They reconvened a few minutes later in a different room, one which appeared to have once been a staff canteen. John's eyes had nearly popped from their sockets when they had walked in to find a distinctly non-pregnant Aeryn, dressed casually in jeans and a white T-shirt, waiting for them with arms crossed across her chest, a grim expression on her face and a trio of distant-eyed soldiers guarding her.

"Commander John Crichton, this is... hell, but I guess you've already met?" Collins sighed apropos of Aeryn as he rolled his eyes and waved his arm her way.

"You could say that," the two Johns echoed each other. Aeryn's fingers gripped her upper arms more tightly, making the skin beneath go white. She stared hard at her version of John and then harder at the newly arrived Crichton but said nothing.

Collins gestured for them to sit around a low, formica table on threadbare, industrial, lightly padded chairs. The furniture had seen better days, with chips on the table top and foam showing through ripped and worn fabric in more than one place. A complicated dance ensued: no one seemed to want to sit next to anyone else. Eventually both Johns sighed and sat themselves down in opposite seats. Aeryn, seemingly satisfied now and able to make a decision as to where to sit herself, pulled up a hard, unupholstered plastic chair, placing it equidistant from the two Johns at the head of the table. Collins, and the man in black, now introduced to John as Special Agent Hobbes, settled themselves in two of the four remaining almost-comfortable chairs. The three guards at the edge of the large room remained standing, unmoved, like all-seeing, but unheeding statues.

"So," the John from Moya opened. "What happened? How'd you end up here?"

"We were on Talyn," Aeryn began, guilty eyes flashing away from MoyaJohn as he tried to return her gaze.

"Did that happen in your reality?" TalynJohn interrupted.

"Sure," MoyaJohn confirmed weakly. "You two ran off on Talyn with Cap'n Cranky and the two stooges, leaving me on Moya with the girls and Big D." TalynJohn nodded, satisfied that they seemed to have established an important, shared frame of reference. "Then what happened?"

"Well, after John destroyed the Scarran Dreadnought at Dam Ba Da we said goodbye to Crais, Talyn, Stark and Rygel, made a wormhole to Earth..." Aeryn continued, being unusually loquacious but still not meeting anyone's eye. She rolled her head as she talked, her wide eyes fixed on the table.

"Wait up! Wait a microt!" MoyaJohn exploded, realising with shock where their realities had diverged and furious at what it meant. Even though he had known for some years now that that had been their plan, had his version of TalynJohn not been killed at Dam Ba Da, it was still hard to hear, hard to cope with the cold, hard fact that once upon a time Aeryn had seen him as a disposable copy and had been content to abandon him on the other side of the Universe. "You're saying you left me! You left me, out there in the Uncharted Territories? With the lions and the tigers and bears...?"

"We knew you'd be alright... you were on Moya and you had the rest of the crew..!" TalynJohn protested. Collins and Hobbes shot each other seemingly meaningful glances: Even if they weren't au fait with all of the details, this had all the makings of deteriorating into fisticuffs. It was probably like watching a particularly strange episode of the Jerry Springer show.

"What happened to Talyn, to everyone in your reality?" Aeryn asked more softly, her voice cutting across the argument. MoyaJohn flashed her a fierce look. She looked concerned and he could understand why. She was probably terrified to hear his answer rather than being scared of him. He didn't want to be cruel, but the beast was on his shoulder now, whispering angry words and accusations in his ear. MoyaJohn almost blurted out that his twin had died at Dam Ba Da, overwhelmed by radiation. He felt the hurtful words on the tip of his tongue. He knew they would be devastating to Aeryn and likely cause this version of that same twin some distress, but he never got around to voicing them.

"Things, umm, they worked out a bit differently," MoyaJohn began.

"Yeah. And I bet you're just dying to stick the knife in, tell us how badly things turned out?" TalynJohn snarled, staring angry daggers at both Aeryn and MoyaJohn. MoyaJohn stared back defiantly at TalynJohn, sparing a momentary glance to take in Aeryn's crumbling Peacekeeper mask. He didn't think he had anything to apologise for. It had taken him and Aeryn more than a year to get their act together after his twin's death. It had been a long, painful road for both of them. They had both had issues to resolve before they'd been ready to renew their relationship and the process had not helped by them each wanting to move forward when the other did not.

"You son of a bitch! You utter... cow! I can't believe you did that to me!" MoyaJohn glanced angrily around the assembly. He was totally focussed on the wrongs he perceived that they had done to him, unable to consider his own culpability, the fact that he would have done exactly the same thing to his twin if it had been him aboard Talyn. TalynJohn was staring defiantly back at him, jaw set. Aeryn seemed close to some sort of emotional breakthrough, or breakdown, eyes moist, biting on her bottom lip.

"Right back at you, bro!" The other John bit back. Collins and Hobbes were clearly all ears, but were still doing a pretty good job of not showing much outward reaction beyond attentively following the conversation, gathering intelligence. No one had tried to hit anyone yet, after all, so no need to intervene.

"You left me!"

"You'd have done the same!" TalynJohn accused himself. "Given half a chance…"

"You..!" MoyaJohn slammed his hand down on the table, stood and stormed out. One of the guards looked nervous but Collins just shrugged, as though such events and revelations were an everyday part of the job for him.

"I should talk to him." Aeryn pleaded to Hobbes. The agent considered it for a second and then nodded his assent, waving a hand to indicate that two of the guards should go with her. With ill-concealed jealousy, TalynJohn watched her stand and follow his twin from the room.

'~'

Aeryn found MoyaJohn standing on the concrete apron just outside the building. He stared up at the sky, trying to pretend he hadn't noticed her. She moved up behind him, keeping to the long, cool shadow cast by the building.

"Hey." She called softly. He flicked a glance her way. At least her two guards were remaining at a discrete distance.

"Forget it. I don't want to talk."

"Hey means hey. You have to talk." He spared her a glance. Aeryn had her jaw jutted out in determination. She was clearly not going to let him get away with blanking her out. "Your rules, not mine."

"I wish I'd never taught you that."

"I wish a lot of things," she answered, her delivery wistful. He had no idea she could 'do' wistful. It didn't really fit with her badass-space-pilot image.

"I can't... I can't believe he did that... you did that. You left me out there to die..."

"I'm so, so sorry John." She reached out and touched his arm with her fingers. He flinched away from her and she let her arm drop to her side. She looked down, took a deep breath and then looked up again. "Anyway, you cannot put all the blame on him. You do understand, don't you? He's you." She spoke softly but firmly.

"He, umm. In my reality, you ended up with me." She arched an eyebrow at that but didn't enquire further as to what had happened to bring about that turn of events and he didn't feel like pushing the point. "In the end. After a cycle or so."

"Really?" He nodded. "Are you happy?" he nodded again.

"We've got a kid. Another on the way."

"Oh." There was a long, almost pregnant, pause. One Aeryn pregnant, the other most likely almost pregnant, John mused, struggling not to find his thought process funny: that really wouldn't be appropriate and, all things considered, could even get him physically injured. This Aeryn was almost certainly pregnant with D'Argo, his foetus in stasis, waiting to be discovered and released. She probably didn't even know it. It could be very unwise for him to mention anything at all to her right now.

"She's me," Aeryn continued, breaking his thought. "The Aeryn in your reality. Same people. Just different circumstances. Besides, I think things worked out better for you, in the long run, don't you?" John turned his head, noticing the strain around her eyes, her washed-out, gaunt features, her flat belly. "He was right, you know. The other John. My John. In his place you would have done the same."

He nodded. He'd had plenty of time to think it through over the years and he wasn't dumb, even if he couldn't stand to be in the same room as himself whenever he'd had the chance to be.

"I'm so... I'm such a bastard. I left myself alone... stranded in the UTs, and ran off home. Sometimes I wonder what you see in me."

"Sometimes I wonder the same thing." She replied. The quiet sadness in her voice pulled John fully around to face her, against his prior intentions. She cast her eyes down again to look at the ground, as though determined not to show more of herself to him. Yep, she was definitely not her usual self. It reminded him a little of how withdrawn she had been after she had returned to Moya from trying her hand as an assassin and he had rejected her.

"What happened to you here, Aeryn? These last couple of years? On Earth?" He gently took her upper arms in his hands, causing her to lift her face to look at him. "You don't look well. Don't seem yourself."

"I've been a prisoner, John," she shook her head, unwilling to say more. She didn't have to. John could fill in the blanks from there. They'd both known well enough how things could go on Earth, both seen it when they had been on the Ancients' simulation of Earth, so many years ago. "From the moment we arrived." She lowered her voice, as though not really intending her next comment for his ears. "Frelling stupid, pointless idea coming here at all."

"I'm sorry." He let go with one arm and reached out around her, meaning to pull her into a hug. She pulled a face and took a step back. It seemed to John that she really didn't need or want that level of intimacy right then. After a few seconds of growing discomfort he withdrew the offer, returning his hand to her upper arm. She shrugged one shoulder.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it to happen..." John paused, recognising the look on her face as the "Frell, don't you ever shut up?" one. Best to shut the frell up then….

"But he should have known better." John couldn't deny her assessment. When he had returned to his version of Earth the previous year, and when he had returned this time, too, he had tried so hard to protect her. So how could he... her John Crichton... have got it so wrong when they had come to Earth? But then so much had happened to MoyaJohn that had not happened to his twin, experiences which gave him extra insight, extra caution. Or perhaps he had simply gotten lucky and the other John and Aeryn hadn't? He shivered at the uncomforting thought.

"C'mon Aeryn, we'd better get back inside. There's plenty more we've got to talk about, and most of it is going to end up upsetting someone." He squeezed her arms gently at that, causing a small shiver to run down her spine.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Oh, erm, nothing." He casually dismissed her very pertinent question. "Later."

'~'

"That was quick. Coffee?" Hobbes remarked as Aeryn and MoyaJohn, both rather subdued, re-entered the room.

"Yeah I reckon that'll hit the spot." MoyaJohn sighed heavily and dropped back into his chair before sweeping a hand over his face.

"So," TalynJohn addressed his twin. "Collins tells me there's another Aeryn up on Moya? How's that work then? What happened to me?"

MoyaJohn glanced across at Aeryn as she settled back onto her own seat. Everyone was silent and staring at him, waiting for answers. Frell, the moment had finally come, no putting it off any longer. There was no avoiding the issue by riding the heat of the moment this time. Damn it, he thought, this is going to rip her apart. But then, maybe he could try and distract everyone, avoid the question?

"Umm, not important. Suppose we cut to the chase: Who attacked Earth?" MoyaJohn tried the only subject he knew which could trump discussions of his and Aeryn's tortuous private life.

"He's dead, isn't he? My John in your reality?" The directness of Aeryn's question cut through MoyaJohn's attempts to change the subject. He guessed she'd been thinking it through ever since their aborted conversation outside. Now there really was no point in putting it off any longer - it would only hurt her more if he did.

He nodded his head gently. "Yeah," he whispered. "At Dam Ba Da. Radiation got him." Aeryn's hand shot up to cover her mouth, barely stifling a strangled sob. TalynJohn turned white.

"I'm sorry, I need a microt..." MoyaJohn didn't look up as Aeryn stood, her chair toppling backwards, unheeded, as it crashed to the floor.

"Do you mind?" TalynJohn indicated he wished to go after her. Hobbes conceded with a snort and a wave of his hand. TalynJohn didn't waste a second - he was standing and heading for the door before Hobbes finished gesturing.

"'scuse me." Collins cleared his throat, stood up and followed Aeryn and TalynJohn from the room.

"Up and down like yo-yos," Hobbes muttered to himself. "Sure you don't want to..?" MoyaJohn glared Hobbes into silence.

"Anyway..." MoyaJohn leaned back and watched the door shut behind Collins. Getting revenge on this John and Aeryn for their transgressions against his equivalent seemed such a hollow victory now. He grimaced. It was time to find something else to talk about, rather than wallow in what a bastard he could be.

"You were saying..?" Hobbes's question snapped John out of his reverie.

"What happened to Earth?" John was pretty sure everyone else present knew the answer to his own burning question: No need to wait for all of the others to come back to ask it and have it answered. He fixed Hobbes with a beady eye. The agent snorted his contempt back at John. "My Aeryn says it looks like a space-bombardment. Pilot says the gossip on the airwaves sounds like it might have been Scarrans."

"It was the Scarrans." Hobbes confirmed with a shrug. "Leastways, that's how they both called it." He gestured towards the door with his thumb. His hand strayed into his jacket pocket, pulling out a crumpled cigarette packet and a lighter. "No one else on Earth to put a name to the bastards except them two. Anyway, those scaly fuckers came without warning. Destroyed our defences, then sent in ground forces. Whole thing was over in a day and a half."

"But why? I mean why come here at all? And why come so far and then leave?"

"Good questions, Commander. We asked the same at first. We even thought maybe they'd followed your twin to Earth after Dam Ba Da. Revenge for destroying their Dreadnought."

Hobbes paused, arched an eyebrow, tapped a cigarette out of its packet, took it between his lips and lit it.

"Do you mind? Those things'll kill you, y'know?"

Hobbes laughed. It was a hollow, humourless sound. "I've seen Scarrans, up close and personal," he held up his cigarette and twitched it, flicking his eyes its way so it had John's attention. "I should be so lucky."

"Anyway, turns out it most likely was you." Hobbes fixed a beady eye on John, driving home his point with his clear contempt for the astronaut.

"Don't be stupid. You think that they followed me?" John leant back and puffed out a breath, expressing his scepticism. The smoke was starting to get on his nerves, despite the size of the room. It stank and made his eyes sting. "How's that work then? Because I've never been here before, not in this reality."

Hobbes shook his head. "You, him, some other fucking John Crichton, what's it matter? YOU must have let something slip. Or maybe your equivalent did. Left out there in the UTs by your twin and by..." he paused as though even saying her name was distasteful to him. "Officer Sun. What else could possibly explain it? You understand, we don't know all the details. The Scarrans didn't exactly feel like giving us the full Basil Exposition treatment. But somehow they found out about Earth. They knew what they wanted: they came here to harvest something. Haven't worked out what."

"A plant. Bird of paradise, Crystherium utilia. Big deal for them." John expounded, less cocky now. He could imagine how it might have happened: He'd accidentally spilled the beans about the plant to Emperor Staleek in his reality - it could've been something similar for the other John. Assuming he'd been lucky and not been captured and tortured for what he knew, of course. John looked up and saw Hobbes arch an eyebrow at that new piece of information. Then the agent gave an inverted smile and slowly nodded his head twice in thanks to Crichton for completing the picture.

"Interesting. And I guess someone..." He pointed the two fingers holding the smoking cigarette at John. "Might've let them know that this crysteri-whatsit... grows on Earth?" John reddened. It was déjà vu all over again.

"Not knowingly I didn't." He blustered, trying to cover the justifiable guilt which he now felt. "Anyway. Aeryn and the other me, they abandoned me out there. Maybe I, well, maybe my... equivalent number... somehow led the Scarrans here. To Earth? Trust me, that was never the plan. Never the intention!" John blinked as he protested his innocence, trying to take it all in. He shook his head at the awful symmetry of it. He couldn't escape it. He knew that in his reality he'd told the Scarrans the plant grew on Earth. It was why he'd had to shut the wormhole. He'd probably somehow made the same frelling mistake in whatever reality the scaly sons-of-bitches who'd attacked this Earth had come from, too. But of course he had, knowing his track record for having the Universe frell with him: what else could possibly explain it? As the man said, they knew to come to Earth for the Crystherium. Who the hell else but John Crichton could have told them that?

"So we're all sons of bitches now?" John said quietly to himself as he accepted the inevitable: Once again, it would appear, Fate had stitched him up real good.

"Indeed, so it would seem," Hobbes replied with a heavy sigh, grinding his cigarette out in the ashtray.