By: Gladiator

"Out of the unimaginable blackness beyond the gangrenous glare of the cold flame, out of the unfathomable leagues through which the Shadows hide, uncanny, unheard, and unsuspected, there flopped rhythmically a horde of cunning, ruthless, and utterly horrible, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember.  They were not altogether unlike the Ichikawa, of Tantinar IV, buzzards of Vulcan’s dessert region, fictionous vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings, but were altogether something I cannot and must not recall."  

                      - Excerpt from Ensign Tuvok’s personal log

                                      U.S.S. Excelsior during second expedition to Z'ha'dum.

   
"There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are dancing Shadows in twilight.  It is possible that one may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead."

              -G'kar, during a meeting of the War Council aboard

               Babylon 5.

The Bishop...

...knelt next to the altar atop of which the eternal flame of Anor burned without ceasing.  It was an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity was too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence the isolated phenomena seen and felt so far only by a psychologically sensitive few.  The time was right.  It had already begun.  Leaders of nations with shallower intellect would see the mistake of their ways soon enough.  They thought it was bad with the passing of the Millennium. Before long, the pure chaos of this calamity would be upon them all.  There would be no sharp distinctions anymore between the real and unreal, the conscious thoughts of all humanity condemned to madness.

(Thanks Mike for throwing in this storyline -- I have no idea what I'm writing!!!!!!)

The revolution was calling.  People already babbled in the streets mindlessly cackling, R'lyeh has risen, R'lyeh has risen!  At his word, the uncountable mad beasts would stretch forth their invisible talons from depths of the Underworld, burning, slaying, and destroying till the land of our fathers should be no more.

The other clerics had already left the sanctuary and were filing down the stairwells, their oversized robes hovering about their quick paced feet.  The trap-door would be sealed with a spell from the ancient scroll behind them.  The bishop would be the last to go underground...the time was nearing, he could sense it.  Quietly he unrolled the scroll and began translating the Elvish rune script...

When old age shall this generation waste

Tho shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to who thou say'st

Ye know on earth, as it is written in the heavens

  As he neared the completion of the translation, it was then he realized he was no longer alone in the room...Quickly he began rerolling the scroll, and even through all his training, his hands yet trembled.  The light from the candle he was now holding cast weird moving shapes upon the walls.  The Shadows had began to gather; first little furtive ones under the table, then bolder ones in the dark paneled corners, and it compelled the bearded man to light more candles.  Frequently he glanced at the wrought iron door as if he expected some one, and all at once his glance seemed overwhelmed and answered by a large dark apparition of great evil which lurked at the threshold...

  The Bishop engaged the green hued beam of his trusty light saber, its energy crackling forth and lighting the room in an attempt to ward off the apparition.  He started his own descent down the steps whilst finishing the rest of the spell from memory....

 Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

Time beholds Doomsday

For its wrath is upon us