G'kar watched curiously as Lena made more tea. "It always amazes me how traditional this bar is," he said. "Sunset has visited hundreds of worlds, possibly thousands since she opened up, and yet, she has chosen to keep her bar as simple as this in its functionality."

Lena glanced at him, arching an eyebrow. "You think she should have changed it to a more advanced design?"

He shook his head. "I think this is as charming as it gets… and as personal as it can be and grow." He looked around the place, at the pictures, the posters, the guitars, the bar itself with its old-Earth style, something out of one of Mr. Garibaldi's collection of early 20th Century Earth. "I find that as marvelous as they can get, the more advanced worlds I've seen are so much more… sterile."

"Huh," Lena mused as she prepared the water for her tea. "I know she's talked to other bartenders about making everything automated, or obtaining something that can materialize the ingredients but… this—" she motioned with her hand at the inside of the bar "—is something most creatures across the universe will recognize."

G'kar nodded. "Curious isn't it? But oddly reassuring."

"You can say that again," Lena said, pouring the hot water into her mug. "If it had been some sort of crazy ultra-futuristic environment, I don't think I would have felt so comfortable here… at least not so quickly." Tea, cookies and wine at the ready, Lena and G'kar sat together at the bar. "So, you had said earlier that your revelation changed how you looked at other races?"

He nodded.

"When I say that we are one, I do not mean one entity in the physical sense, obviously," G'kar explained. "What I mean is that what harm we do to others, we ultimately do to ourselves. As if it were a real body. You could see the Narns as an arm, for example, and the Centauri as the other. If one of the arms is cut off… the rest of the body, the other arm included, will suffer potentially catastrophic damage."

"And you discovered this while high and forcing your mind into Londo's?"

"Yes!" G'kar said. "Do not misinterpret… it was an awful, wrong thing to do. But it drove home the point. While I tortured Londo with my mind, I damaged myself. When I brought the demons of his past into the light, I brought back mine. When I attacked his regret and innaction, I attacked my own violence and fear. When I questioned his morality… I discovered that mine was also lacking."

Lena was quiet, looking down at her tea. "Yeah. Justifying to yourself your actions or lack of them is a hard thing to face."

"Exactly." G'kar patted her on the shoulder. "A very insightful observation."

"Just the result of a life doing just that, until I couldn't anymore," Lena said, shaking her head. "Anyway, you and Sunset?"

G'kar drank a little wine and sighed. "The third time I met Sunset Shimmer, was when I was at the Imperial Palace for the second time in my life." His mouth twisted into a half-smirk. "The first time was much less pleasant, let me assure you, but this time… this time, I was there for a good, noble reason—and I admit—my own amusement. Such things are hard to maintain in an environment as, how do humans put it? Toxic? Yes… that's most appropriate. An environment so toxic most Centauri that stood in proximity would be affected."

"Most?"

"Vir was always the exception."

"Ah." Lena gave him an amused look. "So, what was this great and noble cause you were there for?"

It was Sheridan's idea, you see… in order to show to all the worlds in the Alliance that we were of one mind on matters of protecting our borders from remnants of the Shadows, he suggested I become Mollari's bodyguard. It wasn't easy, but I deeply enjoyed making the stuffy Centauri nobles nervous with my presence. Not only was I a Narn and a known criminal in the Centauri Court. I was protecting their most important member, future emperor. I was constantly amused by their efforts to ignore me, while they almost always physically struggled with the fact that as Mollari's bodyguard, they couldn't simply get rid of me. He was too powerful… too important. It was glorious! A slap in their face every morning, afternoon and night. They would run into rooms when they saw me walking in their direction, whether I intended to engage them or not. I wish I had recorded it, somehow.

The only thing that made the whole thing better was that I was able to save my former assistant, Na'toth, from her prison and deliver her safely to my homeworld. I had thought her lost to us at the beginning of the war… it was a great relief to find her alive, and Mollari's immediate efforts in helping me get her off-world safely slowly opened my eyes to the type of man he really was.

All through those adventures with Mollari I came to know him as I never expected to. Perhaps it was because of what had happened during his heart-attack, or perhaps it was that after all we went through, I appreciated that what he did was not for himself, but through an honest love for his people, however undeserving they were of the attention.

When he risked his life to save me… I realized that at some point I had started considering him a friend. He stepped out of the room to talk to the court while I recuperated, and that's when I saw Sunset Shimmer for the third time.

"Understand, that I can never forgive your people for what they did to my world. My people can never forgive your people. But I… can forgive you."

G'kar held Mollari's arm in a warrior's grip, almost overwhelmed by what he had said, and yet… in this moment... in this intersection of destiny, what could have he done but speak the truth? That he would find it in him to forgive Mollari… a year ago… a month ago, it would have seemed a poor joke. And yet here he was, in Centauri Prime, doing something he had thought beyond him… just as he had never thought he would hear Londo say he was sorry.

Londo was clearly overwhelmed as well. The impact… the weight of what he had just said was not lost on him. He understood, just as G'kar did, what those words meant for them as individuals, rivals, enemies, and friends. And for a moment a look of deep, deep regret darkened his eyes.

Before G'kar could ask anything about that, Londo gulped, nodded solemnly and stepped out of the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He winced as he sat down again in the remains of the sofa behind him and blinked when he noticed the familiar door.

It had taken him a moment to realize that no, he wasn't imagining things.The universe outside might be going crazy, and he might have lost blood in the earlier confrontation, but the wooden door was real, and it was right there where it hadn't been a second ago.

Despite his initial incredulity, he had immediately recognized it, and knew what was coming the moment the door opened and Sunset Shimmer herself stepped into the room, looking around with growing concern at the state of it before her eyes settled on him.

When he saw the worry growing in her face, he graced her with a thin smile, trying not to move too much, lest his wound open again. "Ah, Miss Shimmer, you must forgive me if I don't stand up, I'm not in the best of states."

"G'kar, what happened? Do you need medical assistance?"

G'kar chuckled, surprised by the worry in her eyes. They had talked only two times before, and yet she not only gave him another chance, but also genuinely felt concern for his health. Not too long ago, he would have appreciated it, but dismissed it as a quirk of personality. Now he knew just how rare that honest concern was.

"If you have something to dull the pain, that would be quite acceptable," he said gently. "Otherwise I will be okay."

The door closed and faded behind her as she got to his side and kneeled down. She placed her hand on top of his injury, making him wince, but surprisingly the pain faded soon after and he looked down to see her hand glowing with a wavy white aura.

"Healing spell," she said softly, "I might not be able to heal it completely… it's not something I have practiced much, but it will dull the pain and hold the wound closed unless you get hit again."

"Thank you," he said, holding back the awe in his voice. If Sunset was indeed some sort of technowizard, she was still ages ahead of anyone he knew. Finally she stopped and stepped back, studying the room around them again while gingerly touched his wound. It hurt. But a lot less than before. Still, he would remain put for now, there was no point in risking his health by rushing it.

"Wow, this place is trashed. I hope you don't make a habit of only seeing me whenever you're in pain or injured." Sunset went over to investigate one of the destroyed desks, while G'kar couldn't help but chuckle.

"Welcome to the Imperial Palace in Centauri Prime."

Sunset stopped and that and gave him an incredulous look. "You trashed the palace?"

He shook his head. "No, there was an attempt on Londo's life, so I interceded… and then he did for me."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "So you're not trying to get him killed anymore?"

G'kar chuckled, each laugh making him wince. "Oh no. Much has come to pass since we last met, Miss Shimmer. We tried enough times to do so to realize we might as well postpone it until a more mutually convenient time of our choosing."

Sunset shook her head, rolling her eyes with a hint of a smile. "You two… so how come you're here, risking your life for him?"

"Ah," G'kar sighed. "As I said, you have missed much, Miss Shimmer." He motioned with his hand at a destroyed table, with the chairs strewn about. "Please, take a seat."

She gave him a dubious look, but nevertheless straightened up one of the chairs, making sure it would hold her weight without collapsing—it was a little wobbly—and giving him her undivided attention.

"The war between the Narn and the Centauri is over," he started to say, measuring his words. While it was true, it was equally true that what had happened would not be forgotten. That the lives lost or destroyed would never be sufficiently healed by a resolution of conflict and even the next thousand years. "I will try to summarize the events for you, although you must understand that I will be understating the severity of it in exchange for simplicity. There is only so much that can be done in order to learn to coexist… there will be no love between the Centauri and Narn races… but we have each returned home, surviving a conflict that would have destroyed most of the younger races thanks to our combined efforts."

He wanted to say more, but even after time had passed, the memories were still strong. She wasn't a Narn, she wouldn't benefit from listening to him talk about his suffering… not right now at least. "Mollari and I formed an alliance to free our races from the tyrant on the throne. It wasn't friendship, but it was born of desperation and need… both strong incentives. I had to endure… a lot." He cleared his throat. "I had to let go of my pride… and surrender control. I had to trust my most hated enemy to not only honor his word, but to follow through with the necessary steps to ensure it wasn't just a pyrrhic victory.

"It was then that I realized that Londo, despite hating me too, felt something for me that I did not for him: he respected me. He hated seeing me captured and tortured. Not defeated—but destined to die at the hands of a cretinous fool for entertainment value… a monster that was about to guarantee the death of everyone in his home planet in a foolish illusion that he would become a god in the process." G'kar smirked and snorted. "It didn't work out for him in the end."

"So your alliance worked?" Sunset asked. "I guess it must have, since you're here."

G'kar nodded. "With the Vorlons and the Shadows on a full out war and Sheridan's alliance in full battle-mode, entire planets were being destroyed, millions killed, regardless of race or blame… if there was Shadow presence in any planet, the Vorlons made short work of it, and the Shadows… well, they needed no reason other than not being allied to them."

Sunset sighed. "That's awful. Sometimes I wish that I could do what the League does and intercede… but—" she shook her head "—I can't."

"In a way I understand… thanks to Sheridan that is," G'kar said gently. "Sometimes you need to let others go where they will, deal with their problems to let them grow. The First Ones did that for the most part, with the exception of the Vorlons and Shadows, letting us deal with our own problems, be the architects of our own fates." He chuckled. "I started learning that after our last talk, and now… now I think I understand, just a bit more."

She smiled, reaching out to grasp and squeeze his hand, and it seemed that a weight was lifted off of his shoulders. For someone he barely knew, her opinion was for some reason very important. Maybe it was because she had seen in him something he had not recognized at the time, and only now was beginning to glimpse. Maybe it was that she had not given up on him, and had come to him with an open mind every time.

Maybe, she was just likeable. Whatever it was, he was able to give her an honest smile in return.

"I have let go of my own anger, and I can only hope to learn what the universe is trying to teach me," G'kar said. "And… I have learned humility the hard way. As much as I can learn of that in any case."

"You know," Sunset said, "I think we have a lot to talk about from now on, but I have one offer for you, one time only because I… know a bit of what happened here today, and what might yet still happen in the future. I made a promise to not directly influence any universe… but no promise was made to not help a friend. Tell me, G'kar… if you could have a drink with anyone in the universe, right now, who would it be?"

Londo Mollari walked with clear intent towards the throne room. In his mind, he slowly stripped away regret and hope. He was to be nothing else but a tool… a tool that hid its fangs from its masters, but a tool nevertheless. If he had time… if he had… He shook his head. He had power. More so than he ever thought, ever hoped to obtain.

It would do him no good.

No, everything—everyone that could help him was being left behind, with each heavy step he took. He dared not share information of his fate with G'kar, Sheridan or the others, lest they end up in the same situation… as playthings of the Drakh.

He was halfway down the hall when a door opened on the side, and G'kar stepped out. For the second time that day, Londo was left without words as his friend nodded to him, clutching his wound lightly. "Mollari."

"G'kar?" Londo walked a bit closer, looking back and pointing down the corridor. "But… I just left you behind and—"

"You did, but I thought we had some unfinished business," the Narn interrupted. "I have on good authority that if you step in there with me, you will step outside of time and space here. I know your future awaits down that corridor, but once you become Emperor… well, we won't have the chance to settle this particular score as we should."

"And what score is that?"

"I owe you a drink." G'kar stepped to the side, and Londo peeked past the threshold into what looked like an old, human bar like the ones he had visited on Earth over ten years before. "Fate is a funny thing," G'kar continued. "And we are usually held to it… sometimes it's indistinguishable from our destiny, and sometimes we meet someone who can say as the humans put it: 'Screw it all. Let's create an alternate timeline.'"

Londo stared at G'kar. At the door. At the bar. At hope.

He looked down the corridor, where the Drakh awaited, and the end of a dream, the beginning of a nightmare.

He licked his suddenly dry lips. "You do owe me a drink."

"I found out over a glass of Brivari that Londo had traded his freedom in order to stop the hostilities against Centauri Prime… hostilities initiated and perpetuated by the Drakh, something that had Sunset not… allowed me to discuss with some calm and time, would have come to pass. It didn't take long for me to also invite Sheridan and Delenn to our little group event to discuss matters without the universe collapsing around us."

G'kar took a long breath and let it out slowly. "I cannot express how important a chance to recuperate, think and talk is, young Lena. I had to be imprisoned in Babylon 5, alone with my thoughts to understand myself. It was that chance, to forget about inevitability and troubles and hypocrisy that allowed me to really look at myself and realize where I was lacking. Londo… hadn't had one of those in a long, long time. When he finally did, he wasn't alone… he was surrounded by friends." He finished his drink. "And that.. is what allowed us to change fate."

Lena nodded. "So why is it your picture is not there?"

G'kar smiled and walked over to the pictures, picking up a frame and bringing it over. Lena leaned in, blinking in surprise when she realized that it was a picture of G'kar, Londo, Delenn, Sheridan and many others she hadn't heard about, along with Sunset Shimmer. "Wait, where did this come from?"

He chuckled. "Sometimes—as I had to learn—we simply don't see things clearly until it's time for us to realize they've always been there."

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S7WWRqEHic