Originally published this as M but that means it doesn't get put on Just In or archived so I've toned down the violence and republished as T

Summary; don't know about you but my favourite Babylon 5 character was always Lyta Alexander. Yet we never found out what happened to her at the end (perhaps if Zack had made it to Sheriden's last dinner we would have?). So let's have a look. Also based on a little character background story she told during the series that I wanted some closure for. And a little resolution for Battlestar Galactica's favourite character.
Timeline; after the end of the series proper and before 'Sleeping in the Light'.
Rating; PG13
Discalimer; all to JMS and none to me
Distribution; AYLI

The Final Monsters

"The civilisation of a society can be judged by the treatment of it's prisoners" DovketskyThe flames soared around him, scalding, searing, burning his flesh from his bones. He bucked and twisted but it was all to no avail. As they reduced him to ash he screamed his heart out despite having no voice left to scream with…

She made her way through the dungeons. She knew where he was, she reasoned that she could find him even if she was not a telepath. But even at this distance, even through the thick walls designed to prevent the torture from resonating through the Psi waves she could feel it. She came to his door.

The snakes were all over him, everywhere, invading his body, biting, constricting, poisoning him. He gibbered, simply mute with fear.

She felt the celebrations above, could almost hear them even through all the hundreds of feet of soil and concrete. The Psi-Corp was gone. Telepaths were free. Byron's vision was realised. She just wished he could have been here to see it.

He swam, frenziedly, he swam, the shore so close, just inches away. As he reached out to grab it, as his fingers seized upon it the shark erupted from the pitch black waters, just as it always did, shearing him in two with one powerful bite of it's jaws.

She had looked into his past. The abusive parents, the deprived upbringing. The early substance abuse. The day he carried out another countless robbery to buy him enough for one more fix. But this was different. This time the victim died. And they were a telepath.
So the Psi-Corps had done this to him.
She had done this to him.
This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.

He was falling, tumbling out of control, helpless, the ground rushing up to meet him. And the ground was littered with needles, millions and millions of needles, jutting upwards, sharp and shining. He fell onto them, piercing his body in every conceivable way, still able to see despite the points skewering his eyeballs.She stared at him. He didn't look back, just quaked and trembled at the endless line of monsters that weren't really there.
He had killed. He deserved prison. He deserved punishment. His victim deserved justice. Society deserved to be protected.
He didn't deserve this. No one did.
She reached out and touched her fingers to his temples.
Everyone used her, everyone. The Psi-Corps, the Interstellar Alliance, the Vorlons. They had made her the ultimate telepathic weapon. But what could destroy could also create. Now she could do something for this man. And for herself.
She made the monsters go away.
For a moment he stared at her. His expression was one of relief mixed with disbelief. There was the merest hint of recognition.
Then he slumped over. And went to sleep.
She turned and left. She left the door open. His life was now his to live again.
"Ahem"
There was another prisoner, waiting expectantly at the window to his cell. He was handsome man, hot in fact, manly even with his shoulder length hair. He wore some form of odd uniform, similar to a pilots garb but with odd symbols on it. It rather reminded her of the ancient Egyptians clothes.
"Don't suppose you could let me out too?" he asked her.
She studied him for a second. She felt no evil there. He wasn't even a telepath.
She opened the door.
"Thanks" he said emerging into the corridor. He extended his hand "Starbuck"
She took it. "Lyta Alexander. How come you were in there?"
"That's a long story" he remarked.
Lyta gestured at the enormous length of the corridor stretching back to the lift to the surface. "I think we have time" she suggested.
"You're not wrong" he smiled. She found his smile utterly beguiling, almost infectious. He put her instantly at ease.
"You got a cigar?" he asked as they began to walk.