**" Among the greatest threats that faced the Army of Light during the early phases leading up to the War were the continuing depredations of the agents acting for the Shadows. Unseen, unnoticed, these forces of chaos, with their requisite keepers, moved freely and at will amidst the major governments and the League of Non Aligned Worlds. How many there were in total is unclear, and will now never be known..."**
Amanda Zefram Teague, "Holding the Line: A History of the Army of Light."
* * *
Feb 8, 2259. Babylon 5 DownBelow...Night Rotations.
Brianna Tolmanes had just about reached the end of her rope. No money... no food...no work...no hope. The end was near, and what other option was there?
She raised a grimy hand to the wall in front of her. A flickering light source revealed the Lurkers sleeping in untidy groups around her, in the half-constructed mess that was this part of what had ironically, she thought, been called Mankind's "Last, Best, Hope." This was the end.
"Brianna." a voice murmured.
"What?" she cried, and all around, murmurs of irritation responded. Rising, she dropped her blankets where they lay, and went in search of the voice. Music played in the distance, one of the grimy bars in DownBelow that was open...all night, and all day. Hunger pangs ate at her...how could she have fallen this far?
Rejected by her family. Rejected by the Academy...regardless of what she could do, she was wasting away, trapped in this place!
"Brianna.." the voice called again, and she looked around, and jumped. This was a deserted, dangerous, barely used part of DownBelow, how could she have allowed herself to come here?
"Who's there?"
"You know who I am..it will all come clear in a moment." Off to the side, a well dressed young man with a short beard stepped out of the shadows, and her eyes widened. It was Corrolan!! Corrolan the dreamer, Corrolan the fool...and the explorer. And lastly, once her friend...but hadn't he gone out to the rim with one of those expeditions? "I don't...why are you here?"
Corrolan smiled. "Let us say I have...been away for a while, but now I'm back, for a very good reason. I knew you were here, Brianna...and I know you don't believe life has treated you fairly. But now, I'm here to help make up for all that...if you'll only answer one question for me."
"A question?"
"Yes."
"What question?"
"*What do you want?*"
She frowned, as Corrolan's smile widened. "I don't...understand."
"It's a simple enough question, my dear. *What do you want*?"
"I.." Food. A living.....revenge. She screamed. "It's not fair!"
"I know. What do you want?"
"Revenge. The Academy. They rejected me...they ALL rejected me, it's not fair, it's not *right*!!"
"You fell, Brianna...but you can get up again. I will help you. What do you WANT?"
"I want it to CHANGE...I want it ALL to change!! I want them to PAY for what they did to me....to PAY for hurting me, I WANT REVENGE!!
"Does that answer your question?"
Corrolan nodded, and continued to smile. "I would say, *so*, Brianna...oh yes." Brianna caught her breath, as the man who had been her friend only a short time before turned aside. What..what had brought that up? She wasn't normally so forward, about things. Where had THAT anger come from?
And then...a sound scraped down her skin and down her spine...and up again. What was that?
Corrolan stopped smiling, and then smiled again...a different smile, this time. "We can give you what you want." And SOMETHING appeared from behind him.
And then, Brianna screamed....
RIMSTALKER, DESTINY'S CALL, PART IV
"AVATAR DOWNBELOW", ACT II
**"How humiliating it was, I thought afterwards. Sure, we'd survived, and moved on...and I was ready to take my ship out, and, I thought, watch for the return of the Shadows, when and *if* they came again. In hindsight, it is, of course, more then obvious that the shock of the Nighthawk attack was finally catching up to me, and I had suddenly intended to continue what had begun with my 'death' at Nighthawk. G'kael was more then correct to berate me, and what immediately followed only showed how wrong I had been...
....and then, with the Technomages, we began to focus ever more on William, and to realize that he was changing, we *all* were changing, far faster then we had originally realized. And another crisis suddenly came upon us..."
A crisis named Brianna Tolmanes."**
From "Storm Crossing: The Shadow War, and Other Responsibilities"
* * *
Feb 10, 2259. Morning.
The enormous construct revolved, regardless of the events occuring within it and beyond its shell. Darkness stirred, while the turning continued. People lived and died within its borders in many different ways..some benign, some terrifying. The construct obeyed the laws of its continuum, but sheltered within it beings who would take part in important events and happenings.
Events important enough to change the face of the galaxy forever...
* * *
It was interesting, Walther considered, from his tiny stall just off the mainline of the Zocalo, that his old training in trade relations technologies was turning out to be the only bonus left to the group..and especially for him, after the debacle of G'kael tearing a strip off of Jennie a couple of weeks back. *Those two* and the Narn were now tighter then ever...and conducting mysterious investigations station-wide, about something or other they would tell him nothing about!
Which, as usual, left Walther Gideon alone and on the outside.
It was a situation he didn't like and didn't understand. It was *bad* enough that the knowledge of a malign, alien power returning after a thousand years couldn't be brought out into the open...(that had been drilled into him enough...and he *suspected* there was somebody watching him to make sure he obeyed those 'suggestions') but this near abandonment by the others riled him.
He needed an answer...*no*, he *deserved* an answer. After all, he had followed the other two to this place!
No matter...he was doing well enough on his own, and if G'kael implied once in a while that maybe he should be more focused on the 'matters at hand', well, it didn't look like the matters at hand were interested in Walther Gideon. He shook his head and smiled. One of the Earth trade companies, having learned of his credentials and current location, and, more importantly, to him, loss of commission through 'bad luck' (or so they had said), had hired him on for a reasonable going rate. Things were going well enough...trade was brisk on Babylon 5, and Walther now saw it as his duty to keep the group in the black..and, more importantly, fed. So why worry?
* * *
From across the corridor, N'rothak slouched against a wall, and nodded grimly. Mr. Gideon was yet another of the Watched who were becoming far too set in their ways. His master had dealt with the biggest problem already, now it looked like it was up to him and his companions to deal with this one.
* * *
His face set in a smile, Corrolan sauntered through the Zocalo, and abruptly turned his head to look at a distant Walther Gideon, now deep in discussion with a pair of Drazi, and then nodded at something no one else around him could see. A faint sound like the rasp of pincers played through the air...a sound those around him frowned at, and then promptly ignored.
"So..." Corrolan muttered, "A dangerous place to be in...a dangerous movement to play. I accept the challenge."
* * *
Twelve Hours Later.
"Stay away from me, woman!!" Darybes cried. "I swear that I had nothing to do with that! And I *absolutely* want nothing to do with you!"
"Your oaths mean *less* then nothing to me at the moment!" Brianna snarled, her eyes, to him, it seemed, almost...glowing. "What came before means nothing, what has happened is as dust before the glory of the Age to come. You thought to kill me...you know what happened, you have been deviling me in this place from the start. You think yourself a spider, don't you, Darybes? A spider in the darkness, plotting, manipulating, stealing or destroying what you cannot have or understand. In my former existence, I denied you. In this existence, you sought to destroy me again, using your pitiful tools. They are now dead, as I'm sure you realize. Know me now, spider! I am *vengeance*!... so do I pass judgement on the damned. So do I pass judgement on *you*.
Know my name."
"You are mad, woman!!"
Brianna's smiled; a terrifying smile. "You have no idea what madness means...no idea at all. I will show you madness...and destruction. You are the beginning, only the start of what will be!"
Darybes, eyes wide, turned to run...but Brianna was there ahead of him. What she had become, Corrolan had given to her. She *reached* out...and Darybes first screamed, and then died.
Brianna nodded. It was beginning...it had begun. "I reach out my hand..." she whispered, "And make them pay. They will *all* pay for what they have done to me."
She turned, almost languidly, and drifted away. Behind her, unnoticed, a hatch fell open, and a young, quite disheveled man fell out. He scrambled to his feet, eyes wide. "She is come.." he whispered. "Must tell. Must!"
* * *
Far above, inside his quarters, secure from view, Corrolan entered a note onto a datapad, and turned in interest, as a vaguely spiderish shape shimmered into view for a second, rasped a sound, and then faded from sight. Corrolan nodded, and made another notation. The game was afoot!
* * *
Feb 13th, 2259.
"I have heard..." G'kael remarked, over his morning meal, "That there are things happening in Downbelow. The security forces of Babylon 5 are in a uproar, but this, I suspect, is nothing new for them!"
Will frowned, as nearby, Jennie hopelessly rolled her eyes...terrific. "How much longer is this going to go on?"
"Until *I* say otherwise, Westcastle." G'kael frowned at the bustle surrounding him, and then across at the distant booth of the already busy Walther Gideon. A surprising turn of events, and yet... "Several denizens of Downbelow...a varied and apparently unconnected group, have begun dying in the past two days, a difficult if not impossible path to track, against the general background of defeat, hopelessness and violence. However...we three have an advantage over the station Security forces...*we*, as I'm sure you realize, have strained over the past few weeks to discern signs of, shall we say, dark forces at work. One such has arrived."
"Just like that??"
"Yes, and in a place they would not look for. Rumours have arrived of an unusual, shall we say, persona...underground, and full of mystery. The rumours say, and I quote, 'The Avatar is come. The Avatar is Vengeance. The Avatar is Revenge'. Not widespread as of yet, but this will, no doubt, change if the situation is allowed to continue. "
"Sounds like typical Lurker nonsense!" Jennie muttered. "They're trapped here, far from home...it's no surprise they want someone to blame, someone to believe in. And yet..."
"Note the meaning of the word 'avatar'...demigod, if you will, one possessing higher powers then the ordinary man, and able to pass judgement by his or her will. Not someone you would normally strive to encounter, as I'm sure you realize. But I believe in tests, and it would seem your tests are far from finished. Shall we go?"
* * *
"Mr. Gideon?" the voice inquired, and Walther looked up.
"Yes?"
"We are aware, to put it plainly, of your associations. One must *always* take advantage of situations that present themselves. We have a proposition for you...a *deal* I'm sure your superiors will approve of."
RIMSTALKER, DESTINY'S CALL, PART IV
"AVATAR DOWNBELOW", ACT III
**"I want someone to help me chase the Shadows away."**
-Fragment of popular Twentieth Century song
* * *
Feb 13, 2259.
Walther frowned, and made some notations, while across from him, the trio of well dressed, smiling men kept their silence, and waited. "Mr. Vendant...I must admit this sounds too good to be true. But I've said that many a time before to many people and realized a handsome profit from the deal. Normally, you must realize, I try not to deal within my own government; there is, after all, much more money to be made through avenues of interspecies trade..."
Mr. Vendant, the apparent leader of the trio, politely nodded. "We understand. But this is where the *real* money is made, Mr. Gideon, as I'm sure you realize! It is easy enough to play it safe, trading goods and technologies through this place with the governments and companies of the League worlds, but the best money is made in places the human race has never seen before...out on the Edge, things are more dangerous, but INFINITELY more profitable. The Organization you work for will recognize the need for such transactions, I assure you."
"What will this involve?"
"Simply this; the powers I work for, and their associates, need a trade lifeline to various companies on Earth to better faciliate their own economic efforts, and there are, shall we say, members of your own organization that welcome such efforts, and will, if you inquire, wholeheartedly agree with your choices. This will, unfortunately, take you away from your companions and this place occasionally; but this is, after all, about making your life a better one, Mr. Gideon...and that's what you want, isn't it??"
A whirl of thoughts passed through his mind. It was all true, what Vendant was saying...and occasional trips from the Rim to Earth and back would take him through this place enough times to meet up with his friends on occasion. Gideon tapped his pad, and finalized the deal.
Vendant simply smiled.
* * *
Chronicles Log, Entry III, February 13, 2259(remembrances)
It was a hard decision for us to make, that week on Babylon 5, but it set in motion everything that followed. Walther *was* getting in over his head, but his was a different path then ours, and for a different reason. In the initial attack and what came after, he was never really given reason to believe what he had been told, even though it looked like he did initially. And to him, it finally looked like he'd found a purpose and a life again, when Mr. Vendant and his team approached him.
What it got him, eventually, though, was a direct line down into Hell.
* * *
In a rented room, slightly above the Zocalo, N'rothak and his companions met for another of their 'discussions' on their target, the Watched man, Walther Gideon. In actuality, it was N'rothak who was doing most of the talking...and occasional cracking of heads.
"Events will spiral out of control if we are not careful! I did not turn my duties on the *N'blis* over to another just to see this thing we are doing destroyed because of your failings!" another of the Narns snarled.
In one movement, N'rothak reached out with one arm, and with a barely seen motion, cracked his hand against the other's knife arm. The Narn cried out in pain. "*You* should know better then that!! It is in the rages of our kind that we are so often forced to fight battles we cannot win because of *poor* planning. You will do these things, or you will be dead!
Is that CLEAR?"
"N'rothak."
"Ka'shael...make yourself heard."
"The actions of G'reall do not reflect the rest of this team. Leader, it is difficult sometimes to continue this while the dark minions of the Enemy worm their way into all those around us."
"Your point is noted. Continue."
"The grand majority of Narns know NOTHING of what is coming... but it is easy enough to see what will happen!! The Centauri are moving slowly against us...you MUST see that they wish to extuinguish our race!! And here we are, under orders from the Shipleader to watch this man, and slowly move him towards a destiny they know nothing about! It does NOT make sense!
N'rothak nodded. "True...but knowing too much at this stage would equally be a disaster. It is enough, for now, for you to know that Walther Gideon has his own part to play in what is to come. We are to watch him, and prevent his death at all costs. It may be that he will deal with the Enemy...in fact, it may be that he will fall under the Enemy's thrall...for now, this cannot be determined. But regardless, the Shipleader and Zathras himself have told us that while Gideon must be left to make his own way, eventually he may come back to us, perhaps with greater information then you suspect. At the heart of it, Gideon is a good man, he is simply...lost for the moment. This may be corrected in due course.
As for your other comments, Ka'shael, I cannot argue with your statements...but we can do NOTHING to aid our fleets in the battles to come, we are under oath to G'kael and higher powers then him to fight a different battle, by G'quan, to make our actions count!! It burns, but that is the way of things. The pattern is clear...the Centauri ambassador has fallen in with the Enemy, and is using them for his own ends..for now."
"But!..."
"No, Ka'shael, if we act NOW, we can only die. There will come a time when the Centauri will pay the price for what they do...when Mollari *himself* will pay the price for his dealings with darkness. We will have our victory, then, even should the Narns be bathed in blood from the struggles to come...we will *survive*, and have our victory!
There is no other option open to us."
* * *
Feb 14, 0500 Station Local.
G'kael leant against the wall near to the quarters of those he aided and watched, and nodded as he thought. He'd stood aside from Westcastle and Clifford during the human year's end festivities and for a little while longer, and had returned just in time to guide them before things had gone wrong...thankfully enough. The intervention that had been required had been made up in tasks long since...both of his charges were nearly ready to take the next step. Interesting enough that he could not do the same...but it was not his province, that had been made very clear, to take that step. Shipleader G'kael, forever the middle man, doer of deeds, translator of actions. One more test was required of them before that step was made...and the advent of this *Avatar* would more then serve as the focus for that test.
A drifting form caught his attention, and G'kael looked to the right, to see the towering form of the Vorlon Ambassador come into view.
"All is in place." he murmured. "The moment is at hand."
"##The need has guided them...the song has begun.##"
"It has, Ambassador. The actions will be taken, as I promised."
"##The two will become the three. The darkness awaits.##
G'kael grimly nodded. Now was the time to move...or not at all.
* * *
Elsewhere, Corrolan sat alone.
Or so it seemed.
The events he had been guided to had begun..there was no turning back. Some movements he could not understand, or speculate on...but others he was allowed to evaluate. There were, it seemed, battle lines being drawn in mist...and it would take a long time for those battle lines to solidfy into view...that was the way of things. But trapped in between the lines, a group was beginning to form. And both players, for now, continued to obey the rules of the Game being played. If the group teetered his way, a great victory would be won, even from the jaws of defeat. If the movement failed, no matter...there were other pieces to play.
Today's confrontation would decide the outcome of this movement. But another was already in the works...
* * *
1115 hrs.
The body fell to the floor, and Brianna withdrew her hand.
How could this be stopped?? The rage was eating her up from the inside, and there was *nothing* she could do about it...everyone she saw was now the ENEMY, and was treated as such. The only way, it seemed, to control it now was to be alone...
And what of REVENGE?? At first it *had* been enough just to make those who had mistreated her pay...but they were ALL dead now, and as expected, revenge was now no longer tasting quite as sweet. Word of her had spread throughout DownBelow...this she knew. But Corrolan!!...what had HE done to her? What had he given her, for her to see that black on violet hallucination that the living world had become?
Brianna snarled...and the snarl became a sob. There was no escape from this death spiral. Any who approached her died...she couldn't control it anymore. They called her the Avatar of what was to come...she HERSELF at the beginning had essentially named herself an Angel of destruction...an agent of chaos. Out of desperation and anger, she had chosen the unforgivable...and now, was there anything left outside of death?
How had could she have been so foolish as to accept his offer?
A clatter disturbed her thoughts, and in a flash of white-black-madness, all thoughts vanished...and she laughed, and rose. So...they had come again. Face her, fight her, would they?? They would all fail. They would be *destroyed*!
* * *
The Lurker nodded his head wildly at the three figures facing him, one Narn, and two humans, a harsh man with dark beard and a black haired woman with a scar on her cheek...all in shimmery black cloaks, and as dangerous a group as he had ever seen, outside the mental darkness that waited in a corner of DownBelow the rest of his kind now avoided for fear of what waited there...a corner that moved throughout the population at random..and vanished when it was being searched for. A nightmare given form.
But now, this trio, against all reason, were ACTIVELY seeking out the source of that chaos, the source of all the recent deaths....a source that the station security goons couldn't track at all...and *that* was driving their leader, the recently recovered Mr. Garibaldi, slowly up the wall.
They were insane. But they were paying...and that was enough for him.
"We have to act on this quickly, you realize..." the bearded human curtly remarked, as they moved out. "This 'Avatar' must be stopped before things go any further."
"Yes, yes, of course...but she kills!"
"We all die..." the woman remarked, throwing back her hood, and giving him a stare. "In due course. But you claim, Wilkens, to be one of the best trackers in Downbelow...you CLAIM you can find the source of this chaos, when even the Security forces on this station cannot. This is why we are paying you...you *have* to find the Avatar for us. She HAS to be stopped before it's too late for everyone!"
"I understand. This way, please..."
* * *
In the distance, a door opened. Wide-eyed, Brianna turned to run. This was wrong!! They were an enemy, but something...some distant echo of responsibility was telling her otherwise. That the needs of the others were greater then her needs. The madness hammered at her: revenge...kill them! REVENGE...
Her knees hit the deck, and she screamed.
* * *
"Now!" G'kael barked, and as Wilkens stood aside, open mouthed, the trio moved forward at a run. "I have my information. The Avatar is most vulnerable when she is trying to fight the madness inflicted upon her by the Enemy...a madness that has killed far too many already."
"Are you *sure* this is going to work?"
"It *has* to, Westcastle, else we will not succeed in what must be brought to pass. You see, the Avatar, whatever her real name is, is a *telepath*...an untrained, initially weak telepath that the Enemy refocused to higher strength in order to create fear and destruction in this place. Perhaps this is a test...a preliminary, probing test of the other side's abilities. But regardless, this 'Avatar' can be elliminated as a problem *if* you can get her to touch you! She will, in the course of her madness, touch your mind...and at that point you *must* attempt to do what we have discussed."
"With my 'visions'? Impossible!"
"*Nothing* is impossible if you believe it can be done!" the Narn dryly replied.
"Fine!...so I have fragments of two other lives trapped in my head, one human...and one, according to that Technomage, Minbari...which is something I still have problems fathoming, but that's something to talk on another time, I guess."
"Sooner then you may think, I suspect."
"*Whatever*!...now you tell me that if I can get this telepath to touch me, these visions of mine will have a positive effect on her? What the Hell's that all about??"
"And I *won't* have you endanger him this way, G'kael!" Jennie added, her eyes flashing. "We've done everything you've asked us to up to now, but this is going too far!"
G'kael's eyes narrowed. "Do not presume to know what 'too far' is, Clifford...you haven't even begun to scratch the surface of your potential, either of you. If we succeed here, then there may be a next step... but for now, it is enough that you must *believe* this is possible!"
"We'll see."
And then, they rushed around a corner, and came face with a moaning, red haired woman on the deckplates...a woman who, between one second and the next, rose to face them with a snarl.
No time to think...only to act.
Beside him, Jennie screamed, and held her hands to her head... she was under attack! That was more then enough for him to make up his mind... it was act now, or not at all, and he leapt at the snarling woman, hands outstretched...
* * *
Too many targets, they were too determined...she had to choose! Mind violet with chaos, Brianna turned on the woman in the group, and focused herself into the other's mind. But she had only begun when the man leapt at her, and there was no time to refocus...no time at all. Not fair...she wasn't done making them pay. She wasn't....
The man reached her, and they fell to the deck together. Roughly, she turned in mid-fall, and harshly placed her hand against his head, as beyond, the Narn moved to support the fall of the woman she'd attacked...she hadn't finished!...intolerable! Above her, the bearded man grunted, and focused his eyes on her. She laughed, and began to stretch out with the madness in hand.
And stopped. Something was preventing her!! In the background, the madness yammered; destroy!... vengeance!!...DESTROY!
The connection...something was wrong! Brianna closed her eyes. Images not her own...life!!
The madness shrieked...and faded against a cacaphony of images.
[[Crystal fire...darkness living....fire undoing....lives unmaking....death unyielding... stop...stop it....STOP IT....you will pay for this...]]
"Westcastle." she whispered. And fainted.
* * *
"She is unharmed." G'kael commented, as beyond the fallen Avatar of Downbelow, William slowly stood up, his gaze black and threatening. "It was inevitable that the woman would focus her attentions on one of us...it would have been more difficult if it had been YOU, however."
"That doesn't excuse your motives, G'kael!"
"You may believe that if you wish, Westcastle...but we did what we had to do." Very slowly, the Narn rose, the still unconscious Jennie supported on one arm. "We have succeeded in our aims, but now, we must leave the area at once. Security will arrive shortly, and I do not particularly want to explain our actions here to Mr. Garibaldi and his men. I doubt they would believe us, in any case."
"What happened?"
"Your 'gifts' have succeeded in contacting the part of her soul that remembers the past, and in so doing, you have done away with the madness induced by those you call the Shadows, for now...and all being well, for good. She will not remember what has happened clearly, but she *will* remember us. She must be brought back to your quarters...believe it or not, we will need her in due course."
"*WHAT!* You have us track down this *insane* woman, break her out of what appears to be a long string of murders induced telepathically at her hands, and now you want us to bring her back *to our quarters*? That's it! I've had just about enough of this, G'kael!"
"Explain your comments!"
William threw down his cloak in frustration. "Ever since you've returned, we've been running around the station at your beck and call, doing whatever you like, whenever you want us to. I think it's about TIME we had a little more input on the point of all this, before either of us are killed because we don't know ENOUGH!"
"Are you sure about this, Westcastle?? VERY SURE?"
"Damn right, I'm sure!"
"Even if it means abandoning Gideon, your other associate, to what *he* must do?"
William thought about it all, for only a moment...and then curtly nodded. "We were never close, just thrust together through a crisis of necessity. Yes, G'kael...even if it means *that*."
"Very well, then. You have proved to me that you are *willing* to put yourselves on the line, if not for our cause of the fight against the Enemy, then at least for each other, and in so doing, aiding the first. You are a *team*, and an important one in the battle to come...and it is time, at last, for you to take the next step. Once Miss Clifford and..." G'kael pointed to the unconscious "Avatar" on the deck, "What is her name, by the way?"
"Miss Tolmanes have recovered properly, which, all being well, will take no more then a day or so, you will be ready to make the next move."
"The next move. I heard every word that Elric said, G'kael..." Westcastle commented, as he hoisted Brianna Tolmanes over his shoulder. "Would this next move involve us leaving the station by any chance?"
"It would."
"And where, perchance, will we be going??"
"To a meeting with a man who will lead you, help you, and define what is to come. To a world that lies at the heart of the struggle. To a place that time has forgotten, a center in the struggle to come.
But first, there are some small *details* to take care of here."
* * *
Next: Destiny's Call wraps up its first miniarc as Westcastle, Jennie and their new companion, the perhaps dangerous, perhaps still insane Brianna Tolmanes, leave the station, and take up the full challenge of what is to come, while G'kael, N'rothak and their team attempt to stop Gideon falling in with the darkness that is infiltrating the Earth Alliance, before it's too late! "Changes in the Pattern" coming soon...