There, Before My Bewildered Eyes (Fic; Bablyon 5, Bester)

[northeto]

Title: There, Before My Bewildered Eyes
Fandom: Bablyon 5
Character(s): Alfred Bester
Rating: Teen and Up
Word Count: ~500
Spoilers: Immediately follows the end of 5x11 "Phoenix Rising". Cut line is one of Bester's from that episode.[Spoiler refresher on the episode (click to open)]This is the one where Byron and some of his followers commit suicide rather than risk being taken by Bester and his

Comments

[nenya_kanadka]

They will come back to us, because they are like us.

Ooh. Bester and Byron reside in such different sections of my head that I always forget they had history together. But the Corps is a small world.

I really do think Bester truly believed the Corps was the answer, and I like how you have him here thinking that all roads lead back to it, and why would anyone ever think differently? That's just how it works. They're like us, they'll come home in the end, you'll see...

(I wish Byron had been less annoying as a character, because this kind of conflict is usually right up my alley fictionally!)

I might have found a typo--it's "rogue" not "rouge", isn't it? Hmm.

[northeto]

The Corps is probably only three (or four) degrees of separation instead of six!

I find this episode interesting because Bester, as far as we know, has been very successful in his career. He is a talented telepath, an intelligent person, and a master manipulator. He's very, very good at what he does. He's not at all prepared for Byron though, as it turns out. Even though they worked together, even though Byron was his protégée, he doesn't get it. This belief that has served him so well in his life causes him to fail spectacularly in apprehending Byron and his followers, and in fact is in part responsible for their deaths.

I might have found a typo--it's "rogue" not "rouge", isn't it? Hmm. You are right! Thanks for pointing that out. Definitely meant "rogue". That's what I get for not running it by a beta!

[northeto]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[vjs2259]

I very much enjoyed this. The idea of telepaths as the ultimate family, that they are made more alike by their gift (curse?) than they are different in any other way---it makes sense. But people aren't defined by one aspect of their selves. Nice look at Bester's abject confusion about Byron's decision.

[northeto]

Thanks!
But people aren't defined by one aspect of their selves.
That's exactly what Bester doesn't understand - he's so caught up in what he sees as an irrevocable distinction between telepaths and non-telepaths that he can't see that for some telepaths, that's not the most important and deciding issue.