Summary: Events in the year after Rhapsody's rescue.

Notes: So, this wraps up the story arc started in Followed, Trigger Warnings for mentions of abuse.

Getting back in the hot seat

2099

It had been the better part of a year since she had been Mysteronized.

Now Rhapsody Angel, aka Dianne Simms Metcalfe, was looking at the final obstacle to her life going back to normal…

Well, her new normal at least…

She was standing next to the cockpit of her Angel fighter, getting ready to board the plane and go out on exercises with the rest of the Angel pilots.

Pass this test, she stays a member of Spectrum, safe with her husband, baby and friends…

Fail it, and Spectrum research and development, would claim her and her two month old child as their first Myst specimens, something that she knew that they salivated over for ever since Scarlet was Mysteronized.

Or they would try too, Rhapsody knew that if R and D, would have a massive fight on their hands if they tried to take her or her baby boy into their possession, her husband, along with the other Skybase officers, wouldn't stand for it.

But she had come a long way to get to this point, she wasn't about to let her friends and family down at the final hurdle…

0o0o0

It took Rhapsody nearly a week after she had been rescued from Black's imprisonment before she let Dr Burgundy touch her to do her exams…

It came about when she wanted to see how Turquoise and Amber were doing, since they were both still unconscious from the missile attack the fortnight before.

She had heard that the Doctors were about to try to wake them up, and she wanted to be there to offer Symphony, Mahogany and Coral her support while letting Scarlet be there for Blue, Green, Ian and Elaine.

A part of her felt guilty about tying up Paul's time when his friends could have also used his support, but for the first couple of months since her rescue she could not stand being too far away from him, it was an irrational fear, she knew, but it wasn't one that she could easily overcome.

It turned out that Turquoise and Amber were quite happy to stay asleep a little longer, so Dr Burgundy asked if she felt up to doing some preliminary scans and tests while Dr Fawn kept an eye on things.

So, Rhapsody let her, as long as Scarlet was allowed to stay beside her.

Burgundy had just finished her tests when Amber decided to wake up, Turquoise, obviously wanting to scare his parents and friends a little bit longer, decided to wait an extra day before finally waking up.

Thankfully both Colour Captain's didn't suffer from any brain damage, but they still had some injuries from the blast where Scarlet and Mahogany couldn't protect them.

0o0o0

Rhapsody officially found out she was pregnant two weeks after she had been rescued.

Not that Rhapsody, nor Scarlet for that matter, didn't already suspect that she was.

Something that had been noticed when Simone was pregnant with Clara, and Clara was pregnant with Tian, was that their food intake increased three fold, both Simone and Clara had complained about constantly being hungry, and if they didn't eat or drink something substantial every three to four hours they ran the risk of fainting.

And it wasn't like Simone or Clara had actually gained much weight during the pregnancy either, all those extra calories went to the baby.

After Scarlet mentioned that bit of information to her, Rhapsody found herself thinking about what Black had said to her about the topic and realising that it was no small wonder at a female Myst's took a long time to be able to bare another child, having a child took a lot out of the mother.

So when Rhapsody noticed that her food intake had increased, it didn't take long for her to realise the reason why.

And the baby was Conrad Lefkon's there was no doubt about that.

It wasn't like Rhapsody hadn't tried to mate with Scarlet after her ordeal, but Paul had straight up refused her, stating that he wouldn't until she was actually ready, and not frightened that he was about to leave her because of what the Mysterons had forced her to do.

She always knew that if she was going to fall pregnant that she was going to fight the hardest to keep her one hundred percent innocent child from those that would harm him/her, even if she didn't consent to the child's creation in the first place.

In fact, in her own opinion, not even her child's father consented to having his child created, because the Mysteron that was in control of Conrad's body all but denied any child created would be Mysteron's itself, but of the pathetic former human, that didn't quite have enough Myst DNA to become completely become one himself, and lacked the features to be able to survive without the Mysteron's support.

That was also the moment that Rhapsody realised that Conrad was indeed still alive, the second tormented mind she always felt when the Mysteron violated her mental defences, but was always going to be forever trapped as the Mysteron's prisoner, to kill the Mysteron would be to kill Conrad himself.

Which, after thirty years of being forced to do many horrendous things, would be a mercy for the man.

Which was something she had pointed out to Scarlet when his spirit had found her, the Mysterons took pleasure out of the suffering of others, including the people they controlled.

She wouldn't let them do that to her child…

Nor would she let those vultures at Spectrum R and D take her baby.

It had only been a couple of months earlier when she got a front row seat to the brutal verbal takedown of Dr Wanda Winston over the custody of Coral's and Mahogany's daughter, Tian.

Blue, Scarlet and Fawn, Mahogany was told to stay with his wife with Turquoise standing guard, had ripped into the woman over the idea of handing Tian over to her care, stating that the girl would be staying with her parents and there would be no argument over that fact.

After the incident, Fawn had pulled her aside and shoved a pile of files into her hands, "Come up with any story you have to," he had told her. "But make sure Willow gets these, it's up to her what she does with them, personally I hope she turns the comm officer's loose on that heartless cunt, but they need to know that woman is dangerous."

After reading through the files, Rhapsody agreed with Fawn, and she told Penelope and Willow she recognised the name, and had managed to 'sweet talk' the information out of Edward.

But knowing the Skybase Doctor's were on her side didn't stop some misunderstandings…

Namely when Burgundy tried to go over Rhapsody's options when she had already made her mind well before she had been rescued, it lead to a minor disagreement where Rhapsody had snapped at the Doctor.

But it left no doubt in the Doctor's mind about Rhapsody's feelings about her child.

Scarlet's feelings on the matter were not so obvious at first.

It wasn't his child, Scarlet had no obligations to it other than it was the child of the woman that he cared deeply for…

And the fact that it was biologically the son of his former best friend…

It's wasn't until she woke up one morning about a week after the pregnancy was confirmed, when she caught Scarlet gently stoking and whispering into her belly, that she realised what those feelings were.

It turned out Scarlet had already acknowledged the possibility that she could be pregnant, before it was announced, and was following her lead in the situation, if she had chosen to give the child up he would have made sure the child was looked after in a safe environment, even if the child would have most likely ended up in Mahogany's and Coral's care, but since Rhapsody was willing to take of her baby, Scarlet was willing to step up and be a father figure for the child.

0o0o0

The fact that she needed to work with a therapist, was pretty obvious from the get go.

But the problem was most of the mental health professionals that worked for Spectrum, weren't trusted by the normal officer's let alone the Myst, which was what the Mysteronized officers were now being called, after Rhapsody shared the information that Black had revealed to her during her imprisonment, ones.

And considering that R and D wanted her to fail her psychological tests, so they could get their lab rats, Rhapsody wouldn't put it past them to try and sabotage her recovery.

Like Mahogany, the only Skybase Doctor she really trusted to do right by her was Fawn, but there were a few issues that she had with dealing with him.

The first one, that could not be helped, was that he was male, and as a result of the abuse that she had suffered at the hands of Black she couldn't stand another male touching her.

The two exceptions to this were Scarlet, who was, for the lack of a better term at the time, her mate, and Mahogany, who was fully bonded to Coral, and one of her closest friends.

So that meant that she had to trust Burgundy with her physical care.

The second one was that Fawn wasn't a psychiatrist, and while he had improved his skills in mental health care, for Mahogany's sake, Rhapsody's issues were way out of his league.

But Fawn had also been working with Annabelle O'Locklyn Tracy, on the sly for years to help Mahogany, and with the help of a bored and looking for something to do Turquoise, with assistance from Mahogany, Chartreuse and Magenta, they had been able to rig up a way for Rhapsody to communicate with Belle when she needed to without IR's resident psychiatrist realising it was her.

While this meant that she couldn't mention the any of the names of the groups/people involved, it meant she could talk to Belle relatively freely.

She would have contacted them directly without the dog and pony show if she could, but her IR communicator was destroyed in Black's attack and since IR had destroyed the communicators that Turquoise had given them after his supposed death, she had no way of contacting them, without jeopardising one of the last remaining connections Mahogany had to his family.

But the new set up had an unexpected benefit for Mahogany as well, because Belle requested a second communicator be made available to Mahogany as well, because Belle had been wanting to talk with him directly to him for a while.

0o0o0

In the first few months after her rescue, Rhapsody was petrified of being separated from Scarlet, even after she had moved into Scarlet's quarters after she had been cleared to be able to move around Skybase on her own reconnaissance, she didn't stray too far from him, as was often found shadowing him as he went about his duties on Skybase.

While Scarlet didn't mind the company, it wasn't like she got in the way of him performing his duties, he knew there would be a time when, he would be called out on an assignment where she would not be allowed to follow him.

The incident happened about four months after Rhapsody had been rescued, Mahogany and Navy had gotten themselves into a situation in which they couldn't get out of without help.

Turquoise and Amber were on still on light duty, at the time, and had not been cleared for field work, and all the other officers with the exception of Grey and Scarlet, were on their own assignments.

So, Rhapsody had to let Scarlet go, or face losing Mahogany… And she wouldn't be able to look at herself in the mirror, let alone Coral, Fawn or any of the Tracy's, if she condemned Mahogany to death, because of her own fears and insecurities.

In an attempt to distract herself from Scarlet's absence, Rhapsody had found herself in the flight training simulator for the Angel fighters.

She few mission after mission, only stopping after her body demanded to be fed.

That was when Blue caught up with her and made the suggestion that maybe it was time that she actually spend some more time down in the simulators to keep her skills sharp and working on getting back into the cockpit of her fighter, to make it easier for her to get back into the swing of things once the baby had been born.

When Blue told her this it gave her a pause, as she suddenly realised that if it wasn't because of her pregnancy, the powers that be would have expected her to be back in the cockpit well before then.

This was the first time Rhapsody realised that she actually had a deadline, to get her act together and prove that she was a functioning officer, or else she faced the prospect of being sent to R and D.

Something she knew, Scarlet, Mahogany, Blue and the rest of the Skybase officers would fight tooth and nail not to let happen, risking their lives and destroying their careers.

Her baby had brought her time, she was not going to let him/her down.

0o0o0

When Scarlet brought up the idea of getting married, six months after Rhapsody had been rescued, it started as a hypothetical question, clearly he hadn't been planning on asking her until after the baby was born.

So, when Rhapsody replied with, "How soon do you think we find someone to officiate?" He had been caught off guard.

When Scarlet questioned Rhapsody further, she pointed out that they were already acting like a married couple, about the only thing they hadn't done was consummate the relationship.

Which ended up being rectified when Scarlet said yes to Rhapsody's proposal.

The couple got married in a simple ceremony a week later, with the former Colonel White acting as the officiator.

0o0o0

Rhapsody went into labour bright and early on the morning of the 3rd of December, 2098.

By six o'clock that evening, she was holding her healthy and happy son in her arms, with Scarlet by her side.

The boy was named Conner Thomas Lefkon Metcalfe.

Conner, after her former bodyguard and friend, that died protecting herself and Sophia Tracy from an abduction attempt, when a night out went sideways.

Thomas, after Scarlet's father.

The decision to include the last name of Conner's biological father in his name was made because, at the end of the day, he was Conrad's son, and Rhapsody and Scarlet decided that the boy had the right to know who the man his biological father was - before he had been Mysteronized.

And Metcalfe because Scarlet had formally adopted the boy as his.

0o0o0

Rhapsody looked at her husband, who nodded his head in encouragement as she boarded the Angel fighter, "You've got this sweetheart," he told her, as she took her seat. "Show them that you're back to for good."

Rhapsody nodded as the canopy closed on her fighter, and the plane started moving toward the elevator that would take the fighter up to the flight deck ready for takeoff.

When the plane was in position Major Green's voice sounded across the intercom, "Rhapsody Angel, you are cleared for takeoff."

Rhapsody gripped her controllers tightly, "S.I.G." She replied, as she sent the aircraft into the sky…

Notes: So I have a bit of a head cannon, that the Myst's have a bit more mental fortitude, meaning they don't develop a lot of the secondary conditions that come with massive mental trauma nearly as bad, than ordinary humans, it's how they can put up with the pressures of being constantly killed and abused without turning into raving nutcases.

I also have another head cannon about the Myst's living in constant survival mode... even though they are relatively safe at Skybase.

Even though Dianne is married to Paul she see's herself as more of a sister to Clara and Kallen, even though technically she is their mother-in-law.

Turquoise has some skills in communication systems that he learnt on his mother's knee. Kallen learned his by paying attention to what Alan and John was teaching Kesha and Briar.