Return to Shadows of the Past Chapter Five



Shadows of the Past
CHAPTER SIX

Author: Justin
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Willow & Tara and a lot of other characters from this story belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Babylon 5 was created by J. Michael Straczynski.


After they'd finished speaking to an ambassador Tara said to Tessa, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"The other day someone bumped into me and I accidentally read them. I didn't get much, just a word."

Tessa tensed a little at this. Over time she had almost overcome her distrust of telepaths, but still didn't like the idea of one 'accidentally' reading someone. Hiding this she said, "Go on."

"It was Z'Ha Dum. I was wondering if anything was going on there."

"Have you seen the news reports about the shadow vessel?"

"Yes."

"There's not much more that I can tell you. We know the Shadows left a lot of their technology behind when they left."

"Like the planet killer the Drakh used to try to destroy the Earth."

Tessa nodded, "Exactly. At the moment we're working on the assumption this ship is just another bit of tech that got left behind."

"I wonder..." Tara stopped, worried her idea would sound stupid.

"Go on."

"Well the Kalarian ambassador said that there was very old technology in the asteroid they sold to Neotech, could that be where the Shadow vessel came from?"

Tessa nodded, "It's possible. I've got some people looking into what Neotech did with the asteroid. If it is connected they should find out."


Willow made her way through the section of the station known as down below, looking round warily. Having been attacked twice already made her rather paranoid. Even though she knew that she could take care of herself Willow wasn't going to let her guard down. Then she saw what she was looking for, one of the men who had attacked her selling a stim pack to a lurker. She walked over to them then, seeing that he hadn't noticed her, she cleared her throat. As the man turned to her Willow said, "Hi."

The man paled then turned to run away.

"Damn," Willow muttered as she started after him.


The man turned a corner, his breath ragged and came to a screeching halt. The thing that had made him stop was a large spider blocking the passageway.

"Pretty neat isn't it?" A voice asked from behind him.

"Keep it away from me," He begged.

"Sure, just tell me one thing," Willow said.

"Anything."

"Who paid you to attack me?"

"Warren Mears," The man said in a panicked tone.

"There, that wasn't so hard." Willow snapped her fingers and the spider vanished. Turning she walked away. When she'd gone the man fainted.


Once she was back in her quarters Tara decided to do some investigating. Remembering the woman who had been staring at her, wondering if she knew something. The fact that the woman was obviously a telepath that made tracking her down easier. Using the clearance she had been granted as a result of her work with the Alliance Tara accessed the database of files that had been taken from the psycorp and entered a description of the woman she was interested in. As she waited for the search to complete Tara wondered about the way that the woman had been wearing the Psicorps badge. It was possible that the woman was just feeling nostalgic, which was something she could understand. The time after her mother had died had been very difficult for Tara. Her father hadn't been interested in raising her and during that time Tara had grown to understand the Psicorps mantra, "the corps is mother, the corps is father." Then during the telepath war the extent of the corruption within the higher ranks of the corps had been revealed. The illegal experiments which had been performed on both telepaths and normals and much worse. Yet, despite all that had come out, Tara still found herself, at times, missing the sense of security that came with being a member of the corps.

Tara was brought out of her thoughts by the computer telling her it had finished its search. Scanning the list one name jumped out at her, Lyta Alexander. That was a name which was known to most telepaths, since she had been the one who had started the telepath war. However the fact that she had died during that war meant she couldn't be the mystery woman. Still, feeling curious, Tara looked at her file. Her mouth hung open in shock as she saw Lyta's picture. She was the woman that Tara had seen. The obvious explanation was that she hadn't died as had been believed, but the problem with that was how was she able to wander round Babylon 5 without attracting attention?


Willow sat in her quarters, fuming over the fact that Warren had had the nerve to attack her for a second time, trying to think of a suitable punishment. While most her thoughts were focused on this her mind was also working on another avenue. It occurred to her that the fact that Warren had attacked her twice suggested that this was more than just a simple mugging. That someone had paid him to attack her. Willow immediately access her ships computer and began gathering all the information she could on Warren. She was shocked to find that Warren was working for a company called Neotech. Shocked since her father was one of the directors of that company.


Willow arrived at Tara's quarters a couple of minutes early with a bunch of flowers.

"Hi," Tara said as she let Willow in.

"Hi, um I bought these for you yesterday, but then left them behind."

"Thanks," Grinning Tara went to put them in some water. "Dinner will be just a few minutes, make yourself comfortable."

"Okay, thanks."

While they were eating Willow said, "This is very good."

Tara ducked her head slightly, "Thanks."

"You know just before I left, I made dinner for Xander and his fiancee, Anya. I followed all the instructions, yet somehow I managed to set the cooking unit on fire."

"You what?" Tara tried very hard to not laugh, but failed.

"Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing," Willow said, smiling slightly. After a moment she said, "Well go on then."

"What?"

"What's your most embarrassing moment, of the culinary variety at least."

"I guess that'd be while I was on Minbar. I was invited to one of their ritual meals and I..."

"What, did you use the wrong fork?"

"No, I fell asleep."

Willow had just taken a drink and had to swallow quickly to avoid spitting it everywhere, "You what?"

"I fell asleep." Seeing the way Willow was looking at her she said, "You see what happens is you take a bite then you meditate for a couple of minutes, take another bite and then meditate again and so on. This goes on for hours, I don't see how you can not fall asleep at some point."

Willow nodded, "Well you win."

"What?"

"Well yours was the most embarrassing."

Tara shook her head, "I don't think so, yours was much more embarrassing."

"Yes but mine was just amongst friends, you almost caused an interstella incident."

"You mean that my faux pas coud have restarted the Earth Minbari war? That would have been... bad."

"So what level are you? If you don't mind me asking," Willow asked.

"I'm a P3, or at least I am officially."

"Officially?" Willow asked, looking confused.

Tara shrugged, "My powers have improved, but I haven't gotten round to getting checked again."

"I didn't think that people's telepathic abilities could increase."

"Neither did I. It was strange. A few years ago I was mugged and was in a coma for a couple of years. When I woke up my abilities had improved."

"Definitely strange."

"Yeah, that and there are these scars I've got on the back of my neck. I got them somehow as a result of the attack."

"Scars? Can I look?"

Tara frowned, wondering why Willow sounded so nervous. She nodded and picking up her glass Willow walked round to look. Tara lifted her hair up so that Willow could see. There was a smash as Willow's glass hit the ground.

"Oh Goddess!" Willow gasped.


Continue to Shadows of the Past Chapter Seven


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