Disclaimer: No, no, no, no, I do not own Andromeda, darn it!

Harper's past and present will collide, bringing with it pain, anger, and something more. I did as much research as I could into Harper's life on earth, gathering the bits and pieces of it mentioned here and there.This story is myown personal rendition of Harper's past and what it might have been life.So of course there is much artistic liscensing involved.

Retribution

Ch. 1

5 years old

Eli Harper sloughed through the sticky mud that was supposed to be the path. He adjusted the grimy, foul-smelling sack over onto his other shoulder, just as he slipped. He reached out and caught hold of a bent branch that nearly gave way even under his meager weight. He pulled, the branch cracking and snapping, reminding him in a sickening sort of way of how his own bones tended to be. When he was righted, he continued trudging through the mud toward the cluster of ramshackle hovels in the clearing of the gray forest.

Eli took a long, deep breath of air made fetid by garbage, mud and rain that would not go away. He entered the cluster of homes that from a distance always appeared more like a garbage heap. But the more like a garbage heap it was, the better, since the Dragans tended to overlook those.

He made his way around the houses of metal planks and cloth to the middle-most hut. Adjusting his sack once again, he pulled the rusting door made of several layers of sheet metal. It whined open, and Eli entered wearing a triumphant smile and with arms spread wide.

" Trust in the Harper, the Harper is good," he announced, dropping the sack with a wet thud on themetal floor. He was standing in the living room/kitchen, with the table and crude sink/oven on his right, and a couch made up of the piece of some ship and many moldy pillows on the left.

Cassie Harper was standing at the metal tub that acted as the sink, which connected to a messy iron box that was supposed to be the oven and stove. Cassie turned on hearing her husband's voice, wiping her hands on her stained shirt then leaning back against the sink.

Eli looked her over lovingly. To him, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Small, but wiry, with cropped blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Eli was her opposite in a way. He was tall, with sandy hair that was even more cropped than his wife's. He was also taller by half a foot, which Cassie liked to joke on how unnatural it seemed. But it could not have been that unnatural since every uber always towered over him.

" I always do, babe," she said to him. " So what'd you bring?"

Eli picked up the sack and tossed it to her. She opened it and quirked an eyebrow. " Oh, five rats and some kind of bird. Good haul, hon."

Eli wiped his wet hands on the sides of his tattered jacket. He then removed his goggles from around his neck and tossed them on the table. " You bet. See? Didn't I say coming out to the country was a good idea? Food as far as the eye can see, and not an over-sized uber to butt into our business and make off with our kids. Speaking of rug-rats, where's ours?"

" He's…" Cassie began as she dumped the dead rats on the table. Just then, a small, thin bundle of energy came tearing out of the short hallway leading to the bedrooms.

" Dad!" the boy shrieked, taking a flying leap into his father's arms. Eli lifted the little boy with his mess of blond hair into the air.

" Seamus! How's the runt?"

" Dad, dad, dad, uncle Ike found a generator and showed me how to fix it but then I started coughing bad and…"

Eli lowered his son, dread suddenly taking hold of his heart and squeezing it. He looked over at Cassie questioningly.

" Coughing?"

Cassie's features betrayed worry, and she lifted her shoulder in a helpless shrug.

" It wasn't like last time. And he's supposed to be resting," she added, giving Seamus a meaningful look. Seamus groaned.

" I don't want to, it's boring."

Eli set his small, light son on the floor. " Do what your ma tells you, kid. Go take a nap and I promise I'll let you go see Ike fix the generator."

Seamus beamed then hurried back to his room. Eli watched him go with a mixture of pride and sadness. Seamus was such a pale, frail looking little guy that Eli was still amazed he had survived as long as he had. It was always a milestone when a child survived to his fifth birthday, but that did not mean they were out of the woods yet. Eli was just glad they weren't living in any of the uber refugee camps. Illness was one thing, but illness combined with the abuse a neitzchean could dish out…

Eli looked away to the pile of dead rats. He didn't like thinking on such matters. Seamus was safe out here beyond the confines of the camps. They all were.

Cassie walked over to her husband, placing her thin arms around his narrow waist and hugging him tightly as though in fear she might lose him.

" He'll be all right," she said, resting her chin on Eli's bony shoulder. " He's small, but he's strong. Trust in the Harper, remember?"

Eli grinned, taking his wife's hands and squeezing them. Then Cassie released Eli and went over to the table to ready their dinner. " I hope you don't mind, but I want to give two of these to Ike and his family. They haven't had much luck."

Eli moved over to the couch and dropped himself into the dusty cushions. " No problem babe. Actually, give them three. I've been needing to pay your brother back for that heating device he made us."

Cassie sighed. " Okay, but he said you didn't have to." Cassie tossed two of the rats and the bird into the sink to wash them. " Patrol ships flew by this afternoon. Five of them this time. Think anything's going on?"

Eli scratched the back of his head. I'm getting lice again, he thought, though he highly doubted he had gotten rid of the last bunch. "Yeah, I saw them too. Maybe some Jaguars are raiding them. I really don't care as long as they don't land here."

Eli had to pride himself in how well he hid his worry.

AAAAAAAAAAA

Seamus was bored, too bored to even sleep. So he stood up on his bed of blankets to peer out the dingy window at the children playing in the mud. Brenden was there, playing with their older twin cousins Dashel and Dan. Both boys were sixteen, and funny to no end. They were covered in rags, pretending to be Magog chasing down the rest of the kids. The younger kids would move in close, trying to touch them, and the twins would lurch at them, causing them to squeal in delight.

It was torture watching them play, and Seamus started jumping on his bed, trying to quell the desire to slip out the window and join them. Soon, he could take no more, and pounded on his window to get everyone's attention.

The twins took notice and stalked up to the window. Seamus had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud and getting caught. Brenden also ran over to join them, and began jumping up and down, making faces at Seamus. Seamus made faces back, sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes. Brenden nearly fell to the ground in hysterics. He was grabbed from behind by Dan, who lifted Brenden and spun him around. It was all so much fun that Seamus suddenly despised his own lungs for feeling heavy and itchy.

Suddenly, the air was rent by the distant blare of alarms. Everyone stopped as though frozen, until each head turned in the direction the sound was coming from. Time held for a moment, and no one moved. Then, all at once, chaos exploded into being. Parents ran from their hovels to snatch up their children and bundle them off inside. The twins dropped their rags and hurried inside only to come out moments later carrying weapons. Brenden vanished, having been snatched away by his own mother.

Seamus watched, momentarily mesmerized, when he felt himself suddenly lifted away by his own mom. Fear welled in Seamus' small chest. He had not heard those alarms before, but he knew what they meant. His parents had told him about them. He clung to his mother and began to whimper nervously.

" It's okay, Seamus, everything will be all right," his mother assured in a voice cracked by terror. Seamus could feel her heart pounding, matching in time with his. She carried him from his room and down the small corridor into the front room. Eli was there, waiting at the door with a gauze rifle in hand. He tossed a blaster to Cassie, and the little family stood by the door in wait.

Both parents' breaths came and went quickly. Seamus buried his face in his mother's shoulder.

" Do you think they'll come this time?" Cassie asked.

" I don't know. Last time there was only one ship. Maybe it'll be the same now. Maybe they won't come at all."

The alarms kept sounding like the cry of a dying animal, but the village had gone completely silent. Seamus looked up for a moment to see his father looking out the window, watching with held breath. Suddenly, he tensed.

There came a high-pitched wail, louder than the alarms. Cassie's hold on Seamus became so tight he could hardly breathe, and he felt his mother's body shudder. Her breath came and went in gasping, fitful sobs.

" Oh no, no, no, no…"

The cries came closer, louder, each burrowing into Seamus' brain, feeding off his terror to grow into something large and unstoppable. He trembled and began to sob as well. They say when the cries came, so did the monsters.

Blaster fire erupted, and human cries mingled with monster cries.

" Stay here! Keep Seamus safe!" Eli said, and bolted out the door. Cassie's sobbing became all consuming, and she moved away from the door, backing down the hall to the bedroom.

Cassie set Harper on the bed, then stood by the door with her blaster at the ready. Outside the cries were deafening, and curiosity overcame Seamus' fear. He moved to the window by the bed and peered out.

What he saw made his eyes widen in both wonder and horror. The air lit up with the beams of blasters. Large, fur-covered bodies darted this way and that, too fast for Seamus to see. A man ran by, not his father, but a relative all the same. Suddenly, two hairy forms leaped out of nowhere to pounce on the man, and Seamus saw them for the first time. Claws made glistening with blood lifted to tear into the man as he lay screaming. One of the creatures lifted its bloodied head to howl its triumph, bearing rows of small, jagged teeth.

Just then, one of the terrible faces eclipsed the window, snarling and bearing its teeth. Seamus shrieked and fell back, trying to scramble away. Cassie heard her son's cry and turned, blasting the creature away and shattering the glass. She then hurried over to Seamus, lifting him up then dropping to the floor to push him beneath the bed.

" Stay there!" she said with terrified urgency. Seamus nodded, tears burning his eyes; his heart beating so fast he could barely breathe. Were these the monsters? Were these the beasts in the stories everyone told, in the games the twins played? Were these the things that his parents spoke of, and that made his mother cry when they did?

Seamus wanted to wake up, believing that he was in a nightmare. He covered his ears with his hands, trying to stifle out the shrieks, wails, and screams of terrible agony. Then he heard a scream above all other screams, his mother's scream.

Seamus' heart seemed to stop. He moved forward, just a little so he could see if she was all right. She was still there by the door, her face white, a perfect mask of terror. She was firing the blaster down the hall, then began to back slowly into the room, continuing to fire. Great shaggy bodies tried to poor into the room, but were killed one by one by the gun. Then one pounced on his mother, driving her back, only to receive a shot in the face.

It had created a distraction though, and two more entered. One went for his mother, who drove it back with a well-rounded kick. The other fell to all fours, moving to the bed. It's ugly face filled Seamus' vision, his entire mind, blocking out all else. All he saw was the terrible face with its sharp, bloody teeth and vicious leer. The wickedly curved claws reached out to Seamus, and he screamed. He tried to scramble back but the creature had him by the arm and was yanking him forward. Seamus tried to pull back, then felt terrible pain shoot through his arm and enter his body. He screamed again. The creature spit a strange, burning liquid into his face, and Seamus went limp, unable to move.

He was still aware though, aware of the creature pulling him out, only to go limp itself. His mother's face then replaced the terrible face of the Magog. She was sobbing, screaming, but the sounds were muffled echoes to him, like dream sounds. She reached for him, pulling him out to gather his paralyzed frame into her chest. She held him tightly, rocking back and forth, crying a storm. Seamus felt her hot tears on his cheek but could not move. He felt very tired and wanted to seep, but feared sleep. He could still hear the monsters.

His mother screamed again, but this time it was a scream of rage. Seamus felt himself lifted up, heard distantly the screams of the Magog as they died. Then darkness covered his vision, the face of the monster hovering in his mind, waiting, never to leave.

AAAAAAAAAAAA

They were dead. The twins were dead. They had to die, Seamus' mother said. The monsters had made them sick, they had put their eggs into them. They were shot just as the baby Magog were emerging. Harper had seen it, though he could not move yet. His mother was still holding him as she stood with others, watching helplessly the twins' suffering. The twins were in so much pain, writhing and crying in agony, begging to be killed. Uncle Silus, Eli's brother, had done it since Cody, his sister's husband, could not.

When Seamus was able to move again, the first thing he did was cry. He cried until it hurt, until he ran out of tears. His mother was with him, holding him, rocking him back and forth. She was humming him a song, trying to sooth him, but he could not be soothed. When he closed his eyes he saw the monster, he felt the pain when it broke his thin arm, and the pain when it spat the liquid in his face. He still heard the screams, and the pleas of his cousins. It all hurt so much that he wished he could wake up. This had to be a dream; it was too terrible to be anything else.

" We were lucky this time," he heard his father say, his voice husky and hoarse. Seamus sniffed and shuddered. His mother rubbed his small back.

" We can't," his mother said, sniffing as well.

" Two Magog ships, Cassie. Two. We lost so many. The twins, Cal, Emily, Marcus, Jack, Meg, and Stephen. We almost lost Seamus."

Cassie wept, and Seamus felt more of her tears drop onto his neck. " They'll hurt him," she gasped, holding Seamus tightly.

" But he might have a better chance of surviving."

" They'll take him away," Cassie countered.

" Cassie, we don't have a choice. We tried, we almost made it, but the Magog are coming more and more. We won't survive out here. None of us will."

So it was that they left, leaving what was the dream, and entering a new nightmare.