G'Kar watched Londo carefully after the Empress had been dragged from their sight. Londo's face was grim, and he gestured for G'Kar to follow him back to his office. When they reached the expansive office, the door closed, but still Londo said nothing.
"I knew you didn't like your wives, but this seems a bit much . . . even for you," G'Kar said, but Londo did not reply.
Londo sat down wearily at his desk, staring at it blankly for several minutes. At last, he opened his desk drawer and took out a vial. "G'Kar," he said, handing the vial over, "would you do me a favor and take this down to Timov before she departs with Phylakios? She will be in great pain without her daily injection. I would spare her unnecessary pain," he said as his brow furrowed.
G'Kar wordlessly stared at the vial, taken aback at the events he had witnessed. "Mollari—" he began.
"Please," Londo said quietly. "She will be missing it already. I cannot go – you must give it to her. My personal guards will take you to her cell."
"Cannot or will not?" G'Kar asked.
"Both," Londo replied somberly. "Will you take it?"
"I know you are a stubborn man," G'Kar replied, "but there is another option . . . ."
Londo stared at G'Kar. "You do not understand. There is no other option. This was never going to end well for one or both of us since the day I became emperor. I cannot rescind this order." His head dropped and a measure of sadness seemed to seize him.
G'Kar pondered this but decided not to press Mollari. Instead, he asked, "What did you say to her – just before she left?"
Londo sighed, "It was . . . a goodbye." He frowned deeply before handing G'Kar the vial.
G'Kar took the proffered vial and turned on his heel, following a royal guard down to the dungeon.
G'Kar found Timov in her personal cell, leaning awkwardly against the wall. He approached her slowly, and at last she turned and looked at him.
"Mollari asked me to give you this," he said, pulling out the vial of dexycylodox.
Timov reached out a hand slowly. She tried to grasp it, but it fell from her hand, and G'Kar retrieved it for her.
"Let me," He prepared the dexycylodox for the injection. While she watched, he found her vein and injected the vial, bringing her an instant gasp of relief.
Timov closed her eyes momentarily before they opened again. "Thank you," she said as she turned to look at G'Kar. "So you are here, G'Kar, the one who broke his chains. The Narn who served as Londo's bodyguard."
G'Kar sat down next to Timov. "Yes, and now Mollari has ordered your execution. I suspect it has something to do with your connection to the Resistance. Vir Cotto told me you and the Princess Senna have been instrumental in assisting their efforts."
"Yes," Timov said. "I planned Londo's kidnapping some months ago. That plan, unfortunately, did not succeed. If it had . . ." she stopped, shaking her head sadly.
"Why would you kidnap Mollari?" G'Kar interrupted, puzzled.
"Surely you heard about his erratic behavior? We needed to know what was driving it. Unfortunately, it was much worse than anyone imagined. The order for my execution – especially after I blocked Minister Durla from becoming Prime Minister while Londo was ill - was inevitable," she said matter-of-factly. "But of course, that is why he has sent you to me."
"What do you mean?" G'Kar leaned closer.
Timov raised a hand and gestured at the renovated dungeon cell. "Londo can monitor activities at the ministries and in the palace from his throne or his office. But when he renovated this cell for my personal use, he never installed cameras in it. It is the only place he cannot see us – cannot hear us."
G'Kar narrowed his eyes, "I don't understand—"
"My husband sent you here," she gestured to the empty injection vial, "not only to administer my daily injection, but so that we could talk freely - so that I could tell you about the Drakh that are holding him hostage."
"You mean you just found out about them?" G'Kar said, his eyes opening wider in surprise.
Timov looked sharply at the Narn. "You know about them?"
"I came into some information that suggested they might be living in the caves underneath Centauri Prime," G'Kar replied. "It is what brought me to Centauri Prime. When I arrived, I helped Vir Cotto and Phylakios plan the dismantling of the fusion bombs that they placed on the surface - the ones on the map that Mollari gave to Phylakios."
"They live beneath us?" Timov said, shocked. "Of course, I suppose it makes sense they would have to live somewhere. But - the fusion bombs are dismantled?" Timov put an emotional hand to her chest.
"Yes," G'Kar told her. "And the Resistance is poised to move against the Drakh living in Centauri Prime's cave systems whenever the moment is right."
"Londo needs to know," Timov said. "If only you could find a way to tell him . . . ."
"What do you mean?" G'Kar asked. "I can tell him when we are alone."
Timov gave him an odd look. "You don't know about the keeper, do you?" Timov asked.
"Keeper? G'Kar asked.
"I know it sounds incredible, unbelievable even, but there's a Drakh parasite that sits on his shoulder, invisible to the naked eye."
"A Drakh appendage that can manipulate light," G'Kar whispered as he rocked back, thinking back to his encounter on Seti IV and recalling the remains of the man who had been attacked around his neck and Dr. Franklin's observations about the appendage they had found.
"Yes, that might be how it remains invisible," Timov stared at G'Kar. "It telegraphs his every move, his every conversation to the Drakh Entire. It is integrated into his nervous system - in an instant, it can cause him agony. And even though it cannot sense his thoughts, it can read his heartrate, his excitement, his fear."
"When was it attached?" G'Kar asked.
"When he became emperor," Timov replied. Quickly, she told G'Kar about Durla and his complicity with the Drakh, the bargain she had made when Londo suffered his heart attack, and the findings of the doctors at the hospital. "Londo doesn't have much time," she said. "There are threats inside the royal court from people that sense a new emperor will be named in the next few years, and threats from outside -the Drakh Entire and the IA if they find out about the Drakh's presence."
"Why the IA?" G'Kar stiffened.
Timov stared blankly at him, "The same reason he has not publicly announced the Drakh's presence before his keeper could severe his spine and kill him – he is terrified the IA will find out the Drakh are here. If the other worlds find out, they will stop at nothing to destroy the Drakh, and our people will perish as collateral damage, the living shields of the Drakh. Londo won't let that happen. The keeper was insurance for them, but to be honest, they never needed it to control him. The complete destruction of our people was more than enough to prevent him from revealing their presence."
G'Kar leaned back against the wall, regarding Timov as he considered the message he sent with Talia to Sheridan. And yet, G'Kar considered, he had heard nothing from Sheridan. Although unlikely, it was possible, G'Kar thought, that Sheridan had not taken any action because the IA was planning a direct strike.
"G'Kar," Timov clasped her hands with uneasiness, "will you look after Londo? His lost memories of the Drakh have been restored, but his mind is still crumbling under the damage of this parasite—this keeper, as they call it. He is a hostage, alone in this palace, and he is the only thing that stands between our people and destruction. He could use someone to look out for him, to ensure he isn't stabbed in the back, to ensure he remembers what is important."
"I will," G'Kar replied solemnly. "He will not be alone. But if the Drakh have spent this long in hiding, what could they be planning?" he asked.
"They want to decimate the Alliance, get their revenge on the Centauri, and instill the misguided philosophy of the Shadows," Timov said matter-of-factly. "They have been building our war engine for decades, and I think they are ready to move if the right situation presents itself."
"Now that the bombs are dismantled," G'Kar shook his head in thought, "and the Resistance is ready to detonate the passages underneath Centauri Prime in a unified strike at a moment's notice, your people are no longer in danger. If we can remove the keeper, we can detonate the bombs, and . . . .'
"Without the Drakh's compliance, you cannot remove the Keeper."
"If only I hadn't been stopped from seeing him at Vir's estate," G'Kar growled in frustration as he hand curled into a fist.
"Even if you could remove Londo's keeper," Timov told him, "the Drakh still control the Defense Grid. In less than 24 hours, they can destroy the entire surface of Centauri Prime by turning our own defense grid on our people."
"The defense grid?" G'Kar said, shocked.
"Yes," Timov told him. "The Drakh are not unintelligent. They have taken careful precautions - and as a result, they hold all the cards. In addition to the bombs they placed, they cracked our Defense Grid. You must tell Vir and Senna when you have the opportunity. I will inform Phylakios when we leave the palace."
"Then surely," G'Kar suggested, "Phylakios will spare your life?"
Timov tipped her chin up, the mark of a woman who had her mind made. "Londo clearly threatened Phylakios's family. Phylakios has served both my family and the Crown honorably, and I will not ask him to put his wife and son's lives in danger. No, for once, Londo has aptly read the situation. If the Drakh are demanding my death, he has absolutely no choice in the matter. One life in exchange for our people's very survival? It is a devil's bargain – but one he must make - even if he must make it over and over again."
Timov looked at her hands. "It is true that Londo was very angry at me over Senna's marriage. I think he let all of his frustration and rage out on Toscaneli, and I wonder, G'Kar, if his impetuousness in that matter will come back to haunt him. But in my hearts, I am convinced that he channeled that anger into a decent performance for a very different audience. In another life, he might have made quite a good actor."
"What was it – that phrase he said to you?" G'Kar asked curiously. "He told me that it was a goodbye."
Timov lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "It was a goodbye – of sorts. He uttered a very famous phrase in ancient Centauri. I am no storyteller like my husband, G'Kar, but when our first emperor, Emperor Toscano, was uniting the tribes on the Great Plain of Centauri Prime, there was one last king who stood in his way of creating a vast empire, and Toscano hunted that king and his tribe down, killing tribal members as he caught them, one-by-one. When, at last, he caught up to this rebelling king, the king said, 'Oureiariouro re eusaulo.' It is difficult to translate into standard, but it means something along the lines of, 'In exchange for the lives of my people, I give you my head.' Every child on Centauri Prime can repeat it to you – but it is unlikely the Drakh understood it or apprehend its importance because it is unrecognizable in modern Centauri."
G'Kar stared hard at Timov. "Why would he say that?"
Timov pursed her lips, "It was a message – to me, to the other Centauri listening – and I think, perhaps especially for you. I think he means that if it requires bombing the palace and him along with it, then he wants his people freed at whatever cost may come to him, personally. And he wants me to tell Phylakios or anyone else I can about the Drakh before-"
"-Before you are executed," G'Kar said grimly. "But why do you think the message is for me?"
"You are in Londo's death dream," Timov said matter-of-factly.
G'Kar looked at the floor as he thought of the dream he had seen through the Dust assault so many year before, "I know that I appear in Mollari's death dream. But we Narn do not believe in such things."
"And yet you are here," Timov said pointedly. "To tell you the truth, there are a number of Centauri who don't really believe in their death dreams."
"And what about you?" G'Kar asked her curiously.
"The difficult thing about a death dream is by the time you know whether it has, in fact, come true, you cannot tell anyone. So, no one knows if our dreams really tell of our deaths or not. They simply are. Every Centauri must decide whether to believe them or not. You mustn't take Londo's views as representative of our race, there are many who do not believe in their death dreams and just as many who don't know what to make of them. But Londo – he will be very pleased that he is nearing the closing chapter of his life, and you have miraculously shown up on Centauri Prime," she shook her head with a smile. "He will be beside himself that he wasn't able to make money off of this bet."
At the sound of footsteps, Timov stood up, ensuring her flowing dress was unwrinkled as she turned toward G'Kar one last time. "That will be Phylakios coming to get me," she said with composure. "I'm afraid our time is up, G'Kar. I am sorry we were not able to meet under better circumstances," she took his gloved hand and squeezed it for a long moment. "I say this with the greatest of sincerity – gods' speed on your mission, G'Kar."
G'Kar raised his fists to his chest in a Narn salute as Phylakios appeared in the doorway, and G'Kar met his eyes for a brief moment before the soldier bowed to the Empress, "Majesty," he swept a hand toward the door.
"What was your death dream?" G'Kar called out to Timov just before she passed through the door.
Turning back, her blue eyes flashed, "I die alone," she said matter-of-factly before disappearing through the door.
Londo stalked his darkened quarters, spinning to face Shiv'kala.
"You can't kill him," Londo said, extending one pleading hand. "G'Kar is the only thing standing between Centauri Prime and Narn bombs. Your people will die the same as mine if they rain their firepower down on us."
"And what do you propose that we do with him?" the Drakh rasped at the Emperor.
"He will stay here in the palace where he can transmit periodic communications to his people," Londo said emphatically. "You heard what he said in the message. If he does not transmit a new message every week, he is to be considered dead, and the Narn forces will unleash their cannons on us – on Centauri Prime. There is no doubt in my mind, if you kill him, we will have a full scale war with the Narn. Is that what you want?"
Shiv'kala narrowed his eyes, clearly annoyed by the situation. "We will consider your counsel," the Drakh said warily. "But we do not wish to allow the Narn's presence here forever . . . ."
"Why not?" Londo asked. "His presence – his life – is critical to ensuring the Narn retreat from our boundaries. What harm can one Narn do when he is surrounded by Centauri and under observation by your people?"
Shiv'kala listened silently.
"You must keep Durla away from him," Londo told the Drakh pointedly. "If G'Kar dies . . . there will be a great deal of bloodshed. He is as a prophet to his people."
Shiv'kala grimaced and disappeared into the darkness.
Londo fell into the closest chair, letting out a sigh of relief and wiping the sweat from his brow. "It is not so fun, is it?" He glanced at his shoulder, "to be given no choice in a matter, hmm?"
That evening, in the moonlight, Phylakios turned to the Empress. "Your Majesty, it is time. I am truly sorry for what I must do."
"It is your duty," she replied. "And I would not put your family at risk. It must be done – let there be no more apologies. I am ready for what is to come."
Phylakios unsheathed his coutari. "The cut will be easier if you extend your head."
Timov complied, and for a brief moment, the moonlight danced off the polished silver of Phylakios's coutari before it sliced through the evening air.