Being truthful but TACTFUL...

Aeryn-Pip

Nerri's coming around!

I-I....

I mean...

I had been sure he-he'd . . . died. Hadn't seen his charred corpse fall when all Hezmanna broke loose, but it had looked....

"Chiana?" he whispers, blinking as he comes around and focuses on me. He then blinks, seeing my sister and....

Well . . . gotta say I was kinda..

Frell! If I can't be open with my brother, Nerri and you not understand why I cried over finding him after I'd thought he'd DIED then....

Yeah, I cried. Frell you if you don't understand that.

. . .

Still have those to grieve over, but not over my brother!

Frell! How did....?

Nevermind, take it as it is and be glad for it, Chi . . .er . . . Aeryn- Pip (dren, gotta remember that's my name, now)!

After I recover enough, I explain (or at least try) what has basically happened and who my friends are. Can see that he's not quiet sure what to make of it all. (Frell, I think it has more to do with how incredible more than anything else. Yeah, he's older than I am but then again I had to strap his own shoes up until a certain point).

Of course, I leave out parts. Even being truthful, there are things I know that my brother just wouldn't understand (or accept) even from ME. Yeah, I'm talking about what Crichon . . . the Crichton outside (back by the Control Column, I think, last I saw) did on his last visit to a Variant Moya.

Honestly, I'm STILL not sure about all of it myself. Yeah, I'd forgiven him for it, now that I understand WHY he'd done it. However, I do doubt that my brother would be so forgiving. Might even take it into his head in marching right out of here and KILLING Crichton where he stood.

No, best not tell him everything (at least for now). Maybe . . . never.

Oh, not like a girl can't have secrets, right?!

....

Soon enough, after I get out the part about this twin of mine (my sister) was from another reality, somehow the question on just HOW different things had gone in that reality came up!

Chiana tells her tale by beginning how things had gone for her once coming aboard her Moya. Surprisingly enough (or perhaps NOT so surprisingly enough) her adventures are pretty much like mine, up to the point where I'd gone down with my Crichton to that Gammack Base for a tissue sample for my Aeryn Sun. Of course, there were differences in her and my tale, but what do you expect? Parallel universes, right? Right! But one of the things I note (yet again) is that there was a sense that things between her Crichton and Aeryn was much more . . . involved than mine. With mine, he'd gone down to save a friend and crewmate? Hers? Well, you already KNOW why (or at least should by now)!

Still kinda hard to think that a relationship between her Crichton and Zhaan hadn't happened like it did with mine. Weird!

With her's, the departure was pretty much obvious. What with first the Company invading the Base, and then the Champions coming into the picture, it's obvious! Me?

....

Know that you'll ask here soon enough, so let me tell you about it!

Well, my life "departed Farscape cannon" (as Betty would put it) when we got down there as well. See, seems that maybe that frekface Scorpius had been away, doing some sorta mission or such for himself. Didn't have a run in with that creep. Got in and out of that Base without much of a hitch at ALL.

That's right, no Aurora Chair for my Crichton. Nor the revelation about those Ancients having put wormhole equations in that singularity that my Crichton calls a brain!

....

Called a brain....

....

Not soon after, however, apparently the subconscious knowledge took a hold of my Crichton, driving him like he was possessed. Drove him to make modifications on Moya herself (and don't get me started on the coaxing and persuasion needed for that, thanks!)

IN the course of getting parts for those modifications, we ran across OUR versions of Pschyo-su and Narrita (a tale in and of itself that I might share . . .sometime later). Even came across my Stark (who'd managed to somehow avoid that reality's version of Scorpy). Nobody up until MUCH later met that frekface....

Soon enough, something had gone wrong and I and most of the others end up looking different. THAT caused a lot of squabbles and issues with my Crichton, let me tell you!

But.... We stayed together. Things worked their way out, in as much as they ever do on Moya . . .my Moya....

....

Then, not very far into what some could call Season 2 timeframe, we come across some Sheyang who'd captured Nerri, demanding we pay ransom for his return.

....

By that time, my group had earned some fame (as it were) in our exploits through the Uncharted, so they'd realized who Nerri was (and that I ran with Moya's group). Making up their scaly minds that a good little profit could be made beyond their usual scavenging, they resorted to ransom and....

The rest you know, from OUR side?

As for what Nerri had been doing before getting caught by the Sheyang? Why, gun running and that sort of dren for the Resistance, of course!

...

Hm, wonder how the Doctor is doing with finding a way back home for my brother.

....

He'd said it had been a long shot at best. Sort-sort of hope that . . .

Well, I'd just FOUND him! Don't want him to be rushing off again just as soon as we're done with this Quest, damnit!

And then, with those thoughts running through my head he drops a bomb! Says that somehow not only that phage the Establishment had created to win control of half the galaxy (the one that those like Nerri and myself unknowingly spread through . . . having fun) was turning up to be not working! It was supposed to work something like the temporary mind- cleansing dren, but it hadn't worked when it was activated!

In fact, a lot of formerly "mind-cleansed" folks suddenly found themselves back like their old selves (first signs of THAT had been a lot of them at the throats of their Nebarri handlers). Something was weird. . . . but it also meant that I no longer had to stay away! I could join up with the Resistance with him because now that the mind-cleansing didn't work, the Establishment would be more interested in trying to keep things in order. No reason for them to bother with me our Nerri (who'd seen the face of the guy who'd given us the cure for that phage so long ago). They had bigger things to worry about, you know!

Frell....

I can't go back. Champion thing, you know! Yeah, I know what was causing the mind-cleansing to not work! I'd asked the Rules and Agents and they'd....

But now, here's Nerri saying that....

Frell! Frell!! Frell!!

That's were Chiana comes in, after quietly comming the Doctor.

News she shared with us was both . . . a relief and NOT a relief. Good news and bad news rolled up into one.

Seems that the Doctor failed. Can't find Nerri his way back (don't know which wormhole entrance he'd tumbled down you see).

"We-we . . . my Nerri and his Resistance are still rather busy putting things back to right with the collapse of the Establishment," she says softly, "we could always use an extra hand, if you wanted to help back there in MY home reality."

....

"Your Nebari Prime's free?" Nerri blinks, surprised to say the least.

In the end, I believe he'll be having a way home after all. Or at least something VERY much like it, anyway....

Later

"Still, it coulda been done much better," Walker sighs.

"Could have been much worse," Sovay temporizes. "Yes, probably should have done scans on that Pod instead of concentrating all of those resources on a vain hope of finding survivors INSIDE Moya's hulk, but. . . ."

She shrugs her furry shoulders.

Yeah, it's done alright.

"Seems that I have a lot to thank you all for," a voice says from the entrance of this room, causing all eyes to turn towards the speaker.

"Can't say that I cared to being knocked out by that grenade," Nerri chuckles a little bit. "But then again, given that those freks the Sheyang had been particularly vicious, can't really fault you on erring on the side of caution."

He rubs the spot where the grenade had hit him, then looks down over at Demifox Sigin.

"I'm ready," he says simply, nodding towards that detecto-wand. "Don't pretend to understand it all, but . . . I trust my sister."

...

Nodding, the demifox mage waves it and a crystal block is now in the spot where Nerri stood. Aeryn-Pip leans over and picks it up, looking at it silently for a few seconds before pocketing it.

"What next?" Crichton asks, coughing a little bit to clear his voice.

1. "That would be the bloodbath scene on that other variant of Moya," Ragan says softly.

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