8. Did He Fear His Work To See?
Seeing he won't be able to make it in time, Londo turned abruptly and run to the cells. If he couldn't save Centauri Prime from a Narn and Drazi assault, he would at least save that one Narn who was almost as important to him as the homeworld. Not that Londo Mollari would admit it to anyone, of course.
They made it to Londo's quarters, though only Great Maker knew if it really was a safer place. Then Londo left, sent a doctor to G'Kar, and went to the throne room to find the Regent in hope of talking some sense into him... A futile hope, but the only one he's got. G'Kar told him of very possible alien influence on Centauri Prime. As if Londo didn't know. He knew, most painfully he knew, he remembered all those ominous dreams and he remembered Morden's promise of revenge. And here it was. And all of it being his, Londo's, fault. The least he could do was to minimize the damage, as usually these days.
When he found the Regent and the Drakh with him, minimizing the damage reached a whole new level of meaning. And of horror.
Fusion bombs all over Centauri Prime. No good deed ever goes unpunished, just as humans say. To get rid of Drakh would mean get rid of those bombs first. But getting rid of them meant telling somebody, and if he did, the Drakh would find out and detonate them first. Oh, if it were only a bluff! But it weren't, Londo was too old of a gambler to doubt it. And even if it was a possibility, the possibility alone wasn't enough to risk such damage.
"I am Centauri, and I am not afraid" echoed in Londo's mind when he walked to say goodbye to G'Kar. And at least the mysteries ended, the unnamed dread ended, all was clear and sharp, and oh-so-painful, but he knew what to do. He hated it, but hadn't he expected it anyway? He once told Zack Allan about Emperor Mollari the First. He too ended badly. But maybe this time his bad end would at least be good for his people.
It would be nice, wouldn't it? But right now the only good thing in the whole deal was for his people to not die in nuclear detonation. Very much and very little, depending on how one looked at it. The proud Centauri effectively were slaves now. Londo stopped before G'Kar's door. Now I know what it feels like, G'Kar. Only I cannot tell anyone. G'Kar once told him how his people asked him to remain on Babylon 5... Is something more important than the safety of your families? Yes, their freedom. Londo felt dull, bottomless horror at the thought how tempting this was. To tell G'Kar, tell Sheridan, tell everybody, to hell with fusion bombs, better to die than to live with this abomination. But, of course, he couldn't do it. He took a few mind-cleansing breaths, carefully arranged expression on his face and entered his quarters.
'G'Kar...'
'Mollari? What happened?'
Londo heard true concern in Narn's voice despite the fact that G'Kar cringed in pain when he tried to stand up. Damn it, Great Maker, it was going to be difficult.
'It is all under control now, G'Kar. The Regent is dead. It was his responsibility... so now the war is over. Sheridan is here too, he stopped the Narn, Drazi and Brakiri who were attacking. And... I'm to be the Emperor. Now. The Centauri need a leader.'
'Of course.' G'Kar was looking at him with sad, empathic eyes, and the more friendly they were, the more Londo knew he had to drive G'Kar away.
'The war is over, but it is not the end. My people has... every right to feel resentment towards Narns, Brakiri and Drazis. I must... demand... that you leave. Immediately. Leave Centauri Prime, G'Kar, and do not return.'
'Is that what you want, Mollari?'
Damn that Narn!
'Yes! Yes, that is exactly what I want! Leave!'
'Very well' said G'Kar finally, after long silence and uncomfortable stare directed at Londo. 'I will leave.'
'Good. Now I must leave you. I have much work to do. Sometimes you may hear... well, whatever. You know very well that in politics one has always too few choices, yes? And I... I think I have none. When we first met, I had no power but all the choices I could ever want. Now I have all the power I could ever want, but no choices at all.'
'Mollari. Thank you for saving my life. For risking yours' said G'Kar just as Londo turned to leave. It sounded as if he didn't want to end this conversation on the bad note. Londo appreciated that.
'Well, what, you would have done the same.'
'Yes, but I'm a better person.'
'Oh, you ingrate!' Londo laughed despite everything, it felt so unbelievably wonderful to hear G'Kar insulting him as usual. As if nothing had happened. G'Kar laughed too. Then Londo left. As far as last words and goodbyes went, this ones were his favorite ever.
G'Kar wasn't the one to argue with Mollari on the matter of choices and politics right now, but he certainly didn't plan to sit on his butt and do nothing. He had his choices in a very good condition and readily available, and perhaps he could share some of them with Mollari. After all he never signed anything that would compel him to believe in every dream and vision that just happened to tag along. So the first thing he was going to do after Mollari left was to find Lyta. Happily his wounds were rather superficial and being Narn went along with quite a stamina.
He didn't even need to put much effort into it as Lyta waited right outside Mollari's chambers and was going to enter, so they almost collided in the doorway.
'Listen, G'kar, there's no time' she whispered. 'The Drakh are here, they planted fusion bombs all over Centauri Prime, so Londo is effectively their hostage. He's about to receive a Keeper. I wanted you to know this first, because now I'm gonna go and do something really stupid, which would be scanning a Drakh for bomb's locations and all other information I may find useful. But those are the Drakh, they were trained by Shadows, and while I really want to do something truly atrocious to them I do not know if I'll be able to. So if I'm down, you're on your own. Wish me good luck.'
And Lyta left with silver gleaming in her eyes. If she were to succeed, G'Kar thought, he would probably owe her whole solar system just for her telepaths to inhabit.