A Dark, Distorted Mirror. Volume 5 : Among the Stars, like Giants. Part 4 : Hopes, Aspirations and Dreams

"Londo Mollari," she repeated. "Yes, I will. I will."

"Good." He pulled back, and the soldier pushed the girl into the hold. The door closed. "Good," Lennier said again, stepping back.

He did not stay to watch the last ship take off. He turned his back and walked away. Exhaustion filled him, but he did not care. There would be plenty of time to rest when he was dead.

* * *

They walked slowly, in a silence that veered between the companionable quiet of friends and the awkwardness of people who had once been friends and were now not certain what they were.

They made small talk, chatting about the improvements that had been made on Minbar. Corwin asked about old friends, although there were fewer than he had realised. Sheridan asked about life on Minbar. Corwin did not mention Susan. Sheridan did not mention Delenn.

Finally they stopped, looking at each other awkwardly.

"You've come to ask me to go back, haven't you?" Corwin asked.

Sheridan looked at him, and gave a half-smile. "Sort of," he said. "In a manner of speaking."

"I don't want to go back. I like it here. I'm doing something good. Not morally grey, or vaguely good intentions, or less bad than other people. I'm doing something good. I like it here."

"You don't belong here."

"That's what Kats said."

"Is she the one who brought you here?"

"Yes. I met her at the Day of the Dead on Brakir. I don't remember a great deal about it, but.... it was bad. I had no idea just how many ghosts there were. She invited me here, to help with the rebuilding."

"David, there's something I need you to...."

"No! I don't like what the Alliance has become, John. It's a dark, cold place where everything seems to be about numbers and pieces and pawns and nothing actually matters apart from winning. Towards the end of the war, I was looking around and I gradually realised there was nothing there I wanted to be fighting for.

"It's got worse since then, hasn't it? I've heard what's been happening. The Drazi, the Centauri. I found out recently that one of those Inquisitors visited Kats. Inquisitors? Think about that for a minute. We have Inquisitors and secret police and ...." He came to a halt. "Everything just feels wrong. For God's sake, is this what we were fighting for all those years?"

"No. It isn't. David, I've been asleep for a very long time. I didn't see all those things you've just described. All I could think about was.... getting through the day. And then the next day, and the next. But I've opened my eyes now.... or rather, had them opened for me.

"You're right. This isn't what we were fighting for. I'm not quite sure what all that struggle was for, but it wasn't this.

"But it was worth fighting for once. Surely it is again! I can't do this alone, David. I need your help. I've always needed your help."

David looked at him, at his outstretched hand, and the absolute sincerity and passion in his eyes. For a moment he looked ten years younger, as he had looked when they first met, determined to create a better world and to defend it against anyone or anything who tried to stop him.

He reached out and took his Captain's hand.

"I'm here," he said.

John laughed, and they hugged, as friends and brothers and warriors who have just regained their purpose.

"So," David said when they separated. "Where do we start?"

"There's something I need you to do for me. No one else can do it. It's probably the most important thing I've ever asked anyone to do."

"What?"

"I need you to be my best man.

"I'm going to ask Delenn to marry me."

* * *

G'Kar awakened instantly, passing from dissonance to clarity in a second. He remembered killing Da'Kal, fulfilling a decades-old promise to end her life if ever she asked him to. He remembered the soldiers attacking him, hitting him and kicking him.

And then he realised he was awake and in a cargo hold filled with his own people. It was dark and dirty, and it was moving. He sensed the familiarity of spaceflight.

"Oh, Da'Kal," he whispered, trying to stand. He couldn't, of course. Everyone was strapped in tightly. The cargo hold was hardly designed to carry people, but such was necessity.

"Oh, Da'Kal." He tried to blink through his single eye and shed a tear for her, but he could not. He knew she had arranged this. There was no other way he could have been convinced to leave the planet, unless he was removed by force.

"Is something wrong?" asked a solicitous voice from beside him.

He turned, somewhat awkwardly given the pain in his neck and back. It was a comfortable pain, a pain that reminded him he was still alive, but it was limiting nonetheless. A young girl was sitting there, strapped in as awkwardly and uncomfortably as he was.

"You look hurt," she said.

"I am fine," he replied. "I am not hurt."

"What happened to your eye?"

He reached out to touch the ruin at the side of his head. "Nothing. I can see more clearly now than I could before, when I had both."

"I know you," she said. "You're G'Kar, the Prophet."

"I am. I think you have the advantage of me. Who are you?"