Farscape Land Big Bang - UNFINISHED BUSINESS

[nymeria_dw]

This is the first of four fan-fictions written for the Big Bang Challenge.
Disclaimer: Farscape and its characters don't belong to me, I'm just borrowing them for a few microts...


UNFINISHED BUSINESS (PG - 13)

Swimming up from layers of unconsciousness and pain is even more difficult than swimming through mud.    And I hate mud.

When I open my eyes, fighting against dizziness, he is there, looming over me like a nightmare reborn into flesh.

Durka.

Not the long-haired, self-effacing creature following in Salis' wake like a trained drannit. No, this is the old Durka, the one I remember too well: the master of the Zelbinion, my jailer. My torturer.

"Hello Rygel." The voice is the same. Soft, cultured. Deadly. It still has the power of sending shivers down my spine. "You undid the Nebari mental cleansing. Isn't that the most superb irony?"

Did I?  Am I truly responsible for unleashing him?

He turns around to speak to Aeryn, who lies as tied up and powerless as I am, and I take this opportunity to look around, assess the situation.  One of the consoles is open, innards gutted out and strewn on the floor, iridescent fluid still oozing out of severed connection. Of course, the butcher had to celebrate his liberation, somehow.  

A surge of anger and dread courses through me at the thought of Moya's helplessness at the hands of this monster.

"It's the simple things I really miss."  He's back, waving a knife over my face, waiting for the instinctive fearful reaction. Despite my best intentions I can't help giving him what he wants, as if the long cycles had evaporated, sending me back to that cage, a trembling mass of flesh anticipating pain.

He has other goals, though, and with a swift motion cuts away my comm-badge. There will be time for his favorite games later, he has all the leisure he needs.

"Crew of Moya. This is Captain Selto Durka, the new commander of this Leviathan. I am in complete control of this ship."

And it's all my fault. My fault.



He's not as strong and all-powerful as I remember him, though.  Maybe the mental cleansing did take away something from him. Or maybe my perspective has changed, and I see him for what he really is, a disgrace as Aeryn called him: running from death instead of facing it, abandoning his crew to their fate.

Even now all he can think about is running away. What a shame that Moya can't indulge his whims!  Despite the seriousness of the situation I'm filled with glee when the starburst fails, as it was doomed to.

The savage joy doesn't last long, though. Blinded by his ignorant cruelty he now means to torture us into compliance.

"Rygel. Do you know what we Sebaceans dislike more than anything else?"

"Heat." The word burns my throat like acid, the reply a strangled croak. He has found another victim.

"To think this could have been avoided."

Oh the nerve! He manages to sound as if we forced him to do what he craves so hungrily!

Panic morphs into contempt, and it makes me feel as if I were ten motras tall, and just as wide, not the puny little being whose legs are too stunted to walk for long. I feel powerful and invincible and I don't even remember the meaning of the word 'fear'.

"Durka, you are pathetic."  He stops in his tracks, the glowing device in his hand all but forgotten.  "Look at you. Salivating at the chance to maim and kill someone who can't even defend herself. Foaming at the mouth like a sick trelkez."  That's all he is, indeed: a miserable creature that thrives on the pain he inflicts. Without that he is nothing.  

The dawning awareness fills me with unsuspected strength, and with it comes the pride I forgot long ago in that cage, when I was his victim. "Pathetic."

"Why, Rygel - what's this?"   He's genuinely puzzled, curiosity distracting him from his plans. When he turns off the device I judge it a small victory. It might be only a short delay, but I managed to sidetrack him.

"Something I should have said to you a long time ago." Yes. Face your fears, Zhaan told me, and back then I thought I did, but venting my rage on a desiccated corpse was not what I needed. And it wasn't Durka anyway.  Here is the real thing, here stands the true monster, the coward who needs to mete out pain to feel strong and bold. Now that I am truly facing my fears,  I understand at last what courage means, and it tastes good.

"I'm wondering… do you think your shipmates would really care if I just burnt your face right off?"

No, they probably wouldn't. Not that it matters, anyway.   

"Go ahead and find out. I don't care." I am Dominar Rygel the Sixteenth, and I am not afraid of you any longer. "You tortured me without mercy, but you never broke me! You only made me stronger!"  

Even dying at his hands seems a small price to pay for the pleasure of knowing he will be back in the hell he so briefly escaped, and that it will go on for a long, long time.  The dismay on Durka's face, as I tell him he won't run away on a pregnant Leviathan, tastes sweeter than the finest wine, fills me more than the biggest meal I ever ate.



"Is Moya still mad at me for throwing that bomb?"

It's all over. Durka is floating helpless in space, waiting for his Nebari jailers to catch him again.  We are free. Moya is safe, if a little worse for wear.  And I feel… small and insignificant once more.

"You know, I never thought I would say this to a Hynerian, much less to you–"

"Stop there! Oh-hoho! Don't you dare thank me for saving your life!" Gratitude? From a Peacekeeper? This is news, and despite my protestations there is a small glow at the center of my stomach - all three in fact - that feels quite good.

"I wasn't going to."

"You weren't? Why not?" Trust a frelling Peacekeeper to offer you a morsel, then snatch it away before you can bite into it!

"Because amidst all that unfinished business between you and Durka, I don't think you even knew I was there."

She's right. For those brief moments, all I cared about was laying down the burden of the long cycles of pain and humiliation, feeling the joy of rebirth, tasting the heady aroma of strength. Knowing that even though it was going to last only for a while, it would be enough.  And I fooled him! The Great Durka.   "Beat him at his own game!"

"You just compared yourself to a Peacekeeper."

Not quite. For a short, glorious moment, I was smarter, stronger. Braver.

And it felt wonderful.