The Scooby Gang

The Scooby Gang - Book 4 Babylon 5

Disclaimer: I have no property rights to any published or copyrighted material that is reserved to those that make money from ideas which I do not.

Summery: The fourth book of the Scooby Gang. The group has found a ship in the yellow space; this leads them to a space station named Babylon 5, the last best hope for peace. How will the chaos that seems to thrive around Xander survive on Babylon 5, how will the manor reaction to space travel in normal space?

Sequel to 'The Scooby Gang Book 1, 2, & 3'

Multi-Ships: m/f/f/f/f f/f/f f/f m/f

Crossovers: Harry Potter, Stargate, Honor Harrington, Highlander, and Babylon 5

Beta'd by cj_cold

Chapter 14: Coming Together

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Rebecca Horne sighs. She received a letter from Amanda while she was packing to leave in the morning for the Christmas holidays. She was looking foreword to the break from Hogwarts and teaching. There was also the fact that she was staying with Harry and the girls.

Thinking of them as pseudo spouses caused a smile to show on her face. She was rather close to the small family and that was truly what it was. She noticed that she had no issues when using the mental communication bands when trying to contact Harry or the girls but even with close to a thousand years of bonding with Amanda she still couldn't seem to contact her using that method and for some reason they'd not exchanged trumps. If one of them could contact the other it might help but either the connection was stretching too thin or it just wasn't reinforced enough to pierce that natural mental defense that came with age.

Looking at the letter again she shrugs to herself, 'A thousand years is far too long of a time to grow use to certain naturally occurring things such as not having a voice in your head that isn't yours.'

It was far easier to ignore a shadow of a voice she didn't expect or made an effort to ignore because she expected such with the aftereffects of a quickening. She wasn't use to accepting them into her mind so easily. Harry and the girls hadn't had any issues with it but she was sure there was a sexual connection there that helped.

The Raven gives out a caw to gain her attention and Rebecca looks up, "I take it your waiting for a reply little bird?"

The raven caws again and Rebecca sighs.

Dear Amanda

You know dear that I don't have the Methuselah Stone or even know where all the shards are. My recommendation is to tell Methos about the Manor and have Alexa see Dawn or Dr Frasier with the EDC. The Dargol Serum should at least send the cancer into remission. As he can approach you and Mac speaks highly of his character I don't foresee any problems with that.

This Alexa Bond sounds quite interesting; with the Dargol Serum and the Prolong she may live longer than Methos.

Wherever did you find the delivery raven, are you finding an affinity with them now that you can turn into one?

I do wish that the cell phones worked in this area; I will be in London regularly this Christmas holiday so I should be able to call you or you could visit. Perhaps you can procure one of the communication patches they use on Babylon 5, or more than one as you want to contact me. I'm not sure if they would push through the magical interference or not. It may be faster if you need a response right away to visit through the irises by way of the manor or follow your friend in the air.

Don't be a stranger my dear. I'll be at the Manor or easily reachable from there starting tomorrow. Please give Duncan my regards and little Alexander an extra kiss from me. I'm having my own soon; I think I'll name him James or her Lily after the little ones father's parents.

You favorite teacher

Rebecca Horne

Professor of Muggle Studies

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry

She sent the letter back with the raven and smiled thinking of her future child and giggled, perhaps she would call it an early day and see if Harry wanted to fool around.

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Riley Finn and Samantha Hammond's wedding was being held in Colorado Springs. It was a cool Friday afternoon just after mid-November, November 21, 2001 to be exact; at least it was for the local Sunnydale realm. Xander LeVelle couldn't help but smile, getting the General to take the weekend off from the EDC was an accomplishment but he knew that the local George had been warned somewhat before they arrived. It didn't help the shocked look he had at seeing his analog with Xander LeVelle.

"Are you sure I'm not gaining too much attention, Xander?"

"Not at all, you and George are dressed differently enough that you might be mistaken for cousins by those that know him or twins by those that don't besides it isn't like they'd think you were some sort of evil twin or clone."

General Hammond almost groaned but he was thrilled to be the daughter's wedding; he'd missed the first time. Not that Samantha Hammond had married Riley Finn in his world but he still wouldn't miss it when given a second chance.

"Is that your double up there with Riley as his best man?"

"Yeah and I'm not sure which Buffy is acting as her bridesmaid…" he focuses and smiles sardonically.

Hammond sees it and lifts an eyebrow.

Xander shrugs, "It's the native; she was involved with Riley for quite a while."

George couldn't help but smile, he was well aware of the young man's women claiming him and the culture of the humans on Grayson. He wasn't one to grip about that. He couldn't help but wonder if the local Buffy was trying to butter up his daughter to share and shivered with a glare at Xander who seemed to be just a bit too smug about that aspect of his influence in local realm's lives.

The local George Hammond had noted the visitor that looked like him with the visitor that was Xander LeVelle, one of his daughter's friends. 'One that hunts demons and scorched large amounts of demonically infested land.'

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Amanda read the letter from Rebecca and cursed softly, Methos had been on the list to talk to, both Duncan and hers, but they just hadn't thought of it and then Methos had come to her with his hand in hand wishing to speak to her about finding a magical artifact that she had a shard of.

Picking up the phone she called, "Adam"

"Amanda did you find her?"

"I spoke with her, but could you come over to apartment and bring Alexa with you?"

"What is it?"

"There had been something I was going to talk to you about, Duncan and I, but we hadn't really put much effort in to finding you yet. I should have talked to you about it when you approached me, but it was… you know Alexander?"

Confused Methos asks, "Your son?"

"Yes, he's mine and Mac's."

"I know you already told me, I was a bit surprised…"

"No, I mean that he is ours biologically."

The silence made her wish she'd told him in person.

"That's not possible, I mean…"

"Oh ho, I wish I had a camera there. There have been some… changes lately. The process was called tubing and it used some technology that is quite advanced… medically."

"You mean…" There was hope in his voice.

"First bring Alexa over, you said she worked for Joe, I'll contact him and make sure he vouches for her and then call Xander, he'll take us to LeVelle Manor and we can talk about what we should have talked about in the first place."

"Thank you Amanda, I didn't know how to…"

"Relax, I forgot completely about it, it isn't often you see such an old friend so torn emotionally especially you. If anything, this speaks well of her character."

"I'll be by as soon as Alexa is off work; Wednesdays are slow nights so…" he really hoped Joe would let them go early.

She hung up and used the iris to get to Grimmauld Place before going through to the Manor, she then remembered her trumps and groaned, she disliked using them, with some people it was natural, Duncan for one, but for those that she didn't see too often she seemed to forget about them until it was past the time she'd have used them. She wondered if it was a sign of old age, not that she'd aged badly… she patted herself down gently before she left the debarkation room, or iris room as some called it.

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Native George Hammond couldn't help but stare and blink at visiting George, his double and then at Xander LeVelle, young Mr. Harris's double. The wedding was over and the reception settled down some so he'd decided to talk to the look-alikes. He almost wished he hadn't.

"So you want me to run a space ship?"

Xander winced, "Actually, what I'd like you to do is run a business we set up here, run the personnel and coordinate those working with Riley, the Sunnydale group, and a number of others that we'll gather along the way."

Seeing he had his attention on the details now, Xander elucidates, "Right now there's only about fifty people total. Over half of them are from Riley's group and we don't have much say in where they go. That isn't something I'm eager to change but I do want to make sure we're aware of where they are so if or when they need backup we'll have the intelligence needed to attend to the situation and ready to assist at the best time rather then bulldoze in end up being more of a risk to them than they were in to begin with. I want to make sure that everyone fighting the good fight is given proper tools to do their job even if that means working with some idiots like the NID from General Hammond's realm, though I'd like to avoid that if at all possible."

The visiting George Hammond winces at the thought of working with the NID again.

"Right now, we could put together a ship in Sunnydale which could easily leave the atmosphere and reenter, which is a plan to work on because with the similarity between this world and General Hammond's means there's a strong likelihood that this universe has the same hostile alien races. We need to get a defense up and running and as you're retired this can easily be a private venture which nicely cuts out the political red tape for approval of anything you feel we need. Some of what we have we'll sell to the government and some we'll lease, but we have the economic stability already."

"What exactly is it that your company does to make money?"

"We sold some commodities harvested in other realms, but we also hold some simple patents that have helped advance the current technologic level just a bit. I'm not sure on the day to day business administration issues, you'd have to talk to Mr. Doyle about that and he spends most of his time between San Vale and Blasedale now."

George nodded, "I'll have to talk to my wife about it but I can't see her objecting as it will help keep our daughter and son-in-law safe."

Xander grins and nods in understanding.

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Xander returned to LeVelle Manor, but couldn't sleep. The girls seemed to be preoccupied so he spent some time playing with Rose in the yard. The living ship had grown so much and seemed to float into and out of the wards easily. Xander had made sure the wards were keyed to her, but he hadn't been sure if they'd let her in the first time.

Speaking both aloud and mentally he spoke to the little one, "How's little Rose doing?"

The small ship might fit an infant human inside her right now but it would be a tight fit and wouldn't fit anything else. Rose flipped, rolling sideways while standing upright. The mental emoting was as much like singing as Kosh's companion but it was much more refined.

Xander couldn't help but laugh, "We're going to have our Hogwarts kids returning tomorrow I think they'll play with you some more too but don't go outside the bubble if you give them rides."

The ship seemed to roll its mental eyes at Xander, something it picked up from the girls he was sure. It was mentally conveying that it wasn't stupid and wouldn't hurt them.

Buckbeak screeched at them, the hippogriff and Rose seemed to find a very odd companion based friendship, but at times Buckbeak could be slightly jealous of the ship's ability to fly outside of the wards in the vacuum of space. They had taken Buckbeak to Narn on more than one occasion and he loved it there but Xander made a mental note to himself that, 'I'd better see about a rune collar for Buckbeak; something to provide a temporary bubble of pressurized air like a magical skinsuit. Then he'd need a way to move in space, his wings wouldn't exactly work unless he had a means of propelling himself and I'm exactly sure if that would work. It's worth a try but perhaps for safety I'll add some kind of runic anchor that will pull him into the wards if he's outside them for more than a few seconds.'

Xander, Rose, and Buckbeak had fun for a few hours before unexpected visitors arrived from Grimmauld Place.

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Xander was in a good mood but even more so after he found out there was another immortal willing to give up the sadistic game the immortals took up. Methos was old too; he could feel it when he telepathically felt for his mind and motives.

Methos blinked in surprise, "You mean that this tattoo will stay even with the quickening and will help prevent others from feeling me…"

"It will prevent their quickening from feeling yours. Do you feel Mac or Amanda?"

He winced, "I thought they were imposters at first glance. After a few seconds, when I realized the quickening was there only subtler, I knew it was them."

Xander nods, "That's a good thing, the quickening in each of you is, by our best guess a single type of creature or entity or maybe energy that is aware on a level we just don't understand yet and likely never will. The tattoo cuts it off from the whole in a way that prevents it from joining, you'll never gain another quickening… at least I don't think you will."

Methos smiled at that, "I don't mind giving up the option of gaining more power and skills like that. I've had quite a bit of time and so long as my quickening won't be given to anyone else if I die… I think that would be for the best."

Xander raised an eyebrow and Methos shrugged, "I've thought of suicide to remove my quickening from play a number of times. I'm very old you see."

There was some humor there and Xander nodded, "Dawn is seeing Alexa now. Egeria used the hand devise you gave funny looks at to remove the cancer from her body. Dawn's currently using the Dargol Serum and monitoring her. This is the first time she's done the procedure with the Dargol Serum and wants to make sure she's doing it right. The Prolong is just a quick injection and it will help slow her aging down quite a bit. It will be another hour or so before they are finished up."

"That hand device, I've seen one of them used before, but it was to cause pain."

Xander lifted an eyebrow, "Do you think you could you project the memory?"

Methos frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Your mind is like a solid brick wall or maybe a series of walls but I've only seen the outside wall. Amanda and Rebecca Horne also have solid barriers around their thoughts Duncan less so and Ritchey even less than that. It must come with age and the natural organization of your mind. If you push the memory out I'll be able to skim it off the surface."

Methos nodded at that, he felt a bit violated at the thought of a mind reader but that he couldn't read him without pushing was a bonus. The memory was sent, it wasn't a very clear memory, due to age, but it was there.

Xander couldn't help but frown; he pulled out a Pensieve and pushed the memory into it, "Care to take a gander down memory lane?"

Methos was quite surprised but nodded, they both submerged into the memory and Methos was quiet as he watched the memory in clear defined imagery. "This was it, what I couldn't remember…"

Xander nodded at him, "This is a Goa'uld." He gestures, "The hand device he used on her is like what we used only to heal. This is Egypt?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what they did with the Chappa'ai?"

Methos jerked and they were pushed out of the memory.

"The Chappa'ai, I think… I think we destroyed it, the memories are foggy at best but I seem to recall that a ritual was used to seal the gateway and all the gateways it could use."

Xander was surprised, "They sealed them; that would mean that nobody could use them… I didn't think that was possible."

Methos shrugs, "I don't recall why…"

"Where there is one Goa'uld there are more, you kill one and another rises up the ranks and assumes it's power and they'd used the Stargates not only to transport their troops but communicated. Without it the Earth was about a thousand times safer from the Goa'uld. That ritual is the reason you might not have Goa'uld in your verse anymore, they would be cut off completely from their powerbase unable to communicate orders, unable to receive boons from planets mining Naquadah… after relying on the gate system for a millennia they'd be dead in the water without it."

Methos was wide eyed at that revelation. "Was that girl…?"

"Egeria was one of the few Goa'uld who disliked the system and was being tortured to death for saving humans. In another verse she was the mother of the resistance movement that freed Earth and she became the queen of the Tok'ra, those that work with hosts to fight the Goa'uld and Ra's lot. You might find her avoiding that verse just because of the looks her names gets." He was amused obviously.

Methos grinned and nods in understanding, "I get a few looks from the immortals that have heard my name before so I'm not unfamiliar with avoiding the looks."

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Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Susan, Ron, and Rebecca arrived to LeVelle Manor with good cheer. Rebecca had greeted Methos and Amanda, she'd not spent much time around Methos previously, but Amanda seemed to be aglow with joy. It wasn't only that Methos and Alexa had joined their little group but because she'd brought little Alexander with her and motherhood was not something she disparaged against. It was as though every little thing was something she'd never experienced and in a way she hadn't, oh she'd adopted children before but they'd all been old enough that she'd never experienced the wake up calls at midnight for attention. For some reason little Alexander had yet to get sick or ill, but he sure did mess his diaper a lot.

"Hey guys; or I should say howdy guys and girls?" Xander smirks, he'd not slept last night, after playing with Rose and Buckbeak he'd kept Methos's mind off Alexa for a while and further cemented his theory of some type of common pasts for all the worlds they visited from the Stem. It wasn't like he could test it and he only put a few thoughts at all into the electronic log, but it was there nagging at the back of his mind just like wormhole and hyperspace physics.

Hermione was the first to hug Xander in greeting. Harry gave him a half hug arm grab greeting that spoke of his maturing in the tactile touch area. The Harry of last Christmas was nervous about touching anyone and the summer before that he'd have only given a hug to Sirius or responded to a hug from girls with a positive response.

"So do you all have ideas on where you want to go Christmas shopping or what you want to work on until then?"

Hermione started to babble almost like Willow, "I've talk to Cordelia and she's made appointments with the colleges on Manticore to test privately for placement. I know we don't match up for secondary education there but I'm sure that we can find out where we need to study so we can attend the university on Manticore when we graduate. I'm so worried about the tests, I mean what if I fail, I know I'm going to fail, I just know it and we've worked so hard on learning the modern material…" she went on and on about the tests, the failing, and plans she'd made with Cordelia, plans she made with Dawn and Buffy, and plans Ron had with Egeria that had her blushing and glancing around for said female.

The plan, from what Xander could decipher was to take some sample tests, shop for gifts on Manticore, then visit the EDC and perhaps take a few classes with Mrs. Mallard on some of the easier classes they missed by being at Hogwarts and then a perhaps a few classes she could wrangle the others into for advanced workshops on whatever they had going on at the time.

"You do know that many of the people educated in different star nations don't qualify for Manticore… for Valasakis University, Skanderbeg, Mannheim, Palmer Institute, Military, or the Merchant Trade Schools. I'm just warning you that if you do poorly on one test you might not on others and nobody that I know of does all of them or even a majority of them well."

Hermione winced as the others half glared at her as she'd been all about study so they didn't fail. Xander smirks, "But on the good side of it, you have plenty of time to prepare and with Prolong slowing the aging process nobody will be able to tell you're seventy five before you…"

He was almost hit with a wide array of tickling and pinching hexes. He shifted into his treecat form and high tailed it out of there with humorous chitters.

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Xander had a few hours of sleep before he woke, Dawn was in bed with him he wasn't sure when she'd joined him but then again he wasn't making that much of an effort to nose into their day to day activities. He knew she was often either on B5 with Dr. Franklin, at the EDC with Ducky, Janet, or Dr. Everett, or on the Joyce studying. She worked harder than any of the girls, which wasn't that surprising. He gently kissed her forehead with love and walked out the door as quietly as he could.

The Hogwarts crew reminded him that he had a plan for some academic study and wasn't the best at the school stuff. He might be better able to understand people's lectures and such but he wasn't nearly so good with what was put to print. He searched the house physically then mentally and found Willow was gone, Cordelia was with Kendra, they didn't stay up all night with sex quite as easily as she and Willow did. Kendra was quite laid back, in some ways the darker skinned girl reminded Xander of Angel, the patient painter. He couldn't help but grin at that as he stretched out his mind into the irises searching for Willow's presence.

He found Willow with Wills, or was it Wills with Willow, it didn't help to keep them straight when their own minds forgot which was which for names, not that they didn't know who was native and with Harris and who lived at the Manor and was with LeVelle. Making his way through the iris to Sunnydale he approached the Magic Box it was mid morning in Sunnydale and the sun was bright in the sky. It wasn't too hot but then again it was a week before December.

'I wonder how Willow and Willow can stand to be around each other so often. If I was around Xander Harris that much… he-he-he…. If I was around the other Xander as much as Willow and Willow are around each other I'd go insane. Or maybe it's that I'd go MORE insane.'

"Hey Wills." As if conformation needed shown they both turned inquisitively at their name being called.

"Xander" it was said in unison as they put down what they were doing and hugged him.

His Willow was a bit more touchy feely than the other one, but only by a bit. He was flushed at that, ever since his elder self had bedded Willow and Tara they had been more physically affectionate with him than was normal but still not enough to be over the line, not that he had a line.

"What are you working on?"

They gave him a look as though he'd not known before he approached. He flushed at being caught out. "Right, well I was hoping you two might agree to help me test… run a few experiments. I would like some help writing up a paper afterwards on wormhole theory and its application in temporal tampering."

They were suitably shocked, "What are you…?" They'd spoken at the exact same time and then glanced at the other and again spoke at the exact same time, "What have you…?"

If Xander had a camera he would make the others' day at the silent conversation that he knew wasn't taking place over the mental link. He mentally went over another project to look into, taking electronic photos or videos of memories.

"I think what we want to know is if you are using this in real life and just want to understand it, or if…" she looked at the other Willow.

"Of if you are actually trying to improve your academic understanding of what you know."

She nodded and they both looked at Xander LeVelle with a smirk.

"You two have been around those Weasley twin pranksters too much." He said sounding firm but they both rolled their eyes in unison as they felt his amusement.

"I suppose it's a bit of both. Working with people makes it quite easy to understand, so long as they understand what they're doing. I need to understand things on an academic level as well and so far I think most of my academic understanding has been siphoned off others. What we'll be learning is going to have some major impact on real life soon and we need to know the limits or possible complications before situations arise."

They both nod "When do we start?"

"Well here's what we have so far…" He pulled out three data pads and handed two of them to the Willows.

Reading off his own where they could follow him he started, "There's very little in the databanks concerning time travel but the EDC additions have some observational experience and theory mixed with conjecture and of course nothing helps us with practical reactions of time travel only what might cause it and how it is actually a manipulation of time and space. They've never purposely redone things to test the hypothesis they have nor did they recreate situations to verify the variables they only assume were there via the aftermath of the event. There's nothing of doing it in a controlled setting."

Willow on the right asks him, "How will we do that?"

"The Department of Mysteries has quite a bit of information and Amelia Bones, Susan's aunt, authorized us to raid the department's ledgers and time turners. They've not had too many occasions to test them or push the limits of what they know and so long as we make sure the theories we prove or disprove are documented for them they've agreed to share what they know."

The girls were wide eyed at that. The other Willow took her turn to talk, "Time turners, Hermione mentioned them. You want to test them with the irises but how?"

Xander was amused at the way they were trading off, "We'll test them within the same verse by sending one iris back in time and then going through it to see if we're back in time or not. Do the same thing while the paired iris is in another realm and see which one of the two, past or current, that arrive through. There is a vague theory that it will have two of whatever we send through come out. We don't believe that sending the one back in time in the same verse will have whatever you send through the Iris travel back in time, I mean if we sent it back in time than it might take however long we sent it back in time before to comes through the iris."

They nodded. "If that's the case than it will always send to the temporal location parallel with the current sender."

"But how will shifting realms handle that? A sequence of event needs to show a direct linear path and if we replace the first one with the second one like a game of shells will that upset the timeline? Can we upset the timeline purposely?"

They widened their eyes at that. The revelations of the experiments would be quite shocking to some.

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Hermione looked around; even being a muggleborn wasn't preparing her for exploring Manticore. She made a mental note, 'It's easy to get lost here. We need to stay with the group.'

"It is" Cordelia stated with a smirk at picking up the girl's thoughts so clearly. Usually it was Xander that picked up thoughts like that. She and the others that had been exposed to the aspect of the demon way back in Sunnydale had not made such a wide use of the talent; they hadn't turned it into a skill.

Hermione flushed in embarrassment, "I sometimes forget that your group picks up stray thoughts."

Cordelia grins as the younger girl's mind instantly goes to sex, she wasn't adept at reading minds like Xander but she often had a taste for what they were feeling on an emotional level.

"Did Rebecca not want to come?"

Hermione blushed, if ever there was a time for double entendre now wasn't it, if Cordelia's smirk was anything to go by she knew it and if Hermione didn't answer she'd only get worse.

"She isn't going to the universities here on Manticore so stayed at the Manor. I think she's planning to read to the fetus in the tube and talk with Dawn, no doubt your better… is half the right word?"

There was such an open teasing about that and how she worded it that Cordelia had to smile.

"Perhaps we'll show you later?"

Hermione shivered, "Where are we taking our tests today?"

"I'd recommend just sticking with Valasakis University or Skanderbeg University. The other two I checked out are Mannheim University and the Palmer Institute. They're known as Socialist U and for the Conservative Politics respectively, I also found that Beowulf has the leading educational schools when it comes to either medical or hyperspace physics, but mostly everything they know is shared concerning both so…"

Hermione nods at Cordelia's Gaelic shrug.

Harry speaks up, "They have private dorms at both universities don't they?"

Hermione grins at him; they had grown use to sharing sexually and didn't want to go back to not sharing. It was hard enough at Hogwarts with the Room of Requirement often used in place of their dorm room but the university wasn't going to have a Room of Requirement.

"They do, but you can also purchase an apartment and set up an iris back to the Manor. You all seemed to like the apartment we came through here and Willard is the one you'd talk to about it. You'll all be registered as employees for Xander here and that may also help in providing your bona fides. The LeVelle Industries is very lucrative here and Manticore doesn't really want to get on his bad side."

Hermione frowned slightly at that, thinking the advantage wasn't fair but Harry and Ron were smirking at the thought of Xander's bad side. It was Susan that spoke up, "I know that Auntie Amelia didn't want to make Xander upset either. She's well aware of his abilities and has given him quite the breathing room with the Unspeakables. She knows he won't turn on a sickle and do something dark or anything but I think there are certain characteristics he has that almost demand respect. Are you sure he doesn't mind having us registered with LeVelle Industries?"

Ginny giggles, "He doesn't mind, though if you want to be punished I'm sure we'd let him use the paddle."

Susan gapes at her, blushing furiously.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the group acting like children. "We don't have much time before we take our tests so why don't we find a nice park to sit and…"

Cordelia interrupts, "Relax, if you don't know it by now you aren't going to learn it for this test. I don't honestly expect any of you to pass this test for any field of study, but it will give us an opportunity to understand what areas you need to study for each of you and then we'll put together a wonderful study plan. Dawnie and Little Eric already have them in place and Sirius, Aura, and Nancy do too. Aura and Nancy aren't planning to go to the university here, but feel they need to keep up with the rest of us and we all are going to be pushing ourselves to achieving some level of efficiency with Manticore's levels of technology."

Ron nods, "Not to mention adding in what Egeria is able to mix with it."

Cordelia frowns at Hermione in informs her, "Egeria is the only one of us that could pass the test if she tried so I'm not sure if it's really fair for you to try and push them into trying to pass this early in your education."

Hermione flushed and nodded, she would relax, if only a bit.

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The testing was not a simple ordeal, evidently it could, if you were educated enough, go on for days. The normal education standards for the three planets Manticore, Sphinx, and Gryphon, often had students lasting upwards of three or four days for the simple placement evaluations for the entry level with basic proficiencies.

The lowest placement level was missed by 12% on Hermione's score. The others spent less then half that time in testing. The education they had from the advanced perspective was actually too advanced. There were some surprises, Harry's kinesthesia was off the charts, higher than they'd ever recorded before which was saying something. They recommended his attending the Merchant Fleet Academy or Officers Candidate School as a result, after he studied well enough for placement.

The down trodden group didn't even take the entire day to test, most didn't take until lunch. It was quite obvious they were all disappointed by their lack of placement and piss poor scores. Cordelia tried to warn them but it still hit hard.

"I think you need some healthy therapy shopping. Mr. Neufsteiler stopped by when you were in there and dropped off your credit pads. Now don't loose them, but if you do don't panic, they're easily replaced and of no use to thieves."

Hermione was the one that the shopping helped the most; she found a store that sold computers and learning software. She purchases loads of their product to give for gifts this year. She picked one up for herself as well but that was because it was unlikely the others would get one for her. The internal power supply would last a quarter of a century on the current power cells so there was no need to worry about plugging it in and it was hardened against the electromagnetic radiation in space travel so hopefully it would work around magic and if it didn't she was sure she could talk Xander into using runes to ensure it did.

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The Hogwarts crew had been at LeVelle Manor for a few days now, the test results had dimmed their mood just a bit but as kids are like to do they bounced back pretty easily. Distractions helped quite a bit and one such distraction for most of English stock is royalty or the equivalent. So When Emperor Turhan made a 'surprise' visit to LeVelle Manor it really lifted their spirits. He and Lady Morella, his wife, arrived with the intention to visit for a short time on their way through to the EDC which they'd planned on touring. General Hammond had issued an invitation to the Centauri and had arranged this with very little dependency on Xander or his people.

Susan widens her eyes at seeing someone come into the portal from the Joyce that she knew was coming from the Babylon 5 realm because she recognized him as Emperor Turhan. She almost shouts the greeting or warning, "Oh visitors!"

She was on her feet and half bowing to the emperor and his wife. They were not accompanied by telepaths or his guards as was custom for visiting through the Irises. He looked almost surprised to find a new face here and felt vaguely nervous.

Morella felt no such nervousness but than telepathy and other abilities ran in her blood, on the female side at least, "Greetings Susan Bones."

Susan froze just a moment before smiling. "Milady, Emperor, it pleases me to offer my greetings to you."

The 'lady' laughs, "Call me Mory please." The emperor glances at his wife in surprised and lifts an eyebrow.

"We have time for a visit before seeing to the pesky political maters with that Nice Hammond fellow, don't we?"

Never one to deny his wife the simple pleasures he gallantly shrugs, "There is no set time for us to arrive. I had assumed I'd be dining with Xander and his wives after relaying that I would be arriving and asking when and how formal are arrival should be. They tell me that keeping track of the time difference is almost as difficult as it is from planet to planet when the planets have different lengths of time per cycle."

Susan smiles, "I'm sure Dobby can fix us something to eat. I'm not sure… what do you like?"

Susan was eager to socialize and learn more about the Centauri and it showed.

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Mory had enjoyed Susan's company, Hermione and Ginny had also joined her in the gossip session. It was not uncommon for a Centauri to have more than one wife if they could afford it though her husband and she never found another wife they could trust enough. It was one of the reasons they were here now, aside from the tour of the Prometheus. They'd spoken with General Hammond through the communication hub in the iris room and it was decided the tour would start in six hours. That was two hours and thirty minutes ago.

Dawn had returned as soon as she heard they were at LeVelle Manor as she had plans to see to. "Xander told me that you two were going to try and have a baby but with Centauri culture it might not be acceptable to incubate in a tube. I have an idea I wanted to run past you. We can have the doctors on standby after your tour of the Prometheus if you wish to go ahead."

"What is it dear?"

"Well…" she was nervous, "I've incubated a fetus to full maturity for a couple that couldn't carry a child, what I was thinking was that we could fertilize two fetuses, maybe three and then treat you with the Dargol serum, and after we've stabilized the embryos we can implant them one at a time over the course of the next few years. Keeping the embryos in stasis will help."

Mory asks curiously, "Is there a reason to do so many?"

"Dargol serum helps with making us younger biologically my dear" Turhan states, "But at the cost of near sterility. I'm sure Dawn could extract viable martial after but it would be best to plan ahead. Xander already spoke with me about the serum and the risks. I wasn't aware he'd spoken to you Dawn."

"Oh, he mentioned it but we set no time limit on it. We don't need to do this now but I'm not a doctor I'm only studying to be one and Dr. Frasier and Jacobs are in the lab on the Prometheus right now so it's… I thought we could take advantage of it."

"Dr. Jacobs, I've heard of him, he was President Santiago's chief medical examiner wasn't he?"

Dawn nodded, "He's been helping me in my exobiology studies as well as my human anatomy studies in general. Dr. Frasier and Dr. Mallard have also been tutoring me, but it's more on the job than actual study."

"What do you do?" Mory asks her, "I mean you said on the job and I've not heard of Dr. Mallard and what he does."

"Dr. Frasier and Dr. Mallard work together in many things but Dr. Mallard works mostly at determining causes of death or illness while Dr. Frasier works on general health and injuries. Dr. Jacobs often lends a hand especially when dealing with illnesses or biological issues that aren't common on Earth in that realm. He's quite the experience for that and I believe they've already made the Prolong treatments able to be used by multiple species, though it seems every species is slightly different for that."

Susan asks, "Prolong, isn't that the longevity treatment to help slow the aging process?"

They all nod and she smiles, "I'm looking forward to that too, do you know how that will affect those of us from Hogwarts?"

"I don't think it will need any adjustment if that's what you mean, it just works that much better with magicals already slower aging is my guess."

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Angel wasn't sure what it was that was different but he could guess. The last time the Hogwarts kids had been here there had been a sexual tension in the air about their interaction but it hadn't bothered him. This time it did. It wasn't until the day Mory and Turhan arrived that he had realized that it was a combination of their seeing the conception of the child and their body's need to have one despite the contraceptive spells in place.

Buffy was either in Sunnydale covering for that Buffy's absence or she herself was with Riley and Samantha, on their honeymoon. He suspected the former but couldn't put it past her to be the latter. Regardless it meant that his sexual frustration had nobody to share it with and unlike Buffy he'd not encroached on the other realms people nearly as often. Even his teaching art was less often than Joyce who spent as large amount of time on Prometheus as she did dealing with the Art Gallery in Sunnydale.

In truth he felt as though he'd become a house bound husband; one of those husbands who was the male equivalent to a housewife and often stayed at home and hardly ever had guests or a night on the town. He'd not meant for it to be that way, nobody else really stayed home like that; even Dawnie had places to go and people to see. To Angel he'd fallen into a rut, a routine of painting, reading, TV, and ironically gossiping with whoever happened to be in the manor at the time. Unlike when he was in Sunnydale before the wards were cast, he'd always felt the need to patrol, to keep watch, and to atone for what he recalled of the demon's actions.

With all that in mind he started feeling the need to accomplish anything of significance, anything other than watching Eric or covering commwatch on The Joyce for Giles and Janna.

"Xander, I'm heading over to Babylon 5 and see if I can sell my painting of the station. I don't know how long I'll be."

Xander grinned widely and nods, "Good luck, say hi to Garibaldi while your there."

Angel nodded as he wonders briefly, 'Why would I see Garibaldi?'

The answer came to him when he left by the way of the Iris and realized the Iris was inside the Chief's quarters, though it was near the entryway away from the bed chambers and the living room was empty.

He left the quarters and went to the merchant area of the station, he'd read the information on Babylon 5 and was familiar with the entirety of the station, just in case they needed him there.

The first merchant he tried to sell to looked at it with utter shock. "I can't buy it, there's no way I could afford that Mr. Angel."

Angel blinked in shock, he didn't think the painting was that good but the man was obviously being honest. "You have any idea who would be willing to buy it?"

"Well there are two or three merchants that don't stay on Babylon 5 who would buy it; the detail is exquisite, there is such life to it that I had to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks with me."

Angel smiled in thanks and the man, Marty introduced him to Greg and James who seemed to want to bid on it to see who would pay more for the painting. Within an hour and half the panting was sold for close to a half a million credits.

With a loss of the task at hand, and no real desire to return home right then, he decided to take Xander's advice and look Garibaldi up to 'say hi' for him. He figured if nothing else he could throw back a few drinks and make sure the credits he got from the painting were legal and not some sort of counterfeit.

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Willow and Willow had the time turners, the magical sensors and recorders set up, and several Iris pairs ready to be used. With everything set up, they decided they might need an extra hand.

"I think Hermione and Harry might help, we do need more hands and we need to mark the realm traveling irises from Sunnydale to Blasedale, Sunnydale to EDC, Sunnydale to the Manor, and Sunnydale to Grimmauld Place and have them there receiving a recorded relay of what is going on here."

The other Willow nods, "I'll go explain it to them and we can see if they want to help."

With Mory and her husband gone the Hogwarts group was slowly reminded of the depression they'd been in due to their abysmal testing while on Manticore. Of course there was sex to help but it only helped so much. They'd been more then willing to help; in fact they were interested and eager.

Willow told the other one, "Harry is at Grimmauld Place monitoring the recording; they also had the idea to set up a scout and viewer but that record is all magical. Hermione is at the Manor, Susan in Blasedale, and Ginny and Luna are on the Prometheus."

"I do wonder what will occur when attempting to produce a paradox."

After waiting an hour with no appearance it was obvious that without sending it back it would not appear; so made the note of sending it back at a specific time and suddenly it appeared.

"Testing Iris T01 pair now. We can confirm that T01 Beta-Tagno is the same iris as T01 Beta only temporally displaced. We are proceeding to temporal placement testing. To explain this before we begin it is a simple test. We will take subject designated Rock and place it through Iris T01 Alpha which is the part of the T01 Pair that was not temporally displaced. This is to check to see what happens, as the two mated irises hold not temporal significance we can only guess that it would either go to its mate that is from its own time or both mates. We will take Rock and send it through T01 Beta-Tango and verify if it will exit T01 Alpha or be in limbo until the temporal alignment of the Iris pair is similar."

The other Willow shared with the others listening, "That's the basics of what we're doing to begin with; from there we'll discuss the results and talk about why they occur and then go from there."

"We are sending a small rock through the T01-Alpha now."

Excited the other Willow asks the others watching, "Did you see that?"

"The rock has come out of both Iris T01-Bata and T01-Bata-Tango; it's temporal copy, we're scheduled to be sending T01-Beta back in ten minutes so we have ten minutes to finish this round of testing. We will send another back in time to that time frame an hour later."

Even after they sent the Iris T01 Beta back to become T01 Beta-Tango subject Rock and Rock Tango remained unchanged. They didn't have any recognizable differences. The next time they tried it they did so with a small cube of Naquadah and it too held no differences, there was no diminishing of energy it could produce not noticeable differences caused by the duplication process.

"We're ready for the next round of testing. We've already sent some naquadah back and it is viable naquadah we're ready to…" that was when Harry entered, Willows frowned at him as he smiles, picks up the iris that was going to be sent and verified it was connected, and took all three irises as he left via the iris he entered.

The two Willow looked at each other in shock, purposely causing a paradox was always part of the plan for testing but they hadn't talked about Harry doing it. As the time wound down that they would send the Iris back using the time turner, they both stared at the spot it should have been sent from, waiting.

That was when a time turner on the lab table started to rattle as though T Rex was stomping around the area. Willow and Willow looked at each other confused for a moment than looked at the table the time turners were set upon.

The rattling became worse and worse, they noticed it was the Tango time turner but the original was also rattling if not nearly as bad. "What's going on?"

There was some confusion as if the two Willows weren't aware of what was going on.

"We were doing something. Testing Irises?"

"Time turners!" Willow pointed at the table of rattling time turners, there was heat radiating off the two rattling items, or was it one rattling item in two places. They were shaking now so quickly it looked almost like they were trying to become one item, but didn't know how.

"I think we should get them into that magically sealed box…" before they could the two time turners seemed literally shake themselves apart, the explosion that occurred had no shrapnel, it seemed that it did have a very destabilizing effect in that the two Willows completely forgot what they were doing, had no memories of ever handling the time turners, and had no idea what was going on.

Xander entered the work area, he'd been observing the Willow's work in an area that he wouldn't be in the way. "Willow, Wills, are you alright?"

"Xander what are we doing here?"

"Time turner tests, it seems that creating a paradox destroys the time turner but it also affects the memory of those present, the scouts and recorders we have on the other side of the irises recorded it all."

Hermione came through another Iris, "It recorded it all, we've got tachyons, magic, and electromagnetic radiation, even the light that came off the exploding time turners. More than that, the irises are still whole Xander."

Xander blinks in surprise and smile, "But are they still producing a double when put into the one that wasn't duplicated. I'm going to recommend that these particular irises not be placed in Sunnydale at any time in the near future, we have no idea if the temporal magic on the time turners will linger and we did the tests there. We do have more time turners and if this works we might want to do this same thing with a larger iris."

As they're showing the Willows the recording at LeVelle Manor, Willow gasps in surprise, "That's the largest iris you have Xander, I mean it will fit around a Starfury if we need it to."

"Yes but I think we still need to test it more extensively and no live specimens or humans right now, I'm setting a temporary runic shield around the unduplicated side of the Iris Pair to ensure that right now."

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Nothing the group did over the next week on the Irises lead to any significant new discoveries. They decided to do live specimen tests on rats. Harry was smiling at that, he disliked rats and nobody was saying anything about it. "We could always use toads if you would prefer Willow."

Willow looked at the other Willow with a gleam, but Hermione was appalled, "No you will not! I could never again look at Neville in the face if we did."

Willow and Willow were confused, "Neville?"

Ginny shares with them, "He has a pet toad that keeps escaping. Trevor is quite magical. We could use a chocolate frog though, they aren't alive; you know enchanted or transfigured creatures that aren't actual animals."

Xander nods, "After we test to see if there is something to look for in the living specimens, rats aren't really all that aware so…"

The rats duplicated just fine but within a half an hour they started to painfully and quite obviously be pulled apart on a quantum level. The recording was quite familiar to Xander, "Entropy Cascade Failure, the EDC gave us some reports of it when using a quantum mirror to visit parallel realities, obviously they were quite close on a quantum level and it was reported that it was only people but they didn't test it against smaller creatures."

Willow looked green as she stared at the gruesome mess that was fading in the small white box, "That means we need to be careful and make sure nobody duplicates themselves by accident. I don't want another me to die."

"I wouldn't mind knowing if when one fades like that the other gains the information they have but I think we can add some runes to irises themselves to disallow sapient or organic life through the iris that duplicates. This does bring a certain profitable idea to mind."

"What's that Xander?" Willow asks.

He smirks, "Item cloning."

"If we wanted an item cloned couldn't we just replicate them?"

"We could, however that takes quite a bit of time and isn't good for complex items like those zats, or finished products, I'd be hesitant on duplicating a pair of irises with this process for fear that we'd split every time we traveled either way but anything else…" Xander shrugged.

Harry pulled out a bag of gold galleons. "Could we have the goblins check a duplicated galleon and see if all the magic carried over?" He was smirking, "I'd love to duplicate my wand but I'm not sure…"

"Test it on a galleon first yes I could see that."

The goblins would be happy to help and verify that the galleon copied, both of the two galleons, were still fully functional non-counterfeit galleons without any difference on either galleon. The wand they first used after that was an old legacy wand that worked marginally for Susan but wasn't her main wand. When it came through both wands worked fine for about ten minutes than one of the wands started to fizzle and doing a check on the wand the hair of a unicorn was gone and the wood was altered on a magical level. The other wand was fine but it made them leery enough to document it and leave it. Evidently the unicorn hair was a victim of ECF (Entropy Cascade Failure).

The documentation of the Entropy Cascade Failure was something that EDC was quite interested in. The concept of temporal paradox created by dimensional interference was something the Unspeakables were excited about and it gave credence to firm hard copies or recordings of magical research live in action rather than relying on photos that move differently than they did in real life.

ECF was a major issue with more than just living creatures it was an issue for anything biological, anything that was living or alive at one time and that included plant life, algae, fungus, and animal life. When they made this observation Xander felt quite relieved that at no time would he be able to copy an Iris as the magic was connected to the blood in the runes, even if it was unable to ever be removed, and that didn't even cover the fact that the material they replicated for the irises was a wooden base carbon material. Wood and blood would both change with the entropy. The wand stayed but the hair vanished, so the working theory was that the parts of the wood that made it able to channel magic vanished and that meant any doorway or iris copied would only work for a short time before it was became inert.

Of course several items such as weapons grade naquadah, a Starfury, and a death glider were all duplicated en mass. That said nothing for quadrupling the number of galleons each member had, or in some cases such as Ron and Ginny, they had several thousand galleons now.

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Garibaldi smiled at Angel, "So you're bored silly?"

He had that understanding air; he didn't mention the absentee short blond girl or the fact that he was missing her something fierce. He could understand that without asking and he would consider it crass to bring it up. Garibaldi wasn't known for asking crass questions like that to friends.

"I just realized that I haven't been nearly as active as the others, I mean Cordelia spends a good amount of time building friendships and social standing on Manticore. Or spending money as I call it," he smirks at that, "but she's out there doing something. I don't think I've seen Amy or Michael in five months, but Mr. Doyle… Frank or his wife, Janet, stop by when they go through to visit their daughter and Aura at Grimmauld Place and of course Frank is running or working with the ones running the financial operations of most of the different companies in those realms."

"Busy job that?"

"Since the relay in the iris room was set up to transmit and relay messages on a secure bandwidth it's been less hectic for him, but he's rather independent. I know that Harriet and Allen found their niche on the Prometheus and I doubt they'd leave willingly. Even Joyce and Dawnie have taken to leaving the manor quite often and I have no idea where they go other than Sunnydale and the Prometheus."

Michael was familiar with the normal manor occupants and nods, "And of course Jenny and her Mr. Giles are on the Joyce, does that get confusing, I can see why people don't name ships after people that are alive."

"It might have been better to name the ship the 'Joyce Summers' rather than just the 'Joyce' but live and learn."

Garibaldi laughs at that. "Well if you're up to it, we are short handed, Captain Sheridan expects that with Clark's ships nearby the Nightwatch will be a bit bolder and we could always use another trusted hand."

"Good," Angel sighs with relief at not having to return to LeVelle Manor just yet, "What do I need to do?"

Michael smiles and shrugs, "I trust you're trained in hand to hand, I'll go over the rules and regulations as we work; most of it is just common sense."

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Less than three hours on the job for Angel, the Nightwatch spy, Zach Allen, sent a report mentally to Garibaldi, 'Chief, their making their power play. I'm in the Brown Sector near the personnel facilities.'

'We're on our way now, Zach, don't do anything to jeopardize your position.'

"Zach's just sent me a message, the Nightwatch are making their move." He tapped his hand communication patch and spoke clearly, "Captain I've received intelligence of a crime being committed by some security staff in the brown sector, as per protocol I'm informing you that I'm seeing to the mater." 'It's the Nightwatch, John, they're making their power play and I'm acting as we planned.'

"Understood, I'll make sure to make a formal report of the situation and add your report to mine, Chief Garibaldi, Captain Sheridan out."

"We're walking a fine line with the rules and regulations set up for the station which aren't the same as the standard EarthForce regulations. We aren't strictly speaking a military station. Clark has been working towards a conflict as an excuse to step in and try and take Babylon 5 but that isn't going to happen, I mean him succeeding."

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Angel and Garibaldi arrived with four other trusted B5 Security personnel. It was quite obvious that it was going to be a 'bloodbath'. "You don't want to do this, put your weapons down and we'll make sure you have a fair hearing."

Not even Michael really put any stock in his words, not because they wouldn't have a fair hearing but because he knew they wouldn't put them down.

Angel hadn't been in a fight in a while, but he was itching for one right now. He was watching closely and when one of the Nightwatch made their move and took aim with his PPG he moved. He was familiar with the PPGs and knew they used superheated helium as rounds so they didn't penetrate the hall of the ship. He also knew it would hurt like hell to be hit by one.

With ridiculous ease he'd swung a table leg like a bat slapping the glowing ball of helium back towards the one that fired it like he was a Jedi on Star Wars. If it was on the lowest setting he wouldn't have been able to bat it back because it would have dispersed on the table leg but with as much energy as it had on it there was quite a bit there to send back to the shooter. Angel's actions were too fast for the naked eye to comprehend exactly what he'd done.

The returned PPG round was all the confirmation one of the leaders of the Nightwatch of Babylon 5 station needed. He'd heard they had some supped up tech given to them from the alien scum but hadn't really believed it. That didn't stop him from taking precautions. "Hey Boggs, have Roddy bring us that package, the one we didn't think we'd need, I'll try and keep Garibaldi busy until then."

The man's eyes widened, Boggs was not expecting to ever need those things.

The items in question were inside a secure box easily tracked anywhere on the station and easily retrieved but not so easily opened. They were firearms, projectile weapons that were often called slugthrowers. They were also outlawed on any space faring vessel or station due to the potential damage which would easily cost them their lives even if they were victorious.

The pitched battle was not nearly as personal as fisticuffs would have been. The Nightwatch seemed to be easily keeping the distance or moving away when Garibaldi's men got too close. Several times they'd increased fire at Angel when the man had tried to push his physical advantage.

Garibaldi shouted, "You have to be running low on energy caps, give it up now before someone else gets hurt!" This time there was a bit more belief in his words, he hoped they could get this done without anyone dieing.

Zach had already stunned three Nightwatch when he had the opportunity to do so without being seen but they were being roped in and soon, he would have no choice but openly declare his betrayal to the Nightwatch.

Seven more people had been zatted and tied up before Dobbs had returned with the package of slug throwers. Pierce Macabee was the 'Ministry of Peace' official and it was his decision to use the slugthrowers. The others however didn't object, save for Zach who had shot four more Nightwatch and moved to cover the backs of the added men as Garibaldi called in for reinforcements.

Angel had seen the weapons and knew of the danger they held to the station. He charged them not paying any attention to the gun's rounds as they found their place in the soft of his flesh, the first man had his arm ripped off with the gun still in hand and several of the Nightwatch stared in horror at the sight. Angel moved snapping one man's arm like a twig, but careful not to 'rip another off'.

The end of the fight was quick and Angel received more than a few odd looks. "Are you alright, Angel?"

"I'll live, but could you get Doc Franklin to pull these rounds out of me. And get me a new shirt because this one is lost."

Michael couldn't help it, he laughed. Angel just tore a man's arm off but he was complaining because of a holey shirt.

Four of the Nightwatch members died in the 'commissioning of a crime' and 'resisting arrest' and several more injured, but none of those too badly hurt were part of Garibaldi's team. 'It's a good day to be on Babylon 5, but what will next week bring?'

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