Nightmares, Part Two
Author: Sabine
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season 1+2, up to "A Clockwork Nebari".
Summary: John has been having nightmares, but what is the real reason for having them? What could be causing his nightmares? This story is a sequel to "Conversations". Part One can also be found at the Ultimate Farscape BBoard's Fan Fic forum.
Notes: I’ve only seen Farscape up to “ MTC " ( which came after LATP over here) and read about the others up to "ACN" so there might be a couple inconsistencies. Thanks to those wonderful people, who have given me feedback on the story. It was greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Farscape characters. All Farscape characters, names and situations are trademarks of Jim Henson Company, Hallmark Entertainment, Nine Network Australia, and the Scifi channel © 1999 & 2000.
“ Hey there, Guido! What’s the hurry?” John asked, grabbing hold of the little Hynerian’s throne sled. After his encounter with Scorpius in his quarters, he had stormed off and wandered through Moya, trying to clear his head before going to Aeryn. After visiting Aeryn’s quarters and not finding her, John had decided to go to the center chamber in the hope of tracking her down there. In the vicinity of the center chamber he almost got hit by a speeding throne sled with the deposed Dominar of the Hynerian Empire sitting on it, in too much of a hurry to notice his human crewmate, who happened to be walking in the same corridor.
“ That is none of your business, Crichton. I need not explain my actions to anyone but myself,” Rygel stated, trying to get away from John, his attempts remained unsuccessful and eventually he gave up.
“Oh...I don’t think so, Sparky. Especially not after you almost ran me over with that thing you call a throne sled,” John casually replied, gently letting go off the sled. Force wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of the Hynerian...not today anyway. No, he was going to use a different strategy to find out what he wanted to know out of Rygel.
“ Come on, Sparky. Please, don’t make me have to kiss you...”
“No...anything but that, Crichton. I...I will tell you what you want to know...”
Bingo. It had worked just the way he thought it would. Rygel had bought it hook, line and sinker. A big grin appeared on John’s face as he noticed how really uncomfortable Rygel looked. “Why thank you, Ryg. That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” John chuckled, folding his arms and awaiting the Hynerian’s answer.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Center Chamber:
“ Aeryn?”
The sound of Pilot’s voice echoed through the entire room. Chiana and D’Argo had retreated to either his or her quarters, Zhaan had needed to take care off some things, which left Aeryn to eat her dinner at the Center Chamber alone, since she still believed that John was sleeping and did not want to disturb him. Chiana had been right; John looked like he really could use some sleep. He looked terrible. After their talk last week everything seemed to improve, especially his mood. However...three days ago that progress seemed to start reversing slowly and she had no idea why.
“ Yes, Pilot?”
“ I thought you would like to know that Commander Crichton is no longer in his quarters since you expressed your... worries about his behavior to me. I am also worried about him, Aeryn Sun and that is why I have ordered a DRD to follow him around and watch him no matter what he is doing...except when he is talking with you of course.”
“ Thank you, Pilot. I am truly honored to be able to call you my friend and I know John feels the same way,” Aeryn smiled. “ I...” Before she could finish what she wanted to say, she was distracted by John suddenly bursting into the room. He looked even paler and more tired than he had the last time she had seen him and looked quite angry.
John had ran towards the chamber with an enormous speed. Rygel told him that Chiana and Aeryn had literally been at each other throats when the Hynerian had decided to make a graceful exit by racing out of room, only to almost collide with John several corridors away from the Center Chamber. The news had upset him greatly; they really couldn’t use these kinds of things now. Not after that little encounter with the Nebari about two weekens ago. Not after finding out the Nebari’s plans for dominating the universe by sending teenagers carrying a sexually transmitting disease, which lay dormant until the moment the Nebari thought it to be the perfect time to activate it and turn those carrying the virus in obeying and loyal Nebari agents.
<<Ugh...that just sounded like a plot from a bad sci-fi movie>>
Not after Chiana had found out that her brother was still alive. He loved both women, one like a little sister and the other...for the other he felt a whole hell of a lot more, something deeper, something absolutely special.
“ Aeryn! Chiana! Could you two just stop for...”John yelled, stopping in his tracks as soon as he noticed that Aeryn was the only one still sitting at the table. “ Huh, Aeryn? I thought... Sparky said that...”
“ Rygel said what, John?” Aeryn asked, raising an eyebrow. She had a general idea of what Rygel could have told John, but it couldn’t hurt to ask anyway. The Hynerian had among others, the habit of exaggerating things, even the smallest of them. “ Nothing... Aeryn. Nothing,” John quickly evaded. How could he have even believed what Rygel had told him? The Hynerian had probably lied to get away from him. “ John?” Aeryn shot him a concerned look.
“It doesn’t matter now, Aeryn. So could you please drop it?” He tried to smile as he looked at her. Concern was clearly written all over her face, despite her best effort to hide it as much as she possibly could. She didn’t want to let John know how worried she exactly was for his well being. “Is everything alright, John?”
“ Yup...everything is just dandy. Don’t worry, darling,” he spoke cheerfully, planting a kiss on her forehead as he leaned over the table towards her, before finally sitting down. John poured something to drink and stared passed Aeryn into the darkness of space. He was silently debating whether to tell her about the nightmares or not. On the one hand he needed to get it off his chest and on the other he didn’t want to bother her with it.
“ Come on John. Just tell her,” a familiar voice whispered in his ear. “ She obviously cares greatly about you and if you need to tell it to someone, you know you want it to be her.” The Scarran-Sebacean hybrid smiled eerily as he sat down on the table next to John, his boots comfortably resting on one of the chairs. “ I can see why you are interested in pursuing a relationship with her, John,” Scorpius spoke approvingly as he watched Aeryn observing John.
“ Shut up, Scorpy,” John mumbled irritated, unaware that he had voiced his irritation loud enough for Aeryn to pick up on.
“John? What is Scorpius saying to you?”
“You don’t wanna know what he’s saying or doing, princess,” John grinned slightly. “ You’d probably want to kick his black leather ass back to where he came from.” He looked over to his right where Scorpius was still sitting on the table, waving his hand in front of Aeryn’s face. Suddenly the Scarran half-breed turned his attention back at John as he jumped off the table and walked towards Aeryn, stopping exactly behind her. As Scorpius touched her hair, he gazed at the human. “ Tell her, John. Tell her now. You can’t keep ignoring the predicament you are in and she will be able to help like she has done before. Trust Aeryn. Confide in her like you did a short while ago.”
Despite the fact that a feeling of anger was rising inside of him, he felt the need to do as Scorpius had told him. He sighed softly, looking down at the table at first before finally having conjured up enough courage to say what he wanted to say to her.
“ Aeryn...I...when I said that everything was just fine, I ...I lied to you. Things are not ‘dandy’. I’ve been having some terrible nightmares and I...I haven’t slept for a very long time.”
Aeryn smiled, grabbing his hand and gently squeezing it, trying to reassure him. “I suspected something was wrong, but I thought it to be better if you would come to me, instead of pushing you into giving me the necessary information. Have you...tried asking Zhaan to create a potion of some sort for you, so you can sleep peacefully?”
John shook his head. “ Nah, not yet. It was actually on my list... right after talking to you of course.” A boyish smile appeared on his face as he squeezed Aeryn’s hand back. “ Aeryn...I was thinking...after visiting Zhaan’s little pharmacy shop, well...I...would you mind showing me that move we practiced yesterday? Cuz I seem to have some trouble with picking that one up correctly.”
Aeryn’s eyes sparkled brightly as she got up from her chair, dragging John along with her and off to see Zhaan. “Guess that’s a definite yes, huh Aeryn?” John chuckled as they exited the center chamber.
“That’s a good boy, John,” Scorpius grinned, his crooked teeth showing. He amusedly watched the couple leaving, while he was still sitting on top of the table. “I knew we could work out that little problem of yours for now. This may be a temporary solution, but it will have to do for now until I figure out how to stop your nightmares permanently.” He casually jumped swung his legs away from the chair and jumped off the table, intended on following John and Aeryn around.
------------------------------------------------------------
“ Is everything going according to our plans?”
“ The one called John Crichton is resisting. We have yet to find out why, High Lord. Be assured that we are doing our best to fix that unfortunate problem as soon as we possibly can.”
“ And the others?”
“ We have found no problems existing there, High Lord. Except for Crichton, everything is going perfectly. Within no time we will have what we want from them.”
“ Good. Kyrhto?”
“ Yes, High Lord?”
“ Find out how it is possible for Crichton to resist and solve it, if you can’t...then kill him. I’ll leave the way he died and by who up to you. You’re creative enough, Kyrhto. I know you won’t disappoint me.”
“ Of course, High Lord.”
------------------------------------------------------------
To Be Continued...
( Sorry guys, but I’ll try to write and post part three as quick as possible. Please don’t shoot me <g> )