Fic: Nothing's Quite The Same

Story by: Neuroscpr and Can

P9 by: Neuroscpr

Setting: After DWTB, spoilers up until that ep.

Rating: R

Summary: John and the other displaced members of the crew embark on their own missions as Moya heads into unknown territory.

She stood silently on the tarmac and waited. There were others, but they stayed off to the sides and did not speak to her. Chiana watched them with uneasy eyes and touched the dark bruise on her shoulder. 

"Frell, that hurts!" she cried. 

Some of the resistence members looked up at her outburst but said nothing. Their faces were mostly blank but she could tell they were thinking about her. Making assumptions. She knew how dangerous that could be. 

All of a sudden, a sharp wind kicked up from nowhere and Chiana was almost taken off her feet. Struggling to regain her balance, she looked up into the night sky and saw the giant metal beast above her. It was moving in slowly, obviously damaged from something she'd hear about soon.  

"Get out of the way!" someone shouted. More voices echoed the sentiment. 

Chiana turned towards the nearest person and followed their eyes up above. Understanding, she walked stiffly off the tarmac, cursing her bruises all the way. 

Gridon's ship, the real one, dropped out of the darkness and landed with a slight thud on the hard ground. Steam vented from several spots on the outer skin and the vessel grew quiet again. All eyes were on the exit hatch. 

It crashed open moments later and Gridon came running out. The crazed statement on his face matched with the blood drying in his hair. He motioned for some of them men to come up. 

"What the frell happened Gridon?" the man asked. 

"They knew we were coming. I barely got the ship out in one piece. Nerri wasn't quite so lucky." Gridon and the man disappeared into the ship. 

A stunned silence fell over the group. Chiana could hear her brother's name begin to be whispered by several of the people beside her. 

"What? What happened to Nerri?" Her voice bordered on hysteria. 

The closest person, a Nebari woman with many scars, turned to her and frowned. "Calm yourself girl. We'll find out soon enough." 

"I'm not waiting here while my brother's in there dying," Chiana shouted back. She pushed herself out of the woman's grasp and ran towards the ship. 

"Chiana! Get back!" Gridon yelled from his place at the doorway. He looked inside one more time and nodded his head. The other man appeared holding onto one side of a stretcher. Lying still on it, Nerri did not look well.

"What's wrong with him?"  

Gridon looked over at Chiana and frowned. He didn't look happy to see her. "Nothing serious," he said unconvincingly. 

Chiana ran up to him and saw her brother up close. "Nerri?" 

Her brother lay on the stretcher with a hand clenched over his left leg. Blood had stained through and turned the fabric crimson. Nerri opened his eyes slowly at his sister's voice. He managed a smile. 

"I'm alright Chiana," he whispered. 

"No. No, you're not," she shouted in reply. "What happened?" Chiana took her brother's hand. 

Nerri waved off the question but stopped when he got a good look at her. 

"Chiana, he needs medical care," Gridon interrupted. 

She barely registered the words. "What?" 

Nerri kept his eyes on Chiana as they carried him away. Just before their hand let go, he lifted himself up a little.  

"Where'd you get those bruises?" 

 

D'Argo saw the door at the end of the corridor and sped up. He was almost out of the retched prison and the light up ahead looked very inviting. The Luxan felt Crichton slip from his grasp only a moment too late. 

Tumbling down, John hit the ground hard and gasped. The pain in his shoulder screamed and sent a little shockwave up and down the human's body. John felt his eyes well up with tears as he shut them. In the darkness, he saw strange things. 

"Crichton! You have to stay awake! We're almost there, get up!" D'Argo shouted at the nearly unconscious man below him. His anger rose along with his voice.  

John opened his eyes and smiled. He appeared to be looking right through his rescuer. 

"I frelling don't have time for this Crichton! Get up!" D'Argo grabbed his shoulder and squeezed softly. 

"F-!" John's mouth clamped down before he could finish his thought. He rose and then fall back down, hitting his head on the ground again. 

"Aeryn? Oh man, I missed you," he whispered as his hand reached up to touch D'Argo's face. "I love your skin," he purred. 

"Get the frell off of me!" D'Argo shouted and pushed the human back down. "No John, It's me. D'Argo!" 

John stared up at him for a moment in confusion. Then his eyes blinked and seemed to clear. "D'Argo?" he asked. "D'Argo! Man, am I glad to see you." 

The Luxan smiled and helped lift his friend up a bit more. "Yes John, it's me," he said. "We need to get out of here now." 

John seemed to understand now. He forced himself up and nodded towards the door at the end of the hallway. "Come on, it's this way!" he shouted as he ran. 

D'Argo shook his head and followed. 

 

"You have not changed Dominar," the Hynerion said with a touch of sadness in his voice. "It pleases me to know that." 

Rygel stared at his former advisor and bared his teeth. He kept his words to himself for the moment, however. The situation was not currently to his advantage. 

"Take him away." 

The peacekeepers surrounding him raised their weapons and trained them carefully. He could see that there was no way to push past them. His throne sled didn't have that kind of power. 

The Hynerion turned one last time to look at his former Dominar before exiting the building. "I am truly sorry about this," he whispered. 

"The frell you are!" Rygel spat back. Having taken full stock of the situation he was in, the old royal was ready to fight back. 

"Shut up!" One of the soldiers stepped forward and smacked Rygel across the face. All the other peacekeepers remained motionless. The traitor winced. 

Rygel tasted blood in his mouth but let it drool out slowly for dramatic effect. He reached slowly under his robe and took hold of the object waiting for him there. 

"Do you remember why I appointed you to my cabinet?," he shouted.

The traitor turned to look at him. A look of nostalgia filled his big reptilian eyes. "Of course I do. You told me I was exactly what a Hynerion should be. Back-stabbing, conniving, deceitful, and brilliant. Just like you." 

Rygel grinned maliciously. "That's right." He lifted the small bomb above his head for all to see. "But I'm happy to see you haven't mastered all my skills. I'm still too clever for you." 

The bomb left Rygel's hands and dropped on the ground nearby. In their scramble to get away, the peacekeepers managed only to trap themselves. It exploded with a loud roar and sent them all flying into the night. Most burned, bleeding, and dying. 

The Dominar raced forward through the din with his throne sled until he was floating beside his former subordinate. Surprised, the traitor recoiled in fear. 

"Do you think me that stupid? That I wouldn't plan for a trap?" Rygel's voice grew more sinister with each question. "You're a fool." He charged. 

"No! Please!" The frightened Hynerion turned on his sled and sped off into the night. His hiccups could be heard long after. 

Rygel sighed deeply and turned to look at the dead peacekeepers.  

"It never ends," he whispered. 

 

"Careful," Nerri whispered. 

Chiana lifted her hand away from his leg and frowned. She was sitting by him in the medical room, surrounded by ancient machines and dirty instruments. Her head rested lightly against Nerri's shoulder. 

"Sorry," she whispered. 

Nerri smiled as he slipped his hand into hers. "You don't need to apologize," he said. "Having you here with me is all I need." Inside his own mind, the words were not entirely accurate. 

He sat up a little and looked at his leg. The wound had been cleaned, rather roughly, and was now bandaged. Very little blood had gotten through. 'The best in resistence care.' 

"You didn't need to prove yourself to me, Chiana." 

Their eyes met for a moment and Chiana nodded. She didn't want to ruin the moment. 

"I see what you've been through. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help you through it."

Chiana's eyes watered. "I wish I could've been here with you," she whispered. 

Before either of them could say anything else, a side door opened and the nurse walked in. Of course, she didn't look like a nurse. She looked like a soldier, the kind that could kill you very easily. But she also had the most medical training. 

"He needs his rest now. Let him sleep." 

They smiled at each other as Chiana stood to leave. She left go of her brother's hand and watched as he quickly gave into the exhaustion. 

"Take care of him," she said to the nurse. 

"I will." 

"Chiana, I need to speak to you." Gridon stood at the door with a grim statement on his face. His eyes wandered to Nerri for a moment before returning to the new arrival. The look never changed. 

She nodded to the nurse and followed Gridon out the door. 

"Nerri was lucky today. He may not be next time," Gridon said matter-of- factly. His eyes burned into Chiana's like hot coals. 

"What is that supposed to mean?" 

Gridon sighed. He didn't like what he was doing. That happened a lot in the resistence.

"Nerri kept you away from here to protect you. And to protect himself. He could not take care of you and what he had to do. He can't do both." 

Her first instinct was to be angry. 'Who does he think he is to take this away from me? He can't!' "You don't know us. You don't know anything about us! I'm not leaving him."  

Chiana turned to leave but he grabbed her shoulder. The grip was strong. 

"I know your brother. I know what he's trying to do here," Gridon said. He spoke the words more softly than before. "I understand how import-." 

"You couldn't!" 

Gridon continued, "Some things are more important." He kept his eyes on her for another microt and then turned away. His footsteps disappeared quickly into the darkness. 

Chiana felt numb. She stood there silently outside the medical room and watched the man walk away. Every part of her wanted to run him down and show him he was wrong.

Almost every part. 

 

Both of them covered their eyes to shield from the bright light beyond the door. In the lead, D'Argo did the honors of kicking it aside and stepped out. The first thing he noticed was that there was no bright light. A strange shadow had fallen over the town. He looked up. 

John stepped through the opening and saw D'Argo. "Hey, I thought we were getting out of here?" he said. 

The Luxan looked back at him and growled. "Look up." 

John obeyed and was suddenly struck with an urgent need to use the facilities. 

The light of day had been replaced by an ominous cloud of black machinery. Far above them, peacekeeper ships of all shapes and sizes marred the skyline for what looked like miles in all directions. Directly above the prison, a vessel unlike any they had seen so far floated in waiting. It was smaller than a command carrier but no less frightening. 

"You're frelling with me right? I'm still asleep," John said but didn't believe it. He lowered his eyes back down to D'Argo and saw the worried look in his friend's eyes. 

"Since when are we that lucky?" D'Argo shouted as he took off in a run towards his ship. His human partner followed suit. 

Ahead of them, D'Argo's ship waited like an oasis in the middle of the desert. Its firepower was on both their minds. 

"You got a plan?" John yelled up to the Luxan.  

D'Argo shook his head. "No plan!." 

John stopped in mid-step. "No plan?" 

A marauder suddenly shot by overhead and made its way toward the prison building. It appeared to be preparing to land. 

"JOHN CRICHTON! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST BY THE AUTHORITY OF PEACEKEEPER HIGH COMMAND!" 

The voice was eerily familiar. 

D'Argo made it to his ship and slammed himself against the outside bulkhead. "Crichton, hurry up!" he shouted.

Moving as fast as he could, John threw himself at the ship and almost landed in D'Argo's arms. The two of them crashed to the ground in a heap. 

Ripping the comm from his pocket, D'Argo shouted, "Shield!"  

On cue, the ship's outer defense shield sprung up around them. It was meant only to protect the vessel but compensated for the two men beside it. They were now enclosed within its protective reach. 

The marauder kicked up a cloud of dust as it touched ground next to the prison. Microts later, a hatch opened and a familiar face stepped into the shadow of her fleet. 

Commandant Mele-On Grayza smiled as she exited her temporary craft. Unlike the first time they'd seen her, she wore tight black uniform clothing. Gold and silver bars on her shoulders marked her as a commanding officer.  

"You have any idea how much this shield can take?" John asked. 

D'Argo shook his head. "No idea whatsoever." 

"That figures." 

Grayza walked up to them with the smile never leaving her face. Once she reached the periphery of the force field, the commandant un-holstered her weapon. She fired a single shot directly at Crichton, which dissolved once it hit the shield. 

"As expected," she said. 

On the opposite side, John did not share her good mood. 

"John Crichton, how fortunate to see you again so soon," Grayza said. She reached forward and touched the barrier with her bare hand. It seemed to stun her slightly but otherwise did nothing. 

"You do realize this shield won't last very long. I would have though the man who destroyed a command carrier might have a bit more ingenuity." Grayza turned and motioned to one of the men still inside the marauder. 

The soldier ran up and placed a radio in her outstretched hand. Grayza took it and showed it off to John and D'Argo as if she were a flight attendant explaining seat belt instructions. Then she clicked the on switch. 

"Zero in on their ship. I want a short, sustained blast.," she said into it. 

Looking back up at Crichton, Grayza put the radio away. "This will be over shortly commander."