A.N.: Well, here's the last bit. This fic is pretty much finished, at least unless Tyr comes back or something more happens with Beka and the abyss. We'll see, though.
Just to stave off a few questions, I left the end of this a little open. I had to, you see, because the show hasn't exactly ended yet, has it? That little bit of the end is just a snippet of my theory on what will happen in the future of this series.
Feel free to send any questions or comments my way, and don't forget to review! Thanks for reading!
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EPISODE TWO: PART THREE
She didn't know how she survived, in the end. The ship had been flinging itself everywhere, twisting in every direction without any pattern at all, and she'd been more than a little prepared for a crash. Tyr had been behind her the entire time, laughing at something only he could understand…and then everything stopped. The ship had calmed, and she spared one quick glance to the vid screen, trying to determine where she was. The outside looked like some sort of cave, though she couldn't even begin to guess where they'd ended up or how they'd gotten here without becoming just a smear on the surface. The Route of Ages could have taken them anywhere in the entire galaxy.
And then Tyr was behind her, a gun in her face, and she'd stopped caring where she was. It didn't matter anymore, because even if she'd held one tiny hope that Dylan would somehow save her, she knew he'd never find her, now. She was in Tyr's hands, and she didn't even want to think about what he was going to do to her now.
At least Tyr had stopped laughing as he pushed her towards the exit, letting her see the bleakness of the world she was going to die on. He dragged her outside, still waving the gun in her face, and she took a moment to look around. The place was…ugly. No other word for it, really, because there was nothing here but lifeless dirt. Fog massed around her feet, coming from nowhere that she could see, and he shoved her out of the cave and over to some sort of cliff. Far in the distance, she could finally see a few plants and things, but there was nothing that could help her escape the madman she was with.
She looked over the edge of the precipice, straining her eyes but unable to see to the bottom. What, did he plan to push her? This wasn't how she'd always thought she was going to die. She would have expected to meet her end in some heroic battle, fighting for all that was right in the universe…or at least die fighting for some sort of treasure that would make her richer than any one human had the right to be. She'd certainly never imagined she'd die at Tyr's hands, plummeting to her death on some godforsaken world she'd probably never heard of. At least, she thought almost tiredly, she'd die before she had to hit the ground. She wouldn't have to feel the impact of her body against the earth.
Not that it was much comfort, of course.
She looked out over the cliff again, feeling just a touch of vertigo. Far below, hundreds and hundreds of miles beneath them, a light glimmered like a small fire. She stared down at it, wondering how great this force had to be to be seen from this high up. Was this, she wondered, the abyss they'd been fighting for so long? How could they fight something like this, if it was?
What was Tyr doing?
Tyr held her at the very edge, looking down at the flames of the abyss. "Darkness!" he shouted, anger clear in his voice, the word too much of a greeting for Beka's comfort. "I am lost! Did you bring me to this spot for a purpose?" God, Beka thought, had Tyr known he would find the abyss here? Had he been in league with it all along? "I am leader of the Nietzsheans," Tyr continued to shout, "the reincarnation of Drago Musseveni! The last of the Kodiak, Tyr Anasazi!" There was challenge in his voice, madness in his eyes. His grip on her shoulder was painful. "Do you hear me? I came here by accident, no way out!" He shook Beka, making her teeth rattle in her head. "Except for her! She will bring you Dylan Hunt! In return, you will get me out of here alive!"
Beka was tasting bile, by the end of Tyr's little tirade. It's ironic, she thought, that she could find complete certainty in what she was doing only as she was about to die for it. Had Tyr always been this insane? She didn't turn to look at him, though she was still wondering why he was bothering. She had nothing, she knew, that would make her valuable to the abyss, so why was Tyr offering her in exchange for his freedom? The abyss didn't want her. It didn't have any reason to.
He'd sure as hell gotten a response, though. Something was growling in the fire under their feet, but Beka, strangely enough, didn't feel scared. She'd already accepted that she was going to die, and it just didn't matter to her if Tyr pushed her, shot her, or fed her to whatever it was that was beneath them. She only hoped her death would be quick, and that she wouldn't be forced to linger, or to become something else, maybe a servant of the abyss. She just wanted to die, get all of this over with.
The abyss was coming towards them, now, a glowing mass of flame and smoke and red lightening. It had taken on the outline of a man, strangely enough, but Beka was beyond being surprised. She simply stared up at it, an odd warmth spreading through her as the red whatever-it-was reached out what passed for its hand. It stroked her cheek almost tenderly, ignoring the man beside her, and she didn't even feel Tyr letting her go and stepping away. She could only gaze up at the abyss, something inside her snapping as she felt its touch.
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She didn't know what happened, after that. She was staring up at the abyss, one moment, and in the next she was standing beside Tyr, listening to him rant at Dylan. There was a haze over her mind, and for some reason she didn't even care enough turn and look at Dylan…or to save herself…or even to blink, really. She just stood there, letting Dylan and Tyr argue while she went off into whatever la-la land the abyss had sent her mind to.
"Dylan!" Tyr shouted. "I know you're nearby! Here she is! I'll give her to you, and you'll give me the map! Come and get her, captain! Show yourself, if you dare. We'll see how insolent you are the next time we meet." He still hadn't let go of her arm.
Dylan was beside them, suddenly, appearing in a flash of red light, holding his charged force lance at Tyr's temple. "That'd be right about now," Dylan said, mockery as clear in his voice as the madness had been in Tyr's.
Tyr wouldn't back down, threat to his life or not. "You can't kill me here," he snarled, scorn filling his words, fingers tightening on Beka's arm. "I made a deal with the abyss!"
"Well, then you're already dead." Dylan held up his free hand, and a pair of handcuffs suddenly appeared in his fingers. "And these cuffs won't hurt a bit."
Dylan moved behind Tyr, letting Harper and Rhade cover him. He jerked Tyr's hands behind his back, stupidly getting caught off guard as Tyr suddenly jerked his head into Dylan's skull. Dylan stumbled back, and Tyr dropped Beka and ran. She crumpled to the ground, as though unable to hold her own weight without Tyr beside her. She still wasn't blinking.
Tyr was on the edge of the cliff, now, running towards the gap almost as though he planned to jump. Did he think the abyss would save him? Dylan, though, was prepared, and he pointed his force lance at his former friend and fired. The blast caught Tyr in the back, sending him plummeting over the edge. The Nietzshean twisted his body around as he fell, managing to grab onto the ledge at the last minute. He held on for a few seconds, showing surprising strength as he began to pull himself back up in spite of the gaping hole now in his back. Then, before Dylan could even react, the rock Tyr was holding broke off, unable to support his weight, and he took the fall Beka had thought would be hers. His screams didn't fade away for a long, long time.
Beka couldn't feel anything as her lover died. Later, she would grieve, would hate herself for her part in this, would hate Tyr for his weakness. Later, she would face what Tyr's death meant for her, but not now. She was still caught in whatever hold the abyss had on her, unable to think.
Beka, escape the darkness.
Trance's voice, in her mind, reaching into the deepest part of her soul and trying to drive out the abyss. The small part of Beka that was still aware was laughing a little, scornful of the idea that sweet, mysterious little Trance could fight against something like this. Didn't Trance realize that she was wasting her time? The abyss wasn't going to let Beka go, not for any reason.
Dylan was kneeling beside her now, pulling her into a sitting position in his arms. She gazed up at him, not really seeing him at all. He shouted her name. "Beka! It's me, Dylan!" She didn't know who he was, didn't even care to know.
Beka…
Harper was looking at them both, panic in his eyes. "Boss? You okay?" he demanded uneasily, clearly wanting to get away from this place, clearly more worried for her but still worried for himself.
Dylan didn't try to answer the question in Harper's voice. "We need to get her back to the ship," he said, searching her eyes for some sign that she was still there. He didn't find any.
Rhade wasn't even looking at them, but then he hadn't known Beka for very long and wasn't as concerned as the other two men in her life. His eyes were riveted on the space where Tyr had fallen only an instant before, though he wasn't looking for the lost Nietzshean. "Look! It's turning black," he warned, staring with hard eyes out into the nothing as a thick cloud of dark smoke started roiling towards them.
"Don't look at that!" Dylan ordered almost angrily. He turned back to the woman he was holding. "We need to think of the Andromeda. We're not here," he told Beka. "We are on board the ship."
"On the command deck," Rhade added, obediently not looking at the dark mist approaching them, though his thoughts were obviously on nothing else.
"Right," Harper said, catching on, "uh, with Rommie."
Dylan helped Beka to her feet. She stood, though she was still too trapped in her mind for the gesture to be anything but an automatic response to the way Dylan was pulling her. He put his hands on either side of her face, turning her so she would have to look at him. "Beka, Beka," he called to her, his voice somehow reaching through this thing muting her thoughts. "Focus," he begged her, fear for her in his eyes. "Focus!"
Focus…
Beka wouldn't know, later, if it was Dylan's voice that had pulled her out, or if Trance was somehow helping. Maybe she'd pulled herself out, and trance and Dylan had only gave her the last bit of strength she'd needed. Whatever the reason, she found herself staring back into Dylan's eyes, recognizing him for the first time since the abyss had touched her. She muttered his name, wondering how he'd gotten here.
"There you go," he said, relieved by the sudden understanding in her gaze. He'd released her face by now, though his hands had only moved to her shoulders rather than letting her go completely. He seemed unwilling to pull away, or maybe it was just because he knew she might still fall if he wasn't there to support her. "Together we can control this," he told her, renewed confidence in his face. "Think of the Andromeda. Think of being back on board the ship."
What?
Beka, you are already here. You are already home.
Beka looked up at Dylan, confusion in her eyes. "Trance," was all she said, and then they were gone, carried back to the ship in another flash of light. Trance's voice in her mind hadn't stopped.
Come back to the light. You are safe.
And she was, because they were back on Dylan's ship, standing in the same positions they'd been in before. Dylan's hands were still on her shoulders, and she stepped back, the confusion as strong as ever. "All present and accounted for?" Dylan asked, not really taking his eyes from her for more than a second or two.
Harper glanced around. "Almost," he said, still sounding a little uncertain. "There's no accounting for Rhade."
Dylan shot a quick glare at Harper for his flippancy, but his eyes held more patience and relief than real annoyance, and he was soon looking back at Beka. His eyes were intense, searching. Beka stared back at him, not knowing what to say, not understanding what had just happened. How had Dylan found her, rescued her? She should have been beyond his reach, but then again, nothing ever seemed to be beyond his reach, even her.
Trance was beside her, now, a genuine smile on her gold-tinted face. "Beka? Welcome back," she said, reaching out to wrap her arms around Beka in a brief, heart-felt embrace.
Beka's eyes held the smile she was still a little too dazed to show with her lips. "This place never looked so good."
Dylan was still watching her. "Well, you never looked so good in it," he said, catching her eyes with his.
Again…what?
Beka stared at him, not knowing if he was flirting or if he was just relieved to have his second-in-command back. Well, whatever, she thought. It was enough, for her, that he cared at all. It was probably more than she deserved, after everything. "Thanks," she responded uneasily, trying not to sound as unsure of herself as she felt. Thanks for saving me, thanks for risking yourself to bring me back here, thanks for forgiving me even though you'd made it abundantly clear that you hadn't wanted me to go with Tyr in the first place…
The captain was still watching her, perhaps hearing the words she hadn't spoken. "You put yourself on the line of fire for all of us," Dylan told her softly, warmth in his gaze. I had to return the favor, she knew he was thinking, because that was just the way Dylan was.
She wasn't ready to talk about that, or about what she'd done with Tyr. "Yeah," she muttered, suddenly wanting to put a stop to this conversation before it went any further. She wanted to work out how she felt about everything before she tried to explain it to Dylan, and maybe he knew that, because he let her go when she said, "Now, let's get the hell out of here."
"Good idea." He nodded at her, still with that warmth in his eyes, and they both moved back to their positions. Beka felt a small smile growing in her as she resumed her place at the pilot's station, just glad to be here with Dylan and not on the Maru with Tyr…
"The Maru has just returned to its hanger," Trance was saying, satisfaction in her voice. She looked almost slyly at Beka. "It's because you wanted it there," she told the other woman.
Beka should have been surprised by that, but she wasn't. "It's nice to get what you want," she said. Would have been nicer, she thought, if she could have had the ship and Tyr both…
Rommie spoke up, then. "We've got forty-eight seconds to reach the portal," she warned them, bringing their focus back to more important matters.
"Beka," Dylan called, all controlled urgency once more, "She's all yours, and move fast—something's growing down there."
She didn't need to be told twice. She'd seen that thing as up close and personal as one could get, and even if she could barely remember or understand the experience, she still didn't want to repeat it. And yet, she couldn't pull the ship away. The black cloud was spreading across the entire surface of the planet, but the ship wouldn't respond to Beka's commands. Rommie, of course, had noticed it, too. "Force from the planet is slowing us," the dark-haired avatar announced, not offering any useful suggestions to stop the pull on the ship.
Trance stepped in, then. "Everyone," she began suddenly, voice urgent, "let go of your thoughts. Cling to nothing."
They tried. Beka closed her eyes, trying to empty her head. Something was stopping her, though, still holding her back as the ship was being held back. Whatever it was, the force was not quite strong enough for her to recognize it, and so she said nothing, did nothing. She just kept trying to empty her head, unaware that she was fighting this thing within her.
"According to my calculations," Rommie interrupted, "we're not going to make it in time."
Thanks, Rom, Beka thought tiredly. Way to cheer everyone up.
The planet was gone, now, replaced by a star field made unusual by the half-familiar, glowing blue cube that was the Route of Ages. A tiny ball of flame danced within it, spurring Beka into action. "Well," she snapped. "You're calculations are wrong. We've got to get out of here."
She didn't have to explain. The rest of them were feeling it, too. "Give it more, Harper," Rhade commanded.
"There is no more!" Harper snapped back, sounding scared.
Dylan wasn't saying anything. He was just staring at the screen, as though willing the ship to move faster. The ship jerked and spun, trying to get into the cube before the flame came after them. They jerked again, and for a moment they thought they'd made it. The ship crossed through the first blue lines, the ones that should have activated the Route of Ages taken them somewhere else, somewhere safe…
…and they didn't go anywhere at all. They were still in the same space, but now with the abyss getting closer, reaching for them. "Well, if time does exist here," Dylan muttered, "I think we just ran out of it." He sighed, sounding as grim as they all felt. "Perfect."
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Nobody knew what to say or do, how to react. They just stood there in stunned silence, listening to the small sounds of the ship's computers. Finally, though, Dylan glanced over his shoulder at Rommie. "Rommie," Dylan said, "are telling me we can't find another way out of here?" He didn't sound at all resigned to their fate, did Dylan, and Beka took some small comfort from the fact that her captain was still fighting. If Dylan hadn't given up, she knew, they still had a chance.
"According to the Route of Ages encryption," she answered calmly, "the portal on this side has never been achieved after missing the initial revolution."
Harper and Rommie were probably the only ones who understood all of that, but Dylan got the gist, at least. He turned back to glare at the screen, frustration on his face. "Great," he muttered. He glanced at Trance, obviously hoping the strange girl would have a suggestion. She only looked back at him, something the rest of them couldn't understand haunting her features. Dylan's face hardened. "Clear command," he ordered suddenly. "Everyone but Trance."
"We never get to hear the good stuff," Harper complained, but he immediately turned to leave, most of the others following without protest.
Dylan didn't react to that. "And Rommie," he added, "I want complete privacy."
Beka stared at Dylan, not as quick to depart as the others. Did the man have something up his sleeve? What would Trance have to do with it, if he did? Beka wanted to demand answers, wanted to know what the hell Dylan was up to, but she said nothing. She simply turned and walked off the bridge with everyone else, a little frustration in her eyes.
They stood in silence for a few minutes, waiting for something to happen. All of them were dying to know what Trance and Dylan were going to do, but nobody was willing to question the captain or to risk his anger by going back inside before they had permission. What was going on in there? And then the something that they were waiting for actually happened, and there wasn't really time to react. Beka felt it first, since she was the only one facing the door leading into the command center. Liquid flame started leaking through the door, melting the center and coming towards them. They threw their hands over their eyes in an automatic gesture of self-defense, but there was nothing they could do to stop what was happening. The flames washed over them, enveloping them. It was like being caught at the heart of a volcano or a small sun, but at the same time it must have been something else entirely because how did they know what the heart of a sun would feel like?
The flames danced around them, erased them and remade them, killing them at the same time that it brought them more fully to life than they had ever been. There was nothing, now, but this golden heat, but the flames of this mysterious fire, burning away their cores and leaving nothing but the purest essence of themselves.
Then there was Beka. It was different for her, because she wasn't just herself at the moment. She hadn't been, really, since Tyr had given her to the greatest enemy she would ever had. The abyss had done something to her, had left a piece of it inside her mind even though she might have thought Trance hadn't gotten rid of it when she'd called Beka back from wherever it was she'd been. The flame washed over her just as it had the others, but there was more of her to remake, now, because it had to get rid of the thing that was inside her, as well. A battle was raging inside her mind, the flame and the abyss each trying to remake her as they wished her to be. The two forces ripped through her thoughts and through her mind, the force of their opposition making her head jerk around almost hard enough to give her a concussion.
The two forces disappeared suddenly, leaving more and less of Beka then there'd been before all of this had started. The flame was gone, having won most of the battle, but Beka could feel a small bit of the abyss still inside her, sleeping until the flame let down its guard and it could creep free again. She wasn't completely aware of it, though, and while her eyes were still a little too empty, she could start looking around with the others, feeling the same confusion they were feeling. As far as she knew, the flame had done nothing more to her than it had to Harper and the rest of her crewmates. For now, until the abyss crept back out of her mind, she was the same as everyone else.
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Dylan never did explain what had happened, and Trance had never been one to give up her secrets so easily. Both of them refused to say anything at all about the events on the command center, and nobody ever knew Beka's own secret. The ship was free of the abyss, and as that was really all that mattered, things could go back to normal.
Beka tried very hard not to give herself time to think. She didn't want to examine her feelings, to remember what had happened in these last few days. She didn't want to think about Tyr. She busied herself, instead, in helping Harper repair the ship. She wasn't a mechanical genius like her friend was, but she was perfectly capable of doing some of the grunt work, leaving Harper free to concentrate on more important tasks. She spent this time as far from everyone else as she could get, avoiding human company because she knew her friends would want her to talk out her feelings. Beka knew she could talk to them, knew she could trust them with what she had done, but she just wasn't ready. Finally, though, the repairs were almost completely finished, and Beka found herself standing next to Harper, completing the last few tasks at her best friend's side.
Harper, at least, didn't seem to hold grudges. He'd completely forgiven her for running off to Tyr, even seemed to understand why she'd done it even if she didn't completely understand for herself. He spoke to her as easily as he always had, confiding in her as he might have with the sister he saw her as. "I've got to say, boss," he admitted frankly, "even breathing the same air as Tyr so as to trick him goes above and beyond the call. Let alone…"
He didn't finish, but then, he didn't have to. She tried not to sigh. "Well," she murmured, still not wanting to talk about it, still not sure how she felt, "nothing good comes without a price." A price she would probably feel for the rest of her life, one she was still trying to weigh against the results. Would it ever be worth it?
"I suppose," Harper responded. "Well, in the end, it turns out there was no good in Tyr. Kind of disappointing, really. He paid the price for it, though. For good, thanks to you. I hate to think what might have been, boss."
She chuckled humorlessly. "I saw you there," she quoted softly, sadly, slipping back into her regrets. "I saw you then. The saddest words—what might have been."
Harper was watching her, a little concern in his eyes. "So," he finally said, startling her. "Fifty-fifty? Huh? Partners, like always?"
"What?" What the hell was he talking about?
"Come on," Harper coaxed. "Come on." She just stared at him, not understanding. "Come on…King of the Nietzsheans? You must have seen Tyr's stash. His booty? He must have a hoard, I saw some of it. We can--"
She electrocuted him.
"Just kidding, okay?" he shouted, the last traces of electricity dancing through his veins. "I was kidding. Just a joke. I was joking, just joking." He paused. "Sixty-forty?"
She cocked her head at him…and electrocuted him again.
"Seventy-thirty?" Harper really didn't know when to give up.
Once more, then, with the electricity.
"Ah! Okay, okay!"
Thank God for Harper, Beka thought.