INT: THE BRIDGE OF A MINBARI-VORLON GUNBOAT (ONE OF THE WHITE STAR FLEET).

[Ivanova is pacing around, while Lorien sits at the front of the ship, waiting.]

Ivanova: We've been waiting for two hours. We have to move on. There aren't any more first ones around here. We've got five so far, that's good enough.

Lorien: There is time for one more. This is the last, it's important to have them all. Keep sending the signal.

Ivanova: I'll give you ten more minutes, then we're leaving. I just wish I knew how things were going out there. The Captain's idea about hitting Vorlon targets, delaying them long enough to put our fleet in a killing zone between the Vorlons and Shadows, it's…

Lorien: A brilliant strategy. He's making a crucible which he hopes will force out the truth. Quite brave, possibly futile, very human.

[The last of the first ones arrive]

Lorien: I will introduce you to then now. They're almost as old as the Vorlons. They've not spoken to anyone outside their own race for centuries.

Ivanova: But they'll remember you?

Lorien: Oh yes.

[Lorien walks toward the door]

Ivanova: I just hope the Captain's okay.

INT: IVANOVA'S QUARTERS ABOARD BABYLON FIVE.

[Susan is strapping on a PPG and collecting the last of her things together, the door chimes.]

Ivanova: Yes.

[Lorien enters, sees Susan is not ready and averts his eyes.]

Lorien: I was told you were ready to leave.

Ivanova: Almost. You're awfully impatient for someone who's supposed to be immortal.

Lorien: Not immortal as you mean it. My race can die, through illness or injury.

Ivanova: So where's the rest of them?

Lorien: They fell ill and died, were injured and died. The rest went away. I am the last, and I was the first.

Ivanova: I have to admit, I'm a little skeptical about that.

Lorien: Skepticism is the language of the mind. What does your heart tell you?

Ivanova: My heart and I don't speak anymore.

Lorien: Yes, I have noticed that.

Ivanova: Okay. Let's assume that in all of the Universe, you were the first living being to achieve sentience, billions of years ago. Now at that point you'd be doing pretty well to invent fire or the wheel. You couldn't come up with science, technology, find a serum for immortality all in one lifetime.

Lorien: It wasn't necessary. We were born naturally immortal.

Ivanova: It's impossible, everything dies.

Lorien: Yes, now. At first we were kept in balance by birth rate. Few of us were ever born, less than a handful each year. Then I think, the Universe decided that to appreciate life, for their to be change and growth, life had to be short. So, the generations that followed us grew old, infirm and died. But hose of us who were first, went on. We discovered the Vorlons and the Shadows when they were infant races and nourished them, helped them and all the other races you call the first ones. In time most of them died, or passed beyond the rim to whatever lies in the darkness between galaxies. We've lived too long, seen too much. To live on as we have is to leave behind joy and love and companionship, because we know it to be transitory, of the moment, we know it will turn to ash. Only those who's lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal. You should embrace that remarkable illusion, it may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.

INT: THE BRIDGE OF A MINBARI-VORLON GUNBOAT (ONE OF THE WHITE STAR FLEET).

[The ship is traveling through hyperspace to join the fleet.]

Ivanova: Can't this thing go any faster, the Captain's going to need all the weapons we've got.

[Ivanova turns and shouts at the Minbari crew]

Ivanova: Nescon, Nescon fecto…. Ah hell!

[The ship fires it's solid fusion beam and side plasma cutters]

Ivanova: What's going on?

Lorien: Ah-hell means continuos fire in Minbari.

Ivanova: Oh great. Zindrabi. Cease fire!

Lorien: You know, patience is also a weapon, when used properly. We will arrive when we arrive, and we will have the weapons we have. You cannot win this war through force, you must understand you way out of this. Sheridan knows. What remains to be seen is whether he knows he knows.

[Ivanova sits in the Captain's chair and Lorien looks like he is sighing.]

INT: THE BRIDGE OF THE COMMAND WHITE STAR (WHITE STAR ONE)

[Lorien enters the bridge]

Sheridan: Lorien. You've seen?

Lorien: Yes.

Delenn: Can you try to get through. Tell them to,…

[Lyta turns around, her eyes glowing]

Lyta: There is nothing to tell.

[Sheridan stand up]

Lyta: You thought we could not touch you,… you were wrong!

[An energy field of some kind surrounds Sheridan, Delenn runs forward]

Delenn: John!

Lorien: No, do not touch him. If you try to interrupt, it will kill him.

Lyta: And you, they left for us!

[Another energy field, the same as the first envelopes Delenn, this time Lennier runs forward]

Lorien: Do not interfere, or you will lose your one just to end this. He was hoping they could be provoked into doing this.

Lennier: What's happened to them?

Lorien: They are elsewhere. The others, out there still work in secret, but he wanted you to know what was at stake, he wants all of you to know what you may be asked to die for, and why.

[Lorien puts his hands into the energy fields and closes his eyes. We see members of the crew looking beyond their vision, as though looking at something in their minds, we focus on Lennier]

Lennier: I can see. I can see them.

INT: A DARK SPACE - INSIDE SHERIDAN'S MIND? ANOTHER DIMENSION?

[Sheridan in near blackness, wandering around, looking]

Sheridan: Where are you? Show yourselves.

[Lights raise, we see a woman in a block of ice, she represents the Vorlons]

Vorlons: We are here. We do not understand you. We have wished only the best for you. We only want to help you.

Sheridan: You're destroying whole worlds.

Vorlons: The others are a disease. You have given us the opportunity to eliminate it. We are grateful. Why do you oppose us?

Sheridan: Because I don't like being used, or lied to.

Vorlons: We have not lied. Our goal is the same as yours, to destroy the darkness.

Sheridan: Then why haven't you struck at them directly

[There is no reply]

Sheridan: Huh! You don't want to answer that one do you. See,.. I finally understood the rules of this war when I saw your planet-killers in action. You've had the technology to destroy Za'Ha'Dum all along. So why haven't you used it?

Vorlons: You do not understand.

Sheridan: Ah! But I do understand, and that's what's got you worried isn't it. A Vorlon said "Understanding is a three edged sword" Your side, their side and the truth. Well the truth is we don't need you anymore.

[We cut to Delenn, she is in a similar place, but their is no block of ice. Instead the Shadows use images of Delenn's friend to talk through. TRANSCRIPT NOTE:- I will name the character who appears to be speaking but please not the words are the Shadow's not their respective appearance, Ivanova is the first to appear.]

Ivanova: The Vorlons stand for order above anything else. No passion, no dreams, just discipline, obedience. They're frozen in place, an evolutionary dead-end. Why side with the old, embrace the new. Growth through pain and struggle, conflict & war. You of all people should understand this.

Franklin: Your race came out of the last war stronger, better. How much better? How much stronger will they be after this war. You will rise from the ashes with a strength and power beyond your imagination.

Delenn: Till you do it to us again.

Lennier: It is the cycle. It is the force of history itself. You cannot win against that. We have embraced it. We have helped it along by creating conflict. Weak races die, strong races are made even stronger. Evolution must be served, there is no other way.

Delenn: No that's what you want us to believe.

[Cut back to Sheridan]

Sheridan: That why you're really doing this. That's why you've been targeting planets that support the Shadows instead of destroying Za'Ha'Dum itself. You don't want to kill the messenger, you just want to kill the message. Make it harder for them to get to us. Guarantee we do things your way.

[Cut back to Delenn]

Delenn: After all, if you destroy the Vorlons they'll never know you won, they'll never see that you were right and they were wrong. It's about ideology.

Marcus: Of course, what isn't. Order versus Chaos. Choose one.

Delenn: Yes, choose. But only from the choices you give us. Don't you see that this is wrong, when the other first ones passed beyond the rim, you stayed behind, shepherds for the younger races. But you've lost your way. This isn't about teaching us, or helping us. This is about you being right.

[Cut back to Sheridan]

Sheridan: Your trying to force us to decide which of you are right. Your like a couple of parents arguing in front of their kids. Manipulating them, trying to get them to take sides, not for their benefit, but for yours. But, what if the right choice is not to choose at all.

[Cut back to Delenn]

Delenn: What if we reject the idea that we must decide which of you is right. What if we simply walk away.

[Another Delenn appears]

Delenn2: You cannot do that.

Delenn: Then the war will never end.

Delenn2: That is correct.

Delenn: Then there is no hope.

Delenn2: There is only chaos and evolution.

[Cut to the Vorlons]

Vorlons: There is only order and obedience. You will do as you are told.

[Cut to the Shadows]

Delenn2: You will fight because we tell you to fight.

[Cut back to the Vorlons]

Vorlons: You will die for us when we tell you to die for us. Because the others know no other way.

Sheridan: That's where you're wrong.

[An asteroid hits the side of the White Star, pushing Lorien's hands further into the energy field, the Vorlons eyes open, then we cut back to Delenn, we see Lorien hand stretch in from the side]

Delenn2: You've let them see. You've let them know.

Lorien: Hurry, take my hand.

[Cut to Sheridan, Lorien's other hand appears]

Lorien: Quickly.

[Cut the projection/point in space/"elsewhere" shatters into tiny fragments, and Sheridan and Delenn are back aboard the White Star]

Lennier: Look! The Shadow cloud doesn't show up on our instruments.

[Ivanova cuts in on the Intercom/radio]

Ivanova: Captain, can you receive?

Sheridan: Ivanova, did u see it? Did the rest of the fleet hear what they said?

Ivanova: We did, but then the cloud came up all around us, getting through no matter what we do.

Marcus: Picking up thousands of missiles all around us. Extreme cold has shut down the jump engines, not just ours, the entire fleet. Estimate we have ten minutes before the temperature drops below that which we can survive.

Sheridan: Is that it? We come all this way, we figure it out and now they don't want us to leave. They'd rather let us die here than get in the way of their little war?

Lorien: No, their not quite finished with you yet. Look.

[Holograms of a Vorlon in a Kosh One encounter suit and a Shadow appear on the bridge]

Lorien: They're giving you a chance to change your mind, ask forgiveness. Choose. Your next words will decide how this goes. I cannot help you.

[Lorien steps back and Sheridan moves forward]

Sheridan: The Vorlons ask only one question, over and over, who are you? You, for you the question is what do you want? I've never heard you answer that question. Who are you?! What do you want?!

[Neither the Vorlons or the Shadows answer]

Delenn: You don't know do you. You've been fighting each other so long, you've forgotten. You've lost your way, so how can you guide us? How can we learn who we are and what we want if you don't even know it anymore?

Sheridan: Oh it doesn't matter who wins today, a thousand years from now it will start all over again. You're as trapped in this cycle as much as we are. Well we can't afford it anymore. We don't need it. We don't need you. We've learnt how to stand on our own. Sure we'll make mistakes but they'll be our mistakes.

Delenn: Your secret is out. All these other races know you for who you are. So what know?

Vorlon: You do not speak for the rest.

Shadow: They will not follow you if you are dead.

[The ships warning system beeps]

Lennier: Missile on approach. Impact in ten seconds.

[A missile heading for the White Star is intercepted by another ship, which is completely destroyed by the impact.]

Sheridan: What ship was that?

Lennier: Drazi. Warship. The Stragoth. They took the hit for us. The other ships are moving in, surrounding us.

[Another missile is fired, but is intercepted by a Minbari War Cruiser, again completely destroying the ship.]

Delenn: The others have rejected you, how will you have a war when no-one will fight for either of you.

Sheridan: We refuse to take sides in this anymore. And we refuse to let you turn us against one another. We know who we are now, we can find our own way between order and chaos.

Delenn: You can kill us, one by one, and those who follow us and those that follow them. On an on, every race, every planet until there is no-one left to kill. You will have failed as guardians and you will be alone.

Sheridan: It's over because we've decided it's over. Now get the hell out of our galaxy! Both of you!

Lorien: As I taught you and then stepped aside , so now you must do the same. Our age is past, this belongs to the younger races now. They have learnt to stand on their own. They have learnt to understand. Time to let them go.

Shadow: Will you come with us?

Lorien: I have been here since the beginning. I will not leave you now. I will go with you beyond the rim. And we will see all those who went ahead of us, all those whom we have missed for so long.

Vorlon: Then we will not be alone?

Lorien: No, never alone.

[The Shadows and Vorlons leave the galaxy, cut to Ivanova's White Star.]

Marcus: Did we just win?

Ivanova: Don't jinx it.

[The remaining First Ones leave the galaxy.]

Lorien: I waited a long time for someone to find me. Now, like the others I find I hate to leave. But, none of us can stay this time, that was why it was necessary to find all the remaining first ones. This is yours now. And you have an obligation, to do as we have done, to teach the races that will follow you, and when your time comes, as ours has, to step aside and allow them to grow into their own destiny. If your races survive, if you do not kill yourselves, I look forward to the day when your people join us beyond the rim.

[Lorien turns to light and we see him in his true form outside the ships.]

Lorien: We will wait for you.

[Lorien forms a ball of light and leaves the galaxy.]