<It was....>
"Shut up! Damn you, I've stood here and I've listened to your crap for all this time, now you can at least listen to me! Yes, the truth hurt, but I'm glad he told me, because after I stopped blaming the person I shouldn't have been blaming, I looked around.
"You sent her there to die, you selfrighteous sons of bitches. You sent Delenn to Z'ha'dum
to die, and you probably knew she was pregnant and you didn't care one little bit! There's your perfection for you, there's your caring and nurturing and altruism right there. When it comes down to it, you'll throw people away just because it's convenient."
<You are a leader. You know what it means to have to send people to their deaths.>
"Yes, damn it, I do, but I regretted it each and every time I did it, and I never, ever sent someone to die just because it was more convenient that way."
<You were to be our leader, our general.>
"And Heaven forbid I have anything distracting me from that, hey? Like, I don't know, a wife and kid? I'm so sick of you and all like you trying to control me. You tried to make me turn against Delenn by giving me your truth, and for a time I did, because I was so angry I couldn't think straight! Sinoval tried to make me turn against you by mind games and parlour tricks and philosophy and I wasn't sure what to say because I had no idea what I was meant to be doing.
"For a long time I had no idea what I was meant to be fighting for, but after listening to all that crap you've spewed out, I've made up my mind.
"I'll fight for my friends, if I have any friends left. I'll fight for Delenn, if she'll even have me back, which she has no reason to. I'll fight for those who need someone to lead them who isn't a zealot like you or Sinoval.
"And I'll fight against you because you're nothing but arrogant, stuckup, holierthanthou puppeteers who think you've got the right to do whatever you want!"
<We have offered you power. We have offered you perfection. You have turned us down. You are the discordant note in our song, the stone that turns beneath our feet, the shadow that mars our light.
<You say you will fight us. We say this:
<You will obey us.
<Or you will die.>
Chapter 5
You will obey us!"No," Sheridan replied calmly.
The Alliance had been tottering for some time before the battle at Babylon 5. Even if events had not been forced as they were, it is likely that the collapse would have happened eventually. Some authors have even maintained that the Alliance was flawed from the very beginning.The history of the Alliance had been one long walk towards annihilation, with numerous flashpoints. The Drazi Conflict. The enslavement of the Centauri. The destruction of Narn. But the date commonly accepted as being the day the Alliance ceased to function was 20th November 2263. The day of the Battle of Babylon 5.
It was a battle fought on many fronts. Outside the station, the ragtag fleet Primarch Sinoval had gathered fought the Vorlon forces. Inside, Marrain and the Tak'cha had managed to board the station on a 'rescue mission' that rapidly degenerated into slaughter. Sinoval faced his hunter, the Inquisitor Sebastian.
And most importantly, General Sheridan confronted the Vorlon responsible for it all. The Vorlon was only identifiable by its bonewhite encounter suit, but given the Vorlons' habit of changing their encounter suits at their convenience, it is hard to be sure what part that particular creature played either before or after this event. Certainly the Vorlons liked to present themselves as a monolithic, singularly focussed group, many parts of one machine working in unison, but as even Primarch Sinoval was forced to concede, that was simply not true. It cannot be denied, however, that their reluctance to provide names makes tracking their movements difficult.
It is generally believed that the white Vorlon was one of the leaders of the High Command itself, a Light Cardinal. Whether it knew anything about the Aliens from Elsewhere, however, remains unclear.
But at that moment its attention was fixed entirely on General Sheridan, and it was that confrontation that turned the tide of the battle, even the war. It centred, as many turning points do, on an enemy making a mistake. It was a rare error for a Vorlon, but it proved telling.
If tragic.
MATEER, K. (2295) The Second Sign of the Apocalypse. Chapter 9 of The Rise
and Fall of the United Alliance, the End of the Second Age and the
Beginning of the Third , vol. 4, The Dreaming Years . Ed: S. Barringer,
G. Boshears, A. E. Clements, D. G. Goldingay & M. G. Kerr.
<All we ask in turn is your obedience.
<Is that truly so much for you to pay?>
"What? Doing whatever you say? Frantically trying to tidy ourselves up, hoping we won't do anything that might upset you? Living without individuality or emotion? Without choice?
"Putting it bluntly, yes, it is too much to pay."
<You act out of anger, but anger is a servant that wishes to be master, as you are. We will remove anger from you, and you will no longer be a slave to it.>