Rygel's chest heaved.

The little Hynerian embraced the moment of silence.

A moment without pain.

A moment where the Scarran, Artokh, did not torture him.

But it didn't hurt.

250 cycles aboard the Zelbinion, locked in a small cage and tortured by the insane Peacekeeper Commander Durka. That was pain.

Not this.

Rygel spit on Artokh's silly attempts to make him suffer.

The arrogant Hynerian Dominar laughed throughout the process, making Artokh extremely angry.

But laughing was the only thing Rygel could do, as he was bound with ice against the icy wall, unable to move and escape.

He was wet and sticky by the molten ice, which turned into water by Artokh's heat-induced torture.

Rygel watched his every movement closely, trying to desperately find out if he could use whatever was happening to his advantage.

"What is this noise?" Artokh shouted as he turned to Grunschlik.

"It's the sensors." Grunschlik answered like an obedient slave.

"They are detecting the approach of a ship."

Rygel's heartbeat went up.

It was Crichton! He came to rescue him!

Oh, wait, Crichton's dead. So that can't be.

Rygel smiled for a microt at his own mistake.

He had got used to the fact that Crichton would come to his rescue.

He was the only person on Moya who honestly cared for his fellow shipmates.

But he was dead.

Who else could attempt to save him?

Aeryn?

No, she was wounded, and couldn't care less about his fate.

D'Argo?

No, he probably would, but he has too much on his mind. His son, his girlfriend, and the fact that he took the responsibility to protect Moya on his shoulders. Something which used to belong to Zhaan.

Zhaan would've probably saved him, but she too was dead.

Chiana!

Yes! She would save him! There always has been some chemistry between both of them.
You can call it honour amongst thieves if you will!

Chiana would rescue him!

At least, she was going to try.

Wouldn't she?

The sensors bleeped again.

"It's big." Grunschlik said. "And it's coming this way."


Explosions were all over the facility.

Gunfire accompanied it through the air.

The floor was covered in blood.

But all of this did not stop Harvey.

Cautiously he moved though shadows, with two guns in both hands.

His eyes were cold and brutal, his face was pale and his smile abnormal and heartless.

Harvey honestly enjoyed this sensation.

Fear and angst and adrenaline.

He liked those things already.

He was eager to join the battle, but the intelligence he had inherited from Scorpius told him otherwise.

He honestly did not expect it to work, but it did.

Harvey was able to take over Crichton's consciousness whilst John himself was unconscious.

Both minds could not exist at the same level, and because it was Crichton's mind and body, he was the one who had the access to it. But now he was unconscious, Harvey could step in.

He was now able to return to Scorpius.

"Bracca, can you hear me?"

Lieutenant Meeklo Bracca eagerly grabbed his comms-device.

Pulse-fire went over his head, but he ignored it.

"Lieutenant, can you hear me?"

"Scorpius!" Bracca responded. "Sir, I am glad to hear your voice."

"Likewise, lieutenant." Scorpius replied. "But this is not the time for conversations."

"Indeed, sir."

"Three soldiers and I are trapped in the control centre. We are cornered and outnumbered, but we do have their security-systems at our disposal. I am currently watching you through the camera's."

Bracca's heart jumped as he looked up.

There were indeed camera's overlooking the battle which took place in the corridor.

Bracca could see soldiers firing at them from the left corners of his eyes.

"We are experiencing the same problems." Bracca said as he grabbed his gun and opened fire.

"I don't know if I can get to you."

Bracca noticed a slight sad tone in his own voice, which he had never heard before.

"Take the stairs to your right. These lead to the upper levels." Scorpius said to Bracca over the comms.

"Go to the officer's lounge and blow a hole in the floor. Follow these instructions and there is a chance that we will make it out alive."

"Yes, sir."

Bracca put on his helmet once again and ordered his men to follow him.

"He's in the control centre." Harvey said to himself.

He had taken on of the comms-devices from one of the dead Peacekeeper soldiers which laid scattered across the floor like Christmas decoration, and had overheard some words of Bracca and Scorpius's conversation.

Harvey sat with his back against the wall, listening to his surroundings and the echoes of men's cries and deadly explosions combined with fatal gunfire.

But then suddenly it stopped.

Was it over?

A large explosion which blew up the wall in the corridor in front of Harvey convinced him otherwise.

The soldiers fired upon each other as they stepped through the enormous hole in the wall.

Flames spread everywhere.

Harvey ducked, knowing that these soldiers were in such a state, that they'd fire at anything.

Harvey found himself caught in a gunfire, as he crawled on the floor through dead Peacekeeper bodies and a rotting smell of death.

As a familiar pain in the back of his head started spreading, Harvey knew his time had come.

His scream was unheard in the noise of the gunfire.

"Where the frell am I?" John Robert Crichton Jr. said as his consciousness returned to the land of the living.

John had terrible timing.

His mind automatically pushed Harvey away as it woke up, making Harvey part of the background once again.

And now John was in control again.

The last thing he remembered was fire and water, before everything turned black.

John scratched his aching head as he tried to get up, but he changed his mind as he saw pulse-fire fly over his head.

John also noticed he had two guns in his hands.

"What the frell..."


Moxan slammed into the steel doors with his gloved fist.

Scorpius had escaped death, but not for long.

He had escaped into the control centre, using it's giant steel doors to make it impossible for anyone to enter.

Override codes had already failed.

Scorpius was able to override their overrides in minutes.

But that didn't matter.

Moxan built this place himself.

He knew how to get in there.

"Hand me those explosives and stand back!" he shouted.


Aenos woke up.

His skin was burning and he couldn't feel his left arm no more.

"Crichton..." he whispered. "You sunnavabitch..."


"Aenos, you sunnavabitch!" John shouted.

John realised what he must have done.

He took John here, planning to hand him over to Scorpius.

"He betrayed me!" John shouted as debris of grenade blasts went over his shoulders.

FLASH

"Of course he did." Harvey said. "You expected this."

Harvey walked around him in the bright white room, covered with blood.

"You're only pissed because you didn't get the chance to screw him first!"

"But how did I get here?" Crichton asked the neural clone.

"In the middle of this war-zone, with two guns in my hands?"

Crichton looked at him with his bright blue eyes.

"What are you not telling me?" he whispered partly to himself, but in such a fashion that Harvey heard it too.

For a moment they stared at each other, but then Crichton closed his eyes.

"You know what? Screw this! I'm leaving!"

FLASH

He avoided being hit by either guns or grenades and managed to get to the door which he believed to lead to the exit.

But as he opened the door Harvey stood in the doorway.

"No, John." he said. "I will not let you leave."

John stared at him.

Harvey looked so real. John could've sworn he was staring at Scorpius.

"Is that it, Harv?" John said disturbed. "Is this the end of our little friendship? I'm hurt. Now get out of my frelling way!"

"No, John." Harvey said. "You said it yourself. It's about your survival."

"I'll get this frelling chip out whatever way I want."

"There is no chance your plans will succeed." Harvey replied. "There are few who have the right technology and expertise to extract the chip out of your mind, without killing you in the process. Scorpius can."

"Yeah, I tried that, but that ended up with him trying to kill me regardless of my sacrifice."

The battle went on behind them.

Peacekeepers died while they were talking.

"Yes," Crichton said. "I still remember what happened at the Shadow Depository."

Harvey just looked at him.

"I'm not going to Scorpius." John said.

"But you will."

"Over my dead body." John replied.

"I hope not." Harvey said.

"FRELL YOU!"

John shot Harvey but the shots went straight through him.

They hit the wall behind him with a loud bang.

"This is pointless, John." Harvey said.

"The story of my life." John said.

Pain emerged from the depths of Crichton's mind.

But both ignored it, as they stared into each other's eyes.

Crichton felt all of his hatred against both Harvey and Scorpius rise from his guts as he attacked Harvey in his mind.

From Crichton's perspective this fight was grand and important. Perhaps epic.

From another man's perspective, Crichton looked like a man who was fighting for his sanity.


As Scorpius looked at the consoles in front of him, he could see the various hallways and corridors and chambers displayed by the camera's spread out through the facility.

Two Peacekeeper soldiers stood beside him.

Scorpius looked behind him when a large explosion was heard, which stunned his ears.

At first he thought it was Moxan, who finally managed to break through his own steel doors.

But he was wrong.

Debris fell to the floor as Bracca managed to blow up the floor of the chamber he resided and make a passageway to the lower level.

"Glad to see you, sir!" he said as the smoke cleared up.

"The feeling is mutual, lieutenant." Scorpius said. "Now find a way for me to get up there."

"Already taken care of, sir." Bracca said as his men lowered a metal ladder into the chamber below.

"Excellent work, Bracca." Scorpius said.

"Thank you, sir."

As Scorpius stood up from his chair to climb the ladder, he suddenly recognised something in the corner of his eye.

Something which was displayed on the console. Something which was recorded by a camera.

"Crichton..." Scorpius whispered.

"This is a most fortunate turn of events."