Captain Bialar Crais stood in the
doorway of the infirmary.
He walked in carefully, avoiding Zhaan's
eye-contact.
The Sebecean woman lay on the bed in front of
her.
Dying.
"I'm so sorry." Crais said, watching her
breathe her last breaths.
"I'm really sorry."
"It's
not you're fault." Aeryn said with difficulty.
She was pale.
Her eyes were hollow, and the light which once shined there, was
gone.
It died, just as Chrichton has.
"If Talyn and I had
known..."
John Chrichton.
The man who killed his
brother.
A year ago, he would've embraced the death of this
human.
But things have changed.
"How long does she have
left?" Crais asked Zhaan, who attended her, but the look on her
face said enough.
Crais stood by her bed, grabbing her hand.
It
was so cold...
"I have something for you to see." Crais
said.
He pulled a videodisc from the pocket of his uniform.
"I
found this in the Peacekeeper Command datafiles." He explained.
"It's a security-video, made when you were just a child."
"Is
it about me?" Aeryn asked.
"There's more." Crais said.
He
sighed, looking into her dying eyes again.
"I would've given
it to you sooner,... if it weren't for other matters."
Aeryn
tried to answer, but was too weak to even make a sound.
"I want
you to see it. Before..."
Crais was barely able to say
it.
"Before you die."
He gave the disc to Zhaan, and asked
her to insert it into the holographic viewer.
She nodded, and
helped Crais spend his last moments with Aeryn.
Chiana sat on
the table in Command, watching the stars.
It was quiet.
She
hated the silence.
It seemed to rip open the universe.
The
young girl screamed. The silence had to stop.
And Chrichton should
be alive.
She would've given anything in this world for
Chrichton to walk in this room again.
He didn't have to say
anything.
He only had to hold her.
Her mind wondered off to the
time they blew up Scorpius's Gammak Base, leaving John, D'Argo
and Aeryn behind.
She was so scared.
She would've given her
life to see them again.
But there was no sign of them.
A month
passed.
Still nothing.
Until John Chrichton just flew into
their lives again.
Exactly one year ago.
She held him so
tight...
Rygel zoomed passed Command.
"You could've
saved him!" Chiana shouted at him.
"No, I couldn't!" he
shouted back, entering Command.
His voice was weak and his eyes
were wet.
Chiana saw that he Hynerian missed Chrichton
too.
Although he would never admit it.
"You know what the
last thing that I said to him was?"
Chiana didn't ask.
"...I
said I'd kill him!" Rygel said and tears went down his
face.
"...And now he's dead!...And it's all my fault..."
He
zoomed off again, and Chiana felt sorry for the little guy.
She
realised that she didn't have to shout at him like that.
Everyone
feels the loss of Chrichton.
He was a crew-member. A friend. A
lover.
Blessed with the knowledge to get home.
Cursed with
enemies, hunting him down to get that knowledge.
Doomed with a
demon inside his head, killing him to find the key to that
knowledge.
"Maybe he was doomed from the moment he stepped foot
in this galaxy." Chiana thought, as she looked at the stars.
She
didn't cry.
She never cried one single tear.
She couldn't
anymore, because she did not have one single tear left.
They have
all been shed this day.
Perhaps tomorrow she may cry again...or
never...
"'...quiet Aeryn...'"the woman in the video
said.
"'...my name is Xalax Sun...I am you're
mother.'"
Aeryn looked at the woman, recognising her from a
dream. Long ago.
Only it wasn't a dream.
"...Talyn, you're
father, and I,...we want you to know that we love you...and that
you were a child of love..."
Aeryn grew weaker and weaker
every second.
"'...remember that, Aeryn...'"the
woman said to the little girl.
It was Aeryn. Little Aeryn Sun.
Soon that girl will grow up to be a soldier.
A Peacekeeper.
A
warrior.
And then her life changed, as she met him.
As she met
Chrichton.
She still remembered when she first saw him.
Laying
on the floor in their cell.
She smiled as she remembered how she
kicked his ass.
A shock in her guts reminded her of her
future.
Little Aeryn Sun.
A Peacekeeper.
A warrior.
And
now she was going to die right here. On this bed.
As she closed
her eyes, she smiled, and imagined the face of her lover by her
side.
John smiled at her, as he held her hand lovingly.
She
smiled back.
She was happy to die, if it meant that she would see
Chrichton again.
That she would be with Chrichton
again.
"Aeryn?"
Crais felt her hand slip from his
fingers.
"Aeryn?"
He stepped back from her lifeless
body.
Zhaan was shocked.
"Aeryn!" she
shouted.
Pain...suffering...
She swore to end it all.
She
swore she would protect them all from harm.
Her friends. Her
family.
But she couldn't do it.
Now John's dead.
D'Argo
is suffering.
Chiana is broken.
Rygel is grieving.
Stark is
confused.
Pilot's in agony.
Moya is numb.
Jothee is
leaving.
And Aeryn is dying!
She could not bear to watch this
family break up in pieces.
To go down in flames.
Just like John
did...
No.
John never wanted her to give up.
He would've
done everything he could to save the ones he loved.
He was brave.
He was gentle. He was magnificent. He was stupid.
He was
innocent...
John would've done anything to save Aeryn.
He
has proven this already.
Now what would she do to save the ones she loves?
"This family needs life." Zhaan said to herself.
Crais could not bear to watch her die.
He turned
his face, not to see the tormented look on her face.
Was she
smiling?
No, she wasn't smiling. She was in pain!
Suddenly he
became so afraid of losing her.
But why?
Why did he care so
much for her?
At first he didn't even notice her. Aeryn Sun was
just another soldier under his command.
Not until she brought back
his brother's murderer did he notice her.
He saw she was trying
to save his life!
She was contaminated by this creature!
His rage consumed him then. But not anymore.
He did not care for
this Peacekeeper, who joined Chrichton in his escape.
He wanted
Chrichton, and he preferred him dead.
Not until that fateful day,
on which he landed himself in the grasp of the evil Scorpius, and in
his Aurora-chair, did he really see her for who she really was.
A
magnificent woman.
She caused him the greatest pain in the
universe.
And she caused him to change.
He didn't realise
it's effects at first, but it finally hit him in the face when his
Command Carrier was blown up.
He was no longer a captain.
He
was no longer a Peacekeeper!
He was a renegade! A fugitive for his
own kind!
Just like her...
The feelings he felt for her
exploded into his body, screaming to be let out, but he didn't let
them.
Instead he walked away.
Away from the infirmary.
Away
from Moya.
Talyn was his friend. His son. His creation.
They
were one and the same, and thought alike.
Talyn would comfort him.
And vice versa.
He thought of the plans he had.
Of the
question he wanted to ask Aeryn.
To join him. To educate
Talyn.
Together.
But he knew it wasn't meant to be.
For
her love was meant for someone else.
The man he murdered.
And
now she was going to join him in the afterlife.
Now Crais knew
that Aeryn did smile.
She did.
"This family needs life."
Zhaan repeated, over and over.
"LIFE!"
She grabbed
Aeryn's head, and pushed it against hers.
They became
one.
Stark felt it.
He was still sitting in Maintenance
Bay. He was thinking about Chrichton, when this surge of energy hit
his mind.
He recognised it.
He could feel it was her.
"Zhaan?"
he said and ran off to the infirmary.
"Zhaan, what are you
doing!"
Aeryn woke up.
She did not feel the pain
anymore.
"What is this?" Aeryn said as she felt this
extraordinary feeling.
"We are one." Zhaan said. "This is
unity."
"It's amazing."
"Yes, it is."
But Aeryn
felt that this was not normal.
She felt something, some energy,
drained from her.
"Zhaan, what are you doing?"
"I'm
saving you, child." she said.
Stark ran through the corridors, almost knocking over D'Argo in his path.
"You
meant everything to John. He loved you. He would've never let you
die.
And I won't let you die either."
"Stop this!"
Aeryn said, as she knew what would happen.
"No child, "Zhaan
said. "This is my last gift to you. This is my last gift,...to
John."
"I want to die...!"
The bond severed, leaving a
unconscious Zhaan on the floor.
Aeryn Sun breathed again.
She
was cured.
But at what cost?
