Prin69: I know what you mean: Dylan can be SUCH a man-whore! Did u see the 3rd new adomeda eppie? Rhade was so FUNNY! :P I love him I love him I love him...
Oenone: I sorry you were confused! it was a weird chappie, yeah, but It's all better now, right? I heard that there WILL be an eppie in S5 w/ Gaheris and Telemachus! (I think, it was on the official webby in the S5 spoilers if u wanna check it out!)
Iara: I continued!!
THE FINAL CHAPTER!!!!! WHOO-HOO!Chapter 17
Dylan put his head in his hands. "It's days like this I wish Rev Bem was still around to put in a kind word for us," he groaned. "Let's deal with one Rhade at a time. Andromeda, can you open the door to the Slipstream Core yet?"
"Negative," Andromeda's hologram responded, appearing next to Rommie.
"Rhade wired the door," Rommie added. "If we try to open it, it will explode with enough force to destroy me."
"I'll get him," Terla said. "But I'll have to move fast. The portal is becoming unstable." With that she morphed into a large, dark creature with wings and flew through.
The 'viewscreen' Terla had cast upon the wall disappeared with a POP! and the portal wavered and flickered, obviously disintegrating. Beka watched it nervously, hoping Terla would get Telemachus out in time.
Suddenly the dark thing with wings burst out of the portal, carrying Telemachus in its talons. Terla set him down gently, morphing into Liara.
Trance knelt next to the unconscious Nietzschean. "No broken bone, cuts... but his system is acting like he suffered from a massive electrical shock."
"How is that possible?" Dylan asked.
"Gaheris cured the indoctrination," Trance replied.
"We don't know that it's Gaheris," Beka said. "It could be... I dunno, a hologram or something, right Trance?" No response. "Trance?" Beka asked again, slower and giving Trance the what-do-you-know-that-you're-not-telling-the-rest-of-us look.
"We have to get Rhade to Med-Deck," Trance said, standing up hurriedly and wiping her hands on her pants.
Harper gave Trance the same look Beka had given her. "Trance, you've got that look again. What do you know that we don't?"
Trance shrugged one shoulder. "I'm going to prep the Med-Deck," she said, quickly walking away as two of Andromeda's worker 'bots walked up with a stretcher.
Beka looked quizzically at Dylan, but all she got in response was a helpless shrug.
----------
Rommie and Trance stood with Terla on board the Rose. The doppelganger was in her form as Liara, and she was prepping for takeoff.
"You're sure you want to leave?" Trance asked, handing Liara some tool.
"I'm gonna go to Pierpont Drift," Terla responded, sitting in the pilot's chair. "Run myself a semi-honest business. It was nice to be working with you guys for once, instead of against."
"Maybe we should do it again sometime," Rommie said.
Terla smiled. "Count on it. I'll see you guys around, hopefully."
Rommie and Trance left, and Terla sealed the door behind them, taking off as soon as Rommie and Trance had left the docking bay. As soon as Andromeda opened the Hanger doors, Terla took off, roaring out and almost immediately jumping into Slipstream.
---------
Dylan, Beka, and Harper were standing over the bed Telemachus was on in the Med Bay.
"Will he be ok?" Beka asked, looking down at the Nietzschean.
Dylan shrugged. "Trance says physically he'll recover. Mentally..." he trailed off.
"What if he's, you know, still brainwashed?" Harper asked. "What'd we do then?"
"One problem at a time," Dylan said. "Hopefully Rhade'll recover. If not..."
"If not what?" Telemachus asked hoarsely, sitting up stiffly.
Harper had that guilty look one gets when you're caught talking behind someone's back. "So... are we still traitors?" he asked.
Telemachus put his head in his hands. "No, but I am. I betrayed all of you, much like my ancestor did three hundred years ago." He looked up at Dylan. "Sir, I request permission to resign."
"Permission denied," Dylan said calmly. "Welcome back, Rhade. Just... don't do it again."
"What was that- I mean, was it a hologram?" Telemachus asked.
"Wasn't a hologram," Harper replied. "I analyzed the data."
"So we have the ghost of Gaheris Rhade on board," Beka said. "Now that's just great."
"Well, I'm gonna see if I can unwire the Slipstream core," Harper said. "'S good to have you back, Rhade." He clapped Telemachus on the shoulder and left.
Dylan sighed. "I have to talk to Trance about this... ghost thing." He left, leaving Beka alone with Telemachus.
---------
Dylan sat in the chair behind the desk in his quarters, Trance standing in front of him. "How long has Gaheris Rhade been aboard this ship?" Dylan asked finally.
"Almost four years now," Trance replied. "Starting from when you killed him up to five seconds ago."
"How do you know this?" Dylan asked.
"I had to send him to his death," Trance said sadly. "He had to die so that you could live and form the perfect possible future."
"What are you talking about?" Dylan demanded, deeply disturbed.
Trance proceeded to explain about how Gaheris had originally killed Dylan and then been stuck at Haephestus. She finished up by saying: "When I told him how badly things would go wrong, he knew what he had to do. I sent him back to Haephestus, and he let you kill him. I'm not surprised that he, after being Captain of this ship and serving with the crew for almost two years, that he decided to remain behind and see if everything worked out."
"So why hasn't he shown himself before?" Dylan asked, leaning back in his chair.
Trance shrugged. "Most likely he could not." She paused. "I think I will go check on the other Rhade in the Med Bay." She left quickly, leaving Dylan sitting in his chair.
Dylan sat for a while, thinking. "Andromeda," he said finally. "Engage privacy mode."
"Are you sure?" Andromeda asked.
"Just do it."
"Privacy mode engaged," she said, obviously not happy about it.
Dylan got up and sat at the Go board. Feeling rather stupid, he directed a question at the empty air. "Gaheris, are you there?"
A beat, then two, and nothing happened.
Then, a Nietzschean in a red and beige uniform walked through the closed door and sat across from Dylan at the Go board.
"Another round?" Gaheris asked calmly, carefully studying Dylan's reaction.
Dylan was speechless.
To be continued...
A/N: That's all, folks! Now, I'm thinking of doing a sequel called 'Ghosts of the Past' but I think I might do my other fanfic first. It'll be about Telemachus in Season 5 for the 9 months he was on Tarn Vedra before Dylan got there. So, I don't know which one I'll do first. Probably the S5 fanfic. Does anybody even read these authors notes? Well, if anyone IS reading this, I wanna thank my Beta readers at skool, Samantha, Erin, Sam, Casey, and Colleen. If I forgot anyone, please don't hurt me! I also wanna thank everyone whose reviewed Omega Blue, and I'm too lazy to type the whole damn list. So, review me and send ideas for either my S5 fanfic or Ghosts of the Past! I LOVE REVIEWS!! If you wanna e-mail me, it's MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE SUBJECT AS :Hey, Meg, it's me!: OR SOMETHING!!!! THEN TELL me you're from in the message. :sigh: It's no fun being thirteen. if u wanna find out why that has to be the subject, read my bio. THANX Y'ALL!