Title: ??
Date: Jan '02
Summary: Another way for the universe to have gone - splits from the last scene in 'The Paragon of Animals', Early season 5 of Babylon 5
Chapter: 1 of ???
Author: Gok (Generator Of Kindness . . . Guardian Optimized for Killing . . . General Of Khaos)
[Boxes show thoughts]
*stars show emphasis*
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Begin Prologue - The Paragon of Animals
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[I know I'm being manipulated. So why am I going back?]
Lyta didn't have an answer. She just kept walking back towards the telepaths section of downbelow. The corridors were deserted, so she wasn't expecting the stranger who stood in her way when she turned a corner.
Tall and thin enough to pass easily as a mars-born human, she was dressed in various non-matching shades of blue and was half-covered by a long, hooded cloak. The woman's face was downcast and half-hidden besides, but Lyta could still see tears streaming down her youthful cheeks. Deciding it wasn't her concern, Lyta moved to go around her, but was stopped by the stranger's arm in her path.
Lyta looked the stranger in the face, about to ask her to move out of the way when she tipped her face up and met Lyta's gaze. Lyta's voice seemed to die unheard.
Her anguished expression was . . . horrible . . . to look at. And though Lyta tried, she could not sense anything from her. It was like the strange woman wasn't even there, that there was a great hole in reality instead. Then she said something, too faint to be heard clearly, but her mouth was moving.
"Pardon?"
" . . . I'm sorry," she repeated, sounding terribly sad, and a faint feeling of dread took hold of Lyta.
"What do you mean," Lyta asked, confused.
"I am so very, very sorry. You *have* to believe me, please, really you do. I tried to get here sooner, truly I did . . . I just couldn't."
Lyta, alarmed, backed up a step.
"It's not personal, you must understand," the young stranger seemed terribly earnest, despite the fact that she was weeping from eyes of blue-green and -most unusual- copper-colored rings. Eyes that stared right at, but right through, Lyta as she backed away nervously. "I care about you. That might be why I could come here, now. But it's the only way left . . . I have so little time, here in this time. I *am* sorry, please, you *must* believe that." She reached out, too fast to see, and grabbed Lyta's wrist, preventing the red-headed telepath from backing away further, and Lyta cried out in pain at how impossibly strong - and ice-cold - the woman's hands were.
"I don't-" Lyta's protest ended with a gasp as she saw what the stranger had taken out of a pocket with her other hand, but she didn't have time to even start to scream before the explosion hit her.
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End Prologue - The Paragon of Animals
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Chapter One - A View from the Gallery - Soon!
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(yes, she lives. Duh!)