Mid-afternoon, Sanctity

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The unsettled feeling still remained, but Zhaan was attempting to ignore it. Assiduous dusting had the shelves gleaming, and the herbs were carefully arranged to an inch.

On the radio was a mellow mix, helping the calm slowly circulating through her mind.

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After checking her voicemail, Aeryn heads into the shop as asked. "I got your message," she says.

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"Aeryn." Zhaan smiles. "How are you?"

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"I'm all right," she says, and that really is mostly true. And adds, "You?"

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Zhaan considers for a moment, then replies, "I am curious."

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Aeryn wonders if maybe Zhaan hasn't had some sort of Scorpius encounter, too, so she asks, "What about?"

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Right to the point. The smile deepens, "About you, my dear. Why you called, and what's disturbing you."

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Also right to the point. "Yesterday I spoke with someone named Scorpius. You knew him?"

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Scorpius. A shiver passed through Zhaan. "I did, yes. And I believed him to be dead." Funny, how life and the universe liked tp screw that up.

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"He's not, apparently," she says. "He and someone named Braca approached me yesterday. He said that I brought him aboard the Leviathan when he was at odds with the Peacekeepers and helped John get home through some wormhole thing. Is any of that true?"

[notavegetarian.livejournal.com]

For a moment, Zhaan was speachless. The very idea that Crichton and Scorpuis would work together--not to mention that Aeryn would be the one to bring him aboard--disturbed her. "I can not say. If true, it happened after I was--gone. Difficult to believe, though. Scorpius stalked Crichton for his knowledge. Tortured him..."

The feeling that's been itching at her skin is now explainable.

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Aeryn's eyes narrow. She hadn't been able to trust Scorpius, but she hadn't expect that. "Tortured?"

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"The Aurora Chair." Zhaan remembered the look in Crichton's eyes, the evil she'd sensed in his mind. "For some, it's not so bad, for Crichton... the effects changed him, made him less trusting, less willing to believe that all would be well."

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That's hard to hear. The torture is bad enough, but the effects are unsettling, even if she doesn't have to see it. It's the thought of it happening to the John she knows. "What would Scorpius want with him?" she asks, trying to work out the timeline in her head. "Were we caught? John got there by accident, it isn't like he would know anything."

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"When John went through the wormhole, he acquired... an instinctive knowledge of the way they worked. Then after an encounter with ancient beings who implanted further knowledge in his head--" Zhaan breaks off. "It made him a valuable commodity."

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"Scorpius used him for the wormhole knowledge," Aeryn nods. "And I supposedly brought him on board to find Earth with it. Okay. That was idiotic of me." She pauses, sighing. "Others gave John this information? Was he the only possible carrier of wormhole knowledge available? They couldn't find someone else?"

[notavegetarian.livejournal.com]

"I never had a chance to ask them." Zhaan remembers being angry. She also remembers hiding it for too long. "And now Scorpius is here, in Fandom Town." Zhaan wonders how easy it would be to kill him.

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"The radio's said he's talked to John," she says. "But this John doesn't know anything like that. As far as I know, it's just an interest."

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"I don't believe Scorpius would need a reason to mess with John," Zhaan replies flatly. "He might simply do it because it amuses him."

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"I need to go," Aeryn says immediately, already going for her phone. "Thank you for your help."

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"Aeryn, be careful of him. Scorpius is devious and inventive." Zhaan warns.

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Aeryn nods. "Got it," she says, and goes for the door.