Disclaimers: Babylon 5 and Highlander are not mine. I'm just using the basis to write some interesting ideas down. This is an AU story.

Notes: 1. This takes places just after Phoenix Rising (S5 Ep12).

2. This story is a Crossover with Highlander.

3. The Game has been over for 50 years, revealed as a false feeling brought on by some compounds in the atmosphere (Vorlon tampering).

4. // … // indicates telepathic conversation.

5. italics are thoughts.

Chapter 8 – Victories and Skirmishes

The questions had come thick and fast after the first answer had been absorbed. The reaction to one of Ivanova's questions was quite amusing. She inquired as to what their precise relationship was and then burst out laughing after they sprang apart looking incredibly embarrassed.

With the question and answer session over, they all stood and went to leave the room. Sheridan left, deep in discussion with Stephen Franklin. Susan Ivanova and Marcus Cole left together as well. Zack excused himself and was leaving the room when a muttered curse made him turn. Methos had obviously been trying to follow him out and was currently pulling at his collar as Cassandra had grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"Just where do you think your going?" The question hissed out of her mouth. "You still have a great deal of explaining to do Methos." She pushed him back into a chair.

The grin that they both noticed on Zack's face caused two highly irritated older immortals to glare at him. Zack held his hands up in a placating manner. "I'm going. I'm going."

* * * * * * * *

Telepath and Extra-sensory Committee, EarthGov Senate

The Chairman whacked the gavel against the rest. It struck him as incredibly ironic that after all the progress in the last three hundred years, they still used a gavel to start a sitting on the Committee. "The Committee is called to order. Before us today is Mister Warren Crowne. Mr Crowne, please begin."

"Thank you, Mister Chairman." The man calling himself Warren Crowne this decade stood. "Mister Chairman, honourable Committee members. I represent a section of the business world that feels that the monopoly that the Psi-Corps has on telepaths and the regulations on them as being restrictive and somewhat arcane in nature.

"To solve this problem, we studied the original laws and actual EarthGov restrictions on telepaths." Everybody was stunned, murmurs filled the Committee room. This was not a closed meeting. The Chairman rather thought that he might have to make it one. He gaveled the meeting to order again.

"Thank you, Mister Chairman. To continue, we found that the only real restriction on telepaths, by law, was that they 'were to be registered with an EarthGov recognised organisation. As such, they would have to adhere to the regulations of that body as if they were laws.' That, Mister Chairman, is a direct quote from the Telepath Act, Paragraph 13 to be precise.

"In that vein, Mister Chairman, honoured members, we would like you to recognise a new organisation and grant it equal rights and responsibilities with the Psi-Corps." A man in a Psi-Cop uniform was sitting at the back of the room with his mouth open and a blank look on his face as he tried to process what exactly was happening.

* * * * * * * *

Babylon 5, Zack Allan's Quarters

Lyta stood at the door, she still had not fully processed what had happened to her on Mars. Nor did she understand her new connection with Zack, it was a permanent telepathic link, at least she thought it was. She knew where he was, and with just a little probe, what he was doing almost constantly. It was distracting. She could close it out, but anytime she relaxed and forgot about it, it came back. The subtle sense of knowing. She KNEW him now, utterly and completely, all 63 years of his life. He was, quite literally, an open book. She just hoped that the link went both ways.

As she reached for the announcer, the door hissed open and his voice floated out to her. "Come on in, Lyta. We have some things to discuss." The easily controlled voice had a hint of suppressed violence, but she stepped in anyway. She trusted Zack, and apart from the fallout with that Byron incident, which he was right about she admitted, they had been friends. She still had gaps in her memory from when Vorlon mental programming had controlled her actions. But nothing prepared her for what saw.

The door had slid shut behind her, almost catching her jacket. Lyta saw Zack, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. He was sitting, the soles of his feet together, hands on his knees, but that wasn't what surprised her. He was sitting TWO feet ABOVE the floor, on thin air.

* * * * * * * *

Unmarked Freighter, Near Sol System Jumpgate

The raid had gone as planned. Although the casualties had been a little higher than expected. They now had almost 1200 telepaths crowded onto a ship with a maximum life support capacity of only 800. It would be a race to see what happened. Death from oxygen deprivation or life at Babylon 5.

* * * * * * * *

Next Morning, Babylon 5, Captain's quarters

Cassandra woke to the sound of her link chiming for her attention. She grabbed it from the bedside table and snuggled back into the body of the man she had loved for more than three millennia as she answered it. "Lochley."

"Captain," Lieutenant Corwin's voice filtered through the link, "We recorded a news segment that I think you should see."

"Alright, Lieutenant. Send it to my rooms Babcom unit."

"Yes, ma'am."

She deactivated her link. She needed to get up, but she really, really didn't want to. A smirk appeared on her face, if she had to get up then so did he. Cassandra faced the sleeping man and, after bracing herself, heaved him out of the bed. The solid thump after he disappeared from view confirmed contact with the floor. A few seconds later a dishevelled head appeared.

"What did you do that for?" Methos plaintively queried.

"I have to get up, if I have to get up, so do you." Cassandra thought the reasoning quite logical.

"Women." She heard him mutter as he slumped back out of sight.

* * * * * * * *

Sol System Jumpgate

The two men and three women currently crewing the bridge watched in dismay as the gate activated in the swirling blue that indicated an incoming vessel. The dismay grew to horror as Starfuries began appearing from the gate, marked with the Black Omega of the Psi Corps squadron.

"Omega 1 to unidentified freighter. Stop your engines and open your shuttle bay doors. I will not ask again." The radio crackled as looks were exchanged on the bridge. Unnoticed by the other four, the current ranking officer on the bridge communicated to others in the shuttle bay. As they raced for odd looking black ovoid ships, the officer cut the engines.

To the Starfuries, it seemed like the freighter was cooperating. The drive plume had vanished and the vessel was little slow to open the bay doors. When the doors finally did open they got the shock of their lives. Four of the ovoid craft left the bay with the last one out the doors closed with a speed that showed the freighter had been modified.

On the bridge of the freighter, the other four watched in shock as the woman they thought they knew flipped open a hidden panel and activated four switches. They could hear the generators start to whine as the additional circuits took them to their design parameters.

Cierdwyn winced as she saw Starfury fire impact the freighter then relaxed as no apparent damage appeared. Katherine got the shields up. She swung her reconstructed Atlantean fighter around and engaged the Starfuries. Alarms beeped as a shot hit her fighter, but the armored hull with the shielding held. A twist of the controls and her fighter performed a tight flip, realigning with the group of Starfuries that was starting to break up.

It was over in minutes. The technical superiority of the craft designed with immortal knowledge of Atlantean design and energy shielding systems had guaranteed victory once the battle had begun.

* * * * * * * *

ISN Broadcast

"In an announcement today, the Senate has granted an additional licence to the newly formed Registered Telepath Organisation. This licence is the first break in the Psi Corps monopoly on telepaths and their assignments. According to confidential sources the rules for telepaths choosing to register with RTO are significantly relaxed compared with the Psi Corps.

In other News. On Mars today the Psi Corps together with the Spokesman for Mars Security announced a level two security restriction on all movement to and from the surface. This measure has been implemented to try and contain the individuals that assisted the attack on several Psi Corps Re-education Camps."