***

“Did I hear you right?” Vila asked sidling closer. “Did you just say two thousand years?”
Avon watched him edging nearer with raised brows,
“You haven’t lost enough blood to affect your hearing Vila. You heard.”
Vila, who had shown little surprise at seeing Avon with fangs, or being offered the option of exchanging a small amount of blood for apparent immortality, now looked dumbfounded.
“You’ve known Blake two thousand years? I don’t believe it.”
Avon gave Blake a long unfathomable look then turned back to Vila,
“Well he did say more off than on Vila. While we have shared the same universe for about two thousand years we have shared the same room for very little of them.” He smiled a small and chilly smile, “ as little as possible in fact.”

For some reason Blake looked slightly ashamed,
“You make it sound as if we avoided each other Avon!” he protested.
The inscrutable look returned to Avon’s face,
“Didn’t we?”
“Well I didn’t avoid you! You know perfectly well that I didn’t remember you for most of the time we were on Liberator, and you know why. Don’t tell me you blame me for it?”
Avon stared at him steadily but said nothing.

Blake seemed embarrassed under that cool look,
“Before that… well let’s just say we had different interests,” he said.
Avon turned and let his eyes wander around the ring of frozen troopers and beyond to the unchanging smile on Servalan’s face,
“They always were,” he stared at Servalan for a moment longer before he turned back to look at Blake, “it seems that some things never change,” he sounded tired.
Blake straightened up and glared at him,
“Very true. You’ve never much cared for anyone, have you? That’s still the same. You made that very clear.”

“He looked for you.” Dayna moved towards Blake an open threat in her voice. “On Liberator. Why did he do that if he didn’t care? He came here to find you.”
Blake glared at her then looked across towards Avon again,
“Because he felt he owed me something maybe? Avon has an honour of sorts. And loyalty to his own. Possibly because he felt that I was important to his safety, and that would certainly have brought him. Wouldn’t it?” The last words were a challenge.
Avon met his eyes blandly, but Vila spoke before he could reply,
“To his own? Did you make him what he is?”
Blake turned slightly to look at the thief; he smiled and shook his head,
“No Vila, I didn’t do that.”
“Then he made you what you are, what I assume we all are?” Soolin asked him with raised eyebrows. “They way he just did with us?”

Avon was still watching Blake with that strange, still, look that was so familiar to Vila, Blake seemed to suddenly feel it and turned back, returning it steadily but with something close to uncertainty. Vila felt a sudden tension between the two men and wondered what was coming. Blake seemed unwilling to say anything more,
“No,” Avon answered for him. He spoke slowly and quietly his eyes still fixed on Blake, “I didn’t. But I had brother, he did.”
“Had?” Soolin queried.
Avon drew a deep breath, then looked towards her,
“Had. He is dead.” Something flickered briefly through his eyes but his voice didn’t change, “Blake doesn’t always chose his friends well.”

Blake felt the others turn to stare at him and sighed in resignation,
“Avon, we have been through this before. I didn’t sell your brother out. If I betrayed his secret it was an accident, but I don’t think that I did. Even if I had, how could I have known what would happen?”
Avon stared at him again, this time with his brows raised in mock questioning,
“Your friends were religious fanatics Blake, superstitious, self righteous and intolerant, what else could you have expected?”
Blake ran his hand over his hair.
“Maybe, but I didn’t tell them about him and I would have saved him if I could.” He glared at Avon in sudden anger, “but you could have saved him too, why didn’t you?”

Soolin turned to look at Avon,
“Could you have saved him?” there was a challenge in her voice.
Avon didn’t look at her but kept his eyes locked on Blake,
“If I had known in time, but I didn’t. Blake had other things on his mind you see, other people to save.”
The low and velvety tone of his voice seemed magnify the bitterness of his words. He smiled again and they all tensed, expecting to see the fangs re-appear, they didn’t but Avon’s look was no more reassuring for wearing human guise,
“ Any danger my brother might have faced came low on his list of priorities.”
He broke eye contact with Blake and looked around the room, his eyes resting for a moment on the frozen troopers again before flitting across the small group clustered around him,
“He had a rabble to save, friends were expendable. As I said, some things don’t change. I couldn’t get to my brother in time, any more than I could get to Gan.”
Blake felt a shiver of something angry run through the others and hit out,
“And Cally, Avon? Couldn’t you get to her in time?”

Avon turned away, staring towards the frozen Servalan, his face hidden from them as he answered,
“Oh yes, I got there in time. But Cally had lived alone for long enough, an eternity of it didn’t appeal to her. She wanted to join the soul of the Auronar. I let her go, respected her wish, just as I would have allowed any one of you to make a similar choice.”
He turned back towards Blake the cold, bright, smile in place again,
“One less warrior for your cause Blake, but I make no apologies. Though you talk a lot about choice you still don’t understand it. Two thousand years and you still don’t understand.”

Whatever Blake was intending to reply to that was silenced by Deva. After staring from Blake to Avon and back again several times he decided to stick with the devil he knew,
“Blake," he said, "I don’t know what’s going on here, what he’s done to us, but I do know that the Federation has infiltrated this base. Now we might be able to escape with him but what about the others? You’ve men and women here who depend on you, we can’t just leave them to get slaughtered. What are we going to do?”

After a moment of silent staring Blake turned his eyes away from Avon towards Deva and the woman now hovering behind his shoulder,
“How did they get in Deva? Why didn’t we see them? Arlen didn’t have run of the base long enough to have interfered with the security systems, have we got another traitor?”
Deva shrugged, more comfortable with this style of conversation than the disturbing and emotionally charged exchanges of a few moments ago.
“I don’t know. Klyn says there was no sigh of transporters approaching the base in the time just before or after they arrived,” he inclined his head towards the others, warily eyeing Avon before looking back to Blake. “We don’t think they came in through the silo because the sentries were all still in place and they didn’t see them. Anyway he would have seen them.” Again there was the wariness when he referred to Avon.

The man himself seemed to repress a smile before turning away to stare past the silent troopers to the corridors beyond.
“Orac didn’t detect them either, which is more than a little bit odd.” Soolin said. She looked towards Avon, “At least he didn’t tell the rest of us about it if he did.”
The woman Klyn took a hurried step backwards as if expecting Avon to blast Soolin to ash where she stood. But he seemed unconcerned by the implied challenge.
“No Orac didn’t detect them. Nor did Slave.” He cast an almost kindly glance towards Deva and the obviously frightened Klyn, “ I may have been stupid coming here but I wasn’t stupid enough to forget to check that.”
“Ground detector shield?” Dayna queried her professional interest caught.
Avon shook his head,
“No. On the ground there are always telltales that can be detected if you know how to look. Slave knew how, Dorian didn’t survive for so long by being lucky. ”

Blake noticed the sudden unease that the name Dorian triggered in Avon’s crew and opened his mouth to ask who he was. Avon got in first,
“So how did they get in Blake? Someone must have let them in. Do you have any suggestions?”
The question seemed to override Deva’s nervousness of Avon, and he looked at him with open curiosity for the first time.
“Blake tested them all," he caught Avon’s disparaging look and smiled slightly, “and I broke the Federations central security codes and checked them too. There isn’t any one.”
Avon turned his head away and looked towards Arlen still sprawled where Vila’s blow had put her, then he looked back towards Deva with raised brows. The other man shrugged,
“Point taken,” he said wryly. “In which case it could be anyone.”
He looked back towards Blake,
“But we can consider that later. For the moment how are we going to get everyone away?”
Blake looked at him for a long moment then, almost reluctantly, he turned towards Avon,
“Suggestions?” he said, but the tone of his voice betrayed the fact that the real question wasn’t the one the words asked.

Avon watched him with cold fury in every line of his body,
“Another mess you expect me to clear up for you Blake?" his voice was both acid and arctic, "How many have there been over the centuries? How many stupid wretches have I had to protect from the effects of their worship of the great Roj Blake? Hundreds? Thousands? How many times have I preserved their delusions? How many others have died because I have?”
Blake said nothing, waiting for Avon’s fury to burn itself out as it always did, waiting for the vulnerability of others to make its' silent plea as it always had in the past. The fury in Avon’s eyes told him that it would win out again and that Avon knew it.
“It’s not their fault Avon, whatever grudges there are between you and Blake it’s not their fault.” Deva’s voice cut quietly through the tension, only Soolin noting that for the first time Blake’s lieutenant had used Avon’s name.
“The rebellion needs them and this galaxy needs the rebellion. Without it there will be only darkness, destruction and stagnation.”
Avon’s eyes switched from Blake to Deva the fury still carved in every line of his face. For the first time Deva realised that his eyes were brown not black and that the lines were not those of cruelty or dissipation; the observation produced a strange feeling of relief, and the courage to go on,
“I don’t know what you are, but I don’t think you are a creature of any of those.” He gave a small half laugh, "at least I hope you aren’t because if you are what does that make us?”

***

“Whatever else you may be you are a fool!” Avon snapped.
Abruptly he turned away, his eyes going back towards Servalan,
“She came well prepared,” he said almost to himself. “There is a full assault squad here and more on the way.”
He turned back to Deva,
“How many of you on this base?”
“About thirty technical staff and the same number of ancillary staff, then fifty or so security staff, a handful of pilots and about twenty bounty hunters and their prisoners.”
“So maybe a hundred people depending on how many are already dead. Is there any way of knowing that other than going and counting them that is,” the sarcasm in his voice was open and unabashed.
Deva nodded ignoring the tone of the request,
“There is an indicator in the main control room.” He frowned at Blake, “When I came down it showed three dead and ten wounded in the upper levels. But they had only just breeched the silo, there may be more by now.” He turned and looked around him at the frozen troopers , “or maybe not.” He muttered in a slightly dazed voice.
Avon ignored the last remark, if he even heard it, his eyes staring past Servalan to something they couldn’t see,
“So a hundred to get away,” he turned suddenly towards Blake, “and how do you suggest I do that?”
Blake said nothing but looked slowly around at the others in the tracking gallery, the implication was clear.

Avon eye’s widened as he took in Blake’s look, then he moved towards him with narrowed eyes and a slight and very unpleasant smile,
“Oh no, Blake,” he spoke quietly, but with a bitterness that made both the others stare at him in sudden anxiety, “I’m not giving you that. I told you once before I will not provide you with an invincible army, you will now recall that incident I expect. I meant it then and I mean it now. I owed the people here something, but I don’t owe your recruits anything at all. Their own stupidity brought them here, their own stupidity let the Federation in. Don’t expect me to adapt them for you.”
Blake reached forward and grasped Avon wrist, the muscles in his forearm tightening with the ferocity of the grip,
“You have to,” he demanded “they need your help!”
His hand was thrown off with no obvious effort, it seemed that Avon was forgetting the pretences of the past. Stepping back Avon let his fangs slide into view again,
“You know better than that Blake, you should know better than the rest that I don’t have to do anything.”
“Avon!” Blake demanded but the uncertainty and anxiety vibrated in his voice. “You can’t let them die like this! “
He swallowed hard and took a deep breath, then he stepped back turning away to look at Servalan, still frozen in her moment of triumph. He straightened and half turned, the tension clearly visible in him.
“After all are you so sure that you don’t owe them anything. We had made sure they didn’t suspect us and we have had no problems before you arrived here, are you so sure that they didn’t follow you here?” he challenged.

Avon looked at him steadily,
“Servalan might follow me but she wouldn’t know where she was coming to. How could she when I didn’t? She wouldn’t have needed a full assault squad to follow Scorpio, and the troopers in the plantations aren’t here by accident.” That small hard smile flashed briefly again, fangs still in place, “No Blake I didn’t bring them here, one of you did.”
A look of desperation settled over Blake’s face,
“Maybe that’s true, I don’t know and you can’t be sure. My people need help Avon.”
There was a hopeless entreaty in the last words.

Vila let his eyes swivel from one man to the other and wondered where the hell they went from here.

“If you don’t help then you are giving them and the rest of the rebellion to Servalan. You might as well wrap them in pretty paper and tie them up with ribbons.”
The new voice was Klyn’s. For most of the time since she had been helped to her feet by Avon she had stayed away from everyone else, her arms wrapped around herself as if cold, with fear and uncertainty in her face and despair and terror in her eyes. But as the angry words had eddied around her she had remembered Avon’s hand on her arm, it had been warm and reassuringly human, whatever he was it wasn’t so alien that she couldn’t try and understand. She had felt his bitterness at Blake and that too reassured her because she had no doubt that if he wanted to destroy Blake he could, that he didn’t spoke of self control and a type of humanity that she could understand. After she had felt many a murderous impulse towards Blake herself in the course of their acquaintance. But when Avon spoke of an invincible army she was both shocked and shaken. Was that what Blake was asking for, had asked for before? If so then her sympathy was entirely with Avon, Klyn had been raised amongst Earth's elite and understood only too well what the feeling of unchallenged power could do to even the most well intentioned. But that didn’t mean she was willing to abandon her friends and comrades to the Federation's far from tender mercies.

Gathering her courage she looked towards Avon, looked at him properly for the first time. What she saw reassured her, he was a man like another, no monster from children’s stories, even the fangs still visible as he smiled didn’t seem as alien as they had when she had first seen them. Fleetingly she wondered at what changes might be taking place in herself and if that was changing her perception of the man now staring at her so intently. Everything she had ever heard of him, and like everyone else in the rebellion and beyond she had heard a lot, spoke of a clever and rational, if ruthless, man. 'Think' she demanded of herself,' there has to be something he can do at least for the ones still alive.'

She raised her eyes and met Avon’s,
“There must be something you can do other than……” she let her hand drift towards her own neck. “Something more ordinary, more technical……. The computers maybe, the weapon or security systems…” her voice tailed off knowing that was the best level of plea that she could manage for the moment.
“Can you get at the computers while time is still?” Soolin added her support to Klyn.
Avon looked at Klyn for another long moment and something approaching approval flashed through his eyes and then disappeared,
“Yes,” he said calmly, turning now to Soolin “but it’s hard to see what advantage that gives us while Blake’s people are scattered across the base and in close proximity to Servalan’s troops.
Soolin frowned at that,
“That’s true,” she admitted
“We could go and collect them!” Vila broke in. Get them all in one place.”
Avon looked at him with amusement,
“Volunteering for work Vila? I must have changed you more profoundly than I intended.”
He repressed a smile at Vila’s look of undisguised horror at the word work. Then he frowned and turned to stare at Servalan again,
“It wouldn’t work anyway, while I hold time we cannot move them, they are rooted in it and it would be beyond the physical power of any human to move them while it is unmoving. That is true for their weapons too.”

He looked back at them,
“And I can’t hold time indefinitely. It is an integral part of this world and it is trying to reassert itself even now, the momentum behind the pendulum is building and I can only hold it for so long. Soon the drive for forward motion will exceed my ability to prevent it.”
“What happens then?” Deva asked nervously.
Avon shrugged,
“It will start to move again, very slowly at first, then faster as it builds impetus. The distortion I have introduced in here, relative to the world outside, must be cancelled within a single time cycle of this planet, in other words one rotation about its axis. The longer I hold time the harder that will be and therefore the harder it will fight to prevent that. So whatever we do we must do soon.”
“How long?” Deva again.
“A couple of hours longer not much more.”

“Is there anything you can do to allow time back for Blake’s people, while still holding the Federation?” Soolin asked.
Avon gave her a long, hard, and almost suspicious look, then he turned around and went to stand by the nearest trooper inspecting him closely.
“How are your people dressed Blake?” he asked without apparent inconsequence, “like you and Deva?”
“For the most part, yes. Why do you ask?”
Avon ignored the last part of that,
“None in full battle dress?”
“No!” Blake sounded impatient, “I told you we weren’t expecting an attack. But what does that matter?”

Avon ignored him and stared at the wall with apparent indecision, tense and obviously unhappy, then he seemed to make up his mind about something. He turned back towards them his face expressionless,
“Is there any salt on the base?” he asked,
Deva nodded,
“In the kitchens.”
Avon narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment then drew a deep breath,
“Very well,” he said, “but you must do as I tell you, how I tell you to do it, quickly and with no mistakes.”
There was a moment of silence then a sense of shoulders being squared and everyone but Blake nodded.
Avon spoke quickly,
“Each of you must find two tools, a small knife and a container that can be sealed. You must purify each of them in solution of salt, then you must wash your hands in the same solution. No other part of your flesh or your clothing must touch either once you have purified them until the matter is concluded. You understand that?”
Several pairs of eyes widened but everyone nodded again in understanding.
“Very well. Once you have done that you must find every one of Blake’s people on the base and take from them a piece of hair, or a drop of blood. But if you take blood you must not let any drip onto the floor or anyone else. Hair is the preferred item. Do you understand that?”
Again there was the silent nodding.
“All samples go into the containers, and you must not drop a single hair however small, that is also very important. Do you understand that?”
More nods despite the obvious unease.

Avon gave a small mirthless smile
“I hope you do for all our sakes. I am not overstating it to say that not to do so might threaten the whole planet and maybe even beyond it.”
He watched them as he let that sink in, then he inclined his head in apparent acceptance of their understanding,
“So, be as quick as you can but make no mistakes. Bring the containers here to me as soon as you are finished.”
He turned to Deva,
“Show them to the kitchens, but be careful and avoid contact with the troopers on the way. There can be no arguments or delays, remember every second matters, but getting it right matters most.”
“Very well. Follow me everyone.” Deva said and headed for the corridor.

As Klyne drew close to him Avon reached out and caught her arm. She looked up at him with open anxiety.
“You know where the kitchens are?” he asked mildly.
She nodded silently. He smiled at her, and she realised that, when he wanted to, he could smile in a most gentle and reassuring manner. She felt some of her anxiety seep away. He saw and his smile widened slightly showing her the absence of fangs,
“Then you can catch them up later, first I need you to introduce me to your computer and communications systems.

***

By the time they had found all of Blake’s people, and collected the samples as instructed, Avon had set up whatever he wanted to set up within the computer systems and was sitting at the tracking display waiting for them.

Getting the samples had not been easy. As Avon had warned them moving the people involved was impossible and they had had to settle for hair from, arms and hands and in one case a toe. Avon seemed to be patient in the face of the enforced wait, and that was disturbingly new. But Vila noticed that he was looking drained and pale and so he bit off the jibe about work that had seemed so attractive just seconds, or rather non seconds, before. For the first time he allowed himself to wonder where and how you learned to hold off time; a very useful and attractive skill it was true, but hardly one that was on the curriculum of any Federation University. Wherever you learned it, it probably wasn’t easy and Avon was showing the strain.

One by one they set their containers down on top of the console, like some ceremonial offering to a petulant God Vila thought with a hidden smile. Avon didn’t say anything for a moment, apparently lost in his own thoughts, finally he looked up, scanned the containers once and nodded.
“You did exactly as I told you?” he asked.
“Yes,” they all chorused, even Blake.
“Well I hope so or this is going to make rather a mess.”
“What are you going to do?” Blake demanded.
“Spilt the time stream.” Avon responded to the question literally, though he must have known that, as answer, it meant nothing to the people around him.
He looked up at Blake,
“I can give them half an hour nothing more. In that time they must get themselves and the wounded out and into the plantations. Do you have an evacuation plan?”
“Of course,” Blake was curt, “and it’s tested and it works. Half an hour is tight but we can do it.”

Avon got to his feet,
“Well we are going to have to leave quickly too. Blake, Deva and Klyn go with your people and do all you can to dissuade them from stopping to ask questions. Take Tarrant, Dayna and Vila with you.”
He cast a shuttered look towards Soolin,
“I cannot leave until the time streams are rejoined, I would appreciate some back up in getting out of here Soolin but if you want to go with the others….” he shrugged and turned away from her, “ it’s up to you.”

Soolin looked at him for a moment then shook her head,
“No it makes sense for me to stay, just in case there’s a little shooting at the end. We wouldn’t want to lose you Avon, not until we know a little more about our resurrection and what it means for the future.”
“Blake can tell you that.” Avon replied,
“Maybe, but I think we would rather hear it from the person who put the holes in our neck.” Tarrant chipped in. “I’m quite happy to stay too.”
Avon shook his head,
“No, the fewer left behind the easier it will be for us to get away before she,” he jerked his head in the direction of the still figure of Servalan, “realises something has happened. Go with Blake, don’t worry about the troopers, once I’ve split the stream they won’t exist for you. Just get everyone out and away as fast as you can.”
He turned towards Blake, who stood frowning on the edge of the group, obviously itching to be getting on with the evacuation,
“Blake, I need one of your people to brief Soolin on how we get out of here and where we go. I can’t hold time in the plantations so Soolin and I will need a safe route.” He let his eyes flick around them, “and you will all need to be on your guard, there is another assault force out there, maybe more on the way.” He looked back at Blake again,” I just hope your escape route isn’t as compromised as this base.”

Deva saw the thunderous frown gather on Blake’s brow and stepped into the breach,
“Arlen hadn’t been here long enough to know anything about it. If we have another traitor, well they might, but we will have to take the risk.”
He cast a look towards Soolin,
“Klyn will brief you on how to get out and where to go once you are.”
Avon sighed, and reached for a sheet of paper that lay on the console before him. He handed it to Deva.
“Very well. I suggest you disperse throughout the base before I do this, it will save time.” He smiled wryly, “both literally and figuratively. Here are the locations that the computer identifies as the most efficient. I will give you ten minutes. ”

They scattered quickly not knowing what splitting the time stream meant or how it would appear to them once it was done. As he made his way to the silo Blake wondered where this would leave him with Avon and whether the other man would chose to hang around once they had escaped the base. Perhaps more importantly who would go with him if he chose to leave?

There had been other occasions similar to this in the past and Avon had always chosen to go. Blake’s connection with his brother had always brought him when he was needed, and prevented him from taken the type of action that Blake suspected he sometimes longed for, but this time Avon’s anger had been far greater and there was no saying what he would do once they were off the base. He sighed, he would do what he could to keep Avon here, but in the end the man would do what he chose. It had always been that way an,d though it distressed Blake, he could see no way of altering it. But maybe this time would be different, after all he hadn’t brought Avon to the London or the Liberator, he hadn’t even remembered that Avon existed. Maybe that would change the balance of their relationship, he would just have to wait and see.

****

The others thoughts were no less comfortable. Slowly it was beginning to become real, the whole crazy set up, and it left them wondering who, and what, they were.

Vila was reminding himself that he had always intended to live forever and trying not to think about the stories he had been told as a child; Dayna on the other hand was struggling to remember every Earth legend she had ever read and was wishing that they had held more of her interest at the time. Tarrant was remembering the mutiods he had known, if that was the right word, in his Space Command days, recalling the revulsion he had always felt for them and wondering if he could survive as himself now he was, presumably, something similar.

Each of them tried not to think about it all, telling themselves that was for later, that for the moment getting everyone out of the base was the main imperative. So they ignored the frozen troopers in every corridor as best they could and headed for their stations.

****

In the tracking gallery Soolin watched as Avon counted down the ten minutes he had given the others, then as the last seconds passed he rose and gathered the containers together on the console. She tensed, wondering what was coming now; he seemed to sense that and gave her a long expressionless look,
“Don’t worry Soolin, I’m not about to sell our souls to the devil,” he said.
Her brows rose in mocking surprise,
“I rather thought you had already done that.”
That brought one of those bright and chilly smiles he had adopted recently,
“Oh no, it’s not that simple.”
“Is anything?” she replied letting her hand drop towards her gun just in case.
He saw the movement and the smile died,
“It’s a lot less dramatic than that, I’ll explain later. For now…” He looked back to the containers in front of him, “they should be in place.”

With that he sat down and leant forward extending his arms around the containers, gathering them all towards him so that everyone was encircled within his arms, then he drew a deep breath and fixed his eyes on the wall.

The world shimmered again taking on the patterns of light and dark he had seen before, filaments of brilliants, small pulsating beads of coloured light, seemed to weave their way through the pattern. As he tightened his arms around the containers the chains of sparkling points within them seemed to gather themselves, their irridecence taking on a greater intensity. Avon watched as the chains probed their restraints, the containers took on a similar, but dimmer, pattern and the bright strands wove their way through it and extended outwards finding their echoes in the greater tapestry beyond the console. Reaching out like bright fingers to make the connections with the patterns beyond them.

When all the connections were made he set about separating the chains streaming out of the containers. Slowly he eased those chains apart from the others he could now see, drawing on skills long buried but returning quickly as his sense of urgency pushed the barriers that contained them back. When all the container strands were clearly separated he pushed them away from him, out towards the shadow where time was straining at its unfamiliar leash. As they passed beneath the great pendulum they came alive with new light, sparking and spinning and drowning out the rest of the tapestry.

Soolin gaped in disbelief as Servalan and her troopers disappeared.

***

There are times when the human desire for explanations is very inconvenient, and Blake had to admit that this was one of them. While he himself would have been more comfortable if he had known where the troopers suddenly disappeared to, he was nevertheless irritated by the persistent questions about why and how as he tried to get people out of the base, and to what he hoped was safety. Wasn’t getting away enough of an incentive to ask questions later?

It seemed to take hours of chivvying and herding before his group joined the line of people already moving towards the escape exit, driven on by a very tense and impatient Dayna. Deva and Vila were already waiting by the door their groups already within the tunnel.

Blake looked around anxiously, there were very few wounded that he could see, and most were on their feet and moving with a little help. As he watched the last of his group help a wounded pilot out into the escape tunnel Tarrant and Klyn appeared, shepherding their groups into the corridor behind him, two improvised stretchers were being manhandled as gently as possible, suggesting that a few were more seriously injured. For the moment it was impossible to judge how any people they had lost. But even at this distance he could see the anxiety on Deva’s face ease as he and the others appeared.

“I’ve sent a couple of scouts ahead to make sure there are no nasty surprises at the other end. But we can’t wait for them to report back, and Avon warned us not to use the coms channels in case we have been infiltrated and they are being monitored.” Deva told him as he approached. “We will just have to risk it,”
Blake nodded,
“He’s right. If there is an attack force outside then they may well be able to eavesdrop on us.” He looked around him at the clusters of people still waiting in the tunnels entrance. “ Send some of the armed staff on ahead and have the rest cover our backs. I don’t think they will have found this escape route, not enough people knew about it, but we can’t be sure of anything any more.”
Deva’s brow creased in a frown, but he went and relayed Blake’s instructions to a cluster of security personnel obviously itching for orders to do something. As he returned to where Blake was standing a small group of them set off down the tunnel, easing their way past the others, and then disappearing at the double with weapons at the ready.

Tarrant and Klyn had now realised that Blake had arrived and came to join them at the entrance.
“Do you think we have been infiltrated? Other than Arlen?” Klyn asked.
Blake shook his head,
“I don’t know. But Avon’s right, it makes sense to allow for the possibility.”
“Doesn’t put much faith in trust does he?” Deva said.
Blake smiled sadly,
“No, he doesn’t. Once upon a time I found that the hardest thing about him, but I’m beginning to wonder if that isn’t what has kept him alive for so long.”
Deva’s frown deepened and he gave Blake a long hard look before speaking,
“Alive? So he can be killed?”
Blake felt the others waiting beside him stiffen and he nodded,
“Yes. He may be immortal in most ways but it can be done.”
Tarrant gave a short laugh.
“I once told him that I might have to kill him and he said it had been tried, he seemed to find the threat amusing,” he gave a wry smile, “I though he was just playing games. Now I know what he found so funny.”

Blake cast a warning look around him,
“Being hard to kill doesn’t mean impossible to kill, Tarrant, he’s not indestructible. Nor are we, just don’t forget that.”
“But how hard are we to kill?” Dayna demanded, “In fact what are we?”
Vila had edged up behind Deva and was staring at Blake,
“Do we want to know?” he asked anxiously,
“It’s a bit late to want to go back now Vila.” Tarrant said, “but if you wait until Avon joins us I’m sure that he will be able to arrange it.”
Vila shot him a dirty look but said nothing.
“There will be time for that later.” Blake cut in, more than a little taken aback by the sniping between Avon’s crew. “For now let’s concentrate on getting away from here as quickly as we can. From what Avon said he won’t be able to give us much longer.”

Vila cast him a worried look,
“He and Soolin will be able to get away, won’t they? I don’t fancy losing him until we know exactly what it is that he’s done to us.”
Blake returned Vila’s look, suddenly seeming older, and tired, very tired.
“I hope so Vila but, as I haven’t got any more idea than you have about what he’s done, at least I don’t know for certain. All we can do is get ourselves away and make sure the way is clear for him to follow.”
“Some one should wait here and give him backup if he needs it.” Dayna said.
Blake nodded,
“I intend to. Deva will see the others through to safety. No arguments,” he said as the other man began to protest.
Dayna nodded,
“I’ll stay with you.”
Blake shrugged,
“If you wish, but I’d rather you went with the others, the security staff will need help all the help they can get if the Federation have a surprise waiting for us at the other end.”
She shook her head,
“Tarrant and Vila will do that. I’m staying.” Her tone left no room for argument.

The pilot opened his mouth to protest, but catching Blake’s eye he closed it again and said nothing. At the moment it might be better if he didn’t get too close to Blake, after all he had told Avon that he had betrayed them not so very long ago, it might take some time for that to be forgiven, if not forgotten. So, with a curt nod of agreement, he followed Deva into the tunnel, Vila hurrying behind. He glanced back once to see Dayna and Blake standing sentinel, one each side of the entrance, before a bend in the tunnel hid them from view.

***

Soolin watched Avon as he sat with bent head and outstretched arms. The hair falling forward over his brow was damp with sweat and the muscles of his shoulders and arms were bunched as if he was pushing against a heavy weight. Whatever it was that he was doing it wasn’t effortless. She just wished she understood a little more of what was going on.

But for her, at least, time was moving again so it couldn’t be long before they needed to leave.

The disappearance of Servalan and her forces had shocked her and it had taken a while for her to realise that the numbers on her chronometer were moving again. She drew her clip gun and went and positioned herself behind Avon; he gave no sign that he was aware of her, all his concentration being devoted to whatever it was he could see in front of him.

Soolin stared in the same direction and frowned. Whatever Avon had done to them it should, logically, give her some ability to see what he was seeing. But she couldn’t, so maybe it took effort or practice, or perhaps just to jettison some past assumptions. Forcing herself to relax she tried again. At first she could see nothing, just the blank walls of the tracking gallery and the unmanned stations scattered around the room, but as she relaxed and let her mind wander she thought she saw pinpricks of light streaming out from the console where Avon sat. She concentrated on them trying to shut the tracking gallery from her mind, slowly they became clearer and she could see that they seemed to be dancing some sinuous winding dance before fading into the shadows that had suddenly appeared beyond the console. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, now even the walls seemed different, less substantial somehow, like thin paper painted with pale watercolours, colours that were slowly bleeding into each other’s as if they were being rained upon.

Then some of the chains started to fade, the pin points of light becoming stretched and thin.

In front of her Avon saw the change and let the fading chains loose as the targets they sought moved out of the base and into the world of normal time beyond it. He could feel the pressure building in the time streams as they strove to find each other and merge. Some part of his mind felt the exhaustion that was creeping through his body but the rest remained fixed on the chains streaming away from him, more and more of them fading as the people they were attached to moved beyond his reach. Only a few remained contained within the time field now and there was nothing more that he could do for them they would need to look to themselves if he and Soolin were to get away.

Slowly he straightened up, stretching his back and flexing his stiff shoulders. With a sudden movement he swept all of the containers to the floor, and stamped on them, then he picked up the flask of salt solution that Kyln had left standing on the comms. console as he had instructed her and poured it over the debris. Though he was fairly sure that Servalan was human, and that none of his kind would be amongst her supporters, there no harm in taking suitable precautions. Stupid to go to this trouble and then have them tracked because he didn’t finish the job.

When he was satisfied that no fragment had escaped a wetting, and that he had done all that he could, he turned to Soolin,
“Time to go. They should all be away by now.”
“Safe?” she asked.
Avon shrugged,
“I’m not sure, but most of them are clear of the base which is what I promised Blake. Their safety is down to them.” He paused and seemed to think for a while, staring at the patterns of the moving time channel, “but I don’t think there has been any fighting so I assume they have made it safely so far.”
“Let's hope we do the same.” Soolin was checking her gun as she replied. “What about them?” she jerked her gun towards where Servalan had been standing.
“I can hold their time stream while I am still on the base, and I’ve prepared something that should give us a little more time once it’s released. But once we reach this escape tunnel we will need to move quickly.”
Soolin nodded once,
“So let's move. The sooner we are out of here the better.”
“Agreed,” Avon said and turned for the exit.

On the threshold of the tracking gallery he spun and stared towards where Servalan was waiting between the seconds. He concentrated, staring past the walls of the moving time stream to the frozen one alongside it. With a deep breath he took a long look at Servalan and her troopers. Soolin saw the smile appear and knew what he was doing, she caught hold of his arm and tugged,
“Avon! Let's go!”
He nodded abstractedly, still smiling, it would have been good to see her reaction but imagining it would have to do.
“Yes let’s.”

With that he spun on his heel and left the woman who thought she had killed them behind.

***

At the entrance to the escape tunnel the atmosphere was tense. Blake was lost in his own uncomfortable thoughts, and Dayna, staring at the cold and frowning face opposite, wondered where the man her father had admired had gone to. What would he have made of this man, this bounty hunter? Would he have trusted him? Somehow she didn’t think so.

Her fingertips tentatively brushed the side of her neck, and what would he have made of the Avon she had left in the tracking gallery? They had met and her father had trusted him, what would have thought of the scene back ther? Most importantly of all what would he have felt about the choice she had made?

It had seemed obvious at the time; of course she had chosen life over death when there was still so much to do! She would have made the choice simply to cheat Servalan. But standing here in the silence, waiting for the man who had shown himself to be something more than she had ever guessed, she wondered what, exactly, it was that she had let herself in for.

She looked across at Blake, he obviously knew more about it, after all Avon has said they had known each other for two thousand years. Which raised some interesting questions, and if she had to stand here and wait with him then she might as well try getting answers to at least a few of them. She looked back into the corridor, there was still no sign of Avon or Soolin, or Federation troopers come to that; so she turned back, meeting Blake’s eyes as she did so
‘What did Avon mean, about you betraying his brother?” she asked quietly.

Blake’s brow furrowed in a frown before he turned away from her.
“I didn’t betray him,” his voice was cold and harsh. “Avon maintains that I told people about him and what he was, people whose beliefs meant that if they had known they would have hunted him down. But I didn’t, at least I don’t think that I did. It’s true that I had a fever, but if I had said anything at all they would have killed me too,” he looked back at her, “and obviously they didn’t do that. So I can’t have said anything. Can I?”
He looked away again staring in the direction the others had vanished as if he could see them still,
“But Avon doesn’t believe it. Won’t believe it. I keep telling him, keep thinking that I’ve convinced him, but I haven’t. In his heart he still believes that I did, and still believes that I’m untrustworthy. As you have just seen.”

Dayna let that go and asked the question that had been uppermost in her mind since Blake had apparently risen from the dead.
“Why did he shoot you if he knows you can’t die?”
Blake sighed,
“I can die, I’ve told you that. Just not as easily as most people expect.” He saw her baffled look and sighed, “An energy weapon won’t do it, but a projectile might, if it was the right type and if it hit me in the right place.”
“But Avon would know that wouldn’t he?”
“Yes of course. He knew it was a projectile weapon he was carrying, that might be why he picked it up, but he can’t have known whether it was the right type; at least I don’t think he could. But after this time splitting business I’m not sure about that any more.” He shot her a look from shuttered eyes. “I didn’t know he could do that, so I’m not sure what else I don’t know about him.”
Dayna absorbed that admission in silence.

“So where did you meet his brother?” she returned to her original enquiry.
Blake looked into the distance again obviously remembering a time and place long past,
“On Earth. A hellhole called Outremer. I shouldn’t think you’ve heard of it, history has forgotten about it, which is the best thing in the circumstances. I’ve been in some tight spots since then but that still remains one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”
Dayna shook her head,
“No I’ve never heard of it. Where was it, and what were you doing there?”
Blake sighed,
“It was in place they called the Holy Land.” He gave a snort of distaste, “But there was very little that was holy about Outremer, or the whole dammed campaign come to that.”
“So you were a soldier?”
“Yes, I suppose I was. Though that wasn’t quite how I saw it at the time.” He shot her a slightly shameful look; “I was a Crusader if the term means anything to you?”
Dayna shook her head. Blake gave a small bitter smile,
“No, of course it doesn’t, why would it? It was a very long time ago.”
He gave a half laugh that was devoid of any humour and leant his head against the tunnel wall,
“I was part of an army sent to defend the one true faith, the one true church, and the places that were sacred it to.” His smile got nowhere near his eyes, “Of course our opponents had their own one true faith and church, it was unfortunate for all concerned that they shared the same sacred places.”

“Oh, religion.” Dayna said dismissively, “I wouldn’t have thought that was your sort of thing.”
“It isn’t” Blake said wearily, “Not any more. But to be fair it wasn’t religion that was the problem in the Holy Land, it was the churches people built around them, and the men who convinced their followers that they alone knew the will of God.”
He looked at her,
“Avon would point out to you that the one thing you have to accept if you believe in any God is that it isn’t going to see anything the way you do, if your leaders tell you that it does then you can be sure that they are lying.”
The twisted smile flashed again.
“He’s would be right about that of course. But being honest I know that if it hadn’t been God then it would probably have been something else. The defeat of religion didn’t prevent the creation of the Federation, or stop its' corruption or prevent its' abuses.”
“So what would?” Dayna said.
Blake's chilly smile widened,
“Avon would tell you that the problem isn’t religion or politics or even greed, it’s people who need to follow something.”
“Or someone?” Dayna queried.
“Yes,” Blake relied softly, “Or someone. Avon doesn’t think much of those who need to follow and even less of those who need to be followed.”
“So it seems.” Dayna’s tone was dry. “Which makes you suspect of course.”
“Yes, of course.” Blake voice was sad.

“So why did he stay with you, on the Liberator I mean? You say you didn’t remember him," she continued.
“I didn’t and that is probably why he stayed. He might not like what I stand for but we have been friends in the past and Avon is loyal, despite what he might tell you, particularly when someone needs him.” He gave her an amused look, “you might have noticed that.”
“I have.” Her tone told him to stay away from that admission. “But what about his brother? Was he a soldier too?”
“No,” Blake’s eyes drifted to the past again, “Avon is a lot older than I am, so was his brother.”
“Older than two thousand years!” Dayna exclaimed in shock.
Blake smile was openly amused,
“Yes. By couple of millennia would be my guess but I don’t know.” He seemed to search his memory, “I recall him mentioning the Roman Empire once, talking as if he had known it.”

He straightened suddenly as if he had heard something, but the corridor was still empty and he relaxed back against the wall.
“I met his brother during the siege, he became a friend of sorts.” He shot her a strange look, “people become friends quickly in such circumstances and you don’t ask too many questions.”
His eyes became distant again, seeing beyond her to a world he couldn’t explain and she couldn’t imagine,
“One day my luck ran out. I was dying when he found me and for some reason he chose to give me the choice Avon gave you. I still don’t know why. But I lived.”
“You mentioned a fever?” Dayna said
Blake nodded,
“Avon’s brother had been ….” He searched for the word that would describe it, “changed by Avon and, though he could save my life, he wasn’t as powerful as his brother. My wounds healed, but they didn’t disappear as quickly as yours did and I developed an infection. Our own hospitallers were certain that I would die, people didn’t survive that type of infection then, but whatever he did it was enough to save me. I lived but I was ill for several days.”
“Avon’s brother died in that time?”
“Yes. He was found impaled on a wooden cross.” Blake looked away, “I had his body burned. I don’t know if Avon could have done anything for him if I had preserved the body but he wasn’t there, and with the heat and the flies and the starvation…….. well it seemed the best I could do for him.”
“Impaled…” Dayna said slowly.
She got no further as Avon and Soolin arrived in the corridor at a run. She watched as they sprinted towards the open door.
“Time to go.” Soolin gasped.
Blake looked at Avon who just nodded.

Without a further word Blake turned to a panel hidden in the wall and closed the door.
“Go ahead and I’ll collapse the tunnel.” Dayna said.
Avon shook his head,
“No. I assume there are more of these,” he looked at Blake who nodded. He turned back to Dayna. “So we give them no indication of which one we took.”
Dayna frowned for a moment then nodded in agreement.
“So let’s go.” Soolin urged. She looked at Avon “What about the time streams?”
"They will merge once I’m gone from the base and time will begin again for Servalan.”
“I wish I could see her face,” Dayna said wistfully.
“Well you can’t” Avon was brisk. “I’ve set something up to delay her a little longer,” he smiled slowly, “and to make her doubt what she saw. But it would not be wise to stay and see her discomfiture.”
He gave Dayna a straight-faced look, but his eyes shone with something as close to devilment as she could imagine,
“Imagination will have to be enough for you, for the moment at least.”

With that tantalising comment he set off down the tunnel towards the outside world.

***

They reached the outside in record time, Avon set a pace they had never seen him manage before and he maintained it with no observable effort, to their surprise Dayna and Soolin found they had no difficulties in keeping up with him. They made the journey in silence, not because of any lack of breath but because there seemed to be nothing to say.

The tunnel was a winding affair with frequent side shoots that could have sheltered an ambush but that they passed without incident, there was no sound other than the beat of their boots on the rough floor and the emergency lights threw shadows on the matt walls. Only Soolin wondered how many such tunnels Avon had fled down in the past.

Blake kept up with them without apparent effort, despite being comprehensively shot not so many hours ago. Avon seemed to take it for granted that he would, or maybe he didn’t care. Either way Blake seemed to be unconcerned by Avon’s reaction.

Ahead of them the light changed and the air seemed suddenly cooler. Soolin thought she could hear noises, despite the distance, and her hand drifted down to check that her gun was still firmly in its holster. Blake had said that they could still be killed, just not easily, Soolin had no intention of putting it to the test if she could avoid it, at least not until she had got some answers out of Avon.

As they reached the incline up towards the outside world Avon halted and looked back, as they slowed down he waived them passed him with an impatient hand,
“I’ll rejoin the time streams, go on I’ll follow you.”
“You said they would just collapse into each other.” Dayna said suspiciously,
“They will but it’s better I do it this way.” He turned and gave them a small smile,
“Tidier. There are a few things I wouldn’t like to be disrupted. Go on I won't be far behind you.”
For a moment they all stared at him in silence, then Blake nodded,
“Very well, but don’t take any risks Avon. If you aren’t outside in ten minutes I’ll come looking for you.”
Avon responded with a flat stare.

They turned and moved on.

As they saw daylight ahead of them Soolin stopped, turned and drew her gun. Dayna did the same and went to join her. Blake sighed impatiently,
“Come on,” he urged them, “Avon can take care of himself.”
“Maybe,” Dayna’s tone was cool, “but that doesn’t mean that we will leave him to do it.”
“I’ve said I’ll come back if he doesn’t join us soon.”
“I heard you.” Dayna’s voice, and the over bright smile, were cold.
Blake gave a small, twisted, smile,
“I see. Well stay if you must, but he really can take care of himself and he won’t thank you for it.”
“No he won’t, but then we didn’t intend asking him too,” Soolin’s voice was as flat and dry as Avon at his worst.
Blake shook his head and turned back to the daylight,
“Just hurry I’ve got injured people I need to get undercover, we can’t wait for you for long.”
With that he disappeared into the halo of light that marked the open door.

Soolin and Dayna stayed where they were looking back towards Avon who was still where they had left him, still staring back into the tunnel as if he was imagining the base behind them. As they watched he seemed to square his shoulders, as if preparing to move something heavy, then he bent his head; other than that he didn’t move. His stillness spoke of his concentration. The seconds seem to stretch yet but nothing appeared to happen.

Then, suddenly, there was feeling of impatience in the air, as if something powerful was struggling to escape, for a moment the world around them seemed to pause. Soolin looked down at the hands of her chronometer and saw, without any real surprise that they had stopped moving. The feeling of pressure grew, as if the world around them was frozen in the moment before a great explosion and she felt the hairs on her neck stand on end. Then the frozen present seemed to shimmer a little, sliding into two not quite synchronised images, halos of rainbow colour sparkled around each image before merging in a flash of brilliant light that coalesed to white.

As the brilliant flare faded they could see than the two images had become one.

Avon turned quickly, fatigue written in his face and sluggish movements. For a moment surprise showed in his posture, then he glared at them,
“I told you to go,” he growled.
“We will, now.” Dayna sounded as unconcerned as ever by his annoyance.
As Avon approached them Soolin gave a small half smile,
“You can’t blame us for being curious,” she met his angry eyes blandly, “now can you? After all seeing time stopped and started like a broken clock is hardly a usual sight.”
Avon tried one more glare then gave up and pushed past them,
“Well the show is over, come on.”
With that he headed towards the outside world.

Soolin and Dayna exchanged amused looks and, having satisfied themselves there was no sign of pursuit, followed him.

***

In the tracking gallery the guards waited for their instructions. They had been told to take the man they were watching alive, and each one knew the penalty for forgetting that instruction only too well. They had all switched their guns to stun once he was the only one standing, but even so too many hits might still kill him, and she wouldn’t be bothered to discover which one did the damage. If he died they would all die, none of them were in any doubt of that.

But his gun was not set to stun and they were also all well very aware of the danger he presented to them, hampered as they were by their orders and their fear of her. So they surrounded him and waited, weapons raised.

Behind them Servalan smiled in triumph. She had him! Finally, she had him. The others were all dead, and without them she would be able to persuade him where his best interests lay. She would hand the bodies over for the reward but Avon she would keep in her custody, whatever else he might or might not be he was a clever man and he knew enough very valuable things to smooth her path back to power. It would not take long. Already the political infighting amongst the council had unseated two presidents, another two and they would more than welcome someone who could bring stability, a stability backed up by a greater technological advantage than the Federation had ever had before. Avon would give her that in exchange for his life, whatever he might think of her motives.

She watched him as the shock faded from his face and an understanding of what he had done replaced it. A rapid calculation of the odds flashed through his eyes followed by a bitter realisation of his position and his oh so limited choices. Suddenly she felt an unexpected tension, an uncertainty of his next actions. For the first time she wondered if Avon really would chose life over death, or whether he was preparing to die. The uncertainty increased as his smile hardened and he gripped the gun tighter. Servalan’s stomach clenched, the trooper’s guns should be set at stun but she couldn’t risk a mistake. She must be sure that he knew she was there, that she wanted him. That she would keep him alive. His expression seemed to express resignation for a moment and hope flared, the hope that he might throw down his gun and make it easy. But he didn't, the resignation remained but so did the gun in his hand. Head high Avon cast another downward look at Blake and a hint of bitterness darkened his eyes. Then came something else, an emotion that she couldn’t place but that caused him to square his shoulders as if reluctantly taking up a heavy burden.

She took a hurried step forward, emerging from behind the shadow of a trooper so that he could see her, smiling at him, understanding his predicament, offering a way out, offering him someone to bargain with, someone who would understand what he had to offer as well as what he threatened.

Avon raised his eyes and saw her and his smile took on a gritty quality, the gun levelled at her and his finger tightened on the trigger, yet he didn’t fire. Something hard and bitter settled in his eyes and it unnerved her, then he seemed to look past her, weariness in his face that gave her hope of an easy victory.There was a sudden feeling of pressure, as if all his anger and despair had come together and made itself manifest in the air around them. She saw his finger tighten on the trigger and time seemed to slow down.

A trooper stepped, almost languidly, to screen her from Avon’s gun but the shot went wide shattering the communications console at the side of the room. The sparks seemed to hang in the air for a long moment as if waiting for him to fire again but he didn’t. Servalan smiled again,
“Avon,” she said and stepped forwards.
He didn’t speak or move just stayed where he was, staring past her into something only he could see. For a moment she was puzzled, Avon wasn't usually slow to react, shock seemed the most likely explanation, but no matter the medics would deal with that.

She took another step forward, feeling a slight shock as she stubbed her toe against something on the floor. Giving Avon another smile she looked down to see what was there. It was a gun, one exactly like the one in Avon’s hands. A feeling of unease grew as she bent and picked it up watching him as she did so. No awareness showed in his face, he remained staring past here to the corridor beyond. The troopers waited in wary silence.

Servalan weighed the gun in her hands, as she moved the barrel a faint smell of propellant drifted up to her nostrils. She narrowed her eyes in consideration, it had obviously just been fired but it wasn’t a federation weapon and it was identical to the one in Avon’s hands. Unease washed over her,
“Avon,” she spoke directly to the unmoving man, “Come with me, we can co-operate you and I, this can be the beginning not an end.”
Still he didn’t move.

She went closer to him, but his finger hovering over the trigger made her wary and she stepped back again. In this state who knew what he might do, what foolish choice he might decide to make. Servalan looked across as the section leader,
“Stun him, we don’t want any accidents do we.”

The shot spat across the tracking gallery, but Avon didn’t fall, in fact it seemed to pass right through him shattering the console on the far side of the room. The tableau in the middle of the ring of troopers didn’t change, Avon still stood over Blake staring into nothingness. There was a hiss of indrawn breath from the troopers surrounding it. The section leader stared unbelievingly at the damage his shot had caused.

Shock made Servalan unwary,
“No.” she shouted and swung the gun in her hands up to fire on the still unmoving Avon.
That shot too had no visible effects on the man it was aimed at; instead it blew a small hole in the trooper on the other side of him.

Servalan dropped the gun and grabbed one from the nearest trooper and fired again, but Avon remained unaffected and unmoving. She moved forward her hands reaching out to grasp his arm, but there was nothing there to catch hold of. A hologram, she realised, just a hologram. But he had been here! He had killed Blake and she had seen the others shot. Or had she? If he had been here then where had he vanished to, and when had it happened? There hadn’t been a moment since he killed Blake that he had been unobserved, so how could he have got away?

She moved past Avon to where Vila was sprawled on his back, she edged her foot forward but was not that surprised when it passed through the outstretched hand. Then she turned to Arlen, this time her toe met solid flesh. Servalan swallowed hard, so something of what she has seen at was real. But how much?

She looked around the room now sure that the others of Avon’s crew would prove to be as unsubstantial as Vila. But how had he done it and what did she do now?

After a moments thought she nudged the unconscious Arlen with her foot, there was no response. A frown settled on her brow,
“Wake her up section leader, and get your wounded back to the ship.” She looked towards the shielded face, “Then search every inch of this base, question every prisoner and get a systems specialist in here.”

She let her eyes wander around the tracking gallery, carefully keeping the fear from her face,
“I want answers section leader, and I want them soon.”

***

Blake’s tunnel led them out into a small clearing on the far side from the silo. As Soolin and Dayna followed Avon into the daylight a couple of security guards appeared weapons cocked; Blake quickly followed them.
“This way,” he beckoned them towards a stand of tall trees disappearing into the shadows with remarkable ease. The guards covered their backs as they stepped into the dimmer light of the tree cover.

Blake appeared at Soolin’s side,
“Follow me, it’s not far, just far enough,” he said.
Then he set off down a path of broken vegetation into the depths of the plantation. Behind them the guards followed releasing bent branches as they went.

After ten minutes of following they approached a patch of scrub beside a small brook where, in the middle of the thicket, the top of a ladder showed. Without hesitation Blake started down the rungs only looking up to make sure they were still with him. As they descended into the gloom they heard a deep noise above them and froze. Blake continued the downward climb without a pause; his voice was slightly muffled as he explained,
“That’s a Letari call. It’s a kind of large boar; they come from all around this area to drink at the spring. That call should bring a few of them here, hopefully enough to disguise our trail if anyone tries to track us.”
Avon halted for a moment as if listening,
“Lets hope enough of them come. So many people moving this way at one time will be hard to disguise.” He began to descend again.
“I know.” Blake replied still disappearing downwards, “But there was no sign of Servalan’s forces this side of the base, by the time they search here the animals, and the wind, should have done enough. A storm is forecast for tonight, with luck it will get here before they search this side.”
“Luck isn’t a commodity we’ve seen a lot of recently,” Soolin drawled.
“Well maybe I’ll be your lucky talisman.” Blake’s voice seemed to smile.
Soolin was not impressed,
“Well if you are you haven’t started very well,” she said.
Blake sighed and continued down the ladder.

At the bottom of the shaft a small cart was waiting for them, a second cart was parked to the side of it, at the controls was sat a fraught looking Deva.
“The others have gone ahead,” he said. “By the look of it we have lost about five people and we have maybe three times as many wounded. Luckily most are walking wounded.”
Blake nodded and got into the cart, Soolin and Dayna got in beside him, Avon chose to join Deva. The two security man took up rearguard positions, one on each cart, but Soolin and Dayna drew weapons too.

However the journey was uneventful. The tunnel was dark but lights appeared as they approached and faded as they passed making it a trip from shadow to shadow, Soolin wondered if this was some sort of symbolism but shrugged the thought away, she had made her choice without hesitation and she would live with it in the same way. Even so a hundred question batted around in her mind, the set look on Dayna’s face suggested she was feeling the same way and likewise refusing to think about it. A sudden thought occurred and Soolin squinted at her companion in curiosity, was she wondering why Avon had done nothing to help her father?

The carts came to a halt before she got any further with that thought and she put the wondering aside for later instead turning her attention to whatever it was that waited for them.

Blake led the way, his palm print opening the blast doors that stood between them and the base itself; they all followed quickly. Avon came last of all, no reluctance showed in his face but he seemed to have put a distance between himself and everyone else as if he had built some unseen wall around him, a barrier that allowed his presence but prevented any real contact with any one else.

The base was of a standard model, built for underground operation. Preformed corridor sections stretched out from a hub, each sprayed in primary colours that coded location and function. The hub itself was on three levels; the central level contained the control room, tracking gallery and a number of smallish offices and laboratories, above it were rest rooms and catering facilities and below it sleeping and washing facilities. Storerooms, sub control rooms and maintenance points were spread out along the web of corridors.

It was disturbingly reminiscent of Xenon, even down to the thief comfortably ensconced in the lounging area.

Vila already seemed very much at home, he had a bowl of something hot in front of him and a glass of something red beside it. He quirked an eyebrow at Avon and his opening remark was about as lacking in tact or subtlety as was possible in the circumstances, but somehow not surprising.
“Why am I so hungry Avon? I didn’t think it worked like that?”
Tarrant, seated at his other side, stiffened and frowned.
“Vila!” the pilot’s words were both protest and warning.
Soolin and Dayna both reached for their guns, though neither was quite sure whom it was that they intended to defend,
“Why wouldn’t you be hungry?” Avon sounded disinterested, “you usually are.”

Vila’s question crystallised something that had been worrying at the back if Dayna’s mind for a while,
“But it doesn’t work like that, does it? I’ve seen Avon eat and drink, we all have. So whatever has changed our need for food hasn’t.” She looked at Avon uncertainly, “or has it?”
Avon gave her a flat expressionless look,
“You still need food, but lack of it will take much longer to kill you than before.”
He turned away from them and ordered himself a cup of coffee, no one said anything until the steaming cup was in his hand and he had taken his first sip. He cast a sardonic look at the people before him and turned for the door,
“I’m going to check your control room, I have less faith in the security of this place than you seem to.”

The remark was obviously intended for Blake, who said nothing but watched as Avon disappeared through the door as one of his people opened it. He sighed and turned back to Vila, who smiled blandly at him, with a frown.
“Doesn’t seem inclined to discuss it does he?” Vila didn’t sound particularly worried which surprised the others. “ How about you Blake? You seem to understand how this works, don’t you think it's time someone told us?”
“Yes Blake, why don’t you explain things to us. After all if you had been more careful about who you let into your base none of this would have happened.” Dayna’s voice held a hint of challenge and her jutted hip brought the stock of her clip gun closer to her hand.

Blake seemed to think for a moment, and then he nodded,
“Well it might help if I rid you of some of your more lurid speculations Vila.” He collected a drink for himself and sat down opposite Vila and Tarrant, “but it would be best if Deva and Klyn were here too. After all they must be even more anxious than you are, they had never met Avon before today and his performance in the tracking gallery won't have reassured them.”
Soolin and Dayna exchanged a look before seating themselves,
“That seems fair,” was all Soolin said.
Blake smiled slightly, flipped a hand held communicator and summoned Deva and Klyn to the canteen.

“Can’t say Avon’s shooting you reassured me.” Vila said as he shot a sly look at Blake, “why did he do it? I mean he knew what you were so he didn’t think he was killing you did he? But he sounded pretty angry with you about his brother.”
Blake stared into his cup,
“He is, even now. But no Vila, he was careful not to kill me. I expect that it seemed the best thing to do at that moment in time. He might even have known about Arlen,” he shrugged, “Orac would have no problems reading our computers and good as he is I doubt that Deva could keep Orac, or Avon, out of our systems if he wanted to get in.
Vila looked thoughtful at that,
“No I suppose not, I hadn’t thought of that.” He took a swallow from his glass, “I wish Deva would hurry up I’m enjoying this but I want to be sure that it won't be the last one that I do.”

Whatever the others might have said to that was lost as the door slid open and Deva and Klyn appeared, both looking more worried than they had done since Avon had first appeared in the tracking gallery. They cast a surprised look at the group around the table and an almost hypnotised look at food on the table before Vila. Blake gave them a reassuring smile and waved them to a seat.

For a moment he was silent, staring down into his cup as they settled themselves and tried to hide their anxiety. Then he looked up and stared at the small group of people settled at the only other table within earshot until they took the hint and gathered up their food and moved further away.
“This is better kept to ourselves for the moment,” the words were both explanation and warning, “we need to agree what we tell people but the simple truth is probably better kept to ourselves.”
He looked across at Vila,
“I know what you are thinking Vila, all the stories you have heard.”
Vila looked back at him in feigned innocence and Blake smiled again,
“The undead, monsters who live on blood? Is that what you are thinking?”
“Vampires Blake," Soolin’s voice was cold, "that’s the name so why not use it. Avoiding it won’t change anything.”
Deva and Klyn squirmed in anxiety but said nothing.

“Vampires.” Blake echoed staring down into his cup. “Yes it’s the name but I’m not sure it is the right one. Not for us, or for Avon.”
“You say that as if we are different, but are we?” Tarrant asked.
Blake seemed to consider for that a moment,
“Well it's all a matter of degree, we are a ….” he seemed to struggle for the words for a moment, “watered down version of what he is.”
“Why?” Deva asked quietly, “I didn’t think that was how it worked.” He had heard the stories too.
Blake looked at him, not apparently surprised by the remark.
“Because of how we were made, whatever we are. “ He looked away towards the wall as if seeing some other place, “Avon wasn’t made, he earned what ever he is.”

He looked back towards Deva and smiled in sudden amusement,
“Let me tell you a story.”

***

Servalan had waited impatiently for the assault leaders reports, but when they came they told her nothing more than she already knew, at least nothing she could make any sense of.

When they had entered this base there had been people who resisted them, now there were no people here at all. A couple of bodies still lay in the silo, a couple more in the corridor outside the tracking gallery, but other than that the base was apparently deserted. ‘It doesn’t make any sense’ was all she could think of as she studied the reports. They had checked the surveillance records but they all seemed to show the same impossible story, one moment there was a battle for the base, the next her troopers were standing alone in silent corridors.

The records from the tracking gallery were no less confusing, they showed Avon and his crew arriving from the corridor, as they had showed them docking in the silo and racing through the corridors. The record seemed to be unbroken as the standoff between Avon and Blake had taken place, event following event in a smooth and unbroken sequence. The shooting itself had caused her a raised eyebrow and a wistful smile, but she could see why Avon had done what he had. The record continued, showing the arrival of her forces, the shooting of the Scorpio crew, the standoff with Avon, his final sight of herself and his apparent intention to die where he stood.

But he hadn’t been there, not really, she had watched him raise the gun, but it had been an illusion. Avon hadn’t stood before her, all of that had been there was a mirage, an electronic trick. But how had he done it and when? According to the visual record nothing had changed between the moment he raised his gun and the moment she had spoken to him. Except that, in the split second after he had smiled at her the gun he held in his hand also appeared on the floor. But that was impossible given that the time stamp on the records showed that it had appeared there in literally the blink of an eye.

So was the whole record a sham? Had Avon ever been here at all?

‘Of course he had’ her rational mind told her. The troopers had not imagined the resistance as they entered the base, their weapons had been fired and the few bodies still here were real enough. Scorpio had crashed; the flyer they had arrived in was still parked where the record showed they left it, so Avon had been here. Which left the question of where and how the record had been tampered with; and why she, or the assault squad had no memory of the intervening period.

Except that there wasn’t an intervening time period. The time stamp showed no disruption, the chronometers carried by the troopers, or in the flyers, showed no passage of time that was unaccounted for. Of course Avon might have altered those too, but he couldn’t have affected the sector time cross referenced with her orbiting ship and that showed that there had been no tampering with the local clocks and that they were still reading true.

Which was impossible.

That thought echoed Arlen’s words.
“But it’s impossible! They were here! I shot Deva and Avon had already shot Klyn before Blake and I got here. Then Avon shot Blake. I saw it, I saw Blake die before Avon’s crew attacked me.”
“But there is no body,” Servalan cast her eyes over the tracking gallery floor, “nor is there any blood. I can imagine why they might move the body but why purge the floor?”
Arlen frowned, something she seemed to do rather a lot of Servalan thought,
“I don’t know. But Avon was odd," she saw the raised brows and hurried to correct herself, “I mean he was behaving oddly even before he killed Blake.”
“In what way?”
“I can’t put my finger on it. It was something about the way he spoke to Blake, as if what he said meant more than the words, as if there was some sub text that only they understood.”

“Is that why you didn’t prevent Avon from killing him?” the commissioner asked mildly enough.
Arlen frowned again as she looked at her, seeing past the tone of her voice to the anger spitting in her eyes.
“Yes. It was as if it wasn’t really happening, like it was a show being put on for someone but I didn’t know whom. So I just waited to see what they were going to do. I didn’t expect him to kill Blake.”
“Not even after the first shot?”
“No, I still didn’t believe it, even when Blake fell. Then when Deva came in I was sure that there was something else going on, something I didn’t know about.”
“So you shot him, just to be on the safe side.” Still that same false calm.
“Yes, it seemed best to reduce the number of hostiles, I couldn’t hold all of them and there was no sign of our forces. Killing Deva meant there was one less to have to keep my eye on.”

The Commissioner smiled a faint predatory smile,
“Even so, they overpowered you quite easily; and the thief of all people, a man known to be a rank coward. You have some explaining to do.”
She rose gracefully to her feet,
“I suggest you go with the section leader," she called a trooper over with a slight movement of her hand, “ and begin to record everything you can remember about what happened here.”
Arlen swallowed hard but accepted her dismissal without a word.

Servalan watched her as she left, it would be interesting to see what excuses she could conjure up, and they might even prove to be useful. Standing back and letting Avon kill Blake was going to be rather hard to explain and talk of undercurrents and subtexts wouldn’t help her.

For a moment she stared at the security monitor, still frozen in those last seconds before she had confronted him, viewing the scene with narrowed eyes. However pointless Arlen’s speculations might prove to be it was true that there had been something ‘wrong’ about Avon’s reactions to the event, something overly staged about his apparent shock.

After all she had seen him kill someone far dearer to him than Blake, his despair then had been real and deep but it had not frozen him into immobility. For him to stand, apparently unaware, as the others fell and the troopers surrounded him ran counter to everything she knew of him, and certainly to his deeply ingrained and often demonstrated sense of survival. So what had he been up to, and more importantly how had he managed it? What had he discovered now?

Whatever it was she mentally added it to her shopping list for when she finally got her hands on Avon.

***

“A very long time ago, before humanity existed, something happened that weakened the walls between the dimensions. No one knows what it was, possibly the death of a nearby star or some other astronomical cataclysm, but for a brief time it allowed occupants in another dimension to see into this one. Possibly it was a local effect and all they saw was Earth but whatever it was that they saw it fired them with a desire to own it. But at that time they weren’t strong enough or knowledgeable enough to cross and the anomaly passed, the dimensional wall hardened again, shutting them out. However they remembered it, and the wanting nurtured the desire to travel here.”
Blake paused to draw breath; Vila opened his mouth to say something but was silenced by the battery of frowns.

Blake didn’t seem to notice, it was almost as if he were talking to himself.


“Then, when humanity was taking its first faltering steps, a second event occurred. They looked across again and saw us, and they hated us for possessing something they had come to see as theirs, and despised us for being so much less than they were. But though they had advanced considerably they still couldn’t cross from there to here. Oh, they tried it but every one of them who made the journey died in the attempt. Still they didn’t give up, they knew that a third thinning of the wall was likely to occur at some point in the future and so they planned for it.”
He looked around at the small ring of intent faces,
“Since they couldn’t survive the journey they set about developing a servant that would be strong enough to make the crossing. A being that could make the transition from their world to ours in some form, one that was ruthless enough to destroy humanity and intelligent enough to be able to act as their agents on this side. Servants who would be able to do whatever was necessary to enable their masters to make the crossing in safety.”


“Vampire?” Deva asked as he paused and took a sip of coffee.
Blake shrugged,
“Amongst others. They tried several forms, in the past humans have tended to refer to them as demons. They have no corporeal existence in this dimension, the travel through the dimensional wall would destroy that even when it’s at it thinnest, so they created creatures of energy or something similar. When the dimension next thinned they sent them across; some remained formless existing in an elemental state, others needed to take bodies from this dimension as hosts.”
His eyes seemed to drift away to some time and place they couldn’t see,
“The first ones were not very successful. They tried to inhabit living bodies but their energy fields destroyed them, often suddenly and when there was nothing else available for them to pass into. After all they knew every little about this world and human physiology was a puzzle for them. They were also jealous and competitive, and sometimes more than one would try to take a single body, killing it in the process; or they would fight for the youngest and strongest bodies in the hope that they would survive longer. But though most of them died, I suppose dissipated is a better word, a few survived and kept their masters informed about the development of humanity when the dimension walls closed again. They used that knowledge to develop a better way of getting and using hosts, and when the dimension walls next thinned they were ready. What they sent through that last time are what we came to know as vampire. ”

He looked around him again,
“I doubt that there is anyone who hasn’t heard the stories about them, it seems that there are few places that they didn’t touch in one way or another. The stories survived because they were the stuff of everyone’s nightmares; the undead, strong, powerful, and ruthless, creatures that drink our blood but do not eat, who have no reflection, that cannot bear daylight and can only be killed by a stake though the heart. Vampire became legends very quickly indeed. But that didn’t mean that they weren’t real.”
No one nodded but nor did anyone look surprised, only Vila’s brow contracted into a frown,
“But Avon can walk in daylight! Even on Earth. He can eat and drink too, I’ve seen him do it; and I’ve never caught him with a glass of the red stuff, has anyone?”
He looked around him in apparent innocence.
Blake gave a reluctant smile,
“Have you ever seen me with one?”
That remark brought more frowns and his smile widened.
“You are quite right Avon can do all those things, you have all seen him do them, yet in some ways it is fair to call him a vampire.” He looked down at the cold contents of his cup, “But perhaps not quite correct. You see it all comes down to how a vampire takes a host and what can happen in the process.”
He stared across the room at the wall,
“And how, sometimes, it can go wrong.”

***

Avon was alone in the computer room. It hadn’t taken him long to persuade Blake’s people to leave him to his checks, his reputation had proceeded him and no one was inclined to tell the owner of Orac to leave things alone. Fleetingly Avon wondered what Blake had told his army about the man he had been waiting for, whatever it was he had an uncomfortable suspicion that Vila would have added to it. But it gained him what he wanted, a little peace and quiet in which to rail at fate and wonder for the nth time why it was that he remained so wedded to life.

But he soon found that the quiet also gave him time to remember things he would rather forget, times passed and people long, long gone. Why was it that fortune, or lack of it, had seen fit to shackle him to Blake again? It almost persuaded him that maybe the philosophy of his early years was right and that there was some form of fate that controlled the destiny of living things. He had thought that he had put such ideas aside millennia ago, but finding Blake on the London had been just the first of many shocks in these last brief years that had made him review that belief.

Blake. Why was it that the man never learned? Not about the universe and not about himself. He could imagine what Blake was doing at this moment, telling stories to the others. Well what if he was? They had to know something of what had happened if they were to survive it, and if Blake was willing to tell them then it spared him the need to do so. Even so it might be as well to know exactly what it was that they were being told.

Avon flicked a switch and heard Blake’s voice, strangely low and hesitant, come through the intercom. With a slight feeling of unease he listened as Blake tried to explain the inexplicable.

***

“The vampire had learned on their first visit that taking possession of a living body quickly destroyed it, so they had to find an alternative. A body that was already dead seemed to be the obvious answer and in the period between the two dimensional anomalies the people of the other dimension learned how to create servants who could take possession of a living body, kill it and then sustain it in the same state as the point of death. Oh the body didn’t work anymore, so it didn’t breath and the heart didn’t beat, but nor did it decay. At least the cells tried to decay but the life force of the vampire who had taken possession prevented them from acting upon that impulse.”
Blake paused as Deva leant towards him,
“So that’s why they don’t eat?”
Blake nodded,
“Yes, they couldn’t digest the food because the bodily organs no longer function. But they still needed to feed because sustaining the cells in an apparently live state needs key nutrients.”
“But even so how can they do that? How can they stop the cells decaying, and why are they so hard to kill.” Soolin demanded.
Blake drew a deep breath and thought for a moment,
“I’ll tell you what I know about that but I don’t guarantee that that is all there is to know.”

“Who told you?” Vila asked, “Avon’s brother?”
Blake seemed to slip into another world for a moment.
“Yes,” he said quietly then seemed to shake himself back to the present.
“When a vampire attacks it does two things, firstly it starts to bleed its own life force into the cells of the body it has chosen, secondly it attacks the life force already in possession of that body. As the energy field of the vampire melds with the cells of the host body the cell clocks stop, the cell is in effect blinded to the passage of time. Then, as the melding continues the characteristics of the vampire state are transferred to the human body, it’s rather like a process of hybridisation. The stress of this is so great that the body goes into shock and the heart stops, at which point the body dies in the human sense. This allows the vampire to complete the process of assimilation and from then on the body is maintained by the characteristics of the vampire not the human. It is those that provide the strength and speed that vampires were famous for.”

“But what about if it gets injured?” Deva asked.
Blake inclined his head as if accepting the reasonable nature of the question,
“The vampire body can generate new cells from its energy field at a very fast rate,” he replied, “it can breach even gaping holes in the host body structure in a short period of time. Having to do so weakens it for a while but it doesn’t kill it.”
“And the stake through the heart? Why does that kill it?”
Deva was still curious, though Blake wondered if he was trying to distract himself from thinking about the changes that might be taking place within him. Vila was certainly thinking about something like that because he was regarding his own hand with a look very close to suspicion.
“No one seems sure, but the theory is that the vampire energy field is concentrated within the heart, and that if that is breached then the body cells go through the suspended aging so quickly that the vampire cannot prevent the decay and its' life force is dispelled immediately. Where the vampire life force goes to then is uncertain, but the body simply ceases to be.”

“And Avon? You still haven’t told us what he is. You said it goes wrong sometimes, so I assume it went wrong in his case.” Deva said.
Blake nodded,
“Yes. It went wrong.” He looked around him making sure that he had their full attention, “I told you the vampire attacks on two fronts, first the body but secondly the life force, the spirit, the soul, call it what you want. For the vampire to be successful in taking control of a body completely it must oust the current occupant. To do that it relies on surprise, horror of the attack and on being stronger than the will it opposes. In most cases it has no problems, it was created to be able to do this after all.”
Blake paused and smiled slightly at Deva,
“But yes, sometimes it goes wrong.”
“And it went wrong in Avon’s case,” said Vila, “why aren’t I surprised?”
He jumped as Soolin’s elbow found its mark in his stomach and Blake’s smile widened,
“I imagine the fangs had something to do with it,” he said dryly.

Then he nodded, wondering what Avon was making of his rambling explanations, because he was sure that somewhere the other man was listening.
“Sometimes the vampire's attack is anticipated and they lose the advantage of surprise, sometimes the energy meld process doesn’t proceed as quickly as it should, and sometimes the human already in possession decides not to be overawed or horrified into giving up and fights the vampire for possession. In most of these cases the vampire kills the victim and departs to find more amenable prey, but sometimes it wants the body badly enough to go on trying to take it, or maybe the human realises what is intended and finds a way to prevent it leaving. But fighting for possession is a hard and exhausting business, remember that the vampire has access to the human’s memories and mind and it will fight with everything it can find. Generally the outcome is the same, the body dies and the human spirit is ejected.”
“But sometimes not?” Deva asked slowly.

Blake shook his head,
“No,” he said quietly, hoping that Avon wouldn’t take this laying bare of his secrets too much amiss.
“There are times when it wants or needs the body badly but vampire and human are better matched than the vampire expects, it cannot or will not leave but nor will the human allow it to kill the body. The vampire goes on trying to hybridise the cells but the heart doesn’t stop. It fights the human with their own memories and nightmares but the human doesn’t run away, instead it hits back taunting the vampire with its servant status, its failure to accomplish that which it is designed for. The human body and mind is racked with pain yet still the vampire cannot take full possession, and as it expends more of its energy in trying to adapt the body its ability to fight is compromised. If the human can hold on long enough then it has a chance to drive the vampire into cutting its losses and escaping while it still can.”
He smiled slightly at Deva,
“No one knows what happens if the body dies while the vampire is not in control and while the human is still present, but I doubt that many vampire would chose to risk finding out.”

“Avon fought.” Dayna said quietly.
Blake nodded,
“So his brother told me. He sat with him for days, watching and waiting, thinking that he would die at any moment.”
“Did he know what was happening, his brother I mean?” Tarrant asked.
“So he said. He told me that the signs were well recognised at the time. He also told me that it was his fault, that he had brought them to the attention of the creature, and that it had intended to take him but that Avon got in the way. He said that it might have been an accident or it might have been deliberate, he couldn’t be sure and Avon would never tell him. But he felt it was his fault and he hid his brother away, taking his chance on what would happen if he lost the battle. If he hadn’t then Avon would have been killed by their own people, because surviving a vampire attack was more myth than experience even then.”
“But he didn’t die.” Dayna added seriously.
Blake shook his head,
“No, he fought it and he won. God only knows how, but in the end he was the stronger, the more determined maybe of the two of them and the vampire left, or died, Avon’s brother was never sure which.”

“Which means what?” Vila asked with unusual gravity.
Blake met the look with one of similar seriousness,
“When the vampire left it would have been weak. Too weak to undo what it had already done, even if it was inclined to do so. The changes to Avon’s body cells remained, the hybridisation of human and vampire that it achieved during the battle didn’t kill Avon but it did confer many of the advantages of the vampire. His body is still living but time has to a greater degree stopped as far as it is concerned, he can be injured but the energy field introduced by the vampire still persists and so it repairs him as if it were a dead host body. But because his organs still function he can still eat and feed himself in the usual human way, though he probably could live on blood given that the changes in him had gone far enough to create the fangs. It’s because he is still living that he doesn’t need to fear sunlight, or any of the other charms that can be used to hold off vampire, but a stake through the heart would probably kill him just as it would kill a vampire and for similar reasons.”

“Is he the only one?” Klyn spoke for the first time, “I mean the only one who fought and survived but was changed in this way?”
Blake shook his head,
“No, there aren’t many of them, at least I don’t think that there are, but there are others; though the degree of hybridisation varies. I suppose it depends on how strong both parties were and how long the vampire held on and tried to take the body."
He was quiet for a moment, his mind slipping back to the heat and glare of Outremer and the calm self contained face of a man he had called a friend. He could feel the weight of chain mail on his shoulders again the linen shirt beneath it sticky in the heat, he could taste dust and sand in the air and smell the bitter tang of a town under seige. It was as if it had been yesterday, as if the two millenia between then and now were nothing more than a dream. For a moment longer he let the memories have their way, then he pushed them aside and brought his attention back to the expectant faces surrounding him.

"They used to be called the vampires of light in the days when people knew about such things, in recognition of the fact that they could walk in the sun," he told them. "But even then they tended to stay away from people for obvious reasons; though they are the best kind of friend to have at your back in a tight spot they are uncomfortable to know and people often end up hating or fearing them.”
“You can see why they might,” Soolin muttered.
Blake frowned at her,
“I’ve met a few of them but never one that was evil. But maybe that makes sense, vampires are devious creatures and I suspect that they would find it very easy to trick a evil person into surrendering their body to them, even if they were disposed to fight.”
“But to have so much power, well the envy of them would be enough, wouldn’t it?” Soolin countered.
Blake shrugged sadly,
“Yes. That’s true, I’ve seen it. “ His eyes drifted to the past again, “it might even have been what killed Avon’s brother.”

There was silence for a moment as they all digested that; perhaps it wasn’t surprising that it was Vila that brought them back to the crux of the matter,
“But where does that leave us? I mean we haven’t fought any vampires that I’m aware of. So what has he done to us?”
Blake’s smile was sunny and almost innocent,
“Well I suppose you might say that we are an unforeseen side effect.”

***

In the computer room Avon smiled to himself and the cold remote look that had settled on his face as he listened to Blake’s explanations melted. ‘Side effects’ indeed! Well he supposed it was as good a term as any other, but he had never thought of his brother as that.

His brother. Avon could still see him as he had that last time, the hair that was so much paler than his own bleached almost silver by the sun of that place they had called the ‘Holy Land’. The white linen tunic almost too bright to look at in the mid day sun.
“It’s not safe,” he had said, and both of them had known how much of an understatement that was, there was hardly a place less safe for them to be.
The holy fanatics would not of understood the difference between them and the monsters whose name they some times had to endure. Avon doubted that they would have cared even if they had understood; his very existence was an challenge to all their certainties about the universe and their place in it, and that would have been reason enough for them to kill him. Reason enough for them to kill his brother, to destroy the one person who understood him, his last link with the person that he had been born.

His brother. Avon hadn’t chosen to push him down the path that he himself had been forced upon, but when it came to that or losing him there hadn’t seemed to be any choice. A vampire had claimed his brother just as surely as it had created him. Avon’s hand clenched around the probe as he remembered that long ago day that had taught him such a painful lesson about choice and freedom.

He left the temple as the evening stars had appeared in the darkening blue of the sky and taken the river path towards home, content enough in the warm evening to dawdle, taking in the sights and sounds of human life. Somehow that had become more important after his transformation, as if he required humdrum daily contact to maintain his links with the people he had sprung from, to sustain his involvement with them.

At some point along the path he had come across three small boys fighting, one holding another down while a third kicked the second’s ribs with dusty bare feet. They had heard him coming and paused, freezing in fear as they saw the headdress and robes that told him what he was, then held motionless by terror as they saw his face and realised who he was. For a moment he had stared at them in wry amusement, then he had approached them, separated them and sat them down on the path while he investigated the causes of their conflict. It was petty enough, a chance remark about an older brother's missed promotion; nothing intended to wound, but made at the wrong moment in the wrong manner. He had sighed and set about reconciling the three, making the attackers hang their heads in shame and the tactless victim squirm at his thoughtlessness, then set them on their way home to explain the torn and dirty clothes to their families. No doubt their exasperated mothers would not be so indulgent.

It hadn’t taken long but it had been long enough. He arrived home to find that his brother had been concerned about his lateness and, knowing that there were those who would miss no opportunity to engineer his destruction, had gone out to look for him. No sooner had his servant told him than he had been overcome by a feeling of dread, of inevitability, and he had hurried out into the now dark streets to find him.

An hour later he had found him, pinned against a wall in an alley, struggling to hold off the shadowy figure that was obviously so much stronger than he was. The shadow's head was already bent towards his brother’s neck, while the stake that he had always kept in his belt since the attack on Avon lay useless on the floor. But not useless for long. Avon had known what he was up against and was taking no chance with his brothers life, he had caught the sliver of wood up and driven it through the spine and into the heart of the attacking vampire in almost a single movement. His brother had reeled in horror as the dust of the destroyed creature spattered his hair, then he had collapsed onto the floor in a boneless heap.
“It was so strong,” he kept saying as Avon pulled him to his feet and began to haul him home to safety, “how did you ever survive it?”
Avon himself had understood; this time the attacking vampire hadn’t wanted his brothers body it had just wanted to feed or to kill. It was unlikely that he would have survived the one that attacked him if that was all it had wanted.

They had made it home to safety, or so he had thought.

It was only once they were behind closed doors and the servants were hurrying to find them food and drink that he had noticed the gash on his brother’s forearm, when he did the feeling of dread had returned full force. With carefully composed face he had called for water and cloths and set about washing the wound, no more than a deep graze but no less dangerous for that.
“Did the vampire do this?” he had asked as carelessly as he could.
His brother had given him a rueful smile,
“No, the stake did.” He had looked up at Avon with shadowed eyes, “ I heard it behind me but I wasn’t quick enough, I got the stake free of my belt but not in time to use it as the creature lunged. It knew what it was of course and we fought for it, I didn’t let go and the tip grazed my arm as it bent my wrist away.”
Avon remembered nodding calmly,
“Good,” was all he had said but he had known that the danger was still there. He could only hope they were lucky.

But luck didn’t favour them and the wound festered. He understood it now of course; there must have been dirt on the tip of the sake, dirt that was driven beneath the skin, perhaps the fragment of a splinter, something that his careful, but ignorant, cleaning of the wound didn’t remove. The redness became more angry as the days went by, spreading out to affect the whole forearm, then this brother told him that his elbow and shoulder felt stiff and he had know what was coming.

He had tried everything that the science of the time knew, and none knew more than he did; but it was no use and his brother became sick, very sick, and the servants tended him with tragic eyes. Within the week the fever started and he was excused his duties to sit by his brother's bed, silently, patiently, smiling reassuringly at the frightened servants, giving soothing words of comfort to his brothers many friends; all the time knowing that the person who had protected him in the days after the vampire attack was dying. He had all his manuscripts brought from the temple and spent hours by the light of flickering tapers looking for a possible treatment that might buy back his brothers life. There was none.

On the fifth day of his vigil his brother was sinking fast and in his frustration he had stormed to his own quarters slamming the door and thrown himself down at the table, head buried in his hands in despair. If only he hadn’t stopped to intervene in the boys quarrel he would have been home at the usual time and his brother would not have gone to look for him, he would not have needed to put himself at danger from the monsters that searched for blood to drink and bodies to take. But he had delayed and now the last of his family would die as a result. There were no words for the bitterness, or for the anger or the guilt.

As he sat and wallowed in his despair his clutching fingers displaced the ornate circlet that bound his air, and one finger was sliced by a golden strand of metal bend out of line by long use. He winced and pulled his hand away, watching as the blood showed as a bright pinprick on the pale flesh before the vampire legacy intervened and the tiny breach in his skin was closed as if it had never been. But the bead of blood remained, and he stared at it wishing there was some way he could give the benefits of that legacy to the one person in the world he could truly trust.

How long he sat there he didn’t know, any more than when he could be sure exactly when the idea came to him, but at some point it occurred to him that when all known avenues had been explored only the unknown ones remained. His whole life had been about exploring the unknown, why would he shrink from it now? Slowly he had returned to his brother’s bedside and watched him as he thought it over.

How ignorant he had been! How little he had understood in those long ago days, so long ago, so different that he barely believed in them any more. But even then he had been logical, examining what he knew and how each piece of knowledge might be used. Somewhere in the back of his mind the knowledge that the vampire that attacked him had possessed was still lodged, how he knew that he couldn't have said but somehow he was sure of it. He couldn’t access that knowledge but if he knew that if he was quiet, opened his mind to a problem, then somehow some part of it was available to him, like a voice whispering quietly in his mind’s ear.

He relaxed and let the whispering start.

Blood was the key, it had to be. Vampires needed blood; they passed on their life force via blood, so blood had to be the key. If the legacy of the vampire was in his body, and it must be, it would be in his blood. So if he could pass some of that blood to his brother then maybe enough of the vampire’s strength would also be passed to save his brother's life. Only a very small part of the vampire’s strength would be all that it would take. But how to do it, and now much blood would he need?

As morning lightened the sky his brother's fever mounted and he cried constantly for water. As Avon had held another cup to his lips he had known that time was running out, and that, whatever he did, he could do nothing worse than hasten a death that was already fast approaching. So he had bolted the door, made sure that the shutters were fastened, and taken a cup of watered wine to his brother’s bedside. Then he had removed one of the brooches from his robe fastening and used the clasp to gash his forearm, driving the pin deep to increase the flow of blood. The red droplets ran from the scratch for a moment or two and were lost in the colour of the wine.

All too soon the blood stopped flowing and the graze began to heal, once again he drove the pin into his arm, pressing on the ruptured skin to hasten the flow of blood. That too flowed only long enough to allow a few more drops to find their way into the wine. He had to repeat the process five times more before he felt that there might be enough to make some difference, if anything would. Finally he had taken a deep breath and held the cup to his brothers lips, watching with fear as the blood-laced liquid was swallowed in desperate thirst. Then he had sat back and waited.

***

“Side effect!” Vila sounded offended, “well that’s nice isn’t it? I don’t get to be remembered as a master thief, or even as rebel, I get to be remembered as Avon’s side effect!”
Blake grinned,
“Somehow I don’t think anyone who has met you will be remembering you as that Vila.”
He looked around at the others, they needed to be warned about their new status and its dangers,
“This might not be the eleventh century but it’s best that as few people know about us as possible.”
“You mean that as few people know about Avon as possible don’t you?” Dayna’s voice was cold and dry, “I can imagine what Servalan would do with the knowledge!”
Soolin nodded thoughtfully,
“She wants him badly enough now, and that’s just because of teleport and Orac,” she looked across at Tarrant and frowned, “imagine how much more she would want him if she knew that his blood could give her something close to immortality!”

***

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