Part 2

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"It's raining Pip!"

"I know what rain is," Chiana nearly cooed as she stepped away from the cracks where the heavy shower fell through while John twisted his head up to catch droplets with his tongue.

"C'mon, don't tell me you don't like rain!"

"Oh I like rain," she nodded as she stepped inside a large, empty crate hanging open. "When it's from clouds outside. John, we're inside!"

"It's alright," Sheyza, the Nebari female they were hanging around, tried to comfort as she peered down inside at Chiana from the top of the crate. "It's the Sebacean bio-domes, we're just below them. Rains and all that, but it's a great spot for some peatres."

Chiana remained where she was, tilting her head at Sheyza as she gaped at the fruit in her hand. "Peacekeeper bio-domes, in here? Like a command carrier."

"Boy are you talking antique," Shezya snorted as she bit into the fruit herself. "Where did you two come from, did you remember yet?"

"Might never," Koresh commented as he came around with a blanket filled with vegetables and fruits. "They mean nasty business if you got one of those control collars on your head and you just - pulled that dren off. You're both fharbot and headed down something wanked if you ask me ... have some jaifurl root?"

---

"We've got to remember," John stated more to himself as he snuck into the bio-dome with Chiana through one of the greater cracks.

He turned, gazing up at a massive tree, whose roots spilled around him. The rain had subsided, leaving everything drenched with droplets sparking off of everything. "I can't believe that's naturally occurring ... there's gotta be some shower heads hanging down somewhere up there."

He stepped out from the massive roots into bamboo-like reeds that came up to his waist, looking above. He could see the lighting that simulated for sunlight, below that some clouds still remained, sweeping by as they broke away from each other. "Whoa ..."

"What are we looking for in here?" Chiana asked as she came up beside him and walked ahead a few feet, turning her attention to the few but massive trees.

"Just looking," he muttered as he sat back down into the weaving roots. "Just thinking. We gotta remember something ... how we got here? If we could just remember then we could go back ..."

Chiana's eyes widened as she turned to look at him. She came to him, crouching at his feet as she rested her hands on his knees where he sat. "If we could get back ..."

"Got to," he shook his head, pointing at her until he flicked his index finger off the tip of her nose. "Something about you tells me this isn't even the right future."

"I can think of a way to relax enough to remember something else," she smiled with a brief lift of her eyebrow as she leaned closer into him, sliding her hands down his thighs.

John closed his eyes as her lips came close enough to his to touch. He brought his hand to her shoulder to push her away as she kissed him. Instead his hand squeezed her shoulder as he returned it. "Hmmmm, maybe," he smiled as he brushed his hand up to her neck while she pushed him down into the furrow between two tall roots twining down from the tree. "I think - do we do this?"

"We do this," she smiled as she rested her forehead on his, brushing his arms away from her with her forearms as she straddled him. She licked his nose and then his lips as she ran her fingers down his sides to his hips.

---

The back of his head. She kept bringing her gloved hands to the back of his head. She either gripped his hair in a tension of pleasure or held his head as though she wanted to cradle him against her forever but couldn't ask. This time he resisted the grip of her gloved hand on his hair. Her hand immediately splayed, held up away from his head. They concentrated on their bodies.

Awesome, he thought in a moment's coherency. Chiana flexed supply with the strength of extreme drive only interested in their pleasure and satisfaction with no care of fatigue. It was a well exercised and incredibly limber body. He knew that. He had watched her. He had sensed the vibes that radiated from her to him. They promised this.

He didn't expect how incredible her body would perform, especially around him inside of her. He didn't realize how much her petite body could work or what the limberness could mean to her lovemaking. He was going for a third time in a row without caring to let up. It felt infinite, like he could do this forever. It was getting painful. He didn't care. He didn't even care how great she pleasured him or how eagerly she committed to this.

Nothing mattered next to the senses he was feeling while they pleasured. She squealed almost cat-like and her knees lifted when he thrust at his climax. His vision cleared after a few microts. The sensation lingered in his muscles. Her trembling hips kept working until his hand released from squeezing her little shoulder and she knew he was satiated. Then she dropped, weak, against him.

He didn't know this would be with her. She made him feel like it was his first time. The breathless tenderness. The intuitive, unselfconscious guidance. The breathless eagerness to pleasure them both. The breathless sharing of sensation. The breathless desire for more. The electric sensation. All that with her skill and performance was threatening all his needs that were focused on....on what?

He tried to recall, grasping like fishing by hand for a fleeting fish in a rushing stream. A face was almost coming in a blur, or as if drugged, so crystal clear and certain, yet unreal and without any more than the thought alone. He loved someone, but he felt its meaning even though he couldn't hear the words. It was a stern love, it demanded they give everything of themselves before it could be whole. Any more clarity evaded his grasp, as if the memories he grasped for were dodging him, or being disguised from him.

What he remembered wasn't with Chiana. He sensed he'd been accustomed to giving her a blind eye. Now he couldn't think why. An innate understanding of each other and the warmth of sincere friendship was also there and already natural. So beyond recognizing her, he knew they'd been dear to each other. But this felt new. It felt like something slipping from under cover and growing to life.

This wasn't like the other, nothing was needed from them that they didn't already have. It thrived on its own, a freely given love, but with the edge of being dearly given. It was everything, it was leaving no room for him to want something else. It scared him and it was irresistible.

So he didn't resist. Now he knew why he had faced her with such a blind eye. Now he was seeing. This wasn't allowing pleasure, it was changing him and he knew it while it happened. It made him cry but it wasn't bad. Somehow it didn't feel bad. It felt like release.

He caught a smirk under her bangs. He tried to laugh but it was just a noise. He sniffed in his juicy nose.

"Good frell."

"Just shut- just shut the hell up" he shoved her off of him. He managed to walk on his knees to lean against a knotted trunk. But she cut in between and nuzzled her nose into his cheek. His hand reached up. Then he grabbed her tightly to him. "God, Chi. Why couldn't you leave something alo- damn."

"Shut up" she told him, again nuzzling him. He nodded. They smiled and fell against the wet trunk.

---

John came back a long ways to find Chiana, sitting on her knees leaning against a tree. "You're supposed to be leaving me behind, trying to find out where the hell you went."

Chiana crossed her arms on the trunk in front of her where it stretched out from the trunk to go down to a root. She rested the side of her face on her forearms. Her mouth stayed open a little. She didn't seem to hear him.

He bent over a little nearer to her. "Frelled universe calling Chiana." He slowly waved his hand one way and the other. "Old and fast man calling young and slow gal." Her eyes just followed his hand. "You zombied out or getting moody on me?"

"What?"

He walked off muttering something.

She just stayed there, running it around inside. Why had all this affected her like this? It took her knees from under her. It made her weak. She felt kind of sick.

She figured it was how high the frelling stakes were. Even though the details escaped her, she knew she'd been building up so many things and so many dreams about the frelling human. She always held to some little notion that you never could tell, he might sometime do something with her. Maybe. Sure it seemed hopeless, but what did he always say? There's always hope. Maybe there's even hope of remembering what had happened after she was crying as her brother left. It was the last thing she remembered clearly. The rest were the finger touch of time and shadows in smoke.

Then she knew that at some time when things got so bad, when everything seemed so hopeless, her needs had gotten out of check and she built up so much inside about him. But she thought he'd never know. Some time ago, she realizes, she became sure he'd never look at her that way, never mind do anything....

Just like it had been the microt before they were there together and he suddenly smelt like "go." Here they were, their lives seem to be lost, forced to start all over. As far as she could tell, he felt like it didn't matter anymore so he had done it. She was thinking it could mean more than that, it meant new possibilities. Then he seemed to be opening to her. Now it happened and it made her weak and sick somehow.

Something screamed in her to stop thinking about it. Stop feeling like this. Just take what happens, take all of him you can get, get everything from it you can and see what happens. You're vulnerable to him, a scary amount of you is. If it all ends, if- whatever the reason was that you couldn't be like this reclaims him from you, if he doesn't really open up, if he hurts you, if you frell up on him and hurt him the wrong ways, and it destroys you inside, then it does. Maybe you'll learn something, but you'll take it and survive. She knew that was what she'd do no matter the cost.

It's just that she didn't usually suffer like this. Uncertainty was sickening. 'Okay then. See what happens. Go ahead. Take it.' Chiana stood, only to find John had just walked up to her. She looked away to hide her shock.

"Got one of those fruity pebble tasting fruits of theirs" he held one out for her to take. "This look like it to you? Want one?"

"No, no I don't want another of the, things." Her tongue whetted her numb lips. She still didn't look at him. "Hey am, are we, I mean where did you, were we going?" She finally looked. He had a flower right in front of her face. "No, no thanks. I got some water in my boots." She went to bend down. Her cheeks were flushing. He probably wouldn't notice, but still. This just got worse.

He tapped her arm. She stood again. He pushed the flower closer. "What it's not your favorite color or something? I need to get a colorless one?"

"What, what do I want with it, it's probably poisonous, John. Crichton."

He smiled and hissed a little laugh, looking aside.

"What's so, frelling funny?" she smiled because he was cute but she felt angry he was laughing at her again at a time like this.

"God. Aliens."

That really hurt.

"Look, Chiana: where I come from guys give flowers to girls we like. Here." He tried to grasp her expression but it was somehow unreadable.

"You told me that."

Her eyes were intense and totally unnerving. "Well it's for, it says you're pretty like a flower or something" he put it in her unprepared hand, turned and walked off. Darn he felt like a kid, and stammered all over his hello to some girl he had a crush on. It didn't feel good.

Neither did thinking about what he was falling into. She was so alien! He felt like such a fool. But he'd been one for other women before, he was certain of that much. A very big fool, now he thought of it now that he felt so distanced from it all. He knew all the bad stuff about Chiana, at least vaguely. She'd lived free and could be dangerous, both those warnings seemed to apply. He felt as if he were used to reminding himself of it every frigging time he'd ever caught himself giving her a thought of any kind. Now it seemed a little unfair. Or incomplete anyway. She was also....awesome.

Chiana picked up the flower that had dropped from her hand. He'd never told her why before. He never explained much of anything to her. Her other hand barely cupped the side of the white tipped wild red five-starlike shaped pedaled flower with its deep black center. Okay, she decided. Do it.

---

John stewed, leaning against a tree trunk. Suddenly Chiana breezed by him. She hopped up onto a wide round stair step in front of him and squatted down. "Hey" she called, tilting her head.

He unfolded his arms and came over. "Hey. I think we better get back to the city, start figuring...." he ran his forearm over his head. Damn his head hurt every time he get near the thought of what's going on and what happened.

"No, hey," she took his fingers with a few of her gloved fingers. She gestured out up to the elevated area far above, lost among the tree tops that the stairs seemed to lead to. "Let's let's go. Come on." She looked between them. She was so eager he couldn't say no. Well, he did say no, but they went anyway.

---

"Just take the water." John offered the huge leaf he'd filled with water.

Chiana shook her head and heaved again, her arms flopping out over the stone she'd sprawled out over. Her position looked sort of like a prone frog. She looked at him with glassy eyes. "Nu. Frell, you're....stupid humans. Mnot taking nother flower. Never."

He cracked up and started laughing. She glared at him so hotly it could kill. "Woah ho! No no, Chi." He covered his face. "You weren't supposed to eat it, just look at it. It says you care, not take the frelling stone Chiana...." he kept chuckling.

She yanked the leaf from him and splashed the water on him. Then she put the huge leaf over her face and moaned. Soon it was shaking from her laughter.

---

Chiana made her way up the steps when she came to a pause. She turned around, looking to John behind her. She could remember Aeryn, it hadn't really occurred to her until now ... and Moya.

"John," she swallowed. "Your wormholes ..."

"Yeah," John wiped his face with both of his hands. "Wormholes. Frell - okay, where did we come out at cause - and where's my module ..."

He looked up at her, feeling like a lightning bolt from the storm just hit through his chest down to the very soles of his feet. "Aeryn."

He kept his head lowered as he joined Chiana on the same step she was on, he moved to touch her shoulder and then pulled his hand away. He turned his head away from her, his jaw tensing. "Did you remember Aeryn before we ... before you ..."

Chiana narrowed her eyes, drawing out her breath in such a sound it sent the hairs rising on John's neck. She sounded almost like a cobra as her head twisted to one side. He mostly expected her to hit him as he raised his hands in front of his chest in surrender. "Never mind, forget I asked. Let's just try to figure out what happened to us so we can get out of here."

---

Chiana stumbled up against a beam. her fist slid between the beam and her forehead as her eyes scanned aimlessly. Something inside had gone frantic. It terrified her. She felt a cold sweat and a little faint. She wished she would faint, then this would stop for a time.

He'd destroy her. He'd do it like that. The past was a blur but the senses were strong. He got stuck on Aeryn again, he decides to live for somewhere else again, it would just kill her after what she just did. "Oh frell him, frell....frell hi....frell him" she heard herself whispering.

"What?" he asked from somewhere behind her. He almost caught up. She just remembered she had ran ahead from him.

Looking around she desperately fished for something to say. He stood there on the end of one of the semicircular step way up here....the urge to push the bastard off was sudden and intense. But it couldn't win. She didn't hate him, she hated....no she didn't hate anything, it just sucked. It sucked and it hurt so bad. She swallowed a lump. Tears were coming whether she willed them away or not. "Let's go find out, where-just get the frell out of here."

She walked past him. He stepped out of her way and gawked. "But-hey! Chiana. Look-I....shhhhhhheeee...." he went from a yell after her to cursing under his breath. He hurried down after her. That was swift, he thought. That was real swift. Why don't you just cut it off, he asked himself. Just gets you in trouble, then you end up screwing off both of them. Just screwed up on Aeryn and frelled Pip up, and he did not want to do either!

"Hey!" John found his feet dragging as if he were wearing lead shoes. Like a spool of yarn unwinding, his mind suddenly seemed intent upon pulling threads of thought from some unseen spool. Moya, Aeryn, the years after the Ancients removed the knowledge from his mind. And wormholes, and what they were and how they worked, it all began flowing into his mind.

Pain seared through his mind, stopping all thought in a white unconsciousness. He looked up though dazed eyes, seeing Chiana's feet. Next moment he saw her legs, as she fell to the ground in a moaning heap. He then noticed he was laying on the ground. The pain lingered, but the source seemed to be gone. He tried remembering what had happened, but all he could think of at the moment was that it was somehow significant that it didn't hurt anymore when he tried remembering.

"You too?" he asked, saliva spraying out further than his voice. Chiana made a moan he took to mean a yes.

After a time, he managed to sit up and look at her. A dark blue spot a her temple bubbled. "Oh this can't be good, this can't....Pip can you hear me?"

Chiana opened her eyes and looked aside up to him, seemingly alert. She made a tiny nod. "You stay there, I'll....go look for some....kind of help." John got up, hoping he was any better off. It didn't matter anyway, he had to do something. The thought of losing the only thing he now had which he cared about was too much to stand. Anything was better. "Please stay there" he repeated, starting to walk carefully down the stairs. "Please don't.....just don't ever go."

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