(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ENVOI>>
"What have you learned?"
- Galen
* * *
#Here#
All alone, Julia strode down the corridor towards the SHARD OF NIGHT's hangar bay. That enclosure had been emptied of personnel on her order, as there was a palaver to conduct -- a very private palaver involving only herself and the three individuals awaiting her arrival... a meeting that she could not avoid, even if she had wanted to. Even before she had fully recovered from her ordeal, she had understood that the Technomage and the Soul Hunters would probably want some sort of payment for their 'assistance' -- that she would have to do something for them, to balance the scales.
The door opened before her, and she stepped through, her throat dry, her left hand gripped and trembling. This couldn't be fear she was feeling, surely? They were there of course, arrayed in the entranceway to Galen's midnight-black vessel -- and this forced her to admit that yes, it *was* possible.
There *would* be a price for her to pay -- and now she would learn what that price would be.
"You wanted to see me." she began. "Here I am."
"So..." Galen inquired, his gaze intent. "Is this fear I see upon your face? You, the Ranger who have walked through the fire, in Valen's name? You, the Observer who stood at the Rimstalker's side during the Shadow War, and flew against the Drakh during the battle for Earth? Is it *possible* that you are afraid of the individuals who helped to save your life?"
"You know it's possible!" she retorted. "And you know why." This said more softly.
Galen laughed, then. "So -- you *are* capable of knowing when you have done something wrong. It is... a beginning."
"An important beginning." the Praetor Questus solemnly allowed. "This time, young one, you very nearly destroyed yourself... and if we had not aided your Rangers in the task just completed, your soul, it would have been lost forever -- and if that had happened, the task you have been given, it would certainly have failed."
"But... I fell into my alternate body! I was..."
"Safe?" the Fhedayar scornfully replied. "Do not pretend to deceive yourself, Observer -- you were never safe, even in that body. Had the link between your body and your soul been severed, your alternate self would quickly have reasserted full control over that body, and *you* would have been lost between the universes.
Forever."
Julia looked down, then, unable to meet the Fhedayar's eyes. "I... see. It would appear I owe you an apology, then."
The Soul Hunter inclined his head fractionally. "Your apology is accepted, Observer... *this* time. And while the Technomage is correct in his assessment of the situation, what you fear above all must also be discussed."
Julia nodded, her expression bleak. "You helped Klairika and the others to save me when no one else would... and because this is so, I will have to repay you for your aid... in full. I do not know what price you will ask of me, but I do know I must accept your judgement in this matter." She knelt then, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. "Do with me what you will."
A moment passed, and then, to her surprise, a strong hand descended onto her shoulder. "Rise, Observer." the Praetor Questus commanded. "While you are *technically* correct in what you say, know that while many fear us, we are not cruel, and neither is *he*. The Technomage is merely... intolerant of those who do not learn from their mistakes."
"You must be much more careful from now on." Galen explained. "One of these days, your carelessness will probably kill you -- and when that happens, the fate of Matthew Gideon's ship may be sealed. He needs your help, even though he himself does not know it yet."
"And you?" Julia asked, turning back towards the Soul Hunters. "You want nothing more of me?"
"For now, no -- we have done for you what needed to be done, Observer. But in the future -- now that is a different story. You seek to pay a price, do you? So be it -- we will meet again, you and I, some day hence... and when that day comes, I will make an offer to you... and in that moment, you may either agree to my request, or refuse to honour it. *That* is my price."
"I don't understand!" she complained.
"No..." the Praetor Questus allowed, as he turned away, the Fhedayar at his side. "But you will."
"Well, then!" Galen mused, as the two Soul Hunters vanished into his ship, "That would *appear* to be that. You may have a long wait before you see them again... but be assured, you will see *me* again far sooner. Your date with destiny awaits, Julia Tikopai -- and when that day arrives, I will be there."
"Is that a promise," she coolly inquired, "Or a threat?"
"We will have to see, now won't we?" was the Technomage's final retort, as he too vanished from sight.
* * *
#There#
"This, then, is the beginning of your long service."
John Sheridan, the man who had once commanded the greatest fleet in the Empire, nodded his head ruefully. "Now that he's gone, someone has to carry on with the struggle, and well, it's beginning to look like I'm the only one who has a hope in Hell of pulling *this* one off.
The other smiled. "Perhaps. In time, you will come to replace him... in time... if *all* goes well. For the present, however, it is your task to learn, and to serve."
Sheridan nodded. "Show me the way."
"Then follow."
* * *
Elsewhere, two women came together. Both had been affected by the events just past -- one had lost a husband, while the other had seen the object of her hunt snatched forever out of reach. Both women were angry, but for different reasons. And both women now wanted revenge on those who had hurt them so.
The powers that be had decided to give them that chance.
"What?" Ivanova exclaimed. "You *cannot* be serious."
"I'm very serious." Lochley replied. "He told me himself that this was the way it had to be... they told him this, you see. Sheridan was supposed to escape, and so was Sinclair... we couldn't have changed that if we had wanted to, apparently. The whole intent was to bring Sheridan and Tikopai together, and now that's happened..."
"Now that's happened, their desire to bring down *our* Empire may be what helps to destroy the Alliance? But how?"
"Let me explain..."
* * *
#Another time, another age#
The Minbari named Jarran had been running for a very long time, and now, it looked as if that was one commodity he had finally run out of. Sooner or later, the Warriors would catch him, and when that happened...
He stumbled, then, and finally fell, and a moment later, heard footsteps approaching him from out of the ruins. The Minbari sighed -- would this, then, be the end? He forced himself back onto his feet, and lowered into a fighting stance. "I will not come peacefully!" he cried out. "I will not return to your jails. You will have to kill me."
"I have not come to kill you, Jarran." the other Minbari announced. "I am here to help you."
"Help me?"
"Yes. You are the first to be helped, but you will not be the last." And then it was that the other Minbari emerged from the darkness, and for the first time in a very long time, Jarran was given cause to hope, and cause to wonder, for the Minbari who had come to aid him was not alone.
""My name is Valen," the other began, while the unknown alien stood off to one side, and smiled his crooked smile. "We have much to discuss, you and I."
* * *
#Here#
"So let me see if I've got this straight," Nicholas mused, as Dasouri piloted the SHARD OF NIGHT away from the still-burning surface of Amaranth, "They basically slapped your wrist and said 'don't do it again'?"
Julia rolled her eyes and turned in her chair to meet Dawson's frankly disbelieving gaze. "If only it was that simple, Mr. Dawson... if only it was that simple."
"Perhaps it is enough for us to know that a mistake was made in this place," Klairika mused, "A mistake that destroyed an ancient gate between worlds -- a gate that should never have been opened again. That gate nearly killed our captain, Mr. Dawson -- whatever else was discussed between them is not for us to know."
"And remember," Sheynell reminded everyone, "We've all learned a very important lesson here -- sometimes it's better to look before one leaps."
"And maybe..." Julia replied with a sigh, "Once in a while the captain should stay on her ship and do her job, instead of running around the ruins and trying to get herself killed."
"Did I just hear *her* say that?" a perplexed Dawson asked Larieken.
"That you did, Mr. Dawson." the now-smiling Minbari replied. "And since this *is* the case, perhaps some good has come out of this experience, after all."
"And sometimes even the harsh lessons have happy endings." Julia concluded. "For now, however, I think it's time for us to get out of town. Na'lai Alidiae, maybe it's time to pay Captain Gideon and the EXCALIBUR a visit."
"Discreetly, of course."
"Of course."
"Getting underway now."
"So how long do you think that planet's gonna burn?" Dawson asked Sheynell, as Dasouri opened a jump point, and the SHARD shot into hyperspace, leaving Amaranth behind.
"There are some things, Nicholas," Sheynell replied, "That I don't think we're *supposed* to know."
And that would have been the end of that, except that Nicholas heard his captain mutter something as he left the bridge... something that had him frowning all the way back down to Engineering.
"'When the price is paid'." he muttered. "And just when I thought I was *starting* to figure her out..."