She thought quickly. Flattery was always a powerful weapon. "It tells me that.... it tells me that you are its chosen servant.... you are the one who will be raised above all others, and that I am to serve you and obey you in all things.... for you are our Lord.... and our saviour, and our master."
"You lie," he said, smiling. He sat back, and resumed his contemplation of the flame. "But it is of no matter. I had you brought here to thank you." He brushed his hand through the flame, and smiled, closing his eyes. "You began the process of my purification. You brought me to the flame, and with your scourge and your pain I was made anew, all the better to receive the wisdom of the Darkness.
"I brought you here to thank you for that.... and to reward you. The day will come when I will sit on the Purple Throne, and you will sit there beside me, and the two of us.... we will rule a world of flame and death.... and the Darkness will speak through us all. The Darkness will come."
"The Darkness will come," whispered countless voices from the shadows.
"I am.... honoured, Lord," she whispered. "Deeply honoured. I.... I understand the role for which I have been chosen."
"No," he said. "You do not. Not yet. But you will." He held the torch close to her face, and smiled. "You will."
She did not scream. She was a Lady of the Royal Court, and she would not scream. And she did not. And by the time it was over she did understand, and she did see, and the Darkness did speak through her.
The shuttle emerged from hyperspace and Delenn looked out at the dark world below her. She had seen Z'ha'dum before, but only in visions and dreams and whispers of the what-would-be and what-might-have-been. This was the first time she had ever seen the place itself.
Shadow ships were waiting for her, a great many of them. A message was coming to her ship.
She was not afraid, she had embraced her destiny here. She knew what she had to do, and why she had to do it.
She had come to Z'ha'dum to make atonement for the sins of her past, to make amends for the future, and ultimately, she had come to Z'ha'dum to die.
Gareth D. Williams
Part 1
The Fiery Trial Through Which we Pass.
And Valen asked the Nine, 'Will you follow me into Darkness, into Fire, into Storm, into Shadow, into Death?' And the Nine said, 'Yes.' Delenn has never asked John Sheridan that question, but for him the answer is clear. He will follow her. Into Darkness. Into Fire. Into Storm. Into Shadow. Into Death? To Z'ha'dum.
Chapter 1
"If we cannot fight together, then we will surely die apart. Our enemies have no regard for historical hatreds, for ancient enmities, for feuds born of bloodshed and misunderstanding. To those who seek to destroy all that we are, we are all one and the same: races to be destroyed.
"If our enemies see us as one, then why can we not see ourselves so?"
Excerpt from Ha'Cormar'ah G'Kar's Speech of Unity.
There is a world, far and distant, out on the Rim. It has been a dead world for so long.
A thousand years ago a great and terrible war was brought to this world. The final battle lasted for many days, but ultimately an evil was driven from it, and those who had pursued the war returned to their homes, content to rest, to bury their dead, to raise their children, to tell stories.
And to forget. Forget, they did, relegating the war to just another legend, to tales of heroes and courage, to a time long ago, a time that held no relevance for the present.
It is the curse of mortal man to forget. Mortal beings cannot learn from their mistakes, for they are doomed to keep forgetting them.
Time has passed. Generations have come and gone. And the Darkness has returned once more.
Z'ha'dum, once a dead world, now teems with life again. The ancient race who for a thousand years hid in secret, have come back to their ancestral home, to their temples and cities and wonders of old. They have come back, and they are ready to go to war once more.
This time, they know they will not lose. This time, they will be careful. This time, they will be ready.
The Shadows may be long-lived. They may be an ancient race, older by far than many can comprehend. They may possess wonders far in advance of the younger races.
But for all that, the Shadows are still mortal.
And it is the doom of mortals to forget.
A ship comes to Z'ha'dum. They are surprised, but eager. This is not what they have planned for, admittedly, but it is something they have wanted. They let it come. They are pleased.
They have forgotten so much, particularly how to hear the one who lives below. The one who is not mortal, and who does not forget. He has begun to speak at last, but no one can hear him. There will be many deaths before anyone can truly hear him.
A ship comes. See. It is here....
She still does not entirely know why she has come. As she looks at the dead, crimson world beneath her, Delenn of Mir contemplates the last time any of her people were here. The climax of the last Great War against the Shadows. Valen had led his mighty fleet here, and brought to an end many years of war.
As she looks at it from this perspective, Delenn of Mir is very much afraid that there are many years of war still to come. Unless she can end it here.
And if this war is won, as was the last, what then? A wait of another thousand years before the killing starts once more? A peace more terrible than any war?
She has been sent here by a race she once thought to be her allies. She does not understand the reason for this, but that does not matter. She has sent all the information she has to the one who might be able to understand.
She is thinking about Sinoval now. She hopes he received her message. It would give him some satisfaction to know he was right. He would take great pleasure in being able to say 'I told you so'.
But he would never get the chance, at least not to her.
John can walk now. He can move, and touch, and live.... Cured both of the injuries sustained in the Battle of the Third Line and of Deathwalker's terminal virus, he can live once more. The United Alliance has its general, one far more able to pursue this war than Delenn herself.
But she will be able to do one last service before the end.
She brings the shuttle into orbit, looking at the planet below her. She has seen it before only in recordings, in dreams, in visions sent by the Vorlons. She has never been here before. It looks dead, abandoned, still scarred by the ravages of war and time.
She prepares the message she is to send. This is Delenn of Mir, leader of the United Alliance of Kazomi Seven. I come here in response to an invitation by David Sheridan. Please provide directions to a suitable position on the surface.
This done, she sits back, ensuring it will broadcast itself on a repeating cycle. She thinks back to the time she had been given the 'invitation', and to the aftermath. She had turned Ambassador Sheridan down, knowing the invitation to be a trap. Now.... she was here anyway.
She should have told John about his father. She should have told him. Just one more legacy of regret to lay upon all the countless others heaped up over her lifetime.
--- We read your message, Delenn, — -- says a voice over the audio-only channel. She recognises it immediately, and sits bolt upright. Ambassador Sheridan. John's father. --- I will admit to being surprised, but questions can wait. I am transferring the co-ordinates of a landing site just outside the capital city. You will need suitable breathing equipment when you are on the surface, but we will be able to provide that if necessary. The other external conditions may be.... uncomfortable for you, but I am sure you will be able to cope. Living conditions inside the city are more than adequate, I assure you. — --