I don't own Andromeda...
The cave's entrance suddenly filled with metallic noises and Beka fastly rose up from her spot on the ground and, taking out the last gun their kidnappers had not found, she went deeper into the cave and got ready to face her enemies. She hid between two cliffs, her spot giving a pretty good image of the cave's interior… and the also allowing her to see Admiral Telemachus Rhade hidden in the same way as her, few metres in front of her, watching and waiting for the same persons.
As if out of nowhere, a shot hit a rock behind the Matriarh, startling and waking her up from the day-dreaming. Turning her attention to the exit, she saw the Nietzscheean already engaging the five guards that had come for them. His eyes spoke clearly: "We will not surrender… not that easy anyway…"
One second later, the blonde pilot joined her indirect descendant and started shooting at the soldiers who kept entering the cave. Unfortunately for the two, they soon understood that they were outnumbered by far and exiting the damned mountain, running for the camp, which none of them knew where it was, retrieving Tam and escaping alive was out of the question.
"You have no choice but to surrender." A strong male voice rose above the noises, as a new personaje made itself noticed. "Trust me, Matriarh… I could never harm you… nor young Tamerlan… you two are much too precious for us!"
Taking notice of the new entrance, Beka glanced from behind her rock, noticing that Rhade, still metres ahead, did the same thing. Looking at the entrance, she could clearly see the man that had spoken… and her blood suddenly froze: it was the former Fleet Marshall Attaturk… the Drago-Kazov General. Turning back to her, Rhade sent her a questioning and puzzled look. Beka nearly shrugged, staring back at him with fearful eyes.
"Off course, the Admiral is expendable… as any other guardian who would protect the main priorities with his life." Attaturk ended and waited patiently, as the two changed another look. One moment later, they both exited their hide-outs, one standing defyingly in front of the squad and the other adopting a more careful sight. Seeing the pair, Attaturk could only smile evily and order the men around him, with a simple nod of his head, to take hold of the two.
"Where are you taking us?" Rhade demanded as he was being pushed outside the cave.
"To meet the man behind all of this." the rogue Nietzscheean smiled dezarmingly again.
"You mean there's more than this?" the Admiral stared at him questioningly.
"This is merely the beginning!" Attaturk stated and walked away, in front of the group, leaving the two hostages behind, along with their guards.
"Light, illumination, creation… There is no place where life cannot be born…"
Trance started glowing as she stood in the middle of the large hydroponics. Her prophetic senses were calling out to her, sending her strange visions: fast, strong, numerous bits of information; noises, voices and even screams filled her ears, as a slideshow was played in front of her closed eyes.
"Trance!" she heard a shout that seemed rather real, unlike the rest of the rumours inside her mind. Hardly, the golden avatar managed to open her eyes, just in time to see a frightened Dylan staring at her. Turning her head to the right, she saw one of his hands on her shoulder and felt it as if it were to weight fifty pounds. "Trance, talk to me!"
But she only collapsed, overwhelmed by the visions' speed and force. Still, before she hit the floor, the Triumvir's arms managed to catch her.
"Beka… danger… Tam… save them…" were her only words, before she fell into a deep slumber.
"Trance… Trance!"
"Oh, how long I've waited for this day." The demon spoke with pure venom in his voice and looked at Rhade's fallen silhouette with disgust. Right after he had appeared, the Admiral had gone mad and tried to attack him. Unfortunately for the brave Nietzscheean, three massive guards had gotten hold of him and managed to put him down, hitting like maniacs and leaving him unconscious.
"You bastard! Where's Tamerlan? What have you done with the boy?" Beka shouted as he craddled Rhade's head in her lap, trying to evaluate how much damage the guards had done to him.
"Don't worry, he's somewhere safe… more or less…" the merciless voice spoke and then started to laugh. Beka looked up at the amused creature and glared darkly, sensing a very old, yet still alive anger rising again inside her soul. She had once escaped this death trap and she would just have to do it again.
"Demon! Weren't you supposed to be already dead or left in some forgotten place, eaten by worms?" she asked angrily, her eyes never leaving the stranger.
"I like how you and Captain Hunt have raised that boy. When I met him earlier I was actually starting to believe than he was not the son of Tyr Anasazi… but yours and Hunt's. How crazy is that idea?" he asked, once again amused. His tone was really starting to get on Beka's nerves, making her almost cry for giving up her weapon and not being able to shot a bullet right through the demon's head, right there, on the spot.
"About as crazy as you still being alive and well… as I can clearly see…"
"So… crazy, yet possible…" he mumbled.
"Shouldn't you be where your master, the Prince of all Evil is? She inquired sardonically.
"Are forgetting that I was never a servant of that dark god? I was not the one who had bargained with him in the last moments of life and I was definitely not the one posessed by him for months!" he approached her kneed silhouette and lowered his mouth to her ear, turning the meaning of his words even more painful. Slowly, Beka rose her head and met his gaze.
"This time, when you'll fall, it will be for good… Collector Pish Trayan." She hissed the words out, using all the hatred she felt for the particular man she had thankfully not met within the past eleven years.
"Lunar? What's the matter?" a little blonde girl, with eyes as blue as the summer sky, approached the dark-featured man with small steps. Her usual bright orbs were now filled with unshedded tears as she looked up at the his pained figure. He was barely managing to stand up, one of his hands clutching the clothes that covered his chest.
"Lia… you shouldn't be here… Go back to your parents…" he pleaded with a voice that betrayed his current condition.
"But Lunar, you are in pain! I don't want to you to see you hurt… I, I don't want you to feel bad…" the girl whispered, two tears falling on her rosy cheecks. She immediately came in front of him and stood stubbornly, yet sad, waiting for an explanation. In response, he managed to crack a smile, right before feeling another hit inside him. This time he couldn't hold on anymore and collapsed on the wooden floor, trying helplessly to shut the never-ending pain away.
"Lunar!" the girl shouted as she ran up to him.
"Lia… my name… I'm not…" he tried to whisper, but her small fingers stopped him as she managed to let out a charming innocent smile.
"I know, Lunar… I always have…"
"But… How?" he inquired absolutely stunned, the surprise managing to take away some of the pain.
In response, the girl's sad blue eyes gazed warmly down on him, while her right hand touched his chest, right above the heart. One moment later, a calm, dark blue light came out from below her hand, from inside him. The pain was gone, at least for the time being. Speechless, the dark-features man simply stared up at the ten year-old child, who had managed to literally take his pain away with a single touch.
A moment later, when she felt it necessary, her flesh left his chest, but she remained next to him, this time smiling completely. She had managed to heal him and that gave her a feeling of immense happiness.
"Don't you see? I have felt it ever since I was five year old and you where still a stranger to all of us. I have known who you were and where you came from." She lowered her face and whispered with staring right into his eyes. "I have always known it, Ione…"
"You are… You…"
"Yes… and don't worry, your Sun Goddess will be alright… You'll see… everything will turn out alright… it always does… the future is still undecided…" she ended her words and suddenly, Lunar understood everything that had happened to him within the past years… who he was… what his mission was… and what the girl is front of him meant… He understood it all…
"How is she?" a very worried Dylan turned to see Trance's asleep silhouette securely settled on one of the infirmary beds. It was ackward to see their own doctor fallen in this deep slumber and unable to wake up.
"Her condition is stable, from what I can tell. Dylan, you must understand that my database does not contain health parametres for Avatars. All my conclusions are based on simple observations." Rommie explained her doubts as she glanced from her captain to the golden woman.
"I got it… So, she's been like this ever since she collapsed?" he inquired and gazed at his ship's avatar.
"Yes… Well, she's mumbled several times in her sleep, but not somplete sentences." Rommie informed him.
"Can you tell me exactly what she said?"
"You could ask Harper to check the security cameras. Those should provide you with the correct data."
"Ok, tell Harper I'm on my way to see him." Dylan nodded and left the infirmary with fast steps. Trance's last words had disturbed him greatly. She had spoken of a danger that threatened both Tamerlan and Beka. Therefor, he immediately had to find and get them away from whomever planned on hurting the two. The Matriarh and Drago Museveni's reincarnation were not only important to the entire Known Worlds… but to him as well. The family Dylan had always dreamed on having had been represented by Beka and Tam within the past ten years… along with Andromeda's remaining crew. Harper, Rommie, Rhade and especially Trance meant a lot to him… and he wasn't prepared to let them go… none of them… even he had to pay with his life.
Silence. Not even a branch dared to move in the rebels' presence. Not even a bird dared to sing. Nothing dared to move… except for the precious thirteen year-old that kept struggling against his restrains, trying to get out of the large room containing all the required items fit for a king's liking. After his first meeting with the stranger, the guards had taken him to a pretty big building. He believed that this was going to be his enprisonment for the future… and he was right. A golden cage fit for the Progenitor's reincarnation.
"You might want to calm down. Otherwise all you energy will be spent and you will find yourself exhausted by nightfall." The same demonic voice was heard and the boy looked up to meet the frozen gaze of former Collector Pish Trayan and the evil smug that wore so frequently. "Bring her!" he turned for a bit and ordered. One moment later, a Nietzscheean showed up with Beka's limp body in his arms. He hurriedly, yet gently deposited the blonde woman on one of the beds inside the room. She wasn't bruised, but her unconsciouss state made Tam believe that the demon had harmed her.
"What have you done to her!" he shouted as he rushed to her side.
"Don't worry, she should be up and running by tomorrow." The Collector smirked and turned away, leaving the room along with the rest of the guards. For a second, Tamerlan had hoped that the guards will leave them completely alone, but all his thoughts were shattered the moment he heard two soldiers remaining outside the doors. He returned to Beka and tried to shake her body and call her, but all his efforts soon proved to be in vain. She had probably been sedated and, until the poison did not leave her blood system, she had no chance to wake up.
Harper watched Dylan closely as he stared at the hologram before him, showing Trance peacefully sleeping on the infirmary bed, very few times trembling during her slumber and whispering incoherent words.
"There! Stop there and enhance the volume level." Dylan pointed his index finger at the hologram and Harper followed his intructions.
"Cephes… Aldebaraan… Cygnus Eight…" Trance's whispers were replayed so that they could be audible to the two men. Dylan listened carefully and then turned to Harper, who was already searching for something in Andromeda's files. Looking at the short man's expression, Dylan smiled knowingly.
"Trace a map with all the given coordinates…"
"Already ahead of you, boss!" Harper grinned. "Thanks to Trance, we should, hopefully, have one clear route towards our goal."
"Finding Beka, Tam and Rhade." Dylan concluded and Harper could only nod.
"What I don't understand is how come they just disappeared like that. No trails, no messages, nothing… I mean, back in the old days, Beka would always at least leave messages in order to keep an eye on things."
"In that case, something really bad must have happened… Something that forced her not to contact us at all." The Triumvir concluded. "So, how does the map look like?" he inquired and Harper turned towards the very large screen behind him, pointing the divice he carried at it. Almost immediately, the written data on it disappeared, allowing several slipstream points to be described in detail by Andromeda's memory core.
"Something like this."
"Hmm, she's taking us one step at a time. Has she said anything else?"
"Nope. Look, she probably doesn't even know yet where they are and that's why she giving us these locations." Harper let out his best guess so far.
"Retracing their path. Hopefully we'll manage to find some tracks in these systems. I'm headed towards Command. You keep an eye on things and let me know if she speaks again or wakes up." Dylan said and already left the room.
"You got it!" were the last words he heard behind before reaching the hallways and crossing the decks onto Command.
"Where is Dylan Hunt?" the same question asked over and over again, as if the man who was interrogating him was a broken recorder that kept playing the same piece over and over again. And that started boring Admiral Telemachus Rhade to death.
"For the thousandth time: I don't know! Ask something else if you don't want me to fall asleep!" the Nietzscheean stated with a proud smug on his bruised and bloody face. The soldier in front of him clearly did not find the answer to his liking, because he signaled the brute to keep hitting merciless the dark-haired man.
"Tell me where Dylan Hunt is!" he ordered once again.
"You can beat as much as you like, you still won't get an answer from me… because I don't know!" Rhade shouted back, some parts of him already having gone numb due to continuous punches.
"I asked you a…" the soldier started but got cut off soon enough by an extremely familiar and annoying voice.
"I'll take it from here." Both guards suddenly stopped their current activities, stared at the old Collector and, slightly bowing their heads, they left the room without another word. Found himself alone with Satan himself, Rhade turned eager to rip the blastful coffs restraining his hands and kill the demon with his bare fingers. "You know, this way you will never be able to protect your Matriarh and that boy." Pish spoke slowly, as if he enjoyed to hear himself. Yet another thing Rhade found disgusting about the man in front of him.
"What do you want?" he decided to get to the point, not wanting to hear that tone again and again.
"Dylan Hunt's head on a silver platter!" the Collector spoke, sending shivers on Rhade back and forcing him to stare stunned into the demon's light blue eyes. How could someone so evil have such light-coloured eyes?
The drift was crowded, exactly how the Vedran Moon's avatar expected it to be. However, the child that was travelling with him found the metal construction absolutely amazing. Lia was curiously gazing at every detail and gasping every time she found something new… something she had never seen before.
"Ione, what are we doing here?" Lia finally asked after two hours of wondering through every attraction that the old and smelly drift could hold.
"Here we will meet some old and dear friends of mine." The dark-featured man smiled warmly at the energic girl.
"Oh! Will the Sun Goddess be with them too?" Lia seemed to turn enthusiastic again, as her enlightened eyes stared up at him.
"Perhaps she will be too." Ione tone became slightly worried. Last time he and Trance had encountered each other… a planet had almost been destroyed. Who knew what their cosmic meeting could lead to now. And yet, he felt so lonely and unfulfilled without her. He missed her… he missed the best part of him and the only reason for him to continue the struggle against any force of darkness.
"And I will get to meet another Protector?" the girl made herself present and gained another smile.
"Yes, Lia… Hopefully in a matter of hours, you will get to meet the Sun Goddess' Protector."
"And then we can go and save the Prince and his Guardians?"
"Yes, but for now we need to keep this between us." Ione lowered his tone and then placed a finger across his lips. Immediately, the ten year-old followed his gesture and, grabbing his much larger hand in her small fist, she pulled him around the drift's crowded hallways, the two almost immediately disappearing from sight.
All thanks go to the Romanian Andromeda Fanclub and those who have reviewed. Thanks a lot guys.
As for this chappie, R&R please!