“It’s you, isn’t it?” he said. “I thought it was before, but now… it is you.”

The figure moved forward, but stumbled and fell, almost in slow motion. He rushed to its side, but then hesitated, remembering what had happened to Mr. Allan.

“You need my help.”

The figure nodded.

“So then, what can I do for you?” The figure slowly removed its helmet and looked at Corwin. Then it told him.

“I know,” whispered Susan Ivanova to her eternal guardians. “There’s a Vorlon. It’s coming here.”

A Vorlon…? Sheridan tried to rise, but he didn’t seem to have the energy. A Vorlon. He’d met a Vorlon before. On Narn. With G’Kar. It had shown him… something. It had whispered something to him. Its name. It had shown him… shown him… what?

He couldn’t remember.

“Wake up, John,” Susan said, not coldly, but without a great deal of warmth either. “Your Minbari whore’s coming for you, and him as well. He’s coming too.”

“Who… who are you talking about?” he muttered. He tried to rise again, and managed to hook his arm over a handrail and haul himself up. Susan merely watched. She didn’t do anything to help him. She simply watched.

“I don’t suppose she told you, did she? No, truthfulness and honesty are not particularly big Minbari virtues, whatever they like to tell anyone. Minbari do not lie, they say. Maybe not, but they never tell anyone the whole truth, either.

“What do you know about Valen?”

Sheridan blinked, trying to clear the fog in his mind. He did know that name. Delenn… Delenn had told him… he’d heard the name.

“Minbari… not born of Minbari,” he muttered.

“So, maybe she does tell you something after all? Pillow talk perhaps. Yes, Valen was Minbari not born of Minbari. He was human in fact, a human from this time who used some machine to change himself into a Minbari, and took this station backwards in time to the last war against my people, where he led the Vorlons and the Minbari and all the other perfect little races to victory.

“And imagine our surprise when we discovered all of this. Imagine our surprise when we realised that all we had to do was kill one man and we’d win the war then. The Minbari would be finished, and… think about it, John. If we kill Valen now, then the Minbari will be destroyed.

“A thousand years ago! No Minbari, no Battle of the Line, no destruction of Earth. None of this will have happened. You’ll still have your Anna, I’ll still have my mother. Everything can be so much better.

“But no. Don’t bother answering. I know you. You’re worse now than you will be in the future. I know you won’t help me. At least, not willingly.

“They’re coming for you. Your little Minbari whore and the one who betrayed us all, the entire human race, by becoming one of them. They’re going to come for you, and we’re going to kill them.”

“Delenn…” Sheridan rasped. “No…” He stumbled forward and blinked…

He was above Mars now, aboard the Babylon. He knew he was. He could practically sense the Minbari all around him. He wasn’t thinking. He’d retreated into the dark heart of his mind where the warrior in him lived. He existed only to kill, but his crew didn’t mind. They felt the same.

He could feel the Minbari flagship before him. There was something… different about this one, something special. He bore the ship down on it. He knew he was covered. Captain Maynard – good old Jack – would be providing cover in his Millennium, and Commander Pierce in the Hyperion was on Sheridan’s flank as well. None of them had been able to make it for the Line, and now it was too late.

And then, all of a sudden, he could see the Minbari, a council of nine. They were arguing, each standing in a column of light. One of them turned to face him and put up her hands.

“John, no!” Delenn cried.

But it didn’t matter, because he fired anyway.

He blinked, and he could feel Susan nearby. But she didn’t seem to notice him. She didn’t need to.

Valen was here.

Delenn looked on in horror as the Enemy appeared around her. She had lost count of how many there were. They were dark and tall and terrifying, but she was not afraid.

I will not allow harm to come to my little ones, not here in my great house.

She was with Valen now, and walking in his light. The title she had been given, presumably by the agents of the Enemy who controlled this station, still rankled at her.

Zha’valen. One who is a shadow to Valen. An outcast from the Light.

“Come out, Susan!” Valen called. Delenn saw the circled ranks of the Enemy part and a woman stepped forward. She recognised Susan Ivanova, or at least, the woman who had once been Susan Ivanova. She had… changed.

And beside her, stumbling and hesitant, his eyes staring and wide, was Captain Sheridan. She gave him a push, and he fell. Delenn could only look at him and wonder.

What he had seen. What he had been told. What he had done. She had seen what could only be a vision of the future. Had he?

Ivanova and Valen stared at each other for a long time. Delenn read… anticipation and anger in Ivanova’s eyes, and only despair and grief in Valen’s.

“I am sorry,” he said.

“I’m not. Kill them.”

The Shadows began to move, but then they stopped. Their buzzing communication hurt Delenn’s ears, but she saw that it was hurting Captain Sheridan even more.

From the darkness, there came a Vorlon.

Delenn recognised him. It was Kosh. He had come to her shortly after the Battle of the Line, and spoken about one human life, and of how that one life would change the future of her people. She had been doubtful, but then his suit had opened, and she had seen him, and seen Valen in him – not Valen as he was now, but Valen as she had seen him in her vision as a child, half a lifetime ago.

I will not allow harm to come to my little ones, not here in my great house.

And so she had done as Kosh asked, and she had saved that one human life, a soldier who had been drifting in space, disorientated and shaken, near to death. She had arranged for him to be recovered and given to the Vorlons. Neroon and Draal had been suspicious, but they had said nothing, out of respect and love for her.

And Kosh had given her a gift in return. A piece of himself. That piece had shown her wonders and visions and reminded her of her purpose. It had given her courage throughout her captivity and her interrogation. Until it had been taken from her.

She knew where Kosh was now.

They were all looking at Kosh now, even Ivanova. Her mouth was half open, as if in wonder, although her scarring made it look like a sneer.

Kosh turned to look directly at Delenn. He said one word.

Remember.

And his encounter suit opened, and there was a slow, creeping light.

Delenn blinked.

Remember.

I will not allow harm to come to my little ones, not here in my great house.

Captain Sheridan’s anger as he struck her, his mercy as he freed her.

A centre for all our hopes and dreams as a people.

More valuable to me.

…souls travel together over many lifetimes, reliving the good relationships and correcting the bad ones.

Zha’valen – a shadow on Valen.

My name is John J. Sheridan. Rank: Captain, Earthforce.

I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star.

Minbari not born of Minbari.

Neroon. Sheridan. Draal. Dukhat. Neroon. Sinoval. Sheridan. Lennann. Ashan. Welles. Dukhat. Miss Alexander. Sheridan. Neroon. Her father. Her mother. Welles. Sinoval.

Face after face, name after name, voice after voice. They all sounded in her mind, before her eyes, in her memories. Her past, her present, her future.