AN: Sorry about the wait, life has been getting in the way.

AaA Andromeda Ascendant – The Present AaA

Harper could not remember a time he moved faster than he did at that moment, before the sentence had finished reverberating around the room he was already out the door and into the hall.

Well, it was good while it lasted, Zelazny said as Harper rushed down the corridor to the machine shop. Harper could only nod as he grabbed a bag and began to fill it with the few items that he owned.

"Yeah," he replied as he shoved everything he could use into his bag. "It was the best run we've had yet, I just wish it had lasted longer. We really had a good thing going with Trance."

Yes we did, we thought she may be the one, Zelazny added as Harper packed. Neither said another word until after Harper had finished and slung the bag over his shoulder.

Do we have everything? Zelazny asked as Harper swept the room with his eyes, nodding when he noted that everything was in the bag.

"We'll have to use a Slipfighter to leave, once we find a Drift we can sell the fighter and disappear."

I wish we didn't have to run, Zelazny said as Harper put his head out the door and looked around.

"Andromeda," Harper addressed the ship, "run program Harper-run-boy-run-5512, authorization Zelazny-Harper-84573."

"Authorization accepted, program initiating," came the reply as the lights in the Machine Shop and the hall went out. Once there was darkness Harper ran out the door and down the hall toward the fighter bay. He had memorized the route many times, just for this situation.

As he went he couldn't help but think about how much he would miss the Andromeda and her crew, especially Beka and Trance. But as he ran through the ship he knew it was for their own good, all their lives would be in danger if they began to dig into his past. The very Commonwealth could be threatened if they began to look into the Order, especially now that the Order had changed.

Harper just pushed those thoughts to the back of his head and kept running. He was almost to the fighter bay when an exhausted looking Trance stepped into the darkened corridor, the emergency lights the only source of light this close to the bay. Harper came to an abrupt stop to keep from running into her, the air burning in his lungs as he took deep breaths. He moved to go around her when she reached out for him.

"Harper," she said as he dodged her and kept going. "Harper," she said louder as she followed him as best as she could.

She was about to give up and get Andromeda to help when he just stopped, right in the middle of the hall he froze. She watched as his shoulders slumped and the bag fell to the decking.

"Harper?" She called out as she slowly approached him. Her call of his name growing more and more worried as he just stood there, almost like a robot that had powered down. She slowly circled him before standing in front of him, her hand raised and gently placed on his chest.

"Harper?" She said softly, his eyes which had been closed and downcast lifted to look at her. Slowly they opened and stared at her.

"I have to go Trance, we… I can't stay here. It's too dangerous. I want to stay, I don't want to leave you, but I have to."

"Why Harper?"

"Because you know too much now," he replied with a sad sigh. "You're in danger now, all of you. I don't want anything to happen to any of you, so, I need to leave."

"Where would you go," the girl asked as she placed both hands on his chest, the warmth of his body seeping into her palms.

"I don't know," he replied after a moment, the heat from her body making it hard to think right now. It also didn't help that Zelazny was telling him to wait and listen to the girl.

Keeping his wits about him he didn't respond to the comments of Zelazny, but instead he addressed Trance.

"I'll find a drift and disappear into the background, I'm good at that Trance. If I stay there is a very real chance that you could all die and I can't allow that to happen."

"Why do you have to leave, I don't understand," the girl practically begged him for answers, answers that he could not give. If she knew the truth she'd hate him, and there was no way he'd be able to live with himself if he ever saw that kind of rejection on her face.

"I can't tell you any more than I have Trance, I'm sorry," he told her as he made to pull away from her. She just held on tighter, refusing to let him go.

"Why Harper, I thought I was your friend," she said with tears forming in her eyes. It hurt her to have him shut her out like this.

"You are Trance, that's why I have to leave, so you don't get hurt," he answered as he tried to pry her hands from his arms. He knew from experience that she was much stronger that she looked.

Even as he struggled to get free of her grip he could see the forming tears building in her eyes, soon they'd fall and it will be all over. He had to get away before that happened, but fate of course had a different idea in mind.

If Rev Bem had been there he would have said that the Divine obviously didn't want Harper to leave. Harper would normally have argued that that was a farce and there was no Divine, however, given the fact that Trance next said the very thing that could stop Harper in his tracks, the young man was beginning to think that Rev might not be wrong about the Divine.

"Don't you love me Harper?" Trance said as the tears began to fall from her beautiful eyes.

Bam, it was all over for him, he didn't even make a sound as he crumpled to the floor and drug her down with him, his head hanging in shame as she cried softly into his shoulder.

"Damn you Trance," he said as his arms slowly rose to wrap around her. "You always know what to say to get me to do anything for you."

For her part she just sniffled into his shoulder, her arms wrapped around his chest.

Silence, save the muffled sound of Trance's sobs, filled the corridor. Harper was hardly breathing as he held the girl he loved. He knew in his heart she had meant love as a friend, but he knew he loved her more than he could even begin to explain to her.

"Trance," he began slowly as the words stuck in his throat. "I love you more than I could even begin to express. I know you only mean as a friend, but my love for you is so far beyond friendship that I can't even begin to describe it. Trance, you are my soulmate, the other piece of me that I've been searching my entire life for. I'd die to keep you safe."

With a sigh his arms released her and fell to his side, right now her arms around his chest were the only things keeping him in place.

"I know that you could never feel that way about me," Harper said as his voice fell into a defeated tone and his body slumped into a defeated posture. "I would do anything to keep you safe Trance, even if it meant leaving and never seeing you again. I need you to understand I wasn't leaving for me Trance, my life has been worthless for a very long time, and I was leaving to save everyone on this ship and possibly the entire Commonwealth."

Her crying had ceased as Harper poured his heart out to her. She turned her eyes to look up at the young man, his face read despair and fear. Even with her belief in the perfect possible future there was nothing that could prepare her for the sight of Harper looking so defeated nor could it have prepared her for the words that he had just spoken. He spoke as if he were a man condemned to death and waiting for the executioner. Unbidden the words bubbled up in her throat before she even realized that she was uttering them.

"I love you too Harper."

He nodded in dejection as he replied.

"As a friend, I know, you're the best friend I've ever had."

Hey! Zelazny said in mock outrage, his comment going ignored by Harper, as Zelazny knew it would.

"No Harper," she said as a hand rose to gently cup his cheek. "You misunderstand me, I've been searching for years for something that can lead me to the future I desire. For years I've always come up empty, until I met you. You are the missing piece I've been looking for Harper. I love you and I know that you are my soulmate too."

As her other hand rose to cup his other cheek his head slowly lifted to look into her eyes, searching for any signed of deception. He couldn't find a thing except bitter, honest, burning truth.

Realization dawned across his face, she meant every word she'd said, just as he had.

His hands slowly rose to her face, his thumbs gently rubbing her cheeks causing her to smile even as he stared into her eyes and slowly closed the distance between them.

Their lips met in a sweet and tender kiss, fear of rejection still there but so was the hope that this wasn't all a dream.

Pulling apart a few moments later they just rested their foreheads against each other and smiled, eyes locked.

"Andromeda," Harper abruptly called out into the silence, "Cancel protocol Harper-run-boy-run-5512, authorization Zelazny-Harper-84573."

"Authorization accepted, protocol canceled."

The lights in to corridor snapped back on even as Andromeda appeared as a hologram next to them.

"Harper, you have some explaining to do, I haven't been able to see anything in this corridor for the past 10 minutes."

"I know," he replied as he continued to stare into Trance's eyes, "I think you may want to get Dylan and Beka, there are some things they need to know."

The hologram nodded before flashing out.

"We need to talk too, alone," Harper said as he slowly got to his feet and pulled Trance to hers.

Taking his hand Trance gave him a smile before pulling him back toward her quarters.

Harper gave a small smile as he allowed her to pull him along, in his head Zelazny was already going over what they needed to discuss with each person. Not for the first not last time Harper thanked his lucky stars that he had Zelazny to help with the planning while Seamus dealt with the outside world.

The meeting with his Captains would have to wait, for now his entire world was centered around the beautiful purple girl that was leading him down the corridor and that had sworn mere moments ago that she loved him how he loved her.

Zelazny would continue to plan out the meeting with Dylan and Beka while Seamus spoke to Trance about his past and hopefully their future.

AaAaA

TBC