This story is the last in a trilogy, it helps if you read them in order, and you can find both the first and the second stories here on fanfiction .net

The first is One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

The second is Love lost and love's sacrifice.

And now I am pleased to bring you; -

THE BEGINNING WILL BE THE END OF ALL THINGS.

Introduction.

"No" came the deep growl from the older of the two men as they stood facing each other in the dimly lit bar several star systems from Earth.

"No?" questioned the younger man "that's it? Just no?"

"Something wrong with your hearing Paris?" Chakotay snapped still keeping his gaze on the blue eyes of Voyagers ex-helmsman.

Tom took a step to circle around Chakotay still letting their eyes meet "I hear you Chakotay but what your saying means we have come this far out here for nothing, a waste, I ask you this does Kathryn hear you?"

"You know as well as I do a journey back to earth will take at least two months from our journey." Chakotay told him slamming the now empty beer bottle on the table before him.

"I get it two months we don't have." Stated a sarcastic Tom.

"Two months Kathryn don't have" Chakotay corrected him.

Tom's eyes flashed as he gazed into the darkened eyes of the older but now somewhat rouge Chakotay, the past seven months had taken it's toll on the brave Native American, it had taken it's toll on all of them, that Tom could not deny. They were all different people now, this journey had seen to that, and Kathryn, well Kathryn was fighting fit, literally. "Kathryn won't like it and you know it." Tom told his old friend slyly.

"Kathryn doesn't get a say, not this time." Chakotay insisted darkly.

"So this isn't about Kathryn or her life, this is about you and your woman?" Tom hissed in his own anger for the stubborn heart of the proud Native American.

Tom didn't get much chance to think or say anything else for Chakotay's fist hit him in the jaw sending him backwards and his world went dark.

(+)(+)(+)

Kathryn Elizabeth Janeway was now pacing a whole in the floor of the stolen Delta Flyer, the original one. It had been patched up and reconstructed so many times that it was a museum peace the day Kathryn had lead her crew into the Alpha Quadrant seventeen years ago. Now Kathryn and her band of merry men, and B'Elanna of course, had commandeered it and were flying it round the quadrant on the journey of a lifetime, a journey that made Voyagers seven year exile in the Delta Quadrant a walk in the park.

She was getting annoyed, really annoyed, Chakotay and Tom had been gone most of the morning, in some bar somewhere no doubt, the informants always seemed to hang out in some bar somewhere. She was pissed, real pissed, they had lost the only good lead they had three months ago and now, well now it felt like she was scratching in the dirt like a dog.

She was about to give up when the doors flung open, Kathryn's delicate fingers twisted around the knife she held in her belt, she was a girl of the twentieth century when it came to her chosen weapons, sure she carried a phaser, who didn't in their current line of work? The knife for Kathryn though was so much more accurate, so much more real. She heard the thud of something heavy and limp being flung onto the floor of the flyer and heavy footsteps entering behind it, and then the doors closed leaving Kathryn to make her move in the dark.

"Don't try it," growled her husband as he aimed his phaser at her head. Kathryn's blue eyes widened as he looked down to see the bulk of Tom Paris seemingly lifeless on the floor at her feet. She looked from Paris to her husband who still had his phaser aimed at her head.

She returned her knife to her belt and asked in a voice laced with concern "is he dead?" she didn't want to look at her friend lying there at her feet.

"No" replied Chakotay as he lowered his phaser throwing it on the console nearby. "He's just taking an involuntary nap."

Kathryn raised her eyebrows, turning to the med kit and removing the medical tricorder she scanned their helmsman "with a broken jaw and nose?" she asked tilting her hear to let her deep sapphire eyes met the jet black ones of her husbands. She issued him a crooked smile as he simply stared back at her. "You do this?" she asked him calmly as she examined the younger mans injuries with her narrowed eyes.

"He was talking too much," stated Chakotay coolly.

Running the dermal regenerator over their friends face Kathryn said in her husky voice "B'E will love you for this one." When Chakotay didn't reply to his wife she smiled and looked up at him saying, "I take it what ever he said you didn't like, which I am guessing means he was right?"

Chakotay eyed his wife for a second before turning silently from her to move toward the replicator in the compartment behind him. Kathryn shook her head as he replicated tea and calmly sat down to drink it. Knowing Tom would be out cold for a while she left him and came to sit beside the man she loved, as she joined him the light shone on his copper brown face showing his features, the scared and broken features. "Well?" she asked gently taking his hand in hers "did you meet this informant?"

"You wont like it." Was all Chakotay replied without looking at his wife "it's on earth."

"Earth?" gasped Kathryn in confusion "but where? How?"

"I don't know to both of those" he told her "but Seven of Nine does, or so I am told"

Kathryn's wide blue eyes blazed with understanding as she stared at the eyes of the man she loved. Turning too her Chakotay looked her in the eye and told her sternly "it's not worth the risk."

"So that's it? You don't want to go because you don't want to see Seven of Nine?" at her words Chakotay turned to look at the pale features of his sickly wife, her red lips and blue eyes shone deeply bright against her snow white skin. The white skin that showed the long deep, red scar running from her lip right down her jaw line, down her neck and deeply across her throat. It was that very scar that made Chakotay wince, the scar that daily reminded him of the disaster he very nearly lead them all into the day he blindly followed the lead of a so called helpful informant.

I hope you all like this introduction to the last part of the trilogy.

Reviews and comments most welcome and in many ways needed. Thanks.