Harry Potter and the First Ones

Endings...and Beginnings

Ambassador Londo Mollari stumbled blindly to his rooms in the imperial palace, feeling sick. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, breathing hard. If his white-streaked hair were not already standing up in a crown around his head in the Centauri fashion, it would surely have been on end from his recent audience with the emperor. Londo's assistant (and perhaps the closest thing to a friend he had), Vir Kotto, was suddenly in front of him.

"What was that about, Londo?" As usual lately, Vir's brown eyes were wide and frightened in his round face. His brown hair was swept back from his forehead and also arranged stiffly up behind, though not in nearly as ostentatious a manner as Londo's.

"It's Cartagia," Londo answered, rubbing a hand across his high forehead and sucking air through his slightly prominent canine teeth. "He's going to...Vir, we must do it soon." He could not yet voice the enormity of what the Emperor Cartagia proposed, but he had to collect himself and tell Vir. He needed to know.

As scattered as he felt, cunning and plotting had long been second nature to Londo, and a part of his mind was already working feverishly to come up with an answer to their problem. First, he needed to contact Babylon 5 to confirm the rumors and find out how much time he had. Then...

"Londo, what is it?" Vir demanded, and Londo realized that some of his shock must be showing on his face. His diplomat's mask was slipping, and he silently chided himself. "What's going on?"

"It's Cartagia," said Londo slowly in his heavily accented voice. He walked across the room and poured a dark red drink for himself out of a cut glass bottle. He offered another glass to Vir, who shook his head. "He's going to sacrifice Centauri Prime for his own...glory!" His r's rolled even more than usual in his discomfiture.

"What? How? I don't understand."

"Vir, perhaps you'd better sit down." Londo took his own advice and waited while Vir did the same. "The Vorlons are destroying worlds with connections to the Shadows." He suddenly felt extremely tired. When Vir's eyes widened even further, a feat Londo would have thought impossible just seconds earlier, he knew Vir had made the connection.

"But - But Londo! The ships! On the islands!"

"Exactly, Vir. They will come here. Cartagia wants our planet, our people, to become a pyre celebrating his ascension into godhood."

Londo could see his own horror mirrored in Vir's face as the other Centauri's mouth moved up and down soundlessly.

"He's willing to kill all of us?" Vir practically shrieked, finding his voice at last. Londo laughed dryly, with no humor at all.

"Not quite all. He wants me to be with him in his ship, watching over it as some sort of triumph."

"Londo, you can't let this happen!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Londo snapped, but he immediately regretted his tone as Vir recoiled. "I'm sorry, Vir. The first thing we need to do is find out whether this thing about the Vorlons is really true. After that, we must find the right opportunity to get rid of Cartagia and the Shadows."

"I'm with you, Londo," said Vir seriously, his mouth now set in a straight line.

"I know." Londo appreciated this even so, and he began figuring out who he would need to bribe to arrange a secure channel to Captain Sheridan.

***

"You are needed." The voice whispered in Ron's head, and he was instantly awake. He wasn't sure where that voice had come from, but he knew what he had to do and that he dared not refuse the summons.

"Lights," he said aloud, and the room was illuminated. Vocal commands were things Ron understood in this odd place; they felt like using magic. He pulled his clothes on, splashed some water on his face, and went to the other bedroom, where Harry slept. Ron knocked briefly on the door before opening it (it wasn't locked).

"Harry," he said in a normal tone of voice. "We have to go." Harry sat up, rubbed his eyes, and reached for his glasses.

"What's going on?" his friend demanded. "What time is it?"

"I don't know," Ron answered honestly. He hadn't really figured out how time worked on the station, so he just ate and slept whenever he felt it was time to do those things. "I just know we have to be somewhere soon. Can you call the girls, or should we just go over there?" Ron also had not learned how to work most of the technology. Even Muggle devices of his own time were mysteries to him, so 250 years in the future, anything that hadn't been made idiotically easy was well beyond his comprehension.

"We'd better call," Harry decided. "Give them time to get ready. You know how girls are." This, too, was something Ron was still in the process of learning, but he was willing to concede the point.

About fifteen minutes later, everyone had gathered in the corridor, ready to go and with as much information as Ron had in his possession. He led the way.

"Ron, where are we going?" Hermione demanded at one point.

"I'm not really sure," he admitted. "All I know is how to get there and that something important's going to happen." It was as though someone had imprinted a map on his brain, which he was carefully following.

After many twists and turns that appeared to lead them into the center of the station, a flash of light indicated the direction they were to go. They stepped cautiously into a large space that might have been for cargo or maintenance or something else entirely. Several pairs of glowing posts marched along one section of the room, and between them stood the Vorlon, looking like it had lightning shooting through it. A security team was ranged on a catwalk above them, shooting weapons that made everything seem to waver. Ron signaled the others to hide behind some large, metal crates. He looked up and saw signs saying "High Voltage." That jogged his memory enough to realize that the captain must be using "ekeltricity," or whatever it was called, against the Vorlon.

"Should we help?" suggested Ginny in a low voice, though the battle was loud enough that they could practically have shouted without anyone noticing them. Ron glanced around and saw Sheridan, also crouching behind crates and shooting.

"No," Ron answered his sister. "This time, we're just supposed to watch." He saw the telepath, Lyta, standing in the shadows, and Lorien was a short distance behind Sheridan. Turning his attention back to the Vorlon, Ron saw the head-part burst open. A purplish form of light emerged, trailing what appeared to be long tentacles and looking like some deep-sea creature. The security team shifted their aim to the new threat. Suddenly, Delenn came out of nowhere, and the purple thing dove toward her. Sheridan called out her name and jumped in front of her, absorbing the energy of the attack. Someone behind Ron gasped, and he felt frozen to the spot.

"Now!" he just barely heard Lorien give the signal. Slowly and deliberately, Sheridan turned around, facing the creature. A yellow energy poured out of him, and Ron recognized this as Kosh. Sheridan dropped to the floor once the Vorlon was no longer in him, and the purple and yellow beings twined around each other in an incomprehensible struggle. They shot out of the room, and the station began to shake.

Ron heard that voice calling to him again, and he closed his eyes. Kosh and the imposter were in space, around a strange ship. The ship exploded, and Ron felt a new yet familiar consciousness rushing into him. Although he knew it was only a fragment of what had once been Kosh, it was still a stronger presence than Ron could readily comprehend. He fell to his knees and dimly felt Hermione beside him, holding his shoulders.

"Ron! Are you okay?" She sounded worried.

"Yeah, I'm all right." He was adjusting to the Vorlon inside of him, recognizing that he might have to carry him for some time. "He's here now. Kosh. Just like Draal said." He looked up to see Lorien bending over Captain Sheridan, a glow forming on the captain's body beneath the alien's long-fingered hand.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered.

"I think it's how he helped him before," Ginny answered. They were too far away to make out the murmured conversation, and the four teens stayed back while Lorien retreated and Delenn held Sheridan. Finally, some security personnel arrived to assist the captain to his quarters. Delenn didn't seem to know quite what to do, twisting her hands restlessly. Finally, her eyes lit upon Ron and the others.

"Would you like to come with me?" she offered. Since Ron didn't have any better ideas, he shrugged. When he glanced at his friends and sister, they nodded, so they followed Delenn to her quarters. She seemed to feel the need to make herself busy, so she made them cups of some kind of tea.

"What did we just see?" Hermione asked, once they were all seated. Delenn looked as though she wasn't quite sure where to begin, and Hermione clarified slightly. "I mean, what were those things in the air?"

"That is what Vorlons really look like."

"Really? Then...what's the shell thing?" Hermione's right hand twitched as if she wished she had a quill and parchment to take notes on this. Ron smiled affectionately, masking his expression by taking a sip of tea. It was a little on the bitter side, but not too bad.

"They call it an encounter suit," Delenn replied. Warming to her topic, she appeared to be losing some of her nervousness. "They allow other races to believe that they need it to survive in our atmosphere, but the truth is that they wear them to hide what they really are."

"The Vorlons are energy," Ginny realized. "They don't have a - a corporeal form!" Ron wondered where his sister had learned the word "corporeal." Then Hermione's voice in his head reminded him that she probably studied her subjects, unlike him.

"Like the Shadows," Harry added as Delenn nodded.

"I believe that all of the First Ones have left their physical bodies behind," Delenn said. "Some think that it is an inevitable stage of evolution to reach that point eventually."

"So...humans might not have bodies one day, either?" Ron spoke for the first time.

"That is one line of thought." No one said anything as Delenn sipped absently at her own drink. "Did you see how Lorien brought John back?" Again, there was a pause.

"Do you mean this time, or the other time?" Hermione asked, a little uncomfortably.

"The first time."

Harry cleared his throat, apparently deciding to answer for the group.

"Actually, no. We were unconscious at the time. When we woke up, he - Captain Sheridan - was already awake."

Silence fell again as Delenn nodded thoughtfully. She seemed troubled and distant, not like Ron remembered her, and she started a little when the door beep sounded.

"Come in," she announced, rising to greet whoever it might be. It was Lorien, telling her that Sheridan wanted to see her. She excused herself from her guests, telling them that they were free to stay if they wished.

The four wizards were finally alone to discuss recent events, but that didn't seem to be what Ginny had in mind.

"Let's follow her," she suggested, jumping up almost as soon as the door had closed.

"What? Why?" objected Ron.

"We might learn something important. Aren't you the least bit curious what they're going to talk about?" Ginny looked at the others, but only Harry looked interested at the proposition.

"Not really," Hermione replied.

"Ginny does have a point," Harry mused. "We might get a hint as to why we're here. We'll have to hurry, though."

"Why? We know she's going to Sheridan's quarters," Ron pointed out.

"Yes, but if we don't want them to know we're there, we'll have to use the invisibility cloak and slip in when the door opens."

"We can't all fit under the invisibility cloak," Hermione reminded him. "Besides, it might be a private conversation. I don't want to intrude."

"Well, if you and Ron don't want to go anyway, Harry and I can hide under the cloak," Ginny offered. Ron was about to say that he hadn't actually said he didn't want to go, but he shut his mouth as he reconsidered. He and Hermione hadn't had any time alone since they got here, and it might be nice. He looked over to Harry, who was wearing a slightly worried expression. His eyes met Ron's as though asking for permission. For the first time, Ron considered Harry and Ginny together under the invisibility cloak. It wasn't a pretty picture, but when his gaze fell back onto Hermione, the prospect of a good snog overrode his brotherly protectiveness.

"Sure, that sounds fine," he said with a shrug. "Hermione and I can go back to our room. Okay, Harry?"

"Yeah, we'll meet you back there," Harry agreed. He pulled the invisibility cloak over himself and Ginny, and they disappeared. To cover their exit, Ron and Hermione also left the room. Ron glanced over his shoulder, hoping he wasn't making a mistake. Harry was his best mate, right? Ron could trust him.

Yeah, but it's her I'm worried about. Hermione had said that Ginny gave up on Harry, but that wasn't the same as getting over him, was it? Ron hadn't forgotten how his sister used to pine over The Boy Who Lived. He sighed, deciding that he was just going to have to let it go. Harry hadn't ever shown any interest in her, after all.

"So, do you have anything specific planned?" Hermione broke into Ron's thoughts. He grinned down at her as they walked arm in arm down the corridor.

"Maybe one or two ideas," he answered airily while giving her a significant look. She smiled back and slipped her arm around his waist.

"What's the fastest way back to the room?" she whispered eagerly. All concern for his sister fled as Ron remembered just how much he loved his girlfriend.

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