Author's Note: This is my first attempt at an Andromeda fanfic. I'm quite sure that the 'Whatever happened to Purple Trance' has been done before, but I still want to try my hand at it. It'll have Trance spoilers for the whole series. You've been warned. Read and review, let me know what you think.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...Trance stared at the woman in front of her, transfixed. Every fibre of the woman was screaming familiarity. The eyes told her everything she needed to know. "You're me. From the future."
The older woman smirked. "More or less." Her voice was rougher, older, but the same.
Trance tried to find cues in the older Trance's eyes. She tried to read something from the woman, anything, but the only feeling she got was one of foreboding. Of something awful. She hesitated, and then asked. "Did everything turn out the way it was supposed to?"
"No. Things are bad. And they're getting worse. I made a lot of mistakes." The older woman answered quickly.
Trance couldn't help glancing back at Beka. She knew where this was going to lead, and she didn't like the idea. She dragged her feet the best she could, drawing out the conversation with questions she already knew the answer to. "So are we going to lose?"
Older Trance seemed to recognize this, and sped the conversation along anyway. "At best, we're not going to win. You know what we have to do."
Trance sighed, searching her older self's face for something, anything that could help her, but the older woman's face was hard and unreadable. "Is it the only way?"
"There is one perfect possible future, but I have not seen it yet." As she spoke, something in the older woman's eyes flickered, the tiniest trace of compassion, but it made Trance feel better, all the same. She stepped away from her future self, moved to Beka's side. She met Beka's eyes, briefly.
"Beka, I have to go. But I'm not really leaving, I'm just changing. Everything will be ok. You'll see." Trance said. She tried to smile, for Beka, but her heart was already feeling heavy. If things really did work out, she would see them all again, but she had no idea how long it would take - or what she would have to go through to become the golden, steely woman who stood near the portal.
The portal that she now turned towards. She glanced at her older self, and then closed her eyes and walked straight through, into the unknown.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...It was dark. More than dark. The blackness was so thick that Trance couldn't even tell if her eyes were open. She tried to move, forward or backward, but there was nothing to push against. No floor, no walls. Just black.
"W-where is this place?" Trance stuttered, and the blackness muffled her voice so that it came out sounding small. A moment passed, and Trance turned her head, trying to squint through the inky void. Nothing helped, nothing penetrated the darkness.
"Trance Gemini." The voice rose around her, whispered from all directions at once. She could feel her heart speed up as she instinctively wrapped her arms around herself.
"Who are you?" She demanded, but the blackness again swallowed her words. "This isn't... the future." Her voice grew more hesitant. "Is this where I came from?"
"This is where you learn." The whispered voice came again.
Trance was beginning to feel frightened. Not only was she blind in the darkness, but she couldn't sense anything of the future, either. All she could feel was herself, hanging here. No threads into the future. No possibilities at all. "But in the future I must go back to the Andromeda, musn't I? And take the place of my past self? She said she had come from a horrible future. Where is that?" Trance sighed, dropping her arms in frustration.
"This is where you learn." The voice repeated.
"All right, this is where I learn." Trance replied, a petulant note entering her voice. "But what am I supposed to learn? I don't understand."
A light appeared in the distance, and slowly moved towards her. It glowed brightly, but in some strange way it didn't seem to diminish the blackness at all. It neared her, and she watched it intently. A tiny glimmer of recognition shivered down her spine, and she held out her arms. As the light slowed to a stop just above her cupped hands, she gazed down at it.
It was a tiny sun.