Title: Duty Beyond Honor
Fandom: Babylon 5
Rating: Teen
Length: 912 words
Author Notes: Part of Shadowed Stars.

Summary: Neroon and Delenn meet, and messages are passed that chart the course of future and past alike.

"They will not like that you meet with me, Delenn." Neroon doesn't open his eyes, or move, though he can hear the soft footsteps of more than one person entering the room he's been waiting in. None of them deemed a threat to him, or they'd have been taken out one way or another.

"The Gray Council is broken, Neroon. They cannot dictate to me what I do." Delenn's voice is steady and even, giving away nothing of how she feels. He still knows she's nervous about this meeting, for all that she'd been the one to request it.

"Yet you come in secret, so our people will not know you have done this." Neroon listens as those who have accompanied Delenn take up positions around the perimeter. At least one of them is wearing armor rather than a Ranger's uniform, the faint creak and muffled metallic sound giving it away. "Most of them."

"I would not betray Delenn." The voice is unfamiliar, and Neroon waits a breath before he opens his eyes, turning to look at the young one in Warrior Caste armor.

"You'd look more comfortable in robes." He flicks a glance to the young one's hip, the lack of a denn'bok unsurprising. "Or in a Ranger's uniform, at best."

The young one lifts his chin, holding Neroon's gaze steadily, courage in the face of danger Neroon isn't convinced he understands. "My calling is to the Warrior Caste, though I was raised Religious. I will not pretend to be something I am not."

Neroon huffs, before dismissing him, returning his attention to Delenn. "Why are you here, Delenn?"

"This." Delenn takes a piece of paper from her robes, yellowed with age, and with his name neatly inscribed on the outside. "It was in a box brought to me, along with others."

Neroon turned the paper over, scruitinizing it. There is a seal on it, still intact without sign of tampering. His name is handwritten, though the script is rough, as if the person had learned later in their life - or was still learning how - to write.

Inside, the words are almost beyond belief. The signature below it equally as improbable.

He looks up at Delenn, anger stirring swiftly. "What kind of deceit is this?"

"None that I know of." Delenn doesn't flinch in the face of his ire, conviction of her truth stiffening her spine. "It is what must be done, Alyt Neroon of the Star Riders."

Neroon draws a breath, as good as a flinch at the reminder of what he walked away from when he followed Marcus from Minbar. What he could have been if he'd killed the human rather than finding his own death in the denn'sha.

"You have no authority to command me in anything, Delenn." He tucks the impossible letter into one of the pockets in his armor. Even long away from his people, from his Clan and Caste, he still wears the black he had earned.

"It is not I who commands you, Neroon." Delenn raises her chin slightly, denial of his refusal of her authority, perhaps, or perhaps simple determination. "I am only the messenger."

"And you may return to your station as Ambassador having discharged a task you could have left to your aide." Neroon draws himself up to his full height, giving Delenn the smallest of bows before he turns to stride out of the room, Marcus falling in beside him as they make their way from the old warehouse toward the space port. They'll rendevous with the others, and find out what Garibaldi's little meeting turned up, and Neroon can put this little charade of Delenn's behind him.

"She wouldn't have lied." Marcus keeps his voice quiet enough to nearly be lost in the noise of the crowd. "Whatever it is she brought."

"A letter." Neroon waits until they can stop in the shadow of the terminal, hiding his taking the letter from its pocket with their bodies. No need to let a pickpocket know where to attempt foolishness. "It purports to be from Valen herself."

Marcus blinks, quickly skimming the letter, and returning it to Neroon to be hidden once more. He doesn't have more words until they're in the battered little shuttle they took, leaving the main ship to take Garibaldi to his meeting. "What if it's real?"

"If it is real, than no matter what is offered to do what is needed, I will do it." Neroon will not be commanded by the Gray Council, nor by the Shai Alyt, since he broke his beliefs along with Marcus's ribs - though he thinks even if he would allow the former, the latter he'd still refuse, as Shakiri is less than worthy of the office he fills - but a command from Valen? He finds that far more difficult to refuse.

"Not alone." Marcus pauses as he sends the signal to the jump gate to activate it, though he can hear the squawking of the local control about being out of line. It's not as if there's anything they can or will do about it. "We will do it."

Neroon dips his head in acknowledgement of the truth. It will not be him alone. He may not be Alyt, in command of a ship of Warriors, nor a Star Rider who can ask the support of his Clan, but he is still part of a greater whole that will do what is needed. Even if they do not entirely understand.