By
Paradox761
members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer:
Joss owns Buffy, SFC owns Farscape, and I own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended, so
please don’t sue. I don’t have any
money anyway. Also, some dialogue has
been taken directly from the episodes “Homecoming” and “Grave”. No plagiarism intended, they’re just
flashbacks.
Summary:
Intent on discovering the origins and ramifications of
Chiana's visions, Xander and Chiana take the DeLorean through time and space to
visit of all things, an Oracle. But when they're intercepted by Grayza's
Command Carrier, Xander will find his first encounter with the Peace Keepers to
be an unpleasant one. Will he be able to survive the Aurora Chair? What will
Grayza discover in his mind? How will
he and Chiana escape?
Author’s
note: This story is a sequel to Back to the
Uncharted Territories, which in turn is a sequel to A Sympathetic
Ear. Special thanks to A. Grandt,
Rob Clark, dragon_hulk, Jason Hill, Ghostrider, DaBear, greywizard, MagnusXXZ,
and C.J. Whittaker for the feedback.
It’s much appreciated.
Dedication:
To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May
they rest in peace.
(BtVS/Farscape,
Xander/Chiana, R)
*
(1/5)
The
bell over the door of the Magic Box rang as Xander pushed the door open. As he looked around the inside of the store,
it struck him that it was different from the last time he had seen it. The glass in the display case at the counter
was in tact, as was the cash register.
Around the store, there were shelves neatly lined with books and other
assorted magical items. There were no
weapons or clothes strewn about haphazardly.
No cat box in the corner. But
what stopped Xander dead in his tracks, was the table. The large circular table that they always
used for researching, behind which sat Willow and Tara, looking through some
books.
He
was dreaming, he realized that now.
Which was strange, because he so rarely realized that he was dreaming in
the middle of a dream. And it had been
a long time since he had dreamed of his friends. But so far it seemed pleasant enough, so Xander decided not to
look a gift horse in the mouth. He
walked over to the table and took a seat.
“Ladies,”
he said pleasantly.
They
both looked up and smiled. “Hey
Xander,” Willow said. “I was wondering
when you were finally going to stop by.”
“It’s
good to see you,” Tara said.
“It’s
good to see you guys, too,” he returned.
“So, what are you working on?”
“Your
immune system.”
“My…what?”
“Among
other things, like your self-confidence problem,” Tara added.
“Which
reminds me, I wanted to talk to you about Chiana,” Willow said.
“About
Chi…what?”
“I
know that you’re worried about her, and that’s understandable, she’s been
through a terrible ordeal. But you
don’t need to be worried about showing her affection. She knows that you’re not Lakas, she’s not going to think that
you’re trying to take advantage of her.
And nobody else is going to think that either. They all know how much you care about her.”
“And
how much she cares about you,” Tara added.
“Which is why when you shy away from touching her, it hurts her. It makes her feel like you don’t want to
touch her because of what Lakas did.”
“No,
that’s not true!” Xander insisted, shaking his head vigorously.
“We
know that,” Willow said. “And
logically, she probably knows that too.
But that’s how it feels. We just
wanted to tell you that it’s okay to want to be affectionate with Chiana.”
“And
it’s okay to go slow,” Tara said.
“Right. Just…not this slow.”
“I…okay,”
Xander said. He looked back and forth
between Willow and Tara for a moment.
“I’m…confused.”
“Xander!”
By
the time Xander looked up to see who had called his name, he was tackled by
ninety pounds of eager slayer. She
wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly. He could hear Willow and Tara laughing.
“Okay,
Buff…oxygen becoming an issue.”
Buffy
giggled. “Not here it isn’t,” she said,
climbing off of him. “It’s just so good
to see you again.”
“It’s
good to see you, too,” Xander said, smiling.
Looking up, he saw Giles standing behind her. “And you, G-man.”
Xander
expected Giles to frown, or glare, or tell him not to call him G-man, or clean
his glasses, or something Giles-like.
What he didn’t expect was for the older man to smile and reach out to
shake Xander’s hand. “Xander,” he said.
“Okay…back
to being confused.” And then something
occurred to him. “Oh God, I’m not dead,
am I?”
Willow
stood from her seat and walked over to him.
“No Xander, you’re not dead.
You’re just dreaming.”
Xander
stood up. “I don’t understand.”
“You
will,” she said. “Eventually.”
Xander
reached out and pulled Willow into a hug.
“I miss you so much, Wills,” he said.
“I miss you all.”
“I
know, sweetie. But we’ll be together
again. We’ll all be together again
someday. You just have to remember
that.”
“I
will,” Xander said, fighting back tears.
Willow
pulled away from the hug and looked him in the eye. “You have to wake up now.”
Xander
shook his head. “I don’t want to.”
“I
know. But you have to.”
Xander
opened his eyes, just as the word “No” crossed his lips. He sat up and looked around slowly,
realizing where he was. In his quarters
aboard Moya. The dream had been so
vivid, so real. Even now, he could
remember everything. Every detail about
the dream, from the words Willow had spoke to him, to what everyone was
wearing. And he never remembered his
dreams. His hand unconsciously reached
up and wrapped around the amulet that hung from his neck. It was slightly warm to the touch. In fact, Xander’s whole body felt warm. Like…Willow’s arms were still around
him. Like he could feel how much she
loved him.
“What
a weird dream,” he mumbled to himself.
He looked down at the bed next to him and saw Chiana sleeping, her arms
curled around the blanket. She looked
so peaceful, so vulnerable.
So…beautiful. He thought about
what Willow and Tara had said in his dream, as he reached over and brushed some
hair away from her face. He leaned down
and kissed her gently on the forehead.
She stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up. Xander climbed out of bed as quietly as he could and started to
get dressed.
*
John
stalked through the corridors of Moya, irritated to say the least. He had been back aboard for nearly three
weeks now, along with Xander. And they
still hadn’t been able to track down Aeryn, or the group of mercenaries that
she was supposed to have joined up with.
He had just gotten back from a short trip in his module to a commerce
planet where they had heard rumors of the mercs presence, but no luck. No one seemed to know anything about rogue
Peace Keepers in general, or Aeryn Sun in particular. John was starting to wonder if they would ever find her.
He
was walking toward the gymnasium, where Jool told him Xander was. She said that he had something he wanted to
talk to him about. John found himself
thinking again about how well Xander seemed to be adjusting to life aboard
Moya. He took all of the weirdness in
stride, and did his best to learn as much as he could about everything he
could. Everything from the technology
around them, to the interstellar politics of the region. John knew how he felt. It had been the same when he first arrived
here. Things that were so simple and
commonplace to these people, were completely foreign to him. It took him ten minutes to figure out how to
open a door. It was immensely
frustrating, and Aeryn and D’Argo certainly didn’t help matters by constantly
loosing patience with him. It had taken
a while, but the bizarre bunch of fugitives grew into a family, John
included. And now Xander was a part of
their family too, and all he wanted to do was to be able to contribute
something. To be of some use to the
people who were kind enough to take him in.
John
knew that it also had a lot to do with Xander’s so-called destiny. Somehow, his presence here is supposed to
prevent a war between the Peace Keepers and the Scarrens. Not knowing how exactly he is supposed to do
that has been another source of frustration for him. John and Xander explained everything they knew to the others once
they had some down time, and were met with varying degrees of shock and
disbelief. Xander took it in stride
though, and John couldn’t help but admire the younger man’s strength.
Xander
was even beginning to make friends among Moya’s crew. Chiana and himself of course, but also D’Argo. The two found that they had much in common,
and John has seen them more than once just sitting around and swapping war
stories. He even saw D’Argo laughing
the other day. It took him almost a
year to get the Luxan to laugh, and Xander had done it in two weeks. And considering Xander’s burgeoning
relationship with Chiana, D’Argo’s ex, that was quite a feat. They both took comfort in having a fellow
warrior to talk to. Someone who
understood them a little better than the others. John had seen a similar dynamic between D’Argo and Aeryn, but
with Aeryn’s general mistrust of aliens, it was a much slower process.
Xander
had also befriended Pilot. He was one
of the few people who didn’t get annoyed with Xander’s constant questions. In fact, Pilot enjoyed the extra
company. Xander would spend hours
there, sometimes talking, sometimes just meditating while Pilot went about his
work. In fact, Pilot’s den became
Xander’s favorite place to meditate. He
said that the shape and the sounds of the room reminded him that he was inside
of another living being, and he found that very peaceful. Almost like being inside the womb
again. John had never really been one
for meditation, so he just took Xander’s word for it.
John
walked into the gymnasium and found Xander and D’Argo there. They were standing side by side, each
holding swords. They were moving
slowly, in near perfect unison. Which
considering that both of their eyes were closed was quite impressive. They went through strikes, blocks, and parries,
all at slow speed. It reminded John of
tai chi in many ways. He knew that
Xander and D’Argo were training together, but somehow he never pictured that
Xander would be teaching D’Argo something.
There
was something unusual about what John was watching. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, something was
just…off. But after a few minutes of
watching the pair, he finally figured out what it was. Xander was holding D’Argo’s qualta blade,
and D’Argo was holding Xander’s sword.
The two had been moving so fluidly and synchronized, that John hadn’t
even noticed at first.
When
they finally finished the routine, they opened their eyes and John started
clapping. They turned, noticing his
presence for the first time. “Very
nice,” John said.
“John,”
Xander said in greeting. “Any luck
finding Aeryn?”
John
shook his head, looking dejected.
“Afraid not.”
“We
will find her, John,” D’Argo said.
“I
know, it’s just…frustrating. So, what
are you two up to?”
“Oh,
D’Argo has been kind enough to teach me some things about Luxan fighting
techniques, so I thought I’d return the favor.
Show him a thing or two about martial arts.”
“I
think I am beginning to see the appeal of focusing on yourself instead of your
enemy. Concentrating solely on form
like that, I found the experience very…intense,” D’Argo said.
Xander
nodded and turned back to John. “Luxan
techniques focus solely on the technical.
Disabling or killing your enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible. I wanted to show him that martial arts center
more on the mind and the spirit. That
exercise is about focusing on form, and nothing else. Once you learn the motions, it almost becomes more like
meditation than practice. And soon, the
moves become second nature. You don’t
even have to think, just react.”
“D,
how come you never showed me any Luxan fighting techniques?” John asked.
“Why
haven’t you shown me any of these…martial arts?” D’Argo returned.
John
shook his head. “The only fighting
style I know is brawling.”
“What
is brawling?”
Xander
answered. “It’s basically the absence
of style and technique. No holds
barred, fighting dirty. Sucker punches,
biting, scratching, eye gouging.
Anything you have to do to win.”
“That
does sound like how you fight,” D’Argo said with a smile, turning to John.
“Funny,”
John said with a sarcastic smile before turning back to Xander. “I’m afraid I never bothered to learn much
about martial arts. What style do you
use?”
“It’s
a combination of a lot of things. Tai
kwan do, jeet kune do, a few different sword techniques. I just take what works for me. Any edge I can get, you know?”
“Yeah,
I get that. So, why did you switch
swords?”
Xander
looked down at the qualta still in his hand, like he had forgotten he was even
holding it. “Oh, I just wanted to give
it a try.” He turned to D’Argo. “It’s much lighter than I thought it would
be.” He handed the weapon back to
D’Argo. “It’s an elegant weapon, thank
you for letting me use it.”
“Your
welcome. Thank you for letting me use
yours. It’s well balanced, you take
excellent care of it. Truly, a
warrior’s weapon.”
Xander
nodded his thanks as he took his sword back and slipped it into the scabbard on
his back.
“So,
Jool said that you had something you wanted to talk to me about,” John said.
“Actually,
it’s something I want to talk to everyone about. I wanted to wait until you got back. Let’s get everyone together in Command.”
*
“What
is this about? I’m a busy man you
know,” Rygel griped. They were all
gathered in Command. John, D’Argo,
Rygel, Noranti, Jool, Chiana and Xander.
“No
you’re not,” Chiana said. “We were just
playing cards.”
Rygel
grumbled, but he didn’t say anything.
Xander smiled but he held his tongue.
Things were still a little strained between him and the Hynerian. The money he had brought back from the
casino definitely helped to smooth things over though, and Rygel was at least
civil to him most of the time. Or as
civil as Rygel ever got, according to John.
“I
wanted to talk to you all about Chiana’s visions,” Xander started.
“What
about them?” John asked.
Xander
cast a glance toward Chiana before continuing.
“She’s been telling me more about them, about what she sees. And I think I might know what they are, and
where they’re coming from.”
“How?”
Jool asked.
“I
had a friend on Earth with similar abilities.
Hers didn’t leave her blind though, they just gave her excruciating
headaches. And she didn’t have the
ability to slow down the present, she only saw glimpses of the future.”
“So
what makes you think that it’s the same thing?” John asked.
“Cordelia’s
visions came from The Powers That Be.
They were sent as a way to guide her and her friends to people that
needed their help. They were champions,
warriors in the battle between good and evil.
Almost all of Chiana’s precognitive visions so far have warned her about
impending danger, either for her or someone around her. And then there’s me.”
“What
about you?” John asked.
“The
reason I’m here, this whole destiny thing of mine to prevent this war. It’s possible that the Powers are giving
Chiana these visions to help guide me, to help guide all of us.”
“Wait,
I’m confused,” Jool piped in. “Who
exactly are these Powers you’re talking about?”
“I’ll
explain it this way. Somewhere between
free will and the divine plan, lies The Powers That Be. They are the men behind the curtain. Their job is to nudge us along, keep us
going on the right path. Some of the
more important players in the game get extra special attention, to make sure
they don’t mess up.”
D’Argo,
Jool, and Rygel were looking at Xander like he had just grown a second
head. Like he just told them that
Chiana’s visions came from the Easter Bunny.
“Are
you farbot!” Rygel exclaimed. “You
don’t actually expect us to believe that dren, do you?”
“Look,
I don’t know anything about any of your species culture or spiritual beliefs,
and frankly I don’t care. I’m not
trying to convert you, and I’m not telling you anything that I haven’t seen
with my own two eyes. On my planet,
there are creatures that are believed to be only myths and legends. That’s what I believed too, until I saw them
with my own eyes. Vampires, demons,
werewolves, ghosts, witches. I don’t
know if any of those words will translate into anything you will understand,
but it doesn’t matter. I know from
John’s stories that you’ve all seen some pretty unbelievable things
yourself. All I’m asking is that you
keep an open mind.”
No
one said anything for a moment, letting Xander’s words sink in. Finally, Chiana spoke. “What do you think about this, Wrinkles?”
she asked, noticing that the old woman didn’t look nearly as surprised as the
others.
“It’s
nothing that I haven’t already speculated myself,” Noranti answered. “Everything happens for a reason, Chiana’s
visions must serve some purpose.
Xander’s path is a difficult one, it only makes sense that since he his
here, we all must play some part in it.”
Rygel
snorted. “Of course she is going to
agree with him, she’s as farbot as he is.”
“What
do you find so hard to believe, Rygel?” Noranti asked. “There is one thing that almost all
religions across the galaxy believe, and that is that there is some kind of
higher power, whatever the role that it may have in our lives. Is it so implausible that it’s all the
same? That the gods you worship are the
same beings as those that D’Argo believes in, or Chiana, or myself.”
“I
don’t worship anything!” Rygel spat.
“The Hynerian gods do not demand worship, only…compensation.”
John
turned back to Xander. “Why are you
telling us all of this?”
“Two
reasons actually. The first is that
ever since I first met you, Aeryn, and Chiana, I’ve wondered if all the things
that I’ve come to discover are real, exist anywhere else in the universe. If there are other planets that have
vampires and demons and witches, or if they’re just centered on Earth. So far, Chiana’s visions are the first clue
I’ve had that those things do exist out here.
That the Powers’ reach extends beyond Earth.”
“And
the second reason?”
Xander
frowned. He looked over at Chiana again
with a worried expression. “The gift of
the visions comes with a price, and I don’t just mean temporary blindness or
splitting headaches. Cordelia suffered
permanent neurological damage, and her body even began to manifest elements of
the visions.”
“Meaning
what?” John asked.
“Like
if she saw a guy getting clawed to death, claw marks would appear on her body.”
John
cast a glance at Chiana. She looked
upset, but not really shocked. He could
tell that this wasn’t the first time she was hearing all of this. Xander must have brought it up with her
first. “What happened to her?”
“She
received a visit from a higher being that she believed to be her friend. He told her that humans were never meant to
get the visions, that they weren’t strong enough to withstand their
effects. She was given a choice. Either they would change the timeline so
that she never got the visions, and she would be given her dream life as a
famous actress. Or they would change
her, make her part demon, so that she would be strong enough. She chose to keep the visions, to help her
friends.
“Later
they found out that the whole thing had been a setup from the beginning. Everything from her receiving the visions in
the first place, to her ascending into a higher plane of existence. It was all so a demon could take control of
her body and take over the world. But
that’s a story for another time.
“What
I was hoping was that someone here would know something about…something. Enough to lead us to someplace where we
could find out more about the visions.
And whether or not Chiana is strong enough to withstand them
without…permanent damage.” Xander
walked over to where Chiana was standing and put an arm around her. She was clearly looking scared and trying to
hide it. “But there’s no reason to
believe that she isn’t strong enough.
From what I’ve learned, Nebari are a little tougher than humans
generally.” He was trying to reassure
Chiana, but Xander was still clearly worried.
“If
we were back on Earth, what could we do?” John asked, looking for ideas.
“We’d
have a lot more research material available to find out more about the
visions,” Xander said. “We could
consult practitioners of white magic, or try and find a spell to summon an
answer from the Powers.” Xander paused.
“Or we could just ask an Oracle, they
have a hotline to the Powers.”
“Oracle?”
Rygel repeated. All eyes immediately
shot to the former Dominar.
“Do
you recognize the word?” Xander asked, a glimmer of hope in his voice.
“What
is an Oracle?” Jool asked.
Xander
walked over to Rygel as he answered Jool’s question. “They’re servants of the PTB, the most direct connection from
their plane to ours. Cosmic middlemen. Rygel, do you recognize the word?”
“Yes,”
Rygel said. His attitude had
considerable changed since the last time he spoke. There was a reverence in his voice that none of the others had
ever heard before. “There was a time in
the history of the Hynerian Empire when the power of the clergy rivaled that of
the Dominar. There was an elite class
of priests, all of them claiming that they had insight into the realm of the
Gods. The people worshiped at their
temples, bringing offerings for the Gods.
“It
was during the reign of my ancestor, Dominar Rygel IV, when things
changed. He was not happy sharing his
power with the church. He believed that
the only thing his subjects should be devoted to was him. He attacked them politically, denounced them
publicly. After a few hundred years,
the church’s power was nonexistent, and almost all of the priests were either
dead, imprisoned, or in exile. Our true
religion became something that was done in private. But one member of the clergy survived unharmed. He and a few followers fled Hynerian space,
and settled on a distant planet, called Meloni. There they built a temple, the only temple dedicated to the true
Hynerian Gods that still exists.
Thousands of Hynerians still make pilgrimages to Meloni each cycle, to
bestow gifts upon the Gods, and ask what the future holds for them. This priest, the last of his kind, is known
simply as…The Oracle.”
John
looked to Xander. “What do you think?”
“The
word translated, and the description sounds about right. Oracles do typically demand an offering for
their counsel,” Xander said. “It’s a
place to start. What do you guys
think?”
“I’m
skeptical,” D’Argo said. “But if
there’s even a chance that this Oracle can give us some insight into
Chiana’s…condition, than I believe it’s worth looking into.”
John
nodded. “Agreed.” Jool and Noranti nodded as well.
“What
about you, Pilot?” Xander asked. “What
do you and Moya think?”
Pilot’s
image appeared on the clamshell monitor in Command. “Moya and I agree. We’ll
help however we can.”
“It’s
settled then,” John said. “Do you know
how to get to this Meloni, Sparky?”
“Of
course I do,” Rygel snapped, maneuvering his throne sled over to one of Moya’s
consoles where he could pull up a star chart.
*
After
Rygel helped Moya locate Meloni on her star charts, they set a course and were
on their way. Roughly ten arns later,
the crew of the Leviathan stood in Command looking at a small blue-green world
on the viewer.
“Pilot,
are you sure you aren’t picking up any other ships in the area?” Rygel asked
again. “There are almost always groups
of Hynerians here, there should be a few ships in orbit.”
“Moya
is still not picking up any other ships,” Pilot answered.
“I’ve
got a bad feeling about this,” D’Argo said.
Xander
and John shared a look. “He had to say
it,” Xander muttered.
“Pilot,
magnify the coordinates for the temple I gave you,” Rygel said.
The
image on the screen changed to a closer view of the planet’s surface, and what
they saw caused everyone standing in Command to gasp.
“By
the Gods!” Rygel exclaimed. “It…it
can’t be. Pilot, are you sure those are
the right coordinates?”
“I’m
afraid so Dominar. I’m sorry.”
“I
don’t believe it,” Chiana muttered.
On
the surface of the planet, where the last temple dedicated to the true Hynerian
Gods once stood, there was nothing but a smoking crater.
“The
weapons signature I’m detecting appears to be Peace Keeper,” Pilot said. “I’m afraid I’m not detecting any life signs
on the planet.”
Xander
just shook his head. “Why can’t
anything ever go smooth?”
*
(2/5)
“Xander,
are you sure about this?” John asked. They
were standing in Moya’s hangar bay, and Xander was doing a preflight check on
the DeLorean.
Xander
nodded. “This is the best lead we’re
going to get. And I’m not going to let
a little thing like this guy being dead stop me from getting some answers.”
“I
know you’re worried about Chiana, we all are.
But every time you use this thing, it’s a risk. I just hope you know that.”
“I
do, and the risk is small. Pilot says
that according to the decay rate of the weapons signature, the attack happened
three days ago. So Chiana and I will go
back five days, have a chat with the Oracle, and be back before you know we’re
gone, literally.”
“And
what if that’s not far enough, what if the Peace Keepers are still there?”
“Then
we’ll time shift back even further before they have a chance to spot us.”
“We
can find another way, Xander. We don’t
have…”
“John,”
Xander interrupted. He stepped closer
to him, his voice dropping in volume.
“Jules told me before we left that the reason he was giving me the time
machine was because in the original tangent, Chiana died. And with the DeLorean here, she
doesn’t. What if this is why? This could save her life.”
“Jules
also told you not to second guess yourself.
You can’t make judgment calls based on your knowledge of the future.”
“I’m
not,” Xander insisted. “I’m basing it
on the fact that the chances of us finding anyone else out here who knows
anything about these visions is slim to none.
This is exactly what I’d do, whether I knew about the future or
not. Jules also told me to trust my
instincts. I can do this John,
please…just trust me.”
John
nodded slowly. “I do trust you,” he
said. Xander could see in his eyes, it
wasn’t a matter of trust. John was just
worried about his friends, and Xander understood how that felt better than
anyone.
“Are
we ready?”
John
and Xander turned to see Chiana walking into the hangar bay. “Just about,” Xander said. “Hop in.”
Chiana popped the passenger side gull-wing door and got inside.
John
clasped Xander on the shoulder. “You
just…be careful, okay.”
Xander
nodded and gave John a reassuring smile.
“Like I said, we’ll be back before you know it.”
John
just nodded. Xander turned and got into
the DeLorean. John could hear its
engines powering up as he made his way out of the hangar bay before Pilot
opened the outer doors. “Literally,” he
mumbled to himself.
*
Five
days ago
Several
Hynerian ships sat in orbit around the small blue-green world. None of them even noticed the small, oddly
shaped silver craft appear out of nowhere.
That is, until the ship started moving past them all toward the
surface. Xander ignored the comms, as a
plethora of annoyed Hynerian voices yelled at him that he had to wait his
turn. From what he could tell from his
scans, none of the ships had any armament.
From what Rygel had told him, they were luxury liners, belonging to the
richest of Hynerian nobility. And since
nobody outside of Hyneria was supposed to even know of Meloni’s existence, no
one ever felt the need to bring an armed escort.
“They
sure don’t sound happy,” Chiana commented.
“I’m
beginning to wonder if Hynerians are ever happy,” Xander added. “Outside of swimming around in their money,
like Scrooge McDuck.”
“Who?”
“Never
mind. There’s the temple, I’m going to
set her down.”
There
were hundreds of Hynerians gathered around the outside of the temple, waiting
for their turn to see the Oracle. They
watched as a strange looking craft descended from the clouds and landed only a
few dozen metres from the temple steps.
Much closer than any ship was allowed to land.
Xander
and Chiana got out once they landed.
They started walking toward the temple, when Xander pulled something
from his belt and pointed it at the DeLorean.
The time machine let out two high pitch beeps, and Xander returned the
device to his belt.
“Is
that going to be okay here?” Chiana asked.
Xander
picked up a rock from the ground and turned, winging it at the DeLorean as hard
as he could. It bounced harmlessly off
of an energy shield that now surrounded the vehicle. “It’ll be fine,” he said.
The
Hynerians started grumbling as soon as the ship touched down, and seeing two
aliens step out certainly didn’t please them either.
“This
is an outrage!”
“It’s
sacrilege!”
“Why
I’ve never!”
For
the most part Xander and Chiana just ignored them. They had more pressing matters to attend to, and they couldn’t
have cared less about ruffling a few Hynerian feathers. But one bold individual refused to be
ignored. He parked himself right in
their path, and started poking Xander in the shins with his finger.
“Now
see here, how dare you! Outsiders are
not welcome here! You must leave
immediately! You must…”
The
Hynerian promptly stopped talking once Xander drew his pulse pistol, Naomi,
from his belt and leveled it at him.
“Back off, ankle biter. We’re
here to see the Wizard, and none of you munchkins are going to stop us.”
The
Hynerian backed off without another word, and the rest of the walk to the
temple proceeded without incident. The
rest of the tiny tyrants parted like the red sea. They walked up the steps to the top of the structure, and found
themselves standing in front of a solid stone wall.
“Okay,
what now?” Chiana asked, tapping on the wall with her hand.
Xander
reached out and took Chiana’s hand in his.
“Trust me,” he said. He stepped
forward, leading Chiana with him straight into the wall. And with a flash, they both disappeared.
Chiana
blinked, and suddenly found that she was no longer outside of the wall, but
inside a great chamber. Tapestries hung
from the walls, and beautiful pieces of ornate pottery sat on pedestals all
around them. “How did…what…how did you
do that?” Chiana asked.
“It’s
a test of faith,” Xander said. “If you
meet the wall unbelieving, with your hands first, then you can’t pass
through. But if you believe, and walk
in face first…”
“Then
you will be allowed entry,” another voice finished.
Xander
and Chiana both turned to see who had spoken.
What they saw surprised them both.
He was Hynerian, looking almost exactly like Rygel, except for the gray
beard. He was wearing a gold toga, and
sandals on his feet, which matched the whole ancient Rome décor of the
temple. But the surprising thing was
that he was hovering, unaided, five feet off the ground. There was no throne sled, nothing below him
but air.
“Oracle,”
Xander breathed, like the word itself held some kind of power.
“I’m
impressed,” he spoke again. “It usually
takes newcomers days to figure that out, if ever.”
“We…we’ve
come seeking answers,” Xander said.
“Everyone
seeks answers,” the Oracle spoke. “But
not everyone asks the right questions.
Do you bring an offering?”
Xander
mentally kicked himself. In all the
excitement, he had forgotten completely to bring something as an offering. His mind raced for a few seconds before he
finally settled on what he had to do.
He drew his sword from the scabbard on his back and held it out in front
of him.
“I
present to you my most cherished possession,” Xander said. “My sword.”
“Xander,
no,” Chiana said. She knew how much
that sword meant to him, she didn’t want him to lose it because of her.
The
Oracle was hovering ten feet away from where Xander and Chiana stood. He reached out his hand and in a flash, the
sword disappeared from Xander’s hand and reappeared in his own. Had circumstances been normal, Xander would
have been sure that the tiny Hynerian wouldn’t have been able to lift the
sword. But circumstances were not
normal, and the Oracle hefted the weapon with ease. He examined the sword closely.
“A
beautiful weapon,” the Oracle said. “A
warrior’s weapon. You are a warrior,
are you not? A…knight.” Xander was stunned into silence. “I don’t get many of your kind here,
unfortunately. You’re a dying breed. You may ask of me what you wish.”
“My
companion,” Xander said, motioning toward Chiana. “I believe that she has been given the gift of the visions.”
“It
is true, she has,” the Oracle said.
“We
need to know, is she strong enough to bare them? The side effects are quite…severe.”
The
Oracle cocked his head curiously. “Are
you sure that is the question you wish to ask?
You may not get a chance to ask another.”
“I’m
sure,” Xander answered without hesitation.
“It’s the most important thing I need to know.”
The
Oracle floated closer to Xander, until he was directly in front of him. He looked into his eyes for a moment, and
then smiled. “So it is,” he said. “The answer is yes, she is strong enough to
bare the visions. However, it isn’t the
side effects of the visions that are severe, are they?” he said, turning to
Chiana. “It isn’t looking into the
future that causes you to loose your sight, it’s looking more closely at the
present.”
“That’s
right,” Chiana said.
“This
second gift you’ve been given is much like this sword,” the Oracle said. “It’s a double edged blade. Unlike the visions, you are the one who is
in control. And the price you pay will
increase each time you use this gift, until the day comes when you will never
regain your sight.”
“You’re
saying that if I keep using my power, slowing down the present, that someday
I’ll go blind…permanently?” Chiana asked.
The
Oracle simply nodded, as he floated back to his original spot. “And now good sir knight, that I’ve answered
the question that you asked, I will answer the question that you did not ask.”
“I
don’t understand,” Xander said.
“You
came here today seeking knowledge. And
for that knowledge, you have shown that you are willing to sacrifice something
that means a great deal to you. And I’m
not just talking about your sword.
Given the choice between yourself and your companion, you chose your
companion without hesitation. You chose
her well being over your own thirst for answers.
“You
wish to know if her visions have been sent to her to help guide you on your
path? You wish to know if you are
walking the path that you are meant to, if you’re doing the right thing. You want, more than anything, for your
destiny to be clear.”
“Yes,
I do,” Xander answered.
“But
I cannot tell you these things.”
“I…I
don’t understand.”
“Much
like the wall, it is a test of faith.
Not your faith in me, or the Gods, but your faith in yourself. Your greatest enemy has always been
self-doubt.
“You
have a great battle ahead of you, Knight.
And you will have choices to make.
Keep your friends close to you, old and new. Stay true to yourself. I
cannot give you the answers you seek.
You must earn that knowledge yourself.”
“I
don’t understand,” Xander repeated.
“You
will. And for now, that is enough. That is all I can tell you.”
Xander
nodded. “Thank you.” He and Chiana turned, heading back the way
they came.
“Knight,”
the Oracle called out, stopping him.
Xander turned. The Oracle held
Xander’s sword out, and it disappeared from his hand, only to reappear back in
Xander’s. “It is a warrior’s
weapon. And it belongs with a warrior.”
Xander
nodded and slid the weapon back into the scabbard on his back. “There’s something I need to tell you. In two days, this temple is going to be
destroyed by the Peace Keepers. As near
as we can tell, there won’t be any survivors.”
The
Oracle seemed to smile. “I already know
this,” he stated.
“You
do?” Xander asked. “How?”
“The
knowledge of the Gods is not limited by time, ergo neither is mine.”
“You
can come with us.”
The
Oracle shook his head. “You have your
path to walk, and I have mine. My place
is here.”
Xander
nodded. “I understand.” He took Chiana’s hand and together they
walked back the way they came, through the wall.
They
once again found themselves outside, on the steps of the temple. “I still don’t understand,” Chiana
said. “He didn’t tell you anything.”
“Yes
he did. He told me that I wasn’t ready
to know yet. But more importantly, we
found out that you’re strong enough for the visions. You just have to lay off that little cheating trick of yours.”
“No
argument here, I’m not really eager to do it again any time soon any…way,”
Chiana trailed off as she looked down the temple steps. Xander followed her gaze and saw what it was
that disturbed her.
“Uh
oh,” he muttered to himself. Below
them, on the grounds around the temple, there was nothing. Not one single Hynerian of the hundreds who
had been there when they entered was still there. It looked like a ghost town.
“I’ve
got a bad…”
“Don’t
say it,” Xander interrupted. “Let’s
just get out of here.”
Chiana
nodded and the two of them hurried down the stairs and over to the
DeLorean. Xander deactivated the shield
and the two of them got in. The engines
powered up and the car lifted off, flying up into the clouds.
“As
soon as we’re clear of the atmosphere we’ll time shift,” Xander said.
“I
wonder what spooked those Hynerians,” Chiana said.
“I
don’t know. Maybe they just went to get
reinforcements.”
“All
of them?”
“I
don’t know,” Xander admitted again.
“Keep your eyes on that sensor readout, let me know if you see
anything.”
The
DeLorean broke through the upper most layer of the atmosphere and Xander turned
to the time circuits. “Xander.”
“I
just need to enter our destination into the time circuits.”
“Xander!”
Yelled, panic in her voice.
“What?”
Xander asked, looking over at her. But
she wasn’t looking at the sensor readout, she was looking out the windshield.
“I
see something,” she said, her voice trembling as her hand came up to point out
the front window.
Xander
turned and saw something so big, it filled the sky in front of him. His jaw fell open as his brain tried to
absorb the sheer size of it. “Holy
shit,” he muttered in amazement. “What
the hell is that?”
“It’s
a command carrier,” Chiana answered.
“Peace Keepers. We have to get
out of here, now!”
“We’re
not going fast enough to time shift, and the controls aren’t responding!”
Xander yelled, pounding on the console in front of him.
Chiana
turned and looked out the side window.
“That’s because we’re already in their docking web!”
Xander
looked back and forth between his piloting controls and the command carrier
that was looming in front of them, seemingly getting bigger as it pulled the
DeLorean closer. “Frell!”
*
(3/5)
Commandant
Mele-On Grayza stood facing the window in her office aboard the command carrier
that she now commanded. After the
destruction of Scorpius’ carrier, and his disappearance, the High Command had
placed her in charge of finding solutions to the Scarren problem. But unlike her predecessor, she had no
interest in trying to develop wormhole technology. For one, all of the research done had been destroyed along with
Scorpius’ carrier, and secondly, she believed that the way to defeat the
Scarrens was to use their natural advantage over them, their intellect. Scarrens were warriors, focused more on
individual accomplishments in battle.
But Peace Keepers were soldiers, cogs in a machine, working together
toward a common goal. It was that
difference that made them superior, and that is why they would come out on top.
But
they still needed allies. Intellect can
only serve you so much when you’re vastly outnumbered. And allies were a hard thing to come by when
you’re constantly being embarrassed by a group of fugitives who consistently
avoid capture. What kind of super power
are you if you can’t even apprehend a handful of escaped prisoners and a rouge
Leviathan? So that became one of
Grayza’s top priorities, to put this embarrassment to an end. To capture John Crichton and his cronies,
and have them publicly executed. To
show their enemies and potential allies alike what happens when you cross the
Peace Keepers.
And
now, only a few months into the assignment, and she had already accomplished
something her predecessors couldn’t in three cycles. She had two of the fugitives in her custody. And once they were interrogated, she would
have the location of the their friends.
And soon, she would have them all.
Grayza
watched in the reflection in the window as her office door slid open and
Captain Braca walked in. He stood at
attention just inside the door, waiting for her to acknowledge him.
She
turned to face him, noticing for the first time that he didn’t look very
happy. “Report.”
“Ma’am,
the ship has been taken aboard, and its occupants taken into custody.”
“I
trust everything went smoothly.”
Braca
gulped nervously. “Not exactly,
Ma’am. Three security officers were
killed before the prisoners could be subdued.
And one was severely injured. He
had his hand…cut off.”
Grayza
had trouble maintaining her usual cool exterior hearing this news. “How did this happen?” she growled.
“We
sent a full security battalion to take them in the hangar bay. We assumed that they would be armed, but we
didn’t really expect them to put up much of a fight, considering how
outnumbered they were. As soon as the
ship was released from the docking web, they exited and…he started firing. He picked off two men before he and the
Nebari took cover behind their ship.
The men returned fire, but the ship has some kind of a defensive
shield. Finally, I sent a few men to go
around and surprise them from behind while the rest of the battalion kept them
busy. In the struggle, he killed one
man with a sword, slashed his throat. And
chopped another man’s hand off as he raised his weapon. He was finally knocked unconscious from
behind, and he and the Nebari were taken into custody. They are currently in separate cells on the
detention level.”
Grayza
was seething, but she hid it well. “It
seems that I’ve once again underestimated this John Crichton. He’s more resilient then I’ve given him
credit for.”
Braca
gulped again. “There is…one other
thing, Ma’am.”
What
else could possibly go wrong? “What?”
Grayza hissed.
“We’ve
positively identified the Nebari female as Chiana. However, the male is…not John Crichton.”
“What?! How can that be?!”
“A
cursory medical scan was taken, and the readings are consistent with scans we
have on file of Crichton. We believe
them to be of the same species. He is
the same approximate height, weight, and build of Crichton. Dressed in black, with dark hair, which is
why the initial description given was assumed to be him. But it’s…not him.”
“The
same species? How is that possible, I
thought Crichton arrived here through a wormhole?”
“He
did, Ma’am. I don’t know what to tell
you, other than the fact that he was traveling with the Nebari means that he
may still be able to tell us the location of Moya.”
“Oh,
he’s going to tell us far more than that.
I want a full medical workup on this…human. I want to know their strengths, their weaknesses, their
similarities to Sebeceans and their differences. And then prep the Aurora chair.”
“Yes,
Ma’am,” Braca answered with a curt nod.
He walked briskly out of her office.
Grayza
clenched her hands behind her back and turned back to her window. “Soon, human,” she muttered to herself. “Soon you will tell me everything I want to
know.”
*
When
Xander came to he was immediately aware of two things. First, he was in a cell, and second, he was
alone. A quick check of his person and
he realized that his weapons were gone too.
His head was throbbing. He
reached up and touched the back of it gently, feeling a rather large bump and a
little bit of dried blood. “Sons of
bitches,” he muttered to himself.
His
equilibrium returned fairly quickly, so he didn’t think he had a
concussion. He found the cell door and
peered out of the small opening at the top.
“Chiana!” he yelled out into the empty corridor. But all he heard was an echo. Either she was unconscious herself, or she
was too far away to hear him, or she was…no, he wasn’t even going to think
about that.
“Damn
it!” he cursed himself, banging his fist against the door. “You really stepped in it this time,
Xander,” he said to himself.
“Don’t
be so hard on yourself, there’s nothing more you could have done.”
Xander
whirled around. “I can always
do…more.” He drifted off as he looked
at the man standing in the cell with him.
A man that couldn’t possibly be there.
Just a second ago he had been alone.
He was standing in front of the only door, no one could have come
in. “Giles?”
The
man stepped forward slowly. “It’s me,
Xander.”
Xander
reached up and rubbed the back of his head again. “They must have hit me harder than I thought.”
“We
don’t have much time,” Giles continued.
“You need to get out of here.”
Xander
just stared at the phantom-Giles like he told him that water was wet. “No shit.”
“There’s
more at stake here than you realize. In
five days, your past is going to catch up with you, when Moya arrives at this
planet. If this carrier remains here,
Moya will be captured.”
“I
know! Is this what you came back from
the dead for, to state the frelling obvious!”
Giles
pressed on. “If Moya is captured, then
you and Chiana never would have traveled back to visit the Oracle, and none of
this would have happened. It’s a
paradox, and it could mean the very end of existence as we know it!”
Xander
slid down the door and sat on the floor as Giles words sank in. “Man, when I screw up, I screw up BIG.”
“We
don’t have time for self-pity, you have to get out of here!”
“And
how would you suggest I do that!” Xander bit back. “Pick the lock with a bobby pin?” He patted down his pants.
“Sorry, fresh out.”
“You
have to be patient and wait for your opportunity. This isn’t a situation where you can rush ahead without thinking,
the way you always do, and hope that your instincts keep you alive. You have to use your head.”
“What
do you mean ‘like I always do’? I don’t
always…” Xander drifted off. He turned
away from Giles. “I’m arguing with a
hallucination.”
“Just
remember what I once told you Xander.
You intellect is your greatest weapon.
Use it.”
Xander
was about to respond when he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. He got to his feet and looked out into the
corridor outside his cell. He could see
a group of soldiers making there way down the hall. He turned back to where Giles was standing, but the apparition
was gone. He was alone again.
Xander
hugged the wall next to the cell door, getting ready to jump anyone who came
in. If he was going to go, he was going
to go down swinging. ‘No, Xander,
think,’ he thought to himself. ‘If you
go down, your friends are as good as captured, and then paradox, and then
universe go boom. Giles was right, you
have to wait for your opportunity. And
this isn’t it.’
Xander
stood away from the wall and walked to the center of the cell. He stood, facing the door. His face was expressionless. He watched, and listened, as the soldiers
stopped in front of his cell and the door slid open. They piled into his cell, all pointing pulse rifles at him. Xander remained still and calm. Another man stepped into the cell, not
carrying a weapon. He was obviously in
command here, at least of these guys.
“Come
with us. If you resist, you will be
killed.”
Xander
just nodded, and followed. They led him
out of the cell, and down the hall. He
forced himself to remain calm, focused.
On the outside, he appeared quite passive. But in reality, he was taking in everything around him. Memorizing as much of the layout of the ship
as he could, checking the other cells they passed for Chiana, looking at the
kind of weapons and armor the security carried. He would take his time, and wait for his opportunity. And if none came in the next five days, he
would make one.
*
Several
hours of poking and prodding later, Xander was dumped naked into the Aurora
chair chamber. The so-called doctors
who examined him refused to give him any anesthetic for some of the more
painful procedures they decided to conduct on him. They took blood samples, tissue samples, hair samples, and
countless scans. They even forced him
to run on some kind of treadmill. And
when he objected too much, he received a punch to the face for his
troubles. Needless to say, after
several hours of this, he was spent.
And when the guards let him go, he fell to the floor.
“What
is that around his neck?” he heard a woman’s voice ask. “I told you to strip him completely.”
Xander
was on his hands and knees now, trying to catch his breath. All the while, he observed and remembered
everything he could.
“We
couldn’t get it off of him, Ma’am.
There doesn’t appear to be any clasp, and the chain is too small to get
over his head. We tried cutting it, but
not even a laser torch put so much as a dent in it.”
She
reached down and grabbed the amulet that hung around Xander’s neck and pulled
it closer to her. This caused Xander to
look up, and see her for the first time.
She was petite, and slender, yet imposing. She held a presence that exuded authority. She had black hair, and pale white skin, and
the neckline of her shirt plunged all the way to her belt. Cleavage wasn’t the word for what she was
sporting, it was more like she was half naked.
“What
is it made of?” she asked.
“That’s
the strange part, Ma’am. All of our
scans say that it’s only an alloy of a few simple metals. It should melt without too much trouble, but
it simply won’t.”
“Have
your sensors recalibrated then, Captain.
It’s obvious that they are faulty.”
“Yes,
Ma’am.”
She
motioned for two of the guards to pick Xander back up again. “Put him in the chair.” The guards complied, strapping Xander into
the chair. “You and your men are dismissed,
Braca. I’ll expect a full report on
those medical tests on my desk within the arn.”
Braca
snapped to attention. “Yes, Ma’am,” he
barked, before turning and leading his men out of the room. Leaving only Grayza, Xander, and the chair.
She
sauntered over to him, running her finger across his chest. “My name is Commandant Grayza. What’s your name, human?”
Some
deeply rooted soldier instinct kicked in when he heard that question, and he
spoke before he could stop himself.
“Harris, Alexander L. Corporal,
532-17-8191.” Xander turned to face her
for the first time. “And that’s all
you’re getting, lady.”
Grayza
just smiled. “We’ll see about
that.” She walked back to the control
console for the chair and tapped a few commands in. “The device that you are currently strapped into is called an
Aurora chair, and it will allow me to see into your mind. I shall extract any information I wish,
including the location of the rogue Leviathan Moya and her crew.”
Xander
knew a thing or two about the Aurora chair, thanks to John. So he knew that she was overstating how
simple it would be to get the information she wanted. She couldn’t just type in ‘Where’s Moya?’ and have the answer pop
out on a little slip of paper, like the bat computer. The machine had to sift through every memory in his head, which
could be a very long and painful process.
The way John described it, every neuron in your head fired at the same
time. He said it felt like having every
heavy metal band playing in your head at once, with the amps cranked up way
past eleven.
But
he survived it, and Xander would too.
The question was, would he be able to keep Moya’s location a
secret. The truth was, Xander knew so
little about space travel, that he really didn’t know where Moya was right
now. He couldn’t find her if he wanted
to. But he knew where she would be in
five days, and that’s what he had to keep hidden. John said that he kept Scorpius from focusing in on the wormhole
information in his head by constantly concentrating on other things. He also chose an image in his mind,
something that had nothing to do with anything, and he tried to keep it hidden
from the chair. Like a decoy memory, to
keep Scorpius occupied until he was able to escape.
“Are
we ready then?” Grayza asked. Xander
didn’t respond. “Good. Now, concentrate on your friends, and we’ll
get this over as quickly as we can. I’m
afraid you might feel a little…discomfort.”
Xander
braced himself, but he wasn’t prepared for anything like what he felt. The chair hummed as it activated, and every
thought in Xander’s head exploded. He
gripped the arms of the chair until his fingers almost broke. Every muscle in his face was clenched, as
pain erupted through his head. It felt
like a jackhammer, beating against the inside of his skull, trying to break
through. There was a loud sound
assaulting his ears from the outside to go along with the assault of his head
from the inside. It took Xander a few
seconds to realize that it was the sound of himself screaming. He realized that this was going to be much
harder than he thought. How was he
supposed to concentrate on anything with his brain on fire? He could barely even remember his own name.
The
pain lessened slightly, and then more, and then more until it was almost gone. An oval shaped screen above the chair lit
up, and Xander found himself looking at two small children, coloring.
“I’m
afraid we didn’t get much with that pass,” Grayza said. “Looks like something from your childhood.”
That’s
when Xander recognized the children. It
was him and Willow, in kindergarten.
“Your
hair is pretty,” the young Xander on the screen spoke.
The
little red haired girl blushed. “Thank
you,” she said softly. “What’s your
name?”
“Alexander,”
the boy said, his scrunched up in distaste.
“I don’t like it, though.”
“Why
not?”
The
boy shrugged. “Just don’t.”
“Well,
what about Alex?” The boy shook his
head so hard he nearly fell out of his chair.
The girl laughed, and that made the boy smile. “How about…Xander, that’s the other half.”
The
boy smiled. “That’s sounds neat. What’s your name?”
“Willow.”
“That’s
a pretty name.” She blushed again. “Your nice Willow, I like you.”
“I
like you, too.”
“Wanna
be my girlfriend?”
“Okay.”
The
image fizzled out and the screen went blank.
“Isn’t that cute,” Grayza said mockingly.
But
Xander wasn’t listening to her. He was
trying to figure out how that memory had appeared, he wasn’t even thinking
about Willow. Wait, that was it. He was thinking that he couldn’t even
remember his own name. Xander. That’s when she gave him that name. When he became reborn as Willow’s Xander,
instead of just ‘Alexander’ or ‘that little brat’. When the most important thing in life became making her
laugh. Xander smiled. He knew how he would get through this
now. He would just think about
her. He had enough memories of Willow
to get him through anything.
*
Enter
Search Word(s): Secret
They were in Willow’s bedroom, getting ready for homecoming. A radio was playing softly in the background. Willow was still trying to decide what to wear. She stepped out from behind her changing screen. “What do you think of this?”
Xander
turned and glanced at her as he tucked his dress shirt into his tuxedo pants,
his tie hanging untied from his collar.
“Nice,” he said with a shrug and a smile.
“It’s
my first big dance, you know?” Willow said, starting to unbutton her
blouse. “Where there’s a boy and a
band…and not just me alone in my room, pretending there’s a boy and a band.” She picked up another outfit and moved
behind the screen. “I just want it to
be…”
“Special,”
Xander supplied from in front of her mirror where he was trying to tie his
tie. “That’s why I spared no expense on
the tux.”
“The
tux? I thought you, ah, borrowed it
from your cousin Rigby.”
“Expense
to my pride, Will. They’re our only
relations with money, and they shun us…as they should.”
Willow
stepped out from behind the screen again, this time wearing a black top and
skirt with a floral print. “What do you
think of this?”
Xander
glanced at her again and nodded.
“Nice.”
She
saw him still struggling with his tie, so she walked over and started tying it
for him. Looking up at him, she smiled.
“What?”
Xander asked.
She
smiled again. “I was just…remember the
eighth-grade cotillion?” She
giggled. “You had that clip-on?”
“Hey,
I was pretty stylin’ with a clip-on,” Xander defended.
“And
now here we are, and it’s…Homecoming.”
“Yeah,
we should face it, Will. You and I are
going to be in neighboring rest homes while I come over so you can adjust my,
um…”
Willow
raised an eyebrow at him while he trailed off.
“My,
ah…well, I can’t think of anything that’s not really gross.”
Willow
finished the tie and smiled at him. She
grabbed another outfit and went behind the screen again while Xander put on his
vest.
“So,
uh…you and Oz,” he said. “How do I put
this? Are we on first, second, or uh…ye
gods?”
“That’s
none of your business Alexander Harris,” she replied with a smirk in her voice.
Xander
smiled. “Ooo, rounding second,” he
said, pulling on his jacket.
“You
don’t know that,” Willow said in a huff.
“What about you and Cordelia?”
“Oh,
a gentleman never talks about his conquests.”
“Oh
yeah?” she said, stepping out from behind the screen. “Well, since when did you become a…”
They
both stopped for a moment, staring at each other. Willow had changed into a black sleeveless dress that went down
to the floor. Finally, Willow broke the
silence and finished her sentence.
“…gentleman?” She looked down at her self and then back up
at him with a shrug. “I know. ‘Nice’.”
“I
was going to go with ‘gorgeous’,” he said, taking a step toward her.
“Really? You too, in a guy way.”
Xander
smiled. “Oz is very lucky.”
Willow
smiled back. “So is Cordelia…in a girl
way.” She suddenly looked worried. “I don’t know if I can dance in this. I don’t know if I can dance!”
“Come
on, piece of cake,” Xander said. He
stepped up to her and offered his hands to dance. “Here.” They positioned
themselves together and started to dance.
“Well, that seems to, um…”
“Yeah,
this shouldn’t be a…problem,” Willow said.
“No,”
Xander said, looking down at her.
Willow looked up at him and they slowly started inching closer. “No problem.”
They
inched even closer together until their lips finally met in a slow, soft
kiss. They stay like that for several
seconds until the realization of what they’re doing strikes them, and they jump
apart like they’re on fire.
“That
didn’t just happen!” Xander said.
“No!”
Willow agreed, fidgeting nervously. “I
mean, it did, but it didn’t!”
“Because
I respect you, and Oz, and I would never…”
“I
would never either! It must be the
clothes, it’s a fluke!”
“It’s
a clothes fluke, that’s what it is. And
there’ll be no more fluking.”
“Not
ever.”
They
stepped closer and almost kissed again before they jumped apart.
“We
gotta get out of these clothes,” Xander said.
“Right
now,” Willow agreed.
They
both quickly realized what they just said.
“Oh, I didn’t mean…” Xander started.
“I
didn’t…me either!”
They
quickly rush apart again, and Willow goes behind the screen to change.
*
Enter
Search Word(s): John Crichton
Xander
was standing in the kitchen of the Summers’ house, getting a glass of water and
trying to compose his thoughts. He just
laid out his plan for the raid on McHenry Air Force Base to recover Aeryn’s
prowler, and stop a paradox and save the universe, or something like that. He didn’t pretend to understand it
completely, he just took Willow’s word for it that it would be bad. He didn’t hear Willow coming up behind him
until she spoke.
“Are
you sure about this plan, Xander?” she asked.
Xander
turned around and faced his oldest friend.
He glanced past her into the living room where the others were getting
their gear together and getting ready to move out. “I’m about as sure as I’m going to get,” he answered.
“That
doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”
“What
do you want me to tell you, Wills?
Yeah, it’s risky. Yeah, there’s
a real good chance that something real bad could happen. There’s a good chance that we’ll fail, and
that paradox thing will destroy us all.
It’s not fool proof, but it’s the best plan we have right now. Do I think we can pull it off? Hell yeah, we’ve walked into worse
situations and come out on top. And I
believe that we can do it again. I
believe in all you guys.”
“What
about yourself? Do you believe in
yourself?”
“I
believe I can do this.”
“That’s
not what I asked.”
“I
know,” Xander said. “I’m still working
on that.”
“It’s
okay to be scared, you know. We all get
scared.”
“I
know. Believe me, I know. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s
getting scared. But it’s different this
time. This is my plan we’re using.”
“And
you feel like if we fail, even if it isn’t your fault, it is your fault because
it’s your plan.”
“Something
like that,” he muttered.
“It’s
okay to be scared about that too, you know.
It’s a pretty big responsibility.
And if you’re not quite ready to believe in yourself just yet, then I’ll
just have to believe in you enough for the both of us. Because as much as you’re worrying now, I
know that when the chips are down you can be one of the most focused, bravest,
and toughest people I know. So you just
remember that we believe in you, okay?”
She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her best friend, leaning
her head against his chest as she hugged him.
Xander
just smiled as he wrapped his arms around her.
“How do you always know just what to say?” he asked, leaning down and
placing a kiss on her forehead.
“Easy,
because I’m your Willow.”
Xander
smiled and squeezed her a little harder.
“Yeah, you are.”
*
Enter
Search Word(s): Lost Friends
“Hey,
black-eyed girl. Whatcha doing?”
“Get
out of here,” Willow hissed.
“Oh,
no. You’re not the only one with
powers, you know. You may be a
hopped-up uber-witch but this carpenter can drywall you into the next century.”
Willow
ignored him, concentrating on the idol once again. Blasting it with another stream of energy. Xander crawled to the base of the spire and
stood up, his body once again cutting off the energy stream.
“You
can’t stop this!”
“Yeah,
I get that. It’s just where else am I
going to go? You’ve been my best friend
my whole life. World gonna end…where
else would I want to be?”
“Is
this the master plan? You’re going to stop
me by telling me you love me?”
“Well,
I was going to walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil but it seemed kind of
cartoony.”
“Still
making jokes.”
“I’m
not joking. I know you’re in pain. I can’t imagine the pain you’re in. And I know you’re about to do something
apocalyptically evil and stupid and hey, I still wanna hang. You’re Willow.”
“Don’t
call me that!”
“The
first day of kindergarten you cried because you broke the yellow crayon and you
were too afraid to tell anyone. You’ve
come pretty far, ending the world not a terrific notion, but the thing is,
yeah, I love you. I love crayon-breaky
Willow and I love scary-veiny Willow.
So if I’m going out, it’s here.
You wanna kill the world, you start with me. I’ve earned that.”
“You
think I won’t?”
“It
doesn’t matter. I’ll still love you.”
Willow’s
face twisted in anger. “Shut up!” she
commanded, slashing at the air. Xander
winced as three large cuts opened on his face.
He reached up and touched the cuts, looking down at the blood on his
hand and then back up at Willow.
“I
love you,” he repeated. Willow slashed
the air again, nearly knocking Xander off his feet. His face twisted in pain as the slashes ripped his shirt open. Again, he looked up at her. “I love…”
Willow
reached up and blasted him again with a bolt of magic before he could
finish. Xander fell to the ground,
clutching his midsection. Willow looked
on, her expression of anger slowly changing into sorrow at what she was doing
to her friend. Xander staggered to his
feet, picking his head up to lock eyes with her again. He stumbled closer to her on hesitant legs.
“I…love
you.”
“Shut
up,” Willow commanded again, her voice far less steady than it had been. She blasted him again. Xander grunted in pain, but he didn’t
fall. The blasts were getting weaker.
“I
love you, Willow.”
“Stop,”
Willow said weakly, as her tears started to come. She hit him with another blast, but it seemed to barely affect
him. He kept walking toward her.
“I
love you,” he said again. As he reached
her, Willow struck out with her fists, hitting him on the chest as he drew her
into his arms. The tears were coming
full force now. She collapsed onto the
ground with Xander still holding her, and cried into his chest. Her black hair slowly changed back to its
original red. “I love you,” Xander
whispered softly as he held her.
Somewhere behind them, the glowing effigy began to fade.
Willow
started sobbing harder. “I killed
them,” she cried. “Buffy and
Giles…they’re dead.”
“I
know,” Xander said simply. He fought
back his own tears that threatened to come.
He didn’t know what else to say.
“Goddess,
what have I done?”
“It
wasn’t you,” Xander insisted. “It was
the magic. It’s not your fault.”
Willow
just shook her head. “It was me. I’m the one who practiced dark magic, I’m
the one who lost control.” She choked
back more tears. “And I’m the one who
killed two people I love, and nearly destroyed the world.”
“I’m
still here, and so is Dawn. We’ll get
you help, Willow. We’ll get through
this, I promise you.”
Willow
just shook her head again. “Can’t
change what’s been done, no matter what happens to me. Buffy, and Giles, and Tara will still be
dead.”
“No,
we can’t change the past, you’re right.
But we can build a future.
There’s always hope, and forgiveness.
The people we love will always be with us, as long as we never forget
them.”
Willow’s
tears began to subside. “There is no
hope for me,” she said in a somber tone.
“No forgiveness.” She looked up
and saw through the whole in Xander’s shirt, his amulet. The one she and Tara had given him, infused
with part of themselves. The one he never took off. Xander saw the look on her face. If she had been a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared over
her head. She reached up and wrapped
her hand around the amulet. “But you’re
right about one thing. We will always
be with you.”
Xander
never got a chance to ask her what she meant.
Before he could open his mouth, he felt this sudden rush of energy. His body was tingling all over. When he looked down, at Willow’s hand
wrapped around the amulet, he saw a bright white light. It was beautiful, and so unlike anything he
had ever seen before. When he looked to
Willow’s face, he saw her eyes closed in concentration. After about a minute of this, Willow finally
let go of the amulet. It gently fell
back against Xander’s bare chest, and as soon as it touched him, Xander’s head
began to swim. It was the same feeling
that he had gotten when he first put the amulet on, the night of his birthday
party, only twice as intense. It was as
though love were a substance, and he was wrapped in it from head to toe. It was every kind word ever said to him. Every smile, every hug, every kiss. All rolled into one. By the time Xander shook the cobwebs loose
and got his bearings again, Willow was rising to her feet.
Xander
picked himself up as well. He was no
longer in any pain. And when he looked
down at himself, he saw that the scratches on his chest were gone. He touched his face, and found the wounds
there to be gone as well. “What did you
do to me?” he asked.
Willow
just smiled. A true, genuine, just for
him, Willow smile. “I love you too,
Xander,” she said. “Never forget that. I’m sorry, for what I’ve done, and for what
I’m about to do.” A single tear rolled
down her cheek, and there was this sad acceptance in her eyes that Xander
didn’t quite understand. “I hope one
day that you’ll understand.” She
reached out and cupped his cheek with her hand, before leaning in and kissing
him ever so gently on the lips.
Willow
broke the kiss, and he could feel her brush past him before it opened his
eyes. He realized too late what was
happening. He turned to grab her, but
she slipped out of his grip. He was
just too slow. He screamed her name,
like he had never screamed before in his life.
It was a sound filled with rage, and pain, and sorrow. It grated his throat, and rang in his ears. It was the only thing he had left to do,
except watch.
Willow
ran to the edge of Kingman’s Bluff, and jumped to her death.
*
Grayza
was still sitting in the Aurora chair room, arns after she stopped her torment
on Xander Harris and had him sent back to his cell. If she could have continued, she would have, but there’s only so
much abuse a mind can take before it gives out and shuts down. And she wasn’t going to get anything from
the human if he was dead. So there she
sat, pouring over the data she had collected so far, and coming up with
absolutely nothing of any interest.
Captain
Braca stood tentatively in the doorway.
Rumors of the failed interrogation had been flying through the ship
since the human was taken back to his cell.
But all anyone really knew, was that Grayza was not pleased, and the
human was still alive. Two things that
rarely happened following a session in the Aurora chair.
“Ma’am?”
Braca probed gently.
“What
is it, Braca!” she snapped.
“I…I
have the results of the medical tests conducted on the human.”
“I
told you to leave them on my desk!”
Braca
bowed his head. He had decided to
personally deliver the reports in the hopes of improving the Commandant’s mood,
but he seemed to be failing in that regard quite rapidly. “Forgive me, Ma’am. But there’s something unusual here that I
thought you’d like to see.”
Grayza
rubbed her eyes. She was clearly
frustrated. “What is it?”
Braca
walked over to the console that she was seated behind and handed her the
reports in question. “Well, it seems
that all of the scans run put his age to be approximately twenty-five cycles.”
“So?”
“So,
these neurological scans show his memory engram levels to be much higher than
they should be. He has approximately
twenty-nine cycles worth of memories, which means he has four cycles worth of
memories that are not his.”
Grayza’s
demeanor instantly changed from anger to intrigue. “Are they sure about this?” she asked.
“Very
sure, Ma’am. They ran several tests on
themselves as a control, and they all came up accurate. There’s nothing wrong with the equipment.”
Grayza
looked over the readouts, verifying for herself what Braca just told her. “This is extraordinary,” she muttered. “But impossible. These humans aren’t advanced enough.”
“Ma’am?”
“Memory
implantation technology, Captain.
That’s what we’re talking about here.
It’s the only possible explanation.
I oversaw a project cycles ago that was working on it, but the
scientists could never perfect it. The
test subjects wouldn’t accept their new memories, they all went insane.” Grayza paused, looking up at the circular
screen above the Aurora chair. “Of
course!” she exclaimed. “That explains
everything!”
“Explains
what, Ma’am?”
Grayza
tapped a few commands into the console and an image appeared on the screen
above the chair, that of a young red-haired woman. “This woman appears in almost every memory I extracted from Mr.
Harris, memories that make no sense.
Scenes of fantastic battles against creatures of incredible strength and
size, with amazing abilities. A giant
snake, a cybernetic monster, even a goddess.
I would almost call them dream images, if I didn’t know that the Aurora
chair only scanned actual memories. It
didn’t make sense, but now I understand what they are.”
“I’m
afraid I still don’t understand.”
“Then
shut-up and let me explain it!” She
punched a few more commands into the console and the image on the screen
changed to a battle scene, in the middle of a lush green jungle. “There was a block of memories, deep in his
subconscious. I could tell that he was
trying to hide it from me, so I assumed that it had to do with the other
fugitives. But when I finally uncovered
it, I found this. Scenes of combat
mostly, but also cycles of training and conditioning. This is what he was trying to hide from me, and I finally
understand why.
“These
‘soldier’ memories are the ones that have been implanted, and the memories of
that woman, Willow, and all of the fantastic things that happened in them,
that’s how the memories were integrated.
She probably never even really existed.
They just used her image to give him an emotional attachment to
something, to give him something to fight for.
And then they killed her, had her commit suicide right in front of
him. It’s perfect!”
Braca
clearly still didn’t understand, but he didn’t say anything.
“It
caused him to close off his emotions, made him cold. Yet at the same time, it made him angry at the universe, and
ready to fight. He became bitter, and
hardened, and vicious. He became the
perfect soldier. It’s positively
brilliant! That’s why he was able to
endure the Aurora chair’s effects, his emotional attachment to her is so
strong, he had no problem concentrating on her, even through the pain.”
Grayza
tapped more commands into the console, and the image changed again to a picture
of Chiana. “The few memories I found
that didn’t include Willow, included her.
Now he’s got himself a whole new reason to fight. A living reason.” She laughed. “He thinks
of himself as some kind of noble knight, fighting for his friends and what he
believes in. But really, he’s just a
machine, programmed to fight. The
question now is how was it done? How
did they get the memories to integrate so completely? I may be able to find out with further interrogation, now that I
know what I’m looking for.
“The
only thing I still don’t understand is how did he come to be working with these
fugitives? And how is it that he is
human? From the reports I’ve read from
my predecessors about John Crichton, humans are slow-witted and technologically
backward.”
“Perhaps
Crichton is an anomaly, and these humans are more advanced than we thought,”
Braca said. He handed Grayza another
report. “The scans taken of the ship we
found them in. Some of the technology
is arcane, yet some of it is even more advanced than our own. The sub-light engine for example. And some of the components we’ve yet to
identify at all.”
Grayza
skimmed the report as she listened to Braca.
“We’ll get answers from him, one way or the other.”
“What
about Moya’s location?” Braca asked.
“I
don’t think he knows. The fact that he
was actively trying to hide his soldier memories makes me think that he knows
they’re implanted, and didn’t want us to find out about this. If he knew where Moya was, he would have
told me, to keep me from finding the implanted memories.”
“But
I thought the purpose of integrating the memories was so that he thought they
were his own.”
“Just
the memories of the woman, Willow, and the rest of his friends. It’s what gives him his drive, his
motivation. But the actual training and
battle memories, that just gives him the knowledge he needs. It doesn’t matter if he knows they are
false.”
“What
about the Nebari? She must know the
location of the Leviathan, we could interrogate her…”
“No!”
Grayza interrupted. “Right now, she’s
the only power we have over Harris. He
doesn’t care about his own life, but he cares very much about hers. As long as she’s alive, and we have the
power to kill her, than we have him in the palm of our hand. He’ll give us whatever we want.
“But
we need to make sure that he knows she’s alive. Put them in the same cell.”
“Yes,
Ma’am.”
“And
tell the engineers to keep studying that ship of theirs. There may be something useful in it.”
“Yes,
Ma’am.”
*
Xander
was huddled in the corner of his cell, his arms wrapped around his legs as he
rocked back and forth. He couldn’t help
but think of the stories John had told him about Stark, how years of torture
with the Aurora chair rendered him slightly insane. He was beginning to understand why now. He wasn’t sure what was real and what was imagined anymore. He decided to try and keep something hidden
from the Aurora chair as a decoy, something that had nothing to do with
anything. So he chose his soldier
memories. They were already so buried
in his mind that even he didn’t have access to them, so he figured that would
make it that much harder for the Aurora chair to find them. And for a while it had worked, but
eventually she found them. And
something happened that Xander hadn’t expected. Once the Aurora chair accessed the soldier memories, they got
pushed from his subconscious, back into his conscious again. They were clearer than ever now, and they
were so jumbled with his real memories, that he didn’t know what was real
anymore. It was like that feeling you
get when you first wake up from a weird dream, and there’s a fog around your
mind, making it unclear as to what’s real and what isn’t. The only difference was that the fog wasn’t
clearing. His brain was like London in
the middle of March.
His
head was still throbbing slightly from the barrage he had taken from the Aurora
chair. He tried to sleep, but his mind
was just too confused, and it wouldn’t stay silent enough for him to lose
consciousness. He knew that there was a
reason he was there, he just couldn’t remember it. There was something he had to do, something very important, but
he just couldn’t think of what it was.
“Xander.”
Somebody
was calling his name. Or maybe it was
just a memory of someone calling his name.
“Xander.”
Maybe
he was imagining it. Maybe it was just
another hallucination.
“Xander,
please. Open your eyes. I need you to look at me.”
Xander
opened his eyes, then immediately closed them again when he saw who was
standing in front of him. “Please, go
away,” he begged. He was almost near
tears. Something was happening to him
that scared him more than any demon ever had.
He was losing his mind. “Please
Tara, just go away. You’re dead. I know you’re dead, I saw you. So you can’t be here, okay. You can’t be here, you have to go…be dead,
or something. Because if you’re here,
than it means I’m crazy, and I don’t want to be crazy.”
“Xander,
please listen to me. You’re not crazy,
okay. It’s just going to take your mind
some time to adjust to everything that’s happening to it. Between the effects of the Aurora chair and
the soldier memories becoming active it’s a lot to deal with, I know. If it weren’t for us you’d probably be
catatonic right now. But you need to help
us Xander, you need to help us so we can help you. Please Xander, just open your eyes.”
Xander
opened his eyes slowly, half expecting her to not be there. But she was there, crouching down in front
of him, looking so much like Tara.
Right down to that look she gets in her eyes when she’s scared but she
doesn’t want anyone to know. “I’m
scared,” Xander said. “I’m…I’m so
confused.”
“I
know sweetie,” she said with a mother’s tone.
She laid her hand against Xander’s cheek, and it felt so real. It felt warm, and familiar. “I can’t stay long, we’re trying to get
everything organized again and we need you grounded in reality while we’re
doing it. So I need you to concentrate,
okay. Concentrate on what you know is
real. And if you feel scared, just
remember that we’re here with you, Xander.
We’re always with you, and we love you.”
Xander’s
hand unconsciously wrapped around the amulet that hung from his neck and
squeezed. He closed his eyes again and
tried to concentrate. “The amulet is
real,” he whispered to himself. “This
floor is real. These walls are
real. The pain…sweet baby Jesus is that
ever real.”
When
he opened his eyes again, Tara was gone.
He could hear movement in the corridor outside of his cell. He watched as the cell door opened and two
armed guards shoved someone inside, closing the door behind them. “Chiana!”
Her
clothes were torn a little, and she had a fresh bruise on her face. She stumbled forward and fell down to her
hands and knees. She looked up when
Xander called her name, and he could see that her eyes were completely
white. “Xander, is that you?”
Xander
crawled over to her, which was about as much movement as his head could
handle. “It’s me Chiana, it’s me.”
As
soon as she felt him touch her, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her
face in his chest. The move sent them
both staggering back against the wall.
Xander winced at the impact but he held back from crying out, he didn’t
want Chiana to think she’d hurt him. He
adjusted the two of them so that they were as comfortable as they could get,
and he held her as tightly as he could.
He didn’t ask about her eyes, at that moment he was just happy that she
was alive, and that he was with her.
“Chiana
is real,” he whispered to himself, pressing his face against the top of her
head. “Chiana is real.” After a few minutes, they both fell asleep.
*
(4/5)
When
Xander woke up, he realized that something was different. It took him a moment to realize what it
was. His head didn’t hurt anymore. And after shaking off the initial grogginess
after waking up, his mind was pretty clear.
When he thought about it, he realized that he could still clearly
remember all of his soldier memories, but they no longer confused him. He could tell the difference between them
and his real memories, as clear as they were.
It was a strange feeling, but it was one that he welcomed in favor of
the chaos his mind had been the night before.
He
looked down at Chiana who was still asleep in his arms. She looked so peaceful like that, he could
almost fool himself into believing that everything was all right. “Chiana,” he said softly, trying to wake her
up. “Chiana, wake up.”
She
stirred a little before opening her eyes.
Xander could see that her vision must have come back during the
night. “Xander?” she said blearily.
“How
do you feel?”
“Like
dren,” she said, rubbing her face. She
crawled out of Xander’s arms and stretched, sitting on the floor across from
him. “But I’m alive.”
“What
happened after they knocked me out in the hangar bay? Did they…what did they do to you?”
“They
just roughed me up a little bit, gave me a rifle butt to the face when I didn’t
move fast enough,” she said, indicating the bruise on her face. “I don’t think anything’s broken
though. What about you?”
“They
poked and prodded me a little in their med bay. Then I got the ‘This is Your Life’ treatment, courtesy of the
Aurora chair.”
“Oh
god, are you okay?”
“I
was pretty out of it for a while, but I’m fine now. I wonder why they decided to put us in the same cell.”
“I
don’t know,” Chiana said. She saw that
Xander was looking at her strangely.
“What?”
“I
saw your eyes last night,” he said.
“Why did you do it?”
“The
lock on the cell door,” she said. “I
wanted to see what the command sequence was to open it. I got it.”
“That’s
not going to do us any good in here!” Xander snapped. “You can’t keep using your abilities Chiana, you know what’s
going to happen. And what if someone
saw you?”
“Hey,
I was just trying to help, okay! It’s
not going to matter if I’m blind or not if they execute us!”
Xander
sat back against the wall and closed his eyes, blowing a frustrated breath out
between his teeth. “I’m sorry,” he
said. “I didn’t mean to snap at
you. I just don’t like you risking
yourself like that.”
“Life
is all about risk, Xander. Especially
our lives. It was my choice.”
“I
know,” he said solemnly. “You’re
right. It’s just…seeing you like that
last night, it got me scared.”
“I
was scared too,” she admitted. “In
fact, I still am.” She reached out and
took Xander’s hand. “I just got you
back, I’m not ready to die yet.”
“We’re
not going to die,” Xander insisted.
“Then
what are we going to do?”
“We’re
going to get out of here. And we’re
going to do it before Moya shows up.”
“How?”
Xander
opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as he heard movement in the hall outside
their cell. He rose to his feet, as did
Chiana. “We’re going to wait for our
moment,” he said. Outside of the cell
they could see armed soldiers, getting ready to open the door. “You’re going to have to trust me,
okay. Just sit tight, I’ll get us out
of this, I promise.”
*
Xander
once again found himself sitting in the Aurora chair, at the mercy of
Commandant Grayza. But the
circumstances were a little different this time. For one, Xander had his clothes back on. But the main difference was the attitudes of
the people in the room. The first time
around, Grayza was arrogant and superior, while Xander was tense and
afraid. Grayza was more unsure this
time, and angry. While Xander was calm
and focused. Xander had survived the
chair once, and given Grayza nothing she wanted. The balance of power had shifted. Grayza was someone who needed to be in absolute control of every
situation, and she had lost some of that control. Xander had observed this much, and knew to exploit a weakness in
his enemy when he saw it.
“So,
here we are again,” Xander said, breaking the silence as Grayza worked at the
chair’s controls. “You looking for more
home movies? Don’t you Peace Keepers
have more important things to worry about, like the Scarrens. You’d think that you have better things to
do than root around in my head.”
“Oh,
I consider what’s in your head to be very important, Mr. Harris,” Grayza
answered.
“Well,
I hope for your sake that you have better luck this time. I mean, this has got to be getting pretty
embarrassing for you. A simple human
like me, you should be able to crack my head open like a melon and scoop out
whatever you want.”
Grayza
walked out from behind the console and over to the chair, face to face with
Xander. “I’m beginning to think that
we’ve underestimated your race, and that you’re not nearly as simple as we
thought. For instance, the implanted
memories I discovered. Tell me, how can
a simple backward species perfect a technology that has eluded Peace Keeper
scientists for decades?”
“I’ll
tell you if you tell me something.
You’re in command of this ship, and the thousands of soldiers aboard,
right? There’s just one thing that’s
been bothering me since I met you.”
Xander paused and Grayza raised her eyebrows in question. “Why are you dressed like a hooker?” Grayza frowned and stalked back to the
console. “Don’t feel like chatting
anymore?” Xander asked. “Was it
something I saAAAAAAARGH!”
Grayza
activated the chair, cutting Xander off in mid sentence. He continued screaming for a few more
moments until the chair finished it’s first scan. The pain faded, and Xander tried to control his breathing.
“You
can save us both a lot of time and pain if you just tell me what I want to
know,” Grayza said.
“I
told you, I don’t know where Moya is.”
“And
I believe you,” Grayza said. “But
that’s no longer what I want to know. I
want to know about the implanted memories that you tried to hide from me
yesterday, the soldier memories. I want
to know how they were implanted.”
Xander
actually smiled. “You wouldn’t believe
me if I told you,” he said.
“Try
me.”
Xander
smiled again as he locked eyes with Grayza.
“Magic.”
Grayza
activated the chair again and Xander’s smile twisted into a grimace of
pain. The chair cycled again, leaving
Xander looking spent. A sheen of sweat
covered his face, and his breathing was labored.
“Perhaps
the Nebari knows,” Grayza said casually.
“She may be able to tell me how you came to be traveling with their
little group. And I’m guessing that
she’s the one who knows where Moya is, or at least where and when you’re
supposed to rendezvous with them. Maybe
I should put her in the chair and, how did you say, crack her head open like a
melon.”
“No.”
“No? You don’t like that idea? Well, I won’t have to do that if I get what
I want from you. Tell me what you know
about the technology used to implant these memories in your brain. Who did it?
How was the problem with rejection solved?”
“I
don’t know!” Xander shouted. “And even
if I did I wouldn’t tell you squat!”
“Such
a shame. We’ll just have to do this the
hard way. The mind can only take so
much abuse. You’ll break eventually,”
Grayza said as she activated the chair again.
Xander’s eyes screwed shut and he gripped the sides of the chair until his
knuckles were white, resisting the urge to scream.
*
Hours
later, Braca received a call that he was needed in the Aurora chair room. When he got there, before he could enter,
Grayza came out.
“He’s
unconscious,” the Commandant said.
“Have him brought to my quarters.”
“Ma’am?”
“I
think it’s time to try a new approach.
You have your orders, Captain.”
“Yes,
Ma’am.”
*
Xander
opened his eyes and shook his head to clear the fog. The after effects of the Aurora chair weren’t quite as severe as
they had been the first time, but his head was still throbbing. He must have passed out while he was still
in the chair, he realized. But as he
looked around the room, he also realized that he was no longer in the Aurora
chair, nor was he in his cell.
He
was in some sort of extravagant bedchamber.
Everywhere he looked, the walls were covered with paintings and
tapestries. There was a huge, lush,
canopy bed topped with pillows. The
whole thing reminded him of an Arabian harem from one of those old movies. The bed specifically, which he was getting
an extra close look at due to the fact that he was tied to it. His arms were spread apart, tied to the
headboard with strips of fabric. He
tested his bonds, but the material was strong and the knots tight. His shirt was missing, but his pants were
still on. He spotted a dressing table
not far from the bed, on top of which sat his shirt, his sword, and his gun
belt.
“Ah,
I see that you’re awake.”
Xander
turned his head at the sound of the voice and his eyes rested upon a most
unusual sight. It was Grayza, wearing a
sheer white negligee, and nothing else.
The neckline was almost identical to what he had seen her wearing
before, only now her arms and legs were exposed too. The bottom of the garment only went down to her mid-thigh.
Xander’s
face scrunched in confusion. “First you
strap me into that brain sucking way-back machine, and now…” he was at a loss
for words. “I have to say, you Peace
Keepers sure have a wide variety of interrogation techniques.”
“This
isn’t an interrogation, Xander,” Grayza said, walking closer to the bed. “I just wanted to talk to you someplace more
private. There’s no reason for us to be
enemies, we both want the same thing.”
“You
want to kill me and all of my friends.
I want to get off this ship and never see you again as long as I
live. I’m afraid I don’t see how that’s
the same thing.”
“We
both want to stop a war, any way we can,” Grayza said. She climbed up onto the bed and onto Xander,
straddling him.
“And
tying me to your bed is going to accomplish that how exactly?”
“Don’t
play dumb with me Xander,” she said, tracing her finger along his chest. “We both know you’re not. I want the key to the memory implantation
technology that’s in your brain.”
“And
if you get it, what will you do with it?”
“Use
it, of course. We could take the
memories and experiences of our greatest soldiers, and implant them into all of
our troops. We’ll have an army of super
soldiers, and an edge against the Scarrens.”
“I
thought your job was to find diplomatic solutions to the Scarren problem,”
Xander said. “Isn’t that why the High
Command sent you to put the kybosh on Scorpius’ wormhole project?”
“I
am seeking diplomatic solutions. But we
can’t come to the negotiation table from a position weakness. The Scarrens will see it for what it is, a
last resort effort to avert a war. And
they will strike, taking advantage of our desperation. No, the only thing those animals understand
is power, strength. We have to show
them that we are not afraid of war.”
“So
why kill the wormhole project?”
“It
was a futile effort. The results, if
any, would have come far too late to be of any use to us against the Scarrens.”
Xander
nodded, understanding. “But new
alliances, those can be forged quickly.
Say, with the Luxans for example.”
“Yes,
but with an army of enhanced soldiers, we won’t have to waste time negotiating
with potential allies. We can
simply…annex their worlds.”
“You
mean conquer them,” Xander said.
“Semantics,”
Grayza said. “Sacrifices must be made
for the greater good.”
“For
the Peace Keepers greater good you mean.”
“Of
course.”
“Why
are you telling me all of this?”
“As
a gesture of friendship, and trust.
That’s why I’ve brought your weapons here,” she said, gesturing toward the
dressing table where Hero and Naomi sat.
“As I said, we don’t have to be enemies. I’m giving you an opportunity here to help prevent a war.”
“And
after trying and failing to remove the information with force, you think that
you can just ask nicely and I’ll turn it over?”
Grayza
smiled as she ran her thumb down her own chest. “Something like that,” she said, taking that same hand and
caressing Xander’s cheek with it, being careful to make sure her thumb passed
under his nose.
Xander
thought about what she had said. It was
true, he did want to prevent this war.
And he truly believed that she wanted to prevent it as well. But at what cost, that was the
question. How many innocents would die
if she got what she wanted, and the Peace Keepers became even more powerful
than they already were. Was it worth
it? It didn’t exactly fit with the
vision of the future that Jules had told him, one where the Peace Keeper regime
fell and was replaced with a civilian Sebecean government. How could that happen if the military became
even stronger than they already were?
But he wasn’t supposed to think about that, he wasn’t supposed to let
his knowledge of the future sway his judgment.
He was supposed to trust his instincts, and his instincts told him not
to trust this woman as far as Rygel could throw her.
It
was at that moment, right as Xander was about to tell her to go frell herself,
that he began to feel very strange. His
head was swimming, his pulse racing, and his skin was warming up. He was suddenly very aware of the feel of
Grayza’s bare thighs against his abdomen as she straddled him. He felt an incredible urge move through him,
an urge to feel her body against his own.
His arms moved, like they had a will of their own, pulling against their
bonds. Something deep within him,
something animalistic growled. It was
need. Pure, unadulterated need, that’s
what he was feeling. He needed her
unlike he had ever needed anything before.
She
sat there, smiling down at him, not an inkling of surprise on her face by his
actions. After a few seconds, his arms
fell back down again and his eyes clothes.
His head tossed back and forth for a moment, his teeth clenched. Finally, his eyes opened again and locked
onto Grayza’s.
“Untie
me,” he growled.
Grayza
just smiled as she climbed off of him and walked over to the dressing
table. She picked up his sword and
carried it over to the bed. She cut his
first hand free, and then reached over his body to cut the other. As soon as both his hands were free, Xander
grabbed her and flipped her over so that he was on top of her. She yelped with surprise as the sword
clattered to the ground. His arms
pinned hers to the bed as he looked down at her. After a few seconds, he took one of her hands and lifted it up to
the fabric that still hung from the headboard, wrapping the material around her
wrist.
“What
are you doing?” she asked, slightly alarmed.
Xander
smiled. “We’re going to see just how
much you trust me, Mele-On. Call it…a
test of faith.”
*
Grayza
wasn’t worried. She knew how powerful
her pheromones were, no man could resist her.
Xander tied both of her wrists tightly before climbing off of her. He grabbed a pillow off the bed and took the
case off of it, ripping it into strips.
He used the fabric to tie her ankles to the footboard. Then, he disappeared from her view. Her range of motion was limited, and she
couldn’t see where he had gone. She was
starting to get nervous when she spotted him walking back around the bed, his
shirt and gun belt on.
“What
are you doing?” she asked.
Xander
didn’t answer, he just put his foot up on the bed as he fastened the bottom of
his holster around his leg. He leaned
down and picked his sword up off the floor and slid it into the scabbard on his
back.
Now
Grayza was getting worried. “Untie me!”
she demanded.
“Sorry
Mele-On, no can do. Whatever mojo you
put on me, it didn’t work,” Xander said.
“I’ve considered your offer, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn
you down. You’re right, I do want to
prevent this war just as much as you do.
But I’m not going to choose one evil over another to do it, that’s no
choice at all.”
“You’re
making a mistake.”
“I
don’t think so. I’ve made enough in my
life to know the difference.”
The
Commandant growled in frustration and fought against her bindings. “This is impossible! No man can resist me!”
Xander
just smirked as he picked up another strip of fabric and moved toward the head
of the bed. “I hate to bruise your
fragile ego, but I was faking it. Now
open wide.” Xander tied the fabric
around her head, forcing the makeshift gag into her mouth. “I hate to leave you like this, half naked
and tied to your own bed for one of your lackeys to find you. Then again, the way you run this boat, that
might not be a problem. See you in the
funny papers.”
And
with that, Xander headed for the door.
Grayza struggled and yelled, but Xander ignored her as he stepped
cautiously into the corridor.
Now,
he had a real problem. He had memorized
the route between his cell and the Aurora chair room, and he was pretty sure
that Chiana could get them from the cell to the hangar bay. But he had been unconscious when they took
him to Grayza’s quarters, and he now had no idea where he was.
*
Xander
stalked through the corridors of the ship, looking for anything that looked
familiar. He resisted the urge to run,
he didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. He walked briskly, keeping his posture forceful, like he belonged
there and had nothing to worry about.
For the most part it worked, he passed a few people in the halls who
didn’t give him a second look. But then
as he was rounding one corner, he ran into two of the armored security
personnel. The same guys he had fought
in the Hangar bay, and who had transported him to and from his cell. They wore helmets with visors, and light
body armor. They recognized him
immediately.
“Hey,
what are you doing out here?” one of them demanded, grabbing his shoulder.
“Commandant
Grayza asked me to get her something to eat from the galley,” Xander
answered. “She’s…a little tied up at
the moment.”
He
had about a half a second to decide whether or not these goons were buying
it. He couldn’t risk them calling
reinforcements, or setting off some kind of alarm. If they found out he was loose, he wouldn’t stand a chance. The guard looked at his companion, and then
back to Xander. He could see it in
their eyes, they weren’t buying it.
Xander knocked the guard’s hand off his shoulder with his right hand,
and swung his left with everything he had.
He caught the guard in the chin, dazing him. Then he grabbed his shoulders and used him to pivot, kicking the
other one square in the chest and knocking him down. He drew his pistol and fired at the one on the ground before he
had a chance to get up, striking him in the neck. It was the most obvious weak spot of the armor that Xander had
noticed the first time he laid eyes on these sentries. Their lower face and neck was completely
exposed.
Xander
sung the blaster around to the other guard, but he wasn’t fast enough. The guard knocked the weapon out of his
hand. He grabbed Xander by both
shoulders, digging his thumbs into the pressure points of the upper arm, trying
to take him down. Xander grabbed his
arms and planted his foot in his stomach. He rolled backwards and flipped him over behind him. He got back to his feet as quickly as he
could. He had about a second before the
guard got up again and drew his own pulse pistol. Naomi was too far out of reach, so he drew his sword. The second weakness in the armor that he had
noticed, the first day they brought him to the Aurora chair, was the gap
between the chest plate and the back plate.
It was wide enough to slide a sword into. He lunged forward and plunged the sword into the man’s side as he
was still getting up. He tried to angle
the sword upwards, to puncture the lungs and keep the guy from screaming as he
died. He must have hit his mark,
because he didn’t make a sound as he fell dead to the deck.
Xander
pulled his sword out, and quickly looked around to make sure no one else was
around. Seeing that the corridor was
empty, he grabbed each guard by the arm, and slowly dragged them into a small
supply closet that he passed earlier.
The door slid shut as he got the bodies inside. A minute later, it slid open again to reveal
a man in an armored chest plate and helmet, with a sword on his back. He picked his fallen pulse pistol off the
floor and slid it back into his holster before flipping the visor on the helmet
down to hide his eyes and continuing his way down the hall.
*
Chiana
was sitting in the cell, worrying about Xander, when she heard the sound of
footsteps coming down the hall at a fast pace.
She looked up at the door in time to see a face in a sentry’s helmet
looking through the small window in the door into the cell.
“He’s
not in here dren-for-brains!” she spat.
“You guys took him this morning, remember?”
The
man flipped up his visor. “My name is
Luke Skywalker, and I’m here to rescue you.”
“Xander!”
Chiana exclaimed, on her feet in an instant and bounding toward the door. “How did you get free?”
“Long
story and not enough time to tell it.
I’ve already been missing for a half an arn, and we have to get to the
hangar bay.”
“Half
an arn? What took you so long?”
“Excuse
me, okay! There aren’t exactly any maps
around here, and I was unconscious when they took me to Grayza’s quarters.”
“Grayza’s
quarters? How did you…”
“Will
you just give me the code to open this door, we’re on the clock here!”
“Right,
sorry.” She told him the sequence to
open the door, and he typed the commands into the controls panel. The lock clicked and the door slid
open. Chiana ran out and wrapped Xander
in a big hug. Xander hugged her back.
“What
do you say we get the hell out of here?” he said. “We’ve got an appointment to keep.”
“Yeah,
let’s go home.”
*
Xander
let Chiana lead the way to the Hangar bay.
He kept his visor down and Naomi out, pretending to be just another
guard transporting a prisoner. No one
gave them a second look the whole way there.
Once they got there though, they had a whole new problem. There were two armed guards standing at the
entrance of the Hangar bay. They
stopped Xander and Chiana when they tried to enter.
“This
is a high security area, I’ll need to see your clearance soldier.”
“Since
when is the hangar a high security area?” Xander asked.
“There’s
an alien craft in there, being studied by the techs. Captain Braca ordered the extra security.”
“I’ve
got one of the prisoners here from that craft,” Xander said. “She’s agreed to show the techs how the ship
works in exchange for a merciful death.
Commandant Grayza ordered me to escort her down here. She didn’t say anything about a security
clearance.”
“Braca
probably never told Grayza about it,” the other guard said.
The
first guard nodded. “Okay, go ahead
in. But keep a close eye on her.”
Xander
nodded. “Will do.”
They
stepped inside and Xander took a second to look around. There were several entrances and exits
throughout the room, as well as on the observation tier above. There were a few Prowlers in the bay along
with the DeLorean. Xander could see
several Peace Keepers hovering around the time machine, and some equipment
sitting next to it. There were also
about a dozen guards spread throughout the room, milling around and trying not
to look bored.
Xander
and Chiana walked up to the DeLorean.
“The prisoner has decided to cooperate,” he announced to the techs.
One
of them looked up and smiled.
“Excellent. Can you tell us how
to deactivate this defensive shield?”
“Oh
sure, that’s easy,” Chiana said, walking around to the passenger side while
Xander stayed next to the driver’s side.
All of the techs had their eyes on Chiana, so they didn’t see Xander
take a small device from his gun belt and point it at the car. “Computer, deactivate shield,” Chiana
said. Xander pressed the button on the
remote and the shield went down. “Now,
let me show you how the doors work.”
“Oh,
I bet I can figure it out,” Xander said.
Before anyone had time to object, they both grabbed the door handles on
the doors and opened them quickly, catching a few of the closest techs in the
face with the doors. “Oh, sorry about
that,” Xander said, before he drew his pulse pistol and started firing.
He
caught a few of the techs in the arms and legs, the rest scurried. He and Chiana got into the DeLorean and
closed the doors quickly, activating the shield again. Immediately, the shield lit up as it started
taking weapons fire. “That shield isn’t
going to hold for long, it’s only a deflector shield, it isn’t meant to protect
against energy weapons.” Xander was
already starting to power up the engines as he talked. He took his helmet off and dropped it
between the seats.
“How
are you planning on getting the hangar doors open?” Chiana asked.
“I’m
not.” Chiana didn’t get a chance to ask
him what he meant before he pulled back on the wheel and the car lurched into
the air. “Time to give these guys
second thoughts about their career choice.”
The
DeLorean turned, staying low to the deck, and started flying straight toward
the closest group of soldiers firing at it.
They jumped out of the way before the ship collided with any of
them. The time machine turned before it
hit the wall and headed toward another group.
Pretty soon it was bobbing and weaving throughout the whole bay, making
anyone think twice about firing on it.
Finally
Xander had enough and maneuvered the ship against the far wall of the bay. “How big do you think this room is?” he
asked Chiana.
Chiana
looked at him confused. “What? I don’t know, a hundred metras by fifty
maybe. Why?”
“Okay,
assuming a metra is close to a meter, that sounds about right,” Xander said to
himself. “If I do it corner to corner I
should have enough room.”
“Xander,
what are you…no. No, you can’t be
thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
“It’s
the only chance we have. They’re not
going to open the doors for us, and if they keep firing on us like this,
they’ll eventually bring us down.”
“If
the shields on this thing are so weak, why didn’t they just blast through them
when they were trying to get inside?”
“Probably
because they didn’t want to damage it.
It’s not like they thought we’d be able to escape.”
“This
is crazy!”
“We
have plenty of room to get up to eighty-eight…I think.”
“And
if you’re wrong? We’ll be splattered
across the wall of the hangar! Grayza
won’t have to put you in the Aurora chair to study your brain, she can scrape
it off the wall and get a real good look.”
“Enough! Look, if we stay here, we’re as good as
dead, and so is the rest of the universe.
We can make it, trust me.”
Chiana
nodded. “Okay, I trust you,” she said
as she pulled the double shoulder harness seat belt over her shoulders and
buckled it.
“Okay,
I’m going to have to charge the impulse drive a little higher than I’m supposed
to in order to build up enough power for the speed burst I need. But don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of time
before it overloads.” Chiana’s eyes
went wide at the word ‘overload’, but she held her tongue. “Impulse drive powering up,” Xander said,
typing commands into the console over his head. “Destination entered, time circuits on.”
He
reached into his shirt and pulled out his amulet. He gave it a kiss before crossing himself, the way he learned in
church when he was a kid. “Just in
case,” he muttered with a shrug when Chiana looked at him. She tried to duplicate the move. “Close enough.”
“Warning,
impulse reactor reaching critical mass,” the electronic voice of the computer
warned.
“Okay,
here goes everything,” Xander said. He
offered his hand to Chiana, who took it readily and squeezed. Xander said a silent prayer in his head, and
pushed his foot down on the accelerator.
The
ship lurched forward as the impulse engines roared to life. The second that it took for the inertial
dampeners to compensate was enough to thrust them both back into their
seats. Xander watched the speedometer
climb higher and higher, while Chiana watched the far wall get closer and
closer. And just when it seemed like they
were about to crash, Chiana screamed and covered her face with her arm.
But
the moment passed. Chiana’s scream
faded. And when she peeked out from
above her arm, all she saw in front of them was open space. “We…we’re alive?” she asked, not sure she
could trust her own eyes.
“We’re
alive,” Xander reassured.
“It
worked?”
“It
worked.”
Chiana’s
face broke into a relieved smile. “It
worked!” she said, excitedly. She
reached across the middle of the two seats and pulled Xander into a hug. “You did it,” she said. “I never doubted you for a microt.”
“Oh,
really?” Xander asked with a smile, pulling away from the hug. “What about all that stuff about Grayza
scraping my brains off the wall?”
“Okay,
maybe a microt. Forgive me?”
“Of
course.”
Chiana
smiled and hugged him again. She pulled
back a little bit, then leaned in and kissed him. Xander was a little surprised at first, but after a second he
started kissing her back.
“John
to Xander, Xander do you copy?” John’s
voice came through the comm. system and Xander and Chiana broke apart.
“They
always interrupt just when it starts getting good,” she muttered to herself.
Xander
smiled. “Yeah, we’re here John.”
“I
guess you were right, you did make it back before we knew it. It’s only been five minutes. How long has it been for you guys?”
“About
two days,” Xander answered.
“Two
days? What happened down there?”
“I’ll
fill you in once we’re aboard.”
“Okay,
hangar doors are open and ready.”
“Roger
that,” Xander said, maneuvering the ship back toward Moya. “We’re on our way home.”
*
(5/5)
Xander
was sitting on the floor in Pilot’s den, trying to meditate. It had been a few hours since he and Chiana
came back aboard. Moya had already
starburst twice, just in case Grayza’s command carrier was still anywhere
nearby. He told everyone everything
that had happened, including the things that Chiana hadn’t been present
for. Excluding the hallucinations he
had had of his friends, he didn’t think they needed to know about that. But he told them everything from Grayza
discovering his soldier memories, to what happened in her quarters. Jool seemed to think it was some kind of
glandular implant that Grayza had which increased the pheromone production in
her sweat glands. Though why it didn’t
work on Xander she didn’t know.
He
kept trying to clear his thoughts, but he just couldn’t. His mind was racing. All he could think about were the mistakes
he had made, the risks he had taken on this quest of his for answers. And in the process, he almost got Chiana,
and everyone else for that matter, killed.
They may have escaped with their lives, but they lost any advantage they
had over the Peace Keepers when it came to the element of surprise. They knew about him now, and they knew about
the DeLorean. They didn’t know
everything, but it was enough.
Xander
closed his eyes and tried again to focus, but he just couldn’t do it. He finally gave up, opening his eyes in time
to see Chiana walk in.
“I
thought I might find you here,” she said to Xander. “Hi, Pilot.”
“Chiana,”
Pilot returned.
“I
was trying to meditate, but I’m not having any luck,” Xander said.
“Oh,
I can leave you alone if you want.”
“No,
I was just about to give up anyway.
What’s up?”
“I
just…are you mad at me?” Chiana asked.
Xander
blinked in surprise. “What? No, of course not. Why would I be mad at you?”
“I
don’t know, I just…” Chiana started nervously, pulling on her fingers. Whatever it was she was clearly bothered by
it.
“Come
here, sit with me,” Xander said. He
opened his legs and let Chiana sit between them with her back to him. He put his arms around her waist and she
leaned into his touch. “What is
it? You can tell me.”
“When
I kissed you, in your ship, you were surprised. And you seemed kind of distant, when you were telling us all
everything that happened. I thought
maybe you were upset with me. I know
that I have a tendency to be…forward, and you’ve been so good to me since…well,
you know. And I understand if you don’t
see me that way. I just wanted to make
sure that I didn’t offend you or anything.”
Her voice sounded so scared, like if she said the wrong thing it would
be the end of everything.
Xander
didn’t say anything at first. He just
squeezed her a little tighter, letting his head rest on her back. He silently cursed himself. “God Chiana, I am so sorry. I’ve been a world class fool.”
Chiana
turned in his embrace to face him, moving so that she was sitting on one of his
legs. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ve
been so afraid since I got here, for you and for me. You went through so much with that…monster. And I just…I don’t know how to make it
better. So, I guess I have been a
little overly cautious and gentle with you.
But I never meant for it to make you feel like I don’t care for, or that
I don’t want to touch you, because I do.
I care for you more than I ever thought possible again. And I’m sorry that I ever made you feel like
I didn’t. I do want to be with you, I
just…I don’t want to hurt you.”
Chiana
looked like she was about to cry. But
she just blinked away her unshed tears and leaned in to wrap her arms around
Xander. Xander hugged her back. “I’m not made of glass, you know,” she
finally said against his chest.
“I
know,” he said. “I should have trusted
that, trusted you to set the pace that you were comfortable with. I won’t make that mistake again, I promise.”
Chiana
just nodded against him, not trusting her voice. After a few minutes like that she pulled away slightly. She noticed a small holographic display
device sitting on the deck next to Xander.
“John showed you that transmission they intercepted I take it,” she
said.
Xander
picked up the device and activated it.
A rotating, three-dimensional image of himself appeared. “You mean this glorified wanted poster? Yeah, he showed me. I feel all special now, Grayza added me to
the list of thorns in her side. At
least I’m in good company,” he said, flipping through the rest of the images in
the device. It changed from himself, to
John, to D’Argo, to Aeryn, to Rygel, and finally to Chiana. “Wow, look at that one. She’s cute!” Chiana giggled and gave Xander a playful shove. Xander laughed too.
“You’ve
only been here not even a month and you’ve already had to rescue me twice. That’s got to be a new record, even for me,”
Chiana said.
“Yeah,
but this last one was my fault, so rescuing you was the least I could do.”
“Your
fault? How do you figure that?”
“Come
on, I’m the one who dragged you on this stupid quest to begin with, just so I
could get some answers.”
“You
did it for me, remember? To find out if
I was strong enough for the visions.”
“I
had selfish reasons too. I’m so afraid
of making a mistake out here, of doing the wrong thing and screwing up. I just wanted someone to pat me on the head
and tell me that I was doing the right thing.
Maybe I convinced myself that I was just doing it for you, but I’m not
so sure anymore.”
“Well
I am sure,” Chiana disagreed. “When The
Oracle asked you to chose your first question, knowing that you might not get
another, you asked about me, without hesitating. Maybe you did want to know about this destiny thing of yours too,
but that’s far from selfish. We’re
talking about stopping a war and saving billions of lives. Unless selfish means the exact opposite of
what I think it means, you’re way off the mark here.”
Xander
couldn’t help but smile at her.
“Maybe,” he conceded.
“No
maybes about it.” She reached up and
patted Xander on the top of the head.
“You’re doing the right thing,” she said. “There, does that make you feel better?”
Xander
smiled again and pulled her into a hug.
“Yes, it does,” he said. “What
would I do without you?”
“Probably
brood and sulk a lot.”
“Probably,”
Xander agreed.
Chiana
settled into his embrace again, just enjoying being close to him. “So,” she said after a minute. “You really didn’t mind that I kissed you?”
“Mind? Are you kidding? It isn’t very often that I get kissed by a beautiful woman, but
as kisses go, I’d have to say that it was pretty amazing.”
“Really?”
“Really. Would I lie to you?”
“So,
what would you think if I wanted to do it again?”
“I
wouldn’t be adverse to it,” he answered.
Chiana
turned so that she was facing him completely, her legs straddling his. She put her arms around his neck and his
settled around her waist. “Really?” she
asked again in a whisper as her face got closer to his.
“Really,”
Xander answered, just before their lips touched.
Behind
them, forgotten by both, Pilot smiled.
*
The
bell over the door at the Magic Box rang as Xander stepped inside. He looked around and noticed that it looked
quite a bit different from the last time he had seen it, when Willow and Tara
gave him advice about Chiana. It was
still clean, and brightly lit, with full shelves and in tact display
cases. But now there were also filing
cabinets throughout the room. Lots of
filing cabinets. Every spare bit of
room in the store was filled with them, stacked on top of one another. He spotted Willow, standing on top of the
table in the back, looking through one of the cabinet drawers with one hand and
holding a stack of file folders in the other.
“Willow,”
he called out to her.
She
turned and smiled at him. Her hair
looked mused, and she had bags under her eyes.
She looked exhausted, but happy to see him. “Xander,” she said. She
climbed down from the table and started making her way though the chaos toward
him. Xander met her halfway.
“What’s
going on?” he asked. “What is all
this?”
“Well,
this is your brain. And this is your
brain on the Aurora chair,” Willow joked.
“Any questions?”
“Plenty.”
“Yeah,
I kind of figured that. Every time that
damn chair scanned your brain, it was like a tornado ripping through here. And then, when it pushed your soldier
memories to the surface, it got even worse.
The four of us have been up almost this whole time trying to sort
through it all.”
“The
four of you?”
“Me,
Tara, Buffy and Giles,” Willow answered.
Xander
looked around the room, at the cabinets.
He looked at the labels of some of the ones closest to him. ‘Birthdays, 10-15’ one of them read. ‘Erotic Dreams, High School Years, Vol. 9’
and ‘Willow Memories, Vol. 291’ two others said. “This isn’t a dream, is it?”
“Yes
and no,” Willow answered. “We are
inside your brain, and your subconscious is creating this environment to interpret
all of the information that it’s receiving, the same way it creates dream
images. But the four of us are real,
we’re not figments of your imagination.
We’re not hallucinations, at least not in the classic sense of the
word.”
“I
don’t understand.”
“Do
you remember the bluff, when you saved the world?” Willow asked him.
A
look of sadness crossed Xander’s face.
It was something that he would never forget. It was the days his friends died. The day his life changed forever. “I remember.”
“I
told you that we would always be with you, do you remember that?”
“You
did something to the amulet,” he said, looking down at it hanging from his
neck.
Willow
nodded. “It already held aspects of me
and Tara, from the magiks that we infused it with when we gave it to you. When I…when I killed Buffy and Giles, I
drained their life force. I used it to
charge the amulet, along with as much of my own energy as I could fill it with. It was my hope that it would protect you,
and that you would be able to feel us with you, always.”
“So…the
four of you are trapped inside the amulet?”
“No,
no, it’s not like that. Willow, Buffy,
Giles and Tara died, and their souls moved on to the next realm. What are contained in the amulet are aspects
of them, a small piece of each of their life force. That’s what we are. And
we’ve been with you always, since that day on the bluff. It’s kind of like the enjoining spell we did
to defeat Adam, only not nearly as powerful.
The four of us have latched on to different aspects of you. Mind, body, heart, and soul. Just like before, only Tara’s the heart
now. But you’re still you, we’re
just…kind of in the background.”
It
was a lot to take in, and Xander was trying to process all of the
information. “Why…why haven’t you told me
any of this until now?”
“It
took a while for us to be incorporated into your mind the way we are now. We thought it best to remain in the
background, nudging you along in the right direction. But with everything that’s happened, especially after you were
captured, we thought it was time to take a more active role. We needed to help you keep your mind
organized, especially after the soldier memories were released, or you never
would have been able to escape.”
“I
would have gone insane,” Xander said.
Willow
nodded. “Your mind was in chaos. Incorporating the soldier memories was our
first priority, but even after we did that, even now, there’s still work to be
done. Those pheromones Grayza released
on you did a real number on your hormones, but we managed to purge them from
your system and clear your head in time for you to escape.”
Xander
leaned against one of the filing cabinets and slid down it to the floor. “Why?” he finally said after a moment. “Why did you do it?”
“To
protect you, like I…”
“No,”
he interrupted. “Why did you jump? Why did you leave me?”
Willow
kneeled down next to him and put her hand on his arm. “I’m not going to make excuses,” she said after a moment, her
voice choked with emotion. “It was a
mistake, the last in a long list of many.
I just…I didn’t know how to live anymore, with what I had done. I wasn’t strong enough.”
“You
were strong,” Xander objected. “You
gave me strength, from the day I met you.”
“And
you gave it to me, too.”
“I
guess it just wasn’t enough.”
“Please
Xander, don’t think that. Don’t ever
think that. You stopped me from
destroying the world because of how much you love me, because of how strong you
are. What I did was my fault, and no
one else’s. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Willow said as she started to
cry.
Xander
sniffed and wiped a tear from his cheek.
He pulled Willow into a fierce hug.
“It’s okay, Wills,” he said after a minute of just holding her. “I forgive you. I forgave you a long time ago.”
“I
know,” Willow said. She pulled away
from the hug and wiped her face. “I
mean, hey, I live in your head, remember.
I know everything you know.”
Xander
smiled at her, then his expression changed to one of fright. “Everything?” he asked.
Willow
laughed. “Don’t worry, I stay away from
the really embarrassing stuff.”
“Good,”
Xander said with relief. Willow laughed
again, and pretty soon Xander joined her.
It felt so good to laugh with her again. And for one brief moment, it was almost like things were back the
way they were again.
“There’s
something else I need to tell you,” Willow said after a while. “It has to do with those hormones Grayza
woke up with her patent-pending, mind-altering breast sweat.”
“What
is it?”
Willow
stood up and motioned for Xander to follow.
She led him through a maze of filing cabinets until they were in the
back of the shop, at the door to the training room. She opened the door and pointed inside. “It woke something else up too.”
Inside
the room, there was a large cage. And
inside that cage, a hyena was pacing back and forth. It spotted Xander and threw itself at the bars of the cage,
growling and frothing at the mouth.
It’s howl echoed through the room like laughter.
“Oh,
God,” Xander said, horrified. “Not
again.”
The
End