"I thought I locked my door," Talyn mutters after opening his eyes to the sight of Ceredin's face frowning down at his. His head is resting in her lap, and one of her hands combs repetitively through his hair. Her thighs feel soft and pleasantly warm through the thin fabric of the shift she's wearing.

Ceredin shrugs. "Moya let me in. I didn't want to be alone."

He stands up, crosses the room, and leans against the far wall. "You're never alone, Cer. We're linked, just like Gemmi and Bialar. We're closer than they are! You've been through-- how did you put it?-- every reason-forsaken line of my source code. I've given you my heat signature interpretation function and my flight AI--"

"When I woke up from Gemmi's nightmare, I was alone, Talyn. So don't tell me how close we are."

"Look, when you said I shouldn't have taken the sensory processing algorithms from the Scorpius clone--"

"I never said you shouldn't have!" Ceredin shakes her head. "I said I wouldn't have asked you to--"

"Whatever. You were right. I feel things the same way a Sebacean does now, but that ability came at a cost. Now when you touch me, when you get too close for too long, I'm afraid I'll lose control. I don't want to be a prisoner of impulses."

"So you make yourself a prisoner of the need to control them?" She folds her arms across her chest and raises an eyebrow.

"It's the price of owning myself. At least I'm choosing my own chains."

"Hm." Her aura flickers hot and cold. She looks like she wants to hit him. "I say frell that. But I didn't come here to talk about your bout of insanity. I promised Aeryn that we'd leave Crichton out of the stryker project."

"What? Why? He knows things that could help us!"

"He doesn't 'know' things, exactly. The data is there in his brain, but it's encrypted and he can't access it. He's going fahrbot trying. You of all people should understand what it means to fight a battle in your own head. When you told him what we found out about how the stryker's propulsion works, it set him off again. He's in his obsessive mode."

"Dren." Talyn pounds his thigh with a fist in frustration. "I didn't mean to hurt him. Or Aeryn."

"You didn't." Ceredin sighs, and her expression softens into one of sympathy. "The ancients did this to him. If I could find that reason-forsaken data and rip it out of his head, I--"

"Why can't you?" Talyn interrupts, suddenly grinning.

"Because we're not..." She laughs and claps her hands together. "You're right. There's no reason I couldn't try. We just have to get the DRDs to make another transponder. You're frelling brilliant, Talyn."

"If it works." He shrugs. "The primary link should be with me. I spent enough time poking around in Bialar's head that I should be able to locate the data without too much trouble. Then you can try to erase it without wiping the rest of him. Assuming he even agrees to the risk."

Ceredin shakes her head. "No. Assuming Aeryn agrees. I don't trust Crichton to make decisions for himself, not in the state he's in. I do trust Aeryn."

"To decide whether or not we get to frell around in his head?"

"Aeryn is, as you might say, a chain he's chosen. The ancients aren't. Harvey isn't. She deserves to watch over him more than they do."

"Harvey," Talyn repeats, feeling suddenly dizzy.

He swallows and looks away from Ceredin, not wanting her to see the fear in his eyes. In his original form, he hadn't been afraid of anything; enemies had only made him angry, and the rage never lasted longer than it took to blow them to pieces. Even now, there's not much that scares him, since his bioloid body is tough and his consciousness is backed up on a datachip. No one can really destroy him, but Scorpius was able to do something worse. By installing a malevolent clone of his own consciousness on Talyn's transponder, Scorpius had rendered Talyn a prisoner in his own body. Talyn had watched, helpless, while the clone used his body to attack Gemmi in order to exact revenge on Bialar.

"Talyn..." Ceredin crosses the room and takes his chin in her hand. "Talyn, look at me. Listen to me! Harvey is a beta version. He's nowhere near as strong as the Scorpius clone, and even if he were, you beat that one. You stopped him."

"Not in time. You couldn't read heat signatures then, Cer. You couldn't see all the damage he did to Gemmi, only what was visible on the outside. I-- I didn't just see it. I was part of it."

"Oh." Ceredin's eyes widen and then mist over. "Oh, I'm such a stupid drannit! That's why, isn't it? That's why you're afraid you'll hurt me."

He doesn't answer out loud; he just holds her, stroking her back and letting her read him through the link.

Talyn, if you don't think you can face Harvey, I can do it myself, she offers.

"No. We'll do it together. You're right. He's just a beta version anyway."

That must strike some sort of chord with Ceredin, because her aura warms, and she squeezes his waist, standing on her tip toes to kiss his lips. Before he can push her away, she disengages herself and backs into the doorway.

"For what it's worth, Talyn, I'm not afraid of you. And I really have been through every reason-forsaken line of your source code. Oh, I don't expect you to have an answer for that, not one I'd like anyway. I'm going to find Aeryn." She pivots and leaves the room.

Talyn leans his head out the doorway and watches her disappear down the corridor, moving with the efficient grace of the Peacekeeper who provided the template for her locomotion algorithms. He wants to call her back to his room, wants to press her close enough to read her aura with his whole body, but he can only see that leading to resonance and a complete loss of control.