Hell on Earth Pt. 3 (Sequel to The Twinning of Aeryn Sun series) Author: blueaeryn Rating: R

Summary: John, Aeryn and Lucky Go To Earth

Notes: Spoilers through the end of S3 Disclaimer: Not mine.

John pushed the woman claiming to be Aeryn away from him and broke the kiss. "Hey, ease off lady." Taking the back of his hand, John attempted to rub the kiss off his mouth. Now that proved more then anything this wasn't Aeryn. He only received a welcome like that from Aeryn in his dreams.

"John," the woman turned her head and squinted her eyes. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, I am John Crichton." John backed up to the door and put his hand on the knob. "But who the hell are you? That is the question."

"This is ridiculous," she said in a defeated voice. "I mean you are John Crichton, of course you are." She ran her fingers through her dark hair and sat down in a chair.

It wasn't until she began to fiddle with her hair that John noticed this Aeryn's hair was a lot shorter then the woman's he had left in the room across the hall. This Earth Aeryn also had highlights that accentuated her dark hair. Primping courtesy of Earth.

"The question is again," John sat down in the chair opposite her. "Who are you?"

"Ohhh," she sighed leaning back in the chair. "Let's not start that again."

"Yeah, let's not." John turned the knob on the door. "I can't deal with this right now." John spoke the truth. All the emotion, all the feelings, all the uncertainty washed over him. He longed to see Aeryn, to feel her in his arms and to him this woman wasn't Aeryn.

"Where are you going?" She stood.

"Back over there." John had opened the door and thumbed his finger at the door across the hall. "I am going to the Aeryn I know. The one that is real. She needs me. I don't know you."

Rushing out the door, John slammed it hard. Nodding his head he looked back at the door and balled his fist. He longed to slam it against the wall to ease some of the tension that was coiling in his body. He wished he could let out a cleansing scream, but he was sure they would lock him up for that.

Opening the door to where he had left Aeryn, his heart stopped in his chest when he realized the room was empty. "Aeryn?" He looked around the room. "Aeryn?" John picked up a chair and scooted it across the floor and then picked it up and threw it at the mirror across the room. The mirror cracked but didn't break. Kind of like him, he was cracking but refused to break.

"Where the hell is she?" John was breathing heavily and began to sweat. "Damn it."

Jack burst through the door. "John."

When John turned to look at his father, Jack noticed that wild look again. Aeryn had calmed him then, but she wasn't here. Jack wondered if he had the right words to do the same.

"Where is she?" John picked up another chair and braced it in front of him. "I don't want to hurt anyone, but I will. Where is she?" He kept asking the same question over and over.

"John, it's okay." Jack held up his hands. "Though we couldn't communicate, I could tell she was tired and hungry. I had her taken to a safe house across the base."

"Take me there." John let the chair slip down his leg and onto the floor. "Now."

Jack didn't have words to express the fear he felt in seeing his son slip so easily into such uncontrollable rage. Directing John to the awaiting car outside the facility, Jack drove in uneasy silence, glancing at his son ever few seconds. John had rolled down the window and stuck his face out to blow in the wind the moving car created.

Sitting in the car, John felt the nervous energy crawling around inside him. He wouldn't settle down until he saw Aeryn and Lucky, assuring himself they were all right. When his father pulled up to a small house, John noticed the official cars parked outside and two armed guards posted at the front door.

"Welcome home," John whispered under his breath. He pulled the car door handle and opened the door. Not looking back at his father, John strode toward the door of the house like a man possessed. The two armed men stood at attention their guns aimed and ready.

"It's all right," John heard his father say. Shaking his head John moved past them and opened the door. Relief washed over him when he saw Aeryn sitting on the brown leather couch. Lucky was at her feet pushing a small blue toy truck across the floor.

"Aeryn." John rushed to her side and collapsed at her feet. Placing his head on her lap, he hugged her legs and almost fell apart.

Aeryn rubbed his head. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing." John looked up to Aeryn. "I came back and you were gone. I didn't know where you where."

Aeryn lifted his chin to get a better look. "You are going to have to calm down, John." She stroked his cheek. "You are losing it. You have to focus."

"Just promise you won't leave me again."

Aeryn nodded her head. She wanted to bring up that he had been the last one to leave but didn't. John's actions were scaring her. She had never seen him this unstable, and longed to just put all three of them back into his module and get the frell out of here.

"Lucky," Aeryn said. Lucky ceased running the truck across the floor and looked at his mother. "Stay here and play, I'll be right back."

John scrambled to his feet. "Where are you going?"

"I am taking you to bed." Aeryn took his hand.

John let a large grin spread across his face. "Do you think this is the right time?" He leaned over to peer out the window.

"To sleep." Aeryn drug him down the hall to the small sleeping area she had found earlier. When they entered the room, Aeryn pushed John onto the bed and he fell back with a thud.

"I want you to just rest for a while," Aeryn told him. She went over and took off his heavy black boots and laid them beside the bed.

"What about you?" John was already closing his eyes.

"I'll lie down with Lucky when he is ready." Aeryn leaned over and kissed John lightly on the lips.

All the events of the past few days washed over John and before he knew it, blessed sleep claimed him. It wasn't long before the dreams came.

The sun was warm, not hot just perfect. The sky was blue with light puffy clouds dotting the landscape. That one there looks like Winnie the Pooh, John thought to himself. He wanted to tell Lucky to come and see, but he was off in the water with his mother.

Aeryn and Lucky were down at the lake splashing and he could hear their laughter filling the air. She looked amazing in the little black bathing suit. Her scar was gone, that was funny he thought she had decided to keep it. No matter, she would have looked beautiful with or with out it.

Contentment washed over John as he lay in the sweet green grass and he could feel the tiny blades running through his fingers as he lay his hand off the side of the blanket. Soon Aeryn and Lucky would come rushing up the bank, their skin glistening from the cool water, and he just knew they would try and drench him when they dried off. He smiled thinking about how he would act shocked by their actions.

He closed his eyes and waited, and soon he felt something wet dripping on his legs and then up his torso. "Aeryn," he said with his eyes still closed. "Are you trying to wet me?"

Opening his eyes, he felt a scream become lodged in his throat. Aeryn was standing before him but it wasn't water dripping from her, it was blood. A large gash made its way down her stomach and her dark hair was almost red with blood. She held a lifeless body in her hands and with closer inspection John realized it was Lucky.

"Help us," Aeryn said weakly before she collapsed to the ground.

"Aeryn," John kept screaming over and over again. He felt a hand on his shoulder and fought it off. They weren't getting him. Drawing back his hand he punched at the entity trying to capture him and when he connected he heard a loud groan.

"John, John, stop it." Aeryn collected herself off the floor where John's punch had sent her and tried to grab his flailing arms. "You are having a dream."

"Where am I?" John sat up in bed and looked around. The sheets had wrapped around his legs and he reached down to pull them off.

"You are still here." Aeryn touched his arm. "Calm down."

John fell back against the bed and took a deep breath. "We were having this great day, and then you came to me drenched in blood and Lucky was dead." He opened his eyes. "I felt helpless."

Aeryn sat on the edge of the bed and scooted him over. She lie down next to him and placed her hand on his chest. "It wasn't real."

"Is this real?" John put his chin on his chest to stare at her. "Are we really here on Earth?"

"I don't know," Aeryn admitted. "It just feels so wrong."

"Yeah," John shifted to sit up and lean against the headboard dragging Aeryn up with him. "All of this feels off."

"What if it isn't?" Aeryn was so confused she didn't even know if she was real anymore.

"It has to be." John closed his eyes. "It has to be."

Laughter from the other room stopped John and Aeryn's musings. Aeryn left the bed and went in search of the commotion.

John followed close behind, deciding he didn't want to be separated from Aeryn. In the living room John saw Lucky laughing and limping around the couch. He smiled seeing his son enjoying himself until he noticed who was chasing him. It was a little boy who looked just like Lucky, but it wasn't.

Jack stood at the edge of the room a large smile on his face. "I thought they should meet." He caught TJ as he scampered past Jack and lifted him in the air. "I mean they are brothers kind of."

"No their not," John said angrily.

"Mommy," Lucky said rushing to his mother. "That boy looks like me." He rubbed his nose and linked his hands around Aeryn's leg. "Cept' he has two legs. I only have one." Lucky lifted up his artificial leg to show Aeryn.

"I know, baby," Aeryn rubbed the little boy's head.

Lucky took off again smiling and Aeryn tried to smile back, but his comments caused a cold chill to run down her. It was another reminder that even though she believed it, Lucky wasn't perfect and neither was she.

The surgeon's words kept re-playing in her mind. His uncertainty about her ability to bear more children weighed upon her. It was funny, before she met John it was something she never thought of. In fact, she dreaded being put on the breeding roster. Now becoming pregnant again was all she longed for. A way to give herself and John a fresh start with a new baby they could watch grow inside her from the beginning, but now she wasn't even sure she could offer him that.

The Aeryn here on Earth could offer him that, and so much more. She was sure of it. She could also offer him a perfect son, one that was whole. Maybe this was a sign to Aeryn. A way for the fates to show her what John should have. Maybe she should just leave. The doubts clawed at her from the inside and tried to work their way out.

Could she leave here, leave John and take Lucky from his father. Leave the only man she had ever loved? She wasn't sure, but she did know something had to be done before John lost it completely and then she was sure he could never find his way back.

The door opening interrupted Aeryn's thoughts and she looked up to see the other Aeryn make her way into the room. She was so different then herself, and Aeryn looked down at her leather pants, black vest and black T-shirt and then turned her gaze to John. She wondered if he missed the way Earth women dressed.

This Aeryn had really acclimated herself to Earth customs as she wore a pair of blue pants, John called them jeans, a red tight-fitting T-shirt and had adorned her ears with some sort of jewelry. Aeryn also noticed she had cut her hair to a short bob which hung loosely at her chin.

TJ ran to his mother when he saw her enter, and she lifted him into her arms. She looked straight at John and smiled. "Hello, John."

John saw Aeryn flinch, and it incensed him. "Okay, this is enough." John turned to his father. "Dad can you take the boys to the other room?"

"Sure son, but don't you want.."

"Please," John said interrupting his father.

"Okay," Jack looked at his son and then tried to gather up the boys. He took Lucky's hand and then went to take TJ from her.

When Jack reached for the boy John noticed something flash between his father and this Aeryn. It was very subtle, a sparkle, a lingering glance but it was there. He would have shaken it off, but what he saw next utterly convinced him, for when Jack took TJ his fingers lingered ever so slightly on her hand. Damn the old man had the hots for her, he thought. Now he knew there was something going on.

Jack left the room with the boys and John took his Aeryn's hand and motioned for the other Aeryn to sit in the chair opposite the couch. He and Aeryn took the couch.

"Tell me what happened to John Crichton." John straightened his shoulders. Aeryn, his Aeryn, snuck a peek at him and shot him a questioning glance. "It's okay," his mouthed to her.

"But you are John Crichton," the other Aeryn told him.

"Let's pretend I am not."

"Alright," she said breathing a heavy sigh.

This Aeryn told a story that was similar to his own, except for a couple of key details. For one thing, there was no mention of a twinning of either himself or Aeryn. Mentally he keyed the variable in and then she talked about how John had joined forces with Scorpius and the Peacekeepers to try and defeat the Scarrens.

It seemed John was using an experimental vessel that was to increase the rate of ships sent through a wormhole, and he was sucked in and never heard from again. Without completing his equations, the Peacekeepers were defeated by the Scarrens. The forces were scattered, with Aeryn barely escaping in John's module and that is how she found her way to Earth.

"Well, that does it for me," John said standing. "Come on Aeryn."

"John," she said standing beside him. "What are you talking about?"

"Can't you see, this is an alternate reality," John tried to explain. "In this reality John Crichton died, you came to Earth," John pointed his finger at the other Aeryn. "And now you have the hots for my father."

"What," Aeryn said.

"How did you know," the other Aeryn asked the same time.

"Call it Crichton intuition." John smiled. "Listen, I am sorry your John died, but I'm not him. I don't belong here."

The other Aeryn just nodded her head.

"I'm sorry," John said.

"So am I."

"Let's get Lucky and get the hell out of her." John started down the hall with Aeryn at his side.

From the doorway, John saw his father laughing and playing with the two boys. It made him miss his dad, and even though this man was his father, he really wasn't. Not the one from his reality.

"Dad, we gotta go," John said from the doorway. Aeryn brushed by him and went to pick up Lucky. "I'm sorry I'm not your John Crichton. I belong somewhere else."

"This can be your reality," Jack said hurriedly. "You can stay."

"Nah," John said clicking his tongue. "I belong somewhere else."

"I don't want you to go," Jack said walking up to John and embracing him. "I feel like I am losing you all over again."

"You know what you can do for me?" John pulled from his embrace. "Why don't you tell that woman in there how you really feel. I'd say you have been alone too long."

Jack wore a shocked expression on his face and then he smiled. "What was my tell?"

"The look, Dad, it was the look."

John Crichton closed the canopy of his module and turned his head to look at Aeryn and his son. "Ready?"

"Yes, let's get out of here." Aeryn rubbed his shoulder. "Where are we going?"

"Home." John powered up the engine and they took off into Earth's atmosphere.

A welcoming party was waiting for them when they arrived. John smiled back at Aeryn who rewarded him with one as well. "Happy to be home?"

"Yes," Aeryn sighed. "Now, pop that canopy and let's get out."

John did as she requested and as he jumped to the ground, Aeryn handed a sleeping Lucky down to John. Even before Aeryn could clear the cockpit of the module, the trio were bombarded by their friends.

Chiana reached them first and she tackled John with Lucky in his arms and gave him a huge hug and leaned down to give Lucky a kiss on his brow. When Aeryn stood beside John, Chiana let her excitement flow over to Aeryn and hugged her as well. Aeryn smiled slighthly.

D'Argo rushed to his friends and couldn't hide his joy. He slapped John on the shoulder and laughed. "So, how was it?"

"It was hell on Earth," John replied as he took Aeryn's hand and led the small band down the passageway. "But I am home now, and if the Scarren's want me let them come. Cause I'm not leaving again"