The moment Scorpius opened the door, two guns were trained on his egregious self. A part of him wanted to be amused, if this weren't simply a complete waste of his time. His lip curled up in disdain.
"He's all yours, Chiana," John said, and she kicked him in the codpiece. It nudged him a little, and uncomfortably, pausing, he turned to John.
"Is this a joke?"
"She's got more where that came from. Trust me," John added. Chiana took over from there.
"You lied to me!" she yelled, nearly forgetting where to point her weapon.
Scorpius sighed, and started walking around the small room as if the guns weren't even there.
"This is pointless," he growled. "What answer can I possibly give you that would satisfy you? As if I even know what this is about this time."
"You mean, you don't know? You can't remember, or can't you keep up with your own lies?"
"We don't have time for this," Scorpius stressed, locking eyes with John. "An entire race is about to suffer because of trivial personal drama!"
"No, no, no, don't pretend you suddenly care about the Pilots, Scorp. We know you better than that. They're all just pawns in your scheme, just like everyone else. Just like us. We want the full picture," John added. "And we want it now."
"Yeah," Chiana reaffirmed.
John waved the memories away. "Damnit, I'm getting Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson flashbacks. Just tell us the truth, Scorp. Why is Nerri here?"
Scorpius remained blank for a microt. "Who?"
"You know frelling well who we're talking about here," Chiana said, moving on the cushions of her feet, uneasily swaying from hip to hip. "My brother."
Scorpius smiled as the realization dawned on him. "The Nebari..."
Chiana shoved the gun in his face. "YOU SAID YOU KNEW! You said you knew where he was and that you could get him out. You said he was a prisoner. You said he was being tortured!"
"He was. As my contacts in the Nebari resistance would tell me."
"You're saying you didn't know?" John pointed out, playing devil's advocate here. "I find that hard to believe."
Scorpius suddenly drew a deep breath and raised his hand either to calm himself or them. He was in deep thought all of a sudden, or lost in some meditative trance, and John and Chiana looked at each other not sure what to do. Their guns seemed rather silly then, but when Scorpius opened his eyes again, they made sure to stand firm again.
"My contacts are tainted," he said. He wasn't looking at either of them, seemingly looking out into some distance behind them. "The information is unreliable, dated, and manipulated. Someone planted that knowledge for me to find."
Chiana didn't understand. "They wanted me to join the taskforce?"
Scorpius shook his head. "Someone has been monitoring our movements. Someone in our taskforce is working for the Nebari. I must contact Braca immediately."
"Whoa whoa, sit down grasshopper. You aint goin' nowhere."
"We have a spy within our ranks, John. Steps must be undertaken immediately."
"That's a poor excuse to get out of this conversation."
"I. Want. Answers," Chiana said. "Or I'm out of your stupid team. Frell all of it."
Scorpius stood up, erected himself in full length to face them on equal ground, and locked eyes with both of them, somehow at the same time.
"Listen to me," he said, and his Scarran side briefly emerged. "The Nebari have found out about my interest in the Pilots and are moving to find out why. Ever since the end of the war with the Scarrans they have shown an interest in wormhole weapons, but nothing concrete to warrant a threat. That has changed. They will fight me over possession of the Pilot race for their wormhole calculation capabilities, and by tomorrow their entire species will be enslaved, or worse, if Peacekeeper High Command and Nebari Prime cannot come to terms, they would opt to exterminate them all rather than risk the wormhole knowledge falling into the wrong hands! SO ARE YOU QUITE DONE?"
John and Chiana did not lower their guns, but they all knew they weren't going to shoot.
"You were never able to see the bigger picture, John," Scorpius added.
"You're wrong about that though," John said, lowering his gun and stepping closer to Scorpius, so they could smell each other's breath.
"I saw the bigger picture once," he said. "...I didn't like it."
He sheathed Winona in her holster and walked out the door. Chiana followed, and lastly, Scorpius as well.
"I did not miss this," John spoke out loud, like a weird self-announcement he knew Chi and Scorp would hear. "Not one bit."
They walked down the corridors and ignored all the soldiers passing them by.
"The Pilots need you, John. And I need you."
John ignored that. He wanted to pretend their entire previous conversation never happened.
"You of all people know the destructive capabilities of wormholes, and the dangers such knowledge presents in the wrong hands."
John didn't want to say that the wrong hands meant 'all hands', and 'especially his'.
"If nothing else, you know that your wife is in serious danger."
"In danger of being killed by my brother," Chiana said. "My brainwashed brother."
"There is a way out of this," Scorpius said. "You must trust me."
"Aye, there's the rub," John said. "We don't. We don't trust you."
****