No, she couldn't have done that. He was a good man, the only really good man she had known since.... Marcus.
It was strange. Marcus had broken down the walls of cynicism and sarcasm she had built around herself with his simple belief in what was right. Then he had died, and she had despaired of finding anyone like him. How strange to find such a person here.
David, in his own way, would do just as much good here as she would with Sinoval. It was no wonder the Vorlons wanted him dead.
Gently, she kissed him, and entered his mind. 'Forget this,' she whispered. 'Forget all of this.' She had to go, fading away like a whisper in the night. None of them should remember her, not David, not Delenn, no one. She must leave nothing behind that the Vorlons could use to follow her.
He stirred, and muttered something in his sleep. She hoped he would have pleasant dreams, but somehow she doubted it. A lot of people would have a lot of nightmares in the years to come.
She left David's room and stepped out into the corridor. She had a meeting with Captain Jack in one of the hidden places he knew so well. She was late, but she knew he would wait. He did not know entirely why he was waiting, did not even know that she was the one who had hired him. And when he had taken her away from this place and returned, he would not remember a thing about their journey.
Kosh had done a lot to her. Sometimes she doubted whether she was even entirely human any more, whether she was any more human than the screaming souls in the Vorlons' network.
She walked quickly, keeping to the shadows. A few people saw her. Some were awake even now, and on a planet with as many different races as Kazomi 7 it was inevitable some would be nocturnal. She saw Brakiri merchants haggling good–naturedly, Minbari workers looking into the sky or meditating at the places where Valen had preached, a few drunken Drazi and triumphant Narns.
Few of them saw her. Their eyes just.... slid past her. None of them would remember she has passed this way.
She was near now, she could feel it. It would be morning soon, sunsrise in less than an hour. Captain Jack would wait until sunsrise and then leave, puzzled at why he had been waiting at an abandoned spaceport all night. She had enough time.
She was outside the city now. Almost there.
A shadow fell over her, and she turned, her heart quickening. Not now! She was so close!
Ulkesh looked at her, the wind singing in her mind.
It was dark, and they lay together, the heat of their bodies warming them in the suddenly cool night. They held each other tight, both afraid that if they let go, they would never find each other again.
It was John who broke the comfortable silence. 'You know.... I've been thinking.'
'Hmm?' Delenn muttered in reply.
'We need somewhere new.... a symbol of the new age, a place of.... I don't know. Something free from all the old associations. Everywhere we have is old, touched by bad memories. We need somewhere new.'
'Such as?'
'Well.... Kazomi Seven carries all the memories of the Drakh, and it was a Drazi world before. Not truly neutral. But somewhere completely new....
'G'Kar had the right idea with Babylon Four. It was a place where everyone could gather, could assemble for a common purpose, but he built it as a place of war. It was always going to be a battle station. What if we did that again, but made it a place of peace? Oh, I know it would be expensive, but if everyone gets involved we could build it easily.
'A completely new place, untouched by any of the old memories, a new base for the Alliance.
'What do you think, Delenn?'
'I don't know. It sounds.... right, somehow. Appropriate. What would you call it?'
'Well, G'Kar's station was called Babylon Four, and this is a continuation of that, I suppose. Why not Babylon Five?'
'Babylon Five,' she said, holding the words in her mind. 'Yes,' she murmured. 'That sounds.... I don't know. It fits.
'I like it.'
'Good,' John smiled. 'I like it too.'
'Babylon Five,' she said again. 'Yes. I like it.'
Victory. At last. An eternity of warfare, of battling the growth of chaos, the darkness between the stars, and now it was all over.
The Light was victorious, triumphant.
A heady feeling. The war was won. The peace was beginning. The younger races had been saved from hell, now they would be led towards heaven. Slowly, oh so slowly. It would not be easy, and many of them would die during the journey the weak, the unworthy, those who just would not understand but those of them who listened, who obeyed, who conformed....
They would see Heaven.
It moved through the cities of its enemy. Countless ships hovered above the dead world, guarding it from things without and within. All life on Z'ha'dum had gone. The Shadows had obviously taken their pets and their children and their puppets with them. Still, they would have left some tricks behind.
And there was one who would have stayed.
There was no need for deception here. No need for encounter suits or illusions or angels. It could move freely, a mass of energy floating between rock and earth and air, as freely as through the clouds of home.
Besides, there would only be one being alive here, and He could see through any illusion.
'I see you,' said a voice, and the Vorlon shimmered as the Eldest walked forward slowly. He was in His mortal form, the one He had been born in. It was flesh, and flesh is weak. The Vorlon was puzzled why the Eldest would clothe himself thus when he had his true form, of light and energy and beauty.
<It is over, Eldest. This world is ours. This galaxy is ours. We come to pay respects, and homage.>
'And to prove to me that you were right all along?'
<We have won, Eldest. Of course we were right.>
The Eldest shook His head sadly. 'I never wished to say this to you, but you do not understand. You have not won, and it is not over. It will not be over for a long, long time. One day, you will understand.'
Lorien was the first sentient being in the galaxy. He had seen countless millennia of life, known millions of different races, seen wonders and terrors in equal measure, but there were some things even He was unaware of.
One thing He heard now He had never heard before.
The laughter of a Vorlon.
