Title: In The Shadows
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: John Sheridan, Morden, Delenn, Kosh, Zack Allen.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 501
Spoilers: In The Shadows of Z’ha’dum.
Summary: Sheridan wants answers about what really happened to the Icarus, and he thinks Morden knows the truth, but he has no idea how much danger he’s putting everyone in.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 330: Shadow.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.



Sheridan is well aware that he might not be behaving entirely rationally at present, but nevertheless, he’s determined to keep this Morden character locked up until he gets the answers he needs. Morden was on the Icarus; he might know what happened to Anna, might even be responsible, and no matter what it takes Sheridan intends to get the truth out of him.

Nobody else agrees with the course of action he’s taking, holding the man in interrogation without charge. Garibaldi has flat-out resigned as head of security over it, and half the alien ambassadors want the guy released immediately, but Anna was Sheridan’s wife, not theirs, and he’s still not over her death. He might never be. How can he just let Mister Morden go when this might be his one chance of getting to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the research vessel’s destruction? What if Morden isn’t the only survivor? Perhaps Anna is still out there somewhere, waiting to be found.

He listens to Delenn, and to Kosh, he owes them that much, but he’s not sure what to believe. All this talk of ancient races, forces gathering for a great war, needing to avoid letting on how much they know in case the enemy starts to move before their own forces are ready... Dammit, he doesn’t know what to do! What if Delenn is right? He could be putting them all in jeopardy, not just everyone on the station but everyone in the known universe; thousands of worlds and billions of lives could be at stake, and yet how can he just give up when he’s so close? He can break this Morden, he knows it!

Morden sits alone in his cell, and the way he sits there, like he’s meditating with his eyes open or something, so calm, so confident… It’s unsettling. He should be worried, even afraid, but he isn’t. It’s as if he knows no one can touch him. Then there are the strange, discordant sounds the microphone in the cell is picking up. Delenn said Morden was never alone.

That’s what makes him ask Zack to adjust the monitor, scan on different wavelengths, infrared, ultraviolet, the full spectrum. And Sheridan sees them, just for the briefest instant. Black, skeletal, spidery beings, two of them, right there in Morden’s cell. His protectors or his masters? He seems to be listening to them, like he can understand their whispering. Shadows, there one instant and gone the next, briefly glimpsed but never forgotten. If Delenn is right about that then how can Sheridan disregard the rest of what he’s been told?

“Cut him loose. Tell him it was all a mistake and he can go.”

Morden’s face on the monitor, that smile, so knowing; a man with a powerful secret. Someone it might be best to keep a covert eye on.

How many more of those… shadow creatures could be on the station right now, with no one being any the wiser? It’s a disturbing thought.


The End