Written in the Cards?

Notes:

1. This is Fan Fiction.

2. I ship Two and Three.

3. Five is Three's love/fuck child from a one-night stand and he did not know of her until now.

4. One is dead and Corso was killed by Two.

5. Four is Emperor Ryo, but he's friendly towards the Raza and its crew.

6. Six died from his injuries and was spaced shortly after.

7. Sarah died and her conscience was never uploaded anywhere. She's dead and gone.

8. AU Portia, Boone, Wexler, and Tash exist until recently.

What the hell was he supposed to do? He would have needed to be a fortune teller to even guess how things were going to be after he signed up for the crew of the Raza. And something that Three knew for certain, was that neither he, nor his old self believed in such foolishness. But things seemed to be aligning themselves in pretty weird ways for him these days. The most recent revelations, courtesy of the data recovered by the robot and Five, were unsettling, to say the least.

As far as he knew, the boy Titch—his young self, had been taken by Larcan Tanner, the man who killed his parents. Tanner had raised him to be the thieving and murdering bastard that Marcus Boone became. Boone had grown into the role that fate had dealt him, and Titch had somehow died. He had already figured out that he had probably suffered from what used to be called "Stockholm Syndrome" back in Earth Prime because that was the easiest explanation why he did not kill Larcan while growing up. Also, there was no family to go back to, so the path was set in front of him to continue being the criminal he was trained to be. Boone realized he was not the brightest crayon in the box, so to speak, so in a way, it was comforting to know that he was not without talent, even if such talent was perfect aim and cold blood when shooting. If he was going to make a living out of killing people, he'd rather be the best at it. His adoptive father was truly proud as their dirty job numbers increased and his reputation for being a merciless mercenary grew exponentially.

However, nothing explained the falling off between Larcan and Boone that ended in the father leaving his son behind. Sarah had not been able to shed light on the matter either. The fact was that Boone had been betrayed and left for dead by his "adoptive" father, in a forsaken planet. Larcan did not expect to hear from him ever again, and then Sarah found and saved him. Did he really fall for Sarah? Was Boone really intending to save her? Or was he just taking an opportunity where he saw it to survive with the help of that woman? It was difficult for Three to believe the story Sarah told them. Even if Boone had truly been selfless and wanted to help her, his only options for employment were illegal, and that was no way to secure medical assistance for Sarah. Besides, how in the black had he managed to get her on board a ship where he had recently hired as a mercenary? Three was pretty sure that, even before Portia, the previous captain of the Raza was not the type to let anyone bring a sick girlfriend for the ride, unless there was some profit for him in it.

Sarah's character did not seem to fit with him or the ship, either. Nothing made sense with regards to her and her story of them together. Yet, she had been in the stasis pod, and she claimed to know the most of the old Marcus, but to be honest, there was not that much to begin with. Three could not honestly reconcile with this piece of information. There simply had not been enough time for a change like that; old Marcus would have been too resentful, distrustful, and tremendously thick skinned to just let the kindness of a woman in a lost settlement melt his heart. He doubted that Boone even had a heart by the time he and Sarah had met. What had the mercenary thought to gain by agreeing to bring her on board and pretending to search for treatment for her?

The data recovered by the robot helped them assess that when Two—or rather Portia, challenged the captain's ownership of the Raza and killed him, Boone was already a crew member. He had not had any issues with Portia's claim as the new captain, at least, there was never a record of any challenge from him. Also, the coup did not happen immediately before they went into stasis for their latest job. Portia had had to build the reputation of the Raza again after taking over. The tale of the monsters that were supposed to eat whole persons alive surely did not grow out of thin air. It must have been quite an arduous campaign on their part so that everyone was aware of their heinous crimes across the galaxy; that is, the reputation they had did not grow on trees. So, Boone was a bastard through and through even when Sarah was on stasis onboard. He could not believe that, if the man had a change of heart for Sarah, they would have remained on the Raza when ruthless Portia took over.

Then, the incident when he found Five, when he threatened to space the girl, that was pure Boone in action, so any positive or generous influence from Sarah appeared to have disappeared. Three had to ask himself again if Boone ever really cared for Sarah. In a way, it was as if he had stored her in her pod and forgotten all about her. She would "live" as long as she was in stasis, and if that was what Boone meant when he offered his help, he was definitely a heartless son of a bitch. The only reason that Three could think good enough to make Boone "do something" for others was gain. Had Sarah offered to pay him? Why then create this elaborated story of a relationship? Sarah did not look afraid when she saw him again after coming out of stasis. On the contrary, she immediately implied that they were in a relationship which they built in the freezing winter in her planet. And yet…, hers was the craziest story, as far as Three knew.

In this mind frame, and as hard as it sounded, Three could not feel anything but relief that Sarah had finally died. He had not wished her harm, but he could not fulfill any promises that Marcus may have given her. As selfish as this seemed, Three had nothing to do with Sarah, and he had no physical or emotional reaction to her. Truth be told, he could see that she was a handsome woman, but that was all he saw in her. His feelings for her were mostly pity and some shame that Boone had taken her onboard the Raza in the way he did. From Three's perspective, Boone seemed to have prepped Sarah to be in a pod for as long as it was convenient to him. No one would know if he would have ever tried to get her out, to find real help for the woman. In fact, Three would not put it past Boone to try and sell Sarah in some slave colony. The guy had done some seriously hideous stuff.

Such thoughts brought him back to the latest news they got from some digging around that the Android was able to do. About the hideous stuff that Boone was prone to committing. Sometime while running with Larcan, Boone had impregnated a woman. He really did not want to think about it because, knowing Marcus's charming personality, it was highly likely that the conception was due to rape, but there were no matching records of such crime. At least, nothing that the Robot could gather, and she had a pretty good information network in place. What they had been able to learn was that the baby resulting from that pregnancy was Five.