Babylon 5 Crusade

Book I

Out of the Darkness, Come of the Light

-Chapter One-

Danger Zone

Notes to readers: this is my way of ending crusade and giving it the burial it deserves this story and the start to a backstory of my oc Winn-rei, to whom is my current Role Play character i'm working with in a role play game.

Summary: Our story starts after the sword arc episodes that were never Galen alone in his ship in vast space alone in the dark, he starts to think about all the recent event has been involved in since leaving the hiding place and unofficially joining the excalibur's crew. He all so start to contemplating his own mortality and thinking about alot of what if's. Only to be pulled away from his thoughts to some where he never thought he would ever see again or ever wanted to. To be pulled by someone lounge forgotten from his past. Why? Had he forgot they existed?

Disclaimer: i don't own it it belongs to its respective owners anyone you don't recognise is i've mine or from elsewhere.

Special thanks to my beta readers Kittenbrat and Dekri. Who have painful edited my pile of dribble that's come out of nowhere, Thank you

The recent events at the path of the sorrows had reopened old wounds inside Galen, wounds he had thought healed a long time ago when laying Isabells Ashes to rest at the Well of Forever. As the ache ran through him again, he realized he had been fooling himself.

He had hoped that fulfilling his promise to lay her peace would have helped heal him and some much-needed closure.

The creature from the path of sorrows had shown him just how wrong he was. He was forced to push forward. He had to hide his true self from those on the Excalibur. If only they knew. His real self, he would never achieve his goals.

There was a stone out there in the cosmos with his mission engraved into. he Circle themselves had put this task on him with clear and easy instructions. He could not fail.

The Terrors of the Drahk must be defeated even at the cost of his life and friends.

He sat in the darkness of his ship deep in hyperspace meditating, a soothing rhythm filled the small craft, leading his thoughts through the multiple possibilities. Often he would have to stop his mind racing on the what if's. Even though he was strong in his technomancy and his mind, he often wondered what if he failed. He was still mortal after all. He came to a conclusion that maybe he should have a backup, someone to continue this task and watch over Gideon and the universe in the event of his untimely demise.

He was so deep in thought that he did see the message repeatedly sent to him in the form one of many forms of communication Techno-mages had with one another.

The sound of the ocean hitting rocks on the shore scraped through his mind as he opened eyes to see standing stones. The light of the sun was almost blinding causing him to squint at the figure who stood looking out to the sea covered in a red and black cloak with lace trims. He moved his eyes over the creature, the bare feet with scales, large claws which dug into the ground made him pause before he moved his sight down, to take in the Wight tail. There were the tell tale signs of technomancy embedded in the pale skin and up the tail, the rest was covered by there hooded close; which covered their main features.

He moved forwards treading carefully on the wet pebbles under his boots. He didn't have to move much to know they were only just shorter than himself with their body turned towards him. The deep red hair caught his attention first followed by amethysts eyes, but it was the emotionlessness of the eyes that caught his attention the most, there k9's.

He had to stop as a shiver went up to his spine as he felt like her lunch right now.

She had the outer appearance of a female, but not everything as was seen she was Yune-dari no fixed gender and with assuming gender when he was younger, tough him to never judge a book by its cover. Still, his memory tickled at the back of his mind before he came to the realization, he knew who this was.

This soul had been thought to be lost. They had gone through the initiation, years before his own trials. They had left to explore the unknown and had refused to come back.

His mind took in more of the world around him. The crashed waves against the granite colored rocks. The sweetness of the air and rich greens of the moss. He was in a place he had once called home, but there was no sweet reunion, out of everywhere they could have taken him; why? Why here?

"Win-rei…" his voice was choked a little as he tried to control his feelings as always.

Winn-rei seemingly tried to crack a smile; as she pushed her hood back her black laced crimson hood.

Letting the wind dance through her hair. Her image started to flicker and distort, words seemed to hang before he was snapped back into the darkness of his ship. The words remained, standing stark against the blackness of his eyelids

"Your new family is in grave danger, I'm doing what I can but they're going to die without your help, please help me!" Galen felt the words rush against his skin as they disappeared.

He turned his attention to the probes he had planted on the Excalibur and its crew so he could observe them while he was away.

He flicked frew them, to find where they had gone; his head ringing slightly; when he found them.

"Matthew," he breathed. "Why did you go there? Of all the places in the universe why there?" He gave the ship new instructions and pushed it to its limits to get there before it was too late.

Several hours before on a forgotten world.

The Excalibur sat proudly in the orbit of a new planet. It had been a nice change to come across a planet that was thriving instead of dead, even the inhabitants were closer to friendly. Though they were a disconcerting bunch of pigmy's and very primitive.

Mostly they kept to themselves while leaving the crew of the Excalibur to explore their strange little world.

The planet was amazing to see as many of the crew had not seen a partly green world in months. The vast rivers that laced through the red tree forests had teams eager to explore.

The geologists could not wait to get their equipment on the volcanoes which stood silently in the skyline.

What drew most of the attention, however, was the vast island floating above a blue lake. This fascinated the Excalibur scientists as the lake below it seemed to go deep into the planet's core.

The archaeologists were amazed by the bricks and architecture they found in the water and along the edges. While half were fascinated with the island the other half were entranced with the guarding towers which formed a barrier around the green land.

Pass the edge of the green trees, the land became dead. Twisted black trees and roaring nuclear winds. They had come to the conclusion that the towers somehow protected the living part of the world and they needed to know how.

They split into three teams, each with security, an officer, doctor or nurse, and lead by an archaeologist. Each team headed to a different tower.

The first tower stood braced in the deep snow and reflected off a green material as the team got closer. The second team reported that the second tower, that was by a silent volcano was built in an unknown red material. The final tower was standing alone was built in a stone which they did not know and glowed blue under the deep orange sun.

The scientists scattered around picking up rocks and chatting with each other as they were getting readings they had never gotten before.

A sampling frenzy ensued. These new materials are what got the attention of Max.

Max Ellision had pushed to go with the team that had traveled to the blue tower. Gideon had cut him a look and sternly reminded him that they were on the planet for searching for the cure and that was why he was on this mission in the first place and not to run off on whatever whim he had wanted.

Gideon had a way on which made Max feel like a complete ass at times, which unfortunately he had shown it to everyone else as well the last time he did this.

He grumbled under his breath as he trudged off to do his own work.

Gideon watched the senior Zeno Archaeologist storm off like a brat he was.

Gideon was shaking his head at the man, who really was a child at times like most of his damned crew at times.

Only needed Galen to show up and he would have a royal flush.

The captain straightened his back as he moved with the main team towards the ruins.

They were a dark grey; buried under the colorful moss and twisting vines as nature was taking its land back.

Gideon ran his fingers over the stone feeling the grit. The ruins where over thousands of years old, or that is what he had been informed.

A race had lived here, way before the creatures they had met when landing.

All the captain cared about through all this was the fact they could have been around before the Drahk joined with the shadows.

Which meant there could be something here- a hidden secret, and if they were very lucky, a cure. And besides, it wasn't a bad place to have some downtime.

The moon rose on the third night and they had managed to roughly translate some of the living inhabitant's native language and had been able to make a rudimentary alphabet to help others with the translations.

Dureena surveyed the land below her, she had split from her group to explore.

Humans often didn't take the time to just see something and not study it.

She had climbed up a path not many people could follow so she could see the view that shone silver under the silver moon.

She turned her amber gaze upwards to view the stars, trying to see if she could find any consolations she knew.

Beauty often hides a multitude of sins and her instincts buzzed at her telling her that there was something she was missing in her life.

She turned her face towards the warm breeze and let her thoughts drift.

Galen had started to make his appearance in her dreams, and now looking at the ocean it reminded her of the storm in his eyes, and she hated it. Why had her mind decided now was a brilliant time to bring him into her mind.

Every time she tried to push him out of her thoughts, the reflection of the blue from the tower or the warm breeze caressing her cheek would bring his image back up. She shook herself and shoved the memories away, he was not worth her time, after what he had done at the Path of Sorrows. The tricks he had pulled to push her to tears, using her pain to get inside.

He had broken her trust. Before, he was someone she considered a friend. What she had told him in confidence, he twisted and used her to get his damn way.

'He knows everything and nothing at all.' She thought to herself.

But watching Galen's eyes darken as his arrogance; Had clouded his features to her and that had made her want to cause him a lot of pain. Preferably with several of her daggers.

A creature scuttled past her drawing her back to the here and now. She found herself twirling one of her daggers. This place was affecting her mind and she did not like it one bit.

She screamed and threw her dagger into the creature trying to release some of her emotional tension.

The fire of rage was her home. The amber of her eyes often danced with the flame and she loved the warmth that it gave her soul, but she knew that it was not something she could survive on alone.

That the fire would one day burn her, and she knew that Galen would be the cause of it.

With her rage and her stubborn nature, she wouldn't stop until she got what she wanted, but the one thing she could not understand was why his words had hurt her so deeply. Even though she had become friends with his sad ass, she had not known him all that long.

"By the Gods what am I thinking?"

She shook herself as she went to retrieve her dagger and that night's dinner. Letting out a sigh as she cleaned the blood off her weapon. She had let herself down by telling a virtual-stranger about her life. And he had used it against her and she knew this would happen. It always happened; it always did, she couldn't trust anyone. He had played her as a fool.

She started her climb down from the towering rock she had been raging on, and she cursed as her fingers brushed against wet moss. There was a light mist of rain in the air. She hadn't noticed the clouds as she had been lost in thought. She shifted her hold not to drop her dinner, but the change in movement shifted her weight and her stomach jolted as the ledges under her feet crumbled. She scrambled for purchase. Bloody fingers scraped against the crumbling rock and wet moss before they lost the battle.

She didn't even have time to scream before a rock caught her temple sending her into darkness, and luckily not feeling the thump when she landed in the soft moss below. Her com bracelet lay shattered next to her, as water lapped at her feet.

Everything fell silent before a nearby large bush shuddered and a paw stepped onto the moss, claws tearing into the dirt. A rumbling growl filled the air.

Tbc