Room 209, Sunday afternoon/evening

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After leaving Sanctity, Aeryn's really impressively agitated. She's on the phone as soon as she's out the door, heading back to the dorms.

And once she's back there, she opens the door to 209 and waits.

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[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"What?" John shakes his head, rubbing at the lingering headache in his temple. "I mean...what?"

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She takes a deep breath. "He approached me yesterday about the Peacekeeper weapons Tex is selling. He proceeded to tell me about the other me, and you. I went to Zhaan for confirmation of his story. At the very least, he twisted details in what he told me. He wasn't helping you with anything."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"What was he doing with me then?"

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Only now does Aeryn realize she doesn't really want to tell him this. "Torturing you for wormhole information."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

John pales and leans back heavily against her door.

"Torturing me? Why? I didn't do anything!"

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"I know," she says, softening a little. "But you knew about them, and you were given more information, and for whatever reason, Scorpius wanted it."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

He just keeps shaking his head.

"I didn't do anything," he repeats. "And he just talked to me. He didn't even touch me. He just talked to me."

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"Did he come looking for you at all?" she wonders.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Um, yes," he answers. "Yeah, yesterday."

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Aeryn stiffens a little at that. "What did he want?"

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"A pastry?" He shrugs but tries to remember anything out of the ordinary happening. "He just talked to me."

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"Talked about what?" she presses. She trusts Zhaan to tell her the truth, so she wants as much information as possible.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"That the other me and him got in each other's way until they resolved their differences to unite and take down a tyrannical empire," John tells her.

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Aeryn sits on the bed, looking at the floor as she tries to work this out. On one hand, that kind of fits with what Scorpius told her, too. Put Earth at risk and John would probably help his torturer if it meant doing the right thing. On the other hand... "He also told me I brought him aboard the Leviathan," she says. "After you'd been tortured. I don't believe him."

In one small case, it's a disappointment to make the decision not to believe it. Because after all she's finding out, that John deserved to have things work out.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"How did he torture me?" John asks because he can't avoid that question forever.

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"Something called an Aurora Chair," she answers. It's easier to hear than it is to repeat. "Zhaan didn't tell me much about it, but... It didn't sound pleasant."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what that is," he says lamely. And he frowns because this is something he never expected to hear. "But I don't know anything about wormholes! Why would he do anything to me now?"

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"Zhaan seems to think he would do it just because he could."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

John covers his face with his hand and shakes his head again.

"I don't want to be tortured," he admits.

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She stands again, walking over to him. "He won't do anything," she assures him. "He hasn't so far, he can't get into the dorms... At least not without me shooting him in the head."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I have a headache," he says quietly.

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She touches his face and asks, "Are you okay?"

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I believe him and he was lying to me," he tells her. "He lied to me and I didn't do anything."

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"You couldn't know," says Aeryn. "If he hadn't started off questioning me, I probably would have just believed it, too. You had no way of knowing."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I guess."

And there's a shadow in the corner, brief and looming. It catches John's attention and he jerks his head towards it, staring.

There's nothing there.