Title: Back to the Uncharted Territories
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns Buffy; SFC, Jim Henson Productions, and Rockne S. O’Bannon own Farscape; and Universal Pictures owns Back to the Future. No copyright infringement is intended, so please don’t sue. I don’t have any money anyway.
Summary: Sequel to “A Sympathetic Ear”, John Crichton finally makes it home only to discover that the life he left behind is no longer there. His father, DK, and Xander Harris are all dead. Then he meets an extraordinary man in a bar, a time traveler, with an extraordinary proposition. Will John risk it all to go back in time to save his father’s life? And what happens when the consequences are much worse than he ever could have imagined?
Author’s note: Takes place directly after the third season of Farscape, after that it’s an AU. Also, for the sake of this story, Farscape takes place in the near future (2017), and some of the modifications made to the DeLorean in the second movie, namely Mr. Fusion, came from further into the future then when the movie took place (2015). Also, some dialogue has been lifted directly from the Buffy episode “Grave”, no plagiarism intended.
Dedication: To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May they rest in peace.
Special thanks to A. Grandt, greywizard, Wayne, Rob Clark, Danielle, Goblin, Calen, DaBear, Obi, Gareth, Troy, David, and Lafe for the feedback and support.
(Farscape/BtVS/BttF, Xander/Chiana, John/Aeryn)
Rated R for language and violence
Guest Cast:
Guy Pearce as Dr. Julian Martin Brown, PhD.
James Remar as Lakas

“Blue card low! No winner, no…”

The dealer was cut off as the sound of alarm klaxons filled the casino. Everyone started looking around, trying to see what was happening. John could see one guard by the door barking out orders, and a couple more were running toward the back.

Jool looked back and forth nervously. “Why can’t anything ever go smoothly for us?” she asked.

“Just wouldn’t be out style, I guess,” John said, pulling a small object out of his pocket. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

John pressed the button on the trigger device in his hand and an explosion rang out from the front of the casino. People were starting to panic now. John heard a few screams and saw some people diving under tables. The security that had still been up front had all dived away from the explosion and were slowly starting to get up. He could see smoke coming from the weapons vault. He pressed the button again and another explosion rang out.

“It’s a bomb!” John yelled. “Everybody out! Get out, now!”

Most people didn’t need much more encouragement than that. There was a bottleneck at the door before John had even finished yelling. The security seemed to have the same idea, as they started clearing the room. Leaving only two guards standing in front of the vault still. John reached into his other pocket and pulled out a pair of small earplugs. He stuck them in his ears and turned back to Jool.

“Wait five microts, then give me your best shot.”

Jool just nodded, knowing that John couldn’t hear her. She counted in her head as she watched John run toward the weapons vault. She saw one of the guards approach him, holding his hand out to stop him from getting any closer to the vault. When Jool got to five in her head, she screamed.

The shriek wasn’t really loud enough to be heard over the alarm klaxons, but Jool had learned from experience that it wasn’t the volume that did the damage, it was the pitch. She watched as the people closest to her slammed their hands over their ears on reflex and hit their knees, their faces twisted in pain.

John couldn’t hear what the guard was saying to him, but he had a pretty good idea. He waited until he saw the guard’s hands go to his ears before he lashed out with his foot, kicking him in the stomach. Then he grabbed him by his collar and threw him into the closest wall.

The second guard already had his weapon out and pointed at John when he turned back toward the vault. He was yelling, probably something similar to what the first guard had been yelling John assumed. He raised his hands in the air to show that he was unarmed, but he still had the trigger device concealed in his hand. The guard was either too far away from Jool for the screaming to hurt him, or he just had a higher tolerance of pain than most. Either way, John had to figure out another way to get around him. He could see past him that the vault door had been blown open from the remote controlled blasts of D’Argo’s Qualta blade. The weapon was now lying on the bottom of the vault, peaking out from the open door, and pointed slightly to John’s right.

“I’m unarmed!” John shouted to the guard, unsure of the volume of his own voice due to the earplugs. He took a small step forward and to the right. “I just need to retrieve my weapons before I leave!” Another step to the right. The guard shouted something as he took a step to the side to keep himself between John and the vault. “I won’t leave without them!” John said, taking two more quick steps to the right. He just needed the guard to take one more step.

The guard was still yelling and shaking his pistol at John as he took another step to the side. John dove to the ground as he pressed the button on the trigger device. The Qualta blade fired again, striking the guard in the back. He fell to his knees, and then face first onto the floor. John climbed to his feet and ran to the vault. He pushed the door all the way open and grabbed the two pulse pistols that he had put there when they arrived.

John spun around, scanning the room for security. Most of the casino’s patrons had already left, leaving a few guards milling around trying to figure out what was happening. John opened fire with both pistols. Red energy pulses flew across the room, striking their targets with deadly accuracy. The guards didn’t even have time to draw their own weapons, it happened so fast. In a matter of seconds, the room was empty, save John, Jool, and a few dead guards.

Jool stood from under the gaming table she was hiding under and nodded to John. He quickly holstered the pistol in his right hand and pulled the plugs out of his ears. He grabbed the Qualta blade, leaning it against his shoulder like a baseball bat, and ran over to Jool.

“Good job,” John complimented.

“You too.”

“Go warm up the car, D’Argo will call when we’re ready to evac.”

Jool nodded as John ran by her towards the back of the casino. She started for the door, then stopped. She went back to the gaming table and grabbed a handful of forgotten currency that was still sitting there. She dropped it down the front of her shirt, and ran for the door.

*

John ran through the back corridors, keeping the pulse pistol in his left hand out in front of him. He peeked around every corner carefully, to make sure that he wasn’t walking into some kind of ambush. He spotted a few more guards, but by catching them by surprise, he managed to shoot them before they even knew he was there.

He felt like he was running in circles. “This place is like a frelling maze,” he mumbled to himself. “How the hell am I supposed to find them?”

He peered around the next corner and spotted two bodies lying in the corridor. He approached them cautiously, his pistol at the ready. As he got closer, he saw that they were casino security. One was lying face down, motionless. The other was lying face up, with a very large pool of blood spreading underneath him. His throat had been cut, along with three fingers from his right hand John noticed.

“Definitely your work, Xan,” he said to himself. “But which way did you…” John trailed off and a smile crossed his face. On the other side of the pool of blood, there was a bloody footprint. And in the middle of that footprint, printed backwards from where the tread of the shoe had stamped the bloody mark, was the word ‘Nike’. “Better than breadcrumbs,” John muttered to himself as he started down the corridor in the direction the footprints lead.

*

D’Argo and Xander made it back to the secret room without too much trouble. They ran into a couple more guards, but D’Argo made short work of them. Pretty soon they found themselves back at the dead end corridor.

Xander gave Lakas a small shove toward the control panel. “Open it,” he said.

Lakas looked angry, but he held his tongue. He tapped a few commands into the panel, and a section of the wall slid away. Xander grabbed Lakas by the back of the collar and pushed him into the room first, holding him like a human shield just in case they were walking into a trap.

For the most part, it looked like every other storeroom they had seen in this place. Bare walls, with rows of shelves along them. The only major difference, was the presence of a naked Nebari curled up and sleeping in the corner. Xander’s blood ran cold. He could see finger-shaped bruises on her arms and legs, and a large one over her right eye, which looked to be fresh. Why Xander didn’t just reach up with his sword at that moment and slit the bastard’s throat was a question that would plague him for years to come. At that moment, his concern for Chiana simply outweighed his hatred of Lakas, and most everything else for that matter. He just shoved the casino owner hard against one of the sets of shelves, and made his way quickly to her side. Lakas slammed into the metal shelves and fell to the floor. He wisely stayed there.

The noise startled Chiana awake. “Who’s there?!” she asked in a panic, her head shooting up.

“Chiana, it’s okay. It’s Xander, we came to rescue you.”

The first thought that crossed Chiana’s brain was that the person sitting in front of her wasn’t Lakas. The second, was that she recognized his voice. As the meaning of his words finally sank into her brain, she started to open her eyes. She had still been blind when she fell asleep, but as she opened her eyes, a blurred face slowly started to come into focus. A face that Chiana was beginning to doubt that she would ever see again.

“Xander?” she asked, unsure of her own eyes.

“It’s me,” he said, giving her a small smile.

Chiana smiled too, for the first time in a long time as an expression of pure relief lit up her face. She looked behind Xander and saw D’Argo standing over her, looking concerned. “D’Argo.”

“We’re all here,” D’Argo said. “We all came for you.”

Xander nodded. Chiana launched herself into Xander’s arms, burying her face in his chest. Xander wrapped his arms around her and tried not to cry. “Can you walk?” he finally asked after a few moments.

Chiana nodded. “Yeah.”

Xander helped her to her feet. He broke there embrace, but he kept his hand on her cheek. “It’s going to be okay, Chiana. We’ll be back aboard Moya before you know it. No one’s going to hurt you anymore.”

Xander and D’Argo were both so focused on Chiana, and making sure that she was okay, that they had forgotten all about Lakas. Unseen by either of them, he had gotten up and was slowly coming up from behind Chiana.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Before either of them knew what was happening, and arm wrapped itself around Chiana’s neck from behind and dragged her backward. He had a knife that he had pulled from some hidden sheath, and he was now holding it against the side of Chiana’s neck. Her hands instinctively held onto his forearm, which was still pressed against her throat. Xander and D’Argo immediately moved to free her.

“Back up, back up! I’ll kill her! I swear I’ll kill her!”

Every instinct in Xander’s body told him to attack, and he could tell from D’Argo’s posture that he felt the same way. But they held back, not wanting Chiana to get hurt.

“Drop the sword, Luxan!” D’Argo reluctantly complied. Xander’s sword was already on the ground where he laid it when he first checked on Chiana.

“You don’t want to do this, Lakas,” Xander said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

“Shut-up!”

And that’s when John came bounding into the room. “D’Argo? Xander? Are you…”

“Drop it! Drop your weapons or I’ll kill her!” John dropped the pulse pistol in his hand and the Qualta blade. “And the one in your holster, pull it out and throw it on the floor, nice and slow.” John complied.

“You’re timing is perfect as ever, John,” D’Argo said.

“Shut-up!” Lakas growled.

“Lakas, listen to me. This isn’t going to do you any good,” Xander said. “The cops are here by now for sure, you’re not going to get away with it.”

“And what about you? How many men did you kill tonight? What makes you think that you’ll get away?”

“All we care about is Chiana. Our deal still stands, Lakas. You let her go, and we let you live. If you kill her, you know that you won’t stand a chance.”

“I won’t let you take her from me! I’ve done nothing but work my entire life to get ahead, to find an edge! I’ve been knocked down, time and time again. But every time, I picked myself up again and I forged ahead! I’ve always known I was destined for greatness, to overcome every obstacle I’ve been faced with. But I’ve been doomed to this existence! Stuck on this backward world, with nothing but this casino! But then I finally found it, I found my edge. And I knew that I had been right all along, that I was destined for great things. And with her I can finally achieve them. Now you’ve destroyed my casino, I won’t let you take the only thing I have left! I won’t let you take what’s mine!”

Lakas smiled manically. He leaned down and whispered in Chiana’s ear. “I told you that you were mine, trelk. I told you that I wouldn’t let them take you.” He laughed, a sick evil laugh. “If we die, then we die together.”

Chiana had endured this man’s torment for over a month. Locked in this room, constantly abused, used for his own personal financial gain. Her hope of rescue dwindled with each passing day. But anyone looking at her face at that moment could tell that she was no longer scared. She wasn’t going to let herself be that helpless blind girl in the corner anymore. She was more than that. No, it wasn’t fear that was etched on her face in that instant. It was fury.

“Get frelled!” She hissed out. She took her hands away from his arm, and drove her elbow into his stomach with every ounce of strength that she possessed. It may not have been much, but it was enough to loosen his grip on her. She pulled herself free and dove away from him.

“Xander!” John called out.

Xander looked just in time to see John kick him the pulse pistol that he had dropped near his foot. He dove for it, rolling when he hit the floor. He rolled onto his back, brought the pistol up, and fired. The first shot caught Lakas in the shoulder. The next two hit him in the chest. He staggered back, dropping his knife, before he finally fell to the floor. His last expression, frozen on his dying face, was pure shock.

John picked up his pulse pistol and tossed D’Argo his Qualta blade. Xander climbed to his feet, keeping his pistol up just in case Lakas wasn’t quite dead. He rushed to Chiana to make sure that she was okay.

“I’m fine,” Chiana said. “Thank you.”

“You’re the one we should be thanking, Pip,” John said. “If you hadn’t given us that opening, who knows what would have happened.”

D’Argo nodded. “That was very brave, Chiana.”

Chiana walked over to Lakas’ body, staring down at it, like she couldn’t quite believe that he was actually dead. “I couldn’t let him win,” she said softly. “I just couldn’t. Thank you, all of you.”

Xander slid his pulse pistol into the holster on his leg, took off the borrowed trench coat he was wearing and slipped it over Chiana’s shoulders. She slipped her arms in and wrapped it around herself before turning toward Xander. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you on Earth?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“And one that we really don’t have time for right now,” John cut in. “We still have to get out of here.”

“Did you yell ‘bomb’ when you blew the weapon’s vault?” Xander asked.

John nodded. “Which is the only reason this place isn’t already crawling with the spaceport authorities. But we don’t have forever.”

“I’ll summon Lo’La,” D’Argo said, pulling a comms from his belt and speaking a few words of ancient Luxan into it.

Xander picked Hero up from the floor and slid it back into the scabbard on his belt. He picked up the sword he had lent to D’Argo, and took up the rear as the group made their way back through the casino.

They moved through the corridors and the casino floor quickly, and soon found themselves back at the front door. When they opened it and stepped outside, they were met by an entire battalion of officers pointing weapons at them from across the street.

“Drop your weapons and step away from the…”

The officer speaking was cut off when the loud vibrating hum of an engine filled the city street. About ten feet off the street, Lo’La appeared. The ship landed slowly, facing the authorities across the street. They opened fire on it, but the shots bounced harmlessly off of the energy shield. The hatch in back of the ship slid open to reveal a very worried looking Jool, waving them inside.

“All aboard who’s coming aboard!” John called out.

Xander came up behind Chiana and hooked his arm around hers. “Your chariot awaits, milady,” he said with a smile. She smiled back, even though she had no idea what he had just said.

The group boarded Lo’La and the hatch slid closed. D’Argo took the pilot’s seat and flew the ship up and out of the atmosphere, on a course back to Moya.

“Princess, you came too?” Chiana asked Jool once they were all seated.

“Well, I couldn’t let these guys have all the fun now, could I,” she said with a smile. Chiana smiled back and leaned over to hug the other woman. “It’s good to see you, Monochrome.”

“It’s good to see you too, Princess.”

“Pilot, can you read me?” D’Argo asked over the comms.

“Yes, we can read you,” Pilot said.

“Our ETA is a quarter of an arn, be prepared to starburst as soon as we’re aboard.”

“Understood.”

“So, I guess things went smoothly then,” Jool said.

John, Xander and D’Argo all shared looks. “About as smooth as usual,” John said.

“That bad, huh?”

John smiled. “We would have been done for if it hadn’t been for Chiana’s quick thinking, and Xander’s quick shooting.”

“I had a good teacher,” Xander said. “The fastest gun in the Uncharted Territories.”

John laughed. “Hardly. You were a good student, it was my pleasure.”

“All the same, Naomi and I thank you.”

“Naomi?” Chianna asked.

Xander drew his pulse pistol and pretended to blow smoke away from the end of the barrel. “Well, every good weapon needs a name, right?” he said, looking at John. “I thought it was…appropriate.”

“That’s funny,” John deadpanned. “That’s real funny.”

Xander started laughing, and pretty soon so was John.

“Great, now there’s two of them,” Jool muttered to herself. She turned and noticed that Chiana was laughing too. “Don’t tell me you actually understand whatever it is they’re talking about?”

“Not a word of it,” Chiana said, still laughing. “And it’s the most wonderful feeling I’ve ever had.” She moved so that she was sitting between John and Xander. “It feels like…home.”




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