A/N: Again, thanks for the reviews. I do love them. Now to make up for making you all wait so long the last few times, here is a nice speedy update. I hope everyone enjoys it. :)
Chapter 29
Rommie navigated her way down one of her many mazes of corridors as she simultaneously ease dropped on the captains' conversation in command. As Beka fell into Dylan's comforting arms, hope buzzed through Rommie's circuits as she realized that they were on the road to healing.
A small smile graced her perfect face as she pictured Harper coming back on board to a huge group embrace with smiles lighting up everyone's faces. That dream crumbled as the face of Trance standing at Harper's door only a few hours earlier overtook her vision. There was so much hurt and fear in those mysterious eyes. The anxiety over the well being to the golden alien increased as Rommie neared her destination. Hydroponics, Trance's refuge and current location.
Entering the sweet smelling room, Rommie spotted the tail-less being immediately. There she was, sitting on a bench under a colorful blue-leafed tree with her favorite planet, Walter2, sitting in her lap. Trance was whispering to the plant as she stroked its smooth green leaves and massaged its soil. Her eyes were still red from the tears of the past.
"Trance," Rommie spoke gently as not to startle the muttering women.
Trance flicked her dreadlock covered head up to greet her visitor. "Oh, hi Rommie." All energy of hope had disappeared from her musical voice.
Walking over towards the shrouded bench, Rommie motioned to the spot next to Trance. "Do you mind if I join you?"
Trance just nodded.
Rommie gently sat on the faux wood bench. "We need to talk." That saying was very quickly gaining popularity on the ship.
Trance sighed and looked down at Walter2. "I know. I wanted to apologize for earlier...for not being able to do my job...to help Harper." The last three words came out as an agonizing whisper. Quickly she glanced up at Rommie with worry filled eyes. "How is he? Is he okay? He didn't...." Panic started to overcome Trance as Rommie's concerned voice and low key demeanor sent a horrible image flashing through her mind. 'Did she come to tell me Harper died and it was all my fault!?' she thought through her panic.
Hearing Trance's increased heartbeat and ragged breathing, Rommie realized where Trance's mind had went. "No, no...he's fine. He's alive and fine." Rommie exaggerated as she placed a calming hand on Trance's shoulder. "I actually came to inform you that Tyr took him off the ship per my orders to get him some help." Rommie paused before she continued remembering Dylan's reaction to the next part. She swore she thought that vein on his forehead would burst any second. "Tyr took him to go see Rev. I hunted him down while everyone was sleeping off the...the...um...event."
Trance's face froze as she processed the information. Unfortunately, Harper never did seem to play a role in her perfect possible futures and therefore she could only get vague readings on his future. He didn't matter to the future or to her people, but he meant the world to her. Rev would be good for him, they always got along, Rev was always a calming influence on the impulsive, emotional human. She looked up at Rommie. "I think that was a wise choice and its good to know Rev is safe. He is safe, isn't he?"
"He seem normal when received his message, as calm and wise as ever." Rommie's face lit up with a slight smile as she remembered the joy of Rev's communiqué. In her time of panic over her imploding crew, he was there giving her a sense of hope and peace. Since she had received his message, she had replayed it many times as a source of comfort.
Focusing back on Trance, Rommie proceeded to her second order of business. "Hopefully Harper will be coming back and I need everyone to be able to face him again. I know you've been having problem's dealing with him and I'm here to help. My ears are wide open." Rommie squeezed Trance's shoulder just as her programming advised her to do in situations like this.
Suddenly, Walter2 became of great interest again as the leaves were once more stroked through her golden fingers. Rommie waited patiently.
Trance's sad voice seemed to boom through the tense silence as her eyes remained locked on Walter2. "It's the cast." A deep breath. "Every time I see his arm, his crushed arm, I feel joy, sick twisted joy and the urge to crush his other arm. Then I feel...my feelings I guess, huge remorse and guilt at hurting him. It's just all too much. I want to help him, to be there for him....but...but those other feelings, Nixic's left over feelings scare me too much. I'm afraid of what I might do to him." The lump was returning to her throat as she looked up at Rommie. "I just want to hold him, to tell him we love him, that everything will be okay...but...I just can't." The tears finally fell down her face.
Rommie never realized how closely the Calastors and her crew had been linked until now. Worry and doubt returned to her circuits. It didn't help that at that moment in command she just witnessed Beka shut down again. Multitasking, she viewed Rev's message yet again.
She pulled Trance into a light one armed embraced. "I think you just need to remember those are not your feelings Trance. I've been watching you for a little two years now and I know how deeply you care for Harper. You could not possible feel joy at his pain or even wish harm on him." She cupped Trance's face with her other hand. "I know because you love him too much."
At that powerful "L" word, Trance fell apart and collapsed into Rommie's embrace. Walter2 fell over gently into their laps.
Rommie just held Trance as the mysterious golden alien began to let out her pain. 'It's going to be okay, it has to,' Rommie thought as she listened to Rev's final words on his re-played message:
"As long as they have each other and us, they will get through this. That I promise Rommie, that I promise."
**************
Darkness. Pain. Remorse. Tears streaming down Beka's pale face. The bloody knife sliding across his father's throat. Blood falling onto the dirt ground from his mother's lifeless face, her eyes forever frozen onto his cowering hiding place. Anger. Loss. Helplessness. The pain of a drill entering his back as laughter from the Pytho fills his head. Beka crying out for his help as he walks away from her restrained dyeing form. The deafening sound of Trance's tears as they fall onto the medical bed. Loneliness. Hopelessness. Darkness. Tyr's fist slamming into his battered face. The sound of his arm cracking under Trance's grip as her sweet, flowery odor fills his broken nose. The words "Ego Whore" echoing over his friends laughter as his life liquid rushes from his battered dying body. Chaos. Confusion. Never ending pain.
The curled up figure in the darkened corner began to writhe frantically as his mind was lost in the nightmares of his own horror filled memories. The cloaked back of the mediating magog failed to notice the tears slipping out of the clenched closed eyes.
Suddenly, a blood curdling scream punctured the silence of the night as the figure bolts up, gasping for air. His eyes as wide as the full moon that hangs over the lonely candle lit cabin.
Rev jumped at the sound of Harper's scream and was at his terrified friend's side in a matter of seconds. "Harper, are you okay?" He asked quickly in panic. As Harper found Rev's face, the monk could not find the words to describe the anguish that filled the young man's features.
Still breathing rapidly, Harper pushed Rev away and sprang to his feet. "Can't stay here, must leave, must go, can't cope." His quick pattern of speech was back in full force.
Jumping up, Rev rapidly grabbed Harper's arm. With the low light and the chaos, Rev unfortunately grabbed the wrong arm. The very wrong arm.
"NO!" Harper yelled out in pain and fear as he fell into the past. Trance's breath warmed the back of his neck, while her laughter filled his ears.
Rev immediately let go of the arm realizing his mistake. "Oh, Harper! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to." He bowed his head in remorse.
"Must leave, can't stay." Harper continued his muttering as he absentmindedly rubbed his cast covered arm. His wild eyes spotted the door. "Must go." His feet began to move.
"No! Harper, don't go. Stay, calm down. It was just a dream, you are safe here. Please stay, talk, I'm here for you." Rev pleaded as he raced off to block the retreating human's path.
Amazingly quickly, Harper spun around and grabbed the approaching magog by the cloak as he swung him around and pressed the monk up against the wall. "Just a DREAM!? SAFE!? Screw you Rev! It was all real! It all happened! And no one is safe with me around! I can't take it! Just let me go!" He threw Rev to the ground and returned to his retreat.
In seconds Rev was back on his feet and standing before Harper blocking his path to the single exit. "No, I will not let you leave! You are going to get past this Harper. You have me and the others to help you. Let us help."
Harper's eyes lit up with pent up anger. "Just like you all helped me with the infestation!? Who cured me!? Who!? I did! You left me to die! The other's barely touched me while infested, barely helped find a cure! They just forgot about it! Pushed it out of their minds! It wasn't them who was dying, who was in agonizing pain living out his worst nightmare! So screw you and them! I don't need your type of 'help'." He shoved Rev to the side and marched towards the door.
Again Rev played yo-yo and blocked the path. He grabbed Harper by the shirt and lifted the light boy upward. "Now you listen here Seamus! You are not leaving! I'm sorry we abandoned you, but we will not make that same mistake again. You need help and we will make sure you get it! Now calm down!" He placed Harper back on the floor. "Try the mantra I taught you. 'My pain belongs to the Divine..."
Harper finished the verse, "It is like air, it is like...FREAKIN' EVERYWHERE!!! Now move before I make you move!"
The two determined eyes locked in the flickering light of the cabin.
"No." Rev stated.
"Fine." Harper took a fistful of Rev's cloak and hurled the magog to the side with surprising strength. He was in full fight or flight mode. Nothing would stop this little mudfoot, not even the pain radiating from his healing arm. As Rev crashed to the ground, Harper rushed the door, yanked it open and raced out into the twilight of the three moon lit night.
It took Rev a second to recover from the shock of Harper's physical ability. He now saw why the others were so worried. As quickly as he could, he got up and sprinted out the door after Hurricane Harper.
"SEAMUS! STOP!"
"Fuck you Rev!" his retreating back yelled.
Tapping into his inbreed speed, Rev quickly caught up with Harper and tackled him to the dew coated grass. He pined the struggling boy's arms under his legs and straddled the wiggling chest. "Harper, you must calm down before you do something you might regret. If you run now, you will always be controlled by your fears, by your past. You are strong. You must fight. You must not flee."
Harper barely heard the magog's words as images of Earth came rushing back. Rev's scent filled his conciseness as he felt the claws of a now ghost magog graze his back as he fled from his fallen cousins. The past and present were colliding head on. "Nooo!!! Too much!" He struggled harder underneath Rev.
Rev saw Harper's glazed over eyes and realized that the human's mind was not fully in the present. Gently he took Harper's face in his clawed hands unsure if it would help or send the boy farther into his nightmarish past. "Harper, listen to me, you're safe, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you."
The words pulled Harper back, but still he fought. "Let me go Rev! I can't stay! I can't be fixed this time...I'm too broken. Just let me go!"
"No. Harper, you can fix anything and I know you can fix yourself."
Harper calmed down and looked into the magog's dark monstrous eyes. "Rev, please, let me go. You said we each have to find our own path, so let me go find mine."
"I know what path you are looking for and you know as well as I that drugs and alcohol will only hide your pain while they enhance it. That is not a path you want to go down."
Harper's breaths came more under his control as he completely stopped struggling.
"If I let you up, do you promise not to run away?" Rev asked as if talking to a child.
"Yah." Defeat filled his quiet voice as the adrenaline drained from his system.
Slowly, Rev pushed himself off of Harper's fragile body. "Come on Harper, lets go back, have some warm soup and talk." Rev reached out his hand.
The mudfoot laid in the wet grass for a moment before he finally decided to get up. He placed his hands in the thick grass to support his rise as he completely ignored Rev's helping hand.
That is when it happened.
When Harper's face suddenly shifted from an expression of defeat to the strange suspicious look of confidence. Rev watched in confusion. "Harper?" He bent over to examine the strange change closer.
Suddenly, Harper's good arm came flying towards Rev's head as in his tightly grasped fist was a huge jagged rock. The rock his hand landed on in the tall grass. The rock that had shown him his path.
Red darkness surrounded Rev as the hard object slammed into his head. He felt a cool liquid rush down his face as the twilight of the moon lit night slowly darkened. "Harper..." he struggled to whisper. "Please, don't..." Nothingness swallowed up the rest of his plead as unconsciousness claimed the magog as its newest plaything.
Harper stood alone on the grassy hill as a breeze wafted over him. He looked down and watched as the blood poured out of the huge gash on Rev's forehead. The now red rock fell from his hand as he bend down next to his fallen comrade. The lone human reached his trembling hand out towards the sleeping beast. Relief washed over him as he felt the strong beat of Rev's heart under his fingers.
"I'm sorry Rev," he whispered as he stood up. "I'm just too broken." Turning his back on the cabin and his wounded, unconscious friend, Harper slowly began his trek into the darkness. "Just too broken."
TBC..........