Title: Core of all Lies
Summary:
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine, want them, but not mine!
Authors Notes: Dang, sorry for the short chapter guys o.o I was planning on writting loads more for this chapter, but don't have the time today or probably tommorow. Thankyou so much, everyone, for reviewing! :3 They really help me and are so encouraging! :)
Harper's mind was so fogged. He couldn't think straight, he couldn't see straight and could barley stay conscious. How he actually managed to stay conscious was beyond him. But at the moment and with the pain he was feeling he found himself wishing so much to be. At least then he wouldn't feel like a he'd just fallen into the slipstream core.
Footsteps managed to echo into his subconscious and he tried to force his eyes open. Darkness greeted him and for a fleeting moment fear that he had gone blind flew through him, but he dismissed it when seeing signs of movement beside him. He squinted, trying to make out the hazy figures. Even if the halls had been filled with light he wouldn't have been able to see them clearly. His head just hurt to much and his eyes didn't seem to want to cooperate with him.
From somewhere in the back of his mind a sence of danger pricked through him and struggled even harder in clearing his mind. He heard voices, and strained to understand them.
"Take her back to the ship, it shouldn't be hard to find the other kludge." A gruff and smug voice said. He tensed, feeling his ragged breathing pause in horror. Crap how he recognized that voice. His head continued to swim as he tried desperatly and instictivley to get away from where the voice had come from. He found there was no possible way he could get to his feet so resorted to trying to drag himself across the ground. The action caused pain to run up and down his entire body and he couldn't surpress the hiss of pain that escaped his lips. The movement behind him stopped and the Neits stopped talking. Harper froze. Crap, he was such an idiot. He tried to hold his breath, but found he couldn't even manage this without braking into a fit of coughs. Why did life hate him so much?
The footsteps neared him and he again struggled to try and get to his feet, praying that they would hold them. He had no such luck and collapsed to the floor with a thud. His body shuddered again in pain, nearly taking him into oblivion. The footsteps neared even closer and before he knew it someone had grabbed him by his shirt and yanked him up to his feet. Again his feet refused to hold him, though they didn't have to with the Neit's strong hand clasped tightly on his shirt.
"Look what we have here? The kludge." He said smugly. Harper again tried to focus his gaze, but couldn't even tell if one or ten Neitchians were before him. He knew the voice though, and that was enough for him.
"Screw you." He hissed out through gritted and bloody teeth. The Neit raised his arm, fully intending on bringing it down on Harper. Harper turned his head, waiting the blow, but it never came. He cautiously returned his gaze to the hazy Neit.
"What did this crew do to you kludge?" The Neit asked with a laugh. "And to think how long you had been trying to get to them, only to end up like this." He continued. Harper felt the anger errupt within him and he struggled, however futile, with his captor. That only brought another laugh from him. "Bring him back to the ship. Tell Kavalsk we finally have him." He instructed, throwing Harper to the ground behind him. He couldn't stop the strangled cry that came from his mouth as he impacted the hard floor. The world spun violently, and he almost lost his lunch on the spot, but someone managed to hold it in. Another Neit grabbed him, lifting him by his hair this time. Crap he hated Neitchains.
"Andromeda! Andromeda answer me!" Dylan ordered to the ship as he worked feverishly at the panel before him. His nose had nearly stopped bleeding, but yet he occansionally had to mop it with his already bloody shirt. When no responce came he swore under his breath. Great, the Neitchains were on board, Trish and the clone Harper worked for the Abyss, and there was nothing he could do to stop any havoc that would come. He knew he would've been able to if Andromeda hadn't been weakened so much over the years. Only when Harper had died did Dylan realize just how much they needed him. Sure, they had gotten plenty of engineers to work on Andromeda when she was broken, but their repairs weren't as quick or efficent as Harper's. And he was constantly upgrading Andromeda's systems before. Without him that never happened. He kept them alive, up to date, without him they had been weak and valnurable. "Andromeda?" He tried again as he connected two wires together. Only silence responded to him and Dylan heaved an irritable sigh. "It's never easy." He muttered under his breath.
Harper could barley register the fact they were moving. The Neit was roughly dragging him through the halls toward the Docking Bay. Through his hazed and tired mind he still tried to understand why he was still conscious. 'Maybe it's just my lucky day.' He thought sourley. He heared the swoosh of the doors open as they approuched, but didn't have the strength to look up. Instead he kept his eyes on the blurred and dark floor beneath him. A yell suddenly issued through the halls, accompinied by footsteps clattering against the floor. Harper thought he recognized the voice, but couldn't be sure. The yell came again, though again he could not make out the words. His brain was too tired to think.
Gun fire rang out, though he had no chance to listen to the battle for he found himself in the docking bay, being carried by one of the Neits. The yell rang out again, desperate almost. He didn't want to think about who it was or what they were saying though. He didn't want to have to think. He was too tired. More gunfire, flashes and blurs of bullets flying past him. He remembered seeing the blurred outline of a ship, but never actually could recall them boarding it. There were frantic and urgent yells bouncing off the walls and he was abandoned on the floor. He could see the outline of figures darting past him and could hear the thrusters start up as the final Neit boarded. He even could remember the ship lifting, shooting out into outerspace and even through his weak state he knew that he was in trouble. That thought accompinied him as the blurred figures grew into black blobs, fading into darkness and their yells became merley whispers buzzing in his head. Finally, finally uncoinciousness greated him and he embraced it willingly.
Beka ran through the halls, her footsteps clattering behind her. The walls around her were merley a blur of colors as she ran past them. Everything was so hectic, she wasn't even sure how she'd managed to get this far without trying to force sence into the matter. But she didn't need sence right now. She needed Harper to live. She needed him to be alright. That was the only thought in her mind. Please let him be alive.
"Beka! Beka, please tell me what's going on!" Trance begged as she ran at her heals. She couldn't explain it all just yet, though. She couldn't bring herself to what had happened, couldn't deal with it. She couldn't deal with the fact she had shot Harper. The real one. "Beka!" Trance said, reaching out to grab her shoulder. Beka pulled away with a jerk, that nearly sent Trance to the ground and continued on. She took no notice to that, though. Why didn't she remember Harper being so far from Medical?
Trance was at her heals again and Beka rounded a corner to where she had left him, but stopped dead in her tracks. A hall of darkness greeted them instead of the red glow of Andromeda's lights.
"What happened?" Trance asked softly after a moment. Beka swallowed, before venturing into the darkness, her worried and frantic eyes sweeping over the walls for any sign of Harper. He had to be there, it's where she left him. He couldn't have moved on his own. She stopped suddenly, her eyes falling at the place she had left him. Her stomach twisted into sick knots of worry and nausia as she saw the great amount of blood at the wall. Trance followed beside her, her eyes widening when seeing the long trails of blood splashed onto the ground. Where was he? What had happened?! Panicked thoughts raced through her mind as her eyes darted across the walls, hoping she'd find sign of him. Nothing. Worry consumed her now, and in some effort of releasing it she called out his name, desperatly hoping for some kind of responce.
"Harper! HARPER!" She cried, moving down the hall.
"Beka!" Trance again said, rushing toward her. Beka blinked back more tears, feeling the ever present knot in her throat grow.
"Please answer me." She pleaded, picking up her pace.
"Beka, stop." Trance begged in almost a sob, frantic worry pouring into her voice as she spoke. Stop? Why the heck would she?! Not when Harper was so hurt. Not when she was the cause of it.
"HARPER!" She yelled desperatly, cupping her hands over her mouth. Without warning a wave of bullets flew at them, ringing throughout the halls. She instictivley threw herself to the ground and the bullets shaved over her. Once down she reached to her side for her gun, but froze when realizing it was gone. She had abandoned it in Harper's room. She swallowed, refusing to let another wave of tears fall from her and instead looked back to Trance. Her breath caught in her throat. Trance had been hit. She lay unconcious on the floor, her still form limp and devoid of life. This had happened dozens of times over the years, but it never made the shock of it fade away. She swallowed, scrambling toward her friend. She knew she'd be alright, and knew couldn't stay with her. Harper needed her right now, and she'd die before letting him down one more time.
She grabbed Trance's gun from her holster, and got to her feet, staying close to the walls in order to dodge the bullets. She heard voices, gruff, yelling in the distance and a sound of a door opening and closing. The firing suddenly ceased, though all was not silent. She still heard them beyond the door and found herself racing toward it. It was the Docking Bay. Without hesitation she charged into the room, firing out madly to the first people she saw. Luckily they were Neitchains and not one of her crew mates. Gun fire again rang about her and by some miracle she was managing to dodge what they through at her. Her eyes widened in horror as she spotted Harper's limp body being carried toward a large ship sitting in the center of the room. She would've thought he was unconcious, but she could make out his blue eyes. It seemed to be the only thing that wasn't stained with grime and blood. Furry suddenly arose like a blazing fire within her and she fired madly toward them once more.
"HARPER!" She cried desperatly, her teeth gritted and her eyes fixed on them. She hadn't even been sure she had been the one to yell it, but it made no difference right now. She didn't know what happened next. It felt like a spear had passed clean through her chest, eating her flesh away in a furious blow of fire. She doubled over with a cry of pain, feeling the blood splash down her hands and body, spilling to the ground. With one look of horror up to a blurred Neitchain that strode slowly toward her, she fell to the ground, landing in her own puddle of blood, gasping for air. Her world was quickly fading into a sea of darkness and a shadow suddenly fell across her. Her last thoughts were of how she had again failed Harper before she was dragged under the ocean of abyss.
"We should bring her to the ship." Bolthzar suggested, nodding with disgust to the kludge next to him. His fellow Neitchain beside him shook his head, glaring at him.
"You know the plan. Captain Hunt will be least likley to come after us if he thinks we have a clone and not the real one." He reminded him gruffly.
"You heard her. Even after all those clones she believes the kludge is the real one." He snapped. "And she'll force the captain to come after us, or come herself." He seemed to consider this, his eyes falling onto the pale woman below them.
"Fine. Bring her." He growled, before turning and heading toward their ship.
The first thing she realized as she drifted to conciousness was the throbbing pain in her shoulder and taste of blood in her mouth. She let out a soft moan of discomfort at it. The black hazyness around her was comforting, but somehow she knew she needed to wake up, though didn't know how. Though she was exhausted, she still struggled to remember what had happened. Suddenly it all came to her and she snapped her eyes open and ushered his name breathlessly.
"Harper." Her eyes darted frantically around the room and she realized she was in some type of cell. Thick bars towered before her, casting their shadow onto her panicked form. Three metalic, redish walls surounded her and she could also see another cell at the wall across from hers, but couldn't be sure if anyone was in it. She cursed allowed and struggled to her feet, clasping her shoulder irritabley. It was no longer bleeding, though a thick crisp layer of blood caked her shoulder and not to mention the fact it was also dislocated. Again, another one of her minor powers was she could heal a bit faster than normal humans, but only a bit. With the thought of her shoulder in mind she reluctantly headed to the wall beside her and took a deep breath, before biting down on her teeth. She had known she'd have to do this sooner or later, but hadn't wanted to think too much on it. With a load and sickning snap, a loud cry and a pain that blinded her, she felt her shoulder snap back into place. She collapsed to the floor as darkness threatened to over take her, but took deep breaths and fought against it in an effort to prevent it from engulfing her. Her struggled against unconciousness was fruitless once again and she found herself sinking deeper and deeper within the blackness that called her.
Dylan watched them leave through the view screen and was almost relieved. He had been so sure they would do more damage than what they had come to do, maybe even take over Andromeda, for they had been helpless against their attack. For some reason they didn't, and it was puzziling Dylan to why. Dylan watched as the ship as it suddenly went into slipstream, disapeering into the blue strings that grabbed out at it and let out a sigh, returning his gaze to the panel before him. There was a moment where he was contemplating on continuing to try and fix Andromeda, but he realized that he would have to make sure the crew was all alright. He took his force lance from it's holster and headed out the door, hoping everyone was alright. Unfortunatley he would find it to be nearly the opposite of his hopes and assurances and would end up in a worse situation then the one he was currently in.
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Dang, such a short chapter X.x Sorry 'bout that, but I'm betting on being pretty busy this week and figured I'd post this up today, short and confuzling or not -.- Anyways, please keep the reviews coming guys, the more there are, the more it helps me write!! ;3 Thanks to everyone who already reviewed, it's seriously helped! :3 -gives everyone who reviewed lots of chocolates- :D