The Right ONE
by Anne Green
The year is 2262. The place: Babylon 4. Xena, the immortal ancient
Greek Goddess and warrior, finds herself drifting back into real time
aboard Babylon 4. Her only companion aboard the immense vessel of
Babylon 4 is a strange alien named Zathras. Although he is annoying and
frequently incoherent, Xena has successfully coerced him to re-program
the time stabilizers so that a great injustice of the Universe can be
corrected. First, some backstory is necessary...
As the story has been told, in the year 2260, Jeffrey Sinclair and
Zathras traveled back in time 1000 years aboard Babylon 4 in order to
conquer the forces of darkness. What has been left out is that once
they arrived in the year 1160, they immediately realized that, even with
the Babylon 4 station at their disposal, they were badly outnumbered and
underpowered. They decide to travel back in time much, much further, to
secure the assistance of the greatest warrior of all time... the
legendary Xena, Warrior Princess.
At the time they meet, Xena is in mourning over the loss of her mortal
companion and true love, Gabrielle. Gabrielle's dying words to Xena had
been: "We will meet again, in a little while, in the place where no
Shadows fall." Xena wanted nothing more than to be reunited with the
soul that had inhabited the body of her friend Gabrielle. So (cutting a
long story short), Xena joins Sinclair (now Valen) and Zathras in their
return journey to the year 1160. Xena realizes that these "Shadows"
must be defeated in order for her to be reunited with the soul of her
love. With amazing strength, efficiency, and wit, Xena takes on the
Shadows, and with a little help from Valen and some new Minbari friends,
they thoroughly kick the collective ass of the Shadows so hard that they
scatter their ships all over the galaxy and bury themselves in a state
of hibernation for another 1000 years.
After getting rid of the Shadows, Xena quests for the soul of her
love.
"Zathras, you must help me reunite with the soul of my love, the only
One for me."
"Very bad. Zathras has made terrible mistake. Terrible mistake in
past
of Zathras, but now future of Zathras. Zathras speak to Sinclair,
Delenn, and Sheridan. Zathras say 'you are the One who was, you are the
One who is, you are the One who will be.' Tssk tssk. Zathras say,
maybe two out of three not bad. But Zathras now is realizing mistake."
"You'd better start making some sense real soon, little man, or I'm
going to have to whip some sense into you," Xena threatened.
"Listen to poor Zathras. YOU are the One who will be. Sheridan NOT
the
One. Zathras make terrible mistake. Soul of the 'One who is' is the
same as the One you love. You and Zathras must become unstuck in time
and return to future and warn the One who is."
"Holy smokes! What you're saying is that the One who is, Delenn you
call her, thinks that some schmuck named Sheridan is the One who will
be, whatever the hell that means? She might have done something really
irrational like, say, marry him, all because of your mistake!"
"Is very bad, but Zathras will fix. Zathras good at fixing."
"Just put me in the right time, and I'll take care of everything
else,"
said Xena confidently.
With the Shadow war over and done with, Valen and the other Minbari
relocated to Minbar and left Xena and Zathras alone to return 1000 years
into the future aboard Babylon 4. While Zathras worked to become
unstuck in time, Xena prepared herself by assembling a wide assortment
of catapults, boomerangs, spears, and large rocks in defensive arrays in
the docking bays of the station.
Meanwhile, back on Babylon 5, Delenn had been growing more and more
miserable in her relationship with Sheridan. In the course of just a
few days, she has had to say goodbye to her loyal aide, friend, and
lover-in-waiting, Lennier, and then found out that hubby Sheridan failed
to mention that he and the new captain had intimate knowledge of each
other. Pig, scum, infidel!!!
It was becoming crystal clear to Delenn that somewhere, sometime, a
terrible mistake had occurred. She vowed that never again would she
utter the words "Oh, John". But her faith in the wisdom of the Universe
was not shaken. She knew that somehow, someway, her true destiny would
be revealed to her, and then she would fulfill it. In the meantime, she
found herself diligently practicing and perfecting her Minbari fighting
pike skills. For some inexplicable reason, she was drawn to the pike,
as though it was a skill that was known to her since the beginning of
time. It was a source of great comfort and strength in these uncertain
times, and she found it especially therapeutic to imagine John's face on
the receiving end of her pikal thrusts.
Luckily, Delenn didn't have long to wait to realize her true destiny.
To the amazement and shock of the inhabitants of Babylon 5, Babylon 4
became unstuck in time in the year 2262. The shocking images were
picked up by the sensors and received in the B5 C&C. Two life forms
were detected. But Delenn didn't require any artificial sensors to
realize something extraordinary was about to happen. Every molecule of
her 'starstuff' body was signaling her, summoning her to Babylon 4.
Sheridan assembled a security team and began making preparations to
join
them in a shuttle transport to Babylon 4. "Delenn, you have to stay
here. This is too dangerous for you. But of course, I'm going, if just
so that you'll have something to worry about needlessly."
Delenn didn't argue with him. Instead, she let him depart, and twenty
minutes later she boarded her Minbari transport and piloted it toward
B4.
Sheridan and his security team were met with no resistance as they
piloted their transport into B4's main docking bay. It was as though
the place was totally deserted, though their sensors told them
otherwise. They cautiously exited the transport and made their way out
of the docking bay, PPG's drawn and ready to fire. Suddenly, a loud
Amazon-woman trill was heard and all hell broke loose. Seeming to come
out of nowhere, lots and lots of rocks came catapulting down on the
security team from all directions, followed by a series of spears,
arrows, and boomerangs. Next, Xena flipped through the air, landing on
the heads of the remaining security force, squeezing their faces between
her powerful thighs and knocking them out cold. Finally, she came to
Sheridan.
"All right, macho man, I'm Xena, and I'm here to correct a big
mistake.
You are NOT the One who will be. From this day on, that's ME. You
thought Kosh and Lorien taught you everything you need to know. Well,
you were wrong. You never learned the most important lesson of all:
WOMAN is all powerful! You are a measly man who has taken women for
granted for much too long. But now, Zathras will transport you back to
my original time, where you will live out the rest of your days as a
slave to the Amazon women warriors. They will teach you the most
important lessons of the universe, and will keep you supplied with an
ample quantity of oranges."
"But I don't want to go. The oranges sound nice, but I'm president of
the galaxy, for chrissakes. You can't do this!"
Just then, Sheridan heard the unmistakable 'swoosh' of a Minbari
fighting pike opening behind him. Before he could turn around, Delenn
whacked him upside the head. As he slumped to the floor, Delenn met the
gaze of Xena's steely blue eyes. Her path had never been more clear.
The Universe had not let her down.
"Oh, Delenn ..."
"Oh, Xena ..."
As the Minbari transport departed the station, and Babylon 4 faded out
for the last time, the two became entwined in a timeless, passionate,
long-overdue embrace. For the rest of their long lives, Delenn and Xena
traveled the galaxy together, doing good, fighting for the weak and
powerless, in search of the truths of the universe. The one truth that
was always present between them was the power of their love and their
shared destiny together.
The End.
Disclaimer: Xena is copyrighted property of Universal Studios. Babylon
5 and characters are property of Babylonian Productions and Warner
Brothers.
