Title: Effervescent Essence
Author: Harper's aka Weird_Peace
Rating: PG-13
Synopsis: Sequel to And You Thought Larvae Were Bad. I highly suggest you read the first fiction.
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, but I love 'em anyways.
Spoilers: Season Two spoilers.

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The bluish light expanded, contracted, and finally burst, disappearing from the sight of both parents. Harper didn't allow himself to think about it, about the fact he might have just actually screwed up and lost his son. He walked over to Trance's tube.

"Let her out," he hissed at Loki, either oblivious or just not caring about the fact that the other man was fuming. Loki did as he was told, and Trance stumbled out. Harper quickly undid her bonds and grasped her by the shoulders.

"Please say I'm right," he whispered. She nodded, and placed his hand over her stomach.

"He's there," Trance said. Harper collapsed to his knees, holding Trance close, shaking with relief.

"Thank god, thank god, thank god," he kept muttering over and over again.

"Congratulations," Loki said, although his voice hardly reflected the words. "You both passed your final tests. Trance trusted Harper enough to place herself in danger, and Harper trusted that Trance would never let her child's soul be taken from her."

Harper used what energy he had left, what hadn't been drained from the mix of emotions and the stress of the last few months, and lunged for Loki. The other was prepared this time around and caught Harper's arm, flipping the engineer over onto his back.

"Dammit," Harper moaned from his position.

Trance gave her brother a stern look, then went and helped her friend up. Loki shrugged.

"He started it."

"Can we leave now?" Harper grumbled, rubbing his backend. "Loki did say this is the last test." He turned towards Loki. "So sorry you won't be visiting again. I'll miss our bonding time, I really will." The sarcastic attitude, Harper's shield, had returned. He could dwell over the scars this test had left on his already battered soul another time.

"It is the last official test of our people," Loki said. "It is not the last test you will ever face. You'll have to overcome a great many odds...if you survive."

"Yeah yeah yeah, life is full of challenges, dilemmas, and all that other crap that makes my existence a living hell. But where there's life, there's hope and by god, I must survive!" Harper rolled his eyes, clasping his shaky hands behind his back where no one could see. "I wonder what Tyr would think if he knew he had a purple clone."

Loki snorted, and the room faded back into a storage closet.

"Thank you." Harper began to quickly walk out, but noticed Trance wasn't following. "Trance?"

"I'll catch up with you. I need to talk with Loki." Both Harper and Loki looked very surprised. Harper stopped, and stubbornly stood in the doorway. Trance let out an exasperated sigh. "Harper, he's not going to hurt me. I'm his sister, and the tests are over." Harper still didn't budge.

"I'm staying," he replied.

"Harper..."

"I. Don't. Trust. Him," Harper said slowly as if Trance were a child. "I don't care if he is your family. You're pregnant, and he's been torturing us for the last..."

"I have not been torturing you!" Loki interrupted. "I've been doing my job."

"Find a different area of employment," Harper replied.

"Stop it you two!" Trance stalked up to Harper, and then turned soft eyes towards him, placing a comforting hand on his arm. "Harper, please trust me on this. You know I wouldn't do anything to harm our child. Or do you not remember the test we just went through?"

Harper bounced on the balls of his feet, biting his lip.

"Thirty minutes," he finally offered. Trance nodded, and then wrapped her arms around him in a brief hug. Harper stiffened, caught off guard, but before he could respond, she let go.

Harper looked like he wanted to say something, but shook his head instead and walked off muttering something about psychotic enigmas with horns and tails.

Trance sat down on a nearby crate and patted the space next to her. Loki sat down.

"Ok, I don't have very long, so I'm just going to ask. What the hell is up with you?!" she demanded, slapping him across the face. Loki fell backwards off the crate.

"Trance, you know this is my job." Loki pulled himself back up, rubbing the side of his face.

"Loki, I know about these tests better than most people. You are my brother." Trance glared at him. "And you were being extra hard on Harper. Not only that, but you've suddenly become even more of a pain in the ass than normal."

The side of Loki's mouth twitched in amusement, but his eyes remained dark.

"The human has an attachment towards you. I always noticed it, but ignored it. Then I had to play Blondie in your test." Loki shook his head in disgust. "You should've abolished those emotions a long time ago. Instead you allow them to fester, to grow."

"I can't have the father of my child hating me. And I need the crew's trust," Trance calmly explained. "Besides, I've made my position on the matter very clear with Harper."

"Have you?" Loki let Trance ponder the question, then stood up with disgust when she didn't answer him. "Flux warned me about this. You are forgetting your allies."

"Never!"

"Your actions are louder than any words you can say to me," Loki said. "I suggest you get your thoughts together and start acting like one of us."

"What if I don't want to?" Loki spun fast and grabbed Trance by her shoulders.

"You should watch what you say," he hissed.

"And you should stop telling me what to do as if you know everything," Trance countered. "You've never had to play guardian to another species, you've never gotten close with them. You have no idea what you're missing out on."

"Neither do you." He sighed, letting her go. "You spend too much time in this little dream world you've created. In truth, the Andromeda is nothing but your set, the crew your cast. You're the star, the writer, and the director. You're playing with them just so you can live out your fantasies." Loki smirked. "In truth, you're no better than the rest of us."

"I never said I was," Trance whispered. Loki's words had stung.

"Directly, no." He knelt down next to his sister, clasping her hand. "Come home. You can give your child a normal life, one without the interference of that human. You can both live in happiness."

"We are happy, Loki." Trance slid her hand from his. "I'm sorry you don't see that."

Loki closed his eyes, and turned his back on his sister.

"I can't always stick up for you. The paths you're choosing are becoming too much for even me to handle." Loki pretended his sister, his light, didn't have tears in her eyes. "I'm not abandoning you, but I'm tired of trying to talk sense into you. I wish you and your child luck." With that he left the room.

Trance didn't know how long she sat there, but Harper eventually poked his head back in.

"Trance, your thirty minutes have passed." He frowned upon seeing her huddled on a crate, head bowed. Harper walked over to her and placed an arm around her shoulders. "Are you ok?"

Trance argued with herself. One part of her, the part that craved her brother's acceptance, wanted to push Harper away and tell him to get lost. Or even sit him down right now and talk to him until any hopes Harper had for the two of them to live happily ever after were quashed for good.

The other part wanted to sit here and be comforted.

"No, I'm not." She sighed, the second part winning. "But I will be."