TITLE: The Unintended

NOTES: Woohoo, you guys just beat my previous review record! Not that I'm, uh, fickle about these things or anything...hehe. I tried to upload yesterday but the site was down or somat so here's chapter nineteen :) And I promise I won't leave it too long for the next one.

CHAPTER NINETEEN Fall

"Friends are lost and he is broken

He cannot hear their calls

There is no-one there to catch him

All he can do is fall."

Ibsian poem

Harper found a sufficient hiding place. As he lie in wait, he noticed his hand was still seeping blood from where Rylisa and dug her thumb into the wound. He had lost his bandages then too. It crossed his mind that since the virus that was rampaging within him was passed on by the blood, it was just as well everyone he had come into contact with was dead - or going to be.

They were moving along the corridor quietly and didn't know they were being watched. And how could they? Harper didn't need his eyes to see them.

"If it is just one little runt, why would Rylisa send us all to kill him?"

"He's got the virus. We don't know what he can do."

"Quiet. He might be hiding somewhere."

Rylisa watched silently from Command as the lambs walked willfully to the slaughter. And a slaughter it was. Harper jumped down from above them and took them by surprise. A few shots were fired but they did no good. It was over within minutes. Their screams were heard throughout the ship and run within Rylisa's ears. At that point she knew there was no choice.

"Give me shipwide," she ordered. A communication channel opened. "This is Rylisa. Evacuate the ship immediately and dock with The Barbell. Last escape pod hold for me."

The others in Command looked as if she had gone mad and truth be told she wasn't far from it.

Harper revelled in the bloodbath he had created. It felt like he was catching up on all the time he had wished a Nietzschean dead, finally getting retribution for a lifetime of horror caused by the race - and he was loving every minute.

Harper had heard the order to evacuate and was highly amused by it. He had them running scared and it felt good. He made his way through the ship, heading for Command. Anyone who got in his way regretted it for all the four seconds they remained alive. With every kill his power lust grew until he finally made it to Command, where the sweetest kill of all was waiting.

Instead of barging in, Harper hesitated. He remembered his vision. Rylisa was on her own, the others in the room were dead, but how? He decided to check out the room before he went in. He focused on leaving his body and seeing through the doors. The room was still full. Rylisa was there with seven or so lackeys.

Harper returned to his body. He would have to get rid of them before he went in. That was what his vision had told him, and that is what had to happen. He smiled as a plan popped into his head.

Rylisa finally built up the confidence she needed to contact Luthor. The first escape pods should be leaving soon and he would probably want an explanation. Before she could do so, all hell broke loose. A huge power hum built up and then every console exploded violently. Some were electrocuted, some were caught in the blast. Rylisa barely managed to keep herself from the fires or flying debris. One of the explosion caught her and sent her to the floor. Alarms sounded and fires raged. She knew there wasn't much time. He was already there. She quicky opened a channel to Luthor while she still had the chance.

"What is going on over there?" Luthor demanded before he fully saw what was on his viewscreen.

"There's nothing I can do, he's too powerful. I've ordered an evacuation," Rylisa told him.

Luthor couldn't quite comprehend how the situation had come to this. "Taylor? Rayne?" he asked.

"I don't know." Rylisa replied. She failed to notice the doors open behind her. "If I die, so help me I'm taking that filth down with me. I'm setting the auto-destruct."

"Rylisa," a cold voice said.

She turned to see a blood-stained horror staring back at her.

Luthor watched helplessly at what was unfolding. The last thing he saw was the kludge's grinning face as he destroyed the monitor.

Escape pods detached from the ship until there was only one remaining. Lex and Lucien were the last to get to the pod where the others were waiting. Jaret, the most senior of the group was watching the events taking place in Command.

"Prepare for launch."

"What about Rylisa?"

Jaret switched the monitor off. "Rylisa isn't coming."

On the Andromeda the tension had not been broken. Determination and anticipation were coexisting awkwardly with one another. They had been streaming towards the Dovien system but had so far seen no sign of The Barbell or the Nietzscheans.

"I'm detecting some ships two slip points away."

"It has to be them," Beka said with a renewed hope.

"Step on it," Dylan told her.

Beka didn't need to be told twice. "We'll be there in ten."

Harper was finished. There was no life left on the ship bar himself. He looked at the massacre that surrounded him and felt nothing. He had lost himself completely in the power of killing and even after it was done with, there was still nothing.

"Auto-destruct set. Ten minutes and counting," the ship spoke.

Harper turned around to see Rylisa's battered form reaching with all her strength to set the auto-destruct sequence. She didn't even give Harper the pleasure of finishing her off. All life left her and she fell into darkness.

End of Chapter Nineteen