Title: Left Turn at Albuquerque
Author: Harper's aka Weird_Peace
Rating: PG-13
Synopsis: Sequel to And You Thought Larvae Were Bad and Effervescent Essence. I highly suggest you read the previous fictions.
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, but I love 'em anyways.
Spoilers: All around.

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This was going to be hell. Trance looked at the doors to the Command Deck. The hardest part was out of the way, but telling the others wasn't going to be...what was the term? As easy as pie - that was it. Trance allowed a fleeting smile before biting down on her lip. The golden warrior pulled together every bit of confidence she owned and strode through the doors. Beka, Dylan, and Rev turned to look at her with bright smiles while Tyr just ignored her. But the Nietzschean finally looked up upon noticing nobody was speaking. Dylan and Beka had lost their smiles at the look on Trance's face.

Harper apparently hadn't said anything yet, but this only mildly surprised Trance. Either he was still too upset, or he was going to leave the pixie to her punishment. The two of them avoiding each other wouldn't have caused much of a stir; it happened so often now with their tense relationship always on and off like the lights of the ship. But both Harper and Trance knew someone would have to explain this time around. The crew would definitely question a missing baby.

"What's up Trance?" Beka was the first to speak up. She was gentle if not a bit concerned, and at that moment, Trance wished that she could once again be the innocent little purple girl whom everyone treated like a child. Harper, Beka, Rev, and her would be in the Maru's sleeping quarters. She could sit back and listen in as Harper and Beka reminisced about their past, occasionally breaking out in a pillow or food fight as one teased the other. Rev would laugh at this and correct Harper when he would make mistakes or share piece of insight with them. It would be the cozy, happy family she had missed so much.

Instead Trance was here on the Command Deck of the Andromeda an Ascendant, ominous warrior woman out of place among these souls bound together by destiny. The only past she would talk about was that of which happened a few minutes before, and this past would bring no laughter or comfort.

"I've given Owen to my family," she said bluntly. It seemed time slowed until it almost stopped as the others stared at her in shock.

"You…you what?" Dylan shook his head as if to deny what he had just heard.

"In order for Owen to learn the ways of my people and be fully accepted by them, he must abide by their rules for the first sixty years of his life..." Trance stopped as her voice began to waver. She took a few seconds to regain her composure. "Two years will pass in this realm of existence, but when Owen returns, he will be a full adult."

"And Harper was ok with this?" Beka asked a little disbelieving. Rev and Tyr stared at Trance, both already knowing the answer.

"I..." Trance looked down, finally showing shame. "I didn't tell him before I gave up Owen," she whispered.

Dylan and Beka stood in stunned silence while Rev regarded Trance with partial sympathy and part disdain. Tyr marched quickly towards her making Trance back away a little. Sure, she could take the Nietzschean, but it didn't mean she wanted to engage in a fight with him. Tyr's eyes flickered towards her hand, which was trailing down near her weapons.

"Don't flatter yourself," he growled, striding right past her and off Command. Trance watched him go before returning to the others. Rommie still hadn't made her presence known, though Trance was sure she was listening.

"How could you Trance?" Beka asked, the tears apparent in her eyes.

"Beka..." she started.

"No. Just listen. No talking right now." Beka looked absolutely determined to have her say. "I took you onboard my ship because I thought you could handle the job I set up for you. And you know what Trance? You did. And the best part was, that not only did you become our EMS officer, but you became our little sister as well...our friend! What ever happened to you Trance?" Beka studied Trance as if there was some part of the other girl she couldn't see but had to be there, and upon discovery of this hidden piece of the puzzle, she could rearrange the pixie in the form she wanted.

"To tell you the truth, Beka," Trance replied softly, looking up at her friend with honesty in her eyes, "I'm not sure myself."

Beka remained there as she tried to decide which emotion she should display. Finally, something near annoyance crossed with a mix of confusion and anger settled upon her features, and she stalked off the deck after Tyr. Trance stood where she had started out with, waiting for Dylan and Rev to go as well as Rommie if the ship ever decided to have her say. Both remained silent and still, waiting Trance out. The normally patient pixie could no longer take it.

"Yell at me already!" she cried out at them.

"Why do you feel you need to be yelled at?" Rev finally asked. "Certainly you do not need to be punished if what you did was right."

"But what I did was wrong!" Trance frowned, frustrated. All the others had made that point all too clear.

"Then why do it?" Rev inquired. Trance blinked, taken aback even more by this otherwise simple question than anything Harper had said to her before.

"I...giving up Owen wasn't wrong," she finally decided after careful thought. "I had to for his betterment."

"Trance," the priest slowly approached her. "I have found that in all my years of study, people are more truthful when they do not have time to twist their words." Trance started up, but he stopped her. "I just wonder if it was you who truly wanted to give Owen up."

With that he left her to Dylan.

"It's not that you turned Owen over to your family," the captain finally told her. "I think we all understand that you would only do what's best for your child. The problem," Dylan continued, pushing off from one of the consuls, "is that you didn't talk to anyone of us about it, not even Harper."

"He would have protested."

"Don't you think he had the right to?" Dylan raised his hands in mock surrender. "I am not going to get in the middle of this unless it affects the efficiency aboard this ship. I think this is something best left up to you and Harper, and I guess whoever else wants to get involved. We all make mistakes, Trance. In the past, you've had...unique ways of fixing those mistakes."

"I can't fix this by messing with time," she scolded. Dylan nodded.

"Might I dare suggest that you then try a more...human approach?" Dylan smiled as if it might have been the last joke he would ever tell and then turned back to his consul, being the only one left on Command to watch over the ship. Trance decided that Rommie was going to punish her with the silent treatment, and instead left to return to her quarters.

She had some thinking to do.