Disclaimer: I own nothing but the voices inside my head

Prologue: Ghosts, wraiths, and spirits

"There are things in the Universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless, and if they are aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know. We've tried and we've learned that we can either stay out from underfoot or be stepped on. They are a mystery and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the Universe, that we have not explained everything."

-Ambassador G'Kar

Babylon 5, Level Brown 9

There were two lurkers wandering the depths of Brown 9 on looking for a place to stay, or maybe some unfortunate soul for them to spread their own misery to. Why they came to Babylon 5 is unknown, maybe they were looking for work, maybe they had work but the offer dried up before they arrived, or maybe they were ex-soldiers, but in the end it didn't really matter, they were lurkers. The dredges of society on Babylon 5, the ignored and often leading short, painful lives, a sad fact of life on Babylon 5, but a fact none the less. In the end these two men would act as harbingers of something far greater than they could ever hope to be, maybe their deaths would mean something in the end.

The two lurkers turned a corner into one of the more unused areas On Brown 9 when they saw something, and the terror in their eyes signaled that they knew they stumbled across something terrible. It was several pale figures working on some strange and alien device, and a masked figure lifted a large looking alien weapon pointed it at the men, and before they had any real chance at escaping two white bursts emerged from the masked figure's weapon and struck the two lurkers in the back. Where the white bursts had hit there was a red mist and the two men fell into four different locations, everything from their waist to their upper rib cage sprayed all over the deck around them.

One of the other alien figures finished what she was doing, turned to the masked figures and spoke in a soft, almost song like voice, "The gate is prepared, we must leave now." After she said the others that had been working on the strange alien device she called the gate entered the gate and vanished both from site and from the station, they were then followed by the silent masked figures and then she spoke again, "Fade from view, till you are needed again." The device seemed to simply fade away, and then the female alien took a step forward to where the gate once was and vanished. Leaving the only sign that anything had happened at all was the mutilated corpses of the two lurkers.

Minbari Ambassadorial Suite, Green Sector

Delenn of Mir, Minbari ambassador to Babylon 5, member of the Grey Council, shifted in her sleep as the strange alien artifact in down-below activated and whisked away the strange aliens that had installed it. As she shifted she dreamed of an event over ten years past, during her people's war with the humans.

She stood in the council chamber of the Grey Council, watching the few Earth battleships struggle against a Minbari Fleet. The Humans had fled the colony they were protecting, escorting several refugee ships and were now attempting to hide in this system, an unnamed system with no habitable planets. She knew in her heart that in the end it would be in vain, Lenonn was dead and nothing could stop the war now, nothing short of the eradication of the humans. And even as she watched the human warships open fire on the Sharlins and Tinashi in the fleet but only the rare lucky shot actually managed to hit and even then it wasn't enough to damage the ships. It would be another slaughter, and more blood would stain Delenn's hands.

"These humans, we are doing the universe a favor in exterminating them. They are little more than pests, vermin buzzing about, through their pointless little lives." Satai Coplann of the Warrior caste said with contempt in his voice.

An utterance, to low to hear the words came from one of the worker Caste members, one who had always been against the war, but before he was confronted over the statement he raised his hand and pointed at the planet in the holoscreen the Grey Council surrounded themselves with. "What is that?" He then said.

As the council turned its attention to where the Worker Satai was pointing the screen changed to enlarge the object he had noticed. The objet in question was blue, sleek yet rounded at certain points, and it seemed to have fins coming off the back. It also seemed to flicker and shift slightly and constantly, it was strange and definitely not human.

As the Grey Council observed the strange ship it turned, as if it was watching the battle. It sat there watching the battle till the Earth Warships were destroyed and the Sharlins turned toward the civilian ships. It was then the something happened, a voice in their heads, a terrible and inhuman voice that seemed to echo across millennia. "We pity you. You kill and kill and destroy yourselves all for the sake of one man. He would be ashamed. We give you this one warning, leave this world now and never return or you will die."

As the voice faded one of the Sharlins turned and started to move toward the strange alien vessel. Before any of the Grey Council could even discuss what the message meant the Wind Sword Sharlin opened fire. The antimatter cannon fired and passed right through the flickering ship without damaging it. The strange ship's reaction was immediate, thousands of darts of light emerged from the ship, peppering the Sharlin, destroying it utterly. In the aftermath of this act the surviving refugee ship managed to escape through a jump gate.

The holoscreen froze and Delenn turned to find the Grey Council gone and at the center of the circle they once stood in was the Vorlon Kosh. "Leave this place. They are beyond you. Go, leave, Now."

Delenn woke with a shock, everything in the dream had transpired exactly as she remembered, up until the end. Kosh didn't show up, and that one ship destroyed the entire fleet except for the Valen'tha. She knew they had hit the strange ship, but she had no idea how much damage they managed to do before the Valen'tha was alone with it. Then it was gone, it had vanished in a flash of white light. The Grey Council had concluded afterward that they had encountered a ship of the First Ones and classified the battle.

Delenn rose from her inclined bed and quickly dressed in her robes. Once she was properly dressed and left her room with clear intent in her step. And that intent brought her to the alien sector and Ambassador Kosh's quarters. Just as she was about to chime the door when it opened and Delenn took that as an invitation and walked into Kosh's quarters. Once inside she looked at Kosh in his encounter suit as his eye hole narrowed. "You were in my dream," Delenn said, though it was more of a question, "I must know, who were they?"

With a slight tilt of the encounter suit's head and a widening of the eye hole Kosh said in his chime like voice filtered through his translator, "Wraiths, standing vigil for a dead world."

"But, who were they?" Delenn asked, though when the door reopened behind her she knew that she would get no further answers from the enigmatic Vorlon. She started to walk out of Kosh's quarters when she heard the chime like voice once again. The words that followed would keep Delenn rooted to that spot outside Kosh's quarters for several minutes after Kosh's door snapped close. It was not a riddle or a cryptic message; it was clear, concise, to the point, and very Un-Vorlon like. A feeling of dread and horror that she could not explain were created by three, simple words.

"They followed you."