She was so young, he thought. What was Bester doing, drafting people this young into his war? Corwin had been older than this when he first stepped on to the Babylon, and he had still been considered largely a child.

What was Bester up to?

The Battle of the Second Line was a battle where nothing seemed to make sense. It had started out so simple. There’s the Minbari. There’s Proxima 3. Stop the one getting to the other. And then had come the Shadows, and Bester with his hidden agendas and his telepaths everywhere. And then had come the Minbari boarding party which had come in and left with both Satai Delenn and Captain Sheridan. And then Corwin had been in charge…

“What about the time when you disobeyed the orders of the Resistance Government in a foolish attempt to strike into Minbari space and rescue Captain Sheridan?” Krantz persisted.

Damn! Corwin thought. How did he find out about that?

The two people in this whole battle who actually seemed to know just what their commanding officer – Alfred Bester, Esq. – was up to – Captain Ari Ben Zayn and his constant companion Mr. Harriman Gray (P10) – were out of radio contact. Now that might be due to normal background radiation interference or whatever. But it could be that they’d come too close to one Shadow too many.

And that would leave a lot of unanswered questions.

“Have you got through to the Ozymandias yet?” he asked.

“No, sir,” said one of the technicians. Ah, what was his name? Guerra? Something like that. “Not a sound.”

“What about the Babylon?”

Now that was strange, if anything about this whole battle could not be considered strange. The Babylon had been Captain Sheridan’s ship. After his… somewhat forced defection from Proxima, Bester had returned it to the Resistance Government. The next time he saw it, Corwin had been expecting to be staring down its forward cannons. After all, the Resistance Government did consider him and the Captain to be Minbari-loving traitors.

And here they were, the Babylon actually fighting against the Shadows, who were supposed to be allies of the Resistance Government.

Corwin had long ago given up any hopes of understanding the universe. He’d be happy just understanding his own corner of it.

Alisa’s eyes fluttered and she looked up. “Commander,” she muttered. Her voice was that of a ninety-year-old, not the enthusiastic young woman he and the Captain had met earlier. “Com…”

“They’ve gone for the moment,” he said. “Rest.”

She tried to nod, but clearly didn’t have the energy even for that.

“Commander!” spoke up Guerra – if that was indeed his name. “The Minbari seem to be pulling back.”

“Think they’re retreating?”

“It’s possible.”

Corwin tapped his forefinger against his jaw slowly. Were the Minbari any match for the Shadows? Were they actually retreating?

Or was this all a ruse?

“Follow up on the Minbari,” he said. “But keep our distance, and if any of those bloody big Shadow ships show up, leg it quick.”

“I… can…” Alisa whispered.

“No,” Corwin snapped. “You can’t.”

He looked up.

And out there… somewhere… was the Captain. Corwin wondered if he’d managed to escape yet. It was only a matter of time…

His cell was dark, but then he had been expecting that. Captain Sheridan had been walking in darkness for years.

Where had it all begun? When had his first footstep on to the path of darkness been made? In his cell with Ivanova? On the bridge of the Babylon where he had shot and killed his wife? At his furious, maddened assault on the Minbari over Mars?

Or had this all been preordained? Had he been destined to walk in darkness from the moment of his birth?

Sheridan didn’t believe in Fate, but that did not mean that Fate did not believe in him.

Delenn. Everything came back to Delenn. What was it about her? She was Minbari, a Satai, orchestrator of the war against his people. How many would have been saved if she had said just a few words differently? How many deaths could be placed at her door?

And yet… and yet… he felt… comfortable with her. She had once told him that their souls were joined together, perennially continuing relationships from the past. He wasn’t sure if he believed that, either, but he sensed a comfort and an ease around Delenn that he never felt around anyone else, not even Corwin. Not even Anna.

Sometimes he even managed to forget that she was Minbari.

And now this. One part of his mind – the part that had launched the assault over Mars – was fuming with anger and betrayal. She had betrayed him. It was because of her that he was here. He had trusted her, helped her, risked his career, his life, all for her, and she had betrayed him. That part of his mind was brimming with anger. That was the part of his mind that had burned its way to the front during the Battle of Mars. Military tactics, strategies, supply lines, allies… all the things he had been taught, all the details that had served him well in the past… they had all gone straight out of the window, and he had become, for that battle, a machine. A pure machine who existed only to kill.

But there were other parts of his mind. One of them remembered the look of betrayal and lost innocence in her eyes when he had hit her on Vega 7. It remembered the way she had come to help him on Babylon 4. It remembered the image of her, battered, bruised, nearly broken, on his return to Proxima after his trip to the Narn homeworld. It remembered her speech about sharing souls.

The door opened and there she was, as if drawn by his thoughts. She stood there for a moment, illuminated in the doorway, and then she stepped inside. Sheridan caught an image of two figures at the door, and then they faded and everything was dark again.

“Delenn?” he said cautiously. She did not reply in words, but he could hear the sound of her breathing, and the light whispers of noise made by her movements. It was her.

“Delenn.” Firmer this time. Why was she not saying anything? Was she too ashamed by what she had done? Had she come here just to gloat?

“John,” she whispered. “John… I’m…”

He could feel her next to him, hesitating to touch him. He could hear her breath, coming harsh and ragged. Almost as if she were weeping.

“John…”

The parts of his mind warred with themselves, and then one retreated. He reached out and held her. She dropped her head on his shoulder and began to cry. John did not think he had ever seen her cry before. She had been close on a number of occasions, and he had heard that she had broken down during Mr. Welles’ brutal interrogation of her, but he had not truly believed it until now.

Her sobs were those of someone who has just lost everything she has ever had.

John was content to hold her. Accusations of treachery and moments of rage would have to wait.

He had time. Time enough to hold her now.

There are some beings in the galaxy whose deeds are so renowned that their names are recognised almost everywhere, many with appellations marking the nature of those deeds. Captain Sheridan himself was one, marked with the name Starkiller. The Minbari were not the only ones to fear him. His involvement in the last Narn / Centauri War had made a substantial difference, and had been one of the major reasons why the arrogant Narns hadn’t fallen before the revitalised power of a Centauri renaissance. There were many in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds who knew full well Sheridan’s power and strength, and who also called him Starkiller.

There were others aside from Sheridan to gain that sort of renown. Sinoval’s name was fast becoming recognised, ever since his actions during the beginning of the Earth / Minbari War and his almost meteoric rise from Shai Alyt, to Satai, to Entil’zha and now to Holy One. G’Kar’s name was likewise famed. Greatest Narn hero of the Narn / Centauri War, turned prophet and greatest hope against the Darkness, his teachings had affected many of his people and were, slowly but surely, turning the Narns’ destiny around.