Part Four: Dodge City

Chiana held tight to her pulse rifle as she crept through the halls. She had found no sign of John, or the others. But she could hear the boots of Peacekeeper commandos echoing from a distance. She was too late, she kept thinking. What was the point of seeing the future if it always came too late?

She froze when she saw a shadow shift ahead of her, and she pressed herself up against the wall. A small whirring noise had her sighing with relief and lowering the weapon. When Rygel spun around the corner she caught the back of his thronesled to hold him back.

"Chi--!"

Chiana covered his mouth quickly, motioning him quiet. "Where the frell were you?" she hissed. "Everything's gone to hezmana, as usual."

Rygel sighed. "I know. I saw Crichton."

Chiana froze. "What? Where is he? We have to get him, was he captured?"

Rygel nodded. "Grayza has him. She presented Scorpius to him like some kind of gift," he said. "She even had the frellnik on a leash." Rygel looked oddly like he admired that. "Then Crichton…well…he…"

Chiana hit him between the ears. "He what, Ryge?"

Rygel frowned. "He kissed her. That was all I saw. I had to get away before they captured me too. Now, we should be able to make it to the transport and get the frell--"

Chiana smacked him again. "We're not going anywhere without the others, toad. I had a vision. I saw…I think--I think they've got D'Argo and Jool, and we're certainly not going to leave Crichton in Grayza's hands. Especially if she's got him nally-whipped."

Rygel wilted. "I was afraid you were going to say that. You have a plan, I suppose?"

Chiana flashed a grin that was eerily reminiscent of one of Crichton's. "Of course."

xxxxx

Instructor Vella watched from the shadows as D'Argo and Joolushko were led away by the Peacekeepers. Having the Peacekeepers here ruined everything. The timing could not be worse, she had only just found the final probe--unfortunately having to kill Oo-Nii to get her hands on it, but she felt little regret as she was confident he would have done the same to her.

The old woman was a threat as well, but she had been so preoccupied muttering to herself about how things were going all wrong, that she had yet to be more than a mere annoyance. Vella slipped away down an adjacent hall, making her way towards the probes. She would need to collect them all, put them somewhere safe--and bide her time until the Peacekeepers got what they had come for and left.

And then the Darnaz Triangle would be hers.

xxxxx

He woke slowly. The cold stone beneath him was the first thing he noticed, the rough edges digging into his skin as he tried to sit up. His wrists were tied with thick black leather, and as he followed them up he could not see where the straps ended, they disappeared into the shadows of the high ceiling.

He pressed his eyes closed. The time he had spent with Grayza was coming back to him, whatever she was doing to him had worn mostly off and the clarity he was experiencing now was unwelcome.

"This does not have to be a bad experience."

John didn't open his eyes at the voice, but briefly, he almost wished it was Grayza talking instead.

"Oh, come now, John," Harvey said, using his most persuasive voice as he sat on the edge of the stone alter. "Give her something, make a deal. You don't have to give her the wormhole technology, she wishes to make peace with the Scarrens and does not want to go war. Simply agree to help her."

"Harvey," he thought wearily. "You honestly think she would make any kind of deal even were I willing to give her something? She'll kill me when she's done, we both know it."

"Grayza is ambitious, but she is not out for revenge," Harvey whispered fiercely. "And unlike Scorpius, she does not care for the wormhole technology."

"Well then we're both screwed. Because that's the only thing of worth I've got."

"Not the only thing," Harvey whispered. "Give her the Peacekeeper rebels. They are a threat, more of one to Grayza than you. Tell her where she can find them."

John laughed out loud. The commando at the door glanced at him anxiously. "You want me to give her Aeryn? All these cycles in my head and you still don't have a clue. Even if I knew where she was, I would die first."

"Not Aeryn," Harvey hissed. "Manes. He is not with the rebels, but he knows them, knows their hideouts. Give him to her, tell her he was at the casino last you knew."

John turned slowly to look at Harvey. "I give her Manes. Manes gives her Aeryn. No deal. Go away."

Harvey growled and then walked out of his line of vision, just as Grayza entered it from the other side. "Something amusing?" she asked silkily, as she hovered over him.

John held back a wince. "Yeah. My life."

Grayza smiled at him curiously, running one of her hands across her chest and leaning forward. The heppel oil took him by surprise, and he felt his eyes slip back in his head. When he had gotten a hold on himself again, his wrists had been untied, and Grayza was tugging his black t-shirt from his arm. It would be a perfect time to escape, he thought distantly, but suddenly, he didn't want to.

Grayza placed one of her hands on his chest, and then leaned close. "Now," she said. "Why don't you tell me…why the Scarrens want you so badly?"

xxxxx

"This is fahrbot," Rygel said. "You've gotten just like him, you know. You used to be like me."

Chiana glanced at him and smiled. "Thanks, Ryge. I take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't meant as one," he said, giving her a fierce glare.

"Look, you've got the easy part. I don't know why you're complaining."

"Because we should be getting off this planet while we can," he snapped. "Even if the Peacekeepers don't get us, it isn't long until the Magnetic summer begins."

Chiana froze. "Magnetic summer?"

"Don't you ever listen?" he demanded. "Jool said that this planet has magnetic summers, anyone here when they begin is frelled."

Chiana winced. "Better and better all the time. Don't you love our lives?" When Rygel didn't respond, Chiana turned to look at him. "Okay, okay," she said. "So the plan is fahrbot. But Crichton would do it for you."

Rygel sighed. "Tell me what I have to do again."

Chiana grinned fleetingly and handed him her pulse rifle. "Just take this, near as you can where they're holding Crichton. Overload it. The explosion should send Grayza to investigate."

"What if it doesn't?" Rygel asked.

"Then I kill the bitch," Chiana said simply. "I'm happy either way. The explosion will cause enough of a distraction that I'll stand a chance of getting out with Crichton--and our lives."

"How do you know where they're holding Crichton?" Rygel asked. "You said you knew."

Chiana glanced at him with a pained expression. "I saw it. I recognized the room she has him in as one we passed earlier. And we really have to hurry," she said edgily.

Jool and D'Argo were being held prisoner as well, but they were probably even safer than her and Rygel at the moment--and her first priority had to be John. She had seen what Grayza was doing to him, and from the flashes she had received, she was thinking that Grayza might actually be one of the fabled Dellos concubines--able to control men with a gland that secreted a powerful and irresistible aphrodisiac. If not, then the woman had some kind of bizarre sweat fetish, and Chiana wasn't sure which would be worse.

If she did have a heppel oil gland, Chiana thought worriedly, then she might succeed where all the other Peacekeepers had failed--and get John Crichton to tell her his secrets.

"Come on," Chiana whispered to Rygel, leading the way towards where Crichton was being held. "We have to hurry."

She may have given up her pulse pistol to Rygel, but she had found something just as good to take its place. She thought it might be some kind of Interon weapon, but whatever it was, it was drad. She'd accidentally turned some one-legged bug to stone in the blink of an eye. Rygel had been less impressed, as the beam had been just inches from his foot, but he couldn't deny its effectiveness.

And Grayza would make such a nice statue, Chiana thought with an evil grin.

xxxxx

"I can't believe this," Jool said sullenly. "How did this happen? John wasn't here even an arn. This is a bit much, even for him."

D'Argo was busy pulling at the bars and growling at any guard stupid enough to get too close, and so didn't respond.

"I mean, you've been here for weekens. Nothing. No trouble. We got to work with Vella, find all kinds of fascinating artifacts. No one trying to kill us at all."

D'Argo turned to look at her in mild irritation. "He has bad luck. We all do. Now why don't you scream and melt these bars?"

She glanced at them. "I can't. It won't do any good. They're too thick."

"Just weaken them then," he demanded. "I'll try to pull them apart."

"D'Argo," she said exasperatedly. "If I scream, all of the guards are going to come running. It will not work."

D'Argo sighed but nodded his agreement. "When they come to move us, I will kill them," he said determinedly. "I will not be a prisoner again."

In the interests of preserving his pride, Jool did not point out he already was.

"Something's going on," D'Argo whispered.

Jool jumped to her feet and moved beside him. The two guards assigned to them ran to the end of the hall, but they could still make out pieces of the hurried conversation when they met up with one of the commandos.

"Braca was ambushed…unconscious when…found him--"

"Someone is coming to rescue us!" Jool whispered excitedly. "Oh, this is good news."

"Scorpius…notwith…got away…no sign of him…"

D'Argo froze. "No, this is bad news," he said. "Very bad news."

xxxxx

"It looks like something is already going on," Rygel whispered, as a couple of commandos went rushing by.

Chiana leaned up against the wall beside him, safely out of sight until the Peacekeepers had gone. "Even better," she said. "We need all the help we can get."

She nodded down the hallway. "That's the room. I'm going to the other side behind that corner. I want to be able to sneak right in after the explosion. You wait here, and when I get out of sight, overload the pulse rifle and get the hezmana out of Dodge."

"Dodge?" Rygel asked curiously.

"Yeah. It's one of Crichton's words. It means…ah…it means a place you ought to leave," she said, with a nod of her head to reinforce the statement.

"Crichton's language is insane."

Chiana glared at him. "Just do what I said, Ryge. I'm counting on you. Crichton is too. You can run fast as you want, but overload that pulse rifle before you do. Got it?"

He nodded. "Fine. But you two owe me three now."

"I only owe you two," Chiana said with a grin. "Crichton owes you three 'cause of Winona."

"Just go," Rygel commanded. "Before I change my mind and leave you and Crichton here in Dodge."

xxxxx

Grayza watched him expectantly, lifting his hand to kiss his palm. "And these wormholes…are they worth risking your life?"

John nodded dazedly. He was answering all of her questions, and he couldn't stop himself. He could only be grateful she didn't know the right questions to ask. He'd told her about wormholes, the basics that really told her nothing at all, but he'd given her none of the specifics. She wouldn't understand them even if he did.

"This is why the Scarrens hunt you," she said. "They believe you can make wormhole weapons for them…" She watched him intently as she spoke. "Can you?"

"No," John whispered. It was true enough. The other John Crichton could have, but he'd had the knowledge unlocked. He was only going on instinct, working with the pieces that came to him as he went along.

Grayza smiled down at him. "Then perhaps if I told them you were working for us," she whispered. "And they believed you were giving wormhole weapons to us, we could create a treaty. Ensure peace for us all…"

"Do it, John," Harvey whispered urgently. "She believes you do not have any valuable knowledge, all you would have to do is pretend to help them. It is the perfect solution!"

John stormed into the theater of his mind, wearing a black suit and dark shades. Harvey had held to his promise of ensuring they always looked good when in his arena. "I thought you believed Grayza was a fool. That a treaty between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens would never hold."

Harvey's eyes widened. "Huh! Who cares if it holds as long as we get out of this alive?"

Disgusted, John opened his eyes--but reality was no more inviting.

Grayza ran a hand through his hair. "What do you say? Will you help me…?" When she reached towards her chest, and forced him to inhale more of the heppel oil, John knew he wouldn't say no.

"Yes," he whispered, desperate to please her and wanting nothing but to escape all at the same time.

Grayza grinned and leaned down to kiss him, freezing when a loud explosion shook the walls, small embers lit past the doorway, before flickering out in the air. Angrily, she grabbed one of John's wrists, and she quickly replaced both of the restraints. John let her do it with no resistance, simply staring curiously at the doorway.

"Stay here," she whispered. "I will return."

He watched her storm out of the room, yelling at the guard at the door not to take his eyes off of him. John carefully tested the restraints, but though they were soft enough they did not cut the skin, they had very little give to them. A strange whirring noise sounded to his left, and he spun his head back towards the door. The guard that had been commanded to watch him was gone. Well, not completely. His head and arms were sticking out from the wall, entirely petrified.

"Frell me dead," he heard a familiar voice whisper, and a microt later, Chiana was running towards him.

"Crichton," she said as she reached him. "Hey? You okay? We've got to get you out of here."

He watched her silently as she quickly untied his wrists, and then turned around to grab his shirt. She threw it at him and then grabbed his arm and started pulling him up.

"A little help would be nice," she groused. "Can you walk?"

John stared at her, almost as though he had never seen her before. "You're very beautiful," he said, a strange kind of awe in his voice.

Chiana rolled her eyes. Any other time and she'd of been ecstatic to have Crichton tell her that. Surrounded by Peacekeepers, and him drugged out of his mind with an aphrodisiac, it just wasn't the same.

"Thank you," she said. "Now put on your shirt. You're distracting me, and we have to stay focused."

John nodded and grabbed his shirt. "Grayza, she…did something to me," he told her.

"The bad guys usually do. They really love messing with your head, huh?" She helped him pull his shirt over his head, all the time checking behind them to make sure no more guards had shown up. The explosion was just down the hall. They didn't have much time. She grabbed his hand and dragged him behind her towards the door. He pulled away for a moment to grab Winona off of a table, and then let her pull him behind her.

She saw Grayza yelling commands twenty feet away, and slowly gave John a push in the opposite direction, following him wearily, the weapon wrapped around her arm aimed steadily in the direction of the Peacekeepers.

"Crichton, how are you doing?" Chiana whispered as she continued to guide him out of the tunnels.

He glanced at her. "Um, fine. It's, ah, starting to wear off again I think."

She nodded gratefully, and then spotted the sunlight. "Come on." She grabbed his hand and urgently pulled him outside. They hid against the wall as a group of commandos ran by, and then slipped off into the trees.

"Where are we going?" John asked.

"I do not know," Chiana said, never slowing her pace. "But we've got to go somewhere we can think for a microt. Think up a game plan."

John grinned. "I thought you didn't want to bother with game plans anymore."

"They sometimes work," Chiana admitted grudgingly. "Mine anyway. You're here, right?" Chiana looked around and decided they had gone deep enough for the moment, John looked exhausted.

She stopped and he dropped to the ground, leaning back against one of the trees. Tiredly, she fell down beside him.

"Rygel, D'Argo and Jool?" he asked.

"Rygel is either stealing our transport or hiding somewhere. The Peacekeepers have D'Argo and Jool," she said, breathless. "But we'll, ah, we'll get them back." She grinned brightly. "You always think of something."

John grabbed her hand and held it tight, nodding as he closed his eyes and shivered. He had been so close to making a deal with Grayza, signing his life over to her…

"Chiana," he whispered, pulling her into a hug. "I owe you one."

"Technically, you owe me more than that," Chiana said wryly, before tightening her grip around him. "But who's counting?"

He laughed and Chiana rubbed his back when she realized he was shaking. Next time she saw Grayza, Chiana decided, she was dead. "It's going to be alright," she whispered. "That tralk is not coming near you again."

He grinned shakily. "I thought I was the one that was supposed to protect you?"

"It works both ways, old man," she said slyly.

"We need a plan," John said, trying to pull away.

Chiana wasn't ready to let go. "I'm still getting over my last plan," she said. "Give me a microt."

John nodded and held on, glad for a moment to gather himself. Scorpius had used the neural chip to control him, but not like this. With Grayza there was no one taking over, it was just him, but he couldn't control what he did.

"John."

Chiana and John sprung apart at the voice, looking up in shock. Aeryn stood a foot away, a pulse rifle thrown over her arm by a thin black strap. Chiana didn't let go of his sleeve as she took in this new development.

"Aeryn," John whispered, stunned.

But before he could break out into a relieved smile, another voice, this one unwelcome, intruded. "Hello, John."

John and Chiana both had their weapons out and aimed before he had even fully stepped from behind the cluster of trees. Aeryn quickly stepped into the line of fire, and behind her, Scorpius smiled.

End Part Four

Next Up: Part Five: Deal with the Devil