"I think I remember this with the Energy Rider," she muttered as she jostled her head. She gazed down wide eyed as she swayed slightly. "I - I thought I was supposed to see stuff like Rygel did?"

"Chiana!" Jool cried out as she ran into the hall. "Chiana you've got to help me stop D'argo ... what in hezmana are you doing on the ground?"

Chiana moaned, her head drawing back as a chuckle escaped her. "Ohhh are you the last one breathing on this ship?"

"Very funny," Jool rolled her eyes as she helped Chiana to her feet. "What's gotten into you?"

"I think more than enough," she smiled as she handed Jool the small sphere. "Hang on to that will ya? I want to give it to someone ... I mean ... hold on to that will ya?"

"Alright," Jool twisted her brow with confusion as she tried to keep Chiana standing. "Can you walk? D'argo is going to kill Stark for taking his ship if we can't do something!"

"I ..." Chiana shook her head as she tried to catch her balance on her own. "We'll hide him."

"Where?"

"Is he still alive?"

"Yes," Jool nodded. "He's already hiding in Pilot's den. He's completely locked in and D'argo is threatening to blow the door open!"

"Ever sedate a Luxan?"

"I - well," Jool bit her lip as she looked to Chiana worriedly. "I think now would be good time!"

****************************
 
Chiana and Jool ran into the med bay. Jool searched franticly for the sedative when she came to a halt. She turned to Chiana, wide eyed. "I - I think I know a way to contact my own kind ..."

"No-no-no-no," Chiana shook her head in protest as Naj Gil stepped inside. She cut her eyes to him. "Now what?"

"You asked me to meet you in the medical bay."

"Frell," Chiana muttered as she took the small sphere from Jool and tossed it to him. "Your turn!"

"Wait!" Jool shouted.

"Jool, the frelling sedative!" Chiana shouted as she reached for a hypo. "C'mon, if D'argo blows the door in a hyper rage Pilot's gonna string him up in his den and skin his ass!"

Chiana came to Naj Gil, searching his eyes before Jool charged past them. "Just - try to help us contain D'argo. You into that?"

"You think D'argo leads me," Naj Gil muttered softly in his growling voice as he turned his head. "You would like me to prove I have a mind of my own, that I am no longer his prisoner to keep over ... like you, Chianaaa."

"Yeah," Chiana nodded solemnly as she stepped past him. "Yeah I do."

********************************

"For the last time," Pilot tried to speak calmly as D'argo pounded on the door into his den. "I think you are being entirely too irrational about this D'argo."

"Yes, yes!" Stark agreed passionately into comms as he crouched beside Pilot. "Much too irrational! If you'd only listen to me, I cannot get the rest of the way to Talyn without ..."

"My ship!" D'argo bellowed. "You tried to steal my frelling ship! Stark! I demand you come out here or I will be forced to -!"

Stark glanced around himself as he eased closer along side Pilot to the front of his console. "Forced to what exactly?"

D'argo cried out, swinging around as he saw Jool stabbing at him. He back handed the hypo out of her hand. Jool screamed as the blunt force knocked her down. A deep, rattling growl escaped D'argo as he shot at the door panel with his qualta. He kicked the door, forcing it open and began to charge for Stark and Pilot. Naj Gil's hand came over D'argoes shoulder, stopping him cold.

"I do not believe your allies wish you to harm the Banik, D'argo." He spoke calmly.

D'argo roared, blind with rage as he grasped the Scarren's hand and flipped him over him. He pointed his qualta into Naj Gil's face. Naj Gil growled back in a fierce roar as he raised his hand. Heat pulse exploded from his arm, flashing into D'argoes face as the Luxan screamed and fell back from it.

"Naj Gil!" Pilot shouted. "It's not possible!"

"That they're fighting?" Stark asked.

"No, the Scarren was surgically removed of his heat ability by the PeaceKeeper's. D'argo! Naj Gil! Stop!"

"Removed," Stark awed at D'argo and the Scarren as they fought. "Removed, removed, removed ..."

Naj Gil stood over D'argo, crying out again as he pointed his arm into D'argoes chest. "I must force you to stand down!"

"Then I hope you have amended to your God's for the coming of your death!"

"REMOVED!" Stark bellowed as he searched franticly through his pockets. He jumped down from the console, his face fixed with rage as he threw a pouch at D'argo and Naj Gil, hitting the Scarren in the face. "Removed! You beast! You've stolen the oracle eye!"

"Stark!" D'argo charged. "You come anywhere frelling near me I'm going to rip your head off and dren down your neck!"

"You'll be next!" Stark charged as he yanked the cloth away from his face, the open side shining brilliantly as he threw himself on Naj Gil, bringing them both to the ground over D'argo. Stark stood, backing away as he held up the small sphere. His eye widened as the sphere seemed to come on fire in his hand. A small star of light began to shine deep within it in his palm as he gasped.

"Stark!" Chiana cried out to him. "Stark put it down! Someone frelling stop him!"

"Raaaaahhh!" D'argo screamed out as he lifted himself up and grasped the sphere. Stark screeched as he held on to it with both hands and tried to yank it free of him. D'argo held on, snatching Stark's wrist as the force of his pull brought him to his knee.

The fire of the sphere exploded around them, becoming swirls of light as Stark screamed. Behind him the image of Zhaan began to appear, becoming clearer and more defined. Her voice seemed to swirl around Stark as his eye glimmered with victorious tears.

"You see!" Stark cried. "You see!"

D'argoes eyes fluttered back as he pulled on the sphere. A deep glutteral sound came through him in a subtle tone. "Naaa'khru Dish'ra khebash ...."

The Luxan's eyes opened again slowly in his chant, focusing them on Stark as the Orican Nilaam began to appear behind him, becoming clearer and more defined as D'argo finally stood.

"Who - who?" Stark shook his head as tears rolled down his cheek. "How can you do this? You're not ... you're just a warrior!"

"You lost Zhaan," D'argo narrowed his eyes with a soft growl as he stepped closer into Stark. "I lost Nilaam. I assisted in her death in a passage of rite! Stark, weren't you there for Zhaan in the same way? Are you trying to defy everything you're supposed to be by bringing her back?"

"I've done no such thing!" Stark glared darkly into him as he held the sphere close to his chest. "She is trying to tell me something! I can kill you D'argo ... you've no idea where you stand in this moment!"

"The - the - the sphere," Chiana stated as she dared forward enough to crouch to Naj Gil's side. "It's some kind of talisman that lets you see your desires. That - that's not Zhaan, Stark. She died!"

"It is an oracle into the other side!" Stark protested. "She was trying to speak to me, this will tell me what she was trying to say!"

"Look," D'argo nudged his head as Nilaam and Zhaan came to stand together. Stark eyed him suspiciously before he turned his head to look at them. "I don't know what this means ... but I do know that is not Nilaam. She is gone, successfully! I assured that as a warrior!"

"Yes," Stark spoke quietly as he dropped his shoulders. "Yes ... this cannot truly contain of Zhaan if your friend is so manifest as well ... can it?"

"You have seen what you wanted to." D'argo stated as he eased back on his hold. "You have faced it well, but that is all it is Stark, what you wanted to see."

"What I wanted ..." Stark stared down at the sphere they both held as it seemed to become only a star of light in their hands surrounded in fire. Within it Zhaan's face appeared, smiling sweetly as the images of Nilaam and the Delvian dissipated.

"Beautiful Stark," she whispered as the star of light began to fade. "Always trying. Do this for me."

"Do what," Stark whispered back into his cupped hands as he drew to his knees at D'argoes feet. "What Zhaan ... do what my darling?"

D'argo sighed heavily as he drew to him. He stared into Stark's soulful face for long moments before he drew up his qualta blade. After a great reluctance he rested its flat end on Stark's shoulder and began a low chant.

"What are you doing?" Stark asked quietly as he glared up at him, his eye red with tears.

"Telling the spirits of the Orican's to pray you never seek vengeance in Valjara," D'argo half nodded as he raised his brows. "YOU, are a very dangerous man."

*******************************
 
Chiana bit her bottom lip as she snuck into the command center, trying to be as quiet as possible as Naj Gil stood at one of the consoles. She came alongside the map table, running her finger down it as she came to its end before sitting on the bench on one leg.

"So ah," she sighed as she barely smiled into the tables surface. "What was it like having your heat pulse back?"

"Glorious," the Scarren sighed as he gazed out the portal screen into the stars. "All my hopes had been restored in those microts ... but D'argo, I feared for him."

"Yeah," she muttered uneasily as she rested her head into her hand. "So your stuck with us again ... no more glorious Scarren battles against the PeaceKeeper's to take the territories, wormholes ... pillage the women, rape the fields ..."

She snorted as she looked to him beneath her bangs. "You stood up to him."

"Of course," he spoke softly as he turned to her. "On a ship without a captain ... I admit, I am confused without the order of rank."

"What's that like for a Scarren?" She asked with a slight crease of her brows. "Rank? With a Luxan?"

"There is honor among warriors," he explained as he seemed to consider her for a long moment. "Perhaps, there is also honor within a rankless crew. You all seem to think a great deal of John Crichton ..."

"Yeah," Chiana smiled as he came to sit next to her. "Well, things did kinda seem to make more sense when he was around. I miss him ... for that."

"But I am a Scarren," he said softly. "Not John Crichton. You do not trust me."

"Not as far as I could throw ya," Chiana chuckled as she winced her eyes. She sat up as she tilted her head to him. "You should be mad at me. I gave you that thing, you thought you had everything back the PeaceKeeper's took from you."

"I can assume from you coming to me for this conversation that you feel guilty," Naj Gil seemed to speak with amusement as he blinked his eyes, a bare smile crossing his face. "I feel no less about the PeaceKeeper's than before but I have considered ... I may not have found where I stand with each crew member of Moya to be made worthy ... of each persons trust. I am a Scarren, distrust should breed only naturally."

"You really got it in for yourself," Chiana smirked. "Not as blind as you look though. Listen, I'll just set it down like this okay? I hand you things like that sphere, you get pissed at me. Get it?"

"Got it."

"Good," Chiana nodded. "I think it'll be allot more comfortable around here knowing where you stand exactly and how you feel about what, out in the open yeah?"

"Yes," Naj Gil agreed as he looked to her again. "My staying around D'argo too long makes you angry, as if you are being teamed against by warriors."

"Right so ..." Chiana tilted her head up as she looked to him, her lips parting as she narrowed her eyes. "Are you listening to me or not?"

"Perfectly," Naj Gil smiled with a low growl of laughter.
 

end

"Zhaan! Zhaan!" Stark cried out franticly, coming to his knees in front of the oracle of two black dragons grasping on to a massive orb. It was a giant chamber of marbled walls and floor, the only place left for him on this planet of the dead to try to link with some source to the sound of her voice. "Zhaan! Please hear me! Come to me!"

He threw out his arms as swirls of light began to turn within the great sphere, the side of his face seemed to glow that much more brightly as he cried out in his desperation. Her image seemed to appear within, standing as if in coils of wind, light and fire. The image stepped forward, becoming clearer as she reached the limit of the sphere.

"Eta Nia Mya Kosaaaa ..." her voice whispered around him as Zhaan lifted her eyes up from beneath her brow and reached out, touching the confine of the sphere. "Gailynn ... Gailynn ..."

"Speak to me!" Stark cried as he tried to dare closer. "Zhaan!"

"Speak to you," Zhaan whispered almost angrily as she glared out to the room beyond her. "Stark ... how dare they ... how dare they!"

"Yes!" Stark scowled angrily as he came to the edge of the sphere at her feet. "Tell me what it is Zhaan ... I will do anything for you, anything!"

"We must help John." She reached down to Stark, her hand coming through the sphere, touching his face. He gasped at the touch, trembling as he closed his eye. "Before it comes to happen. Stark ... you must ... stop ..."

"No!" Stark shouted as she faded away, her touch gone as he threw his hands to the sphere. "Stop what Zhaan? Don't go now, not now!"

"I'm sorry," a man approached, bowing his head as he folded his hands together. "If it is of any comfort your link was unusually strong with the oracle."

"But she's gone," Stark muttered sullenly as he stood. "She wants me to do something, something important. You must leave me. I must commune with this oracle again."

"This may assist you," the man said as he took a small sphere out of one of the dragons mouth and held it out to Stark. "A link to the oracle. In this way you may go where ever you wish, and still find the contact to what you desired most."

"For a price!" Stark snarled as he pointed at him. "No! I warned you already Rogiran. I'm not here for you to attempt some pathetic scam to prey upon the anguishes of loss! My mission is a true one, Zhaan is trying to tell me something!"

"I have not asked you for anything have I?" Rogiran asked as he cupped the small sphere into both hands. "The way the oracle works is very simple Stark, you as a Stakiran should understand any intentions I uphold to it as its keeper. I only offer this oracle eye so you may take it where you wish. When your vision is complete, it will return here of its own accord. No price Stark. Only to complete the one need that drove you to the oracle. If it was a scam you desire, I warn you, then you should forget this place and take comfort in the charlatans in the citadel."

"I will be back if you have lied to me." Stark warned darkly.

The man bowed to him as he held the sphere out to him again. "It is very clear you must leave to complete the vision this Zhaan wanted you to see, it will be only, as it is. If it takes your life time before you understand so this oracle eye may return, so be it. Return before then if you wish Stark, but if you do so with this eye, you will become a keeper here as well."

"Is that your trap?" Stark gaped at him. "I come back with this, I am imprisoned here forever? I think you just want to be sure I never return!"

"And what have I to gain?"

"I don't know," Stark eyed him suspiciously as he took the sphere.