Title: A Sympathetic Ear
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
(BtVS/Farscape, Chiana/Xander, John/Aeryn, slight B/X & B/R)
Disclaimer: Joss and Co. own Buffy; SFC, Jim Henson Productions, and Rockne S. O’Bannon own Farscape; and I own a steaming hot cup of jack squat. No copyright infringement is intended, blah blah blah, you know the rest.
Summary: Depressed about feeling useless and under appreciated, Chiana hides in Aeryn's Prowler when it suddenly launches. But when it passes through a wormhole that leads to Earth's past, John and Aeryn find themselves on a rescue mission, and John finds himself feeling a little nostalgic. But what happens when they run into the Hellmouth, and a certain blonde vampire slayer? Will John and Aeryn be able to find Chiana before the Initiative decides to dissect her? And what happens when Chiana finds something she never expected to find on such a strange, alien world. A kindred spirit.
Author’s note: Takes place in the Farscape universe between the season 2 episodes “A Clockwork Nebari” and “Liars, Guns, and Money”, and in the Buffy universe in early season 5.

“Xander!”

“Buffy!”

Buffy glanced around the room, confused at the scene before her. “Who are you?” Buffy asked, looking at John. She noticed Aeryn standing behind him, her hand on her hip, looking tense. And she noticed Chiana, looking slightly frightened. She immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. “You stay away from her!” Buffy said, rushing forward and trying to put herself in between John and Chiana.

“Buffy, wait a second!” Xander called out.

Chiana stayed behind John as Buffy tried to circle around him. Xander rushed to Buffy, to try to explain. John was trying to explain too, but Buffy wasn’t listening. Willow and Tara rushed in through the door, a few seconds behind Buffy. It was all happening so fast, everyone was shouting, even Dawn.

“I’m not going to let you take her!”

“Buffy, it’s okay!”

“Dawn, get upstairs! Xander, get out of my way!”

“I’m not who you think I am, just calm down a second!”

What happened next made everyone stop dead. Buffy grabbed the front of John’s coat, and Aeryn pulled her blaster. She was standing behind John, and she held the weapon out over his shoulder with one hand, pointed directly at Buffy’s face. Chiana was still half behind John, next to Aeryn. Xander instinctively pushed Dawn behind him, looking back and forth between Buffy and Aeryn. Buffy was as still as a statue. Willow and Tara stood in the doorway still, afraid to move. The silence stretched on for several seconds. Xander spoke first.

“Okay, everybody just breathe, and calm down. Buffy, let go of him.” Buffy cast him a sideways glance that seemed to say ‘what, are you crazy?’ “He’s not going to hurt Chiana. They’re not from the military, they’re her friends. They’ve come to take her home, and they need our help.”

Buffy looked forward again and her eyes locked with Aeryn’s. They were cold and determined, and Buffy had no doubt that she would shoot her in a heartbeat. She let go of John and raised her hands slowly. Aeryn pulled her arm back, pointing the blaster up. “Okay, I repeat,” Buffy said much more calmly. “Who are you?”

“Name’s Crichton, John Crichton. This is Aeryn, and you already know Chiana,” he said indicating his friends.

Buffy turned to Xander. “It’s kind of a long story, Buff. But they are her friends, she told me.”

“She told you?” Buffy asked, confused. “Wait, then why does she look so scared?”

Xander hesitated. “I think that would be because of you. You were going to kill her at one point, remember,” he answered.

“I didn’t mean…well, I wasn’t really going to…I thought…” Buffy sighed, suddenly feeling very foolish. She looked to Chiana, who was still standing behind John. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t know.”

Chiana nodded and said something that Buffy didn’t understand. “She said it’s okay,” John said. “And that any friend of Xander’s is a friend of hers.”

Buffy cast a glance at Xander, who blushed slightly and changed the subject. “So what’s the what, Buff?”

“Riley sold us out,” Buffy answered. “The Army is out right now looking for…Chiana,” she said, testing the name on her lips. “They’re probably not too far behind us.”

“We spotted them when we checked your place, Xand,” Willow said, her and Tara finally stepping further inside.

“Oh, great,” Xander said. “The Army rummaging through my apartment, just what I need. If they break just *one* of my Babylon 5 plates, I’m going to be very upset.”

“I think we have bigger problems than that, Xander,” Buffy said. “Unless you guys want her to get dissected like a frog, I’d suggest you get a move on.”

“We can’t,” John said. “The Army still has one of our ships.”

“Well, no offense but what’s more important here? I’d say you cut your losses and motor.”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. You see, in addition to being from space, we’re also from the future. And if our being here changes what happened originally, it could change the future, and cause a paradox.”

“And, that would be bad, right?” Buffy asked.

“Very,” Willow piped up. “It would basically mean the end of the universe as we know it. But, that would only happen if something you changed prevented you from coming back to change it in the first place.”

“Well, if they get their hands on that ship and reverse engineer it’s technology, that is exactly what will happen. The advance in technology would mean that the mission I flew that got me sucked into that wormhole would become unnecessary, or happen years before. No wormhole then means no wormhole now, and I never would have been here to cause this in the first place.”

“But you didn’t cause this John, Chiana did,” Aeryn said.

“Yeah, but if it wasn’t for John, I wouldn’t be aboard Moya. I’d be in a Nebari prison, or dead, or mind cleansed,” Chiana said.

“Exactly,” John said.

Buffy pushed her confusion aside, making a mental note to grill Xander later. “Okay, we’ll help you,” Buffy said. “We just need to figure out where they took your ship…and, well, bust in to a military installation and steal it back. I mean, how hard could it be?”

“Maybe Riley could help you,” Dawn said. She paused and frowned. “Oh, right, never mind.”

“McHenry Air Force Base,” Xander said. Everyone turned and looked at him. “That’s where they would have taken it. They have the most sophisticated reverse engineering lab in the state, and it’s only about twenty miles from here.”

“Xander, how do you know that?” Buffy asked.

“I still remember a thing or two from when I was soldier boy. Plus, I read about it in my Alien Conspiracies newsletter.”

“Okay, that takes care of where, now we just need how.”

“I can get us in, Buffy,” Xander said. “I know that you have a couple of those Initiative pulse rifles lying around, between the two of us and the two of them,” he said indicating John and Aeryn. “With those blasters that they’re packing, we can do this.” Buffy looked skeptical. All eyes seemed to be on her and Xander. “Buffy, please, trust me. I can do this, just…let me show you. I’m not as useless as you think I am.”

Buffy opened her mouth to respond, but she didn’t get a chance. “Uh, guys, it looks like we have company,” Tara said from the window next to the front door.

Buffy rushed to the window and looked out. She saw several Army jeeps and a large truck with a biohazard symbol on the side. Riley was getting out of one jeep, followed by the officer that she saw him talking to earlier. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath. She turned back around. “Okay, we have to hide you guys, I have a plan. Dawn, take them upstairs.” Dawn nodded and headed upstairs, Chiana and Aeryn following. John was about to follow too when Buffy put a hand on his arm. “Not you, I’m going to need your help. All of you, listen to me closely. We don’t have much time.”

*

Riley and the Colonel stood on Buffy’s doorstep, flanked by soldiers. Riley knocked on the door. “The alien has to be here, Sir,” Riley said. “We’ve looked everywhere else,” he mumbled. It was true. They had checked Giles’, Xander’s, The Bronze, the old factory, the mansion. Riley was hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, that he wouldn’t have to lead the army to Buffy’s front door.

“It better be Finn, for your sake. I don’t appreciate being lead on a wild goose chase.”

“It isn’t, Sir. I assure you.” The door opened to reveal Buffy standing on the other side. Behind her stood Xander, Willow, Tara, and a man Riley had never seen before. They seemed to be chatting amicably, like they were at a cocktail party.

“Can I help you?” Buffy asked, glancing side to side at the soldiers that stood before her.

“I’m sorry about this Buffy, but you’ve left me no choice,” Riley said.

“We want the alien, Miss,” the Colonel said. “We know that you know where it is, if you cooperate with us there won’t be a problem.”

“What alien? What are you talking about?”

“Buffy, don’t do this, please,” Riley said. “They will search the house if they have to.”

“What is this Riley? We have a fight so you lead the Army to my door?” Buffy said. “Look, I’m sorry that you’ve been feeling emasculated lately, but that doesn’t give you the right to come barging in here looking for imaginary aliens so you can look all big in front of your Army buddies.”

The Colonel looked at Riley dangerously, and Riley remembered that he had witnessed he and Buffy’s fight. “Imaginary, no…no, not imaginary, very real,” Riley babbled, looking back and forth between Buffy and the Colonel in a very panicky fashion. “About 5’2”, chalk white skin and hair, small frame, female.” He turned to the Colonel again. “She brought her back from her patrol, she found her outside the high school.”

“Oh, her!” Buffy said with realization. “She wasn’t an alien,” she said with a laugh. “She was a demon.”

“A demon?” The Colonel said.

“Why don’t you come in and we can clear this up,” Buffy said. “They can stay outside though,” she said, indicating the soldiers.

The Colonel seemed to consider it a moment before nodding. “Very well,” he said. He and Riley stepped in and Buffy closed the door.

“Who is he?” Riley asked, pointing at John.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you that it’s impolite to talk about people in the third person when they’re standing right in front of you?” John said. He extended his hand. “John Crichton, freelance demon hunter.”

Riley shook his hand, eyeing him suspiciously. “Demon hunter?”

“John got here a couple hours ago, when Xander was watching her.”

“So, you were in custody of the creature?” The Colonel asked.

“Yeah, I found her outside the high school on my regular patrol. We weren’t sure what she was, and she didn’t seem very dangerous.”

“Appearances can be deceiving…Colonel, is it,” John said, looking at the man’s uniform. “I’d been tracking her for the last two months. I almost had her in Seattle, but she slipped away. I suspected that she was heading for a demon brothel in LA, looking for work. That’s when I found out about the Hellmouth here in Sunnydale, so I decided to check it out first. Good thing, too.”

“What kind of demon is she?” Riley asked, skeptically.

“A Chiana demon, a real nasty one too,” John answered. “They’re a breed of succubus, using their feminine wiles to prey on men. She may have looked sweet and innocent, but that all changes once she has you in her grasp. It wasn’t an easy fight, but thanks to the slayer here, we got the job done.”

“What about the spell that Willow cast?” Riley asked. “She said she wasn’t evil.”

“That’s part of a succubus’ power,” John said. “To trick men in order to lure them in, they have to appear to be something they’re not. The result is that they also manage to fool simple spells like that.”

“You’re saying that she’s dead, then?” the Colonel asked. John nodded. “We’d like to see the body.”

“Sorry, Chiana demons turn to vapor when they’re killed.”

“Oh, well isn’t that convenient,” Riley said. “Colonel, they’re lying, they have to be. It can’t be just a coincidence that she was found in front of the building where the space craft was found.”

“You guys found a space ship!” John exclaimed like an excited child. “Cool!”

“No, of course not, there’s no such thing as flying saucers. Don’t be silly,” the Colonel said rather knee-jerk, casting a glare at Riley. Riley just hung his head.

“Actually, it probably is just a coincidence,” Buffy said. “Demons are naturally drawn to the Hellmouth.”

“Colonel, you have to…” Riley started.

“Finn, may I speak with you privately please,” the Colonel hissed, moving off to the side of the room. Riley followed like a whipped dog. The Colonel lowered his voice as he spoke. “Barring for a moment your breech in protocol by mentioning the find in front of civilians, I’m finding your conduct here to be most unprofessional.” Riley opened his mouth to protest, but the Colonel continued. “Now, I may not know much about demons, but I understand that you do. Tell me, in your completely *objective* opinion, is the explanation that they’ve offered possible?”

Riley sighed as he thought about the facts as he knew them. In his gut, he knew that they were lying, that they were protecting the alien. But he didn’t know who that man was. He had no proof that that creature was an alien and not a demon. “It’s *possible*, yes Sir.”

The Colonel nodded. “All right, I see no reason to continue with this then.”

“But Sir…”

“But nothing, Finn. We’re finished here. I know about the failure of the Initiative program, and I’m inclined not to make the same mistake they did and interfere with the demon population of this town. We’ll leave that to these people, they seem to know what they’re doing. Besides, it’s extra-terrestrials that we’re interested in here, not sub-terrestrials.” He paused. “Now I know that you’re a good soldier Riley, Agent Miller has vouched for you, and I’m thankful that you brought this situation to our attention. We have come into possession of the craft, so this operation has been a success. I still think there’s a place for you in the military, but I think you have a lot of personal problems that you need to work out first.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“We’re headed to McHenry now, and I want you with us. But it’s your decision.”

Riley cast a glance across the room at Buffy. She was talking to the others. She caught his eye, and in her gaze, Riley found his answer. There was no going back now. And Riley found himself wondering whether he would want to go back to the way things were, even if he could. Perhaps it was for the best. “You can count on me, Sir,” he answered.

“Good,” The Colonel said. He turned back to Buffy and the others. “Miss Summers, Mr. Crichton, we apologize for the inconvenience and we thank you for your time.”

John reached out and shook his hand. “Not a problem Colonel, happy we could help.”

The Colonel nodded and headed for the door, Riley followed. Buffy followed too. “I’ll be there in a moment, Sir,” Riley said at the door. The Colonel just nodded and walked back to the jeep. Riley turned back to Buffy. “Why did you do this Buffy?” he asked. “Why did you embarrass me like that?”

“I’m sorry Riley,” Buffy said coldly. “But you left me no choice.” And with that, she shut the door in his face.

*

Buffy stayed by the window until the trucks pulled away and disappeared around the corner. “Okay, they’re gone.” She turned around to see Dawn bounding own the steps, Aeryn and Chiana close behind her.

“That was so cool!” Dawn exclaimed. Buffy just rolled her eyes at her younger sister’s exuberance.

Chiana came down and poked a finger at John. “Using their feminine wiles to prey on men. She may look sweet and innocent, but that all changes once she has you in her grasp, huh?” she said, repeating his earlier words.

John just smiled. “You know what they say Pip, every good lie has a grain of truth in it.”

“Oh, very funny,” Chiana said, swatting him on the arm. She tried to look mad, but she couldn’t help the corners of her mouth from curling up. John just laughed.

“Can we focus on the task at hand here,” Aeryn interrupted.

“So, what’s the move Buff?” Xander asked.

“You were right Xander, they are going to McHenry, I could here them talking. We have to move tonight if we have any hope of pulling this off.”

“Right, security will be doubled by the time the morning duty shift comes on,” Xander said.

“Willow and Tara, head over to Giles’. He has a pulse rifle in his weapons’ closet, and I keep one here. Grab the rifle and any magic supplies you can think of, tell Giles what’s going on, borrow his car and head back here,” Buffy said. Willow and Tara both nodded. “Xander…”

“I know, head home, get geared up, grab my car and head back here,” Xander said, already heading for the door.

“What about me, what can I do?” Dawn asked.

“You can go to bed,” Buffy answered.

“Ah, come on Buffy, you never let me help,” Dawn whined.

“This is mom’s first art buying trip since the surgery. If she finds out I put you in danger, she’ll never trust me to leave again.”

“Dawn, I have something you can do,” Xander said. Dawn perked up. “We need a blueprint for McHenry Air Force Base, do you think you could find one on the Internet.”

“No sweat,” Dawn said with a smile, turning and running back upstairs to where her computer was. Buffy just gave Xander a thankful smile, which he returned before turning to leave again.

“Xander,” Buffy called out before he reached the door. He stopped and turned around. “You do have a plan, right?”

Xander smiled. “Have I ever let you down before?” he said. And with that, he headed out the door, followed shortly by Willow and Tara.

And that’s when Buffy realized something, with some small measure of surprise. He was right, Xander had never let her down before.

*

Willow and Tara arrived back in about twenty minutes with Giles car, and Xander wasn’t too far behind. When he walked in, everyone did a double take. He was wearing green camouflage fatigue pants with a plain black tee shirt that seemed awfully tight over his chest and arms, and black combat boots with a knife sheathed on his right ankle. He was carrying a black duffel bag, which he set down as he came in. “Corporal Harris reporting for duty Ma’am,” he said with a wry smile.

“That’s great Xander, but this is an Air Force base, remember. Not an Army base,” Buffy said. She was also dressed for battle, all in black, and she was looking over her weapons.

“Yeah, but that recovery team was Army, so I’m guessing that I’m not going to look too out of place.”

Buffy nodded. Willow, who was standing by the window, turned to face Xander. “Hey Xand, can I ask you something? We all know you’re Joe Cool and all, but what’s with the car? Why did you get one so much like your old one?”

Xander put on an over-exaggerated look of shock before speaking. “That fine piece of machinery is nothing like that rusted-out old shit-box Uncle Rory sold me. For one, it’s green, not blue. Plus it’s a Cadillac, how can you go wrong with that. Okay, so I have a soft spot for late-model convertibles, but I was lucky to have found it for the price I did. The guy I bought it off of said it used to belong to a cop in Toronto, took real good care of it. Plus, it has the most trunk space of any car built in the last forty years.”

Willow looked puzzled. “Okay, I’m not going to ask how or why you know that.”

“The guy I bought it from told me, I guess he thought it was a selling point. I never knew it would come in handy.”

“What do you mean?” Buffy asked.

“You’ll see in a minute,” Xander answered. “Okay, everyone’s here, we should get started.” He motioned for everyone to gather around the coffee table, and they did so. Buffy, Willow, Tara, John, Aeryn, and Chiana. “Where’s Dawn?” Xander asked.

“Coming,” Dawn called from the stairs. She jogged down them, blueprints in hand. “Here you go, Xander,” she said, handing them over.

Xander offered her a smile as he took them and unrolled them on the table. “These are very detailed, where did you find these Dawnster?” he asked as he looked the blueprints over.

“I have my ways,” Dawn said with a smile. “Let’s just say that Willow is an excellent teacher.”

“Well, you are an excellent student,” Willow said with a measure of pride in her voice.

“Wills, for future reference, don’t teach her anything illegal, okay,” Buffy piped in.

“Aw, Buffy, you’re no fun,” Dawn whined.

Xander looked over the blueprints a little bit longer before he began. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Willow, Tara, and Chiana will be in Giles car, here,” he said, pointing to a spot on the paper. “On the street outside the main gate, out of site of the guard booth. You’ll be our back up should something go wrong. Just keep your eye on the gate in case we need to move out fast, and have a few non-lethal spells ready to use in case you need to fight.” He looked up at the two witches. “But it won’t come to that, I’m sure. The rest of us will be in my car, Buffy and me in the front, John and Aeryn in the trunk.”

“Oh, fun,” John muttered.

“I’ll pull the same shtick I did with Cordelia when we were swiping the rocket launcher. Buffy’s my girlfriend and she wants to see all the shiny airplanes, and I forgot my ID.”

“Do you really think that will work?” John asked. “There’s bound to be extra security with the ship and all.”

“I’m betting that we get there before they have a chance to call in extra personal, so we’re talking standard night shift. Plus, the higher the security clearance, the less the grunts know. The guard at the gate probably won’t know squat about your ship. And if he doesn’t fall for it, we’ll have our pulse rifles on the floor in the back seat, we’ll just knock him out.

“Okay, so depending on what happens at the guard booth, we’ll have anywhere between three to ten minutes before the general alarm is sounded. Now, the Reverse Engineering lab has to be…” he paused, looking over the blueprints. “Here.”

“That just looks like a hanger, how do you know that’s where the lab will be?” Buffy asked.

“Take a look, it’s the only hanger that doesn’t face the airstrip, it faces the desert. The airspace above that area is restricted, it’s generally believed that it’s used to test experimental aircraft. Plus it’s the only area on the base large enough and restricted enough to keep the ship. We’ll take the Caddy to here,” Xander said, pointing at the map. “And enter the building here. I think we should split up, come at the lab from two different directions. Buffy and I will go this way,” he said, drawing a route on the blueprint. “And John and Aeryn will go around this way. What do you guys think?”

“Sounds good,” John said. “We should keep in contact in case we run into trouble, though.” He reached across the table and took the pin off of Chiana’s shirt, handing it to Xander. “Take this with you, it’s a communicator.”

Xander nodded, examining the pin closely. “Those blasters you carry have a stun setting, right?” he asked. John nodded. “Good, I don’t want anybody getting killed.

“Now, once we get to the hanger, there’s going to be at least ten or twenty soldiers there, and other assorted members of the recovery team, helping to secure the ship. We can count on twice that once the alarm sounds and they know what we’re after.” Xander paused. “This is the hard part. Getting in is a piece of cake compared to getting back out. We have to move as quickly as possible.” He turned to John. “How many people are we going to be able to fit in that ship when we make our escape?”

“That’s going to be a problem,” Aeryn said.

John turned to her. “What do you mean?”

“There isn’t enough fuel left to take off.”

“What!”

“I told you that there wasn’t enough fuel for the autopilot to maintain orbit, that’s why it landed in the first place. I’ll need to siphon some from our transport before we leave.”

John’s expression told the others that something was wrong. “What is it?” Buffy asked.

“It’s a no-go, there’s not enough fuel left for it to take off.”

“Shit,” Xander muttered. “Well, scratch that idea. Someone would have had to go back for my car anyway.” Xander looked down at the blueprint again, staring at it intensely. “There’s only one road that leads to the base, and that comes right off the highway. It’s mostly surrounded by desert. If we can’t fly out, they’re not going to have a hard time following us even if we do manage to escape. The only way to move the ship now is to steal the truck it’s on, and that will just make us even more conspicuous and easy to track.”

“All we have to do is get it far enough away to buy us enough time to get our transport to it and fuel it up again, then we can take off,” John said.

Xander seemed to think again for a few moments, then he smiled. “Dawn, get me that road atlas, will you?” Dawn nodded and went to get it. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do…




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