Babylon 5: Reflections (Londo, G'kar)
Title: Reflections
Author: watersandwilds
Rating: G
Fandom: Babylon 5
Pairing/Character(s): Londo, G'kar
Prompt: #18. I pity you.
On the other side of the metal door was something he had wanted to see for years. How many times had he imagined this particular scenario? Dreamed that one day this moment would come?
The reality, it seemed, like all of his other dreams, was not nearly so satisfying. The sight of the locked door, and the knowledge of what lay behind it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He had no desire to enter the room. It had been enough to see G’kar dragged in before him and handed to him as a gift from the Emperor. He no longer felt the need to gloat.
He would much rather have turned and left, putting the whole matter from his mind and pretending it had never happened. It was necessary to do this, however, and if nothing else, having the satisfaction of seeing G’kar do something that would serve the Great Centauri Republic would be reward enough. He had reached the point in life when that sort of irony appealed greatly to him.
He tried to quell the part of his mind that reminded him that he had been reduced to requiring for G’kar’s assistance at all.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he nodded to the guards, who opened the door for him. He stepped into the room authoritatively, using every once of pour his position afforded him to remind G’kar of his place. He would not loose face here.
He turned and looked at the former Narn ambassador and had to suppress the immediate revulsion that welled up within him.
He did not like G’kar. He would never like G’kar - too much lay between them now for there to be any reconciliation. In fact, it was safe to say that his opinion of G’kar, like G’kar’s of him, went beyond animosity and extended into genuine hatred. However there was something about seeing the Narn so cowed that he found distinctly unappealing.
It had been much easier to hate him when he was strutting arrogantly around Babylon 5, taunting him at every opportunity.
Here he looked broken; a marionette with the strings cut, the great G’kar was defeated.
Looking down at him, he tried to summon up the hatred for G’kar that he had found so easily in the past. Hatred had always been such an easy emotion for him. Yet the hatred he felt was for G’kar, not the thing which sat chained to the wall before him. For that he felt only pity.
For all that he and G’kar would never see eye to eye, Londo Mollari knew that G’kar deserved a much nobler end than this.
But then G’kar shifted, looking up at him with familiar baleful red eyes, and for a brief moment Londo was afraid. The eyes that gleamed dangerously in the darkness were not those of a defeated man. Suddenly G’kar transcended his chains, and Londo saw the fiery determination that lay smouldering beneath the surface. Despite his imprisonment, G’kar’s honour and spirit remained.
Cartagia had imprisioned the last of the Kha’ri, but G’kar himself was beyond his grasp.
And for the second time, Londo felt something for G’kar that he did not expect: respect.
Author: watersandwilds
Rating: G
Fandom: Babylon 5
Pairing/Character(s): Londo, G'kar
Prompt: #18. I pity you.
On the other side of the metal door was something he had wanted to see for years. How many times had he imagined this particular scenario? Dreamed that one day this moment would come?
The reality, it seemed, like all of his other dreams, was not nearly so satisfying. The sight of the locked door, and the knowledge of what lay behind it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He had no desire to enter the room. It had been enough to see G’kar dragged in before him and handed to him as a gift from the Emperor. He no longer felt the need to gloat.
He would much rather have turned and left, putting the whole matter from his mind and pretending it had never happened. It was necessary to do this, however, and if nothing else, having the satisfaction of seeing G’kar do something that would serve the Great Centauri Republic would be reward enough. He had reached the point in life when that sort of irony appealed greatly to him.
He tried to quell the part of his mind that reminded him that he had been reduced to requiring for G’kar’s assistance at all.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he nodded to the guards, who opened the door for him. He stepped into the room authoritatively, using every once of pour his position afforded him to remind G’kar of his place. He would not loose face here.
He turned and looked at the former Narn ambassador and had to suppress the immediate revulsion that welled up within him.
He did not like G’kar. He would never like G’kar - too much lay between them now for there to be any reconciliation. In fact, it was safe to say that his opinion of G’kar, like G’kar’s of him, went beyond animosity and extended into genuine hatred. However there was something about seeing the Narn so cowed that he found distinctly unappealing.
It had been much easier to hate him when he was strutting arrogantly around Babylon 5, taunting him at every opportunity.
Here he looked broken; a marionette with the strings cut, the great G’kar was defeated.
Looking down at him, he tried to summon up the hatred for G’kar that he had found so easily in the past. Hatred had always been such an easy emotion for him. Yet the hatred he felt was for G’kar, not the thing which sat chained to the wall before him. For that he felt only pity.
For all that he and G’kar would never see eye to eye, Londo Mollari knew that G’kar deserved a much nobler end than this.
But then G’kar shifted, looking up at him with familiar baleful red eyes, and for a brief moment Londo was afraid. The eyes that gleamed dangerously in the darkness were not those of a defeated man. Suddenly G’kar transcended his chains, and Londo saw the fiery determination that lay smouldering beneath the surface. Despite his imprisonment, G’kar’s honour and spirit remained.
Cartagia had imprisioned the last of the Kha’ri, but G’kar himself was beyond his grasp.
And for the second time, Londo felt something for G’kar that he did not expect: respect.