EXT: SPACE OR OTHER DIMENSION

[Sheridan is being held in mid-air by two tentacles of light. The tentacles are wrapped around his body.]

Voice: Who are you? What do you want? Who are you? What do you want? Who are you? Who are you?

INT: THE SAME NETWORK OF CAVES AS BEFORE, LOCATED UNDER ZA'HA'DUM.

[Sheridan wakes with a start, as from a dream, we see the same figure from before sitting on a rock, watching him.]

Figure: You were dreaming?

Sheridan: Yes

Figure: About what? You're thinking about escape again, aren't you? Don't. There's no way off Za'Ha'Dum. Might as well give up, reconcile yourself as I did.

Sheridan: The first obligation of a prisoner is to escape.

Figure: Ah. So, if one is a prisoner of love, one must escape to solitude?; If one is a prisoner to joy, must one escape to sadness?

[Sheridan rises and walks across the cave]

Figure: I see you are still upset that I won't tell you my name, but what does it matter? If I tell you my name is Lorien, what good is that? It tells you nothing, but leaves me at a disadvantage. Words have meaning and names have power. The Universe began with a word you know. But which came first? The word, or the thought behind the word? You can't create language without thought, and you can't conceive a thought without language. So, which created the other, and thus created the Universe?

[Lorien sighs]

No. I see you're far to wrapped up in your question

[Lorien rises and walks over to face Sheridan]

to consider the larger issues.

Sheridan: What question?

Lorien: Who are you?

Sheridan: How did you know about..?

Lorien: It's a dangerous question, isn't it? There's never a good answer to it. I suppose that's the point. Now, what you are. That's a question I can answer, at least in your case, you're dead.

Sheridan: Now that's enough.

Lorien: How long have you been here?

Sheridan: I… don't know… a day, maybe two.

Lorien: The sun has risen and set nine times. You haven't eaten, you ought to be starving. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Does blood still flow through your veins? Does it?

[Sheridan check his pulse, a look of horror crosses his face, and he rubs his neck]

Sheridan: There's no pulse.

Lorien: Because, my reluctant friend, you are quite, quite dead.

[Sheridan walks through the tunnels, as though searching for an exit]

Lorien: Nothing to say about being dead?

Sheridan: It's a trick

Lorien: Is it? What is the last thing you remember before waking up here?

[Flashback to Sheridan jumping off the ledge into the pit]

Sheridan: I was falling. I fell, a long way. It seemed to go on forever.

Lorien: Nothing goes on forever. Not falls, not you, not I, not love, not life. Entropy consumes everything. We all hit bottom, sooner or later. Did you hit bottom?

Sheridan: I don't remember.

Lorien: There are only two possibilities. If you hit bottom, then you are dead. If you did not hit bottom, you are still falling and all this is a dream. Unless,…you're in between.

Sheridan: Between what?

Lorien: Between,… moments. When we are born we are allocated a finite number of seconds. Each tick of the clock slices off a piece of us. Tick a possibility for joy is gone. Tock, a careless word ends one path, opens another. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Always running out of time. Yours is almost used up. You are between seconds. Lost in the infinite possibilities between tick and tock. Tick, your life. Tock,… well it was a good life, but a short one. Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, Tick,…

[Sheridan grabs Lorien and pushes him against the wall of the cave]

Sheridan: How do I know you're not behind all this, huh? Just what are you up to? Who are you?

[Jump to Sheridan held by the two tentacles of light again]

Voice: Who are you? What do you want?

[Jump back to the cave, Sheridan looks at Lorien in amazement]

Lorien: You're closer now aren't you? Yes,… I see you are. But closer to tick or closer to tock? I don't know, only time will tell. And here,… between the moments, we have all the time in the world.

[Sheridan continues to explore the caves, Lorien follows him]

Sheridan: This is the fire I set when I woke up down here. I've come full circle.

Lorien: Don't we all?

Sheridan: Look, you've been down here longer than I have.

Lorien: Oh much, much longer.

Sheridan: Well,… there must be some way out of here.

Lorien: Tick you're alive. Tock you're dead. The only way out is to surrender, to tock.

Sheridan: No. No,… I can't do that. Don't you understand? There's a war on out there, if we don't do something billions of people are going to die. Now, don't you care about that?

Lorien: Yes. Of course I care. It's a terrible thing when your children fight. I warned the others but they didn't listen. They never listen.

Sheridan: Your… children?

[Sheridan approaches Lorien]

Lorien: Metaphorically speaking. Those who came after me. Children, younger siblings.

Sheridan: How long have you been down here?

Lorien: A long time. So long. I was old when the molecules of your world joined and called themselves land, and sea, and fish,… and man.

Sheridan: You're one of the first ones?

Lorien: No. Not one of the first ones. I am,… the first one.

[Sheridan looks even more shocked than before]

Sheridan: You know a way out of here, don't you?

Lorien: Perhaps.

Sheridan: Why are you still here?

Lorien: I'm waiting.

Sheridan: For what?

Lorien: Someone to talk to. You're the first to make it this far.

[Sheridan nods upward]

Sheridan: Do they know?

Lorien: Of course. That's why they come back to Za'Ha'Dum every time they are driven off. Because I'm here. They think their showing respect. They don't understand. They used to, but that was a long time ago,… a million years.

Sheridan: You don't look a,…

Lorien: No, I don't. Well, not at the moment.

[Jump to the two tentacles of light holding Sheridan]

Sheridan: That was you?

Lorien: Perhaps. We all have secrets, surprises. Did you know you have a vorlon inside of you? Well, a piece of one.

[Jump to Kosh's reflection in the mirror]

Kosh: If you go to Za'Ha'Dum, you will die.

[Jump to Sheridan on the ledge]

Kosh: Jump. Jump Now!

[Jump back to the caves]

Sheridan: Kosh.

Lorien: Is that it's name? I think I met it once, long ago.

Sheridan: He told me to jump. Did he know…?

Lorien: That I was here? Almost certainly.

Sheridan: How?

Lorien: They can break off pieces of their consciousness and put it into other organisms. It allows them to travel hidden throughout the galaxy using others as their eyes and ears. Kosh is in you. And it's part of the problem. You're the other part. You're both still clinging to life, both afraid to let go. You must,… lay down the burden of life. Both of you, and surrender yourself to tock.

Sheridan: I can't, the others need me.

Lorien: You can't turn away from death simply because you're afraid of what might happen without you. That is not enough. You're not embracing life, you're fleeing death. And so you're caught in between, unable to go forward or backward. Your friends need what you can be when you're no longer afraid. When you know who you are and why you are and what you want. When you are no longer looking for reasons to live but can simply be.

Sheridan: I can't. I don't know how to do that.

Lorien: Then I can't help you. And you will be caught forever in between. You must let go. Surrender yourself to death. The death of flesh. The death of fear. Step into the abyss,… and let go.

[The lights in the cave dim]

Sheridan: It's,… getting darker.

Lorien: I know. You're close friend, very close. It is easy to find something worth dying for. Do you have anything worth living for?

Sheridan: I can't see you anymore.

Lorien: As it should be.

Sheridan: What if I fall? How… how will I know you'll catch me?

Lorien: I caught you before.

Sheridan: What if I die?

Lorien: I cannot create life, but I can breathe on the remaining embers. It may not work.

Sheridan: But I can hope.

Lorien: Hope is all we have.

[A quick changing series of images follows]

[Sheridan escapes the Shadow conference]

[The White Star plunging through Za'Ha'Dum's atmosphere]

[Sheridan looking up at the White Star dropping]

Lorien: Do you have anything worth living for?

[Anna's hand reaching for Sheridan by the pit]

[The White Star breaks the glass dome above Za'Ha'Dum's capital]

[Sheridan leaps into the pit]

Delenn: Sleep now; I will watch and catch you if you should fall.

[Delenn lying on a bed in the White Star's sleeping quarters (From episode #308 "Messages from Earth")]

[Delenn and Sheridan holding hands in the White Star's sleeping quarters (Also from episode #308)]

[Sheridan falling deeper into the pit]

[Back to the caves under Za'Ha'Dum, Sheridan lying on his back where we last saw him, he seems either unconscious or asleep. Lorien is standing over him, watching.]