A Different Kind of War:

Everything I do - I do it for you

Everything I do- I do it for you

Bester entered his office on Mars for the first time in months, he was still angry over the 'interrogation' of the rogue the day before. Several silver framed photos sat on the desk. As he sat one caught his eye. A child sat on his knee, her arms around his neck, her smiling face lying against his chest.

The dark eyes looked out at him from that position with trust and love. Thick wide lips curved up at the corners. The image was happy. But today it sent chills down his spine. He picked up the photo a sinking sensation coming over him. The room seemed to spin as he looked at the child with the soft wild curls, the dark eyes.

He saw the interrogation room. The recognition and fear in the rogue's eyes. Dark eyes, fragile beauty, the wild curls… he slumped back and looked to another photo, two young children, a boy and a girl, both with blue eyes and dark hair, his carefully combed, hers wild and free, her large eyes alive and happy, his more serious but still young, and so innocent.

His head sank into his hands as a terrible fear gripped him. A memory floated through his mind.

Serious dark eyes looked up at him. "Uncle Al?" asked his tiny niece, she wore a flower print dress in bright colours, her eyes were sad yet strong. "Would you protect me from anything?" she asked. He smiled reassuringly at her pretty face. Already her parents exotic good looks showed in her tiny face. "I would." He told her. She bit her bottom lip. "Even if you thought it was silly? Or wrong?" she asked. So serious for one so young. "Even if I was being … Bad?" she asked. He smiled and pulled her close, her flower print dress spread over his black PsiCop uniform. She refused to put her head down, she looked up at him. "From anything." He reassured her. She laid her head against his chest. He saw his sister raise her camera and take a photo.

He raised his eyes to the photo and then to the papers on the side of the desk.

He stood and pushed them aside until he found an image. Her eyes were closed but it was her, without the bruising and cuts. Her skin soft and dark like her fathers. Half-running he left the room.

She rose from unconscious oblivion to sleep to consciousness quickly. She tried to open her eyes but the right one refused to open. She tried to see with only the left. The room blurred and weaved. Her head ached in time to the beat of her blood…

She tried to open her mouth slowly. Her cheeks were swollen, carefully she assessed her face. Her cheeks were swollen –probably a lovely shade of violet- her jaw was stiff and possibly dislocated, her lips seemed impossibly sore and swollen. As for the rest of her. They'd woken her and used an electro jabber on low setting on her chest and stomach. Her ribs seemed to have worsened sending spikes of pain up her left side.

Her eyes had started to work properly, and her head hurt a little less by the time the door opened. Al Bester walked in. He had a strange expression on and carried an old paper envelope. She smiled slightly, grimly, he'd figured it out. He lifted a photo in front of her face, a dark haired woman with the same straight nose and messy dark curls as she had looked back at her. The eyes were blue though, and she had Bester's eyes and pale skin. The familiarity was visible in the woman's features.

Another picture appeared, a handsome man with high cheek bones, and generally dashing dark good looks. Familiar dark eyes stared back at her, the same jaw and eyes, so familiar. She looked up at Bester. He stared down at her. A third photo was put in front of the other two. A young girl who seemed a synthesis of the other two photos sat beside Bester. She had a flowery dress on and her hair curled wildly around her child's face.

Bester dropped the pictures in her lap and walked away from her. He stood on the edge of the circle of light around her. "My parents were Corps. My mother was just like yours, the hair and eyes, the wildness, the beauty. She was a commercial telepath. My father was an instructor." He was taking his gloves of as he spoke. "They actually liked each other before they were married. They had me first. I was talented from the moment I was born." His head lowered, he was playing with his gloves, folding them… "Then my mother fell pregnant again. This time the child wasn't even a latent." He turned towards her. "But what she lacked in Psi ability she more than made up for in personality and looks.

"She was the light in any room, a warm breeze on a cold day…" he walked towards her. "And curious, she always wanted to know why." He smiled. "But for all her sweet personality, all her seeming fragility, she was a strong person. She rejected any idea anyone had of telling her what to do…" then she met your father. A first year Archaeology student from St Petersburg. Soon she was his equal. They loved each other and their work together was amazing to watch." He looked at the photos on her lap. "Then they had you. You were definitely going to develop talent, or so we thought. Your DNA… All the tests said you were a P10 to 12 for sure, except the actual practical tests." He paused and looked at her, tracing the familiar yet different face.

"You were your mother though even more exotic and beautiful." He knelt in front of her and pulled out another photo. A black and white photo of mother and daughter, he paused for a minute. "Then you disappeared. An explosion said the experts." He gripped her hands. "But if the ship exploded on take-off why are you still alive?" her hands were being squeezed. "How did you escape, what happened on Beta 11?" he asked. She looked at him, his eyes showed a desperate need, they betrayed his feelings. She took a deep breath.

"They woke something on that world." She looked into his eyes, her words were slurred by her swollen face. "Shadows. They found a Shadow ship." He pulled back. Her open eye looked up at him. Then past him as she looked back into the past.

"Shadows?" he asked. She nodded.

"We were there for three years uncle. And they found that ship. Something they did most have woken it. Because it called into my mind. That's the first time I used my Telepathic abilities." She looked up at him. "Two weeks later I was playing in a field when another Shadow ship came. It destroyed out camp." She shivered. I could hear it, screaming in my head… And theirs, my parents. The others, all of them… screaming." She shivered.

"The Minbari found me a few weeks later. I was half mad and half starved. They took me in… They looked after me…" she looked up at him. "You didn't keep your promise, you were supposed to protect me… Uncle Al." he looked up into her battered face. He shivered. He stood.

"Tell me when your rescuers arrive." He told her shortly. As he walked away.

"What rescuers?" she asked tilting her head to look at him, she had felt Marcus' approach but how did he know... He turned back towards her.

"I know Sheridan; they'll be coming for you." He looked back at her. "I'll stall Thirteen, she won't touch you again" he paused just before the door. "I'm sorry 'Tasha" he said so softly she wasn't sure he'd said it. And this time when he left she no longer felt safe, no longer did she feel anything, her emotions seemed to have drained away, leaving her truly alone. And this time as she slept she did not dream.

What do you think??? Feedback people, Feedback.