CHAPTER THIRTEEN Barad-dur arising

As the crew of the Prophecy load their ships, everyone is now aware that Bri is now the Witch-Queen of Angmar, everyone has their own opinion about the reign of the new ruler--the Witch-Queen, but those among the Witch-Queen at least felt a sense of safety with having the Witch-Queen and Satai Delenn on the same ship. As Delenn takes the bridge the sense of nervousness fills the ship, the curiosity if Asron knows their coming, some opinions is that Asron is coming to Minbar, but the Witch-Queen who sits in the medical office in Medbay looking over charts of the Human, Minbari, Hybritical Resplizier, and Asmaraqua respiratory systems seeing how asthma affects the lungs. As the ship rises, the Witch-Queen knows what waits for them...the Lord Anubis and the eight Nazgul. As the ship raises into space there is no sight of anyone, space is empty. As Delenn looks at Ananette who is working at the navigation consoles, Delenn is ready to make the jump into hyperspace. "Ananette, prepare to jump into hyperspace."

Ananette looks at Delenn. "Yes Satai, destination?"

Delenn thinks for a second and then looks at Ananette. "Sector 666, to K'ha'dum."

Ananette looks at Delenn with a worried look. "Yes Satai, sector 666."

Delenn looks around the ship and at her crew, on the bridge she sees her son, David Sheridan at the weapons controls, Valen Sinclair looking at the charts of Sector 666, Delenn III Salsitic who is sitting at the Captains chair, Iris Ulleskesh Ishermaaltabrutle at second weapons controls and Delenn David Mir Chrysalisaistic who is talking to Valen, the crew is working together. As Delenn looks around she wants to go see the Witch-Queen. As she gets up she goes to the Medbay, as she arrives she sees Delenn II Morden who is the chief doctor. She also sees Jake Gallen Sheridan, Jake Delstein, and the Witch-Queen of Angmar working together about the asthma issue. Also in this room is Deltalenn Ishermaaltabrutle, Deliris Sinclair, and Charisma Salsitic who is being treated at the moment. As Delenn walks to the Witch-Queen she wonders why the past Witch-King passed his reign over to Bri so quickly. "Witch-Queen?"

The Witch-Queen of Angmar looks at Delenn. "Yes Delenn?"

"I was wondering, why did the old Witch-King hurry to pass the reign to you?"

The Witch-Queen looks down at the tile floor for a second, but then looks at Delenn. "It's the Lord Anubis, he is going to claim the ring of the Witch-King to power himself. If the power of the Witch-King was not passed on, Lord Anubis could take the ring directly from the past Witch-King with no complications, so the only way to keep the ring from Lord Anubis is to pass it on."

Delenn finds this hard to believe, but trusts Bri Delenn not to lie, for she half Minbari. "And you did not tell me?"

Bri looks at Delenn, "If I did would you permit it?" Delenn says nothing. "Delenn, with this ring we, the Prophecy can complete the prophecy by dethroning Lord Asron and his evil supporters."

There is a urgent call for Delenn from the bridge, it's Ananette. "Satai Delenn, Satai Delenn, please report!"

Delenn walks to the Medcom. "What is it Ananette?"

"Seven ships are on attack vector."

Delenn looks at Bri nervously. "I'll be right there." Delenn turns off the com and looks at the Witch-Queen. "Witch-Queen, please keep the ring safe and be safe yourself!"

Bri nods her head. "Yes Delenn...you better go now to the bridge!"

Delenn leaves the Medbay and goes to the bridge, but as she gets to the transport tube, the seven ships open fire against Delenn's vessel, sending the ship off line and pushing it beyond the hyperspace beacon, as Delenn is thrown against the wall, she gets up on her feet and tries to reach the bridge, but no one is replying. So as Delenn opens the elevator shaft she climbs up to the bridge. As she opens the bridge elevator door the bridge is literally trashed, computer consoles everywhere, electrical wires dangling about. Delenn looks around she comes apond the body of Valen--he is dead, over at the navigation station one and two laid the bodies of both Ananette and Kirishima, both crushed by consoles. And the last body she sees is the body of her once child, Charisma Salsitic, as Delenn's hope fails, she notices debris moving, as she goes over to the moving debris she find Delenn David Mir Chrysalisaistic--alive! As she helps her up, she is scraped, but not seriously injured. Also alive is Iris Ulleskesh Ishermaaltabrutle who was protected by the consoles in the weapons station. The other two she found alive was Delenn III Salsitic and her son David. As she goes to the com she calls down to Medbay. "This is Delenn, is anyone there?"

The Witch-Queen who is covered in sharp needles is trying to recover from the antibiotics injected in her system. "This is the Witch-Queen, Delenn what happened?"

Delenn looks at the trashed, blacked out bridge. "I don't know Witch-Queen, is anyone injured?"

"Yes, injured is everyone in Medbay, but some did not survive the attack. We lost Jake Delstein and Deliris Sinclair. And I myself have just received over 25 antibiotic shots." Delenn is quiet, but she needs to keep the crew in order. "I've also heard that Irisma Mir Oceanantaca has died, Delenn it looks as if we've failed, what do we do now?"

Delenn who has been quiet for the time being decides to order a break until they can make repairs. "I am going to make the jump back to regular space, I need you to find the others and bring them to the bridge, we need to vote on what to do next."

"Yes Delenn, good luck with your attempt to jump back to normal space." The Witch-Queen leaves the com to rally up the alive medical staff.

On the bridge Delenn finally notices that the attack has put them off the beacon so she decides to make the jump knowing that the lack of the beacon could put them in the part of a star, but staying adrift would decrease their chances of being found so as she presses the button the ship goes through the jump point, as the vessel enters space she is relieved to not have crashed into a planet, but as she looks out her window the sector she's in is very familiar to her--she has been here once--it's the sector that belonged to the once great enemy...the Shadow's. As the councils confirm that she is in sector 900, she looks out the window for any ancient enemy, but sees that the chance of ever going to Sector 666 is almost out of probability. As the Witch-Queen walks in, she too has the feeling of hopelessness, and queasy from all the medication. How can they take on Asron if they can't even touch their ships? As everyone stands around, Delenn notices that the attack cost the lives of eight of her crew members. The Witch-Queen looks at Delenn, "We're all here Delenn, I regret to tell you that we lost Casthmatic."

Delenn looks at the many red spots over Bri, the needle injection. "I see, thank you Witch-Queen, as you can see, we've taken on severe damage from only seven ships from Asron, when we enter Sector 666, there will be countless number of ships. What we need to do now is figure if it is logical to even go to K'ha'dum, so we will have a vote. There is 10 of us, so this can go any direction, so lets do this...does anyone want to go back to Minbari?"

The ten crew members look at one another, but no one speaks, but Delenn III Salsitic decides to make a comment. "It would seem if were are even doomed if we go any direction. But I've personally seen worse time, and I don't believe Asron or the Soldiers of Darkness are anything compared to the foes of the past like the Shadow's, the Hand, or even the Liberator's! Let us go to war."

Delenn smiles, also glad to have Delenn III along. "I agree Delenn III, well there you have it, we will repair, resign jobs, and go to Sector 666."

On K'ha'dum in Khazad'dum, Asron gets the message of a ship approaching Sector 666, as Asron looks at his charts, they then tell him some news he does not want to hear. "My Lord Asron, I've bring news, our surveyors found one ship heading towards beacon 666."

Asron looks at the servant. "And what happened?"

The orc like servant grins with bodily fluid drooling on the floor. "They were destroyed, they saw their ship burning off the beacon."

Lord Asron looks at the orc, "Burning?"

The smiles, "Yes my Lord, burning."

Lord Asron looks at the palantir. "I wonder who they were?"

"It does not matter my Lord, all that matters is that they are dead my Lord."

Asron just looks at the maps, but a new question comes to mind. "What about Lord Anubis, how is he doing?"

"Not that well my Lord, Lord Anubis went back to Minbari to find the Witch-King's ring."

"And?"

The orc ponder if telling Lord Asron is a wise idea, "It's missing, it would seem that the Witch-King of Angmar has rebuilt his Carn Dum."

Asron does not like the thought of the Witch-King's ring missing, but his plans move to battle. "Alert the Soldiers of Darkness, we go to battle again, whoever it was that was in space will be back, we must find them first, go tell Lord Anubis to lead the fleet!"

"Yes my Lord!" As armies of Soldiers of Darkness load ships again they leave the old and crippled to defend K'ha'dum, because who would ever have the slightest chance attacking K'ha'dum?

Back on the Prophecy ship, Delenn is still amazed at her crew persistence to go on with battle. As Delenn looks at her remaining crew she decides it's time to spread the jobs around. "If I can have your attention, we need now to resign jobs, I will be your leader, David Sheridan I still want you on weapons. Delenn II Morden I need you to be our chief respiratory technician. Witch-Queen, I need you on navigation. Deltalenn Ishermaaltabrutle I still want you to do our medical. Delenn III Salsitic I want you to still be our captain. Iris Ulleshesh Ishermaaltabrutle I need you to do engineering for us. Delenn David Mir Chrysalisaistic I need you to still do our intelligence and Nezlenn Silica I want you to still do our security...any questions?" No one says a word. "Well lets get going," The rest of the 'non-bridge' crew leaves and only Delenn, David, Witch-Queen, and Iris remains on the bridge, "next stop...Sector 666."

The ship jumps into hyperspace just as a fleet from K'ha'dum jumps into Sector 900. "Lord Anubis we receive no transmissions."

Lord Anubis stands up in a hurry, "Impossible, there was transmissions transmitting from this area!"

The Soldier of Darkness looks at the scanner, "Our sources show none!"

Lord Anubis gets up from his chair and walks slowly to the view screen looking at a vast empty wasteland that once was the place that was the idle of fear for all who gazed apond it. As Anubis looks at the black veil surrounding the orangish-red nebula the stars begin to move a little. As Anubis looks further at the phenomena the sky begins to shutter that the stars go black...something is out there. As Anubis looks in terror of the growing blackness, Lord Anubis commands one of the Soldiers of Darkness to magnify that area of space affected. As the viewer comes on the section of space is full of Shadow vessels thousands of them. Coming behind them are many numbers of Shadow Death Clouds, and they are heading towards them. Mostly the Soldiers of Darkness can take on 30 Shadow vessels, but Anubis can't even see the end of the dead fleet. As Anubis turns in terror to the captain of the vessel, it is certain that they are in big trouble because their jump gate technology needs to repower because their ships engineering is based on arriving at a battle site and staying for the battle. As the Shadow fleet comes closer the jump engines are half powered. As Lord Anubis watches the fleet come in firing distance, they open fire. At first the Shadow's don't know how to respond, but as chaos leads into uncertain chaos the whole Shadow fleet opens fire against Lord Anubis, the sudden fire blast is blinding purple. As Lord Anubis' fleet burns, he notices that their fire power is not even harming the vessels. As Lord Anubis' ship comes to power he order a retreat. As Lord Anubis commands the opening of hyperspace, the regular space opens up and the fleet of K'ha'dum begins to jump, first to jump successfully is Lord Anubis, but as the Shadow's stop their advancement Lord Anubis feels as if there is a greater danger. As his other fleet begins to enter hyperspace, the Shadow fleet shots out an anti-jumping device that collapses the jump point. As Lord Anubis watches is entire fleet disappear in one shot, this troubles him. As Lord Anubis stands there shocked, he orders the retreat back to Sector 666. As his ship runs back to Sector 666, the lost of battle to the ancient enemy the Shadow's is very confusing to him, how could a single Shadow fleet completely destroy the advanced fleet of the Soldiers of Darkness and Lord Anubis? It is just impossible, the Shadow's just don't have that type of skills and fire power, but then also he has missed many epochs when the Shadow's had terrorized known space.

On Captain John J. Sheridan's ship they are making final checks over the vessel, Captain Sheridan is use to this setting because for 17 years before he took command of Babylon 5 he had been on ships patrolling hostile space, but as the crew worked to understand the highly advanced vessel, Captain Sheridan has been worried since arriving in space. It could possibly be the presence of Satai Alyt Neroon of the Starrider Clan, even though Neroon has pledged his loyalty to Delenn, John knows Neroon's hostilities towards Human's and knows that Neroon has the potential to take Minbar for himself, but for some strange reason, Neroon's presence does not place his fear that has him all worked up. As John gets up from his chair he looks out at the vast darkness, his fear is out there...something is coming. As John keeps staring out at space the sound of Neroon murmurs from the speakers..."Captain Sheridan are you there?"

John is startled by the strong voice as he turns his head he replies. "I'm here, what's up?"

Neroon replies "Our scanners have picked up a faint disturbance about two solar hours from our stationary location."

John remains seated in his chair, "The source?"

Neroon pauses then replies, "Unknown configuration, it could just be a star acting up, the only reason we were able to pick this energy source up because there is no other vessel transmission, we are certainly hearing the voices of a dead universe, take a listen for yourself!"

Captain Sheridan turns on the high range scanners and there is no transmissions, no wave energy, no rumbling of vessels except for one single low clinging sound amongst the continuous static discharge. As John Sheridan watches outside the wiriness turns to a sickness as a glimpse of Shadow's flash in front of him, as he looks in fear he sees a Shadowy figure dressed in black looking at him. As he watches the figure, two bright flashes of light appear and hit Neroon's vessel. As John snaps out of the trance he realizes what is happening, his forces are under attack. As hit after hit destroy parts of his ship it is clear that they can't fight these forces, as John notices that the next fires will destroy his vessel John is suddenly thrown to the ground, the viewer goes dark as a blast rips the bridge apart and demolishes the food hall, but as the Soldiers of Darkness prepares to deliver the final blow, something opens a jump point behind them, as the Soldiers of Darkness watch the jump gate widen, a Vorlon cruiser first comes through fallowed by many Shadow fighters and then some Shadow Battle Crabs, which is a nickname for there Capital Ships. As they open fire against the Soldiers of Darkness at first the fire power does not affect the enemy's vessel, but as they continue to fire the Shadow Battle Crabs open fire slicing the Soldiers of Darkness Capital ship in half as if it was a stick of butter against a hot knife. As the Vorlon's fire power breaks through the second vessel, the Soldiers of Darkness and one of the Nazgul captains decides it's time to retreat. As the only surviving Soldier of Darkness ship escapes to hyperspace, the Vorlon's and Shadow's also leave, leaving the disabled vessels burning out of control.

As John Sheridan wakes up he is bleeding from the impact, but us very much alive, as he staggers around in the ruined bridge, smoke makes it difficult to breathe, but with the amount of smoke he should be dead from the deadly fumes in the air, but he is breathing with only a few complications. As he staggers over to navigation's to check to see why the enemy has stopped firing he comes apond the dead body of Heydrick Himilar, in weapons also laid the body of Mira Verdon, electrocuted to death. Near the navigation console John Wickenburg is alive, but the smoke is chocking him, so John picks up John Wickenburg and puts him near the emergency oxygen department so John Wickenburg can survive the harsh environment. Also at navigation is Mira II Sheridan who grieves over the death of her mother. Marit Steldic is also among the living, but has a broken leg. Hirick Binderlingerbach is also alive, and helps move debris. As John carries John Wickenburg they arrive to the medbay to learn more terrible news. As John is met by Calenndof Chrysaliscristic he tells John the bad news. "In the medical field my captain, we've lost Heather Balard and Craig Stern, I've also been told that the attack claimed four of our cooks, Kosvo Verdom, Spurr Callent, Lenn Binderlingerbach, and Gill Stern."

John is wiping away the blood on his face. "Is that all who died?"

Calenndof Chrysaliscristic shakes his head, "No! In maintance we lost Dillen Shasta, Dick Silica, Steve Steldic, and Don Steldic, and one other died just a few minutes ago...Incevi Verdon."

"I see, John looks at poor John Wickenburg, "well I better call the crew, we need to make repairs!" John Sheridan leaves medbay.

On Neroon's vessel his crew got lucky, but not lucky enough...four lost their lives, those were Delteine Lier, Grace Wickenburg, Arimira Himilar and Sara Kunson. As Neroon reads his monitors he decides to go back to Minbar to make repairs. "John Sheridan, this is Neroon are you there?"

John rushes to the com system to receive the call. "I'm here, are you okay?"

Neroon looks at the dead bodies and feels blood running down his cheek. "I, yes, but I lost four crew members, how many did you lose?"

John looks at the bodies of his lost crew. "To many!"

Neroon begins to feel light headed, but keep awake. "Listen John we decided to go back to Minbar to make repairs, what are your orders for your vessel?"

John looks at his navigation equipment, it is crushed. "I've decided to remain here, we took heavy losses, but if I was to die again I'd rather see the enemy go with me!"

Neroon is silent for a second, but as the silence turns eerie as he speaks. "You Human's sure have a pessimistic way to view optimistic outcomes that we can't defeat!"

John Sheridan cocks his head in a sort of a sarcastic way. "Well I have come to expect that out here in space."

Neroon actually laughs, but it's not the laughter of joy it's the laughter of fear. John Sheridan look around to act as if Neroon was not laughing at him. As Neroon stops laughing he goes back to being serious. "Mr. Sheridan, I hope you the best of luck and as one warrior to another, may you tread safely in the midst of those who oppose you."

John is now silent, but quicker then Neroon, Take care Neroon, we didn't even scratch the enemy, they may still be out there."

Neroon's connection is shut off and John shuts his off, as John Sheridan looks at the piled bodies, he is pitied by the thought of failure.

As John Sheridan goes to the weapons counsel, it is still operational, but there is no weapons available, so if they get into a fire fight, the outcomes for them won't be too bright. As John Sheridan checks life support, the life support monitor reads 45, as John plots the path back to Minbari, they have at this moment a 69 chance of survival, not good odds, but the only acceptable odds John has.

On the ship carrying the Prophecy, The Witch-Queen and Jake sit in a small room, light off staring at a candle and reciting the words of hope of sadness, the words of remembrance of those whom died. As Delenn stands outside the door, watching the entire song unfold, he heart is filled with a hope that was not there once. Even though the Witch-Queen or Jake did not notice Delenn there, the single candle in the room is enough to bring tears to Delenn's eyes. And after years of service to the Grey Council, working on Babylon 5, being lead ranger, and serving as head of the ISA, never once has she ever consider that the true spirit of the Human, or alien body is not in politics, books, laws, or the wises adult, it lies in children, for children can see the universe and all its glory, a glory that us adults can't see anymore due to our self-centered ego, but for one moment in Delenn's life the energy released from the spirit of the Witch-Queen and Jake was enough to break through the shied of egotism and transform Delenn's mind back to the ages of childhood.