A/N: Visions from the past disturb Avon, as an impossibility arrives at Avilla.

Neither the characters from Blake's Seven nor Darkover belong to me. I just like to play with them!

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Silvery mane flying in the wind, black cape snapping behind him, Avon rode the powerful black steed full tilt into the courtyard. Even before the big gelding had touched down from its rearing stop, Avon had flung himself from the saddle and was striding up the steps to the manor house's arched double doors, leaving the stable boy running up with the job of securing the horse.

Inside, he hastily shed his cape and gloves, shouting, "Vila, where are you? You sent for me and it had better be good! Your messenger interrupted a very important operation." He strode across the vast entrance hall to the double doors of the library and slid them open.

The tableaux revealed stopped him cold. Vila sat comfortably behind Avon's own massive oaken desk, while across from him sat an…impossibility: Blake! Dressed in his usual big-sleeved shirt and leather vest and breeches, he looked little different than the last time Avon had seen him, although that time he'd been dead. His hair had grayed, his face aged but unscarred. It was undeniably Blake.

"Come in, Avon, we have guests." Vila waved Avon to the seat he'd hastily vacated. Moving around the desk, he sat down on Blake's right. Avon moved slowly into the room and around the desk to take his accustomed place, keeping his eyes on the enigma lounging in the overstuffed chair and eyeing him carefully, a slight, amused grin on his face.

"Who…are you?" Avon asked, with only a hint of threat.

"Isn't it evident, Avon?" came the deep, well-remembered voice, as Blake tilted his head quizzically to the side, such a familiar gesture that Avon's heart threatened to seize, and smiled.

"If it was evident, I wouldn't have asked it," he ground out. "Answer me. Now."

"Obviously, I am one of Blake's duplicates," their guest replied, calmly staring back at Avon.

"And to what do we owe this…visit? Just what do you want?"

"Now, Avon," Vila interrupted, aggrieved at his mate's less-than-gracious reception of one Vila viewed as a guest, "that's not a very friendly way to greet Blake, is it?"

"That man isn't Blake!" Avon spit out. "Blake is dead; I killed him over twenty years ago. We paid for that and clawed our way back from that disaster. I will not allow another Blake to ruin my life again!" he finished, standing now and leaning toward them over braced arms, in his eyes hate and more than a little fear, which was obvious to Vila, if not to Blake.

Vila raised a hand to ward off Avon's hostility and, perhaps, to placate him a little. "At least hear him out, Avon. You don't have to agree to anything, just listen, please?" he pleaded.

Avon sank back into his chair, all the tension going out of him at once. He bowed his head, his long hair falling forward to obscure his deeply-lined face from the two awaiting his response. He remained motionless for some time with only the crackling from the great fireplace lending any sign of life to the room. Vila and Blake were almost holding their breaths when Avon raised his head again and glared at Blake.

"All right, explain yourself, Blake. You have your hearing, but don't think that you will get any special attention, just because you look like my Blake." His voice was hard, implacable, giving Blake a brief glimpse of the man who had come back from the debacle on Gauda Prime, come back from madness, come back to create a good life with Vila on this backwater planet. His strength was apparent, also his unbending nature. Blake knew he had to proceed very carefully.

After collecting his thoughts for a moment, Blake began. "As I said, I am Blake's duplicate. We've never met, but I feel as if I know you, Avon." He turned his gaze up from studying his hands to glance at Avon's face. "Rashel…and I were marooned with Imipak on that planet." His voice caught as he mentioned Rashel. He dropped his eyes once more to his hands. "My wife…died…recently. Rather, she was killed! Someone…came to our home, looking for Imipak, after all these years. She was alone and…they used it on her. She…was dead when I returned. They didn't know the internal security cameras were operational, though. After I found her, I checked the tape-log and saw who had killed her." He raised his head and locked stares with Avon. "Then I came to you, to get your help. When the Clonemasters created me, they instilled a reverence for all life, but I buried that with Rashel. Now I want revenge and you're the only ones I could turn to. Will you help me?" he finished, looking calmly into Avon's eyes.

"And if it comes down to it, can you take another's life?" Avon asked the man curiously.

The man's smile of assent was more of a grimace. "Oh, yes. If it's the right life, I can kill easily." He looked Avon straight in the eyes before finishing. "The same as you."

Avon blanched, as Vila caught the comment and interrupted.

Vila had listened, entranced, to Blake's story, then reached across to lay a sympathizing hand on Blake's arm. Now he turned a distressed gaze to Avon and asked, "Can we help him, Avon? Dare we help him?" He knew how easily their lives could be destroyed, because it had happened before, too many times.

Avon wasn't ready to answer that question yet. He had several of his own that needed answers first. "How did you find us? Who killed Rashel? And most importantly, what happened to Imipak?" Avon demanded.

"Fair enough," Blake acceded, nodding. "After we got the old Federation facility back in working order, we…explored, using their computers. I don't remember how it first happened, but we were contacted by ORAC, oh, years ago. It always felt to me that he…it…thought of me as a real Blake, especially after my original died. It felt as if Rashel and I were…I don't know…adopted by ORAC. He made it possible for us to get supplies, by contacting one of the Liberator's old crew."

"Old crew? Who…who's left? They all died on Gauda Prime, except us." Avon regarded Blake in shock, remembering only then that Vila had said "guests". Then he spun as he heard another person stride into the room through the open double doors.

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A/N: Who indeed? It's one shock after another for Avon this day! Find out in the next chapter, 'An Old Friend and an Old Enemy'..