Risky and Racy

Chiana

"Great," I hear B'elanna mutter, "Just what we need: the love triangle! With this now thrown into every other crazy thing we've faced so far on this quest, I'm just sure now that Cuthbert's quest is having the better time of it all!"

How she and the others would swear if they actually saw something that Aeryn is carrying. See, she had some kind of "DVD player" and a few Farscape episodes that somewhere that runt, Rygel....

That that Rygel had swiped while within the TARDIS before being blocked by Sigin's spell wards. Stuff he'd snurched before hand and wouldn't have shared with me in the profit afterwards, I'm sure.

Ah, as it is both I and Zhaan have a look of....surmise.

Sun, having stumbled across that somewhere on Moya, within Rygel's may booty stashes, had at first meant to return it directly....but curiosity.....

She'd seen how in some episodes called "Nerve" and "The Hidden Memory"....and was now convinced that due to some things she'd seen that she'd....somehow lived past the time she should have. That she'd been fated to die since life had taken a distinct turn. Since certain events happened differently (like Moya's childbirth) while John had still been stuck down on the base instead of waiting for a bit longer like in the TV show, she reasoned that she was meant to have died! See, she'd been fading badly before Zhaan had hooked her up to Moya. Without Moya being able to filter out the toxin's within her body, Sun would have been dead in an arn at most, maybe even a few hundred microts, for all I know....

Hm, you know, if I'm going to Terra Prime with Sigin here soon I'm going to have to learn to use "terrestrial" time units and use them. Not like, I am sure, the rest of the universe at large there is in a habit at using the Standard units we have here, right....

.....

Well, since she sees Gilina here with John (and both obviously smitten with each other), she was kind of...."going around the bend". Figuring that if Gilina was here and alive instead of dead (like it had happened in the TV show), then it meant that she should have died....to make way for that relationship between the two! Hadn't it happened that way with Gilina's death? Making room for Aeyrn to go ahead and.....

Frell....

Ah, never mind! Back to business!

Speaking of business and timing... Oh frell, it's confusing enough. Will address this here in a moment (just as soon as I unravel it enough myself to explain it). In all, it is all a matter of bad timing.

Bad timing....

Timing.

Too much too quickly.....

Sigh, will have to address this, but first....

Yeah, now speaking on another matter of timing, I sure timed it right in insisting on staying with Zhaan when she went over with her to speak with what I now see as a very distraught Aeryn Sun!

Now, usually.....

Usually I know enough about what's going around me to know when it would be a good time to jump to the fore....and when to stay back in the shadows to let the situation is well enough alone.

HOWEVER, I fear due to a combination of me....just reveling in the richness of my new heightened sense (hearing the DRDs scuttling about, the smell of Pilot, the thrum and hum of Moya's systems)......as well as the excitement of going to commit to something I'd never thought I'd ever willing do (I'd been coming over to Zhaan to get a quick wedding from her). Well, I'd overlooked the very problem before me.

Hey, it happens. I'm still adjusting. Frell you if you have a problem with it!

.....

Ah, but.....

Er....Perhaps we'd do better to calm down (all of us) and go over some questions in order, eh? Some of it I've never really....bothered to think about before but....I'm....flexible. Can do, you know. Have to be able to think quickly on my feet, as John might say. Don't last long out in the Uncharted Territories if you can't....

Okay, let us back up here and give you a bit of data before you jump on me. I can see you're asking yourself questions. Things like "How can Zhaan wed Chiana and Sigin if she'd basically walked away from herself being a Pa'u (a Delvian priest) after a rather rough time she had with some encounter with her own people a bit earlier before I came into the scene?" (Author Note: see the Farscape episode Rhapsody in Blue for full details). Well, that's true enough....but it appears that she's now....back in business after meeting the Rule and Agent (and talking with them). She's made peace with herself, you see.

Now, you were wondering if I could perhaps tell me how Zhaan would have reacted to finding out about the Rules and Agents and all that business when they popped into the room in the last episode and answered a lot of questions? Would that cause some kind of theological questions to come up? I am sure you just thought you should ask, considering her calling. Okay, it is a reasonable question, actually. Not one I'd be prone to ask, but then again I guess I....should have..... Okay. As for the answer, it's difficult to say for sure (considering that this is just conjecture on my part since I wasn't allowed to overhear it). Now, being that I.....really wasn't the type to seek enlightenment in religion (heh) and, since the "TV" series (I gather) was always rather vague on the specifics of Zhaan's religion, can't tell you for sure. But it seems to be a very tolerant, inclusive kind of religion which emphasizes personal spirituality rather than laying out some kind of specific dogmatic worldview.

.....

Yeesh, sound like my dull instructor back in my student years....back before I finally broke away....

Well, frell it. It works.

Well, that said, in other words, I don't think Zhaan would necessarily have too much difficulty reconciling the existence of the Rules and Agents with her own beliefs, because I think those beliefs are pretty accommodating. Nor is she likely to have trouble believing in their existence: Zhaan *knows* there are powerful mystical entities in her universe, even if she never expected the existence of this particular *kind* of entity.

As long as they seem to her to act with some degree of compassion and reason, I think Zhaan would be very respectful of them, even perhaps awed, and would be very interested in anything that could be learned from them. On the other hand, if they seemed to her cruel or abusive of their great powers, she'd almost certainly let them hear about it.

Don't think that would be particularly wise, but she'd do it...AND....they did strike me as being....okay....not cruel....

Oh, they'd do their stuff. Being what they are means that.....

Well, I figure that maybe they sometimes just don't....really.....like doing what they must do but to not do it wouldn't make things better...but worse....

....

Think I'll talk with the other Champions over this sometime in the future over that. See what they have to say on it. Like I said, I think those Celestrials (Rules and Agents) are alright folk, but maybe....

Frell, more questions.

Chiana, later. Concentrate on the here and now.

Anyway, I don't think I've seen anything in there that would upset her, even if it did give her food for thought.

Does that answer the question?

Hope so.

Well, that was one question that I could figure out from Aeryn's ramblings. And unlike Zhaan, it and a bit more has....rather rattled her! Pushing her....hard....

You see, she's rather upset from what she'd seen in the show and such and figured out on her own (the DVD player). She hadn't seen it all (though she'd figured out how to make that alien technology work), but still.....she'd been able to keep it somewhat together for awhile, but now....it was finally catching up with her. PK training or not, she's under a lot of stress.

Poor girl....I.....

I want to.....help....I frelling HATE seeing her like....this....

But how?

From what I also could also try to figure out she also was babbling about wanting to know about just who these strangers were, being able to know so much about her and the others.....

Ah, for those who aren't tracking, let me translate. She's very SPOOKED right now from what she'd seen on those DVDs. Got it?

One or two things alone would not have put her in this state, let me tell you. That I've learned just by travelling with her. However, all together?

Let's see. She comes from the PKs, who believe that once you die you die. Today she's learned that there is much more to life, reality, and death than what she'd thought. That's what the Celestrials did, I feel, as well as the Champions. Unsettling enough to shake your worldview. Then, to see a possible future (or the future as it could have been). Then to see the one you love with another woman....

Add to that her not having really figured out herself that she's in love. Frell, what a mess! Was painful even before now, watching John and Aeryn dance around this subject, not sure how to proceed! I myself could have told them that they wanted each other! Wanted to throw their arms around and.....

Hrmph...

That and much more. At least I now can admit to myself without smirking that there is something like love like in those romance tales.....

I'd known about it, but thought I'd....

Urk, sorry. Kind of got...

Right.

Zhaan has opened her mouth to say something to Aeryn, but (like I sometimes do) I jump into things before I really.....

Think about what I'm doing fully.

"That is a bunch of frelling dren!" I nearly shout. "Of course he loves you! But....."

Frell. I just managed to get her full attention, but.....

I've also just put both feet (all four if I'd been in dragon form) into my mouth here!

I brace myself and try to barrel through, having committed myself.

"Don't interrupt!" I snap, causing Aeryn to pause in whatever she was about to yell back at me. "That's the truth! He's just confused about relationships....."

"Rather like she is...." I hear Sigin mutter from across the room.

....

Oh good fr.... I just remembered! Us dragons and the elves can HEAR this conversation from where we....they....

I hide my surprise before I let it show. It's not helpful to reveal such a fact right now!

If this isn't addressed, I fear what Aeryn might do! I really do. What she might do to Gilina. What she might do to herself. What she might do to the very OBJECT (and close friend, truthfully) of my given Quest by the Rules and Agents! What it might do to John!

Way she's hanging on right now, I could see her....snapping! Snapping and taking it out in violence on everyone!

Oh, you say that she's made of sterner stuff? Well, everyone has a breaking point and everyone has....pressure points. She's suffering from both, right now. She's....close....

.....

Well, Sigin would be against this suggestion, but....there doesn't seem to be any other way out of it.

"We have magic users," I say softly. "One in particular I know of that Sigin told me who'd helped some couple in a similar problem between some people named Astra, Annafrid, and Jarlath. There is this one woman named....."

What was that elf girl's name?

That and do I really want to do this?!

Sigh. Well, it will buy us needed time before things fall apart. Enough time for this quest to be completed. After that.....

I....well....

At least.....all three members will be......happy.... in their new situation.

"...named Ti'mma D'Honaire who helped them out by phsycially showing them what lay within their hearts, straightening out the emotional tangle they were in.

"Rather like you, Gilina, and John are in right now," I add, a little more sharply than I meant to say it.

Zhaan is looking at me a bit wide eyed, as if seeing the possible danger I am treading on here by suggesting such a thing. However, she's holding back (if only barely) in berating me.

"Now, I figure that I and the other Champions wouldrather NOT try to go about and tie up all the loose ends and such with all of us," I sigh. "Given everything I have seen here on Moya, to be blunt, it rather sounds reasonable to me. If we were to get started trying to tie up all the loose ends that would be left in the 'Farscape' universe, I have the feeling we'd be at it forever."

This draws a weak, but sincere chuckle from Aeryn, who sees my point and agrees. At least she's been around long enough to know what is what, I see. "Now," I almost purr, getting into it, "When my quest to aid Crichton is finished and John and the others get dropped off back home....the TARDIS and everyone else gets swept back home....as it were....by the Rules and Agents. But we can delay the last part, the 'dropping off' part, to make a side trip and see that little elf girl. So we can....sort things out. Will explain to her...."

"There's....no need to wait for the end," Zhaan interrupts, looking disturbed but resigned as she sees Crichton coming back inside the Den. "I can....do that for them."

.....

She can do that?

"You can?!" Aerny blinks, snapping around and staring at Zhaan. "If you could have done that in the beginning, then why did you let things go for so long between me and....."

"Because it's dangerous," both I and Zhaan say together. I at a sigh and her at a bit more than a sigh. "It is risky." Zhaan continues. "One of three things can happen."

She then pauses and actually glares at me in anger.

"Hey," I protest, hands up. "Was going to tell them about that.....sometime....."

Sometime later, after everything else was done but before that final trip to Terra Prime....

I was.....really....

Zhaan looks at me, softens a little as she shakes her head and sighs.

"One of three things can happen," Zhaan continues, talking now to a raptly listening Aeryn Sun.

Yes, I know the signs. Have...induced that condition in many others myself, you know. Oh yes, our little PK commando does have it ever so bad for John.

And frankly, so does John have it bad for her......

"What happens is one of three ways....and ONLY one of three ways," Zhaan warns. "All parties will find out that NONE love each other, and end up forever hating each other with a passion. Two, a loving couple is formed, but the third....while sad, is at least at peace...happy for the new loving couple. As for the third..... She states it, and states it again when Gilina and John (knowing themselves there's "trouble in paradise" as the Brig puts it dryly) have come over to try to see if Zhaan could help (what with her wise ways).....

1. And what happens in the end?

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