Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon 5 and make no profit off of this story.
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"Mr. Garibaldi." The warm voice, like whisky, slid through his dreams.
"Mr. Garibaldi."
"Michael."
He opened bleary eyes. The blurry shape in front of him slowly resolved into a familiar face and finally penetrated the alcoholic haze enough that he fumbled for a weapon. "What-"
Talia Winters held the missing weapon in front of him. "Hear me out, Mr. Garibaldi, and then I'll return this to you. After that, it's up to you."
He started to stumble to the comm, sick that he had let her get the drop on him like this. Sick that he had done this to himself. Sick of himself. Of the way he wanted to run screaming from the mere thought of being in the same room as a telepath.
"I've temporarily disabled it. It wasn't hard, with you passed out like there's no tomorrow." There was faint prudish censure in her voice but not the sort of threatening accusations that had ended any relationship he might have had on Mars.
"I don't know what kind of game you're playing, lady, but you've got ten seconds." He threatened, which was ridiculous because, not only did she have the gun, but what could he do against a telepath anyway?
Talia held up something that looked a bit like a cargo scanner and Michael noticed with a start that her hands were ungloved. "Do you know what this is?" When he didn't say anything, she continued. "It's the device Psycorp uses to initially measure the strength of a telepath. It isn't very accurate and its uses are limited, since it must be connected via a neuronet." She pushed her blonde hair behind an ear, displaying a silvery button attached to her temple. She handed the scanner to Michael. "Notice the readings."
Psylevel 0
His head pounded and he wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or this surreal visit. "I'm supposed to believe this thing isn't rigged?"
"You can have Doctor Franklin confirm when we're done."
"Supposing for the moment that this isn't a trick, so what?"
"As I'm hoping you are smart enough to tell, the personality implanted by Bester is gone. Do you remember when Jason Ironheart was here?"
"Crazy telepath that almost destroyed the station because he was some sort of rogue science experiment?"
Talia frowned at his callousness, that school teacher look that had always made her so damn sexy. "Jason left me with a gift. At first, I didn't know what it was. I thought it was only a sort of parlor trick, moving pennies with my mind. It was exhausting and the results were miniscule. But when Bester's personality took over my body, I discovered the true purpose of Jason's gift. It was not meant to move pennies but thoughts. My own. I was able to hide myself in my own mind and was gradually able to move the implanted personality into smaller and smaller sections of my own mind until it was gone. But I didn't stop there. I was able to hide my mind from all telepaths, even turn off my own telepathy! Do you know what that's like? To go from being surrounded by the buzz of people's thoughts, like standing in a crowded room where everyone's talking at once, to hearing absolutely nothing but your own breathing? To know it's like this for you all of your life?"
"So what do you want? For us to throw you a party?"
"No, Mr. Garibaldi. I want to help you. I can block your mind too. No one would ever be able to read your thoughts. To change them. To make you wonder about yourself. And in return, you'll help me stop Bester. And then, you won't need that bottle, Mr. Garibaldi."
He suddenly looked like the drowning man he was.
"What about the Alliance? I have a job here."
"Which is a bigger threat? The raiders or Bester? The Alliance is trying to deal with the raiders right now. But you and I are the only ones who know what a threat Bester really is. You and I are the only ones who can stop him."
"I'm not buying any of this yet. But if-if Doc Franklin says the telepathy thing checks out-you've got yourself a deal." He held out his hand to shake on it and, instead of putting on gloves to protect herself, she handed him the gun, fingers brushing warmly against his with no hesitation.
And Michael finally felt warm again without the alcohol.
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Author's Notes: I haven't actually finished watching season 5 but I can already tell that I'm probably not going to like where Garibaldi is headed so... And I always liked Talia. What they did to her always seemed like such a waste. Anyway, drop me a line and let me know what you think.