Peter David - Out of the Darkness

“If Sheridan and Delenn can leave… so can you, Londo,” G’Kar said with sudden urgency. “We all can. We can escape…”

But Londo shook his head. “No… no. Sooner or later, my small… associate… would awaken. The instant that happened, the Drakh vessels would come after us and blow us to hell.”

“Then let me kill that thing…”

“If it dies, I die. Besides, G’Kar, some things are preordained. Trust me on that. This is the only way.”

“But if that… thing… controlled your actions…”

“Ahhh… I see what you think. No, G’Kar, no. In the grand scheme of things, this,” and he indicated the creature, “is only a recent acquisition.” He leaned forward, coughed several times, and then said raggedly, “Would you like to know… what sort of person I was? After I arranged for the bombing of the Narn colony in Quadrant 14… the emperor, Emperor Turhan, with his last breath, told me that my associates and I were damned. And I announced that instead he had condoned and applauded our actions. And do you know what else, G’Kar, old friend?” And he half smiled. “Given the exact same opportunity… I would do it again. I would figure out some way to spare my people this… this debacle,” and he gestured to the smoking ruins of Centauri Prime. “But what I did to your people…” And he snapped his fingers. “Like that, once more, given the opportunity.”

G’Kar bristled, his blood thudding in his temple, and it was all he could do not to leap for the smirking face right then…

And then he figured it out. He realized that Londo was just trying to get to him… to enrage him… to get him to…

Attack him? Kill him?

Of course. Kill him. That had to be it.

And then, before G’Kar could say or do anything further, there was the sound of voices approaching. Stern guards were saying, “Keep moving!”

Londo stood on uneven legs and, with more willpower than actual strength, thrust himself toward his throne. He caught himself on it and swung himself to a seated position, allowing the shadows to cloak him.

“Hide,” he told G’Kar. “Now. Hurry. There is a small dressing chamber over there,” and he pointed. Even that movement clearly pained him. “Go there.”

“Why?”

“Because time is running short, and the minutes it would take me to explain to Sheridan and Delenn why things must be done, these lost minutes might well prevent our being able to do them. Do as I say.”

“As you command,” G’Kar said with a deep sense of mockery. He stepped into the room Londo had indicated and softly shut the door behind himself.

And then he waited… for his final instructions.

Londo did not sit forward on his throne, because the pain was too great. His conversation with G’Kar had taken the last of his strength from him. He did not think he had any reserves left.

One of the guards came in first and walked toward the throne. He did so hesitantly, as if he wasn’t sure if Londo was even there. That was how well hidden in the shadows Londo was. “Highness?”

“Yes.”

Having affirmed for himself that Londo was there, the guard said, “Sheridan had passed out for a short time, but he seems to have recovered.”

“Oh, good,” Londo said dryly. “We wouldn’t want him to be anything but awake for his final moments. Bring them in.”

Sheridan and Delenn were ushered before his presence. They squinted in the dimness of the room; Londo preferred it dark these days. It was as if he had surrendered totally to it. The guards stepped out, leaving them alone. Sheridan and Delenn seemed puzzled, as if wondering whether they were alone.

Suddenly Londo’s hand went numb. Even he had lost track of how much he had had to drink. The glass, which he had totally forgotten he was holding, slipped out of his grasp and clattered to the floor. Delenn jumped slightly. Sheridan did not. For some reason, Londo found that interesting.

Delenn and Sheridan slowly began to walk toward him, squinting.

“Close enough,” Londo said softly. He spoke hardly above a whisper, and the words were slurred. He barely recognized his voice. He felt as if he were viewing the world through a haze.

He tried to stand and discovered that his legs and brain were no longer on speaking terms. If he did manage to get to his feet, he would most likely topple over, and how dignified would that be? It wasn’t fit that he spend his last moment sand they were his last, he was quite convinced of that—flat on his face.

“You will excuse me if I do not stand,” he managed to say. “You see, I have had considerable to drink… it is the only way we can be alone. We do not wish to wake it.”

Sheridan looked at him in confusion. Technically, he looked twice as confused as he should be, because Londo was seeing two of him. “Wake what?”

Londo cocked an eyebrow, which was the only part of him capable of movement. “Ah, then you do not know. We all have our keepers, you see…” He chuckled softly. “Oh, they make us think we have free will, but it’s a lie. I gave a very good performance, yes?”

He saw understanding beginning to dawn on Delenn’s face. Sheridan still looked befuddled. That made sense to Londo. He had long suspected that Delenn was the true brains in the family. “It was satisfied,” he continued. “It doesn’t care why I do what I do as long as I do it… as long as you are dead.”

He managed to find enough strength to lean forward. Delenn’s face remained impassive. It was as if she was expecting to see the creature there. But Sheridan looked totally stunned, and that confused Londo even further. Londo knew that he had spotted the keeper on his son’s shoulder, when he had endeavored to stop the boy from leaving Minbar. Now, though, Sheridan acted as if he’d never encountered one of them before.

“It cannot hold its liquor, you see,” Londo explained. “I learned that if I drink just enough, I can put it to sleep for a few minutes… a few minutes where I am in charge of myself again…” He took a deep breath. Putting together understandable words, coherent sentences, was a tremendous effort for him. “But the minutes have been growing shorter and shorter… so we do not have much time.”

He leaned back, once again at home in the shadows. And why not? He had been living within them for so long, he no longer had anything to fear.

“My life is almost over. My world, all I hoped for… gone. You two are my last chance… for this place, for my world… for my own redemption.” He steadied his voice, glad that the alcohol had so numbed him that he was no longer capable of feeling any emotion; merely observing it from a distance, as if in a dream. “You will find a ship hidden behind the palace. My personal guard will take you. In exchange for your lives, I ask that you and your allies help free my world. I can do nothing more for them.”

Sheridan seemed touched, and still a bit bewildered. “Londo… if there’s anything—”

Londo shook his head. “No. There is nothing. Now go, quickly. You don’t have much time. I can… feel it starting to wake up. Hurry. Go,” his voice got louder with the last words.

Sheridan and Delenn looked at one another, and then turned and left. He knew that Dunseny and Caso would be right outside, as they had been instructed. That they would carry out his final orders.

Alone, again, as always, Londo waited for the creaking of a door that he knew would come. “You are there, my old friend?”

G’Kar entered the room, watching him, looking at the keeper balefully. “Yes,” he said.

“They will never make it out alive, unless…” He took another breath. “You see, my keeper will awaken any second. It will alert the others… and my only hope will die. And I will die soon after. They do not take betrayal lightly.”