Time to thank my reviewers! =-)

Shaz: No threats from me. *evil grin* But thanks for your review. I was originally afraid to post this because of the fact that so many people have done their own version of this story, so I'm glad you enjoyed my spin on it. And you are right...Harper has wonderful eyes, definitely melt worthy!

{{Paris}}

Trekken 46: Yeah it was on SSBBS and it really wasn't well reviewd, I think it had like three readers total so I was hesitant to put it here, but it's been well, liked so yay me!

Ineka: Once again thanks for reading it!

Well, here's chapter 3, after this there's only two more parts left. Hope you guys like this one.

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Chapter 3: Eureka!

^^^No more pain (no more pain)
No more game (no more game messin' with my mind)
No more drama (no more drama in my life)
No one's gonna make me hurt again
No more tears (no more tears, I'm so tired of crying every night)
No more fears (no more fears, I really don't wanna fight)
No more drama (no more drama in my life)
I don't ever want to hurt again
Wanna speak my mind, wanna speak my mind^^^

*Five days. We have five days to find the miracle cure no one has been able to find in over 300 years. God, this is going to be impossible,* Trance thought to herself as she started preparing med-deck. She had went over all the different possiblilities her distressed mind would allow and none of them came out the way she want, none of them ended with Harper living.

As she started toward a monitor, she stopped dead in her tracks. She could feel the lump returning to her throat. *No! Trance, pull yourself together! You have to stay strong for Harper. You have to keep your head clear,* she demanded herself.

With that, she swallowed down the lump, took a deep breathe, and continued her preparation. She was determined not to lose Harper. She was glad that at least they had Rommie to help them now. She had visited Trance the night before to see if she knew what was bothering Harper.

When Rommie had walked in, Trance was still crying a little. At first Rommie thought that she was hurt until she looked into her eyes and had seen the same fear Harper had seen. She had sat down beside Trance on her bed and said, What's wrong, Trance? It's Harper isn't it?

Trance didn't say a word. Rommie continued, It's the larvae isn't it? They're becoming active. Trance finally mustered up a nod and said, Rommie, oh God, what am I going to do? I don't even know where to start. I cant let Harper die.

Rommie looked at Trance and said, Don't you mean we? I'm not going to let you and Harper go through this alone. Harper and I promised each other that we'd stay around to fix each other and that's what I plan to do. I don't know what I can do, exactly, but I'll try my best to help. How long does he have?

Five days from today, the medicine will stop completely and the larvae will become fully active. By that time, if we haven't found a cure then Harper will-Harper will-- Trance thought of what would happen and the tears came back full force.

Through her sobs she managed to finish what she was trying to say, I-if we ha-haven't found a c-cure by th-that time, Harper will--he'll die. Oh, Rommie we have to do something.

Rommie put her arm around the purple girl's shoulder and whispered, Don't worry, Trance. I'll be damned if I lose another engineer, especially not one as special as Harper. Trance, you know that if we don't find a cure in time, I'm going to have to inform Dylan and the rest of the crew to the situation, which means we'll then have to have Harper quarantined until the larvae hatch.

Trance's head jerked up at that comment, her eyes wide with fear. Rommie realized the mistake in her bluntness, so she quickly added, That will not be the case though, not today or any day if I can help it. That calmed Trance down a little. She was so happy that she and Harper wouldn't be alone in their search for his cure.

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Harper was on his way to med-deck. Today was the first day in their search. When he reached the door he felt a slight, but nonetheless sharp, pain in his stomach. The larvae were showing their presence.

The pain took him by surprise. Ow! Crap! Calm down, boys. Damn, you guys are impatient. Give me my five days, Ok, he said in between deep breathes as he doubled over gripping his stomach and tried to brace himself against the wall long enough to take a deep breathe into his inhaler

*It may not be completely affective, but maybe it will calm these little buggers down a bit. I don't think I should tell Trance about this. She's got enough to handle. She doesn't need to worry any more about me.* Harper thought to himself as he let go of his inhaler and tried to recover from his little guests' attack.

Finally he recovered and walked into med-deck with a smile on his face and said, Trance, my purple pixie, are we ready to start. Trance, startled by Harper's sudden appearance, jumped, turned around, and said, Oh, Harper, don't do that. You scared me and no, we're not ready. I'm waiting on one last thing.

Before Harper could say anything in reply, Rommie walked in and said, Sorry I'm late. Trance smiled and said, No problem. OK, everyone's here so let's get start--

Wait, Rommie knows. I thought it was just going to be between you and me, Harper interrupted.

I didn-- Trance tried to say but Rommie interrupted her, Trance didn't say anything I came to my own conclusions, and that's your fault for putting these great deductive skills in my hard drive, and besides I want to help. You should have asked me instead of me finding out, but I'll get over it. Let's get started. With that they began.

Three days passed before the trio found any thing. They had two days left and were getting nowhere in their search.

Unfortunately, unknown to everyone but Harper, the medicine was stopping quicker than expected. The pain was getting more intense with each passing day, but Harper was determined not to let the pain get to him or show because he wasn't about to let them suffer the kind of loss he had suffered throughout his life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Begin Memory~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He remembered the last person he had lost, Brendan. When he lost Brendan, he lost his last connection to Earth. It had only been about a month ago that he got the message from Brendan telling him that he needed Harper's help to help start a revolution against the Nietzscheans in Boston.

He had actually talked Dylan into letting him and Rommie go to Earth even though they were having problems with the Drago Kazov at the time. Harper, at first didn't want to go alone, but Dylan told him he had to. Dylan didn't have to let him go, he needed him there in case repairs needed to be done, but he knew deep downthat Harper wanted, no needed to go. Dylan then promised him that once the Drago Kazov problem was handled, he would come and help with the revolt. So Harper and Rommie headed to Earth. When they got there, Harper was so happy to see Brendan again.

It had been over seven years since he had seen him. When Harper asked how many fighters Brendan had, he found out that Brendan only had five people who would fight with him, no questions asked. This wasn't encouraging to say the least, but Harper wasn't about to give up. He roused up enough people to make their first assault.

Harper and Rommie stayed behind to instruct the fighters. The fight went to Hell when Brendan and his fighters were over taken and had to retreat. All Harper could think was, *Where is Dylan? He promised he'd come.* When the com link with Brendan was lost, Harper went out to find him.

He found not only Brendan, but two ubbers beating him fairly bad. Harper took the two Ubbers by surprise and killed them. He then took Brendan back to Rommie to see how badly he was injured. Brendan was hurt, but he would survive.

Finally, someone from the Andromeda came, only it wasn't Dylan, it was Tyr. When he had went to meet him, Harper looked at Tyr and said, What do you mean he's not coming!

Tyr looked at Harper and said, He had to choose. Save his fleet and his entire alliance or sacrifice them both to liberate a single slave word.
Harper with a distressed tone to his voice said, But Dylan always keeps his promises. Tyr quickly replied, Dylan has made a great many promises and he only has one ship. Now try and get the people out of the streets, they'll be another time.

Harper quickly replied while angrily walking away, Another time! I'm just suppose to stop a revolution. There are people bleeding and dying in the streets because they actually believe that they have a chance to win for a change. How am I suppose to tell them they're wrong?

Tyr walked up to Harper and softly said, Don't. Tell them the truth. Tell them that life is inherently unfair and that the wise only fight battles they know they can win.

Great, and when I'm telling them all this, where will you be, Harper asked. Tyr stepped forward and replied, As far away from here as I can get.
Harper replied as Tyr walked away to return to the Andromeda.

*How am I going break this to Brendan,* Harper thought to himself as he walked back to where Brendan and Rommie were to break the bad news to Brendan.

When he got there he saw Brendan making his escape through a back passage. He followed Brendan to a ladder leading to the outside. Harper knew he had to stop him. When he got to him, he told Brendan the news. Brendan angrily replied, I'm not going to stand down the attack just because your Nietzschean said to.

He's not the one saying it, I am, Harper replied.

Oh yeah, like that's any better. Stand down, retreat. So speak Seamus Harper, as usual, Brendan bitterly said, still walking away.

Harper stopped dead in his tracks, surprised at what Brendan had just said and replied, As--as usually. Whoa, ho-hold it. Are you calling me a coward?

Brendan turned around and said, Well, you walked away once, Seamus. You abandoned your home, you abandoned your family. For what? Did it get too hard for you? I don't know what that makes you, but you're sure no hero.
This hit Harper like ton of bricks. What Brendan had just said hurt so bad.

He could feel the anger rising in him and he yelled through gritted teeth, My family died here in case you've forgotten. Declan and Siobhan died because they couldn't walk away from a fight they couldn't win.

Brendan quickly replied, They were protecting each other.

Whatever, now they're both dead and you'll be dead too if you don't listen to me, Harper spat out. He could feel a lump coming to his throat, which he quickly swallowed down.

No, no, Seamus, you see you don't understand. You can't just choose when you want to fight and when you don't. You might think that our cousins had a choice that day, but they didn't. Neither do I. So we fight. Brendan turned to leave but Harper knew that if he left he would never see him again, so he did the only thing he knew to do.

He pulled out is gun, pointed it at Brendan, and said, All right, let me put this another way, when Brendan froze Harper knew he had his full attention, so he continued, Tell them to withdraw or I swear I'll kill you.

Brendan turned around with a look of total surprise on his face and said, You're going to kill me?

If you don't listen to me. It will keep millions of people from dying unnecessarily in a war they can't win, Harper pleaded.

Brendan just replied, Will it?

They don't have a chance, Brendan. Brendan looked straight at Harper and said, I know they don't. They know that, too. They knew it when this all started.

Harper, gun still in hand said, When I started this, things were different. The circumstances have changed.

Did you think you were the first person to stand on a rooftop and stout that the had to go? These people have heard it all before, Seamus. Hell, everyone's heard it before. We heard the same things about the Maggog, too.

Brendan was calming down a bit. If that's true than why did they listen, why are they all out there fighting, now, Harper said. He could feel the lump returning. Why did Siobhan fight when the Maggog took down Declan, when she could have easily ran, Brendan said.

Siobhan was a fool, now will you shut up about her, Harper said the lump growing larger. She fought because she was tired of running away in fear and because she was trying to help someone she loved. She fought because she was sick of losing family members to those filthy creatures, sick of having to hide every time they raided the camps. So sick and tired that she figured that if she could hurt at least one while helping Declan then it would all be worth it, Brendan said.

Yeah, yeah and look where that got her. She fought until they infested her, Harper said, the lump growing ever so larger.

Brendan continued, That's true, but in the end some of the Maggog were killed. The ones who were attacking them were killed. And even though she died, she fought until the very end. She finally fought and after that nothing else mattered.

Yeah, especially not to her, Harper cynically.

Seamus, you've got to let it go, Brendan pleaded.

That was the final straw. The next thing Brendan knew Harper exploded, I don't have to let squat go! You don't know what you're talking about! You don't even know what happened!

Harper had backed Brendan into a corner and keeping the gun in his face continued, You want to know what really happened! Declan didn't tell us to go there! I did! I lead them to the cave! I lead them to their death and when Declan got attacked, I froze. I couldn't even help Siobhan. THEY DIED BECAUSE OF ME! SIOBHAN DIED BECAUSE OF ME! Not because Declan lead us into a trap, but because I lead them into the trap and was too much of a coward to fight back! I could have at least tried to fight, I could have tried to save Siobhan! Harper could no longer fight back the tears. They began rimming his eyes.

He clenched his teeth trying to keep them from flowing. He then saw that the expression on Brendan's face had changed from anger to sympathy. He softly said, I'm sorry, Seamus, but don't you see this just proves what I'm talking about. Siobhan didn't die for nothing. She sacrificed herself to save Declan, her only brother. In a way she won.

Harper still desperately trying to hold off the tears that were now blurring his vision said, If you really want what happened to our cousins to be worth it, Brendan, then stop the revolt.

I would Seamus, for you I would, but I can't. A revolution is not like a switch, you can't turn it on or off. It's like a fire. Once it's lit, you can't put it out, no matter how much you might want to. Even if I could, if I did, it might never light again, Brendan calmly said.

Harper knew that if he couldn't stop the revolt maybe he could stop Brendan. All right, what about you. Just let me get you out of here. Harper was desperate.

Hope of getting Brendan out alive quickly faded when he said, That's the thing, cousin, I'm part of the fire. I need to be. Harper sighed. He knew that once he left Brendan he would never see him alive again. He also knew that there was nothing he could do to stop him from fighting.

He holstered his gun extended his hand and when Brendan took it, he said, You kick some butt out there. Brendan smiled, turned away, and climbed up the ladder to join the fight again. Harper was right, he would never see Brendan alive again, but at least he died for what he believed in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Memory~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harper knew he had to find a cure because he couldn't stand knowing that Trance, Rommie, Beka, and the rest of the crew would go through the same thing if he died. On the third day of searching, something hit Harper.

He remembered Trance telling him that the reason she couldn't remove the larvae was because they were entangled inside him. If they could create a liquid or something that could paralyze the larvae then maybe, just maybe, she could remove them.

He ran over to Trance and said, Eureka! I've got it! Trance, didn't you say that the reason you couldn't remove the larvae was because they were wrapping themselves around my internal organs. She looked at him with a puzzled look and said, Yes, Harper, but what of it?

Well, I was thinking, couldn't you do the same surgery that you did on Tyr if the larvae weren't wrapped around my insides. I figure if we could keep them from moving then it would be a piece of cake to remove them, right, Harper asked hopefully.

Rommie walked over to the two of them and said, I believe that Harper is getting somewhere. Trance nodded and said, I agree. If we could immobilize the larvae, I believe, that I could most definitely remove them.

Trance noticed that Harper was a little paler than usual and had a fine sheen sweat brimming his head. She found it strange, but she just shrugged it off as stress because they were all under a large amount of stress at the moment. Within four hours Trance and Rommie had developed a spray that, when sprayed on the larvae, would paralyze them long enough for removal.

An hour later, Trance had finally put the finishing touches on the first prototype. Harper, I have the prototype ready. It needs to be tested, to get the glitches out and to see if it has any ill effects, but I'm sure it will work, Trance said, her back still turned away from Harper.

If she would have turned around she would have seen Harper with a look of intense pain on his face, one arm clutching his stomach while the other was holding a medical tray for support. His time was up and he couldn't take the pain much longer.

Rommie, who was still looking at a monitor, said, Trance I've ran some tests through the computer and all of them have determined that there is a ninety-five percent chance it will work on the larvae.

Trance was incredibly happy. They had found the cure and still had two days to get the bugs out. Trance started to turn around to face Harper and said, Harper do you hear that, we found the cure. You're going to be alr-

She heart stopped and she froze when she heard Harper painfully scream, and then a loud crash. What she saw when she turned around sent cold chills up her spine. Harper had collapsed on the floor and was unconscious, the fallen medical tray beside him.

Trance screamed, She quickly ran over to him, with Rommie on her heels. When Trance got to Harper, she fell to the floor and put his head on her knees. Rommie, get the scanner! Now!

Rommie got the scanner and what Trance discovered was horrible. She looked up at Rommie and said in disbelief and grief, My calculations were wrong. The larvae have become completely active. It looks like they have been active long enough to cause Harper severe pain for the past three days. Why didn't he say something? He must have been in so much pain. He should have said something.

Rommie got on her knees and said, Trance we must get Harper into surgery. We don't have time now to work out the bug or to wonder why he hid this ffrom us. I'll inform Dylan of the situation.

Trance was completely oblivious to what Rommie was saying. She was deep in thought. *Oh, Harper why didn't you say something, I, maybe, could have eased your pain. Oh, Harper, you just have to be alright. I'll make you alright, I promise.*

When Rommie couldn't get an answer out of Trance, she grabbed her shoulders, gave her a good shake and got her to look her in the eyes. Trance! Listen to me! Harper needs you right now! If you want him to live, you have to snap out of it! Trance, snap out of it! Get him ready for surgery and begin as soon as possible! Go!

Trance was pulled from her thoughts and said, You're right. Get Dylan and I'll get Harper ready for surgery. I think that we only have three hours before the larvae make their way out, killing Harper.

Rommie gently picked up Harper, put him on the operating table and then went to inform the others. Once Rommie left, Trance walked over to Harper who was stable, for now. She brushed his blonde hair off his sweat covered forehead, and ran her fingers down his cheek.

Harper I promise you that I will get you through this. I promised you I would and that is one promise I do intend to keep. I *will not* let you die. I'm not going to lose you. You mean too much to me, Harper. You will make it through this, Trance sweetly whispered into Harper's ear. Then she bent over and gave Harper a gentle kiss on the lips. It was now time for miracles to come true.

TBC

There you go guys. Now click that little purple button and review away...if you do I'll give you a nice cold Sparky! =-)