FIC: Babylon Faith (8/?)
J. Carter Moonport
All around was bustle, mostly human bustle, but plenty of aliens to remind her that wasn't her time anymore, as if the transit shuttle passing by wasn't enough to tell her.
"You realise that Garibaldi will have gotten on the pho-, the comm.," Xander corrected himself, "to President Sheridan the moment we left?"
"Yes," Galen nodded. "In fact I'm counting on it." Faith and Xander shot the technomage confused looks. "Unfortunately we dare not risk contacting the authorities directly for fear of being arrested, it is so much simpler to allow Garibaldi do it for us."
"So that information he gave us might come in handy?" Faith's brow furrowed as she noticed something.
"It gives us some leads," Lennier replied before glancing around with a studied casualness. "I believe we are being followed."
"We are," Faith confirmed with a slight nod. "And they're really, really sloppy at it."
"Next to vamps, practically amateurs," Xander agreed before looking towards her. "How do you want to play it?"
"Decoy them in a rough part of town, deal with them then get out?" Faith queried.
"Ah," Xander replied, "the classics."
Ole Sorensen's eyes narrowed as their prey headed into one of Mars' more derelict areas, refuse strewn across the ground and anti-Earth and EarthGov graffiti adorning the dirty walls. The quartet were unknowingly making things easier for them by moving to the less well policed areas where their grab could be made with a minimum of possible interference.
Wait, there had been a quartet, but where was the female?
Sorensen's breath caught. Things had just gotten more complicated. Sorensen cast his gaze around but couldn't see any sign of the dark-haired beauty.
Sorensen shook his head as he decided it didn't matter. Having all of them would be optimal, but as long as they had one of the time travellers and the TechnoMage, that would do. "Alpha Team," he spoke into his mouthpiece, "move in from the right, Beta, go in from the left, Delta stay with me. Execute on my signal."
Minbar
"Michael," Sheridan raised an eyebrow as the face of his former Security Chief materialised on the screen before him, "I wasn't expecting a call."
"They're the most fun aren't they? The unexpected ones." Michael's face half-creased in a smile and then a scowl, "although my unexpected certainly wasn't."
"I assume this is going somewhere?" Sheridan queried as he supped at his cup of coffee.
"Well for one, it involved your rival for Delenn's affections."
Sheridan coughed, eyes watering as he almost choked on his coffee at Garibaldi's bombshell. "Lennier, I assume you detained him?"
Garibaldi chuckled dourly. "I was a little over-matched, he had a member of Elric's clan with him as well as a couple of people you wouldn't believe even if you met them."
"Elric's.." Sheridan's eyes widened as he recalled the enigmatic Technomage he'd met in his first few months in charge of Babylon 5. They were back?
"Oh there's more," Garibaldi seemed to be taking an almost sadistic delight in twisting the knife, but then his friend been through these shocks himself, so he was obviously enjoying sharing the surprise. "Remember those nasty people who used to work for those lovers of chaos? Our old friend and the Technomage have bumped into them and claim to know what they're trying to do." Garibaldi tapped on the computer screen before him. "I've sent you the details of our meeting, triple-encrypted using the method we used during the Civil War."
"Okay," Sheridan nodded dazedly, mind still struggling with bombshell after bombshell, "thanks."
"No problem," Garibaldi leaned back in his seat. "Are you going to tell Delenn about him?"
Sheridan grimaced. "I haven't decided yet," he admitted.
"We should help her," Lennier insisted as they ducked under a bridge.
If nothing else, Xander had to give the Minbari points for chivalrousness and persistence. "If we interfered, she'd only be insulted." Xander glibly replied before sobering. "When Faith hits, we'll hit on the other side, but let her make the first move."
Out of the corner of his right eye, Xander saw Faith drop out of the shadows to his right, the Slayer having nimbly climbed up a roof, and onto a trio of thick-set soldier-boy types. Xander spun away and dived to the right, Lennier by his side.
Faith dropped into a crouch under an embarrassingly slow spin-kick, levelling her would-be assailant with a pelvis-breaking elbow while simultaneously blocking a kick to the face on her other forearm. The blow's impact reverberated up her arm but she ignored the hurt to reach out with her other arm to grab her attacker's grounded foot at the ankle and pull.
The man hit the ground head-first, skull cracking with a thud, while Faith leapt over him to block a hook to the face on her shoulder, then a right on her forearm, and then a knee to her crotch on her thigh before slamming a straight right to the last attacker's face. Blood spewed out of the man's mouth, but he still managed to duck under her follow-up left hook, but not her elbow reversal into his cheek. Bone shattered as the man spun around and fell to the ground, Faith catching the first of the trio with a back-heel kick to the chest that knocked him on his ass and out.
Xander caught his rival with a left jab to the nose that sent crimson flowing from one nostril, ducked a right then grabbed his opponent around the waist, lifted him off the ground, and flung him into the dirty wall behind. The man's head cracked against the wall, his eyes glazing in shock even as he caught Xander with a left hook to the jaw that made him see stars as he charged in and buried a knee in the man's gut.
The man grunted, but kept his feet, crashing a chop to Xander's neck that staggered him. Xander leaned forward at the waist, ducking under a right cross then grabbing the man's wrist and pulling him into a kick into the crotch that doubled him up, Xander grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling him down into a knee to the face that sent him pitching to the ground. Xander glanced across at Lennier, grinning slightly at the sight of the Minbari put down the second of his men.
Ole's jaw dropped as he watched the brunette casually drop three of his highly-trained men like they were a bad habit, and the Minbari and the human male were doing the same to his operatives on the other side. His eyes widened as he realised he'd lost sight of the Technomage.
"I truly hope you have a good explanation for this unprovoked attack."
Ole spun to face the mocking voice, a gasp escaping him at the bodies littered behind him and the unflustered Technomage stood there. His hand dipped inside his jacket for his PPG, but then the Technomage raised his staff and an invisible force hit him with bone-shattering force, knocking him on his back a half-second before he passed out.
Lennier stared in disbelief at the 'Slayer'. Not one of the Anla'Shok legends could have done what she had with such effortlessness, not Neroon, not any of his people, not even in the wild days before they were united.
He flushed uncertainly when the brunette saw him watching her and winked saucily at him. "Ahhh," Galen commented as he crouched over the group's leader and rifled through his clothes, "according to this ID, he's Dwayne Jones. However, the top level of the ID is a fake, he's actually Ole Sorensen." Galen pursed his lips. "It appears that EarthForce Special Intelligence are apparently interested in us."
"That's me, intriguing," Faith commented. "We best hustle in case they have back-up."
Centauri Prime
"Our Keeper-controlled agents on Mars report that certain humans have been asking questions about our search for Ole One tech."
Shiv'kala stared at the cowled Drakh who'd just entered his inner sanctum. "Do they know of what our aims are and our alliance with the Dilgar and our planned alliances?" His subordinate shook his head. "Good," Shiv'kala nodded. "Still, send one of the Soldiers Of Darkness after them. I don't want to have anything go wrong."
Minbar
Turval stared at the Minbari Anla'Shok sat opposite him. After a second he spoke. "Our world weeps for the loss of Durhan," he forced his own emotions from his voice. "I tell you this because I wish for you to understand the enormity of the task I wish to assign you to."
"Durhan was deeply honoured amongst the Anla'Shok," Dulann replied. "I sat through many of his lectures and learnt from his wisdom."
"Yes," Turval nodded. He'd miss his friend's keen mind, their debates that could go on for hours. They disagreed on almost anything, and yet he'd never had a closer friend. "I have the scene reports in, there now appears to be some doubt as to whether Durhan's death was indeed an accident." Seeing Dulann's mouth open, he continued on. "Yes, I know Minbari do not kill Minbari. However the possibility remains that something untoward went on. And so I need someone with discretion to investigate this matter." Turval pushed a data chip over the desk. "There is the information."
Dulann rose and half bowed. "In Valen's name." Dulann backed towards the door then stopped. "And if it turns out a Minbari did break our oldest law? Is this matter to be-."
"No matter who did this, Minbari, human, alien, this matter will not be hidden," Turval's cold tones cut through Dulann's query.
"As you say," Dulann backed out.
If someone had murdered his friend, Truval felt the air vibrate to his rage. Once again the Minbari would have harsh lessons to teach.
Staat, Sector 152
All the while the monsters destroyed and obliterated, the creatures' terrible history played in Eri'Lar and his fellow Dilgar's minds like some awful, unstoppable horror vid.
The Devorar Dilim had originated from an inhospitable world tens of billions of years ago and many universes away, a world where they'd had to fight three other species to dominate, until finally they'd obliterated their rivals to become the only remaining race. From there they'd attempted to move into the wider space only to be pushed back by other more advanced races, who'd beaten them back to their own planet.
For hundreds of thousands of years the Devorar Dilim had re-built their civilisation, experimented, and improved on their killing techniques. Then resurgent, they'd invaded their galaxy's Elder Races again, and been once again defeated. Hundreds of eons passed, and then Devorar Dilim took to the skies once more, only to find the Elder Races had either died out, moved on, or ascended, leaving behind younger civilisations that were no match for the Devorar Dilim's ferocity and powers. In a few dozen centuries Devorar Dilim's home galaxy was just a barren wasteland, devoid of life and the substance required to feed the Devorar Dilim's never-ending hunger. And so they'd burrowed through the fabric of space itself in their search for more food sources.
In the tens of thousands of years since then they'd torn through galaxy after galaxy, devouring such powers as the New Republic, the Jedi, Yuuzhan Vong Castes, Chiss Ascendancy, the Yautja clans, Goa'uld System Lords, Wraith Hives, the Dominion, the Borg Collective, the United Federation Of Planets, Klingon Empire, Kree & Skrull empires, Nietzschean Prides, the Scarran Imperium, Sontaran Empire, Dalek Empire, and others too many to mention. They plundered dozens of dimensions, destroyed hundreds of powers who thought they could face them in battle, ravaged tens of thousands of systems, and slaughtered googols of beings, all in their ceaseless hunger and determination to ensure none could live but those of their blood. All the great civilisations and the mighty powers had all crumbled before them, their vast cities dying in flames and armadas of countless crafts dead in space. Only the Elder Races of this galaxy had ever contained the Devorar Dilim, but now they were back, and now this universe would die like the others.
Eri'Lar's fell to his knees as the largest of the monsters, the size of a small town, flew back and hovered all of them. Looking around he saw that the other Dilgar had likewise followed suit, an unreasoning terror filling him until there was barely room to breathe.
"You are the beings that freed us?"
Eri'Lar nodded numbly at the alien booming voice inside his head, his skull aching and teeth shaking with its clumsy power. "Why?"
"W…we wish for the universe to be obliterated in vengeance for the extinction of our own people," Eri'Lar just about managed to say.
His head shook with the monsters' roaring laughter. "In that case," the voice returned in his head, "you will have our gratitude by being the last of this galaxy's beasts to die."
