Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just playing. I'll put'em back when I'm done.

Rating: G

Synopsis: Based on an old Star Wars Marvel comic, I adapted this little tale to Farscape. Credits go out to those who figure out which story I'm referring to. :)

D'Argo checked the datapad for the umpteenth time, glanced around at the corridors he and Chiana were hurrying through and confirmed yet again that they were on the right path. The information for John's whereabouts had been hard to come by, but once they had received the pad, D'Argo had not hesitated to go after his friend. Both John and Aeryn had vanished on a routine supply run and finding out what had happened to them had been very tough indeed. Aeryn's whereabouts were still a mystery, but John they had managed to locate. Mainly because that fekkik over all fekkiks, Scorpius, had not been able to keep his mouth shut about having him back in custody.

"Frell, D'Argo, what if this place is swarming with Peacekeepers?" Chiana asked for the hundredth time.

"Then we deal with it when we get to it. Right now, our main priority is to find John," D'Argo replied as he had before. "Now shut the frell up. The less noise we make, the less likely it is that anybody will detect us," he added and rounded a corner.

He came to a stop when he spotted the door he was after. What he had not expected was to find two dead Peacekeepers lying on the ground in front of it. Cautiously, he sniffed the air and could detect nothing but death and Chiana, who was standing right behind him.

"What the frell happened to them?" she asked nervously.

"Does it matter?" D'Argo countered a little irritably. "They're dead. That means we don't have to kill them," he added and waved at the door. "That's it. According to this pad, this is where they keep John."

"Well, open it, you frellnik. Let's get him out of here so we can get the frell away from this system," Chiana snapped aggressively.

D'Argo knew that her anger was covering her fear. He himself wasn't too keen on being in a Peacekeeper installation, no matter how deserted it was. But so far, these two dead soldiers were all they had seen and D'Argo was fairly confident that there were no other Peacekeepers around. He sniffed the air again and frowned a little.

Then he stepped toward the door and came to an abrupt stop when a full-figure image of Scorpius appeared in front of the door, blocking his way. "Ka D'Argo," he said and smiled. "I have been expecting you for some time. Now that you have arrived, it is only fitting that you are allowed to escape with the prize you are after. It is only fair after you have searched for so long. There are no troops here but the two guarding this door. All other personnel has been removed from this facility to give you free access to the goal of your search. I wish you a safe journey." With that, the image flickered off again.

D'Argo just stood there and stared at the door while trying to work out what the frell that had all been about. If there were no other troops in this facility, then why had John not tried to escape? And why had Scorpius left a message for him? Why not for Aeryn?

With a light shake of the head, he stepped closer to the door and pressed a palm against the door-opener. The door slid aside, into the wall, admitting him into what appeared to be a storage room of some kind. He glanced right when he stepped inside and saw an array of canisters sitting by the end wall. From the smell of the room, they contained chakan oil. Then he glanced to the left and came to an abrupt stop once more.

Chiana bumped into him when he froze in place and when she glanced around him to see what the holdup was, she sucked in air noisily. "Frell," she whispered.

D'Argo swallowed to remove the lump that had suddenly risen in his throat. They had found John. And from the looks of it, Scorpius had finished with him. He was sitting on the floor in the corner, slightly slumped, one boot missing, his hands lying limply in his lap. His eyes were open and the vacant stare in them made D'Argo feel sick to his stomach. An expression John had taught him wandered through his mind. 'The lights were on, but nobody was home'.

Unwilling to believe what he was seeing, he broke his self-imposed paralysis and strode over to his friend, squatted down and grabbed his shoulders. "John?" he asked and shook the Human lightly. John's head lolled bonelessly and there was no response.

D'Argo glanced over one shoulder at Chiana, who still stood by the door, one hand pressed over her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears. "He's still alive," he said quietly.

"Frell that," Chiana hissed in a choked voice. "Look at his eyes, D'Argo. He's gone. His mind is gone."

"He's still a person. We'll get him to a medic, a diagnosian. Someone out there can help him," D'Argo disagreed, unwilling to face the possibility of this being the end of the line for his friend. It couldn't end this way. Not for John Crichton. Not like this.

Both their attentions were drawn toward the doorway when they both became aware of dragging footsteps coming toward it. Chiana slipped up against the wall and edged away from the opening, eyes wide.

The dragging footsteps came to a stop just outside the doorway, then picked up again. A very disheveled looking Aeryn made her way slowly through the doorway and came to a stop again, one bloodied hand steadying her against the doorframe while her other hand was clawed into an open, bleeding wound in her side.

"Aeryn," D'Argo whispered. "We've found you both. We'll get you both some help."

Aeryn's eyes were on John and nothing else seemed to catch her attention at the moment. "If you try to take him out of here, you will both be captured," she said, her voice hoarse and weak. "There are many Peacekeepers on this little world and they are coming for you as we speak."

D'Argo rose and turned a little to face her better. "We are not leaving you here," he stated and made a sweeping gesture towards John. "Either of you."

Aeryn still didn't look at him, but kept her tired gaze locked on John. "Look at ... what is left of him," she said and finally shifted her gaze to meet D'Argo's. "Do you think that keeping him alive would be a kindness?" she asked, released the doorframe and limped forward toward John. "He was ... a great trouble to them most of the time. Do you think that Scorpius left him alive ... as a kindness?"

"But, Aeryn ..." he tried, but she shook her head and held up a weak, shivering hand.

"He knew that help would come. He believed it would," she said and weakly sank down on her knees in front of John. "And he was always right about such things," she added, turned her head painfully and looked up at D'Argo. There were unshed tears gleaming in her eyes and D'Argo did not have to have the well-developed olfactory sense of a Luxan to sense the smell of death on her. "Thank you for making him right one last time, D'Argo," she said and returned her attention to John again. She shifted forward and settled down next to John and pulled him against her, somehow managing to ignore the deep wounds lacerating her body. "Now please ... leave me alone with him," she whispered.

"Aeryn ..." D'Argo tried, on the verge of tears himself.

"There is enough chakan oil here to put a crater into this world, so I suggest you leave now and don't look back," Aeryn said. She rested John's head on her shoulder and wove a blood-encrusted hand into his hair. "You have fifty microts."

At that moment, D'Argo saw the small device in her hand. It was a cluster bomb, a tiny yet very potent explosive that would utilize the highly volatile chakan oil at the other end of the room to create a huge explosion. Slowly, he backed up and reached out for Chiana without looking. She grabbed his hand and followed him backwards to the door. Neither of them knew what to say and time was of the essence. Aeryn was dying and John was as good as dead. The only thing they could do was leave them to it and let Aeryn make one last salute to the universe before they both went out in a blaze of glory.

"At peace, Aeryn," D'Argo said, nodded once to her when she glanced back at them with a weak smile, and then dragged Chiana out of the room with him. The Nebari was crying openly by the time they both broke into a run and headed back toward Lo'Laa, who was waiting for them just outside the building.

D'Argo literally threw Chiana up the ramp and pounded up after her and left it to her to close the hatch as he raced forward to the pilot seat and threw himself into it. The ship had started up automatically the microt he had stepped through her force field and was ready for takeoff mere microts after that.

D'Argo gave Lo'Laa full throttle as they raced away from this little backwater of a world and broke the atmosphere the microt the cluster bomb went off. A brilliant explosion and the subsequent shockwave followed them out into space and rocked their trajectory violently for a few moments before everything settled down again.

D'Argo checked the readouts, slowed down and turned Lo'Laa back toward the little moon. The explosion Aeryn had set off had been stronger than expected. One half of the little moon was gone, making it look like a deflated ball.

A cloud of debris was slowly spreading out around what remained and would eventually form a ring around the now dead world. Although D'Argo did not believe in punishing whole planets for the mistakes of a few, he saw no problem with what Aeryn had done. This had been a Peacekeeper outpost and with a little luck, Scorpius had still been on this world when it blew.

He stared at the moon and its debris field and allowed himself to mourn the passing of two strong-willed and great individuals. As a final act, Aeryn Sun, ex-Peacekeeper and one of the strongest females D'Argo had ever had the pleasure of meeting, had created a monument for herself and the love of her life. D'Argo could not have imagined a more fitting salute to both of them.

With tears in his eyes, he performed a simple, Luxan salute and then settled back in his seat. "At peace," he said quietly, reached behind him and grabbed Chiana's hand in his. "It is at times like these that I hope that Zhaan's goddess is real," he added quietly.

Chiana slipped onto his lap and hugged him closely. "So do I," she agreed. "So do I."

The End