Shadowed Paths

Part 7

"She is delusional and not me. Now will someone please untie me?"

Kyizi

Disclaimer: You know, I still haven't been sued for nicking off with the characters yet...and I still have John at my disposal! ^_^

Email: kyizi@hotmail.com

Notes: Well I thought I should at least try to finish this some time this year! So, here's the next part and I hope that the characters are…well, in character as I haven't seen FS for a while yet.

This is for Rachael who's feedback a few months ago reminded me to get my arse moving with this fic! I decided to run with your idea for this dimension Rachael, hope it's to your liking!

~x~x~x~x~x~

She felt herself falling and instantly prepared for impact. She wasn't disappointed. Landing flat on her face, she grunted as her arm jerked into an awkward position. She rolled over and lay on her back, her exhaustion refusing to let her stand up straight away. She lay staring at the stars for a moment, not daring to move, too afraid as to what this world would bring for her.

A tear trickled down her cheek as she thought of her own world. Did they even know she was gone? Did they care as much as they would in one of the other dimensions? A small sound startled her out of her reverie and she rolled onto her stomach to stare at the console. She frowned, hearing a light giggle, hoping that she hadn't stumbled upon a world that she giggled more than she had two dimensions ago.

"Come find me."

The voice was a slight whisper, carried through the air with gentle laughter and Aeryn frowned and crawled onto her knees. Moving slowly, she crept towards the console, stopping when she caught a glance of some brown curls that quickly disappeared.

"Hello?" she said softly, almost afraid of what she would be greeted with this time. Her only answer was another giggle. She slowly began moving again; careful not to make any sudden movements that might scare whatever creature she was about to come in contact with.

"BOO!"

Aeryn fell back onto her hands as a small flurry of curls leapt towards her. She barely had time to catch her breath when the small thing looked up to her; it's nose scrunched up and its tongue sticking out.

"I win, mommy!"

~x~x~x~x~x~

Frell, frell, frell, frell, frell. Aeryn repeated the mantra as she hitched the child further up onto her hips. After resuming her breathing, she had managed to pry the child from her stomach, only to have it clutching at her legs, refusing to let her move until she had finally just picked the thing up.

The child was happily humming to itself as Aeryn waged an internal battle as to what exactly she should do. The last thing she needed was someone to find her and assume that she was the real Aeryn, that way when the other one arrived, there would only be more problems. However, the small thing currently attached to her would also be confused, and whatever problems she had with the situation, she knew that a scared child was not a good thing.

She had to find John. He was likely the only one she could explain this to properly...or Lucy, if she was here. The main problem was finding one of them, without letting anyone else know of her presence. She looked at the child that was currently braiding tendrils of her hair and frowned, knowing what had to be done.

"Eh, little...thing. Where's your father?" She asked, before suddenly wondering why she had automatically assumed that John was its father.

"Daddy's, working on his ship. He said I had to come and play with you so that I wouldn't get in the way and make it sick again."

"Okay. Maintenance bay it is then." She sighed, changing direction and vaguely wondering if there was anywhere she could dispose of the child before getting there, but decided against it. She tried to let go and it just held on tighter.

The door swung open before her and she smiled, relieved to see the figure hunched over the desk, messing with the tools. It was an odd picture, she realised. In the last dimension, she was an Admiral and John was so afraid of what she would do to him, that he avoided her where possible. And here she was in the next dimension, holding onto this child and staring at a rather nice rear end.

"Daddy!" The girl squirmed to be let down and Aeryn was more than happy to oblige. He quickly turned to scoop up the girl and smiled at her.

"What are you doing down here, Aeryn? I thought we'd agreed to keep the little one out of here." He turned to his daughter, "Because we all know how you like to break Daddy's ship." He tickled the girl and she laughed. Turning back to Aeryn, he frowned, "Are you okay, Aeryn? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Velorek?"

~x~x~x~x~x~

"Is she coming round yet?"

"What does it matter, she is obviously an intruder, now will someone please let me out of these restraints?"

Aeryn groaned and clutched her head. There was a small band where her head had obviously connected with the table as she fell. Yes, she, Aeryn Sun, former Peacekeeper had fainted at the sight of her former lover.

"Velorek." she whispered. Velorek was alive and he was the father of her child. Aeryn's head began to spin. Memories of the last time she had seen him flooding through her. Lost words, repressed feelings of love...of guilt...Crais pulling him away...she had loved him and betrayed him...he had loved her and believed in her...You can be so much more.

John. Where was John?

"Crichton?"

"You see, she is delusional and not me. Now will someone please untie me?"

"Aeryn, calm down, this is not the time."

She heard movement and opened her eyes slightly, cursing at the light that ripped into her head. Groaning, she attempted to sit up only to be stopped by restraints against her waist and legs. After a few moments, her eyes opened and the fuzzy colours began to form shapes and faces.

"Velorek? You're alive?"

"Of course he's alive. Who are you?"

"I am...you." she said simply, staring at the woman strapped opposite her. Not surprisingly, the other woman was eyeing her with distrust and anger.

"You are not me."

"I am from a parallel dimension. This is the sixth world I've been to..."

"Lies. Why are we listening to her lies? This is obviously a trap. Crais is trying to capture us again..."

"She is indeed who she says. Both are."

Aeryn turned to look at the door. Zhaan was walking towards her, a vial of some sorts in her hand. "For your head, my dear."

"Zhaan." Aeryn said, after accepting the strange tasting liquid.

"What do you mean she is who she says she is?" Aeryn turned to see D'Argo leaning on the table, looking at Zhaan. "There can not be two of them."

"Well, sweet D'Argo, there are." The Delvian replied softly. "Both of their tests confirmed it. I can not explain it, but I believe this Aeryn was attempting to try before my arrival. Please, my dear, continue."

"Where is Crichton, he will be able to explain this better than I can." Aeryn frowned at the confused glances the crew were casting amongst themselves.

"What is Crichton?"

"Crichton. John Crichton. Surely you know..."Aeryn trailed off.

"I'm sorry, Aeryn," Zhaan said softly, "there is no...Crichton, on board."

~x~x~x~x~x~

"And you put up with him?"

Aeryn smiled and looked at the other version of herself. "I grew to...accept him." She replied softly.

"Mommy, who's that other lady?" All turned to look at the child standing in the doorway before the mother pulled her into her lap.

"I thought you were playing with Pilot?" Velorek asked leaning over his wife's shoulder to ruffle the girl's hair.

"Well..."

"Were you setting fire to the DRD's again, little one?"

"I was only using little flames..."

"Sweetie, we've talked about this. It's dangerous. DRD's are very capable of hurting you." Aeryn smiled at the girl that was staring at her parents, her eyes filled with innocence and Aeryn knew that she had the crew wrapped around her little finger.

"This lady is from somewhere else." The other Aeryn continued, letting the girl off without punishment.

"She looks like you."

"I know. But she's not me."

Aeryn sighed. She had explained the scenario, but she knew that the only person that actually believed her was Zhaan. Velorek might as well, but she found that she couldn't look him in the eye long enough to be sure. D'Argo and the other Aeryn, however, thought she had been sent by Crais to lure them into a trap. And they weren't about to change their minds.

"Where are the others?" she asked, trying to keep the conversation running. Afraid that silence would do more harm than good.

"Others?"

"Yes, Rygel and Chiana." She jumped at D'Argo's snarl.

"That Hynerian scum..."

"Calm yourself, D'Argo." Zhaan said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Rygel attempted to hand us over to Crais in exchange for his freedom. We escaped and Rygel was recaptured."

"Oh. What about Chiana?"

"Chiana?" the other Aeryn asked, frowning at the familiar name.

"I believe she is referring to the Nebari prisoner we transported."

"Yes, is she not still aboard?"

"We barely escaped those people with our own minds in tact. Chiana...made sure that she would not suffer that fate." Velorek informed her, squeezing his daughter's shoulder and she noted Aeryn tightening her grip on the child.

They must have had to keep their child safe during that. Obviously with great difficulty. Aeryn smiled at the girl who was sticking her tongue out at her and memories of her own childhood plagued her. She was snapped out of her thoughts as someone tugged at her hand. Looking down, she saw the girl reaching out to her, obviously wanting picked up. Feeling rather awkward, Aeryn complied. After a few moments the child had settled and Aeryn smiled at how comfortable she felt holding the girl.

"What is her name?" she asked, looking up at Velorek.

"Tey'Lin." He replied.

"After your mother." Aeryn smiled, not noticing the shocked expression on her counterparts face. "Hello Tey'Lin."

"Hello."

"Tell me something that only I would know." Aeryn looked up at herself. The woman's expression had changed, she was obviously considering changing her mind.

Aeryn frowned, attempting to think of something that might still have happened, that she couldn't have found out from records. "When you were almost 7 cycles old. Your mother came to see you. That was when she told you your father's name...Talyn. She told you," Aeryn's voice caught in her throat as the memory came back to her. "She told you that you had been conceived in love...that you had been wanted. She also told you never to tell anyone else about it."

"And I never did." The other Aeryn replied softly, "Okay, I believe you."

~x~x~x~x~x~

"So what is the cause of this phenomena?"

Aeryn sighed and looked at herself. "I'm not sure. Lucy, that's John's cousin, she was in one dimension..."

"But not in yours?"

"No. She told me that something about it didn't seem to fit. She believed that it wasn't just a natural phenomenon, but I didn't get the chance to find out much more before I left. My time in each dimension is not long and it gets shorter with each one."

"What do you believe will happen when time runs out?" Velorek asked, almost tentatively.

"I'm not sure." She whispered.

"What happened to me in your universe." He asked softly, tilting her head, forcing her to look at him. "You won't even look me in the eye."

"I...I betrayed you." Aeryn looked away, "I handed you over to Crais...I let him take you away so that I could be noticed...so that I could get what I wanted. A promotion."

"I almost did that as well." The other Aeryn admitted.

"What stopped you?"

"Pilot stopped me. I talked to him, he was afraid...alone. Just as I was. For some reason, I listened, and when Velorek asked me to run away with him, I did. We met up with Moya again as they were escaping. We had kept a look out for them since that day, hoping that we could help to free her. And we did."

Aeryn picked up another food cube and smiled sadly, "Yes, you did. You realised how wrong you were and you stopped what you were doing."

"As did you." Aeryn glanced up at Zhaan and frowned. At her confused look, the older woman smiled. "You may not have stopped then, but you know that what you did was wrong. You are truly sorry for what you have done, and from that you've learned to be a better person."

There was a pause as Zhaan smiled at her and she returned it. Suddenly the screen came to life with Pilot's image. "Moya has detected another energy reading."

"Where is it Pilot?" D'Argo asked, speaking for the first time in the last few arns. He was still viewing Aeryn's story with scepticism, but was no longer being so vocal about it.

"It is in Command."

"Then off we go to Command." Velorek said as Tey'Lin reached out for Aeryn's hand, placing herself between Aeryn and her mother.

~x~x~x~x~x~

"I hope you make it home all right." Velorek said softly, "And for what it's worth, I forgive you."

Aeryn struggled to keep the tears from her eyes, "Thank you," she said softly. Reaching down, she smiled at Tey'Lin and ruffled the child's hair.

"You keep safe, little one. And remember, don't play with the DRD's."

"I won't." Tey'Lin smiled and bent forward kissing Aeryn's cheek. "Do you have a me where you're going?"

"No," Aeryn said softly, amazed that the child seemed to understand.

Tey'Lin smiled and handed over the small clasp from her hair, handing it to Aeryn. "Don't be sad. When you have a me, give her this. It's my favourite."

"I will." Aeryn smiled, not caring about the tear that escaped.

The girl leaned forward and whispered, "And tell her that the DRD's can't squirt you when you tickle them with fire."

Aeryn laughed, "I will." Again Tey'Lin cuddled her and rubbed their noses together before stepping back to her parents.

"Goodbye," she said and stepped towards the energy, taking a moment to glance back at the small family, a small pang of longing ebbing through her. Turning away, she wiped her tears as she stepped into the next world.

~x~x~x~x~x~

END OF PART 7

Okay, I hope this was in character! And I'm sorry I kept you waiting this long for it! Hopefully the next parts won't be long in following!

Feedback is a precious gift :)