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[In Zero, Scorpius does what he does best: he plans. Giving him space and time to think through what he wants and how to get it is one of the unintended gifts of his cell space, and he appreciates every moment of it.

After several days, he addresses the Barge]

A question to my fellow shipmates;

When an inmate commits a grievous crime, who is to blame for it? Obviously the inmate must share some, but what percentage is attributed to them and what percentage is attributed to their warden, who may be unfit to command them? A warden may fail just as easily by not admitting to something that could be most assuredly out of their control.

And what of inmates who aren't paired and no one has taken the time to explain to them the rules?

My apologies to Alex Summers. While it was certainly my intent to hurt him, he had done nothing to harm me and was simply in the correct place at the correct time.

[Private to Crichton]

Of course, John, we all know that you are the one fully to blame.

More like Alex will follow. You cannot hope to save them all.

In a few days' time they will be forced to release me. What has changed between the time of my entering this cell and the time of my leaving it? As a deterrent towards behavior, Zero leaves much to be desired.

I am willing to entertain ideas of a deal between us.

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[As with the art gallery, Hinata manages to summon up an expression that shows more horror than he actually feels. Some of what Scorpius says isn't far off from things SHSL Despair themselves tried to do: the breeding, the torture, the murders. The rest... some of it is novel, at least, enough to actually disturb him. Experimentation, too, still seems to be a button that can be pushed, and the frisson of distress he feels when Scorpius says the word excites him as much as it makes his heart sink, in the part of his soul that's still excited to be able to feel anything.

And he knows, he still knows, that even when the reason is something like this, it doesn't matter. He still can't go and torture people into letting him commit genocide.

Can't he? the dark voice says. Shouldn't he? Hinata grits his teeth against it.]

That's... that's terrible. [It's sincere -- even if he's seen it all from the other side, that doesn't make it not terrible.]

I can see, now, why you'd want to... I get that much.

That's a good idea, lovey, thank you. I worry about 'im, and I'm really spread too thin to spend more time on 'im than I do already.

You look like you can 'andle 'im, too.

[The amount of fluctuation of Hinata's heat signature is a fascinating subject to Scorpius, who sits and watches with curiosity. It's not an excuse he offers, nor does he beg understanding. He is this way because he is this way, and that's the end of it]

There is at the moment a very real threat that the Scarrans will overtake Peacekeeper space. Peacekeepers - Sebaceans - are the only ones with a large enough army to hope to stop them. But they are outnumbered ten to one. For them to succeed, I need the help of John Crichton.

So Alex Summers is only the tail end of a very large, very expansive story, I'm afraid. I had hoped to convince John through reason, but he sees things in a...different way than I do.

Protecting the rest of the galaxy, unfortunately, comes as a side-along allowance of my desire for revenge. This is not to say I don't want to protect others, but I have been seeking revenge for far, far longer than I have even known some of the people who would end up sheltered under my plan.

Some of whom, ironically, would be John Crichton and his friends and allies.

...I do? [It's a real question. He finds himself looking in the mirror a lot these days, and he's never quite sure what he sees looking back. To his own eyes, he still looks so... average. Especially with the haircut.]

I think we disagree on what would be best for everyone, Stephanie. I will not - cannot - leave John be.

And revenge is ultimately worth more to you than the well being of anyone else.

You misunderstand. My preoccupation is not with any enemy that comes after the Scarrans. After they are defeated, I will cease caring about the rest of the galaxy. Let it take care of itself.

Or, to use your progression of thought, why should I hold off destroying a very real, prominent threat in the idea that a hypothetical one exists?

Or what makes you think that once the threat is destroyed, I will not simply destroy the weapon used to end them?

There are a thousand futures. But there is only one current reality.

Yes.

I suppose that is one of the reasons why I am on this side of the bars.

Probably. You're certainly not the first.

But you also wouldn't be the first to eventually realize your energy might be better spent towards other endeavors.

You're engaging and challenging 'im without swallowing 'is bullshit or letting 'im get you angry or telling 'im you think 'e's scum - in words or otherwise. That's nine-tenths of the job right there.

Aye. I reckon you'll do well 'ere.

I realize this.

But the nostalgic part of me resists it.

It's not exactly a fast process, [He's still very aware of the fact that it took two years for Erik to basically say one sentence that would have let them leave, and while he's not resentful of him for it, it's still sort of hilarious in retrospect that that had been the thing to seal the deal.]

But I can say from experience, it's much better on the other side.

And whom did you take umbrage against, Doctor? For what reason?

Okay. Listen. I'm making this between us because I respect John's privacy. [ more or less ] I'm not threatening you. I'm going on the very much off chance that you don't actually understand human psychology.

John has been victimized. You are his aggressor. What actually happened and why is irrelevant, that is the dynamic you have now. What that means is that every time you speak to him, every time you're in the same room as him, that's as good as an attack.

It needs to stop.

I am aware of how John feels in regards to my presence.

But his wellbeing comes secondary to what I need from him. If there is an easier way that will not harm John, then I am open to suggestion.

Yeah, there is. Man up and ask nicely like a decent whatever-species-you-are. There is nothing you could need that's more important than John's well-being and impossible to get without risking it.

He doesn't have the capacity to give it to me alone. To extract it, I will need either his cooperation or tools I don't yet have.

Has he told you what it is? Why I want it? Why he keeps it from me?

No, and I haven't asked, because that is not how you talk to victims.

If Crichton does not give me what I need, then there will be many, many more victims.

That is not a threat I am making. That is a reality. There is a larger enemy in our universe and it threatens everything he and I hold dear.

Has it ever occurred to you, however briefly, that you're in a prison which hires help by promising them literally anything they want?

It occurred to me, yes.

But the desire for revenge is something that will keep me an inmate forever.

So ask someone else to ask for it for you. There are people here just for shits and giggles.

No one here is going to wish wide-spread death over a species they have never met in a universe they will never visit on the word of an inmate they barely know.

And as entirely sentimental as it sounds, I...wished to be there to witness it.

How familiar are you with Earth's history? Specifically the mid twentieth century.

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cw; rape, death, human experimentation

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