From: "Susan Bennett" Subject: Inhuman Pride (1/3) Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 22:58:36 -0500 My apologies for the lengthy delay in getting this story done. It ’s the final one of a Nick&Nat Xmas series that started with “Winter Wonderland” as a Challenge back in ‘96, followed by “Countdown” Xmas ‘97, and ‘Three Rare Moons’ Xmas ‘98. You should have at least read the last story, which gives enough background to understand this one. Inhuman Pride (1/3) by: Susan B. freestyle@idirect.com February/2000 --------------- Based on characters from Forever Knight, etc. --------------- Nick was frantically rifling through the pockets of his leather jacket as he stepped out of the lift and into his dimly lit living room. Then he searched the pockets of his bluejeans for the umpteenth time, all to no avail. “It’s gone,” he lamented as strode across the room to the sofa. Plopping himself down, Natalie’s words rang through his mind as clearly as they had just over a year ago, when she had first spoken them, ‘I think we’re being told that it’s time for you to commit’, she had said. “Some commitment,” Nick moaned, “I lost it.” He envisioned her slipping the necklace over his head the previous Christmas and reciting the words that had been added to their Christmas card by unseen hands, ‘Faith lights the way’. The simple gold heart with its raised silver cross had burned him where it touched his skin, but he had avowed it was a pain he could live with. But as time unfolded, he had often found himself temporarily removing this symbol of freedom and redemption and tucking it away into a dark pocket. The ritual wasn’t because of the minor physical pain the cross caused him, but because the symbol weakened him... weakened the vampire. Because it curbed his ability to do his job the way he had always done it. Only now, with the New Year scant hours away and the pendant missing, did Nick finally find the courage to ask himself if the end always justified the means... if the end ever justified the means. Was he truly redeeming himself by using the powers of darkness to do good deeds, or was he simply committing the most heinous form of blasphemy against God? Nick had always thought that it was the former, but right now his heart was telling him that nothing could be further from the truth. A gentle knocking at his stairwell door tugged him from his growing confusion, and he methodically stood up and went to answer the call. “Why didn’t you ride up?” Nick asked as he invited Natalie in. “I tried,” she said, nodding towards the modest freight elevator. “I think it’s broken”. Nick momentarily glanced over at the as he helped her out of her brown winter coat. “It was working a few minutes ago,” he said. Even through her thick woolen sweater, Natalie shivered. “It probably seized up from the cold in this place. I bet I can see my breath.” She teasingly blew into the air. “I’m certain it’s not that cold”, Nick insisted, “but I will turn up the heat.” “And maybe a fire?” Nat asked hopefully as she watched Nick step over to the wall and adjust the thermostat. He turned to face her and a forlorn expression overcame his face. “What is it?” she asked, her voice laden with concern. Nick took a few steps towards her. “I lost the pendant,” he quietly admitted. “Nick? What do you mean you lost it? The new year starts in less than two hours. Three rare moons will mark the day!” “I took it off during my shift, Nat. There was a perp. He had just knifed a store clerk. He was going to get away unless I stopped him.” Nick stared down at his shoes and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what happened to it after that,” he explained. “I couldn’t find it in my pocket. I went back later and searched the area, but with all the people that had arrived by then for the fireworks...” “You weren’t supposed to take it off!” Nat exclaimed, “Ever!” She stormed towards him. “Don’t you understand what the word *commit* means, Nick!?” She stopped suddenly, four feet away from him, and an involuntary shudder ran down her spine. She lowered her voice and cautiously asked, “Have you ever done this before?” Nick averted his eyes from her questioning stare. “Nevermind,” Natalie gasped. She turned and raced towards the door. “You just gave me your answer!” Nick stared after her. He wanted to scream out her name, but all that passed his lips was a pitiful, “Nat... Nat...” Unfazed by his sorry attempt, Natalie raced out of the door and down the stairs. * * * * * Her face was stained with tears as she got behind the wheel of her car and started the ignition. Just as quickly, she shut it off and lay her forehead against the steering wheel. “How could you, Nick?” she sobbed, “how could you?” She had spent the entire year believing that he had worn the pendant faithfully. She knew wearing the cross negated his vampire powers, as it did all vampires, and she had earnestly believed that he had stopped relying on those powers. Nothing she had seen during the year indicated otherwise. It was all too obvious to her now that he had merely ‘cut back’ -- that he had treated the mysterious gift with the same enthusiastic disregard that he bestowed her protein shakes. At least she could partially understand his lack of enthusiasm for the shakes. He had always believed that his condition was metaphysical, that it would take something more than mortal science to reverse his immortal curse. At least she had that reasoning to comfort her when she despaired of his reluctance to follow her scientific medical advice. But the pendant was a gift from an intangible force that had the power to move both of them through time... the ability to make Nick mortal! If Nick truly believed Lacroix’s explanation, that some dark invisible force is responsible for making vampires what they were, how could Nick treat a more benevolent transcendental force so callously? Natalie lifted her head off the steering wheel and shook it as though to clear away her thoughts, and her pain. Nick was now standing beside the car, pounding at the driver’s window and begging her to open it. Natalie restarted the ignition and simply idled the car for several long seconds before finally relenting and rolling down the window. She turned to face him. “I’m sorry, Natalie,” Nick blurted out. “It was wrong. I shouldn ’t have done it. I was stupid. I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t really see how wrong I was until tonight.” The despair in his voice spurred more tears from Nat. “I don’t know why God hasn’t sent a lightning bolt straight down through your head, Nick Knight!” she shouted through her tears. Nat slammed the car into drive and pushed down hard on the accelerator. Nick stood motionless as he watched her car tear out of the parking lot. He stood there for several more minutes before finally returning to his apartment. “Oh, God, what have I done!” he lamented. Crying had never been easy for him, but tonight proved to be the exception. He noticed Nat’s coat still hanging by the door, and the bloodtears started to roll down his cheeks. How could a year that had begun with such joy, end in such sorrow. The entire year started to flash through his mind, beginning with the night after receiving his gift, the last time he had ever visited the Raven. <> Clad in his customary black, Lacroix appeared seemingly from nowhere, carrying a large leather bound book. He glared at Nick. “What is it this time?” he asked, the vaguest hint of annoyance in his voice. “Have you come for advice yet again?” Lacroix rhythmically tapped his pale fingers against the soft brown leather. “You might try reading yourself once in awhile, Nicholas” he crooned. “Actually, I came to speak with Janette,” Nick replied. “To say goodbye.” Lacroix offered a wicked smile. “You’ve finally given up this absurd quest for mortality? You are leaving your mortal friends and moving on? Leaving your... Dr. Lambert?” “On the contrary,” Nick stated, “I’ve finally come to realize that my visits are an impediment to my ‘absurd quest’ as you so wrongly put it.” “And this remarkable insight only took you... how many years to realize?” Lacroix asked sarcastically. He thought he should be reacting with practised anger, but inexplicably could find no passion for it. In truth, Nicholas’ steadfast gullibility, the very quality that had rendered Lacroix centuries of amusement, so rarely showed itself these days that Nicholas had become little more than an eternal bore. “Do as you wish,” Lacroix stated with a rarely heard honesty. Leaving a stunned Janette and Nick at the bar, the imposing vampire turned around and casually headed towards the private room at the back of the Raven. “He came here to say he won’t be coming here anymore,” Lacroix muttered to himself. “Typical Nicholasense.” “He is sincere,” Janette gasped as Lacroix slipped out of sight. She cast an intent stare at Nick. “Perhaps he has finally tired of you. No condemnation, no argument. Perhaps you have finally found your freedom,” she whispered. “Or perhaps after two thousands years, he has finally come to realize how passe patriarchy is.” Perplexed, Nick sat down on the barstool beside Janette. “He has always insisted that our souls were eternally and irrevocably entwined.” “We are no different from any other that he has brought over,” she said. “It is only delusion that makes it so. Another’s soul may be tainted, but never claimed.” Janette glanced towards the path that Lacroix had just taken. “Even he does not have that kind of power.” Nick chuckled. “As I recall, you once informed me that I no longer had a soul, that I lost it when Lacroix brought me across.” Janette returned his gaze. “And as I recall, mon cher,” she began, “you claimed to be living among these mortals in an effort to find it. Always the puppy, spinning in circles to find its own tail.” She rose to leave. “While I do not believe that everyone has a soul,” Janette said, “I am certain of this. If you did not have one, you would not spend so much time worrying about it.” <> That was the last time he had seen either of them. He had broken his ties to the vampire world just as he had countless times in the past, and clung tightly to the mortal life he had made for himself. His hope burned more brightly than ever with the knowledge that Lacroix would no longer challenge his desire for mortality. And he had never doubted Natalie’s interpretation of ‘three rare moons’. Never. He and Nat had spent countless hours agonizing over every decision in the present, uncertain whether this would change their future, or that would change their future. In a particularly sombre mood one night, Natalie took his hands in hers and in a moment of private revelation quashed both of their fears when she said, “Remember, Nick. Faith lights the way. We have to stop questioning and just believe in our hearts.” Since that moment, his only question had ever been, ‘Will I awake as a mortal on the first day of 2000 as easily as I awoke as a vampire that fateful night in 1228?’ That was his only question until tonight anyway, when he suddenly realized that every time he removed the symbol of light to strengthen the darkness, he was breaking faith. The rattling of the window shutters as they intercepted a gust of cold wind startled Nick from his reverie. “No wonder she was cold,” he mumbled as he strode over to shut the open window. Peering outside, Nick noticed that it had started snowing and that the pavement below was already covered in a thin layer of white. He heard the sound of bells ringing out from a distant church, marking the time. It was eleven o’clock, and with every stroke of the bell a new wash of agony tore through his heart. “God, forgive me,” he pleaded to the night sky. Nick waited in silence until the bells finished their song, and then he donned his coat and left. (Cont'd. in 2/3) Susan B. freestyle@idirect.com "That which you know, you ignore because it is inconvenient. That which you do not know, you invent." (Delenn, B5, TDoFS) Inhuman Pride (2/3) by: Susan B. freestyle@idirect.com February/2000 --------------- Based on characters from Forever Knight, etc. --------------- Natalie pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building a mere ten minutes after she sped out of Nick’s parking lot. “I should be used to this by now,” she muttered. “I should have expected it. God, Nick, why didn’t you tell me?” Whether he didn’ t tell her out of guilt or just didn’t think it was important, she wasn’t certain. Her mind scrambled back in time, searching for anything, anything at all that would point to the truth. Did he go out of his way to hide anything? She didn’t think so. Were his little slip-ups so infrequent that it was mere coincidence she didn’t know about them? She certainly hoped so. And did she just forsake him when he needed her the most. Her heart wouldn’t let her ponder that question. “Yes I did,” she said. Natalie got out of her car and started walking. * * ** * Nick parked the caddy on the street and walked up the slight rise of snow covered lawn in front of St. Mark’s church. He sat down on a wrought iron bench that faced the massive grey stone walls, and let his eyes follow the tall steeple up to the copper clad spire and beyond, to the cross that adorned its top. Then he lowered his gaze and stared at the wooden entrance doors, and at the soft light that emanated from the stained glass windows on either side of them. He yearned for comfort here tonight, but all he felt was a suffocating veil of shame. Nick was suddenly startled by a stranger whose approach he did not sense. It was an old man with long grey hair. He was very thin and somewhat shorter than Nick. He was dressed in a wrinkled beige trench coat and short black boots. A tattered brown woolen scarf was wrapped haphazardly around his neck. “I’ve seen you here before,” the man remarked as he brushed a patch of newly fallen snow from the bench. “Many times I’ve seen you out here, but you never go inside.” He sat down to the left of Nick. Nick studied the man’s features. The face was gaunt and wrinkled, the nose pronounced, and the eyes were very large and very blue. “I’ve never noticed you before, Mr....?” “Smith,” the man replied. “Mr. Smith,” Nick chuckled, “of course.” The stranger momentarily glanced down at his own rumpled clothing. “I’m not a very noticeable sort,” he replied with a grin. “Is this your church?” he asked. “Are you one of those Catholic fellows?” “I was once,” Nick replied sombrely. “A very long time ago.” The old man jutted a bony finger out towards the Anglican church across the road to the left. “Perhaps you’re one of those now?” he asked. Before Nick had a chance to respond, the man swung his arm over to the right, barely missing Nick’s face. He pointed towards a synagogue down the street. “Or those?” Nick recalled his several failed attempts at reintegrating himself back into the Church, back into the religion that had been his mortal inheritance. After everything he had seen, everything he had done, the ritual was too redundant. “What does it matter?” he asked glumly. “Precisely,” the old man answered. “A confession that lacks sincerity is but a ruse.” He looked inquiringly at Nick and asked, “Do you give from your heart, or out of a sense of obligation to your Church?” For a brief moment, Nick had thought the peculiar man had something important to tell him; but it was clear to him now that Mr. Smith was simply in need of some cash. Nick pulled out a few crumpled bills from his pocket. “Here,” he said as he offered the money. “Being one without a Church, consider it a gift from my heart.” The old man laughed. “You misunderstand the meaning, son,” he said, refusing Nick’s monetary offer with a wave of his hand. “Best not to confuse faith in the pageantry of mortal religion, with faith in Him.” “I understand,” Nick said, amused at this stranger’s timely use of the most relevant words, “and thanks for the advice.” “Then I have only one piece more,” the man whispered, “behind you.” Nick moved his body slightly and turned his head towards the street where the caddy was parked. The man continued, “Believing it right to park illegally because you are on your way to Church is the epitome of arrogance.” Nick instantly spun around, but the man had vanished. Suddenly, he heard Natalie’s voice behind him. “I thought I’d find you here,” she said. “Did you see him?” Nick asked. “See who?” “The old man,” Nick replied. “There was an old man here just a second ago.” Nat surveyed the snow covered ground as she stepped around to the front of the bench. “Well, you’re supposed to be the detective, Knight, but I only see one set of footprints here in the snow.” She shot him a mildly accusing look, “Unless you fl...” “I didn’t,” Nick quickly interjected, “and I don’t intend to ever again.” He stood up and snugly embraced her. “I can’t find the words to tell you how sorry I am for being so blind, Nat, and I can’t find the words to tell you how relieved I am that you’re here.” He held on to her even more tightly, and whispered into her ear. “I wasn’t certain you would ever let me hold you like this again. I think I could bear the rest, Nat, at least for a while; but I couldn’t bear that.” “We’ll be okay,” Natalie whispered back to him, “we’ll be okay.” All she wanted to do was hold him. Comfort him. Let him comfort her. She didn’t want to think about the significance of the missing locket, but the wretched thought ripped through her mind anyway -- the thought that Nick might have inadvertently destroyed his most promising chance at mortality yet. She didn’t want to cry either, but she did that too. She clung to him tightly in a courageous effort to muffle her sobs with his body, but the slight heaving of her own body betrayed her. When Nick detected the first scent of her tears, he relaxed his embrace only enough to lightly kiss her damp cheeks. “Can you ever forgive me?” he pleaded softly. Natalie looked up into his forlorn eyes. She was silent for a long moment, and then delicately cupped his face in her hands. “Where there is love there is hope,” she whispered. “It was our first message, three long years ago. I haven’t forgotten it, Nick.” She then took his hands in her own and briefly kissed his lips. “Of course I forgive you,” she said. “I’ll always forgive you. No matter how angry I might get with you, I’ll always love you.” Nick smiled and spoke softly, “Then there is still hope for me,” he said, “for no matter how many dimwitted things I do to earn your wrath, I’ll always love you.” A warm chuckle escaped Nat’s lips. “I think you’ve just managed to make me laugh and cry at the same time,” she said. She dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. “You must be freezing,” Nick said, “let’s go home.” He took her hand in his own and escorted her to the caddy. “There is a promise yet to be fulfilled,” he said, hoping that she didn’t notice the uncertainty in his voice. Hoping it with all his heart. * * * * * “It’s much warmer in here now,” Natalie commented as they entered the loft. She headed straight for the kitchen, mentally dusting away her nagging doubts along the way. She lifted the pot from the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup of hot coffee. “Tomorrow night we’ll be drinking this together,” she said. Nick glanced at her as he hung up his jacket, and then he made his way over to the couch. “That person I told you about at the Church, Nat, I think he may have been more than what I believed at the time. He said some unusual things.” “Such as?” “He talked about faith. And he used the word ‘mortal’. ‘The pageantry of mortal religion’. That’s what he said.” Natalie approached him, sipping carefully from her mug at the same time. “And he left no footprints,” she added between sips. “I think it was a message,” Nick said. He started emptying his pockets, tossing everything onto the coffee table. As he sat down, he tossed the small wad of bills on the table and they made a sharp clunking sound. The noise captured both his and Nat’s attention. The missing pendant was on the table. Natalie sat down with him. “I thought you said you lost it.” “I did.” Nick reached out and picked up the necklace. “I offered the man money and he waved it off. He must have tucked it into the bills somehow. But surely I would have noticed that? Nick gave Nat an incredulous stare. “Now I *know* he had a message for me. I just have to figure out what that message is.” “Can you remember exactly what he said?” “I understand the first part,” Nick replied, “about confusing faith in the Church with faith in God.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “I understand it only too well. I was raised to believe that the Church did God’s bidding, and I witnessed only brutality committed in His name... I committed brutality in his name. Such was my church. The Cathars cry out that war is wrong for Christians, and the Pope cries out for the extermination of heretics.” Nick gazed solemnly at Nat. “This is something I *lived*, Natalie, not something I only read about in the history books.” “It was a time of fear and ignorance,” Nat reminded him, “and neither are unheard of even today.” “Ignorance I understand,” Nick acknowledged. “I turned my disillusionment with the Church into disillusionment with God, and then turned away from Him at the most inopportune time.” “And you think this has something to do with the man’s message?” “I think he understands that I’ve not yet been able to come to terms with a Church whose past is as savage and bloody as my own. I think he was trying to tell me that it’s alright. That it doesn ’t matter which Church I belong to or whether I belong to any at all. That what’s in my own heart is what truly matters.” “I didn’t doubt that for a moment,” Natalie proclaimed. “I’ve seen you cringe at much more than just the cross.” She laid her hand gently on his arm. “So what part of the message don’t you understand?” Nick smiled. “He made reference to my car being parked where it shouldn’t have been. He said it was arrogant for me to think it was okay to park there because I was going to Church.” Natalie’s face instantly paled. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “What is it?” Natalie stared at him. “Using your vampire powers to catch the bad guys, Nick.” “But why would he even come to me if ...” Natalie sighed heavily. “I don’t know,” she said. “Is arrogance enough to keep you from being forgiven and becoming mortal?” Her tone suddenly became more anxious. “Or was he teasing you? He could have been teasing you. Couldn’t he have simply been teasing you, Nick?” Nick struggled for several long seconds trying to remember the tone of the man’s voice at that point in the conversation, but he couldn’t. He quickly draped the necklace around his neck and leaned back into the couch. He pulled Natalie tightly to him. Nick closed his eyes. “I’m not sure,” he muttered as the church clock struck midnight. Nick and Nat inexplicably fell into a curious sleep, and Nick started to dream. (Cont'd. in 3/3) Susan B. freestyle@idirect.com "That which you know, you ignore because it is inconvenient. That which you do not know, you invent." (Delenn, B5, TDoFS) Inhuman Pride (3/3) by: Susan B. freestyle@idirect.com February/2000 --------------- Based on characters from Forever Knight, etc. He found himself sitting in a wheat field, surrounded only by tall golden wheat, blue sky, and silence. A man, clad in a long white robe, was sitting with him. “I know you,” Nick said, “you were at the Church.” He was the same man, but the eyes were different. They were a brighter blue -- luminous somehow. “Do you really understand, Nicholas de Brabant?” the man bluntly asked. “Do you really understand what faith is?” He gestured towards Nick’s pendant. “I have faith,” Nick maintained. “I’m sorry I ever took it off. I thought I was doing right.” “But you know doing right was not always the all of it. You have made much progress, but a stumbling block yet remains... and what of it?” Nick shook his head doubtfully. “The truth is in your heart. Speak it.” Nick gently fingered the cross. It didn’t hurt him here, in this place. “There have been times,” he ruefully confessed, “when I have removed it without just cause. When no life was in jeopardy. When I was simply unwilling to accept my own defeat on a level, mortal, playing field.” “Pride is the most difficult thing of all to let go of,” the old man said. “It is what allows the vampire to kill without remorse. Absolute faith in his own importance, no matter the cost to others.” He cast a stern stare at Nick. “That same pride stopped you from ending your misery before it began, before you took your first life. It has stopped you countless times since. You have always been too arrogant to face the possibility that you might no longer exist, regardless of how many other lives you have ended.” “I’m not the same man I was then,” Nick avowed. “I no longer fear extinction, I only fear the damnation of my soul.” “And if your soul merits damnation? Are you prepared to accept that if it is His will? Your judgement is long past due, Brabant. Will you humble yourself before God and accept it, no matter the outcome?” “Yes,” Nick bluntly replied, realizing the truth of his predicament. Realizing, finally and totally, that it was not the place of flesh and bone to seek quarter from spirit. “Your transgressions might have been the end for you, had it not been for Natalie,” the old man continued. “But promises were made to you both.” He now smiled warmly at Nick. “Did you know that she prays for your soul? Did you know that she does it everyday?” “I didn’t know,” Nick said, now wishing he had. The man put his hand to Nick’s forehead as he spoke. “The vampire fears the light with good reason,” he said, “but you needn’t worry about the antithesis of demonic possession. I’ll not be long at the task, and you’ll not be speaking in ancient tongues and spreading sweetness and light about the earth. Not that it couldn’t use some of that, mind you, but a soul cannot be forged in a land that flows with the proverbial milk and honey.” As the man stroked Nick’s forehead, Nick began to feel drowsy. He could hear the man’s voice softly now within his own mind. He could feel the purity of the light stripping away the tethers of evil. He could feel the joyous passion of his own gentle soul as it rose up, enveloping and consuming the darkness that had confined it for so very long. The voice in his mind continued in rhythmic fashion. “Do you know that He has always been a part of your soul, Brabant? That His light cannot be devoured by darkness? That His whisper cannot be drowned by blood?” “I have always heard His whisper,” Nick mumbled, “in the mortal conscience I could not shed.” “The Brabant line ends with you, Nicholas,” the man continued. “Your unborn children were your first sacrifice to your physical immortality. They are as lost to you as the children of your victims are lost, and they will never be replaced. This will be your mortal sorrow. The rest will fade in time.” A flash of light suddenly exploded in Nick’s mind, and he woke to find Natalie’s head draped across his chest. Stirring from her own unworldly induced sleep, she started mumbling, “Nick? What happened.” When she made motions to get up, Nick started to stroke her hair. “Stay where you are and rest, Nat,” he said. “We just fell asleep.” He wondered how long it would take her to realize that he was alive, that his heart was thumping madly in his chest. He wasn’t left wondering for very long. Natalie eased her head from Nick’s chest and looked directly at him. “Nick?” “Yes, it’s beating,” he said knowingly. “And it will be beating until I die -- or until you break it.” “Then it will beat until you die,” Natalie promised. She eased herself into a sitting position without jeopardizing her proximity to Nick. “Love, hope, and faith have paid off?” Nick smiled and slipped his arm around her. “I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for you, Nat,” he said. “You prayed for me. Everyday.” Natalie blushed slightly. “How did you know that?” “A recent discovery,” Nick conceded. He leaned over and kissed her fleetingly on the lips. “I know wouldn’t have made it otherwise.” “You’ve seen that disappearing man again, haven’t you?” Nat asked. “In my dream,” Nick told her, “or whatever that was. He destroyed the vampire with a single breath, and let me experience the full intensity of an unbridled soul.” Nick suddenly laughed at himself. “I thought I knew what a soul was,” he said, “but I knew nothing. Ethereal majesty is concealed from earthly mind, both mortal and vampire alike.” Natalie couldn’t think of a response. Nick had obviously experienced something she couldn’t fully comprehend, but that wasn’t an unusual circumstance when it came to him. Nick and Nat just held each other for several minutes, Nick savouring the moment of his long awaited deliverance, and Nat contemplating the beginning of a real future together. A future that loneliness would have no part of, for either of them. Her silent reverie was soon interrupted by Nick’s warm lips nuzzling her ear. “When was the last time I told you that I love you?” he whispered. Natalie gently caressed his cheek. “I think it was over an hour ago,” she replied, “so by all means, feel free.” Nick lightly kissed her lips and then smiled. “And when was the last time I made love to you?” he whispered. “I believe it was over a year ago,” Nat replied, “so by all means...” -- The End -- Susan B. freestyle@idirect.com "That which you know, you ignore because it is inconvenient. That which you do not know, you invent." (Delenn, B5, TDoFS)