompted.

"And my friend," Harper finished, resigned. He shook his blond head. "But Trance, even if I can help you, how!? Where do we find these things out? Where do we start? We don't even know what to look for!"

For the longest time Trance said nothing. Then her eyes lifted. "There might be a way," she suddenly said.

------------

Alone in his quarters Dylan Hunt sat drinking very heavily. It was impossible for him to get drunk like that weakling Harper. His genetic coding forbid himself to be intoxicated. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't try. Out on the bridge he was tough, and mean. No one knew him. No one understood his pain, not even Beka Valentine. Softly he caressed the picture on the table in front of him. No one understood what he had suffered.... His wife-beautiful, caring Sarah. She had stood faithfully by his side, and how did he repay her? By leaving her three hundred years in the future. She had appeared to him, only once more through a black hole. Dylan smiled slightly. She was there to rescue him from this hell. But only one slight problem-she was still in the past. Dylan had been desperate enough to do anything. He had even asked Harper for help. But Harper could not find a successful way to bring her back. And so they had left her. Just like that. Dylan made sure that Harper repeatedly knew the full penalty for his stupidity. And now, two days ago, he received another transmission as they approached another black hole. His wife, Sarah, was killed in a battle not long after he had seen her. Killed by Neitzscheans. Kodiak Pride, if you wanted to be exact. Tyr's little gang. The door suddenly chimed. Dylan put the photo face down on the table and cleared his throat. "Come in."

The doors opened, and Tyr, people of all people, stepped through. "The boy has released his little girlfriend." When he received no reply Tyr continued. "I thought that you might like to be informed."

Dylan said nothing, just stared at Tyr.

"Will you not punish them?" Tyr asked him, puzzled.

Dylan looked down at his glass and drunk from it slowly. It was blood wine. "Do what you will," he finally said softly.

Seeing no other response was coming, Tyr left. Dylan watched him go, hate and unimaginable fury in his blue eyes. He was going to kill him.

bloodshot blue eyes would stray to the half-empty beer on the shelf. Gods, he wanted a beer. He so wanted a beer. He really, really, needed a freaking beer-

"Are you done yet?" Trance asked him, untangling assorted wires. She sniffed in disgust. The entire ship was a mess. Obviously no one had gotten around to maintenance lately. Rommie's paint was peeling, and junk littered the entire deck. She had seen no robots around. None at all.

Harper cleared his throat and gave her a patient look. "I'm working on it. It's been a few months since I remember doing this, okay?"

Trance put her purple hands up harmlessly. "Okay! Sorry!"

"Thank you," Harper said, but his eyes never strayed from the beer for long. After a few minutes, he stood. "All right," he said. "I think I got this sorted out. Now, are you sure you want to do this? You've never been in cyberspace before-"

"I can do this," Trance assured him.

Harper plugged in a wire to his dataport. "All right, then," he said. "Let's go." He closed his eyes....

------

Two blue balls of bright light flew down to the information universe, hit the floor, and abruptly re-materialized into Harper and Trance. "Whheeeee!" Harper gasped happily. "I've forgotten how much fun that was!"

"Ugh," Trance said, holding her stomach. "Is it possible to be sick in the information universe?"

As it turns out, it was.

"I hope that doesn't corrupt anything," Harper remarked, wrinkling his nose.

Trance wiped her mouth and looked around. "Is this....is this Andromeda?" She whispered.

"No," Harper said, standing. "I don't dare go into her nowadays. This is my own little program, similar to Andromeda, but much easier to access." He looked down. "I haven't been here in months." He closed his eyes. "Accessing Archive...."

A thousand imagines suddenly flashed before them. They didn't stop. "Um...Harper, can you slow it down a bit? I'm afraid I might get sick again," Trance gulped.

"You just were!" Harper said.

Trance stared at him through sick eyes, her skin a paler shade of purple. "Don't think I can't again. On you."

Harper shook his head. "Sorry, I've just gotten used to it all..." He slowed down the images. "All right, these are all our logs. Each one of us. I still really think it's a waste of time, though-there are tons of kilowads of information here. It'll take a while to sort through it all."

Trance shrugged. "Let's start from now and go back."

Harper complied. The face of Tyr Anasazi appeared. "Today's raid was a complete success, particularly against the Waist Magog. First, I slit his stomach and poured his intestinal track in a-"

The next words were too much for Trance. Turning her head, she was sick again.

"I never knew Tyr could be so vivid," Harper remarked dryly. He saw her face and sighed. "Going back."

The next two hours were spent reviewing everyone's logs, including their own. Wisely, they decided to skip over Tyr who seemed determine to discuss his kills in great detail.

"Wait. Stop." Trance ordered. "What's that log?" She pointed.

Harper activated it.

Dylan's face appeared. "-raid on the planet was a complete disaster. The Tolbarians people were entirely a peaceful people despite their vast technology and were more then able to stop our assault. R

Reluctantly, we have decided to press on-"

"I don't remember that," Harper said, frowning.

Trance's eyes widened as she saw-

-------

*-Do I really have to go?" Harper complained for the sixth time as he brushed dust off his light green jacket.

"Yes," Beka said impatiently. "The delegates wanted to see all of us-all, which includes you Seamus. And that means, of course, that you'll be on your best behavior. Dylan really wants them to sign the charter."

"He's just eager because he's nearing the big fifty mark," Harper said. He glanced at Trance. "What about it, Trance? You've lived in the future. Know anything we should know?"

Trance brushed a lock of red hair away from her face. Truth be told, she had never been her before her life and had just heard about it today. Still, she leaned forward and whispered in Harper's ear, "Only that there are some very lonely woman down there."

Harper's eyes lit up. "Pretty woman?"

"Beautiful," Trance assured him.

"Now we're talking!!!!" Harper said, standing. "What are we waiting for? Let's go now!"

Beka rolled her eyes. "He really needs a girlfriend."

From across the room Dylan Hunt was talking to the avatar Andromeda. "I'm sorry you can't come, Rommie, but they don't consider robots as people. Besides, we might need some help in case things go wrong."

"They won't, I'm sure," Trance remarked.

She never knew how wrong she was. *

purple forehead glistening with sweat.

Harper decided that it might be a prudent time to leave the information universe. Moments later Harper handed her a wet cloth. "Are you sure you all right?" He asked her.

"Yes," Trance said. "It's just....that's never happened to me before! They just seem to be getting worse and worse." She took a deep breath. "We need to find that planet. Try to contact it."

"The only way would be on the bridge," Harper remarked. He paused. "Wait. There's an information database in Beka's quarters, I think. I think it also has a com link-"

Trance nodded. She really don't want to go back to the bridge or cyberspace again. "Let's go," she said.

were rich silk dresses all over the place and a makeup shelf so vast it seemed to take up half the room. Trance coughed as the overwhelming smell of perfume went down her nose. She felt her lungs burn.

"I know," Harper said, pulling up a chair in front of a table. "To think that I actually respected her..." He activated the database. "All right, pulling up information on this planet..." he paused.

"What?" She asked him.

"It's destroyed," Harper said. "Would you believe it? The bloody world's destroyed! Internal implosion from some sort of nuclear disaster!" He kicked the table angrily. "That just happened yesterday! That's just not freaking fair!"

"No, it isn't," Trance said, frowning. Now what were they going to do? "We might be able to go to the wreckage-

" "Hang on," he said quickly. "Someone just transferred thrones into Beka's personal account. Give me a moment-"

"Harper, we don't have time to look through Beka's personal stuff!" Trance snapped, still biting back her anger and disappointment.

"No..." His eyes widened and he whistled. "Take a look at this number! Five hundred billion thrones!? Where could she possible earn so much money-" He began to backtrack further along the records. He suddenly stopped and his face paled.

"Harper?" Trance asked, touching his shoulder. "Harper, what is it?"

"She's-" Harper swallowed. "She's selling nova bombs! My nova bombs! Another account says that she's spending most of her money on flash! Hang on, maybe I can figure out who's she selling them to-"

"Harper, stop!" Trance ordered nervously. She had a pretty good idea who she was selling them to, and didn't want Harper to know.

He stopped typing. "The Neitzscheans," he said softly. Trance looked away. "She's selling them to the Neitzscheans so they can use them against Earth." Harper said slowly. "Of course you know what this means."

"What?" Trance asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Harper looked up at her. Trance fell back a step. She had never seen such hatred, such terrible hatred in his eyes. "I'm going to kill her," he said, and smiled.

The doors suddenly opened, and Tyr Anasazi emerged, holding a very heavy gun. "Harper, Trance," he said, grinning. He armed his gun and pointed it at both of them. "My two favorite people." Trance's blue eyes widened as Tyr fired. Harper fell back from his chair as the first blast struck him.

------------------

There were pivotal moments in one's life when one had no choice but to act. When all reason, logic, and sense of hope was removed, only a primal force remained that demanded a quick and immediate solution to a very bad situation. Usually, this force overrode any thought of consequences for those actions. Trance was having one of those moments now. Through her blue eyes everything happened in incredible slow motion. Tyr spoke, armed his gun, and fired at them. The first blast struck Harper's shoulder blade and he fell, the chair sliding out from below him. With one hand he grabbed the table, spilling its contents to the ground. He screamed in agony as the smell of burned flesh and blood entered Trance's nostrils.

Trance looked to Tyr, who was grinning and slowly rearming the weapon. Turning, she grabbed Harper's good arm, and ran with incredible strength to the adjacent wall. She waved her hand, once, and the entire wall seemed to open before them. Abruptly they dived straight through it as the second blast struck above them and hit the ceiling. The wall turned back into it's regular shape before Tyr could even blink.

Tyr was more then a tad surprised.

-----------------

Harper and Trance both collapsed to the ground of the open corridor with a grunt. Trance rolled to her feet and bent over to Harper's still form. "Harper? Harper!?"

Harper moaned.

Fearfully Trance peeled away his uniform and examined his shoulder. It wasn't bad, but left untreated it could fester into something serious. They needed to get to medical, and Trance knew for a fact that Tyr wouldn't stay stunned for long, nor it would take him long to figure out where they were. With a grunt Trance lifted Harper, noticing for the first time how skinny he was. But Trance barely had strength of her own, and her power was nearly spent. Shaking her head fearfully, she dragged him down the passageway.

----------------

Tyr touched the wall that Harper and Trance had disappeared through. For the first time he realized that the girl truly had power. A new respect came for an unknown opponent, and caution. But the girl also had the same frailties that humans had. She wouldn't abandon the boy, and he would almost certainly slow down her escape to a crawl. Tyr grinned. What seemed as a simple murder now was a challenging hunt. He rarely had those nowadays. No, he will catch up with them.

And then they will see who is the stronger.

-----------------

Trance half-carried, half-dragged Harper down through the dark levels of Andromeda. The lower levels were even worse shape then the rest of the ship. Clearly, no one ever came down here often. Assorted broken parts littered the floor, and sparking cables were the only source of light. She made it halfway to med-deck when her strength finally gave out and both collapsed to the ground.

Trance looked down at herself. Her purple velvet outfit was torn in assorted places, and Harper's blood soaked her skin and blond hair. She was a mess. And she knew that Tyr was only minutes away. Applying pressure to Harper's shoulder, Trance looked around. "Rommie?" She called out. "Rommie!?"

The hologramatic version of Andromeda appeared and said nothing, waiting.

Trance was panting for breath. "Harper needs help, and Tyr's trying to kill us! Can you send down one of your robots to help him?"

Andromeda mulled it over, chewing her lip. "No," she finally said. "I think I would rather watch you two die." And disappeared. "Internal defenses active on level 18 in one minute," she heard broadcasted over the levels. Trance heard Harper stir. He rolled his head and opened his eyes briefly.

"Harper?" Trance whispered. Just as soon as he had woken up, he seemed content to fall asleep again. "Harper!" Trance snapped, shaking him. "Harper are you all right?"

"Am I all right?" Harper muttered sleepily. "Gee let me think about that for a moment....no! Of course I'm not freaking all right!" He coughed and rolled onto his side.

Trance looked up in concern. She could almost hear Tyr's heavy boots coming down the corridor. "Harper, look, I can't carry you anymore-"

"Then go," Harper snapped, turning away. "Leave me alone."

She forced him to look at her. "Damn it, Harper, if you want to live you have to stand on your own two feet!"

"Live?" Harper said, and laughed. "My shoulder is shot to hell, a gazillion deaths on my hands, a crew that beats me regularly, what exactly is there to live for?"

"Internal defenses active in thirty seconds." Rommie said.

Trance bit her lip. She had to do something very mean, and she hated herself for doing so. "So is that what your parents died for by the Neitzscheans? So that you could die a sobbing coward in your own blood?"

It worked, but only a little. Trance could see a spark of life in Harper's eyes, but was just as soon about to burn out. "I'm done in, Trance. I've lived a horrible life. Death has got to be better." He brightened. "Maybe I'll see my folks-"

Trance needed to discourage that train of thought. Fast. "You're wrong, Harper. There's one reason you have to live."

Harper glanced at her.

Trance's harsh mask broke, and she looked as though she was about to burst into tears. "I'm....I'm s-so scared, Harper. Please, you have to live. If you leave me..." she looked down. "I don't know if I can go on. I really don't."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Internal defenses active in fifteen seconds," Rommie said.

"All right," Harper said. "Help me stand."

Trance lifted him up. "We gotta get to medical-"

"No, we need to get to machine shop 14," Harper said, shaking his head.

"Machine shop 14? What's there?" Trance asked him.

"A plan."

"Internal defenses active."

-----------------

With Trance's help Harper stumbled into machine shop 14. He sat heavily down on a chair. "First I need to deactivate the damn internal defenses. That last one was too close."

Nodding, Trance looked around the machine shop. She had been here, recently. She lifted a white dusty cloth over a familiar looked machine. She knew it, somewhere. "Harper, what's this?"

Harper barely gave it a passing glance. "The Tesseract device. Ah, here we go! Internal defenses gone, at least for now." He focused in closer. "Now all we have to do is get rid of one Neitzschean brute...."

------------

Tyr bent down and fingered the small splashes of blood on the ground. They were leaving a fine blood trail to machine shop 14. He was only minutes away now. Once he was there he would finish the boy and have a few fine words with one certain little purple thing-

Andromeda instantly appeared. "Tyr, Dylan needs you in command right away."

Tyr looked up, bloodlust in his brown eyes. "Now? Tell him I'll be right there." He moved towards the machine shop 14.

"That isn't the way to the bridge," Andromeda said pointedly.

Tyr gave an irritated sigh. "I have business of my own to complete."

"Dylan gave you a direct order. If the crew on this ship knows what is best for themselves, they'll follow those orders promptly." She tilted her head. "Otherwise, the next person I'll arm my internal defenses at will be you."

Tyr said nothing for a moment. Finally, with a grin he lowered his weapon. His prey could wait for a few minutes, he supposed. It's not as if they could leave anyway. The Maru was damaged beyond repair, and there were no new escape pods ever since the boy had progressed into a stupor every hour of every day. "Very well. I'll see what our good Captain Hunt wants, since we're all concerned with our best interests." Turning, he left. Whatever Dylan Hunt needed, it had better be damned important.

Otherwise, heads might roll.

-----------

Trance helped Harper onto the bed in the medical bay. "Nice work," she complimented.

Harper gave a weak smile. "A fake transmission to Rommie's com signal....it worked even better then I had hoped. I haven't....haven't stood up against any of them in months. It feels good."

"Better then alcohol?" She asked him.

Harper's eyes strayed over to the assorted collection of beer cans. He looked away. "I think it is." He said, and suddenly winced.

Trance took a look at his shoulder again. It was starting to get infected already. Turning, she looked through her assorted medical gear. She hadn't gotten any new supplies in months. Damn-was she out of everything? She found nothing that could heal him, but she found something that could stop the infection and dull the pain. Trance held the tiny needle in her hands in hesitated. Harper was allergic to a type of this medication, but she couldn't remember which brand. Firmly she looked up. She had no real choice. Without warning she stabbed it into Harper's bad arm.

Harper yelped. "Ow! Trance!"

"Sorry," she said, looking down as she applied a bandage. There would be questions soon, she knew, questions as to how they went through the wall. And when that happened Trance would have to explain, explain everything. She had no other real choice. But could he handle it? Handle-

"Can I ask you something?" Harper said suddenly.

Trance swallowed and didn't look up. "What is it?" she asked.

Harper rubbed the back of his neck. "How exactly did we escape from Tyr? I'm trying to remember but I must have blacked out the moment I hit the floor-"

"Oh. Oh!" Trance said, greatly relieved. She sat by him. "Well, it's very simple really."

Harper waited expectantly. "Well! You see, Tyr had us cornered, as you know," she stalled. "And then, you rushed him as he fired, which was very, very brave by the way-"

Harper frowned. "It doesn't sound like something I would do."

"Well, there was the fact that he had to reload, which you knew would happen, so you tackled him to the ground-

" "A man four times the size of me?" Harper asked.

"You.....um, you grabbed his legs and tripped him! The gun went flying, and you sort of hit him again and again with your fist, providing a distraction which gave me to ran out into the hall. And then, he tried to get up but you kicked him with a vision blow to the head!" Her voice grew more confident as she warmed up to the story. "You should have heard, him, Harper! He was practically begging for your mercy, well as far as Neitzscheans go. I eventually had to pull you away from him, and we both ran!"

"Oh," Harper said, frowning. "So why didn't I grab the gun-"

"Jammed. It was jammed. Useless," Trance said quickly.

"So why can't I remember-"

"Well, like you said, everything got kind of foggy. So um....sounds right, doesn't it?"

Harper's face grew more confident. "Yeah," he said, pumping his fist. "Yeah! I definitely remember showing that weak Neitzscheans some of my moves! He's not all tough and buff, and I bet most of that muscle's fake, anyway! You shouldn't have pulled me away, though," he said, starring at her sternly. "I would have handled him."

"I was worried about your wound," Trance said, patting his leg, when suddenly she saw- ------------------

*"I am so sick of this," Harper sighed, holding a glass of champagne and looking completely out of place in his formal wear. "So far, I haven't seen no babes on this rock at all! Trance, you lied to me!"

"I didn't lie. And stop fidgeting!" Trance said, setting her glass down and straightening his tie with her golden hands. "For all we know fidgeting could be a whole new language to these people."

"You don't have to watch over me, you know. I don't need a baby-sitter," Harper protested. "This planet is so dull it's not as though I could even get into trouble if I wanted to. It's the most boring place I've been too." Pouting, he sat down in his chair. Trance considered it very beautiful, with crystal-like walls and golden rimmed cushion. In the room were a small group of delegates. As she watched Beka Valentine approached, her arms linked with Tyr Anasazi.

"Beka! I would never believe it of you," Harper remarked, standing and fidgeting again.

Beka rolled her blue eyes. "Dylan wants us to emphasize that humans and Neitzscheans can live in peaceful co-existence with one another." She smiled at him. "At least I have a date."

Harper looked around. "Well, Trance just happens to be my date!" He said, quickly grabbing her before she could run off. "It's true! She won't leave me alone even when I ask her too. I guess she can't get enough of the Harper charm."

"I asked her to watch over you," Beka said sharply. "After that incident last summer-"

"Oh please. Make a few helpful suggestions and Dylan blames me for that little war-" Harper retorted as the room chimed, signaling the presence of someone entering. Dylan approached with a beautiful woman in his arms.

"However..." Harper began, stepping forwards. Trance grabbed the back of his collar. "I'm your date, remember?" She said sweetly. She knew how important this alliance was for Dylan. For the past few months they had been fighting Neitzscheans, Magog, and a whole assortment of other species. They could use a break.

"Good, I'm glad you're all here," Dylan said. "First Prime Adara, may I introduce my crew-Beka Valentine, Tyr Anasazi, Seamus Harper, and Trance."

"Trance," the woman said, starring at Trance curiously. "An unusual name, but I suppose not strange for an unusual species. I met one of your kind before, I believe."

"I really don't think so, First Prime," Trance said modestly, starring at Adara with equal puzzlement.

Adara had long, shimmering light blue hair that curled down to her waist, with cold violet eyes. Not unusual for her people, but what struck Trance was the moment of inner joy in them as she turned to Dylan. "Captain, I have heard many things about all of your people. A truly remarkable crew," she said. "All from violent backgrounds and with no particular loyalties save to one another-and yet you have stood together for two years now."

Dylan smiled. "We're all dedicated to the same cause, First Prime. Uniting a new Commonwealth and promise everlasting peace for everyone is what we all want."

"Isn't it?" First Prime murmured, but her eyes went straight back to Trance. "And yet you give no consideration for the people not suited to your goals," she said, but the comment was directed to Trance.

"I can assure you, First Prime, that the Commonwealth is there for anyone that wants it," Dylan said, puzzled. "We hold no favorites. For the past year we have united Neitzscheans, Perseids-"

"A truly remarkable challenge," First Prime continued. "I look forward to it." She nodded to her aides. Immediately they took out their weapons.

"Wait-" Dylan said, when they fired. They convulsed as a blue beam stun them. Trance recoiled backwards as the beam struck her through her leather. Dazed, she fell to the ground, different shades of grey altering her vision.

The last thing she remembered with First Prime standing over her, saluting her with the glass. "Truly remarkable," she said.

Trance blinked and nearly fell. She gripped the table tightly with a purple hand. "We have to go to that planet. It's what caused all of this. I definitely know it now!"

Harper hesitated. "But Trance, that planet is destroyed. I really don't think Beka falsified the records on this one. Rotten luck, but-"

"Yes, rotten luck," Trance muttered. "Almost too damn rotten, if you ask me." Taking deep breathes, she sat next to him. Her eyes narrowed in thought. "There is a way. There has to be. Something I remember in one of my previous visions....and...something you said-" 'Sometimes I wish you hadn't gotten these damn Magog larva out of me-' "That's it!" Trance said, snapping her fingers. "The Tesseract machine!"

"Excuse me?" Harper asked her.

Trance's grin froze. "You don't know what that is?"

"Yes. A device which can transport you back in time," Harper said, surprising her. "I remember building it, but I never actually used it. Way too dangerous, especially without the Perseids around anymore to help us."

"Then how did you get those larva out?" Trance asked him, truly curious. He stared at her as though she was going crazy.

"That black hole....those people I met in there, remember? Larva dying of old age....oh, never mind. The point is, Tesseract changes time. It doesn't change reality."

"I know, but if we set it to go back a few days, we can take the Maru and go back to the planet before the accident-"

"All right, maybe, just maybe that'll work. But the time distortions would be everywhere. We can't even hope to guess where they lead to. We could be going further back into the past then we want to, or worse, into the future," he shivered. "And I can barely stand the present as it is."

Trance shook her purple head. "There has to be a way-" she suddenly saw Harper's eyes light up. "What? What is it?"

Harper shook his head. "Nothing. You know me-always dumb, ideas that never work."

"Harper..." she said, a note of warning in her voice.

"Forget it, Trance!" Harper exploded. "I don't want to do this anymore." He held up a finger. "Five minutes of helping you and I get shot and I'm pretty sure I'm also feeling withdrawal from the alcohol as well. This whole idea of yours....it's crazy!" He leaned forwards. "This is reality, Trance! You're seeing things only because you want there to be something better! Well, there isn't! Reality sucks, Trance. Reality is hell! But it is our reality!" He sighed. "Tyr's already out to get us, but maybe....maybe if I talk to Beka, she'll listen-"

"Harper, no, you can't think like that!" Trance shouted, standing. "All right, even if this our reality, you've come so close to being your own person again! You've stood up against Tyr and Rommie-"

"Do you know what happened the first day I shot off my mouth of the Andromeda!?" Harper demanded. "They tortured me. Slowly. Beka and Tyr beat the living crap out of me. I almost died. But that was nothing compared to what Dylan did to me if he was ever ticked off with me." His face paled. "I couldn't save his wife, Trance! I tried so hard....Dylan did everything terribly imaginable to me he could find. Viruses that chewed at your inner organs. Technobugs that lived under your skin that sent little shocks every now and then. By the end of it I gave up trying to think. Trying to breathe. Trying to live." He glanced at the beer cans for a moment, then said, "So yeah, I'm a little nervous about having a personal opinion. And this is stupid. And I'm out of here!" He turned to go to the door.

"Have an opinion now," Trance said softly, "even if it is your last. Harper, is leaving me what you really want to do, or are you just afraid?"

Harper paused, his hand just millimeters away from the controls. He stared at her. "We don't have a chance," he said quietly.

Trance nodded and walked in front of him. "I know," she said. "But neither if we return back to them. Back to our hell." She waited a moment. "So, what do you want to do?"

A flicker of life sparked in Harper's blue eyes. An opinion. "I want..." he said, and paused. "I....w-w-want this to end, T-T-T-" And burst into tears.

Trance hugged him, then, tightly. "It's okay, Harper. We'll find a way. I promise you, we'll find a way."

------------

Harper stood alone in engineering, the place he had never been to in months. It was deathly quiet and cold. He shivered. He now faced her. Andromeda. Older, perhaps not wiser, and perhaps begging for suicide. But for the first time, he faced her with a clear head. He walked up the ramp. "To be able to figure out these time shifts, I have to send robotic cameras through the different time zones, and see what they are from there," he remembered saying to Trance. Simple enough. Only one catch-to do that, to activate the Tesseract entirely and the robots, for that matter, he would need power, and to do that he would have to interface with Andromeda. The bitch herself. The last time he had tried to interface with her, when he was drunk of course, she had sent him a jolt that almost killed him. He doubted she would be so merciful next time. But next time was here. Now.

Harper had never felt so afraid. ---------------

Trance left medical to go to the machine shop where the Tesseract machine was. Instantly she was surrounded by a blue vortex and abruptly thrown onto the metal grating of the Eureka Maru. She stood and activated the com.

"Harper...they've already started." Silence for a long moment. "Harper?" She asked fearfully.

The com crackled to life. "I'm here," he said. "Yeah, looks like since we're planning to activate the Tesseract in the future, it's already started in the past. That's good...sort of. Anyway, it looks like you've only been transported a few seconds into the future. You were extremely lucky. Try and stay where you are."

Trance nodded, when another blue vortex opened up next to her. She was abruptly thrown backwards onto the grating. The com crackled again. "Hold on...I'm reading a second time disruptancy from engineering...it's not coming from our end," his voice quickened with panic. "I can't shut it down! It's-" the last of his words were dissolved in static.

Her eyes wide with terror, Trance crawled backwards along the metal grating. Slowly a dark figure emerged from the blue field. The vortex closed, and Trance looked up at the stranger. She was short, with long red hair and golden skin. Even in her confusion Trance had no trouble identifying her at all. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

"So," her future self said simply. "Here we are again."

Grinning happily, Harper put on his dusty green jacket he had left in engineering months ago. It looked more then a little strange over a black, Commonwealth High guard uniform, but more then anything Harper wanted some color back in his life. After so many months of darkness he was finally seeing color for the first time.

He looked around the engineering room. It was in sad need of repair. The walls had peeled into an unnatural color, and portions of the floor felt bouncy. Recent attacks had stripped it of any dignity it had left, and only a few lights actually worked. Grey robots with broken arms and legs moved around pitifully trying to repair things. The slipstream core sounded worse then he did when he was sick. God, how long had it been since he was in here last? He walked uneasily down the huge room. He approached a familiar woman with her back turned to him. It was the ship's avatar, the robotic version of Andromeda he himself had made. "Rommie?" he asked, tapping her shoulder. Rommie turned, and Harper jumped backwards in fright.

Andromeda looked like hell! Portions of her brown skin had peeled away, revealing a silver color underneath. Huge clumps of her black hair had fallen out, and she was missing one eye. "H-H-H-Harper," she stuttered. "H-Human. Cl-Class one-five-nine-" she brushed past him and limped away, trying in vain to fix the ship like the rest of the robots. Harper watched her go, feeling nothing but pity and self-loathing for himself.

actually going to the bridge proved to be a more tedious task then anticipated, particularly when each step he took led him to another time. It might have been hours, or perhaps only minutes when he finally stepped onto the bridge, his shirt torn and stained from Kaldarians and Magog alike. A hunt he appreciated. Being thrust into an unexplainable situation was something he very much did not like. And he had no doubt as to who did that to him. Who else would have? "You asked for me, sir," Tyr snarled, approaching Dylan Hunt. One hand reached casually for his blaster.

The same hate was reflected in Dylan's eyes.

---------------

"All right, Rommie," Harper said, attaching a wire into his data port. "Be nice."

A second later he was in Andromeda's main computer core in cyberspace. He whirled around, feeling tons of information brush past him. He had forgotten how big it was. He heard a voice from all around him. "I am Andromeda, a 10-class warship. My power is absolute. Thousands of planets bow down to my regime. I am absolute....Harper," he heard her say.

He turned.

Andromeda's huge digital face instantly appeared, and she held Harper under her hand. She sneered. "I warned you what would happen if you came back here!"

Harper could literally see the electricity building up in her huge brown eyes. "Woah, wait a minute!" He protested, holding up his hands. "Just listen for a moment. We have a very, very bad situation here!"

Andromeda frowned. "What kind of situation?" she demanded impatiently.

"Um......" Harper stammered. It never really occurred to him how to explain it. He saw her eyes widen. "Wait, stop! Interface with my mind!" He blurted out.

Andromeda frowned. "Excuse me? I would much rather kill you!"

"I have no doubt, but it's the only way you'll find out what's going on," Harper said quickly. "And, it's the only way you'll find out if I'm telling the truth, because right now I almost don't believe it myself!"

Reluctantly Andromeda closed her eyes and assessed Harper's memories of the past few hours. Curiously, and not without a little disappointment, Harper felt nothing at all. Andromeda finally opened her eyes. "It can't be true."

"I'm telling the truth!" Harper protested.

"No," Andromeda said sharply. "You believe you're telling the truth. That means nothing as to whether or not it is the truth. However...." Slowly, she set him back down onto the ground. "I also see that you truly want to help me. A human sentimental flaw, but touching nevertheless." She hesitated for a moment, then smiled a little. "It's good to talk to you again, Harper. Without the drink involved."

Harper shrugged. "Well, Trance believes in some greater future for all of us....and if it means getting out of here, then I'll do it! So do you think the plan will work?"

"It is dangerous, unpredictable, and unstable. We would be putting the crew in extreme danger." She heisted again. "However...if it means discovering the truth of this, then I agree. I'll re-route all available power to machine shop 14. What little I have left, anyway."

"Thank you," Harper said. He turned. "Hey, do you think-" When suddenly his digital self convulsed in pain and disappeared.

"Harper!" Rommie shouted in cyberspace.

Harper was gone.

-----------------

Screaming, Harper felt as though his entire body was on fire. He fell blindly to the ground as thousands of tiny electric blue currents danced along his body. He tore the wire out of his neck and rolled onto his back, looking up in shock.

Beka Valentine met his stunned gaze, twirling the force lance she had lightly jabbed him with. "Shocked to see me?" she asked, grinning. ---------------

Trance stood slowly, bracing herself against the railing as her future self moved closer. Both circled around each other. Trance stared at her older self in astonishment. She was so different...she had a cold calculating look in her eyes, replacing the youthful optimism she had now. And...there was something else in her future version's eyes. Power, that was it. She finally found the words to speak. "You're me....from the future?"

"More or less," her older self replied, smiling.

"Did everything happen the way it was supposed to?" Trance whispered.

Her future self smiled. "You already know the answer to that. You just don't realize it."

Trance frowned. "I don't understand."

"No, but you will," her future self said, an odd bitter smile in her eyes. "You will."

Trance shook her head in confusion. "Look, we're trying to go back into the past so that we can find that planet-"

"You'll fail," her future self said bluntly.

"What!?" her younger self snapped. "How do you know this?"

"Because, we're already there," Trance answered.

For once in her life, Trance had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"Indeed, Captain Hunt, I think it's time we resolved some issues between us," Tyr said, circling around him, dark anticipation in his brown eyes. "Permanently. No one makes a fool of Tyr Anasazi and lives to tell about it."

Dylan gave an exaggerated sigh. "What are you talking about, Tyr?"

Tyr frowned. "You know damn well what you did. You sent the little drunk to activate the Tesseract machine, didn't you? And so you hoped to throw Tyr Anasazi into some obscure time line and finally deal with your little problem forever." He shook his head in contempt. "You truly are a fool if you think that I would have never found my way back."

If Dylan was confused, he didn't show it. "Tyr, I just sent Beka to go to engineering to deal with Harper. She just contacted me a few moments ago, and she didn't report any time distortions. The Tesseract machine was dismantled months ago. You know that."

Tyr frowned. He was sick of these games. Without taking his eyes off Dylan he moved to the edge of the door where the last time distortion was. He waved his hand forward.

"See-" His hand touched nothing, felt nothing. The distortion was gone. Tyr stared at the door in absolute disbelief.

"It was just here," he said. His brown eyes narrowed. "Someone is playing us for fools-" When suddenly Dylan's force lance fire propelled him into the wall, the fire burning into Tyr's back.

-----------------

Beka approached Harper slowly, like a cat stalking its prey. "I was expecting someone to betray us, Seamus. I just never thought it would be you." She lifted her weapon and fired.

Harper dived out of the way just in time as the blast left a black mark on the ground. He rolled to his feet. For the first time he noticed her eyes were diluted with white. Flash.

"Never had the guts for it!" Beka sneered. "At least I assumed that much of you, little man. Always hiding in a whiskey bottle, that was your solution to problems."

"Well," Harper said. "I guess we don't know everything about each other." He moved his head out of the way just as the secound blast struck a pipe above him. Trembling, it sprayed water, soaking through Harper's uniform and jacket.

"I guess not," Beka said. "In fact I liked you a lot better as a drunk." She lifted her force lance as Harper ran away. Drugged she might be, but her aim was never more perfect. She aimed playfully above Harper's head and fired. Harper ran past the android version of Andromeda.

She turned. "H-H-H-"

Grinning, Beka aimed at the android and fired again. She exploded in a mass of sparks and fell to the ground with a clunk. Her eyes stared lifelessly at Harper as he scrambled down a large ladder, down to the very slipstream core itself. Beka's gleeful crackle followed him like a splinter in his heart.

Beka starred down at Harper as he climbed down the massive ladder. Grinning, she nudged a box of tools over the side. She threw her force lance over her shoulder. That was too good for scum like him. Harper covered his head as tools rained down over his head. But the toolbox was too hard to protect from. It struck him squarely on the head and he slipped some ten meters below. Stunned, he collapsed to the ground. His palms were burning as most of his flesh had peeled from them when he fell.

Wincing, he struggled to his feet and glanced up. Beka was already climbing her way down. Harper ran to the controls and switched off the lights. Then he scrambled through the door to the inner chambers of engineering. He grabbed the gun from the shelf which he had abandoned eons ago. Which Beka Valentine had given to him as a present. Harper grinned, his eyes lit with dark insanity. "You may have surprised me, boss, but you're on my turf now. No one sell my weapons to use against my cousin and lives to regret it. Before this hour is over you'll know just what Seamus Zethlany Harper can do." He charged his gun.

"And only one of us will be alive to gloat."

--------------

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 is 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.

--------------

There 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 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 gun 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.

---------------------

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.

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 and 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 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 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.

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."

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.

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.

"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 fifty feet below.

She had him. "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.

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 gun 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 gun.

"NO!" Trance shouted. Her tail cracked against Beka's hands like a whip. Beka cried out in pan. The gun 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 replied 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," Gold Trance 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," Gold Trance 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 Trances 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."

Gold 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," Purple Trance 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 everything 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 gun 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 gun and 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 that molded 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 dealt 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....our 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 Neitzscheans. 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-tuning." 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 pay back 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 responsibilities. 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, their 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 disappeared. "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.