Title: Chasing Aeryn
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: Joss and co. own all things Buffy, and SFC (in their infinite stupidity) own Farscape. No copyright infringement is intended, so please don’t sue. I don’t have any money anyway. Some elements of this story and some dialogue have been taken from the Farscape episode “Promises”, no plagiarism is intended.
Summary: Following another lead on Aeryn's location, the crew of Moya discovers her Prowler adrift. But when they bring it aboard, they find someone unconscious inside. Someone who is not Aeryn, but who may be able to lead them to her. Will they find Aeryn? And will Xander be able to control the beast that he has discovered still lurks within him?
Author’s note: This story is the fourth in the ‘Sympathetic Ear’ series, following A Sympathetic Ear, Back to the Uncharted Territories, and Enter the Cleavage. Special thanks to A. Grandt, Rob Clark, MagnusXXN, Forgotten Code, dragon_hulk, C. J. Whittaker, Greywizard, Hatten, Calen, Saffi, Woodlandchild, and Paradigm Shifter for the feedback. It’s much appreciated.
Dedication: To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May they rest in peace.
(BtVS/Farscape, Xander/Chiana, John/Aeryn)

(5/6)

John, D’Argo and Scorpius stepped back onto Ullom’s ship and made their way to the main chamber that they were led to before. Ullom stood in the center of the room with his arms folded. Two more Hokothians stood behind him, one of them holding the same slug-like creature that Ullom was holding before.

“I want to talk to her again,” John said.

“My patience is wearing thin,” Ullom warned.

“I’ll get you what you want. But you have to let me see her again.”

Ullom nodded and motioned toward the corridor that led to Aeryn’s cell. The two other Hokothians stood aside to let John pass. He didn’t bother to wait for Ullom to lead the way, he just walked straight to Aeryn’s cell and waited for the door to open. After a moment it did, and John stepped inside.

Aeryn turned her head when she heard the door slide open. When she saw that it was John, she pulled herself up into a sitting position. The two of them just stared at each other for a few moments, neither one really sure what to say. She could see the sadness in his eyes at seeing her like this.

“Don’t be so upset,” she said quietly. “Death is nothing to fear.” She paused. “I should know.”

“I’ll get the antidote. End of story.”

Aeryn noticed that John’s pulse pistol was sitting in its holster on his thigh. Ullom must be getting sloppy, she thought to herself. Either that, or he knows that it doesn’t matter. “Do you remember what I said to you once? Before the living death takes hold you have to be prepared to kill me. Promise.”

John snorted. “Not a chance.”

“You have no right to try and negotiate with him. It’s my life.”

“And what if other people…depend on you?”

“Ullom doesn’t care about anyone else. He just wants me.”

“Not as much as I do,” John said.

“I made a promise. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“Doesn’t *life* mean anything to you?” John asked. “When did you become an assassin?”

“When I found a cause that required it,” Aeryn bit back angrily.

“So tell me about it. Tell me the Prime Hokothian was the devil incarnate. Tell me you did the universe a favor. Tell me why the…*saints* you’re protecting need anonymity. Tell me…it’s worth you dying.”

Aeryn locked eyes with John. There was regret there, sadness. Not that she regretted what she had done, just the circumstances that required it. She wanted to tell him she was sorry, that she didn’t want to die anymore than he wanted her to. She wanted to tell him so many things. But she kept it all inside, and spoke only two words. “It is.”

John paused a moment as he absorbed everything her eyes were telling him. She didn’t have to say it. He knew. “Well, then it’s a good thing that you have friends that aren’t so willing to give up on you,” he said. “And it’s a good thing we have a plan.”

*

D’Argo and Scorpius waited in the main chamber until they heard John yelling and pounding on Aeryn’s cell door. D’Argo took a step forward but was blocked by one of the Hokothians. The Luxan growled, but didn’t push the issue.

Ullom stood outside the cell door as it opened. John rushed out, carrying a convulsing Aeryn with him. He brushed past the Chief Protector and took her to the main chamber.

“It’s getting worse,” John said as he laid her on the floor. “She’ll talk, but you have to save her first.” Ullom just looked down at Aeryn for a moment. “What are you waiting for? I can get you the names but you have to save her now!”

After a moment, Ullom finally turned and nodded to his men. The one who held the slug kneeled down next to Aeryn and placed the creature against her face. The other one stood behind John and watched over his shoulder. A burst of energy discharged from the slug across Aeryn’s face. Her head jerked to the side and for a second she froze, but then she started convulsing again.

“That’s not enough, hit her again!” John insisted.

“One dose is more than sufficient,” Ullom said. “She should soon recover enough to speak.”

That was all John needed to hear. In a second, he uncoiled from the floor and struck the Hokothian behind him in the face. He punched him twice more before sending him staggering back with a head-butt. Finally, he drew his pulse pistol and fired. The Hokothian collapsed to the floor, dead.

D’Argo had little trouble with the second one, knocking him out with a few punches. Ullom remained still throughout the whole ordeal. D’Argo took a swing at the Chief Protector, only to have his fist pass harmlessly through the hologram. The hologram shimmer and then disappeared completely. “He’s still faking it!” D’Argo called out to John before running down the corridor. Scorpius was right behind him, running down the corridor in the opposite direction.

John checked the bodies on the floor to make sure they were out of commission. The blue tinged light that reflected throughout the room suddenly changed to red, and Ullom’s disembodied voice sounded all around them.

“What’s the point? This place is sealed. You’re trapped and outnumbered!”

D’Argo stopped at the end of the corridor, cut off.

“Yeah, you got any more warm bodies trot ‘em out!” John shouted. “Or get your own ass down here if you’ve got the balls for it!”

Aeryn started to push herself up slowly. D’Argo and Scorpius both came back into the room.

“It’s completely sealed off,” Scorpius said. “There’s no way out.”

“That’s right,” Ullom’s disembodied voice agreed. “I control this ship! I can cut off your oxygen, or just let you starve!”

Aeryn climbed to her feet and stepped forward. “Come on, Ullom. Come out,” she said, her voice showing a hint of anger. “Stop fighting your battles with contagions and holograms, and face me.” She paused. “Or are you a coward?”

There was a hissing sound, and Ullom’s hologram reappeared behind Aeryn. She turned to face him. “I faced you once, murderer. Do you not remember? You shot me and left me for dead. You killed so many that day.”

Unseen by Ullom, John grabbed Scorpius by the arm and pulled him along with him as he took up a position in the corridor, his pulse pistol at the ready. He motioned for D’Argo to take the other side.

“I remember,” Aeryn said with a smirk. “But your leader had more people slaughtered in one day than I could possibly kill in a lifetime. And if asked to do again what I did. I would do it again, and again.”

On the far side of the room behind Aeryn, the wall started to shimmer. It dissolved slowly to reveal an alcove, where Ullom hung from some kind of harness.

“And I would do it for free,” Aeryn continued. “I wasn’t *hired* to kill him…”

Unseen by Aeryn, the real Ullom raised a pulse pistol and took aim. John saw it though. He sprung into action, pushing Scorpius ahead of him. He shoved him in between Ullom and Aeryn just as Ullom fired. The energy blast struck Scorpius, sending him to the floor. Aeryn whirled around just as John fired his own pistol, striking Ullom. The hologram faded out of existence as the alcove Ullom hung in began to spark wildly.

John was at Aeryn’s side in a heartbeat, helping her as she staggered slightly. Scorpius turned over from his spot on the floor and groaned.

“My life…support…” Ullom gasped.

“That was your plan?” Aeryn asked John, slightly angry. “Push Scorpius into the blast?”

“My coolant suit is resistant to energy weapon fire,” Scorpius said as he tried to climb to his feet. D’Argo stepped over to him and grabbed him by the arm, unceremoniously hoisting him up. Scorpius groaned again but nodded toward the Luxan. “Thank you,” he said, only slightly sarcastic.

“I kept my promise,” John said, clearly annoyed. “He’s alive.” Aeryn just glared at him.

“Not to interrupt this touching moment, but we still have to get out of here. We’re sealed in, remember?” D’Argo said.

Scorpius pulled himself from D’Argo’s grip and staggered closer to Ullom. “This device,” he said, pulling blue orb from Ullom’s left hand. “I believe it’s a control orb. A direct neural interface.”

“I’ll be sure to add it to my Christmas list,” John said. “What does it do?”

“He runs the entire ship with this.”

“Correction, you run the entire ship with that,” John said.

Scorpius rolled his eyes as he considered the orb. “Very well, I will try.”

“There is no try young padawan, only do. Pop the hatch so we can blow this taco stand.”

*

Xander moved through the corridors of Moya at a steady run, tracking the scent of his prey. They outnumbered him fourteen to one, some logical part of his mind still knew that. But he didn’t care. He craved the hunt now, almost as much as the kill. He could still taste the blood that stained his mouth and hands, the blood of his prey, and he wanted more. He used his ability to track them to stay one step ahead. He avoided any areas where they were gathered in groups. Instead he sought out ones who were alone. He could pick them all off one by one if he was patient enough.

There was one of them ahead of him now, he could feel it. Xander slowed his pace as the air carried the scent of his prey to his nose. He was completely silent, not even his footsteps made a sound as he readied himself. He could hear him now, his heartbeat, his breathing. He was just around the corner, and he was getting closer. The Zendali carefully peeked into the corridor, searching for members of Moya’s crew when Xander struck.

He pounced, knocking his prey to the floor and his gun out of his hand. Blow after blow came raining down on the unsuspecting pirate. He screamed out in pain, but it did no good. Xander didn’t stop until the man was dead.

Xander raised his head and howled in victory. He sniffed the air and detected the scent of another coming closer, fast. Attracted by the noise no doubt. Xander growled and gritted his teeth together. He rose to his feet and turned around, watching as another pirate emerged from an adjoining corridor fifty metras away from him. The Zendali raised his weapon and fired.

Xander broke into a run toward the man, darting back and forth along the corridor to evade the blasts from his weapon. He moved with incredible speed and agility, bouncing from wall to wall. He was ten metras from his prey when he made one final leap, covering the space between them in an instant. A blast from the pirate’s weapon caught Xander in the shoulder at the last second and sent him off balance as he tackled the other man to the floor. They both rolled down the corridor, one on top of the other, both struggling for dominance. Finally, Xander brought his legs up and kicked the pirate away from him. He flew into the air until he struck the wall with a thud and slid down it. The pirate grimaced in pain before looking back at his opponent.

Xander got to his feet quickly. There was a scorch mark on his left shoulder where the energy blast had struck him, and his left arm hung numbly at his side. His eyes narrowed as he bared his teeth and growled at his prey.

“What…what the frell are you?” the Zendali sputtered. He tried to bring up his weapon again, but Xander closed the distance in a blink and batted it away. He grabbed the pirate by the neck and lifted him up against the wall. The pirate struggled for breath as he looked down at the creature that held him, terror filling his eyes. Xander just growled before snapping his neck with one hand. The body fell to the deck, limp and lifeless.

Xander took a second to look at the wound on his shoulder before his head snapped up. He could hear them coming, more of them. Too many to fight. He turned in the opposite direction and took off at a full run.

*

“You scared him!” Chiana yelled at Jool

“*I* scared *him*?” Jool exclaimed. “Did you see the same thing that I did? His eyes, his teeth, he ripped that man’s throat out with his bare teeth!”

“I had him calmed down until you screamed!”

“Oh, you did, did you? Well do you mind telling the rest of us what the frell you were calming him down from!”

“I don’t know! But if you had given me a chance…”

“Enough, both of you!” Rygel yelled. “We still have the Zendali to deal with in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Of course we haven’t forgotten!” Chiana exclaimed. “Xander is out there all alone, unarmed. They’re going to kill him!”

“Unless he kills them first,” Rygel pointed out. “We have more important things to worry about, like how we are going to survive. I think we’ve seen that Xander can take care of himself.”

“How can you say that? You don’t even know what’s happened to him,” Chiana said.

“Well, he is human. Maybe the stress of the situation was too much and he spontaneously devolved,” Rygel said. “From what I know of the species, it isn’t much of a leap.”

Chiana just shot Rygel a dirty look. Jool cautiously approached the body of the dead Zendali. She grimaced as she leaned down to get a closer look at his wounds. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say a wild animal did this.”

Chiana looked over at Noranti, who had been suspiciously quiet since Xander’s outburst. “What about you, Wrinkles? Do you have any idea what’s happening to Xander?”

“There’s been something different about him, since the two of you returned from Grayza’s ship,” Noranti said. “A darkness touching his soul. He’s been struggling against it.” Noranti paused. “It would seem that he has failed.”

Chiana’s expression twisted in anger. “You’re saying that Grayza did this to him?”

Noranti shook her head. “Xander is the only one who knows the answer to that.”

“We’re wasting time!” Rygel insisted. “We should be discussing what we’re going to do about the Zendali.”

Chiana opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, a high-pitched whine filled the room. “It’s the ship-wide comms,” Pilot said, frantically working at his console. “Someone has accessed it.”

The whine faded quickly, and was replaced by a deep gruff voice. “Attention, crew of the Leviathan Moya. This is Captain Mezzom of the Zendali. I have accessed your ship’s comms in order to…negotiate terms of surrender.”

Chiana sneered. “If this joker thinks we’re going to surrender, he’s got another thing coming,” she said.

“The creature you have released has killed two of my men, and there is another missing. If you call this creature off, and allow us to return to our ship…we will leave, and not pursue this matter any further,” Mezzom said, clearly unhappy.

Stunned silence filled Pilot’s den. Chiana’s mouth literally fell open as she tried to comprehend what the pirate had just said. *He* wanted to surrender to *them*. The creature that he spoke of, it had to be Xander. She found her gaze locked on Xander’s gun belt and sword, which still laid on the deck a few metras from where she stood. He was unarmed, the Zendali weren’t. And yet he had managed to kill two more of them. Her eyes drifted to the body of the pirate Xander had killed, lying in a pool of his own blood. Had their deaths been as gruesome as his? Nothing made any sense, how could Xander have done that? What was happening to him?

Rygel finally broke the silence, tapping the comms pin on his robe before he spoke. “Our terms are as follows. You and your men will leave all of your weapons and equipment, including your stealth suits, in the galley. You will then proceed to the detention cells and lock yourselves inside. Once we have confirmed that you are there, and that you are not armed, we will recall the creature. We have your missing man, so we know exactly what equipment you are carrying, and we’ll know if any of it is missing. We also know that there are fourteen of you aboard.”

“I’ve already told you, two of my men were killed!” Mezzom growled.

“Then you will strip them and take the bodies with you,” Rygel said.

“Your terms are unacceptable! Call off this creature and we will leave!”

“It’s your decision Captain,” Rygel said calmly. “You can either do as I’ve said, or you can wait until our creature has picked you off, one by one. It really makes no difference to us.”

There was a pause on the other end of the comms. The assembled crew of Moya looked around at each other nervously. Finally, the Zendali Captain spoke again.

“What will be done with us?”

“Your lives will be spared,” Rygel said. “Beyond that, I haven’t decided yet.”

Another pause. “Very well. We…accept your terms,” Mezzom grumbled.

“Then we’ll speak again once you have complied,” Rygel said. He tapped the pin on his chest again, ending the transmission.

The stunned silence continued for a few moments. “Unbelievable,” Jool muttered.

“It would seem that Xander has saved us, despite whatever has happened to him,” Noranti said.

“Nice job, Ryg,” Chiana said.

“Someone had to take charge,” Rygel said. “The galley isn’t far from here, once they remove their stealth suits and we’re sure they’re in a detention cell we can make sure that all of their weapons are accounted for before we do anything else.”

“What are we going to do about them?” Jool asked. “And what about Xander?”

“He won’t hurt us,” Chiana said. Jool shot her a skeptical look. “And I think I have an idea of how we can contain him.”

*

Xander moved slowly, staying in the shadows as best he could. His prey was regrouping. They knew they were being hunted now, and they knew that their strength was in their numbers. Xander would wait them out. He’d wait forever if he had to, but he’d get his prey in the end. He’d make them pay for threatening his pack.

He sat quietly on his haunches, in an unlit corner of Moya, close to where his enemy gathered, and prepared himself to wait. That’s when he heard it. A strange and yet familiar voice that seemed to come from nowhere.

“Xander. Xander, can you hear me?” Xander leapt to his feet and spun around, looking for where the voice had come from. “It’s me, Chiana.” He looked down at the pin on his shirt, realizing that the voice was coming from it. He pulled it off and looked at it curiously.

“I hope you can hear me. We’re safe now, Xander. The pirates are in one of the holding cells, the threat is over.” Chiana paused. “I’m okay, I’m safe now. We…I want you to come back to Pilot’s den. I need you here.”

Xander looked up and sniffed the air, smelling for signs of his prey. They were there, in the same place they had been before. They weren’t moving anymore. He closed his hand around the comms pin and started down the corridor towards Pilot’s den. Chiana needed him, that was all he needed to hear.

Somewhere, deep in Xander’s consciousness, the rational part of his mind was fighting to push its way to the surface. But it was too late, he was trying to close the barn door long after the horse had broken free, the beast was just too powerful now.

It only took Xander a few minutes to get back to Pilot’s den. He moved through the door cautiously, scanning the room as he stepped inside. Chiana was standing closest to him, in front of Pilot’s console. The others stood behind her, their faces a mixture of concern and fear. If Chiana was afraid, she hid it well. She gave Xander a smile and waved him closer.

“It’s okay,” Chiana said. “Come on.” Xander kept walking until he was right in front of her, giving Chiana her first up close look at him since he changed. She winced a little when she saw the wound on his left shoulder. She was afraid, not of the creature that he had become, but of the possibility that she might never get her Xander back. Never again get to stare into his warm brown eyes, or see that lopsided smile, or hear the affection in his voice when he says her name. A single tear slid down Chiana’s cheek as she reached up and touched his face.

Xander nuzzled against her hand and murmured contentedly. “Mate,” he grunted softly.

“Everything is going to be okay, Xander,” Chiana said. “I promise.”

Xander was too engrossed with Chiana to notice Noranti sneaking up next to him. It wasn’t until she blew a handful of powder in his face that he realized she was there. He turned and growled at her, but he didn’t get the chance to do much more before he collapsed unconscious on the floor.

Chiana kneeled down next to him and brushed a lock of hair away from his eyes before wiping her own face. “I promise,” she mumbled again.

*

When Xander opened his eyes again, he found himself sprawled out on the floor of one of Moya’s holding cells. His head hurt, his shoulder hurt, his stomach hurt. He could still taste blood in his mouth. He ran his tongue across his teeth, they were back to normal again. He pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked down at himself. There was still blood on his clothes, but his hands were clean. His left shoulder was wrapped in a bandage. He flexed the fingers of his left hand. His entire arm was tingling, but his dexterity didn’t seem worse for wear.

His hands went to his head as he started processing his memories of the last few arns. He remembered everything of course. Every action, every emotion, every instinct, every kill. Xander slowly climbed to his feet and stumbled to the waste receptacle in the corner of the room, where he promptly threw up the contents of his stomach.

“He’s awake.”

Xander turned his head and saw Rygel hovering just outside of the cell door. A moment later, Chiana, Jool, and Noranti stepped into view as well. “Xander, are you okay?” Chiana asked. Xander opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as he turned his head and threw up again.

“I guess that answers that question,” Rygel commented.

“Jool patched up your shoulder while you were out,” Chiana continued. “She said there might be some nerve damage still, but you should be fine. I…I cleaned off as much of the blood as I could.”

Xander sat back on his heels and pulled his tee shirt off. He used it to wipe the vomit from his mouth before dropping it on the floor and standing up. He took a closer look at his left shoulder and tested his range of motion.

“Xander…do you know what happened? Do you remember…”

“I remember,” Xander interrupted with a gravelly voice. “All of it.”

After a moment of silence Rygel spoke up again. “Well are you going to tell us what the frell happened or not?”

“I lost control,” Xander said simply.

“Is that what happens when humans lose control?” Jool asked sheepishly.

Xander shook his head. “No, just me,” he said. “At least now anyway.”

“Xander, I don’t understand,” Chiana said.

“I guess I have a lot of explaining to do.” Xander stepped closer to the door of the cell, keeping his eyes on Chiana as he spoke. “Around nine years ago, my time, I was possessed by an animal spirit. A hyena to be exact. It’s a pack animal, kind of like a wild dog. It’s…hard to explain. It wasn’t like being possessed by another mind, I was still me, only…different. I had all these instincts, these…urges that I couldn’t control. To hunt and kill, to protect my pack. My senses were enhanced, along with my reflexes and my strength. It wasn’t nearly as…drastic as the change that you witnessed. I still looked completely human, and I could still speak and interact with people normally. It was…a very scary experience. I hurt people that I cared about, and I very nearly killed one of them. My friends cast a spell to get rid of the hyena spirit, which it did. At least, that’s what we thought.”

“This is ridiculous,” Rygel muttered.

“Shut-up, Rygel,” Chiana said, not taking her eyes away from Xander. “Let him talk.”

“I know it sounds farfetched, but I swear it’s true,” Xander said.

“So, whenever you lose control this…hyena creature resurfaces?” Noranti asked.

“Not exactly. At least, that isn’t how it used to be. I didn’t know it at the time, but the spell didn’t completely remove the hyena. A piece of it stayed behind, locked away deep inside of my mind. And that’s where it stayed hidden, all this time…until Grayza woke it up.”

Chiana’s eyes widened. “The Aurora chair.”

“No,” Xander said. “The chair only looks at memories. It was her pheromones, when she tried to…seduce me. The reaction tickled that part of my brain where the hyena was caged, among my own base desires and instincts. It very nearly got out right then and there, but I reined it in. The problem is the hyena is no longer trapped in the back of my mind. It’s much more powerful now, much harder to control. It’s been getting stronger all these years, I think that’s why the change was so different. It’s an animal, it feeds on anger and violence. The Zendali coming aboard only made it stronger. And when that pirate grabbed you Chiana, I lost it.”

“The darkness I sensed in you when you came back aboard, it was this creature,” Noranti observed.

“We could have been killed,” Jool said, remembering the gruesome death of the Zendali who dared to touch Chiana.

“No,” Xander insisted. “The hyena wouldn’t have intentionally hurt you. It considers you part of its pack. It was trying to protect you all from the Zendali.”

“How did you change back?” Chiana asked.

“While the hyena was loose, it must have given my mind the chance to build a better cage for it. Once I was unconscious, they put it back. I can still feel it, but it isn’t as strong anymore. I don’t think I’ll change again. At least not any time soon.”

“Who are ‘they’?” Jool asked.

“What?”

“You said once you were unconscious, ‘they’ put it back. Who are they?”

Xander closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ve asked you all to believe so much, to trust me even though you hardly know me. Maybe that’s why I’ve been so reluctant to tell you all of this.

“After my first session in the Aurora chair, my mind was mush. Grayza had unlocked the solider memories, and everything was just…chaotic. I was losing my mind, and it scared the hell out of me. I started seeing things, my friends from Earth, the ones who were killed. They told me what I needed to do. They kept me focused when it felt like everything was falling apart around me. I thought they were just hallucinations…but they weren’t.”

Xander looked down at the amulet that hung around his neck. “I’ve told you about this amulet that my friends gave me, that it was infused with magic to protect me. What you don’t know is that before Willow…before she died, she did something to it. I didn’t know what until just recently. She infused it with a piece of her life force, and a piece of the life forces of the rest of my friends. They’ve latched on to different parts of my psyche, kind of like the hyena did with my primitive instincts. They are what kept me sane while Grayza tortured me. They’re why I was able to resist her pheromones. And they are what have been keeping the hyena in check since Grayza released it.”

“This is frelling insane!” Rygel complained.

“Rygel…”

“I can’t believe you’re even entertaining this! He’s clearly lost his mind, he…”

“Rygel, shut-up!” Chiana yelled.

“I asked you to trust me, and you did,” Xander said. He was speaking to all of them, but his eyes never left Chiana’s. “I betrayed that trust, and I put your lives in danger by not telling you the truth. I made a mistake, and I’m sorry. I wish I had a better explanation for what I did…but I don’t.”

For a moment, nobody said anything. Chiana just stared at Xander, like she was trying to decide how to feel about it all. After a few seconds, she moved to open the cell door.

“What are you doing?!” Rygel asked.

“I’m letting him out.”

“Are you crazy?! You can’t tell me you actually believe all of that!”

“If he was going to make up a lie, don’t you think it would be a more convincing one than that?” Chiana countered. “He’s telling the truth.” She paused. “I can tell.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to side with Rygel on this one,” Jool said. “All we have is his word that what happened won’t happen again. I don’t think we can risk it.”

“What about you, Wrinkles?” Chiana asked.

Noranti looked a Xander for a moment before responding. “I can still see the darkness inside him, but it’s been pushed back. I think he’s telling the truth.”

“So that’s two against two,” Chiana said, looking at Xander. He didn’t say anything further in his own defense. He told them the truth, and now it was up to them to decide what to do with him. There was nothing more for him to say. “Pilot,” Chiana said after a moment. “Have you been monitoring our comms?”

“I have,” Pilot’s voice came back.

“What do you and Moya think?”

“It would appear that Xander has saved us from the Zendali. Moya and I agree, we should give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Chiana nodded and moved to open the door again. “Four to two,” she said. The cell door slid open and Xander stepped out. Rygel and Jool tensed for a moment, but nothing happened.

“What happened to the Zendali?” Xander asked after a moment.

“They surrendered to us,” Noranti said. “In exchange for us retrieving you. Their captain said you killed two more of his men.”

Xander nodded. “It’s true.”

“So what are we going to do with them now?” Jool asked.

“I’ve given them my word that their lives will be spared,” Rygel said.

“Well we can’t just let them go,” Jool said. “We have no guarantee that they won’t come back.”

Xander thought for a moment. “John made you a promise Rygel, I say we honor it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He told you that if this ended up being a trap, he’d let you loot any ships we found,” Xander said. Rygel smiled. “I say we do exactly that. Take anything of value we can find from their ship, including the weapons they were carrying and those stealth suits of theirs. Disable their engines, leave them enough power and provisions to survive adrift, and let them pray that whoever happens upon them is more charitable than they have been.”

“Perhaps I was a little hasty before when I called you insane,” Rygel said with a smile.

Jool just rolled her eyes and grabbed Rygel by the back of his throne sled. “Come on, let’s go give Captain Mezzom the good news.” Noranti followed after them, leaving Xander and Chiana alone.

Chiana turned to go too before Xander stopped her. “Chiana, I…” She turned. “I’m sorry.” It just didn’t seem like enough. Probably because it wasn’t.

“We have a lot of work to do before John and D’Argo get back. We’ll talk about it later,” she said curtly. She turned and walked out of the room, leaving Xander alone.

She was clearly hurt, and Xander couldn’t blame her. The exact thing he had been so determined to prevent had happened, he hurt Chiana. But it wasn’t the hyena that did it, it was all him this time, which is what made it all the more worse. Xander just shook his head, silently cursing himself as he stepped out into the corridor.




Next Chapter