Shadowed Paths
Part 8
"You miss him, don't you?"
Kyizi
Disclaimer: Help! Stop them, they're driving me insane! Take them back, someone! (except John, I'm keeping him...I might keep Crais as well ;) )
Email: kyizi@hotmail.com
Spoilers: Still in season 1 here :) ....at least I think that was where I started writing it...HELL! I've been writing this fic for 2 years! Eek! Well, hopefully it'll be finished soon!
Notes: I'm back on track with the planned worlds now. There should only be 10 parts in total so WOOHOO! Nearly finished :)
~x~x~x~x~x~
Aeryn cried out in pain as her side connected with the console. Her fall had been longer, this time she was sure she'd fallen from a height higher than the ceiling of the main chamber. She grunted in agony as she pulled herself up to her feet.
"Holy crap, Aeryn, are you all right?" She spun around at the voice, pulling away from the dark haired man before her. She had no idea who he was, which seemed to place her at a disadvantage.
"Woah, Aeryn, don't get you knickers in a twist, I was only trying to help. Where the frell did you come from anyways?" Aeryn frowned at the man, scarily aware of the phrases he was using, the manner of his speaking.
"Where's Crichton?" she asked pulling herself to her full height.
"Aeryn what the hell are you taking about?" the man asked stepping away from her. "Leave John out of this."
"So you do know who I'm talking about."
"Of course I know, Aeryn, I was the one that told you about him."
Aeryn frowned, "I'm sorry, I don't understand. Actually, neither do you. I'm from a parallel dimension, and I have no idea who you are. However, I do know that you speak in the same inane manner as John does."
"Aeryn, you're scaring me."
"Well, I'm about to scare you more, DK." The man whirled around to see Aeryn's counterpart standing in the doorway and promptly fainted.
~x~x~x~x~x~
"So let me get this straight, John actually piloted Farscape in your universe."
"And in every one I have encountered so far. Well, he wasn't in the last one at all, so I'm not sure about what happened there." Aeryn said as she picked at her foodcubes.
"I still say she is lying." D'Argo spat out. "We should shoot her from the nearest airlock as soon as possible." Aeryn watched as the other her placed a hand on his shoulder calming the Luxan, and Aeryn had to wonder what exactly was going on between them.
"Who else is on board?" she asked, suddenly curious as to all the changes, knowing that John had, for example, been a key person in bringing Chiana on board in most universes.
"Why?" she heard herself ask.
"Well, so far I have encountered worlds where John was on board as a Peacekeeper as Moya was still under their command, a world where I was dead, a world without Rygel or Chiana on board and a world where John's cousin Lucy was on board."
"Someone say my name?" Aeryn turned to see Lucy walk through the door along with a younger Luxan that Aeryn automatically had to assume was Jothee.
"You found Jothee?" Aeryn asked, turning to D'Argo with a smile on her face.
"Okay, either there's some weird shit going on here or I'm seeing double."
Aeryn turned back to Lucy and smiled at her, "Which would you say is more likely?" she asked with a grin.
"Okay, that one is not our Airin." the girl replied immediately. "Hey, when you plannin' on gettin' a sense of humour?" she asked Aeryn's counterpart with a smile. "So, what's this, parallel dimensions or something?"
"Yes," Aeryn said, grateful that she could let someone else explain once again. "But in the last world that you were in, you didn't think it was a natural occurrence."
"Why?"
"You didn't say. You said you weren't sure and you'd like some time to think about it."
"How exactly did you get here."
"Through some kind of pink...energy."
"Ooooookay, then." she said turning to DK, "sound a little 'Sliders' to you, minus the pink part."
"You think someone's controlling her travel?" DK asked.
"Well, it's a possibility."
"John suggested that to me when we were in the Peacekeeper world, but we spent more time talking about our lives than anything else."
"Johnny living as a Peacekeeper? Wow. That'd kill him."
"It was." Aeryn replied softly.
"I still do not believe her."
"No, D'Argo, you never do." Aeryn said smiling sadly as she turned to face the Luxan. As much as she would have hated to admit it before this experience, she had always thought of D'Argo as someone to respect, as someone who respected her. To have him constantly be the one distrusting her, regardless of how strange the circumstances were, hurt.
There was an uncomfortable silence and after a few moments Aeryn frowned, "Where's Zhaan?" she asked, directing the question at Lucy, as if assuming that things were the same in this universe. However, at the mention of the Delvian's name, the small blonde closed her eyes to tears, as Jothee wrapped his arms around her.
"Eh..." DK cleared his throat. "We had to leave Zhaan behind on a planet a few monens ago. She...she was stripped of her powers by some freaky Delvians and...well...she went mad."
"I remember that." Aeryn said softly. "John did a Delvian mind link with her. He was able to help her." Thinking of this, Aeryn had to wonder about the previous world. What exactly had happened differently to keep Zhaan with them when John wasn't there?
"So, what's your world like?" DK asked curiously.
"Dex, I think that if someone's controlling this experience, then perhaps we should be telling her about us."
"What do you mean, Lucy?" Jothee asked, sitting down and settling the girl in his lap.
"I mean, that if someone chose for her to go through this then perhaps there's a reason. Maybe she's supposed to learn from it."
"You think that someone decided she should see how different her life could have been if she'd chosen differently," DK continued.
"Exactly."
~x~x~x~x~x~
"So you came in a two person craft?" Aeryn asked Lucy as they walked towards Pilot's chamber.
"Yeah. Johnny's original mission on the Farscape module was stopped when he broke his leg. He broke quarantine the night before he was to leave and managed to crash his truck into a tree. Then there was a bomb in the IASA and Farscape was blown to bits. Luckily we had the Farscape 2 as backup, so I stepped forward. Uncle Jack decided I couldn't go alone, and decided to punish me by sending me with Dex." She finished with a smile in her eye, showing Aeryn that she wasn't serious about hating DK.
"So, you were pulled through the wormhole?"
"Yeah, and right into a huge firefight with a giant living ship." Lucy smiled, "I didn't stay long to begin with, wasn't moving in the right direction for me. I had to leave...when I came back Zhaan had been killed and Rygel had found transport back to Hyneria."
"And Jothee?"
"Actually, I found Jothee on my...travels. I ended up in some slave auction but a group of us escaped, Jothee was one of them."
"Oh." They continued to walk to the chamber in silence until Aeryn spoke again. "I don't understand."
"Understand what?"
"If I'm supposed to be learning about how my decisions affect my life, then why am I seeing worlds where events have nothing to do with what I decide to do."
"Well, maybe it's not so much about your choices, but about life in general. Whether it's apparent or not, though, your choices have an affect in every dimension. You may just have overlooked them." Lucy watched as Aeryn pondered her theory. "You miss him, don't you?"
"Who?" Aeryn asked, refusing to look at the girl, knowing exactly who she was talking about.
"Don't talk crap, Airin, you know I'm talking about Johnny."
"Yes."
"Yes you know, or yes you do miss him?"
"Both."
"And love?"
Aeryn sighed, and took a moment to glance at the girl, "I don't know."
~x~x~x~x~x~
Aeryn smiled at Pilot. She had found in all the worlds she had been in that her link with the creature had not been severed. In this particular dimension "she" was close to Pilot, but had not been infected with his DNA. Aeryn had discovered that Talyn also travelled with them, under the command of Crais...and Chiana.
She closed her eyes, fighting back the urge to fall asleep where she sat, only to find Pilot nudging her, "OfficerSun, I am reading a similar energy to the one you arrived in."
"I fell asleep, didn't I?" she asked, smiling softly.
"For a few arns. I did not wish to disturb you."
"Thank you, Pilot." Aeryn smiled. "Where is the energy?"
"I believe it is in the ducts between tier 7 and 8. Here is the precise location." He said, showing her the readouts.
"Thank you." she said, kissing his cheek softly, shocking herself as much as him.
~x~x~x~x~x~
"Look on the bright side. At least now you can tell Johnny that you actually know that Dex is a pain in the arse. Ouch!" Lucy rubbed the back of her head as DK hit her, before shaking Aeryn's hand.
"It was nice to meet another you. You never know, maybe it'll teach our Aeryn to lighten up a bit...Or not." He finished, noting the glare in the eye of her counterpart.
She smiled at the thought. Me making someone else lighten up. Wait till John hears about that!
John. He was all she could think about now. She remembered the last time she saw him...her John. He had almost kissed her. She had almost let him kiss her. Hell, she'd nearly thrown him on the floor and initiated it herself...well she had in her mind.
I wonder what consequences that decision would cause. she thought smiling. Turning to look at the strange crew once again, she smiled and turned to climb into the ducts, only to be stopped by Lucy's soft voice.
"Hey Airin," she turned to face the girl. "When you see Johnny again...tell him I miss him." Lucy said, leaning back into Jothee's embrace.
She smiled, "I will." And with that she climbed into the duct and headed for the next world, John's face on her mind, one thought echoing through her head.
When will I see you again?
~x~x~x~x~x~
END OF PART 8
Okay, so that wasn't too great. But I wanted to have DK in one of them, Lucy kind of invited herself there... And I don't know if it is, but I decided to call DK Derek, and as you may have noticed, she uses nicknames. (Airin, is just the way I say Aeryn, so I wrote it that way for Lucy, too - being Scottish, I mean)
Also, this Jothee is my Jothee, nothing like the real Jothee, as I didn't like him, too sleazy. ;)