A/n: Hello everyone, welcome to my new fic! Thanks to battlevalkyrie for updating "Timeline" again last night and for giving me the idea for this fic. She's hurt her foot so I hope my starting this helps her to feel a little better. It's a rewrite of the episode "The Raven".
The clack of her heels made an unnaturally loud echo as she walked aimlessly through Voyager's halls. At least, she believed it was Voyager, if Voyager could truly be as abandoned and oddly colourless as the place she now walked. Every time she looked around for an identifying marker, a particular access panel perhaps, the corridor would twist and contort alarmingly and adrenaline flooding her limbs would force her stumblingly forward. For a disturbing moment, confusion reigned over her normally regimented mind, her ears rang and the scene before her became impossibly tinted, almost to sepia. She had enough strength of pull her pacing feet to a halt, although she teetered on them as she tried to calm herself, I'm regenerating, this malfunction will soon correct itself or the cycle will cease… She could hear these thoughts leaving her mouth as shameful mutterings, akin to a prayer, and quickly pressed her lips closed but no sooner had she done this than they opened again in a shocked shriek as a huge black bird, its wingspan so wide that it blocked out any light from behind it, swooped down on her from nowhere. Her head ducked defensively downwards as it seized her golden hair in its claws, tugging half of it free from its habitual bun so that it fell protectively over one side of her face like a curtain. She could feel blood trickling down her neck from the stinging scrape on her scalp but didn't dare look up to bat the bird away.
The bird seemed satisfied with that assault however, instead assailing her ears as it circled her in a predatory manner. "Caw! Caw! Caw!" It called out to her insistently, but the sound made her cringe away, heart and head pounding with inexplicable terror as she tried desperately to retreat. "CAW!" The cry was a wild scream of intent as it moved to hover perilously close, its powerful wing beats funnelling icy cloud air against her face. Despite the fear that gripped her at the sight of this creature she found that she was paralysed, unable to drag her gaze away from its beady eye. Staring into the unblinking eye, she could see her own pitiful reflection reflected in the yellow iris and grimaced. The bird cocked its head at her then, before swiftly twisting away from her and gliding elegantly down the corridor, which suddenly seemed endless and foreboding.
Overwhelming her fear, no, her hatred of this bird, was the pull towards it. It was the only other presence here. She had to avoid being alone at all costs, especially here… Suddenly her legs were bounding forward after the bird against her will, she felt as if she were tethered to it like a cart to a horse. It seemed to taunt her, sometimes close enough for panic to close her throat, sometimes so far distant that the fear of abandonment pushed her towards hysteria. "Wait!" She finally screamed out desperately, bile rising in her throat at the same time.
The bird stopped dead, just in front of a doorway that seemed to envelop both itself and her in an instant. She blinked rapidly, disorientated and fighting the unfamiliar burn of tears. At first, for a relieved millisecond if that, she believed herself to have found Voyager's Bridge, but it was too small. Outdated, cramped and damaged, the only thing that caught her interest in the ghostly room was the bird, perched on the console nearest the improbably large viewscreen, watching her. Then, the viewscreen came to life. Stars zoomed past as a rocky outcrop of a moon sped towards them, faster and faster until she could feel the floor tilting. She hadn't decided the meaning of this before the bird screeched a warning and suddenly she was in the air, staring into the face of a Borg drone who held her up by the throat. Her hands clawed wildly at the dead white fingers as the bird shrieked in fearful protest but soon she could neither hear nor see.
Seven of Nine's body lurched violently free of the restraints of her alcove, the movement punching badly needed air into her lungs and forcing a single choked scream from her throat. "Regeneration cycle incomplete." The Computer intoned in reprimand from somewhere above her, but she ignored it and stumbled gratefully onto the cold floor of Cargo Bay 2. Her body demanded a few moments of reaction, of gasping and shaking, before she could even try to recover and when she had somewhat it still took her several minutes to be able to turn to her alcove again to assess her experience logically. Eventually, as she had done for the last eight nights, she checked her alcove for malfunctions and once again found none. Her glare of exhausted frustration deepened, there was no reason for this! Regeneration cycles were, admittedly, designed to catalogue the information gathered since the previous cycle and log it into her cortical node, but nothing of her recent experiences on Voyager should bring delusions of birds and the irrational fear which accompanied them!
Sighing, she made her way slowly over to Cargo Bay 2's sole computer console. "Seven of Nine's personal log, Stardate 744901.2." She grimaced at the perceptible quaver in her voice and tried to swallow it back, after all the only way to understand any phenomenon was to record it meticulously. Taking a deep breath, she began, "It happened again, this means I have experienced these…hallucinations for nine successive regeneration cycles. The bird was, as always, present, although it came sooner this time…" She paused uncertainly, "It seemed to know me…" She whispered before stopping herself with a shake of her head, she must be factual only. "I followed it, as if searching for something. Then, a new development, it stopped and a Borg assimila…" She stopped again, shocked at herself. She shouldn't be scared of the Borg, she was Borg. She glanced down at the detailed diagram of the bird she'd relayed from memory to the console, tempted to check if such a creature existed but unease made her dismiss the idea as she had before. Was it really relevant if the non-existent bird resembled a real one or not?
Captain Janeway's voice, echoing suddenly through her comm. badge, lifted the weight of such from her for the moment. "Seven of Nine, please report to the Bridge."
"Yes Captain." Seven replied as smoothly as she could before cutting the line off with a quick tap of her badge and addressing the Computer sharply, "Computer, end personal log."
Captain Janeway lowered the rapidly cooling cup of strong black coffee from her lips as she heard the Bridge's doors opening behind her. She flashed Seven a brief smile of welcome as the newest member of her crew entered, punctual as always, but the younger woman just regarded her impassively. She tried again, knowing after the incident with the Caatati that the former drone was capable of a degree of warmth, however awkwardly expressed. "Good Morning Seven."
It may have been her imagination but Janeway was sure she detected a tired sigh escaping Seven as she replied robotically, "How can I be of assistance?"
Chakotay answered before his Captain could, turning in his chair to regard Seven levelly. Seven couldn't help but have a measure of respect for that gaze, there was a definite wariness in it of her that she understood and returned in kind, but there was also a willingness to give her a little benefit of the doubt. "B'Elanna needs deuterium down in Engineering, but some sort of spacial interference is disrupting our scans. Can you find a way through it?"
"I will make an attempt Commander." Seven answered him in a detached tone, immediately heading for her assigned console on the Bridge. She read all the available data within a few seconds and made a conclusion, "It is simple dendrite radiation. I will adapt the scanners to…" The rest of the sentence stuck in her throat as a sharp stabbing pain burrowed suddenly into her head. She couldn't stop herself giving a brief gasp of pain.
"Seven?" The Captain asked worriedly, rising from her chair in concern, "Are you alright?"
"I…believe so Captain…" Seven replied slowly but the Captain wasn't convinced, now noticing circles around the other woman's eyes that were so vivid they looked like bruises and a frown of persistent pain.
"Go to Sickbay and get the Doctor to check you over." She ordered firmly.
Seven was about to object when the ringing in her ears which had been lingering since she emerged from her disrupted cycle changed to a constant, unnerving drone. "I perhaps do require maintenance Captain." She admitted regretfully.
"Then go." The Captain urged sympathetically.
"Do you want me to come with you Seven?" Ensign Harry Kim asked her anxiously from his post at Ops.
Seven shook her head, instead handing him a hurriedly downloaded PADD. "No Ensign, you must adapt the sensors to these specifications." She instructed as she stepped towards the door.
Harry's mouth dropped open slightly as he read the mind numbing amount of data she'd given him. "Okay…" He agreed uncertainly.
Seven gave him and the Bridge crew a perfunctory nod before disappearing into the turbolift to go to Sickbay.
"Hmm…" The Doctor mused thoughtfully as he scanned Seven for the second time in as many minutes. "Well, your electrolyte levels are definitely low." He concluded, snapping his tricorder shut. "Haven't you been regenerating?"
Seven stiffened, her expression pensive. "I have not successfully completed a cycle in nine days." She admitted ruefully.
"Nine days?" The Doctor echoed incredulously, "Why on Earth not?"
"I have been experiencing…hallucinations which apparently disrupt my brain patterns." Seven mumbled in embarrassment.
The Doctor studied her for a moment, seeing that she was deadly serious. "Can you describe these…hallucinations?" he probed carefully.
Seven heaved in a deep breath, "I am walking along Voyager's corridors. I'm always alone and I feel like I'm searching for something. The route ahead of me distorts and changes before eventually I am attacked…" She winced as she felt the fear return, her throat tightening, "…by a large black bird. I'm afraid of the bird but I chase it, until…until a Borg seizes and assimilates me…"
She was stopped by the Doctor's hand on her shoulder. "Seven, that's not a hallucination, that's a dream or a nightmare in this case, they're a perfectly normal experience for humans and most other species."
"I have never dreamed before and I have no reason to start." Seven informed him coldly, "Besides, why would I be afraid of birds, or Borg for that matter, in this…dream? Birds are an inferior life form and I am Borg."
The Doctor shook his head at her, saddened by the certainty in her last phrase. "You're not Borg anymore Seven, at least not fully. You have to remember that you were violently assimilated as a human child of six. It's really no wonder that some of those repressed memories are coming back to you in this way."
Seven frowned at him, obviously not truly believing his words. "And when will these...dreamed memories cease?"
The Doctor could only shrug. "That I can't tell you, it'll only stop when you deal with whatever is bothering you." He didn't want to tell her that such nightmares, after what she'd been through, may haunt her for the rest of her life.
For a moment he saw sadness and intense fear flash across Seven's face like a lightning bolt, but within seconds she'd reapplied her mask of stoicism and icy dignity. "Thank you Doctor." She muttered distractedly as she slid of the biobed and left Sickbay without a second glance.
A/n: I've taken a lot of liberties with the episode I know, but I haven't seen it in a while. I hope you still like it and want more. PLEASE REVIEW! :D If anyone else has any C/7 ideas they want me to have a go at writing, just let me know.