"David?" he said, almost too quietly even to hear himself. He coughed. "David," he said more loudly.
He turned. David looked at him.
"John," he said. "You know, I'm not the least bit surprised. Sooner or later, everyone comes to Minbar."
* * *
In the halls of the rulers of Narn, there was fear and anger and disbelief.
There was also a lot of noise.
"Let them try! We will fight!"
"…. must tell them they are wrong…."
"…. a message to the people, tell them all is well…."
"…. a joke, a sick joke…."
"…. satellite reports…."
"…. explain that we are innocent…."
"…. fight them."
"…. the Centauri…."
Countless voices shouting at each other without sense or meaning, simply giving voice to emotion. They were the leaders of the Narn people. They lived a life of fear and paranoia. They had grown up in a world occupied by the Centauri, when everyone knew their lives hung on the whims of utterly remorseless and implacable aliens. They had sworn never to experience such helplessness again, and that vow had given birth to terrible anger and even more terrible fear. They had tried to build beauty and hope, and darkness and corruption had been the result.
All that now remained was the fear.
These were new aliens. The Narn had become stronger since they had driven out the Centauri, but they had become weaker as well, and now they were all feeling that weakness.
Apart from one.
"Silence!"
Everyone stopped, and turned. It was a Narn voice, one strong and filled with power, one used to command.
Ha'Cormar'ah G'Kar walked hesitantly into the room, blinking occasionally against the light. Beside him, supporting his faltering steps, stood Da'Kal. To more than one pair of eyes they appeared as they had all those years ago, the magnificent warrior and his beautiful queen.
G'Kar's footsteps were hard and heavy, and blood covered his tunic. The side of his face was matted with his own blood, and there were deep furrows of raw flesh where his eye had once been.
Still, he commanded them by his very presence. Each of them knew they would have let this man rule if only he had wanted to. They remembered the way he had spoken to them the last time he had been here, when he had forced the peace with the Centauri. Here was one whose voice could shake the foundations of the planet.
He walked up to the podium, Da'Kal still helping him. Once there, she stepped back. He was standing tall and majestic, his wounds forgotten.
"We will not fight them," he whispered. He coughed, blood filling his mouth, and then repeated himself, louder and more certain. "We will not fight them.
"They are too strong and too powerful. We will not negotiate. They would not listen. This is not a joke, not a lie, not an illusion. This is reality.
"We have become dark and corrupt. We have been consumed by vengeance until that is all we can see. I tried to teach you…." His voice fell, despairing. "I tried to teach you," he said again, more quietly. "But the truth is that I blame myself for this as much as I blame any of you. I should have seen this more clearly. I wanted to believe we were what I wanted us to be and I could not imagine it any other way.
"I was tired, so very tired, and it was so easy to let the wrongness creep into all our lives. So much easier to let it happen than to fight it, and I did not try to stop what we were becoming.
"Yes, I blame myself, but I blame all of you as well. You were trusted with the leadership of our people and you gave us all to the Darkness in the name of revenge. Behold the price of that revenge.
"We will evacuate this world. Everyone we can. We will save as many as we can, but not the tainted, not those complicit in this…. conspiracy. And none of us will leave. We will all stay and die with our planet. There are not enough ships for us all to depart and I will not see those of us who are guilty leave and live while the innocent remain and die.
"You have doomed our world. All of you. All of us. The least we can do is see that we do not doom our people as well."
"But we can't…." one of them said. "We…."
"We can!" G'Kar spat. "And we will."
"What shall we tell them?" asked another. "What…?"
"We will tell them the truth," G'Kar replied, more softly. "And when they are leaving, to begin their lives as the exiles that we have made them, we will tell them one word.
"Remember."
All were silent, still, motionless. The enormity of what was happening slowly permeated the room.
"We have little time," Da'Kal snapped, breaking the silence. "Let us begin!"
* * *
Moreil rested on one knee before the Chaos-Bringer. He could hardly believe he was in the presence of such a person. He could see now why his Dark Masters had chosen such a one to be the inheritor of their legacy. Truly, this one had been blessed by them from the moment of his birth.
"You are Moreil," the Chaos-Bringer said. "Of the Z'shailyl."
"Yes, lord."
"Why were you with the Brotherhood? What were you seeking?"
"You, lord."
The Chaos-Bringer said nothing. The silence was heavy and oppressive and Moreil continued speaking. "We knew…. all of us knew. When the Dark Masters departed, they offered us the chance to accompany them and serve them in the next world. The Drakh chose to follow. The Zarqheba chose to remain.
"My people, we were unsure. Many wished to leave and remain with our Masters. Some objected that if everyone went, who would pursue the cause of Sacred Chaos here? Surely this galaxy was still important. The Accursed Lords of Order remained. Could they be allowed to triumph? Our Masters must have had their reasons of course, and it is not for us to question."
"And?"
"We concluded this was both a test, and a trap. A test of us, to determine our worth. Could we endure and pursue our cause without their benevolent shadow over us? Had we learned enough to conclude their war?
"And a trap. The Lords of Order would become complacent and weak. There would be weaknesses and opportunities and advantages to be claimed. We would hide and work ourselves into the warp and weave of the galaxy and we would take our chance.
"Some of our people did pass beyond to be with the Masters. The rest of us remained. Some went amongst the Drazi and began to exert influence there. Some became assassins in the shadows of the worlds, shrouded from the eyes of mortals. Others went to Narn, to bargain with their leaders. Some went to search the galaxy for hidden allies and lost relics.
"I and those who follow me came here, to join the disaffected and the rebels. We would become visible. We would sow chaos and misery according to our creed. They would seek to use me, but I could not be used. I did not care about power or wealth or pain or any of their dreams.
"I knew that if we acted boldly enough, if we were visible and clear, you would come to find us. Some of us went to look for you, but I knew that would fail. You would find us when we were worthy of your leadership.
"Lord, you are the last legacy of what our Masters have left us. Permit me to serve you and I shall issue the call to my brethren. Those who remain will flock to your banner and we shall bring down the Lords of Order and fill the galaxy with chaos."
Moreil finished. There was another long silence from his lord, and for the first time doubt began to creep into Moreil's mind. Was he truly worthy? Had he done enough to advance the cause of chaos? Had he been too presumptuous, too arrogant? Would the Chaos-Bringer even desire his service?
Finally, he spoke.
"We are at war. All of us — not just my people, or yours, but all peoples, everywhere in the galaxy. We must all unite to fight this war.
"You will obey me. Utterly. You and all your people."
"Of course, lord," Moreil said, his heart leaping. "We are yours to command."
"Then rise. You cannot serve me on your knees."
* * *
He could feel it in the air, the thick and heavy scent of death. He could also feel the fear that coursed through the people he passed. There was a heartening amount of disbelief and optimism, but for every bravo convinced it would never happen there were two nervous and frightened people staring up into the sky.
Lennier, once of Minbar, once of the Third Fane of Chudomo, once a Ranger, knew what would happen. He felt a great deal of fear himself, but it was not coming from him. The voice in his mind, the one he had fought and struggled against for years…. it was afraid.
The light, his Keeper kept saying. The light, the light. We are going to die.
"Yes," Lennier said simply. "We are."
I do not want to die.
"What we want rarely matters."
Ta'Lon was safe anyway, or so Lennier hoped. He hoped the big Narn had managed to get off-world. Ta'Lon had expected some sort of retaliatory strike for his Government's alliance with the Shadows — albeit nothing like this — and he would have gone to seek allies.
Lennier was glad he did not have to see Ta'Lon's face when he learned what was being done to his home.
He wandered idly, drifting here and there. He had spent a year on this world, watching and studying and hiding at G'Kar's behest, and he had come to know the place well. It was not his home, and it never would be. He did not have a home any more.
And he never would again.
His past seemed as hollow and empty as his future now would be. When he looked back, he tried to recall a single aspect of the universe that had been better for his existence. There was nothing. His life had enriched nothing and no one and there would be no one to notice he was gone. He had known few friends, and those he had would have forgotten him by now.
Ta'Lon was not a friend, just an ally. Delenn had been…. a bad memory. G'Kar a leader and a voice but not a friend. Londo….
Londo. He had been a friend. If he could go back to any part of his life, Lennier would have spent forever living those few months when he and Londo and Delenn were engaged on an impossible quest.
But Londo would have forgotten him by now. He was an Emperor without an Empire, a man trapped and bound by his own power. Lennier had heard about the heart attack. He hoped Londo would never wake up. Better death, even the living death of a coma, than to see the galaxy become like this.
No one to remember him. No one to acknowledge him. He had lived and served in the shadows and in the shadows he would die.
He walked, with no rhyme or reason or purpose, just to pass the time until the end. He saw people he recognised. An old man, obviously a former soldier, fist raised against the sky. A young girl, frantically searching for her mother. Others.
Many of them were moving about, moving quickly. He followed them, if for no other reason than to see where they were going, and found himself in the main square of the city.
Above them, a giant hologram of G'Kar appeared. Many of the Narns wept when they saw the image. Lennier only stared impassively. There were no illusions, no disguises. G'Kar looked weak and haunted. His right eye socket was a mass of raw flesh, and the bloodstains were only just drying on his tunic.
Still, he looked like a leader. Even as a hologram, his charisma and force of presence shone through.
"My people," the voice began. "My people, we have a great task ahead of us, and a great purpose as well. Our duty is no less than to ensure the survival of our race…."
* * *
At first she did not believe it. Delenn would not really accept what had happened until the first witnesses came to Babylon 5, burning with anger and grief and a terrible desire for revenge. It all seemed so…. horrible.
Except somehow she had known that something bad was happening.
She had been thinking about John, of course. He had seemed so awkward and unsure the last time he had seen her. He had left for Minbar to find David. Taking a holiday.
Without her.
Once she had loved him more than she had thought possible. At one time, he had filled her mind and her vision. She had dreamed of the two of them creating a new order, making the galaxy a better and newer and finer place.
Once she had known a love so great it seemed to burn her. Now their relationship had become cold and barren. He was like a block of ice in their bed. They never kissed, or touched.
It seemed that ever since she had gone to Z'ha'dum, everything that had been good between them had died. She had been afraid to touch him or love him, the memories of her child's dying heartbeat still echoing in her mind. He for his part had seemed to vacillate between treating her as if she were made of glass and not wanting to be near her.
She missed the man he had once been, just as she missed the woman she had once been. There had been a brief period, while Kazomi 7 was being rebuilt and before they had gone to Minbar, when everything had seemed new and perfect and joyful. Since then everything had become as ashes.
Maybe it would be better if things simply…. ended.
Her hand brushed her belly and she felt again the echo of a heartbeat. She could not hate anyone, that was the worst thing of all. She could not hate Welles, who had been a good man overall. She could not hate Clark, who had just been a vicious puppet. She could not hate the nameless, faceless scientists. She could not hate poor, dead Vejar, for lying to her and preventing her death.
She could not hate anyone, but she felt sometimes that John hated everyone.
The call of the comm channel stirred her from her reverie, and she blinked, looking up. "Yes?"
Kulomani's face appeared. Delenn sighed inwardly. She was still not sure what to say to the Brakiri about his handling of events at Centauri Prime. She could sense a shadow behind him, although whether he danced to its strings or acted entirely by his own will, she could not tell.
"Delenn," he said. "There is a matter…. of concern that you may wish to know."
"Yes?" she whispered, her heart pounding.
"We have been contacted by two merchant ships within the last three hours. The main jump gate into the Narn system appears to be inoperable. There are no communications with Narn itself, or with any of the satellites or stations within the system. Either all the satellites have been damaged in some way, or the entire system is being jammed."
"The Shadows?" she whispered.
"I have sent a Dark Star to investigate. They have not been able to open a jump point into the system. The captain reported back that it was as if there was some force shield blocking the exit from hyperspace."
"Have you heard anything from Commander Ta'Lon?"
"No. The last I was aware he was active within the Narn system, but he does move around a great deal. It is likely he is in a position where he must maintain radio silence."
"And G'Kar?"
"Likewise."
