Title: When Worlds Collide
Author: AstraGalactic
Disclaimer: Andromeda is not mine. If it was, Gaheris would be alive, and Dylan would be with Rommie. Atlanta is mine.
Setting/Season: TUM AU (Trance did not switch places with her gold-self, and the Andromeda has a new engineer)
Summary: The Andromeda's Captain makes a wish, but when he gets it will it destroy them all?
A/N: My thanks to other writers who have inspired me, Please R&R!
.
.
.
.
...
.
Gaheris walked into the dimly lit machine shop, a turbulent sea of emotion raging in his heart which ached with every thundering beat, while the memories of Dylan's death by his hands burned anew into his shattered soul.
He knew he would die here…. He knew that this Dylan reincarnated wanted his blood, and he could not blame him for that, nor could he regret that he had come to meet this end – an end that he had longed for since Dylan had died, so great was the magnitude of his grief and regret.
Gaheris smiled, despite the hammering of his heart within his chest, despite the instinctual fear that rippled through his mind as he felt himself being watched…hunted…. because for the little time he had left, he'd have his friend back by his side…. because Dylan was at least in some way alive again, and agonizing as this end would be, Gaheris knew that Dylan would be the last sight that would fill his vision before his eyes closed forever… and to have Dylan back with him…. to have Dylan alive at all…. was worth any price… any sacrifice.
Then his enhanced hearing picked up, from outside the machine shop, the sound of the cover being pried from the electronic keypad…. Atlanta trying to open the door and come to save him… his friend who would do anything… give anything to be there for him. And again the sorrow welled up inside him… his one regret in leaving this life being the pain his death would cause her.
An icy edge of fear ripped through him as he thought of what would happen to her if she succeeded in opening the door, knowing that she was no match for her creation… knowing that she would die.
Then suddenly there was a crash as the reverse of the panel was broken open from the inside, and the wires to the keypad were ripped out. Gaheris's heart beat harder as he realized that Dylan had just locked them in, every fiber of his being screaming at him to try to escape the inevitable Death he could feel stalking him…. Yet the fear was overpowered by the deep sense of calm that stemmed from the knowledge that Atlanta would be safe… that Dylan was not interested in hurting her, despite her love for Gaheris….At least that much about Dylan was the same - he would not hurt the innocent to punish the guilty.
Gaheris took a calming breath, and walked into the center of the machine shop, open to attack from any angle…. waiting.
The first attack came too quickly for his eyes to catch anything except a passing blur, almost like an apparition, but the agony that ripped through his being was too real, as the android's closed fist slammed into his lower right chest with enough force to completely shatter at least half the ribs on that side, driving sharp bone fragments into his right lung, and throwing him across the room where he crashed into a wall, and collapsed to the floor, paralyzed by the agony.
Unable to move, Gaheris lay on his side as he had fallen, his right arm loosely curled around his wounded chest, as violent convulsions of agony ripped through his body and he struggled to breathe through gasps of pain, while he choked on the blood that was welling up into his throat from his torn lung.
Heavy footsteps approached him, and Gaheris struggled to his hands and knees, the agony and trauma overpowered by instinct – the drive to survive, but froze, unable to go the one step further and draw his forcelance… unwilling to try to survive this encounter, as he looked into Dylan's eyes as he approached him.
Beneath the flaming rage in the blue eyes he loved, burned unbearable grief, shock and betrayal – emotions Gaheris knew were fueling the burning rage that was filling Dylan's mind, for he was looking into the eyes of a person who had too much ripped away from them to be the person they once were…. a person who had given all that they had and found that it was not enough to step back from the ledge…. a person who did not even care if he did any longer.
Only then did Gaheris know how deeply Dylan had hurt in those final seconds before his eternal sleep. He had hoped to spare Dylan the pain – both the physical pain and fear of dying …. but more importantly he wanted Dylan to die before he had the chance to fully know the emotional pain of that betrayal… before the implications could fully sink in. It would be Gaheris's spiritual burden for life… he did not want Dylan to have to carry it to his death.
But now here Dylan was, drowning in pain too great to rise from…. shattered by the reality of that betrayal, and Gaheris wanted nothing more than to take away all that pain… somehow, to free Dylan from the anguish that he could see radiating from Dylan's eyes, while the knowledge that he never could heal the sorrow and betrayal that Dylan felt, tore into his broken heart.
It hurt to meet Dylan's gaze, but Gaheris would not look away, even as he was dragged to his feet by one of Dylan's hands that grabbed him by his vest, while the other fist slammed into his unprotected abdomen.
This time Dylan spoke, his enraged tone laced with unspoken pain and shock, while he punctuated each sentence with a punch:
"I loved you…."
"You made me believe that you loved me…"
"And then you took from me my life…"
"…. my family….."
"…..my dreams…."
Each time Dylan's fist slammed into Gaheris's abdomen, bruising the vulnerable organs, his body shook from the unbearable physical pain…. but Dylan's words cut into his heart, each deeper than the previous…. and they hurt more than any wound ever could.
Dylan drew back, releasing Gaheris who struggled to stay standing - even his enhanced physiology unable to compensate for the blood he had lost and the severity of the injuries he had sustained thus far – and then finished in a maddened cry, while delivering a brutal roundhouse kick to Gaheris's abdomen:
"You took everything from me!"
A gasp that was almost a scream of pain was ripped from Gaheris's lungs as he felt the android's booted foot slam into his abdomen, literally ripping multiple organs within him from the force, and throwing him into another wall.
Collapsing on his front, Gaheris lay against the deck, unable to breathe as mouthfuls of blood welled up from inside him, both his torn lung and torn stomach freely bleeding fountains of blood, while he could feel the pulsating agony as the large blood vessels that ran to his liver and had ripped with it spilled life-blood in agonizing spurts into his abdomen.
It hurt too much to move… too much to even try to cough up the blood and take a breath… too much to breathe, so he just lay there, tremors of agony wracking his body, blood streaming from his parted lips, until he was roughly turned over, and dragged to his feet again.
Opening eyes that were tightly shut from the pain, Gaheris forced himself to meet Dylan's gaze, finding the strength to swallow the blood that was welling up in his mouth…. for Dylan's sake.
Dylan's next bitter words shattered his heart utterly, destroying even the instinctual will to live:
"Were you just using me? Getting close to me just so you could kill me?"
He hurled Gaheris into one of Harper's machines, hundreds of glass and metal shards created by the impact leaving deep gashes all over the Nietzschean's wounded body, advancing again on the man who had no longer the strength or will to move, saying:
"Or did you really try…but could not love, because you are Nietzschean?"
As Dylan's words ripped into Gaheris's tortured soul, Gaheris felt the Android's fingers wrap around the lowest boneblade on his right arm, pulling it slowly forward past the point of agony, then suddenly yanking hard, ripping the boneblade out, and hurling Gaheris through the air, back towards the door.
Fire-like pain raced through his nervous system, overwhelming all of his other wounds with the sheer burning agony, but his voice had become as silent as his will to live…. Gaheris could not find the will to scream, so after he crashed to the deck, laying on his back, his broken body convulsing with agony and shivering from the cold, the only sound to be heard was his ragged shallow gasps of sheer agony, choked with his own blood.
Tears filled his eyes as he heard Dylan's voice again, no longer yelling, only laced with rage fueled by bitterness:
"When you betrayed me, you ripped my heart out…."
"….. Maybe you should have the same end." With these words, he pulled Gaheris up again facing him, pinning him bodily against the door to the machine shop, his left hand locking Gaheris's shoulder to the door, his right hand pressed against Gaheris's chest, with only the tips of his curved fingers touching the Nietzschean's flesh…. forming a circle around his heart.
Gaheris knew his fate from the first moment Dylan had spoken… but it did not make the ensuing agony any easier to bear, as the very slowly building force of Dylan's hand forced the breath from his lungs, then crushed his ribs and sternum, driving bone fragments into his beating heart.
Unbearable agony laced through him with every heartbeat as each beat created another tear from the sharp bone fragments. His heart pounded faster like a trapped wild bird in a cage that was closing in on it…. And yet he stayed silent and still – save for the fact his body was shaking from the unbearable pain – his eyes open and staring sightlessly at Dylan, his lips parted even though he was unable to breathe.
When Dylan spoke again, his tone was more a cry of angry grief than anything: "Did you ever feel anything real for me?"
In his mind, Gaheris said sadly:
"More than you will ever know, Dylan…."
But he remained silent, telling himself that if he tried to speak now, there would be no stopping the screams of pain… but knowing deep down inside that there was only one reason: he did not want to hear the proof that it would not matter anyway…. so he remained silent and still.
But when Dylan's fingers ripped through his flesh, tearing through skin, muscle and bone, and wrapping around his beating heart, he could not control the violent tremor that shook his body, and the breathless strangled cry of pain that burst from deep in his throat. His head slammed against the door hard enough that blood started to run from his nose, but the pain was dwarfed by the unbearable agony everywhere in his body – and worst of all in his heart.
.
.
.
.
...
.
Atlanta realized before long that the control panel had been disabled – as had Andromeda. Unarmed, and unable to call for help or even get an explosive to blow the door, she struggled to her feet, her body pressed against the door listening to the chaos inside, while weeping for the cruel death she could do nothing to prevent.
Most of the time she had no idea what was happening – only that Gaheris was being hurt badly… but she knew when Gaheris had been slammed against the door and pinned there, and she reached out, hands pressed against the cold metal…. knowing Gaheris was literally only a few inches away, being tortured to death, and yet separated from her ability to help by a universe, for all the good it did him.
Each second her heart broke. She could feel his pain. But when she heard his head slam against the door, she knew it was a convulsion of agony that had done that, and she could no longer stay silent. Amidst her endless tears, she threw her head back, and called her friend's name in a voice that was a scream of pure spiritual pain and desperation:
"Gaheris!"
.
.
.
.
...
.
Gaheris's eyes had closed tight from the unbearable agony, but snapped open as he heard Atlanta's voice through the door. Even with the soundproofing, his enhanced ears could hear the tears in her voice, but more than that it was the utter loss and desperation in it that touched his broken heart. He had heard her sad, angry, afraid… hopeless. He had even heard the one time physical pain had momentarily shattered her self control and she left a scream of pure physical pain…. But none of it could hold a candle to the sheer spiritual agony that her voice carried in it as she called for him.
His death would destroy her… it would kill her soul as it killed his body.
Atlanta loved him, even with this newest revelation… She loved him…..
Gaheris felt a new light flicker to life in his soul –one reason worth living for …her love, and for the first time, he considered using his forcelance to fight - and seize the rapidly diminishing chances he had to survive.
He knew that in his weakened state he would only have one chance - one shot, but one shot was all it would take... one full-power plasma round delivered to Dylan's power-core would be instantly lethal. This Dylan would die before even having the chance to register the damage - or retaliate...
But could he bring himself to do it... again?
.
.
.
.
...
.
A/N: What do you think will happen next?